News of the Week; January 9, 2019

By Jon Festinger on January 12, 2019

GAMES

  1. Bethesda resolves copyright lawsuit against Westworlddevs
  2. Bethesda, Behaviour Interactive resolve copyright infringement dispute: Lawsuit over similarities between Fallout Shelter and Westworld game settled “amicably”
  3. Challenges in Filing Successful IPR Petitions for Video Game Patents 
  4. Supercell Oy v. Gree, Inc. (December 17, 2018 Patent Trial and Appeal Board, USPTO)
  5. A Patent on Games? No Dice.
  6. In Re: Marco Guldenaar Holding B.V. (December 28, 2018,  United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit)
  7. Japan has made reselling digital game keys illegal without creator’s permission  
  8. Reselling game keys now illegal in Japan: Updated law also forbids save modding, punishment ranges from ¥5 million fine to five years in jail 
  9. “Not enough evidence” that screen time is harmful to children: UK’s first screen time guidance report recommends parents manage gaming and TV sessions based on kids’ individual needs
  10. Splash Damage is cutting monetization from its free-to-play game Dirty Bomb  
  11. Gris trailer rejected from Facebook for being ‘sexually suggestive’
  12. Facebook rejects Gris ad for “sexually suggestive” content: “First of all, she’s a statue and second, absolutely no nudity is shown in that photo,” says Devolver Digital
  13. Facebook Rejects GRIS Launch Trailer For Being Sexually Suggestive When It Clearly Is Not 
  14. Star Control makers defend DMCA takedown against Star Control: Origins  
  15. Star Control creators defend DMCA takedown notice against Stardock: Creators claim Star Control: Origins is “substantially similar to and/or derivative of” their copyrighted work
  16. Who Owns That Dance Move? 
  17. Eugen Systems says devs were fired for ‘misuse of tools,’ not strike participation
  18. Eugen responds to accusation of retaliatory firings: Steel Division developer says dismissals unrelated to last year’s strike, were due to use of “a professional tool for an inappropriate purpose” 
  19. Twitch Re-Bans Creator Who Briefly Returned To Platform After Alleged Mid-Stream Assault
  20. Games now account for over half of entire UK entertainment market
  21. Bonnie Ross: “Diversity attracts diversity” – 343 Industries boss on the need to present technology as a creative field to more young women and minorities
  22. CVAA accessibility rules come into effect for games as FCC waiver expires
  23. New games must comply to accessibility guidelines after FCC waivers expire: Requirements affect in-game communications and related UI 
  24. Tattoos, avatars and copyrights – a whole new world
  25. Sony just acquired the gaming industry’s biggest audio toolset
  26. Sony Interactive Entertainment to acquire Wwise owner Audiokinetic  
  27. A New Game Console Is On The Way To Compete With PlayStation And Xbox: Exact specs haven’t been confirmed yet.
  28. Slightly Mad developing standalone, VR-supportive console: Project Cars 2 studio says The Mad Box will ship in about three years, won’t court exclusives
  29. Slightly Mad CEO shows off Mad Box concept designs: Ian Bell asserts studio isn’t making a “stinking black slider” as he touts colorful designs, handles, and light weight 
  30. What happens when you turn a studio upside down?: How everyone at Supercell, from new developers to CEO Ilkka Paananen, ensures the “creative people are running the show” at the studio behind Brawl Stars 
  31. Enduring and recovering from the long development of At the Gates
  32. Don’t Miss: Bury Me, My Love and the emotional rollercoaster of making a video game  
  33. Rooster Teeth Announces First Original IP Video Game, ‘Vicious Circle’
  34. “TV doesn’t trust games enough”: Go 8 Bit creator Steve McNeil discusses why broadcasters still struggle to embrace the power of video games 
  35. Ubisoft goes Steam-less, embraces Epic Games Store for The Division 2
  36. The Division 2 is skipping Steam in favor of the Epic Games Store
  37. Moving platforms forward in an Epic Games world: Saber Interactive CEO Matt Karch explains the NBA Playgrounds studio’s decision to go in early on Epic’s new store
  38. Steam data shows VR ownership doubled in 2018 — to 0.8% of users
  39. Valve data shows PC VR ownership rose steadily in 2018
  40. Number of Steam users with VR headsets almost doubled in 2018: But still only represents 0.8% of leading marketplace’s total audience
  41. Steam now supports social media links on Store pages
