News of the Week; March 21, 2018

GAMES

1. Fears of Bethesda legal action prompts cancellation of Fallout 3 remake: Capital Wasteland scrapped as modders seek to maintain a good relationship with Elder Scrolls publisher
2. Fight for Star Control ownership escalates after settlement offer leaks
3. JRPG Becomes The First Game Banned In The UK For Over A Decade: The game has been banned over concerns that it sexualises children.
4. Britain Is The Latest Country To Ban A Sexy Dungeon Crawler
5. Omega Labyrinth Z banned in the UK for sexualization of minors
6. Omega Labyrinth Z the first game to be banned in the UK since Manhunt 2: PQube’s dungeon crawler refused rating by Video Standards Council for “sexualisation of children”
7. Opinion: So what *does* the science say about games and violence?
8. As Video Games Are In Presidential Crosshairs, New Study Again Shows They Don’t Affect Behavior
9. Two months of daily GTA causes “no significant changes” in behavior: No difference detected over a battery of 52 separate behavioral tests.
10. Does playing violent video games cause aggression? A longitudinal intervention study (Simone Kühn, Dimitrij Tycho Kugler, Katharina Schmalen, Markus Weichenberger, Charlotte Witt, Jürgen Gallinat)
11. How devs deal with making enemies that feel ‘okay’ to kill
12. Military-themed video games can promote a damaging vision of real war
13. In order to create empathy in players, writers need to get personal 
14. Arma III developer raises over $170K for International Committee of the Red Cross
15. Valve quietly cracks down on Steam hate groups: Several Nazi and school shooter-themed groups deleted, but other toxic communities still remain
16. Blog: What’s up with the DMCA fight over defunct online games?
17. Fortnite’s unconventional launch
18. Fortnite tops $1.5M in revenue during first week on mobile
19. As Fortnite rises, Epic champions community & cross-platform tech
20. Though invite-only, Fortnite Battle Royale tops iOS charts at launch
21. Fortnite breaks record for most-viewed stream on Twitch 
22. Drake, Ninja light up Twitch with Fortnite stream: Epic and Twitch say they didn’t pay for session that saw rapper and streamer draw more than 600,000 concurrent viewers
23. Twitch Prime kicks off monthly free games bundle with Superhot, Shadow Tactics: Members will receive permanent additions to their collections as long as their subscription lasts
24. Epic gifts over $12M worth of Paragon assets to Unreal Engine devs
25. $12m of Epic Games’ Paragon assets now free to all developers: Unreal Engine provider offers character models, animations, environments and more ahead of next month’s shutdown
26. Epic Games CEO: AR glasses will “eventually replace smartphones”: Before that, console-quality games on mobile phones will be the big trend.
27. Epic Games shows off lifelike “digital humans” with Star Wars and Andy Serkis demos: At GDC today, the Unreal Engine creator demonstrated how real-time raytracing will help games finally cross the uncanny valley
28. Star Wars: Battlefront II’s new update axes “pay-to-win” upgrades – Character upgrades now earned through linear, in-game experience system.
29. ‘Serious Sam’ Developer Teams Up With Denuvo Cracker To Pump Up Sales For Failed Game
30. How a ‘bug’ in an educational writing game cursed at children
31. Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice leads BAFTA Games Awards 2018 nominations
32. Hellblade leads with nine nominations at this year’s BAFTAs: Horizon Zero Dawn a close second with eight, followed by What Remains of Edith Finch with seven
33. Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds is now free on iOS, Android—and dang, it’s solid: We break down our first session with the Western version to explain why we’ll come back.
