Amazon needs to thwart price-gouging on hand sanitizer and facial masks on its platform during the coronavirus crisis, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., wrote the e-commerce giant Wednesday. He wants to know how Amazon determines price-gouging, how many warnings it gives third-party sellers before removing them and what “additional resources” it’s devoting to the problem. Amazon has a “particular responsibility” to fight unfair pricing in “current circumstances” because consumers are finding empty shelves and “may wish to avoid venturing into crowded stores and shopping malls,” he said. There's "no place for price gouging on Amazon," emailed a spokesperson. "We are disappointed that bad actors are attempting to artificially raise prices on basic need products during a global health crisis and, in line with our long-standing policy, have recently blocked or removed tens of thousands of offers. We continue to actively monitor our store and remove offers that violate our policies."

Advertising-supported VOD service Tubi has a deal with in-room entertainment platform company Enseo, it said Tuesday. Hotel guests in over 20 hotel and resort brands get access to the free service’s movies and TV shows from 250 content partners, it said.

ICANN in-person events are cancelled through March because of the coronavirus (see 2003020050), the organization said Monday. Employees won’t travel to industry events through March unless “deemed essential,” which will affect “participation in several conferences,” it said. The nonprofit cited the World Health Organization’s characterization of the coronavirus as a “public health emergency of international concern.” It will reassess April events after March 12.

Chinese tech company Baidu “open-sourced” its facial-recognition and artificial-intelligence technologies to help contain the coronavirus by deploying “fever-screening systems” in rail stations, hospitals and municipal buildings across China, said CEO Robin Li on a Q4 call Thursday. “Our systems remotely measure the temperatures of up to 200 people per minute,” including those wearing protective face masks and hats, he said. The technology also can “identify those who are not wearing masks or wearing them improperly,” he said. The “near-term impact” on the Baidu business has been negative, “as many of our top industries, such as travel, real estate, auto, health care and franchising, suffer from reduced off-line activities,” said Li. But the positive “side effect” is that people are “staying home more, and they have the opportunity to get to know Baidu's products and services better,” he said. “Search queries on coronavirus exceeded 1 billion during the Chinese New Year, as users came to Baidu for fact checking and finding more reliable information.” Baidu expects Q1 revenue down between 5% and 13% from a year earlier, said Chief Financial Officer Herman Yu. The coronavirus situation in China is “evolving, and business visibility is very limited,” he said. The Q1 forecast is based on a “current and preliminary view, which is subject to substantial uncertainty,” he said. The Chinese New Year holiday was originally scheduled to end Jan. 30, but many shops, restaurants and malls “remain closed down, as we speak,” he said. “Consequently, the rebound for online marketing after Chinese New Year has been slow this year.” Business conditions in the past two weeks “have started to pick up as people return to work,” said Yu. Baidu employees “are gradually returning to the office,” he said. “We assume businesses across China will do the same.”

ICANN postponed a March 24-25 domain name system forum due to coronavirus concerns, saying Thursday the Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, event will be rescheduled. That follows a Feb.19 announcement the March 7-12 public meeting in Cancun, Mexico, would instead be held remotely. ICANN is also reviewing other upcoming meetings, including the May 3-6 Global Domains Division summit in Paris, and the June 22-25 public meeting set for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, but said no decisions have been made.

A 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel affirmed a lower court ruling that Google’s YouTube is a private forum not subject to judicial scrutiny under the First Amendment (see 1803270011). It also agreed with the lower court decision in Prager University v. Google that YouTube’s advertising doesn’t violate the Lanham Act. Judge Margaret McKeown wrote the panel’s opinion (case 18-15712), published Wednesday. It was supported by fellow jurists Jay Bybee and Fernando Gaitan. Prager, an online university, said YouTube has restricted more than 200 of its videos. "The important issue of online censorship did not get a fair shake in court,” said CEO Marissa Streit. "We’re not done fighting for free speech and we will keep pushing forward."

Cybersecurity collaboration is a business imperative, not a charitable contribution, the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education concluded Tuesday in a report for industry, government and schools. NICE recommended: establish program goals and metrics; develop strategies and tactics; measure impacts and results; and sustain effort. Goals should focus on “ensuring strong and community relevant training, increased cybersecurity workforce capacity, facilitated learner placement, and fostered cybersecurity innovation,” NICE said.

HP Inc. expects to report earnings between 49 and 53 cents a share for fiscal Q2 ending late April that includes an 8 cent hit from coronavirus-induced business disruptions, said Chief Financial Officer Steve Fieler on a Q1 call. Apple also is being affected by the coronavirus (see 2002250050). HP is “reaching out” to Xerox to “explore” a possible “combination,” said CEO Enrique Lores. Xerox offered to buy HP for $24 a share Feb. 10. “We firmly believe that this is not in the best interest of HP shareholders,” said Lores Monday. The $24-a-share bid “meaningfully undervalues HP,” said Lores. HP shares closed 5.5% higher Tuesday at $23.35. The two companies aren’t a good match because they lack “synergies,” the HP chief said. There’s “no overlap” between Xerox and 90 percent of HP’s businesses, he said. The would-be buyer didn't comment Tuesday.

Sale of the Public Interest Registry should be halted until ICANN can vet all financial details, the Electronic Frontier Foundation blogged Friday, responding to new accountability commitments by the buyer, Ethos Capital, about price caps, censorship safeguards and privacy protections for. org domain names (see 2002210017). EFF urged the FTC to review the buyout. Limiting price increases and establishing a "stewardship council" doesn't lessen the risk for nonprofits because the handpicked body "will have no real authority or practical ability to override the wishes of PIR's new equity owners," EFF Senior Staff Attorney Mitch Stoltz emailed us. The sale risks bankrupting PIR, he said. The Internet Governance Project said Ethos' public interest commitment is good news, because it's the agreement between ICANN and the registry "that will protect .ORG registrants, not promises, and not 'stopping the sale.'" The proposal "falls short" of IGP recommendations because composition of the stewardship council has no slots for independent noncommercial bodies and could lead to an "Ethos-selected group of puppets" and because potential steep price increases aren't accompanied by longer domain name registration terms.

The FBI arrested a California man Friday on federal charges alleging he launched distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on a website for a candidate who campaigned for a congressional seat in 2018, DOJ said. Arthur Dam, of Santa Monica, was taken into custody. “Dam allegedly staged four cyberattacks in April and May of 2018 that took down the candidate’s website for a total of 21 hours,” DOJ said, without naming the candidate.