News of the Week; May 22, 2019

GAMES

1. N.Y. Supreme Court Dismisses Right of Publicity Claims against Take-Two Based on a Character from NBA 2K18
2. Nintendo is pulling two mobile games from Belgium over loot box laws
3. Belgian loot box decision takes down some of Nintendo’s mobile games
4. Nintendo to halt service of two mobile games in Belgium amid loot box debacle – Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp and Fire Emblem Heroes to be taken offline in Belgium on August 27
5. Nintendo offers Switch Online voucher to serve up digital discounts
6. Mario Kart Tour beta hands-on: Microtransactions land like a nasty blue shell: The actual gameplay has some polish. Everything else in this Android beta stinks.
7. Why we’re headed toward loot box legislation | Opinion: The games industry is poorly positioned to defend itself on this front, and the fallout could impact a lot more than just loot box mechanisms
8. Who is responsible for loot boxes?: Voices from around the industry share their thoughts on what’s at stake and who should be doing what
9. Access to Red Dead Online’s poker restricted by regional gambling laws
10. Red Dead Online’s in-game poker unavailable in certain regions: Despite no connection with real-world money, players in countries with strict gambling laws may not be able to access minigame
11. Unity slammed over engine features supporting the gambling industry: Developer removes posts detailing “especially helpful” real-money gaming features
12. Zynga on licensing and addiction: Bernard Kim explains the strategy on deals for Star Wars and Game of Thrones Slots Casino, then ties addiction debate to Garth Brooks
13. Riot ignores calls to scrap mandatory arbitration for all employees
14. Riot Games stands firm against walkout employees’ demands
15. Report: Tencent and Riot working on a mobile version ofLeague of Legends
16. The Subtle Economics Of Private World Of Warcraft Servers: Anarchy, Order And Who Gets The Loot
17. Xbox head commits to building a safe and inclusive game community
18. Xbox: “We have a huge responsibility to a healthy gaming lifestyle” – The platform holder discusses addiction, aggressive monetisation and its role in protecting gamers
19. Windows 10 now offers a game-focused Xbox Game Bar overlay
20. Sega’s Judgement will be available in Japan again in July: A new character model and voice will replace that of actor Pierre Taki, who was arrested on drug charges
21. Esports Pro Sues Gaming Organization FaZe Clan Over “Oppressive” Contract
22. Streamer Tfue sues esports organization for illegal operation as a talent agency: Turner Tenney claims Faze Clan did not act in his best interests, withheld 80% of his earnings from streaming
23. Esports Pro Tfue Sues FaZe Clan, Alleging Unpaid Sponsorship Earnings And Restrictive Contract
24. Faze Clan and Tfue’s legal dispute could reshape e-sports and YouTube contracts forever: The lawsuit could be a turning point for e-sports organizations
25. A New Lawsuit Could Transform How the Influencer Industry Is Regulated: Filing says “the time is now for content creators, gamers and streamers to stop being taken advantage of through oppressive, unfair and illegal agreements.”
26. Some publishers pay streamers as much as $50k an hour to play new games
27. Game Publishers Pay Top Streamers Like Ninja $50,000+ Per Hour To Play Their New Games (Report)
28. Sega to resume sales of Judgment in Japan following drugs scandal
29. Disney and Sega join $7.8m Series A funding round for Tyffon: Location-based VR company plans third Tokyo venue and US expansion
30. The Ouya’s game store will close for good in June
31. Crowdfunded gaming console Ouya will shut down for good on June 25^th: Only games downloaded directly to console will be playable.
