Julian Assange rose from a post-college hacker to launching WikiLeaks, and in so doing became one of the most influential people in the world. Bloomberg.com video above published May 24, 2019.
Julian Assange arrested: What now for the Wikileaks founder?
Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, is in custody in the United Kingdom (UK) after being arrested for allegedly breaching his bail conditions. His seven-year self-imposed exile in London's Ecuadorean embassy ended dramatically April 11, 2019, after his asylum was revoked. Mr Assange also faces extradition to the United States (see below). His supporters are calling it a 'dark day for journalism.' Channel 4 News (UK) video above published Apr 11, 2019.
Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
Eastern District of Virginia
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, April 11, 2019
WikiLeaks Founder Charged in Computer Hacking Conspiracy
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Julian P. Assange, 47, the founder of WikiLeaks, was arrested today in the United Kingdom pursuant to the U.S./UK Extradition Treaty, in connection with a federal charge of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion for agreeing to break a password to a classified U.S. government computer.
According to court documents unsealed today, the charge relates to Assange’s alleged role in one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States.
The indictment alleges that in March 2010, Assange engaged in aconspiracy with Chelsea Manning, a former intelligence analyst in the U.S. Army, to assist Manning in cracking a password stored on U.S. Department of Defense computers connected to the Secret Internet Protocol Network (SIPRNet), a U.S. government network used for classified documents and communications. Manning, who had access to the computers in connection with her duties as an intelligence analyst, was using the computers to download classified records to transmit to WikiLeaks. Cracking the password would have allowed Manning to log on to the computers under a username that did not belong to her. Such a deceptive measure would have made it more difficult for investigators to determine the source of the illegal disclosures.
During the conspiracy, Manning and Assange engaged in real-time discussions regarding Manning’s transmission of classified records to Assange. The discussions also reflect Assange actively encouraging Manning to provide more information. During an exchange, Manning told Assange that “after this upload, that’s all I really have got left.” To which Assange replied, “curious eyes never run dry in my experience.”
Assange is charged with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion and is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, John C. Demers, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, and Nancy McNamara, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, made the announcement after the charges were unsealed. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracy Doherty-McCormick, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kellen S. Dwyer, Thomas W. Traxler and Gordon D. Kromberg, and Trial Attorneys Matthew R. Walczewski and Nicholas O. Hunter of the Justice Department’s National Security Division are prosecuting the case.
The extradition will be handled by the Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs.
A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information are located on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 1:18-cr-111.
An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty in court. [emphasis added]
This shocking video from Iraq, revealed by WikiLeaks, showing the killing of civilians and Reuters journalists provides some context to today’s moves towards extraditing Julian Assange to the USA. pic.twitter.com/GQwg0Spbz6
The extradition of Julian Assange to the US for exposing evidence of atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan should be opposed by the British government.--Jeremy Corbyn MP, Leader of the Labour Party
** STATEMENT: Chelsea's legal team responds to today's unsealed indictment. This is further evidence that the government's continued imprisonment of Chelsea for her principled stance against grand jury secrecy is punitive, cruel and unnecessary https://t.co/WZiDuVWHPa
For people who have spent 3 years claiming that (1) WikiLeaks is an arm of Russian intelligence and (2) Putin controls Trump, how do you reconcile those conspiracy beliefs with the fact that it was the Trump administration that devoted itself with such vigor to indicting Assange? pic.twitter.com/IcDiXOCHhZ
The continued imprisonment of @xychelsea is an utter disgrace. The arrest of Julian Assange represents an extremely dangerous crossing of the rubicon. This is an assault on journalism and a free press. All journalists should stand in fierce opposition.
Arrest of Wikileaks' Assange in UK takes him a step closer to poss extradition to US, and potential "serious human rights violations", warn @UNHumanRights experts.https://t.co/g5rzBX8YnZ
Features • 1.WikiLeaks Takes A Big Dump On The CIA while Judicial Watch sues U.S. government intelligence agencies over Flynn investigation 2.Roth Conference March 12-15, Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel; 3. Other Tech News.
WikiLeaks Releases CIA Hacking Tools, FBI Probes
Video above published Mar 9, 2017: Carbon Black (carbonblack.com) national security strategist Eric O’Neill and Bloomberg’s Nafeesa Syeed discuss WikiLeaks releasing The Central Intelligence Agency’s hacking tools with Bloomberg's Caroline Hyde on "Bloomberg Technology."
