Medium has announced changes to its Partner Program, offering writers extra incentives for referring new subscribers. At the same time, it's making it more difficult for contributors to join the Partner Program based on follower numbers and other criteria, the platform announced yesterday. 

When Medium launched its Partner Platform, it used a Netflix-like model that let subscribers access all content for $5 per month of $50 per year. Contributors would then get paid based on how much time members spent reading their content — if a member spent 10 percent of their time on one writer's work, that writer would get 10 percent of the subscriber's payments. At the same time, if a reader converted to a paying member within 30 days of reading a writer's work, the writer would credit for that time. 

Under the new model, writers in the Partner Program will have a personalized referral landing page. If a reader purchases a subscription via a writer's page, the writer will get half the fee for the entire life of the subscription — minus payment processing fees. So, for every 100 members who sign up via a partner's referral landing page, that partner will make $201 per month. 

You can leverage your landing page however you’d like: share it on social platforms, link to it on Medium post pages, or include it on your profile. Directing your readers to this page is completely optional.

At the same time, when a non-paying reader subscribes to a writer's email, they'll automatically be given the option to convert to a Medium member. If they do, that will count toward the writer's referral earnings. 

Medium noted that subscriber referral earnings will be in addition to Partner Program earnings based on member read time. Presumably, however, there would be less money to go around from referred subscribers, since half their revenue would be going to the referring partner. 

At the same time, Medium has made it a bit more difficult to become a partner. Going forward, writers must have at least 100 follower and one published Medium story. Even if you meet all those requirements, you might lose your status if you don't publish anything within a six month period. Existing partners will retain their status until the end of 2021, and if they haven't reached the requirements at that point, they'll be removed.  

Medium's new model appears to be a response to Substack in particular, which pays writers based on their paid subscriber totals. Substack is more generous to individual writers, taking just 10 percent of their revenue compared to the 50 percent for medium, according to TechCrunch. Unlike Substack, though, Medium readers get access to everything on the platform, not just a single writer's work. 

Charter Communications has been sued by a group of major record labels who claim it has failed to address "flagrant and serial" music copyright infringement, The Verge has reported. It's the second time over the last several years that the group has sued Charter over song piracy. 

The labels said that they sent around 150,00 notices of infringement to Spectrum, Charter's internet service, including the IP addresses of "tens of thousands" of alleged infringers. They claim that the company turned a "blind eye" to the downloading, which occurred from July 2018 until recently. 

"Charter insisted on doing nothing despite receiving thousands of notices that detailed the illegal activity of its subscribers, despite its clear legal obligation to address the widespread, illegal downloading of copyrighted works on its Internet services, and despite being sued previously by Plaintiffs for similar conduct," the claim states.

The same labels sued Charter in 2019, claiming subscribers were using torrent services for music pirating between March 2013 and May 2016. "Charter persisted in contributing to and profiting from its subscribers’ infringement... even after receiving Plaintiffs’ March and April 2016 notices of claims and, remarkably, even after Plaintiffs filed the 2019 lawsuit," according to the latest lawsuit. 

The music industry has attacked multiple internet providers over the last few years. In June, ISP Frontier was sued by record labels over similar piracy claims. Internet service provider Cox, meanwhile, lost a $1 billion judgement in December of 2019, and vowed to appeal the settlement at the time. 

You now have a chance to purchase a seat aboard one of Virgin Galactic's space tours — provided you can afford to pay $450,000 for it. The company has reopened ticket sales less than a month after Richard Branson, its founder, flew with other "mission specialists" for Virgin Galactic's first fully crewed spaceflight. It made the announcement alongside its financial results for the second quarter of the year, wherein it also said that the private space corporation "made meaningful progress towards commencing commercial service in 2022."

Virgin Galactic is giving you three consumer options to choose from. In addition to a single seat that costs almost half a million, it's also selling multi-seat packages for groups and offering full-flight buy outs. The current iteration of the company's VSS Unity spacecraft can seat four passengers in addition to two pilots, so selling full flights isn't out of the realm of possibility. Virgin Galactic will prioritize its "significant list of early hand-raisers," though it will create a follow-on priority list for customers interested in reserving future flights.

As CNBC notes, its next scheduled flight will have members of the Italian Air Force onboard. After that, the company will take a break until mid-2022 to refurbish VMS Eve, its jet-powered carrier aircraft. Since there will be one more scheduled test flight after that period, that means Virgin Galactic is delaying its first official flight for paying astronauts again. Earlier this year, the company was hoping to launch its first commercial flight in early 2022, but it now told CNBC that its new target is sometime in the late third quarter of 2022.

