News of the Week; September 27, 2017

GAMES

1. Bluehole hits out at Epic for ‘replicating’ Battlegrounds in Fortnite
2. PUBG devs call out Epic over Fortnite Battle Royale mode: “This was never discussed with us and we don’t feel that it’s right,” says head of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds dev Bluehole
3. EU Commission: “No evidence that piracy affects video games sales” – Report suggests illegal consumption actually benefits legal sales, lowering prices will not affect piracy rates
4. Yet Another Developer Sees That Free Can Work For Video Games As Both An Anti-Piracy Strategy And As Promotion
5. Mod that adds online play to Super Mario 64 draws Nintendo’s ire: ROM hack is still available online despite YouTube and Patreon takedowns.
6. Multiplayer madness: How F-Zero inadvertently inspired Super Mario Kart
7. Super Mario Kart’s competitive scene is still going strong, 25 years on
8. Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle outsells all non-Nintendo Switch games – Ubisoft crossover dominates within just a month of its release, Nintendo publishing in Japan and South Korea
9. How do you sell FIFA 18 on Switch?: Possibly the most important third-party title to come to Nintendo’s console has a difficult message to get right
10. Unity issues slowing down Switch ports: Yooka-Laylee release date still TBC
11. Unity issues leading to delayed Switch launches for some devs
12. Everything you need to know about the Super NES Classic Edition: 22 lesser-known facts and observations from a weekend wallowing in nostalgia.
13. The SNES Mini is wonderful and just what the market needs: A £70/$80 games console is an ideal family product, irrespective of 1990s nostalgia
14. Ataribox aims high with $250-300 price point, Linux core, custom AMD chip: Currently has spring 2018 launch window, will work with “other content platforms.”
15. Gatorade pays California $300K, settles anti-water complaint: Just because drought-ravaged California has spent years urging residents to conserve water doesn’t mean it wants people to actually stop drinking the stuff. – When a Gatorade cellphone game suggested doing just that state Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed a complaint accusing the popular thirst-quenching drink’s maker of false advertising.
16. Blizzard will start dishing out permanent Overwatch bans next week
17. Blizzard knuckles down on community as Valve fiddles: A few graphs won’t fix review bombing and abuse; if Valve wants tips, it could look to the tough decisions and hard work Blizzard is doing on Overwatch
18. Concept art shows Valve almost added women to Team Fortress 2
19. Valve wiped nearly 200 ‘fake games’ from Steam
20. Valve removes 173 ‘asset flipping games’ from Steam: Entire portfolio of Silicon Echo Studios pulled, as well as associated accounts
21. Sea’s the advantage: Cruise company Carnival gets into mobile casino games
22. Game Designer Says Developers Would Be More Candid If Gamer Culture Wasn’t So Toxic
23. Video game voice-actor strike might finally be over: 11 month strike reaches “tentative” end with bonuses, not royalties.
24. Voice actors reach tentative deal to end strike: New agreement includes better bonuses, greater transparency, and protection against fines
25. Avoiding the avoidable: Why ‘optional’ queer content isn’t solving the diversity problem (and how to fix this)
26. EA Says It’s Fixing Formation That Baffles Madden’s AI
27. Assassin’s Creed Origins will offer a combat-free, educational mode
28. Combat-free mode makes Assassin’s Creed: Origins incredibly easy to explore – Education-focused mode literally turns the difficulty level down to zero.