Vault7 | Wikileaks.org: ""Year Zero" introduces the scope and direction of the CIA's global covert hacking program, its malware arsenal and dozens of "zero day" weaponized exploits against a wide range of U.S. and European company products, include Apple's iPhone, Google's Android and Microsoft's Windows and even Samsung TVs, which are turned into covert microphones."
And in a related matter-- Judicial Watch sues intelligence agencies over Flynn investigation
Video above published Mar 7, 2017: JudicialWatch.org director Christopher Farrell on why the organization is suing U.S. intelligence agencies over leaks of classified information about former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
Charles Hugh Smith: The Conflict within the Deep State Just Broke into Open Warfare: The body count from Vault 7 has not yet been tallied, but it wouldn't surprise me if former President Obama and his team eventually end up as political casualties. Non-partisan observers are noting all this over-reach occurred on Obama's watch, and it hasn't gone unnoticed that one of Obama's last executive orders stripped away the last shreds of oversight of what could be "shared" (or invented) between the Security Agencies.
2. Roth conference, March 12-15, 2017:
The 29th Annual ROTH Conference at The Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel in Dana Point, CA, March 12-15, 2017, with close to 500 participating companies and over 4,000 attendees, will feature presentations from hundreds of public and private companies in a variety of sectors including: Technology, Internet & Media; Healthcare; Cleantech, Industrial Growth & Solar; Consumer; Oil & Gas / Mining & Minerals; Business Services. Listen to audio presentations by registering for the Roth webcasts.
3. Other Tech News / Quick Takes:
Google’s messaging strategy is confusing: The company is doubling down on the idea that Hangouts is its enterprise product and Allo/Duo are its consumer communications apps ... Google is splitting Hangouts into two: Hangouts Chat, which is clearly gunning for Slack, and Hangouts Meet, which is all about video and audio communications. Those two are basically the enterprise counterparts to Allo and Duo.Meet is now generally available. Hangout Chat is going into Google’s early access program. The current Hangouts app isn’t going away just yet, but it won’t last forever, either.--TechCrunch.com
Google backs Currencycloud: The UK-based payments company Currencycloud.com platform allows banks, financial companies and payments startups, to offer international payments services without having to set up complex and costly cross-border infrastructure. Founded in 2012, about $25 billion has already been sent through the company's infrastructure to more than 200 countries.--Reuters.com
Peter Thiel: Why Google never talks about search | cnbc.com: "Google has been selling enterprise offerings, first for productivity, and more recently for infrastructure, since 2006. And yet 88.8% of Google's business still comes from internet advertising, with the bulk of that almost certainly coming from search advertising."
Antitrust: EU court upholds cathode ray tube cartel fines on Samsung SDI--The European Commission had imposed fines of 1.47 billion euro upon a group of companies including Philips, LG Electronics and Panasonic, in 2012 for participating in cartels in the market of cathode ray tubes between 1996/97 and 2006.--Reuters.com
Valuation Shell Game: Silicon Valley’s Dirty Secret: Bill Gurley, general partner at Silicon Valley VC firm Benchmark, disdains the 409A valuations as a wasteful exercise. He calls the valuations “quite precise — remarkably inaccurate.”--NYTimes.com
• One last thing: Billionaire tech entrepreneur Peter Thiel declared globalization is over on Tuesday, claiming it’s “so 2005, it feels so dated.” Thiel added that “No one in their right mind would start an organization with the word ‘global’ in its title today, A decade ago, there was a group of people who were running the world, and now, it’s just a group of people who messed up the world.”