32. Don’t Miss: A retrospective on the Ouya
33. LCS directs Echo Fox to separate from shareholder over racist remarks: Esports organized instructed to take action within 60 days or risk participation in League of Legends Championship Series
34. Legal Issues in Esports
35. Valve is making Dota 2 players pay to avoid toxic gamers
36. Valve lets players avoid toxic people in DOTA 2, charges for the privilege: Experimental Avoid Player feature included in $9.99 battle pass
37. Valve making its own version of popular Dota 2 mod: After talks for a collaboration are abandoned, Valve will make a competing version of Dota Auto Chess “with Drodo’s blessing”
38. Valve wasn’t ‘really sure what to do’ following Assassin’s Creed Unity review surge
39. CD Projekt Red talks Cyberpunk 2077 crunch, vows to be ‘more humane’ to devs
40. CD Projekt Red wants to be “known for treating developers with respect”: Company is pushing “non-obligatory crunch policy” for development of Cyberpunk 2077, asking workers to push back if hours are too much
41. Kickstarter won’t recognize employee union without an election: Interim CEO acknowledges problems but believes the company is “better set up to be successful without the framework of a union”
42. Apple ruling opens a can of worms for digital storefronts | Opinion: The Supreme Court ruling could open the floodgate to consumer lawsuits for digital stores – including the content of developer agreements
43. Esports to add $8bn to Chinese domestic games revenue by 2023: Niko Partners report shows mobile esports game revenue doubling by 2023, when Chinese domestic market will top $41 billion
44. Tencent games business remains steady in lingering effects of license freeze: Q1 growth mostly came from other sources, but company looks to more new releases in Q2
45. Alibaba is the ‘better stock’ compared to Tencent, analyst says
46. Tencent has acquired Swedish game developer Sharkmob
47. Tencent acquires Sharkmob: Chinese tech giant buys nascent Swedish online game developer before it’s announced its first game
48. NetEase pushed Minecraft to 200m registered Chinese users in Q1: Milestone achieved against a backdrop of rising revenue and profits from online games
49. NetEase reveals game deals with Pokémon and Marvel: Pokémon Quest will be the first mobile game in the series to launch in China
50. God of War has sold 10 million copies
51. God of War reaches ten million lifetime sales: Meanwhile, streaming be part of Sony’s “mainstream business model” with its next-gen console
52. Sony launches PlayStation Productions to turn games into movies and TV shows
53. Sony announces PlayStation Productions to bring gaming IP to film and TV: Production studio to be headed by Asad Qizilbash, already working on first round of projects
54. Shawn Layden stresses importance of diverse teams: PlayStation boss says teams need to represent a global fanbase, warns that “sameness is the death of innovation and creativity”
55. PlayStation boss: “We believe the streaming era is upon us.”
56. Backwards compatibility and streaming key to Sony’s next-gen strategy
57. Sony hardware demo showcases speedy next-gen load times and rendering
58. See how much faster Sony’s next PlayStation can load Spider-Man
59. Sony and Microsoft teaming up to develop cloud and AI tech
60. Sony and Microsoft partner for cloud, AI innovations: Rival platform holders to collaborate on projects using Microsoft Azure for competitive cloud technology
61. Report: PlayStation staff were in the dark about the Sony and Microsoft team-up
62. Report: Sony employees caught off guard by Microsoft cloud partnership
63. Microsoft: Gaming should be for everyone, shouldn’t be toxic stew
64. Xbox’s Gaming for Everyone: “Diversity has always been here”
65. What Microsoft and Sony’s streaming partnership means for gaming’s future
66. Xbox, PC get a little bit closer with the latest Xbox updates
67. Minecraft Earth gives franchise a Pokémon Go twist: Microsoft launching free-to-play augmented reality mobile game in closed beta this summer
68. Inside Minecraft Earth, Microsoft’s huge augmented reality gamble: Microsoft is taking the world’s second-best-selling game of all time into augmented reality. But will the push to net even more players stretch the game’s DNA past breaking point?
