Month: April 2022

Here Comes the Online News Act ⇥ michaelgeist.ca

John Paul Tasker, CBC News:

The federal Liberal government introduced legislation Tuesday to force digital giants to compensate news publishers for the use of their content.

The new regulatory regime would require companies like Google and the Meta Platforms-owned Facebook — and other major online platforms that reproduce or facilitate access to news content — to either pay up or go through a binding arbitration process led by an arms-length regulator, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).

That these two companies — which, combined, account for 80% of Canadian online ad revenue — have made it far more difficult for publishers, generally speaking, to maintain their ad-supported model of funding is not news. This problem is not limited to Canadian media outlets; this is a worldwide issue.

One justification I can almost buy for taxing these large platforms is because they have consolidated online advertising revenues to fund two American companies. But the act of linking out is a laughable rationale:

Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez said Canada’s news businesses should be compensated for helping Google and Facebook attract eyeballs.

“The news sector is in crisis,” Rodriguez told a press conference Tuesday. “Traditionally, advertising has been a major source of revenue for the news business. That’s less and less the case. I would say the reality is grim.”

Google and Facebook use news content on their sites “without really having to pay for it. With this bill, we’re seeking to address that market imbalance,” Rodriguez said.

That is not really the imbalance, is it? Google and Facebook send traffic to news websites and display, at most, a headline and snippet of a given article. It is the advertising market where publishers have been unable to keep up, though that is partly true because individual newspapers in Saskatoon and Saguenay do not have the infrastructure to create a mechanism for tracking people all over the web to create ad profiles.

Michael Geist:

The government’s plans effectively require compensation without something deserving of compensation. That is best described as a shakedown. The availability of news on Internet platforms is largely limited to links to news articles that refer users back to the original source (full length articles are licensed). There is no copyright violation for linking to content, the posts come from users or the media companies themselves, and there is value to the publishers in the form of the referrals to the full content.

[…]

This is not to suggest that the news has no value. Obviously it does. However, the news has limited value to the Internet platforms, which represents a tiny fraction of overall traffic. In considering how platforms have responded to similar measures in the past, previous attempts to mandate licensing of news articles in Spain and Germany led Google to remove the content from its news service. As a result of the Google news shut down in Spain, studies found publisher website traffic dropped by 10 per cent, demonstrating the value that free referral links provide to news publishers.

This is like requiring compensation for a bibliography. Is the Heritage Minister planning on going after high school essay writers next? They also excerpt materials, citing each instance with links.

I view this law with slightly less doom-and-gloom than Geist, though I still find it unfavourable. Geist writes that traffic to news websites in Spain dropped by 10% after the federal government there imposed a link tax, citing “studies”. But a report from the not unbiased News Media Alliance found little long-term effect on Spanish news sites, and Google News is set to relaunch in Spain this year after adopting a model similar to Australia’s.

But, while the model there has been a financial windfall for some publishers, it has not necessarily helped independent outlets. Tasker, CBC:

According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, more than $190 million has been paid already to Australian media companies since the model was enacted last year. The big winners have been legacy media and larger media outlets.

The Canadian proposal is, according to Tasker, similar to the Australian one and, according to Geist, it seems likely to produce similar results. The CBC, Postmedia, and a handful of others will be rewarded handsomely, while independent publishers will still fight for directly-paying subscribers. Large technology and advertising companies will continue to be large and dominate their markets, and publishers will need to run to them hat in hand for their monthly stipend.

The good news, if there is any, is that the market for small publishers is growing in Canada and the United States. Keep supporting your local startup news-gathering operation directly, because link tax laws like these probably will not be helpful.

Apple Confirms Disney Is Part of a Subscription-Related ‘Pilot’ ⇥ techcrunch.com

Sarah Perez, of TechCrunch, followed up on that weird Disney Plus subscription behaviour:

An Apple spokesperson did not dispute the accuracy of the developers’ claims we presented and said this was part of a pilot test.

“We are piloting a new commerce feature we plan to launch very soon. The pilot includes developers across various app categories, organization sizes and regions to help test an upcoming enhancement that we believe will be great for both developers and users, and we’ll have more details to share in the coming weeks,” the spokesperson said.

I guess we know one of this year’s WWDC announcements.

On its face, giving developers the ability to raise prices without explicit user confirmation seems extremely risky. Apple has faced many problems with developers abusing app subscriptions in the past. I am obviously curious about what systems will be in place to prevent even worse behaviour.

Tweets, But Editable ⇥ twitter.com

Twitter Comms (capitalization, sic):

yes, we’ve been working on an edit feature since last year!

no, we didn’t get the idea from a poll 😉

we’re kicking off testing within @TwitterBlue Labs in the coming months to learn what works, what doesn’t, and what’s possible.