Feature • This past week Q3 2016 reports from two of the biggest tech companies in the world, Alibaba Group and Facebook, each showed stellar results for the quarter:
On the other hand, maybe both stocks got caught up in the U.S. Presidential pre-election jitters: S&P 500 index marks its longest losing streak in 36 years | WashingtonPost.com: "... retreat of the stock market ahead of the 2016 election continued Friday, with the market falling for a ninth straight day. Wall Street is now in its longest period of decline in more than three decades [since 1980 when Ronald Reagan won over Jimmy Carter]. Investors continue to focus on the U.S. presidential election, which has become too close for comfort for some investors ... "
• Huma Abedindoesn’t know how those thousands of Clinton emails ended up on Weiner's hard drive, but we do: If you set up Yahoo on Apple Mail or Outlook or any of the other services, it will store a copy of your email on the hard drive.--McClatchyDC.com
• Wikileaks Has Chilling Effect on Ambassadorships for big donors including "super bundlers at [Hollywood] studios, networks or agencies"--HollywoodReporter.com
• How dominant is Amazon?"According to a 2015 survey from Bloomreach of U.S. and U.K. consumers about their shopping habits over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, for example, 87% of U.S. and 90% of U.K. consumers said they would check Amazon at least once during their shopping process. 47% of U.S. and 46% of U.K. consumers said they’d check Amazon for 50% or more of their holiday purchases."--WebsiteMagazine.com
• Google Cloud?Bloomberg.com: Google was once a cloud pioneer, having spent years stringing together data centers to support its search business. But it squandered that lead by allowing others to market such infrastructure as a service first. Alphabet, Google’s parent, is now intent on narrowing the gap with Amazon.com and Microsoft, in large part because it needs to build a reliable revenue stream that doesn’t come from ads ..." What happpened? 1) Google lost its focus under the leadership of the 'Billionaire Boys' Larry Page & Sergey Brin who were more interested in their money-losing Alpha Bets; 2) Google DNA: “The perception from people is that Google is still quirky to use. It’s like everyone is speaking standardized English, and Google [is] the French speaker.”--Matthew Prince, CEO of Cloudflare.com
• Google disputes EU antitrust charges saying "the Commission had failed to take into account competition from Amazon, merchant platforms, social media sites, mobile web and online advertising by companies such as Facebook and Pinterest."--CNBC.com. See alsoGoogle's Travel Business Is Already Twice the Size of Expedia's | Skift.com.
• Good Cybersecurity Doesn’t Try to Prevent Every Attack | hbr.org: "It’s far more important to focus on two things: identifying and protecting the company’s strategically important cyber assets and figuring out in advance how to mitigate damage when attacks occur."
"As for Mainstream Media [MSM] bias: Bernie [Sanders] was fortunate to only be blacked out, Soviet style; Trump has zero MSM newspaper endorsements and has been subjected to MSM bias that is laughably ham-handed, reminiscent of old-style Communist "running dogs of Imperialism" propaganda ... With the rise of the Internet and social media, broadcast propaganda is now competing with narrowcast: blogs, Twitter and Facebook enable self-organizing tacit tribes ... with their own networks of communication, narratives and agendas ... In terms of finance and communications, politics as usual--political candidates and narratives mandated by the parties' Ruling Elites and the MSM--is dead. We will all look back in 2026 and wonder why the recognition of this reality took so long."--Charles Hugh Smith
David Brady: A Look at the 2016 Elections:
Whatever your political leanings or anxieties about this year's Presidential election, you will be enlightened after listening to Professor Brady's talk in the video above. He explains what, in his view, is really happening, what makes this election year different than others, not just in the U.S., but in Europe and elsewhere, with humor and insight.
One caveat: much has already changed (or been revealed) since the video above was recorded on October 14, 2016, as part of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business (Stanford GSB) Fall Reunion/Alumni Weekend.
Topics covered include globalization and immigration. The 2016 Presidential Race has had a polarizing effect on many voters, with the 2 major candidates each having high unfavorable ratings. See, e.g., Clinton’s unfavorable rating hits new high in poll | Trump targets Democratic states in final sprint | MarketWatch.com (Oct. 31, 2016).
New polling indicates voters are shifting in view of the late-breaking Wikileaks disclosures, the FBI re-opening its investigation of Hillary Clinton (email scandal) together with revelations about the Clinton Foundation and its tie-ins ("pay-to-play") with Teneo and Hillary Clinton during her tenure as Secretary of State. Trump 47.8% now leads Clinton 42.4% in the USC Dornsife / LATimes.com tracking poll as of November 2, 2016.
The YouGov.com poll referenced in Professor Brady's talk, as of November 1, 2016, shows Trump has a clear path to victory (270 electoral votes) by winning YouGov's "toss-up" states of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Iowa, Ohio, Nevada, and Pennsylvania (in all of which Trump narrowly leads or is close according to YouGov). Even without Pennsylvania, Trump could still win by picking up another 10 electoral votes somewhere else, such as Wisconsin. One BIG problem with the YouGov methodology is that it estimates patterns of 2016 voter turnout using the 2012 Obama-Romney general election--which YouGov admits is "a key place where we might get things wrong if there is a large change in turnout patterns" in 2016--many experts say 2016 voter turnout patterns will differ from 2012. See also The U.S. Stock Market Isn’t Going Clinton’s Way | Bloomberg.com Nov. 1, 2016: "S&P 500 down 3.2% since Aug. 8, a good sign for challenger Trump. Market correctly signals outcome 86 percent of time since 1928."
