Workers and Wage Slaves, Unemployment, Minimum Wage, On the Job; Banks and Wall Street, Accountability, Credit Suisse, Taxes, Class War; Corporatocracy, Amazon.com, Reviews

Workers and Wage Slaves

• The Republican War on Workers' Rights—"State legislatures have favored employers over their employees." NYT
• Here's The Painful Truth About What It Means To Be 'Working Poor' In America
• Walmart Warehouse Contractor To Pay $21 Million To Settle Wage Theft Allegations
• Medical residents' pay: Doctors in training are organizing for collective bargaining
• McDonald's vacates headquarters due to worker protests —Over 100 arrested.
• For Chevron, $6 a day is apparently too much pay for Cambodian workers

Unemployment

• Poll: 47% of Unemployed Have 'Completely Given Up' Looking for a Job
• Cutting Off Emergency Unemployment Benefits Hasn't Pushed People Back to Work
• Unemployment: It's Not Personal NYT
• More Gloom for the Long-Term Unemployed, from Alan Krueger WSJ

Minimum Wage

• The fight for a global minimum wage
• Show This To The Next Person Who Says High Minimum Wages Kill Jobs
• Michigan: Bill boosting minimum wage to $9.20 an hour to get hearing in state House
• Swiss voters reject $25 minimum wage

On the Job

• No matter what the boss says about flextime, get to work early
• Why Are We So Busy?—"Since the 1930s, U.S. G.D.P. has grown, in real terms, by a factor of sixteen. Why hasn’t that wealth translated into more leisure time?"
• Man Asks Mike Rowe for "Life Advice"

Banks and Wall Street

• "It's total moral surrender": Matt Taibbi unloads on Wall Street, inequality and our broken justice system—"Matt Taibbi, author of 'The Divide,' tells Salon about Geithner's excuses, Piketty's success and Nixon's cronies." Salon
• Krugman: Springtime for Bankers—"The government saved Wall Street but left the real economy behind." NYT
• Occupy activist Cecily McMillan sentenced to three months in jail—"McMillan to also serve five years' probation for deliberately elbowing a New York police officer at a protest in 2012.

Accountability

• Convicted of Felonies, Banks Are Allowed to Stay in Business NYT
• Merrill Lynch, Charles Schwab Accounts Linked To Mexican Drug Cartels: SEC
• Barclays Bank fined £26m for gold price failings
• JPMorgan, HSBC and Credit Agricole accused of euro rate-fixes
• JPMorgan Ex-CEO for China Investment Bank Arrested, Caixin Says

Credit Suisse

• Credit Suisse pleads guilty to U.S. criminal charge in tax probe—"Swiss bank Credit Suisse on Monday pleaded guilty to a criminal charge for its role in helping Americans dodge taxes, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said, and will pay more than $2.5 billion as part of an agreement with U.S. authorities."
• Credit Suisse still too big to jail despite guilty plea
• Big fine 'won't do much damage': Credit Suisse CEO
• Why Is Credit Suisse Still Allowed to Do Business in the United States?—"The conventional wisdom is that revoking a large bank's license can trigger potential systemic consequences. But that's not the case here."

Taxes

• Federal Judges Are Cutting Rich Tax Cheats Big Sentencing Breaks
• IRS: 318,000 fed workers owe $3.3B in back taxes
• Why Republicans Love Taxing the Poor
• To Lift the Poor, You Can't Avoid Taxing the Rich—"It would be nice if we could tackle inequality with a growth approach and without some sacrifices from the wealthy, but that path simply doesn't exist." NYT

Class War

• Billionaire Home Depot Founder Is Not Really Sorry For Nazi Comparison
• Protesters angry drunken Ferrari driver got work release sentence—More affluenza at work.
• Martins Beach billionaire evades questions on stand
• As Court Fees Rise, The Poor Are Paying The Price
• Pope Demands 'Legitimate Redistribution' Of Wealth—Also: The Piketty pontiff: How Pope Francis is bringing Catholicism back to its anti-inequality roots Salon
• 'Stunning' Data Proves, Yet Again, Housing The Homeless Would Actually Save Taxpayers Big Time
• Tony Abbott's daughter was given scholarship for $60,000 design degree—"Frances Abbott was awarded a chairman's scholarship for bachelors degree at prestigious Sydney institute where a donor to her father sits as chair of board of governors."

Corporatocracy

• One dollar, one vote—"When it comes to setting policy, the views of businesses and the rich seem to count for more."
• Thanks to the Roberts Court, Corporations Have More Constitutional Rights Than Actual People
• Public Justice's Paul Bland Explains What Media Should Know About Class Actions And The Pro-Business Roberts Court
• Looks Like Patent Trolls Have Won This Round As Even Weakened Patent Reform Likely To Die—US Senate wusses out.
• GM to pay $35 million over delayed recall—No arrests?

Amazon.com

• Hachette Says Amazon Is Delaying Delivery of Some Books—"Amazon, which controls more than a third of the book trade in the United States, is marking many books published by Hachette Book Group as not available for at least two or three weeks." NYT
• Goodbye, Amazon: We're through!—"I quit Amazon because of its monopolistic tactics. Is it impossible for book publishers to do the same?" Salon
• Amazon Loses Bid for ".Amazon" Domain Name—In the tradition of WWF forcing WWE to submit.

Reviews

• Lawyers threaten redditor over negative router review on Amazon—Streisand Effect leads to Amazon rescinding Mediabridge's selling priveleges.
• Utah couple win against company that charged for bad online review—Kleargear responds and gripes.
• California: Bill would create new protection for shoppers who write online reviews
• When Rave Reviews Become Risky Re: Internet Reviews
• Docs get Yelped! 1 in 4 patients now read online physician reviews
• Lincoln City hotel sues for defamation after anonymous person posts scathing TripAdvisor review
• Italian antitrust watchdog investigates TripAdvisor reviews, Expedia pricing deals
• Rating or Defaming?

