Author: Joe Mullin

Google is ramping up its lobbying in Brussels as a European Union antitrust investigation advances, The Guardian reports today.

The company's spending on European lobbying has increased from just €600,000 in 2011 to nearly €4 million ($4.3 million) last year. That's more than Apple, Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter and Uber combined, but less than the search giant's arch-rival, Microsoft.

The lengthy report also details how Google has arranged 29 meetings with EU officials, more than any other private company. Google cofounder and CEO Larry Page met the then European Commission chief in California in spring 2014, bringing up the antitrust case even though EU officials warned him not to.

Internet radio services like Pandora will have to pay more to artists and their representative groups, according to a decision released today by the Copyright Royalty (CRB). The basic per-song rates paid by Pandora will go from $.0014 per song, or 14 cents per 100 songs played, to $.0017. That's a nearly 20 percent increase.

The $.0017 rate will remain in effect for all of 2016 and then may increase according to the Consumer Price Index, a common measure of inflation, through 2020. At that point, the CRB will make another rate decision.

Today's decision resolves a long legal fight in which Pandora was asking to pay a lower rate of $.0011. SoundExchange, which distributes money to record labels and artists, wanted the rate to nearly double to $.0025 per stream.

A German woman who stayed at an apartment rented through Airbnb has sued the company, saying she was filmed by a hidden camera while she walked around naked.

The plaintiff, Yvonne Schumacher, says that the camera captured "personal and intimate" conversations with her partner, Kevin Stockton. She's also suing the residents who listed the Irvine, California unit on the site, Fariah Hassim and Jamil Jiva. Schumacher's lawyer says his client has "limited English skills" and it was Stockton, who is not a party to the case, who handled the rental details.

According to the complaint (PDF), Schumacher arrived at the property on December 16, 2013, intending to stay for about a month. She didn't know then that "her privacy would be violated on a daily basis," she states. Schumacher's lawyer states that his client has "limited English skills" and was invited to the apartment by Stockton.

In a first-of-its-kind law, the Seattle City Council voted 8-0 to allow drivers for ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft to bargain collectively.

"The intent of this legislation is to create an environment where innovation can continue to happen, but not at the expense of the workers," said Councilmember Mike O'Brien, who spearheaded the proposal. "I firmly believe that this legislation is a great step in that direction."

"Uber does not share and does not care," said Councilmember Kshama Sawant. Uber drivers who take out loans to buy cars have become "trapped by debt," she added. "Uber drivers can be 'deactivated,' which is a fancy word for being fired," without cause.

The US Department of Transportation has launched a "streamlined and user-friendly" online registration process for aerial drones, starting today. New regulations announced in October require all drone owners to register.

In the view of the Federal Aviation Administration, drones or "unmanned aircraft systems" (UAS) qualify as aircraft, even if operated by hobbyists, and will be regulated as such. The registration website has been launched and includes frequently asked questions about the process. Actual online registrations won't begin until next Monday, December 21. For anyone registering in the first month, the $5 aircraft registration fee will be refunded.

Registration is legally required by February 19, 2016. The rule applies retroactively, so even someone who operated an unmanned aircraft prior to December 21 must register by the deadline. Anyone purchasing a drone after December 21 must register before the first outdoor flight.

A Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notice sent by the Walt Disney Company earlier this week seems to have truly awakened The Force, and now the group can't seem to decide if it wants to be on the light side or the dark side.

Marjorie and Arnie Carvalho run Star Wars Action News, a podcast about Star Wars collectibles. Earlier this week, SW Action News staffer Justin Kozisek purchased an action figure of "Rey" in an Iowa Wal-Mart. The figure, which hasn't been seen elsewhere, was presumably put on the shelves by accident ahead of its official release date. An image of the figure was posted on the SW Action News Facebook page—and promptly subjected to a wave of DMCA takedown demands by Lucasfilm. Many of those who had spread the image on social media were also subject to copyright claims.

Marjorie Carvalho didn't just complain, though. She wrote a polite e-mail to the Disney company e-mail address listed in her DMCA notice, explaining exactly what happened. While Carvalho didn't get a direct reply, her message seemed to have worked. Last night her account got a late e-mail from Facebook stating that "The Walt Disney Company has retracted their intellectual property report."

For the last decade, Marjorie Carvalho and her husband have produced Star Wars Action News, a podcast dedicated to Star Wars collectibles of all sorts. Predictably, they've had a lot to talk about, as waves of action figures and other collectibles have been launched in the run-up to the much-anticipated release of Star Wars: Episode VII—The Force Awakens next week.

Waves of action figures have been released, but on Tuesday, a Star Wars Action News staffer saw something he shouldn't have—and bought it. A 3 3/4" action figure of "Rey," a female character from The Force Awakens, was on display in a Walmart in Iowa, apparently earlier than it should have been. The staff member bought it for $6.94 plus tax, no questions asked. The following day, he posted pictures of the Rey figure on Star Wars Action News' Facebook page.

"Have we known this figure was coming?" the staffer, named Justin, asked in the post. "I just found her at Walmart—no new other figures."

Leaders in both major political parties have increasingly been calling on tech companies to give law enforcement encryption backdoors in the wake of recent terror attacks in Paris and California.

Today, FBI director James Comey has suggested that Silicon Valley isn't faced with a serious technical problem, but rather a "business model problem," according to a report on his comments in The Intercept, based on C-SPAN video of the hearing.

On the face of it, Comey's statement would seem to back away from earlier suggestions that tech companies can and should find a way to allow access to data when law enforcement wanted it, but provide otherwise secure services. Critics have pointed out that any encryption backdoors that can be used by the "good guys" also lead to widespread insecurity, since they can also be exploited by not-so-good guys.

With less than a week to go before a trial, a class-action lawsuit over the copyright status of "Happy Birthday" has been resolved. Details of the settlement, including what kind of uses will be allowed going forward, are not clear.

A short order (PDF) filed yesterday by US Chief District Court Judge George King says that all parties have agreed to a settlement, and it vacates a trial which was scheduled to start on December 15. The key turning point came in September, when King ruled that Warner/Chappell's copyright transfer was invalid because there was no proof it was ever properly transferred from the Hill sisters, who claimed to have written the song.

The trial would have addressed damages issues. Also looming was a late copyright claim by Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI), a children's' charity affiliated with the Hill sisters. ACEI came forward in November to say that if Warner/Chappell didn't own the song, it did. The settlement revealed yesterday resolves all claims by the plaintiffs, Warner/Chappell, and ACEI.

Both Wired and Gizmodo have claimed to have discovered the identity of "Satoshi Nakamoto," the anonymous creator of Bitcoin. Unlike previous attempts at identifying the Bitcoin creator, the story is backed by a mound of convincing evidence, which points to an Australian man named Craig Steven Wright.

"We still can’t say with absolute certainty that the mystery is solved," write Andy Greenberg and Gwern Branwen in their report for Wired. "But two possibilities outweigh all others: Either Wright invented bitcoin, or he’s a brilliant hoaxer who very badly wants us to believe he did."

The report is based on a trove of documents leaked to both Branwen and Gizmodo last month, as well as some publicly available evidence. The Gizmodo report, published about an hour after Wired's, includes copies of some of the documents. They include: