News of the Week; February 6, 2019

GAMES

1. Senator Pushes FTC Head for Loot Box Investigation Timeline
2. Lootboxes and Skin Gambling in Swiss Gambling Law
3. Second YouTuber complains of DMCA abuse from Escape From Tarkov developer: Battlestate Games accused of misusing copyright takedown notices to silence “negative hype”
4. Ubisoft apologizes for The Division 2 email promising ‘a real government shutdown’
5. Twitch Streamer And Game Studio Employee Arrested In Child Sex Sting 
6. Parents increasingly worried about kids spending in games – Study: UK regulator finds 39% of parents with 5-15-year-olds concerned about pressure to purchase, 17% of kids 12-15 have accidentally spent money online
7. Pennsylvania legislators want to slap a tax on mature games
8. Failure to Launch: Not Identifying the Proper Parties Can Prematurely End an Video Game IPR Challenge 
9. CD Projekt agreed to pay The Witcher author additional royalties
10. Take-Two hires games veteran Michael Condrey to form new, diverse studio: Dead Space and Call of Duty leader plans to open new outfit in Silicon Valley 
11. Take-Two raises fiscal outlook as recurrent spending experiences record growth
12. The history of how Pac-Man encouraged women to pursue game dev
13. Fair Play Alliance expands Fair Play Summit for GDC 2019
14. “Isolation for all of us is corrosive” – The power of addressing social issues in games: Fullbright co-founder Steve Gaynor on making games about people rather than policy
15. Blog: How player choice can backfire
16. What drives retention?: A look at the mechanics that keep players playing
17. GDC Speaker Q&A: Cherry Thompson explores disabled representation in games
18. Monster Hunter helps Capcom to record third quarter profits
19. Capcom posts record profits in latest financials: Success driven by strong performance of core titles like Monster Hunter: World which broke 11 million sales 
20. Capcom tops Metacritic publisher rankings for 2018: Activision Blizzard highest-rated “mid-sized” publisher, followed by Paradox and 505 Games 
21. 4A Games embroiled in controversy over Metro Exodus’ Epic Games Store exclusivity: Koch Media/Deep Silver once again stresses it is responsible for the decision after studio employee threatens no future PC games
22. Epic vs Steam: Exclusives raise the stakes | Opinion – Epic is Steam’s first real competitor in years – with console-war style exclusive tactics being a controversial, but fair, escalation of the struggle
23. Blog: How are the Steam algorithm changes affecting indies?
24. Achievements and support are opt-in features on the Epic Games Store
25. Opt-in review system in the works for Epic Games Store: Developers will be able to decide whether they want to allow consumers to leave reviews on their games
26. Early teens gaming online more – Study: 75% of gamers aged 5-15 have played online, up from 66% last year; girls play online less than boys, particularly as they get older 
27. What drives retention?: A look at the mechanics that keep players playing
28. Gaming innovators must ensure their intellectual property is protected
29. Kingdom Hearts III conquers UK charts with impressive debut week: Resident Evil 2 slips to No.2
30. Kingdom Hearts III sells more than 600,000 copies in Japan at launch: Square Enix’s RPG Disney mash-up more than doubled debut sales of Resident Evil 2 remake 
31. Disney says its future video game efforts lie in licensing, not publishing
32. Kingdom Hearts 3 ships 5 million copies a week after launch
33. Kingdom Hearts III: Critical Consensus – Reviewers praise the scope and magic of this long-awaited entry, but warn it’s no picnic for newcomers
34. Nintendo lowers full-year hardware forecast for Switch 
35. Nintendo trims Switch target as net sales near $10 billion for fiscal year: Platform holder celebrates record-breaking success of Smash Bros and Pokémon, delays Mario Kart Tour
36. Lifetime Switch sales have surpassed 32 million units
37. Putting Switch’s 32 million shipments in context
38. Report: Nintendo eyeing a smaller, more portable Switch for release this year
