Monday, September 30, 2019

Data Sheet: Google and copyright ‘blackmail’

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September 30, 2019

French publishers are seething over Google's decision to stop including snippets in its search results for news. Google made the decision it would remove the snippets—short blurbs that summarize the story—rather than pay the publishers a fee under a new copyright law. In the view of one French executive, Google's behavior is "like blackmail."


Others might describe Google's decision to yank the snippets another way: commonsense. Faced with a choice of paying every publisher a royalty to show the snippets or simply removing them, Google made the logical business decision to remove them. It's not the first time Google has done this: When Spain passed a law in 2015 requiring websites to pay for news links, the company shut down Google News in that country.


In the case of Spain, the country's news publishers—which had pushed for the law—shot themselves in the foot since traffic to their websites declined significantly without Google News. Now, France appears poised to make the same mistake. Screaming "blackmail" does not change the fact the publishers made a poor policy choice by pushing for a subsidy in the form of an ill-conceived copyright law.


The law in question is France's implementation of an EU directive that lets countries require a copyright license to link to even a few words from a news story. The law is controversial because it appears tilted to favor big publishers (small publishers oppose it because they want the traffic from Google), while also making it harder to share basic information online. Rather than being rooted in traditional copyright law—what the French call droit d'auteur—France's law appears to be designed for publishers to demand a check from Google.


This isn't to say Google, as well as Facebook, shouldn't do more for the news industry. As Adam hasn't been shy about pointing out, the tech giants have gobbled an enormous share of the advertising dollars that once belonged to traditional news companies—all while ignoring the ethical obligations of being a media platform. But distorting copyright law with onerous linking licenses isn't the way to solve this. That's why Google's decision last week doesn't amount to blackmail. It's a rational response to an unreasonable law.


(Thanks for reading. Robert Hackett and I will be filling in for Adam and Aaron, who are out till Wednesday. More news below).


Jeff John Roberts


On Twitter: @jeffjohnroberts


Email: jeff.roberts@Fortune.com


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NEWSWORTHY


Step into the sunlight. Facebook has fallen short on its plan to share data on disinformation for academics and others to study. In April 2018, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he hoped his company would share its "first results" by the end of that year. Eighteen months later, the 2020 presidential race is kicking into gear and Facebook has struggled to share information for fear of breaching users' privacy. 


Window-shopping. Browser-makers Google and Mozilla are planning to apply a new standard to "domain name service," a phonebook-like Internet tool essential for connecting to and loading websites. The move, which would encrypt DNS by default, aims to improve the security and privacy of web browsing. Internet Service Providers, like Comcast and AT&T, stand to lose insights about their customers' web browsing habits; they argue the change is anticompetitive.


There's a starman waiting in the sky. At a Sept. 28th event in Boca Chica, Texas, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk set a characteristically ambitious timeline for his company's Starship rocket to blast off. "This is going to sound totally nuts, but I think we want to try to reach orbit in less than six months," he said. A 65,000-foot tall, stainless steel prototype of the spacecraft towered behind him during the press conference.


Securitize this. A coalition of U.S. cryptocurrency exchanges has banded together to create a rating system for evaluating which digital assets regulators are likely to deem securities, and thus unable to be traded on their platforms. Members of the group include Coinbase, Circle, Kraken, and Bittrex. The Securities and Exchange Commission has not endorsed the initiative. 


In the Middle Kingdom. An unnamed source familiar with the financials at ByteDance, the Chinese firm behind the social media phenom TikTok, told CNBC that the company booked revenues of about $8 billion for the first half of the year, beating expectations. Chinese video game maker Tencent took at 29% stake in Funcom, a Norwegian game developer. And Chinese phone-maker Huawei has opened a three-story flagship store in Shenzhen .


Pole-dancing. Google Cloud is opening a new cloud hub in Warsaw, Poland. The business unit's CEO, Thomas Kurian, said he planned to seize on sales growth in Europe, which is topping every other region globally. 


