MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- Good Politics, Bad Policy: Melanie Joly Sends TV Licensing Cancon Decision Back to the CRTC (Michael Geist)
- The Future of Canadian “TV”
- Trump Cribbed His Charlottesville Press Conference Straight From Fox News
- Fox News Host Files SLAPP Suit Against Reporter Who Exposed His Sexting
- Alex Jones’ Infowars supplements are overpriced, mundane vitamins – watered down: BuzzFeed reports results after sending supplements to an independent lab for testing.
- How a Conservative TV Giant Is Ridding Itself of Regulation
- Ajit Pai accused of conflict for helping former client, a prison phone company: Pai should recuse himself from inmate calling decisions, prisoners’ advocate says.
- FCC giving special help to right-wing TV news company, Democrats allege: Pai is helping Sinclair expand its reach into TV-owning homes, lawmakers say.
- FCC Begins Weakening The Definition Of Quality Broadband Deployment To Aid Lazy, Uncompetitive ISPs
- FCC faces backlash for saying Americans might not need fast home Internet: Everyone should have fast home Internet and mobile access, commenters tell FCC.
- New FCC Broadband ‘Advisory Panel’ Stocked With Telecom Consultants, Allies & Cronies
- GOP lawmakers shamed on billboards for trying to repeal net neutrality rules: Republicans want a “slower, censored, and more expensive Internet,” group says.
- FCC seemingly forgot about a net neutrality complaint filed against Verizon: There’s only been one formal net neutrality complaint, and FCC hasn’t ruled on it.
- One Man’s War Against Verizon’s Long History Of Lies, Anti-Competitive Behavior, And Nonsense
- Mozilla Study: Zero Rating Isn’t The Miracle Broadband Duopolies And Facebook Pretend It Is
- Broadband ISP Cox Will Now Charge You $50 More To Avoid Usage Caps, Overage Fees
- The Nation’s Telcos Are Hemorrhaging Customers Because They Refuse To Upgrade Their Networks
- Will radio kill the internet star?
- Newspapers Essential To Community
DIGITAL
- Tech Has The Tools To Fight Hate. It Just Needs To Use Them
- Racist Daily Stormer moves to Russian domain after losing .com address: The site was barely offline for 24 hours.
- GoDaddy Severs Ties With Daily Stormer After Charlottesville Article
- Google Domains, GoDaddy blacklist white supremacist site Daily Stormer: Two domain registrars say the Daily Stormer violated their terms of service.
- After Getting Its Website Banned, Neo-Nazi Site Daily Stormer Gets Kicked Off YouTube, Too
- Racist Daily Stormer goes down again as CloudFlare drops support: Tech companies face intense pressure not to work with the hate site.
- CloudFlare CEO says his Daily Stormer takedown was “arbitrary” and “dangerous”: “I woke up this morning in a bad mood and decided to kick them off the Internet.”
- Why We Terminated Daily Stormer
- The Daily Stormer’s Last Defender In Tech Just Dropped It
- After losing Patreon account, crowdfunded anti-refugee ship is adrift—literally: “Defend Europe” ship rescued by refugee relief agency’s ship after engine trouble.
- Charlottesville White Supremacists Begin to Lose Jobs, Web Hosting Platforms
- Web hosting, CDN companies torn as to how to respond to racist websites: Dreamhost, meanwhile, “will host any website as long as its content is legal.”
- Internet turns on white supremacists and neo-Nazis with doxing, phishing: Many fear being outed from photos, but now the real cyber game against “alt-right” begins.
- Trump’s Retweets Were Especially Batty This Morning
- Trump tweets cartoon of train hitting CNN reporter
- One Twitter Account’s Mission To Make White Supremacists Very, Very Famous
- The Online Radicalisation Of Young Men (Andres Guadamuz)
- Nazi Crybaby Films His Own Meltdown After Threatening to Kill Charlottesville Counter-Protesters
- Before Getting Banned From OkCupid, White Supremacist Chris Cantwell Wrote Tips for Dating Online
- After Charlottesville, Grief And Humor Go Hand In Hand On Twitter
- Did the Army Chief of Staff Just Subtweet President Trump?
