News of the Week; April 11, 2018

GAMES

1. GTA V producer hits speed bump in $150M lawsuit against Rockstar
2. Former GTA producer suffers setback in $150m lawsuit against Take Two: Court finds profit sharing agreement unambiguous, but Benzies could still be compensated
3. GTA V is the most profitable entertainment product of all time: 90 million sales and $6 billion in revenue means nothing comes close to Rockstar’s biggest hit
4. Court Dismisses Lohan’s Invasion of Privacy Suit
5. Grand Theft Auto 5 Has Many Different Characters, But Lindsay Lohan Is Not One of Them 
6. Appeals Court Rules That GTA5 Didn’t Infringe On Lindsay Lohan’s Likeness Rights
7. Lawsuit Filed Against PUBG Mobile Clones
8. PUBG Corp takes NetEase to court over alleged mobilePUBG copycats
9. PUBG creators finally decide a copycat game has gone too far, file suit: What gets PUBG lawyers’ attention? A 25-strong list that includes chicken dinners.
10. PUBG Corp. files lawsuit against NetEase for alleged copyright infringement: Look and feel of both mobile games “closely mimic” PUBG, says developer
11. CliffyB’s Radical Heights is a new low for cashing in on the PUBG craze: What happens when a game studio is late to a hot trend twice in a row?
12. Microsoft & other game companies win out in camera patent lawsuit
13. Ubisoft to prioritize ‘toxicity management’ in Rainbow Six: Siege
14. Ubisoft cracking down on hate speech, team-killing in Rainbow Six: Siege – “Egregious offenders” can now earn a permanent ban “without warning.”
15. “You’re a__ is about to get swatted,” swatting suspect tweets from jail: A software glitch in a Kansas jail temporarily gave the suspect Internet access.
16. Pokémon Go Producers Attacked by Strange Plaintiff-Beasts
17. Korean companies fined $950K for deceptive loot box practices
18. Nexon and Netmarble fined for loot box practices: Korean FTC hands out almost $1 million in fines, the majority to Nexon
19. Korean FTC Issues Fines Over Loot Box Advertising 
20. FTC: Warranty-voiding language like Nintendo’s and Sony’s is illegal – FTC warns companies to stop voiding warranties for unauthorized repairs.
21. Online gaming could be stalled by net neutrality repeal, ESA tells court: Entertainment Software Association fights FCC’s net neutrality repeal in court.
22. The Video Game Industry Joins The Lawsuit To Save Net Neutrality
23. Public UK wage database showcases game industry’s gender pay gap
24. Exploring the pay gap: What does the data really say about the industry’s gender imbalance? – Full analysis reveals important questions about female representation across all industry levels
25. Gender pay gaps: Here’s how we fix them – Amiqus’ Liz Prince believes this week’s revelations should compel the industry to address how it recruits, retains and promotes women
26. Indie collective Juegos Rancheros dismisses co-founder Boyer
27. Brandon Boyer dismissed from Juegos Rancheros: Austin indie game organization removes co-founder and former IGF chair from board of directors over conduct concerns
28. Blog: Recapping the IGDA’s localization roundtable from GDC
29. Altered Ventures launches $36M fund to help devs succeed in emerging markets
30. How long should game devs spend working on just one game?
31. BossKey backing away from active LawBreakers development 
32. Lawbreakers “failed to find an audience,” dev officially admits FPS defeat: Implies that game won’t receive an end-of-life transition to free-to-play, either.
33. Ubisoft opens Winnipeg studio to develop world building tech
34. Ubisoft opening Winnipeg studio: Far Cry 5 producer Darryl Long named managing director of new co-development studio focused on tools and tech for publisher’s AAA open-world brands
35. Nightdive shares source code for System Shock on Mac
