Techdirt: Universal Music Claims Copyright Over Newly Public Domain ‘Yes! We Have No Bananas’. “One of the signature works of the public domain class of 1923 was the song Yes! We Have No Bananas by composers Irving Cohn and Frank Silver. As of January 1st, anyone was free to make use of that song. Indeed, in our own Public Domain Game Jam competition, we actually had not one, but two separate game entries based on ‘Yes! We Have No Bananas.’ But, of course, even if Hollywood wasn’t going to push for term extension, that doesn’t mean it won’t do what it always does, and pull other levers.”
The House and Senate finally agree on something: Robocalls (TechCrunch)
TechCrunch: The House and Senate finally agree on something: Robocalls. “In these times of political strife, it’s nice that despite our differences we can still band together as a nation in the face of a catastrophe that affects us all equally. I speak, of course, of robocalls, and it seems that the House and Senate have put their differences aside for the present in order to collaborate on a law combating this scourge.”
Indiana University: IU launches CitizIN app, a new interactive tool for teaching about Indiana studies
Indiana University: IU launches CitizIN app, a new interactive tool for teaching about Indiana studies. “The Center on Representative Government at Indiana University and the IU Office of the Bicentennial have publicly launched the new CitizIN app, a free interactive game that explores 200 years of Indiana history. CitizIN supports the teaching of Indiana studies and the incorporation of Indiana topics into a standard U.S. history course.”
RTL News: Digital slave registers Suriname are ‘warning against slavery’
From RTL News, and translated from Dutch by Google Translate: Digital slave registers Suriname are ‘warning against slavery’. “It took two years, but tomorrow is finally there: the Surinamese slave registers have been fully digitized. The records contain about eighty thousand names of slave owners and people who lived in slavery in Suriname between 1826 and 1863, as well as information about the birth, death, sale and release of slaves.” I didn’t recall hearing about Suriname, so I looked it up and fell smack down a rabbit hole.
University of Southern California: With support from Google, USC Annenberg expands effort to protect elections from digital attacks
University of Southern California: With support from Google, USC Annenberg expands effort to protect elections from digital attacks. “USC Annenberg’s Center on Communication Leadership and Policy (CCLP), together with partners from across USC, is launching an innovative training program that empowers election and campaign officials nationwide to reinforce their defenses against digital attacks that may affect the integrity and outcome of elections. With generous support from Google, the bipartisan initiative will provide in-state training sessions in all 50 states. Election 2020 is just 12 months away, and experts anticipate that the United States will be the target of foreign and domestic cyberattacks that could compromise the country’s infrastructure, local and state governments, and news and information. “
Nieman Lab: News portals like Yahoo still bring Democrats and Republicans together for political news, but they’re fading fast
Nieman Lab: News portals like Yahoo still bring Democrats and Republicans together for political news, but they’re fading fast. “‘We observe segregation in political news consumption.’ In this working paper, ‘Partisan Enclaves and Information Bazaars: Mapping Selective Exposure to Online News,’ Stanford researchers examined a ‘data set of web browsing behavior collected during the 2016 U.S. presidential election’ to see how Democrats and Republicans seek out news sources and how they change their news consumption levels in response to different political events. (The data set is from YouGov and was also used in this paper.)”
Mashable: Facebook ad scam tricks users with images and video of Kickstarter products
Mashable: Facebook ad scam tricks users with images and video of Kickstarter products . “A devious new scam is sweeping Facebook. Scammers find an interesting or popular product from crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter or Indiegogo, rip the item’s details, photos, and videos, and push them via Facebook ads as their own products. Victims of the fraud are either never sent the product or receive a knockoff version.”
