News of the Week; March 22, 2017

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

  1. The Netflix Effect?: Foreign Sources Outspend Canadian Broadcasters and Distributors for English TV Production (Michael Geist)
  2. Court of Appeals Rules that Over-the-Top Video Service is Not a Cable System Entitled to Statutory License to Retransmit TV Station Programming
  3. Hope fades for cheap TV-over-Internet as FilmOn loses copyright fight: TV networks’ expert witness: “The Internet is not a communications channel.”
  4. Federal Court of Appeal upholds interlocutory injunction directed at retailers of set-top boxes loaded with copyright-infringing applications
  5. Let’s Talk Broadband Fund: The CRTC’s New Initiative
  6. Bell and Rogers offer sports bars unpleasant choice: Give us more money or lose TSN and Sportsnet
  7. Despite Gigabit Hype, Comcast Is Facing Less Broadband Competition Than Ever
  8. FCC Approves First 100% Foreign Owner of US Broadcast Stations
  9. ISPs say your Web browsing and app usage history isn’t “sensitive”: ISP lobby groups make case against the FCC’s broadband privacy rules.
  10. The Ad Industry Is Really Excited About Plans To Gut Broadband Privacy Protections
  11. DirecTV admits screwing up regional sports fees, starts issuing credits: Customers get credits after being charged different prices for the same network.
  12. Donald Trump’s presidency is shaped by Fox News.
  13. Google Fiber’s About-Face Provides Useful Lessons For A Broken Broadband Industry
  14. How Netflix Wants to Rule the World: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at a Global TV Network
  15. A timeline of Netflix’s conflicting stances on net neutrality
  16. TV’s Dead Zone: How the Cable Sector Is Killing Off Struggling Networks
  17. Charter’s Trying To Kill Recent Merger Conditions Banning Usage Caps, Net Neutrality Violations
  18. Charter Tries To Tap Dance Out Of Lawsuit Over Substandard Broadband
  19. The President’s Regulatory Agenda and the FTC
  20. Senators Fighting Online Privacy Rules Take Money From Industry: Analysis shows the 22 Republican senators behind a controversial resolution have received more than $1.7 million from the industry in recent years