69. Minecraft Earth Goes A Step Beyond Pokémon Go To Cover The World In Blocks – Microsoft’s ambitious goal: holograms that persist everywhere
70. Minecraft has sold 176 million copies worldwide: Latest figure makes Mojang’s sandbox adventure the best-selling game of all time based on known game unit sales
71. Marvel, The Pokemon Company partner with NetEase to launch games in China
72. Mortal Kombat 11 is the second best-selling game of 2019 in the US: NPD data shows NetherRealm’s game beating Days Gone as the biggest game in April
73. World War Z has sold almost 2 million copies in one month  
74. World War Z closes first month with almost 2m sold: Saber Interactive’s sleeper hit has doubled sales since its launch week
75. Metro Exodus recoups all costs, boosts Q1 revenue at THQ Nordic: Net sales spiked 158% at the publisher thanks to 4A Games’ shooter and Coffee Stain’s Satisfactory
76. THQ Nordic acquires Gothic and Risen developer Piranha Bytes
77. THQ Nordic acquires Gothic developer Piranha Bytes: German studio’s entire team and the rights to Risen and Elex were also part of the deal
78. Ubisoft: The Division 2 missed sales goals on consoles due to crowded market
79. Inside Station F: The grander ambitions of Ubisoft – Ubisoft’s focus on emerging technology, from blockchain to VR, points to something bigger for the French games giant
80. Video: Writing and designing Star Trek: Bridge Crew for VR
81. An exhaustive look at Oculus Quest’s first day of great, wireless VR software
82. Oculus Rift S Review – A Good Choice for VR Newcomers, a Difficult Choice for VR Vets
83. Magic Leap acquires Mimesys to boost spatial computing offerings
84. This robot hits you in real life when you get hit in VR
85. Pre-E3 2019: Oculus wants you to paddle a stealth VR kayak—and it’s awesome
86. New Minecraft Earth AR game takes a cue from Pokemon Go
87. Minecraft has sold 176 million copies in 10 years
88. Uplay boost fails to prevent The Division 2 missing sales targets: PC gamers choose Ubisoft’s own marketplace over Epic Game Store as sequel sells ten times more than original
89. Re-Logic won’t “sell our souls” with Epic Games Store exclusivity: VP Whitney Spinks assures Terraria developer’s audience that it won’t follow trend for PC exclusives
90. Epic discounts entire Game Store library in storewide “Mega Sale“ [Updated]
91. Teething pains for Epic Games Store as publishers opt out of debut ‘Mega Sale’
92. Borderlands 3, other games temporarily removed from Epic Games Store sale [Updated]
93. Gaming Platform War Update: Epic Games Store Suspends Accounts… For Buying Too Many Games
94. Epic footing the bill for some discounts in the Epic Games Store’s first sale
95. Steam Link streaming app launches on iOS a year after Apple rejection
96. Steam Link finally available for iOS: Valve’s streaming up launches a year after Apple rejected it
97. Steam Link comes to iOS without Steam Store functionality [Updated]
98. GOG Galaxy 2.0 aims to bridge the platform gap in game communities
99. Nippon Ichi Software reportedly unable to pay staff after Disgaea RPG teething problems: Japanese developer issues warrant to sell stock at reduced price
100. Defiant Studios axed as Lords of the Fallen 2 developer
101. Defiant Studios dropped as developer of Lords of the Fallen 2: CI Games terminates contract after one year, calls Defiant’s work on the game “inadequate”
102. Epic Games store eats cost of site-wide sale: Company takes $10 off everything over $15 at no cost to publisher or devs, giving refunds for preorders, recent purchases
103. Paradox pulls Bloodlines 2 from Epic Store during Mega Sale: Klei Entertainment follows suit with Oxygen Not Included as Epic offers $10 off basically everything
104. 2K cuts off Borderlands 3 pre-orders on PC during Epic Mega Sale
105. 2K halts Borderlands 3 pre-orders during Epic Games Store Mega Sale: Publisher says decision is temporary, and pre-orders made during sale will be honoured
106. World of Warcraft Classic beta testers are reporting vanilla WoW features as bugs
107. Dauntless launches on consoles with full, day-one crossplay
108. Playtika launches casual games division
109. The state of singleplayer games in 2019 so far: In 2017, we worried singleplayer games were dying. 2019 tells a different story.
110. Making the player the AI in outer space thriller Observation 
111. Don’t Miss: The world design of Diablo III
112. Game Design Deep Dive: Environmental storytelling inGeneration Zero 
113. Blog: Peeping under the hood of a rhythm game in Unity
114. Blog: Was it worth quitting my job to go indie? 
115. Blog: Successfully launching a game with a near-zero marketing budget
116. Video: Slime Rancher dev’s guide to making games that stand out and survive
117. Blog: Picking a platform – Bottom-up vs top-down thinking
118. Blog: Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2019 
119. Blog: The contradiction between hard fun and accessibility
120. Blog: The ‘how’ of bittersweet game design
121. Behind the enthralling dystopian student game, Burning Daylight  
122. Video: Designing Path of Exile to be played forever
123. Video: The care and feeding of live narrative game Fallen London
124. Don’t Miss: Looking back at the development of the originalRage
125. Video: How RimWorld found success through ridiculous, contrarian design
126. Metro Exodus made back its dev and marketing costs in under 2 months
127. Don’t Miss: Effectively marketing Chasm in a crowded Metroidvania market
128. No show floor booth for Activision at E3: E3 floor plans reveal another big player has left the LACC show floor; EA returns with private meeting room
129. Gaming Advertising Fines and Bans: How Might Recent Increases in Restrictions on Gaming Advertisements Across the Globe Impact Gaming Advertising in North America? 
