GAMES
- Texas judge calls for an end to Oculus and ZeniMax’s “big, hairy fight”: Injunction hearing started this week, with Zenimax asking for $500 million additional damages and a 20% cut of Oculus’ revenue
- Facebook Fights to Prevent Oculus Rift Sales Ban
- Rockstar clarifies Grand Theft Auto V modding policy
- Rockstar: GTA single-player mods are “generally” safe from legal action – Take-Two and Rockstar have agreed to focus on GTA Online mods, an updated version of OpenIV is now available
- Single-player modding returns to GTA V after publisher takedown: Popular OpenIV tool restored after discussions, changes to protect multiplayer.
- Pokémon Go’s New Gyms Are Off To A Rocky Start
- Here’s why ‘deliberate Switch shortages’ is a ridiculous notion: Nintendo has regularly said it’s ramping up production, so why are people so worried the platform holder is holding out on us?
- Nintendo: Switch shortages are “definitely not intentional” – In an Ars interview, exec also addresses issues with NES Classic, 3DS, and fan games.
- Nintendo apologises for Japanese Switch shortages as sales pass 1m: Company pledges increased shipments in July and August
- Nintendo Announces SNES Classic, Which Comes With 21 Stellar Games
- SNES Classic Edition Announced And Dated
- Plug-and-play SNES Classic coming Sept. 29 for $80 with two controllers: Unreleased Star Fox 2 among 21 16-bit classics included; Japanese version now confirmed.
- Fears of limited SNES Classic supply lead to 150% online resale markup: One eBay listing for the $80 system already sold for a whopping $390
- Nintendo Will Produce ‘Significantly More’ SNES Classic Editions Than Nes Classic: Nintendo is currently only planning to ship the SNES Classic through the end of 2017.
- Nintendo plans to produce ‘significantly more’ than 2.3M SNES Classic Editions
- Nintendo Confirms SNES Classic Controller Cord Length Is Longer Than NES Classic’s
- Nintendo’s Market Value Climbs Past Sony Corp: Nintendo’s stock value is the highest it’s been since 2008.
- Nintendo Switch Helps Company Surpasses Sony In Market Cap: For the second time in 11 months, Nintendo’s market cap passes Sony’s.
- Super Mario Odyssey wins big at Game Critics Awards
- Sega Forever brings retro games to iOS and Android for free: Sonic the Hedgehog, Phantasy Star II, Comix Zone, Kid Chameleon, and Altered Beast launch.
- Botched Sega Forever launch blighted by poor emulation: Sega defends Unity emulation saying it wants games to reach “largest audience possible.”
- Mobile fragmentation to blame for Sega Forever launch woes: But publisher’s Mike Evans promises updates on the way that should get nostalgia assault back on track
- Q&A: How Microsoft is pitching the Xbox One X to devs (and consumers)
- Xbox One X to sell 17m by 2021 – DFC: Even with 4K TV sales on the rise, Xbox One X will only appeal to a narrow demographic, says David Cole
- PlayStation Emerging Filmmakers Program launched to create multiple new TV series: Sony seeking original video content with plans to make five pilots for potential shows
- With Sony’s indie support in question, developers at E3 weigh in
- Guillemot family raise Ubisoft stake to fend off Vivendi
- Ubisoft’s Guillemot family acquires larger stake in company: Attempts to thwart Vivendi takeover ongoing as founders now own 13.6% of shares, 20% of voting rights
- Paradox undoes global price increase in the name of transparency
- Paradox insists price hikes “create a more equal price point”
- Digital games up 9% in May to $7.8 billion – Superdata: Research firm finds steep drops in premium PC and console spaces offset by mobile, free-to-play growth
- Virtual Reality Can Teach Altruism, Empathy — and Why You Should Use Less Toilet Paper
- Survey: 31% of VR/AR devs are working on a platform exclusive
- One in three VR/AR projects in development will be platform-exclusive: HTC Vive remains developers’ headset of choice in VRDC survey
- New VRDC VR/AR Innovation Report reveals the HTC Vive is devs’ top target
- Report: Valve’s former augmented reality system is no more – CastAR creators have yet to confirm Polygon report of downturn, liquidation.
