Aaron Swartz; Copyfight; PayPal; Facebook; Google; Data Caps; Trouble with Telcos; Media Manipulation; Hoaxes and Scams

Aaron Swartz

• Remember Aaron Swartz
• RIP, Aaron Swartz
• Lessig: Prosecutor as bully
• Remember Aaron Swartz by working against government abuses--"The internet activist was an advocate for open society who faced an abusive prosecution from the government. He will be missed."
• The inspiring heroism of Aaron Swartz
• MIT Responds to Death of Activist Aaron Swartz, Begins Internal Investigation
• Expert witness describes Aaron Swartz's "crimes"--The US AG wanted to jail him for 30 years.

Copyfight

• "Buffy vs Edward" remix is back online, but no fallout for Lionsgate--""I'm happy that 'Buffy vs Edward' is back on YouTube but what's to stop this sort of thing from happening again? Will Lionsgate face any repercussions for abusing YouTube's system and sending this bogus DMCA takedown? "
• Public domain: Access denied
• Why There Are Only 100 Copies Of The New Bob Dylan Record--"Only available in Europe, Dylan's new, limited-edition compilation aims to extend the copyright on unreleased material from the beginning of his career."

PayPal

• Jay Lake v. PayPal--"Yet I cannot help wondering how this would have gone without my own social media footprint and widespread network of friends and fans. Would I be looking at weeks of paperwork and a continually frozen account, as my friend has experienced?"
• PayPal "guilty until proven innocent" account freeze
• PayPal Demands Invites to Private BitTorrent Trackers

Facebook

• Monetization on steroids: Facebook's $100 experiment
• Facebook UK loses 600,000 users in December
• Reverse trolling sweeps American schools with craze for Facebook pages dedicated to anonymous compliments

Google

• Does Constant Googling Really Make You Stupid? 
• Google's ultrafast Internet draws startups to KC
• Plus-One This: Proof That Google Plus Will Prevail--They're also innovating more quickly.

Data Caps

• Why Data Caps Suck: The Animated Examination
• Cable Industry Draws Scrutiny For Putting Internet Users On A Scale
• FCC Hires New Cap Loving Chief Economist--"Steven Wildman previously used by ISPs to justify caps."

Trouble with Telcos

• How the iPhone 5 prompted my divorce from AT&T and new life with Verizon
• Do You Really Need a Voice Plan with That Fancy Smartphone?
• Why Consumers of U.S. Wireless Carriers Need a Google

Media Manipulation

• I Was a Paid Internet Shill: How Shadowy Groups Manipulate Internet Opinion and Debate
• Don't read the comments! Online communities shape risk perception--"More people get science news from blogs, where commentary shapes opinions."
• Vietnam admits deploying bloggers to support government

Hoaxes and Scams

• After a half-decade, massive Wikipedia hoax finally exposed
• Watch How A 4chan Hoax Happens--"BuzzFeed sat in on a private chatroom full of anonymous 4chan members as they put together a follow-up prank to their #Cutting4Bieber Twitter hoax...."
• Internet Bieber hoax fuelled vicious cycle--"Prank a sign of cynicism, experts say."

Dead Trees, Price Fixing, e-Media, Amazon.com, Wikitroubles, Wikipedia, Printer

Dead Trees

• Wondering How Far Magazines Must Fall NYT
• Magazines: Hey, look at us!--"As magazines struggle, they're resorting to sensationalism on their covers -- and the Web loves to take the bait." Salon
• Why newspapers must raise their price
• Google News at 10: How the Algorithm Won Over the News Industry
• Rupert Murdoch Admits Defeat: Now Wants London Times To Appear In Search Results

Price Fixing

• Own e-books? Publishers to pay back millions over price fixing charges--"Another battle in the long war over who gets to set e-book prices."
• Apple, publishers offer antitrust concessions: source
• Judge Quickly Approves Ebook Pricing Settlement; Says It's In The Public Interest To Stop Price Fixing
• History will show journalists missed the big Amazon story today: ebook discounting is back
• That was fast: Amazon is already discounting settling publishers' ebooks--Halle-fucking-lujah. Check out this nifty chart.