29. Ubisoft management gets big support as Vivendi threat looms: “We are delighted with the massive support of shareholders, which strengthens our determination and ability to defend the interests of all shareholders”
30. Vivendi unsure whether to drop Ubisoft stock or attempt a takeover, says exec
31. Vivendi undecided on Ubisoft takeover bid: Yves Guillemot continues to prevent hostile takeover with shareholder growth
32. A disappointing week for UK game sales. Maybe.: Project Cars 2 makes it to No.2 as it struggles to reach heights of the original… or at least that’s what we guess
33. PlayStation once again plays down Vita 2 possibilities: The company sees ‘limited potential’ for handheld game, despite Switch success
34. Sony wishes PlayStation VR had stronger competition: Andrew House says he’s not comfortable leading the pack by a wide margin, new category should have multiple platforms succeeding
35. Sony ‘not comfortable’ leading the VR charge, wants more competition
36. HTC promises more VR innovation following $1.1B Google deal
37. HTC to further support Vive following $1.1 billion Google deal: Cash made from selling mobile staff to Google will partly be used to fund growth in VR and AR
38. VRChat Raises $4 Million Round Led By HTC
39. HTC Leads $4M Series A Investment in Social VR Platform ‘VRChat’
40. VR is an effective tool for exposure therapy & phobia treatment
41. How presence in VR is beneficial for human research
42. How medical care benefits from VR/AR and virtual humans
43. How neuroscience can pave the way for VR’s future
44. “We’re in danger of talking ourselves out of VR and AR”: A GamesIndustry.biz Investment Summit panel discussed the need for patience among UK investors, and the earning potential of serious VR games for developers
45. Oculus introduces refund policy for Rift and Gear VR games: Virtual reality users now able to request their money back within two weeks of purchase
46. Apple’s ARKit game development: a whole new world
47. Square Enix targets games-as-a-service, esports and higher digital sales: One in five copies of Final Fantasy XV sold in North America were downloads, almost one in three for Nier Automata worldwide
48. Hackers hijack Final Fantasy Brave Exivus dev Gumi’s website with ransom demand
49. Razer developing gaming smartphone for release by the end of year: Device part of wider strategy to capture Chinese market as firm prepares to go public on Hong Kong Stock Exchange
50. Welsh Government provides funding for new Doctor Who game series: Double Eleven also involved as Tiny Rebel Games reveals new PC and mobile project
51. One Gamer Fund unites seven charities under one banner: “Seven charities combined into a Voltron of altruism,” including AbleGamers, Child’s Play and Take This
52. “Crowdfunding is the single hardest way to raise money”: Altara Games’ Ella Romanos warns that while crowdfunding endures, the bubble has burst – and the potential for cryptocurrency fundraising is still uncertain
53. Patreon confirms $60 million funding round: CEO Jack Conte lays out growth plans for the next two to five years
54. Atlus wants to cut off a PS3 emulator because it runs Persona 5: Patreon defends the emulator’s non-infringing nature, leaves page up.
55. Atlus US file DMCA takedown against Patreon-funded PS3 emulator: Team behind RPCS3 hold their ground with support from Patreon against pressure from Persona 5 developer
56. How to avoid a bad investor: Financial experts discuss the warning signs developers should look out for during the GamesIndustry.biz Investment Summit
57. Everything you missed at the GamesIndustry.biz Investment Summit: Expert advice from investors on securing the best deal, the dangers of crowdfunding and the earning potential for VR developers
58. Video: An indie dev crash course in business and leadership
59. PUBG helps drive digital game sales up 11% in August – SuperData: Hearthstone, Overwatch, and Madden NFL 18 also contributed to the rise in digital sales for the month
60. Fortnite’s Battle Royale mode goes free, despite PUBG complaints: Mode emerge from paid Early Access with latest update, indicating development has not been stalled by Bluehole
61. Shadow of War DLC in honour of deceased developer is now free: Warner Bros. will make donation directly to the family of Michael Forgey who is immortalised as a character in the game
62. WB Games clears up confusion surrounding charity ‘Forthog Orc-Slayer’ DLC
63. “I want it just like LoL”: How do you monetize in-game skins?
64. “Don’t Crunch” – Advice from the Best Places To Work: The winners of last week’s awards reveal their tips for start-ups
65. Applying game design principles to be a better leader
66. Astronauts Could Use TV, Video Games to Combat Isolation in Space
67. Flappy Bird will die with iOS11: Developer of the wildly successful app confirms he will not update the game to run on a 64-bit system
68. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice

DIGITAL

1. Russian operatives used Facebook ads to exploit divisions over Black Lives Matter and Muslims
2. Facebook’s Frankenstein Moment
3. Facebook Can Absolutely Control Its Algorithm
4. Facebook revamps political-ad rules after discovering Russian ad buys: Shadowy Russian group spent $100,000 on political ads during the 2016 election.
5. Mark Zuckerberg Is Still Pissed That We Know About His Army of Handlers
6. Shareholders force Zuckerberg to give up plan for non-voting shares: The plan would have further cemented Zuck’s total control over Facebook.