39. Nintendo’s next Switch model will reportedly shrink the size, cost, features
40. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate sold over 12 million copies in December
41. Smash Bros Ultimate is the fastest selling console game in Nintendo’s history: In Japan, the new Smash Bros outpaced the lifetime sales of any previous title in four weeks 
42. Mobile game based on Dr. Mario due to launch this summer: Dr. Mario World will be co-developed with LINE, Mario Kart Tour delayed to improve quality
43. Nintendo will bring Dr. Mario to smartphones this summer
44. Nintendo bringing Dr. Mario to iOS, Android this summer
45. Nintendo delays Mario Kart Tour mobile game to ramp up quality
46. The 3DS Is Even Dying Better Than The Vita
47. Nintendo to open first official retail store in Japan: Located in Shibuya, Nintendo Tokyo is the first store to be managed by Nintendo of Japan
48. EA turns in bummer fiscal report: “We’re disappointed in our underperformance”
49. Did EA beat Nintendo at its own game?: 10 Years Ago This Month: A closer look at John Riccitiello’s bold claim that EA would rival Nintendo’s quality of software on the Wii, and a breakdown of a post-layoff pep talk
50. EA has a subscription service for ‘another major platform’ in the works
51. Packaged sales continue to rise at Sega, but profits are in decline
52. Sega Sammy revenue and profit down in latest financials: Japanese firm posts $24.5 million loss from digital games
53. Microsoft reports “largest gaming revenue quarter ever”: Software and services drove Xbox to $4.23 billion revenue despite declining hardware sales
54. Microsoft’s Xbox Live is coming to Switch, iOS, Android
55. Microsoft Expanding Xbox Live To Nintendo Switch And Mobile
56. Microsoft bringing Xbox Live to Switch and mobile: GDC session report reveals company’s cross-platform plans
57. Microsoft Studios renamed Xbox Game Studios in bid for better branding
58. Software driving sales in Sony’s games division as hardware stutters
59. Sony reports slowdown in PS4 sales: Growth in software offsets expected hardware dip as system begins sixth year on shelves; PS Plus subscribers up 15% to 36.3 million
60. Cloud gaming isn’t an immediate threat to consoles, says Sony CFO
61. What can this Japanese patent tell us about PS5 backward compatibility?
62. Nearly Half of the Videogame Industry Wants to Form A Union – Can Game Development Companies Avoid This Boss Fight? 
63. Failbetter’s final push to ensure Sunless Skies flies at launch: One year on from disappointing Early Access sales, the Fallen London studio is gearing up for a confident launch
64. Netmarble readying bid for Nexon: South Korean games firm reportedly forming consortium to go up against Kakao and Tencent
65. Machinima closes down with more than 80 jobs lost: The YouTube gaming network is no more
66. Machinima Ceases All Consumer-Facing Operations, Lays Off Most Of Staff
67. Konami enjoys a profitable 9 months thanks to strong sports game sales
68. Mobile and esports drive Konami revenues to $1.75 billion: Nine-month financials show steady growth in games for Pro Evolution Soccer publisher 
69. McLaren’s drive to turn gamers into Formula 1 racers: Director of esports Ben Payne discusses the firm’s five-year plan for Shadow Project and sourcing new champions 
70. Peter Moore quit video games, but the Liverpool FC chief still fears Fortnite  
71. Twitch streamers racked up 9.36 billion hours viewed in 2018: Over one billion of those were dedicated to Fortnite, but battle royale title’s viewship is on the decline
72. This Year’s Overwatch League Pass Lets Twitch Viewers Experience Matches From Players’ Perspectives
73. The sloth behind the scenes of 2019’s biggest Twitch stream
74. Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins Lands Starring Spot In Super Bowl Commercial 
75. The long decline of the “narrative paramedic” in games writing
76. Apex Legends attracts 1 million unique players in under 8 hours
77. Apex Legends Drew In 2.5 Million Players In 24 Hours: The latest free-to-play battle royale title is off to a strong start.
