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Media Beat: November 26, 2020 | FYIMusicNews – FYI Music News

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Shawn Mendes partners with manager to launch film and TV production company

The pop singer has joined manager Andrew Gertler in launching Permanent Content, a company that will focus on scripted and documentary projects that reflect issues important to young people. The first project is a doc about himself. – Yahoo News

Canada Revenue Agency: Claim This $500 Tax Break Starting in 2021

I f you’re interested in saving a little money on your taxes, the Digital News Tax Credit could go along way. That is, assuming you’re eligible for it. To get the digital news tax credit, you need to have paid money for subscription media in 2020. That includes online newspaper subscriptions and other paid media services. The media outlet you subscribed to also has to be approved. The main criteria is that the news outlet be Canadian. If it’s any mainstream Canadian newspaper, it’s likely approved. The catch is you will get back $75 on the cap of $500 spent on subscriptions. – The Motley Fool

Trump may lose, but he’s not defeated … despite the media’s efforts

The media may take credit for the Biden victory, as it conducted the campaign; almost no one voted for Biden, an undistinguished and bumbling wheel-horse who was on his way to the political glue factory until he was rescued by the Democratic party elders to prevent a victory by Marxist Sen. Bernie Sanders. The media’s credit for that is mitigated by the terrible failure of the phony polls and predictions of a great repudiation of Trump, and the further erosion of public trust in the media to levels that are far below those enjoyed by the president it laboured so relentlessly to destroy. – Conrad Black, National Post  (FYI addendum: Trump pardoned Black, the former media mogul who was jailed for fraud and obstruction of justice in the US, shortly after he wrote a book praising the US president.)

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How China could shape the future of technology

California’s Silicon Valley shapes our lives. From the websites where we do our household shopping to the video-streaming services we watch to the companies which provide our email, almost all are based in this corner of the United States.

Until recently, that is. The rise of TikTok, an app whose parent company is the Chinese firm ByteDance, has struck at the heart of Silicon Valley’s supremacy. Along with other digital products coming out of China, TikTok has the potential to reshape the future of technology – a future in which the culture and the interests of Shanghai or Beijing could mould the industry more than that of San Francisco Bay. – Chris Stokel-Walker, BBC

Why so many artists are selling off their song catalogues

When the internet got involved in music, everything changed. Sales tanked and cheques shrank. That retirement fund was no longer assured. This goes a long way to explaining why so many heritage acts from the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s — think Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, and Guns N’ Roses — went back on the road. They had to make up for that lost revenue somehow. David Bowie was the first to find an equitable solution with his so-called “Bowie Bonds”. – Alan Cross, Global News

Peloton rival Echelon launches fully-licensed music offering for fitness classes

Seattle-headquartered MediaNet, which was acquired by SOCAN in 2016, will provide licensing, catalogue, and rights management services for Echelon through its MediaNet Enterprise product integration, which allows music applications to access over 85 million tracks. – Music Business Worldwide

Netflix does the right thing for comic Dave Chappelle by pulling his show

Chappelle posted a video to his Instagram page titled “Unforgiven” in which he explained his reasons for pulling “Chappelle’s Show” from Netflix after not being paid by ViacomCBS. The video was filmed during a recent stand-up set and the comedian is urging his fans to boycott sites streaming the material. – Zack Sharf, IndieWire

Bertelsmann to buy Simon & Schuster for C$2.17B in cash

German media giant Bertelsmann said Wednesday that its Penguin Random House division is buying rival Simon & Schuster, in a megadeal that would reshape the U.S. publishing industry.

Penguin Random House, already the largest American publisher, will buy the New York-based Simon & Schuster, whose authors include Stephen King, Hillary Clinton and John Irving, from TV and film company ViacomCBS for $2.17 billion in cash. – The Canadian Press

France starts collecting tax on tech giants

France is going forward with its plan to tax big tech companies. The government has sent out notices to tech giants, as reported by the Financial Times, Reuters and AFP. There could be retaliation tariffs on French goods in the U.S. – Tech Crunch

Google signs copyright agreements with six French newspapers

The announcement follows months of bargaining between Google, French publishers and news agencies over how to apply revamped EU copyright rules, which allow publishers to demand a fee from online platforms showing extracts of their news. – Reuters

Amazon patents technology to track down copyright pirates

Instead of encoding the identifier or watermark in the video content, Amazon proposes to add it to the manifest data. As a result, Amazon’s solution can be more easily applied at the individual level. This can be useful to protect content on Amazon’s own streaming service, but other rightsholders may want to use it as well. – TorrentFreak

Live at the Whisky

Mick Jagger and Steve McQueen held court from its tufted red booths. Beautiful girls frugged in cages above its dance floor. The most famous club in rock history, the Whisky a Go Go on the Sunset Strip, launched a generation of music, from the Byrds and Buffalo Springfield to Frank Zappa and the Doors. – David Kamp, Vanity Fair archives

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Trump poised to clinch US$1.3-billion social media company stock award

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Donald Trump is set to secure on Tuesday a stock bonus worth US$1.3-billion from the company that operates his social media app Truth Social (DJT-Q), equivalent to about half the majority stake he already owns in it, thanks to the wild rally in its shares.

