News of the Week; November 14, 2018

GAMES

1. Husband and wife ordered to pay $12m to Nintendo for running ROM sites
2. Nintendo wins out in legal battle against ROM sites
3. Nintendo reaches final judgment agreement with ROM site owners: LoveROMS and LoveRETRO owners admit to copyright infringement, agree to $12m judgment
4. Senators ask FTC to investigate malicious ads in apps geared for kids
5. Three Square Enix mobile games blocked in Belgium over loot box use
6. Three Square Enix mobile games stop operating in Belgium over loot boxes: Kingdom Hearts Union X, Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia, Mobius Final Fantasy all to end in country by mid-December
7. Final Fantasy XV game director Hajime Tabata departs Square Enix
8. Square Enix files trademark dispute against Dorado Games over ‘Conflict’ branding: Publisher’s lawyers argue there “is a clear likelihood of confusion”
9. Valve condemns racist behaviour of pro players during DOTA 2 matches: Developer says it will not tolerate racist langue between pro players but puts onus on teams to discipline
10. Hacker gets $20K from Valve for unearthing bug that generates free Steam keys
11. Valve rewards man $20,000 for discovering unlimited free game codes bug: Bug allowed anyone with developer portal account to generate thousands of free codes for any game 
12. YouTube Unbans Gamer Who Uploaded Clips Of Killing A Feminist Character In ‘Red Dead Redemption 2’
13. God of War, Red Dead Redemption 2 lead nominees for The Game Awards 
14. YouTube backtracks ban on YouTuber who assaulted Red Dead suffragette: Controversial clips restored but now age restricted, deletion blamed on misinterpretation of guidelines
15. Blog: My time at Telltale Games
16. Tyler Barriss, Serial ‘Swatter’ Who Phoned in Lethal Hoax, Pleads Guilty to 51 Federal Charges
17. Man pleads guilty to swatting attack that led to death of Kansas man
18. NPR Posits Nazis Are Recruiting All Of Our Children In Online Games With Very Little Evidence
19. The Controversy Over Bethesda’s ‘Game Engine’ Is Misguided
20. Fortnite Players Immediately Find Worst Possible Uses For New NFL Skins 
21. Original Command & Conquer devs will remaster series’ first games in one package
22. EA brings in original Command & Conquer devs to help with remasters
23. EA partners with Petroglyph Games for Command & Conquer remasters: Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert to be remastered with original developers, no microtransactions
24. PlayStation Now brought in $143 million last quarter – Report: Superdata pegs Sony’s subscription service as the industry leader; EA’s Access offerings totaled $90 million while Xbox Game Pass claimed $41 million
25. Sony agrees to Chicago city tax on PlayStation Store purchases: 9% Amusement Tax will apply to various store purchases for city residents beginning November 14
26. Sony’s PlayStation Classic is powered by the open-source emulator PCSX
27. Sony using open source emulator for PlayStation Classic plug-and-play
28. PlayStation Classic Plays Fine, But It’s A Bare-Bones Experience
29. Sony Patent Hints at Possible Touchscreen Playstation Controller
30. PUBG’s “console exclusivity” ends, PS4 version out on Dec. 7 [Updated]
31. THQ Nordic acquires Coffee Stain and Bugbear Entertainment
32. Koch Media acquisition driving record sales at THQ Nordic
33. UK government responds to industry’s Brexit fears: “The video games sector plays an important part in the UK’s creative industries and we are listening to concerns”
34. £80m Creative Industries Clusters Programme launches to fund new R&D projects: Abertay University representing video games in new initiative by Arts and Humanities Research Council
35. China’s ongoing game license freeze prompts decline in market forecast
36. Report: Tencent dials back game marketing budget to weather China’s game freeze
37. Tencent undergoes marketing budget cuts as China’s licensing freeze persists: Company’s gaming division to limit spending, shift budget away from unlicensed titles
38. “The Chinese government just doesn’t see games as a priority”: At Level Up KL, 505 Games’ Thomas Rosenthal explored the upheaval caused by the freeze on game approvals in China, and the uncertainty still to come
39. Hitman 2’s Denuvo DRM cracked days before the game’s release
40. Denuvo: Every Download Is A Lost Sale For This Anonymous AAA Title We’re Referencing, So Buy Moar Dunuvo!
41. Take-Two: Game streaming is a big opportunity for us – As long as the business model is right
42. Blizzard acknowledges the mobile reality: Diablo Immortal didn’t go down well at Blizzcon, but Blizzard’s Asian following makes a high-profile mobile strategy a necessity, not an option
43. Activision Blizzard revenues, engagement dip: Tough comparison against last year’s Destiny 2 launch takes shine off publisher’s numbers even as net income grows
