News of the Week; December 19, 2018

GAMES

1. US School Safety Commission largely gives games a pass: Group convened by Trump in wake of mass shooting earlier this year suggests schools monitor internet access, media ratings bodies review policies
2. 68% of games depict violence, says US school safety report
3. South Korea Continues To Criminalize Behavior Around Online Gaming At The Behest Of Video Game Industry
4. The first union for game industry workers has launched in the UK  
5. IWGB launches video game workers union branch: “The game workers’ decision to unionise with the IWGB should be a wake up call for the UK’s gaming industry,” says IWGB general secretary
6. Escape From Tarkov devs file DMCA takedown over false accusations 
7. Escape from Tarkov developer issues DMCA to stop story about user info leaks: Battlestate Games issues takedown on over 40 videos from YouTuber Eroktic due to “misinformation” and “negative hype”
8. Game Developer Admits It Filed Bogus Copyright Claims, But Says It Had No Other Way To Silence A Critic
9. Call of Duty developer Infinity Ward evacuated after bomb threat
10. Infinity Ward receives bomb threat – Report: Call of Duty development studio among dozens of businesses, schools, news outlets receiving threats today
11. Fresh Prince star Alfonso Ribeiro suing Epic over Fortnitedance
12. ‘Fresh Prince’ star Alfonso Ribeiro sues Fortnite over use of dance his character Carlton popularized
13. Fresh Prince actor sues Fortnite for use of ‘iconic’ Carlton dance: Alfonso Ribeiro wants to stop the makers of Fortnite and NBA 2K from using the dance he first performed on the 1990s sitcom
14. CAA Signs First Gamers, Facebook Star StoneMountain64 And ‘Fortnite’ Pro Nick Eh 30
15. People of the Year 2018: Epic Games: Despite a year peppered with controversy, the Fortnite developer’s influence on 2018 remains undeniable
16. Forget Fortnite—my son is still obsessed with Minecraft
17. Minecraft lays its last brick on Xbox 360, other last-gen consoles
18. Consumer advocates want FTC to investigate kids apps: Group files formal complaint alleging COPPA violations, spotlights on inappropriate titles
19. GamesIndustry.biz presents… The Year In Numbers 2018: The global games market value, most watched YouTube videos, biggest mobile games and more
20. Global games market value rising to $134.9bn in 2018: Revenues grew by over 10%, mobile accounts for almost half at $63.2 billion
21. Sony inadvertently leaks player counts for PS4 titles
22. Sony accidentally revealed playercounts for nearly every PS4 game
23. Sony accidentally reveals PS4 player counts: Grand Theft Auto V the highest number pulled at 51.7 million
24. Sony Released Its Playstation Classic Console In A Way That Makes It Eminently Hackable
25. Kingdom Hearts 3 Leaked on Facebook Marketplace Six Weeks Before Release Date
26. One of the most anticipated games of the decade has leaked over a month early, and outraged fans are trying to punish the person they think did it
27. PUBG now has over 200 million registered players on mobile alone
28. PUBG Mobile reaches 200 million downloads: Fortnite hit 200 million milestone across all platforms last month
29. Industry experts worry some esports orgs are overvalued and headed for trouble
30. The state of esports: Radical growth and inevitable failure – 2018 in Review – League of Legends soars, esports are subbed by the Olympics, and PUBG flounders
31. Blizzard pulls devs off Heroes of the Storm and cuts eSports support
32. Blizzard cancels Heroes of the Storm Global Championship: Devs to be reassigned elsewhere, but game will continue to receive live support
33. Blizzard Abruptly Kills Heroes of the Storm Esports, Leaving Players And Casters Fuming
34. Blizzard shifts developers away from Heroes of the Storm
35. Check out our 16-page Game Publisher’s Guide To Esports: Produced in partnership with Esports BAR
36. Intel and ESL announce $100m esports investment: Longest-running partnership in sector extended to 2021
