Wall Street Journal

A growing stack of companies would like you to pay a monthly fee to read e-books, just like you subscribe to Netflix to binge on movies and TV shows. Don't bother. Go sign up for a public library card instead.

More than 90% of American public libraries have amassed e-book collections you can read on your iPad, and often even on a Kindle.

You don't have to walk into a branch or risk an overdue fine. And they're totally free. But libraries' current collection advantage, borne of those publisher contracts, isn't likely to last forever. Publishers may resolve their squabbles with Amazon or come to see paid subscriptions as a lucrative new market.

[Aug 12]

Lenovo Group is on a fast track to become a significant competitor in smartphones -- not just in China but also overseas, taking on Samsung Electronics and Apple.

Network engineers are buzzing as the Internet outgrows some of its gear.

While a precise count is elusive, many technicians are reporting that the total number of world-wide Internet routes is near or already past half a million, usually abbreviated 512K. Older network routers from Cisco Systems and other makers can't hold any more unless they are tweaked.

The problem also draws attention to a real, if arcane, issue with the Internet's plumbing: the shrinking number of addresses available under the most popular routing system. That system, called IPv4, can handle only a few billion addresses. But there are already nearly 13 billion devices hooked up to the Internet, and the number is quickly growing, Cisco said.

Version 6, or IPv6, can hold many orders of magnitude more addresses but has been slow to catch on.

T-Mobile US' Chief Financial Officer Braxton Carter called a $15 billion takeover proposal from French wireless company Iliad "inadequate," but hinted that his company may be open to a higher offer.

Carter said that Iliad's late-July offer to buy 57% of T-Mobile US was "very flattering" but "a very inadequate value proposition." But, he added, "I think rarely people come with their best bid to start."

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.