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Julian Assange pleads guilty to a conspiracy charge as part of a deal with the US, letting him go free after spending five years in a British prison — The WikiLeaks founder has been held in a prison outside London for the last five years and fought extradition to the United States.
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@wikileaks, The Guardian, CNN, New York Times, BBC, The Atlantic, @stella_assange, ScheerPost.com, CBS News, Associated Press, Ars Technica, Boing Boing, The i Paper, Al Jazeera, Fox News, Reason, Wired, @benburgis, @jimwaterson, 9to5Mac, Bloomberg, @robertkennedyjr, NewsNation, Freedom of the Press …, ABC7, @stella_assange, @wikileaks, CAIR, @naughtfollowers@threads.net, @markcurtis30, Reporters Without Borders, @jamesrbuk, @mikebutcher, @naughtfollowers@threads.net, @jameeljaffer, Reuters, Press Association, @jack, @jamesrbuk, @jamesrbuk, @sgurman, Engadget, Metro.co.uk, @jeffjarvis, @jeremyscahill, @autismcapital, @zcohencnn, @craigmokhiber, The Intercept, Financial Times, Mediaite, Rolling Stone, The Wrap, Deadline, The Daily Beast, The Register, Washington Examiner, @mbrauchli@threads.net, @lemonslayer.bsky.social, Deadline, @martinsfp@threads.net, Gizmodo, @joeo10@mastodon.sdf.org, Axios, New York Post, BBC, Politico, @lemonslayer.bsky.social, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, The Verge, Mumbrella, TechCrunch and Committee to Protect …

Q&A with Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters on updating the company's famous culture memo, its advertising ambitions, bundling, game streaming, AI use cases, and more — The co-CEO who replaced co-founder Reed Hastings details the company's new culture memo, its ad ambitions, and what's next for Netflix.
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Business Insider, Next TV, Variety and New York Times, more at Techmeme »

The RIAA's lawsuit against generative music startups will be the bloodbath AI needs and an object lesson in hubris for similarly unethical AI companies — Like many AI companies, Udio and Suno relied on large-scale theft to create their generative AI models.
Discussion:
Shane Zammit on LinkedIn, Music Business Worldwide, CMU, Boing Boing and Rolling Stone, more at Techmeme »
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Mia Sato / The Verge:
The RIAA files two copyright-infringement cases against the AI music services Suno and Udio; Udio was used to create the viral song BBL Drizzy
The RIAA files two copyright-infringement cases against the AI music services Suno and Udio; Udio was used to create the viral song BBL Drizzy
Discussion:
Plagiarism Today, Washington Examiner, Engadget, Vibe, Shelly Palmer, RIAA, Wired, @abelowrob, @robertfreundlaw, @riaa, @tb_num, @mitch_glazier, @komaniecki_r, ABC7, @future_of_music, @kerrymuzzey, @maximumadhd, @jess_miers, @riaa, @rachelmetz, @rahll, @rachelmetz, @emilylazar_sm, @ednewtonrex, @human_artistry, @dada_drummer, Inside Radio, @patrickmoorhead, @human_artistry, @mattbelloni, @justinebateman, @johnpstrohm, @dada_drummer, @rachelmetz, @riaa, @riaa, @riaa, @lucas_shaw, @jason_koebler, @carnage4life, @carnage4life, Bloomberg, The Register, MediaPost, Music Technology Policy, Ars Technica, Quartz, Consequence, @GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social, @miasato.2@threads.net, @reckless1280@threads.net, 404 Media, Drew Thurlow on LinkedIn, Wall Street Journal, Digital Music News, CNN, @andybaio@xoxo.zone, Fast Company, Music Ally, CMU, Reuters, Music Business Worldwide, Billboard and Variety, more at Techmeme »

Polish state energy group Orlen plans to sell its media company Polska Press, acquired under the former right-wing government, to show political independence — Orlen's acquisition of newspaper business under former rightwing government has drawn criticism
Discussion:
@raphaelminder, @j_jaraczewski, @cookcommunicat1, @bdstanley, Telewizja Polska S.A and @staunovo