37. Esports BAR’s mission to get non-gaming brands excited about pro-gaming: Orange, AirAsia and Dominos amongst attendees at Cannes event in February
38. Evil Geniuses founder unites esports agencies to form Popdog: Alex Garfield acquires Loaded, NoScope, and esports division of Catalyst; launches with $9m funding round
39. Riot reportedly suspends COO over misconduct at work: Riot offers statement, full internal email confirms suspension
40. Riot Games suspends COO Scott Gelb for workplace misconduct
41. Epic shuts down Fortnite data miner: Developer says the takedown was for promoting and advertising game mod tools, “not directly related” to leaking
42. Fortnite dev team removes Infinity Blade for being ‘overpowered’
43. Fortnite Season Five announcement most watched trailer on YouTube in 2018: Viewed 46.8 million times, the trailer beat both the Fallout 76 and Red Dead Redemption II reveals
44. Discord Store to offer developers 90 percent of game revenues
45. Discord aims to disrupt by opening storefront to devs, offering 90% revenue share
46. Why even avid Steam gamers should celebrate Epic’s new store: Bulkhead Interactive CEO Joe Brammer expects major gains from Epic’s new store — now it’s time for Valve to react and evolve
47. Steam’s ‘Top Wishlists’ filter ranks recent wishlist numbers for unreleased games
48. Epic’s Fortnite was the highest trending game on Google US in 2018: Red Dead Redemption 2 and Fallout 76 were second and third
49. Capcom responds to complaints over Street Fighter’s in-game ads: Publisher will “consider how we can improve this new feature” based on community feedback
50. Battlefield 5 is having trouble balancing for both new and experienced players
51. Atari acquires stake in Animoca Brands as part of blockchain game deal: Partnership will see Animoca Brands develop blockchain version of RollerCoaster Tycoon
52. Red Dead Redemption 2 reclaims No.1 in UK charts: Super Smash Bros tumbles to No.4
53. Epic to launch cross-platform services for developers: Tools built for Fortnite will be made free and open for all engines, platforms, and stores
54. EGX Rezzed 2019 sees return of Epic’s Powered by Unreal Engine zone: Unreal Engine devs exhibiting at the London show next March eligible to have their space doubled
55. Facebook & ZeniMax Settle Major Legal Dispute Over VR Intellectual Property
56. IMAX Officially Bails on VR Business
57. IMAX to Close Down All Remaining IMAX VR Centres Soon
58. Image courtesy Brilliant Sole: Brilliant Sole Wants to Put a VR Controller in Your Shoes 
59. HTC Thinks Virtual Reality’s Killer App Could Be Christianity: Christians adapted radio and rock music. Maybe VR will be next. 
60. DeltaDNA: In-game ads beginning to catch IAP as viable revenue stream – Study indicates that both casual and core mobile free-to-play games are making an increasing percentage of their revenue from ads
61. Formula 1, Hutch partner on mobile games: Hutch to create official, licensed racing titles for iOS, Android in the new year
62. What a Mobile App Lawyer Can Do for You
63. The UK industry stares down a Brexit disaster – 2018 in Review – There are no silver linings to Brexit for the UK industry, as uncertainty and the threat of No Deal create a difficult business climate
64. A German regulator is taking Nintendo to court over eShop preorder policies  
65. Nintendo: Red Dead 2 not being on Switch was down to timing – Reggie Fils-Aime says Switch emerged too late for Rockstar to consider the platform for its hit game
66. ‘Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’ Fastest Selling Nintendo Switch Game
67. Super Smash Bros Ultimate shoots to the top of EMEAA charts: Nintendo’s first-party line-up continues to pay dividends, Just Cause 4 the only other new entry in the top ten
68. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate US sales reach 3 million: Switch is the fastest-selling US console this generation, and Smash Bros. is the fastest-selling Nintendo home console game ever in Europe