34. Nintendo Switch breaks records for first-year US sales: Meanwhile, NPD reports spending on games products neared $1 billion in February
35. Nintendo working to improve discoverability of Switch titles on eShop
36. Nintendo reveals best-selling indie Switch games: Celeste triumphs as platform holder pledges to improve eShop discoverability
37. How they got Ark: Survival Evolved working on Switch: Port specialists Abstraction on Nintendo, hitting the headlines at GDC and creating its own IP
38. Finally, a portable solution for those “vertical” Switch games: Upcoming accessory lets you simply capture that classic arcade aspect ratio
39. Nintendo’s influence on independent devs and their games  
40. How Mario Kart influenced Nintendo’s fighting game, ARMS 
41. This Eerie Mario Tribute Is An Ode To Playing Games With Your Brother
42. Sonic the Hedgehog’s origin story, according to the devs who made him
43. Established Japanese devs are making games under a new approach
44. Epic: The barrier between Xbox and PlayStation “will inevitably come down”: Tim Sweeney on the emergence of “real games for gamers” on mobile, and the role of cross-platform play for the future of the games business
45. Microsoft: ‘We’re growing our gaming business beyond the console’ – The company lays out its vision to attract two billion gamers by 2020
46. Microsoft targets game devs with new ‘device-agnostic’ Gaming Cloud biz
47. Xbox adds almost 300 indie games in a year: “We try to never say the word indie internally,” says ID@Xbox director
48. Why Unity and Universal are giving indies access to Hollywood IP: New contest, supported by Microsoft and Intel, gives devs the chance to create games based on Back To The Future, Jaws and more
49. Crytek will now take a 5% cut from games made using CryEngine 5.5
50. Crytek adopts royalties model as CryEngine 5.5 arrives: Developer will now take a five per cent share of earnings from games built with its technology
51. Atari reveals its nostalgic ‘Ataribox’ game console as the Atari VCS
52. The Ataribox becomes the Atari VCS: Hardware gets a new name, logo and look, but it’s still unclear as to what precisely it has to offer
53. MLB Just Released A Reboot Of The ’80s Nintendo Classic ‘R.B.I. Baseball’: We STILL can’t get that damn background music out of our heads.
54. Google Play is launching download-free instant games
55. Subway Surfers becomes first game to surpass 1B downloads on Google Play
56. Subway Surfers becomes first Android game to pass 1bn downloads: Sybo and Kiloo’s mobile hit achieves new milestone after outperforming all other games last year
57. Mobile increasing its share of the games industry – Report: App Annie and IDC find mobile consumer spending was double that of PC/Mac gaming last year, 3.6 times that of consoles
58. French games industry hits $5.3bn in 2017: Software, hardware and accessories sales all improve
59. Vivendi sells entire stock of Ubisoft shares, Tencent among buyers
60. Vivendi Exits Ubisoft for $2.46 Billion as Tencent Enters
61. Vivendi sells its entire stake in Ubisoft: The Guillemot family regains control of the publisher, with Tencent taking a 5 per cent stake
62. China’s largest game publisher adds Ubisoft to its massive portfolio: Vivendi is officially out of the picture – but Tencent’s Western dominance only rises.
63. Ubisoft and Tencent form ‘strategic agreement’ to bring games to China: Tencent will publish, promote and operate Ubisoft’s PC and mobile titles in its home market
64. China’s largest game publisher adds Ubisoft to its massive portfolio: Vivendi is officially out of the picture—but Tencent’s Western dominance only rises.
65. Tencent’s Q4 profit doubles: Big jumps in mobile games and smaller PC growth boost Chinese giant as financial year closes
66. UK Charts: Burnout Paradise is back at No.1 after 10 years – Kirby Star Allies is fastest selling Kirby game in UK chart history
67. Klang nets $5M to support the development of its AI-driven MMO, Seed
68. Klang secures $5m investment to develop AI-driven MMO Seed: Venture capital firm Makers Fund leads investment in “genre-breaking” title
69. EA’s secretive SEED team shows off first demo, Project Pica Pica: GDC technical demo showcases work with ray-tracing and self-learning AI agents
70. EA is overhauling Battlefront II’s controversial progression system
71. How Kongregate plans to rival Steam with new store Kartridge: “Everybody uses Steam, but they don’t necessarily love it,” says CEO Emily Greer
72. After closing down Paragon, Epic makes its assets free-as-in-speech: Content can only be used in Unreal Engine 4, because Epic isn’t running a charity.