Just as the Brexit vote was the global macroeconomic event of the first half of 2016, the U.S. Presidential election has the potential to be the global macroeconomic event of the second half of 2016. U.S. voting will conclude the evening of Tuesday, November 8.
Speaker in the video: David Brady Professor of Political Economy, Stanford GSB Davies Family Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution Senior Fellow, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research
Stanford Graduate School of Business, Stanford University
Domain: gsb.stanford.edu
Domain Mondo's new weekly review of technology news: Feature •Is Hurricane overhyping actually helping or hurting?
4,001 Days: The Major Hurricane Drought Continues | DrRoySpencer.com: Oct 7, 2016: "... 4,001 days since the last major hurricane (Wilma in 2005) made landfall in the United States. A major hurricane (Category 3 to 5) has maximum sustained winds of at least 111 mph, and “landfall” means the center of the hurricane eye crosses the coastline. This morning it looks like Matthew will probably not make landfall along the northeast coast of Florida ... Media hype also exaggerates the problem ... most of the warned population is under the impression they, personally, are going to experience such extreme conditions ... I don’t think we will solve the over-warning problem of severe weather events any time soon ..."
Hurricane Matthew, 07 Oct 2016, off the NE coast of FL (NOAA water vapor satellite image)
There are real negative consequences when you subject a large population to unnecessary mandatory evacuations. What are the costs, in terms of injury and loss of life (e.g., traffic accidents due to fleeing the evacuation area, etc.), and economic losses? No one knows, no study has been done as far as I know. The reason we will continue to have over-warning a/k/a over-hyping (see this and this) is mainly because it feeds the whole government-media-industrial complex--media hype is good for ratings, politicians and government officials get a lot of free publicity as well as justification for whole bureaucracies funded by taxpayers, and sales (and prices) spike for everything from supplies to contractor repairs (scam artists are already in Florida ready to exploit the vulnerable). In other words, there is too much money being made for there to be an end to overhyping.
Having encountered hurricanes while bluewater sailing, and residing in Florida in 2004 when 4 hurricanes (3 major) hit the state, I will share my experience. There are two primary categories of things you need to know when it comes to hurricanes:
Hurricane: its location, direction and forward speed of movement (projected path), and maximum sustained winds (Category 1,2,3,4,5).
You: your location, including elevation (on land), your infrastructure (housing, utilities, supplies, transport), your own capabilities to cope with hurricane conditions, and finally, your responsibilities to others (e.g., parents, spouse, children, etc.)
From an assessment of the above, one must decide (in advance) whether to 1) evacuate, or 2) shelter-in-place. Based on what I know, and have experienced, and speaking only for myself, I probably would not have evacuated for Hurricane Matthew unless I was living in a low-lying (storm surge is the biggest danger) coastal area in the affected area (in Florida, e.g., along the east coast from Palm Beach to the GA-FL state line). Everyone's situation is different. However there are key facts about Hurricane Matthew that the media either ignored or were ignorant of: in the northern hemisphere, when a hurricane is moving north (like Matthew), the eastern half of the hurricane is the most dangerous because you add wind speed to the hurricane's forward motion speed, whereas on the western side (the 'Florida side' in Matthew's case, or counterclockwise from its leading edge), you subtract the hurricane's forward motion speed from the hurricane's wind speed, read more here (pdf).
• Who will buy Twitter? Recode.net reported this week that everyone has lost interest in acquiring Twitter $TWTR (see this week's chart below) other than perhaps Salesforce.com, Inc., $CRM, whose CEO is Marc Benioff. We should know something definitive before the end of the month. See also:Why Twitter Will Be Bought | SeekingAlpha.comand"Twitter is a news medium. It’s all about information."--Today’s Twitter Rules | Lefsetz.com.