- Report: Augmented reality startup CastAR has closed its doors
- Twitch Overhauls App, Adds Native Mobile Streaming And ‘Dark Mode’
- Twitch Affiliates will soon reap the rewards of paid subscription tiers
- Corona 2D game engine is now ‘completely free’
- Blizzard announces major changes to loot systems in Overwatch & Hearthstone
- Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds has banned 25k cheaters since launch
- Child protection and Esports
- Splatoon dev: ‘Being an eSport wasn’t something that we were ever really considering’
- AbleGamers’s Player Panels aim to give game devs insight on accessibility
- How Naughty Dog broke Sony’s hardware rules to create Crash Bandicoot
- Rust dev shares Steam refund data: ~330k copies, $4M+ revenue refunded
- In a bid for better transparency, G2A will strip anonymity from key sellers
- Destiny 2’s guns won’t recoil on PC as they do on consoles: Project lead says aiming drift “doesn’t feel good” when using a mouse.
- Wargaming opens mobile game development and publishing division
- The memory optimization struggle in Unity3d
- Unity showcases new camera and Timeline tech ahead of 2017.1 release
- Unity launches graduate research program to fuel innovation in games
- German chancellor Angela Merkel to open Gamescom 2017: First time the country’s leader will open long-running video games expo
- Ready Player One: Video Game Oral Histories: Did you know that “Ms. Pac-Man” started out as a character named “Crazy Otto”? Or that “Halo: Combat Evolved” was originally going to be a real-time strategy game? Here are the companies, consoles and titles that ate your quarters and bruised your thumbs.
- iPhone at 10: How Apple changed gaming for the better and the worse – For gaming, the iPhone sparked a gold rush and burst of creativity still felt today.
- Dev rescues ’80s text adventure source code by baking tapes in an oven
- John Romero’s Doom II floppy disks sell for over $3,000: A small price to pay?
DIGITAL
- Pakistan Sentences First Person To Death Over Social Media Posts
- China just banned livestreaming because it’s too hard to censor
- Google must alter worldwide search results, per orders from Canada’s top court: Vancouver tech company seeks to de-list a website selling alleged counterfeits.
- Supreme Court Case Upholds Order Against Google
- Supreme Court of Canada states “The Internet has no borders” in upholding global injunction in search results case
- Google Inc. v. Equustek Solutions Inc. (SCC)
- Section 230 Protects Google’s Decision Not To De-Index Content–Bennett v. Google
- Canadian Supreme Court Says It’s Fine To Censor The Global Internet; Authoritarians & Hollywood Cheer…
- Ominous: Canadian Court Orders Google To Remove Search Results Globally
- Google Suffers Severe Setback from the Supreme Court of Canada (Howard Knopf)
- Global Internet Takedown Orders Come to Canada: Supreme Court Upholds International Removal of Google Search Results (Michael Geist)
- Without telling media, Arizona judge orders dozens of articles to be deleted: An NFL cheerleader and US Army officer was celebrated—until she was arrested.
- Canada’s Supreme Court clears way for Facebook privacy lawsuit
- Supreme Court turns down EFF’s “Dancing Baby” fair use case: The law against bogus DMCA takedowns will remain tough to enforce.
- Copyright Office Admits That DMCA Is More About Giving Hollywood ‘Control’ Than Stopping Infringement
- Supreme Court of Canada finds Facebook’s Forum Selection Clause is Unenforceable; Privacy class action can proceed in Canadian Court
- Few “likes” for Facebook Forum Selection Clause: Supreme Court Finds “Strong Cause” to Not Enforce Forum Selection Clause
- Douez v. Facebook, Inc. (Supreme Court of Canada)
- Law on Jurisdiction Clauses Changes in Canada
- Facebook Must Face the Fact That Its Forum Selection Clause is Unenforceable in Canadian Privacy Class Action
- Supreme Court Rules Facebook Can’t Contract Out of B.C. Privacy Law (Michael Geist)
- Why clicking ‘I agree’ may no longer mean you agree to everything (Michael Geist)
- Supreme Court of Canada Leaves Forum Selection Clauses in a State of Uncertainty
- Man drives into Ten Commandments monument in Arkansas Capitol, streams it on Facebook: Replicas of the Ten Commandments on public property always spark controversy.
