World of Warcraft developers form Blizzard’s largest, most inclusive union | 500+ employees have organized across multiple departments, creating the first wall-to-wall union of its kind at the studio
QA workers in Blizzard’s Austin office have also organized.
>More than 500 developers at Blizzard Entertainment who work on World of Warcraft have voted to form a union. The World of Warcraft GameMakers Guild, formed with the assistance of the Communication Workers of America (CWA), is composed of employees across every department, including designers, engineers, artists, producers, and more. Together, they have formed the largest wall-to-wall union — or a union inclusive of multiple departments and disciplines — at Microsoft.
>This news comes less than a week after the formation of the Bethesda Game Studios union, which, at the time of the announcement, was itself the largest wall-to-wall Microsoft union.
>The World of Warcraft GameMakers Guild is made up of over 500 members across Blizzard offices in California and Massachusetts. Despite its size — it is the second largest union at Microsoft overall behind Activision’s 600-member QA union — Cox said that Microsoft’s labor neutrality agreement helped get the organization ball rolling.
>Interdisciplinary unions like Blizzard’s are relatively rare, especially in the video game industry, as each department has different needs and goals. Up until this point, the majority of unionization efforts in the video game industry have been spearheaded by QA workers who have traditionally been among the least paid and least protected employees.
>The first union at Activision Blizzard was made up of QA workers, as was the first union at Microsoft’s game studios. In addition to the World of Warcraft GameMakers Guild, yet another new union made up of QA workers at Blizzard’s Austin, Texas, office has also formed. The Blizzard Quality Assurance United-CWA is a 60-person unit including QA testers for games like Diablo, Hearthstone, and other Blizzard games.
World of Warcraft developers form Blizzard’s largest, most inclusive union | 500+ employees have organized across multiple departments, creating the first wall-to-wall union of its kind at the studio
QA workers in Blizzard’s Austin office have also organized.
>More than 500 developers at Blizzard Entertainment who work on World of Warcraft have voted to form a union. The World of Warcraft GameMakers Guild, formed with the assistance of the Communication Workers of America (CWA), is composed of employees across every department, including designers, engineers, artists, producers, and more. Together, they have formed the largest wall-to-wall union — or a union inclusive of multiple departments and disciplines — at Microsoft.
>This news comes less than a week after the formation of the Bethesda Game Studios union, which, at the time of the announcement, was itself the largest wall-to-wall Microsoft union.
>The World of Warcraft GameMakers Guild is made up of over 500 members across Blizzard offices in California and Massachusetts. Despite its size — it is the second largest union at Microsoft overall behind Activision’s 600-member QA union — Cox said that Microsoft’s labor neutrality agreement helped get the organization ball rolling.
>Interdisciplinary unions like Blizzard’s are relatively rare, especially in the video game industry, as each department has different needs and goals. Up until this point, the majority of unionization efforts in the video game industry have been spearheaded by QA workers who have traditionally been among the least paid and least protected employees.
>The first union at Activision Blizzard was made up of QA workers, as was the first union at Microsoft’s game studios. In addition to the World of Warcraft GameMakers Guild, yet another new union made up of QA workers at Blizzard’s Austin, Texas, office has also formed. The Blizzard Quality Assurance United-CWA is a 60-person unit including QA testers for games like Diablo, Hearthstone, and other Blizzard games.
Switzerland mandates government agencies use open-source software and disclose the source code of software developed by or for the public sector unless third-party rights or security concerns apply
The new law requires the use of open-source software and the publishing of new government code under open-source licenses
>Switzerland has recently enacted a law requiring its government to use open-source software (OSS) and disclose the source code of any software developed by or for the public sector. According to ZDNet, this “public body, public code” approach makes government operations more transparent while increasing security and efficiency. Such a move would likely fail in the U.S. but is becoming increasingly common throughout Europe.
>According to Switzerland’s new “Federal Law on the Use of Electronic Means for the Fulfillment of Government Tasks” (EMBAG), government agencies must use open-source software throughout the public sector.