Twitter shares dropped 20% from Wednesday's close thru Friday
• Google Pixel, Home, etc: A Guide to Google's Gear:
Google is taking shots at Amazon, Apple and Samsung with its new line up of hardware products announced Tuesday. Here's a look at the five new products the company is launching for the 2016 holiday season. Video above published by WSJ.com Oct 5, 2016.
Remember when Google bought Motorola and actually made smartphones? Well, Google's back in the smartphone business (with help from HTC and others), and if you want a premium smartphone, priced accordingly, here's your chance. Google Smartphones:Pixel is $649 for 32GB, $749 for 128GB; Pixel XL is $769 for 32GB, $869 for 128GB; pre-order now, ships Oct. 20 in Quite Black, Really Blue, Very Silver. Buy via Google store, Project Fi, BestBuy, or Verizon.
• How is the Apple iPhone 7 Doing? (NASDAQ:AAPL)--SeekingAlpha.com: "Data points suggest new phones off to a slow start. Supply issues and SE model likely influencing sales."
• EU vs Google: The European Union’s competition regulator is intending to force changes to Google-parent Alphabet Inc.’s ($GOOG, $GOOGL) business practices and levying significant fines for breaching the EU’s antitrust rules, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal--WSJ.com. Google has until October 31 to reply to EU's Android antitrust charges.
• Fake Internet Traffic: Audience Numbers Are Garbage, And Nobody Knows How Many People See Anything--Techdirt.com: "... internet traffic is [at least] half-fake and everyone's known it for years, but there's no incentive to actually acknowledge it ... so much of the advertising industry is pure waste ..."
• Julian Assange vows Google &US electionleaks as WikiLeaks.org turns 10--CNET.com: Assange denied reports that he intended to harm the campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, although he did describe the reaction to leaks of Democratic emails as "neo-McCarthy-esque hysteria." Asked if he had any affinity for Clinton's Republican rival Donald Trump, Assange said, "I feel sorry for Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. They are two people that are tormented by their ambitions."
• Political activists turning to chatbots--AI bots (artificial-intelligence-powered bots) that respond to user queries on platforms like Facebook Messenger, as a way of staying in contact with "hard to reach younger, mobile-centric voters"--Politico.com.
• Amazon.com Inc. ($AMZN) is cracking down on biased customer reviews by banning incentivized reviews of free or discounted products--TheVerge.com.
• Uber-killer? A Waze.com trial program is now confirmed to be gradually extending to Waze Rider users in the San Francisco area--SeekingAlpha.com. For more: waze.com/carpool.
• Earnings Season (Q3 2016 earnings results) preview: For third quarter (ending Sep 30), 2016, the estimated earnings decline for the S&P 500 is -2.1%. If the index reports a decline in earnings for Q3, it will mark the first time the index has recorded six consecutive quarters of year-over-year declines in earnings since FactSet.com began tracking the data in Q3 2008--read more here (pdf).
Companies on Domain Mondo's coverage list:
Alibaba BABA
Alphabet GOOG
Amazon AMZN
Apple AAPL
Facebook FB
GoDaddy GDDY
Neustar NSR
Rightside NAME
Twitter TWTR
Video above published Oct 3, 2016 by WikiLeaks.org: "WikiLeaks has published 10 million documents over the last 10 years -- an average of 3,000 documents per day. What are the top 10? To support go to https://wikileaks.org/donate."
Tuesday’s anniversary party in Berlin commemorated the October 4, 2006, registration of its domain name wikileaks.org. WikiLeaks launched with its founder Julian Assange saying it would use encryption and a censorship-proof website to protect sources and publicize secret information, and it first caught the world's attention when it released manuals for prison guards at Guantanamo Bay.
WikiLeaks is often subjected to attacks, even by news organizations. “We believe in what we’re doing,” Julian Assange told Spiegel. “The attacks only make us stronger.” Setting the record straight*:
1. Is WikiLeaks an “agent” of any government such as Russia? No.
2. Does WikiLeaks seek to play a partisan role in the US election? No.
3. Has anyone come to physical harm as a result of WikiLeaks publications? No.
4. Did WikiLeaks publish the details of millions of Turkish women voters? No.
5. Did WikiLeaks recently expose visitors to its website to malware? No.
6. Did WikiLeaks recently expose gay citizens of Saudi Arabia to increased danger? No.
7. Did the Democratic National Party break Payment Card Industry (PCI) requirements on credit card record keeping and state laws on social security number storage by holding credit card details and social security numbers as carelessly as they did? Yes.