International Day Against DRM; Patents; Net Neutrality; NSA Spying, Surveillance and Privacy; Haxx0red; Digital Life, Tech Death; Tesla; GM; Reviews; Unfriendly Skies

International Day Against DRM

• Watch the trailer for Aaron Swartz documentary 'The Internet's Own Boy'
• Obama Complains That TPP Critics Are 'Conspiracy Theorists' Who 'Lack Knowledge' About Negotiations
• This New York Times Short Dramatizes a Deposition About the Definition of Photocopying—"In 2010, the Cuyahoga County Recorder's Office in Ohio changed their policy about copying records. Digital files would no longer be available, and the public would have to make hard copies of documents for $2 per page."
• Hulu attempts to block international viewers who use VPNs

Patents

• In 9-0 vote, Supreme Court makes it easier to get fees in patent cases—"Top patent court almost never makes bad actors pay. Supremes see it differently."
• SCOTUS asked to overturn patent-troll's charter
• The jury is in: Samsung infringes, but damages to Apple are a "mere" $120M—"Apple wins on two patents but loses its damages case, getting just 5 percent."

Net Neutrality

• Level 3 claims six ISPs dropping packets every day over money disputes
• Comcast is destroying the principle that makes a competitive internet possible
• Mozilla's crazy plan to fix net neutrality and turn broadband into a utility – and why it could work—"Mozilla thinks it has found a way to ensure true network neutrality without going back and reclassifying broadband. Will its regulatory sleight of hand find support?"
• Obama must show he supports net neutrality - here's how

NSA Spying

• Everyone is under surveillance now, says whistleblower Edward Snowden—"People's privacy is violated without any suspicion of wrongdoing, former National Security Agency contractor claims."
• Emails reveal close Google relationship with NSA
• White House seeks legal immunity for firms that hand over customer data—"Obama administration asks legislators drafting NSA reforms to protect telecoms firms complying with court orders."
• Chairman of key House committee agrees to proceed with NSA reform bill—"Bob Goodlatte of Virginia breathes new life into USA Freedom Act after bill to overhaul spy agency stalled by months of delay."
• A reporter, a reddit founder, a lawyer, and an ex-NSA chief walk into a debate
• Hannity Then and Now on NSA Surveillance

Surveillance and Privacy

• US Government Begins Rollout Of Its 'Driver's License For The Internet'
• Privacy price gouging, courtesy of phone companies—"Charging customers repeatedly to make their phone numbers unlisted is nothing more than a money grab by companies that already pocket billions of dollars a year in profit." LATimes
• Apple iOS 7 Updates Silently Remove Encryption for Email Attachments

Haxx0red

• Microsoft patches IE zero-day flaw, issues special security update for Windows XP despite end of support
• Serious security flaw in OAuth, OpenID discovered—"Attackers can use the 'Covert Redirect' vulnerability in both open-source log-in systems to steal your data and redirect you to unsafe sites."
• Hacker hijacks baby monitor, screams 'Wake up baby!'
• Hackers Can Mess With Traffic Lights to Jam Roads and Reroute Cars

Digital Life

• We're sharing more photos but getting less in return
• Can an Algorithm Solve Twitter's Credibility Problem?—Is Twitter dying or not?
• The kid who got kicked by a train conductor could earn a whole lot of money
• The NASCAR Dogecoin car is real and it is beautiful
• Why I quit writing internet standards

Tech Death

• The silencing of the Deaf—"How high-tech implants are being blamed for killing an entire subculture."
• The Decline of Newspapers Hits a Stunning Milestone
• Report: Google to end forced G+ integration, drastically cut division resources
• Godaddy Quietly Ends Email Support – Review Of New Live Chat Replacement
• Sony's in a 'bag of hurt' because of Blu-ray

Tesla

• Why do car dealers and Republicans want to eliminate Tesla?—"Instead of adapting to new market demands, car dealerships spend their money to get politicians to help them hurt Tesla."
• FTC: State bans on Tesla's direct sales model are hurting competition
• Blast from the Past: Strangling Innovation: Tesla vs. 'Rent Seekers'

GM

• Job Crushing or Lifesaving?—"Regulations don’t kill jobs, they save lives." NYT
• Documents show GM's early knowledge of switch defect
• GM to ask bankruptcy court for lawsuit protection—"Company's motion says more than 30 cases have been filed against it since February."
• Blast from the Past: GM recalls almost a million vehicles—"[B]ecause of a problem with the windshield wiper fluid system that could lead to a fire."

Reviews

• One Percenters Control Online Reviews—"Contrary to appearances, online reviews reflect the opinions of the few."
• Audiophile bullshit
• Baybrook Remodelers, Still In The Midst Of Suing People For Negative Reviews, Deploys A Disastrous SEO Hitman
• Oh My Dayum!—Songified review.

Unfriendly Skies

• US Airways sends lewdest brand tweet ever
• Air Canada to consider firing workers in baggage toss video—"YouTube video shows baggage dropped from atop staircase, airline investigating."
• 14-Year-Old Allegedly Tweeted Terrorist Threat And Then Freaked Out When American Airlines Responded—As she throws her "friend" under the bus, other idiots join in [WaPo].
• Australian mistook cockpit for toilet, triggering hijack scare

Net Neutrality Neutered, AT&T Sponsored Data, Broadband and Cable; NSA Spying, Haxx0red; Reviews, Uber, Cameras; Digital Life, Law and Disorder

Net Neutrality Neutered

• Appeals court strikes down FCC's net neutrality rules
• How the FCC screwed up its chance to make ISP blocking illegal
• Net Neutrality is Dead. The FCC Won't Save It. It's Time to Start Building.
• Net neutrality is dead. Bow to Comcast and Verizon, your overlords
• Verizon Victory on Net-Neutrality Rules Seen as Loss for Netflix
• A Federal Appeals Court Killed Free Speech on the Internet Today. The Internet Will Now Be Enforced by a Handful of Companies.
• The Net Neutrality Battle Has Been Lost—"But now we can finally win the war."

