News of the Week; May 16, 2018

GAMES

1. Belgian Gaming Commission recommends criminal prosecution over illegal loot boxes: Commission lays groundwork for prosecution as Belgian justice minister meets with stakeholders to find an alternative
2. Twitch files counter-complaint against banned CS:GOstreamer
3. Twitch counter-sues streamer banned for gambling, inappropriate conduct: James Varga, aka “Phantoml0rd”, sued Twitch over the ban last month
4. ‘Saturday Night Live’ 48-Hour Marathon to Stream on Twitch
5. Twitch To Stream 48-Hour-Long ‘Saturday Night Live’ Marathon Ahead Of Sketch Show’s Season Finale
6. Supreme Court lifts ban on (e)sports gambling, allowing state-by-state legalization
7. Supreme Court lifts ban on sports gambling, including esports: DraftKings to implement sports, esports betting on its fantasy sports platform
8. Supreme Court Ruling Opens Door for Legalized Sports Betting
9. Take-Two CEO: Legal (e)sports gambling ‘meaningfully positive’ for games
10. Satirical game used to push back against German ban on Nazi symbols
11. Unprecedented move by German prosecutors over Nazi imagery in satirical game: Game serves “both the arts and civic enlightenment” says PPO
12. Kingsleys unleash ire of independent author community with Rebellion trademark: But CEO Jason Kingsley assures that ‘Rebellion’ will only be used for relevant services, is investigating ‘overreaching’ application
13. Video: A lawyer’s guide to practical IP law for indies
14. Hackers find PSP emulator in PS4 remaster of PaRappa the Rapper: PlayStation 4 version of cult classic rhythm game just an emulation of the 2007 PSP re-release
15. Pay-To-Flay: Examining microtransactions inMortal Kombat X 
16.  Making microtransactions work for players in Guild Wars 2
17. Gran Turismo franchise has sold 80M units in two decades
18. Gran Turismo franchise tops 80 million sold: Polyphony Digital racing sim series reaches mark a little over 20 years after initial debut
19. Sony and Nintendo update warranty policies in response to FTC warning: Both companies’ customers now have more freedom to use third party products and services
20. Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft update warranty policies in response to FTC warning: Customers now have more freedom to use third party products and services
21. Nintendo shuts down debut mobile app Miitomo
22. Nintendo still won’t commit to online services: “Netflix for retro games” would be a huge selling point for the Switch – but Nintendo’s reticence to commit to online services will stop it happening
23. Nintendo’s $20 charging stand fixes one of the Switch’s biggest problems
24. Nintendo Labo tests, part one: Robot Kit’s cardboard stomps are fun but shallow
25. A year ago, the NES Classic flew off the shelves—now it’s coming back
26. LawBreakers dev Boss Key Productions shuts down
27. Pokemon Go dev Niantic wants to build AR maps with data from players
28. Clearing up misconceptions around motion sickness in VR
29. Microsoft enables digital game and DLC gifting on PC: This follows the addition of Xbox One digital game, DLC, and subscription gifting last year
30. Xbox One may be indies’ least popular platform, survey suggests: Indies love the Switch, but PC wins out for accessibility despite marketplace overcrowding
31. Leaked photo shows new, accessible Xbox One controller
32. In the lab with Xbox’s new Adaptive Controller, which may change gaming forever
33. How the DualShock 4’s share button came to be
34. Sony winding down production of physical PlayStation Vita titles
35. Sony announces end of Vita GameCard production: Production of physical Vita games will cease by end of March 2019
36. ModDB parent launches cross-platform API mod.io:v New tech makes it easier for developers to add modding tools to their games
37. Mobile games continue to drive rising online game revenue for Tencent
38. Konami breaks profit records thanks to domestic mobile market
39. Konami shows record operating profits: Fourth straight year of bottom line growth helps publisher surpass previous 2012 high point; no word on Metal Gear Survive performance
40. Packaged software driving profits in Sega’s games division
41. Sega’s game profits rose 30% last year: Japanese publisher delivered increased operating profit despite launching fewer games than expected
42. Japanese devs reflect on the recent renaissance of Japanese games
43. Take-Two’s fortunes on the rise ahead of Red Dead Redemption 2 debut 
44. Devs share the most memorable things they’ve had to cut from games
45. Bigben Interactive acquires Styx developer Cyanide for $24M
46. Bigben acquires Cyanide for €20 million: WRC publisher broadens development focus with Styx: Shards of Darkness creator
47. Campo Santo retains freedom, flexibility under Valve
48. Development on In the Valley of Gods will continue as before, but with more support
49. Valve debuts public bug bounty board in an effort to improve security
50. Steam services expand to mobile with new apps: Steam Link and Steam Video will launch in the coming months
51. Polish studio Acram Digital banned from Steam for review tampering
52. Steam Yanks Another Developer’s Games Over Fake Reviews Posted By Employee
