News of the Week; April 25, 2018

GAMES

1. Loot boxes in leading games violate Dutch gambling legislation: Developers have eight weeks to change their loot box mechanics or face prohibition
2. Netherlands pushes for EU-wide loot box legislation: Loot box ruling from Dutch government body could set precedent in Europe against certain iterations of the mechanic
3. Loot boxes with real-world value deemed unlawful in The Netherlands
4. Four publishers must change in-game loot boxes to avoid Dutch gambling laws: Study determines randomized items that have a “market value” violate the law.
5. Belgian Gaming Commission declares loot boxes illegal
6. Video game loot boxes are now considered criminal gambling in Belgium: FIFA, Overwatch, Counter-Strike: GO could face fines and prison penalties.
7. EA, Activision Blizzard, and Valve found in breach of Belgian gambling laws: Loot boxes in FIFA 18, Overwatch, and CS:GO violate gambling legislation, says Belgian Gaming Commission
8. Tattoo artist takes aim at WWE and video game maker
9. Tattoo artist sues WWE in Southern Illinois, says her designs were copied in video games
10. Terminal Reality is suing Microsoft over shadow and lighting patents
11. Microsoft accused of ‘egregious and wilful’ patent infringement: Terminal Reality and Infernal Technologies file lawsuit against tech giant for infringing patent with multiple games
12. A fan-made Halo PC patch meets Microsoft’s legal muscle – and apparently survives: Lawyers arrive after Halo Online “ElDewrito” patch explodes – but no C&D yet.
13. 343 clarifies Halo modding policy as fan-led Halo Onlinerevival gets the axe
14. Blizzard brings paid mods to StarCraft II with ‘Premium Arcade’ initiative
15. The Gaming Industry is Susceptible to ADA Website Accessibility Lawsuits
16. Ragnarok Online shutting down European servers after 14 years
17. GOG is getting more Steam-like with addition of new social features
18. Australian High Court orders Valve to pay $2.4M fine over misleading refund policy
19. Valve fined $3m over breach in Australian law with misleading Steam refund policy: Steam operator’s appeal denied by High Court of Australia
20. Valve acquires Firewatch creator Campo Santo
21. Valve acquires Firewatch developer Campo Santo: Yet another sign Valve might be interested in making new games again.
22. Detroit developer sues French press over “toxic culture” reports: Developer goes to court to fight what it calls a “smear campaign.”
23. Quantic Dream takes legal action against French media for negative press
24. Quantic Dream sues press over reports of toxic workplace – Report: Detroit Become Human studio takes legal action against two of the three outlets who unearthed allegations of harassment and discrimination
25. Maxis renames The Sims 4’s in-game ‘insane’ trait to ‘erratic’
26. EA Maxis renames The Sims’ “insane” character trait: Switch to “erratic” is a reflection of how “language evolves”, EA says
27. Studio apologizes for delay by pledging 90+-hour work weeks: NeoCoreGames says it was joking when it promised crunch as atonement for pushing full launch of Early Access game Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor – Martyr back three weeks
28. The Red Flag of Passion: How a seemingly harmless word is used to put a happy face on some of the industry’s biggest problems
29. Fortnite breaks $25 million in first month on mobile: Revenue could pass $500 million this year, Sensor Tower suggests
30. Fortnite streamer peaks at 667,000 concurrent viewers, breaking own record: Las Vegas Esports Arena inaugural event becomes record-breaking Twitch stream
31. Thanks to a cosmetic change, Epic accidentally rebalancedFortnite’s shotguns
32. Tencent investing $15M to help establish Fortnite in China
33. Tencent will invest $15 million in Fortnite’s rollout in China: Seeding an esports community for Epic’s game will be a focus of the investment
34. As PUBG-like contenders emerge, Islands of Nyne might already have them beat: Rumors swirl around Battlefield, Call of Duty, but awesome sci-fi twist is already here.
35. First major PUBG tournament launches this summer with $2m prize pool on the line: PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Global Invitational set to take place this year in Berlin, Germany
36. Twitch starts beta for new monetisation system: Viewers can now spend virtual currency in Extensions, with revenue divided between streamer and developer
37. Twitch Has Expanded Monetization To 220,000 Affiliates 1 Year After Program’s Launch
38. TheWaveVR secures $6M for its social VR platform
39. CCP chief: EVE dev’s move to leave VR due to risk, not loss of faith
40. Oculus overhauls privacy policy and terms of service
