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

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

MH370; Net Neutrality, Broadband and Wireless; Amazon Prime; Apps, Gaming; Copyfight; Tesla; Haxx0red; NSA Spying and Surveillance

MH370

• Search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 suspended after confirmation it went down in Indian Ocean
• Maybe Those Cold-Hearted Texts to the MH370 Families Weren't So Cold-Hearted After All
• How 'groundbreaking' number crunching found path of Flight 370
• Jon Stewart Mocks CNN's 'F*ck It, Let's Go Nuts' Missing Jet Coverage

Net Neutrality

• Al Franken: Don't let Comcast "manipulate Internet traffic"—"Time Warner merger review should focus on net neutrality and peering, Al says."
• Netflix says it will pay "tolls" to more ISPs, not just Comcast—"Video service calls for stronger net neutrality law that covers peering."
• AT&T Exec Calls Netflix's Reed Hastings "Arrogant" For Net Neutrality Post—Also claims lower bills will result from having no net neutrality.
• After 2 months on the job, TWC CEO will grab $80 million payout if Comcast buys his company
• Not A Joke: Comcast Says No One Is More Dedicated To Net Neutrality Than It Is

Broadband and Wireless

• UK operator Three will limit data tethering to 2GB for new customers, even if the plan is 'unlimited'
• Level 3 blames Internet slowdowns on ISPs' refusal to upgrade networks—"Cogent and Netflix aren't the only ones haggling with Verizon and AT&T."
• Verizon accused of forcing Internet phones on land-line users—"Ratepayers complain that the telecom is pushing unwitting Southern California customers to give up their traditional land lines."
• CenturyLink: Trust Us, You Don't Need Google Fiber
• Google Fiber to study bringing high-speed Internet to low-income areas in Nashville
• Silicon Valley is fed up with slow Internet speeds

Amazon Prime

• Amazon raises Prime price to $99, in first ever price hike
• Amazon Accused of Cheating Customers Through Shipping Costs
• Amazon faces a surprisingly strong backlash against Prime price hikes

Apps

• Dear App Store game developers, knock it off with the useless push notifications
• The Flight of the Birdman: Flappy Bird Creator Dong Nguyen Speaks Out—"How did a chain-smoking geek from Hanoi design the viral hit Flappy Bird - and why did he walk away?" Methinks they spoke too soon.
• How clones, fear, sanitisation and free-to-play soured Apple's iOS gaming revolution
• Apple Highlights Indie Games In "Indie Game Showcase" Section

Gaming

• Xbox VP: It was a mistake to 'sugar-coat' the Xbox One controversy
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Game - 30th Anniversary Edition
• "The Power of Sheng" w. Super Mario—Old meets new.
• This guy went to a Magic tournament and took photos with every exposed butt crack—He got banned for six months.
• Excavation halted of Atari 'E.T.' dump in New Mexico

Copyfight

• Fluke extends a generous hand in $30,000 multimeter trademark issue—"SparkFun ordered 2,000 multimeters from China, but they ran afoul of US Customs." Fluke's statement.
• Copyright Lawsuit Against Medina Bar: 'Unauthorized' Show By Local Classic Rock Cover Band Caused 'Great and Incalculable Damage'—Over-the-topbullshit.
• Musician Claims $5.2 BILLION In Damages In Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Against Apple, Amazon And CDBaby
• Judge: IP-Address Is Not a Person and Can't Identify a BitTorrent Pirate
• Warner Bros Fights Looming Exposé of Anti-piracy Secrets
• Popcorn Time Is Hollywood's Worst Nightmare, And It Can't Be Stopped—Should the industry adopt the technology?
• Kim Dotcom loses key evidence ruling at NZ Supreme Court—"Dotcom can't look at his own data to prepare an extradition defense."

