Vincent Gallo Sues Facebook for Not Removing a Profile Allegedly Run by a Pervy Impersonator (Ad Week)
Vincent Gallo has filed a lawsuit against Facebook, alleging that the company hasn’t granted his request to remove a profile that the indie film actor says was created by someone impersonating him. The lawsuit claims that the imposter was flirting with women via the account.
AT&T doubles down on high-speed internet in Silicon Valley as Google Fiber arrives (Recode)
Recently, AT&T and Google Fiber have gone tit-for-tat on expansion plans for high-speed broadband, as the internet giant ramps up its very big plans for its service. AT&T tatted again: The telecom said it’s bringing its GigaPower offering to parts of San Francisco and surrounding cities, including Mountain View, Google’s home.
Turnabout: Now Netflix is bringing repeats of its home-grown shows to TV (Recode)
Netflix got into the streaming video business by running shows that had already appeared on TV. Now it is flipping the script: A show that originally ran on Netflix will appear on TV. Univision will air the first season of “Narcos,” Netflix’s series about drug lord Pablo Escobar, on its main network later this year.
Broadcasters: Channel, Network Bundling Is Pro-Competitive (Broadcasting & Cable)
Representatives of ABC, CBS and Fox met with FCC officials to push back on a cable operator argument that bundling TV stations with co-owned networks is unfair and a threat to program diversity. The execs said that as a matter of “competition law and marketplace reality,” the FCC should reject that argument.
Survey: Viewers ‘Streaming’ to Online Options (Broadcasting & Cable)
The NCTA’s rebranding of its annual show to “Internet” and “television” was clearly the right way to go if a new survey has it right. According to just-released findings, 80% of video streamers subscribe to at least one streaming service in addition to, or instead of, a pay TV service from a cable, satellite or IP TV company.
Colleges Shouldn’t Have to Deal With Copyright Monitoring (Chronicle- Commentary)
In a long-running lawsuit, three academic publishers have asked for an injunction that would require Georgia State University to closely regulate all faculty uploads to course websites. Colleges have a big stake in the outcome of the lawsuit, now in its eighth year.
BitTorrent Unveils Live TV Streaming App, Plans Paid Service for This Summer (Variety)
BitTorrent is finally turning its live video streaming technology into a real product: The P2P company announced a new live TV streaming app called BitTorrent Live, which will be available for the latest generation Apple TV as well as Mac OS computers this week.
Virtual Reality Gaining A Toehold (Media Post)
Virtual Reality is catching on. Slowly. According to new research from Parks Associates, 2.3 million U.S. households with broadband (about 2%) currently own a virtual reality headset. About 5% of consumers with broadband intend to purchase a headset in 2016 (up from 1% who made a purchase last year).
Expect VR, Artificial Intelligence From Google (TV News Check)
Although Google keeps its plans under wraps until the big event, the agenda of a conference today makes it clear that virtual reality and artificial intelligence, or “machine learning,” will be among the focal points. That has spurred speculation that Google is getting ready to release a virtual-reality device.
Moving Said To Be Top Reason For Cord Cutting (NY Post)
For Americans on the move, reconnecting to cable TV isn’t even worth a phone call. That’s the word from one influential Wall Street analyst who has tracked moving patterns and dips in cable TV households across the country. What he found is a perhaps heretofore overlooked phenomena.
US INTERNET ACCESS (The Hill)
A debate is simmering between DC policymakers and the private sector over whether US companies are building out Internet infrastructure quickly enough. Despite significant investments in the last decade that have made high-speed broadband available to 89 percent of homes, stark gaps remain in rural areas and on Tribal lands.
ETHICS OF TECHNOLOGY (Quartz- Commentary)
A recent New York Times article highlighted the growing integration of technologies and textiles, displaying a photograph of a delicate golden nest of optical fiber. The article reported that this new “functional fabric” has the added quality that it “acts as an optical bar code to identify who is wearing it.” Is this a feature or a bug?
BRIDGES DESTROYED (Medium- Commentary)
The World Wide Web was founded on links, and without links, there won’t be a web. Without links the experience of being on the internet will become one of a centralized, linear, passive, inward-looking and homogeneous kind. This is happening already. Despite Zuckerberg’s sermon, it is largely Facebook and Instagram who are to blame.