Net Neutrality, Broadband and Telcos; Copyfight, Tech Life, Sharing, Patents; Facebook, Apple, Amazon.com; Gaming, Tetris@30, Nintendo, XBone, Mobile, Gamers

Net Neutrality

• Verizon Says It Wants to Kill Net Neutrality to Help Blind, Deaf, and Disabled People—"Lobbyists are telling Congress that the administration's plan to create internet fast lanes and slow lanes is important for Americans with disabilities."
• Netflix got worse on Verizon even after Netflix agreed to pay Verizon
• Why Verizon won't solve its Netflix problem as soon as Comcast—"Comcast spent months preparing network connections with Netflix—Verizon didn't."
• Netflix: Verizon decided to 'leave three lanes closed during rush hour
• Community Groups Were Duped Into Joining the Telecom Industry's Anti-Net-Neutrality Coalition
• Mobile 'net neutrality' faces new day of reckoning at FCC
• In Harm's Way: The Dangers of a World Without Net Neutrality
• BitTorrent Shows You What The Internet Looks Like Without Net Neutrality; Suggests A Better Way
• Join the FastLane™
• John Oliver challenges FCC head Tom Wheeler to prove he's not a 'f*cking baby-eating dingo'

Broadband and Telcos

• Comcast is turning your Xfinity router into a public Wi-Fi hotspot
• Verizon will miss its deadline to bring citywide broadband to New York
• Verizon has done the seemingly impossible: It's made Comcast look good
• Comcast testing Internet data caps in parts of the country, could become widespread
• The FCC Can't Help Cities Trapped By Predatory Internet Deals With Big Telecom
• FCC looking into complaints that broadband ISPs are dragging their heels
• State laws deprive Americans of broadband Internet, FCC chairman says
• Boulder lost out on Google Fiber because of Colorado's anti-municipal broadband laws
• Google Fiber franchise wins approval from Portland City Council
• Legere pounces on AT&T's decision to raise activation fees

Copyfight

• Obama Blasted for Lumping Critics of Trade Deal Secrecy with 'Conspiracy Theorists'
• In win for libraries, court rules database of Google-scanned books is "fair use"
• IKEA waits 8 years, then shuts down IKEAhackers site with trademark claim—"IKEA lawyers pushed site to go non-commercial or give up its domain name."
• Crushing Blow for Copyright Trolls: Appeals Court Halts AF Holdings' Extortion Scheme

Tech Life

• Selfies replace the autograph The Times
• Theater chain bans Google Glass—"Alamo Drafthouse, with theaters nationwide, bars the eyewear amid piracy fears." Alamo has always had pro-movie-watching principles and do not suffer fools lightly.
• The Pocket Watch Was the World's First Wearable Tech Game Changer

Sharing

• UK: Uber sign-ups soar by 850 percent as cab drivers protest
• CA: Ride-shares warned by regulators: no airport runs
• Uber and Airbnb show the sharing economy is on its way – like it or not

Patents

• New study suggests patent trolls really are killing startups
• Chinese gov't reveals Microsoft's secret list of Android-killer patents
• Facebook wins patent trial that targeted Newsfeed, Timeline

Facebook

• The Dark Side Of Facebook, Where People Lie, Steal, And Make Millions
• Facebook Australia's $60 million a year business that it wants to keep hidden
• #Love: My 'Friends' Don't 'Like' Me
• Yo Facebook, Ban Links With Fake Video Play Buttons
• Facebook Is Beginning to Look Like a Bonafide Online Ad Network

Apple

• Apple Begins Rejecting Apps That Offer Rewards For Video Views, Social Sharing
• Apple recalls millions of iPhone chargers across 37 countries
• Apple Starts Letting Bitcoin Transfer Apps Back Into Its App Store

Amazon.com

• Amazon Stops Taking Advance Orders for 'Lego' and Other Warner Videos—"Amazon, embroiled in a standoff with a book publisher, is using the same hardball techniques with new movies from Warner Home Video." NYT
• Amazon adds lower movie prices to battle over books
• Book Fight: Amazon vs. Publishers—Some letters to the editors.
• How the Government Blew Its Chance to Rein in Amazon
• The Colbert Report: Amazon vs. Hachette

Gaming

• Why Game Developers Keep Getting Laid Off
• Success! Atari E.T. games found in New Mexico dump—"Despite doubters, the first of what could be thousands or millions of buried E.T. game cartridges were discovered in the Alamogordo landfill where Atari buried them 31 years ago."
• Sony making a Last of Us movie -- Who would you cast as Joel and Ellie?—From what little I've seen of the game, I'd like to see feature-length version based on the cut scenes.
• The man who made the game in 'Her' is about to release a game you can play
• Grammy-nominated composer speaks up against union blockage of Game recordings

Tetris@30

• Tetris at 30: a history of the world's most successful game
• Tetris Turns 30, Creator Says He Still Plays Every Week
• Tetris Creators Talk About Staying Relevant in a Candy-Crushed World
• Video: The addictive game explained in Tetris blocks
• 10 insane covers of the Tetris theme tune

Nintendo

• How we'd save Nintendo
• The Rise of Nintendo: A Story in 8 Bits—"From 'Donkey Kong' to the NES — how a Japanese company took over the American living room. An exclusive first serial from 'Console Wars.'"
• Nintendo announces plan to share ad revenue with YouTube streamers

XBone

• Why the death of Microsoft's Xbox One vision means we all lose—"Commentary: By unbundling the Kinect sensor from Xbox One, Microsoft strips away the console's last differentiating element. The industry and gamers will suffer for it."
• Xbox One doesn't mark the spot—"Kinect's decoupling hasn't been matched with enough exclusive fare to excite us."
• Xbox One ad is switching on Microsoft consoles

Mobile

• Two thirds of players ditch free mobile games in less than 24 hours
• Mobile is burning, and free-to-play binds the hands of devs who want to help
• In just one year, Zynga lost nearly half of its daily active users
• Flappy Bird to return in August as multiplayer game, creator says