- Trump can block people on Twitter if he wants, administration says: As president, Trump can use Twitter however he sees fit, Justice Department says.
- New Media And The Messy Nature Of Reporting On The Alt-Right
- Intel CEO Brian Krzanich quits Trump manufacturing council: Intel boss says “divided political climate” is causing “serious harm.”
- Social Media Efforts to Identify Charlottesville Marchers
- Partisanship, Propaganda, and Disinformation: Online Media and the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election (Rob Faris, Hal Roberts, Bruce Etling, Nikki Bourassa, Ethan Zuckeman, Yochai Benkler)
- Defending Hateful Speech Is Unpleasant But Essential, Even When Violence Is The End Result
- Hacking Hate and Extremism
- Perspectives on Harmful Speech Online (Berkman Klein Center)
- Florida City Ignores All Legal Precedent As It Attempts To Silence & Identify Mild Critic
- Saudi Government Looking To Jail More Citizens For ‘Harming Public Order’ With Their Religious Tweets
- A Guide To Russia’s High Tech Tool Box For Subverting US Democracy
- Biohackers Encoded Malware In A Strand Of DNA
- Researchers encode malware in DNA, compromise DNA sequencing software: It’s a proof-of-principle, done after making DNA analysis software vulnerable.
- The Ultimate Virus: How Malware Encoded In Synthesized DNA Can Compromise A Computer System
- Google Abruptly Cancels Town Hall About That Memo
- Google cancels all-hands diversity meeting over safety concerns: Google feared questioners would face threats if their names leaked online.
- Fired Google Engineer James Damore Takes His Case to Reddit
- The Actual Science Of James Damore’s Google Memo
- Weekend ‘March on Google’ canceled, organizer says: Firing of engineer spurred calls for right-wing rally at Google offices; local counter-protest will go on as planned
- We Need to Talk About Online Harassment: The public forum is taking place on social media, a place where women are being systematically silenced.
- One Of Uber’s First Investors Sued Travis Kalanick For Fraud
- Investors hit Uber ex-CEO hard, sue over alleged “gross mismanagement”: Before ouster, Travis Kalanick pushed for 3 new board seats—and he still controls them.
- Before Getting Banned From OkCupid, White Supremacist Chris Cantwell Wrote Tips for Dating Online
- In wake of lawsuit, Uber investors are now publicly sniping at each other: Shervin Pishevar, other investors worry of “escalation of this fratricidal course.”
- The Uber Dilemma
- FTC says Uber took a wrong turn with misleading privacy, security promises
- Uber agrees to 20 years of privacy audits following FTC charges: News reports of Uber employees using “God View” got the feds’ attention.
- Lawyers clash over an imaged hard drive as Waymo v. Uber hurtles toward trial: “He was ordered to come clean and did not come clean.”
- The ‘corporate governance nightmare’ that is Snap: Social media company’s disregard of shareholder rights is wrong, says Peter Smith
- Snapchat’s New Feature Stitches Together Concert Videos From Multiple Stories
- 46% Of Influencers Say They Would Give Up Snapchat If They Were To Abandon One Platform
- Everything About Disney and ABC’s ‘Pink Slime’ Settlement Should Scare the Hell Out of You
- Social media use should comply with securities law
- How Section 230 Helps Sex Trafficking Victims (and SESTA Would Hurt Them)
- Appeals Court Mostly Fixes Bad CDA 230 Ruling Over Publicity Rights
- Lawyer: Yahoo Lost Sec. 230 Immunity Because It Didn’t Hand Over Personal Info; Court: GTFO
- What Does The New CDA – Buster Legislation Actually Say?
- The MPAA Narrative About Piracy Flips To Danger From Pirate Sites Now That It Has Lost The Moral Argument
- Judge Preska: Widespread Pirating Makes Music Price Fixing Case Unsuitable for Class Treatment
- Apple going all-in on original programming, to the tune of $1 billion a year: Apple could “procure and produce” as many as 10 new shows next year.