Tesla

• Auto dealers fire back at Tesla CEO: 'This Musk guy, he wants all the profits for himself'—As Gruber says, it's like it's from The Sopranos.
• Lawmaker answers Christie's call on Tesla electric car sales—"A Bergen County lawmaker has introduced a bill that would let electric car retailers, like Tesla Motors Inc., sell directly to consumers."
• Tesla Sales Model Upsetting Traditional Auto Dealers—"Tesla's Musk is focusing his attention right where it should be focused: on the well-being of his customers. If his behavior is threatening to the status quo, then those defending the status quo ought to be looking at changing their behavior rather than running to government for protection."
• Texas to Tesla: You Can't Sell Your Cars Here… But Can We Have Your Battery Plant?—Perry may be making moves.
• Fake Tesla Ad Is Better Than Most Car Ads We've Seen (Even Elon Musk Loves It)

Haxx0red

• Attackers to Basecamp: If you ever want to get back online, pay us or else—"Site fights back against extortion-motivated denial-of-service assaults."
• Judge Refuses to Dismiss Confession, Evidence in Reuters Employee Hacking Case
• ATM malware, controlled by a text message, spews cash

NSA Spying and Surveillance

• White House to propose law to end NSA bulk collection of phone data—"Phone companies will keep data, provided only with new court's order."
• Greenwald: Obama’s New NSA Proposal and Democratic Partisan Hackery—"As for the substantive reform, the fact that the President is now compelled to pose as an advocate for abolishing this program – the one he and his supporters have spent 10 months hailing – is a potent vindication of Edward Snowden’s acts and the reporting he enabled."
• After Reports on N.S.A., China Urges End to Spying—"The Chinese called on the United States to explain its actions after news reports said that the N.S.A. had hacked into the computer systems of Huawei, a telecommunications company." They probably didn't like Obama's answer. NYT
• Schneier: An Open Letter to IBM's Open Letter—IBM claims it's committed in maintaining trust with their clients (does that include the US government?).

Comcast Merger, Broadband, Netflix; TPP, Copyfight, Pandora vs. ASCAP; Flappy Bird, Gaming; Windows Crash; Law and Disorder

Comcast Merger

• Comcast buys rival Time Warner Cable for $45bn
• Comcast Gives $854K to Subcommittee With Jurisdiction Over FCC
• Sen. Chuck Schumer recuses himself from Comcast-Time Warner deal—Huge conflict-of-interest with him praising the deal previously.
• Comcast: No promise that prices "will go down or even increase less rapidly"—"Former FCC commissioner urges defeat of "anti-consumer" Comcast/TWC merger."
• Comcast's Time Warner Deal Is Bad for America
• The Real Problem with the Comcast-Time Warner Merger
• Comcast monopoly: One Cable Company to Rule Them All?
• Forget TV, It's Internet Access at Stake in the Comcast Deal

Broadband

• ISP lobby has already won limits on public broadband in 20 states—"Bills limiting municipal ISPs in Kansas and Utah continue noble tradition.."
• Data Caps Are The Devil For Residents Of Rural Alaskan Towns; Are They In Our Future?
• Time Warner Cable still in denial, says users might not want faster data speeds
• How ISPs are working to keep you stuck with their slow service
• This is what a competitive broadband market looks like
• Google working on 10 gigabit Internet speeds
• Many Broadband ISP Consumers Suffer in Silence Rather than Complain

Netflix

• Netflix plan for cable boxes threatened by Comcast/Time Warner merger—"Supporting Netflix would 'cannibalize their business.'"
• Netflix To Deploy GPU-Powered Neural Networks For Deep Learning In Movie Recommendations
• Infographic: Netflix vs. Blockbuster

TPP

• Amid Growing Calls To Release TPP Text, NZ Says Transparency Would 'Destroy' Agreement, While USTR Won't Even Talk If Journalists Are Present
• Obama Pushes TPP Negotiations Despite Mounting Opposition at Home and Abroad
• Obama Trade Deals Are in Trouble, and They Deserve to Be

