GAMES
- Sony Europe taken to court for alleged consumer rights violations: ACCC alleges PlayStation Store refund policy does not reflect the consumer rights protected under Australian law
- Zenimax settles ‘Redfall’ trademark dispute with book publisher
- Bethesda And Zenimax Settle ‘Redfall’ Trademark Dispute With Trollish Book Publisher
- ‘Gaming disorder’ officially recognized as a disease despite industry protests
- World Health Organization makes ‘gaming disorder’ a recognised illness: Classification to come into effect January 1, 2022
- Trade groups decry gaming disorder classification: Six industry associations from around the world say evidence of the condition is not “sufficiently robust”
- South Korean government split on gaming disorder: Ministry of Culture argues diagnosis violates right to cultural freedom while Ministry of Welfare supports the WHO classification
- Senators Hawley, Markey, And Blumenthal File Legislation To Stop Manipulative Video Game Practices Aimed At Children
- US loot box bill receives bipartisan support: Republican senator’s ban on loot boxes pay-to-win mechanics for children has been co-sponsored by two Democrats
- GOP, Dem Senators officially introduce loot box, “pay-to-win” legislation
- A BILL To regulate certain pay-to-win microtransactions and sales of loot boxes in interactive digital entertainment products, and for other purposes.
- Games industry being “dragged through the mud” by Belgian loot box ruling: Flemish Games Association questions the motives of Belgian Gaming Commission report on loot boxes
- Proposed anti-loot box bill has big implications for devs and publishers
- Shocking U.S. “Loot Box” Bill Should Surprise No One: The Video Game Industry Under Attack (Ryan Black, Tyson Gratton)
- The Relationship of Loot Box Purchases to Problem Video Gaming and Problem Gambling (Wen Li Anthony, Devin Mills & Lisa Nower)
- Rage 2 Drops Denuvo In Record Time After Customer Outcry
- FaZe Clan’s Contract With Tfue Leaks, FaZe Banks Acknowledges Its Terms Are “Horrible” For Gamers
- Tfue Lawsuit Sparks Scrutiny of Gamer Agreements and Esports Agency Activity
- Riot forms governing body for scholastic esports: Riot Scholastic Association of America to oversee high school and collegiate League of Legends competitions
- Overwatch League commissioner joins Epic’s Fortnite esports push
- Overwatch League commissioner Nate Nanzer leaving Blizzard for Epic Games
- Gearbox didn’t file a grievance against former legal counsel: Wade Callender confirms that the Borderlands studio has not followed through on its threat
- The Epic Games Store exceeded THQ Nordic’s expectations, says CEO
- ZeniMax amicably resolves “Redfall” trademark dispute: Contested trademark is thought by fans to be a possible title for the next Elder Scrolls game
- US considers 25% tariff on game consoles: Trump administration proposes tax on “essentially all products” coming from China as part of escalating trade dispute
- Roblox targets China with Tencent education partnership: Joint venture will run educational programmes at first, with Chinese launch of Roblox “the ultimate goal”
- Report: Tencent backs away from Arena of Valor after it fails to take off in the West
- Tencent reportedly gives up on Arena of Valor: Honor of Kings’ Western revamp has been left to “live or die on its own course” after rift with Riot Games
- Bossa shutting down Worlds Adrift, says game is ‘no longer commercially viable’
- The Playdate is a new crank-clad handheld from Firewatchpublisher Panic
- Firewatch publisher unveils Playdate gaming handheld: New hardware from Panic will include a game each week from a different designer — and a hand crank
- Playdate handheld pressured Playdate event to change name, says organizer: Nathalie Lawhead criticizes Panic rep for “bullying” people building the culture the handheld is marketed toward
- Razer signals the end of Ouya with online store closure: The microconsole brand had survived as part of the Forge TV service, but that will close in June
- Telltale Games titles are being delisted from GOG
- All Telltale Games to be pulled from GOG next week: Eight more series to be removed, but 2K is working on getting Tales from the Borderlands reinstated to digital storefronts
- Patrice Désilets’ Ancestors will be exclusive to Epic Games Store for three months: Staggered console release means Panache Digital’s first game will be exclusive to EGS when it launches in August
