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