- Zillow is threatening to sue a blogger for using its photos for parody: McMansion Hell becomes legal hell
- Zillow Sends Totally Ridiculous Legal Threat To McMansion Hell
- Zillow Still Doesn’t Get It: Second Letter About McMansion Hell Is Still Just Wrong
- “McMansion Hell” used Zillow photos to mock bad design—Zillow may sue: “It is my sincere hope that this issue is resolved as amicably as possible.”
- Ill-Advised Copyright Lawsuit Over Facebook Live Video Becomes Costly For Plaintiff–Konangataa v. ABC (Eric Goldman)
- Court Orders Man Who Sued News Orgs For Clipping His Facebook Video To Pay Everyone’s Attorney’s Fees
- Cops Sent Warrant To Facebook To Dig Up Dirt On Woman Whose Boyfriend They Had Just Killed
- Facebook’s Secret Censorship Rules Protect White Men from Hate Speech But Not Black Children: A trove of internal documents sheds light on the algorithms that Facebook’s censors use to differentiate between hate speech and legitimate political expression.
- Facebook’s secret rules mean that it’s OK to be anti-Islam, but not anti-gay: “The policies do not always lead to perfect outcomes,” top Facebook official says.
- Judge rips lawyers in IP rift over viral Facebook childbirth video: Judge says media should be paid the “costs of defending this frivolous litigation.”
- YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft Form New Group to Fight Terrorist Content
- Facebook launches UK initiative to counter online extremist material
- Macedonian Publishers Are Panicking After Facebook Killed Their US Political Pages: Over 30 Facebook pages being run from Macedonia have been removed by Facebook in the past two months.
- Facebook Is Launching A Standalone App Exclusively For Video Creators
- Facebook Surpasses Insane Milestone Of 2 Billion Worldwide Users
- We desperately need a way to defend against online propaganda: Despite years of fake news online, we still have no idea how to protect against it.
- United Airlines wins suit against founder of Untied.com complaint site
- Patriots’ owner says NFL’s future is through livestreaming
- Fox Sports Pacts With Facebook to Live-Stream European Soccer Champions League Matches
- FOX Sports To Stream Champions League Matches On Facebook In U.S
- China’s Central Bank Has Begun Cautiously Testing a Digital Currency: The People’s Bank of China has developed a digital currency that’s designed to scale to the number of transactions made every day across the country.
- Wikileaks Attempts To Bully Wikileaks Documentary With C&D Notices
- Google hit with record EU fine over Shopping service
- Google Slapped With $2.7 Billion EU Fine Over Search Results: EU orders Google to treat rival comparison-shopping services equally in its search results
- Google fined $2.7B by European Commission for abusing search monopoly: EU also rules that Google must stop demoting competitors in search results.
- Google’s Big Eu Fine Isn’t Just About The Money
- Three Thoughts On EU’s $2.7 Billion Antitrust Google Fine
- Google’s Elite Hacker SWAT Team vs. Everyone: Brash. Controversial. A guard against rising digital threats around the globe. Google’s Project Zero is securing the Internet on its own terms. Is that a problem?
- Aspiring YouTuber, 22, Fatally Shot While Filming Ill-Conceived Prank Video
- Black Pigeon Speaks: The Anatomy of the Worldview of an Alt-Right YouTuber
- Trump Accuses Amazon of Not Paying ‘Internet Taxes,’ Which Aren’t a Thing
- No, Donald Trump Isn’t Calling For An Internet Tax
- Does the Packingham Ruling Presage Greater Government Control Over Search Results? Or Less?
- As Predicted, Cox’s Latest Appeal Points To SCOTUS’ Refusal To Disconnect Sex Offenders From Social Media
- London police arrest four in Windows support scam bust: India-based scam callers pose as ISP employees.