78. Titanfall Dev’s Battle Royale Apex Legends Officially Revealed
79. Respawn wanted to let Apex Legends ‘speak for itself’
80. How Apex Legends Monetization Works: We sat down with the developers of Apex Legends to talk about their monetization systems. Apex Legends is a completely free to play game but will allow you to earn and purchase cosmetic items.
81. EA didn’t pre-announce Apex Legends because it was scared to | Opinion – And it may well have been a really smart decision
82. Apex Legends, Anthem, and EA’s (possible) February disaster
83. EA will lean harder on Anthem and Apex Legends after a ‘difficult quarter’
84. ‘Fortnite’ Had 10 Million Concurrent Players In The Marshmello Concert Event
85. More Than 10 Million People Attended Marshmello’s Live Virtual Concert In ‘Fortnite,’ DJ Says
86. More than 10 million ‘Fortnite’ players logged on to watch a 10-minute concert over the weekend, proving there’s more to the craze than just playing the game
87. Full Marshmello Fortnite Concert Event!!: Marshmello and Fortnite teamed up to deliver an amazing in-game concert. Check out the entire event with this video! 
88. Fortnite Is the Future, but Probably Not for the Reasons You Think: Much has been said about Fortnite’s revenue, users, business model, origin and availability. But these narratives are overhyped.
89. Newly Discovered Spiked Dinosaurs From South America Look Like Creatures From ‘No Man’s Sky’
90. ‘Angry Birds VR’ Now Available on Rift & Vive, More VR Platforms Coming Soon
91. 26 years later, Groundhog Day gets revived as… a VR game?
92. Blog: How AR and VR investment stabilized in Q4 2018
93. Rise to Ruins dev wraps up Patreon and donates double pledges back to supporters  
94. Rise to Ruins developer promises to repay Patreon pledges back double: SixtyGig Games closes Patreon, offers double refunds on lifetime pledge amounts as studio thrives
95. Human: Fall Flat sells 5 million units: Solo indie project continues to see sales uptick following console releases 
96. Hypnospace Outlaw weaving a tangled Web: Jay Tholen talks about making a ’90s internet simulator that works by modern standards
97. Insurgency developer New World Interactive opens Canadian studio: New World North follows sustained growth 

DIGITAL

1. The Atlantic’s Taylor Lorenz: Facebook is irrelevant to Gen-Z
2. Sheryl Sandberg: The Teens ‘Consented’ to Putting Facebook Spyware on Their Phones
3. Facebook Bans Armed Rebel Groups in Myanmar
4. Facebook nukes hundreds of “inauthentic” accounts “tied to Iran”
5. Mark Zuckerberg still thinks Facebook has made the world better
6. The Tortured Case for Deleting Instagram 
7. NY AG Finds Use of Bots, Sock-Puppets Illegal  
8. Former FCC Official Attempts To Create An Aereo That The Supreme Court Won’t Kill
9. The Great Huawei Disconnect
10. Ambassador McCallum’s Controversial Comments on the Huawei Extradition Case Resulted in His Termination. But Was He Right?