FOOD FOR THOUGHT


What more is there to say about WeWork, the hyper-growth, not-a-tech startup sporting an incredible shrinking valuation? A lot, apparently. Add Julie Bort at Business Insider's chronicling of the firm's crazed corporate culture to your reading list. She spoke to 20 recent and former WeWork employees about their experience inside the meat-banning, tequila-shooting "non-stop party."


For [WeWork's chairman and former CEO Adam] Neumann and anyone who worked for him, WeWork was all consuming, a place where the boundary between work and play not only didn't exist, but was fused together.


From meetings laden with tequila shots to mandatory company retreats filled with sounds of people having sex, working at WeWork meant signing up for a lifestyle that embraced, to an extreme degree, the no-holds-barred "hustle" culture the company promoted to clients.


The non-stop party, combined with the promise of a big payday, was intoxicating — at least at first.


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Content From Turn Data into Doing

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT


Charles Schwab on the Lessons He's Learned Over a Lifetime of Investing By Robert Hackett


Disinformation for Hire: How Russian PR Firms Plant Stories for Companies in U.K. News Outlets, Social Media By Jeff John Roberts


'The Cheap Money Era': 2019's IPOs Have Delivered Some Harsh Lessons to Venture Capital By Anne Sraders


From Premium Speakers to Privacy, Amazon Has a Plan to Make Alexa Sound Even Better By JP Mangalindan


A Shift in Strategy: Why Apple Is Offering Cheaper Streaming and iPhones By Aaron Pressman


Huawei CEO Has an Elaborate Plan to Create a 5G Rival in the U.S. By Naomi Xu Elegant


The Trump-Zelensky Call Was Transcribed Using Voice Recognition Software. Is That Secure? By David Z. Morris



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BEFORE YOU GO


Got a case of the Mondays? Maybe consider blowing off steam by honking at strangers, wagging your tail-feather, and causing a general ruckus about town. That's the basic premise of Untitled Goose Game, a video game in which players inhabit an ill-tempered goose who terrorizes a quaint English village.


"People seem to have this very particular relationship with geese," one of the game's developers, Nico Disseldorp, told Polygon in a recent interview. "They're kind of afraid of them. Geese can be really aggressive. They're a very powerful animal that people have lots of feelings about. But they're not seen as evil or wicked like a snake or a scorpion."


As Lizzo says, blame it on the goose.


This edition of Data Sheet was curated by Robert Hackett. Find past issues, and sign up for other Fortune newsletters.


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Fortune's Most Powerful Women issue—all in one place

The daily dish on the world's most powerful women.

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September 30, 2019

Good morning, Broadsheet readers! It’s been one year since Christine Blasey Ford testified, Rent the Runway deals with operational chaos, and here’s everything from Fortune’s Most Powerful Women issue—all in one place. Have a terrific Monday. 


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EVERYONE'S TALKING


- All MPW, all the time. All last week, we brought you the gradual rollout of everything from Fortune's annual Most Powerful Women issue of the magazine. Now, please forgive the over-promotion—it's an exciting time for us!—but we thought you might want to see it all in one place. 


In case you missed it, below you can find all the MPW lists, from business to politics; the features, from Starbucks to Wall Street; and more (plus, read on for your usual Broadsheet news). It's a powerful collection of journalism documenting the powerful women who control the fates of companies from Netflix to Old Navy. 


When you finish reading, never fear—MPW season isn't over yet. In a few weeks, the Most Powerful Women Summit will kick off in Washington, D.C. You can take an early look at those details here. 


Thank you for reading along. We're so thrilled to have you as part of our Broadsheet and MPW communities.


 Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
@_emmahinchliffe


THE MPW ISSUE


- The MPWs. The main event: 2019's Most Powerful Women in Business list. From No. 1 Marillyn Hewson, Lockheed Martin CEO, to No. 50 Bank of America's Anne Finucane and everyone in between, these are the women to know. Click through the list for video interviews with many of the honorees: Fortune


- Ones to watch. For some early intel on who might make the MPW list next year, look here. These 10 women, including newly installed Rite Aid CEO Heyward Donigan and Chase Consumer Banking CEO Thasunda Brown Duckett, are ones to watch. Fortune


- International edition. Want a global perspective? Then these are the 50 women to know. Our Most Powerful Women International list is led by Banco Santander executive chairman Ana Botín. These executives hail from 19 countries and every continent except Antarctica. Fortune


- Let's get political. And for a political point of view, head here. These 25 women are among the most powerful in national politics—for their positions (ahem, Pelosi), the impact of their ideas, their effect on the national economy, and their status as not king- but queen-makers. by Emma Hinchliffe


- Are you still watching? The streaming wars are heating up—$4.99 Apple TV+, anyone?—and these are the executives on the front lines at Netflix. Former ABC Entertainment boss Channing Dungey, VP of original content Cindy Holland, whose time at Netflix dates back to its red-envelope days, and their colleagues are leading the streamer into battle. by Michal Lev-Ram


- Boys' club. A decade ago, Wall Street seemed poised to put its first woman in the top job at a major bank. What happened? The women who almost made it to the corner office and the ones who are still trying tell the story of how the industry fell behind. It's an evergreen tale, considering Wells Fargo kept the glass ceiling intact last week. by Claire Zillman


- The new admiral. Old Navy CEO Sonia Syngal will be at the head of an $8 billion company when the retailer splits from Gap Inc. It's an exciting time for Old Navy, but choppy waters lie ahead. by Phil Wahba 


- Perfect Brew. When Starbucks needed a boost, it turned to Roz Brewer. The former Sam's Club CEO has instilled discipline throughout the coffee chain's stores with her trademark tough decisions and "pour-over-level" focus. by Beth Kowitt


MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Grace Overlander, former head of powertrain production engineering at Tesla, joins Pinnacle Engines as CEO. 


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Content From Deloitte

Workplace of the Future
Widespread changes are occurring to workplaces around the world. But how can organizations help ensure their workplace design clearly communicates their story, history, values, culture, talent objectives, and outlook for the future? Deloitte explores. Read more


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ALSO IN THE HEADLINES


- Better to buy than rent? If you're a Rent the Runway subscriber, you probably noticed some issues last week. The company, led by CEO Jen Hyman, has been in the midst of operational chaos, with orders arriving to renters late or not at all; it blames the problems on "a significant transformation" to its fulfillment operations. A supply-chain executive stepped down, and the company is offering unhappy customers $200 cash. Fortune


- What Dr. Ford taught us. It's been one year since Christine Blasey Ford testified during Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation hearing. Ten women reflect on where they were during the testimony and what they've learned since. So does Ana Maria Archila, who confronted Sen. Jeff Flake in an elevator over his Kavanaugh vote. 


- A feminist tour. As her tour of South Africa continues, Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex met with women's rights activists and visited the memorial of Uyinene Mrwetyana, a 19-year-old University of Cape Town student whose murder sparked national protests over gender-based violence. Vanity Fair


- Over the line. As the consensus grows among Democrats in favor of impeachment, there's focus on the members of Congress that pushed the issue over the line. The "security Democrats"—Virginia's Abigail Spanberger, New Jersey's Mikie Sherrill, and five more—didn't favor impeachment during the Mueller investigation but say the Ukraine issue is different. A framing by CNN of the five female members in this group as "leaders on impeachment" received some flack this weekend (AOC, Rashida Tlaib, and Maxine Waters were much earlier Democratic advocates of the issue), but this new pro-impeachment cohort is taking a stand now. In more Ukraine news: how former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie L. Yovanovitch is reportedly being made a scapegoat in all this.


Share today's Broadsheet with a friend. Looking for previous Broadsheets? Click here.


ON MY RADAR


Why it matters that 'Emily Doe' in the Brock Turner case is Asian-American New York Times


WeWork was a family affair, until things got complicated Bloomberg


The woman behind Microsoft's fashion push Vogue Business


What Hollywood's movies about aging starlets keep leaving out Slate



.

QUOTE


"In times like these, you can never have enough text threads with girlfriends..."


-Hillary Clinton, on Twitter


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