News of the Week; July 26, 2017

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

  1. $89 Billion AT&T, Time Warner Merger Approval Looking Likely Despite Trump Pledge To Block Deal
  2. Has Trump Turned CNN Into A House Of Existential Dread?: After relentless attacks from Trump and his allies, a series of journalistic problems, and in the shadow of a possible merger, the network’s C.E.O., Jeff Zucker, is feeling the heat. “I think there’s a real chance that Zucker is being forced out,” said one employee. “That’s going to blow up this organization like nothing in the history of CNN.”
  3. Break up the cable monopolies? Democrats propose new competition laws: Democrats’ plan would “break up big companies if they’re hurting consumers.”
  4. FCC has no documentation of DDoS attack that hit net neutrality comments: Records request denied because FCC made no “written documentation” of attack.
  5. FCC Won’t Release Data To Support Its Claim A DDOS Attack, Not John Oliver, Brought Down The Agency’s Website
  6. The FCC Is Full of S–t
  7. Senator Wyden Argues FCC Is Either Incompetent Or Lying About Alleged DDoS Attack
  8. Senator blasts FCC for refusing to provide DDoS analysis: FCC is either too secretive or is unprepared for future attacks, senator says.
  9. Why Net Neutrality Matters Even In The Age Of Oligopoly
  10. FCC Chair Ajit Pai Can’t Come Up With a Single Plausible Reason Not to Screw Up the Entire US Internet
  11. Democrat asks FCC chair if anything can stop net neutrality rollback: Ajit Pai ignoring evidence that net neutrality helps businesses, lawmaker says.
  12. Lawsuit seeks Ajit Pai’s net neutrality talks with Internet providers: FCC accused of not complying with FoIA request for Pai’s talks with ISPs.
  13. Net neutrality faceoff: Congress summons ISPs and websites to hearing – Lawmaker schedules hearing with goal of replacing FCC’s net neutrality rules.
  14. FTC Staff Supports FCC’s Proposal to Reverse Broadband Enforcement Authority 
  15. Senator Doesn’t Buy FCC Justification For Killing Popular Net Neutrality Protections
  16. Verizon accused of throttling Netflix and YouTube, admits to “video optimization”: Verizon claims mobile video experience not affected; some customers disagree.
  17. Verizon Now Says That Throttling Video Is Totally Cool
  18. Verizon accused of violating net neutrality rules by throttling video: FCC has no comment on petition to investigate Verizon slowing video to 10Mbps.
  19. Verizon Says It Was Totally Just Testing How to Throttle Video
  20. Lawsuits Pile Up For CenturyLink After Years Of Bogus Fees, Fraudulent Billing
  21. Commissioner O’Rielly Again Targets Pirate Broadcasters and Their Supporters to Walk the Enforcement Plank 
  22. A short history of the right-wing politics of Sinclair Broadcasting
  23. The Sinclair Revolution Will Be Televised. It’ll Just Have Low Production Values: Small-time management is getting in the way of big ideas at the conservative broadcaster.
  24. When everything else fails, amateur radio will still be there—and thriving: Ham is now a full-fat fabric that can provide Internet access. Why aren’t you using it?
  25. The State of Traditional TV: Updated With Q1 2017 Data