Gamers

• Study: Gamers are more educated, more social than the people who make fun of them—"A new study commissioned by Twitch suggests gamers are more social and more successful than non-gamers." WaPo
• Looking at Link Between Violent Video Games and Lack of Empathy NYT
• Aggression from video games 'linked to incompetence'
• Teamwork OP: Riot on making 'good' the easy choice—"That's a paradigm shift: trolls aren't trolls all the time, they're sometimes trolls because they're in a bad mood every now and again."
• Boy Credits 'Grand Theft Auto' Game For His Life-Saving Reaction In Out Of Control Car
• Online gamers witness home invasion; 1 suspect in custody, 1 on the loose

Tech and Culture, The Internet; Copyfight; Net Neutrality, FCC, Comcast, Mergers; Patents, Amazon.com, Uber and AirBnB; Haxx0red; NSA Spying

Tech and Culture

• Glassholes accused of hurting restaurant's ratings—"Feast restaurant in New York gets a slew of one-star reviews on Google after one customer is asked to remove her Google Glass."
• How cell phones have made you flaky—"You can cancel at the last minute. You can be horribly late. As this short film shows, cell phones make the flake."
• 5 Ways to Deal With Dinner Party Guests Who Won't Put Down Their Phones

The Internet

• Why the Internet is Getting Bland—"How social media and the search for brand-safety advertising is changing the internet forever."
• The Internet as we know it is dying—"How Facebook and Google are killing the classic Internet and reinventing it in their image." Salon
• The Internet With A Human Face

Copyfight

• What Could Have Entered the Public Domain on January 1, 2014?
• Wil Wheaton: pirate my TV show if you have to, but help my ratings if you can
• Pirated movies shown to prisoners in Lorain County prison
• Stallman: Did You Say "Intellectual Property"? It's a Seductive Mirage
• Comcast, Verizon and Co. Stop Mass Piracy Lawsuits on Appeal
• How Disney learned to stop worrying and love copyright infringement—"For years, Disney was notoriously heavy-handed in defense of its intellectual property. Then along came 'Frozen.'" Salon
• 'Unbeatable' Cinavia Anti-Piracy Technology Cracked by DVD-Ranger

Net Neutrality

• How Google found the best route for the Netflix era
• Forbes: 'Net neutrality is a dumb idea'
• Report: Verizon FiOS claimed public utility status to get government perks—"Still, Verizon campaigns against utility-style regulation that it benefits from."
• Who's against Net neutrality? Follow the money—"The cable industry has not been shy about handing out campaign donations to Congress. So guess who's sending letters to the FCC arguing against Net neutrality."
• America doesn't know how bad its Internet speed is: Sprint's Son

FCC

• Bill would prohibit FCC from reclassifying broadband as utility—Republican Rep. Latta, bought and paid for by ISP lobbyists.
• FCC to study whether payments to ISPs signal a broken marketplace
• FCC may force Internet providers to stop calling their slow, crappy speeds 'broadband'
• State laws that ban municipal Internet will be invalidated, FCC chair says—"But can the FCC preempt all 20 state laws that limit public broadband?"
• John Oliver wants the internet's worst trolls to yell at the FCC

Comcast

• Comcast CEO has a ridiculous explanation for why everyone hates his company
• Comcast, Blasted By Customers, Disappoints Developers Too—"CEO Brian Roberts strings along app makers, dangling the release of dev tools someday, before addressing the Comcast haterade."
• Comcast promised poor Americans cheap internet, but most of them didn't get it
• Comcast CEO Brian Roberts: It's time to pay the postman. (Just FYI: I am the new postman)
• Washington doesn't care about your cable bill: Why the Comcast merger is inevitable—"By all accounts, the federal government should block such a deal. To understand why it won't, just follow the money." Salon

Mergers

• AT&T is Already Being Misleading to Get DirecTV Deal Approved
• Comcast Employing 40 Lobbying Firms to Get Merger Approved
• A Cable Merger Too Far—"Regulators should block Comcast's acquisition of Time Warner Cable because it would control too much of what consumers watch, read and listen to." NYT

Patents

• How the patent trolls won in Congress—"Trial lawyers and pharma companies teamed up to stop change to patent laws."
• Why The Trial Lawyers May Have Miscalculated In Killing Patent Reform, And How It May Come Back To Bite Them
• Top Patent Judge Steps Down Over Ethics Scandal, Highlighting How CAFC Has Become Too Close To Patent Lawyers
• Payback time: First patent troll ordered to pay "extraordinary case" fees
• Apple wants more money from Samsung, so it's asking for a retrial

Amazon.com

• Amazon Doubles Down on Intimidation Campaign Against Hachette
• Amazon plays hardball -- and puts the hurt on consumers
• Amazon's Tactics Confirm Its Critics' Worst Suspicions NYT
• Amazon acknowledges contract standoff with Hachette—"Internet retail giant admits restricting sales of the publisher's titles but calls it a justified negotiating approach."

Uber and AirBnB

• Rules for Uber, Lyft to Become Law in Colorado
• New York's mayor is proving Uber right about cab cartels
• Uber: the smartphone app that is driving London cabbies to distraction
• After Showdown With Prosecutors, Airbnb Gives Up Customer Data
• Malibu to crack down on short-term rentals via Airbnb, other websites

Haxx0red

• AT&T Hacker 'weev' Demands One Bitcoin for Each Hour He Spent in Jail—Trolling.
• LulzSec hacker 'Sabu' released after 'extraordinary' FBI cooperation—"Authorities credit Hector Xavier Monsegur with helping them cripple Anonymous in lenient sentence of time served."
• US cybercrime laws being used to target security researchers—"Security researchers say they have been threatened with indictment for their work investigating internet vulnerabilities."