73. Amazon debuts GameOn, a new cross-platform competitive game platform
74. Amazon’s new GameOn tech enables devs to offer real-world prizes in games: Newly-announced APIs enable in-game competitions on mobile, PC and console
75. What can games developers learn from a social casino firm?: KamaGames CEO Andrey Kuznetsov offers advice on how to increase revenues and keep your players hungry for more
76. Growth, toxicity, crunch: Devs talk about what went wrong at Telltale
77. Former Telltale developers accuse studio of breeding toxicity: Co-founder Kevin Bruner is strongly criticised by former colleagues complaining of never-ending crunch and stifled creativity
78. Jack Tretton launches indie investment fund: Interactive Gaming Ventures funding projects for a stake of the IP, looking for reliable returns more than swinging for the fences
79. Gorogoa: how the hit indie game derived from a failed comic book
80. SimCity creator Will Wright’s new game will harvest your memories
81. Will Wright returns to game development with mobile title Proxi: The Sims creator working with Unity to find an artist for his first games project in almost a decade
82. Unity getting new rendering, machine learning, and performance tools
83. THQ Nordic revives 16 Nickelodeon games as part of “asset care” strategy: Publisher announces return of multiple Nickoldeon titles including Invader Zim, SpongBob SquarePants, and Avatar: The Last Airbender
84. Google Opens ‘Maps’ API So Devs Can Create ‘Pokémon Go’-style Games
85. Google doubles down on mobile games with new store Google Play Instant: New store aimed at improving discoverability lets users play games without downloading them first
86. Google opens up Maps data for developers to build mixed reality games: Google Maps API grants access to accurate, living model of the world to serve as foundation for games
87. Google Cloud teams with Ubisoft for open-source game server project Agones: Companies invite developers to work together on enabling smoother matchmaking and multiplayer for games of all sizes
88. The Play Store gets a “try now” button for games, no install required: Google Play Instant can launch a demo instantly on Android, with no install process.
89. Major video game tournament abandoning Seattle for Vancouver: The International Dota 2 Championships to take place at Rogers Arena starting Aug. 20
90. City of Arlington Announces Plan For Largest Esports Stadium In North America
91. NFL and NBA veterans among key hires at Activision Blizzard’s new esports division: “We’re committed to maintaining the highest degree of excellence and professionalism in our operation,” says esports division CEO
92. NBA Eyes Global Expansion For NBA 2K After Inaugural Season
93. How blind players succeed at sports video games they’ve never seen: A few small accessibility changes can unlock a whole new playerbase.
94. Pac-Man on Hololens: Bandai Namco shows us how they made it not suck – GDC 2018 panel shows off a 3D-printed Hololens mod – and lots of high-fiving.
95. LeanGP Home Motorcycle Sim Doubles Crowdfunding Goal With 3 Weeks to Go
96. The HTC Vive Just Got A Big Price Cut
97. HTC to launch standalone Vive Focus headset outside of China
98. Vive Pro to retail for $799, standard Vive gets $100 price drop
99. Unreal Engine 4 adds Magic Leap One support
100. Magic Leap Launches Developer SDK, Confirms Eye-tracking, Room-scanning, and More
101. Oculus introduces hardware reports so devs can make ‘data-driven decisions’
102. The VR Metaverse Of Ready Player One Is Just Beyond Our Grasp
103. Insights: IMAX And Nickelodeon Hope To Find Lost Gen Z Fans In VR
104. VR headsets have become the new arthouse – the best of SXSW’s fantastic VR festival: David Attenborough gave me fossils. Jessica Chastain whispered me through a black hole.
105. Using data to look at what VR games get right (and wrong) about accessibility
106. Be ready to pay a lot for Vive Pro’s higher-res virtual reality: Lack of bundled controllers and trackers decreases the value proposition.