MTV appears to have fully pulled down MTV News website, scrubbing two decades' worth of content from its archives; Paramount Global shut down MTV News in 2023 — Some two decades' worth of content published on MTVNews.com is no longer available after MTV appears to have fully pulled down the site.
Discussion:
@patrickhosken, The Ankler, @jill_krajewski@threads.net, @alannabennett, Cord Cutters News, @annetdonahue, @crystalbell, Angela Matusik on LinkedIn, @stephentotilo, @sam_piroton, The Wrap, @lymoula, @jemaswad, @meelztv, @bloodravenlib@mas.to, @tirhakahlove, @hiattb, @brendonkleen14, @jhoffman, @film_girl, @kevdgrussing, TVNewsCheck, @dangillmor@mastodon.social, Consequence, The A.V. Club, @martinsfp@threads.net, @kalihays1@threads.net, @kashana.bsky.social, @lakewitchhouse.bsky.social, @jaytingle.bsky.social, @smi.bsky.social, @greene.haus, @mirrorman.bsky.social and The Verge

The Associated Press is launching The AP Fund for Journalism, an independent 501(c)3 charitable organization to raise $100M+ to expand state and local news — - “It will help to sustain what we do, grow what we do, and add new and incremental journalism services for the industry," Veerasingham told Axios in an interview.

Fact checkers at UK news agency PA Media and Full Fact say AI content has proved less problematic than expected so far during the country's general election — Fact checkers spending more time on verifying claims made by politicians than on fake AI-generated content.

A US bankruptcy court trustee discloses plans to shut down Infowars and liquidate its assets to help pay the $1.5B in lawsuit judgments that Alex Jones owes — A U.S. bankruptcy court trustee is planning to shut down conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' Infowars media platform and liquidate …
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The Guardian, CNN, Boing Boing, HuffPost, @rpsagainsttrump, The Hill, Axios, Washington Examiner, The Daily Beast, New Republic and Mediaite

Former NPR editor Uri Berliner, who wrote a Free Press essay criticizing NPR, is joining The Free Press as senior editor, after resigning from NPR in April — Is dropshipping a scam? Why did Niall Ferguson's debut Free Press column provoke so many responses? Why are Americans divided on foreign policy?
Discussion:
Fox News, Mediaite, The Wrap, @mikedrucker and @bariweiss

Sources: UK police saw Will Lewis as an impediment to their phone hacking investigation; plaintiffs say Lewis gave the “green light” to delete News Corp. emails — Will Lewis, now the publisher of the Washington Post, was in full crisis mode in 2011.
Discussion:
Vanity Fair, @lizzieohreally, @jbenton, @chrchristensen, @karaswisher, @jeffjarvis, @bgrueskin, @arusbridger, @edmundlee, @davidfolkenflik, @ericuman, @jo_becker, @jswatz_tx@threads.net, @harrymccracken@mastodon …, @obrien_kat@mastodon.world, @dangillmor@mastodon.social and @davidbeard@threads.net

ElevenLabs debuts its first iOS app, which turns any English-language text, including from PDFs and ePubs, into narrations by one of its “human-like voices” — If you've ever started reading an article on your iPhone only to have to drive somewhere, walk, bike, do chores …

CNN is in charge of every aspect of Thursday's Biden-Trump debate, a major shift from previous years; rival channels will leave CNN's on-air watermark untouched — One network is in charge of every aspect of the Biden-Trump debate, a major shift from previous years. Tens of millions of viewers are expected to be watching.
Discussion:
Fox Business, Axios, Reclaim The Net, The Hill, TVNewsCheck, @katierogers, Adweek, @matthewkeyslive, @bristei, @scarylawyerguy, @farhip, @markjacob16, @fcchambers, @jeremymbarr, @kairyssdal, @ronfilipkowski, @protecttruth@mastodon.online, Politico, Washington Examiner, Gizmodo, @nminow@c.im, New York Post, Poynter and Mediaite
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Prices of ad-free Paramount+ With Showtime plan will rise by $1 to $12.99/month, and of Paramount+ Essential plan with ads by $2 to $7.99, starting August 20 — As Paramount Global looks to push its streaming business into the black, it's hiking the prices for most Paramount+ plans later this summer.
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The Streamable, The Verge, Los Angeles Times, Comic Book, Fox Business, Reuters, Bloomberg, Engadget, BGR, CNBC, ComingSoon.net, Adweek, TVLine, The Wrap, IndieWire, Deadline and Quartz

Filing: Vivek Ramaswamy's BuzzFeed stake grew to 8.9%; sources: Ramaswamy recently met Jonah Peretti and wants Patrick Bet-David and two others on the board — - Ramaswamy has continued to increase his stake, this morning disclosing that it's risen to 8.9%.
Discussion:
@theclubmember04, @claytravis, @danprimack, Fox Business, New York Post and Business Insider
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