- Apple To Spend $1 Billion On Original Shows Over Next Year (Report)
- Apple Takes Bite From Data Security False Ad Suit
- London Mayor Fingers The Culprit In Increased Knife Crime: YouTube
- Warner/Chappell Issues Copyright Claim Over YouTube Video Deliberately Containing None Of Its Music
- How Cults Use YouTube for Recruitment
- Once Again, Rather Than Deleting Terrorist Propaganda, YouTube Deletes Evidence Of War Crimes
- Where is the YouTube left? There, elsewhere and unfocused: Not all mediums are created equal
- Verizon Returns Its Ads To YouTube After A Five-Month Freeze
- Elvis Presley Racks Up 2.8 Billion YouTube Hits To Eclipse Kanye West, Lana Del Rey
- Nielsen To Incorporate Views On YouTube, Facebook, And Hulu Into Digital Ratings
- The Toxic Drama on YA Twitter: Young-adult books are being targeted in intense social-media callouts, draggings, and pile-ons — sometimes before anybody’s even read them.
- Investors rescue embattled SoundCloud with $170 million lifeline: The company laid off 40 percent of its workforce in July.
- SoundCloud, now Vimeo of Sound, instead of YouTube of Sound?
- CBS, Citing The NFL, Says Broadcasters And Streamers Can Coexist
- As A Streaming Future Looms, ESPN Is Damned If It Does, Damned If It Doesn’t
- Can Oath, The Arranged Media Marriage Of Yahoo And Aol, Avoid A Rough Divorce?: Can two once-great Internet behemoths come together harmoniously in an age of mergers, roll-ups, and distribution plays? The early returns suggests that Oath has some work cut out for itself.
- Netflix lured TV superstar Shonda Rhimes away from ABC
- How A.I. Is Creating Building Blocks to Reshape Music and Art
- All This Bitcoin Stuff Is Fake
- Bitcoin cash plunges as investors look to dump their coins
- Should We Ban Bitcoin to Curb Illegal Activities?
- Howard Marks, who has called past market bubbles, says ‘I don’t understand what’s behind bitcoin’
- Bitcoin and the Uniform Commercial Code (Jeanne Schroeder)
- New Civil and Criminal Consequences for ‘Revenge Porn’
- Secret Service agent, corrupted by Silk Road case, cops to second heist: Shaun Bridges, who already was given 71 months in prison, awaits a new sentence.
- American accused of faking eBay sales to fund US terror pleads guilty: It’s “first known time ISIS had given money to someone in the US for an attack.”
- The quiet war against ownership: A major conflict is shaping up between the owners of smart devices and the companies that produced them.
- Digital provisions turn farmers into hackers: Canada’s strict digital lock provisions mean farmers and other businesses cannot fully benefit from the market access provided by trade agreements.
- How The DMCA’s Digital Locks Provision Allowed A Company To Delete A URL From Adblock Lists
- Should Social Media Sites Be Forced To Pull Pastor Calling For War With North Korea?
- Why Everyone Is Hating on IBM Watson—Including the People Who Helped Make It
- Disney wants to make a huge shift in its business model — but it’s not ready to do it yet: Streaming movies to consumers is one thing. Streaming sports is something else. Bob Iger will wait on that one.
- Disney’s Building Its Own Netflix. Everyone Else Might, Too
- Disney and CBS mark milestones in streaming’s march to conquer cable
- Netflix, Disney In “Active Discussions” About Streaming Rights To Future Marvel, ‘Star Wars’ Films
- Netflix should be afraid of Disney’s OTT play
- Star Wars and Iron Man may not disappear from Netflix in 2019 after all: Netflix and Disney are still having “active discussions.”
- Ted Sarandos: Netflix’s Content Budget Will Ascend To $7 Billion In 2018
- The Messy, Confusing Future of TV? It’s Here
- Facebook’s original video platform will launch with Mike Rowe, MLB, and more: The new Watch platform will nurture original series and themed shows.