- From Rockstar Lincoln studio head to anti-crunch advocate: Mark Lloyd shares how he embraced crunch culture, how he got out of it, and how he’s dealing with the lingering guilt and regret
- Blog: Why crunch will break the best and brightest in the industry
- Four new Pokemon projects have been unveiled, including cross-platform trading hub
- Pokémon Home adds cloud service to series: The Pokémon Company also announced new mobile titles, including one that tracks sleeping patterns, and more plans for China
- Pokémon is a masterclass in brand management | Opinion: Last night’s reveals offered more evidence of The Pokémon Company’s masterful 23 year strategy
- Super Mario Maker 2’s paid online mode won’t let you matchmake with friends
- Dauntless saw 500,000 new players within 24 hours of its cross-platform launch
- Dead Cells has surpassed 2 million copies sold
- Subway Surfers surpasses 2.5 billion lifetime downloads
- These were the best-selling new releases on Steam in April
- 13 data centers in key game dev areas now support xCloud, testing open for some devs
- Don’t Miss: The blessing and the curse of early buzz forRime
- How everything has fallen into place for Tetris: The classic puzzle game is making headlines once again, just in time for its 35th birthday celebrations
- GitHub launches Patreon-like crowdfunding program GitHub Sponsors
- Zynga sells headquarters for $600 million to help finance acquisitions
- Blog: Understanding the impact of the creative gaming revolution
- Blog: 7 essential ingredients for building tension in horror games
- Blog: The double-edged sword of live service games
- Blog: A technical approach to Titan’s environment inAfterlight
- Blog: Design trajectories in Let’s Play: Ancient Greek Punishment: Chess Edition
- A composer’s insight to making music for games: Workflow, creativity, and tech
- Opinion: How Draugen lets down its characters
- Don’t Miss: The making of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
- Don’t Miss: 7 classic arcade games that can still teach developers lessons today
- Video: Cultivating and caring for great AI behavior trees
- Video: The grind behind Boyfriend Dungeon’s $272K funding success
- Sonic the Hedgehog film delayed: Paramount Pictures pushes back Sega mascot’s live-action film as it overhauls character design
- TIGA: UK industry now contributes record £1.8b to GDP – New report shows UK headcount at an all-time high of 16,532 full-time staff
- Superhot passes two million lifetime sales: VR accounts for around 40% of game’s total sales
- VR and AR must converge, says Unity XR lead: Timoni West foresees a future where VR/AR/mixed reality technology outpaces consoles, replaces PCs entirely
- Unity announces support for Labo VR goggles
- Augmented reality changes how people interact and communicate, study finds
- Superdata: Apex Legends digital revenue down 74% in two months – EA’s battle royale title shows second month of steep digital revenue decline, falls out of PC and console top ten
- EA exec lays out a vision of the future: Chief Studios Officer Laura Miele shares her optimism, predicts a machine-learning powered metaverse of gaming within 10 years
- Quake II gets free real-time raytracing updates on June 6
- Leigh Alexander: “Power fantasies are boring”: The award-winning narrative designer is tired of games giving players whatever they want — it’s time we explored “disempowerment fantasies” instead
- Total War: Three Kingdoms is a massive hit in China
- How Total War conquered China to break franchise records: The latest Total War game has got off to the best start in the franchise’s history as Three Kingdoms rules in China
- Sony CEO: Consoles a ‘niche market’ within the games industry
- Putting PlayStation on the silver screen: Efforts to adapt games to TV and film have generally been poorly received – but the cultural and business climate we’re in may be perfect for Sony’s new venture
- Sony: Next PlayStation’s success will depend on backwards compatibility and streaming – Both Remote Play and PlayStation Now will be key pillars for Sony’s next generation offering
- Kojima’s Death Stranding gets November 8 release date, wackadoo trailer: If the glowing “bridge baby” isn’t enough for you, there’s now a tentacle-boss tease.