  42. Valve dished out a record 600k VAC bans after CS:GO went free-to-play
  43. Half-Life and Portal writer Erik Wolpaw returns to Valve: Wolpaw is back at the developer after departing less than two years ago 
  44. Blog: Side hustling advice from full time game devs
  45. NVIDIA Claims 4 Million PC VR Headsets Sold
  46. The Vive Pro Eye Is the Next Big Step for VR
  47. HTC unveils two new standalone VR headsets  
  48. One of the Biggest Names in Home Fitness is Making a VR Exercise Bike 
  49. UK video games market is now 80% digital: However, 75% of AAA game sales are physical 
  50. Let people know what they’re buying – A New Year’s resolution for gaming: For 2019, companies should commit to giving customers what they need to make an informed purchasing decision
  51. All 14 Days of Fortnite challenges return following end date mix-up: Partial progress has been reset, though.
  52. Fortnite sees best month on iOS yet in December: Final month of 2019 saw 83% month-over-month revenue increase to nearly $69 million 
  53. The British Army needs “binge gamers”, “snow flakes” and “me me me millennials” 
  54. Nintendo Officially Shoots Down Bowsette
  55. Nintendo open to moving away from home consoles, says company president  
  56. Super Smash Bros and PlayStation gift cards dominate Amazon 2018 chart: Switch and PS4 come out top at US retailer 
  57. PlayStation 4 sales have exceeded 91.6 million units worldwide  
  58. PS4 sales reach 91.6 million worldwide: Spider-Man sales pass nine million
  59. Marvel’s Spider-Man has sold over 9 million copies worldwide  
  60. God of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man among Writers Guild award nominees
  61. Cory Barlog on rebooting God of War: ‘We don’t just want to erase the past’
  62. Hobbyists resurrect Kojima’s “lost” game P.T. as a free PC download
  63. Report: Nexon founder looking to sell controlling stake for $8.9 billion
  64. Nexon founder reportedly preparing to sell controlling share in company: Kim Jung-ju’s 98.64% stake, worth an estimated $9 billion, may soon be on the table for companies such as Tencent or Netmarble
  65. Square Enix president promises year of “aggressive expansion” overseas: Publisher will relaunch dormant Indian subsidiary and look to work with Chinese developers and publishers
  66. Robot Entertainment closing servers for Orcs Must Die! Unchained and Hero Academy games  
  67. Robot Entertainment to shut down Orcs Must Die! Unchained, Hero Academy games: Studio says it was running games “at a financial loss” for months, will focus on future titles
  68. Update: Fired Activision Blizzard CFO Joins Netflix
  69. Activision Blizzard appoints company veterans as new divisional presidents
  70. Pokemon Go dev Niantic secures $190 million investment
  71. Niantic closes out $190m investment round: Follows on from year which saw Pokémon Go grow 35% and generate nearly $800 million revenue 
  72. Second Dinner grabs Marvel partnership and $30M investment for inaugural game
  73. Second Dinner raises $30 million for upcoming Marvel game: NetEase partnership helps fund licensed IP as team moves into Irvine office space
  74. Conan Exiles dev Funcom acquires majority stake in Zona Paradoxal
  75. Paradox acquires Prison Architect franchise from Introversion  
  76. Old School Runescape mobile downloads hit 5m: Long-standing MMO makes strong start on iOS and Android 
  77. Video: Making games better with psychology, theUncharted way  
  78. Video: How to encourage cooperative behavior during co-op play
  79. Unity opens $25k contest for in-dev games with meaningful impact
  80. Super League Gaming proposes IPO: Amateur esports platform prepares to raise up to $25 million to fund its aspirations 
  81. Overwatch Team Says Player Questioned About Identity Was Impostor After All 
  82. Overwatch Fan’s Letter To Jeff Kaplan About Black Women Gets Heartfelt Response 
  83. Tales of an aging gamer: Why don’t I pick up a controller as often as I used to?: We keep getting older, the games stay the same (and science backs that up).
  84. Blog: Four ways my video game habits changed in 2018
  85. Opinion: Here’s what 2019 will be like for the game biz
  86. 10 Big Video Game Rumors Going Into 2019 
  87. The Sims is integrating with Amazon Alexa devices  
  88. Red Dead Redemption 2 leads list of GDC 2019 Choice Awards nominees!
  89. Black Mirror’s ‘Bandersnatch’ was loosely inspired by a cancelled game
  90. Video: A classic postmortem of Bejeweled   
  91. Berlin museum opens exhibition exploring the queer history of games  

