News of the Week; October 3, 2018

GAMES

1. Game devs call for better working conditions via #AsAGamesWorker
2. Telltale Games and the lure of the cliff edge: Disastrous studio collapses are a fixture of the industry – and that won’t change until we stop celebrating the brinksmanship of executives
3. 2018 will go down as the Year of the Bad Employer: Telltale just the latest in a parade of game dev horror stories likely leading to unionization
4. Telltale reportedly searching for partner to finish Walking Dead by hiring its former devs: Third episode is supposedly almost finished, would be completed with the fourth by Telltale vets as contract employees
5. More than 1,000 jobs lost to studio closures over the past year
6. “It’s not enough to point at Bayonetta or FemShep and say ‘job done'”: NFTS student Daisy Fernandez discusses female representation in games and the barriers for women seeking a career in development
7. Time is limited, and devs are struggling now that games demand more of it
8. Epic Games Says Fortnite’s New Breast Physics Were ‘Unintended, Embarrassing, Careless’
9. Epic will remove “embarrassing” breast physics from Fortnite: The inclusion of breast physics in the latest update was “unintended” says Epic
10. Video: A retrospective look at ‘girl games’ of the ’90s
11. Tencent using facial recognition to check users’ ages in Honour of Kings: Limited trial introduced over the weekend as part of public health campaign
12. Tencent testing facial recognition to enforce playtime restrictions in China
13. The Witcher author wants $16 million in royalties from CD Projekt Red
14. CD Project Red rejects Witcher author’s request for $16.1m in additional royalties: “Mr Andrzej Sapkowski expects payment beyond what had been contractually agreed”
15. FIFA 19 discloses loot box odds in-game
16. Valve kicks 179 rule-breaking games off Steam
17. Steam’s downfall would be a blow to ‘the creative freedom of devs,’ argues Larian CEO
18. Blog: Why do publishers leave Steam?
19. Even a decade in, GOG doesn’t want to try and be the Steam-slayer
20. PUBG has banned 13 million cheating players to date
21. 13 million PUBG accounts banned to-date: A Reddit user has crunched the numbers
22. Patent authority rules against Nintendo, lets go-kart firm keep MariCar trademark
23. Nintendo awarded $88,000 in lawsuit against Mario Kart-themed go-kart business
24. Nintendo wins lawsuit against unlicensed Mario Kart-themed tourist attraction: MariCar ordered to pay $89,000 in damages
25. Another Tourist Crashes Real-Life (And Totally Unofficial) Mario Kart In Tokyo
26. I’m Finally Convinced: The Nintendo Switch Really Is the Console For Everyone
27. Report: A new Nintendo Switch model will arrive in 2019
28. Nintendo president: “I compete for time,” not against Xbox, PlayStation
29. Sony Caves: The PS4 Will Soon Begin Supporting Cross-Console Play
30. Industry reacts to Sony’s cross-play U-turn: Microsoft keen to connect Minecraft players, Bethesda says no plans for Fallout 76, but hope remains for Rocket League and Hearthstone
31. Friends reunited: Sony admits enabling cross-play took too long
32. Sony is shuttering PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale’s online servers
33. Canucks players banned from playing video games on road trips
34. Canucks players put in video game ban on the road
35. Canucks ban video games, ‘Fortnite’ from NHL road trips
36. Housemarque goes battle royale: “We’ve had pushback, and we’re expecting more”
37. ESA president Michael Gallagher steps down
38. Fullscreen Study Finds Avid Gamers Have Twice As Much Discretionary Income As Non-Gamers
39. World of Warcraft community rallies for the creator of a beloved mod: World of Warcraft’s most essential mod is maintained by one man
40. DBM author gets a surprise support package from MSI and Blizzard
41. Carbine Studios will shut down WildStar on November 28
42. ‘First on Discord’ initiative launching with seven (timed) PC exclusives
43. Oculus Quest will “end up competing with the Nintendo Switch as a device”
44. Nintendo reveals it invented “Bowsette” before the Internet did
45. Dragalia Lost has lowest-grossing launch of Nintendo’s mobile line-up: Publisher’s latest mobile offering generates $3 million in Japan and US over five days
46. Konami’s Dance Dance Revolution is getting a movie adaptation
47. Chinese console and TV-based game market projected to reach $736m in 2018: Grey market software to account for nearly two-thirds of market value
