February 8th Presentation Materials
Hello everyone,
This week in Comms law we’re doing a presentation on Facebook’s alleged privacy infringements and the broader societal implications of “Big Data”.
If you find yourself some time to spare, take a skim through this informal Q&A with Facebook Global Deputy Chief Privacy Officer Stephen Deadman. This video raises many privacy concerns regarding Facebook and presents the company’s ‘official’ perspectives on them.
Thanks and see you in class!
News of the Week; February 1, 2017
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- Ajit Pai on net neutrality: “I favor an open Internet and I oppose Title II”: New FCC chairman won’t say whether he’ll enforce net neutrality rules.
- FCC Chairman Pai takes Wheeler’s set-top box plan off the table: Cable industry was open to compromise, but no Republican plan has been offered.
- FCC exempts small ISPs from broadband truth-in-billing rules: Rule requiring disclosure of hidden fees won’t benefit customers of small ISPs.
- Pai FCC’s First Commission-Level Vote Targets Rural Broadband Access
- Sen. Franken asks AT&T to prove Time Warner merger is good for customers: AT&T won’t commit to public interest statement as it tries to avoid FCC review.
- Eliminating Net Neutrality likely to raise the cost of using the Internet
- New York AG Sues Charter For Slow Broadband Speeds, Says Company ‘Ripping Off’ Users With Substandard Service
- Republican-led FCC drops court defense of inmate calling rate cap: FCC lawyers no longer authorized to defend intrastate calling caps.
- Verizon Eyes Charter Megamerger, Because Who Likes Broadband Competition Anyway?
- Comcast will charge extra fee for watching TV on Roku boxes: Xfinity beta app is now on Roku; for now, customers still need a Comcast TV box.
- 13 Years Ago at the Last Houston Super Bowl – Janet Jackson’s Impact on FCC Indecency Rules
DIGITAL
- Intellectual Property Owner Awarded Control of Infringer’s Social Media Accounts
- Perfect 10, Inc. v. Giganews, Inc.
- Facebook Live Is the Right Wing’s New Fox News: How the rough-around-the-edges live-streaming tool became the perfect incubator for conservative news in the Trump age.
- The Data That Turned the World Upside Down
- Axel Springer CEO: Facebook should not fact check ‘fake news’ — it is not a news organization
- Flush with anti-Trump donations, ACLU gets Y Combinator’s mentorship
- China’s Response To Study Confirms It Uses ‘Strategic Distraction’ To Prevent Collective Action. Sound Familiar?
- Copyright Trolls Overplay Their Hand In Finland, Bringing A Government Microscope To Their Practices
- RIP, “Six Strikes” Copyright Alert System: The anti-piracy accord between ISPs and entertainment industry meets its demise.
- Ding Dong: Silly Six Strikes Copyright Infringement Scheme Is Dead
- Internet Service Providers, Studios and Record Labels Call It Quits on Copyright Alert System
- The US ‘Six Strikes’ Anti-Piracy Scheme is Dead: The “six-strikes” Copyright Alert System is no more. In a brief announcement, MPAA, RIAA, and several major US ISPs said that the effort to educate online pirates has stopped. It’s unclear why the parties ended their voluntary agreement, but the lack of progress reports in recent years indicates that it wasn’t as successful as they had hoped
- Venezuelan officials arrest four Bitcoin miners on charges of stealing electricity: With the economy in shambles, Bitcoin miners have tried to side-step currency woes.
- Monero, the Drug Dealer’s Cryptocurrency of Choice, Is on Fire
- Sony missed writing on the wall for DVD sales, takes nearly $1B writedown: Or, in corporate-speak, loss was “mainly driven by an acceleration of market decline.”
- Thanks to YouTube, Vevo Nears 100 Million Active Monthly Users
- Lawyer for “inventor of e-mail” sends threat letter over social media posts: Shiva Ayyadurai’s attorney, who sued Techdirt, goes after another blogger.
- Thousands of College Kids Are Powering a Clickbait Empire: How a 29-year-old built Odyssey, a vast network of college students happy to fuel multi-million dollar marketing campaigns for peanuts.