69. Smash Bros. Ultimate has sold over 3M copies in the U.S. 
70. Report: Pokemon Go creator Niantic close to $3.9 billion valuation 
71. NPD: Switch, PS4, Xbox One all sell over 1.3 million units in November – This is the first time in history that three console platforms have all sold over one million in a single month
72. Hands-on: Switch’s NES controllers offer unmatched old-school authenticity
73. Minecraft modders form Hypixel Studios: Riot Games and former Blizzard exec Rob Pardo among initial investors as new developer announces debut title
74. Twitch saw over 3 million streamers per month in 2018: Platform sees biggest year yet for streamers, viewership, Affiliates, and Partners
75. Twitch sells Curse Media: Video streaming site offloads gaming media network to Fandom two years after acquiring it alongside Curse client and chat services
76. Number Of Creators Monetizing On Twitch Grew By 86% This Year, Platform Confirms In Holiday Stream
77. Ninja Scores Commentator Role For Tonight’s NFL Game, Streamed On Twitch
78. Number Of Creators Monetizing On Twitch Grew By 86% This Year, Platform Confirms In Holiday Stream
79. F2P dev survey: In-game mobile ads becoming viable revenue source
80. Making Project Hospital: A realistic approach to medical simulation
81. Why go for a surprise launch?: Studio Wildcard and Grapeshot Games co-founders Jeremy Stieglitz and Jesse Rapczak discuss the pros and cons of debuting their new MMO Atlas on short notice 
82. “Apathy is how games die”: Nathan Vella tells us how Capy has done everything it can to ensure Below is worth the five-year wait 
83. Supermassive Games: “We used to think awards didn’t matter” – On its tenth birthday, we ask the UK studio about its history and what its Dark Pictures Anthology says about the future
84. Apptopia November report: Football Manager 2019 on Android outpaces all other new releases – Hyper casual continues to dominate the new release download charts
85. AppsFlyer: Ads now generate more revenue than IAP in casual mobile games – Midcore games also see decline in share of IAP revenue, but ads still only make up 30%
86. Razer launches cryptocurrency initiative: Peripheral maker asks users to install mining software in exchange for Razer Silver loyalty reward points
87. Jägermeister launches video game soundtrack competition for indie studios: Track and Build contest open to all indies releasing game in 2019 
88. Keeping The Outer Worlds rewarding, no matter someone’s play style
89. Blog: Putting a thought into play
90. Blog: How to turn your mod into an indie game
91. Blog: Why being an indie game dev is harder than ever
92. Video: Total War: Rome II devs built all of Europe—and the AI ignored most of it
93. How ‘user stories’ can help players grasp new content
94. Human values in game design: An approach for emergent storytelling
95. Old ways can still be the best ways – Why I Love: YoYo Games’ Mike Dailly explains how tech from the 1988 Commodore 64 shooter Armalyte is still used today
96. League of Legends will no longer support Windows XP and Vista in 2019  
97. Blog: What trends should you know about going into 2019?
98. People of the Year: Phil Spencer – PlayStation may have dominated the charts, but it was Xbox that got the games industry talking
99. People of the Year: Rami Ismail – Vlambeer’s co-founder received the GDC Ambassador award, in recognition of years spent reaching out and giving voice to the world’s emerging development communities
100. People of the Year 2018: Hello Games – After criticism, setbacks, investigations, and a PR nightmare, the creators of No Man’s Sky emerged this year to an optimistic future
101. Best of 2018: Reimagining failure in strategy game design in Into the Breach
102. Best of 2018: Dealing with the scourge of burnout in game dev
103. Gamasutra’s Best of 2018: Alex Wawro’s top 8 games
104. Gamasutra’s Best of 2018: Alissa McAloon’s top 10 games
105. Gamasutra’s Best of 2018: Chris Kerr’s top 5 games
106. Gamasutra’s Best of 2018: Bryant Francis’ top 10 games
107. 5 trends that defined the game industry in 2018
108. The Best Video Game Surprises of 2018
109. The Biggest Video Game Disappointments of 2018
110. 5 events that rocked the game industry in 2018
111. 343 Industries is teaming up with Limbitless to provideHalo-themed prosthetics

DIGITAL 

1.  No More Settlement Demands: New Rules for Canadian Copyright Notice-and-Notice System Receive Royal Assent (Michael Geist)
2. Music to Copyright Owners’ Ears: Second Circuit Affirms Capitol Records, LLC v. ReDigi Inc.
3. No Agreement Made On EU Copyright Directive, As Recording Industry Freaks Out About Safe Harbors Too
4. Top EU Court’s Advocate General Says German Link Tax Should Not Be Applied — But On A Technicality
5. Judge Sides With BuzzFeed Over Publication of Steele Dossier
6. Screenshotting a Newspaper Page May Infringe a Licensed Photo–Hirsch v. Complex (Eric Goldman)
7. Two Pro Se Section 230 Rulings–Scott v. Carlson & Watkins v. Carr (Eric Goldman) 
8. Arkansas Politician Introduces Bill To Make It Illegal For Social Media Companies To Block Content He Likes
9. Report: Facebook let major tech firms access private messages, friends lists
10. Facebook let Netflix, Spotify, and other companies read your private messages: Between 2010 and today, Facebook shared users’ private data, including private messages and contact info, with more than 150 companies. 
