CNet chronicles Netflix’s near-death experience, The Daily may be on death’s door, and one notable individual thinks many patents should die off. The remainders for Thursday, July 12, 2012 are dead; they just don’t know it yet.
Netflix’s lost year: The inside story of the price-hike train wreck (CNet)
Remember last year, when Netflix couldn’t seem to find its head with two hands and a map? CNet has an interesting story about the bizarre decisions of the content-streaming company. If Netflix were really thinking, they’d turn this into a self-produced series that would run only on Netflix. Brilliant.
EU Seeks To Ease Licensing Rules That Block Online Music Stores (Bloomberg)
The European Union is proposing a relaxation on rules that keep the iTunes Store from selling its wares across the entirety of the coalition. Finally, Justin Bieber may be able to crack the elusive Luxembourgian market.
Apple CEO Tim Cook makes surprise appearance at Sun Valley retreat (New York Post)
Apple head honcho Tim Cook slipped into a Sun Valley, Idaho retreat for media and tech executives. The Post speculates he was there to strike deals with entertainment leaders, but I think he clearly meant to take a left turn at Albuquerque.
R.I.P. Newscore: News Corp.’s Weird News Wire Goes Dark, Sheds Staff (The New York Observer)
Speaking of Rupert Murdoch-owned properties, rumors say that News Corp.’s iPad-only publication, The Daily, has been put “on watch.” Which may mark the first time since the magazine’s debut that anybody has been watching it.
The story behind how Apple’s iCloud data center got built (GigaOm)
GigaOm has the behind-the-scenes look at the finagling needed to build Apple’s $1 billion data North Carolina center, including some hardball negotiating tactics from Apple. But fortunately, everything’s totally rosy now …
Apple Clean Energy Road Map (Greenpeace)
Well, okay, maybe not rosy. Turns out Greenpeace wants to take Apple to task for its claims about renewable energy being used to power the company’s data centers, including the one in North Carolina. Greenpeace says Cupertino hasn’t been forthcoming about how it plans to achieve that goal. I think they should just have all the data center workers run on treadmills all day. Problem solved!
Why There Are Too Many Patents in America (The Atlantic)
An editorial in The Atlantic makes the case that there are just too many gosh-darned patents. But who the heck is this guy to tell us? What does he kn—”Richard Posner is an author and federal appeals court judge. He has written more than 2500 published judicial opinions and continues to teach at the University of Chicago Law School.”
Hmm. Maybe we should listen to the smart man.