- The internet of toys
- Robot knows when to hold ‘em, wins huge in poker tournament: 120,000 hands and a $1.7 million margin of victory later, Carnegie Mellon’s AI wins out.
- Click Here to Kill Everyone: With the Internet of Things, we’re building a world-size robot. How are we going to control it? (Bruce Schneier)
- The merging of humans and machines is happening now: Her organisation invented the internet. It gave us the self-driving car. And now DARPA’s former boss sees us crossing a new technological boundary
- Tech Leaders Are Just Now Getting Serious About the Threats of AI: Apple joins a leading AI ethics group, one of several tech-led initiatives preparing for a highly automated future.
- The Gates Foundation Emerges As A Leader In The Fight For Full Open Access And Open Data
- Apple will move its entire international iTunes business to Ireland: International HQ will move from one tax haven to another.
- Apple sets revenue and iPhone sales records in Q1 of 2017
- TV shows go into overdrive on Snapchat
- Can One App Revolutionize TV Ratings For The Streaming And Binge-Watching Era?
- Causality in machine learning
- Canada’s Supreme Court Is Preserving Every Website Mentioned In Its Rulings
- What We Buy When We Buy Now (Aaron Perzanowski & Chris Hoofnagle)
CREATIVITY
- Fairness Confirmed Again: Federal Court of Appeal Upholds Copyright Board’s Fair Dealing Ruling (Michael Geist)
- Supreme Court rejects appeal against B.C. Election Act: Registration rules for political ad sponsors don’t restrict individual political expression, court finds
- Back To The Stampede: Court Upholds Forum Selection Clause Requiring Copyright Action To Return to Alberta
- Actress in Viral Video Can’t Prevent Video From Being Made Into an Advertisement–Roberts v. Bliss (Eric Goldman)
- Ninth Circuit Finds First Amendment Protects Against Right-of-Publicity Claim Involving Film “The Hurt Locker”
- Woman Claims Her Picture is Worth $2 Billion in Right of Publicity Suit
- Court of Appeal endorses Data Protection Act as alternative to defamation claim
- The Federal Court of Appeal Rules on Access Copyright’s K-12 Tariff
- The New Joint DOJ/FTC Antitrust Guidelines for the Licensing of Intellectual Property
- Judge Gorsuch On Copyright And Technology (James Grimmelmann)
- Apple sued over singer’s right of publicity in iPhone ad singing: No copyright, but can an artist’s voice sustain a “right of publicity” case?
- Mac Repair Company iGeniuses Sends Legal Threats To Unhappy Customers, Demanding $2500 Per Negative Review
- Michael Jackson Is Worth More Than Ever, and the IRS Wants Its Cut: Jackson’s star lawyer made a mint for his heirs, so now the government has to be startin’ somethin’.
- Germany Finally Dumps Law That Says It’s A Crime To Insult Foreign Leaders
- Jose Cuervo Loses Bid To Block Trademark Registration For Il Corvo Wine
- The Shattered Mirror, Part One: Fair Dealing Reform Isn’t the Answer for News in the Digital Age (Michael Geist)
- How the arts helped kill off the NEA — by trying to play the conservative “economic value” game: Our strategy of ditching “Art for Art’s Sake” in favor of “ArtWorks” hasn’t saved the arts — and it never will
- Trump Advisor Pens Almost Totally Clueless Piece About ‘Intellectual Property Theft’
- How True Advertising Can Save Journalism From Drowning in a Sea of Content
- Strategies for Discerning the Boundaries of Copyright and Patent Protections (Pamela Samuelson)
- Freeing Buskers’ Free Speech Rights: Impact of Regulations on Buskers’ Right to Free Speech and Expression (John Jurich)
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- Suspecting arson, cops subpoena homeowner’s pacemaker logs, then charge him with multiple felonies
- Trump’s Executive Order Eliminates Privacy Act Protections for Foreigners (Michael Geist)
- New Trump Executive Order Says Federal Agencies Should Exclude Foreigners From Privacy Protections
- President Trump’s Executive Order May Impact the Privacy Shield
- Already Under Attack In Top EU Court, Privacy Shield Framework For Transatlantic Data Flows Further Undermined By Trump
- Trump Orders The Cyber To Be Fixed In The Next Sixty Days
- Twitter Reveals Two National Security Letters After Gag Orders Lifted; Rightly Complains About Gag Orders
- Court Says Location Of FBI’s Utility Pole-Piggybacking Surveillance Cameras Can Remain Secret
- Bodycam footage leaks, resisting arrest charges dropped – Girl screams: “I just recorded everything.” Police officer responds: “Me too.”