11. Turning Off Facebook Location Tracking Doesn’t Stop It From Tracking Your Location  (Kashmir Hill)
12. Facebook’s Latest Privacy Screwup Shows How Facebook’s Worst Enemy Is Still Facebook
13. Netflix Denies Exploiting Its Alleged Ability To Read, Write, And Delete Facebook Users’ Private Messages
14. Big Telecom Wants To Tax Netflix To Pay For Broadband Upgrades ISPs Refuse To Deploy Themselves
15. Study Shows That No, Netflix Isn’t Killing Movie Theaters
16. DC sues Facebook over Cambridge Analytica scandal
17. “We’re sorry,” Facebook says, again—new photo bug affects millions
18. Facebook says a bug affecting up to 6.8 million users exposed photos they hadn’t shared
19. Facebook Watch Clocks 400 Million Monthly Viewers, Rolls Out Ad Breaks To 40 Countries 
20. Instagram May Have Been Key Tool in Russia’s Manipulation of U.S. Voters
21. Massive scale of Russian election trolling revealed in draft Senate report 
22. Social Media’s Forever War 
23. As NAACP kicks off boycott, Facebook says content moderation, infrastructure changes are coming in 2019
24. Amazon and Facebook Reportedly Had a Secret Data-Sharing Agreement, and It Explains So Much
25. Facebook “partner” arrangements: Are they as bad as they look?
26. NY Times Columnist Nick Kristof Led The Charge To Get Facebook To Censor Content, Now Whining That Facebook Censors His Content
27. Hundreds March on Amazon Fulfillment Center in Minnesota
28. Amazon Is Reportedly Sick of Hawking You Cheap ‘Crap’ That Doesn’t Make It Any Money 
29. Amazon Slapped With Trademark, Patent Lawsuit by Williams-Sonoma Over Chair Design, Storefront
30. Screenshotting a Newspaper Page May Infringe a Licensed Photo – Hirsch v. Complex
31. Clinic Releases Guide to Anti-Circumvention Exemption for Software Preservation
32. Social Media Is Ruining Our Minds—It Also Might Save Them 
33. Apple will spend $1 billion and hire up to 15,000 people for new Austin office
34. Apple to bring Charlie Brown and the Peanuts to its streaming service
35. Apple’s iOS 12.1.2 fixes eSIM and cellular bugs, but there might be more to it
36. Apple says iOS update will avoid Qualcomm patents, China iPhone ban
37. Microsoft unveils Windows Sandbox: Run any app in a disposable virtual machine
38. Microsoft issues emergency update to fix critical IE flaw under active exploit
39. Report Finds Huge Gender Gap in Artificial Intelligence Workforce
40. Why algorithms need auditing
41. Embracing AI for the Social Good
42. Artificial Intelligence and Ethics: Ethics and the dawn of decision-making machines 
43. Don’t Worry About Deepfakes. Worry About Why People Fall for Them.: The focus on the technology behind fake media obscures more pressing questions about the psychology and sociology of viral false narratives.
44. Should We Be Worried About Computerized Facial Recognition?: The technology could revolutionize policing, medicine, even agriculture—but its applications can easily be weaponized.