The award will take the former U.S. president’s overall stake in the company, Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), to US$4.1-billion.

While Mr. Trump has agreed not to sell any of his TMTG shares before September, the windfall represents a significant boost to his wealth, which Forbes pegs at US$4.7-billion.

Unlike much of his real estate empire, shares are easy to divest in the stock market and could come in handy as Mr. Trump’s legal fees and fines pile up, including a US$454.2-million judgment in his New York civil fraud case he is appealing.

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The bonus also reflects the exuberant trading in TMTG’s shares, which have been on a roller coaster ride since the company listed on Nasdaq last month through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) and was snapped up by Trump supporters and speculators.

Mr. Trump will be entitled to the stock bonus under the terms of the SPAC deal once TMTG’s shares stay above US$17.50 for 20 trading days after the company’s March 26 listing. They ended trading on Monday at US$35.50, and they would have to lose more than half their value on Tuesday for Mr. Trump to miss out.

TMTG’s current valuation of approximately US$5-billion is equivalent to about 1,220 times the loss-making company’s revenue in 2023 of US$4.1-million.

No other U.S. company of similar market capitalization has such a high valuation multiple, LSEG data shows. This is despite TMTG warning investors in regulatory filings that its operational losses raise “substantial doubt” about its ability to remain in business.

A TMTG spokesperson declined to comment on the stock award to Mr. Trump. “With more than $200 million in the bank and zero debt, Trump Media is fulfilling all its obligations related to the merger and rapidly moving forward with its business plan,” the spokesperson said.

While Mr. Trump’s windfall is rich for a small, loss-making company like TMTG, the earnout structure that allows it is common. According to a report from law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, stock earnouts for management were seen in more than half the SPAC mergers completed in 2022.

However, few executives clinch these earnout bonuses because many SPAC deals end up performing poorly in the stock market, said Freshfields securities lawyer Michael Levitt. TMTG’s case is rare because its shares are trading decoupled from its business prospects.

“Many earnouts in SPACs are never satisfied because many SPAC prices fall significantly after the merger is completed,” Mr. Levitt said.

To be sure, TMTG made it easier for Mr. Trump to meet the earnout threshold. When TMTG agreed to merge with the SPAC in October, 2021, the deal envisioned that TMTG shares had to trade above US$30 for Mr. Trump to get the full earnout bonus. The two sides amended the deal in August, 2023 to lower that threshold to US$17.50, regulatory filings show.

Had that not happened, Mr. Trump would not have yet earned the full bonus because TMTG’s shares traded below US$30 last week. The terms of the deal, however, give Mr. Trump three years from the listing to win the full earnout, so he could have still earned it if the shares traded above the threshold for 20 days in any 30-day period during this time.

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B.C. puts online harms bill on hold after agreement with social media companies

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The B.C. government is putting its proposed online harms legislation on hold after reaching an agreement with some of the largest social media platforms to make people safer online.

Premier David Eby says in a joint statement with representatives of the firms Meta, TikTok, X and Snap that they will form an online safety action table, where they’ll discuss “tangible steps” towards protecting people from online harms.

Eby says the social media companies have “agreed to work collaboratively” with the province on preventing harm, while Meta will also commit to working with B.C’s emergency management officials to help amplify official information during natural disasters and other events.

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“We have had assurance from Facebook on a couple of things. First, that they will work with us to deliver emergency information to British Columbia in this wildfire season that (people) can rely on, they can find easily, and that will link into official government channels to distribute information quickly and effectively,” Eby said at a Tuesday press conference.

“This is a major step and I’m very appreciative that we are in this place now.”


Click to play video: 'B.C. takes steps to protect people from online harms'
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B.C. takes steps to protect people from online harms

 


The announcement to put the bill on hold is a sharp turn for the government, after Eby announced in March that social media companies were among the “wrongdoers” that would pay for health-related costs linked to their platforms.


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At the time, Eby compared social media harms to those caused by tobacco and opioids, saying the legislation was similar to previous laws that allowed the province to sue companies selling those products.