- Appeals court rules that stolen laptops class action against payer can proceed
- Live Streaming: The Privacy Concerns of Behind-the-Scenes Access
- Site that sold access to 3.1 billion passwords vanishes after reported raid: LeakedSource garnered criticism for actively cracking the passwords it sold.
- Majority of Android VPNs can’t be trusted to make users more secure: Study of nearly 300 apps finds shocking omissions, including a failure to encrypt.
- St. Louis Cardinals Hacking Scandal: A Real-World Example of the Importance of Password Management
- Amidst Increased Government Surveillance, Chinese Internet Users Finally Gain Important Online Privacy Protections
- One More Time With Feeling: ‘Anonymized’ User Data Not Really Anonymous
- FTC Report Reinforces the Rules for Cross-Device Tracking
- “You took so much time to joke me”—two hours trolling a Windows support scammer: “Albert Morris” and team get taken for a ride while we tried to track their tradecraft.
- Blue Lies Matter: BuzzFeed News reviewed 62 incidents of video footage contradicting an officer’s statement in a police report or testimony. From traffic stops to fatal force, these cases reveal how cops are incentivized to lie — and why they get away with it.
- In not-too-distant future, brain hackers could steal your deepest secrets: Religious beliefs, political leanings, and medical conditions are up for grabs.
jon
Class 5 Slides
Here they are…
jon
Powerpoint for February 1st Group Presentation
Hey all; thanks for your comments in class today.
See below for the PowerPoint presentation.
News of the Week; January 25, 2017
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- Chairperson, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, Appointment Opportunity
- 18 bogus arguments about the CRTC and Super Bowl ads
- Outgoing Obama trade chief urges Canada to reverse Super Bowl ad decision
- Super Bowl Commercials Set to Air North of the Border
- NFL Gets Involved In Plan To Keep American Super Bowl Commercials Out Of Canada
- Report: President Trump Picks Former Verizon Lawyer Ajit Pai To Head FCC
- FCC Chairman Pai vows to close broadband “digital divide”: Pai voted against previous broadband expansion orders, but has plans of his own.
- FCC to be led by Ajit Pai, staunch opponent of consumer protection rules: Ex-Verizon lawyer Pai will take “weed whacker” to net neutrality under Trump.
- Comcast, AT&T, and ISP lobbyists are excited about Trump’s FCC chair: Ajit Pai repeatedly sided with ISPs on FCC rules, will be “formidable opponent.”
- GOP asks Ajit Pai to kill plan for helping customers avoid cable box rentals: Wheeler’s attempt to remake cable box market nears official demise.
- The U.S. Without Net Neutrality: How An Internet Nightmare Unfolds: Today, we take the freedom of the web for granted. Under Trump, maybe we shouldn’t
- Google and Netflix join fight against municipal broadband restrictions: Internet companies and advocacy groups battle Virginia anti-muni broadband bill.
- Google, Ting, Netflix Dare To Suggest That Maybe Giant, Anti-Competitive ISPs Shouldn’t Be Writing State Telecom Laws
- Netflix is so big that it doesn’t need net neutrality rules anymore: But small video providers still need network neutrality, Netflix says.
- Netflix May Not Be Worried About The Looming Death Of Net Neutrality, But Startups Should Be Terrified
- Netflix calls out HBO for not letting subscribers binge on new shows
- Trump voters need fast broadband and net neutrality too, Tom Wheeler says: Wheeler talks to Ars about “Cablewood,” competition, regulation on last day at FCC.