107. HTC Vive announces price of Vive Pro at £799; cuts price of existing headset: Vive Pro will ship on April 5 and come with six-month Viveport Subscription
108. Facebook releases engagement-focused Games SDK
109. Facebook reveals new SDK for PC game development: SDK includes new features around community engagement and analytics
110. Facebook Instant Games platform opens up to all developers: After nearly 18 months in closed beta, Instant Games opens up to developers with a host of new features
111. Can Facebook catch up to Twitch and YouTube?
112. Game Workers Unite to Jen MacLean: ‘We want to work with you’
113. Video games will take over Trafalgar Square during London Games Festival: London Games Festival returns 5th – 15th April
114. Jean Grae’s New Music Video Is A Trip Through Classic Arcade Games
115. The Internet Archive uploads handheld retro games 
116. The 12 Worst Video Game Movie Adaptations Of All Time: From Super Mario Bros. to Postal, these movies give adaptations a bad name.
117. Relive portable gaming’s limited LCD past through the magic of emulation: MAME-powered “Handheld History Collection” captures everything but the molded plastic.
118. #Wargames Is A Unique, Interactive Revival Of The ’80s Movie
119. A look at how (and why) devs work memorials and tributes into games

DIGITAL

1.  Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal, explained: Trump operatives got private data from 50 million Facebook users.
2. Canada’s privacy watchdog launches investigation into Facebook after allegations of data leak: ‘If true, the allegations raise a major challenge for privacy rights,’ says Daniel Therrien
3. Both Facebook And Cambridge Analytica Threatened To Sue Journalists Over Stories On CA’s Use Of Facebook Data
4. Facebook may have violated FTC privacy deal, say former federal officials, triggering risk of massive fines
5. The Irreversible Damage Of Mark Zuckerberg’s Silence
6. Mark Zuckerberg Talks To Wired About Facebook’s Privacy Problem
7. Zuckerberg: Cambridge Analytica leak a “breach of trust” with users – The Trump-linked consulting firm harvested data from 50 million Facebook users.
8. Mark Zuckerberg Announces that Facebook is an Information Fiduciary (Jack Balkin)
9. Mark Zuckerberg Speaks, But Is He Listening?
10. Facebook-Cambridge Analytica – Brave New World for Privacy and Data Misuse
11. On the web, privacy in peril: Massive mining of users’ data on Facebook eats away at public’s online trust, analyst says
12. Facebook’s Surveillance Machine (Zeynep Tufekci)
13. Cambridge Analytica suspends CEO pending probe in Facebook data scandal: Cambridge Analytica embroiled in scandal over its handling of Facebook users’ personal data
14. Cambridge Analytica suspends CEO amid uproar over Facebook data leak
15. Cambridge Analytica Execs Caught Discussing Extortion And Fake News
16. Facebook Has Many Sins To Atone For, But ‘Selling Data’ To Cambridge Analytica Is Not One Of Them
17. Facebook Owes You More Than This
18. Tell Facebook: this can’t happen again.
19. Facebook CEO Zuckerberg conspicuously absent as data scandal grows
20. Some Facebook employees are angry that Mark Zuckerberg has ghosted in the middle of this scandal
21. The billionaire cofounder of WhatsApp, which Facebook acquired for $19 billion, just tweeted #DeleteFacebook
22. Facebook’s value drops $30 billion after an enormous data scandal involving 50 million Facebook account
23. A Hurricane Flattens Facebook
24. Mark Zuckerberg is acting like a man who can’t be fired — and the unique way his stock is structured could be why
25. Here’s How to Share as Little Data as Possible Without Deleting Facebook
26. Mark Zuckerberg: I Can Barely Handle This CNN Interview, What Makes You Think I Can Handle Congress
27. Here’s Why That Recent Abuse of Facebook Data Matters
28. Yes, we should be outraged about Facebook
29. It’s Time For Facebook To Share More Data With Researchers
30. Facebook To Launch Paid Monthly Subscriptions, New ‘Rights Manager’ For Creators
31. UN Says Facebook Is Complicit In The Spread Of Anti-Muslim Hate In Myanmar
32. Did Facebook Violate SESTA By Promoting Child Abuse Videos? 
33. The Long History of Computer Science and Psychology Comes Into View: Understanding that legacy can help us stop the next Cambridge Analytica.
