News of the Week; February 22, 2017

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

  1. The Shattered Mirror, Part Three: Why Income Tax Changes for Digital Advertising Won’t Save Local Media (Michael Geist)
  2. CRTC Extends Direct Regulation to Resellers of Telecommunications Services 
  3. Bains Gives Bell-MTS Merger a Pass Despite Competition Bureau Finding Serious Wireless Market Problems (Michael Geist)
  4. ‘Last night in Sweden’ was a figment of Trump’s Fox News-inspired imagination
  5. Fox News is now forging U.S. foreign policy
  6. How Trump’s obsession with the media endangers his presidency — and all of us
  7. Huntsville, Alabama Is Suddenly Awash In Broadband Competition, Showing Why Comcast Is So Afraid Of Municipal Broadband
  8. AT&T says its merger with Time Warner is exactly what customers want: AT&T says you’ll love “more relevant” ads, but senators warn of higher prices.
  9. The implications of the end of net neutrality
  10. If New FCC Boss Ajit Pai Is So ‘Pro Consumer,’ Why Does The Telecom Industry Need To Pay People To Say So?
  11. Overwhelming OTT: Telcos’ growth strategy in a digital world – Incumbents are now asking if digital is a threat to or an opportunity for their business model. Beyond operational efficiency, they will need to focus on excellence in execution.
  12. The Alternative Facts of Cable Companies: A state attorney general sues Spectrum for ripping off customers. It won’t force change, but it could start a movement.
  13. After Losing 10,000 Viewers Per Day, ESPN Finally Buckles To Offering Standalone Streaming Video Service

DIGITAL

  1. The State of the Internet 2017: All Statistics Here
  2. A court order blocked pirate sites that weren’t supposed to be blocked: Poorly crafted court orders threaten the open Internet, Cloudflare says.
  3. Court Says Google Has A First Amendment Right To Delist Competitor’s ‘Spammy’ Content
  4. Google v. Oracle: Fair Use of a Copyrighted API
  5. What developers can learn from PewDiePie: YouTube star’s explanation for anti-Semitic jokes may be familiar to those who follow the AAA scene
  6. Advice For Rookie Comedian PewDiePie: Quit Whining And Write Some Damn Jokes – The world’s biggest YouTuber, fired by Disney, needs to start putting actual thought into his material.
  7. PewDiePie taught YouTube a valuable lesson
  8. Trump and PewDiePie are using the same playbook: Why is everybody always picking on me?
  9. PewDiePie responds to Disney dismissal by attacking media
  10. YouTube’s Monster: PewDiePie and His Populist Revolt
  11. The three reasons YouTubers keep imploding, from a YouTuber: The deck is stacked very heavily against us
  12. YouTube killing its most annoying ad format: The 30-second unskippable: The unpopular ads will be gone in 2018.
  13. New Zealand appeals court upholds Kim Dotcom extradition ruling – Case is far from over: Dotcom’s lawyers vow to press on to Court of Appeal.
  14. New Zealand Court Says Kim Dotcom Still Eligible For Extradition… But Not Over Copyright
  15. Judge Splits $750 Piracy Penalty Between BitTorrent Peers
  16. Dangerous: Judge Says It Was ‘Objectively Unreasonable’ For Cox To Claim DMCA Safe Harbors
  17. Pirate Site With No Traffic Attracts 49m Mainly Bogus DMCA Notices
  18. Five More Questions About Digital Copyright Law
  19. Google and Microsoft agree to demote piracy search results in the UK: Deal struck after lengthy spat between search engines and entertainment industry.
  20. Samsung’s Reputation Burned Down With The Galaxy Note 7: It’s now as popular as the United States Postal Service, which is not all that popular
  21. Bogus Claims: Google Submission Points to Massive Fraud in Search Index Takedown Notices (Michael Geist)
  22. Cox must pay $8M in fees on top of $25M jury verdict for violating DMCA – Judge: “Cox knew… its behavior was wrong, and continued in spite of that.”
  23. Techdirt lawyers ask judge to throw out suit over “Inventor of E-mail”: Tech blog’s founder says lawsuit seeks “to stifle debate, silence criticism.”
  24. European News Publishers Still Believe They Have The Right To Make Google Pay For Sending Traffic Their Way
  25. Fighting Fake News: Can Technology Stem The Tide?
  26. Building Global Community (Mark Zuckerberg)
  27. Op-ed: Mark Zuckerberg’s manifesto is a political trainwreck – He says that Facebook is developing AI to create a global democracy – kind of.
  28. Facebook Plans to Rewire Your Life. Be Afraid.
  29. Cheddar’s Jon Steinberg: Media should beware of Facebook
  30. Don’t trust Facebook’s shifting line on controversy
  31. Surfing, metrics and creation: Facebook and Snap
  32. Manifestos And Monopolies
  33. Code-Dependent: Pros and Cons of the Algorithm Age – Algorithms are aimed at optimizing everything. They can save lives, make things easier and conquer chaos. Still, experts worry they can also put too much control in the hands of corporations and governments, perpetuate bias, create filter bubbles, cut choices, creativity and serendipity, and could result in greater unemployment (Pew Research Center)
  34. Hollywood Has No Idea What to Do with VR
  35. Valve’s Gabe Newell: VR could “turn out to be a complete failure” – Rare interview tempers long-term optimism with tech/content/price realism.
  36. Virtual legality: Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality – legal issues
  37. IMAX continues VR expansion, partners with HTC Vive and more: The company will open four new pilot IMAX VR centers in the coming months across the US and China
  38. Apple Vowed to Revolutionize Television. An Inside Look at Why It Hasn’t: The company is testing a new Apple TV capable of streaming ultra-high-definition 4K. It may not be enough to take on Amazon and Roku.
  39. Dad who live-streamed his son’s birth on Facebook loses in court: Man filmed his partner’s labor, then sued TV companies that picked up the video.
  40. Google Opens Up YouTube and Ad Platforms for Measurement Audit
  41. Samsung chief Lee Jae-yong arrested on charges of bribery: Prosecutors claim that Samsung paid over $37M in bribes to help facilitate a merger.
  42. Uber Investigating Sexual Harassment Claims by Ex-Employee
  43. Ex-Uber engineer alleges sexual harassment, CEO reacts by promising investigation
  44. Apple accuses EU of a litany of “breaches” in defense of Irish tax deal: Tech giant claims the EC isn’t playing fair over its demands to pay Ireland $13.7 billion.
  45. Cyberbullying & Revenge Porn: An Update on Canadian Law 
  46. Book-Smart, Not Street-Smart: Blockchain-Based Smart Contracts and The Social Workings of Law (Karen Levy) 