7. Facebook will target ads to people based on store visits, offline purchases, calls to businesses: Facebook is using its online-to-offline ad measurement tools for offline-to-online ad targeting.
8. Facebook’s Ad Scandal Isn’t a ‘Fail,’ It’s a Feature (Zeynep Tufekci)
9. Could public pressure cause Facebook to regulate itself?
10. Facebook’s Crackdown Ahead Of German Election Shows It’s Learning
11. How Germany’s far right took over Twitter – and tilted the election: A sophisticated and tightly organised troll army has spent the last three months championing a ‘patriotic revolution’. Boosting the AfD’s power is just the start
12. Iceland authorities weighing options after neo-Nazi site registers there: The racist site has been at a .is domain for more than a week.
13. Reddit’s campaign against hate speech worked: Even when users stuck around, they started watching their words more carefully.
14. Jared Kushner conducted White House business with personal e-mail: Kushner lawyer says it was “fewer than a hundred e-mails.”
15. Members Of Trump’s Admin Team Using Private Email Accounts Because Of Course They Are
16. How One Syrian Fought To The Death For A Free Internet
17. Judge spanks Mugshots.com hard for charging for photo removal: Lawsuit claims one arrestee was told it would cost $15k to have profile removed.
18. EU Buried Its Own $400,000 Study Showing Unauthorized Downloads Have Almost No Effect On Sales
19. EU study finds piracy doesn’t hurt game sales, may actually help: Results suggest a positive effect, but there’s a huge margin of error.
20. German Court: Thumbnail Images In Search Engines Not A Copyright Violation
21. German Federal Court of Justice rules that GS Media presumption of knowledge does not apply to Google Images
22. Twitter testing shift from 140 to 280 characters: Twitter thinks 140 characters might be too constraining for English writers.
23. Framing It Another Way: Tweets, Copyright and the De Minimis Doctrine
24. Google Pulls YouTube From Amazon Echo: All About Control Or Just More Corporation On Corporation Violence?
25. Ninth Circuit Blesses Amazon’s Terms of Service
26. British News Channel Touts Amazon Bomb Materials Moral Panic That Ends Up Being About Hobbyists And School Labs
27. Eros Beats Investor Suit Over Statements About Streaming Platform: The company touted 30 million users for Eros Now. The judge rules it was never said they were “meaningful” users.
28. In my opinion, this is an opinion
29. Fordham University Named in Class Action Lawsuit by Blind Individuals, Alleging Fordham.edu Website is Inaccessible
30. Contact Lens Seller Agrees To $7 Million Settlement Over Search Ads
31. U.S. Floats Nafta Proposal That Could Erode Copyright-Liability Protection: Language in the trade talks could weaken internet companies’ liability protections for pirated content
32. NAFTA 2.0 and Intellectual Property Rights: Insights on Developing Canada’s Knowledge Economy
33. FTC serves health-app maker massive slice of humble pie—and $1.5M bill: The app was meant to motivate users to go to the gym, eat veggies. It went very wrong.
34. FTC clarifies influencer guidelines: Federal Trade Commission warns that platforms’ built-in disclosure methods aren’t sufficient, reviews of products given for free must be marked as ads