Copyfight

• Scary UFC Copyright Propaganda Matters to Everyone
• Why It's Getting Harder to Sue Illegal Movie Downloaders—"Some federal judges are becoming skeptical of the methods copyright holders use to identify culprits."
• Australian Government Signals Online Piracy Crackdown

Pandora vs. ASCAP

• Pandora Suit May Upend Century-Old Royalty Plan—"Pandora is squaring off against Ascap in a closely watched trial over royalty payments determined by a system developed long before digital streams and smartphone apps." NYT
• Surprise: ASCAP and Music Labels Colluded To Screw Pandora
• ASCAP, Pandora await verdict in court battle over digital music rights

Flappy Bird

• 28 Days of Fame: The Strange, True Story of 'Flappy Bird'
• Flappy Bird Creator Dong Nguyen Says App 'Gone Forever' Because It Was 'An Addictive Product'
• Flap no more: Google, Apple rejecting flappy-branded games—"Apparently they're just as sick of Flappy Bird as we are."
• Why Indie Developers Go Insane
• You can't actually sell your Flappy Bird phone on eBay

Gaming

• TotalBiscuit Fights Against Total Boneheads—FUN Creators seem to be out of their frickin' minds.
• Plants vs Zombies drops in-app fee
• 'CandySwipe', a Game Released Two Years Before 'Candy Crush', is the Latest Victim of the King.com Candy Trademark "Saga"
• Gabe Newell Speaks On Recent VAC Controversy, Asks For Trust—Valve accused of spying on users under guise of anti-cheating measures.
• Korea bans kids from late night gaming, they don't listen

Windows Crash

• What the Heck is Happening to Windows?—Tough love from Thurrott.
• Windows 8 UX designer on Metro: "It is the antithesis of a power user"
• After 15 months, Windows 8 has sold 100 million fewer copies than Windows 7 did
• Windows 7 on business PCs gets an extension—PC consumer sales end October 31.
• Hate Windows 8? 3 ways to downgrade to Windows 7
• Irish Govt signs €3.3m deal with Microsoft to fix Windows XP security issues
• Why do People Still Use Windows XP

Law and Disorder

• With Porn Filters Going Oh So Well, UK Roars Ahead In Expanding Them To Include 'Extremist' Content
• Hyperlinking is Not Copyright Infringement, EU Court Rules—"However, the ruling also makes it clear that while publishing a link to freely available content does not amount to infringement, there are circumstances where that would not be the case."
• Frenchman Fined For 'Theft' And 'Fraudulent Retention' For Finding Health Docs Via A Google Search
• The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life—"A young man's violent threat on Facebook lands him in jail, and limbo."
• Google reaches antitrust deal with EU—"The Internet search giant dodges $5 billion in fines with pledge to display rivals' search results.

Take-nology; Net Neutrality, Netflix, Broadband; Patent Trolls, Copyfight; Haxx0red; Uber; Charrrge; Games

Take-nology

• How a Few Monster Tech Firms are Taking Over Everything from Media to Space Travel and What it Means for the Rest of Us—"The monster tech firms are stifling competition and consolidating their power while they expand into new markets. Like the old industrial magnates, they want to control everything."
• Tech fears shadow campaign to seize global control of Internet
• Tim Berners-Lee: we need to re-decentralise the web

Net Neutrality

• Disruptions: Paying to Travel in the Internet's Fast Lanes—"Has the Internet become so fundamental to our lives that it is, in essence, a utility that should be subject to regulation?" NYT
• Obama: I Care Deeply About Net Neutrality
• U.S. Democrats seek to restore net neutrality
• EFF: Why the FCC Can't Actually Save Net Neutrality
• AT&T Has Invented A Way To Charge You Twice For The Same Internet

