Archives for July 2020

“We are glad that both Ms. Judd and Mr. Weinstein will have their day in court, where we expect the truth will come to light,” she said. “The most minimal investigation of the events will show that Mr. Weinstein neither defamed Ms. Judd, nor hindered or interfered with her career, and certainly never retaliated against her and indeed, had nothing to retaliate for.”

Ms. Kupferstein said that Mr. Weinstein “fought” for Ms. Judd as his first choice for the lead role in the 1997 film “Good Will Hunting” and arranged for her to fly to New York to be considered for the part. She did not get it.

Mr. Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison in March after he was convicted of rape and criminal sexual assault in a separate criminal case in Manhattan.

Ms. Judd contends that Mr. Weinstein invited her to the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills in late 1996 or early 1997 to discuss movie roles, but instead of meeting in a public place, Mr. Weinstein summoned her to his room. According to the lawsuit, Mr. Weinstein, who was wearing a bathrobe, asked Ms. Judd for a massage and to watch him take a shower.

After Ms. Judd declined, she contends, she was passed over for major roles, including being cast in the “Lord of the Rings” films, which made $2.5 billion in ticket sales and earned 30 Oscar nominations.

Ms. Judd filed the lawsuit after the director and producer Peter Jackson came forward and said that he removed Ms. Judd from a “Lord of the Rings” casting list “as a direct result” of what he now thought was “false information” provided by Mr. Weinstein.

Ms. Judd’s lawsuit contends that Mr. Weinstein told Mr. Jackson and a producer that Mr. Weinstein had a “bad experience” with Ms. Judd and that she was “a nightmare to work with.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/29/business/media/judd-weinstein-lawsuit-appeal.html

The length of the hearing may also be prolonged since the antitrust issues facing Apple, Facebook, Google and Amazon are complex and vastly different.

Amazon is accused of abusing its role as both a retailer and a platform hosting third-party sellers on its marketplace. Apple has been accused of unfairly using its clout over its App Store to block rivals and to force apps to pay high commissions. Rivals have said Facebook has a monopoly in social networking. Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is dealing with multiple antitrust allegations because of Google’s dominance in online advertising, search and smartphone software.

Democrats may also veer off the topic of antitrust and bring up concerns about misinformation on social media. Some Republicans are expected to sidetrack discussion with their concerns of liberal bias at the Silicon Valley companies and accusations that conservative voices are censored.

“There was an attitude these were great American companies that created jobs and that we should have a hands-off approach and let them flourish,” Mr. Cicilline said in an interview. “But there are a lot of serious issues we have uncovered over the course of the investigation that weren’t apparent when we first began investigating.”

Facebook, Amazon, Google and Apple declined to comment.

For the chief executives, the hearing will be a test of how they perform under fire. Mr. Bezos, 56, has not previously testified to Congress, while Mr. Cook, 59, and Mr. Pichai, 48, have both testified once before. Mr. Zuckerberg, 36, the youngest of the group, has the distinction of being the veteran: He has answered questions at three congressional hearings in the past two years as Facebook has dealt with issues such as election interference and privacy violations.

But none are taking any chances for the event to go awry. Mr. Zuckerberg, who had been at his 750-acre estate on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, has been preparing for his testimony with the law firm WilmerHale, according to people with knowledge of the matter. And a small team is working with Mr. Bezos for his testimony in Seattle, said people with knowledge of the matter.

For weeks, the tech giants have also waged a lobbying battle to soften any blows. All four chief executives planned to call lawmakers on the House subcommittee in the days before the hearing, said three people with knowledge of the preparations who were not authorized to speak publicly.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/28/technology/amazon-apple-facebook-google-antitrust-hearing.html

Mr. Heider pointed to a few examples: Instead of Google Chrome, people can download great browsers, including DuckDuckGo, Brave and Opera, which focus on stronger privacy and security protections. Instead of Facebook, we can tell our friends to hang out with us on social media apps like Vero and Mastodon, which are both ad-free, he said.

The same goes for Amazon. Instead of ordering paper towels and hand sanitizer on Amazon, consider picking up those items at a local store. Instead of ordering a new dog collar on Amazon, consider buying a custom-made one from an independent merchant on Etsy.

Mr. Fried says he rarely shops on Amazon, takes cabs instead of Ubers and finds books via IndieBound, a resource for buying titles from local bookstores. “When the default is just Amazon, Amazon, Amazon, you’re just feeding the flame,” he said.

Why buy new? Buy used

Speaking of alternatives, there’s a different way to buy tech hardware altogether: Purchase gadgets used or refurbished.

When you buy a new phone or computer, your dollars go directly to the tech giants who created the products. But when you buy used, you are supporting a broader community of small businesses that repair and resell equipment.

Many of us generally shy away from used electronics because we fear the products may be in shoddy condition. The reality is that resellers work with technicians who restore products to their former glory before putting them up on sale — and the gadgets are often backed by a warranty. Reputable vendors of used goods include GameStop and Gazelle.

Buying used also contributes to a broader mission: the so-called right to repair movement.

Unlike car mechanics, small electronics repair shops have limited access to the parts and instructions that they need to service our smartphones, tablets and computers. Public advocacy groups and the repair community have pushed to pass legislation that would require electronics manufacturers to share all of the components and information needed to fix our gadgets.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/29/technology/personaltech/big-tech-power-how-to-fight.html

Mr. Zuckerberg is likely to point to TikTok, a Chinese-backed video app, as a sign that competition in social networking is thriving.

TikTok, which only became popular in the past few years, remains Facebook’s best evidence that it does not have a stranglehold on innovation and new products. Citing TikTok also gives Facebook political points amid a geopolitical battle between the Trump administration and China.

Even so, Facebook is the undisputed king of social networking. About 2.99 billion people around the world use one or more of its family of apps, including Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram, each month. That dwarfs TikTok’s 800 million monthly worldwide users.

Tencent’s WeChat, which is huge in China, has 1.2 billion monthly active users. Other social networks are much smaller. Twitter has 186 million daily users, while Snap, the maker of Snapchat — which Facebook previously tried to buy — has 238 million.

Mr. Zuckerberg will most likely point to the vast digital ads marketplace to argue that Facebook has no advertising monopoly.

Google, with about 29.4 percent market share of digital advertising in the United States, is Facebook’s best argument to defend against accusations of cornering the market. The social network also has noted that Twitter, Pinterest, Snap, YouTube, Amazon and Apple are vying for the same ad dollars.

Facebook has also said there should be no distinguishing between digital and traditional outlets competing for ad dollars. If Facebook is tussling with television, radio and print outlets to court advertiser spending, then its piece of the overall pie looks smaller.

Yet there is no question Facebook is a large presence in digital advertising. The company is expected to haul in more than $73.8 billion in ad revenue this year, even with the pandemic, according to estimates from eMarketer. For 2020, its share of U.S. digital advertising is set to be about 23.4 percent, eMarketer said.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/29/technology/tech-ceos-congress-what-to-know.html