44. Activision Blizzard’s revenues falter after Destiny 2 DLC ‘underperformed’
45. Activision Blizzard shares drop a further 11 per cent: Weaker-than-expected results and dips in engagement worry shareholders
46. The many merchandising methods of Activision
47. Red Dead Redemption 2 shipments reach 17 million: Rockstar’s hit game has shipped more in eight days than the original did in eight years
48. Red Dead Redemption 2 has shipped 17M copies in under two weeks
49. Red Dead Redemption 2 is still No. 1 at UK retail after three weeks
50. Fortnite hits 8.3M concurrent players
51. Fortnite reaches 8.3 million concurrent players: Epic Games’ battle royale reaches milestone as game launches in South Korea
52. GAME: “With so many games clustered together, there was going to be winners and losers” – The retail giant discusses one of the most competitive and challenging Q4 periods in years
53. Profits dip at GAME but cost savings reduce losses: Retailer remains “cautiously optimistic” about the year ahead as Belong strategy continues to develop
54. Newzoo: Top 25 public gaming companies are still growing, but slowly – H1 2018 growth was lowest year-over-year since 2014, with China licensing freeze hurting industry leaders
55. The media-starved Nintendo Switch just got a YouTube shot in the arm
56. Nintendo’s Poké Ball Plus Made Me Wish I Was a Kid Again
57. Nintendo is ending video streaming support on the Wii
58. Video streaming support may fully end on the Wii next year: Netflix to stop service on the system in January 2019; Switch still awaiting more apps
59. The audio design behind the original Xbox startup sound
60. Keyboard and mouse controls finally hit Xbox One this week
61. Mouse and keyboard support arriving on Xbox One this week
62. Xbox chief Phil Spencer taking on a ‘bigger role’ in fixing the Microsoft Store
63. Microsoft launches $1m #givewithXbox charity campaign: Initiative will support Child’s Play, Gamers Outreach, SpecialEffect and Operation Supply Drop
64. Microsoft’s two-hour Game Pass advert told us everything about the future of Xbox
65. Obsidian, inXile acquired by Microsoft Studios 4
66. Microsoft to acquire RPG specialists Obsidian Entertainment and InXile: Pillars of Eternity, Fallout New Vegas and Wasteland 3 creators join to boost Game Pass
67. Microsoft wants Azure to be the multiplayer server solution for every platform
68. Ex-EA design chief Patrick Söderlund unveils Embark Studios
69. Nexon makes big investment in Patrick Söderlund’s ambitious new studio
70. MapleStory drives revenue and profit growth for Nexon: Dungeon & Fighter Q3 update also hit big in China
71. German government to establish $57 million games fund
72. German government to establish €50 million game fund in 2019: game’s Felix Falk sees “historic” fund as a chance to close the gap on the UK, France and Canada
73. Physical copies of Hollow Knight cancelled 
74. Dude, Where’s My Money? Part Three: From Hunting To Gathering: Nikolay Bondarenko’s publishing advice series continues with an in-depth look at bundles and crowdfunding
75. ‘We had the finished package, and they just took it from us’: How CBE Software recovered from the Lace Mamba fiasco
76. Guide Maker Prima Games Will Close Its Doors In 2019
77. Strategy guide publisher Prima Games is shutting down
78. Prima Games shutting down: Long-running strategy guide publisher expected to halt operations by next spring
79. Streamlabs launches app store with $1M developer fund
80. Streamlabs launches App Store focused on streamer support: New app platform offers $15 credit, heavy curation, app developer fund
81. Lord of the Rings Online returns to its 2007 roots with official ‘Legendary Server’  
82. ‘PokerStars VR’ Brings Multiplayer Freeplay Poker to Rift & Vive
83. BigBox VR secures $5 million in seed funding round: Funding to support development on upcoming VR battle royale game Population – One
84. Tetris Effect review: The puzzle game of my dreams—literally
85. 9 Things I Learned About Game Jams As An Outsider
86. Going the Distance: Building a game – and community – over six years
87. Blog: How world-building elevates video games and fandom
88. Blog: Cultural concepts as principles of design
89. Video: An apology for Roger Ebert
90. Google Play announces Games for Change design challenge finalists
91. Revealed: The best video games employers in Canada – Four winners for our inaugural awards
92. Meet the best places to work in Canada’s games industry: Interviews with Beenox, Behaviour, Ludia and Ubisoft
93. A new “fuzzy Pikachu” debate headlines a trailer-filled Monday
94. Watch the Extremely Cursed Trailer for ‘Detective Pikachu’: Ryan Reynolds is voicing a CGI Pikachu in a tiny Sherlock Holmes hat, which is just as bizarre as it sounds.