CREATIVITY

  1. The Copyright Lobby’s IIPA Report: Fake News About the State of Canadian Copyright (Michael Geist)
  2. Former RIAA Executive Attacks Fair Use
  3. Court declines to apply fair dealing copyright exemption in news reporting case
  4. SiriusXM Wins New York Case Over Pre-1972 Sound Recordings: The 2nd Circuit rules that the satcaster deserves summary judgment and the lawsuit from Flo & Eddie should be dismissed.
  5. Flo and Eddie NY Suit on Pre-1972 Sound Recordings Ordered Dismissed By Court of Appeals – No Issues with Copies Made in the Transmission Process 
  6. Australia’s Battle Over Fair Use Boils Over
  7. Trademarks and music: No longer living it up at ‘The Hotel California’
  8. Pro-Marijuana Student Organization Wins Court Case Over Using School Logos
  9. University Rejection of Students’ Marijuana – Themed T-Shirt Violates First Amendment – Gerlich v. Leath (Eric Goldman)
  10. Keeping up with the Kylies’ trade mark wars – dispute no longer Spinning Around
  11. Ellen DeGeneres Defeats Lawsuit Over Breast Pun (Eric Goldman)
  12. Chinese Trademarks And The Emoluments Clause: Do They Intersect In The Trump Presidency
  13. China violated its own law to grant Trump a trademark: China’s Valentine’s Day present to Trump could put him in legal jeopardy.
  14. Hollywood’s Greatest Wall: The fastest-growing movie market of this decade has been China. But projections about its future — and the decisions that Hollywood has made to take advantage, like the Matt Damon vehicle ‘The Great Wall’ — may have been shortsighted.
  15. Jimmy Choo stomps on cybersquatting
  16. Apple Says Nebraska Will Become A ‘Mecca For Hackers’ If Right To Repair Bill Passes
  17. Vogue’s Race Problem Is Bigger Than Karlie Kloss: Even if the model featured in the magazine’s latest controversial spread had been Asian, it would still have been offensive.
  18. Theater Group President: No, Netflix Isn’t Killing the Multiplex
  19. Theft! A History of Music
  20. You Can’t Have Your Cake and Eat It Too: Why Trump Copying Obama’s Cake Is Not Infringement
  21. Sportswriting Has Become a Liberal Profession  –  Here’s How It Happened: Donald Trump’s election was merely an accelerant for a change that was already sweeping across sports journalism

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

  1. Divided federal appeals court rules you have the right to film the police: Filming cops, 2-1 court rules, ensures that they “are not abusing their power.”
  2. The doll banned by Germany for being a transmitting device
  3. German parents told to destroy Cayla dolls over hacking fears
  4. How Peter Thiel’s Palantir Helped The NSA Spy On The Whole World
  5. Coalition Slams DHS Plans To Demand Social Media Passwords
  6. Data Protection Commissioner urged to halt EU data transfers to US
  7. Court Allows Microsoft to Challenge Secrecy of User Data Requests
  8. Judge In Twitter Lawsuit Over Surveillance Disclosure Dings DOJ For Cut-And-Paste Legal Argument
  9. Court: Unsupported Assertions And Broad Language Aren’t Enough To Support Cell Phone Searches
  10. The Ousting Of Trump’s National Security Advisor Shows Just How Dangerous ‘Lawful’ Domestic Surveillance Is
  11. Hacks all the time. Engineers recently found Yahoo systems remained compromised: Company knocks $350 million off its purchase price.
  12. Computer hacking charges brought against four of Gordon Ramsay’s in-laws: Celebrity chef alleges that Chris Hutcheson and three others hacked into his e-mails.
  13. Marathon runner’s tracked data exposes phony time, cover-up attempt: A cut corner, a retraced route on a bike, and the Garmin tracker that exposed the lies.
  14. Snapchat Spectacles are now available to buy online for $129: But they’re only available in the US for now.
  15. The need for a Digital Geneva Convention (Brad Smith)
  16. Microsoft President Calls for A “Digital Geneva Convention”
  17. Cop filmed telling motorist he wanted to beat him, sic dog on him: New Jersey officer becomes enraged that he is being filmed during traffic stop.
  18. The Fifth Amendment Vs. Indefinite Jailing: Court Still No Closer To Deciding On Compelled Decryption
  19. Italy Proposes Astonishingly Sensible Rules To Regulate Government Hacking Using Trojans
  20. Kernel Is Trying To Hack The Human Brain — But Neuroscience Has A Long Way To Go: The future of computing may be inside our skulls

jon