*For details see: https://wikileaks.org/10years/WikiLeaks10yrsPressPack.pdf
Feature •IANA Transition Drama in D.C.:Less than three weeks to go before the IANA Stewardship Transition is complete on October 1, 2016, and Republicans in Washington, D.C., have multiple forays underway in a last-ditch effort to delay the transition and extend the IANA functions contract which will otherwise expire September 30, 2016. Meanwhile ICANN and pro-transition forces in Washington are countering. For more see on Domain Mondo:
This coming week U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) will hold a subcommittee hearing entitled "Protecting Internet Freedom: Implications of Ending U.S. Oversight of the Internet,"--United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary | judiciary.senate.gov: Subcommittee on Oversight, Agency Action, Federal Rights and Federal Courts, Wednesday, September 14, 2016, at 10:00 AM EDT, in Dirksen Senate Office Building 226, Washington, D.C., Chairman Cruz presiding. See alsoICANN fight intensifies ahead of Cruz-called hearing | POLITICO.com: Jamie Hedlund, VP of strategic programs in ICANN's Global Domains Division, argued in an interview with POLITICO.com that opposition was coming from individuals "who don't understand fundamentally what's at issue."
andThe ICANN Debate: 6 Things You Need to Know | heritage.org: "... six key points you need to know on this issue from Heritage expert Brett Schaefer ... 'the Obama administration has allowed political concerns to trump prudence and U.S. officials have downplayed and dismissed the many legitimate concerns that people have raised about the transition because it wants the transition to occur before it leaves office.'..."
Feature • ICANN and Zika--tweets from #ICANN57 this past week:
If you need a 1 hour webinar and two blog posts to explain how to get to the #ICANN meeting, maybe you picked the wrong location. #ICANN57
@ICANN said on #ICANN57 webinar today, #zika has been endemic to India since 2013. Why, then, was this mtg moved from Puerto Rico to India?
Other ICANN, Internet Governance, and Domain Name News:
• The South China Morning Post has suddenly shut down its Chinese-language website | Quartz | qz.com: "... the Chinese-language website [domain: nanzao.com] of Hong Kong’s main English newspaper, the South China Morning Post, is gone ... The South China Morning Post was acquired by Jack Ma, one of China’s richest men and the founder of e-commerce platform Alibaba, in December 2015. Joseph Tsai, the executive vice-chairman of Alibaba, told the New York Times then that the decision to purchase the newspaper was made in order to provide coverage of China that was untouched by the “negative” bias of the Western media. In 2013, Jack Ma was reportedly furious at the Chinese language website of the South China Morning Post after it ran an interview with him, in which he said that the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square was “the most correct decision.”..."
• New gTLD Registry Operator and Registrar Rightside (eNom.com, Name.com), CEO Taryn Naidu, and CFO Tracy Knox, will be conducting one-on-one institutional investor meetings at the 2016 Deutsche Bank Technology Conference on Tuesday, September 13, 2016, at the Encore at Wynn Las Vegas. A copy of the investor presentation will be available in the Investors section of Rightside's website. Rightside shares (NASDAQ: NAME) have declined -32.86% since August 10th:
• New gTLD Registry and Registrar services provider Centralnic Group PLC (LON: CNIC) reported first-half 2016 results this past week: adjusted pre-tax profits of £948,000, though after tax the group had a £1,306,000 loss. $CNIC shares have declined -13.33% since August 10th (see chart above). Centralnic CEO's Statement: "The domain name industry is undergoing a period of disruption and consolidation ..."
• Trump Org. Beats Defamation Claim From Domain Name Pitchman | NewYorkLawJournal.com: "... Brooklyn federal Judge Eric Vitaliano said the complaint in Stephens v. Trump Organization, 15-cv-2217, failed in every respect. Vitaliano said, "It is inconceivable that Stephens could, as the silence in his papers emphasizes, plead any facts that would entitle him to co-opt the Trump name" or "that any words used by the Trump defendants to denounce cybersquatting (in all its forms) would be defamatory."..."