DIGITAL

1.  ‘Facebook is the new cigarettes,’ says Salesforce CEO
2. Report: Even Facebook Employees Are Bummed About Facebook 
3. Delay, Deny and Deflect: How Facebook’s Leaders Fought Through Crisis
4. How Facebook Flags Terrorist Content With Machine Learning: But it’s not perfect.
5. Blame Fox, not Facebook, for fake news
6. Facebook will let French regulators study its efforts to fight hate speech
7. French investigators to work directly with Facebook to monitor hate speech
8. Facebook Allowing French Censors To Embed With The Company, And Maybe That’s A Good Thing?
9. Facebook joins Google, halts mandatory arbitration in sexual harassment cases
10. Nasty Adobe Bug Deleted $250,000-Worth of Man’s Files, Lawsuit Claims 
11. Pennsylvania Attorney General Sends Broad, Unconstitutional Gag Order To Gab’s New DNS Provider
12. Gab cries foul as Pennsylvania attorney general subpoenas DNS provider
13. Reminder: Cutting-and-Pasting Photos from the Internet Is Hazardous to Your Legal Health–Grecco v. Valuewalk (Eric Goldman)
14. In the Age of A.I., Is Seeing Still Believing?: Advances in digital imagery could deepen the fake-news crisis – or help us get out of it.
15. Algorithms and their unintended consequences for the poor 
16. Buying your First AI or “Never Trust a Used Algorithm Salesman”
17. Is this AI? We drew you a flowchart to work it out
18. Google ends mandatory arbitration in sexual harassment cases
19. Google’s New AI Can Recognize Voices It’s Never Heard Before
20. Google adds always-on VPN to its Project Fi cellular service
21. Nice Work EU: You’ve Given Google An Excuse To Offer A Censored Search Engine In China
22. Governor Of Tanzania’s Capital Announces Plan To Round Up Everyone Who Was Too Gay On Social Media
23. Why Amazon’s Search For A Second Headquarters Backfired
24. Report: Amazon chooses New York City neighborhood, DC suburb for HQ2
25. It’s Official: Amazon Is Coming to NYC and Arlington, Virginia
26. Amazon is getting more than $2 billion for NYC and Virginia expansions
27. New York Politicians Suggest a Better Place Jeff Bezos Can Stick His New Headquarters 
28. How to Stop the Amazon Extortion From Happening Again
29. Windows 10 users finding their legit installs are being deactivated
30. Windows 10 October 2018 Update is back, this time without deleting your data
31. Spotify officially releases first version of its Apple Watch app
32. Apple to replace unresponsive iPhone X touchscreens for free
33. Samsung’s foldable smartphone reportedly costs $1,770, launches in March
34. Leading Open Access Supporters Ask EU To Investigate Elsevier’s Alleged ‘Anti-Competitive Practices’
35. A campaign to save the web from abuse
36. Content or Context Moderation?: Artisanal, Community-Reliant, and Industrial Approaches
37. A Third of Wikipedia Discussions Are Stuck in Forever Beefs  
38. Over a Third of the U.S. Adult Population Turns to YouTube for Tutorials, Survey Says
39. As U.S. Creators See Merch Sales Soar, YouTube Launches Teespring Integration Across The EU