35. The FTC, Like, Revises Its Social Media Endorsement Guides, Bruh!
36. Disney’s New, Influencer-Led Mickey Mouse Club Releases Music Video For First Original Song
37. Another Student Athlete Facing Scrutiny From NCAA For Budding YouTube Presence
38. Emojis Head to a Courthouse Near You
39. Victory for YouTubers as New York District Court rules “reaction video” is fair use
40. Fair use is never simple 
41. Vimeo To Acquire Livestream, Launches ‘Vimeo Live’ Pro Broadcasting Product
42. Verizon Reveals The Secrets Of Yahoo Search
43. Facebook, NFL Back In Business Again With Programming Partnership
44. Canon Virtual Camera System Enables Fans To Watch From Any 3D Angle
45. Block The Pirate Bay Within 10 Days, Dutch Court Tells ISPs
46. Company CEO Pleads Guilty After Forging Judge’s Signatures On Bogus Court Orders Sent To Google
47. More Thoughts On The Senate’s SESTA Hearing
48. My Senate Testimony on SESTA + SESTA Hearing Linkwrap (Eric Goldman)
49. Google Will Survive SESTA. Your Startup Might Not.
50. SESTA Is Being Pushed As The Answer To A Sex Trafficking ‘Epidemic’ That Simply Doesn’t Exist 
51. New Essay: The Ten Most Important Section 230 Rulings (Eric Goldman)
52. Rohingya Ethnic Cleansing (Once Again) Demonstrates Why Demanding Platforms Censor Bad Speech Creates Problems
53. London regulator announces Uber ban: Uber has 21 days to appeal the ruling, which could affect 40,000 drivers.
54. Uber CEO apologizes for “mistakes” in London: Uber has vowed to appeal a decision banning the company from London.
55. Uber really doesn’t want its drivers to be considered employees: O’Connor v. Uber one of 11 cases heard together at 9th Circuit.
56. Waymo to judge: We want Uber to pay “only” $1.86 billion: Waymo says big numbers are based on Uber’s own calculations.
57. ISIS Launches The Spelling Teacher, A New App For Kids
58. Dispute Between Roberto Escobar And Netflix Over ‘Narcos’ Gets Weird: Licensing Talks And A Dead Location Scout
59. What Netflix’s Congenial Trademark ‘Threat Letter’ Says About Everyone’s Tolerance For Trademark Bullying
60. Why Big Tech Is Clashing With Internet Freedom Advocates
61. Mattress Startup Casper Sued a Mattress Review Site, Then Paid for Its Acquisition
62. Machine-learning cloud platforms get to work: Analytic platforms as a service (PaaS) could shorten machine-learning learning curve.
63. Self-Driving Cars Will Kill People. Who Decides Who Dies?
64. When Websites Design Themselves 
65. Bill Gates Says We Shouldn’t Panic About Artificial Intelligence
66. Robots have already taken over our work, but they’re made of flesh and bone: Many jobs in the modern economy have been sapped of their humanity. How should we resist the rise of ‘digital Taylorism’? (Brett Frischmann &Evan Selinger)
67. BCSC Grants Bitcoin Investment Fund Manager Registration 
68. If Bill Gates really thinks ctrl-alt-del was a mistake, he should have fixed it himself: You can’t pin the blame for this one on IBM.
69. 4K titles on iTunes can only be streamed, not downloaded: You also can’t stream 4K videos from YouTube either.
70. YouTube Revamps Analytics Reports To Help Creators Better Understand Subscription Traffic
71. YouTube’s Technology Can Now Spit Out Thousands of Different Video Ads at Once: And target them based on apps that consumers have downloaded
72. New French Law Orders Video Services Like YouTube, Netflix To Pay 2% Tax On Local Revenues
73. Instagram now has 800 million monthly and 500 million daily active users
74. Twitter explains why Trump can use site as venue for violence, hate: Announcement comes as social media is under pressure to remove hate-based accounts.
75. Twitter sold enough ads to support all the live video shows it was pitching: Twitter is moving forward with 16 live video shows and features it said it wanted to stream.
76. Vice Ramps Up Original French Content With Three New Shows
77. Report recommends new legal approaches to online defamation
78. Ivanka Trump: Computer science education a new “priority” – “We do have a major diversity problem in the tech industry,” president’s daughter adds.

CREATIVITY

1. University Defeats Cyberbullying Lawsuit Related to Yik Yak–Feminist Majority v. UMW (Eric Goldman)
2. What the Constitution says Berkeley can do when controversial speakers come knocking: The rules governing the right-wing “Free Speech Week” showdown.
3. Italian Supreme Court confirms availability of copyright protection to TV formats
4. The Grinch loses and protection of parody wins 
5. Osaka Court’s Ruling Helps Destroy Tattoos In Japan 
6. Turkish President Claims Jailed Journalists Are Actually Terrorists: From the wobbles-so-much-you-can’t-even-call-it-‘spin’ dept
7. Kim Jong-Un Calling Trump A ‘Dotard’ Gave The Internet A Language Lesson 
8. Furie-ous creator of Pepe the Frog determined to use copyright to get his green creation back
9. Is the alt-right’s use of Pepe the Frog “fair use?”: Is Pepe like Luke Skywalker—or just super-chill frog anyone can use?