DIGITAL

  1. Nielsen Now Incorporates YouTube TV, Hulu Viewing Into Television Ratings
  2. Sports streaming app DAZN launches in Canada with all NFL games for $20 a month: Will launch with NFL digital rights, company says more will be added
  3. Canadian Supreme Court rules against Google in favor of worldwide court orders: The Canadian Supreme Court ruled that Google must remove search results worldwide, dismissing concerns that this may impede freedom of expression for people outside of Canada or inspire other countries to censor speech.
  4. Canada’s Supreme Court orders Google to de-index site globally, opening door to censorship: Decision is dangerous to free speech and the free flow of online information.
  5. Google Fights Against Canada’s Order To Change Global Search Results
  6. Google Files Suit in U.S. Court To Block Enforcement of Canadian Global Takedown Order (Michael Geist)
  7. Google tells judge: Don’t let Canada force us to alter US search results: Google says Canadian order is “repugnant” to the First Amendment.
  8. Top European Court To Consider If EU Countries Can Censor The Global Internet
  9. Google right to be forgotten spat returns to Europe’s top court: French privacy watchdog demands global scrub of certain links—Google says “non.”
  10. Clock ticking on Google as $2.7 billion fine takes bite out of earnings: Parent company Alphabet has yet to lodge an appeal against the EU’s penalty.
  11. Google Finds And Blocks Spyware Linked To Cyberarms Group
  12. Google’s been running a secret test to detect bogus ads — and its findings should make the industry nervous
  13. Has Google paid off an army of academic researchers?
  14. Judge: Waymo may be in “a world of trouble” if it can’t prove actual harm by Uber – Ex-Waymo engineer Anthony Levandowski can be called to testify at trial, judge adds. 
  15. Ontario Court of Appeal Confirms That Online Newspapers Are Still “Newspapers”
  16. Backpage.com Sues Missouri Attorney General: Website claims AG’s investigation is barred by the Communications Decency Act
  17. Copyright Case Over Richard Prince Instagram Show to Go Forward
  18. Appropriation Artist Can’t Win Fair Use Defense on Motion to Dismiss–Graham v. Prince
  19. Donald Graham’s Copyright Infringement Suit against Richard Prince Allowed to Go Forward
  20. Wikimedia Sweden loses case as court rules against free access to public art online
  21. Terrible Ruling Allows Untied To Keep Its Domain But Not Its Soul 
  22. A German pirate just saved our right to take public selfies
  23. Twitter Working to Limit Fake Stories, Accounts
  24. Twitter says it’s making progress battling abusive behavior: The social network says users have encountered significantly less harassment in the past six months.
  25. How Twitter Fuels Anxiety: The anxious can often find a supportive community through tweeting, but the nature of the social media site can exacerbate symptoms.
  26. Twitter’s stock plunges as user growth stalls: Trump made Twitter more prominent than ever, yet profits are elusive.
  27. President Trump sued for blocking dissenting Twitter accounts free speech irony alert
  28. Trump’s New Communications Director Might Want to Delete These Tweets Too
  29. Exaggerated Claims And Out Of Context Tweets Used By Political Hopeful To Slap Restraining Order On Critic
  30. Court Can’t Ban Resident From Discussing HOA Online–Fox v. Hamptons at MetroWest Condos (Eric Goldman)
  31. How to get free US military weapons—build fake website and DOD will oblige: The “internal control processes for this program were really broken,” GAO says.