NSA Spying

• N.S.A. Collecting Millions of Faces From Web Images—"The National Security Agency's reliance on facial recognition technology has grown as it has used new software to exploit images in emails, text messages, social media, videoconferences and other communications." NYT
• Snowden Docs Expose How the NSA "Infects" Millions of Computers, Impersonates Facebook Server
• Edward Snowden seeks asylum in sunny Brazil
• EFF to Court: There's No Doubt the Government Destroyed NSA Spying Evidence
• Reddit, Imgur, DuckDuckGo, BoingBoing And More Will Participate In Anti-NSA Protests This Week

Family Day, Domestic Disputes, Husbands and Wives, Parenting, Twins, Reunions; Net Neutrality, Speed Bumps, Trouble with Telcos, Comcast-TWC Merger

Family Day

• Teen, upset at not getting iPhone for Xmas, allegedly pulls knife on dad
• Oakland teen accused of killing sister surrenders to police
• Son obsessed with TV serial killer Dexter murdered his mum in 'appallingly savage' knife attack

Domestic Disputes

• Police: Wife tried to frame husband for porn
• Man killed wife, parrot because they talked too much
• Man assaulted and locked wife in shed after she kept singing 'ding dong, the witch is dead' when his mother died
• Nagging could drive men to an early grave, study suggests
• Dear Prudence: My mother-in-law found out my baby's sex against my wishes—And then told everyone

Husbands and Wives

• Time capsule unearths heartache, joy for Scottsdale man
• Why We Cheat—"Spouses in happy marriages have affairs. What are we all looking for?"
• Wife Dies, Husband Wins Lottery Next Day—Looking out for him one last time?

Parenting

• Touching, Unguarded Portraits of Sleeping Parents-to-Be
• Louis C.K. Gives Parenting Advice to Jimmy Fallon
• Parents to share childcare leave for up to year, says Nick Clegg—"The government has committed to introducing a year of shared leave for new parents by April 2015."

Twins

• Twinsters—'Adopted, raised on different continents and connected through social media, Samantha and Anaïs realized they might be twins separated at birth."
• Stunning Photos Of Identical Twins As Grown-Ups Show How Fate Takes Its Course
• Dear Prudence: My twin brother had a one-night stand, gave her my name, and now we're dating.

Reunions

• Co-workers discover they're brothers
• Man Finds Long-Lost Sibling…at Walmart
• Missing N.Y. man reunites with family after they spot him in AP photo WaPo
• How Facebook found Hailey: Why this Seattle parent shared her search for her teen

Net Neutrality

• The FCC is pretending to back down from its controversial net neutrality plan
• FCC Net-Neutrality Plan in Chaos
• Sanders sends FCC 19K comments protesting 'fast lane' plan—"Whether you run a huge website or a small blog, you should have equal access to Internet users without paying a ransom to providers like Comcast."
• Let's Dissect The Cable Industry's Latest B.S. Argument Against Net Neutrality
• FCC vote on 'net neutrality' will kick off long battle
• America's biggest internet providers urge FCC not to turn their networks into public utilities—"Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Verizon, and AT&T all agree, which can't be good news."
• Top ISPs threaten to innovate less, spend less on network upgrades—All scare tactics.
• Comcast gave Republican leader 4x more money than Google. Now he opposes net neutrality
• How Big Cable is organizing against net neutrality
• FCC approves plan to consider paid priority on Internet—Thanks Obama! WaPo

Speed Bumps

• Sen. Al Franken Calls For #NoSlowLane
• Yes, Your Internet Is Getting Slower—"Your provider likes it that way. And the government doesn't care."
• Google to Name and Shame ISPs With YouTube Buffering Issues
• Netflix Streams Faster in Canada than the US
• Fast Internet Is Chattanooga's New Locomotive—"Internet service that is inexpensive and lightning quick has allowed the city to attract high-tech businesses, talent and capital." NYT

Trouble with Telcos

• Verizon, AT&T leaving landline phone networks to rot, complaint says
• Opting Out of AT&T's 'Gigapower' Snooping is Comically Expensive
• Comcast plans data caps for all customers in 5 years, could be 500GB—"Cable company already enforces 300GB limit in seven states."

Comcast-TWC Merger

• Time Warner Cable Makes Hilariously Absurd Argument For Comcast Merger
• Full Page Comcast Ad Tries to Sell Public on Time Warner Deal—"At the top of the list is 'net neutrality protection.'" More like protection rocket is what that is.
• This TV Megamerger Would Actually Be Anti-Competitive

Bad Mother's Day, Law and Disorder, Mom, #BringBackOurGirls; Abortion and Birth Control, Rape; War on Women; Net Neutrality, FCC, Comcast-TWC Merger

Bad Mother's Day

• Police: Mom was having sex while kids died in hot car
• French mother who held child down as he was raped is handed 20 year prison sentence—"Sabrina Bonner held down her four-year-old son as he was attacked by his stepfather."
• Oviedo mom gets 54 years in prison for sexually abusing her children
• Mom Pleads Guilty To Burning Off 18-Year-Old Son's Penis, Nipples With Lighter
• Mom superglued injured son's genitals
• Trial begins for woman in pregnant friend's killing, theft of fetus—She's been found guilty.
• Court papers: Woman faked pregnancy, stole baby

Law and Disorder

• Pregnant Mom Caught On Video Driving Minivan Into Ocean With Her 3 Kids Inside
• Police: Maryland mom kills 2 of her children during attempted exorcism
• Woman arrested after son's body parts identified
• Mother gets 20 years for infant's death due to 'negligent breastfeeding'
• 7 Babies Found Dead in Utah Home; Woman Arrested

Mom

• Woman Accused Of Lying To Son About Cancer Faces Child Abuse Charge
• Mom exercising with son kicked out of LA Fitness gym
• Dear Prudence: The worst mothers-in-law, and why they have such a bad reputation.