10. Penguin Random House LLC v. Frederick Colting d/b/a Moppet Books: District court finds that child-focused literary guides infringed copyrights in four famous novels and that literary guides did not qualify as fair use, granting summary judgment in favor of owners and exclusive licensees of copyrights in novels.
11. Saudi minister fired after textbook shows Yoda at UN signing ceremony: Begun, the textbook scandal has.
12. How The RIAA Helped Pave The Way For Spain To Undermine Democracy
13. Appeals Court Limits Ability of Patent Trolls to File Suit in Far-Flung Districts
14. Appeals Court Tells Patent Trolls’ Favorite Judge He Can’t Just Ignore The Supreme Court To Keep Patent Cases In Texas
15. Instagram rolls out comment-control, puts onus on user to filter trolls
16. “Comic-Con” trademark may have to activate superpowers to survive attack – Epic intellectual property battle: San Diego Comic-Con versus Salt Lake Comic Con.
17. Challenge on offensive trademarks could bring clarity
18. Velcro’s Hilarious Trademark Lesson Video Actually A Good Lesson In Just How Stupid Trademark Law Has Become
19. Velcro’s anti-genericide song is big, bold and brash – but critics question whether it will actually be effective
20. Scientific Publishers Want Upload Filter To Stop Academics Sharing Their Own Papers Without Permission
21. Burger King is Trying to Ban It In Russia For the Most Insane Reason
22. The very dirty history of on-demand video technology: In the early 1970s, hotels experimented with new video delivery systems for X-rated movies.
23. Netflix Pulls Cartoon Episode After Mom Spots Stealthy NSFW Drawing
24. Netflix Sends Cease-and-Desist to “Stranger Things”-Themed Bar
25. A Brief History of Hiding Dicks in Cartoons
26. Police: Armed Robber Dressed As Coke Bottle – Costumed perp held up eatery manager at Kentucky Rally’s
27. Project Jengo Strikes Its First Targets (and Looks for More)
28. Copyright’s Framing Problem (Margot Kaminski & Guy Rub)
29. Is the First Amendment Obsolete? (Tim Wu)
30. Response to Tim Wu’s piece on First Amendment obsolescence (Rebecca Tushnet)

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. FCC Sued For Ignoring FOIA Request Investigating Fraudulent Net Neutrality Comments
2. Ajit Pai’s plan to lower broadband standards is “crazy,” FCC Democrat says: “This is crazy. Lowering standards doesn’t solve our broadband problems.”
3. Mission Accomplished: Ajit Pai’s FCC Declares Wireless Competition Issues Fixed: from the ignore-a-problem-and-it-goes-away,-right? dept
4. Ajit Pai should be fired, petition says before Senate re-confirmation vote: Senate Democrats plan “very loud” debate on vote to give Pai a new term.
5. To save net neutrality rules, senator tries to get Ajit Pai off FCC: Pai accused of ignoring “public interest” but will likely get new term on FCC.
6. FCC declares that USA’s wireless competition problem has been solved: Ajit Pai’s FCC says mobile market is competitive, in change from Obama years.
7. Joly’s Challenge: Digital Cancon Without New Digital Tax Dollars (Michael Geist)
8. How to build an effective digital Cancon strategy on the cheap (Michel Geist)
9. Not Just Netflix: Government Asks the CRTC To Conduct a Review of Changing Broadcast Models (Michael Geist)
10. Bell Calls for CRTC-Backed Website Blocking System and Complete Criminalization of Copyright in NAFTA (Michael Geist)
11. ‘Radical and overreaching’: Bell wants Canadians blocked from piracy websites – Company says a federal agency like the CRTC should create a blacklist of sites
12. European Commission Backed Study Confirms Canada Among the Most Expensive for Broadband Internet Access (Michael Geist)
13. Mysterious Apocalyptic Message Interrupts TV Broadcasts in California: ‘Violent Times Will Come’
14. Report: T-Mobile, Sprint finally figuring out this merger thing – T-Mobile owner would take majority stake; US would be left with 3 big carriers.