40. Dear EU Politicians: You Really Don’t Have To Wreck The Internet 
41. ‘YouTube VR’ Finally Comes to Oculus Go, Now Available on Oculus Store
42. YouTube’s Recommendation Algorithm Suggests Increasingly Longer Videos, Study Finds
43. ‘Superwoman’ Lilly Singh Announces Break From YouTube To Focus On Her Mental Health
44. Lilly Singh announces she’s taking a break from YouTube
45. YouTube Creators’ AdSense Payments Are In Limbo After Defy Media’s Abrupt Shutdown
46. BroadbandTV Launches Brand Safety Video Solution VISO Prism
47. PewDiePie Continues To Outrun T-Series, Becoming First Channel To Pass 70 Million Subscribers
48. Smosh Co-Founder Anthony Padilla Shares Why He Departed “Evil And Shady” Defy Media After Sudden Shutdown
49. Top YouTube creators call out defunct Defy Media for shady practices
50. Influencers v. PopSugar: Recent Updates 
51. Influencer Marketing: Understanding Disclosure Best Practices 
52. Brands Are Pursuing ‘Nano Influencers’ With Mere Thousands Of Instagram Followers (Report)
53. Forget Pet Stars: A New Field Of Plant Influencers Is Cropping Up On Instagram
54. Disney Unveils Name Of Upcoming Streaming Service, Will Launch In Late 2019 With Marvel And ‘Star Wars’ Series 
55. A Twitter Account Is Outing White People Who Pretend to Be Black and It’s Hilarious
56. Claims for Analyzing Twitter Posts Held Unpatentable by Judge Castel 
57. Vine Sequel To Be Called ‘Byte,’ Launching Next Spring
58. HQ Trivia Is Bleeding Users, Weathering CEO Drama Ahead Of Follow-Up Game Launch (Report)
59. After Being Banned By Fiverr, Voice Over Pete Is Making Bank On Patreon — And Teaming Up With Ninja 
60. Vice To Reduce Staff By 15%, Slash Number Of Content Verticals In Half Over Next Year
61. Disney is taking a $157 million write-down on Vice Media as the site is reportedly reducing staff by 15%
62. Netflix is doubling down on Asia with 17 new originals
63. Netflix Tests Cheap, Mobile-Only Subscription Plan To Net More Users In Asia 
64. Insights: Netflix Really Wants To Win Some Oscars, So It’s Changing Its Whole Strategy For Big Films And Filmmakers
65. Will Netflix have a Devil of Time Defending Suit Brought by Satanic Temple?
66. Disney Eyeing Global Rollout For Hulu, Potential Subscription Price Hike
67. Why a Blockchain Startup Bought This $9 Million Stradivarius Violin: Mattereum wants to tokenize the real world.
68. The Hammer Falls on the First Major Blockchain-based Art Auction 
69. Using blockchain in advertising
70. Imminent Bitcoin Cash schism triggers cryptocurrency selloff 
71. Headmaster Fired For Stealing School’s Electricity To Mine Crypto
72. High School Principal in China Fired for Running Secret Cryptocurrency Mining Operation
73. The IRS is Closing in on Cases Regarding Bitcoin Income Reporting
74. Six Years Behind Bars: DOJ Gives Dire Warning to Online False Advertisers 
75. Qualcomm’s Patent Nuclear War Turning Into Nuclear Winter
76. In 20 Years, the Internet Will Split in Two — Then Go to War With Itself
77. Robert Jackson Bennett Uses Magic To Make Sense Of How Technology Shapes Our Lives 