41. UK God of War launch is the biggest in the series history: Same for the new Yakuza, too
42. God of War Director’s Review Reaction Is A Reminder That Games Are Made By Humans
43. Sony’s studios continue their winning streak: The success of the PS4’s excellent first-party experiences belie the commercial challenges single-player titles still face
44. The infamous FMV game Night Trap is headed to the Nintendo Switch after all
45. Nintendo Switch hardware exploits cannot be patched out
46. The “unpatchable” exploit that makes every current Nintendo Switch hackable: Newly published Tegra bootROM exploit could be a big headache for Nintendo and others.
47. Behind the scenes with the hackers who unlocked the Nintendo Switch: “The best way to get a chip security audited is to put it in a game console”
48. Nintendo Labo belongs in the classroom
49. Review: Nintendo Labo (Variety And Robot Kits – Nintendo’s big gamble on cardboard and imagination pays off.
50. How to make your old Game Boy as good as (or better than) new: Why wait for a “Game Boy Classic” when you can fix up your old stuff instead?
51. How Squidlit’s devs authentically recreated a Game Boy game in 2018
52. Sonic Mania surpasses 1M sold worldwide
53. Capcom scrapping Puzzle Fighter to focus on Dead Rising
54. Italian games market hits $1.8 billion in 2017: The latest wave of GSD data is released for Europe
55. Steam sales, store pages and the art of selling games: At Reboot Develop, Rockfish, Vlambeer and 11 bit take very different views on the value of cutting prices
56. Kartridge announces new dev-friendly revenue terms
57. Kartridge offers developers 100% of revenue up to $10,000: Exclusive games will also get 90% up to $40k, in new terms aimed at “smaller developers”
58. How indie publishers stand out – and why they need your game to help them: Speaking at Reboot Develop, Devolver Digital, Paradox Interactive and Raw Fury reflect on their role in a game’s success and offer advice on pitching to them
59. “We just want to keep the IP” – Why Swery is banking on crowd-funding: The Good Life approaches its last stretch on Kickstarter
60. How Space Ape eschewed convention to make its most profitable game – Simon Hade and Nicolas Boulay discuss growing Fastlane: Road to Revenge from $5,000 ad revenue a day to $45,000 in four months
61. Ubisoft launches second season of start-up incubator program: “Ubisoft is proud of its roots and has not forgotten that its very own adventure began as a start-up,” says program sponsor
62. Darwin Project goes free-to-play after six weeks in Early Access: Scavengers Studio cites players’ “difficulty finding matches” as motivation for the change
63. Crossfire developer Smilegate closes Berlin studio
64. Smilegate to close Berlin office just over a year after it opened: Crossfire developer shuts down European base as part of new business strategy
65. “What’s your plan to not destroy yourself as you’re stepping into this career path?”: At Reboot Develop, Devolver and Good Shepherd co-founder Mike Wilson discussed the need for unions, mental burnout, and dealing with online toxicity
66. Better than reality: New emulation tech lags less than original consoles: “LAGFIX” fast-forwards through “hidden” frames for near-instant response times.
67. The Sentinel stands alone: Why I Love: Quantum Soup’s Chris Payne remembers Geoff Crammond’s purely innovative, rarely imitated classic
68. Rovio and Sony confirm a new Angry Birds movie for 2019: The first film earned $352 million since it opened two years ago
69. Wolfenstein II has five nominations at the Nordic Game Awards 2018: But Ultra Ultra’s Echo leads the pack with six, Tarsier Studios’ Little Nightmares and Image & Form’s SteamWorld Dig 2 close behind
70. Three years out, Final Fantasy VII remake still seems a long way off: Despite 2015 announcement, ambitious overhaul effort appears to be in early stages.
71. Death Road to Canada devs delay release out of respect for recent tragedy
72. Reboot Develop expands with Canada conference in 2019: Spring conference will remain in Dubrovnik alongside new student event, Canadian debut to be held in autumn next year
73. Social media ‘fair game’ in admissions process: But survey finds less than a third of colleges actually look at social media profiles when making admissions decisions
74. GDPR: Frequently Asked Questions – In the final part of their GDPR guide, Purewal & Partners’ Jas Purewal and Peter Lewin tackle the industry’s most common concerns
75. Blog: How the Rubik’s Cube inspired a laid-back Atari puzzler
76. Video: We force kids to confront ’80s technology – Youngsters struggled to understand why the TV must be on channel 3 to play games.