36. Far Cry 5 has more than doubled Far Cry 4’s first week sales
37. Insights: Fortnite’s Pop Culture Breakthrough May Last More Than Two Weeks
38. Fortnite mobile revenue tops $15M after less than a month
39. Fortnite mobile daily revenue peaks at $1.8m since lifting invite-only requirement: Total revenue surpasses $15 million in less than a month
40. Resident Evil 7 has surpassed 5.1M sales worldwide
41. With 2 million units sold, Shovel Knight generated the most income from Switch sales
42. Nintendo warns against using substandard Switch charging cables
43. Overwatch League team drops player: Boston Rising terminates contract of Jonathan “DreamKazper” Sanchez after allegation of sexual communications with a minor
44. What Is The Copyright Status In eSports Casts?
45. Esports and gambling
46. Blizzard looking to grow Overwatch League with All-Access Pass
47. Video Game Deep Cuts: A WiLD eSports Mario Approaches
48. NBA’s Adam Silver Welcomes ‘New Generation Of Athletes’ With NBA 2K League
49. Video games can create beneficial social connections and take on real issues
50. Wadjet Eye: Streamers “pushed me to make the game that I’ve always wanted to play” – With Unavowed, founder Dave Gilbert aimed to make a point and click adventure game that can’t be spoiled by YouTube videos
51. I got occupational burnout – and you might, too: Will Luton on a “scarily ubiquitous” problem in the games industry, but one that can be identified and prevented
52. ‘VRChat’ is the Closest VR Experience Available Today to ‘Ready Player One’s’ OASIS
53. Group Behind JPEG Unveils New ‘visually lossless’ Compression Standard for VR/AR and More
54. Leap Motion reveals open-source North Star AR headset 
55. Trade marks: How much do you really need to protect?: As the Star Control legal battle extends to alien race names, Harbottle & Lewis’ Kostya Lobov offers advice on striking a balance
56. “Most developers think of funding as fixing their problem”: But VC investors care about opportunities and not problems, says Jason Della Rocca, and this year’s Nordic Game Conference will feature an event to show the difference
57. Steam privacy tweaks spell the end for services like Steam Spy
58. Steam Spy announces it’s shutting down, blames Valve’s new privacy settings: Sales-estimate service, born from an Ars data project, says goodbye to its best source.
59. SteamSpy shutting down after Steam privacy update: Switch to default hidden game libraries cuts off primary source of tracker’s data
60. Blog: Early Access without Steam? Let’s break down the numbers
61. Blog: A history of game analytics platforms
62. iOS App Store shrinks as number of new apps falls for first time ever
63. Razer sets up shop as a PC game retailer
64. Myst creators launch Kickstarter to bring every game in the series to Windows 10: Most of the games are already available, but there are some collector’s items.
65. The ESA has joined the fight to save net neutrality
66. ESA joins battle for net neutrality: E3 organiser and games lobbying group files to participate in lawsuit against Federal Communications Commission
67. Humble is selling a huge gaming history ebook collection for $15: MIT Press combines 18 of its incredibly wonky game design studies books for cheap.
68. How game writers craft meaningful romances in games
69. Blog: The importance of knowing your inheritance, as a game dev
70. V&A Museum to highlight game design innovations in coming exhibit
71. Video Games: Design/Play/Disrupt arrives at Victoria and Albert Museum this autumn: “Exhibition will provide a compelling insight into one of the most important design disciplines of our time,” says V&A director
72. Take a gander at how the very first arcade video games were advertised

