Hi Everyone. This is Take Off. We're like a hidden Easter egg in your favorite video game - surprising, delightful, and adding an extra layer of fun to your tech news consumption.

Here's what we're serving up today:

• Twitter’s $250 Million Tunes Trial 🎵🐦

• Google’s AdTech Biz in Trouble 😨

• Asteroids ☄️

• ToolBox Thursdays ⚒️

Twitter’s $250 Million Tunes Trial 🎵🐦

We’re bringing you another story from Twitter, the place which serves the hottest plates of drama!

The National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA), have rallied 17 music publishers, including Universal, Sony and Warner Bros. to sue Twitter to the tune (pun intended) of $250 million.

Their beef? Twitter has been partying hard with allegedly infringing copies of musical compositions.

Here are some deets on the lawsuit:

• The suit says Twitter is intentionally nurturing a community of users who overlay videos with copyright-protected tunes.

• Their unlicensed music is helping the platform to retain users on their platform so they can squeeze more advertising and subscription revenue.

• The playlist of copyrighted tunes is about 1,700 songs long, and they're asking the court to bill Twitter up to $150,000 per song.

Someone, please give Twitter a calculator; this karaoke night is going to be expensive.

Twitter is the only major social media giant that’s partying at the concert without paying for the ticket.

All the other giants including TikTok, Meta, Youtube and Snapchat are singing harmonies with music publishers while Twitter is apparently stuck on its solo act.

Google’s AdTech Biz in Trouble 😨

The big G might be in trouble over playing Monopoly, and no, we ain’t talking about the board game.

The European Commission alleges that Google, using its might in the Ad-Tech market, is tossing competition out the window and playing favorites with its own platforms.

1/ Google’s Ad-Tech Business Primer

No, these are not the ads that show up as results on your search. That’s the G-Search ad biz.

The AdTech business is essential the magic behind digital advertising on the open web. It's the grand orchestrator for buying and selling of ads that show up on websites and apps.

It's like an online marketplace for ads, where Google acts as the broker, supplier, and auctioneer of digital ads on third-party websites and apps.

2/ EU’s Problem

EU’s problem is that Big G has such dominance in this space that the it’s both the seller and the buyer in the ad auction, all while owning the auction house itself.

They believe that Google is behaving more like an unruly class monitor rather than a fair referee by manipulating auctions for self-preferential treatment.

In lieu of this, they want Google to shed some weight, break-up it's business and sell parts of it's services.

3/ Big G’s Response

Google, of course, is not exactly on board with this 'divestment diet.' Dan Taylor, Google's VP of global advertising, said their ad tools are like Robin Hood, helping websites and apps fund their content and businesses reach new customers.

They're not happy with the EC's view and are ready to put on the gloves and step into the ring.

☄️ Asteroids ☄️

Twitter is being evicted from its Boulder office over unpaid rent. They haven't paid rent for its Boulder office for months. Now, the court has approved eviction. 😮💼

Radio station gets part-time AI DJ based on its midday host. Portland's Live 95.5 radio is spicing things up with "AI Ashley," a cloned voice of their host Ashley Elzinga, thanks to RadioGPT! 🎙️💻

Meta's adding a text-based "world chat" to its VR platform, Horizon Worlds, much like multiplayer games! With features to prevent toxicity and protect minors, it's another step towards their web/mobile support plan 🎮🗨️

⚒️ ToolBox Thursdays ⚒️

Framer AI - Generate and publish your site with AI in seconds.

OneApply - A smarter way to apply for jobs

Exporter - Export your ChatGPT conversations

Coda AI - Your new work assistant.

Riverside - Easily record podcasts and videos in studio quality from anywhere.

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