DIGITAL

1. Google Fails to Amend Canadian De-indexing Injunction Despite California Court Order
2. B.C. Court Leaves Google Global Takedown Order Intact Pending Full Trial (Michael Geist)
3. U.S. Falls To 45th On Press Freedom Index, Trump Labeled ‘Media-Bashing Enthusiast’
4. Michael Cohen Drops Ridiculous Lawsuit Against Buzzfeed After Buzzfeed Sought Stormy Daniels’ Details
5. It’s Spreading: Lindsey Graham Now Insisting ‘Fairness Doctrine’ Applies To The Internet
6. WikiLeaks, Russia, Trump Jr. named in new DNC hacking lawsuit: “It’s more than a shot over the bow, it’s a shot into the hull of the ship.”
7. Trump’s cell phone use is security “nightmare” waiting to happen, lawmakers say – New letter: “Does the President use encryption when he makes phone calls…?”
8. Verizon says Yahoo users must waive class-action rights – or stop using Yahoo: Yahoo, facing data breach lawsuits, starts enforcing mandatory arbitration.
9. Google disables “domain fronting” capability used to evade censors: A “long-planned” change happens to coincide with a new wave of state censorship in Russia.
10. Judge Agrees: Perfectly Fine For Google To Deny Ad Placement For ‘Honey Cures Cancer’ Claims 
11. Russia and China take Big Brother to absurd new levels
12. Internet Watch Foundation publishes its Annual Report
13. LA councilman asks city attorney to “review possible legal action” against Waze: “They say the crises of congestion they cause is the price for innovation.”
14. Are our smart devices starting to outsmart us?
15. The next big battle over internet freedom is here: Congress just passed a law to combat sex trafficking. Now the future of the free internet is in danger. 
16. Be Careful What You Wish For: The Risk of Ceding Online Content Monitoring to Internet Giants (Michael Geist)
17. Sweeping the Internet for Netsweeper
18. Calling Facebook A Utility Would Only Make Things Worse
19. What’s Not Included In Facebook’s ‘Download Your Data’
20. How academic at centre of Facebook scandal tried – and failed – to spin personal data into gold: The story of Aleksandr Kogan’s business ventures reveals a world where companies traded in the currency of personal information
21. Man behind Cambridge Analytica’s Facebook data mining says he’s sorry: Aleksandr Kogan, if he’d known survey would upset many: “I would’ve never done it.”
22. The Security Risks Of Logging In With Facebook
23. Delete Your Account: On the Theory of Platform Capitalism
24. Minds Is The Anti-Facebook That Pays You For Your Time 
25. Here’s What Facebook Won’t Let You Post
26. For the first time, Facebook clearly tells its users what’s allowed: Social network not saying why it took 14 years to release this document.
27. Facebook removes 1.5 billion users from protection of EU privacy law: In anticipation of the EU’s new GDPR rule, Facebook limits its legal umbrella. 
28. Facebook Publishes Internal Content Moderation Guidelines For The First Time 
29. Imposing Regulations on Online Technology Giants 
30. Meet the Professor Who’s Warning the World About Facebook and Google
31. FOSTA/SESTA Passed Thanks To Facebook’s Vocal Support; New Article Suggests Facebook Is Violating FOSTA/SESTA
32. Sex Workers Set Up Their Own Social Network In Response To FOSTA/SESTA; And Now It’s Been Shut Down Due To FOSTA/SESTA
33. Authorities May Charge Pennsylvania Juvenile Who Threatened Second YouTube Shooting
34. Exclusive: YouTube ran ads from hundreds of brands on extremist channels
35. 300 Companies Ran Ads On YouTube Channels Promoting Nazism, Pedophilia, Conspiracies (Report) 
36. YouTube CEO To Discuss Brand Safety On Conference Call With 30 Top Advertisers (Report)
37. YouTuber Convicted Of Hate Crime For Teaching Nazi Salute To Dog Raises £118,366 For Legal Appeal
38. YouTube Deleted 8.3 Million Objectionable Videos Last Quarter, Thanks Mostly To Machines
39. ‘Deadpool’ Writers To Serve As Executive Producers For Upcoming YouTube Red Series
40. New Footage Of Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” Receives One Million Views In First Day On YouTube
41. YouTube Gives Creators With At Least One Million Subscribers A Space On The Trending Tab
42. YouTube Kids Amplifies Parental Controls, Including Ability To Whitelist All Videos, Channels
43. P&G Resumes YouTube Spend After 13-Month Boycott — As New Ad Controversy Looms
44. Proposed US Consumer Internet Privacy Legislation Threatens Digital Advertising
45. Texas Revenge Porn Laws Loses Battle With First Amendment
46. Cheddar Joins Hulu’s Live TV Lineup 1 Day After Being Added To YouTube TV
47. The Roku Channel gets live news thanks to ABC, Cheddar, and other partners: But it won’t replace all live news broadcasts.