AT&T Sponsored Data

• AT&T's Sponsored Data slammed by lawmakers as a blatant shakedown
• FCC is ready to stomp on AT&T's Sponsored Data dreams—Yeah right.
• AT&T: No, Sponsored Data does not violate Net neutrality
• AT&T's Sponsored Data is bad for the internet, the economy, and you
• Op-ed: AT&T's new data cap "deal" is just another weapon against regulation

Broadband and Cable

• Municipal broadband's death by lobbyist: San Antonio has the fiber, they should have the network.
• Internet providers push for two-tier Internet based on data caps: Geist
• Broadband price per Mbps shocker for South Africa—"South Africa’s price of $30.72 per Mbps is multiple times higher than the global average of $6.95 per Mbps."
• Time Warner Cable Loses 215,000 TV Customers in Fourth Quarter—More cord-cutters.
• Time Warner Cable rejects Charter's $60bn bid as 'grossly inadequate'
• Robbinsville mayor vetoes Cablevision franchise ordinance after provider drops NY station
• 'I fought my ISPs bad behavior and won'

NSA Spying

• N.S.A. Devises Radio Pathway Into Computers—"The agency has put software in thousands of computers that allows for surveillance and can also create a path for launching cyberattacks, according to documents, experts and officials." NYT
• Mozilla Calls on World to Protect Firefox Browser From the NSA
• Out in the Open: An NSA-Proof Twitter, Built With Code From Bitcoin and BitTorrent
• Telecom Believed to Be at Center of Government Court Fight Files Surveillance Transparency Report
• Tech firms: We don’t want to keep Internet metadata for the government—"The tech firms are urging the White House and Congress to ban the bulk collection of Internet communications." WaPo

Haxx0red

• Neiman Marcus says hackers may have stolen payment card data
• Target: Data Was Stolen From 70M Americans During Security Breach—Part of their mea culpa: one year of free credit monitoring and identity theft protection.
• Yahoo ad malware attack far greater than anticipated
• Microsoft hit in weekend of hacking attacks
• 'Zero-day' hacking reform raises hackles with US tech groups FT

Reviews

• What Amazon Reviewers Think of Samsung's $45,000 TV
• Awful app-review trend among Turkish users: This is why your app gets so many one star reviews!
• Court Rules That Yelp Must Unmask the Identities of Seven Anonymous Reviewers

Uber

• Uber, LeCab And Others Now Have To Wait 15 Minutes Before Picking You Up In France
• Uber Did Its Best To Warn You About New Year's Eve Surge Pricing, But Everyone Complained Anyway
• Uber car attacked as Paris taxi strike turns violent

Cameras

• Smartphones Are Killing Camera Companies Again
• Goodbye, Cameras
• Horizon Shoots All Of Your Videos In Landscape, No Matter How You Hold Your Phone

Digital Life

• Internet-Speak is Improving English Because Empathy
• Why Her Will Dominate UI Design Even More Than Minority Report
• The PC's Death Might Also Mean the Web's Demise
• How funny would it be if Google was a real person you had to talk to?
• The London 'Anti-Cafe' Where Everything Is Free But You Pay 5 Cents A Minute Just To Be There

Law and Disorder

• Facebook hit with lawsuit over "Like" ads – user says he never "Liked" USA Today
• Patent stunner: Under attack, nation's most notorious "troll" sues federal gov't
• Judge rebuffs Apple attempt to block e-books monitor

Happy New Year, Movies, Music, Comics, Tech and Gaming

Happy New Year

• The best pictures from around the world as we welcome in 2014
• TIME Picks the Top 10 Photos of 2013
• The most incredible nature photography of 2013—"Highlights from this year's National Geographic Photography Contest." And are the winners. Salon
• David Bianculli's Top 10 Shows: 2013 Was A 'Good Year For TV'
• Best Books 2013: Slate Staff Picks
• The top memes and viral videos of 2013
• The 39 Worst Words, Phrases, and Parts of Speech of 2013

Movies

• TIME's Top 10 Best Movies
• The best movies of 2013: Dana Stevens on a year of outrageous cinematic bounty
• The 10 best movies of 2013 Salon
• List of Best-Reviewed 2013 Films Among Criticwire Members
• Every Movie Trailer from 2013: The Supercut

Music

• The best and worst music moments of 2013—"From Miley's missteps to Beyoncé's triumph, it's been a roller-coaster year for music." Salon
• Nirvana, Kiss, E Street Lead Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 2014 Class—"Hall and Oates, Peter Gabriel, Cat Stevens and Linda Ronstadt will also be inducted on April 10th."
• Pop Danthology 2013

Comics

• The A.V. Club: The best mainstream and superhero comics of 2013
• The 10 best superhero comics of 2013 Salon
• Looking Back on Another Banner Year with Image Comics Publisher Eric Stephenson

Tech and Gaming

• Top Products in Two Decades of Tech Reviews—Walt Mossberg's farewell WSJ column "on the products that changed the digital industry." WSJ
• Duolingo: Apple's choice for App of the Year—Me gusta mucho este programa.
• Best gaming product of 2013: Steam

TPP, Copyfight; Patents; Broadband and Bandwidth, Cord-Cutters; Online Scams, Bad Companies, Reviews, Spam; Obamacare

