News of the Week; November 28, 2018

GAMES

1. FTC agrees to investigate loot box monetization schemes in games
2. FTC pledges loot crate investigation: Gaming monetization tactic compared to gambling
3. Federal Trade Commission will investigate video game loot boxes: Chairman Joseph Simons promises Congress to investigate potential for child susceptibility to addiction, problem gambling
4. ESA claims loot boxes aren’t gambling as FTC prepares to investigate
5. UK Gambling Commission: No link between loot boxes and exposure to gambling: Commission tells GamesIndustry.biz it did not find loot boxes are gateway to gambling, despite what media reports claim
6. Australian government advised to review loot boxes after five-month inquiry: Environment and Communications Reference Committee releases 90-page report dissecting the issue
7. A hot PlayStation mic captures sounds of apparent rape, leads to arrest
8. Square Looks To Block Trademark App Of Indie Game Over Game Franchise It Acquired A Decade Ago And Did Nothing With
9. Two weeks in, Fallout 76 is a lonely, glitchy, flawed mess
10. Law firm investigates Bethesda over Fallout 76 refund policy: Consumers left with an “unplayable experience”, says Migliaccio & Rathod
11. Bethesda Responds To Fallout 76 Complaints, Reveals Upcoming Changes And Bug Fixes
12. $200 Fallout 76 Edition Promised Fancy Bag, Delivers Nylon Trash Instead 
13. Chinese Game Site Censors Winnie The Pooh inKingdom Hearts III
14. When does an homage become a rip-off?: Legal or not, Epic Games’ uncompensated copying of other creators’ dances in Fortnite has called the company’s morality into question
15. Don’t Miss: Designing morality in games
16. Unity offers guidelines for what it considers ethical AI design
17. Top Twitch Star Ninja Faces Backlash After Reporting Fellow ‘Fortnite’ Player For Stream-Sniping
18. Blog: Building a community through Twitch
19. Concern growing about Activision’s influence at Blizzard – Report: Recently departed employees point to executive personnel changes and pressure to keep costs down
20. Putting Nintendo Switch’s 8.2 million US Switch sales in context
21. Switch stars as Nintendo hits big holiday milestones in the U.S.
22. Nintendo on track to miss two-year sales targets for Switch, say analysts: Platform holder’s share price down 33% from January peak
23. Nintendo brings in $250 million in US over Black Friday weekend: Switch hardware sales were more than double last year’s total for the Thanksgiving-to-Cyber-Monday stretch; US installed base tops 8.2 million
24. Reggie Fils-Aime: Nintendo US makes 60% of revenue during the holidays – Company still eyeing 20 million Switch sales for the year as it enters busiest sales period
25. Nintendo struggles to contain massive Smash Bros. Ultimateleaks
26. Nintendo joins the limited-mobility club with Xbox Adaptive Controller (unofficially)
27. The Past, Present, And Future Of Diablo
28. Opinion: ‘Winter is coming’ for the video game biz
29. Google Play removes games for installing malware: 13 apparent racing games all from same developer taken down after over 560,000 downloads
30. Fallout 76: Critical Consensus – Reviewers say post-apocalyptic role-playing franchise’s foray into multiplayer is a boring, broken, buggy bomb
31. Battlefield V struggles as Black Friday transforms UK Charts: PS4 dominates hardware sales, just ahead of Xbox One
32. How Hell Let Loose hopes to set itself apart from other WWII shooters: Team17 partners with Aussie dev Black Matter to bring Kickstarter-funded game to market
33. Red Dead Online Goes Live This Week
34. Blog: A historian discusses Red Dead Redemption 2
35. Rockstar abandons Agent trademark: Almost ten years after announcement, GTA developer’s spy thriller seems to be officially dead
36. Releasing Attentat 1942 in Germany, a game scrutinizing Nazi occupation
37. Video: Playing with Pride — When game culture & LGBTQ culture collide
38. Pokemon: Let’s Go has sold over 3 million units worldwide
39. Fortnite just passed 200 million registered users 