15. Prepare For An Epic BS Sales Pitch For The Competition-Killing Sprint, T-Mobile Merger
16. Verizon backtracks—but only slightly—in plan to kick customers off network: Rural users with no other options can switch plans but can’t get unlimited data.
17. Cox starts charging data cap overage fees in California: A new group of Cox customers gets a 1TB data cap and $10 overage fees.
18. The Soaring Cost Of Sports Programming Is Simply Not Sustainable
19. Global BC (CHAN-DT) re Global News Hour at 6 & Global News at 11 – Abbotsford school stabbing
20. CTV Vancouver (CIVT-DT) re CTV News at 6 – Abbotsford school stabbing CBSC Decision 16/17-0554 2017 CBSC 9 September 26, 2017      

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Bill C-58’s Order-Making Powers: A Huge Disappointment (Teresa Scassa)
2. Justice Department goes nuclear on Google in search warrant fight: Google’s conduct is a “willful and contemptuous disregard of various court orders.”
3. Report Details The NSA’s Decade-Long Abuse Of Its Surveillance Powers
4. US Homeland Security Will Start Collecting Social Media Info on All Immigrants October 18th
5. DHS To Officially Require Immigrants’ Files To Contain Social Media Info
6. WhatsApp Reportedly Rejected UK Government Demand For Encryption Backdoor
7. UK Man Gets 12-Month Sentence For Refusing To Turn Over Passwords To Police
8. Another court tells police: Want to use a stingray? Get a warrant – DC Court of Appeals: Even if you know the police can track you doesn’t mean they should.
9. Judge overturns local law that effectively banned drones over small town: Newton, Mass. wanted drone pilots to get permission to fly at or below 400 feet.
10. Deloitte Hit By Cyberattack That Compromised Client Information & Decided To Basically Tell Nobody At All
11. Deloitte hit by cyber-attack revealing clients’ secret emails: Hackers may have accessed usernames, passwords and personal details of top accountancy firm’s blue-chip clients
12. Password-theft 0day imperils users of High Sierra and earlier macOS versions: Rogue apps can exfiltrate all plaintext passwords, no master password required.
13. CCleaner Hack May Have Been A State-Sponsored Attack On 18 Major Tech Companies
14. CCleaner malware outbreak is much worse than it first appeared: Microsoft, Cisco, and VMWare among those targeted with additional mystery payload.
15. CCleaner backdoor infecting millions delivered mystery payload to 40 PCs: Samsung, Asus, Fujitsu, Sony, and Intel among those infected.
16. How Malware Keeps Sneaking Past Google Play’s Defenses
17. SEC Chairman reveals financial reporting system was hacked: EDGAR system data may have been used for “illicit gain through trading.”
18. Man held website hostage for $10,000, failed, redirected it to porn, got busted: After plea deal, DOJ says: “this appears to be a one-time lapse in judgment.”
19. All The Ways Equifax Epically Bungled Its Breach Response
20. After huge Equifax breach, CEO “retires”: Board is “deeply concerned about and totally focused on the cybersecurity incident.”
21. New York Governor Cuomo Directs NYDFS to Make Credit Reporting Agencies Comply with the State’s Cybersecurity Regulation
22. NSA-Developed Crypto Technology No Longer Trusted For Use In Global Standards
23. More Government Agencies Filing Lawsuits Against Public Records Requesters
24. Released Snowden Doc Shows NSA Thwarting Electronic Dead Drops By Using Email Metadata
25. Internet Explorer bug leaks whatever you type in the address bar: All your private addresses and search queries are belong to us.
26. In a first, Android apps abuse serious “Dirty Cow” bug to backdoor phones: The critical Linux vulnerability is exploited on Android 1 year after coming to light.
27. In spectacular fail, Adobe security team posts private PGP key on blog: Since deleted, post gave public and private key for Adobe incident response team.
28. Do Tech Companies Really Need All That User Data?
29. Cross-Border Data Access Primer
30. Don’t Rely On An Unlock Pattern To Secure Your Android Phone
31. How Much Do Your Dating Apps Know About You?
32. One Tinder user’s data request turned into 800 pages of probing info: Yet another reminder that when a service is free, you are the product.

Jon