11. Charges Against Chinese Hackers Are Now Common. Why Don’t They Deter Cyberattacks?
12. A Bold Proposal for Fighting Censorship: Increase the Collateral Damage
13. Firefox taking a hard line against noisy video, banning it from autoplaying
14. Italy Tells Rest Of EU To Drop Articles 11 And 13 From The Copyright Directive
15. Article 13 Is Back On: Germany Caves To France As EU Pushes Forward On Ruining The Internet
16. EU Copyright Directive Has Been Made Even More Stupid, And Some Are Still Trying To Make It Even Worse
17. US Newspapers Now Salivating Over Bringing A Google Snippet Tax Stateside
18. Authors Guild Attacks Libraries For Lending Digital Books
19. After Plan S, Here’s Plan U: Funders Should Require All Research To Be Posted First As A Preprint
20. Google releases Chrome extension that alerts users of breached passwords
21. With experimental “Never slow mode,” Chrome tries to stop Web devs making it slow
22. Google Play apps with >4.3 million downloads stole pics and pushed porn ads 
23. Harassment, Transphobia, and Racism: A Look Inside Blind’s Anonymous Chatting Forum for Google Employees
24. Amazon’s Next Targets Are Now Clear: Google and Facebook
25. Google has quietly dropped ban on personally identifiable web tracking
26. Google+ shuts down April 2, all consumer data will be deleted
27. Impact of New Massachusetts Noncompete Law on Emerging Tech Companies
28. Lawyer punished for student’s social media use
29. Surprise, the social media agency behind Fyre Festival chronically steals other people’s work
30. Key Considerations for Social Influencer Agreements
31. Social media companies to owe duty of care to users?  
32. Inquests, social media and families searching for answers
33. Leaked nudes and talent morality clauses – A lesson for the digital age
34. This Viral Photo of a Homeless Person Freezing on the Street Is Actually From 2013… in Canada
35. Tech Companies Expand to Canada 
36. Shane Dawson Likely Lost Thousands In Ad Revenue After His Latest Video Was Mistakenly Demonetized
37. Vice To Cut 10% Of Workforce, Becoming Latest Digital Giant Hit By Layoffs
38. The forthcoming WarnerMedia streaming service will be partially supported by ads
39. Phil DeFranco Is Getting Into Hair Care Business With Launch Of ‘Beautiful Bastard’ Men’s Grooming Brand 
40. Ryan ToysReview Vastly Expands Licensing Empire With 40 Global Deals
41. YouTube is changing how its priciest ad format is bought to work more like TV — and it could start a bidding war among brands
42. YouTube is trying to prevent angry mobs from abusing “dislike” button
43. YouTube Is Brainstorming New Ways To Combat ‘Dislike Mobs’
44. YouTube Nears Major Milestone Amid Emphasis on Subscriptions
45. YouTube Hits 2 Billion Monthly Users, As Number Of Channels With 1 Million Subscribers Doubled Last Year
46. YouTuber Austin Jones Pleads Guilty To Persuading Underage Fans To Send Him Graphic Videos
47. YouTube Will Not Terminate Convicted Sex Offender Austin Jones’ Channel
48. YouTube Rolls Out ‘Explore’ Feature To More Users, More Devices, And Promotes Smaller Creators
49. YouTube Millionaires: NFL Hopeful Donald De La Haye Was Forced To Choose Between YouTube And Football — But Now He Aims For Both 
50. ‘Simpsons’ Producer David Mirkin Developing Live Action Sci-Fi Series For YouTube Premium 
51. From YouTube To Cannes To A Theater Near You: Joe Penna on ‘Arctic’
52. YouTube’s ContentID System Is Being Repurposed By Blackmailers Due To Its Failings
53. Disney+ Will Offer Non-Disney Content At Launch
54. Disney’s ESPN+ Streaming Service Nabs 2 Million Subscribers In Less Than A Year
55. Hulu Renews AwesomenessTV, Wattpad Thriller ‘Light As A Feather’
56. Criterion Collection To Launch Classic Film Streaming Service In April
57. Samsung tries to turn your refrigerator into Tinder: The Refrigerdating app aims to help you find a date based on what’s in your fridge.