- UK charts: Team Sonic Racing laps the competition -Sega’s kart racer is first Sonic game to top charts in 11 years as Rage 2 slides a few spots in its second week
- Sonic the Hedgehog film delayed: Paramount Pictures pushes back Sega mascot’s live-action film as it overhauls character design
- Bossa shutting down Worlds Adrift, says game is ‘no longer commercially viable’
- WeQ acquires and rebrands Booster Studios to branch into publishing
- Video: A Dream Daddy dev’s survival guide for terminally online indies
- The YouTube Gaming app is shutting down this week
- YouTube Will Permanently Shutter Standalone Gaming App On May 30
- Google Play’s new dev policies aim to improve child privacy and safety
- Google kills its Twitch killer—the YouTube Gaming app shuts down this week
- Google investing €600m into Finnish data centre ahead of Stadia
- Why the quirky Playdate portable could succeed where Ouya failed
- GDPR: One year in | Opinion: Too many games businesses remain complacent about complying with GDPR, says Keywords Studios’ Andrew Brown
- ‘If You’re Playing EVE Online You Basically Already Have An MBA,’ Says Player Who Built His Own Company
- A Way Out picks up Game of the Year at Nordic Game Awards: Hazelight Studios’ game beat Supercell and EA DICE to the prize
- In praise of ultra-short games
DIGITAL
- Zuckerberg and Sandberg ignore Canadian subpoena, face possible contempt vote
- Facebook Took Down 2.2 Billion Fake Accounts in Q1
- Conservative Bias? Twitter Bans Famous ‘Resistance’ Heroes
- Distorted Videos of Nancy Pelosi Spread on Facebook and Twitter, Helped by Trump
- Trump allies spread distorted videos of Pelosi
- Facebook on fake Pelosi video: Being ‘false’ isn’t enough for removal
- Backlash after Facebook agrees Nancy Pelosi video is fake but declines to delete it: ‘We don’t have a policy that stipulates that the information you post on Facebook must be true,’ the company said
- Why it took Facebook so long to act against the doctored Pelosi video
- Pelosi says altered videos show Facebook leaders were ‘willing enablers’ of Russian election interference
- Deepfakes are getting better—but they’re still easy to spot
- Shady Political Ads Are Pouring Into Facebook. We Still Can’t Track Them.
- Section 230 Doesn’t End Lawsuit Claiming Facebook Facilitated Sex Trafficking–Doe v. Facebook (Eric Goldman)
- Section 230 Helps Facebook Easily Defeat Claims Over a User’s Post–Richard v. Facebook (Eric Goldman)
- Dear Kara Swisher: Don’t Let Your Hatred Of Facebook Destroy Free Speech Online
- New Assange indictment adds 17 espionage charges
- Federal Prosecutors Questioned The Assange Prosecution, But Their Concerns Were Ignored By The DOJ
- The Wikimedia Foundation Asks The European Court Of Human Rights To Rule Against Turkey’s Two-Year Block Of All Wikipedia Versions
- Jim Balsillie : ‘Data is not the new oil – it’s the new plutonium’: Lawmakers told technology is disrupting governance and if left unchecked could render liberal democracy obsolete
- Civil society, industry and government must join hands to protect free speech, curb extreme speech: Our next challenge is to find the mix of tools and approaches that strengthen public discourse that work in the digital age.
- Forget ‘Breaking Up’ Internet Companies, Senator Josh Hawley Says They Should All Die Because They’re Too Popular
- Want to fix big tech? Change what classes are required for a computer science degree: When people learn to code, they should also learn about ethics, humanities, and equity.
- Social Media Companies Seek Government Content Regulation?
- Regulating social media
- Is Fake News spam?
- Several Pro And College Sports Teams Suspended From Twitter Over Mystery DMCA Notices
- Donald Trump’s Wikipedia Entry Is a War Zone: It’s one of the most popular pages on the internet. But behind the scenes, editors are fighting a brutal, petty battle over every word.
- Canada Digital Charter Announced
- Canada Introduces a Digital Charter to Better Protect Privacy
- Canada proposes to increase penalties for tech giants in its Digital Charter
- Feds call on Competition Bureau to address Big Data
- Youth and Artificial Intelligence: Where We Stand (Alexa Hasse, Sandra Cortesi, Andres Lombana-Bermudez, Urs Gasser)
- Robots conduct daily health inspections of schoolchildren in China
- When algorithms mess up, the nearest human gets the blame: A look at historical case studies shows us how we handle the liability of automated systems.