DIGITAL

1. Was Facebook’s Work With the Trump Campaign Illegal?
2. The Questions Zuckerberg Should Have Answered About Russia
3. Facebook admits Zuckerberg wiped his old messages – which you can’t do: Ordinary Facebook users can’t delete their messages from recipients’ inboxes.
4. Facebook Admits Mark Zuckerberg and Top Execs Have Deleted Their Sent Messages Remotely
5. Hours after Zuck deletion scandal, Facebook announces new unsend feature: How stupid does Facebook think we are?
6. Facebook sent a doctor on a secret mission to ask hospitals to share patient data
7. Facebook can’t catch a break: Medical data-sharing plan halted 
8. Watch Zuckerberg Struggle to Answer Sharp, Uncomfortable Questions About Peter Thiel’s Creepy Company
9. A Hard Transparency Choice: What is WikiLeaks?
10. Zuckerberg: Failing to identify Russian misinformation one of his ‘greatest regrets’: Mark Zuckerberg called Facebook’s failure to identify the influence of Russian information operations on the 2016 U.S. election one of his “greatest regrets.”
11. Data firm that worked on Brexit suspended by Facebook: But the company says all allegations are untrue.
12. “Facebook Doesn’t Sell Your Data. It Sells You”: Zeynep Tufekci on How Company’s Profit Really Works
13. Steve Wozniak drops Facebook: “The profits are all based on the user’s info” – Apple cofounder – “Apple makes its money off of good products, not off of you.”
14. Zuckerberg: regulation of social media firms is ‘inevitable’
15. As Zuck testifies to Senate, Democrats propose tough opt-in privacy law: Democrats propose opt-in privacy rules for Facebook, Google, and other websites.
16. Facebook urged to make GDPR its “baseline standard” globally
17. Mark Zuckerberg Answers To Congress For Facebook’s Troubles
18. CEO Zuckerberg apologizes for Facebook’s privacy failures
19. It’s not just America: Zuckerberg has to answer for Facebook’s actions around the world
20. Why Zuckerberg’s 14-Year Apology Tour Hasn’t Fixed Facebook
21. What were the failures of Mark Zuckerberg pre-Facebook?
22. 1 million UK Facebook users could have compensation claims for misuse of their personal information
23. From Mark Zuckerberg to Harvey Weinstein, founder CEOs can become too big to fail
24. Facebook isn’t too big to fail 
25. Mark Zuckerberg’s Testimony Birthed An Oddly Promising Memepocalypse
26. Congress Is Unearthing Facebook’s Terrible Power 
27. Facebook And The Price Of Tech Utopia
28. Facebook Imposes New Restrictions On Ads And Popular Pages
29. Facebook: If you want to buy a political ad, you now have to be “authorized” – “We know we were slow to pick-up foreign interference in the 2016 US elections.”
30. Facebook’s surveillance is nothing compared with Comcast, AT&T and Verizon: Comcast, AT&T and Verizon pose a greater surveillance risk than Facebook – but their surveillance is much harder to avoid
31. MIT Civic Media Director: Facebook’s Apologies Are ‘Long Overdue’
32. Mark Zuckerberg’s Privacy Shell Game
33. Facebook CEO puts on suit and a smile to try to seduce, assuage senators – Sen. Blumenthal (D-CT): “Your business model is to maximize profit over privacy.” 
34. Cambridge Analytica Could Have Also Accessed Private Facebook Messages
35. How To Check If Cambridge Analytica Could Access Your Facebook Data
36. How to Find Out If Your Facebook Data Was Stolen by Cambridge Analytica
37. Data Lords: The Real Story of Big Data, Facebook and the Future of News
38. Broadband Industry Aims To Use Facebook Fracas To Saddle Silicon Valley With Crappy New Laws
39. Yep, Russian trolls hit Reddit, too—on /r/funny and elsewhere – CEO: “We still have a lot of room to improve, and we intend to remain vigilant.”
40. Here’s why tech companies abuse our data: because we let them (Brett Frischmann)
41. The Rise Of Platform Authoritarianism
42. Court Shuts Down Yet Another Lawsuit Against Social Media Companies Over Terrorist Attacks
43. Cali Lawmakers Pushing For 72-Hour Bot Removal Requirements For Social Media Companies
44. Court Says Kentucky Governor Free To Block Critics Using Official Social Media Accounts
45. FOSTA Signed into Law, Amends CDA Section 230 to Allow Enforcement against Online Providers for Knowingly Facilitating Sex Trafficking
46. Trump signs bill to shut down websites that facilitate prostitution: FOSTA becomes law—sex work forums were already shutting down to prepare.
47. Ted Cruz Gets Section 230 All Wrong, While Zuck Claims He’s Not Familiar With It
48. Backpage domains seized by feds, co-founder’s Arizona home raided: Notorious site had used Section 230 as a shield against state prosecution.