130. Top 5 takeaways from the Games Industry Law Summit 
131. U.S. Patent No. 8,882,590: Touch-controlled game character motion providing dynamically-positioned virtual control pad 
132. Required gamer viewing: The history of M2’s Japanese retro-port empire

DIGITAL

1. Federal government proposes sweeping digital charter
2. Canada’s Digital Charter: Trust in a digital world
3. The Foundation of Canada’s Digital Charter: Privacy Law Reform Focused on a Data-Driven Economy (Michael Geist)
4. The World Wants to Fight Online Hate. Why Doesn’t President Trump?: The White House foolishly rejected an international effort to stop the spread of extremism and violence on the internet.
5. White House unveils new tool to report censorship by social media giants
6. White House Sets Up Echo Chamber For Complaints About Social Media Bias Against Conservatives
7. Governments And Internet Companies Agree On Questionable Voluntary Pact On Extremist Content Online
8. Combating online hate could mean legal change
9. Why Facebook shareholders want Mark Zuckerberg out
10. Facebook and Google pressured EU experts to soften fake news regulations, say insiders: On the eve of European elections, the tech giants stand accused of sabotaging the European Union’s fight against disinformation.
11. Flip Side To ‘Stopping’ Terrorist Content Online: Facebook Is Deleting Evidence Of War Crimes
12. And Now The Prime Minister Of Canada Is Threatening To Fine Social Media Companies Over ‘Fake News’
13. Huge New Study Finds Almost No Evidence That Social Media Makes Kids Unhappy
14. AT&T denies that selling phone location data was illegal as FCC investigates
15. AT&T Has Become a New Kind of Media Giant: Bellhead CEO Randall Stephenson is taking on Netflix and Comcast simultaneously. It won’t be easy.
16. AT&T outclassed Verizon in hurricane response, and it wasn’t close, union says
17. Trump tries to shut Huawei out of US market with executive order
18. President Trump Issues Executive Order on Information Security; Huawei Technologies to Be Placed on “Entity List” 
19. Trump issues Executive Order on securing information and communications technology and services – key points
20. Telecom trade restrictions when dealing with Huawei and its non-U.S. affiliates
21. Chinese Telecom Companies Under Fire: Commerce Moves to Cut Off Huawei From U.S. Technology, With More Restrictions Coming
22. Trump Administration Limits US Purchase and Use of Certain Technology From Foreign Adversaries, Sale of US Technology to Huawei
23. US Adds Huawei and Affiliates to the Department of Commerce Entity List – What to Expect From the Final Rule 
24. ARM cuts ties with Huawei, threatening future chip designs: A major blow to Huawei
25. ARM is the latest partner to shun Huawei, so how will it design chips?
26. Sanctions on Steroids: Huawei is a Prohibited ‘Entity,’ Foreign Adversaries Are Lurking in Information and Communications Services, What Does It All Mean?
27. Google Joins The Evidence-Optional Assault On Huawei
28. Google reportedly ends business with Huawei, will cut it off from Play Store [Updated]
29. Huawei a small part of an ‘insurmountably hard problem’ of cybersecurity
30. Foxconn Still Trying To Tap Dance Around Its Ever-Shrinking Wisconsin Promises
31. Hobbling Huawei: Inside the U.S. war on China’s tech giant
32. Our Way or the Huawei: Are Your Fintech Contracts Ready for a National Emergency?
33. Huawei’s US ban: A look at the hardware (and software) supply problems
34. The US DOC gives Huawei a 90-day window to support existing devices
35. Creator claims Lenovo stole foldable Moto Razr video it played at a press event
36. Forget Huawei, The Internet Of Things Is The Real Security Threat
37. Section 230 Protects Tor Project from Liability for Tragic Drug Overdose–Seaver v. Estate of Cazes (Eric Goldman)
38. A Recap of My Recent Section 230 Papers (Eric Goldman)
39. EFF Highlights Stories Of Bad Content Moderation With New TOSsed Out Site
40. 3D-printed guns are back, and this time they are unstoppable: A decentralised network of gun-printing advocates is mobilising online, they’re anonymously sharing blueprints, advice and building a community.