  32. United States lifts laptop and electronics ban from Middle East flights: Developers and games firms from the region now able to bring the equipment they need into US
  33. How Breitbart media’s disinformation created the paranoid, fact-averse nation that elected Trump: Democrats and progressives turned to wider and more reputable sources
  34. New Dot-Sucks Websites Troll Trump: Trump can’t buy up all the new anti-Trump websites ending in .sucks, .wtf, .fail
  35. Is Social Media Becoming the New Speech Governors?
  36. GDPR – Age Of Digital Consent
  37. New book explores how protesters—and governments—use Internet tactics: The protest frontiers are changing. An entrenched researcher explains why they work.
  38. Apple must pay $506M for infringing university’s patent: University of Wisconsin may collect $4.35 apiece for millions of iPads and iPhones.
  39. Qualcomm, feeling the squeeze as Apple and iPhone manufacturers cut off royalties, moves to the offensive
  40. The dramatic details of Steve Jobs’ life are playing out in a new opera: A time-hopping stage production about some of Jobs’ seminal life moments.
  41. Using a blockchain doesn’t exempt you from securities regulations: A $150 million Ethereum crowdfunding project broke the law, SEC says.
  42. Officials arrest suspect in $4 billion Bitcoin money laundering scheme: Bitcoin’s decentralized architecture makes it popular with criminal groups.
  43. Troops, Trolls and Troublemakers: A Global Inventory of Organized Social Media Manipulation
  44. The Chinese Language as a Weapon: How China’s Netizens Fight Censorship
  45. Global Police Spring A Trap On Thousands Of Dark Web Users
  46. DOJ announces official takedown of AlphaBay, world’s largest Dark Web market: AlphaBay was “10 times the size of Silk Road,” according to the FBI.
  47. Family of dead AlphaBay suspect says he was a “good boy”: Alexandre Cazes, 26, also apparently spent a lot of time in a “pickup artist” forum.
  48. We Found Rep. Blake Farenthold’s Early ’90s Internet Message Board Posts
  49. Online Terrorist Propaganda: France and UK Put Internet Giants in the Cross-Hairs
  50. Our Minds Have Been Hijacked By Our Phones. Tristan Harris Wants To Rescue Them
  51. How AI Is Already Changing Business
  52. The Business Of Artificial Intelligence: What it can — and cannot — do for your organization
  53. Is Anyone Home? A Way to Find Out If AI Has Become Self-Aware: It’s not easy, but a newly proposed test might be able to detect consciousness in a machine
  54. The Rise Of AI Is Forcing Google And Microsoft To Become Chipmakers
  55. Elon Musk: Mark Zuckerberg’s understanding of AI is “limited”: Tech billionaires have differing views on where AI will take humankind.
  56. Zuckerberg and Musk are both wrong about AI: During an impromptu Facebook Live interview, Zuck said there’s no doomsday coming.
  57. Beijing Wants A.I. to Be Made in China by 2030
  58. AI Fight Club Could Help Save Us from a Future of Super-Smart Cyberattacks: The best defense against malicious AI is AI.
  59. Silicon Valley’s First Founder Was Its Worst
  60. Why Hollywood Studios Are Slow to Embrace Virtual Reality – VR Special Report: “The big elephant in the room is – How do you monetize this?” one analyst tells TheWrap
  61. Is the future VR … or AR?: Google VR boss Clay Bavor explains why the two technologies aren’t so different on the latest Too Embarrassed to Ask.
  62. Google Tests Interactive Learning with VR Espresso Machine, “People learned faster and better in VR”