Netflix

• Netflix warns it will provoke customer protest if ISPs violate net neutrality principles
• Verizon denies reports of Netflix throttling following net neutrality's death—Will they be able to deny the numbers?
• Netflix speed index shows further decline in Verizon quality
• Why Carriers Won't Win War On Netflix
• Netflix to spend $3bn on TV and film content in 2014—"On-demand streaming site ended 2013 with net profits of $112m despite rise in cost of international rights and commissioning."
• How Netflix Reverse Engineered Hollywood—"To understand how people look for movies, the video service created 76,897 micro-genres. We took the genre descriptions, broke them down to their key words, … and built our own new-genre generator."
• Netflix's Gain Is HBO's Loss in Subscriber Wars
• Here's how Netflix is thinking of changing subscription prices

Broadband

• Kansas: Hearings on community broadband services bill postponed—Cable companies blame "misinformation" for bill's derailment.
• Google can leverage municipalities to bring fiber to the masses—"One small ISP in Kansas thinks city-funded fiber would give consumers choice."
• Utah bill would stop regional fiber networks from expanding—"Bill seen as gift to incumbent ISPs who are threatened by UTOPIA fiber network."
• Mozilla Is Shelling Out $300K to Help Develop Super-Fast Internet
• How the U.S. can avoid becoming a 'third-world country' in broadband

Patent Trolls

• Wi-Fi "patent troll" will only get 3.2 cents per router from Cisco—3.2 cents too much.
• Apple complains of 'patent trolls'—"The tech giant says it has faced nearly 100 patent suits in the last three years from firms demanding royalties."
• The ultimate patent troll is going to trial against Google and Motorola

Copyfight

• Antivirus Software Starts Blocking Pirate Websites
• One Year Later, Unlocking Your Phone Is Still A Crime
• What happens with digital rights management in the real world?—"DRM is one of the most salient, and least understood, facts about technology in the contemporary world."

Haxx0red

• Sochi hack report 'fraudulent,' security researcher charges—What really happened?
• Hackers can use Snapchat to disable iPhones, researcher says
• Retailers must guard against craftier hacks, senators say
• Hackers access 800,000 Orange customers' data
• New Google Chrome feature warns users when browser has been hijacked
• Senate cybersecurity report finds agencies often fail to take basic preventive measures WaPo
• PNG Image Metadata Found Leveraging iFrame Injections

Uber

• Uber and Its Enemies—"How taxi cartels resort to desperate measures to kill innovation and save their crumbling industry."
• Smartphone ride-share apps Uber, Lyft, facing strict regulation
• Chicago Cabbies Sue Over Unregulated Uber, Lyft Services
• Council Of State Suspends 15-Minute Law Against Uber, LeCab And Others In France
• Black Car Competitor Accuses Uber Of DDoS-Style Attack; Uber Admits Tactics Are "Too Aggressive"—There's more to this story.
• Family sues Uber for wrongful death of their 6-year-old daughter
• Should Uber Be Responsible For Driver Recklessness?

Charrrge

• 'Special Excess': The Secret Broadband, Internet, Cable, Wireless and Phone Networks
• HP to begin charging for firmware updates and service packs for servers
• Free alternatives to LogMeIn

Games

• Dungeon Keeper review: 1/10—And deservedly so. This is "free-to-play" gone amuck, all thanks to EA and their underhanded actions. It seems, however, some players aren't aware they're being scammed and that some reviews never see the light of day.
• Flappy Bird Stops Flapping—But Why?
• Valve win German court battle: resale of Steam games still a no-no
• League of Legends developer promises it's not a patent troll—"Riot Games explains its patents on spectator mode features and promises not to use them offensively."
• Batman: Arkham Origins has no plans to fix several game breaking bugs
• Blizzard to fund competitive gaming at the college level
• An unpaid bill leads to costly video game battle

TPP, Copyfight, Piracy, DRM, Patents; Gaming, Tilt, Nintendon't; Chrome Malware, Haxx0red

TPP

• Congress introduces Obama fast-track authority on global trade pacts like TPP
• Constituents Opposing TPP Fast Track Locked Out of Congressman Becerra's Office
• Sen. Bernie Sanders lambastes Democrats and Republicans over Trans-Pacific Partnership
• TPP holds out a kind of Potemkin democracy
• Tokyo, Washington agree to stay course on sealing TPP