- Outgoing FCC Boss Reminds Trump Supporters That Net Neutrality Is Good For Them, Too
- When home Internet service costs $5,000—or even $15,000: We talked to two homeowners who grudgingly paid thousands to RCN and Comcast.
- AT&T raises phone activation fee another $5, now charges $25: $25 fee for AT&T users who bring own device or buy phone on installment plan.
- Through Price Hikes And Annoyance, AT&T Still Waging War On Unlimited Data Users
- The FCC Fines Straight Path $100 Million for Failing to Meet License Obligations
- The trouble for Canadian digital policy in an ‘America first’ world (Michael Geist)
- What’s in the box? Not a valid agreement to arbitrate! (Rebecca Tushnet)
DIGITAL
- Struggling Canadian News Agencies Ask Government For A ‘Google Tax’
- Canadian retailers will be able to offer discounts on ebooks by three major publishers: Competition Bureau takes fourth publisher HarperCollins to the Competition Tribunal
- Ex-Goldman Sachs programmer found guilty, again, of source code theft – Court: It’s silly to let Sergey Aleynikov go free just because he stole digital files.
- Apple sues Qualcomm, saying chipmaker withheld $1B as “extortion”: Suit claims payment was withheld after Apple talked to Korean regulators.
- Apple sues Qualcomm in China, expanding fight over patent licensing: Qualcomm is under legal attack, now in two of the world’s biggest markets.
- Section 230 Helps Snapchat Defeat Personal Injury Claim Due to ‘Speed Filter’–Maynard v. McGee
- Samsung chief avoids arrest in South Korean corruption scandal: The bribery investigation continues, but for now Lee Jae-yong remains free.
- California Man Brings Class Action Lawsuit Against Apple For Not Preventing Drivers From Doing Stupid Stuff
- Perfect 10 Loses Once Again, Sets More Good Copyright Precedent
- Amazon wants to skip to the end of EU’s e-book antitrust case: “We disagree with some of Vestager’s ideas,” says Amazon as it tables settlement offer.
- Snapchat To Enable Ad Targeting Using Third Party Data
- Netflix added over 7 million new subscribers last quarter
- How Social Cash Made WeChat The App For Everything: A centuries-old tradition gave rise to China’s most valuable company and captured the attention of everyone from teens to Silicon Valley.
- Facebook Journalism Project is Nothing But A Much-Needed PR stunt
- Source: Facebook encouraged Antonio Brown to do locker-room live broadcast
- Beyoncé, Jay-Z and Obama stock photo draws backlash
- Welcome to the world of trolling in virtual reality: Imagine being surrounded by hundreds of faceless avatars screaming at you.
- As PC sales shrink, the gaming PC market grows faster than expected: Report shows PC gaming hardware worth over $30 billion, well ahead of schedule.
- What the Five Year Anniversary of the SOPA/PIPA Blackout Can Teach Congress About Tech
- Copyright Office Says Current Law Addresses Concerns about Software-Enabled Consumer Products
- EU MEPs Call Again For ‘Robot Rules’ To Get Ahead Of The AI Revolution
- How artificial intelligence can be corrupted to repress free speech: It’s easier than you think, even here in America.
- Can We Balance Human Ethics With Artificial Intelligence?
- The Ethics and Governance of AI: On the Role of Universities (Urs Gasser)
- The Real Story Of 2016: What reporters — and lots of data geeks, too — missed about the election, and what they’re still getting wrong. (Nate Silver)
CREATIVITY
- Supreme Court Delves Into Question Of Whether Or Not You Can Trademark ‘Disparaging’ Terms
- Transcript of Oral Argument in In Re Tam
- Lee v. Tam post-argument (Rebecca Tushnet)
- Tiffany & Co. Successfully Asserts Trademark Infringement Claims Against Costco
- Trump Campaign Wants To Trademark ‘Keep America Great’
- CBS, Paramount Settle Lawsuit Over ‘Star Trek’ Fan Film
- CBS & Paramount Finally Settle With Fan Film Axanar
- Axanar Productions, Paramount, and CBS settle Star Trek copyright lawsuit: Axanar says it’s “not paying anything,” will turn its feature into two 15-minute shorts.