>The new law allows the codifies allowing Switzerland to release its software under OSS licenses. Not just that; it requires the source code be released that way “unless the rights of third parties or security-related reasons would exclude or restrict this.”
>In addition to mandating the OSS code, EMBAG also requires Swiss government agencies to release non-personal and non-security-sensitive government data to the public. Calling this Open Government Data, this aspect of the new law contributes to a dual “open by default” approach that should allow for easier reuse of software and data while also making governance more transparent.
Switzerland mandates government agencies use open-source software and disclose the source code of software developed by or for the public sector unless third-party rights or security concerns apply
The new law requires the use of open-source software and the publishing of new government code under open-source licenses
>Switzerland has recently enacted a law requiring its government to use open-source software (OSS) and disclose the source code of any software developed by or for the public sector. According to ZDNet, this “public body, public code” approach makes government operations more transparent while increasing security and efficiency. Such a move would likely fail in the U.S. but is becoming increasingly common throughout Europe.
>According to Switzerland’s new “Federal Law on the Use of Electronic Means for the Fulfillment of Government Tasks” (EMBAG), government agencies must use open-source software throughout the public sector.
>The new law allows the codifies allowing Switzerland to release its software under OSS licenses. Not just that; it requires the source code be released that way “unless the rights of third parties or security-related reasons would exclude or restrict this.”
>In addition to mandating the OSS code, EMBAG also requires Swiss government agencies to release non-personal and non-security-sensitive government data to the public. Calling this Open Government Data, this aspect of the new law contributes to a dual “open by default” approach that should allow for easier reuse of software and data while also making governance more transparent.
Tesla’s profits sank sharply in the second quarter of 2024 | The company’s revenue increased by 2 percent compared to last year, but profits are down 45 percent year over year
Tesla had a 45 percent drop in net income year over year.
>Tesla published its second quarter earnings report, in which the company said it earned $1.48 billion in net income on $25.5 billion in revenue. That represents a 2 percent increase year over year compared to $24.9 billion in revenue in Q2 2023 but a 45 percent drop in net income.
>Tesla’s gross margins were in the spotlight again, as bullish investors hoped to see improvements after years of steady decline. Rampant price cutting and cooling demand as well as cheaper financing have pushed the company’s once-vaunted margins to their lowest point in six years.
>It has unquestionably been a whiplash of a quarter for the company. Tesla abandoned its plan to build a more affordable “Model 2” vehicle — and then recommitted to it. Musk announced a robotaxi reveal event for August but then delayed it until October. The company embarked on a massive series of layoffs, including the entire Supercharger team, and then hired many people back. Tesla’s advanced driver-assist technology came under harsh scrutiny after a previous recall failed to prevent driver misuse. And Tesla shareholders again approved a massive pay package for Elon Musk, after a judge tossed out the first one.
>On top of all that, Musk endorsed Donald Trump for president, inserting his companies into a fraught political environment that is likely to have repercussions for Tesla’s sales and brand reputation.
CrowdStrike offers a $10 apology gift card to say sorry for outage | Some of the people said that when they went to redeem the offer, they got an error message saying the voucher had been canceled
Several people who received the CrowdStrike offer found that the gift card didn't work, while others got an error saying the voucher had been canceled.
>CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm that crashed millions of computers with a botched update all over the world last week, is offering its partners a $10 Uber Eats gift card as an apology, according to several people who say they received the gift card, as well as a source who also received one.
>On Wednesday, some of the people who posted about the gift card said that when they went to redeem the offer, they got an error message saying the voucher had been canceled. When TechCrunch checked the voucher, the Uber Eats page provided an error message that said the gift card “has been canceled by the issuing party and is no longer valid.”
>On Friday, CrowdStrike released a faulty update that rendered around 8.5 million Windows devices unusable, according to Microsoft. The update caused the affected computers to be stuck at the infamous “blue screen of death,” or BSOD, a bright blue error screen with a message that is shown when Windows crashes or cannot load because of a critical software failure.