53. Acram Digital games removed from Steam after rogue staffer manipulates reviews: “This is my individual, bad behaviour, not the team, so I would like to blame me, not the devs,” says Grzegorz Kubas
54. From zero to 15 million: The story of Outlast – Red Barrels’ Philippe Morin on turning a $1.4 million budget into a $64 million franchise with 15 million sales
55. Mod.io API aims to help developers create mod-friendly games
56. Balancing Hearthstone: Metrics help the team understand what’s happening, but designer Dean Ayala says most changes in the Blizzard card game are made due to player perception
57. Universal “committed to games”, disputes free labour concerns over IP contest: Hollywood firm determined to build final product from Unity-partnered competition, stresses unsuccessful entrants retain rights to ideas
58. Daybreak insists it has no connection to parent company: H1Z1 developer now says it was never owned by Columbus Nova after investment firm’s owner sees assets frozen by US government, claims it has no impact on its business
59. Eidos Montreal: “We have to try new models for single-player games” – Shadow of the Tomb Raider dev on making $135 million narrative projects work
60. Discord now boasts 130M users, 85M more than one year ago
61. Discord triples users to 130 million in one year: The gaming chat platform just closed a $50 million round, which valued the company at $1.65 billion
62. Nexon doubles revenue in US following Pixelberry acquisition 
63. Nexon more than doubled profits in Q1: Pixelberry acquisition boosted North American revenue, but Korea remains Nexon’s source of strength
64. BioShock Remastered studio lays off 10% of workforce after project cancellation: Blind Squirrel Games confirms 13 redundancies, affected staff seeking help via Twitter hashtag
65. Kongregate looking to court indie devs with new Canada office
66. Kongregate opens Montreal office: Digital publisher’s first Canadian branch looks to capitalize on the local indie development scene
67. “The era of ‘break-out indie success’ is long dead”: Indie developers share their thoughts on the greatest challenges facing the industry in 2018
68. Looking back on our first year as an indie studio
69. Runescape creator Jagex raises $300K for mental health charities
70. Little Orbit acquires GamersFirst online game portal andAPB Reloaded
71. Online retailer Gameseek goes into liquidation: UK company left many orders unfulfilled when it hit the wall
72. GameStop boosted by billionaire hedge fund: Bridgewater Associates ups stake in troubled games retailer, plus new investment from quant firm Renaissance
73. Niantic to build a 3D augmented reality world map with Pokémon Go data: “We want players to build out the game board they want to play on,” says CEO
74. Nvidia posts record Q1 revenues as profits soar by 145%: Meanwhile, GPU prices “beginning to normalise” following cyrptocurrency surge
75. THQ Nordic saw more sales in 3 months than all of 2017, thanks to Koch Media
76. THQ Nordic posts 673% revenue increase following acquisition of Koch Media: Excluding Koch Media revenue, THQ Nordic still up 64 per cent
77. NCSoft profits up by 585% to $110m in Q1 2018: Mobile revenue spikes by 1,028 per cent amid mixed overall games performance
78. German mobile game revenue growth surpasses whole market growth in 2017: Mobile sales rose 21% year over year, while the country’s overall market revenue rose 15%
79. Appealing to the West by focusing on the East: Spike Chunsoft CEO Mitsutoshi Sakurai says there’s a growing global audience for the “very Japanese” games his company publishes
80. Cliff Bleszinski’s Boss Key Productions shuts down after three years
81. Saying Goodbye To The Fan Game That Recreated A Decade-Old Classic
82. Researchers teach AI the art of ‘interesting’ level design
83. The Race To Stop The Best Mario Kart 64 Player From Securing Every World Record 
84. Sonic the Hedgehog devs explain how competing with Mario influenced development
85. How Fortnite, A ‘Gamer’s Game,’ Took Over The World
86. Fortnite mobile has earned $50M in under two months
87. How Epic’s Fortnite rose from the ashes of Paragon’s failure
88. An analysis of building in Fortnite
89. Silverman: Is Fortnite habit the cause of David Price’s injury?
90. Red Sox starter David Price denies carpal tunnel related to gaming, but plans to scale back
91. Blog: How does multiplayer impact replayability?
92. Madden NFL could go in “new direction” following departure of creative director: Former Overwatch producer Carlos Guerrero takes over series following Rex Dickson’s depature
93. How EA Sports games are designed for blind players
94. Nordisk Film continues investment spree with $18M Star Stable deal
95. Google Chrome no longer breaks Web games, but the fix won’t last
96. Chrome temporarily rolls back audio-muting update so devs can prep for the change
97. How we increased our review score from mid 60’s to 80
98. The risky business of creating an introspective blockbuster 
99. Blog: The myth of the hero’s journey
100. Opinion: Neo Cab and the effort to make an empathetic game about gamification
101. John Carmack recalls “frustrating” arguments with Apple’s Steve Jobs
102. 100,000 Video Game Players Helped Scientists Prove Einstein Wrong

DIGITAL

1.  It’s Over: The Podcast Patent Troll’s Patent is Officially And Completely Dead
2. Supreme Court declines to hear “podcasting patent” case, handing win to EFF
3. Here are the Russian-made Facebook ads that tried to shake American politics 
4. 7 Takeaways from the Latest Batch of Russian-Bought Facebook Ads: House Democrats released over 3,000 Facebook and Instagram ads purchased by the Kremlin-linked Internet Research Agency. Here’s what we learned.
5. It’s Begun: Facebook Just Banned 200 Apps For Abusing User Data
6. Facebook suspends ~200 suspicious apps out of “thousands” reviewed so far
7. How Facebook Can Better Fight Fake News: Make Money Off the People Who Promote It
8. California Gov’t Thinks It Might Be Able To Regulate Fake News Sometime Before 2020
9. How Facebook Binds – And Shatters – Communities
10. Facebook Watch To Spend Up To $10 Million Per Series Amid News Programming Push (Report) 
11. New Commissioner Says FTC Should Get Tough on Companies Like Facebook and Google: Citing lax treatment of corporate malefactors, Rohit Chopra calls for the FTC to impose more significant penalties when companies violate its orders.
12. Could Cambridge Analytica happen again?
13. Iran’s President Comes Out Against His Country’s Ban On Telegram
14. Spotify’s Ban on Hateful Content and Conduct Is ‘Too Subjective’ and ‘Dangerous,’ Experts Say
15. Merlin Sells All of Its Spotify Shares for an Estimated $125 Million-Plus
16. Apple Music Passes 50 Million Subscribers, Including Free Trials
17. Online Ad Targeting Does Work – As Long As It’s Not Creepy
18. Minnesota Judges Refuse To Unmask Defendants For Copyright Troll Strike 3
19. Danish ISPs That Teamed Up To Beat Back Copyright Trolls Get Huge Legal Win
20. Japan’s Largest Cable Provider Pacts With Fullscreen To Launch Local Digital Network
21. The revamped Google News app is now available on iPhones and iPads
22. Area Man, Obscure Sidekick Asked to Leave Google Fiber’s Austin Office by the Police
23. Google Employees Resign in Protest Against Pentagon Contract
24. A dozen Google employees quit over military drone project
25. Could Google’s creepy new AI push us to a tipping point?
26. Brave new world: some legal considerations in using AI and IoT Systems 
27. Robots Behaving Badly: Legal Responsibility In The Age Of Artificial Intelligence (Andres Guadamuz)
28. Robot U: The First American A.I. Undergrad Program is Here, and Already Incredibly Elite
29. Can This AI-Powered Baby Translator Help Diagnose Autism?
30. Stop Using Discriminatory AI, Human Rights Groups Say
31. All the Rage in Sweden: Embedding Microchips Under Your Skin
32. The Next Blockchain Revolution? Crypto-Powered Beer Vending Machines
33. When The Blockchain Skeptic Walked Into The Lions’ Den 
34. Blockchain Reaction
35. Blockchain as a Content Distribution Technology: Copyright Issues Abound 
36. Could Blockchain Disrupt How We Protect Our Intellectual Property? 
37. FedEx Wants To Track Packages On The Blockchain, So You’ll Know Exactly Who Dropped Your Stuff
38. Can you trust blockchain?
39. AI trained to navigate develops brain-like location tracking