- New York Attorney General Unveils Latest Ticket Bot Enforcement Actions against Ticket Vendors and Software Developer
- Instagram Stories Crushes Snapchat, Offers Downloadable Live Streams
- Investigation Shows That FTC’s Reminder Letters Are Ineffective at Disclosing Paid Posts on Instagram – Groups to the FTC: Enforcement Action Needed to Change Influencer Behavior on Instagram
- Adventure cat goes viral : Cat has nearly 22,000 Instagram followers
- Baby Ariel, Joanne The Scammer Named Most Influential On The Internet By ‘Time’
- FTC Updates Children’s Online Privacy Protection (COPPA) Compliance Plan to include Connected Toys
- Cracking YouTube In 2017: The New Research That Cracks The Code On YouTube’s Algorithms
- YouTube Adds Machine Learning To Comments, Rebuilds Its Desktop Creator Studio
- YouTube Claims 1.5 Billion Monthly Users in Latest Ad Sales Pitch
- YouTube Announces New VR Video Format, App Revamp At VidCon Keynote
- YouTube’s Ad-Supported Originals Are Directly Competing For TV Ad Dollars
- YouTube Red Originals Have Received 250 Million Views So Far, And 2017 Will Bring 13 New Releases
- YouTube Co-Viewing App ‘Uptime’ Officially Exits Beta
- YouTube’s “VR180” format cuts down on VR video’s prohibitive requirements: VR in only 180 degrees is easier to stream and fits traditional video content better.
- YouTube Unveils Defiant Hero Video For Fifth Annual LGBTQ Pride Campaign
- Game Music Composer Goes On DMCA Blitz Against Innocent YouTubers Over Contract Dispute With Game Publisher
- Google Will No Longer Scan Gmail for Ad Targeting
- Scroogled no more: Gmail won’t scan e-mails for ads personalization – Google kills Gmail’s most controversial feature.
- Google Unveils An AI Investment Fund. It’s Betting On An App Store For Algorithms.
- Football’s Next Frontier: The Battle Over Big Data – NFL players have signed a five-year deal with WHOOP, a biometric performance company that measures workout strain, recovery, and quality of sleep via a wearable band. If teams want to see the data, they’re going to have to pay up . . . but they won’t be the only customers
- Should robot artists be given copyright protection (Andres Guadamuz)
- Has human communication become botifed?
- IBM To Provide Wimbledon Highlights Using Artificial Intelligence
- AI and the Law: Setting the Stage (Urs Gasser)
- Artificial Intelligence for good
- Reddit Hails Advertisers With Announcement Of Video Ads
- Disney Is Reviving ‘Mickey Mouse Club’ With New Class Of Influencer Mouseketeers
- Vimeo Decides To End Plans For SVOD Service
- Vimeo Kills Plans For Subscription-Video Service
- BlackBerry’s no-phone business model isn’t working out as planned: Stock falls 13 percent in one day after bad sales numbers.
- Amazon’s latest Prime Exclusive Phones range from $79 to $199: In exchange for lockscreen ads, Amazon is offering up to an $80 discount on some phones.
- Sean Parker Leaves Spotify Board as Company Brings in Heavy Hitters
- Inside Spotify’s Financials: Is There a Path to Profitability Or an IPO?
- Over 1000 Uber Employees Have ‘Demanded’ Travis Kalanick’s Return In Letter To Board
- Waymo tells judge: Uber’s ex-CEO knew about Google files – Levandowski had “five discs in his possession containing Google information.”
- Fake online stores reveal gamblers’ shadow banking system
- Judges refuse to order fix for court software that put people in jail by mistake – Defender: Switch to Odyssey Court Manager remains at the heart of the problem.
- The tragedy of FireWire: Collaborative tech torpedoed by corporations: “Show us that it’s being adopted in the industry, and we’ll put it in.”
- Social media has changed TV, for better and worse
- The Industry of Virality (or what a raccoon video can teach us about the Internet)
- The Pirate Bay – A Communication to the Public
- How 7 words unfit for TV fostered an open Internet 20 years ago today: “When we decided to bring the case, none of us had been online.”
- How The ACLU’s Fight To Protect ‘Indecent’ Speech Saved The Internet From Being Treated Like Broadcast TV
- Inside Apple’s 6-Month Race To Make The First iPhone A Reality
- The iPhone’s Turning 10. What Will It Look Like At 20?
- A touch of Cocoa: Inside the original iPhone SDK – Back in 2008, Ars took its first look at what Apple provided for iPhone developers.
- Back to the iPhone future: Lessons from a decade of Apple influence in medicine: iPhones spurred big changes in learning and practicing medicine—and there may be more
- Brain Drain: The Mere Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity
- Samsung’s fiery Galaxy Note 7 to rise from the ashes as the “Fandom Edition”: The Note 7 FE hits South Korea (and some other countries) on July 7.