34. The Complete Guide To Facebook Privacy
35. What Would Regulating Facebook Look Like?
36. How Not To Regulate Social Networks
37. How ‘Regulating Facebook’ Could Make Everyone’s Concerns Worse, Not Better
38. Facebook’s security chief to depart role over company’s handling of misinformation: CSO Alex Stamos clashed with other executives over handling of Russian meddling.
39. Facebook Security Chief Reportedly Leaving Over Russia Probe Disagreement
40. DHS warns of new Russia hacks as US sanctions Russia over election interference: DHS alert warns of Russian government malware targeting critical infrastructure.
41. The White House Finally Hits Russia Back For Online Chaos
42. U.S. Imposes Additional Russian Sanctions for Election Interference and Cyber Attacks
43. US officials: Kaspersky “Slingshot” report burned anti-terror operation – Joint Special Operations Command ran campaign against ISIS, Al Qaeda for at least 6 years.
44. How Trump’s Lawyer’s Silly Lawsuit Against Buzzfeed May Free Stormy Daniels From Her Non Disclosure Agreement
45. China to bar people with bad ‘social credit’ from planes, trains
46. Chinese Citizens With Bad ‘Social Credit’ to Be Blocked From Taking Planes and Trains
47. Forbidden Feeds: Government Controls On Social Media In China
48. People’s Republic of Desire film review: Yes, Black Mirror is already here: A portentous look at the impact of unchecked money-for-popularity online services.
49. Apple’s App Store mysteriously went dark in Iran yesterday
50. We’ve Seen What Bots Do to Democracy. Are We Adapting Fast Enough?
51. Voice Chat App Zello Turned A Blind Eye To Jihadis For Years
52. How a Norwegian comment section turned chaos into order – with a simple quiz – SXSW: NRK’s dedicated tech team employs “open source” tactics to fight trolling.
53. Congress OKs sex-trafficking bill that critics say will “censor the Internet”: Critics say law will limit free speech online and won’t help trafficking victims.
54. Internet Wins, And The Need To Appreciate What We’ve Got Before It’s Gone
55. Can SESTA Be Fixed?
56. SESTA’s Sponsors Falsely Claim That Fixing SESTA’s Worst Problem Harms Hollywood
57. Hollywood’s Behind-The-Scenes Support For SESTA Is All About Filtering The Internet
58. As Expected Senate Overwhelmingly Passes Unconstitutional SESTA Bill, Putting Lives In Danger
59. Lawsuit Against Online Dating App Grindr Dismissed Under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act 
60. The evolution of internet service provider and host liability
61. Reddit Made The Video Star
62. Google Hopes YouTube’s “Top News” Section Will Combat Misinformation In Its Search Results
63. Report: Google is buying innovative camera startup Lytro for $40 million – Lytro seems to be at the end of the line, and Google is grabbing it at a bargain.