>The outage caused delays at airports in Amsterdam, Berlin, Dubai, and London, and across the United States. It also caused several hospitals to halt surgeries, and paralyzed countless businesses all over the world.
Forget security – Google's reCAPTCHA v2 is exploiting users for profit | Web puzzles don't protect against bots, but humans have spent 819 million unpaid hours solving them
Web puzzles don't protect against bots, but humans have spent 819 million unpaid hours solving them
Research Findings:
- reCAPTCHA v2 is not effective in preventing bots and fraud, despite its intended purpose
- reCAPTCHA v2 can be defeated by bots 70-100% of the time
- reCAPTCHA v3, the latest version, is also vulnerable to attacks and has been beaten 97% of the time
- reCAPTCHA interactions impose a significant cost on users, with an estimated 819 million hours of human time spent on reCAPTCHA over 13 years, which corresponds to at least $6.1 billion USD in wages
- Google has potentially profited $888 billion from cookies [created by reCAPTCHA sessions] and $8.75–32.3 billion per each sale of their total labeled data set
- Google should bear the cost of detecting bots, rather than shifting it to users
>"The conclusion can be extended that the true purpose of reCAPTCHA v2 is a free image-labeling labor and tracking cookie farm for advertising and data profit masquerading as a security service," the paper declares.
>In a statement provided to The Register after this story was filed, a Google spokesperson said: "reCAPTCHA user data is not used for any other purpose than to improve the reCAPTCHA service, which the terms of service make clear. Further, a majority of our user base have moved to reCAPTCHA v3, which improves fraud detection with invisible scoring. Even if a site were still on the previous generation of the product, reCAPTCHA v2 visual challenge images are all pre-labeled and user input plays no role in image labeling."
Proton releases a self-custody bitcoin wallet | Proton Wallet is open source and has been audited by a third-party firm, the company said
Proton's first cryptocurrency product is a wallet called Proton Wallet that's designed to make it easier to get started with bitcoin.
>Proton isn’t reinventing the wheel with this crypto wallet. But it’s another solid option for people looking to create a crypto wallet for the first time. However, cryptocurrencies tend to be a polarizing topic, so let’s see if Proton Wallet doesn’t hurt Proton’s brand image in the future.
- More information: Proton Blog Article
Survey shows most people wouldn't pay extra for AI-enhanced hardware | 84% of people said no
Companies are going all-in on artificial intelligence right now, investing millions or even billions into the area while slapping the AI initialism on their products, even when...
>Companies are going all-in on artificial intelligence right now, investing millions or even billions into the area while slapping the AI initialism on their products, even when doing so seems strange and pointless.
>Heavy investment and increasingly powerful hardware tend to mean more expensive products. To discover if people would be willing to pay extra for hardware with AI capabilities, the question was asked on the TechPowerUp forums.
>The results show that over 22,000 people, a massive 84% of the overall vote, said no, they would not pay more. More than 2,200 participants said they didn't know, while just under 2,000 voters said yes.
Appeals court halts return of net neutrality | The Sixth Circuit’s temporary stay comes only weeks after the Supreme Court overturned Chevron deference, weakening the FCC
It asked for briefs on a case related to Chevron deference.
>A federal appeals court has agreed to halt the reinstatement of net neutrality rules until August 5th, while the court considers whether more permanent action is justified.
>It’s the latest setback in a long back and forth on net neutrality — the principle that internet service providers (ISPs) should not be able to block or throttle internet traffic in a discriminatory manner.
>The current FCC, which has three Democratic and two Republican commissioners, voted in April to bring back net neutrality. The 3–2 vote was divided along party lines.
>Broadband providers have since challenged the FCC’s action, which is potentially more vulnerable after the Supreme Court’s recent decision to strike down Chevron deference — a legal doctrine that instructed courts to defer to an agency’s expert decisions except in a very narrow range of circumstances.
>Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Matt Schettenhelm said in a report prior to the court’s ruling that he doesn’t expect the FCC to prevail in court, in large part due to the demise of Chevron.
Elon Musk calls for “criminal prosecution” of Twitter/X ad boycott perpetrators
Congress accused advertisers group of colluding to tank X's revenue.
>After the House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary released a report accusing the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) of colluding with companies to censor conservative voices online, Elon Musk chimed in. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Musk wrote that X "has no choice but to file suit against the perpetrators and collaborators" behind an advertiser boycott on his platform.
>"Hopefully, some states will consider criminal prosecution," Musk wrote, leading several X users to suggest that Musk wants it to be illegal for brands to refuse to advertise on X.
>Among other allegations, Congress' report claimed that GARM—which is part of the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), whose members "represent roughly 90 percent of global advertising spend, or almost one trillion dollars annually"—directed advertisers to boycott Twitter shortly after Musk took over the platform.
>Twitter/X's revenue tanked after Musk's takeover, with Bloomberg reporting last month that X lost almost 40 percent of revenue in the first six months of 2023 compared to the same period in 2022. That's worse than prior estimates last May, which put Twitter's loss around one-third of its total valuation. Ars chronicled the worst impacts of the ad boycott, including sharp drop-offs in the US, where an internal Twitter presentation leaked to The New York Times showed Twitter's ad revenue was down by as much as 59 percent "for the five weeks from April 1 to the first week of May" in 2023.
>Last year, Musk sued other "collaborators" in the X boycott, including hate speech researchers, the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), and Media Matters for America (MMFA). However, his suit against the CCDH was dismissed this March, and Media Matters has claimed that Musk filing his MMFA lawsuit in Texas may be "fatal" because of a jurisdictional defect.
NewPipe outage over: version 0.27.1 restores YouTube playback
Fixed [YouTube] Fix for HTTP error 403 when starting videos: TeamNewPipe/NewPipeExtractor#1191 Fix crash in MediaSessionPlayerUi while destroying player #11261 Note that this does not fix 403 err...
NewPipe outage over: version 0.27.1 restores YouTube playback
Fixed [YouTube] Fix for HTTP error 403 when starting videos: TeamNewPipe/NewPipeExtractor#1191 Fix crash in MediaSessionPlayerUi while destroying player #11261 Note that this does not fix 403 err...
Summary:
- AI's rapid growth has transformed digital life, but its significant environmental impact remains largely unchecked.
- AI-powered features can consume up to 10 times more electricity than traditional searches, potentially equating to a country's power usage.
- The proliferation of energy-intensive data centers powering AI is outpacing the electric grid's capacity, forcing utilities to maintain fossil fuel plants for reliability.
- Estimates suggest AI could account for 9% of U.S. energy demand by 2030, substantially contributing to climate change.
- Lack of industry transparency and mandatory reporting makes quantifying AI's full environmental toll difficult.
- Tech companies negotiate discounted utility rates, shifting costs to ratepayers and reducing incentives for energy efficiency.
- Government regulation has been slow and industry-influenced, focusing on hypothetical future risks over current, tangible harms.
- The burden of AI's environmental impact disproportionately falls on Global South communities where data centers are located.
- Tech companies resist mandatory disclosures, prioritizing profits over sustainability while the public bears the physical costs.
Google's AI-powered search summaries use 10x more energy than a standard Google search | The Hidden Environmental Impact of AI
While the mass adoption of AI has transformed digital life seemingly overnight, regulators have fallen asleep on the job in curtailing AI data centers’ drain on energy and water resources.