#BringBackOurGirls

• 'I will sell them,' Boko Haram leader says of kidnapped Nigerian girls
• Hundreds of Nigerian Girls Are Missing. Fox News Blames Hillary Clinton.
• 'Dear world, your hashtags won't #BringBackOurGirls'—"Thanks for your concern but calling for America rather than Nigeria to take action does more harm than good, says Jumoke Balogun."
• Amnesty International claims Nigerian military knew Boko Haram was going to attack the school where 200 girls were abducted
• US Marines, Satellite locate missing girls in Sambisa forest #bringbackourgirls

Abortion and Birth Control

• Google removes "deceptive" pregnancy center ads—"NARAL Pro-Choice America has successfully campaigned for the removal of ads for "crisis pregnancy centers" that falsely advertised abortion services." WaPo
• Yahoo yanks anti-abortion ads for violating its policies—"After Google wiped several ads that discouraged women from having abortions because they violated the company's advertising policies, Yahoo now does the same."
• Mississippi May Become the First State Since Roe v. Wade to Be Without a Single Abortion Provider
• For Tennessee Lawmakers, Punishing Pregnant Women Is More Important Than Protecting Fetal Life
• Texas Is Permanently Shutting Abortion Clinics and the Supreme Court Can't Do Anything About It

Rape

• Dallas Rape Crisis Center Would Prefer That Judge Not Send Rapist to Volunteer There
• Afghan couple hack off nose, ears in revenge attack—"Afghan police have arrested the parents of a 14-year-old girl after they attacked a religious cleric and cut off his nose and ears in retaliation for what they say were a series of sexual attacks on their daughter."
• 15-year-old sexually molested in Highlands Regional Medical Center ICU

War on Women

• Limbaugh: Men can reinvent themselves, women can't: Column
• Michele Bachmann's Crazy War on Women's History—"She's on her way out of Washington, she's still championing lost causes so extreme her GOP colleagues won't even get on board."
• MSNBC Producer: Dems Hope GOP Reignites 'War on Women' by Grilling Hillary on Benghazi

Net Neutrality

• Why You Should Care About Net Neutrality—"It's not just about Network Neutrality. It's about power."
• Net Neutrality, Monopoly, and the Death of the Democratic Internet
• Huge coalition led by Amazon, Microsoft, and others take a stand against FCC on net neutrality'
• Sen. Franken spearheads a major campaign to save net neutrality
• Talk of an Internet Fast Lane Is Already Hurting Some Startups—"Some VCs say the FCC's latest net neutrality proposal will raise costs for startups that need fast connections or use a lot of bandwidth."
• U.S. 'net neutrality' plan faces heat from venture capitalists
• Losing Net Neutrality Is The Symptom, Not The Problem: Now Is The Time To Focus On Real Competition
• AT&T claims common carrier rules would ruin the whole Internet—"AT&T is just spouting "scary mumbo-jumbo," net neutrality proponent says."

FCC

• Why the FCC Is Ditching Net Neutrality—"Charts: The 'open internet' is no match for revolving doors and buckets of cash."
• The Solution to the F.C.C.'s Net-Neutrality Problems—"If F.C.C. Chairman Tom Wheeler sticks with his new net-neutrality plan, he could become infamous for killing the open Internet."
• Web host gives FCC a 28.8Kbps slow lane in net neutrality protest—"NeoCities finds FCC's internal IP block, throttles connections to dial-up speed." And you can do it too.
• F.C.C. Commissioner Asks for Delay on New Net Neutrality Rules—Wheeler isn't keen on that. NYT
• FCC chairman sounds like a broken record in response to tech coalition's net neutrality concerns
• The FCC can't handle all the net neutrality calls it's getting, urges people to write emails instead—Don't let up the pressure.

Comcast-TWC Merger

• House Republicans Say Comcast Merger Risks Undue Sway on Channels NYT;
• Sen. Franken: Comcast can't have it both ways
• Why Comcast's $10 a month Internet isn’t all it's cracked up to be WaPo
• Comcast is the one who should pay for network connections, Cogent claims—"Hearing on Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger brings up competition complaints."
• Why Starting A Competitor To Comcast Is Basically Impossible

War on Terror, FBI Entrapment, Domestic Terror, Israel and Palestine, NYT Fraud; Surveillance and Privacy, Whistleblowers, Tech Tracking, Your Rights Online; Net Neutrality, Comcast vs. Netflix; Haxx0red

War on Terror

• Supreme Court rejects hearing on military detention case—"The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday handed a victory to President Barack Obama's administration by declining to hear a challenge to a law that allows the U.S. military to indefinitely detain people believed to have helped al Qaeda or the Taliban."
• US senators remove requirement for disclosure over drone strike victims
• Judge Dismisses Case Against Blackwater Defendant
• State Department Gives 87% of Afghan Funds to Only Five Recipients
• Nursing mom wins $75K settlement from TSA over airport incident

FBI

• Dzhokhar bombshell: FBI pressed Tamerlan to become informant
• At the Tribeca Fest: Two bold documentaries expose FBI spying and entrapment
• FBI knew of zero-day attack on websites, let hackers use it—"NY Times reports Sabu directed attacks with Plesk exploit after arrest."

Domestic Terror

• Why it's time to take domestic terrorism seriously
• Minnesota militia member facing jail despite failure to prove terror plot
• Reports Back Op-Ed Linking Vets to Hate Groups
• Concerns growing about militia members at Bundy ranch

Israel and Palestine

• Abbas denounces murder of Jews in Holocaust as 'most heinous crime in modern era'
• Israeli push for visa-free travel to US faces test—"A campaign to allow Israelis to enter the United States without a visa is gaining steam in Congress, but is still running into a brick wall with the Obama administration over the U.S. government's most elementary demand: that the Jewish state provide the same treatment at its borders to all Americans, even if they are Arab or Muslim."
• MKs pan Kerry for saying Israel could become 'apartheid'—"Anti-Defamation League also slams Washington's top diplomat, who warned of aftermath of talks' collapse." Kerry goes oooops [Politico] but gets his message across.