TPP

• Jailbreaking and unlocking might be restricted in treaty pushed by Obama—"International ban could make it difficult to change US law for the better."
• Want 'free trade'? Open the medical and drug industry to competition—"Agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership distribute wealth upward. Real 'free trade' can lower medical costs for everyone."
• For Free Trade's Sake, Get IP Out of the TPP
• Australia: Outrage after TPP leak reveals piracy criminalisation
• Civil Society Groups Demand Transparency and User Protections in TPP

Copyfight

• Why pressing 'upload' means losing your rights—"If you store your precious photos and documents online, then you may be disturbed to discover the rights you give away, says Tom Chatfield."
• Photojournalist gets $1.2 million in damages for images cribbed from Twitter—"Jury maxed out statutory damage awards for eight photos."
• Automattic files two lawsuits and strikes back at fraudulent DMCA takedown notices on WordPress.com

Patents

• Software patent reform just died in the House, thanks to IBM and Microsoft
• Judge rejects patent troll's request for no-media "gag order"—"FindTheBest has the right to tell others about a $50,000 patent demand."
• Newegg on trial: Mystery company TQP rewrites the history of encryption—"Once-secret details of a mass-lawsuit operation are revealed in Texas courtroom."
• Jury: Newegg infringes Spangenberg patent, must pay $2.3 million—"Determined lawyers—and the father of modern crypto—couldn't stop TQP patent."
• FindTheBest destroys "matchmaking" patent, pushes RICO case against troll—"The patent is found abstract, six months and $200,000 after the suit was filed."

Broadband and Bandwidth

• We're About to Lose Net Neutrality — And the Internet as We Know It
• How Verizon's Lawsuit Could Kill Netflix, YouTube
• Netflix, YouTube gobble up half of Internet traffic in North America
• Looks like Comcast is quietly pushing a 300 GB cap and overage charges
• Big Cable may have felled Seattle's mayor, but it couldn't stop this Colo. project WaPo
• Comcast seeks advice on possible Time Warner Cable bid: Sources
• Verizon Hit By Too Much LTE Demand, Pushing Some Customers Down To 3G
• Fed up with slow and pricey Internet, cities start demanding gigabit fiber—"Google Fiber can't do it all, so city governments start taking charge."
• Bill would make it illegal for ISPs to slow down online video services—"Data caps and deceptive pricing would also be regulated by proposed law."

Cord-Cutters

• Time Warner doesn't want you to know you can get HBO without cable
• Netflix is killing television to keep it alive
• Charter CEO 'Surprised' More Users Want Broadband With No TV
• Cord-cutting: Pay-TV companies lose 113,000 customers in quarter
• TV market continues worldwide decline in 2013
• TV Is Dying, And Here Are The Stats That Prove It
• This politician wants to blow up the cable industry's stranglehold on what you can watch

Online Scams

• Wikipedia names Texas PR firm over false manipulation of site entries
• Model sues Match.com for $1.5B over fake profiles
• FBI: Be wary of Cyber Monday scams

Bad Companies

• LG Admits Its Smart TVs Collected Info, Promises Fix So Customers Can Actually Opt Out—Future customers should opt out form buying LG.
• How far the once mighty SourceForge has fallen…—The new owners foisting adware-infested installers on unsuspecting users.
• The Dirty Secret Behind the Salesforce $1M Hackathon

Reviews

• Fined For Posting A Negative Review Online
• So much for my Yelp revenge—"When I posted a negative review, the shop owner threatened to smear me — but that was only the beginning." Salon
• Nasty online reviews can lead to lawsuits: Roseman—"If a company gives bad service, you might write an online review telling others to stay away. Make sure your comments are factual first."

Spam

• Why Did 9,000 Porny Spambots Descend on This San Diego High Schooler?—"A voyage into the strange underworld of spambots, shady marketing, and non-human intelligence."
• Firm That Sent 42 Million Texts Settles in Spam Case—"Rentbro and its principals, Daniel Pessin and Jacob Engel, agreed to turn over all remaining assets and to repay up to $377,321." NYT
• Ban on most robocalls and text message spam gets stronger

Obamacare

• Obamacare Cutbacks Shut Hospitals Where Medicaid Went Unexpanded
• Reich: How the Republican Tempest Over the Affordable Care Act Diverts Attention from Three Large Truths
• Ted Cruz Bristles At CNN Anchor's Obamacare Questions
• In rural Kentucky, health-care debate takes back seat as the long-uninsured line up WaPo
• Seven reasons Obamacare isn't facing a "death spiral" WaPo

Astroturfers, Tech Business, Amazon.com, e-Media, Wikipedia; Cord Cutters, Verizon, Telcos, Broadband; Obamacare; NSA Spying, Surveillance and Privacy

Astroturfers

• Fox News Allegedly Pushed Back Criticism With Phony Commenters
• Samsung fined $340,000 for faking online comments
• Astroturfers shut down after flooding Yelp and Google with fake reviews—"Companies paid freelancers $1 to $10 for each fake review, AG says."
• 20% of all Yelp reviews are written by paid shills
• Lawyers faking online reviews : How pervasive is it?