40. Fortnite passes 200m registered users: Battle royale’s playerbase now just shy of Brazil’s entire population
41. Free-to-play console revenue triples over holiday period to reach $64m: Black Friday and Cyber Monday digital games revenue up 14.5% year-on-year, according to SuperData
42. Total War: Arena shutting down after failing to meet expectations
43. Starbreeze cutting costs after Overkill’s The Walking Deadfalls short
44. Starbreeze management ordered to cut costs after poor sales of Overkill’s The Walking Dead: Board of directors mandates review to cost of operations, calls for publisher to “sharpen focus on core business”
45. Sniper Elite dev Rebellion drops $100M on new film studio
46. PlayStation Classic Review
47. The PlayStation Classic Is Minimum Effort Nostalgia 
48. PlayStation Classic review: A far-from-classic experience
49. Here’s December 2018’s PlayStation Plus Lineup
50. Promethean AI promises to unlock experimentation in AAA development: Founder and CEO Andrew Maximov discusses how AI can reshape the games industry
51. Humans Teamed up With a New Kind of AI to Crush a Notoriously Difficult Video Game
52. New Game From Ingress Recruits Players Using Artificial Intelligence
53. The future of 2D gaming: YoYo Games’ CTO Russell Kay speaks to developers about the benefits and burdens of building your game in two dimensions
54. Orpheus sees a blue ocean in VR games for well-being: Ex-Rockstar and Telltale staffer Job Stauffer explains why he left mainstream development to co-found self-care entertainment outfit
55. Zen and the art of development: Designing games for meditation: Alto’s Odyssey, ABZÛ, and Shape of the World developers on how to develop a meditative experience
56. Jam City opens new Toronto studio for Bingo Pop acquisition: Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery developer acquires Bingo Pop IP and team from Uken Games
57. Xbox Adaptive Controller Christmas ad furthers Microsoft’s push for accessibility
58. $1,550 Vive Pro McLaren Edition Further Confuses Headset’s Positioning
59. Shenmue 3 dev ends crowdfunding efforts with over $7.1M raised
60. Shenmue III crowdfunding totals $7.18 million   `
61. Wargaming UK acquires Edge Case Games: Fractured Space developer will be folded into World of Tanks firm to work on new free-to-play MMO
62. Dev survey: 38% of game developers broke even or better on last game
63. Keywords Studios: “We are going to keep acquiring new companies” – The video games outsourcing giant on expanding its services, fixing crunch and how it will avoid competing with its clients
64. Observations and lessons from two decades of writing about video games
65. International mobile games revenue from Tencent and NetEase rose 382% in 2018: Chinese mobile giants see importance of international markets during Chinese game license freeze
66. GameStop to sell Spring Mobile division for $700 million
67. State of Gaming and Esports
68. Major League Gaming co-founder launches Electronic Sports Group: Mike Sepso unveils global esports advisory firm with Nielsen partnership
69. New publisher Nifty Games wants to “get back to the core spirit of sports games”: Will specialise in mobile and digital titles for fans “accustomed to enjoying ongoing touch points with their favourite sports”
70. How to Get Your Console Games Streaming to Windows, Mac, Android, or iOS
71. Leadership shuffle sees IGDA board name new chair and vice-chair
72. IGDA appoints new board leadership: Vesa Raudasoja steps up as chairman; Kongregate CEO Emily Greer takes over as vice-chair
73. Devs label Brexit ‘a dire threat’ to UK game industry in open letter
74. UK games industry leaders reject Brexit deal: Peter Molyneux, Rhianna Pratchett, Ian Livingstone, Charles Ceil and more call for People’s Vote to overcome “dire threat” of leaving EU
75. National Videogame Museum: Bringing the past, present, and future of games to the wider public
76. Observations and lessons from two decades of writing about video games
77. Don’t Miss: A look back at the rise and fall of the Sega Dreamcast
78. SpaceWar! devs to receive Pioneer Awards from The AIAS

