News of the Week; June 10, 2020

GAMES

  1. Ubisoft Alleges Rainbow Six Siege Infringement by Ejoy.com
  2. Sony fined $3.5 million for issuing ‘misleading’ refund advice to PlayStation users
  3. Investors argue against excessive pay package for Activision CEO
  4. Activision Blizzard shareholders upset over CEO Bobby Kotick’s compensation: Publisher defends Kotick’s pay despite his “apparent failure” to meet performance targets
  5. UK government calls for more evidence in ongoing loot box debate 
  6. UK could class loot boxes as gambling to protect children: Ministers call for evidence on video games such as Fifa that charge money for rewards
  7. Government Response to the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee Report on Immersive and Addictive Technologies (U.K. Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
  8. Escape from Tarkov dev Battlestate will clamp down on real world trading
  9. Brantley v. Epic Games, Inc.: Trademark & related claims targeting use of “Running Man” dance move in Fortnite dismissed; claims pre-empted by Copyright Act & failure to allege protectable trademark.
  10. Riot exec resigns after blaming George Floyd’s death on his lifestyle
  11. Riot Games exec placed on leave for Facebook post blaming George Floyd’s death on “criminal lifestyle”: “The sentiment…is…counter to our belief that addressing systemic racism requires immediate societal change”
  12. Riot pledges $10 million to create pathways for minority-led studios
  13. Itchio’s Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality has raised $2.4M with one week left to go
  14. Canadian publisher Klei donates $1 million to Black Lives Matter charities
  15. EA Sports pledges to up efforts to fight toxic behavior in its games: Publisher promises increased resources, in-game tools, better filters amid global protests against racism and police brutality
  16. Games industry donates to Black Lives Matter and more to support US protests
  17. Neil Druckmann: The Last of Us Part 2 will “normalise stuff that is normal” – Naughty Dog director reacts to leaks, says people who will “benefit most from this story are the ones yelling the loudest”
  18. Naughty Dog ramps up accessibility options for The Last of Us Part II
  19. Red Candle Games’ Devotion is getting a relaunch (in Taiwan)
  20. Devotion gets a physical release in Taiwan: Red Candle Games’ horror title returns in limited capacity after developer pulled it from Steam last year
  21. Guinness World Records People Accidentally Claiming Copyright On Tons Of ‘Super Mario Bros.’ Speedruns
  22. Sky Sports working with FIFA devs to artificially fill Premier League stadiums
  23. EA Access inches closer to Steam launch as more EA games go up for sale
  24. Epic Games Store scores next Total War game as exclusive: A Total War Saga Troy will only be available through Epic for the first year, will be free for the first 24 hours
  25. Ahead of PS5 showcase, Microsoft confirms Hellblade II will run on Unreal 5
  26. Nintendo claims 300K accounts have been hacked after NNID security breach
  27. Hacks Are Always Worse Than Reported: Nintendo’s Breached Accounts Magically Double
  28. From Zelda to Civ to Frostpunk—can climate change be fun?
  29. Online sales up 517% at GameStop, though overall sales are still on a decline
  30. GAME re-opening stores on June 15: All stores in England and North Ireland will open doors next Monday, but Belong Arenas remain closed
  31. UK retailer Game will isolate trade-in stock for three days to stop COVID-19
  32. My.Games offers 90/10 revenue split to devs that promote its store: All other studios will get 70/30 as company seeks to reward those that bring new users to its marketplace