CREATIVITY
- U.S. Lobby Groups Take Aim At Canadian Copyright Law in NAFTA Comments: No Balance, No Fair Use, & No Cultural Exception (Michael Geist)
- Re:Sound Resoundingly Loses Judicial Review of Copyright Board Tariff 8 Decision (Howard Knopf)
- A Copyright Board for Canada at 150: A well funded Copyright Board with a clear mandate and a regulated process for public input should be central to Canada’s copyright regime.
- The great intellectual property trade-off: BBC World Service, 50 Things That Made the Modern Economy
- Copyright protection for factual compilations in Singapore: creativity alone is not enough
- Jordan-Benel v. Universal City Studios, Inc.
- “Turn Down For What?” How About For Copyright Law!?
- Bob Murray’s Lawsuit Against John Oliver Is Even Sillier Than We Expected
- Coal Boss Files Total SLAPP Suit Against John Oliver & HBO
- Anti-SLAPP law to be tested at Ontario Court of Appeal
- A Time magazine with Trump on the cover hangs in his golf clubs. It’s fake.
- Why Racially Offensive Trademarks Are Now Legally Protected
- Examination Guide 1-17: Examination Guidance for Section 2(a)’s Disparagement Provision after Matal v. Tam and Examination for Compliance with Section 2(a)’s Scandalousness Provision While Constitutionality Remains in Question (Issued June 26, 2017)
- King Has ‘Crush’ Trademark Opposed By Dr. Pepper
- Forever 21 Slaps Gucci with Strongly-Worded Trademark Lawsuit
- AG Szpunar advises CJEU to rule that a red sole may not be just a colour
- Christian Louboutin, Christian Louboutin SAS v Van Haren Schoenen BV
- Justin Bieber tweets and an international arbitrator listens: court refers defamation claim to arbitration
- How Major Lazer Bet on Diversity (and Data) to Make Global Hits: ‘The Audience Controls Music Now’
- Don’t use that tone(r) with me: How first sale can exhaust IP rights
- Art Fight! The Pinkest Pink Versus The Blackest Black
- Antony Gormley asks for ‘vandalised’ beach sculptures to be cleaned: Sculptor’s life-sized iron men in Crosby have been brightly decorated with a polka-dot bikini and other embellishments
- Ninth Circuit Upholds Law Against Misleading Anti-Abortion Ads
- How ‘The Bachelor’ Franchise Is Exploiting Race For Ratings
- The National Enquirer’s Fervor for Trump: The tabloid is defined by its predatory spirit. Why has it embraced the President with such sycophantic zeal?
- Goodbye Nonpartisan Journalism. And Good Riddance.
- How Countries Around the World Fund Music—and Why It Matters: As President Trump eyes abolishing federal arts funding in the U.S., a survey of tax-supported music from Australia to Iceland reveals a complex, shifting landscape.
- Anita Sarkeesian’s astounding ‘garbage human’ moment: Feminist speaker hits back at trolls and haters
- The Rise of the Thought Leader: How the superrich have funded a new class of intellectual.
- Is the staggeringly profitable business of scientific publishing bad for science?: It is an industry like no other, with profit margins to rival Google – and it was created by one of Britain’s most notorious tycoons – Robert Maxwell.
- The Political Economy of Celebrity Rights (Mark Bartholomew)
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- Why Net Neutrality Matters Even In The Age Of Oligopoly
- Tumblr Goes Radio Silent On Net Neutrality After Verizon Acquisition
- 30 small ISPs urge Ajit Pai to preserve Title II and net neutrality rules – Letter: Title II didn’t hurt investment, is good for small ISPs and customers.
- AT&T Promises A Cornucopia Of Broadband Investment…But Only If Trump Gives It A Giant Tax Cut & A Shiny New Merger
- AT&T May Soon Return To Charging Broadband Subscribers More For Privacy
- AT&T: Forced arbitration isn’t “forced” because no one has to buy service: To avoid AT&T arbitration, your only choice is to not be a customer.
- Verizon illegally denied Charter access to utility poles, complaint says: Charter fined for slow Internet rollout but says Verizon delayed construction.