40. Tech Firms Move To Put Ethical Guard Rails Around AI
41. What do AI and blockchain mean for the rule of law?
42. Bing Prohibits Cryptocurrency Advertising
43. Cryptocurrency has been great for GPU makers—that might change soon
44. Report: Bitcoin money laundering suspect spared from prison poison plot
45. Man who claims he created bitcoin committed perjury, lawsuit says
46. Goldman Sachs Just Launched A New Cryptocurrency
47. Crypto Is “Taking us Back to the 1830s?” Here’s What That Fed Branch President Means.
48. Apple Slapped With Class Action Lawsuit Over Faulty MacBook Pro Keyboards
49. Amazon Prime members to get new discounts at Whole Foods
50. Twitter will hide more bad tweets in conversations and searches: Another move to reduce abuse
51. Klout is out—social media mojo-ranking service to shutter 
52. Who Pays The Most, And Least, In Silicon Valley?
53. YouTube Defeats Another Remove-and-Relocate Lawsuit–Song Fi v. Google
54. Cambodian YouTubers In Legal Jeopardy For Skinning, Eating Endangered Animals On Film
55. Cisco Announces YouTube Ad Boycott, Citing Fear Of A “Brand-Tarnishing Experience”
56. YouTube Adding Songwriter, Label, And Publisher Credits To All Official And User-Generated Music Videos
57. Incognito Mode May Soon Bring More Privacy To Users Of YouTube’s Mobile App
58. YouTube Launches Upgraded Charts
59. Ahead Of Royal Wedding, Meghan Markle Videos Have Received 94 Million Views On YouTube In 2018
60. Jeffrey Katzenberg Raises $800 Million To Develop YouTube-Length Shows On Netflix-Sized Budgets
61. As Her Channel Turns 10, Alisha Marie Announces Brief Break Due To Creative Burnout 
62. YouTube’s new ‘take a break’ notifications are part of Google’s focus on your digital well-being: If YouTube eats up too much of your time, perhaps the notifications will be helpful
63. Robert Downey Jr. To Bring Series About Artificial Intelligence To YouTube Red
64. Can we stop technology from amplifying society’s inequalities? Perhaps, if we act now. 
65. ‘Cobra Kai’: YouTube Red’s ‘Karate Kid’ Sequel Outperforms Netflix, Hulu Shows
66. Netflix To Allocate 85% Of Upcoming Content Spend On Original Series And Films
67. Formula 1 finally launched its livestream—and it was a total mess
68. Materially and Substantively Modifying Online Articles Restarts the Clock in NJ Defamation Claims
69. What does GDPR mean for journalists?: From 25 May 2018, General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, will be enforced by regulators across Europe. 
70. GDPR will pop the adtech bubble
71. Companies Respond To The GDPR By Blocking All EU Users
72. Bittersweet DMCA Safe Harbor Defense Win in Ninth Circuit–Ventura v. Motherless
73. Venture Beat Reporter Abuses DMCA To Silence A Critic
74. As Intermediary Liability Is Under Attack, Stanford Releases Updated Tool To Document The State Of Play Globally
75. A DMCA Section 512(f) Case Survives Dismissal–ISE v. Longarzo
76. Jails are replacing visits with video calls—inmates and families hate it
77. The True History Of ‘Yanny’ And ‘Laurel’
78. The Fundamental Nihilism Of Yanny vs. Laurel