  33. Cyberpunk 2077 will come to Stadia after console, PC launch
  34. Sony’s Back Button Attachment is finally back in stock, so here’s our review
  35. Despite 100GB video games, average download times are decreasing
  36. How Sega hopes to use Japanese arcades as streaming data centers
  37. Outer Worlds on Switch: A monumental, messy conversion on weak hardware
  38. Command & Conquer Remastered Collection review: Loving the smell of Tiberium
  39. Bungie will cycle out content to keep Destiny 2 fresh well into next-gen
  40. Destiny 3 may never exist—to that end, the series will wipe older campaign content
  41. Mobile publisher Playrix acquires Croatian game studio Cateia Games
  42. Playrix acquires Croatian PC developer Cateia Games
  43. Kalypso Media has acquired Port Royale developer Gaming Mind Studios
  44. Australian games industry valued at $3.6b in 2019: Software, hardware, and accessories sales were down, but subscription revenue rose 28% year-over-year
  45. Guilty Gear dev Arc System Works opens new division to expand globally
  46. Arc System Works to expand international business with new division: Guilty Gear creator Daisuke Ishiwatari becomes chief creative officer as part of broad restructuring
  47. Unity report shows massive spike in video game business due to COVID-19
  48. Unity: Fine-tuning solutions to gaming’s “massive content problem” – Brett Bibby on helping developers to meet a 100x increase in game content, and Unity’s solutions to the spread of remote working
  49. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night has sold over 1 million copies worldwide
  50. Chinese game company NetEase has opened a new studio in Japan
  51. Tinybuild: Indie publishers must move beyond “transactional relationships”
  52. You have five seconds: Why you need strong visual design in your indie game: Skelattack’s creator David Stanley on why first impressions are everything, plus art tips so your assets stand out
  53. YouTube Pacts With Geoff Keighley For Exclusive ‘Summer Game Fest’ Programming
  54. The Esports Boom: A Temporary ‘Sports Fix’ or in a League of Its Own?
  55. Boom.tv raises $10m in Series A funding: Bitkraft leads investment round to support Code Red ProAm series, esports entertainment platform
  56. I choose you: Pokémon Draft League brings pro sports excitement to the game
  57. FaZe Clan To Release Movie Slate Beginning This Year In Pact With ‘Invisible Narratives’
  58. SimRefinery, a long lost training simuator from Maxis, has been recovered
  59. A lost Maxis “Sim” game has been discovered by an Ars reader [Updated]
  60. Deep Dive: Designing the Super Mario Maker-inspired I Wanna Maker
  61. Video: Harmonizing the creative and business goals of Dead by Daylight
  62. Video: Designing Headliner to teach players about media manipulation
  63. Video: Designing Mortal Kombat 11’s empowering tutorial mode
  64. Don’t Miss: Big Huge Games’ postmortem of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
  65. Don’t Miss: A postmortem of Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell
  66. Don’t Miss: Making Oxenfree’s narrative unfold like a free-flowing conversation
  67. Don’t Miss: What went right (and wrong) during the development of Persona 4
  68. Don’t Miss: As traffic hits all-time high, Jackbox adjusting to dev’ing from home
  69. Blog: Steam’s wishlist conversions – how hot are yours?
  70. Blog: Understanding open world level design – Part 5
  71. Blog: Moving on stairs in a 2D side-scroller
  72. Blog: Some thoughts about research and upgrades in RTS games
  73. Blog: Making a SNES game in 2020