• John McAfee, creator of antivirus software, sues Intel for right to use his name: "McAfee joined digital gaming company MGT Capital Investments Inc as chairman and chief executive, and plans to rename the company 'John McAfee Global Technologies Inc.'''--domain-b.com.Intel acquired the McAfeetrademark (mcafee.com, @mcafee) in 2010, and utilizes the name in connection with its cybersecurity unit called "Intel Security." See alsoIntel Sells a Majority Stake of Cybersecurity Unit to TPG | NYTimes.com: "Under the terms of the deal, [the spinoff] will borrow money to pay out a roughly $2 billion dividend to Intel, which will retain a 49 percent stake in the business. TPG will pay $1.1 billion in cash for a 51 percent stake. The business, currently called Intel Security, will again adopt the McAfee name when the deal closes, which is expected in the second quarter of 2017."
• Internet in Russia freer than in US, claims top Kremlin official | rt.com: "Volodin was giving a press conference in the central Russian city of Tambov, where a local reporter asked him to comment on the possibility of introducing a rule that would require social networks to obtain ID from their users “so that people could know who is on the other side of the internet.” The official replied that unlike many countries, Russia has chosen self-regulation on the internet and he saw no need to change this."
• Open Internet Advocates Claim Victory in Europe Net Neutrality Fight: "The BEREC guidelines state that internet users “have the right to access and distribute information and content, use and provide applications and services, and use terminal equipment of their choice, irrespective of the end-user’s or provider’s location or the location, origin or destination of the information, content, application or service, via their internet access service.”"--Motherboard.Vice.com.
• Facebook’s satellite went up in smoke, but its developing world land grab goes on | Emily Reynolds | Opinion | TheGuardian.com: "The whole point of the internet – the joy of it, the endlessly radical possibilities that are part and parcel of it – is that it’s open, that it’s neutral, that its users are free to say, do, and read almost anything they want on it."
• How internet pirates became a political force in Iceland | newstatesman.com: "In 2013, five months after its founding, the Pirate Party won three of Iceland’s 63 parliamentary seats – the only one of the world’s thirty or so officially registered Pirate Parties with a presence in a national legislature – and it is expected to gain between 15 and 20 in the elections later this year. It has been quite a rise for an activist movement that initially focused on internet freedom and copyright reform."
World's fastest optic undersea cable now links U.S. to Japan and Taiwan: "... in June, the six-member FASTER Consortium began beaming light through the FASTER cable [which] connects the United States and Japan ... we [Google] invested in a cable that links FASTER in Japan on to Taiwan, where our largest data center in Asia ..."--googleblog.com. See also: FASTER Cable System | NEC.com and FASTER | Wikipedia.org.
"Amazon.com Inc. is pursuing video rights to a wide range of sports, including the French Open tennis championship and professional rugby, as the company looks for ways to draw new customers to its online TV service"--Bloomberg.com
Apple's new iPhones: 'The Thrill Is Gone'--if what I have already is good enough why should I upgrade?--See "'Good Enough' theory could be taking hold"--SeekingAlpha.com. See also Samsung out as much as $1 billion for Note 7 recall, will reportedly stop using its own batteries--9to5Google.com.
IoT: A Zion research report indicates the commercial telematics market is set to grow from $20.42 billion in 2015 to $55.14 billion by the end of 2021, at a CAGR of more than 18% between 2016 and 2021.--ConnectedCar-news.com
Can Uber Make A Profit?"... unclear whether Uber is a sustainable long-term business that justifies its current valuation. Ride services are fungible and thus competition will drive down prices to the point of marginal supply."--SeekingAlpha.com
Tech Startups Face Dwindling Funding | WSJ.com: "China’s technology startups were red-hot for years. Today, the catchphrase among some in the industry to describe the funding environment is “deep winter.”"
Shopping Malls in Crisis: "[L]andlords are essentially making the case that Aeropostale is better off with only a fourth of its brick-and-mortar locations, ideally in the best-performing malls where traffic trends haven't been pummeled. The companycan then pursue growth through online sales, as well as licensing pacts and wholesale contracts in the U.S. and abroad -- much as Authentic Brands is trying to do with Juicy Couture."--Bloomberg.com
Fundamental Attribution Error, Why Predicting Behavior Is Hard--FarnamStreetBlog.com
A Farewell Guide to Political Journalism | TheAtlantic.com by Ron Fournier: "A reporter’s job isn’t to make friends. It’s ... to hold powerful people accountable. Remember the Balz lesson: Your sources are more likely to respect you if they’re a little afraid of you. Don’t cede power to the powerful."