- Hollywood Is Quietly Using Ai To Help Decide Which Movies To Make: AI will tell you who to cast and predict how much money you’ll make
- Poland has filed a complaint against the European Union’s copyright directive: The directive was approved in April, and goes into force in June
- Internet Regulation: Endgame (Andres Guadamuz)
- Kentucky to Begin Taxing Video Streaming Services under Telecom Tax
- Streaming Services Far Exceed Traditional Cable in Customer Satisfaction
- HuffPost Gets 512(c) Defense for Contributor-Uploaded Photo–Downs v. Oath (Eric Goldman)
- Dark Web Provider Escapes Wrongful Death Drug Case
- Filtering Actions by Anti-Malware Software Provider Protected by CDA “Good Samaritan” Immunity
- Here’s How Many Views YouTubers Need To Make It Onto The ‘Trending’ Tab (Study)
- YouTube’s Trending section puts creators at a huge disadvantage over big brands: Study collected data on more than 40,000 videos
- T-Series’ YouTube Channel Becomes First-Ever To Net 100 Million Subscribers
- T-Series Becomes First YouTube Channel To Pass 100 Million Subscribers
- Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 5/26/2019
- Youtubers And Record Labels Are Fighting, And Record Labels Keep Winning: The battle over copyright continues
- Meet the man with an impossible job: cleaning up YouTube
- Friday essay: YouTube apologies and reality TV revelations – the rise of the public confession
- New Collab Study Finds YouTube Viewership Has Dramatically Shifted Toward TV Screens
- YouTube Millionaires: ‘The Mean Kitty’ Is YouTube’s Most Beloved Cat
- Grumpy Cat – legal lessons from the ultimate sourpuss
- Rudy Mancuso To Direct ‘Black Mirror’ Promo Series With Lele Pons, Jeff Wittek, Others
- Insights: Remaking Education To Inspire And Engage An Influencer-Fueled World
- StyleHaul Scraps Plans To Shift Operations To U.K., Confirms Total Shutdown (Exclusive)
- Sephora Takes Crowdsourced Approach To Influencer Marketing With New Beauty ‘Squad’
- High School Students Are Making College Decision Reaction Videos (And They’re Good)
- ‘Believe in the brand’: Kellogg’s is now using influencers like creative agencies
- KSI Loses 100,000 Subscribers After Brother Deji Posts Video Accusing Him Of Abusive Behavior
- Logan And Jake Paul To Chat YouTube Drama On New Joint Channel
- Snap in Talks to License Music to Let Snapchat Users Embed Songs in Posts
- Snap Hires Google Exec Oona King as First VP of Diversity and Inclusion
- Snap Poaches Google, YouTube Vet Oona King To Serve As VP Of Diversity And Inclusion
- Remember the iPod? Apple just released the first new one in four years
- No chill: Google just banned marijuana delivery apps from the Play Store
- TikTok parent Bytedance is reportedly working on its own smartphone
- The Music-Making Site That Can Get You a Global Hit (Or a Lawsuit): Lil Nas X bought the beat for “Old Town Road” for $30 from a website called BeatStars.
- Nielsen Using Patent Monopolies To Act Like A Monopolist
- Netflix Says It Will “Rethink Our Entire Investment In Georgia” If Anti-Abortion Law Is Enacted
- Netflix the Only Hollywood Studio to Speak Out in Attack Against Abortion Rights
- Rudy Mancuso To Direct ‘Black Mirror’ Promo Series With Lele Pons, Jeff Wittek, Others
- Hulu Says 70% of Its 82 Million Viewers Are on Ad-Supported Plan
- 70% Of Hulu’s 28 Million Subscribers Are On Its Ad-Supported Tier — And Hulu’s Innovating Ads To Keep Them There
- Why CBS, Viacom and others are open to making shows for streaming and TV rivals
- BuzzFeed’s Viral Tasty Brand Dives Deeper Into Long-Form Shows With ‘Making It Big’
- Instagram Adds Horizontal Video Support For IGTV 1 Year After Launch
- Chrissy Teigen Will Reign In Quibi’s ‘Judge Judy’-Esque Reality Series ‘Chrissy’s Court’
- Jay-Z and Tidal to Host Release Events for Prince’s ‘Originals’ Album
- It’s Ok That Amazon Will (Likely) Get The .Amazon Domain
- Amazon avoids liability for defective product
- Amazon Is Poised to Unleash a Long-Feared Purge of Small Suppliers
- MacKenzie Bezos Signs ‘Giving Pledge’ to Donate Half Her $37 Billion Amazon Fortune to Charity
- Amazon Isn’t Liable for Defective Marketplace Sale (No Thanks to Section 230)–Erie Insurance v. Amazon
- Porter Gale Becomes Reddit’s First Female Board Member
- Who owns the Bitcoin white paper? (Andres Guadamuz)
- Copyright Office Weighs In After Wannabe Satoshi Craig Wright Registers Copyright On Original Bitcoin Paper
- How blockchain and smart contracts will change the face of insurance in the U.S.