  63. VR Ads Are Almost Here. Don’t Act Surprised
  64. Are You Prepared for the Legal Issues of Augmented Reality?
  65. Fullscreen Unveils Co-Viewing Feature Called ‘Watch Party’
  66. Celebrity Influencers Continue to Flout FTC Disclosure Rules
  67. Take A Trip To Los Angeles’ New Internet Celebrity Summer Camp: As viral fame becomes more attainable, summer camps may be the next classroom for kids
  68. Instagram Is Pushing Restaurants To Be Kitschy, Colorful, And Irresistible To Photographers
  69. Diminishing Returns: Online advertising’s dependence on surprise accelerates its own instability
  70. The human insights missing from big data
  71. A NASA Research Center Is Uploading 500 Archival Videos To YouTube
  72. After Alphabet Earnings Report, Analyst Estimates YouTube’s Stock Value At $75 Billion 
  73. Why Adam Silver Was Against Suing Over NBA Highlights On YouTube
  74. YouTube TV Launches in 10 New Markets, Including Houston, Atlanta and Washington, D.C.
  75. YouTube Will Now Redirect Searches For Extremist Videos To Anti-Terrorist Playlists
  76. Kodi magazine ‘directs readers to pirate content’ 
  77. MGM’s ‘Stargate’ To Get Its Own SVOD Service, And The Niche Get Nicher
  78. Adobe Is Finally Killing Flash (For Real, This Time)
  79. Snapchat is doing a daily news show with NBC
  80. Oxygen To Promote New True Crime Series By Letting Reddit Users Question Famous Jurors
  81. Korea’s 3 Largest Broadcasters Launch U.S. Streaming Service For K-Dramas, K-Pop
  82. Summer of Samsung: A Corruption Scandal, a Political Firestorm—and a Record Profit: A year after the exploding phones, Samsung is embroiled in the mess that brought down South Korea’s president. How is it still thriving?
  83. Mobile Video Ad Spend To Surpass Computer Spend For First Time Next Year (Report)
  84. Intel shuts down group working on wearables and fitness trackers: We probably won’t see any more wearables coming from Intel.
  85. Inside Cuba’s D.I.Y. Internet Revolution 
  86. Where Is Hollywood Looking For Its Next Hit? Podcasts
  87. Podcasts Are Awesome But Are They A Business?
  88. Musicals (Yes, Musicals) Are About To Shake Up Podcasting
  89. Electronic music superhero Aphex Twin unearths massive, free music vault: Includes hours of never-before-released beats over past 20-plus years.
  90. Who owns Snopes? Fracas over fact-checking site now front and center: Snopes’ parent company was split—one half may be held by 5 men, or a single company. 
  91. The Wearables Giving Computer Vision To The Blind
  92. Forget About Fake Artists – It’s Time To Talk About Fake Streams.
  93. RIP Microsoft Paint. Thanks For All The Hideous Doodles
  94. Windows Paint is now officially not getting updated any more 
  95. How Bots Bested the $1 Billion Sneaker Resale Industry
  96. The manipulative tricks tech companies use to capture your attention
  97. Culture for a digital age: Risk aversion, weak customer focus, and siloed mind-sets have long bedeviled organizations. In a digital world, solving these cultural problems is no longer optional.
  98. The right of communication to the public … in a chart (Eleonora Rosati)
  99. The CJEU Pirate Bay Judgment and Its Impact on the Liability of Online Platforms (Eleonora Rosati)
  100. Defamation Law in the Internet Age (Background Papers from the Law Commission of Ontario)
  101. Intellectual Property in the New Technological Age: 2017 Volume I: Perspectives, Trade Secrets & Patents (Peter S. Menell Mark A. Lemley Robert P. Merges)