I guess there is a reason to pay for Twitter Blue.

Twitter’s “Head of Consumer Product” Jay Sullivan:

Without things like time limits, controls, and transparency about what has been edited, Edit could be misused to alter the record of the public conversation. Protecting the integrity of that public conversation is our top priority when we approach this work.

Therefore, it will take time and we will be actively seeking input and adversarial thinking in advance of launching Edit. We will approach this feature with care and thoughtfulness and we will share updates as we go.

Twitter’s slow pace is sort of understandable. If it simply made it possible to change a tweet, it would not take long for people to update a popular tweet with millions of impressions from “retweet if you love puppies” to “retweet if you are a proud Klan member”, or turn it into some cryptocurrency scam. Given how media-focused Twitter is and its outsized effect on conversation, it is also possible that less scrupulous journalists would update breaking news tweets without acknowledging changes.

But, still, when this launches, it will be a true finally moment.

WWDC 2022 Begins June 6 Online ⇥ apple.com

Apple:

In addition to the online conference, Apple will host a special day for developers and students at Apple Park on June 6 to watch the keynote and State of the Union videos together, along with the online community. Space will be limited, and details about how to apply to attend will be provided on the Apple Developer site and app soon.

I give myself one thousand points for guessing the week and, no, I do not care that it was obvious.

Based on this phrasing, it seems like in-person attendees will watch the pre-recorded kickoff presentation and State of the Union video; do not expect a full in-person keynote. Maybe Tim Cook’s opening remarks will be delivered live, but that is the most I would assume, though I would be happy to be proved wrong.

Please Like Me ⇥ theonion.com

“Elon Musk”, the Onion:

I spent nine hours on Twitter today. For a few of those hours, I was reading and responding to tweets while on my private jet being whisked from Austin to San Francisco and back again. Picture me, if you will, sitting in a comfortable seat on my own airplane, zooming through the clouds from one important meeting to another. I should be sipping a cocktail and loving life, right? Instead, I’m up there growing more and more depressed as I read hundreds—nay, thousands—of replies, quote tweets, and subtweets from people insulting me and my projects. Why? Why do people do this? Why don’t you like me?

All I want is for you to be nice to me. Please be nice to me. Please be my friend. Will you be my friend?

You can even just pretend to be my friend, if you want.

Please.

He makes a compelling case.

Elon Musk to Join Twitter’s Board of Directors, Capping His Financial Involvement in the Company ⇥ cnbc.com

Jessica Bursztynsky, CNBC:

Elon Musk will join Twitter’s board of directors after taking a 9.2% stake in the social media company. The news sent shares up more than 6% in the morning.

[…]

Musk’s term is set to expire in 2024, according to a filing with the SEC. For his entire board term or 90 days after, Musk cannot be the beneficial owner of more than 14.9% of the company’s common stock outstanding.

This arrangement should give him the influence he so clearly desires without permitting the whole-cloth takeover otherwise possible due to his wealth. It still looks hinky from a regulatory perspective, but I am sure the SEC knows how to find Musk.

Update: As of April 10, Musk will not join Twitter’s board.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington ⇥ wsj.com

Aaron Tilley, Wall Street Journal:

[Brad] Smith, a Microsoft veteran of almost 30 years and president for seven, has maneuvered his company to an enviable position in a regulatory environment that is increasingly hostile toward tech titans. Once an antitrust pariah itself, Microsoft is now widely seen by regulators as the friendly party among today’s top tech companies, a status government officials and Microsoft insiders say flows largely from Mr. Smith’s cultivation of friends in Washington.

Rivals say he is also skilled at directing negative attention toward competitors — to Microsoft’s benefit.

I am sure Smith’s experience at Microsoft in the late 1990s and early 2000s gave him a valuable perspective on how to adapt to antitrust and oversight concerns, and it sounds like the company really is changing in key ways. But Tilley’s reporting indicates Microsoft evades scrutiny mostly because of Smith’s close friendships with lawmakers. Not so mysterious, is it?

Tilley:

Mr. Smith’s strategy has been to cooperate with regulators who often have Microsoft’s rivals in the crosshairs. He has criticized Apple’s operation of its App Store — as Microsoft tries to bring its “Netflix for gaming” service to the iPhone. He has supported measures to cut into Facebook and Google’s dominance of digital advertising — which could benefit Microsoft’s search and digital-ad businesses. His support of tech-sector regulations has cut against efforts by Amazon, Microsoft’s fierce rival in cloud computing, to fight constraints on its business practices.