DIGITAL

  1. Appeals Court Rules TV Streamers Don’t Get Compulsory License to Broadcast Networks
  2. YouTube’s Restricted Mode Is Hiding Some LGBT Content
  3. How YouTube’s Block Of LGBTQ Videos Could Hurt Kids: The platform has helped many teens come to terms with their sexuality, but lately videos are harder to access
  4. YouTube faces social media storm over LGBT-blocking ‘restricted mode’
  5. LGBT community anger over YouTube restrictions which make their verideos invisible: #YouTubeIsOverParty trends on Twitter after users say videos referencing same-sex relationships are being filtered out
  6. Unless online giants stop the abuse of free speech, democracy and innovation is threatened
  7. A Tweet to Kurt Eichenwald, a Strobe and a Seizure. Now, an Arrest.
  8. Man accused of sending a seizure-inducing tweet charged with cyberstalking: Allegations are a first for an online attack with an epileptogenic image.
  9. Internet warriors: inside the dark world of online haters – Why do people vent such toxic opinions online? Filmmaker Kyrre Lien spent three years travelling the world to find out who these anonymous ‘internet warriors’ are and why they do it
  10. How online hate infiltrates social media and politics: For hate groups, there’s unprecedented opportunity to finally plug their fringe movements into a mainstream circuit
  11. Dissecting Trump’s Most rabid Online Following
  12. Twitter uses software to ban 377,000 accounts advocating violence
  13. Fake News and Fake Solutions: How Do We Build a Civics of Trust?
  14. ‘Who shared it?’: How Americans decide what news to trust on social media – This research was conducted by the Media Insight Project — an initiative of the American Press Institute and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research
  15. UK government halts its YouTube ads after some appear on extremist videos: Doesn’t like taxpayer-funded ads showing up before David Duke videos.
  16. Danger in the internet echo chamber: To combat endless feeds of one-sided data, Sunstein suggests an ‘architecture of serendipity’
  17. Platforms, Networks, and Information Literacy
  18. It’s Time to Stop Blaming Social Media for Political Polarization: New research shows that spending less time online is just as bad.
  19. The Like Button Ruined the Internet: How “engagement” made the web a less engaging place
  20. Pope cautions youths about social media’s “false image of reality”: “Don’t let yourselves be led astray,” Francis says.
  21. Convicting cybercriminals no easy task, UBC prof says: Amanda Todd case shines light on how Canadian justice system deals with cybercrime
  22. Facebook Sued In Israel For Blocking All Links To Site Critical Of Facebook & Suggesting Site Was ‘Unsafe’
  23. Google, Facebook, Twitter must amend ToS for EU users or face fines: Trio given one month to clean up fraud, scams, and make other fixes.
  24. This Won’t Be Abused At All: Google Offers Tool To Flag And Downrank ‘Offensive’ Search Results
  25. Big Hollywood Studios Win Injunction Against Streamer VidAngel in Copyright Infringement Case 
  26. Hey That’s Me Drinking That Beer! UGC Rights at Issue in Beer/Photo Lawsuit 
  27. eBook Pirates Tend To Be Older And Well Off, Which Means They Pirate Because Of Human Intuition On Economics
  28. University Puts 20,000 Lectures Behind A Registration Wall In Response To DOJ Pressure On Website Accessibility Compliance
  29. Judge Balks At Section 230 Protection For Email Forwarding–Samsel v. DeSoto County School District (Eric Goldman)
  30. Chinese Website Operator Dismissed from Copyright Infringement Suit in United States
  31. Australia’s Prime Minister Supports Expanded Safe Harbor Protections Down Under
  32. Bill Gates And Other Major Investors Put $52.6 Million Into Site Sharing Unauthorized Copies Of Academic Papers
  33. Ed Sheeran Vs. The CopyBots: Artist Goes To Bat For Musician That Covered His Song On Facebook
  34. How Drones Help Transparency Activists To See Things The Hungarian Government Wants To Hide
  35. Class-action lawsuit targets LG over legendary G4, V10 bootloop issues – Suit: LG replaced phones with faulty ones—didn’t replace out-of-warranty devices.
  36. Keyword ads — Only infringing if they’re confusing
  37. Apple illegally fixed prices of iPhones in Russia, investigation finds: Apple contacted retailers who were selling the iPhone at “inappropriate” prices.
  38. Apple sold $4.2 billion of product in New Zealand, paid $0 local taxes: “Their tax department is even more innovative than their product designers.”
  39. 10 media trends for 2017 and beyond
  40. I used YouTube Red for months—here’s why I cancelled my subscription: Another $10-per-month service that isn’t totally worth it yet.
  41. Insights: The Great SVOD Land Rush – British Invasions And The OTT Channel Grab
  42. Researchers Just Unveiled a New Li-Fi System That’s 100 Times Faster Than Wi-Fi
  43. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings: Movie Theaters Haven’t Innovated Beyond Popcorn
  44. Tim League Refutes Netflix’s Reed Hastings On Movie Theater Innovation
  45. The Corrupt Personalization of Netflix: The company embodies one of the most seductive myths of the algorithmic age.
  46. Tech and Entertainment in the ‘Era of Mass Customization’
  47. Microsoft and Sony set sights on the Netflix model: A subscription service providing ongoing revenue could be a win-win for creators and platform holders; can MS or Sony make this model work?
  48. MLB Network Launches On PlayStation Vue With Exclusive World Baseball Classic Coverage
  49. Microsoft’s silence over unprecedented patch delay doesn’t smell right: Canceling Patch Tuesday at the last minute warrants an explanation, not platitudes.
  50. Red Flag Windows: Microsoft modifies Windows OS for Chinese government – Chinese government blocked Microsoft product purchases after NSA leaks.
  51. NFL ‘Intent On Staying Contemporary’ With Technology After Streaming Games On Twitter
  52. What Your Therapist Doesn’t Know: Big Data has transformed everything from sports to politics to education. It could transform mental-health treatment, too—if only psychologists would stop ignoring it.
  53. The Long, Weird History Of Companies That Put Your Life Online
  54. In 2010, The Social Network was searing — now it looks quaint
  55. Software used to predict crime can now be scoured for bias
  56. Which lawyers will win or lose in front of which judges? There’s now an app to predict that
  57. Transhumanism Is the Next Step in Human Evolution
  58. Kurzweil Claims That the Singularity Will Happen by 2045
  59. What Rights Should We Give to Sentient Robots?
  60. When beauty is in the eye of the (robo)beholder: Beauty.AI saw a lucrative problem and tried solving via algorithms. It ended poorly.
  61. IP for AI: can we patent an artificial human expert?
  62. SEC Issues Guidance on Robo-Advisers
  63. How Aristotle Created the Computer: The philosophers he influenced set the stage for the technological revolution that remade our world.
  64. Budget 2017: Why Canada’s Digital Policy Future Is Up For Grabs (Michael Geist)
  65. How Navdeep Bains Can Get His #Innovation Groove Back (Michael Geist)
  66. Law, Virtual Reality, and Augmented Reality (Mark A. Lemley & Eugene Volokh)