Copyfight

• In Response To Growing Protests, EU Pulls Corporate Sovereignty Chapter From TAFTA/TTIP To Allow For Public Consultation
• EU Offers Public a Chance to Fix Copyright Law
• Internet Censors Came For TorrentFreak & Now I'm Really Mad
• The End of Ownership: Why You Need to Fight America's Copyright Laws
• The awkward copyright collision of Fair Use and Creative Commons
• It's the 30th Anniversary of the Supreme Court's Monumental Decision About Betamax

Piracy

• IP address does not prove online piracy, US judge says in landmark ruling
• Three Strikes Law Does Nothing to Curb Piracy, Research Finds
• City Of London Police Cannot Seize Domains Just Because Hollywood Says The Websites Are Infringers
• Prince Targets Facebook Users in $22m Live Concert Piracy Lawsuit
• This Google Glass user went to the movies. Then he got interrogated for about four hours.—Department of Homeland Security, in particular the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, doing the bidding of the MPAA.
• Here We Go Again: Canadian Recording Industry Calls on Government To Regulate the Internet

DRM

• DRM Circumvention May Be Legal, European Union Court Rules—"... under some circumstance."
• Latest Twist On DRM Of Physical Products: Machines Locked Down By Geolocation
• You can't download your .mobi files from Amazon anymore, even if they're DRM free
• All library audiobooks going to DRM-free MP3s
• Xbox One Disc-Based DRM Issues Are Due To Suspended Play, Says Xbox Support

Patents

• Supreme Court upends top patent court's "burden of proof" rule
• Google wins jury verdict against patent troll that sued its customers
• Samsung And Google Bury The Apple Hatchet, Sign 10-Year Patent Agreement

Gaming

• Master of His Virtual Domain—"George Yao, an ordinary guy, spent $250 a week conquering the online game Clash of Clans, at one point bringing five iPads into the shower with him so that none of his accounts would go inactive." NYT
• How online gamers are solving science's biggest problems—"A new generation of online games don't just provide entertainment – they help scientists solve puzzles involving genes, conservation and the universe."
• Tech Demo for Pillow Castle's First Person Puzzler—In the words of Immortal Keanu: "Whoa."
• IGN's 2013 Game of Year—Would love to watch a full movie—CG or live action—based on the story.
• Robot Odyssey: The Hardest Computer Game of All Time

Tilt

• Microsoft And Machinima Defend YouTube Promotion Deal—At first anyway, but Microsoft scuttled the XBOX deal and Machinima's opting for full disclosure.
• King has trademarked the word CANDY (and you're probably infringing)—And apparently "saga" as well. These guys are out of control and probably hypocritical.
• Judge reverses huge jury award over Madden video games

Nintendon't

• Nintendo Confirms Wii U Has Flopped, Slashes Sales Forecast By ~70%
• Nintendo Stock Drops Off a Cliff After Forecasts Lowered
• Nintendo 'studying' mobile devices in wake of bleak hardware sales forecast

Chrome Malware

• Adware vendors buy Chrome Extensions to send ad- and malware-filled updates
• Google bans Chrome extensions purchased to deliver adware
• Warning: Your Browser Extensions Are Spying On You

Haxx0red

• Target, Neiman Marcus Breach Caused By Code Written By Russian Teen
• As Target breach unfolds, information vanishes from Web
• Craft store Michaels may be latest mega-retailer to get hacked
• Cyber attack that sent 750k malicious emails traced to hacked refrigerator, TVs and home routers
• Millions of passwords and email details stolen in Germany
• Massive data theft hits 40% of South Koreans
• For 2013, '123456' unseats 'password' as worst password

War on Terror; Surveillance and Privacy; Military Money; Google, Patents, Copyright, Law and Disorder; Trouble with Telcos, Broadband; Haxx0red, I Can Tell By the Pixels; Gaming