NYT Fraud

• 'New York Times' Admits It Agreed to 'Gag Orders' in Israel
• New York Times Admits It Pushed Fabricated Evidence about Iraq, Syria and Ukraine
• In 'A Fragile Trust,' Jayson Blair Tries to Give Answers—"Samantha Grant's documentary, 'A Fragile Trust,' comes a decade after the fraud scandal at The New York Times perpetrated by the reporter Jayson Blair." NYT

Surveillance and Privacy

• Surveillance court rejected Verizon challenge to NSA calls program—"A ruling said that another judge's criticism of the NSA's data collection had been considered and rejected." WaPo
• Telecom firm fails in first known FISA court surveillance challenge—"Unnamed company challenged metadata surveillance in court for the first time but lost, an unsealed order reveals."
• Where's the White House on Warrantless Email Snooping?
• Mathematicians at the NSA and GCHQ: Is it ethical to work for spy agencies?
• DC thinks it can silence a new Snowden, but the anti-leak hypocrisy is backfiring—"The Obama administration's latest secrecy guidelines would make Deep Throat spin in his grave. Good thing the floodgates are about to open on drones"

Whistleblowers

• Pentagon Papers Whistleblower Says Americans Have 'Lost the Republic'—"Daniel Ellsberg says that whistleblowers are the last people able to stand up to the federal government."
• The glamorous life of a whistleblower: Working a dead-end job for minimum wage—"Long before Snowden made headlines, Peter Van Buren shined light on the State Dept. Then the other shoe dropped..." Salon
• Hillary Clinton Mocks Snowden, Displays Her Ignorance When It Comes to Whistleblowers

Tech Tracking

• The White House Wants to Issue You an Online ID
• Verizon's mobile advertising will now use your desktop browsing habits
• Reddit Frontpage Ads Get Location Targeting

Your Rights Online

• Brazilian Congress passes Internet bill of rights
• Russia Internet sovereignty: Vladimir Putin is tightening his grip on the Internet
• Weibo: We can't censor our users enough to satisfy the Chinese government Salon

Net Neutrality

• If John Kerry Thinks the Internet Is a Fundamental Right, He Should Tell the FCC
• Congress screwed up net neutrality, not the FCC
• Obama Has Not Kept His Promise to Enforce Net Neutrality
• Internet service providers charging for premium access hold us all to ransom—"An ISP should give users the bits they ask for, as quickly as it can, and not deliberately slow down the data."
• Could new net neutrality rules fuel piracy?
• The Costs of Internet 'Fast Lanes'
• FCC Offers E-mail Address to Field Neutrality Complaint
• Turncoat? FCC says new Internet 'fast lane' rules won't kill net neutrality
• FCC chairman says he won't let ISPs snuff out the next Google or Amazon—"'I won't hesitate' to declare ISPs common carriers, Wheeler writes."

Comcast vs. Netflix

• Comcast Has About 76 Lobbyists Working Washington On The Time Warner Cable Merger. This is Why.
• Comcast sells 1.4 million customers to Charter ahead of Time Warner Cable merger
• Comcast accuses Netflix of lying as public feud escalates
• After Comcast, Netflix signs traffic deal with Verizon

Haxx0red

• U.S., UK advise avoiding Internet Explorer until bug fixed
• Zero-day Flash bug under active attack in Windows threatens OS X, Linux too—"Adobe issues emergency update for exploits targeting Syrian dissidents."
• After Heartbleed, NSA reveals some flaws are kept secret—"The White House explains the government's process when deciding whether to withhold knowledge of a security vulnerability -- 'There are legitimate pros and cons to the decision to disclose.'"
• Tech giants, chastened by Heartbleed, finally agree to fund OpenSSL —Thousands of sites and devices still vulnerable.
• Easter egg: DSL router patch merely hides backdoor instead of closing it—"Researcher finds secret 'knock' opens admin for some Linksys, Netgear routers."
• You've Got Hacked: AOL Confirms 'Significant Number' of Mail Users Hit

Net Neutrality Neutered, Broadband; Fourth Amendment Fouls; Bad Cops, Albuquerque; Police Brutality, K9 Killers, Militarization; Law and Disorder, Trial and Error, Recording, Prison, Innocence; Guns; Uncharitable

Net Neutrality Neutered

• FCC proposal would destroy net neutrality
• The FCC's "fast lane" rule is awful for the Internet—just ask the FCC—"Pay-for-play is fine for Web users? That's not what the FCC said in 2010."
• The FCC is about to axe-murder net neutrality. Don't get mad – get even—"The former cable and wireless industry lobbyist Tom Wheeler is re-writing rules in favor of the telecom giants – not you, me or the internet. Here's what you can do to stop him."
• Why Comcast Will Be Allowed to Buy Time Warner Cable and Kill Net Neutrality—"Five registered lobbyists at Comcast have spent time at the FCC. One of the last FCC Commissioners is one of them. One chart describes it all."
• How Comcast gets whatever it wants despite being one of America's most hated companies
• Sen. Sanders' statement—"Under this terribly misguided proposal, the Internet as we have come to know it would cease to exist and the average American would be the big loser. We must not let private corporations turn bigger and bigger profits by putting a price tag on the free flow of ideas."
• Goodbye, Net Neutrality; Hello, Net Discrimination
• The FCC's New Net Neutrality Proposal Is Even Worse Than You Think
• Netflix: The Case Against ISP Tolls—Should they switch over to P2P?
• Internet For the 1 Percent: New FCC Rules Strike Down Net Neutrality, Opening Fast Lanes for Fees
• Save the Internet campaign
• Blast from the Past: Obama pledges Net neutrality laws if elected president—US citizens should remind him of his promise.