48. World Rally Championship dev Kylotonn acquired by Bigben 
49. Bigben spending spree continues with Kylotonn acquisition: The Paris-based racing studio joins the family
50. Carmack compares Oculus Quest hardware power to last-gen game consoles
51. Devs will need to code creatively to get the most out of the Oculus Quest
52. Nate Nanzer: “The train has left the station” on esports opportunities – Overwatch League commissioner reflects on its inaugural year, the relationship between esports and traditional sports, and the League’s role in diversity leadership
53. Hands-on: Oculus Quest is an intriguing new middle ground for VR
54. 562 adapts to VR growing at a Snailiens’ pace
55. ‘Astro Bot Rescue Mission’ Review – This VR Platformer Earns Our First 10 Out of 10
56. John Carmack’s advice for mobile VR devs: Iterate, iterate, iterate
57. Stupid Patent of the Month: Trolling Virtual Reality
58. My confusing, 10-day journey to getting a UWP game to work on Windows 10
59. Block party: Minecraft has over 90 million monthly active players
60. Minecraft exceeds 90m monthly active users: Despite dominating the headlines, Fortnite still lags behind as Minecraft gains nearly 20 million monthly users in 2018 alone
61. Newzoo: Catering to families with Xbox Game Pass could be key to closing gap on Sony
62. Forza Horizon 4 is the best open-world driving game you can buy
63. How Serious Sam set itself apart in the era of Duke Nukemand Quake
64. Review: Civilization VI on the iPhone is the full experience
65. How The Universim’s ‘god game’ twist charmed Early Access players
66. Ubisoft Joins Blockchain Game Alliance as Publishers Anticipate Death of the Video Game Console
67. Google and Ubisoft to test game-streaming service with Assassin’s Creed Odyssey: Limited number of users in the US will be able to play Assassin’s Creed Odyssey for free through their Chrome browser
68. Google is testing an in-Chrome game streaming service with Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
69. Google announces “Project Stream”—a “test” of game streaming in Chrome
70. Vivendi will sell all Ubisoft shares by March 2019
71. Vivendi lays plan to relinquish the last of its Ubisoft stock by 2019
72. Ubisoft chief: The games industry needs to find its soul
73. “Gaming is not about entertainment, it’s about learning”: Ubisoft chief creative officer Serge Hascoet says the games industry is missing a soul, doesn’t do enough to benefit players in their lives away from the game
74. Liquid Media acquires rights to 65 classic video game titles
75. Warner Bros distributing Cyberpunk 2077 in North America: Partnership with developer CD Projekt Red continues after publisher distributed past Witcher games in the region
76. Tencent investing $316 million in Bilibili: Chinese gaming giant to purchase approximately 12.3% in shares of video sharing company that owns Overwatch League Hangzhou team
77. Tencent restructures with an eye on corporate clients as games business stutters
78. Chinese console and TV-based game market projected to reach $736m in 2018: Grey market software to account for nearly two-thirds of market value
79. Disney shuts down Club Penguin Island, lays off developers
80. Club Penguin Island shuts down, “dozens” of developers reportedly laid off
81. Ex-Irrational and Slipgate veteran shares the secret to game dev survival: Apathy will kill your game, so work on something you believe in, says indie developer Gwen Frey
82. Blog: Indie marketing – It’s never too soon
83. It’s time we stopped encouraging indies: The Fall director John Warner rethinks the ethics of guiding aspiring developers without acknowledging some harsh realities
84. Three pain points in the production and design of Shadow of the Tomb Raider
85. Don’t Miss: How reference data was captured for Forza Motorsport 5
86. Video: Sid Meier explores ‘interesting decisions’ in gameplay
87. The Walking Dead Producer Says Video Games Resurrected The Zombie Genre
88. How EVE Online has evolved in the era of F2P
89. Leaked Video Seems To Show Open-World Harry Potter Game
90. Twitch Viewers Band Together To Fund A Streamer’s Life-Saving Trip To The ER
91. Seattle police try new opt-in registry system to combat SWATting
92. Police to Seattle’s techies, streamers: Sign up for our anti-swatting service [Updated]
93. EA has killed, pledges to kill again – 10 Years Ago This Month: EA CEO John Riccitiello gets into the spooky spirit of the season by promising the publisher would be an unstoppable game-cancelling machine