CREATIVITY

1. Follow Up on Bill C-86 – The Omnibus Bill that Amends Canadian IP Law (Howard Knopf)
2. AP: Video expert says White House clip of CNN reporter was likely doctored [Updated]
3. White House Spreads Doctored Video to Justify Temper Tantrum Against CNN Reporter
4. CNN Lawsuit Seeks To Show That Trump Can’t Kick Reporters Out For Asking Tough Questions
5. Dems to probe whether Trump retaliated against CNN, Washington Post
6. Don’t Throw Out The First Amendment’s Press Protections Just Because You Don’t Like President Trump
7. Another Freedom of Speech Win For The Fantasy Sports Industry
8. Indiana Supreme Court Finds Fantasy Sports Statistics Newsworthy In Right of Publicity Claim 
9. Artist hacks street signs in Edinburgh to the public’s delight 
10. Why We Need Utopian Fiction Now More Than Ever
11. Forget movie villains—it’s the “good” superheroes that are the most violent
12. Legendary Marvel Comics creator Stan Lee has died
13. Obituary: Marvel Comics co-creator Stan Lee passes away at 95
14. Legendary Creator Stan Lee, Who Changed Comics and Pop Culture Forever, Is Dead at 95
15. The taste of a food product is not eligible for copyright protection The taste of a food product cannot be classified as a ‘work’
16. The Levola Hengelo CJEU decision: ambiguities, uncertainties … and more questions
17. RIAA Court Filing In Stairway To Heaven Case Warns Against *OVERPROTECTION* By Copyright
18. The Girl Scouts Sues The Boy Scouts Over Trademark

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. Net Neutrality News: Supreme Court Declines to Hear Telecom Industry Appeals 
2. Why Democrats Didn’t Campaign More on Net Neutrality
3. Oh Look, Wireless Sector Investment Is Declining Despite Tax Cuts, Repeal Of Net Neutrality
4. Colorado Voters Continue To Opt Out Of State’s Protectionist, ISP-Written Broadband Law
5. AT&T CEO: State net neutrality and privacy laws are a “total disaster”
6. House To Investigate Whether DOJ’s AT&T Antitrust Lawsuit Was Political
7. AT&T Ignores Numerous Pitfalls, Begins Kicking Pirates Off Of The Internet
8. Comcast uses NBC to harm other cable companies, rivals say
9. Comcast forced to pay refunds after its hidden fees hurt customers’ credit
10. Negotiating with ISPs: Don’t accept broadband price hikes without a fight
11. Whose Liability Is It Anyway? CRTC Issues New Guidance Regarding Liability for Aiding or Inducing CASL Non-Compliance 
12. CRTC’s Troubling Guidelines on CASL Accessorial Liability  

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Google goes down after major BGP mishap routes traffic through China: Google says it doesn’t believe leak was malicious despite suspicious appearances.
2. Security breach notification and reporting requirements are now in force under Canada’s PIPEDA
3. New mandatory data breach notification requirements come into force
4. New Developments in the Law on Data Breaches
5. High Court blocks data privacy claim against Google 
6. Amazon must give up Echo recordings in double murder case, judge rules
7. Judge Says Amazon Needs To Hand Over Recordings Created By Murder Victim’s Echo Speaker
8. Amazon Breaks Silence on Aiding Law Enforcement Following Employee Backlash
9. Motel 6 Agrees To Pay $7.6 Million Settlement For Sending Guest Lists To ICE
10. EU and U.S. second annual review of Privacy Shield 
11. How your car is spying on you
12. We need stronger cybersecurity laws for the Internet of Things

Jon