War on Terror

• A Deadly Mix in Benghazi—"The reality behind the deadly attack on American outposts is murkier and more complex than initially believed." Despite what Issa keeps yammering about. NYT
• Private talks between Tony Blair and George Bush on Iraq war to be published—I smell censorship in the air.
• CNN Poll: Afghanistan war arguably most unpopular in U.S. history
• The US Has Bombed at Least Eight Wedding Parties Since 2001
• I worked on the US drone program. The public should know what really goes on—"Few of the politicians who so brazenly proclaim the benefits of drones have a real clue how it actually works (and doesn't)."
• Amazing details from the drunken Moscow bender that got an Air Force general fired—"Maj. Gen. Michael Carey drank heavily and often on his official trip to Russia." WaPo

Surveillance and Privacy

• 2013 in Review: The Year the NSA Finally Admitted Its "Collect It All" Strategy
• The most Kafkaesque paragraph from today's NSA ruling—"[Judge] Pauley is essentially saying that the targets of the order have no recourse to challenge the collection of their personal data because Congress never intended for targets to ever know that they were subject to this sort of spying." Judiciary failing its check-and-balance role. WaPo
• Glenn Greenwald: 'A Lot' More NSA Documents to Come
• Inside TAO: Documents Reveal Top NSA Hacking Unit—"The NSA's TAO hacking unit is considered to be the intelligence agency's top secret weapon. It maintains its own covert network, infiltrates computers around the world and even intercepts shipping deliveries to plant back doors in electronics ordered by those it is targeting."
• Shopping for Spy Gear: Catalog Advertises NSA Toolbox—"After years of speculation that electronics can be accessed by intelligence agencies through a back door, an internal NSA catalog reveals that such methods already exist for numerous end-user devices."
• IT firms lose billions after NSA scandal exposed by whistleblower Edward Snowden
• Phone companies say 'no way' to storing phone data for NSA—"Phone companies are against an NSA advisory panel recommendation that would have them -- instead of the NSA -- store phone metadata for an extended time, reports The Washington Post."
• Senator Wants Cybersecurity Answers from Automakers
• Interview with NSA Whistleblower Bill Binney: Afraid We're Spreading Secret Government Around World
• Snowden lawyer: Supreme Court must weigh in on NSA

Military Money

• Why the Pentagon's many campaigns to clean up its accounts are failing
• Forgotten by Most Americans, Iraq is Still a Source of Profits for U.S. Weapons Makers
• Sen. Sanders on Pentagon bloat
• No Austerity for Military Budget in 2014—"The bill is a massive spending program on the war economy with no justification in a time of austerity and limited security threats."

Google

• Google Punishes Rap Genius for SEO Tactics
• Google announces ban on 'multi-purpose' Chrome extensions
• The Day Google Had to 'Start Over' on Android—"Google was building a secret mobile product to fend off chief rival Microsoft. Then Apple announced the iPhone, and everything changed."

Patents

• 'Twas(n't) the Software Patent Before Christmas—All about iA Writer Pro's disingenuous "patent".
• Patent troll bill taken up by Senate, but some say "slow down"—"Senators want to rein in the trolls, but not rile the universities."
• Newegg "back on track" after beating patent troll at ITC

Copyfight

• Opinion: DRM has always been a horrible idea
• Reuters Misuses DMCA "Copyright" To Cover Up Its Attacks on Press at UN
• Netflix Schedules Massive Purge for Jan. 1—Better start binge-watching.
• New Beyonce Album Won't Be Available at Target—"Retailers fears early digital rush will harm physical sales."
• YouTube's Content ID System Will Take Away Your Money If You Dare Sing "Silent Night" war
• Using copyright to keep repair manuals secret undermines circular economy—"Electronics manufacturers are denying consumers access to repair manuals, and it's working against the environment."
• 50 Years of Chinese Aviation Knockoffs—"These Chinese aircraft look familiar, but they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."