DIGITAL

  1. Court: Politicians who block citizens on social media violate 1st Amendment
  2. Please don’t repeat these things WikiLeaks says you can’t say about Assange [Updated]
  3. Irony Alert: Wikileaks Sends Reporters A List Of 140 Things Not To Say About Julian Assange; Tells Them Not To Publish
  4. Copyright, Culture, Sharing, Remix… And A Congresswoman Dancing As A College Student 
  5. Lawsuit Accuses Weather Channel App of Misleading Users and Profiting From Their Location Data
  6. Lawsuit: Weather Channel illegally shared user location data with advertisers
  7. T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T still selling your location data, report says
  8. City Attorney of Los Angeles Sues Popular Weather App Claiming Deceptive Collection and Sharing of Geolocation Data 
  9. Another Day, Another Massive Cellular Location Data Privacy Scandal We’ll Probably Do Nothing About
  10. Fifth Circuit Says Apple Can’t Be Held Liable For A Car Crash Caused By Someone Reading Text Messages
  11. Court of Appeal invalidates Uber’s arbitration clause
  12. New App Allows Users to Create “Binding Video Contracts”
  13. IP and social media — a guide for content creators and meme sharers 
  14. Apple Stock Price Plunges After Earnings Warning
  15. Apple stock plummets 8% on news of grim Q1 2019 outlook
  16. The $450 billion wipeout: Apple’s value has fallen by more than Facebook’s entire worth in 3 short months
  17. What Happened the Last Time Apple Had a Panic This Bad
  18. Tim Cook points at new services and health-tech propelling Apple’s future
  19. Apple Admits The Obvious: User Repairs Harm The Bottom Line
  20. Apple’s Snuck Its Way Into LG’s 2019 Televisions
  21. Qualcomm forces Apple to stop selling iPhone 7 and 8 in Germany
  22. Report: Huawei punishes employees behind embarrassing iPhone tweet
  23. Controversial Mystery Box Website Responds To Criticism From The YouTube Community
  24. Brands warned over legal issues on alleged “scam” gambling platform MysteryBrand 
  25. Despite Losing Its Copyright Case, The State Of Georgia Still Trying To Stop Carl Malamud From Posting Its Laws 
  26. Amazon is the most valuable public company in the world after passing Microsoft
  27. Microsoft is helping America’s largest grocery chain fight off Amazon: Microsoft and Kroger unite to ‘redefine grocery retail’
  28. Microsoft, Kroger team up to fight Amazon with high-tech grocery stores 
  29. NFL launches voice-powered football guide for Amazon Alexa
  30. Amazon’s latest advertising play involves free samples delivered right to your door
  31. Google boasts 1 billion Assistant devices—10x Amazon Alexa’s install base
  32. Amazon attempts less-creepy delivery by placing packages in your garage
  33. Instagram now lets you post to multiple accounts at the same time
  34. TCL to Launch First Roku 8K TVs This Year
  35. I Was Over 8K TVs Before They Even Happened
  36. UK Court: Guy Who Didn’t Write Defamatory Tweet Needs To Pay $50,000 In Damages Because The Guy Who Did Doesn’t Have Any Money
  37. Texas indicts Cody Wilson on multiple counts of sexual assault of a minor: Advocate of 3D printed guns faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
  38. Almost $500,000 in Ethereum Classic coin stolen by forking its blockchain
  39. EU’s First Attempt At Building A List Of Evil Pirate Sites… Lists Non-Infringing Sites
  40. Netflix Stock Rises After Five Golden Globes Wins, Upbeat Analyst Subscriber Estimates
  41. Netflix Cautions Viewers Against Participating In Blindfolded ‘Bird Box’ Challenge
  42. Netflix And Amazon Have Another Good Golden Globes Year, Winning With Roma, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
  43. Bandersnatch: The spoiler-filled, choose-your-own-opinion review
  44. Blog: What Bandersnatch teaches about the illusion of choice
  45. Hulu Tops 25 Million Subscribers, Claims Nearly $1.5 Billion in 2018 Ad Revenue
  46. Hulu Hits 25 Million Total Subscribers, $1.5 Billion In Ad Revenues In 2018
  47. FouseyTube Updates Fans After Manic Episode Triggered Months-Long Social Media Absence 
  48. RTL Group to acquire Yospace in €29m deal
  49. Machine learning can offer new tools, fresh insights for the humanities: From the French Revolution to the history of the novel, Big Data makes its mark. 
  50. Insights: Six Marketing Trends Facing Influencers In 2019 
  51. KSI And Logan Paul Want To Cut Down On Pirated Views Ahead Of Their Boxing Rematch
  52. YouTube Age-Restricts, Demonetizes Jake Paul’s ‘Bird Box’ Challenge Video That Sees Him Driving Blindfolded
  53. YouTube Expands Coachella Partnership, Will Exclusively Live-Stream Both Weekends of Music Fest 
  54. Publishers are mostly recycling YouTube videos for IGTV
  55. YouTube Has Repaired Bug Causing Algorithm To Recommend Unrelated Videos 
  56. Fla. App. Court (3rd DCA) Holds Monthly Text Messages with Link to Terms of Service Sufficient to Compel Arbitration 
  57. HQ Trivia Has Clocked $10 Million In Ad Revenues To Date
  58. Twitter Renews BuzzFeed’s ‘AM To DM’ Morning News Stream Through 2019 
  59. Twitter to Live-Stream NBA Games — Featuring a Camera Feed of a Single, Fan-Voted Player
  60. Twitter Inks Deal To Offer Single-Camera, Single-Player Livestreaming Of NBA Matches 
  61. The Laws of AI and Machine Learning
  62. Coding, algorithms, and common law
  63. Artificial Intelligence, Affordances and Fundamental Rights (Christoph Graber)
  64. Our obsession with taking photos is changing how we remember the past
  65. Can America Really Have High Speed Internet for All? 
  66. Early Predictions of the Internet Date Back to 19th Century Sci-Fi
  67. An Overview of the United States’ Section 230 Internet Immunity (Eric Goldman)
  68. Three Painful Truths About Social Media (Ronald Deibert) 
  69. 404 Page Not Found: The internet feeds on its own dying dreams 