CREATIVITY

  1. Supreme Court Says Decorative Fashion Design Elements Protected By Copyright Law
  2. Star Athletica, L.L.C. v. Varsity Brands, Inc. (Supreme Court Of The United States)
  3. Cheerleading company can get copyrights, pursue competitors, Supreme Court says: The high court ponders copyrighted uniforms, Van Gogh, and cat-shaped lamps.
  4. Supreme Court Says Patent Trolls Can Wait A While Before Suing
  5. Protect Fair Dealing – Canada’s Upcoming Copyright Act Review
  6. Filmmaker challenges court injunction on Vancouver Aquarium documentary: BC Civil Liberties says the injunction could endanger free speech
  7. The Media Scores a “Win” at the Texas Supreme Court
  8. Judge Decides Free Speech Is Still A Right; Dumps Prior Restraint Order Against Mattress Review Site
  9. Appeals Court Says Prior Restraint Is Perfectly Fine, Refuses To Rehear 3D-Printed Guns Case
  10. Released Russian Putin Critic Recalls Prison Torture: Ildar Dadin says he was transferred to a penal colony where prison guards tortured inmates while accompanied to music of Putin’s favorite rock group
  11. Garry Kasparov on the press and propaganda in Trump’s America
  12. China Clamps Down On Another Serious Threat To The Middle Kingdom: Western Animal Cartoon Books For Children
  13. Iconic movie scene allows copyright but not TM claim against multimedia installation: Harold Lloyd Entertainment, Inc. v. Moment Factory One, Inc., No. LA CV15-01556, 2015 WL 12765142 (C.D. Cal. Oct. 29, 2015) (Rebecca Tushnet)
  14. Disney Hit With Lawsuit Claiming ‘Zootopia’ Ripped Off ‘Total Recall’ Writer
  15. Jeff Koons LLC and the Centre Pompidou are both found liable for copyright infringement in Paris court case: The lawsuit concerns the reproduction of a sculpture by Koons that resembles a picture by the French photographer Jean-François Bauret
  16. Spain: The battle around the “Kukuxumusu Universe” and the right of transformation, can the artist’s personal style be limited?
  17. Copyright case against U2 latest to test boundary of originality and creativity
  18. Scare Tactics Down Under: The Ongoing Global Effort to Mislead on Canadian Copyright (Michael Geist)
  19. Marrakesh Treaty For Blind Readers Jeopardised By EU Publishing Industry Lobbying, Group Says
  20. Mormon Church Tries To Censor MormonLeaks Using Copyright, Streisand Effect Takes Over
  21. Sports Photographer: Don’t Mess with My Copyright
  22. Photographer hits retailer over photo of player hitting Joey Bats
  23. How The Grateful Dead Revolutionized Rock and Created Modern Jam Bands
  24. How News Organizations Inadvertently Spread “Alternative Facts”: The way they construct stories makes it likely that readers will believe things that aren’t true
  25. How the New York Times’ mobile-first strategy has turned millennials into its biggest audience
  26. How TiVo Confronted the Disruptor’s Dilemma
  27. SXSW has been s____ing over artists since way before the visa controversy
  28. Creating in an Age of Anxiety, Depression, and Dread: Anxiety can lead to better art, but do the two have to be so mutually intertwined?A Transactional Theory of the Reader in Copyright Law (Zahr K. Said)
  29. Reading the Readers (Andrew Gilden)

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

  1. Man jailed indefinitely for refusing to decrypt hard drives loses appeal: “Our client has now been in custody for almost 18 months,” defense attorney says.
  2. Third Circuit Appeals Court Says All Writs Orders Can Be Used To Compel Passwords For Decryption
  3. California court declines request to unmask author of anonymous post
  4. Just Prior To Hearing Over NSL Gag Orders, Court Allows Cloudflare & CREDO Mobile To Be Named As Plaintiffs
  5. TSA explains why it won’t allow electronics on some USA-bound flights
  6. McDonald’s Says Twitter Account Compromised After Anti-Trump Post
  7. Rep. Devin Nunes’ Hypocrisy On Display In ‘Concerns’ Over NSA Surveillance
  8. Court Says FBI Doesn’t Have To Hand Over Its Rules For Surveilling Domestic Journalists
  9. The New Handbook For Cyberwar Is Being Written By Russia: “It’s not that the Russians are doing something others can’t do,” a US intelligence officer said. “It’s that Russian hackers are willing to go there, to experiment and carry out attacks that others countries would back away from.”
  10. Hackers Stole My Website…And I Pulled Off A $30,000 Sting Operation To Get It Back1
  11. Smart Vibrator Company To Pay $3.75 Million For Private Data Collection
  12. Is New York Poised to Adopt a Right to be Forgotten?
  13. Privacy in VR Is Complicated and It’ll Take the Entire VR Community to Figure It Out
  14. 6 Great TV Series About Privacy and Security

Jon