45. YouTube Announces Sitewide Spam Purge That Will See Reduced Sub Counts 
46. YouTube Deletes Hundreds Of Strange, Sexually Suggestive Mom And Kids Videos 
47. YouTube’s Own ‘Rewind 2018’ Becomes Most-Disliked Video Ever In Less Than A Week
48. Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 12/16/2018
49. YouTube Integrating New Music Charts As Live Playlists In ‘YouTube Music’ App
50. Celebrated Author Alice Walker Recommends Conspiratorial, Anti-Semitic YouTube Videos 
51. Telemundo to Launch First English-Language Newscast on YouTube
52. Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want for Christmas’ Tops YouTube’s Holiday Songs Chart
53. For the first time ever, Disney posts a Pixar “short” on YouTube for free
54. Internal Google Docs Warn Not to Gift Contractors Shirts in Case They Start Thinking They’re Employees: Report
55. The Pixel 3 Is Proof That Google Doesn’t Care About Hardware
56. Google Chrome wants to stop back-button hijacking
57. Google isn’t the company that we should have handed the Web over to
58. Google announces major expansion in New York City
59. The Biggest Tech Lies of 2018
60. CenturyLink blocked its customers’ Internet access in order to show an ad
61. Broadband ISP CenturyLink Is Blocking Users’ Internet Access Just To Show An Ad
62. It’s time for a Bill of Data Rights
63. Elizabeth Banks’ WhoHaha Launches Podcast Network, Seeks Women And Nonbinary Podcasters
64. Insights: When You Legally Can’t Give It Away–Is Marijuana The Toughest Job In Influencer Marketing? 
65. Instagram Influencer Charged $500 for Social Media Master Class Scam: ‘I Wanted the Price to Be Painful’ 
66. FBI Secretly Collected Data on Aaron Swartz Earlier Than We Thought—in a Case Involving Al Qaeda
67. FBI Swept Up Info About Aaron Swartz While Pursuing An Al-Qaeda Investigation 
68. Wall Street Journal Site Hacked With Pro-PewDiePie Message 
69. Hackers Replace Wall Street Journal Page With Pro-PewDiePie Message
70. Signal app to Australia: Good luck with that crypto ban – Country’s efforts to slow Signal and other apps is a “disappointing development.”
71. BBB Launches New Online Tool to Report Bad Ads 
72. Twitter Is Indeed Toxic For Women, Amnesty Report Says
73. Twitter is relaunching the reverse-chronological feed as an option for all users starting today
74. Verizon says Oath is dead. Meet Verizon Media Group.: The un-rebranding of Verizon’s AOL/Yahoo properties comes just a week after the company told federal regulators the brand was all but worthless.
75. Verizon cuts 10,000 jobs and admits its Yahoo/AOL division is a failure 
76. As A Final FU To Free Speech On Tumblr, Verizon Blocked Archivists
77. Insights: As Tumblr Implodes Amid NSFW Ban And Protests, What Platform Steps Up? 
78. Twitch sells Curse Media after two years  
79. Twitch is giving more creators money, but it couldn’t keep YouTube’s biggest names
80. YouTube’s $100 Million Upload Filter Failures Demonstrate What A Disaster Article 13 Will Be For The Internet
81. Netflix Joins Forces With Taylor Swift To Air ‘Reputation’ Tour Film On New Year’s Eve
82. Netflix Testing New Feature That Asks Users If They Want To Instant-Replay Popular Scenes
83. Netflix To Adapt John Green Holiday Novel ‘Let It Snow’ Into Feature Film 
84. ‘Little Baby Bum’ Owner Moonbug Raises $145 Million To Build Brand-Safe Kids’ Content Empire
85. 7-Year-Old Ryan ToysReview Unveils Sponsorship With Mandarin Orange Brand
86. Samsung Can’t Afford to Hold Back Anymore
87. The Deadly Recklessness of the Self-Driving Car Industry
88. How ’90s Cybersex Pioneers Looked for Action and Found Community
89. HQ Trivia and Vine co-founder dead at 34
90. HQ Trivia and Vine co-founder found dead: Colin Kroll believed to have died from drug overdose on Sunday morning
91. Computing pioneer Evelyn Berezin died this week—she should be remembered
92. U.S. Grocer Kroger Has Begun Making Autonomous Deliveries
93. A Child Was Immunized By the World’s First Drone-Delivered Vaccine
94. Ohio Congressman: We can fund border wall with “WallCoin”
95. Mass email hoax causes closures across the US and Canada: Emails threaten explosions unless people pay $20,000 in Bitcoin.