- Modi’s Indian election win clears way for cryptocurrency ban
- Proposed Amendments to the GST/HST Treatment of Cryptocurrencies
- Fake cryptocurrency apps on Google Play try to profit on bitcoin price surge
- Website for storing digital currencies hosted code with a sneaky backdoor
- Blockchain, Hype or Hope?
- Salesforce’s Success Rides on One Man’s Gut: Marc Benioff’s acquisitions have kept the software giant growing at an incredible rate.
- A technology blueprint for personalization at scale
- The internet is changing Africa, mostly for the better: Cheap smartphones are flooding Africa, giving many of its citizens access to the internet for the very first time.
- 30-plus years of HyperCard, the missing link to the Web
- Before Netscape: The forgotten Web browsers of the early 1990s
- The unlikely origins of USB, the port that changed everything
COMMUNICATIONS
- No Mandated Netflix Cancon Payments: Shaw Argues Success Lies in More Regulatory Flexibility in BTLR Submission (Michael Geist)
- Self-Serving in the Extreme: Bell’s Broadcast and Telecom Submission to the BTLR Revealed (Michael Geist)
- Ajit Pai May Have Lied To Congress About FCC’s Failure To Address Wireless Location Data Scandals
- If Facebook’s Privacy Practices Anger You, AT&T Shouldn’t Get A Free Pass
- FCC Starts Accepting ATSC 3.0 Applications – The Next Generation of TV Transmission
- Federal Communications Commission Plans to Combat Robocalls with Carrier-Initiated Blocking
- U.S. Adds Chinese Giant Huawei and Non-U.S. Affiliates to Entity List; Grants Limited Reprieve
- Huawei in Hot Water: Trump Declares National Emergency
- Is Huawei in retreat?
- Microsoft pulls Huawei laptops from its online store
- Research in UBC-Huawei partnership proceeds as pressure builds to exclude giant Chinese firm
- Huawei argues congressional ban on its equipment is unconstitutional
- House Dems Start To Wimp Out On Net Neutrality
- 47 Democrats cave on net neutrality after GOP calls bill “dead on arrival”
- Report Says EU ISPs Are Happily Ignoring Net Neutrality Rules
- Comcast does so much lobbying that it says disclosing it all is too hard
- Directors and Officers May Be Found Personally Liable Under CASL
PRIVACY
- Proposed digital charter could bring sweeping changes to Canadian privacy laws
- Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada Suspends Consultation on Transborder Data Flows
- Apple promises privacy, but iPhone apps share your data with trackers, ad companies and research firms
- Nearly 50 million Instagram users’ data exposed, adding to Facebook’s privacy woes
- Government Prosecutor Caught Sending Emails With Tracking Software To Reporters And Defense Attorneys
- Google bots shut down Baltimore officials’ ransomware-workaround Gmail accounts
- Eternally Blue: Baltimore City leaders blame NSA for ransomware attack
- Dating App Maker Gets COPPA Warning Letter from the Commish
- Why a Windows flaw patched nine days ago is still spooking the Internet
- FTC, App Stores Break Up With Dating Apps
- Pennsylvania Superior Court holds county where reputational harm occurs is proper venue for Internet defamation suits, confirming 50-year-old inquiry applies to website-based claims
- Amazon now lets you tell Alexa to delete your voice recordings
- Why We Should Stop Fetishizing Privacy
- Mending (Geo)fencing Concerns
- Why Privacy Is an Antitrust Issue
- SFPD Finally Admits The Search Of A Journalist’s Home Over A Leaked Document Was Probably Illegal
- San Francisco Bans Facial Recognition Technology Amidst Wave of Government Scrutiny
- Law Firm Domain Names Spoofed to Launch Phishing Scams
- Can Employers Request Social Media Account Information?