DIGITAL

  1. CDT First Out The Gate In Suing To Block Donald Trump’s Silly Executive Order On Section 230
  2. Think Of The Kitten: A Crash Course On Section 230
  3. Twitter Taking Down Trump Campaign Video Over Questionable Copyright Claim Demonstrates Why Trump Should Support Section 230
  4. Senators Rubio, Hawley, Loeffler And Cramer Ask The FCC To Reinterpret Section 230 In A Totally Ridiculous Manner
  5. Looking at the President’s Executive Order on Online Media – Part 2, What Real Risk Does It Pose for Media Companies?
  6. The President Goes on the Offensive Against Social Media Platforms
  7. My Galley by CJR Interview on Trump’s Anti-Section 230 Executive Order (Eric Goldman)
  8. Section 230 Ends Demonetized YouTuber’s Lawsuit–Lewis v. Google (Eric Goldman)
  9. Section 230 Applies to Publicity Rights Claim–Hepp v. Facebook (Eric Goldman)
  10. What is a “True Threat” Online?–In re. R.D. (Eric Goldman)
  11. #ShareTheMicNow Campaign Seeks To Magnify The Voices Of Black Women On Instagram
  12. Former NFL Player Emmanuel Acho Launches Viral ‘Uncomfortable Conversations With A Black Man’ Series
  13. Facebook Shareholders The Latest Group To Ask Facebook To Drop Its Encryption Plans
  14. Coming This Summer: Facebook Will Begin Blocking Advertisements From State-Controlled Media Entities In The United States
  15. The Internet’s most important—and misunderstood—law, explained
  16. Apple is now worth 1.5 trillion dollars
  17. Norway Supreme Court Signs Off On Apple’s Harassment Of An Independent Repair Shop
  18. Instagram just threw users of its embedding API under the bus
  19. IBM asks Congress for police reform, leaves facial recognition business
  20. “Culture of workplace fear” leads to COVID-19 spread at Amazon, suit says
  21. Online content sharing – pay to play?
  22. Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Film App ‘Whatifi’ Launches With $10 Million In Venture Funding
  23. YouTube Provides Rare, Robust Window Into Monetization Guidelines For Creators
  24. Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 6/08/2020
  25. Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 6/01/2020
  26. Top 50 Most Viewed US YouTube Channels • Week Of 6/08/2020
  27. Top 50 Most Viewed US YouTube Channels • Week Of 6/01/2020
  28. U.S. Kids Spend 86 Minutes Per Day Watching YouTube Videos—And 82 Minutes Watching TikTok (Study)
  29. Despite National Security Concerns, This Congressman Has Launched A Quippy TikTok Account
  30. Don Henley Tells Senators: We Must Change Copyright Law… Because The People Like TikTok?
  31. Jake Paul Charged With Criminal Trespass And Unlawful Assembly After Denying Looting At Arizona Mall
  32. Instagram and Embedding Photos – An Update and a Bombshell (?) from Instagram
  33. New CAP/CMA Guidance: #Ad(vice) for Influencers
  34. Influencer marketing and obvious brand references
  35. The Playlist: DLA Piper’s music law updates
  36. Google Meet takes on Zoom with AI-powered noise cancellation
  37. Zoom defenders cite legit reasons to not end-to-end encrypt free calls

A.I.

  1. Algo IP: Intellectual Property in Algorithms, Computer Generated Works and Computer Implemented Inventions
  2. Protecting AI inventions
  3. Artificial Intelligence Systems and IP
  4. What if HAL could have IP rights? WIPO joins the conversation on AI and IP
  5. This bot hunts software bugs for the Pentagon
  6. Balancing the stealth AI in Splinter Cell: Blacklist

COMMUNICATIONS

  1. CASL is Constitutional: Federal Court of Appeal Upholds Constitutionality of Canada’s Anti-Spam Law (Michael Geist)
  2. No Opinions Permitted: Broadcast Panel Rules Jokingly Criticizing Canadian Content During Radio News Segment Violates Code of Ethics (Michael Geist)
  3. Verizon Appeals NAD Decision Regarding 5G Claims
  4. 5G Conspiracy Idiots Now Threatening Telecom Workers That Don’t Even Work In Wireless
  5. Cox slows Internet speeds in entire neighborhoods to punish any heavy users
  6. Major ISP Cox Begins Throttling Entire Neighborhoods for ‘Excessive Usage’
  7. Small ISP cancels data caps permanently after reviewing pandemic usage
  8. Cable Customers Have Paid $3.5 Billion For Sports They Can’t Watch
  9. Ajit Pai caves to SpaceX but is still skeptical of Musk’s latency claims
  10. FCC failed to monitor Chinese telecoms for almost 20 years: Senate report
  11. FCC Delays Law Banning Your ISP From Charging You ‘Rental Fees’ For Hardware You Already Own