49. Backpage execs indicted on federal prostitution, money laundering charges – AG: “Backpage.com existed as the dominant marketplace for illicit commercial sex.” 
50. DOJ Seizes And Shuts Down Backpage.com (Before SESTA Has Even Been Signed)
51. “Erotic Review” blocks US Internet users to prepare for government crackdown: Sex work review site censors itself in US before SESTA is signed into law.
52. Politicians Who Said SESTA Was Needed To Takedown Backpage Claim Victory Over Backpage Takedown… Without SESTA
53. Federal Backpage Indictment Shows SESTA Unnecessary, Contains Zero Sex Trafficking Charges
54. Japanese Government Seeks To Circumvent Its Own Constitution To Censor ‘Pirate’ Sites
55. Studio71 Launches Brand Safety Tool To Help Its Partners Advertise Securely
56. Right to be forgotten and online information removal under debate: Privacy commissioner may face challenges with the law
57. Canadian Government Leaning Towards A Right To Be Forgotten It Can Enforce Anywhere In The World
58. Vimeo Copyright Infringement Case Still Going Nearly A Decade Later, With Another Partial Win For Vimeo
59. Latest EU Copyright Plan Would Ban Copyright Holders From Using Creative Commons
60. Apple Must Pay $502.6 Million to VirnetX, Federal Jury Rules
61. Apple ordered to pay $502.6M to VirnetX after jury finds patent infringement: Suing over patents hasn’t paid off: VirnetX lost over $75M from 2015 through 2017.
62. Patent Troll Sues Spotify, SoundCloud And Deezer Over Patent On A ‘Music Organizer And Entertainment Center’
63. Apple has begun notifying macOS users of coming 32-bit app incompatibility: Warnings have started, but 32-bit support will likely continue for many months.
64. Amazon customers take to social media after mysterious account closures  
65. Most Links To Popular Sites On Twitter Come From Bots
66. Instagram Testing ‘Nametags’ Feature That’s Essentially A Snapcodes Clone
67. One Woman Got Facebook To Police Opioid Sales On Instagram
68. ‘Mister Rogers’ Fan Film Battles Copyright Claim On YouTube
69. After “Horrific Act Of Violence,” YouTube Will Tighten Security “At All Of Our Offices Worldwide”
70. Google Staffer Launches $24,000 GoFundMe Campaign For YouTube Shooting Hero
71. Groups Allege YouTube Is Violating Law That Protects Kids
72. Advocacy Groups, Citing Children’s Privacy Laws, Ask FTC To Investigate YouTube
73. Unite the Right? How YouTube’s Recommendation Algorithm Connects The U.S. Far-Right
74. YouTube TV To Launch Linear Channels With Cheddar, Tastemade, The Young Turks
75. Philip DeFranco Answers Sean Evans’ Burning Questions About YouTube On ‘Hot Ones’ 
76. ‘Study With Me’ YouTube Videos Are Finding Massive Audiences In Japan 
77. YouTube To Stream Coachella For Eighth Year, Including Headliner Beyoncé
78. YouTube Kids Is Going To Release A Whitelisted, Non-Algorithmic Version Of Its App: YouTube will approve all channels allowed to post, a source told BuzzFeed News, giving parents a firewall against an algorithm that’s often proved lacking.
79. Google Turns To Users To Improve Its AI Chops Outside The US
80. Again, Algorithms Suck At Determining ‘Bad’ Content, Often To Hilarious Degrees
81. BroadbandTV Unveils ‘VISO’ Platform To Help Creators Collaborate, Optimize Uploads, More
82. Netflix Reportedly Threatens Cannes Boycott After Its Films Are Banned From Competition
83. The Military Wants to Make AI That Mimics the Human Brain. Experts Know There’s a Better Way.
84. A Brain-Boosting Prosthesis Moves From Rats To Humans
85. A New AI “Journalist” Is Rewriting the News to Remove Bias
86. A lawyer’s guide to artificial intelligence
87. China Now Has the Most Valuable AI Startup in the World
88. Artificial Intelligence, Fair Use, and Using AI to Create New Works
89. President Trump Announces Trade Actions Targeting Chinese Tech and Intellectual Property Policies 
90. Mozilla Diagnoses The Health Of The Global Internet
91. The Internet has serious health problems, Mozilla Foundation report finds: Consolidation of control, “fake news,” IoT security weakness are symptoms of larger problems.
92. More Governments Granting Themselves Extra Censorship Powers With ‘Fake News’ Laws
93. Indian Government Enacts, Abandons ‘Fake News’ Law In Less Than 24 Hours
94. Mt. Gox ex-CEO, who may profit from site’s fall, says he “doesn’t want this”
95. Beijing Higher Court Affirms Grant of Injunction in IWNComm v. Sony
96. The Never-Ending Self-Driving Car Project
97. China Now Has the Most Valuable AI Startup in the World
98. 10 Hidden URLs to Help You Rule the Web
99. Quebec Digital Sales Tax Plan Shows It Is Easier Said Than Done (Michael Geist)

