Techmeme: Bird sends dubious DMCA takedown notice to Boing Boing over a post explaining how to legally buy an abandoned Bird scooter and convert it to a personal scooter (Kit Walsh/Electronic Frontier Foundation)

Top News

Lindsey O'Donnell / Threatpost:

Dozens of government websites rendered insecure or inaccessible due to 80+ expired TLS certificates that haven't been renewed due to the US government shutdown — As the U.S. federal shutdown continues, dozens of U.S. government websites have been rendered either insecure or inaccessible due …

More: Netcraft, ZDNet, Boing Boing, Federal Computer Week, Dark Reading, Security Boulevard, BBC, TechCrunch, Engadget, BetaNews, Business Insider, and BleepingComputer

Tweets: @digitalhen, @overdesigned, and @kylerankin

Kit Walsh / Electronic Frontier Foundation:

Bird sends dubious DMCA takedown notice to Boing Boing over a post explaining how to legally buy an abandoned Bird scooter and convert it to a personal scooter — Every now and then we have to remind someone that it's not illegal for people to report facts that they dislike.

More: Boing Boing, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Techdirt, The Verge, Ars Technica, and Slashdot

Tweets: @kimzetter, @alexstamos, @gaberivera, @pomeranian99, @magicpeacelove, @davidgreene, @waxpancake, @boingboing, @zackwhittaker, and @dhh

See also Mediagazer

Chris Welch / The Verge:

Leaked docs: Verizon is alpha testing a game streaming service called Verizon Gaming, currently running on the Nvidia Shield TV, eventually expanding to Android — Verizon Gaming is already running on the Nvidia Shield — and soon Android — Verizon is currently conducting alpha testing …

More: Engadget, GamesIndustry.biz, Neowin, SlashGear, Boing Boing, iPhone Hacks, TechSpot, and IGN. Tweets: @chriswelch

Stephen Nellis / Reuters:

During FTC vs Qualcomm trial, Apple supply chain exec Tony Blevins details “Project Antique”, the company's search for a second modem supplier, starting in 2013 — (Reuters) - Apple Inc (AAPL.O) considered tapping Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS) and MediaTek Inc (2454.TW) …

More: CNET, CNET, AppleInsider, MacRumors, iPhone Hacks, 9to5Mac, and Patently Apple

Tweets: @patrickmoorhead, @stephennellis, @stephennellis, and @stephennellis

Adario Strange / Next Reality:

In a court filing, Meta, maker of the Meta 2 AR headset, says its assets have been sold off by a lender and it is insolvent; Meta had raised $73M in VC funding — The last time we heard from Meta, the makers of the Meta 2 augmented reality headset, things looked pretty bleak.

More: SlashGear, TechCrunch, and UploadVR

Tweets: @hmltn, @elizabethdscott, and @adariostrange

Vanessa Gera / Associated Press:

Poland has searched the Warsaw offices of Huawei and Orange, arrested a Chinese manager at Huawei and charged him with espionage on behalf of China — WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland's Internal Security Agency has charged a Chinese manager at tech giant Huawei in Poland and one of its own former officers …

Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:

The resumes of 202M+ Chinese users, with personal data including home addresses and mobile numbers, were exposed online on an unsecured MongoDB database server — Data appears to have originated from a data scraping app that collected resumes from Chinese job portals.

More: South China Morning Post, TechCrunch, SiliconANGLE, The Next Web, BleepingComputer, The Hacker News, and CyberScoop

Tweets: @marypcbuk and @vboykis

Rita Liao / TechCrunch:

In a follow-up to its 2013 plan to back 100 startups, Xiaomi to invest ~$1.5B in “AIoT”, IoT devices enhanced by AI via Xiaomi's platform, over the next 5 years — Xiaomi, the Chinese company best known for budget phones, is betting big on a future of connected homes.

More: Bloomberg, Mi Blog, Gizmochina, Neowin, and PYMNTS.com

Maureen Farrell / Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Slack is planning to go public through a direct listing, likely to debut in the second quarter — Messaging company, recently valued at $7 billion, aims to debut in the second quarter — Slack Technologies Inc. is planning to go public through a direct listing …

More: Bloomberg, Business Insider, Reuters, Bloomberg, PYMNTS.com, Fortune, and Reuters

Tweets: @oskargie and @bytimreynolds

Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:

British man sentenced to 2+ years in prison for DDoS attack that took down internet connectivity in Liberia in 2016, after an ISP hired him to attack a rival — Hacker knocked an entire country's internet connection offline. — A UK court sentenced today a 30-year-old man to two years …

More: DataBreaches.net

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:

Munich court rules that Amazon's Dash buttons do not provide consumers with sufficient information about a purchase in breach of consumer e-commerce rules — Amazon's Dash buttons have been found to breach consumer ecommerce rules in Germany. — The push-to-order gizmos were debuted by Amazon in 2015 …

More: Reuters, Engadget, The Register, BuzzFeed News, Mashable, and The Verge

Tweets: @martinsfp and @mgsiegler

The Information:

Sources: Viacom in talks to acquire Tubi TV, an ad-supported streaming service partly owned by MGM and Lionsgate; one source estimated a cost of around $300M — Nearly every major media company in recent years has launched video streaming services that cost viewers a few dollars a month and don't carry ads …

Tweets: @cityofthetown

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Amazon's IMDb launches Freedive, an ad-supported streaming service offering movies and TV shows in the US; site now lists 130+ free movies and 29 shows

More: Business Wire, 9to5Toys, Tom's Guide, Gizmodo, and Engadget

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:

ThreeKit, a startup that helps ecommerce clients turn static images into interactive 3D presentations, raises $10M seed round — A picture's worth a thousand words, but what about a three-dimensional rendering? Ask ThreeKit — it's in the business of creating 3D renderings for clients such as Crate and Barrel, Steelcase, and CIROC.

More: PR Newswire, Built In Chicago, Built In Chicago, and FinSMEs

Janko Roettgers / Variety:

Discussing the decline of TV, Viacom CEO Bob Bakish says driverless, 5G-connected cars would add viewing minutes in the same way the bedroom TV did — Viacom CEO Bob Bakish isn't ready to celebrate victory just yet. “I wouldn't ever say mission accomplished, and certainly not in the changing world …

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Commerce Department signals it will not renew export license for Futurewei Technologies, Huawei's Silicon Valley-based R&D unit — R&D unit Futurewei is no longer able to send home some technologies developed in U.S. — Huawei Technologies Co. is contending with a new obstacle …

More: TechCrunch, CNBC, and Telecoms.com. Tweets: @kate_okeeffe

Daria Solovieva / Fast Company:

Microsoft has avoided the scrutiny over privacy issues that has ensnared rivals by working with regulators and advocating its own solutions — Quietly but confidently, Microsoft is back. — For the first time in almost a decade, it's the most valuable company in the world while its archrival Apple stumbles.

Tweets: @dariasolo and @dariasolo

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