DIGITAL

1. From Copyright Term to Super Bowl Commercials: Breaking Down the Digital NAFTA Deal (Michael Geist)
2. Canadian Music Group Calls For Copyright Tax on Broadband Data Use (Michael Geist) 
3. Court Agrees That Suppressing Reviews Unfair
4. Another Social Media “Material Support to Terrorists” Lawsuit Fails–Cain v. Twitter (Eric Goldman) 
5. Another 512(f) Case Fails–Handshoe v. Perrett (Eric Goldman)
6. Section 230 Helps Malware Vendor Avoid Liability for Blocking Decision–PC Drivers v. Malwarebytes (Eric Goldman)
7. Chinese ‘Rage Comic’ Site First Victim Of Government’s History-Rewriting ‘Heroes And Martyrs’ Law 
8. The UK Government Is Planning to Regulate Hate Speech Online
9. The first “social network” of brains lets three people transmit thoughts to each other’s heads: BrainNet allows collaborative problem-solving using direct brain-to-brain communication.
10. 50 Million Facebook Accounts Affected in Massive Security Breach
11. 50 million Facebook accounts hit by account hijacking security exploit
12. 50 million Facebook accounts breached by access-token-harvesting attack
13. Study Shows Facebook’s Still Miles Away From Taking Privacy, Transparency Seriously
14. Breaking: Hackers Accessed 50 Million Facebook Accounts 
15. Okay, Facebook, You Win. I’m Done.
16. Facebook Resets Access to 90 Million Accounts Following Security Breach
17. After Massive Breach, Facebook Says Hackers Didn’t Use Your Login to Access Third-Party Apps
18. Facebook Tells Cops Its ‘Real Name’ Policy Applies To Law Enforcement Too
19. Facebook and Employers Are Subject to Gender Bias Employment Complaint 
20. Facebook Real Estate Binge Shows No Signs of Slowing
21. Facebook Rolls Out ‘Premieres’, Which Let Creators Debut On-Demand Videos As Live Events
22. Even If You Hate Zuckerberg Now, You’ll Love Him Later: Just ask Bill Gates how it works.
23. Exclusive: WhatsApp Cofounder Brian Acton Gives The Inside Story On #DeleteFacebook And Why He Left $850 Million Behind
24. Facebook takes on YouTube with more video advertising options
25. Conspiracy Vlogger Is Arrested For Threatening To Kill YouTube Employees
26. This Nifty Tool Estimates How Much Money YouTubers Can Make From AdSense Vs. Selling Merch
27. YouTube Collabs With Dior To Give 7 Creators Backstage Access During Paris Fashion Week
28. Google is trying to earn more money from YouTube by capitalizing on people using it for searches
29. YouTube Launches New Ads That Let Users Make Third-Party Purchases Without Leaving The Site
30. Fans’ Dedicated Effort Makes Late Actor Stefán Karl Stefánsson A YouTube Millionaire
31. YouTuber Daniel ‘PeeWeeToms’ Thomas, Who Vlogged His Battle With Lung Cancer, Has Passed Away
32. 1 Year After Launching Native Player, Reddit Is Driving 1 Billion Monthly Video Views
33. Reddit Surpasses 1 Billion Video Views, Closes in on 1 Million Uploads per Month
34. Vigilante engineer stops Waymo from patenting key lidar technology: Eric Swildens had no dog in the fight other than intellectual curiosity.
35. Google Is Killing Inbox—Here Are Some Alternatives
36. Google taking new steps to prevent malicious Chrome extensions
37. BroadbandTV Unveils Distribution & Label Services for Music Artists
38. BroadbandTV Launches Distribution and Label Services for Musicians
39. BBTV To Help Digital Musicians Secure Distribution On Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, More
40. Report says use of AI could be violating human rights
41. California Enacts Nation’s First Anti-Bot Law
42. An AI Took A Road Trip And Wrote A Terrible Novel About It
43. Why Technology Favors Tyranny: Artificial intelligence could erase many practical advantages of democracy, and erode the ideals of liberty and equality. It will further concentrate power among a small elite if we don’t take steps to stop it.
44. The first “social network” of brains lets three people transmit thoughts to each other’s heads: BrainNet allows collaborative problem-solving using direct brain-to-brain communication. 
45. Artificial Intelligence & Human Rights: Opportunities & Risks (Filippo A. Raso, Hannah Hilligoss, Vivek Krishnamurthy, Christopher Bavitz, and Levin Kim)
