Netflix to face local content quota under proposed Australian TV reforms

  • Netflix and other global streaming services could be forced to spend millions of dollars on Australian programs and films under major changes to media laws proposed by the federal government
  • Federal Communications and Arts Minister Paul Fletcher will launch a green paper with the proposed reforms today
  • Fletcher said the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic had reinforced the need for regulatory action to help the TV industry.
  • A 2017 inquiry recommended subscription streaming services invest 10 per cent of the revenues they earn in Australia in new local content
  • Free to Air Networks currently have to screen 55% locally made content

Coronavirus Victoria: State government-backed universal contact-tracing app that centralises QR code data collection set to be rolled out next week

  • The Victorian state government is expected to launch a QR Code app next week, to help people check in at businesses and venues around the state
  • The app is being launched by Service Victoria and was custom built by Melbourne startup Two Bulls.
  • An anonymous source said “There's a huge advantage for the government because it means that the data is fed directly to the Department of Health and Human Services"
  • This also means the data will not be available to the venues themselves, to use for marketing
  • The Victorian government's app has been trialled successfully by 100 venues, including Officeworks, which has been using the app to check in customers at five of its stores.

Exclusive: Foxconn to shift some Apple production to Vietnam to minimise China risk

  • Foxconn is moving some iPad and MacBook assembly to Vietnam from China at the request of Apple Inc
  • Apple is moving production to minimise the impact of a Sino-U.S. trade war.
  • This move has been expected for a while now, not just from Apple but from many large US based tech companies, that have the majority of production coming from China
  • Taiwanese manufacturers, wary of being caught up in the tit-for-tat trade war, have moved or are considering moving some production from China to countries such as Vietnam, Mexico and India.
  • The Vietnamese Foxconn plant currently manufactures Sony TVs
  • Foxconn is spending $1b to upgrade its plants in India, to produce more iPhones there

Microsoft productivity score feature criticised as workplace surveillance

  • Microsoft has been criticised for rolling out a new feature to track users productivity in its Office 365 products
  • The reports show how often employees are using Office Products like Outlook, Word and Excel, and how often they’re in meetings, based on their calendar
  • I saw a glimpse of this at my old workplace, and really found it quite disgusting, and I’m glad to see this being reported.
  • “The word dystopian is not nearly strong enough to describe the fresh hellhole Microsoft just opened up,” tweeted David Heinemeier Hansson, co-founder of the office productivity suite Basecamp.

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