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

  1. Entertainment Software Assoc. v. Society Composers, (2020 FCA 100)
  2. CMRRA-SODRAC Inc. v. Apple Canada Inc., (2020 FCA 101)
  3. Read All About It: SDNY Rejects Newsweek’s Defenses Over Embedded Content Copyright Claims
  4. Brown v. Netflix Inc.: Use of eight seconds of children’s song “Fish Sticks n’ Tater Tots” in documentary film depicting burlesque dancer in “reverse mermaid” costume was held to be transformative fair use
  5. Major Publishers Sue The Internet Archive’s Digital Library Program In The Midst Of A Pandemic
  6. After Taming Open Access, Academic Publishing Giants Now Seek To Assimilate The World Of Preprints
  7. The Federal Court of Appeal Makes its Making Available Judgment Available: It’s Not Just About “The Vibe”
  8. Access Copyright v. York University – Some Thoughts on the Federal Court of Appeal’s Judgment (Howard Knopf)
  9. Judge Orders Down ‘N Out Burger Joint To Hand Over All Signage To In-N-Out, Which Has Almost No Presence In Australia
  10. Unauthorized Photographs: The Rights Of The People We Capture
  11. With website blocking and international treaties, copyright law evolves with the digital domain
  12. Copyright: Works of artistic craftsmanship and Cofemel
  13. No, California Law Review, Food Plating Does Not Deserve Copyright Protection
  14. Is 3D printing a threat to the value of IP portfolios?
  15. Making the best of a bad situation – Canadian trademark trends in a time of change
  16. Trademarks: Specifications and bad faith
  17. Supreme Court Helps Trademark Owners: Proof of “Willfulness” Is Not Required To Recover Infringer’s Profits
  18. Baskin in glory: the Tiger King loses zoo to rival in trade mark battle
  19. Trump Campaign Gets Parody Cartoon Taken Down Off Redbubble Over Trademark Claim On MAGA Hats
  20. Infringement Action Under PM(NOC) Regulations Cannot Become Moot
  21. Traditionally bred plants and animals are no longer patent eligible at the European Patent Office – what is still protectable?
  22. Impact of COVID-19 on patent ecosystem
  23. Design Patent Protection for Fashion
  24. Joint Ownership of Patents: It Is Not Always Nice to Share
  25. A Non-Precedential Case Study: Federal Circuit Says District Court Did Not Clearly Err in Holding Dosing Patent Invalid Based on Obviousness and Obviousness Type Double Patenting

PRIVACY

  1. FTC settles with children app developer for COPPA violations
  2. Iran- and China-backed phishers try to hook the Trump and Biden campaigns
  3. DEA Wants In On The Fun, Asks DOJ To Give It Permission To Surveil George Floyd Protests
  4. Senator wants to know if police are using Clearview to ID protesters
  5. Chicago Mayor Says City’s Police Officers Will Be ‘Stripped Of Their Powers’ If They Turn Off Their Cameras
  6. Hackers for hire targeted hundreds of institutions, says report
  7. Schools turn to surveillance tech to prevent COVID-19 spread
  8. Plundering of crypto keys from ultrasecure SGX sends Intel scrambling again
  9. Investigation Shows Governor’s Claims That Democrats Tried To Hack The Georgia Election Were B.S.
  10. Researchers say online voting tech used in 5 states is fatally flawed
  11. Study Shows Major E-Voting System Open To Numerous Hacking Attacks
  12. Carnegie Mellon Researchers Design ‘Nutrition Label’ For The Internet Of Broken Things