Summary:
- Signal's desktop app stores encryption keys for chat history in plaintext, making them accessible to any process on the system
- Researchers were able to clone a user's entire Signal session by copying the local storage directory, allowing them to access the chat history on a separate device
- This issue was previously highlighted in 2018, but Signal has not addressed it, stating that at-rest encryption is not something the desktop app currently provides
- Some argue this is not a major issue for the "average user", as other apps also have similar security shortcomings, and users concerned about security should take more extreme measures
- However, others believe this is a significant security flaw that undermines Signal's core promise of end-to-end encryption
- A pull request was made in April 2023 to implement Electron's safeStorage API to address this problem, but there has been no follow-up from Signal
Signal under fire for storing encryption keys in plaintext on desktop app
Popular encrypted messaging app Signal is facing criticism over a security issue in its desktop application. Researchers and app users are raising
Summary:
- Signal's desktop app stores encryption keys for chat history in plaintext, making them accessible to any process on the system
- Researchers were able to clone a user's entire Signal session by copying the local storage directory, allowing them to access the chat history on a separate device
- This issue was previously highlighted in 2018, but Signal has not addressed it, stating that at-rest encryption is not something the desktop app currently provides
- Some argue this is not a major issue for the "average user", as other apps also have similar security shortcomings, and users concerned about security should take more extreme measures
- However, others believe this is a significant security flaw that undermines Signal's core promise of end-to-end encryption
- A pull request was made in April 2023 to implement Electron's safeStorage API to address this problem, but there has been no follow-up from Signal
Signal under fire for storing encryption keys in plaintext on desktop app
Popular encrypted messaging app Signal is facing criticism over a security issue in its desktop application. Researchers and app users are raising
New Mastodon feature will highlight writers and journalists that are active on the fediverse when their articles are being shared
Today we're launching a new feature that will highlight writers and journalists that are active on the fediverse when their their articles are being shared.
>You will notice that underneath some links shared on Mastodon, the author byline can be clicked to open the author’s associated fediverse account, right in the app. This highlights writers and journalists that are active on the fediverse, and makes it easier than ever to follow them and keep up with their future work—potentially across different publications.
>The handle can be any fediverse account, not just Mastodon. That includes Flipboard, Threads, WordPress (with the ActivityPub plugin installed), PeerTube, Pixelfed, and many others.
Summary:
- Netflix is discontinuing its cheapest ad-free subscription tier, starting with the UK and Canada, with more countries expected to follow.
- Netflix has begun notifying users about the last day they can access the service on the Basic plan, prompting them to upgrade to the Standard with ads or more expensive Standard/Premium plans.
- In Canada:
- Original Basic plan price: $9.99/month
- New Standard plan price: $16.49/month
- New Standard with ads price: $5.99/month
- Increase from Basic to Standard: $6.50/month (65% increase)
- In the UK:
- Original Basic plan price: £7.99/month
- New Standard with ads price: £4.99/month
- New Standard plan price: £10.99/month
- Increase from Basic to Standard: £3.00/month (37.5% increase)
- The Basic plan ($11.99/month) is no longer available for new US subscribers.
- Netflix's ad-supported tier now has 40 million global monthly active users, up from 35 million a year ago.
Netflix is proceeding with its plan to discontinue its cheapest ad-free subscription tier, starting with the UK and Canada, with more countries...
Summary:
- Colorado passes first-in-nation law to protect privacy of biological or brain data, which is similar to fingerprints if used to identify people.
- Advances in artificial intelligence have led to medical breakthroughs, including devices that can read minds and alter brains.
- Neurotechnology devices, such as Emotiv and Somnee, are used for health care and can move computers with thoughts or improve brain function and identify impairments.
- Most of these devices are not regulated by the FDA and are marketed for wellness.
- With benefits come risks, such as insurance companies discriminating, law enforcement interrogating, and advertisers manipulating brain data.
- Medical research facilities are subject to privacy laws, but private companies amassing large caches of brain data are not.
- The Neurorights Foundation found that two-thirds of these companies are already sharing or selling data with third parties.
- The new law takes effect on Aug. 8, but it is unclear which companies are subject to it and how it will be enforced.