CREATIVITY 

  1.  China Banned Winnie The Pooh for Looking Like President Xi
  2. China Bans Justin Bieber
  3. Students Deeply Concerned With Federal Court Ruling Against York University 
  4. U15Group of Research Universities Statement on Sustainable Publishing
  5. The York University Case: Crisis in Copyright Law
  6. Access Copyright v. York University – Some Important Comments and Questions from Prof. Ariel Katz (Howard Knopf)
  7. Access Copyright v. York University: An Anatomy of a Predictable But Avoidable Loss (Ariel Katz)
  8. Access vs York: Fair Dealing is for everybody
  9. Why Fair Dealing Is Not Destroying Canadian Publishing (Michael Geist)
  10. Jammin Java to Pay IP Damages to Marley Family
  11. U2 Seeks Dismissal of “The Fly” Infringement Suit
  12. Ninth Circuit: Federal Copyright Pre-empts California Publicity Right
  13. Palin v. The New York Times Co.: Newspaper Mounts Robust Defense to Defamation Lawsuit 
  14. Vegetarian Ethiopian Cookbook Copyright Lawsuit Turns Sour–Schleifer v. Berns
  15. Anti-Logging Ad Protected by First Amendment: An environmental group’s anti-logging advertisement was protected by the First Amendment, the Oregon Court of Appeals has ruled, and the Port of Portland failed to meet the “heavy burden” necessary to prohibit the ad from being displayed at the Portland International Airport.
  16. Native Americans End Trademark Dispute With Redskins
  17. After Supreme Court Decision, People Race To Trademark Racially Offensive Words
  18. Olive Garden Asks Olive Garden Reviewer Not To Refer To Olive Garden Due To Trademarks 
  19. Man ridicules Olive Garden’s demand letter over trademark dispute: “If you are asking me to simply add TradeMark® Symbols™ I must also decline.” 
  20. Olive Garden apologizes to AllOfGarden blog, offers $50 gift card: “We’ve reached resolution / I received absolution.”
  21. San Diego Comic Con Gets Gag Order On Salt Lake Comic Con
  22. Microsoft’s secret weapon in ongoing struggle against Fancy Bear? Trademark law: “Redirecting…Strontium domains will directly disrupt current Strontium infrastructure.”
  23. Why are celebrities trade marking their children’s names?
  24. Two Dead on a Tom Cruise Movie Shoot: A Plane Crash in Colombia, Lawsuits and a Survivor Speaks Out
  25. Moneyball for Dead Celebs: This $5 Billion Business Sells Elvis and Michael Jackson – Authentic Brands, which also owns Muhammad Ali and Marilyn Monroe, values dead celebs on their social media presence and the spending power of their fans.
  26. Dave Chappelle On Comedy And Politics In The Age Of President Trump
  27. The TV That Created Donald Trump: Rewatching “The Apprentice,” the show that made his Presidency possible.
  28. Rock on! Hand gestures as trade marks
  29. The Life of a Song: ‘Ice Ice Baby’: The problems started with the single’s huge success (it was rap’s first Billboard number one)
  30. Wonder Woman Passes Guardians Vol. 2 To Become Summer 2017’s Highest-Grossing Movie At Domestic Box Office
  31. We Live In The Peak TV World ‘Mad Men’ Created Ten Years Ago
  32. How “Game Of Thrones” Feeds Its Own Thinkpiece Industry: In the era of peak TV, the thinkpiece as a tool to keep us watching has never been more effective.
  33. MTV Isn’t What It Used To Be: MTV used to be closely in tune with youth culture, creating cultural phenomena instead of merely covering them. Now, it looks like they’re just trying to catch up.
  34. A Balancing Act: Fair Use and Creative Content
  35. Courtesy Paratexts: Informal Publishing Norms and the Copyright Vacuum in Nineteenth-Century America (Robert Spoo)

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

  1. NAFTA talks: U.S. proposal for cross-border data storage at odds with B.C., N.S. law: U.S. challenging provincial privacy rules that require personal information to be stored on domestic servers
  2. Calls grow for Canada to modernize privacy laws amid EU changes
  3. 66 Of Donald Trump’s Pre-Presidential YouTube Videos Have Been Made Private
  4. Moscow’s cyber-defense: How the Russian government plans to protect the country from the coming cyberwar
  5. Exclusive: Russia used Facebook to try to spy on Macron campaign – sources
  6. As Cyberattacks Destabilize The World, The State Department Turns A Blind Eye
  7. NZ judge: Our spies surveilled Kim Dotcom for 2 months longer than admitted – “The US extradition case is dying. And someone is going to pay for this mess.”
  8. Surveillance Used To Give Poor Students Extra Financial Assistance Discreetly. Is That OK?
  9. All Quiet On The Tech Front As The Clock Ticks Down On Section 702 Renewal
  10. The failure of police body cameras: Video was supposed to help hold police accountable. But it hasn’t lived up to much of the hype.
  11. Ashley Madison Class Accord Raises Question: How Do You Find Claimants Who Don’t Want to Be Found?
  12. Politician Uses Bad Cyberharassment Law To Shut Down Critic; Critic Hoping To Have Law Struck Down
  13. Court Rejects Cell Site RF Signal Map In Murder Trial Because It’s Evidence Of Nothing
  14. Scientists are now using Wi-Fi to read human emotions
  15. How Smart Devices Could Violate Your Privacy: With everything from speakers to water meters sending information to the cloud, a murder trial is testing the boundaries of privacy at home
  16. Turn Off Your Push Notifications. All Of Them
  17. Seeing Like a Network: Don’t call it threat modeling

Jon