- Germany mulls giving end-to-end chat app encryption das boot: Law requiring decrypted plain-text is in the works – Officials want to upgrade rules from device searching to message interception
- Ship Your Enemies GDPR
- One Year Into The GDPR: Can We Declare It A Total Failure Yet?
- FTC Toughening Stance on Data Security – Five Key Takeaways from Recent Consent Orders
- Privacy Unravelled: what do Facebook and Google know about us?
- Connected devices: Challenges for both technology providers and consumers
CREATIVITY
- New Assange Indictment Makes Insane, Unprecedented Use Of Espionage Act On Things Journalists Do All The Time
- The indictment of Assange is a blueprint for making journalists into felons: The First Amendment is meaningless if it only protects people the government recognizes as journalists
- Under DOJ’s Own Theory For Prosecuting Julian Assange, Donald Trump Probably Violated The Espionage Act
- SFPD Earning Universal Condemnation For Raiding A Journalist’s Home During Its Internal Leak Investigation
- San Francisco police chief concedes raid on journalist was wrong – ‘I’m sorry’
- San Francisco police union wants chief out over raid on freelance reporter
- ‘Gimme the prize’: the author dysfunction (Johanna Gibson)
- The Books of College Libraries Are Turning Into Wallpaper: University libraries around the world are seeing precipitous declines in the use of the books on their shelves.
- Portland Trailblazers Streisand Stupid Local Article Into National Spotlight For No Reason At All
- Countdown To Canada’s New Trademarks Act
- PR Firm Not Covered by Privilege Umbrella in Trademark Row
- ITC to Investigate Infringing Uses of Trademarks and Copyrights to Sell Counterfeits
- Peppa Pig: Copyright infringement by the former licensee
- Jenni Rivera Enterprises LLC v. Univision Communications Inc.
- A “Boost” for copyright protection in the fashion industry: Kanye’s Yeezy sneakers to receive copyright registrations
- NCAA Athletes Move Closer to Receiving Pay from Their Names, Images, and Likeness
- Publishing Law Insight – The Perils of Mimicking a Famous Advertising Slogan
- Chris Brown’s “Wobble Up” Video Allegedly Copied Visual Artists’ Work
- Double trouble: the fight to be the real Lord Buckethead:
- When the political candidate stood against Theresa May in the 2017 general election, he became a viral star. But not all is well
- Bittersweet no more: Rolling Stones pass Verve royalties to Richard Ashcroft – Acrimonious dispute meant Ashcroft gave up royalties but ‘kind and magnanimous gesture from Mick and Keith’ passes rights to him
- A True Story Of ‘Copyright Piracy’: Why The Verve Will Only Start Getting Royalties Now For Bittersweet Symphony
- Why Is Congress Moving Forward With Its Plan To Encourage Copyright Trolling?
- Brooke Shields Hits Charlotte Tilbury with Eyebrow Suit
- Profit Motive Does Not Magically Transform Data Request Fax Into Unsolicited Advertisement
- How One Hollywood Producer Is Trying to Change the Boys’ Club From Within
- NAD Washes Out Superiority Claims in Tide Pods Commercial
- Meredith Sells Sports Illustrated to Authentic Brands Group for $110 Million
- Jeff Koons becomes world’s most expensive living artist
- Aaron Sorkin read Breitbart for inspiration as he wrote “To Kill a Mockingbird” script
- By Censoring Arthur’s Same-Sex Wedding, Alabama Public Television Betrayed Mr. Rogers’ Legacy
- How Berlin Became an Unlikely Home for China’s Artists: The German capital not only offers freedom, but also invites people to provoke and challenge orthodoxy.
- The 25 Best High School Movies
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