Tech Business

• Adobe's Software Subscription Model Means You Can't Own Your Software—"If you want certain software, you're going to have to pay up—month after month after month."
• Google's iron grip on Android: Controlling open source by any means necessary
• Get Ready to Pay 99 Cents to Watch YouTube
• People Still REALLY Don't Want Ads on Instagram
• Why I am unapologetic about paywalls or promotion

Amazon.com

• Illinois high court rejects 'Amazon' sales tax
• Amazon increases free shipping minimum to $35
• Little 'Libraires' That Could: French Law Would Keep Amazon At Bay
• Amazon's Jeff Bezos Is Like King Midas in Reverse
• How Amazon and Goodreads could lose their best readers—"When Amazon bought Goodreads it got a community of passionate readers, not all of whom want to follow the new rules." Salon

e-Media

• The Abomination of Ebooks: They Price People Out of Reading—"The real problem with ebooks is that they’re more 'e' than book, so an entirely different set of rules govern what someone can and can't do with them compared to physical books, especially when it comes to pricing. The collusion in pricing has been a public issue for a while, but we need to talk more about how they are priced differently to consumers and to libraries. That’s how ebooks contribute to the ever-growing divide between the haves and have-nots."
• Ebook Best-Seller Prices Jump to Highest Level in Months
• The 'Other' E-Book Pricing Problem—"Consumers are the ultimate victims here, also, but those most directly affected are public libraries."
• Self-publishing: Don’t price your ebook at $1.99
• Why tablet magazines are a failure
• Mark Waid: Reinventing Comics And Graphic Novels For Digital"
• Are Operations Like Flipboard Scams Against Publishers?—Josh posts a follow-up.

Wikipedia

• The Decline of Wikipedia—"The community that built the largest encyclopedia in history is shrinking, even as more people and Internet services depend on it than ever. Can it be revived, or is this the end of the Web's idealistic era?"
• Wikipedia China Becomes Front Line for Views on Language and Culture—"Even innocuous topics have become controversial for Wikipedia editors from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, and compounding the issue are language differences." NYT
• Wikipedia editors, locked in battle with PR firm, delete 250 accounts—"Investigation follows reports that Wiki-PR scored Viacom, Priceline as clients."
• Wikipedia Will Start Texting Info To Users In Kenya Who Lack Internet
• Scots Wikipædia—The first encyclopædia in the Scots leid

Cord Cutters

• Comcast CEO: Aereo Illegal, A La Carte Never Happening
• Aereo gets big win in Boston: judge refuses to shut down streaming TV service
• Canadian gov't to push cable providers to unbundle channels
• Cable TV Is Dying, and Colleges Are Killing It
• A cord cutter's dream come true: Comcast offers HBO without cable service
• Netflix Poised to Pass HBO in Paid U.S. Subscribers
• Comcast's latest subscriber shakedown—"There are times when you just have to tip your cap to Comcast for coming up with creative ways of swindling its subscribers. The company's latest masterpiece has been the rollout of its channel encryption program, which now forces customers who have even the most basic television services to get all of their channels through a digital adapter box. "

Verizon

• What if Verizon succeeds in killing the Internet?—"Poor Verizon, its free speech is being violated by laws and competition. Won't someone think of the children?"
• Verizon's Outrageous Plot to Crack Up the Internet—"The company wants to charge web sites tolls for access."
• Verizon CEO says unlimited data plans simply aren't feasible
• Verizon Working Hard to Gut Massachusetts Consumer Protections
• Decades Of Failed Promises From Verizon: It Promises Fiber To Get Tax Breaks... Then Never Delivers

Telcos

• Crush the Carriers!—"For real mobile phone innovation, someone needs to smash AT&T and Verizon."
• T-Mobile: The most important wireless carrier in America
• Verizon and AT&T's data caps have made LTE a waste of money

Broadband

• Top cable lobbyist urges more ISPs to slap users with data caps
• Comcast seen increasing speeds solely as a way to further gouge customers
• Why New Fiber Networks Are Required To Shatter Monopolies Of Comcast & Other ISPs
• Cheapest 150Mbps broadband in big US cities costs 100% more than overseas—"US cellular customers are also paying more and getting less."
• Google's fibre optic boss unravels demand 'myth'—Other telcos outright lying saying users don't want faster speeds.

Obamacare

• How Kentucky Built The Country's Best Obamacare Website
• Claims That Obamacare Website Violates Health Privacy Reveals Embarrassing Fact-GOP Does Not Understand HIPAA Or Obamacare
• SNL skewers Obamacare Web site, suggests low-res version
• But What if Obamacare Works?—"Once the Web site is fixed, the real costs will start showing up." NYT
• Vermont is designing nation's first universal health-care system

NSA Spying

• Obama 'not told of Merkel phone bugging'—Thought he "approved" it 3 years ago? Or is the NSA keeping him in the dark?
• German interior minister: Confidence in U.S. is 'shaken'
• NSA 'monitored 60 million Spanish calls in a month'—Naturally, they're angry.
• Rogers says French should be 'popping champagne' over NSA—"If French citizens knew exactly what the U.S. phone intercepts were about in France, they would be 'applauding and popping champagne corks' because it keeps them safe, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said Sunday." Politico
• Document Reveals NSA Monitored 125 Billion Phone Calls in One Month
• NSA Chief Keith Alexander Takes His PRISM Pitch to YouTube: "It's Like Taking a Bath"
• Feinstein plans bill to codify NSA's phone spying

Surveillance and Privacy

• Here's What Law Enforcement Can Recover From A Seized iPhone
• A black box in your car? Some see a source of tax revenue—"The devices would track every mile you drive —possibly including your location — and the government would use the data to draw up a tax bill."
• Ten Steps You Can Take Right Now Against Internet Surveillance

Workers and Wage Slaves, Economy, Financial Troublemakers; Consumer Protection, Reviews, McDonald's Unfriendly Skies; Syria; NSA Spying, Your Rights Online

Workers and Wage Slaves

• Scott Klinger: $9.54 a second: Why CEOs fight on wages
• 12 arrests made at St. Louis fast food protests
• Walmart Workers Plan 'Widespread, Massive Strikes and Protests' for Black Friday 2013—21 were arrested last Thursday for civil disobedience.
• Mall Employees Resign With Very Public Note—"Dear Jamie, since you decided to say 'Cancer is not an excuse' and think it's OK to swear at your employees like you do all the time, we quit."
• Unpaid Internships Must Be Destroyed
• August jobs report: Hiring continues as unemployment falls—"Only 63.2% of Americans now participate in the labor force -- meaning they have a job or are looking for one. That's the lowest rate since August 1978."
• Flipside: Lenovo chief shares $3.25 million of bonus with staff

Economy

• Bernie Sanders: Billions for 'Another War,' but No Money for Needs at Home
• Rangel: Let's Fight a War Against Joblessness Instead
• The Grand Bargain Is Dead, Dead, Dead
• Fox News guest: 'That's a teaching moment' when hungry students don't get school lunches
• Death (certificates) took holiday in wake of bankruptcy filing—"City couldn't issue death - or birth - certificates because skittish vendor wanted cash to supply paper."

