[Plura-list] Web-wide copyright filters would be a disaster; Apartment buildings didn't cause the pandemic; Unmasking the registrants of the "reopen" websites; Covid burns through Charter Cable employees

[Cory Doctorow]

Reminder! I'm speaking at the Flatten the Curve Summit this morning at
9AM Pacfic (https://flattenthecurve.tech/) and doing a Canada Reads Q&A
tomorrow
(https://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/ask-the-canada-reads-authors-your-questions-live-on-facebook-1.5512394).

--

Today's links

* Web-wide copyright filters would be a disaster: No filternet. Not
before, and especially not now.

* Apartment buildings didn't cause the pandemic: The problem with slums
is slumlords, not buildings.

* Unmasking the registrants of the "reopen" websites: Koch Network,
grifters, GOP orgs and musketfuckers.

* Covid burns through Charter Cable employees: The company forced its
workers to go to the office, denied PPE to field techs.

* Disney heiress slams top execs' compensation: Abigail Disney wants the
C-suite to zero out their bonuses.

* This day in history: None.

* Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing
projects, current reading.

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🤢 Web-wide copyright filters would be a disaster

I have enormous sympathy for artists suffering financial anxiety during
the pandemic. I have 3 books out in 2020 and my family was really
counting on them selling well to pay our bills, so I really, really get it.

The anxiety is real and justified, but music-industry calls to force US
online services to filter everything we post with automated copyright
filters are not. They are a terrible, awful idea.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/04/copyright-and-crisis-filters-are-not-answer

Anyone who's ever dealt with existing copyright filters - like Youtube's
Content ID - knows that they are (and this is being charitable), a giant
fucking flaming shit-show that everyone hates with the heat of a
thousand suns.

Not only do these filters fail to police copyright adequately (source:
the exact same people calling for MOAR FILTERZ), they also flag and
block entire libraries' worth of legit material.

It's hard to overstate just how bad the overblocking is. Youtube blocked
a panel where copyright experts discussed how its blocking system
worked. That video was only unblocked because one of the experts knew a
top lawyer at Youtube and made a call.

https://www.eff.org/takedowns/automated-copyright-filter-cant-detect-infringement-or-irony

Also blocked: classical musicans' own performances of centuries-old Bach
compositions. Birdsong. Silence. Static. Videos of adorable toddlers
dancing in their parents' kitchens.

And - this should surprise no one - when you create a system that allows
scumbags to fraudulently claim copyright to other peoples' work, with no
effective system to reverse those claims, scumbags do exactly that.

Sometimes it's to steal artists' money. Sometimes its to censor their
work. Sometimes it's to blackmail artists (three "copystrikes" and
Youtube nukes your account from orbit, with no recourse for you).

Filters aren't just bad at stopping infringement, nor merely bad at
permitting lawful material to pass, nor simply an invitation to fraud
and censorship.

They're also really, really expensive.

Content ID (the aforementioned flaming shit-show) cost *$100 million. So
far.*

You know how many online companies have an extra hundred mil kicking
around during the crisis? About five of 'em. The exact same Big Tech
companies that are ripping the rest of us off.

Big Tech is happy to cough up a mere $100m or so to annihilate every
possible competitor. $100m isn't chump change, but it represents a
*stellar bargain* as a fee for a Perpetual Internet Domination License.

And if you think Youtube and FB are hard get a decent deal out of in a
world where they have to worry about smaller competitors getting bigger,
just imagine what they'll be like once they've carved up the internet
forever.

I want a diverse, pluralistic internet, not five giant websites filled
with screenshots from the other four.

https://twitter.com/tveastman/status/1069674780826071040

Not just because  that's a better internet, but because it's a better
internet for artists.

The internet is already terrible enough, and it's all we've got to see
us through this crisis.

Subjecting every word, image, video and sound we upload to automated
black-box filters operated by high-handed faceless corps that can't be
bothered to answer their email?

That'll make it a billion times worse.

For everyone.

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🤢 Apartment buildings didn't cause the pandemic

You could be forgiven for thinking that Kate "McMansion Hell" is all
about dunking on McMansions (for obvious reasons), but Wagner is a
multiple threat. Here she is explaining why coronavirus doesn't prove
that apartment buildings are bad.

https://www.curbed.com/2020/4/22/21224935/coronavirus-density-debate-mcmansion-hell-kate-wagner

The pandemic has brought out a slew of idiotic criticisms on the lines
of "See, this proves that every city should be a sprawling, low-density
car-commuter paradise and everyone should have a standalone house with a
tiny private park to exercise in."

As Wagner points out, this NIMBY opportunism is incredibly bad faith:
Apartment buildings are inanimate objects. They didn't cause the
shortage of medical supplies. They didn't make Donald Trump procure bum
tests. They didn't prompt weeks of catastrophic denial and inaction.

