Denying Microsoft the ability to use existing software interfaces to build computer programs under copyright law would severely limit computer industry innovation, Chief Legal Officer Kent Walker blogged Thursday. Microsoft asks the Supreme Court to review its ongoing fair use dispute with Oracle (see 1705300064). Upholding past rulings against Microsoft would be “akin to saying that keyboard shortcuts can work with only one type of computer,” Walker wrote. Oracle didn’t comment immediately.
Addressing state and nonstate actors engaged in malicious cyber activities is the fourth in a list of seven mission objectives Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats outlined Tuesday in the administration's national intelligence strategy. The objective calls for understanding adversarial leadership plans, intentions, capabilities and operations. It includes expansion of “tailored production and appropriate dissemination and release of actionable cyber threat intelligence” and expanding abilities to “enable diplomatic, information, military, economic, financial, intelligence, and law enforcement plans and operations” to deter and counter bad actors.
The Supreme Court declined Tuesday to hear a case in which the California Supreme Court ruled Yelp can’t be forced to remove negative third-party reviews from its site (see 1807030023). Engine Org Executive Director Evan Engstrom applauded the high court's certiorari denial of Hassell v. Yelp, saying Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act ensures startups don’t face “ruinous liability for the speech of their users.”
“Nest was not breached,” a spokesperson emailed us, after reports by a customer in Orinda, California, that a Nest security camera blasted a warning claiming to be from Civil Defense of ballistic missiles headed to three U.S. cities. The third-party hack was the result of a compromised password exposed through “breaches on other websites,” the Google spokeswoman said. In December, a Houston family reportedly heard a stranger’s voice over a baby monitor saying sexual expletives through a Nest security camera and then threatening to kidnap the child. “In nearly all cases, two-factor verification eliminates this type of security risk,” the spokeswoman said: Google takes security in the home “extremely serious and we’re actively introducing features that will reject compromised passwords, allow customers to monitor access to their accounts and track external entities that abuse credentials.”
Social media users shouldn’t be paid for their data, and even if large shares of company profits were shared, they would be minimal, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation said Tuesday. Some have suggested Facebook could pay its users about $15 per year for their data, the ITIF report said. Google and Facebook earned about $28 billion in combined profits in 2017 and have some 4.6 billion users globally, ITIF said: “If the payments to users were equal to half their profits, then each user would get just of $3 per year.”
Disney’s streaming and overseas business operations, newly broken out publicly into a “recast” Direct-to-Consumer and International (DCTI) financial-reporting “segment,” incurred a $738 million operating loss in the year ended Sept. 29, a $454 million increase from a year earlier, said an 8-K SEC filing Friday. Disney previously reported the results of its DCTI operations under three other business segments, it said. Disney blamed the higher DCTI loss on the consolidation of financial results from BAMTech, in which it upped its stake to 75 percent in September 2017 (see 1709200034), plus higher than expected losses from Hulu, of which it would become 60 percent owner at the closing of the Fox acquisition. DTCI revenue jumped 11 percent for the year to $3.4 billion, including $1.4 billion in affiliate fees, $1.3 billion in ad proceeds and the rest from subscription fees, it said. Acquiring majority control of BAMTech enabled Disney “to enter the DTC space quickly and effectively, as demonstrated by the success" of the ESPN Plus launch, said CEO Bob Iger. ESPN Plus topped a million subscribers in its first five months and “continues to grow as it expands its content mix, all of which bodes well” for the debut this year of the Disney Plus DTC service, he said. The “robust slate” of Disney Plus original content will include the first live-action Star Wars series, and other “high-profile projects” currently in production or development, he said. Disney will disclose “greater detail” at its April 11 Investor Day conference, he said, including a first look at the original content Disney’s TV and film studios are creating “exclusively for the new streaming service.”
FTC members have been considering levying a record-setting fine against Facebook for the Cambridge Analytica privacy breach, The Washington Post reported: Expect the penalty to be “much larger” than the record $22.5 million fine against Google in 2012. The FTC and Facebook didn’t comment.
Consumer Intelligence Research Partners projected Amazon has 101 million Prime U.S. customers, or 62 percent of its customers nationwide, up from 26 million in December 2013. Prime members spend about $1,400 yearly, compared with $600 for others, CRP said Thursday. Though membership growth has slowed to about 10 percent annually, it continued steadily in the holiday quarter and is “still significant on a huge base and after years of rapid growth,” said analyst Josh Lowitz.
The Telecommunications Industry Association and the IoT Community signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on initiatives for smart buildings, manufacturing, connected vehicles, intelligent transportation, healthcare and more, they said Thursday. Harnessing the power of the IoT is “essential for the successful development of smart buildings and eventually smart cities,” said Harry Smeenk, TIA senior vice president-technology programs. The groups will develop and share training content on IoT initiatives and will collaborate to educate industries on IoT’s role in buildings, they said.
“Safe technology” will be the “gating factor” in transforming autonomous vehicles into a “trillion-dollar opportunity,” General Motors CEO Mary Barra told a Wolfe Research investment conference Tuesday. Self-driving safety is “vitally important” because “customer acceptance and trust of the vehicle is key,” she said. It's a “focus” on solving “customer pain points that we think opens up the market” for autonomous ridesharing vehicles, she said. “Think about driving in a dense urban environment,” with its expensive parking options and extreme congestion. she said. “Those are all customer pain points that autonomous vehicles, safe autonomous vehicles, can solve.”