Paramount+ is finally expanding into Europe — with a little help. ViacomCBS has struck a deal with Sky to launch Paramount+ in the UK, Austria, Germany, Ireland, Italy and Switzerland sometime in 2022. The pact will make the streaming TV service available on Sky platforms in return for Sky extending carriage of ViacomCBS pay TV channels like Comedy Central.

You'll have the option of both a direct subscription to Paramount+ as well as bundles. Sky Cinema subscribers will get Paramount+ at no extra charge, while other Sky customers will have to add it to their accounts.

ViacomCBS didn't provide pricing or local content differences, although it's notable that the broadcaster already has deals with rivals to carry streaming shows in the area. Netflix and Amazon Prime Video have rights to carry Star Trek: Discovery, Picard and Lower Decks in the UK, for instance.

Paramount+ is already available in the Americas, Australia, Hungary, Russia and the Middle East. This could be the most significant expansion to date, though. Europe is a major market for streaming, and Sky's influence in the region could put the service in front of people who wouldn't otherwise have considered it. This won't bring Paramount+ to the level of heavyweights like Netflix or Prime Video, but it could help competition against narrowly focused rivals like HBO Max.

Disney's Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser promises fans the "most immersive" experience ever when it launches in 2022 — one that won't be cheap. The entertainment giant has revealed details and prices for the Star Wars adventure, including the fact that it will cost two guests in a standard cabin at least $4,809 for a 2-night voyage. Suites will obviously cost more, though visitors will pay less per person the more people there are in their group.

Disney describes the experience as "part live immersive theater, part themed environment, part culinary extravaganza, part real-life role-playing game." According to the Galactic Starcruiser's official page, guests' journey begins at the Walt Disney World Resort terminal where they'll board a launch pad and rendezvous with the Halcyon. 

Once inside, guests will encounter "story moments," wherein they'll play a real-life choose-your-own-adventure type of game, wherein they can decide how their story will unfold. They can, for instance, choose to follow the First Order or join the Resistance, choose to join a smuggling ring or to aid a stowaway. They can interact with familiar characters who'll serve as NPCs and take lightsaber lessons to take on foes. Participants can also go on missions if they want to delve deeper into their story. According to ComicBook, each trip on the Starcruiser will be one-of-a-kind, so those who can afford more to go on more than once could enjoy unique experiences.

The perpetrators of the SolarWinds hacks apparently targeted key parts of the American legal system. According to the AP, the Justice Department says hackers targeted federal prosecutors between May 2020 and December 2020. There were 27 US Attorney offices where the intruders compromised at least one email account, officials said.

The victims included some of the more prominent federal offices, including those in the Eastern and Souther Districts of New York as well as Miami, Los Angeles and Washington.

The DOJ said it had alerted all victims and was taking steps to blunt the risks resulting from the hack. The Department previously said there was no evidence the SolarWinds hackers broke into classified systems, but federal attorneys frequently exchange sensitive case details.

The Biden administration has officially blamed Russia's state-backed Cozy Bear group for the hacks, and retaliated by expelling diplomats and sanctioning 32 "entities and individuals." Russia has denied involvement.

It's not certain if the US will escalate its response. The damage has already been done, after all. This further illustrates the severity of the attacks, however, and hints at the focus — they were clearly interested in legal data in addition to source code and other valuable information.

New York City capped food delivery app fees to help restaurants survive the COVID-19 pandemic, and it's keeping those limits in place as the recovery begins. Gothamistreports the City Council has passed a bill that extends caps on delivery app fees until February 17th, 2022. The limits were due to expire in August and kept fees no higher than 15 percent for deliveries, plus 5 percent for other services. Apps could have charged up to 35 percent without the fee ceiling.

Queens Council Member Francisco Moya claimed a return to higher fees would "completely" hobble businesses just starting to recover from the pandemic.

Other bills passed at the same time require apps to get written approval before listing businesses and to share customer data with restaurants. Delivery services have faced criticism, lawsuits and legislation after listing restaurants in their apps without permission.

The app creators have opposed New York City's new measures. GrubHub claimed the caps were "arbitrary price controls" that would allegedly damage businesses and the economy. DoorDash, meanwhile, suggested that data sharing with restaurants should be opt-in rather than enabled by default. The company was determined to "protect the privacy" of users, a spokesperson said.