Click to play video: 'Carol Todd on taking action against online harms'
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Carol Todd on taking action against online harms

 


Last August, Eby criticized Meta over its continued blackout of Canadian news outlets as wildfires forced thousands from their homes.  Eby said it was “unacceptable” for the tech giant to cut off access to news on its platforms at a time when people needed timely, potentially life-saving information.

“I think it’s fair to say that I was very skeptical, following the initial contact (with Meta),” Eby said Tuesday.

Eby said one of the key drivers for legislation targetting online harm was the death of Carson Cleland, the 12-year-old Prince George, B.C., boy who died by suicide last October after falling victim to online sextortion.

The premier says in announcing the pause that bringing social media companies to the table for discussion achieves the same purpose of protecting youth from online harm.

“Our commitment to every parent is that we will do everything we can to keep their families safe online and in our communities,” the premier said in his statement.

 

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Vaughn Palmer: B.C. premier gives social media giants another chance

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VICTORIA — Premier David Eby has pushed the pause button on a contentious bill that would have allowed the province to recover health care and other costs attributed to the marketing of risky products in B.C.

Two dozen business and industry groups had called for the New Democrats to put the bill on hold, claiming it was so broadly drafted that it could be used to go after producers, distributors and retailers of every kind.

Eby claimed the pause had nothing to do with those protests. Rather, he said, it was the willingness of giant social media companies to join with the government to immediately address online safety in B.C.

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“It is safe to say that we got the attention of these major multinational companies,” the premier told reporters on Tuesday, citing the deal with Meta, Snapchat, TikTok and X, the major players in the field.

“They understand our concern and the urgency with which we’re approaching this issue. They also understand the bill is still there.”

The New Democrats maintain that the legislation was never intended to capture the many B.C. companies and associations that complained about it.

Rather it was targeted at Facebook owner Meta and other social media companies and the online harm done to young people. A prime example was the suicide of a Prince George youth who was trapped by an online predator.

Still, there was nothing in the wording of Bill 12, the Public Health Accountability and Cost Recovery Act, to indicate its application would be confined to social media companies or their impact on young people.

Eby even admitted that the law could also be used to recover costs associated with vaping products and energy drinks.

Some critics wondered if the bill’s broad-based concept of harms and risks could be used to prosecute the liquor board or the dispensers of safer-supply drugs, products with proven harms greater than any sugary drink.

Perhaps thinking along those lines, the government specifically exempted itself from prosecution under the Act.

This week’s announcement came as a surprise. As recently as Monday, Attorney General Niki Sharma told reporters the government had no intention of putting the bill on hold.

Tuesday, she justified her evasion by saying the talks with the social media companies were intense and confidential.

She said the pause was conditional on Meta and the other companies delivering a quick response to government concerns.

“British Columbians expect us to take action on online safety,” she told reporters. “What I’ll be looking for at this table is quick and immediate action to get to that better, safety online.”

A prime goal is addressing online harassment and “the online mental health and anxiety that’s rising in young people,” she said

“I’m going to be watching along with the premier as to whether or not we do get real action on changes for young people right away,” said the attorney general.

“I want to sit down with these companies look at them face to face and see what they can do immediately to improve the outcomes for British Columbians.”

Meta has already committed to rectifying Eby’s concern that it should relay urgent news about wildfires, flood and other disasters in B.C. Last year, those were blocked, collateral damage in the company’s hardball dispute with the federal government over linking to news stories from Canadian media companies.

Eby says he was very skeptical about the initial contact from the companies. Now he sees Meta’s willingness to deliver emergency information as a “major step” and he’s prepared to give talks the benefit of the doubt.

Not long ago he was scoring political points off the social media companies in the harshest terms.

“The billionaires who run them resist accountability, resist any suggestion that they have responsibility for the harms that they are causing,” said the premier on March 14, the day Bill 12 was introduced.

“The message to these big, faceless companies is, you will be held accountable in B.C. for the harm that you cause to people.”

Given those characterizations, perhaps the big, faceless billionaires will simply direct their negotiating team to play for time until the legislation adjourns as scheduled on May 16.

“The legislation is not being pulled and we’re not backtracking,” said Sharma. “We can always come back and bring legislation back.”

The government could schedule a quick makeup session of the legislature in late May or June or even in early September, before the house is dissolved for the four-week campaign leading up to the scheduled election day, Oct. 19.

More likely, if the New Democrats feel doublecrossed, they could go back to war with the faceless billionaires with a view to re-enacting Bill 12 after a hoped-for election victory.

Even if the New Democrats get some satisfaction from the social media companies in the short term, they have also framed Bill 12 as a way to force the marketers of risky products to help cover the cost of health care and other services.

They probably mean it when they say Bill 12 is only paused, not permanently consigned to the trash heap.

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