48. Flipboard’s Answer To Fake News: More Human Curation
49. We’re underestimating the mind-warping potential of fake video: Doctored photos can easily create false memories. What happens when there’s fake video?
50. Fullscreen, Concerned About Inappropriate Content, Cuts About 160 Partners From Its Network 
51. DJ Khaled Alcohol Endorsements Exposed, Says TINA
52. Citing Tepid Crowdfunding Results, Neill Blomkamp Cancels Plans To Adapt Digital Short Into Feature
53. Snapchat’s Stock Tumbles As Company Confirms It’s Testing Yet Another Redesign
54. Hollywood is Wrong: Netflix is the Future of Film
55. Netflix Is Launching A Podcast That Breaks Down Its Original Documentary Shows And Films
56. BuzzFeed Pacts With Netflix For Short-Form Docuseries About Its Journalists
57. Netflix Again Raising $1.5 Billion In Debt Financing Amid Aggressive Content Push 
58. Netflix, Amazon, and major studios try to shut down $20-per-month TV service: It’s the third lawsuit against TV box makers filed by Netflix and film studios.
59. Jeff Bezos Says Video Has Helped Drive 100 Million Amazon Prime Members 
60. It’s Thanks To The Pirate Community That Amazon’s Attempt To Degrade Its Streaming Service Is Now Public
61. Amazon Key expands to deliver packages inside your car: Another option for those skeptical about in-home deliveries.
62. Amazon made an Echo Dot for kids, and it costs $30 more than the original: New parental controls and FreeTime Unlimited subscription coming soon, too. 
63. Twitter’s Bet on Video Is Starting to Pay Off: The company is doing as good a job as anyone figuring out live streaming, a medium that has been slow to take off in the U.S
64. In Earnings Report, Twitter Says Video Ads Now Make Up More Than Half Of Its Ad Revenue
65. State Appeals Court Upholds Criminal Conviction For Twitter Harassment Targeting An Autistic Student 
66. How Twitter Suspended The Account Of One Of Our Commenters… For Offending Himself? 
67. Vevo Announces Layoffs After The Departure Of Its CTO 
68. Backlash prompts Eventbrite to drop demand to crash events, record them: “We’ve heard some concerns from our customers,” company says, over perpetual copyright grab.
69. Ben Makuch of Vice takes on police in Supreme Court: The refusal of a journalist to hand over communications with a terror suspect has raised fundamental questions about press freedoms and national security.
70. Vice Media Launches Local Operations in India
71. Spotify Just Gave You a Pretty Good Reason Not to Pay for Spotify
72. Spotify Exec Jabs YouTube Amid Launch Of Redesigned App With More Free Feature
73. Spotify Bolsters Free Service In Defense Against Apple Music
74. Tim Cook on merging macOS and iOS: “I don’t think that’s what users want”: Apple’s CEO appeared to debunk speculation that the company seeks a unified OS.
75. Apple offers free battery replacements for select MacBook Pro models: Only some newer 13-inch MacBook Pros without Touch Bars have been affected.
76. Apple Sued An Independent Norwegian Repair Shop In Bid To Monopolize Repair — And Lost
77. ABKCO Music, Inc. v. William Sagan 
78. The ‘Terms and Conditions’ Reckoning Is Coming: Everyone from Uber to PayPal is facing a backlash against their impenetrable legalese.
79. Robot Showboat: Now Even Our Celeb Feuds Are Automated
80. Your Next Job Interview Could Be with a Racist Bot: Companies are using AI-powered cameras and chatbots to screen applicants. And that could unintentionally make employers even more discriminatory than before.
81. Some Startups Use Fake Data To Train AI 
82. Ready Lawyer One: Virtual Reality Is Coming To Courtrooms
83. Augmented Reality Is Transforming Museums
84. Coinbase Reportedly Shuts Down Wikileaks Store, Assange Calls for Boycott in Response 
85. Silicon Valley’s Latest Revolution: Cutting Out Wall Street 
86. The Selfie As We Know It Is Dead
87. Why So Many People Make Their Password ‘Dragon’ 
88. Reinventing the Internet via blockchain 
89. New hacks siphon private cryptocurrency keys from airgapped wallets: Beware of smartphones and cameras around wallets storing your digital coin.
90. Icelandic bitcoin heist suspect arrested in Amsterdam after leaving prison
91. “Secondary Sales” of Private Securities (And Tokens) in Crowdfunding
92. Suspicious event hijacks Amazon traffic for 2 hours, steals cryptocurrency: Almost 1,300 addresses for Amazon Route 53 rerouted for two hours.
93. ‘We’ve Lost 10 Years of Innovation. This Decade Has Been Boring for the Web.’: A conversation with Ethan Zuckerman, media scholar and inventor of the pop-up ad, on the original sin of advertising and the web’s lost decade.
94. Want To Blog In Tanzania, Or Read Social Media In Uganda? Pay The Government, Please