CREATIVITY

  1. New York Times Moves To Dismiss Joe Arpaio’s Defamation Lawsuit By Pointing Out It’s Impossible To Defame Him
  2. Beach bodies, adverts and gender stereotypes: CAP to ban harmful gender stereotyping in advertising
  3. January 1, 2019: If you have not thought about the copyright public domain for a while, maybe this is a good time to do so
  4. The Enrichment of the Public Domain
  5. Public Domain Day Grants A *Very* Happy New Year for Bookworms
  6. Copyrighted Works Added to the Public Domain for the First Time This Millennium 
  7. Top 3 Predictions for Copyright in 2019 
  8. Counterpoint: Maybe Athletes Should Rush To The Trademark Office… If They Play For Teams Like The Dallas Mavericks
  9. Pooey Puitton Proactively Sues The S— Out Of Louis Vuitton
  10. Deal or no deal – what happens to my intellectual property rights after Brexit?
  11. The Refreshing Earnestness of Last December’s Blockbuster Genre Movies
  12. Everybody Loses After Metal Band And Photographer Get Pissy Over Photographer’s Copyright Threat
  13. Photographer Licenses Photo To Shutterstock, Is Shocked When It Plays Out Exactly How Everyone Would Imagine
  14. 2019 Is the Year of the Pop Culture Finale
  15. They’re dead to us: The Ars Technica 2019 Deathwatch
  16. Patently False: The Delaware Chancery Court Dissolves Limited Liability Company Founded on False Claims of Patent Ownership
  17. E-signatures: is the law catching up with technology? 
  18. 2H 2018 Quick Links, Part 1 (Copyright) (Eric Goldman)
  19. 2H 2018 Quick Links, Part 2 (Trademarks) (Eric Goldman)
  20. 2H 2018 Quick Links, Part 3 (Keyword Advertising) (Eric Goldman)
  21. Jamie Lee Curtis Agrees: The Golden Globes Viral Fiji Water Girl Was ‘Blatant Promotion’
  22. We Need to Keep Laughing: There has never been a more darkly comic person to occupy the White House.