CREATIVITY

1. Super Injunction Silences News About Vatican Official’s Child Molestation Conviction
2. Ex-Sheriff Joe Arpaio Claims Three Publications Did $300 Million In Damage To His Pristine Reputation
3. Blurred legal lines (part two) – the copyright debate
4. Greene v. Paramount Pictures Corp.
5. The law of journalist-source privilege is still taking shape
6. Faith Goldy ordered to pay Bell Media more than $43,000 in legal fees: Faith Goldy had sued Bell over its refusal to air her campaign advertisements on a local television station, but the suit was tossed in October
7. UK Advertising Codes to Ban Gender Stereotypes
8. Iranian phishers bypass 2fa protections offered by Yahoo Mail and Gmail
9. Thinking of Using Kim Jong-un in Your Marketing?
10. Court Awards Six Figures to Model Falsely “Diagnosed” with HIV in Ad Campaign
11. No Actual Malice In The Wolf Of Wall Street Lawsuit: Judge Tosses Defamation Claim Brought By Former Stratton Oakmont Executive 
12. Oxford University Gets Opposition To Its Attempt To Trademark ‘Oxford’ For All The Things
13. If Your Trademark Case Depends on Showing Initial Interest Confusion, Save Your Money–Select Comfort v. John Baxter (Eric Goldman)
14. Former NASA Engineer Builds Impressive Glitter Bomb to Make Life Hell for Package Thieves

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY 

1. Telecom Train Wreck: Why It Is Time for the Government to Address the Mess That Is The CRTC (Michael Geist)
2. Stepping In It: Why Navdeep Bains’ Failing Wireless Strategy is Not a Step in the Right Direction (Michael Geist)
3. Big Telecom Claims Oversight & Accountability Violates Its First Amendment Rights 
4. FCC Does Wireless Carriers Another Favor By Reclassifying Text Messages
5. FCC forces California to drop plan for government fees on text messages
6. FCC’s O’Rielly Keeps Claiming, With Zero Evidence, That Community Broadband Is An ‘Ominous’ Threat To Free Speech
7. 2018 Year In FCC Review 
8. Report: T-Mobile’s Merger With Sprint Is the Latest Battleground Over Huawei
9. Growing security fears hobble global ambitions of Chinese tech giant Huawei
10. T-Mobile lied to the FCC about its 4G coverage, small carriers say
11. T-Mobile denies lying to FCC about size of its 4G network 
12. FCC Says It Will Finally Investigate Nation’s BS Broadband Availability Maps. Maybe.
13. FCC Eliminates Broadcast License Posting Requirement and Begins Quadrennial Media Ownership Rulemaking Proceeding
14. Charter users who didn’t get promised speeds will get $75 or $150 refunds
15. Bahnhof Now Facing Net Neutrality Investigation Over Its ‘Protest’ Blocking Of Elsevier

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Supreme Court of Canada Protects Digital Privacy in Shared Devices
2. Reasonable expectation of privacy exists in shared electronic devices: SCC
3. R v Reeves (2018 SCC 56)
4. Federal Court Says Massachusetts’ Wiretap Law Can’t Be Used To Arrest People For Recording Public Officials
5. Man sues feds after being detained for refusing to unlock his phone at airport
6. German City Wants Names And Addresses Of Airbnb Hosts; Chinese Province Demands Full Details Of Every Guest Too
7. Central Londoners to be subjected to facial recognition test this week
8. How computers got shockingly good at recognizing images
9. Data privacy: how much consent is enough consent? 
10. He sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake: Smart toys and regulating the IoT in Canada
11. Senators aim to give internet companies doctor-like duties to protect our data
12. Takeaways from the First GDPR Fines
13. Navigating the New Data Privacy Landscape: A Guide for OTT Providers
14. If Data is Exposed But No One is Around to Steal It, Can a Data-Breach Plaintiff Still Sue? 
15. OCIE Publishes Risk Alert Regarding Electronic Messaging
16. Locational Tracking on iOS and Android Devices: Check the Platform’s Rules!
17. Momentum Builds for a National Privacy Law in the United States
18. The 25 Most Popular Passwords of 2018 Will Make You Feel Like a Security Genius
19. He’s Making a List. Will Regulators Check His Privacy Practices Twice? 

Jon