- Pauzauskie and the Neurorights Foundation are pushing for a federal law and even a global accord to prevent brain data from being used without consent.
The first-in-the-nation law in Colorado includes biological or brain data in the State Privacy Act, similar to fingerprints if the data is being used to identify people.
>After all, the privacy of our mind may be the only privacy we have left.
Summary:
- Colorado passes first-in-nation law to protect privacy of biological or brain data, which is similar to fingerprints if used to identify people.
- Advances in artificial intelligence have led to medical breakthroughs, including devices that can read minds and alter brains.
- Neurotechnology devices, such as Emotiv and Somnee, are used for health care and can move computers with thoughts or improve brain function and identify impairments.
- Most of these devices are not regulated by the FDA and are marketed for wellness.
- With benefits come risks, such as insurance companies discriminating, law enforcement interrogating, and advertisers manipulating brain data.
- Medical research facilities are subject to privacy laws, but private companies amassing large caches of brain data are not.
- The Neurorights Foundation found that two-thirds of these companies are already sharing or selling data with third parties.
- The new law takes effect on Aug. 8, but it is unclear which companies are subject to it and how it will be enforced.
- Pauzauskie and the Neurorights Foundation are pushing for a federal law and even a global accord to prevent brain data from being used without consent.
The first-in-the-nation law in Colorado includes biological or brain data in the State Privacy Act, similar to fingerprints if the data is being used to identify people.
>After all, the privacy of our mind may be the only privacy we have left.
Summary:
- The author expresses dissatisfaction with the commercial and impersonal feel of modern Windows operating systems.
- Past versions of Windows were disconnected and resilient, providing a more personal user experience.
- Advertising integration in Windows has made it feel cheaper and less user-friendly.
- Updates, intrusive changes, settings modifications, and lack of control are common issues plaguing modern Windows systems.
- The author compares the current Windows experience to the offline glory days of Windows, highlighting the shift in user experience.
- Windows now includes advertising, which some users find intrusive and unwanted.
- Updates on Windows often lead to issues, with users experiencing broken computers after updates.
- Users complain about settings changing after updates, impacting their preferences and privacy settings.
- The author switched to macOS due to technical issues with Windows updates, appreciating the user experience on macOS.
- Linux is praised for respecting its users by providing the operating system for free without intrusive ads.
- The author hopes for a future version of Windows that offers more user control and less interference from Microsoft's software-as-a-service products.
Summary:
- The FTC is investigating PC manufacturers for using "warranty void if removed" labels to discourage consumers from exercising their right to repair.
- ASRock, Gigabyte, and Zotac received letters from the FTC regarding these practices.
- The FTC is concerned about manufacturers denying warranty coverage based on these provisions.
- The federal Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act is being invoked to prevent companies from making misleading warranties.
- The Act prohibits conditioning warranties on the use of specific repair services unless provided for free or with a waiver from the FTC.
- The FTC plans to review the written warranties and promotional materials of the companies after 30 days.
- In the past, Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Asus, HTC, and Hyundai were also warned by the FTC for similar practices.
Summary:
- Telegram founder Pavel Durov claimed in an interview that the company only employs "about 30 engineers."
- Security experts say this is a major red flag for Telegram's cybersecurity, as it suggests the company lacks the resources to effectively secure its platform and fight off hackers.
- Telegram's chats are not end-to-end encrypted by default, unlike more secure messaging apps like Signal or WhatsApp. Users have to manually enable the "Secret Chat" feature to get end-to-end encryption.
- Telegram also uses its own proprietary encryption algorithm, which has raised concerns about its security.
- As a social media platform with nearly 1 billion users, Telegram is an attractive target for both criminal and government hackers, but it seems to have very limited staff dedicated to cybersecurity.
- Security experts have long warned that Telegram should not be considered a truly secure messaging app, and Durov's recent statement may indicate that the situation is worse than previously thought.
According to a report from Arizona’s Family:
The 12-volt battery that powers the car’s electronics died without warning.