46. It’s Time To Talk About Robot Gender Stereotypes
47. Researchers find the most plausible cause of wellbeing decline in youth is increased screen time
48. Are Canadian Employees Concerned about the Right to Disconnect?
49. Another 512(f) Case Fails–Handshoe v. Perrett
50. The Icing on the Cake: an unfair investigation into a joke gone viral 
51. Spotify Founders to Sell Another $100 Million in Shares
52. Pandora Will Sell Ads for SoundCloud in the U.S. Under Exclusive Pact: Audio-streaming platforms reach more than 100 million unduplicated listeners in U.S.
53. MoviePass Is Now Re-Enrolling Former Customers in an ‘Unlimited’ Plan Unless They ‘Opt Out’
54. Fine Brothers Entertainment Developing Slate Of 4 TV Shows With JASH, Fly On The Wall, More
55. CBS Bullies Fan Star Trek Project To Shut Down Despite Creators’ Pleas For Instructions On Being Legit
56. Netflix Plans To Try Out “Interactive” Shows
57. Netflix is planning a choose-your-own-adventure episode of ‘Black Mirror’
58. Report: Netflix to offer “choose-your-own-adventure” TV series
59. Report: Netflix’s Black Mirror is getting the choose-your-own-adventure treatment
60. Netflix’s ‘House Of Cards’ Kills Off Kevin Spacey In Trailer For Final Season (Watch)
61. Netflix To Launch Third European HQ In Paris, Unveils 7 French Series And Films
62. Netflix And Amazon Are Doubling Original Programming Slates To Compete In Crowded Space (Study)
63. Amazon institutes $15 minimum wage for all US employees, including temps
64. Amazon Raises Minimum Wage to $15 After Criticism About Workers on Food Stamps [Updated]
65. Amazon’s $15-Per-Hour About-Face Is Creating Confusion for Whole Foods Workers
66. EBay accuses Amazon of ‘unlawful’ merchant poaching
67. Some Apple Employees Think Company’s New TV Service Will Be Dull As Nails
68. Apple Imposes Privacy Policy Requirement for All Apps Operating on its Platform 
69. FDA Hearts Apple’s New Watch
70. iPhone XS and XS Max review: Big screens, big performance, big lenses, big prices
71. Major Complaints About the iPhone XS Are Stacking Up 
72. Twitter Now Lets Its Publishing Partners Rake In Global In-Stream Video Ad Revenues
73. James Woods Is Correct That Twitter Shouldn’t Have Blocked His Account, But Still Hypocritical On Free Speech
74. Brazil’s Government Wants Twitter To Turn Over Data On Users Who Mocked Victim Of Assassination Attempt
75. Did France Just Make It Effectively Impossible To Use Twitter? 
76. Elon Musk, Twitter and Disclosure Controls and Procedures 
77. Elon Musk sued by SEC over ‘funding secured’ tweet
78. SEC lawsuit seeks to force Musk out as Tesla CEO and board member
79. Tesla is outgrowing Elon Musk
80. Musk settles—out as Tesla chairman, owes $20 million in penalties
81. Elon Musk to Resign as Tesla Chairman, Pay $20 Million Fine in SEC Settlement Over Catastrophic ‘420’ Tweet
82. Elon Musk to Step Down as Tesla Chairman as Part of SEC Settlement
83. SEC settlement sends Tesla stock soaring
84. Cop Pulls Tesla Model 3 Driver Over For ‘Computer’ Mounted On Dashboard
85. What is a Devil’s Triangle? Kavanaugh’s testimony inspires real-time Wikipedia edits
86. Brett Kavanaugh And The Information Terrorists Trying To Reshape America: The network architecture built in Gamergate helped propel Trump to the presidency and fuel conspiracies like Pizzagate and QAnon. Now it’s backing Brett Kavanaugh.
87. With his internet cut off, Julian Assange steps down as editor of WikiLeaks 
88. African Countries Shooting Themselves In The Digital Foot By Imposing Taxes And Levies On Internet Use 
89. FOSTA Provides Another Tool For Silencing People You Dislike
90. Six Months Later, People Are Finally Realizing That FOSTA Actually Is Putting Lives At Risk
91. Thanks To Streaming Fragmentation, Bittorrent Traffic Is Suddenly Rising In Traffic Share
92. Insights: Streaming Giants Are Remaking Awards Season, Just Like Everything Else in Hollywood
93. My Grudge Against Iomega and the Click of Death
94. Remember How Bad Android Was?
95. Confused Swedish Ad Board Says ‘Distracted Boyfriend Meme’ Is Sexist

