Government & Policy

Publishers prevail in lawsuit over Internet Archive’s ’emergency’ ebook lending

Government & Policy /

A long-running lawsuit over the Internet Archive’s “emergency” ebook lending practices during the COVID-19 pandemic has ended in a loss for the website and a victory for publishers. The lawsuit concerned the Internet Archive’s National Emergency Library, a program it established at the beginning of the pandemic to allow wider access to some 1.3 million […]

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UK regulator greenlights Microsoft’s Inflection acquihire, but also designates it a merger

Government & Policy /

Good news for Microsoft: The U.K.’s antitrust regulator says that the tech titan’s high-profile acquihire of the team behind AI startup Inflection doesn’t cause competition concerns, and thus it won’t be pursuing a full-scale investigation. However, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) says that the deal does fall under its regulatory purview as a “relevant

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Are Google’s monopoly cases 5 years too late or 2 years too early?

Government & Policy /

Sundar Pichai, chief executive officer of Alphabet Inc., at Google’s Bay View campus in Mountain View, California, US, on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesImage Credits: Getty Images Google suffered a major defeat when U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta found that the tech giant had acted illegally to maintain

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OpenAI, Adobe and Microsoft support California bill requiring watermarks on AI content

Government & Policy /

OpenAI, Adobe and Microsoft have thrown their support behind a California bill requiring tech companies to label AI-generated content, according to letters from the companies viewed by TechCrunch. The bill is headed for a final vote in August. AB 3211 requires watermarks in the metadata of AI-generated photos, videos and audio clips. Lots of AI

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Care.com to pay customers $8.5M in FTC settlement for deceiving caregivers, families

Government & Policy /

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is requiring Care.com, a platform for gig workers in the elder-care and childcare space, to pay $8.5 million in refunds for deceiving caregivers who were looking for jobs, and making it difficult for families to cancel their paid memberships. The agency said on Monday that the company’s marketing messages

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X shareholders as of June 2023 included funds tied to Bill Ackman, Binance, and Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs

Government & Policy /

A court order recently forced Elon Musk’s X to reveal its full list of shareholders, as of June 2023, to the public. Many of the recognizable tech industry names had already been reported as backers of Musk’s effort to buy the social media company then known as Twitter and take it private, inculding VC firms

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Justice Department sues RealPage over allegedly helping landlords collude to drive up rents

Government & Policy /

RealPage, which makes property management software, was sued Friday by the U.S. Justice Department and eight attorneys general for allegedly helping apartment and building managers around the country collude to drive up unit prices. The Richardson, Texas-based outfit is accused of contracting with rival landlords to absorb info about their rates and lease terms to

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‘Disappointed but not surprised’: former employees speak on OpenAI’s opposition to SB 1047

Government & Policy /

Two former OpenAI researchers who resigned this year over safety concerns say they are disappointed but not surprised by OpenAI’s decision to oppose California’s bill to prevent AI disasters, SB 1047. Daniel Kokotajlo and William Saunders previously warned that OpenAI is in a “reckless” race for dominance. “Sam Altman, our former boss, has repeatedly called

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NASA to decide Saturday whether astronauts will ride Boeing’s Starliner home — or use SpaceX’s Dragon instead 

Government & Policy /

NASA officials will announce their final decision on Saturday as to whether two NASA astronauts — Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams — will return to Earth on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft or hitch a ride home with SpaceX instead — a decision that could have a huge impact across the rapidly evolving space industry. Here’s the

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Under DMA probe, Apple tweaks design of EU browser choice screens, expands app default settings

Government & Policy /

Apple continues to adjust its approach to compliance with the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA): Announcing another batch of changes Thursday, the iPhone maker showed off redesigned browser choice screens it said would be coming to iOS and iPadOS “later this year”, with version 18 of its mobile software platforms. The tweaked browser choice

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