It's true that badly maintained apartment buildings - lacking regular
cleaning and maintenance - represent a public health crisis accellerant.
But to blame the structure - and not the slumlord who chose to skimp on
maintenance - is obviously wrong.

What's more: the pandemic has spread in the suburbs just as readily as
it has spread in the built-up cities. Irrespective of the density of
your neighborhood, you still have to go grocery shopping, visit your
pharmacy, etc.

And if you get sick in a city, you have a better chance of getting care,
because high-density living can sustain higher densities of both medical
facilities and medical experts.

The pandemic is a runup for the waves of (far deadlier) emergencies we
will face due to the climate crisis. Cities - which sustain public
transit, and free up land for habitat and agriculture - are the only way
we'll weather those storms.

Regressing to sprawl in the name of fighting future pandemics is
incredibly shortsighted. Think of the crises visited upon our unplanned,
sprawling places - the Houston floods, say - and imagine trying to
socially distance and treat the sick during one of those disasters.

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🤢 Unmasking the registrants of the "reopen" websites

One of the best cybercrime sleuths is Brian Krebs. He used Domaintools
to list out all the "repen*.com" domains registered in the past month,
finding ~150. The registrants of most of these were redacted by the
registrars, but that didn't stop Krebs.

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2020/04/whos-behind-the-reopen-domain-surge/

By cross-referencing things like Google Analytics identifiers, Krebs was
able to assemble a (remarkably short) list of shadowy figures behind
this (very long) list of "Reopen" domains.

The rogues' gallery starts with the Dorr Brothers, a pair of grifters
who target gullible musketfuckers by running scare stories about looming
gun confiscations leading to prominent donation boxes that suck dollars
out of these bedwetting ammosexuals.

https://www.dorrbrotherscams.com/p/how-dorr-brothers-work.html

Next up, Freedomworks, an astroturf org founded with Koch money and
funded since with great sluicings of dark money, last seen as the
organizing force behind the Tea Party.

https://apnews.com/57f673f31fb343042e3806b9806e8f7d

Below them, a bunch of local GOP orgs: the Orange County Republicans,
the Horry County, SC Conservative Republicans, etc.

Then it's "In Pursuit Of LLC," a Koch-founded org whose employees
include several current and former Trump White House staffers.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/2016/12/07/charles-koch-launches-marketing-firm-major-overhaul-political-empire/95109784/

Here's a spreadsheet with domains and known or likely registrants.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HQnx-RvMM7BrpX1ysgjqzu8XkaDeu0w4gJgTtzB3dfk/edit

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🤢 Covid burns through Charter Cable employees

Charter is the garbage company I have to buy my internet from, due to
their monopolistic arrangement with my city, Burbank.

Charter doesn't give its field techs hazard pay or PPE. Instead they get
$25 gift cards for (closed down) restaurants.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/28/unreciprocated-solidarity/#charter-sucks

Charter's CEO, Thomas Rutledge, an asshole, decreed that back-office
staff would have to keep going to work, even if they could work from
home, on the theory that they would be more productive under the
watchful eye of their managers.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/18/diy-tp/#sociopathy

(He forced a whistleblower who complained to resign)

You will never, ever guess what happened next.

At least 230 Charter employees now have covid-19. NY Attorney General
Letitia James has opened an inquiry into corporate culpability in their
illness.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/21/new-york-ag-opens-inquiry-into-charters-coronavirus-response.html

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🤢 Disney heiress slams top execs' compensation

Abigail Disney is the outspoken, anti-corporatist Disney heiress -
granddaughter of Roy Disney - and she's really angry about the company's
decision to furlough 100,000 front-line workers.

https://twitter.com/abigaildisney/status/1252665806334410752

She points out that the top exec paycuts that the company has announced
are effectively meaningless, because top Disney management's
compensation is only incidentally derived from their salaries.

The meat of Disney's exec compensation comes from the $1.5B it pays out
in bonuses every year, and that figure has not been affected by the
company's belt-tightening.

Former CEO Bob Iger, despite foregoing his salary, will still take home
900X the median worker's salary (this despite two shareholder votes to
rein in exec pay).

Disney fought hard against a $15 wage for Parks employees, but since
they won it, the company spun it for PR.

But the $15 wage is now $0, because those workers are furloughed. Iger's
pay-packet could fully cover the annual wages of 1,500 of them. CEO Bob
Chapek (who used to run the Parks division), will still take home 288
Parks workers' annual pay.

And, as Abigail Disney points out, these executive bonuses are being
paid to a team that greenlit $11.5B in stock buybacks, which drained the
company's cash reserves. Today, the company is BORROWING billions to
stay afloat during the crisis.

Bonuses should reward foresight and good judgment. Plunging the company
into debt through financial engineering is not evidence of either. As
Abigail Disney says, though the pandemic wasn't foreseeable, an
emergency of some kind certainly was.