CREATIVITY

1. 9th Circuit rules that Naruto has no standing under US Copyright Act
2. Naruto v. Slater
3. Monkey has no standing to assert copyright infringement in selfie case, 9th Circuit rules
4. Monkey-selfie lawsuit finally ends: Court affirms adorable macaque can’t sue: PETA claimed to be a friend to Naruto but “failed” at doing so, 9th Circuit finds.
5. We Interrupt The News Again With Hopefully The Last Update From The Monkey Selfie Case
6. Grumpy Cat Limited v. Grenade Beverage LLC, et al.
7. U.S. Court of Appeals Finds That the Lines Remain Blurred
8. Music publishers score major victory in closely watched copyright case
9. Kimberley v. Penguin Random House 
10. Silberstein v. Fox Entertainment Group, Inc. 
11. Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC v. Ren Ventures Ltd
12. Fearless Girl to be moved due to … viability concerns
13. Astronaut’s Right-of-Publicity Case Won’t Timeout
14. LeBron James hit with trademark suit over his barbershop-based web series
15. When Your Trademark Is A False Advertisement
16. Supreme Court upholds patent review process, dealing trolls a blow: A key part of the 2011 America Invents Act is constitutional, high court rules.
17. Brexit and copyright law: will the English courts revert to the ‘old’ test for originality?
18. The CASE Act – A Noble but Toothless Gesture Toward Fair Copyright Enforcement 
19. Of Course The RIAA Would Find A Way To Screw Over The Public In ‘Modernizing’ Copyright 
20. Publisher Helps To Keep Sci-Hub In The Public Eye By Trying To Bully It Into Submission Using Ineffectual Legal Remedies
21. This band is storing their best-selling album in DNA 
22. Following Questionable Election, Honduran Government Debuts New Censorship Law
23. Hate Speech Laws In India 

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1.  F-Word in Live Sports Broadcasts Should be Avoided, Says Canadian Broadcast Standards Council
2. Discussion about Sex Shops Was Acceptable Before 9:00 pm, Says Canadian Broadcast Standards Council
3. Wait for it: Government to clarify anti-spam law – eventually
4. Government Response to CASL Report Released
5. Government Response Suggests No Appetite for Canadian Anti-Spam Law Reform (Michael Geist)
6. Another Survey Shows Massive Bipartisan Opposition To Net Neutrality Repeal
7. Ajit Pai hasn’t finalized net neutrality repeal – here’s a theory on why: Pai’s delayed repeal could let Congress pass weaker law while ISPs behave.
8. No, Net Neutrality Isn’t Officially Dead (Yet), And The FCC Is Stalling For A Reason 
9. AT&T, Verizon face DOJ investigation for allegedly trying to lock eSIMs: Carriers reportedly sought ability to lock eSIMs to networks; Apple complained.
10. DOJ Investigating AT&T, Verizon for Making It Harder To Switch Wireless Carriers
11. NYC blasts broadband competition shortage as it pursues suit against Verizon: Two-thirds of NYC homes have only one or two broadband options, city report says. 
12. ISPs should charge for fast lanes – just like TSA Precheck, GOP lawmaker says: GOP’s Marsha Blackburn wants Internet service to be just like airport security. 

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Australian Gov’t Scooped Up Tons Of Cell Site Location Data To Track Citizens’ Movements
2. High Court establishes ‘right to be forgotten’ in English law
3. Company obtains cyber injunction under the protection of anonymity
4. SEC issues $35 million fine over Yahoo failing to disclose data breach
5. Supreme Court Dismisses Microsoft Appeal as Moot After Passage of the CLOUD Act 
6. Framed For Murder By His Own DNA 
7. Florida Police Allegedly Crash Funeral Home to Unlock Phone With Slain Man’s Fingerprints
8. Hackers Designed a ‘Master Key’ to Unlock Millions of Hotel Room Doors
9. When you go to a security conference, and its mobile app leaks your data: RSA Conference attendee contact data extracted using hard-coded API data.
10. Cracking The Crypto War: Ray Ozzie thinks he has an approach for accessing encrypted devices that attains the impossible: It satisfies both law enforcement and privacy purists.
11. Jaywalking in China Can Get You Hit with a Stream of Water
12. Atlanta Spent $2.6m To Recover From A $52,000 Ransomware Scare
13. Batten down the hatches: The GDPR wind is about to blow

Jon