CREATIVITY

1. British Columbia Court of Appeal orders Vancouver transit authority to reconsider selling ad space to anti-abortion group
2. A need-to-know guide on IP in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement
3. NAFTA/USMCA is Even Worse Than You Thought on Intellectual Property: CETA Victory is Now Forfeited & Long Live Life + 70 etc. (Howard Knopf)
4. The Cost of Canadian IP Capitulation in NAFTA. (Howard Knopf)
5. The USMCA and Copyright Reform: Who is Writing Canada’s Copyright Law Anyway? (Michael Geist)
6. A Mix Of Good And Bad Ideas In NAFTA Replacement
7. Good News! USMCA (a/k/a NAFTA 2.0) Embraces Section 230-Like Internet Immunity (Eric Goldman)
8. The Copyright Directive
9. How to Obtain a Global Injunction in a Copyright Infringement Case (Eric Goldman)
10. Another Zombie Bad Idea That Just Won’t Die: Copyright Small Claims Court Would Be A Free Speech Disaster
11. Court Shoots Down Record Label’s Attempt To Expand The Definition Of ‘Vicarious’ Infringement
12. Music Group Cheers On Its Own Fake Antipiracy Victories
13. Giving Cops The Finger Is Protected Speech, Says Another Federal Court
14. Fashion Designer Balenciaga Opposes Parody Pet-Wear Maker’s Trademark Application For ‘Pawlenciaga’
15. Matt Damon opens SNL’s season as a belligerent, beer-bashing Brett Kavanaugh
16. Kenan Thompson tells Seth Meyers about skipping out on Kanye West’s SNL “circus”

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1.  Application Denied: CRTC Rejects Bell Coalition Website Blocking Proposal (Michael Geist)
2. Canadian Music Group Calls For Copyright Tax on Broadband Data Use (Michael Geist) 
3. California Net Neutrality Bill Signed Into Law
4. Calif. enacts net neutrality law—US gov’t immediately sues to block it [Updated]
5. The DOJ’s New Net Neutrality Lawsuit Is A Giant Middle Finger To State Rights, Consumers, Competition & The Democratic Process
6. Trump admin claims Calif. net neutrality law causes “irreparable harm” to US
7. Entire broadband industry sues California to stop net neutrality law
8. Cities will sue FCC to stop $2 billion giveaway to wireless carriers
9. Cities, Counties Say FCC 5G Plan A Massive Handout To Wireless Carriers
10. ESPN Has Finally Realized This Whole Streaming Thing Has Legs
11. Ninth Circuit Adopts Expansive Definition of Auto-Dialer in TCPA Case
12. TCPA on the Front Line: The Battle for the Future of American Free Speech is Quietly Taking Shape in an Appeal Over “Robocalls” 
13. Report Finds U.S. Wireless Video Streaming Utterly Mediocre Thanks To Arbitrary Carrier Throttling

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. California Enacts the Nation’s First Internet of Things Security Law
2. California Enacts New Requirements for Internet of Things Manufacturers 
3. The Entire Broadband Industry Just Sued California For Daring To Protect Net Neutrality
4. Analyst Who Accidentally Leaked NSA Software Given Five More Years In Prison Than General Who Handed Classified Info To His Mistress
5. Everything Wrong In One Story: Data Silos, Privacy, And Algorithmic Blocking
6. How Face ID could be a game-changer for aggressive US border agents 
7. FBI Makes Child Porn Suspect Unlock iPhone X Using His Face 
8. Cops told suspect he had to open iPhone X with his face, so he did 
9. The FBI Forced A Suspect To Unlock His iPhone With His Face: But should investigators have the right to do that?
10. Feds Finally Get Around To Using Someone’s Face To Unlock Their Cellphone
11. FBI: We can’t listen to Facebook Messenger voice calls. Judge: Tough luck
12. FBI vs. Facebook Messenger: What’s at stake?
13. Don’t want New Zealand officials to get into your phone? Pay up to NZ$5,000
14. How Oakland sets the new standard for meaningful police tech oversight
15. DOJ Loses Another Attempt To Obtain Encryption-Breaking Precedent In Federal Court
16. Four Companies Settle FTC Allegations Regarding False EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Certifications 
17. In a Shift, Apple and Amazon Say They Are in Favor of Federal Privacy Regulation
18. Facebook Reportedly Defeats Government Demand to Wiretap Messenger Calls
19. New Mexico AG Charges App Maker With COPPA Violations
20. First UEFI malware discovered in wild is laptop security software hijacked by Russians
21. CEO who sold phones with “totally unbreakable encryption” takes plea deal

Jon