- FCC Proposes $120 Million Fine for Spoofed Robocalls
- Thankfully, Marketing Industry Plan For ‘Ringless Voicemail’ Dies a Quiet Death…For Now
- Ringless voicemail spam won’t be exempt from anti-robocall rules: After heavy opposition, robocall company gives up attempt to avoid FCC rules.
- Scammer who made 96 million robocalls should pay $120M fine, FCC says: Vacation scam preyed on elderly and disrupted medical paging system, FCC says.
- Advertiser Fined By FCC For Use Of Emergency Tones in Football Ads
- Frontier Communications Caught (Again) Ripping Off West Virginia Taxpayers
- Comcast accused of cutting competitor’s wires to put it out of business: Comcast “systematically destroyed” an ISP with 229 customers, lawsuit claims.
- Comcast and Charter could invest in Sprint’s network, resell Sprint data: Sprint is holding “exclusive talks” with the two biggest US cable companies.
- Charter promised more broadband but didn’t deliver, now must pay fine: 21,000 NY customers did not get broadband on schedule, despite merger promise.
- Wall Street Is Starting To Get Very Nervous About Cable TV Cord Cutting
- Cable Industry Quietly Shelves Its Bogus Plan To Make Cable Boxes Cheaper, More Competitive
- Taking the pulse of ESPN
- What the failure of Star Touch teaches us about a media bailout
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- Election Hackers Altered Voter Rolls, Stole Private Data, Officials Say
- Matthew Keys’ guilty verdict and sentence to stand, 9th Circuit rules: “Keys made the CMS far weaker by taking and creating new user accounts.”
- A report card on the national security bill: Two of Canada’s foremost experts in national security law give their assessment of Bill C-59: there’s much to like, but also room for improvement. (Craig Forcese & Kent Roach)
- Liberals shockingly timid on access-to-information reform
- Trudeau government shelves part of anti-spam law that would allow private lawsuits: Provisions to allow Canadians to sue spammers had been due to take effect July 1
- The battle over encryption and what it means for our privacy
- Tuesday’s massive ransomware outbreak was, in fact, something much worse: Payload delivered in mass attack destroys data, with no hope of recovery.
- A new ransomware outbreak similar to WCry is shutting down computers worldwide: Like earlier ransomware worm, new attacks use potent exploit stolen from the NSA.
- ‘Petya’ ransomware attack: what is it and how can it be stopped?: Companies have been crippled by global cyberattack, the second major ransomware crime in two months. We answer the key questions
- Ohio Gov. Kasich’s website, dozens of others defaced using year-old exploit: “High risk” exploit patch was issued in May of 2016.
- Does US have right to data on overseas servers? We’re about to find out: Supreme Court case has ramifications for tech sector, foreign relations, and privacy.
- This Windows Defender bug was so gaping its PoC exploit had to be encrypted
- Skylake, Kaby Lake chips have a crash bug with hyperthreading enabled: A fix is available for Linux systems; Windows users will have to use firmware updates.
- To Avoid Being Cut Out Of The Market, US Tech Companies Are Allowing Russian Vetting Of Source Code
- Australia To Push For Encryption Backdoors At Next ‘Five Eyes’ Meeting
- Australia advocates weakening strong crypto at upcoming “Five Eyes” meeting: Oz AG to discuss “ongoing challenges posed by terrorists and criminals using encryption.”
- UK Law Enforcement Telling Citizens To ‘See Something Say Something’ About Dark Web Use
- How the CIA infects air-gapped networks: Sprawling “Brutal Kangaroo“ spreads malware using booby-trapped USB drives.
- Some beers, anger at former employer, and root access add up to a year in prison: Ex-tech pleads guilty to smart meter network attack; changed a password.”
- NFL Uses Eye-Tracking Technology To Study How Fans Watch Games
- Meet the Princeton-Trained Computer Scientists Building a New Internet That Brings Privacy and Property Rights to Cyberspace (New at Reason)
- Settlement of Walmart Canada Photo Centre Data Breach Lawsuits – Lessons Learned
- Facial Recognition Software Brings Personalized Ads To The Supermarket
- Medical records join revenge porn, credit card numbers for Google removal: It’s an elective removal, though. Google will only do it if you ask.
- 15 years after ‘Minority Report’: A cautionary film, ignored.
Jon