Law and Disorder

• Sherlock Holmes Is in the Public Domain, American Judge Rules NYT
• German Court Pulls Orders Granted To Copyright Troll U+C; Grants Injunction Against Future Demand Letters
• Lawyers for Metro East man win big against porn 'trolls'

Trouble with Telcos

• US carriers agree to unlock customers' phones after pressure from FCC—"You'll get a remote unlock after paying off your contract."
• Shameless Carriers
• Flipside: T-Mobile honcho teases fourth 'Uncarrier' phase is on the way

Broadband

• Cable Industry Finally Admits That Data Caps Have Nothing To Do With Congestion—"For years, the key rationale given by broadband providers for implementing data caps was that it was the only way they could deal with 'congestion.' [...] The reality, of course, is that data caps are all about increasing revenue for broadband providers -- in a market that is already quite profitable."
• Editorial: Americans pay more, get less for broadband
• U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace in Delivering Broadband Service Salon
• AT&T sends mixed messages with 1Gbps FTTH service
• How US Internet service might get better—and worse—in 2014—"Fiber buildouts and threats to net neutrality make next year worth watching."

Haxx0red

• Target Confirms PIN Data Also Stolen In Credit/Debit Card Hack
• French agency caught minting SSL certificates impersonating Google—"Unauthorized credentials for Google sites were accepted by many browsers."
• BBC server taken over by Russian hacker at Christmas—"Attacker tried to sell access to server used by corporation for uploading files before being spotted by cybersecurity firm."

I Can Tell By the Pixels

• Software that exposes faked photos NYT
• 100% of the image restored using a version containing between 1 and 10% of the information
• Zoom, enhance. Corneal reflections can reveal bystanders

Gaming

• The real console war begins in March 2014
• A Rant on Microsoft and Xbox One
• 4chan's fake Xbox One instructions convince users to brick their systems
• Xbox One's 24 Hour Check-In DRM Returns During Killer Instinct Tournament
• Forget Xbox One: 2014 could be Nintendo's year

TPP, Piracy; Cable and Broadband; Apple; Patents; Gaming; Dr. Watson, Obamacare, Insurance, Republicans; NSA Spying and Surveillance; Haxx0red

TPP

• EFF: Congress Must Not Fast Track TPP to Ratification
• Yves Smith and Dean Baker on Secrets in Trade—"Why are the contents of a major US-led trade deal being deliberately kept from the American people?"
• Trans-Pacific Partnership Takes Legal Authority Away from Domestic Courts

Piracy

• Registrars Clash at Verisign Over Seized "Pirate" Site Domains
• Gmail Stays Up as Google Rejects Microsoft DMCA Takedown Notice
• File-Sharing Site Was A Year-Long Pirate Honeypot

Cable and Broadband

• Time Warner Left Bruised in Fee Battle With CBS—"The cable company lost 306,000 television subscribers in the third quarter, hurt by a contract dispute that resulted in a blackout of CBS programming." NYT
• Comcast is donating heavily to defeat the mayor who is bringing gigabit fiber to Seattle—For those who live in Seattle and want better ISP service (among other things), you can opt to support McGinn. WaPo
• Why your Internet service provider wants to nix all-you-can-eat data buffets

Apple

• The 'Cheap' iPhone Isn't Selling Because It Doesn't Make Anyone Jealous
• No, Apple's Not Trying to "Bust Your Phone"
• How Mavericks ruined Apple Mail for Gmail users
• Creative Commons co-founder accuses Apple of censoring support forum posts
• Lessig: On the pathological way Apple deals with its customers

Patents

• This patent reform bill might actually pass. Here's what's in it. WaPo
• Patent office to Congress: Please let us invalidate more bad patents WaPo
• Chief Judge Of Patent Court Compares Killing Bad Patents To Genocide
• Microsoft supports USPTO's continued efforts to improve patent system
• Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned "Rockstar" sues Google—"Rockstar paid $4.5 billion for Nortel patents, and has launched a major attack."
• Patent troll asks judge for gag order to silence opponent—"Lumen View's lawyer says that its $50,000 demand must be kept secret."
• Blast from the Past: IBM Files Application to Patent The Patent Process