41. Malaysian Teen Commits Suicide After Instagram Users Voted For Her Death In Poll
42. Instagram’s IGTV copies TikTok’s AI, Snapchat’s design
43. Snapchat Bans Adult Entertainment Company’s X-Rated Lenses
44. Alarming Lessons From Facebook’s Push to Stop Fake News in India
45. Facebook’s A.I. Whiz Now Faces the Task of Cleaning It Up. Sometimes That Brings Him to Tears.
46. Facebook has finally revealed what its secretive robotics division is working on, and it could spark competition with rivals like Google and Apple
47. Should digital platforms be treated as publishers? Key elements of Digital Copyright Directive
48. Killer Apps: The Real Dangers of an AI Arms Race
49. Unboxing Artificial Intelligence: 10 steps to protect Human Rights (Council of Europe Commissioner For Human Rights)
50. US to endorse new OECD principles on artificial intelligence
51. ICO focuses on AI and biometric data
52. How Tech Companies Are Shaping The Rules Governing AI
53. Can Machines be Authors? (Daniel Gervais)
54. Human rights concerns about AI hit lawyers in immigration, criminal law and trusts
55. I listened to a Massive Attack record remixed by a neural network
56. Is AI-generated music worth anything?
57. DARPA Funds Ambitious Brain-Machine Interface Program: The N3 program aims to develop wearable devices that let soldiers to communicate directly with machines.
58. Tesla’s Navigate on Autopilot Requires Significant Driver Intervention: CR finds that latest version of Tesla’s automatic lane-changing feature is far less competent than a human driver
59. Talk Dirty With Machine: The future is robots, and they’re teaching us how to flirt.
60. Amazon’s AI improves emotion detection in voices
61. Court Rejects Service of Process Via Amazon Messaging–Noco v. Chang (Eric Goldman)
62. Amazon made video games for its workers to reduce tedium of warehouse jobs
63. Grindr and Armslist Cases Reaffirm Core Protections for User-Generated Content
64. DMCA Damages are Based Upon Defendant’s Acts, Not its Customers 
65. US Magistrate Judge Provides The Template To End Copyright Trolling With Ruling Against Strike 3
66. Virtual kidnappings are rattling families across the US
67. We Are Tenants On Our Own Devices
68. The Dark Forest Theory of the Internet: Why the dark forests of the internet – podcasts, newsletters, and other private channels - are growing, and why might that pose a problem
69. Inside Google’s Civil War: Some employees say Google is losing touch with its “Don’t be evil” motto. What happens when an empowered tech workforce rebels?
70. Google Updates Ad Policies on Abortion-Related Advertising
71. Anti-abortion clinics that try to trick women face new Google ad policy
72. You Don’t Own What You’ve Bought: Google Nest Edition
73. Google Glass still exists: Meet Google Glass Enterprise Edition 2
74. Google’s Duplex Uses A.I. to Mimic Humans (Sometimes): In a free service, bots call restaurants and make reservations. The technology is impressive, except for when the caller is actually a person.
75. Songza Co-Founders Have Left YouTube Music Ahead of Google Play Music Shut-Down
76. Terminated AdSense Publishers Can’t Get Their Accrued Earnings–eOnline v. Google (Eric Goldman)
77. Prince And Bigi Jackson Launch Movie Review Series On YouTube
78. YouTube Opens Applications For VR Creator Lab In London, Announces Oculus Quest App
79. YouTube Convenes ‘DTC Council’ To Fortify Relations With Direct-To-Consumer Brands
80. ‘Games Of Thrones’ Grey Worm Actor Sees Massive YouTube Spike This Season
81. Twitter Bans Members Of Popular YouTube Music Group For Posting Covers Of Elton John Songs
82. YouTube Cracks Down On Videos Instructing Viewers To Ingest Bleach As ‘Miracle’ Medical Cure
83. YouTube’s Controversy-Ridden Beauty Community Reaches Detente. But Is That What Viewers Want?
84. YouTube Will Soon Only Display Abbreviated — And Not Exact — Subscriber Counts
85. YouTube is changing how subscriber counts are displayed, possibly shifting its culture: Sites like Social Blade may be impacted
86. How Tea Accounts Are Fueling Influencer Feuds: As James Charles and Tati Westbrook battle it out, drama channels are raking in subscribers.