- Facebook Defeats Lawsuit Over Failure to Remove User Pages–Cross v. Facebook (Eric Goldman)
- Facebook Defeats Another Case Over Not Removing User Comments–La’Tiejira v. Facebook (Eric Goldman)
- Facebook’s Hate Speech Policies Censor Marginalized Users
- How Your Phone Number Became The Only Username That Matters
- Patreon will help fans pay their favorite artists more than $140 million this year: CEO Jack Conte explains what’s next — and why he really, really hates the term “tip jar”
- SpaceX is launching a supercomputer to the International Space Station: “If this experiment works, it opens up a universe of possibility.”
- AI and CGI will transform information warfare, boost hoaxes, and escalate revenge porn
- If an AI creates a work of art, who owns the rights to it?
- Nokia’s New Phone Ushers In The Unfortunate Era Of The ‘Bothie’
- Mr. Nice Guy: Instagram’s Kevin Systrom Wants To Clean Up The &#%$@! Internet.
- Your Instagram Posts May Hold Clues to Your Mental Health
- Instagram photos reveal predictive markers of depression (Andrew Reece & Christopher Danforth)
- Appeals court: Lawsuit over wrong info on Spokeo should move ahead – Search site must face allegations that it broke fair credit reporting laws.
- Giving Legal Effect to Emails – Can Emails Satisfy the Requirements to Extend Limitation Periods Under The Limitations Act?
- Great minds moji alike?
- We’re rewiring the Internet for freedom.
- Re-Shaming the Debate: Social Norms, Shame, and Regulation in an Internet Age (Kate Klonick)
- Golf App Uses AI To Account For Wind In Making Distance Calculations
- Robot Umpires Advocated By Chicago Cubs’ Ben Zobrist
- Update gone wrong leaves 500 smart locks inoperable: Fatal error leaves customers scrambling for fixes that can take a week or longer.
CREATIVITY
- The Chilling Effects of Openly Displayed Firearms: Charlottesville marks a new era of even bolder assertion of the right to threaten violence for political purposes.
- Lions denounce use of their logo by racists at Charlottesville rally
- Taylor Swift Spoke Up. Sexual Assault Survivors Were Listening.
- Kesha and Taylor Swift Find New Voices
- Taylor Swift’s Best Comebacks During Her Cross-Examination at Her Sexual-Assault Trial
- Jury Sides With Taylor Swift Over DJ In Groping Case
- The Kardashian Decade: How a Sex Tape Led to a Billion-Dollar Brand
- Hollywood’s China Money Heartbreak: Is the Love Affair Really Over? – Billions have been thrown into turmoil as Chinese regulators crack down on investments, Paramount’s backer skips a payment, and both Trump and some Dems adopt a protectionist stance.
- DC’s transit agency rejected ads touting the First Amendment (really): The DC transit agency banned “issue ads.” It hasn’t gone well.
- Bob Murray To Court: The ACLU Is Too Biased To File Its Brief
- Court Sends John Oliver, HBO Back To State Court To Fight Bob Murray
- Trademark Injunction Issued Against Print-on-Demand Website–Harley Davidson v. SunFrog
- White-on-White Trademark Usage Might Constitute Initial Interest Confusion–Agdia v. Xia (Eric Goldman)
- Five Reasons NOT to Register Your Trademark
- Lawsuits against media outlets are piling up
- How Royalty Exchange Has Transformed the World of Music Publishing
- Songwriter Groups Hit Out At RIAA For ‘Betrayal’ Over Moral Rights Issue
- AMC Theaters Is Not Happy About the New Super Cheap MoviePass Service
- The protection of the ‘eco-friendly’ Falabella bag by Stella McCartney in a recent decision of the Court of First Instance of Milan
- HBO hackers release Curb Your Enthusiasm episodes: HBO reportedly offered hackers $250,000 as a “stall tactic.”