So long as regulators do not look too closely at which operating system every computer in their office runs on, where their email comes from, or how everything works together without any real alternative choices, Microsoft seems free to complain about how its revenue streams are not entirely dominant in every market it participates in.

The Banned Word List in Amazon’s Forthcoming Chat App for Workers Includes ‘Union’, ‘Ethics’, and ‘Fairness’ ⇥ theintercept.com

Ken Klippenstein, the Intercept:

In November 2021, Amazon convened a high-level meeting in which top executives discussed plans to create an internal social media program that would let employees recognize co-workers’ performance with posts called “Shout-Outs,” according to a source with direct knowledge.

[…]

But company officials also warned of what they called “the dark side of social media” and decided to actively monitor posts in order to ensure a “positive community.” At the meeting, Clark suggested that the program should resemble an online dating app like Bumble, which allows individuals to engage one on one, rather than a more forum-like platform like Facebook.

Following the meeting, an “auto bad word monitor” was devised, constituting a blacklist that would flag and automatically block employees from sending a message that contains any profane or inappropriate keywords. In addition to profanities, however, the terms include many relevant to organized labor, including “union,” “grievance,” “pay raise,” and “compensation.” Other banned keywords include terms like “ethics,” “unfair,” “slave,” “master,” “freedom,” “diversity,” “injustice,” and “fairness.” Even some phrases like “This is concerning” will be banned.

Moderating discussion boards is hard, but it is perhaps not the best indication of a healthy work environment when people cannot mention “living wage” or “restrooms” for fear of overt negativity.

Apple’s Pro Mac Reboot, Five Years Later ⇥ macrumors.com

How times have changed since Apple held that infamous “roundtable” discussion five years ago.

At the time, and for the next couple of years, the Mac was in its blunder years. Many models had not been updated in years, and still had some way to go even after this discussion. Every laptop was equipped with an unreliable keyboard. There was a sense Apple was uninterested in the Mac, and may perhaps discontinue its highest-end desktop hardware, which sold “a single-digit percent” of all Macs.

This discussion reset expectations. Apple really was committed to the Mac, even in its most niche markets, and it wanted to do things right. Five years later, the difference is a complete transformation. Then, it was hard for me to recommend any Mac to a friend; now, the Mac lineup is a question of what level of performance and excellence you desire. This press meeting felt like a turning point from one extreme to the other — eventually.

High on my wish list of articles for someone with the right connections to write is a deeply reported look at the Mac’s doldrums. It cannot all be due to stagnation in Intel’s processor lineup around the same time, or any one individual. Something else happened — or, more likely, many somethings else. I want to know what they are.

Music Catalogue Edge Cases ⇥ dustri.org

This list of music organization edge cases from Julien Voisin checks so many of the boxes of stuff I am interested in. Music? I love it. Bizarre computer behaviour? That sounds fun. Nitpicky questions about catagorization? Sign me up.

Voisin’s list is extensive, but let me add a few entries:

  • Voisin mentions multiple versions of the same album, like international versions or different masters. Along similar lines, there are iterative albums, like Kanye West’s “The Life of Pablo”. I have four versions of that album, as West made significant changes between each release — and that is not every version of “Pablo” I could have in my library.

  • One release could also be stored in multiple file types — for example, lossless and lossy versions.

  • Multiple artists may appear on all album tracks. For example, Jay-Z and Kayne West’s “Watch the Throne”, or the multiple collaborations between Burial, Four Tet, and sometimes Thom Yorke. I would love to see those albums under each artist’s releases in my library. This could be corrected if each artist on a release was treated more like a tag.

  • Genres are weird, too. For example, the latest Swallow the Sun record has a metal first “disc”, and modern classical on its second “disc”. Some albums are all over the place genre-wise. Treating genres as tags, too, would help.

My experience is primarily with Apple’s own music apps, and these things may be improved in other applications.

Apple Turns Its U.S. Lobbying Efforts Toward LGBTQ Rights ⇥ politico.com

Emily Birnbaum, Politico:

Apple is quietly mobilizing its vast resources to lobby against anti-LGBTQ legislation proliferating across the country — an unusual push by one of the world’s most valuable companies into a consequential political debate.

[…]

Apple’s senior director of corporate communications, Fred Sainz, this month pressed leaders of fellow Fortune 500 companies to denounce an order by the Texas governor that called for child abuse investigations of parents who provide transgender children with gender-affirming care despite opposition from doctors.

“I’m reaching out from Apple because we’re hoping you’ll join us and lend your company’s name to a critical issue,” wrote Sainz, who was formerly the vice president of communications and marketing at the HRC, in an email to his corporate affairs counterparts on March 5.