Broadband

• Is Your Internet Connection Slower Than Advertised? WSJ
• AT&T's 'Expansion' of 1 Gbps to 100 Cities is a Big, Fat Bluff
• Comcast says its customer service does a great job 'way more than 99%' of the time
• Verizon Knows You're A Sucker: Takes Taxpayer Subsidies For Broadband, Doesn't Deliver, Lobbies To Drop Requirements

Fourth Amendment Fouls

• Supreme Court Gives Police New Power To Rely On Anonymous Tips
• Feds Beg Supreme Court to Let Them Search Phones Without a Warrant
• Low-level federal judges balking at law enforcement requests for electronic evidence—"Judges at the lowest levels of the federal judiciary are balking at sweeping requests by law enforcement officials for cellphone and other sensitive personal data, declaring the demands overly broad and at odds with basic constitutional rights." WaPo

Bad Cops

• New Orleans cops ignore federal oversight—"Advocates say a federally mandated overhaul of the New Orleans Police Department has yielded few results."
• Reform in Reverse—"How Mayor Ed Murray Unraveled Two Years of Police Reform in Only Two Months."
• D.C. Lieutenant Working During Fire Station Death Bypasses Discipline
• Monterey County deputies mistake Air Force captain for burglar in Carmel—"U.S. Air Force Capt. Nicolas Aquino was tackled and handcuffed at his own house in Carmel because a Monterey County sheriff's deputy thought he was a burglar. Now, Aquino is being charged with resisting arrest and obstructing a peace officer."
• Pakistani judge dismisses charges against 9-month-old accused of attempted murder

Albuquerque

• Albuquerque: 3 Police Oversight Commission members quit—"Letter: 'I cannot continue to pretend or deceive the members of our community.'"
• Police body cameras didn't provide accountability in New Mexico
• Albuquerque police officer fatally shoots woman—"A 19-year-old woman suspected of stealing a truck was shot and killed during a chase with Albuquerque police, making her the third person in five weeks to be killed by officers and the first since the department was put under federal orders to reduce the use of deadly force and reform a culture of abuse and aggression."

Police Brutatlity

• #myNYPD Backfires As Twitter Users Share Photos of Police Brutality
• Bull Shoals police chief arrested in federal excessive-force case
• Federal jury acquits state trooper of stomping

K9 Killers

• Dog dies after police prevent neighbor from giving aid after it was hit by a car—"We asked Denver Police to view the video but they declined."
• Halifax cop shoots dog while conducting surveillance on home
• Owners ask for answers after Austin Police officers shoot and kill dog

Militarization

• The United States of SWAT?—"Military-style units from government agencies are wreaking havoc on non-violent citizens."
• Congratulations! Your tiny town has an MRAP and is ready for war—"Here at The Watch, we're looking for the smallest town in America to acquire an MRAP, or Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected armored personnel vehicle." WaPo
• Militarized police may be in a town near you

Law and Disorder

• Hate crime charge in mob attack on Detroit motorist
• Couple strip searched over $3 earrings at southeast Houston beauty supply
• Ohio man must pay $489,000 for fake distress report: court
• Driver of SUV that hit cyclists suing dead teen's family—'Her enjoyment of life has been and will be lessened,' suit claims." Sociopath?

Trial and Error

• Report: NYC court stenographer who typed 'gibberish' may jeopardize up to 30 convictions
• FBI rescues Wake Forest man; abduction related to daughter's work as prosecutor, investigators say
• Ohio judge orders man to hold 'I AM A BULLY!' sign WaPo
• Families of autistic kids sue Disney parks over policy on lines—"Disney changed the policy after media reports of abuse of guest assistance cards, such as visitors hiring disabled people to help them skip lines." Go sue those assholes first.
• Majority of complaints about Sriracha factory came from 4 households

Recording

• Rare 'Perry Mason' moment in court wins dismissal for defendant, desk duty for 5 police officers—"A seemingly routine suppression hearing in a suburban Chicago courthouse last month took an unexpected dramatic turn when video from a police car was introduced that disproved the testimony of five police officers."
• Detroit police unveil new cameras to be worn by officers and newest batch of scout cars
• Video shows Texas cop kicking, tripping high school soccer fans
• China: Rioting crowd severely beats 5 chengguan for killing civilian

Prison

• Texas prisons violate international human rights standards, report says—"Extreme temperatures in state-run facilities has caused the deaths of at least 14 inmates since 2007, according to human rights group."
• State pays $120,000 to settle prison claims
• Protesters want Gates Foundation to stop investing in prison operator
• Mike Anderson Sues MO Department of Corrections, Asks for Immediate Release—Put in jail after 13 years due to a 'clerical error.'

Innocence

• Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter dead at 76—"Former professional boxer became an advocate for the wrongly convicted."
• DA's fight against innocence claim may have left dangerous gunman on street
• The U.S. Abuses Its Wrongfully Convicted in More Ways Than One
• Life interrupted: Man exonerated in murder struggles to start fresh after 24 years behind bars
• Exonerated Illinois man could seek review of conviction in 1974 Shaker Square-area murder

Guns

• NJ gives driver 5 years on gun charge: targeted because he had Texas plates
• Despite deadline, protesters 'will not comply' with SAFE Act
• Republicans Say No to CDC Gun Violence Research—"Giving the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention money for gun violence research is a 'request to fund propaganda,' a Georgia congressman says."