- HBO Owns Itself in Latest Game of Thrones Leak
- Public Consultation on Reform of the Copyright Board of Canada Launched
- How Canada Can Use NAFTA’s IP Chapter to Level the Innovation Playing Field (Michael Geist)
- No Time for Tinkering: How a “more progressive” NAFTA could break the vicious circle of global inequities in the ownership of knowledge (Ariel Katz)
- Intellectual Property in a Renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement: A Canadian Perspective
- Danish University And Industry Work Together On Open Science Platform Whose Results Will All Be Patent-Free
- Tracking the spread of culture through folktales: Genomic, geographical, and cultural data join forces.
- How Jeff Koons, 8 Puppies, and a Lawsuit Changed Artists’ Right to Copy
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- US government demands details on all visitors to anti-Trump protest website: Privacy advocates call warrant for IP addresses of 1.3 million people who visited inauguration protest website an unconstitutional ‘fishing expedition’
- Feds Demand ‘1.3 Million IP Addresses’ Of Visitors To Trump Protest Website
- Feds demand 1.3 million IP addresses of those who visited Trump protest site: DreamHost said the warrant is “a clear abuse of government authority.”
- We Fight for the Users
- DOJ Goes Way Overboard: Demands All Info On Visitors Of Anti-Trump Site
- Building America’s Trust Act would amp up privacy concerns at the border: Civil libertarians tell Ars they’re worried about “mass surveillance expansion.”
- Court Says CFAA Isn’t Meant To Prevent Access To Public Data, Orders LinkedIn To Drop Anti-Scraper Efforts
- LinkedIn Enjoined From Blocking Scraper–hiQ v. LinkedIn
- LinkedIn Connection Request Doesn’t Violate Non-Solicitation Clause—Bankers Life v. American Senior Benefits
- Tech companies, law profs agree: The Fourth Amendment should protect data – Filings argue support for convicted robber’s position in Carpenter v. United States.
- Russia’s ‘Fancy Bear’ Hackers Used Leaked NSA Tool To Target Hotel Guests
- Russian group that hacked DNC used NSA attack code in attack on hotels: Fancy Bear used Eternal Blue 3 months after it was leaked by a mysterious group.
- In Ukraine, a Malware Expert Who Could Blow the Whistle on Russian Hacking
- Ukraine malware author turns witness in Russian DNC hacking investigation: “Profexor” turns self in to Ukrainian authorities, assists FBI in DNC hack investigation.
- Stories Claiming DNC Hack Was ‘Inside Job’ Rely Heavily On A Stupid Conversion Error No ‘Forensic Expert’ Would Make
- Court Tells Government Sticking FOIA Waivers In Plea Agreements Is Probably A Bad Idea
- Salesforce “red team” members present tool at Defcon, get fired: “Red Team” members were fired as they stepped off stage after presenting internal attack tool.
- Researchers report >4,000 apps that secretly record audio and steal logs: SonicSpy family of apps pose as benign programs. Behind the scenes, they spy on users.
- 3 Big COPPA Class Action Suits Prove Privacy Tsunami is Coming
- VIZIO Can’t Switch Channel on Consumer Privacy Complaint
- NAFTA, Trump and the cloud: What the negotiations mean for your personal data
- How My Instagram Hacker Changed My Life
- Researcher who neutralized WCry pleads not guilty to writing banking malware: Marcus Hutchins is accused of creating software that became the malware Kronos.
- Verizon—Yes, Verizon—Just Stood Up For Your Privacy
- “Pretty egregious” security flaw raises questions about Pacer: Is the service used by a million journalists and lawyers doing enough for security?
- Mr. Know-It-All: When Someone Melts Down In Public, Can I Record It? (Please?)
- Mental health and the media: when privacy trumps getting the story: At what point, when the initial story is over, do news outlets and social media need to continue to stalk, hound and dig for every tiny detail?
- Those Free Stingray-Detector Apps? Yeah, Spies Could Outsmart Them
- Former NSA Official Argues The Real Problem With Undisclosed Exploits Is Careless End Users
Jon