Tesla drivers are supposed to receive three warnings before that happens, but the Tesla service department confirmed that Sanchez didn’t receive any warnings.
Tesla didn’t respond to a request for comment; it has dissolved its press office.
Summary:
- The US government is suing Adobe for allegedly deceiving customers with hidden fees and making it difficult to cancel subscriptions.
- The Department of Justice claims Adobe enrolls customers in its most lucrative subscription plan without clearly disclosing important plan terms.
- Adobe allegedly hides the terms of its annual, paid monthly plan in fine print and behind optional textboxes and hyperlinks.
- The company fails to properly disclose the early termination fee, which can amount to hundreds of dollars, upon cancellation.
- The cancellation process is described as "onerous and complicated", involving multiple webpages and pop-ups.
- Customers who try to cancel over the phone or via live chats face similar obstacles, including dropped or disconnected calls and having to re-explain their reason for calling.
- The lawsuit targets Adobe executives Maninder Sawhney and David Wadhwani, alleging they directed or participated in the deceptive practices.
- The federal government began investigating Adobe's cancellation practices late last year.
- Adobe's subscription model has long been a source of frustration for creatives, who feel forced to stay subscribed to continue working.
- Recently, Adobe's new terms of service were met with backlash, with some users interpreting the changes as an opportunity for Adobe to train its AI on users' art.
- The company has also faced regulatory scrutiny in the past, including antitrust scrutiny from European regulators over its attempted $20 billion acquisition of product design platform Figma in 2022, which was ultimately abandoned.
Summary:
- Elon Musk's X Corp. is demanding money from at least six laid-off Australian employees, claiming it accidentally overpaid them due to currency conversion errors
- The alleged overpayments ranged from $1,500 to $70,000 per employee
- X made the currency conversion errors when paying out the share entitlements to the laid-off employees
- The former employees have not repaid the money so far, and X has threatened to take them to court to seek the return of the funds plus interest
- This is in contrast to what allegedly happened to many former US-based workers, who are fighting to receive severance from X
- X is also facing lawsuits from former Twitter executives who claim they were cheated out of severance, and from vendors who were not paid after Musk took over Twitter
Summary:
- Boeing sales tumbled in May, with only 4 new plane orders and no orders for the 737 Max for the second straight month
- This compares unfavorably to Airbus, which reported net orders for 15 planes in May
- Boeing also saw Aerolineas Argentinas cancel an order for a single Max jet
- Boeing's stock fell 3% in afternoon trading
- The poor sales results follow weak figures in April, when Boeing reported 7 sales with none for the Max
- Boeing hopes the slow pace reflects a lull before the upcoming Farnborough Airshow, but the company is facing issues like the FAA capping 737 production and allegations of production shortcuts and falsified inspection records
- Despite the recent slow sales, Boeing still has a huge backlog of over 5,600 orders
Summary:
- Nintendo has discontinued support for X (formerly Twitter) integration on the Nintendo Switch console.
- The reason for pulling support is likely due to pricing changes to the X API, which now starts at $42,000 a month for enterprise customers.
- Microsoft and Sony also removed X integration from their consoles (Xbox and PS5/PS4) last year, but didn't specify the reason.
- Slack, a communication platform, also pulled support for X integration due to the API updates impacting its functionality.
- Console gamers will no longer be able to connect directly with X, despite the X Gaming account claiming that its "partnership with Nintendo remains strong" in a now-deleted post.
Summary:
- Meta (Facebook and Instagram's parent company) will start using Australians' social media posts and activity dating back to 2007 to train their artificial intelligence (AI) tools.
- This policy update will take effect on June 26, 2024.
- Only users in the European Union and the U.S. state of Illinois can currently opt out, due to AI protection laws like the GDPR.
- Many Australians were unaware of this policy change and expressed concerns about privacy and the impact on artists' livelihoods.