64. Lyor Cohen At SXSW: YouTube’s Music Service Will Be Something Consumers “Will Be Proud Of”
65. YouTube Will Increase Ads For Certain Viewers To Drive Subscriptions To New Music Service
66. The First YouTube Space In The Middle East Is Now Open In Dubai
67. YouTube Tightens Its Policies On Gun-Related Videos
68. YouTuber Who Trained His Girlfriend’s Dog To Be A Nazi Facing Hate Crime Charges In Scotland
69. As YouTube Begins Crackdown On Gun Channels, One Of Them Heads To Pornhub
70. Susan Wojcicki On YouTube’s Fight Against Misinformation
71. Wikipedia Says It Wasn’t Warned About YouTube Integration To Combat Conspiracies
72. YouTube Creator Convicted Of Hate Crime For Teaching Pug Nazi Salute
73. YouTube Simplifies Livestreaming Process From Computers, Webcams, And Android Camera Apps
74. Don’t Ask Wikipedia To Cure The Internet
75. Censorship Creep Is Setting In As Social Media Companies Try To Stay Ahead Of European Lawmakers
76. EU’s Mandatory Copyright Content Filter Is The Zombie That Just Never Dies
77. Logan Paul Launches Twitch Channel, Drawing 190,000 Followers In 24 Hours
78. After Record-Setting Broadcast With Drake, Twitch Streamer Ninja Says He Makes $500,000 Per Month
79. Rihanna Slams Snapchat Ad for Joking About Domestic Violence
80. Rihanna Rebukes Snapchat For Ad Appearing To Make Light Of Domestic Violence
81. Snapchat Taps New Exec To Oversee Relationships With Influencers, Celebrities
82. iHeartMedia Files for Bankruptcy
83. German Lawyers Call For Their Profession’s Bug-Ridden, Soon-To-Be Mandatory, Email System To Be Open Sourced
84. US Navy Accused Of Massive Amounts Of Piracy By German Software Company
85. Elon Musk Says He’s Formed a Media Company Called ‘Thud’ After Hiring Ex-Staffers of The Onion
86. Cheddar Raises $22 Million, Doubling Valuation, As It Eyes International Expansion
87. New York power companies can now charge Bitcoin miners more: With few community benefits, power authorities are cracking down.
88. City In New York Becomes First to Ban New Bitcoin Mining
89. Ether plunges after SEC says “dozens” of ICO investigations underway: The Ethereum cryptocurrency is below $500 for the first time since 2017.
90. A “tamper-proof” currency wallet just got backdoored by a 15-year-old: Backdoor allows attacker to recover private keys stored on Ledger hardware wallets.
91. Uber self-driving car hits and kills pedestrian: An Arizona pedestrian died in the hospital following the crash.
92. Uber’s Self-Driving Car Just Killed Somebody. Now What?
93. Police chief: Uber self-driving car “likely” not at fault in fatal crash – Tempe police chief says victim “came from the shadows right into the roadway.”
94. Tempe Police Chief Indicates The Uber Self-Driving Car Probably Isn’t At Fault In Pedestrian Death
95. Pedestrian Deaths By Car In Phoenix Area Last Week: 11. But One Was By A Self-Driving Uber
96. Real stupid questions about artificial intelligence: Spirit AI’s Emily Short says it’s more important than ever for the press and public to understand what AI is, and what it can do
97. Robotic muscle and sensitive polymer fingers in Columbia University’s robotics labs: When building, there are lots of different paths to the same ends.
98. Med Students Are Getting Terrible Training In Robotic Surgery
99. Beware Of Roboadvisors Bearing Low Fees: Companies like Wealthfront are moving away from their early ideals of low-fee passive investing—and customers should be skeptical. 
100. Watch A Robot ‘Hen’ Adopt A Flock Of Chicks
101. Autonomous Robot Bees Are Being Patented by… Walmart?
102. L’Oreal Buys Augmented Reality Beauty App, Allowing Robots To Point Out Our Every Flaw
103. OpenAI Wants to Make Safe AI, but That May Be an Impossible Task
104. Tech Companies Try To Retrain The Workers They’re Displacing
105. Sociologists Examine Hackathons And See Exploitation
106. Maybe Nobody Wants Your Space Internet
107. Porsche and Bugatti turn to 3D printing for complex or rare parts: Additive manufacturing is starting to gain acceptance among automakers.
108. Bento, A Feline Known For Appearing In ‘Keyboard Cat’ Videos, Has Died
109. Bento the Keyboard Cat, internet sensation and YouTube star, dies: The beloved feline star of the popular meme has died age eight. But does this really mean the end?