Financial Troublemakers

• The Domino Defect: Five Years After Crisis, Banks No Better Off—"The collapse of Lehman Brothers shook the global financial system to its core five years ago. Nevertheless, lawmakers continue to shy away from making the necessary reforms."
• 16 Major Firms May Have Received Early Data From Thomson Reuters—"Whistleblower complaint alleges that certain customers received data anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour ahead of the rest of the markets."
• Criminal Charges Unlikely in Case of Wrong Repossession Mistake

Consumer Protection

• How one man turns annoying cold calls into cash
• Edinburgh landlord ordered to pay tenants three times deposit—"[T]he landlord had failed to pay the cash into a fund set up to protect tenants."
• Flipside: Wendy's Customers Defend Server Against Bully, Get Frosties and Food—Consumer doing the protecting.

Reviews

• Amazon's Funniest Reviews—As selected by Amazon.
• Bed bugs, bad service banished thanks to online trip review sites like Yelp, Tripadvisor
• Where not to eat: researchers turn unhappy tweets into a map of risky restaurants
• Hotel Sues Guest for 95K over Bad Review, Bedbugs
• "Aweful food and dire complaint handling"—Judging by the restaurant owner's rebuttal, in this case the customer isn't right.

McDonald's

• McDonalds closing all restaurants in Bolivia—They weren't a cultural fit.
• McDonald's Franchisees Rebel as Chain Raises Store Fees
• Horse in McDonald's: Rider fined after 'drive-thru' refusal

Unfriendly Skies

• On the Latest Bogus NYT Plane-in-Peril Story
• Open Letter to Flight Attendants
• Man Buys Promoted Tweet to Complain About British Airways

Syria

• President Obama Urges Congress to Vote Conscience on Syria, Even If Public Opposed
• Pro-strike lawmakers mum as startling videos surface of Syrian rebels
• U.S. Support for Action in Syria Is Low vs. Past Conflicts
• How TIME Deceitfully Tries to Make You Believe You Are In the Minority If You Oppose Attacking Syria
• Arizona Voters Savage John McCain’s Syria Support at Town Hall
• Rep. Alan Grayson: U.S. Has to Stop Focusing on Sending a Message on Syria
• Republicans Supported Attacking Syria, Now They Don't. Guess Why

NSA Spying

• NSA surveillance: A guide to staying secure—"The NSA has huge capabilities – and if it wants in to your computer, it's in. With that in mind, here are five ways to stay safe."
• NSA Defends Encryption Backdoors By Promising It's Only Used To Spy On All Of Us—In the meantime, they want to shoot the messenger.
• NSA's pipe dream: Weakening crypto will only help the "good guys"—"Ruining the foundation of online trust? Just collateral damage to spooks." My trust in Kevin Drum has nosedived since he thinks this undisputedly civil rights violating revelation doesn't benefit the public debate.
• The NSA never takes "no" for an answer—"When the government really wants something, it can be temporarily denied [NYT] but rarely foiled."
• Greenwald: NSA encryption story, Latin American fallout and US/UK attacks on press freedoms

Your Rights Online

• Yes, Internet: Your citizens still want their anonymity—"A study from Pew Research Center finds we're giving up too much of ourselves."
• Google encrypts data amid backlash against NSA spying—And yet they say "scanning text of your emails to sell ads is perfectly legal." Cognitive dissonance, ouch.
• Spain challenges Google with 'right to be forgotten' in EU
• Yahoo Releases Its First Government Transparency Report—"... showing the number of requests about Yahoo users that it has received from global government agencies."
• Vietnam internet restrictions come into effect—"A controversial law banning Vietnamese online users from discussing current affairs has come into effect."
• Australia: Malcolm Turnbull says Coalition will not introduce opt-out internet filter after earlier supporting it—They wanted the internet filter on by default.
• UK Internet Filter Blocks VPNs, Australia to Follow Soon?
• Tor Is Less Anonymous Than You Think

Aaron Swartz; Stifling Reviews, Astroturfing, Social Engineering, Rotten Apples; Net Neutrality, Trouble with Telcos, Cable Wars, Mobile Phones; NSA Spying

Aaron Swartz

• Aaron Swartz's Father Blasts MIT Report, Says School Wasn't Neutral
• Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman: MIT report is a whitewash. My statement in response.
• The four lamest excuses in MIT's report on Aaron Swartz
• Prominent Security Researchers, Academics, and Lawyers Demand Congress Reform the CFAA and Support Aaron's Law
• Bradley Manning case stretches credibility of US computer fraud law—"The sentence facing the soldier who passed material to WikiLeaks shows that the US Computer Fraud and Abuse Act is in dire need of reform."

Stifling Reviews

• Popehat Signal: Vengeful AIDS Denialist Sues Critic In Texas
• Dentist who used copyright to silence her patients is on the run
• DMCA Abuse Will Cause Censored Product Review to Go Viral—"According to Den, Rotolight didn't appreciate the fact that the review wasn't as glowing as they might have liked."