“Apple has joined the effort and will lend its name and logo,” Sainz said in the email, obtained by POLITICO. “I’m reaching out because we are hoping you will too.” Ultimately, 60 other organizations signed on to the letter, which was published in The Dallas Morning News on March 11.

Good.

Apple used to be a quieter lobbyist, but its efforts increased significantly in 2017 and have stayed higher in subsequent years than before. Last year, it was the fourth biggest spender in the electronics manufacturing category, spending less than first-place Oracle, Microsoft, and Qualcomm. The vast majority of its efforts are in areas you might expect: trying to swat away antitrust laws or anything that might affect the App Store, taxes, navigating changes to import and export laws, and intellectual property. But it does reserve some of its lobbying strength for civil rights issues and combatting anti-immigration policies, especially in recent years.

If Apple wants to increase its lobbying involvement for social issues, I am glad to see it is on the right side, especially in light of the increasingly deranged media coverage of LGTBQ-adjacent issues and the dehumanizing legislation being passed in several states.

One of the states where aggressively vile anti-LGBTQ policies are being pursued is Texas. A whole lot of companies, undoubtably lured by tax incentives, expanded their operations in the state in recent years. Their signatures on the Human Rights Campaign letter are important. But it is not as though Texas was known for its support of queer rights when those companies decided to build a greater presence in the state. Public shaming is one thing, and lobbying shows that Apple is one of the companies putting money in the game, but Texas is still reaping economic benefits despite its miserable discrimination.

Ex-Jalopnik Writers Launch New Automotive News Site ⇥ theautopian.com

David Tracy and Jason Torchinsky launched the Autopian today:

Welcome to The Autopian, the ultimate car-culture website run by two of your favorite former Jalopnik authors/dipshits, David Tracy and Jason Torchinsky! It’s been a long road for these two and their awesome business partner Beau Boeckmann, and there’s still a ton of work ahead. We’re all excited to see what you think of our new site, so welcome to launch day!

Tracy and Torchinsky were two of my favourite writers at Jalopnik, so it is great to see them finding the space and funding to do their own thing. G/O Media sure is bleeding talented writers: in addition to these Jalopnik-ers, the entire Deadspin team resigned to create Defector, which is going well, and the Root is struggling to retain writers due to management problems.

There Is a Way to Restore Wider Alerts in MacOS Big Sur and Monterey ⇥ twitter.com

I have my gripes with the current generation of the MacOS visual design language that used to be called Aqua. There are several things I hope to see changed, and many of those things are more evolutionary updates. But if I were in Alan Dye’s shoes, I know the first thing I would change on my first day: I would have alert panels reverted to their previous and far superior presentation.

Happily, that is possible today, thanks to a tip from Léo Natan (via Michael Tsai):

Do you prefer the old style macOS alerts? There is a way to get them globally for AppKit in Big Sur and Monterey:

defaults write -g NSAlertMetricsGatheringEnabled -bool false

I applied this immediately, restarted an app I was using, triggered an alert — and everything is suddenly better. The clouds parted, sun rays danced in my office, my coffee tasted just a little bit sweeter. There is still work to do on things like buttons, which remain a barely-differentiated grey blob resting on the grey background of the dialog, but it is an undeniable upgrade.

Watch this get ripped out of the next major version.

Also, what is up with the name of this preference key? What does it mean that I am disabling alert metrics gathering?

Update: Ben Sargent has a strong theory:

If I had to guess: NSAlert (the dialog) Metrics (size of the dialog) GatheringEnabled (gather the content into a hideous vertical silo)

Makes sense to me.

Food Delivery Leak Unmasks Russian Security Agents ⇥ bellingcat.com

Aric Toler, of Bellingcat, explored leaked data from Yandex’s food delivery division to uncover plenty of orders from Russian intelligence officers:

Steady streams of data flow out of Russia for a number of reasons, but the most obvious include petty corruption, pervasive human error and the state’s own comprehensive surveillance laws being turned against them.

Following the “Yarovaya Laws” being adopted in 2016, Russian telecom operators were required to maintain customer data. This data was intended just for the security services to use, but is also often illicitly sold to online buyers. Thus, a law meant to strengthen the FSB and other security services has been used against them when Bellingcat and other investigative outlets acquire the retained telecom data of FSB officers to reveal wrongdoing.

Other delivery apps could — and should — dispose of this data immediately, but those in Russia are obligated to retain it. It turns out that police states face exactly the same vulnerabilities as anywhere else, but their policies ensure greater liabilities.