e-Media

• Self-published e-book author: 'Most of my months are six-figure months'
• How to Make a Book Disappear--"Jonah Lehrer's discredited Imagine has vanished from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and his publisher's website. Why that's bad news for readers."
• Google, Publishers Settle Seven Year-Long Book Scanning Lawsuit

Amazon.com

• Why PC Companies Fear Amazon
• Amazon Lending - Amazon starts loaning capital to sellers to help them scale
• How our startup took on Amazon… and won
• Amazon backtracks, will offer $15 opt-out for ads on Kindle Fire tablets--"After negative feedback on forced ads, the company reverses course and will allow users to opt-out of 'Special Offer' ads -- for a fee."
• Kindles are shown the automatic sliding door at Walmart--"The people of Walmart have voted, Amazon's devices aren't fit for the chain."

Wikitroubles

• Corruption in Wikiland? Paid PR scandal erupts at Wikipedia
• How Gibraltar Provoked an Existential Crisis for Wikipedia
• Wikipedia honcho caught in scandal quits, defends paid edits
• Wikipedia's "Pay-for-Play" Scandal Highlights Wikipedia's Vulnerabilities
• Wikipedia Is Running Out of Editors and Admins--And they're getting harder to find.

Wikipedia

• Keeping News of Kidnapping Off Wikipedia
• You Can Now Make Your Own Free eBook Out of Wikipedia Articles
• The Onion: Wikipedia Offline After Cables Cut

Printer

• Colour printing reaches its ultimate resolution
• Scumbag Printer
• HP Introduces Nano Sponge

SOPA/PIPA, Voices, Copyfight, Piracy and Economy, Public Domain

SOPA/PIPA

• SOPA Is Dead: Smith Pulls Bill
• Reid Calls Off Protect IP Act Vote
• How The Web Killed SOPA and PIPA
• The week the web changed Washington
• Why doesn’t Washington understand the Internet?
• After Outcry, SOPA Backers Are Mainly Democrats--" The push for antipiracy legislation brought lawmakers together for much of the past year, but in the Senate at least, the support that remains after nationwide protests appears to be mostly from Democrats."
• MPAA Directly & Publicly Threatens Politicians Who Aren't Corrupt Enough To Stay Bought

Voices

• Sir Tim Berners-Lee: Father of the web backs SOPA protests
• David Pogue: Put Down the Pitchforks on SOPA NYT
• Peter David: Where I stand on SOPA
• Maddox: I Hope SOPA Passes
• Coding Horror: Defeating SOPA and PIPA Isn't Enough
• Clay Shirky: Defend our freedom to share (or why SOPA is a bad idea)
• Joel Spolsky: Two things about SOPA/PIPA and then I'll shut up

Copyfight

• Feds shut down Megaupload--And their assets have been seized. This then prompted Anonymous to go nuclear and go after the FBI, Filesonic to kill its file-sharing service and Uploaded.to to block US visitors.
• Don't Stop at SOPA: SOPA and PIPA are (almost) dead. Now can we talk about the law that already exists?
• EFF: No more back room deals -- Users must have a voice in governing the Internet
• Joe Peacock: 'It's 2012! Ignorance is inexcusable!'
• Investment Firm Y Combinator Goes on Offensive Against Hollywood

Piracy and Economy

• How Copyright Industries Con Congress--How much does piracy really hurt the US economy?
• Pop Didn't Eat Itself: Why Piracy Didn't Destroy The Music Industry
• Does Online Piracy Hurt The Economy? A Look At The Numbers

Public Domain

• Supreme Court Says Congress May Re-Copyright Public Domain Works
• Copyrights on Foreign Works Upheld by U.S. Supreme Court--"[T]he ruling takes works by Alfred Hitchcock, Pablo Picasso, Igor Stravinsky and J.R.R. Tolkien out of the public domain, barring use without permission of the copyright owner."
• Publishers pushing bill through congress to deny Americans access to taxpayer-funded research NYT