Abigail Disney finishes by calling on the company management to show
true leadership by foregoing all of their compensation, not just their
salaries - to share in the pain that the 100,000 furloughed workers are
going to endure.

These, after all, are the workers whom the leadership showers with
honeyed words ("Our ability to do good in the world starts with our cast
members . . . who create magic every day. Our commitment to them will
always be our top priority." -R Chapek).

Those honeyed words are justified, as it happens. Disney Parks employees
don't just do an excellent job - they also represent storehouses of
esoteric knowledge about the peccadilloes and idosyncracies of a bunch
of bespoke buildings and machines.

These are effectively giant mechanical cocktail shakers that the company
puts the richest, most litigious people in the world into for 12+
hours/day, 365 days/year. The company needs the skilled operators and
staffers to come back.

Working at a Disney Park - even in food service, custodial, etc -
requires a bunch of specialized knowledge that can't be entirely
conveyed through training alone. The continuity of culture and knowledge
passed among staffers is key.

If that continuity is shattered, it will add years of disruption to the
Parks' operation: breakdowns, customer service failures, logistical
snarls, etc. Keeping that furloughed workforce intact isn't just
"decent" (as Abigail Disney writes), it's also business-critical.

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🤢 This day in history

#15yrsago Fit 20 functions into a single 5.25" drive bay
http://www.xoxide.com/sunbeam-superior-panel.html

#10yrsago Charity auction for Jeanne Robinson's cancer fund
http://scifisaturdaynight.com/?p=972

#10yrsago Hitler's pissed off about fair use
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBO5dh9qrIQ

#5yrsago Jeb Bush loves Obama('s NSA surveillance)
https://theintercept.com/2015/04/21/jeb-bush-praises-obamas-expansion-nsa-surveillance/

#5yrsago John Oliver on patent trolls
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bxcc3SM_KA

#5yrsago Google anti-trust action is dumb, but the EU should be worried
about online giants
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/apr/22/can-anything-curb-dominance-of-internet-big-guns-amazon-google

#5yrsago Canada's music copyright extension will cost Canadians millions
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/2015/04/the-great-canadian-copyright-giveaway-why-copyright-term-extension-for-sound-recordings-could-cost-consumers-millions/

#5yrsago Fascinating, wide-ranging discussion with William Gibson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmh29gwEy7Y

#1yrago Platform cooperativism (or, how to turn gig-economy jobs into
$22.25/hour jobs)
https://www.wired.com/story/when-workers-control-gig-economy/

#1yrago Zuck turned American classrooms into nonconsensual laboratories
for his pet educational theories, and now they're rebelling
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/21/technology/silicon-valley-kansas-schools.html

#1yrago Heiress "Instagram influencer" whose parents are accused of
paying a $500K bribe to get her into USC has trademark application
rejected for punctuation errors
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/olivia-jade-trademark-punctuation_n_5c9c8f16e4b07c8866313c5e

#1yrago Elizabeth Warren's latest proposal: cancel student debt, make
college free
https://medium.com/@teamwarren/im-calling-for-something-truly-transformational-universal-free-public-college-and-cancellation-of-a246cd0f910f

#1yrago Google walkout organizers say they're being retaliated against
for demanding ethical standards
https://www.wired.com/story/google-walkout-organizers-say-theyre-facing-retaliation/

#1yrago Facebook has hired the Patriot Act's co-author and "day-to-day
manager" to be its new general counsel
https://thehill.com/policy/technology/440085-facebook-taps-lawyer-who-helped-write-patriot-act

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🤢 Colophon

Today's top sources: Slashdot (https://slashdot.org/).

Currently writing: My next novel, "The Lost Cause," a post-GND novel
about truth and reconciliation. Yesterday's progress: 568 words (6384
total).

Currently reading: I'm getting really into Anna Weiner's memoir about
tech, "Uncanny Valley" and Jo Walton's forthcoming novel "Or What You
Will."

Latest podcast: Podcast swap: Wil Wheaton on Little
Brotherhttps://craphound.com/podcast/2020/04/13/podcast-swap-wil-wheaton-on-little-brother/

Upcoming appearances:

* Apr 22, Flatten The Curve Summit https://flattenthecurve.tech/

* Apr 23, Canada Reads Q&A;
https://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/ask-the-canada-reads-authors-your-questions-live-on-facebook-1.5512394

* Apr 25: Podapalooza https://www.podapalooza.org/live

Upcoming books: "Poesy the Monster Slayer" (Jul 2020), a picture book
about monsters, bedtime, gender, and kicking ass. Pre-order here:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627

"Attack Surface": The third Little Brother book, Oct 20, 2020.
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250757531

"Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a new
introduction by Edward Snowden: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250774583

This work licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.
That means you can use it any way you like, including commerically,
provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link
to pluralistic.net.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are
included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the
basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution.

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*When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla* -Joey "Accordion Guy"
DeVilla

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