CREATIVITY   

  1. Fox News Is a Flaming Pile of Garbage, But You Can’t Sue Them for That–WASHLITE v. Fox News (Eric Goldman)
  2. #NoRightsMatter: US Postal Service, Law Enforcement Team Up To Seize ‘Black Lives Matter’ Facemasks
  3. Sheriff Goes All In On Violating The First Amendment After Assaulting A Protester For Carrying A ‘F*CK TRUMP’ Sign
  4. Adam Rapoport: Bon Appetit editor resigns over ‘racist culture’
  5. Staff Of Bon Appétit Apologized For Being Complicit In Racism: “The deeply offensive photo circulating of Adam is horrific on its own, but also speaks to the much broader and longstanding impact of racism at these brands.”
  6. New Report Details Pervasive Culture of Racism at Bon Appétit: ‘Nowhere Have I Ever Felt More Isolated’: Business Insider report describes “toxic” workplace in which people of color are regularly sidelined & paid less
  7. If The NY Times Doesn’t Publish My OpEd On Why James Bennet Is An Incompetent Dweeb, It Must Hate Free Speech
  8. No, The Resignation Of NYT Editor James Bennet Does Not Mean American Newsrooms Have ‘Turned Into College Campuses’
  9. Big Little Material Omissions: Reese Witherspoon and Draper James Subject of Class Action Lawsuit
  10. Guelph Treasure Heirs Respond to U.S. Brief that Argued Nazi Art Theft Was a Domestic Affair
  11. The F-word’s hidden superpower: Repeating it can increase your pain threshold
  12. Electric race cars and human drama on display in And We Go Green

Black Lives Matter Online Virtual Issue of the Information, Communication & Society Journal (“iCS”)

Like millions of other academics and citizens worldwide the senior editorial team of the iCS Journal were shocked and appalled by the brutal killing of George Floyd as yet another example of the unrelenting and deep-seated racism in our societies. iCS like many other journals has always sought to publish and disseminate research findings that address questions of race, ethnicity and discrimination in order to expose such injustices. It is of course no surprise that the discrimination found in everyday life is sadly replicated online and through social media. Following the suggestion of one of their Editorial Team, Victor Avila Torres, they have selected the following published articles dealing with online racism, discrimination and discursive oppression for wider circulation. In solidarity with the Black Lives Matter campaign these are now freely available to download and share.

Anastasia Kanjere (2018) Defending Race Privileges on the Internet: How witness uses innocence discourse online
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2018.1477972?src=recsys&

Jen Schradie (2012) The Trend of Class, Race and Ethnicity in Social Media Inequality
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2012.665939

Ariadna Matamoros-Fernández (2017) Platformed Racism: the mediation and circulation of an Australian race-based controversy on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2017.1293130

Summer Harlow and Anna Benbrook (2017) How #Blacklivesmatter: Exploring the role of hip-hop celebrities in constructing racial identity on Black Twitter
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2017.1386705

Andre Brock, Lynette Kvasny and Kayla Hales (2010) Cultural Appropriations of Technical Capital: Black women, weblogs and digital divide
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2010.498897

Kishonna L. Gray (2012) Intersecting Oppressions and Online Communities: Examining the experiences of women of color on Xbox Live
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2011.642401

Apryl Williams and Vanessa Gonlin (2017) I Got All My Sisters With Me (On Black Twitter): Second screening of ‘How to get away with murder’ as a discourse on black womanhood
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2017.1303077

Karen Mossberger, Caroline J. Tolbert and Christopher Anderson (2016) The Mobile Internet and Digital Citizenship in African-American and Latino Communities
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2016.1243142

Deborah Gabriel (2016) Blogging while Black, British and Female: a critical study on discursive activism
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2016.1146784

Seeta Pena Gangadharan and Jedrzej Niklas (2019) Decentering Technology in Discourse on Discrimination
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2019.1593484

Correa, T. and Jeong, S.H. (2010) Race and Online Content Creation: Why minorities are actively participating in the Web
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2010.514355

Kanjere, A. (2018) Defending race privilege on the Internet: how whiteness uses innocence discourse online
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2018.1477972

Lu. J.H., and Steele, C.K. (2019) ‘Joy as resistance’: cross-platform resilience and (re)invention of Black oral culture online
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2019.1575449

Book Reviews:

Yan Wang (2018) Constructing Digital Cultures: Tweets, trends, race and gender by Judith E. Rosenbaum
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2018.1550098?src=recsys

Kinga Polynczuk-Alenius (2019) Algorithms of Oppression: How search engines reinforce racism by Safya Umoja Noble
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2019.1593485?af=R

Jon