110. Steve Jobs’ 1973 job application fetches $174,000 at auction: Under “abilities,” Jobs wrote “electronics tech or design engineer. digital.” 

CREATIVITY

1. Radio-Canada reporter arrested for harassment after requesting interview
2. Appeals Court Says It’s Okay To Copyright An Entire Style Of Music
3. Lucha Underground Wrestling Sends Legal Threat To Journalists For Publishing ‘Spoilers’

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. Outlier: Why Bell’s Leadership on Website Blocking Places It at Odds With Telecom Companies Around the World (Michael Geist)
2. Dialling Up the Bell Lobbying Playbook: Production Company Website Blocking Submissions Using Identical Script (Michael Geist)
3. The Justice Department, AT&T-Time Warner trial is underway
4. Ex-DOJ Officials Raise Trump, AT&T Merger Interference Concerns
5. AT&T suffers another blow in court over throttling of “unlimited” data: AT&T can’t force California customers into arbitration, judge says.
6. Ajit Pai celebrates after court strikes down Obama-era robocall rule
7. Ajit Pai says net neutrality was the top threat to broadband deployment: FCC chair still can’t offer proof that repeal will boost broadband access.
8. Why the first state with a net neutrality law isn’t scared of lawsuits: Washington lawmaker: FCC can’t preempt state laws “just because it says so.”
9. California Introduces New, Tougher Net Neutrality Rules; Uses Ajit Pai’s Abdication Of Authority Against The FCC
10. Entire broadband industry will help FCC defend net neutrality repeal: NCTA, CTIA, and USTelecom sign up to defend net neutrality repeal in court.
11. If You’re Angry About Facebook’s Privacy Abuses, You Should Be Four Times As Angry At The Broadband Industry
12. NY says Charter lied about new broadband, threatens to revoke its franchise: Charter tried to count old broadband toward new merger commitments, NY says.
13. The Cable Industry Is Quietly Securing A Massive Monopoly Over American Broadband
14. The FCC Should Use Blockchain To Manage Wireless Spectrum
15. An “Ashamed” Fox News Commentator Just Quit The “Propaganda Machine”: “Over my decade with Fox, I long was proud of the association,” Col. Ralph Peters wrote in an email to colleagues. “Now I am ashamed.”
16. US Spends $2 Billion Monthly On Streaming Services, Older Viewers Cut Cords
17. The Dangers Of Big City Subsidies: When public assets are privatized and auctioned off to the highest bidder, everyone loses. 

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Russian Court Says Telegram Must Hand Over Encryption Keys To State Intelligence Service
2. Malware attack on 400k PCs caused by backdoored BitTorrent app: Once the stuff of spy novels, supply chain attacks are becoming common.
3. UK High Court perma-bans efforts to extradite Lauri Love for US hacking trial: Sets precedent for blocking extradition of hackers to US on humanitarian grounds.
4. Privacy Practices Every Company Should Address in Wake of Action Against PayPal
5. This Call May Be Monitored For Tone And Emotion
6. US spy lab hopes to geotag every outdoor photo on social media: “Finder” will geotag images by terrain, sky features.
7. Cops Wanting To Track Movements Of Hundreds Of People Are Turning To Google For Location Records
8. Europe’s New Privacy Law Will Change The Web, And More
9. Alphabet’s ‘Outline’ Software Lets Anyone Run A Homebrew VPN
10. A YouTuber Who Put A GoPro On A Sushi Restaurant Conveyor Belt Has Caused Quite The Stir In Japan
11. YouTube Video Causes Sushi Restaurant Chain To Ban Photography
12. “Hey Google, could you be used against me in court?”
13. Clock Runs Out On Perjury Charges For James Clapper, Ensuring He Won’t Be Punished For Lying To Congress
14. Adrian Lamo, former hacker who turned in Chelsea Manning, dead at 37: Intruder of Yahoo, Microsoft, and NYT was best known for reporting Manning leaks.

Jon