Uncharitable

• Comic Relief money invested in arms and tobacco shares
• NY report: Telemarketers kept most charity donations
• Only 8 percent of NFL pink apparel sales go toward cancer research: report
• Report: Red Sox May Be Sued By Charitable Foundation Over Use Of 'B Strong' Logo

Copyfight, Patent Trolls; Digital Life, IT Jobs; Haxx0red; Your Rights Online; Tech Corruption; Broadband and Wireless, Comcast-TWC Merger; Streaming; MH370; Planes, Trains, and Automobiles; Tesla

Copyfight

• "Copyright troll" Prenda Law completely bombs at appeals court—"Appellate judge is shocked as Prenda's own lawyer can't unwind the 'shell game.'"
• Porn site that spews copyright suits uses lie detectors on defendants—"Malibu Media fights 'copyright troll' label, reveals data about its caseload."
• Major media publisher admits it is "afraid of Google"—"Worries the search giant is turning into a 'superstate' immune from prosecution."
• The Netherlands Must Outlaw Downloading, EU Court Rules
• A band stole a photographer's work and then made his life hell for complaining

Patent Trolls

• Anti-patent-troll bill stalls in Senate, but reformers remain hopeful
• Idaho governor signs patent troll bill into law; New Hampshire working on its own
• Vermont and Nebraska Attorneys General Take Patent Trolls Head On
• Google wins a game of "Escape from East Texas," linking Rockstar to Apple—"Judge: Patent troll 'advances Apple's interest,' must fight Google in California."
• For world's biggest troll, first patent case ends up in tatters—"Intellectual Ventures rolls out the 'inventors'—a lawyer and a lawyer's wife."

Digital Life

• Oculus Says They Didn't Expect Such Negative Reactions to Selling to Facebook
• Google's new Motion Photography Prize transforms humble GIF into high art
• Man Compares His $42k Prosthetic Hand to a $50 3D Printed Cyborg Beast

IT Jobs

• Apple Wants To Keep Evidence That Steve Jobs Was A 'Bully' Out Of Court
• H-1B loophole may help California utility offshore IT jobs—"It is the second major utility in a year to announce IT outsourcing."
• Inside the GitHub scandal: is sexism part of the Valley's DNA?—"Julie Ann Horvath wanted to help other women — and it may have cost her a job." The PR fallout cost Preston-Werner his.
• 12 ethical dilemmas gnawing at developers today—"As software takes over more of our lives, the ethical ramifications of decisions made by programmers only become greater."
• The Secret Shame of an Unacquired Tech Worker

Haxx0red

• Appeals court reverses hacker/troll "weev" conviction and sentence—"Appeals court skirts Computer Fraud And Abuse Act analysis."
• Whitehat hacker goes too far, gets raided by FBI, tells all—"Hacker exposed client's data to teach a lesson, was 'tired of being ignored.'"
• Alleged Heartbleed hacker known for finding flaws
• This reader mocked Heartbleed, posted his passwords online. Guess what happened next. WaPo

Your Rights Online

• Court Declares That, Yes, Bloggers Are Media
• Supreme Court weighing when online speech becomes illegal threat—"High court has never defined online 'speech crime.'"
• General Mills Backtracks on Legal Policy After Angering Facebook Users—"Those terms — and our intentions — were widely misread, causing concern among consumers."
• Twitter parody account holder sought in police raid—"Authorities say Twitter impersonation carries maximum year jail term, $2,500 fine."
• Reddit downgrades technology community after censorship—Moderators maxwellhill and anutensil should quit.

Tech Corruption

• Four US tech firms face $3bn payout over claims they conspired on pay—"Four of the world's best-known large technology companies could face damages claimed of $3bn (€2.17bn) over claims they worked together to keep down pay in the sector."
• HP pays $108 million to settle foreign bribery probes
• Tampa grand jury accuses phone company execs of $33M fraud

Broadband and Wireless

• Verizon led massive astroturf campaign to end NJ broadband obligation—"Some Verizon "supporters" had no idea e-mails were sent on their behalf."
• T-Mobile's next move: Shame AT&T and Verizon into ditching data overage fees
• FCC sets up the 'incentive auction' that will lead to better wireless internet for everyone
• Google Fiber signs franchise agreement with Portland
• Yes, Net Neutrality Is A Solution To An Existing Problem

Comcast-TWC Merger

• Most Senators Overseeing the Comcast-Time Warner Deal Have Taken Money From Both—Including Franken.
• Franken: Comcast Time Warner Cable a competitor until they wanted to merge
• Comcast: Without Time Warner Cable, we can't compete against Google, Netflix
• Comcast named Worst Company in America on the same day it files TWC merger paperwork
• Time Warner Cable Pretends Customer Complaints Don't Exist

Streaming

• Netflix officially comes out against the Comcast-TWC merger
• Netflix Begins 4K Streaming
• Netflix, adding customers and profits, raises prices
• Yes, Netflix And Hulu Are Starting To Kill Cable
• Why Movie Streaming Sites So Fail to Satisfy NYT

MH370

• Malaysian military withheld radar data on Flight MH370 as nations searched wrong area, sources say
• Malaysia Airlines co-pilot reportedly made call before plane disappeared
• MH370 hunt proves too deep for robot vehicle

Planes

• New solar plane is as big as a 747, will circumnavigate the globe
• An Airship The Size of a Football Field Could Revolutionize Travel—"A new fuel-efficient airship, capable of carrying up to 50 tons, can stay aloft for weeks and land just about anywhere."
• You Can Finally Fulfill Your Fantasy of Sleeping Inside a 747 Engine

Trains

• 11,000 Kilometer Proof That Trains Still Win at Moving Stuff Around the Planet
• Siemens wins US high-speed train contract
• Tel Aviv to Eilat in 7 minutes: The first Hyperloop will be in Israel
• China's high-speed rail is so popular, it's hurting the domestic airline industry
• Japanese railway operator to offer maglev tech to US for free

Automobiles

• The Germans Have Figured Out How to 3-D Print Cars—You wouldn't download a car.
• Automakers say self-driving cars are on the horizon
• Glow-in-the-dark roads make debut in Netherlands—"They look beautiful, but they could also save a lot on streetlight power."

