MPAA said it added a nontraditional studio member: Netflix. It lets the association "more effectively advocate for the global community of creative storytellers,” said MPAA CEO Charles Rivkin Tuesday. Existing members are Disney, Fox, Paramount, Sony, Universal and Warner Bros. Netflix didn't comment.
Regulations.gov is back online for users after an outage for much of Thursday. The website where many agencies, but not the FCC, accept filings and post documents reportedly had said originally it was offline due to the partial government shutdown. Later Thursday, it blamed "system issues." Friday, it was back online. The site is expected to remain online during the rest of the government-funding impasse, a help-desk staffer told us. He confirmed the tech issue wasn't shutdown-related, saying the site resumed working at around 5 p.m. EST Thursday. The EPA, which helps manage regulations.gov, didn't comment. The agency, which runs Energy Star, is closed for the shutdown, says EPA’s website. All Energy Star “tools, resources, and data services will not be available” for the “duration,” it says.
A startup seeks waiver of FCC rules on industrial, scientific and medical equipment to market a system for transmitting wireless power over distance. The system operates in the 24 GHz ISM band, “which enables it to achieve greater power transfer efficiency at longer distances,” Auspion filed, posted Thursday. It seeks waiver from Part 18 rules that say for a technology to be designed as ISM, it “must be designed to ‘generate and use locally’ RF energy … [and] the Auspion system does not satisfy the definition of ISM equipment.”
High-end audio “remains an important category at CES,” and audiophiles at CES will be able to experience more than 50 exhibitors at the Venetian suites, Karen Chupka, executive vice president-CES, emailed us Sunday. Chupka was responding to comments from some manufacturers in the high-end community that feel underappreciated as the show has grown (see 1901040036). CES 2018 was home to some 90 suites with 71 companies, and this year, the Venetian will have 68 suites with 53 high-end companies, she said. Commenting on the eclectic collection of companies exhibiting in the Venetian suites that used to be a high-end audio enclave, Chupka said: “There are multiple Marketplaces featured at the Sands," the Tech West section of the show that includes the Venetian suites. She cited accessibility, baby tech, digital money, Eureka Park, family and kids, fitness, health and wellness, sleep tech, smart home, sports tech and wearables.
Disney and Verizon signed a multiyear carriage deal Wednesday. It has Disney content including Disney Channel, ESPN and SEC Network remaining available for Fios customers, and the ACC Network joining the lineup when it debuts Aug. 22, Disney said.
It’s “no longer feasible to innovate just enough to turn a profit," writes CTA President Gary Shapiro in the introduction of his new book, Ninja Future, released Monday in time to be promoted at CES. “In the ninja future, everything is interconnected things, people, governments, financial networks, cultures,” he says. “A breakthrough technology or a piece of legislation that impacts one nation or industry will inevitably impact them all.” In the book, Shapiro admits to having had “mixed emotions” about President Donald Trump’s 2017 decision withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accords. Immediately after the decision, Shapiro urged the CTA executive board to show that the private sector could do what government could not, and commit to “holding our industry accountable for meeting or exceeding the standards set in the agreement,” he said. “On the other hand, I saw the president’s point,” that the agreement required billions in cash from the U.S. that would go toward “polluting nations” such as China, he said.
Platforms should share online content moderation responsibilities with their users, said Tarleton Gillespie, a researcher at Microsoft Research, on C-SPAN's The Communicators, recorded earlier but shown for the first time over the weekend. Reddit is an example of a major platform that relies heavily on user content moderation. Given the size of these platforms, it’s basically impossible to moderate content proactively, said Gillespie, author of Custodians of the Internet. One thrust of the book is for platforms to take more ownership of content moderation, with a regime that addresses extreme content. Content moderation has become a major part of what platforms do, commanding a tremendous amount of resources, he said. The websites need to weigh a balance between creating a safe, open forum without committing politically biased censorship, he said. Gillespie regarded claims of anti-conservative bias as a “superficial” scoring of political points.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver will discuss their partnership, #NBATwitter, at CES in Las Vegas, said CTA Thursday. The discussion, moderated by ESPN anchor Rachel Nichols, is scheduled for 1:30 p.m., at the CES Sports Zone stage in the Aria, Primrose Ballroom 2-3.
Charter Communications joined the UHD Alliance, said a notice in Tuesday’s Federal Register from DOJ’s Antitrust Division. Change-of-membership "written notifications," which UHD sent Nov. 16 to DOJ and the FTC, are required to extend alliance members antitrust protections under the National Cooperative Research and Production Act of 1993, the notice said. "Membership in this group research project remains open, and UHD Alliance intends to file additional written notifications disclosing all changes in membership."
Verizon said some 10,400 of its 152,300 employees were accepted in a voluntary program to leave, following realignment of the company for 5G. “This is a moment in time, given our financial and operational strength, to begin to better serve customers with more agility, speed and flexibility,” said CEO Hans Vestberg Monday. Workers get up to 60 weeks of salary, bonus and benefits.