SAG-AFTRA: AMPTP's AI proposal lets studios scan a background actor to create a digital likeness, for a day's pay, for perpetual use without consent or pay
During today's press conference in which Hollywood actors confirmed that they were going on strike, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland …
Twitter's creators program makes its first payouts, including to far-right influencers like Andrew Tate, who made over $20K, Ian Miles Cheong, and Benny Johnson
The platform is paying high-profile creators, including Andrew Tate, thousands of dollars for posting to the app
After the US court ruling, Coinbase, Kraken, and Bitstamp resume XRP trading on their US exchanges and Gemini is exploring listing the token
U.S. federal court ruled on Thursday that sale of XRP tokens on exchanges and through algorithms did not constitute investment contracts.
A US judge says Ripple's XRP sales to sophisticated investors violated securities law but that sales on exchanges were not offers of securities; XRP jumps 70%+
🚀 According to documents filed earlier today … Twitter: Brad Garlinghouse / @bgarlinghouse : We said in Dec 2020 that we were on the right side of the law, and will be on the right side of history. Th...
Netflix's Orange Is the New Black was an early indicator of how lopsided the streaming economy would be, as 10 actors from the show detail tiny residual incomes
The innovative and daring show was a worldwide hit for Netflix, but some of the actors say that they were never fairly compensated.
Microsoft names Aptos as the next default font for its Microsoft 365 productivity apps, replacing Calibri; Aptos was available for two years as Bierstadt
- After considering user feedback on five options, Microsoft has picked the next default font for its productivity apps like Word and Outlook.
Multichain ceases operations after the crypto bridging protocol's CEO Zhaojun and his sister, who held ~$220M of user assets, were detained by Chinese police
- Multichain confirmed its CEO has been detained in China. — It said the CEO's sister moved $220 million of funds …
Sources: Microsoft and Activision Blizzard mull the sale of some UK cloud-based gaming rights to a telecom, gaming, or internet company to appease regulators
- Companies may give up some control of UK cloud gaming unit — US, UK regulators have come out against the $69 billion deal
A US district judge denies the FTC's motion to stay Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition; the FTC is still seeking emergency action by the 9th Circuit
Bloomberg Law :
Twitter starts paying Twitter Blue creators who earned 5M+ impressions per month for three months a revenue cut from the ads beside the replies to their tweets
Twitter is now paying creators for a share of the ad revenue earned from ads served in the replies to their posts.
Reddit plans to sunset its current coins and awards systems used to show post appreciation by September 12, 2023; no new coins can be purchased starting now
Reddit is sunsetting its current coins and awards systems, meaning you soon won't be able to thank a kind stranger for giving you Reddit Gold for one of your posts.
Sensor Tower: on July 11 and 12, Instagram's Threads DAUs were down ~20% from July 8 and the time spent by the user on the app fell 50% to 10 minutes
- Facebook's Twitter-killer, Threads, has seen drops in daily active users and time spent on app since the weekend, according to SensorTower and SimilarWeb.
Twitter sues four unnamed entities in Texas for “unlawfully scraping data” and seeks $1M+ in relief; Elon Musk links the move to recent rate limit rules
Twitter has filed a lawsuit against four unnamed entities in Texas for data scraping last week, a move that showed …
Meta says it has taken “further measures” to prevent EU-based users from accessing Instagram's Threads, including blocking access through VPNs
After multiple EU-based users complained about not being able to access Instagram's Threads app through VPN, Meta confirmed that it is blocking such efforts.
Honor unveils Magic V2, a foldable phone that is 9.9mm thick when folded, weighs 231g, and is thinner and lighter than the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and the Pixel Fold
Jon Porter / The Verge :
At a congressional hearing, FTC Chair Lina Khan defended herself against GOP attacks over her alleged ethics violation and aggressive antitrust enforcement
Leah Nylen / Bloomberg :
Twitter plans to reduce DM spam with a setting that moves messages from verified users you don't follow back to the Message Request inbox instead of main inbox
As Twitter fends off new competition from Instagram Threads, the company today announced a change designed to cut down on spam in users' inboxes.
Google updates Bard with 43 more languages, from Arabic to Vietnamese, and privacy features requested by EU regulators, and debuts the tool in Europe and Brazil
It's now available in the EU and Brazil after adding privacy features such as user opt outs and more notices on how information is used. — It can now speak answers in addition to text results — You ...
Sony plans to debut its PS5 accessibility-focused controller on December 6; Access controller preorders open on July 21 for US$90, CA$120, £80, €90, and ¥12,980
Kris Holt / Engadget :
Apple launches Tap to Pay on iPhone in the UK, starting with Revolut and Tyl by NatWest as the first payment platforms, following the US, Australia, and Taiwan
Tim Hardwick / MacRumors :
China unveils its finalized generative AI guidelines, which omit some of the restrictions from its initial April 2023 draft, signaling more flexible regulations
it doesn't seem to be covered by these rules, and could be a source of huge value. Think... Matt Sheehan / @mattsheehan88 : 📢China just released its much-anticipated regulation on generative AI. 🧵belo...
Sources and a document: India told Netflix, Disney, and other streaming services to consider an independent panel to review content ahead of its release
The US arrests and charges former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky with six counts; the SEC, CFTC, and FTC sue Mashinsky and Celsius; Mashinsky pleads not guilty
Nothing Phone (2) review: neat light strips, a useful always-on display, and four years of software support, but only splash resistant and not Verizon certified
A Stability AI co-founder sues the startup over being duped into selling his 15% stake for $100 to CEO Emad Mostaque months before Stability hit a $1B valuation
Now he's getting sued by a cofounder for tricking them into selling a 15% stack now worth $150 million for $100. — That is some Charles Dickens novel level of villainy — https://www.bloomberg.com/...
The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University files a lawsuit challenging Texas' TikTok ban on state devices, for limiting research and teaching
Sapna Maheshwari / New York Times :
Oslo-based online game-based learning service Kahoot plans to go private in an all-cash PE deal, led by Goldman Sachs, valuing the company at $1.7B
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch :
Adobe: US shoppers spent $12.7B on Amazon's 48-hour Prime Day, up 6.1% YoY but below estimates of 9.5% growth; an increasing customer share used BNPL services
Bloomberg :
Meta unveils CM3leon, a transformer model for image generation requiring 5x less compute and a smaller training data set than past transformer-based models
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch :
Elon Musk forms xAI, a startup he will lead to “understand the true nature of the universe”; the staff has worked at Google, Microsoft, Tesla, OpenAI, and more
London-based Causaly, which uses AI for biomedical research and drug discovery, raised a $60M Series B led by ICONIQ Growth, taking its total funding to $93M
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch :
The AP and OpenAI sign a two-year deal; the AP gets access to OpenAI's tech in return for licensing some of its text archive dating back to 1985 for AI training
After China's curbs, the EU asks aluminum and zinc firms to investigate producing chip metals; the EU sources 71% of its gallium and 45% of germanium from China
Financial Times :
Telly begins shipping its free, ad-supported, dual-screen 4K TV as part of its public beta program; users must submit demographic info, viewing habits, and more
Turkey's top court upholds a law restricting companies' ad spend and customer data use if their sales exceed given limits, in a blow to Alibaba's unit Trendyol
Taylan Bilgic / Bloomberg :
Twitter asks a US federal court to terminate an FTC order that puts restrictions on its data security practices and to stay an FTC deposition of Elon Musk
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