Gaming

• The Witcher 3 100% DRM Free on PC: An Interview with CDP RED
• Copyright Block Removed On TotalBiscuit's Day One: Garry's Incident Review
• Thousands Of Idiots Download GTA V PC Installer, Guess What Happened Next!
• Sony Explains Why Its PlayStation 4 Costs $1,845 In Brazil—"Of the $1,845 price, 63 percent goes toward paying import taxes that are imposed on the PlayStation 4 when it's imported to Brazil, Sony says."
• Gaming Media Defend Xbox One's Higher Price, Lower Resolution

Dr. Watson

• Why Watson is key to IBM's future
• IBM's Watson is better at diagnosing cancer than human doctors
• Was IBM's Watson a Publicity Stunt From the Start?—"For the supercomputer's next trick, it will solve all your healthcare woes."

Obamacare

• Rip-Off: How Private-Sector Health Costs Are Killing the American Dream
• Special Investigation: How Insurers Are Hiding Obamacare Benefits From Customers
• Obamacare polls: Americans want to reform the Affordable Care Act, not repeal it
• Under Health Care Act, Millions Eligible for Free Policies—"Federal subsidies will pay the entire monthly cost of some plans being offered in the online marketplaces, a surprising figure that has not gotten much attention, in part because the zero-premium plans come with serious trade-offs." NYT
• This Is Why We Need Obamacare—"Lost in the debate over website glitches and broken promises made by President Obama are people's lives. Consider this 47-year-old Oregon truck driver." NYT

Insurance

• The Uproar Over Insurance 'Cancellation' Letters—"The so-called cancellation letters waved around at today's hearing were simply notices that policies would have to be upgraded or changed." NYT
• That Florida woman's canceled Blue Cross policy? It's junk insurance.
• Tallying Obamacare's Winners and Losers—"Only 3 percent of the population are likely to lose their current insurance policies and pay higher premiums because of Obamacare."

Republicans

• The Lesson of Obamacare: Sabotage Works
• Bill Moyers Essay: Obamacare: The Right Wing's Alamo
• Republicans are their own worst enemy on Obamacare. Here's proof. WaPo
• House Republicans No-Show At Private Obamacare Briefing They Demanded
• Mitt Romney Still Gets Mad When You Compare Obamacare to Romneycare

NSA Spying and Surveillance

• UK: Snowden reporter's partner involved in 'espionage' and 'terrorism'—The slippery slope has come. Everyone can be labeled a terrorist.
• UK government reaction to NSA leaks eroding freedom, rights groups warn—"Coalition of organisations says Cameron's response has damaged UK's reputation for freedom of expression."
• Snowden document reveals key role of companies in NSA data collection—"NSA leverages relationships with commercial partners to collect vast quantities of data from fibre-optic cables, file shows."
• The Google File System makes NSA's hack blatantly illegal and they know it
• Portrait of the NSA: no detail too small in quest for total surveillance—"The NSA gathers intelligence to keep America safe. But leaked documents reveal the NSA's dark side – and show an agency intent on exploiting the digital revolution to the full."

Haxx0red

• British man charged with hacking US Army and Nasa computer systems—"A 28-year-old British man named Lauri Love has been charged with hacking into the computer systems of the US army, Nasa and other federal agencies."
• 12-year-old boy admits to hacking government sites for Anonymous—"[T]he boy testified that he traded information to members of Anonymous in exchange for videogames."
• iOS apps can be hijacked to show fraudulent content and intercept data—"Some 10,000 titles in Apple's App Store may be susceptible to redirection hack."
• Adobe hack much worse than reported, hits 38 million passwords and Photoshop source code
• Chinese appliances are shipping with malware-distributing WiFi chips