Astroturfing

• How Online Reviews Are Being Manipulated By Manufacturers
• Mpact Magic Issues Warning About Solicited and Fake Reviews
• Online reviews full of fakes—"As online reviews flood Internet, it’s tough for consumers to sort out which ones are phony."
• Edmunds.com sues company for fake reviews of car dealerships
• Fake Nautical Restaurant On Tripadvisor Gets Glowing Reviews

Social Engineering

• 'Click farms': how some businesses manipulate social media - Channel 4 Dispatches video trailer
• Fake Twitter accounts generate big bucks for underground economy
• Fake Social Media Accounts Deployed in Fight Over Dallas Building Blinding Piano's Nasher
• Hackers create fake Facebook likes for cash
• Hackers hijacking Twitter, Facebook and Google+ accounts with Chrome and Firefox add-ons

Rotten Apples

• Chinese scalpers booking up all Genius Bar appointments & selling online
• Woman buys two iPhones for $1,300, gets only apples (really)
• Apple fixing bug that allows fake charging stations to hack iPhones

Net Neutrality

• Now That It's in the Broadband Game, Google Flip-Flops on Network Neutrality
• Why YouTube buffers: The secret deals that make—and break—online video—"When ISPs and video providers fight over money, Internet users suffer."
• EU to abandon net neutrality on Internet speed

Trouble with Telcos

• Telco Astroturfing Tries To Bring Down Reviews Of Susan Crawford's Book
• Don't Blame Big Cable. It's Local Governments That Choke Broadband Competition.
• Comcast Starts Tinkering With 5 GB Usage Caps

Cable Wars

• Time Warner Can Blame ESPN for Much of That Cord Cutting
• Time Warner Cable Jacking Up Modem Fees
• Time Warner Cable drops CBS in New York, Los Angeles

Mobile Phones

• AT&T's Next phone upgrade plans are a huge ripoff
• Why are US cell carriers suddenly pushing you to upgrade faster? For the money
• Good Luck Leaving Your Wireless Phone Plan—"Only about 1% of contract customers switch from top wireless carriers; 'It kind of feels like a trap.'" WSJ
• Finland Tops Mobile Phone Throwing Charts
• xkcd: Annoying Ringtone Champion

NSA Spying

• The sneaky switch that set the stage for the NSA's call records program—"The wording of Section 215 of the Patriot Act was modified at the last minute in 2005."
• Members of Congress denied access to basic information about NSA—"Documents provided by two House members demonstrate how they are blocked from exercising any oversight over domestic surveillance."
• Other Agencies Clamor for Data N.S.A. Compiles—"The National Security Agency's dominant role as the nation's spy warehouse has prompted turf fights with other federal agencies that want to use its surveillance tools for their own investigations." NYT
• Activists stage second national day of protest against NSA's domestic spying—"Campaigners say mood has shifted in their favour since 4 July demonstrations against government surveillance."
• Snowden slip: Grand jury probe firm that vetted NSA leaker
• Terror threat opens new front in NSA debate—Claimed to be "directly responsible for uncovering a potential terrorist attack."
• Stop Bashing the NSA

Oscars, Behind the Scenes, Movies; Television; Entertainment and Culture; Literature; Comics

Oscars

• Affleck, "Argo" and the Oscars: Why wasn't he nominated?
• $1.99 iPhone app saved Oscars film
• Oscar loves a white savior—"If a movie features white people rescuing people of color from their plight, odds are high an Oscar will follow." Salon
• Nate Silver: Oscar Predictions, Election-Style NYT
• For your consideration: Anne Hathaway

Behind the Scenes

• Soul Men: The Making of The Blues Brothers—"The pitch was simple: 'John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Blues Brothers, how about it?' But the film The Blues Brothers became a nightmare for Universal Pictures, wildly off schedule and over budget, its fate hanging on the amount of cocaine Belushi consumed."
• Script Reveals the Lost Ending of The Shining
• Kubrick: "I don't know how to write this letter."
• Alfred Hitchcock reveals Psycho was meant to be a comedy in newly-unearthed interview
• Sundance 2013: How did a newbie make an unapproved film in Disney parks?
• How Digital Filmmakers Produced a Gorgeous Sci-Fi Movie on a Kickstarter Budget
• The 25 Greatest Unscripted Scenes in Films

Movies

• Film Crit Hulk Smash: HULK VS. TOM HOOPER AND ART OF CINEMATIC AFFECTATION
• "I Do and I Don't": Hollywood's marriage problem—"A film historian asks why the movies are so bad at depicting one of life's most important relationships." Salon
• Moviebarcode

Television

• 'Game of Thrones' Creator Extends Deal With HBO
• Netflix's House of Cards Offers an Uneven But Promising Look at TV's Future
• "I love Lucy, and she loves me"
• DuckTales invented a new animated wonderland—that quickly disappeared
• Pizza of Destiny: Cranston's Greatest Shot

Entertainment and Culture

• Is Louis C.K. Our Gogol?—"It isn't hard to imagine Louis C.K. reading 'Dead Souls' and underlining Gogol's summary of miserable Plyushkin, a stingy, spitting, munching, wealthy, toothless hoarder who does nothing to conceal the snuff poking out of his nostrils"
• Fresh proof found for the other, 'original' 'Mona Lisa'
• Lenny Kravitz crashes the VOP Choir in New Orleans for "Fly Away"

Literature

• Happy Two-Hundredth Birthday, "Pride and Prejudice"
• 100 Best First Lines from Novels
• A Letter From The New Yorker

Comics

• 'Superman' writer Orson Scott Card protest is un-American, says NOM—DC's lapping up the publicity over hiring this out-and-proud homophobe.
• Dr Fredric Wertham Lied And Lied And Lied About Comics
• Rob Liefeld's Prophet and Glory, revamped—Comic book fans' favorite punching bag's knock out.