DIGITAL

1. Should the Supreme Court Knock the First Brick Out of Apple’s Walled Garden?
2. How Apple hopes to stop a customer lawsuit over its App Store monopoly
3. Gambling App Fails to Create Binding Terms of Service–Wilson v. Huuuge
4. Failure-to-Warn Claim Against Match.com Fails–Beckman v. Match.com (Eric Goldman)
5. Facebook’s Blueprint Needs a Blueprint: Mark Zuckerberg’s plan for an independent council to review controversial content moderation decisions leaves some important questions unanswered.
6. Facebook pondered, for a time, selling access to user data
7. To Obtain Documents About Facebook Data-Sharing, UK Gov’t Seizes And Detains A US Executive Working For A Different Company
8. UK Parliament seized internal documents related to Facebook’s privacy and data decisions
9. UK Hosts Theatrical Facebook Hearings On ‘Fake News’… Undermined By Creating Fake News Itself
10. Facebook Expands ‘Watch Party’ Video Co-Viewing to Users and Pages Worldwide
11. Six4Three exec “panicked” in UK MP’s office, gave up Facebook internal files
12. “You’ll never know how evil a technology can be until the engineers deploying it fear for their jobs” 
13. Platform Accountability and Contemporary Competition Law: Practical Considerations 
14. We are Google employees. Google must drop Dragonfly.
15. Google employees demand that Google stop work on censored Chinese search
16. Google Employees Demand Company Kill Censored Chinese Search Product
17. Google, Village Roadshow Weigh In On New Search Blocking Amendments To Australian Copyright Law
18. Update on Ohio’s online harassment statute
19. Voter Suppression Has Gone Digital: The public should be able to tell where these messages are coming from and how they are being targeted
20. Dear Silicon Valley Tech Companies: Stop Treating Your Structural Challenges As Political Challenges
21. Newly elected Republican senator could be Google’s fiercest critic
22. Disney and Google Ink Broad, Multiyear Digital Advertising Deal
23. In Seismic Shift, YouTube To Make All Of Its Original Programming Available For Free
24. Bring in the ads—YouTube may let everyone watch Original shows, films
25. YouTube reportedly making future exclusive content free with ads from 2020: You’ll no longer need YouTube Premium to see its original movies and shows. 
26. Woody Woodpecker Is Back: New Series to Launch on YouTube
27. Ninth Circuit Easily Dismisses YouTube Remove-and-Relocate Case–Darnaa v. Google (Eric Goldman)
28. Former YouTube Engineer Says ‘Flat Earthers’ Indicate Danger Of YouTube’s Recommendation Algorithm
29. YouTube Is Testing ‘Ad Pods’, In Which Two Spots Are Served Back-To-Back
30. YouTube Offers College Students Half Off YouTube Premium, YouTube Music Premium
31. YouTube To Delete ‘Creator Credits,’ Says It’s Working On New Crediting Features
32. YouTube Will Completely Phase Out Annotations As Of January 15
33. YouTube Builds Up To ‘Lego Movie’ Sequel By Streaming First Film For Free On Black Friday
34. Ariana Grande Concert Tour Documentary Series Launch Set on YouTube
35. Ariana Grande To Debut Four-Part YouTube Docuseries Tomorrow
36. Victoria Beckham has launched a YouTube channel for beauty tutorials and styling tips
37. UK Court of Appeal goes live on YouTube – a win or loss for access to justice? 
38. To Prosecute A Single Bombing Suspect, FBI Demands Identifying Info On Thousands Of YouTube Viewers
39. Mr. Beast Launches Last-Ditch Stunt To Keep PewDiePie Ahead Of T-Series, As Gap Temporarily Widens 
40. Ariana Grande Taps Colleen Ballinger, Gabi DeMartino For ‘Mean Girls’-Themed Music Video
41. Logan Paul Headlines ‘Flat Earth’ Convention In What Appears To Be Hilarious Troll
42. Logan Paul Dives Into Frank Sex Chat In Debut Episode Of ‘Impaulsive’ Podcast
43. Do Your Social Media Influencer Contracts Miss the Mark?
44. Court Blasts “Copyright Troll” for Treating Courts “as an ATM”–Strike 3 v. Doe (Eric Goldman)
45. Restricting Competitive Keyword Ads Is Anti-Competitive–FTC v. 1-800 Contacts (Eric Goldman)
46. Spotify to Launch in India Within Six Months: The Swedish streaming service plans to offer an extended free trial.
47. Fox News Launches Streaming Service Fox Nation
48. Netflix, Mexico’s Cinepolis Face Off Over Release of ‘Roma’
49. Netflix will create a ‘story universe’ based on the work of Roald Dahl
50. Is Netflix avoiding UK tax?
51. Netflix’s anime announcement frenzy, capped off by live-action Cowboy Bebop
52. Learning to Love Robots: With advances in A.I. and engineering, robots are galumphing, rolling, and being U.P.S.-delivered into our homes.
53. The Malware of the Future Will Have AI Superpowers
54. AI thinks like a corporation – and that’s worrying: Artificial intelligence was born of organisational decision-making and state power; it needs human ethics, says Jonnie Penn of the University of Cambridge
55. AI Mistakes Bus-Side Ad for Famous CEO, Charges Her With Jaywalking
56. When 3D-printing challenges IP rights 
57. Counterfeits in the Digital Marketplace 
58. Widely used open source software contained bitcoin-stealing backdoor
59. How I changed the law with a GitHub pull request
60. Amazon says it had its biggest shopping day ever on Cyber Monday
61. Black Friday hits $6.2B in US online sales, smartphones accounted for $2.1B
62. New wearable tech lets users listen to live music through their skin
63. How I went from testing a fancy new graphics card to shouting at Windows 10
64. Microsoft deepens LinkedIn-Office 365 ties with ability to co-author docs through social network
65. Microsoft (briefly) passed Apple to become the most valuable US company today
66. When the Internet Archive Forgets
67. America Needs to Align Technology with a Public Purpose: Disruptive innovations won’t produce a better society unless we work to contain their harms and spread their benefits.
68. The Digital Maginot Line
69. Audiovisual Media Services: Council approval upgrades the EU framework for a digital age
70. New wearable tech lets users listen to live music through their skin
71. Cloud Contracting – Pandora’s Box?
72. Canadian Government Commits $50 Million to Creative Commons Licensed Open News Content (Michael Geist)
73. Pompous ‘International Grand Committee’ Signs Useless But Equally Pompous ‘Declaration On Principles Of Law Governing The Internet’
74. First encounter: COMPUTE! magazine and its glorious, tedious type-in code 

