Marketplace

The Federal Trade Commission recently made it clear that it sees the practice as 1) one of several “dark patterns that trick or trap consumers into subscriptions” and 2) straight-up illegal. The FTC vowed to ramp up enforcement on companies that fail to provide an “easy and simple” cancellation process, including an option that’s “at least as easy” as the one to subscribe.

Source: The end of “click to subscribe, call to cancel”? One of the news industry’s favorite retention tactics is illegal, FTC says

Playing a video game used to require purchasing a physical copy of a title, but in recent years, subscription services, which offer access to a catalog of games for a recurring fee, have altered the industry. New polling suggests these services are here to stay, with most hardcore gamers saying they already use them.

Source: The Subscription Economy Has Officially Infiltrated Gaming

Over a sleepy weekend in late August, entrepreneur and business author Gary Vaynerchuk racked up more than one million preorders of his coming book. It was one of the industry’s biggest advance orders for a single title in a 24-hour period. The reason was less about his new leadership book than the gift he promised with every purchase of 12 print copies: one mystery nonfungible token, or NFT.

Source: Buy 12 Books, Get an NFT: How One Author Got Orders for a Million Books

Source: For Universal’s NFT Band, Music Is Second to Brand Identity

The membership of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees has voted to ratify a new three-year agreement, ending the threat of the first national strike in the union’s history. The vote was unusually close, with 256 delegates voting yes on the Basic Agreement, and 188 voting no.

Source: IATSE Members Vote to Ratify Contract, Ending Strike Threat

IATSE leadership has urged members to unite in support of the agreement, but the membership remains divided, partly along generational lines. Supporters say the deal makes progress on wages and working conditions.  But for opponents, and for many younger members, in particular, the contract feels like a perpetuation of an unsustainable status quo

Source: Members Divided as IATSE Contract Comes Up for Vote: ‘A Lot of People Are Disappointed’

About 40% of traffic to pages in 2018 went to those with content that was plagiarized or recycled, and Facebook has been slow to crack down on copyright infringement, according to internal reports. Facebook says it has taken steps to address the issues.

Source: Facebook Allows Stolen Content to Flourish, Its Researchers Warned

The Pirate Bay’s turbulent history will be turned into a six-part TV drama. The Swedish production is scheduled to start filming next year and will be aired by public broadcaster SVT. The makers will base their story on input from various insiders but the site’s founders are not part of the crew. Instead, Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde informs us that he’s working on his own film project about the site.

Source: The Pirate Bay Story Will Be Turned Into a TV Series * TorrentFreak

The Department of Justice has taken a labor-friendly stance that could impact future Hollywood megamergers. The government’s new view of consumer welfare through the lens of a market’s workers is, unsurprisingly, earning rapturous reviews among some in Hollywood’s talent community, such as its guild of screenwriters who can easily imagine themselves as a future beneficiary of this approach.

Source: In Targeting ViacomCBS’ Simon & Schuster Sale, Biden’s Antitrust Team Makes First Bold Move

A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that Apple could not delay making changes to its App Store, a move that could soon allow app developers to directly communicate with customers about ways to pay for services outside Apple’s ecosystem.

Source: Judge denies Apple’s request to delay App Store changes.