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

  1. More Steps Needed: Government Commissioned Report Shows Canadian Wireless Pricing Remains Among Highest in the Developed World (Michael Geist) 
  2. Celebrating High Wireless Prices: Telus-Backed Report Claims Comparing Consumer Costs for Wireless Services is “Meaningless” (Michael Geist)
  3. Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation – 2018 Year in Review
  4. The lies Comcast allegedly told customers to hide full cost of service
  5. Towns And Cities Keep Ditching Comcast To Build Their Own Broadband Networks
  6. Report: AT&T plans layoffs despite claiming tax cut would create 7,000 jobs
  7. AT&T decides 4G is now “5G,” starts issuing icon-changing software updates
  8. Verizon’s 5G promise: It won’t falsely claim 4G phones are really 5G
  9. Envious of 5G hype, cable cos. unveil potentially confusing “10G” trademark
  10. Cable Industry Hypes Phony ’10G’ When 5G Isn’t Even Available Yet 
  11. Cable’s Response To Surging Streaming Competition? More Price Hikes
  12. Frontier letting its phone network fall apart, state investigation finds 
  13. The Ajit Pai FCC Often Battles FOIA Requests For No Reason, Showcasing Its Hostility To Transparency
  14. Ajit Pai Gloats As House Fails To Restore Net Neutrality
  15. FCC Shuttered, Ajit Pai Forced To Cancel CES Trip Because The US Government Is a Hot Mess 
  16. 2019 Brings Another Wave Of Cable Programming Blackout Feuds Nobody Wants To Address
  17. No, BitTorrent’s Plan for Cryptocurrency-Fueled Speed Boosts Doesn’t Violate ‘Net Neutrality’ 

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

  1. I Gave a Bounty Hunter $300. Then He Located Our Phone: T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T are selling access to their customers’ location data, and that data is ending up in the hands of bounty hunters and others not authorized to possess it, letting them track
  2. Student Confesses to Dumping the Data of Hundreds of German Politicians 
  3. Kaspersky blew whistle on NSA hacking tool hoarder
  4. China Starts Using Facial Recognition-Enabled ‘Smart’ Locks In Its Public Housing
  5. The EU sheds light on the impact of the GDPR on Non-EU entities
  6. The Internet Giant’s Dilemma: Preventing Suicide Is Good; Invading People’s Private Lives… Not So Much
  7. Multistate Settles with Neiman Marcus Over 2013 Data Breach 
  8. Americans Support Facial Recognition Tech – When It Works: The problem is it quite often doesn’t.
  9. This Facial Recognition App Remembers Names so You Don’t Have To: But experts are concerned about the privacy implications.
  10. Hot new trading site leaked oodles of user data, including login tokens
  11. Two More Cyber Attacks Reported – Ransomware Suspected at Several Major News Organizations and Hackers Threaten to Release 9/11 Insurance and Litigation Files 
  12. A Closer Look at California’s New Privacy Regime: Two Critical Definitions 
  13. Advocate General’s Opinion in Case C-507/17 Google v CNIL: Advocate General Szpunar proposes that the Court should limit the scope of the dereferencing that search engine operators are required to carry out to the EU (Court of Justice of the European Union)
  14. Privacy rights and ‘citizen journalists’
  15. If Your Privacy Is in the Hands of Others Alone, You Don’t Have Any (Doc Searls)
  16. 2018 the year in privacy
  17. Privacy and Cybersecurity Issues to Watch in 2019 

Jon

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