Wall Street Journal

For T-Mobile US, it may still take two to tango. After Sprint's decision to shelve a plan to bid for its rival, T-Mobile shareholders who had counted on an offer are scanning for other potential suitors.

One possible contender: Dish Network. Owning T-Mobile could help Dish put its wireless spectrum holdings to use if the combined company can invest in building a network based on Dish's airwaves. Dish would avoid the regulatory hurdles that quelled Sprint's ambitions.

But a deeper look at the satellite company's balance sheet suggests a deal might be hard to swing.

Newly declassified court documents show one of the National Security Agency's key surveillance programs was plagued by years of "systemic overcollection'' of private Internet communications.

A 117-page decision by Judge John Bates of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court offers a scathing assessment of the NSA's ability to manage its own top-secret electronic surveillance of Internet metadata -- a program the NSA scrapped after a 2011 review found it wasn't fulfilling its mission.

The newly declassified documents suggest another possible reason for its demise. The surveillance agency struggled to collect metadata, such as the "to'' and "from'' information of an email, without also collecting other information, such as the contents or partial contents of such communications, information that is supposed to be beyond what it legally is permitted to gather.

Sprint may have given up its chase for T-Mobile US but it still thinks it can take on bigger rivals AT&T and Verizon Communications -- for now. Masayoshi Son, chief executive of Sprint parent SoftBank said the No. 3 US wireless carrier is ready to pare costs and do battle on prices as its network upgrade nears completion.

Son declined to elaborate beyond saying Sprint is testing new pricing plans, and will adopt Softbank's fighting spirit under Marcelo Claure, who was recently named Sprint CEO.

America's heartland wants its RFD-TV. Fans of shows like "Classic Tractor Fever" and "All-American Cowgirl Chicks" are flooding regulators in Washington with their concerns about the potential hazards of media consolidation, specifically involving two proposed mergers.

Close to half of the thousands of letters submitted to the Federal Communications Commission as it reviews Comcast's proposed takeover of Time Warner Cable and AT&T 's planned acquisition of DirecTV come from viewers of RFD-TV, a rural-focused channel owned by independent programmer Rural Media Group. Viewers express worry that the media and cable consolidation will be bad news for RFD-TV and its programs on horsemanship, grain prices and country music.

Judge John Bates, who has served on the special court created by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, acted in his role as director of the Administrative Office of the US Courts in sending Sen Patrick Leahy (D-VT) a letter blasting his bill to rein in National Security Agency surveillance.

Judge Bates contrasted the Senate bill with a less extreme House bill passed in May. He warned the Senate bill could "undermine the twin goals of protecting privacy and national security."

Judge Bates objected to the creation of a standing group of lawyers who would argue in the FISA court against government requests for surveillance when there was a "novel or significant interpretation of the law." This would create the "risk that representatives of the executive branch . . . would be reluctant to disclose to the courts particularly sensitive factual information, or information detrimental to a case, because doing so would also disclose the information to an independent adversary."

When Amazon.com wants to fight, it turns to a familiar playbook. The latest to feel the Seattle retailer's sting is Walt Disney. Amazon isn't accepting pre-orders of forthcoming Disney DVD and Blu-ray titles including "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" and "Maleficent."

It is the same tactic Amazon has employed in a bitter four-month spat with Hachette Book Group over e-book pricing. To press its point, Amazon suspended pre-orders for physical copies of many Hachette titles and lengthened shipping times or pared discounts for others.

Amazon.com stepped up the war of words in its nearly four-month contract battle with publisher Hachette Book Group, calling on authors to email the publisher's chief executive directly to pressure him to agree to its terms.

In a letter sent to Amazon authors and posted online, the Seattle-based retailer again pressed its case for lowering e-book prices and detailed talking points to send to Hachette CEO Michael Pietsch. "Stop using [Hachette] authors as leverage and accept one of Amazon's offers to take them out of the middle," one of the talking points said.

"E-books can and should be less expensive," Amazon said in its response. During negotiations Amazon has slowed delivery of some Hachette books, removed the preorder button on others and reduced the discount it offers on some titles.

Facebookis finding supporters in a fight stemming from court-approved search warrants in 2013 that allowed law enforcement officials to review accounts belonging to users suspected of fraud.

An amicus brief by the New York Civil Liberties Union -- and supported by the American Civil Liberties Union -- argues that the search warrants never should have been approved by the court because they were too broad and “profoundly invasive.” Several technology companies also signed on to a brief in support of Facebook’s position, including Google, Dropbox, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Twitter, Yelp, Foursquare, Kickstarter, Meetup and Tumblr.

The Internet has been simmering lately over privacy concerns surrounding Facebook’s Messenger app, which will soon become the only way mobile users can send and receive messages on the social network.

Some users were notified that they could no longer see or send messages unless they downloaded the app, and more users will get the same message in the weeks and months to come.

But amid the forced adoption of Messenger, some bloggers have cried foul over seemingly draconian permissions required for users of the Android version of the app. The bottom line is that, while some users might think it’s a drag to download a separate app for a feature that was once included in a single app, they’re not actually giving up a significant amount of additional privacy in the process.

European Union regulators are poised to unleash a formal investigation into Android, Google’s operating system for mobile devices, on the back of concerns that it is promoting its own services such as maps and applications and shutting out rivals.

Companies recently received questionnaires requesting proof of “any written or unwritten” dealings showing that Google imposed “exclusivity” requirements on mobile-phone makers and network operators. In particular, regulators are asking for evidence of Google demanding that mobile devices shouldn’t be pre-installed with any application, service or product that compete with its own Android products.