- CJEU rules that EU law does NOT prevent punitive damages in IP cases
- France: Any Alteration/Modification of a Work in Public Domain is Infringement of Moral Rights
- Sir Paul Will Not Let It Be: McCartney Makes Preemptive Strike Against Music Publishers to Reclaim His Copyrights
- Apple Sued Over Use of Jamie XX Song in iPhone Advertisement
- Is A ‘Fattened’ Version Of A Famous Jorge Luis Borges Story Artistic Re-Creation, Or Copyright Infringement?
- Author Sued for “Children’s Versions” of ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s,’ ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’
- Copyright Has A Real & Serious Free Speech Problem
- Want to double-down on fixing the Copyright Law? Fix ELUAs.
- Producers Pressured to Disavow
- Arrested Flag Burner Sues Arresting Officers
- Original “patent troll” law firm is shutting down: The Niro firm made tech companies shudder and made a few inventors wealthy.
- What does post-truth mean for a philosopher?
- What Do You Mean by ‘The Media?’: The term has been weaponized.
- Publisher printing more copies of George Orwell’s ‘1984’ after spike in demand
- The Top Ten TTAB Decisions of 2016 [Part 1]
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- Court ruling stands: US has no right to seize data from world’s servers – Outcome means hot-button privacy topic could reach US Supreme Court.
- State Appeals Court Says Unlocking A Phone With A Fingerprint Doesn’t Violate The Fifth Amendment
- China announces mass shutdown of VPNs that bypass Great Firewall: China says all VPN providers must get permission from government to operate.
- China Bolsters The Great Firewall, Cracks Down Harder On VPN Use
- Megaviral Meitu “beauty” app’s data grab is anything but skin-deep: Android version seeks intrusive permissions, sends lots of data to servers in China.
- Kaspersky Lab’s top investigator reportedly arrested in treason probe: Charges ignite concern that other researchers could be prosecuted as well.
- Chicago Mayor Promises To Turn Over Emails From His Private Accounts Following Courtroom Losses
- Snowden’s Favorite Email Service Returns, With ‘Trustful,’ ‘Cautious,’ And ‘Paranoid’ Modes
- CIA Slightly Scales Back Its Domestic Surveillance Powers In First Major Policy Update In Over 30 Years
- Proposed CIA Chief Seems Happy To Spy On Americans, Even If Using Info Hacked By Russians
- Ransomware app hosted in Google Play infects unsuspecting Android user: “All Your Data Is Already Stored On Our Servers!” malicious app warned.
- UK Government Refuses To Impose Privacy Rules On Surveillance Cameras In Hospitals
- Should Celebrities Be Able to Stop Fake News Sites Using Their Faces?
jon
Materials for Feb. 1st Group Presentation
Hey everyone,
Next week, Jonathan and I will be presenting on the changing landscape of digital media and its impact on both the human mind and society.
We’ll start by assessing three general trends in digital media, and how those trends manifest into concrete changes in how we interact with media content. From there, we’ll ask for your thoughts on how these trends are impacting our lives today, and how they might change going forward. Specifically, we’ll ask for your thoughts on (1) whether changes in digital media are globalizing or isolating us, (2) whether these changes are contributing to our personal development or stunting/psychologically harming us, and (3) whether these changes will lead to social harmony and interconnectedness or social fracturing and polarization.
Just skim through the outline if you’re interested, but we’ll cover everything there in more detail during the presentation.
As for the paper (Media Life, Deuze), don’t worry about doing an especially close reading, but focus on the relationship between our lives and the media that surrounds us/defines us. The idea of ‘technogenesis’ – that the human species changes concurrently with its technologies and expressions of media – will be an underlying theme in the presentation.
Group Presentation on “Canadian Content in the On-Demand Era”
Click on the pic below to go to the presentation.
Communications Law