58. Samsung cancels partnership with counterfeit Supreme brand
59. World Record Egg Teams With Hulu On Super Bowl Ad, As Stunt’s Founder Is Unmasked
60. Hulu Will Roll Out ‘Pause-vertising’ This Spring With Still, Silent Ads
61. Vice Media is laying off hundreds in an effort to reduce costs 
62. Amazon and Walmart hit hard after new e-commerce rules in India restrict sales: The two companies have pulled thousands of products off virtual shelves
63. Many popular iPhone apps secretly record your screen without asking: And there’s no way a user would know
64. FaceTime bug lets callers hear you before you answer (really)
65. A Teenager Tried To Warn Apple About It’s Facetime Security Flaw, But Appears To Have Been Ignored
66. I Cut Apple Out of My Life. It Was Devastating
67. FBI catches another man allegedly stealing Apple self-driving car secrets
68. Apple pays France €500 million to cover a decade of back taxes
69. Apple revokes Google’s enterprise iOS certificate, shuts down internal apps
70. Apple restores Google’s own internal iPhone apps after privacy brouhaha
71. Apple, Facebook spat is over, for now—iOS certificate access restored
72. Angela Ahrendts, leader of Apple’s retail efforts, will depart the company in April
73. The 3rd Party Doctrine: Or Why Lawyers May Not Ethically Be Able To Use Whatsapp
74. Wisconsin’s Overhyped Foxconn Deal Keeps Getting Lamer By The Week
75. I Cut Microsoft Out of My Life—or So I Thought
76. Microsoft blames chip supply issues for drop in Windows revenue
77. Windows setup error messages will soon be much less useless
78. Spotify reportedly in “advanced stages” of acquiring podcast company for $230M 
79. Spotify Is Looking to Acquire Podcast Startup Gimlet Media
80. Spotify Acquires Gimlet Media, Anchor Amid $500 Million Bet On Podcast Industry
81. Sirius XM Completes Acquisition of Pandora
82. The Case for an Automation-Powered 4-Day Work Week
83. AI are learning common sense through Pictionary 
84. Scientists Are Using Pictionary to Teach “Common Sense” to AI
85. Template License and Collaboration Agreements for AI Art 
86. Robo ART! – The human ‘hand’ and levels of AI
87. DeepMind releases an AI learning environment for the card game Hanabi
88. Protecting Creativity by Artificial Intelligence
89. Bless the overclockers: In the data center world, liquid cooling is becoming king
90. Digital exchange loses $137 million as founder takes passwords to the grave 
91. Crypto Exchange Says It Can’t Repay $190 Million to Clients After Founder Dies With Only Password
92. Did A Crypto CEO Fake His Own Death? The Great Quadriga Conspiracy, Day 6
93. Cryptocurrency investors locked out of $190m after exchange founder dies: QuadrigaCX, Canada’s largest exchange, was unable to access password or recovery key after Gerald Cotten died last December
94. Digital Currency App’s Electronic User Agreement Held Enforceable 
95. eSignature and ePayment News and Trends
96. Man who stole $5M in cryptocurrency via SIM swap pleads guilty
97. Prosecutors: Two men used SIM swapping to extort cryptocurrency
98. Fire (and lots of it): Berkeley researcher on the only way to fix cryptocurrency 
99. Digital trends 2019: Every single stat you need to know about the internet­­­­­­
100. The culture of self-similarity: A fractal philosophy for a better internet
101. Tech Companies Expand to Canada  
102. Philosopher Hadn’t Seen “The Matrix” Before Publishing Simulation Hypothesis: Nick Bostrom doesn’t think you should try to break free from the Matrix.
103. Emoji Law 2018 Year-in-Review (Eric Goldman) 

CREATIVITY

1. Leafs in dispute with Snoop Dogg over cannabis trademark
2. The Perils of Comparative Advertising – A lesson from Super Bowl 53
3. Securing Necessary Copyright And Trademark Rights For Broadcasts And Promotions Related To The NFL Championship Games And Super Bowl 53
4. The Greatest Trick The NFL Ever Pulled Is Convincing The World It Holds Trademark Rights That Don’t Exist
5. Initial Fallout From McDonald’s Losing Its EU ‘Big Mac’ Trademark Is Mockery From Burger King
6. Las Vegas-based artist claims that Ariana Grande plagiarised his work: Vladimir Kush is suing the 7 Rings singer for copyright infringement
7. Money is on the Line in Billions Copyright Infringement Lawsuit