87. YouTube Sets Sights On Primetime Emmy Nods For Will Smith, ‘Cobra Kai’, ‘Wayne’
88. Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 5/19/2019
89. TikTok tops the iOS App Store for the fifth quarter in a row
90. TikTok Owner Preparing Streaming Service to Rival Spotify 
91. TikTok Parent Company Bytedance Will Launch Paid Music Streaming Service This Fall (Report)
92. With 156% growth in 2018, Vice Media focuses on programmatic guaranteed deals
93. VidCon Hires First Content Director, Enters Original Programming Fray With Inaugural Series
94. Digital Talent Agency Gleam Futures Launches Creator-Brand Marketing Firm Gleam Solutions
95. How Amazon turned its darkest time into runaway riches: When Amazon was in trouble back in 2001, Jeff Bezos called professor and Good to Great author Jim Collins — and became his best student ever.
96. Amazon targets Uber Eats with Deliveroo investment: The online retailer is the largest investor in new $575 million funding round
97. Amazon Sellers Hit With Phishing Scheme 
98. Amazon Taps ‘Game Of Thrones’ EP Bryan Cogman For ‘Lord Of The Rings’ Prequel
99. ‘MissionRacer’: How Amazon turned the tedium of warehouse work into a game
100. Yes, Quora still exists, and it’s now worth $2 billion: According to some, the financing round for the question-and-answer platform speaks to the high valuation for virtually everything these days in the tech sector.
101. Former US Attorney Preet Bharara says good journalism may have undermined the Mueller report: “The ‘fake news’ that Donald Trump decried, I think there’s an argument that it sort of saved him.”
102. The CW Ends Netflix Distro Deal, But Streamer Won’t Necessarily Lose Hits Like ‘Riverdale’
103. The CW is ending its Netflix deal, but that doesn’t mean Riverdale is disappearing
104. Netflix Again Blows Past HBO, Others as No. 1 Pick for ‘Best Original Programming,’ Survey Finds
105. Hulu Buys U.S. Distribution Rights For Weinstein Exposé Documentary ‘Untouchable’
106. Retailers Should Consider Whether Behavioral Advertising Is Sale of Information Under CCPA
107. BBTV Founder Shahrzad Rafati Named Vice Chair Of Canadian Federal Investment Agency
108. Rob Glaser 2.0: RealNetworks Reinvents Itself As Facial Recognition Security Platform
109. Wyoming Affords “Money” Status to Certain Virtual Currencies
110. The Blockchain Paradox
111. New Blockchain Solutions Debut Amid Enforcement Actions, New FinCEN Guidance and Warnings of ‘Blockchain Fatigue’ 
112. Fuming Craig Wright Demands Podcaster Tell Court He Created Bitcoin
113. Tech billionaires who donate millions are just “bribing society at large,” Anand Giridharadas says
114. Genetic self-experimenting “biohacker” under investigation by health officials
115. Biohacker Josiah Zayner accused of being an unlicensed practitioner: He says he’s under investigation by the California Medical Board.
116. Viral Star Grumpy Cat Passes Away, Is Memorialized In Memes
117. Grumpy Cat’s death marks the end of the joyful Internet
118. A Computer Afflicted With 6 Infamous Viruses Has Passed $1 Million at Auction: The art project can be yours for a mere seven figures.
119. Downs v. Oath
120. Laying Out All The Evidence: Shiva Ayyadurai Did Not Invent Email

COMMUNICATIONS

1. Cable TV customer satisfaction falls even further behind streaming video: Pay-TV again ranks last in customer satisfaction among all US industries.
2. US Targets Telecommunications Transactions Involving the Information and Communications Technology and Services Supply Chain
3. Chairman Pai, Commissioner Carr Issue Formal Statements Supporting T-Mobile/Sprint Merger; Commissioner O’Rielly Also “Inclined” to Support Merger
4. Ajit Pai OKs T-Mobile/Sprint merger, “requires” 5G rollout that’ll happen anyway
5. Unsurprisingly, Ajit Pai’s FCC Thinks The T-Mobile Sprint Merger Will Be Wonderful
6. Consensus Quietly Builds That 5G Was Overhyped, Rushed To Market
7. T-Mobile/Sprint merger faces big trouble at DOJ despite FCC approval
8. DOJ Staffers Think T-Mobile’s Merger Benefit Claims Are Nonsense
9. Man who threatened to kill Ajit Pai’s children gets 20 months in prison
10. FCC Adopts Sweeping Changes to FM Translator Interference Rules 

PRIVACY

1. The Government Is Expanding Its Social Media Surveillance Capabilities: But social media monitoring programs and the algorithms that power them aren’t effective – and may be discriminatory.
