An anonymous reader quotes a report from Variety: AMC Theatres, the world’s largest cinema chain, has raised $917 million in new equity and debt capital, the company said on Monday. “This increased liquidity should allow the company to make it through this dark coronavirus-impacted winter,” the company said, adding that its “financial runway has been extended deep into 2021.” AMC has…
Tag: Landlords
‘Landlord Tech Watch’ Site Lets You Report Landlords Using Tech To Screw Over Tenants
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: A group of activists have released Landlord Tech Watch, a site that allows anyone to report where this “landlord tech” is being used and plot it on a map — like a version of Nextdoor that turns the tables to hold property owners and real estate companies accountable. The project is the effort…
Airbnb Criticized For Asking Its Customers To Donate to Their Past Hosts
“Airbnb has been in hot water with hosts since the coronavirus crisis began, since the company told hosts to refund guests who needed to cancel their trips due to the pandemic,” reports Travel + Leisure magazine. “According to USA Today, the company spent $250 million in March to try to reimburse hosts for their cancellations plus a $17 million fund for…
California To Allow Movie Theaters To Reopen In Most Counties
California counties, including Los Angeles County, could decide to reopen movie theaters as early as Friday. The Los Angeles Times reports: Each local health officer has the authority to decide whether to move forward with relaxing restrictions on reopening theaters. While the state provides guidance on how businesses can reopen, counties decide when they occur. The new rules would limit the…
Will Comic Books Survive Coronavirus?
As Marvel cuts staff and publishers stop selling new titles, artists, shop owners and writers worry for the future of an industry worth billions. From a report: There are no new comic books. Steve Geppi, head of Diamond Comic Distributors, which distributes nearly every comic sold in the anglophone world (or used to), announced this on 23 March, though senior industry…
Do We Need To Talk About ‘Cloud Neutrality’?
“A multibillion-dollar, privately-owned infrastructure is now essential to the modern internet economy,” writes Wired. And if you care about net neutrality, “That should freak you out.” [T]here’s an even bigger issue brewing, and it’s time to start talking about it: cloud neutrality. “While its name sounds soft and fluffy,” Microsoft president and general counsel Brad Smith and coauthor Carol Ann Browne…
Facial Recognition May Be Banned From Public Housing Thanks To Proposed Law
Lawmakers in Congress are expected to introduce landmark legislation this week that will ban facial recognition technology from public housing. Called the No Biometric Barriers to Housing Act, the proposed bill would prohibit housing units that receive funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development from using technology like facial recognition. It would also require HUD to submit a report…
What Happens When Landlords Can Get Cheap Surveillance Software?
“Cheap surveillance software is changing how landlords manage their tenants and what laws police can enforce,” reports Slate. For example, there’s a private company contracting with property managers that says they now have 475 security cameras in place and can sometimes scan more than 1.5 million license plates in a week. (According to Clayton Burnett, Watchstore Security’s director of “innovation and…
City of Berlin Backs Plan To Freeze Rents For Five Years
The Berlin Senate on Tuesday approved a five-year rent freeze designed to tame soaring housing costs in the German capital, bowing to pressure from residents angry that their city has become unaffordable. From a report: Once described as “poor but sexy,” Berlin’s housing costs have doubled over the last decade as employees lured by the strong job market move into the…