CREATIVITY

1. Public policy and offensive trademarks
2. Strong Shield Law Protections for Journalists in California and Across the Country 
3. RIAA Gets To Move Forward In Case That Tries To Force ISPs To Help Copyright Trolls
4. MPAA Report Shows How The Internet Is Saving The Film Industry, Not Destroying It 

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. Canadian Internet Providers Warn of Site Blocking Consequences: Threat to Affordable Internet Access and Market Competition (Michael Geist)
2. CRTC Website Blocking Submissions Confirm Over-Blocking Risks: “Every Blocking Technique Suffers from Over-blocking and Under-blocking” (Michael Geist)
3. Broken Record: Why the Music Industry’s Secret Plan for iPhone Taxes, Internet Tracking and Content Blocking is Off-Key (Michael Geist)
4. The Competition-Killing Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Nobody Asked For Is Back On The Menu
5. Oregon finalizes net neutrality law despite likelihood that ISPs will sue: Oregon governor signs net neutrality bill today.
6. Oregon passes its own net neutrality laws, but not for home users: “The internet has democratised knowledge and is an invaluable tool. It’s so important that it remains open and accessible”
7. Massachusetts Legislature Issues Net Neutrality Report, Recommends Legislation
8. More Colorado Towns Vote Down A Comcast State Law Hamstringing Broadband Competition
9. Ex-Obama FTC Boss Now Lobbying For Comcast, Trying To Prevent States From Protecting Consumers
10. Ajit Pai’s “Harlem Shake” video preparations must remain secret, FCC says: It’s the second time FCC refused to release emails about an Ajit Pai comedy skit.
11. FCC Withholds Ajit Pai’s Emails Regarding The Infamous ‘Harlem Shake’ Video
12. FCC Commissioner Says Her Agency Is Now Just A Giant Rubber Stamp For Sinclair Broadcasting
13. Trump and the idiot box: White House aides will try to get guests to make their points on Fox News shows because President Trump “will listen more when it is on TV.” 
14. The crisis in journalism that’s helping Trump: Did the collapse of local journalism help give us Donald Trump? 
15. When You Merge The Message With The Medium, You Make A Messium 
16. What’s Next for the FCC’s Radio Ownership Rules? – Do Changes in the Audio Marketplace Justify Changes in Ownership Limits? 
17. AT&T’s 5G trials produce gigabit speeds and 9ms latency: AT&T boasts about millimeter-wave 5G as it prepares for late 2018 launch.
18. CenturyLink Tries To Dodge Broadband Billing Lawsuit By Claiming It Technically Has No Subscribers

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. The NYPD Wants Everyone’s Licenses for Facial Recognition. How Concerned Should You Be?
2. DHS defends media-monitoring database, calls critics “conspiracy theorists”: Says only wearers of “tinfoil hats” have issues with “standard practice monitoring.”
3. Thousands of hacked websites are infecting visitors with malware: Unusually advanced campaign infects people visiting a variety of poorly secured sites. 
4. Another Company Blows Off Breach Notification For Months, Lies About Affected Customers When It’s Exposed
5. DC’s Stingray Mess Won’t Get Cleaned Up
6. DHS Says Rogue Stingrays Are In Use In Washington, DC; Also Says It Hasn’t Done Anything About It
7. How to keep your ISP’s nose out of your browser history with encrypted DNS: Using Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1, other DNS services still require some command-line know-how.
8. Cyberinsurance Tackles The Wildly Unpredictable World Of Hacks 
9. Striking the Balance: Privacy and Freedom of Expression in the Digital Age (Michael Geist) 
10. Data Rules in Modern Trade Agreements: Toward Reconciling an Open Internet with Privacy and Security Safeguards (Michael Geist)
11. Practical passwordless authentication comes a step closer with WebAuthn: Microsoft, Mozilla, and Google are all implementing the new standard.

Jon