CREATIVITY

1.  The Man with the Tiger Tattoo
2. The Ninth Circuit STILL Thinks Keyword Metatags Matter in 2018–Adidas v. Skechers 
3. When Plaid Goes Bad – Burberry Files Infringement Suit Against Target Over Burberry’s Iconic Plaid Design
4. What Artists Can Teach Us About Making Technology More Human
5. Gynecologist Dr. Drai can use name, even if Dr. Dre doesn’t like it, judge says
6. Rap or Pap? Dr. Dre Loses Trademark Battle With Dr. Drai, A Gynecologist 
7. For the Love of God, Stop Asking the Black PantherCast to Do the ‘Wakanda Forever’ Salute

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. Fair Play for FairPlay?: Bell Presented Its Site Blocking Plan to the CRTC Months Before It Became Public (Michael Geist)
2. House of Commons Ethics Committee Recommends Rejecting Bell Coalition Website Blocking Plan (Michael Geist)
3. Not So Fast: Digging into MEI’s Report on the State of Canadian Wireless Services (Michael Geist)
4. AT&T Continues Fight To Gut FTC Authority Over Broadband Monopolies
5. AT&T says hiring Trump lawyer was “big mistake,” forces top lobbyist out
6. AT&T Chief Says It Made a ‘Big Mistake’ Hiring Michael Cohen
7. Democrats demand answers on AT&T’s $600,000 payment to Trump’s lawyer
8. AT&T Cans Exec Over Cohen Payment Kerfuffle, Pretends This Kind Of Influence Peddling Isn’t Perfectly Routine
9. Trump vows to reopen smartphone giant ZTE to save Chinese jobs
10. Trump eliminates national cyber-coordinator job, gives Bolton keys to the cybers
11. Senate Votes To Save Net Neutrality, But Hurdles Remain
12. Senate Approves First Step In Uphill Effort To Restore Net Neutrality
13. Senate votes to overturn Ajit Pai’s net neutrality repeal
14. Net neutrality to die on June 11, as Ajit Pai blasts “special interests”
15. Senate Will Vote Wednesday To Try And Save Net Neutrality
16. Defying Republicans, Senate Democrats schedule vote to save net neutrality
17. This Is Ajit Pai, Nemesis Of Net Neutrality
18. US Senate forces vote to restore net neutrality: If it passes, the vote goes to the House of Representatives, followed by the President’s desk
19. Net neutrality officially ends June 11: Challenges to the change are unlikely to take forceful effect in time, though reversal remains possible
20. FCC Boss Celebrates As Net Neutrality Gets An End Date: June 11
21. Here’s the Name of Every Senator Who Voted Against Net Neutrality—and When to Vote Them Out
22. Comcast charges $90 install fee at homes that already have Comcast installed
23. Comcast Still Makes A Killing, Even When You Cut The Cord
24. T-Mobile Hires Ex-FCC Commissioner To Claim Its Competition-Killing Merger Will Be Really Great For…Farmers
25. Settlement of Alleged CASL Violations – Messages Sent without Compliant Unsubscribe Mechanism 

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Shining A Light On The Encryption Debate: A Canadian Field Guide
2. Ad Software Dev Doesn’t Like Being Called Out For Privacy Violations ; Sends Threatening Letter To Researchers Who Exposed It
3. Email No Longer a Secure Method of Communication After Critical Flaw Discovered in PGP
4. Critical PGP and S/MIME bugs can reveal encrypted emails – uninstall now
5. It has been a bad week for encrypted messaging and it’s only Wednesday
6. Encrypted Email Has A Major, Divisive Flaw
7. Ex-CIA employee ID’d but not charged in Vault 7 leak of hacking tools
8. Georgia Governor Vetoes Terrible Cybersecurity Law That Would Have Criminalized Security Research
9. “Like stealing candy from a baby,” arrested teen says of his phishing efforts
10. The LAPD’s Terrifying Palantir-Powered Policing Algorithm Was Just Uncovered and Yes It’s Basically ‘Minority Report’
11. How a “location API” allows cops to figure out where we all are in real time
12. Company used by police, prisons to find any mobile device breached (again)
13. Prison Phone Monopoly Securus Under Fire Again, This Time For Doling Out Everybody’s Private Phone Location Data
14. Forget scanning license plates; cops will soon ID you via your roof rack
15. Malicious Chrome extensions infect 100,000-plus users, again
16. Inside The Takedown Of A Notorious Malware Clearinghouse

Jon