The companies haven't been completely opposed to reduced fees. DoorDash, GrubHub, Uber Eats and others started cutting and waiving some fees as the pandemic began. Their concern, as you might guess, is that these caps might become permanent and restrict the apps' long-term viability. It's not an unfounded fear — San Francisco's Board of Supervisors recently voted to permanently cap delivery app fees in the city.

At the same time, there's little doubt that restaurants are eager to avoid a return to pre-pandemic fees. Some eateries were only reluctantly listing themselves in these apps due to the large fees, and in many cases have offered incentives to customers who order directly. While NYC's extension won't necessarily ensure a given restaurant's survival, it could help that restaurant maintain familiar profits or keep prices in check.

Dish Network is finally offering HBO, Cinemax and HBO Max to its subscribers after kicking HBO off its network nearly three years ago. It's the first time Dish subscribers will be able to watch HBO shows like Mare of Easttown and Euphoria since the carriage dispute began on October 31st, 2018. However, the new agreement doesn't cover Dish subsidiary Sling TV's distribution of HBO or HBO Max. 

When Dish removed HBO and Cinemax channels, it accused then-parent AT&T of using HBO as an "economic weapon." At that time, HBO was only a straight cable station, but AT&T launched HBO Max as a Netflix-like streaming service in July of 2019. With the situation now resolved, Dish becomes the last major pay TV distributor to add HBO Max to its lineup. 

The resolution follows a major shakeup with HBO's parent, WarnerMedia. In May 2021, AT&T announced that it was spinning off that division and merging it with Discovery in a $43 billion deal. That effectively removed a conflict of interest as AT&T is a direct competitor to Dish in the satellite video service provider space. The parties haven't disclosed the terms of the new agreement. 

With an accord now in pace, Dish customers get a free 10-day free of HBO and Cinemax from Aug. 6-15. Dish users can subscribe to the HBO Max ad-free plan for $12 rather than the regular price of $15 per month for up to 12 months if they act before Oct. 27, 2021. They'll get HBO Max access on supported devices like iOS, Android, Roku, Apple TV and Fire TV, along with live channels including HBO, HBO Family and HBO Signature. Dish TV customers can also get Cinemax for $10 per month.

GarageBand creators have a bunch more tools at their disposal as of today, including sound packs from Dua Lipa and Lady Gaga. You can learn how to remix Dua Lipa's "Break My Heart" and Lady Gaga's "Free Woman" in the app.

Along with videos of the artists telling the stories behind those songs, the Remix Sessions include step-by-step tutorials, which you can play picture-in-picture. An Apple Retail Creative Pro will give some pointers on how to remix the tunes using a GarageBand Live Loops version of each song. You can play around with isolated vocals, instrumental tracks and beats to create completely different versions of the hits.

Apple says these Remix Sessions build on the Today at Apple workshops that take place at its stores (and online over the past year or so). Big names like Alicia Keys, Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift have previously been featured at in-store Music Labs.

There are also seven new GarageBand producer packs created by Boys Noize, Mark Lettieri, Oak Felder, Soulection, Take A Daytrip, Tom Misch and Trakgirl. Each contains royalty-free loops, samples, instruments, drum kits and more that aim to encapsulate the feel of each producer's work. The packs also include videos from the producers, in which they provide words of encouragement and info about their creative process.

Oak Felder said he hopes his pack can help even the playing field and make it easier for newcomers to start producing music. "There is a possibility that you, picking around and making beats on your iPad, can actually turn it into a side hustle," he said.

There's another producer pack which acts as a companion piece to Apple TV+ docuseries Watch the Sound With Mark Ronson. You'll be able to play around with GarageBand versions of samples, drum machines, vocal effects and other elements featured in the show, which premieres on Friday. All of these free downloads are now available from the Sound Library.

Hawkeye, the next live-action Marvel Cinematic Universe series, will debut on Disney+ on November 24th, with new episodes to follow every Wednesday thereafter. Disney shared the news in an interview Entertainment Weekly published with series star Jeremy Renner. The article also includes a first-look screencap (below) showing Renner opposite co-star Hailee Steinfeld, who plays Hawkeye’s protégé Kate Bishop in the series.

Marvel Studios / Disney

With Hawkeye, Disney looks to continue the recent success it’s had with Marvel content. In June, Loki had Disney+’s most-watched premiere, beating out an already impressive debut showing from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier earlier in the year. At the start of July, Black Widow brought in more than $60 million in revenue solely from people willing to pay $30 each to watch the film from the comfort of their homes.