Tesla

• Lawmakers approve deal to allow Tesla in Ohio
• Tesla's Musk to '60 Minutes': 'I thought we would most likely fail'
• Evergreen State Signs Bill To Keep Tesla Showrooms Open For Direct Sells
• Five ways Tesla Motors pushes technology change in auto industry
• The future of "Made in America" is Tesla, not Ford
• CBS Says It Made 'Audio Editing Error' With Tesla On 60 Minutes—More of 60 minutes-style hackery. Not as bad as their NSA propaganda piece, I suppose.

Digital Life; Cable and Broadband, Net Neutrality, Cell Phones; Copyfight, Patents; Facebook; Windows H8.1, XP Deadline; Android; Ads; Gaming

Digital Life

• The Selfie and Serendipity's Extinction
• Social Media and the Perils of Looking for 'Likes'
• Virtual Reality is going to change the world
• What You Think You Know About the Web Is Wrong
• Google Earth Finds Woman Trapped On Deserted Island For 7 Years
• After borking high-profile crowdfunding campaigns, PayPal updates policies—"Mailpile, Yatagarasu Attack on Cataclysm, and Dreamfall Chapters all had funds frozen."

Cable and Broadband

• FCC sides with local cable commissions against Comcast—"The Federal Communications Commission has upheld a ruling ordering Comcast to stop charging its customers for cable equipment under the guise of service fees."
• New Revelations on Google Fiber Spells More Bad News for AT&T and Verizon
• One big reason we lack Internet competition: Starting an ISP is really hard—"Creating an ISP? You'll need millions of dollars, patience, and lots of lawyers."

Net Neutrality

• Netflix's Net-Neutrality Plea Gets Rejected by the FCC—"But the agency might still regulate negotiations between websites and Internet providers."
• Net neutrality law adopted by European Parliament—It was a hard-fought and won battle.
• Q&A with policy advisor for the ACLU on net neutrality

Cell Phones

• The Netherlands paves the way for carrier-free SIM cards
• MEPs vote to scrap mobile roaming fees in Europe
• Watch 30 Years of Mobile Phones Come Together as a Digital Orchestra

Copyfight

• Sony Blocks Creative Commons Movie With Bogus DMCA Takedown—"It's pretty hard to enrage free software advocates, the Creative Commons movement, and anti-overreaching copyright and anti-censorship camps with a single move, so 'congratulations' to Sony for managing that today. Thanks to a bogus DMCA takedown, the Blender Institute's open movie 'Sintel' is now blocked on YouTube."/
• How Dropbox Knows When You're Sharing Copyrighted Stuff (Without Actually Looking At Your Stuff)
• New judge blasts Prenda's "attorney speak," finds lawyers in contempt—"Judge to John Steele: 'The community is worried about guys like you.'"
• Why Veronica Mars embraced UltraViolet and angered fans—Industry-touted DRM hurting customers, again.
• Google's 'Glass' trademark held back by US patent office

Patents

• US Supreme Court says human DNA cannot be patented—"Human genes may not be patented, but artificially copied DNA can be claimed as intellectual property, the US Supreme Court has ruled unanimously."
• Abstract Ideas Don't Deserve Patents—"The government has too often given patent protection to inventions that do not represent real scientific advances." NYT
• Supreme Court hears argument on a patent worthy of King Tut—"Is the patent behind a global banking lawsuit just 'a man with an abacus?'"
• Supreme Court skeptical of computer-based patents
• Apple, Pfizer, others form 'go slow' U.S. patent lobby group—"[The Partnership for American Innovation] would oppose efforts to make software or biotechnology unpatentable."
• Newegg and friends crush a patent troll
• Podcasts Vs. Patent Trolls: How You Can Help

Facebook

• Why No One Trusts Facebook To Power The Future—"Facebook has a perception problem—consumers just don't trust it."
• Study: 30 percent of U.S. adults get their news from the Facebook feed
• Facebook's new face recognition knows you from the side
• Jerk.com scammed money to remove Facebook-scraped profiles, says FTC—"Take info, post it publicly, ask for money to remove it, do nothing, profit."
• Facebook Friends Help Diagnose A 3-Year-Old With Eye Disease

Windows H8.1

• Was Windows 8 a Mistake? Microsoft Seems to Think So
• Windows 7 outgains Windows 8 and 8.1 in market share again, but Windows XP still above 27%—Buncha stragglers.
• Microsoft's Windows 8 is Less Popular than Discontinued Windows XP—"Windows 8 is still proving to be unpopular, even after its 8.1 update."
• Microsoft Will Soon Bring Back The Start Menu In Windows 8.1
• Fixing Windows 8

XP Deadline

• Windows XP End of Life Breeding FUD, Legit Concerns
• Mathematics of trust: How Microsoft can keep Win XP alive – and WHY
• UK government buys last-minute lifeline with £5.5m Windows XP support deal
• Dutch government pays millions to extend Microsoft XP support
• Windows XP support will be available after April 8—just not for you

Android

• The #1 New Paid App In The Play Store Costs $4, Has Over 10,000 Downloads, A 4.7-Star Rating... And It's A Total Scam
• The Fallacy Of Android-First
• Here’s Why Developers Keep Favoring Apple Over Android

Ads

• Microsoft to start blocking annoying adware by default
• Ad blockers get ad-group exec's blood boiling (Q&A)—"The Interactive Advertising Bureau doesn't like how tens of millions of people use ad-blocking software. IAB's general counsel has a counterattack: block the blockers."
• Research Finds Value Exchange Ads Benefit Gamers, Developers And Marketers

Gaming

• For Kids, Gaming Is Healthier Than Television
• Titanfall's Anticheat Is Now Being Enforced
• How The Most Expensive Game Jam In History Crashed And Burned In A Single Day
• The Guilt of the Video-Game Millionaires—"For many young, successful game makers, who created their work out of a passion for play, riches come with profound cost."
• Candy Crush Firm Slumps In Market Debut
• Tinder Exploited By Bots Promoting "Castle Clash" Game Downloads
• The "2048" game is why we can't have nice things—"The latest viral game breakout exposes the horrible economics of online gaming." Salon