Reckoning, Libor; Just Business; Monsanto, Big Food; Big Pharma; Diamonds; Consumer Protection; Yelp; Trumped

Reckoning

• Banks See Biggest Returns Since '03 as Employees Suffer
• Citigroup cuts 11,000 staff worldwide
• Deutsche Bank offices raided amid tax evasion inquiry--"German authorities investigate 25 Deutsche Bank staff, including co-chief executive Jürgen Fitschen, on suspicion of tax scam."
• Queen questions financial crisis
• EU strikes deal for eurozone banks watchdog

Libor

• Leniency Denied, UBS Unit Admits Guilt in Rate Case--Fined to the tune of over $1 billion.
• UBS and LIBOR: Horribly rotten, comically stupid
• Geithner Was Told of Libor Fears in 2008

Just Business

• Corporate Wrongdoers Must Be Held Personally Responsible for Their Crimes
• Google boss Eric Schmidt: I'm proud of our tax avoidance scheme...it's called capitalism
• Federal Judge Allows Corporation To File Secret Lawsuit--Holy corporatocracy, Batman.

Monsanto

• DOJ Mysteriously Quits Monsanto Antitrust Investigation
• Dirty white gold--"Monsanto's claim that it's a 'sustainable agriculture company' doesn't hold water."
• Will Monsanto destroy Mexico's corn?--"Introducing GE corn to Mexico would sound the death knell for the country's precious ecology, argues author."

Big Food

• What's a Food Industry to Do?
  
• Big Food And The Big, Silent Salt Experiment
• Open Letter from World Scientists to All Governments Concerning Genetically Modified Organisms

Big Pharma

• Supreme Court to hear "pay-for-delay" drug case--"The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to decide whether brand-name drug companies may pay money to generic drug rivals to keep their lower-priced products off the market, a practice estimated to cost consumers and the government billions of dollars each year."
• How Big Pharma Prevents The Poor From Accessing Life-Saving Medicines
  
• Big Pharma Company Mocked Patients Who Got "Jawbone Death" from Drug: "Ma Toot Hurts So Bad"

Diamonds

• Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond?
• Russia reveals shiny state secret: It's awash in diamonds--"'Trillions of carats' lie below a 35-million-year-old, 62-mile-diameter asteroid crater in eastern Siberia known as Popigai Astroblem. The Russians have known about the site since the 1970s."
• Astronomers discover planet made of diamond

Consumer Protection

• Victory For Man Who Took Cold Caller To Court
• China's Toxic Milk Whistleblower Murdered
• Blast from the Past: The Everyman Who Exposed Tainted Toothpaste NYT

Yelp

• Virginia woman sued for $750,000 over her 1-star Yelp! review--She's getting help from the ACLU.
• Yelp Outs Companies That Pay for Positive Reviews
• Peregrine Espresso Informs Yelp That No, It Isn't Closed--Corporate sabotage?

Trumped

• Scottish farmer who stood up to Donald Trump given Scotsman of the Year award
• Donald Trump's Scottish love affair on the rocks after whisky award slight--"Furious Trump bans all whiskies by distiller that sponsored Top Scot award given to his obstinate neighbour."
• MSPs dismiss Donald Trump's wind farms warning

Online Customers, Free, Reviews, Lost & Found, Patent Trolls, Apple, Techie

Online Customers

• Has adaptive design failed? Of course not
• The Web Is a Customer Service Medium
• Tech Companies Leave Phone Calls Behind--"Increasingly, social technology businesses are taking an antisocial attitude to callers, making themselves available to customers via e-mail, Twitter messages and Web sites." NYT
• eBay bans 'intangible' items including spells, curses and advice
• Uber Screwed Me (But At Least It Bought Me Breakfast!)--It's also having problems problemsx setting up in NYC.
• PayPal Screws Over a Small Businessman
• Why I Hate Buying Tickets

Free

• The Cost Of Free Doughnuts: 70 Years Of Regret
• People Who Pay For A Service Are A Lot Nicer Than Those Who Don't
• Going broke with success: how an app with 200,000 downloads led to developer homelessness

Reviews

• Authors Behaving Badly: How I Pissed Off Legions of Emily Giffin Fans
• The Best Book Reviews Money Can Buy--"Mr. Liu estimates that about one-third of all consumer reviews on the Internet are fake. Yet it is all but impossible to tell when reviews were written by the marketers or retailers (or by the authors themselves under pseudonyms), by customers (who might get a deal from a merchant for giving a good score) or by a hired third-party service." NYT
• Three Arrests In China Over Baidu "Post-Deleting" Services--"It is alleged that the employees accepted money in exchange for removing negative feedback left on Baidu's forum service. The company had already fired four people for misconduct before three of them were arrested."

Lost & Found

• David Pogue Has Lost His iPhone--And how it was found.
• Bike Thief Gets Owned
• Australia: Court ponders 'trespass' by triggering iPad alarm--"A court has been asked to decide whether a man trying to find his allegedly stolen iPad was acting unlawfully when he tracked it down to a north Canberra townhouse using Apple's anti-theft app and a GPS."

Patent Trolls

• Chinese company uses leaked photos to copy, patent iPhone 5 design--And they're already on sale.
• Eolas strikes again: sues Facebook, Wal-Mart, and Disney over UC patents
• Cost of the Uniloc Lawsuit

Apple

• Confessions from the Most Corrupt Apple Store in America
• Will Apple's Tacky Software-Design Philosophy Cause A Revolt?
• Am I An Outlier, Or Are Apple Products No Longer Easy To Use?

Techie

• To Recruit Techies, Companies Offer Unlimited Vacation
• Vizio reboots the PC: a quiet American success story takes on sleeping giants
• Digg's new look shows the virtues of slowing down and savoring the Web--And while they're working on restoring its archives for its old users, seven years of Internet history are down the toilet.