- Artists like Sara Fandrey and Thomas Fitzpatrick are worried this will negatively impact their work and the creative industry.
- Experts explain that while this may not be copyright infringement, it poses a threat to artists' economic assets and business models.
- Advocacy groups have launched complaints against Meta in the EU, and some users are migrating to alternative, artist-run social platforms like Cara to avoid AI-powered content generation.
Summary:
- A survey by BambooHR found that some US companies implemented return-to-office (RTO) policies in the hopes of getting workers to quit.
- 52% of respondents prefer working remotely, while 39% prefer working in an office.
- 37% of managers believe their organization enacted layoffs because fewer employees than expected quit during RTO.
- 25% of VP and C-suite executives and 18% of HR professionals admit they hoped for some voluntary turnover during RTO.
- 22% of HR professionals said their company has no metrics for measuring a successful RTO.
- 28% of remote workers fear they will be laid off before those working in the office.
- 45% of people surveyed whose companies have RTO policies said they lost valued workers.
- 28% said they would consider leaving their jobs if their employer enacted an RTO mandate.
- The survey found that remote and in-office employees spend an equal amount of time working (76% of a 9-to-5 shift).
- In-office workers spend around one hour more socializing than remote workers, while remote workers spend that time on work-related tasks.
- 32% of managers said one of the main goals of their firm implementing an in-office policy was to track employee working habits.
- 48% of respondents said their work results have improved since returning to the office, and 58% said they have a stronger professional network.
Related:
- Spotify's royalty system has faced criticism for not paying artists their fair share (Nov. 29, 2023, MSNBC)
The platform does not pay according to a per-stream rate, but rather puts all the revenue from subscribers and ads into a giant pot, and divides that share according to their respective "streamshare." Under this model, artists are estimated to receive between $0.003 to $0.005 per play.
That's about to change. Beginning early next year, Spotify will only pay royalties to artists whose tracks have been streamed 1,000 times in the past 12 months, effectively locking out the smallest artists from the "streamshare" pot. The money that would have been paid out to these small artists — which Spotify said amounts to $40 million a year — will instead go to "those most dependent on streaming revenue."
According to Spotify, artists generally don't pocket the earnings from tracks that have under 1,000 streams anyway, because they don't meet the labels and distributors' minimum withdrawal amount. The company also says it does not make any additional money under the new model. But musicians have said they feel the model is “putting a number on art," and industry experts said that this change essentially makes Spotify the arbiter of which artist is deserving of payment.
There has to be a way for multibillion-dollar companies to both keep music accessible and appropriately compensate musicians — especially fledgling, independent ones.
- Spotify made £56m profit, but has decided not to pay smaller artists like me (Nov. 30, 2023, The Guardian)
Spotify will stop paying anything at all for roughly two-thirds of tracks on the platform. That is any track receiving fewer than 1,000 streams over the period of a year. Tracks falling under this arbitrary minimum will continue to accrue royalties – but those royalties will now be redirected upwards, often to bigger artists, rather than to their own rights holders.
This sounds incredible, but there’s nothing to stop it. And their primary business partners – the three major labels – are cheering the change on because it will mean more money in their pockets.
Summary:
- Spotify has announced another price hike for its subscription plans in the United States.
- This price increase comes shortly after Spotify CEO Daniel Ek sparked outrage among music fans and creators by claiming that the "cost of creating content is close to zero."
- Many musicians and music fans condemned Ek's comments, arguing that music is not just "content" and that it is costly and time-consuming to create.
- Despite the backlash, Spotify is increasing its standard Premium plan by $1 to $11.99, the Duo plan by $2 to $16.99, and the Family plan by $3 to $19.99 per month.
- Spotify claims the price hikes are necessary to invest in and innovate its product features, but this reasoning is questioned given Ek's "content" cost comments.
- Spotify is less vulnerable to customer churn compared to TV/movie streaming services, as users are less likely to switch music streaming providers due to the hassle of rebuilding playlists and losing personalized recommendations.