2. Should we ban facial recognition? From companies to cities, debate over privacy rages on
3. Police facial recognition surveillance court case starts
4. Some US Cities Are Moving Into Real-Time Facial Surveillance
5. City Of San Francisco Bans Use Of Facial Recognition Tech By Government Agencies
6. San Francisco Is The First City In The World To Restrict Government Use Of Facial Recognition Technology. Hopefully It’s Not The Last.
7. As San Francisco Bans Facial Recognition Tech By Local Cops, New York City’s Legislators Stall On Transparency Reforms
8. No Reasonable Expectation of Privacy in Case of Online Child Luring
9. Data breach lawyer confirms thousands more TalkTalk customers could have claims for compensation
10. >20,000 Linksys routers leak historic record of every device ever connected
11. Federal Court Says Warrants Are Needed To Grab GPS Data From Third-Party Tracking Services
12. Another Federal Magistrate Says Compelled Production Of Passwords/Biometrics Violates The Fifth Amendment
13. ‘Privacy horse is sort of out of the barn’: Congress circles closer to federal privacy law
14. Privacy Perils: The Downside of Pop-Ups
15. Ransomware Cyberattacks Knock Baltimore’s City Services Offline
16. Baltimore ransomware nightmare could last weeks more, with big consequences
17. FBI Tells The Governor Of Florida About Election Hacking, But Says He Can’t Tell Anyone Else
18. Hackers abuse ASUS cloud service to install backdoor on users’ PCs: Computer-maker’s WebStorage software tied to malware attack from the BlackTech Group
19. FTC Commissioners discuss state privacy preemption 
20. GDPR Turns One, eh? Current Impact on Canadian Businesses and the Road Ahead 
21. Prince Harry Uses GDPR To Obtain Payout From Photographer Who Shot Photos Of His Rental Home
22. These firms promise high-tech ransomware solutions—but typically just pay hackers
23. WannaCry? Hundreds of US schools still haven’t patched servers [Updated]

CREATIVITY

1. In San Francisco, an attack on press freedoms and echoes of autocracy
2. San Francisco District Attorney Condemns Raid On Journalist’s Home: City police raided reporter’s home in probe of leaked information about Public Defender death.
3. A step forward or new concerns? Examining the proposed Trade-marks Act
4. Paradigm shift: Recommended changes to Canadian copyright law announced
5. Canadian Committee Publishes Ludicrous Fantasy Pretending To Be Copyright Reform Analysis
6. A Catfight Over Copyright
7. Adidas Gets a Boost in Yeezy Copyright Battle
8. Insights on Gen Z’s Perceptions of Brands & Counterfeits
9. EU Blocks ‘Brexit Beer’ Trademark, First As ‘Offensive’, Then As Non-Distinctive
10. Judge Alsup Slams Patent Troll For Basically Everything
11. Disney accused of being real pirate in Pirates of the Caribbean
12. Disney Wins ‘Pirates Of The Caribbean’ Copyright Suit As Court Declares You Cannot Copyright Pirate Life
13. When the Music Biz Had It That Way: The Backstreet Boys’ ‘Millennium’ album, which turns 20 this week, was a diamond-selling mainstay in the pre-Napster era. It also may have helped bring about the bad times that followed.
14. Trump won’t stop coining nasty nicknames for his foes — but the media must stop amplifying them.
15. Trump vs. New York Times: the executive editor’s perspective
16. Is it illegal to lie to voters in political ads?
17. How Vince McMahon’s WWE Seized on TV Disruption to Become a Wall Street Champ
18. Caesars, ESPN Reach Media Partnership Deal
19. ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro is fighting the cord-cutting wave
20. “Varsity Blues”: Don’t Let Morals Clauses Leave Talent in the Red
21. Unearthing the Black newspaper that sold the California dream to freed slaves
22. Kazakhstan Cops Protect Citizens’ Free Speech Rights By Arresting A Protester Holding A Blank Sign
23. Scientists ‘paint’ Mona Lisa on a quantum canvas

Jon