SOPA/PIPA, International News, Copyright, Public Domain

SOPA/PIPA

• Under voter pressure, members of Congress backpedal (hard) on SOPA
• Geeks to Testify (Finally!) About SOPA Blacklisting Implications
• MPAA attacks Ars for "challenging efforts to curb content theft"
• Al Gore Comes Out Against SOPA/PIPA
• Best idea of 2011: Give control of Internet content to group that sued a dead grandmother
• Study Confirms: News Networks Owned By SOPA Supporters... Are Ignoring SOPA/PIPA
• RIAA: We Must Take A Shoot First, Ask Questions Later Approach To Censorship
• SOPA Is a Symbol of the Movie Industry's Failure to Innovate--"This controversial anti-piracy legislation is all about studios and other corporations making excuses for their technological backwardness and looking out for their short-term profit."
• Lamar Smith Can't Hear You
• Copyright Law: Killing Creativity

International news

• US Threatened To Blacklist Spain For Not Implementing Site Blocking Law
• TVShack's student founder can be extradited to US, court rules--"US customs agents seek to prosecute Richard O'Dwyer over TVShack, which linked to sites carrying pirated shows and films."
• Insane Entitlement: EMI Sues Irish Gov't For Not Passing SOPA-Like Censorship Law

Copyright

• Forget SOPA: Copyright owners must build a better BitTorrent
• Copyright Office Seeks To Make It More Difficult To Retain DMCA Safe Harbor
• Is copyright against your religion?--All hail the Church of Kopipism.

Public Domain

• What Could Have Been Entering the Public Domain on January 1, 2012?
• Help Preserve the Canadian Public Domain: Speak Out on the Trans Pacific Partnership Negotiations
• James Joyce moves into the public domain, mostly

Making a living out of Music, Public Domain, Copyright

Making a living out of Muisc

• How Much Does A Band Make From Various Music Platforms?
• Springsteen and Others Soon Eligible to Recover Song Rights NYT
• RIAA Accounting: Why Even Major Label Musicians Rarely Make Money From Album Sales
• Australian Idol Damien Leith didn't make a cent on 300,000 CDs
• LSE economists: file sharing isn't killing music industry, but copyright enforcement will
• Eminem's side wins $40M to $50M victory as Supreme Court lets royalties ruling stand
• A Big Fat Thanks To Record Execs

Moolah

• The REAL Death Of The Music Industry--CDs have been going out of style (NYT).
• Get Ready: Grooveshark Promises a Fight to the Finish...
• Manhattan Federal Judge Kimba Wood Calls Record Companies' Request for $75 Trillion in Damages 'Absurd' in Lime Wire Copyright Case
• Judge Cuts Damages In Minn. Music Downloading Case
• Why A Music Tax Is A Bad Idea

Overreaching

• Apology for singing shop worker
• Woman who plays classical music to soothe horses told to get licence
• Music Festival Producer Pre-Sues Bootleggers
• Movie/record industry rep says that you shouldn't expect to be able to play your media for as long as you own it
• Music Companies Suing 'Ellen' The Onion

Public Domain

• EU Officially Seizes The Public Domain, Retroactively Extends Copyright 20 years--What's stopping them from repeating this ad infinitum?
• Supreme Court Deciding Whether Congress May Copyright Public Domain Works--Follow up on Terrible News: Court Says It's Okay To Remove Content From The Public Domain And Put It Back Under Copyright
• Copyfraud: Poisoning the public domain
• Who owns Betty Boop?
• The Public Domain

Copyright

• Copyright Explained
• New Wikileaks Docs Show Ex-Minister Bernier Offered To Leak Copyright Bill to U.S.
• Italy Proposes Law That Will Ban People From The Internet Based On Single Accusation Of Infringement From Anyone
• Shock, awe: British government agrees that copyright has gone too far
• Library of Congress: Copyright is killing sound archiving
• False Take-Down Notice Hits Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga and Others--"Following its standard procedures, YouTube pulled down the artist's entire Vevo channel without requiring any form of verification that the claimant had the right to request the take-down."
• George Lucas loses interesting Star Wars copyright case at Supreme Court