CREATIVITY

1. My speaking notes for the CHPC Committee Hearing of November 27, 2018 about Remuneration Models for Artists and Creative Industries (Howard Knopf)
2. How a Polish Holocaust Story Became the Basis of a Controversial Copyright Case in Canada’s Federal Court (Howard Knopf)
3. Banksy works worth £12m impounded in Belgium after legal row: Brussels exhibition was closed by bailiffs after a dispute over ownership of the street art
4. But is it Art? Copyright, Auction and AI
5. “Does that TV program or film copy that book?” The Limits of ‘Colourable Imitation’ in Canada
6. Another Upset in College Football—Indiana Supreme Court Deems College Athletes’ Names, Images, and Statistics “Newsworthy”
7. Lawyers For Kobe Bryant Tout His Uselessness In Potential Trademark Opposition Fight
8. Court Tells Former NRA President The First Amendment Protects Far More Than Polite Speech
9. Our Bipolar Free-Speech Disorder And How To Fix It (Part 1)
10. TV News Allowed Republicans to Spew Unchecked Denial About Major New Climate Report
11. The Importance of Assessing the Safety and Security of Broadcast Stations and Their Personnel 
12. The Best of a Bad Situation?: Why Tax Incentives Are Better Than Regulation and Cross-Subsidization to Support Canadian Journalism (Michael Geist)
13. We Asked a Researcher to Judge the Historically Inaccurate Junk in Robin Hood
14. IP Protection Post-Brexit: A Right-by-Right Analysis
15. Misleading on Fair Dealing, Part 4: The Shift from Coursepacks to Digital Course Management Systems (Michael Geist)
16. Misleading on Fair Dealing, Part 5: The Multi-Million Dollar Educational Investment in E-Book Licensing (Michael Geist)
17. Misleading on Fair Dealing, Part 6: Why Site Licences Offer Education More than the Access Copyright Licence (Michael Geist)
18. Misleading on Fair Dealing, Part 7: My Appearance Before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage (Michael Geist)

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. Trump proposes a government-run TV news network to counter CNN
2. Comcast raises cable TV bills again—even if you’re under contract
3. From $1.50 To $10 Per Month: How Comcast’s Bogus Fees Are False Advertising
4. Mobile Internet Beats Wifi Speeds In These 33 Countries
5. The FCC Steps Up Efforts to Restrict “Robocalls”
6. Consumer Groups Say FCC Weakening Oversight Of Cell Carriers Under Pretense Of Battling Text Message Spam
7. Activists Make One Last Push To Restore Net Neutrality Via Congressional Review Act 

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Trump Administration Discussed Illegally Sharing Census Data with Law Enforcement: Justice Department email raises concerns that the administration doesn’t understand census confidentiality
2. DOJ made secret arguments to break crypto, now ACLU wants to make them public
3. Facial Recognition Flags Woman on Bus Ad for ‘Jaywalking’ in China
4. Dystopia Now: Insurance Company Secretly Spying On Sleep Apnea Patients
5. French Tax Officials To Start Digging Through Social Media Posts For Expensive Cars It Thinks You Can’t Afford
6. Surveillance Kills Freedom By Killing Experimentation
7. Social media and marketing: back to privacy basics
8. Where is the ePrivacy Regulation?
9. New GDPR Ruling In France Could Dramatically Re-shape Online Advertising
10. Mexican Journalists Investigating Cartels Targeted with NSO Spyware Following Assassination of Colleague

Jon