8. U.S. Supreme Court’s Denial of Actress’s Petition Highlights First Amendment Protection of Docudramas
9. Life + 70 Years: Copyrighted Works That Have Entered into the Public Domain in 2019 – a European Perspective
10. Photo-Trolls Still Target Broadcasters
11. Gavin McInnes Files Laughably Silly Defamation Lawsuit Against Southern Poverty Law Center
12. The Lawyer For Rapper 21 Savage, Who Was Detained By ICE, Says It’s Not His Fault He Was In The US Illegally
13. Good Girl Gone Mad
14. Bellino v. Judge
15. Copyright in a Taste – A “Work” in Progress
16. Ad Standards Overhauls Dispute Procedure
17. CAP censors political free speech
18. Knight Commission On Trust, Media And Democracy
19. Stupid Patent Of The Month: IBM’s Software Patent On Texting And Driving
20. Basquiat used invisible ink to make secret drawings in his paintings

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY 

1.  Canada’s Bell Tried To Have VPNs Banned During NAFTA Negotiations
2. The Real Over-the-Top: CBC President Likens Netflix to Cultural Imperialism Such As the British in India or French in Africa (Michael Geist)
3. Hidden in Plain Sight?: The Search For Canadian Content on Netflix (Michael Geist)
4. Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop Gets With Netflix For Wellness Docuseries
5. Gwyneth Paltrow and Netflix Seal Deal as Goop Expands Original Content 
6. Netflix buys into Goop hooey with deal to make a wellness docuseries
7. Netflix Debuts New Logo For Originals To Make Viewers Feel Like They’re In A Movie Theater
8. Canadians will be able to watch U.S. Super Bowl commercials — for now
9. Here’s a Roundup of All the Super Bowl Ads About Robots and AI: Tech was the star of Super Bowl LIII – during the commercials, anyways.
10. How to Watch the Super Bowl in VR With Friends for Free 
11. FCC struggles to convince judge that broadband isn’t “telecommunications”: Skeptical judges question FCC’s justification of net neutrality repeal.
12. Net neutrality court case preview: Did FCC mess up by redefining broadband?
13. Ajit Pai loses in court—judges overturn gutting of tribal broadband program
14. Court Tells FCC Its Attack On Tribal Broadband Subsidies Wasn’t Based On The Facts
15. House Democrats tell Ajit Pai: Stop screwing over the public
16. Russian Site-Blocking Leads To An Explosion In ‘Pirate’ Sites, Tiny Dip In Piracy
17. Bogus Net Neutrality Comments Linked To Trumpland
18. Fake FCC Comments Linked to Ex-Trump Campaign Director’s Org, Boosted By Roger Stone
19. FCC Seeks Comments on Video Description Marketplace for Report to Congress 
20. Citing a Desire to Promote Spam-Protection Measures, FCC Classifies Wireless Messaging as an Information Service
21. Public Knowledge Petitions FCC to Reverse Decision Classifying Text Messages as “Information Services” 
22. AT&T’s misleading “5G E” indicator comes to 4G iPhones in iOS 12.2 beta
23. FCC Accused Of Colluding With Big Carriers On 5G Policy
24. Time Warner Cable Seeks to Defeat Class Certification in TCPA Wrong Number Case 
25. Charter will spend less on cable network in 2019 but charge customers more
26. The Revolving Door Spins Hard: FCC’s Clyburn Now Lobbying For T-Mobile
27. T-Mobile Tries To Save Its Unpopular Merger With A Few Concessions, But Nobody’s Buying

 SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. New York Attorney General Enters Into Groundbreaking Settlement With Seller of Fake Followers and “Likes”
2. DNA-Matching Company Decides To Open Its Doors To The FBI Without Bothering To Inform Its Users
3. New Japanese Law Lets Government Hack IOT Devices, Warn Owners They’re Vulnerable
4. GDPR – Impact on Canadian Business Obligations, Liability and Contract Terms
5. The rise of the GDPR in media law
6. Defense of Amazon’s Face Recognition Tool Undermined by Its Only Known Police Client
7. U.S. Prisons Are Covertly Gathering Inmates’ Biometric Voice Data
8. Privacy Primer: The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)
9. Hyper-Personalisation: the brands who want to know your name 
10. To protect users’ privacy, iOS 12.2 will limit Web apps’ access to iPhone’s sensors
11. Revolving Doors And Regulatory Capture Are Ensuring E-Voting Remains An Insecure Mess
12. UK Forum Hands Out Public Records Request-Dodging Guidance To Over 100 Government Agencies

Jon