News of the Week; July 29, 2020

GAMES

1. Loot boxes should be a consumer protection matter not a gambling one, says EU report: EU lacks authority to regulate gambling across member states but could tackle “problematic design features” from a different perspective
2. Nintendo Suffers Another Substantial Leak As Mountains Of Source Code Hit The Web
3. Huge apparent leak unearths Nintendo’s prototype history
4. A scrapped Luigi, unused Pokemon sprites & more dug up in retro Nintendo leak
5. Meet CtW: The investors taking on Activision Blizzard and EA over exec pay – Dieter Waizenegger and Michael Varner on why they want to change how corporations think about compensation
6. Shigeru Miyamoto’s base salary is higher than Bobby Kotick’s: But Activision CEO takes home more than $30 million after equity awards
7. Chinese-made drone app in Google Play spooks security researchers 
8. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wants to stop the U.S. military recruiting through Twitch
9. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Files Amendment To Bar Military Branches From Twitch, All Other Gaming Platforms 
10. The US Army is reportedly withdrawing from Twitch as criticism mounts: Meanwhile, US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez plans legislation to keep them from using gaming as recruitment 
11. Riot quickly drops controversial LEC sponsor after outrage from devs, community 
12. Lessons learned guiding Riot Games through a cultural crisis: At a time of cultural crisis for many companies, CEO Nicolo Laurent shares his experiences from the ongoing evolution of Riot Games
13. Niantic doubles donation to Black Lives Matter causes to $10m: Pokémon Go developer will share revenues from weekend event with non-profit organisations and Black creators 
14. How will the Age Appropriate Design Code impact the games industry? 
15. Commercials in Your Console — Marketers Experiment With Ad Placement in Console Video Games
16. Are platforms devaluing games to gain market share? 
17. Op-Ed: Game development in a time of upheaval 
18. DIY game platform Roblox tops 150 million monthly active users
19. Roblox developers set to earn $250 million in 2020: Creators on the platform earned more than double the collective total from 2019 
20. Achievement unlocked – investment and M&A in the games industry 
21. Players spent $17.5m during Pokémon Go Fest 2020: Spending reached $8.9 million on event’s opening day, biggest one-day revenues since 2016
22. Analogue Pocket ships in May 2021: Handheld system will cost $199, support Game Boy, Game Gear, Lynx, Neo Geo Pocket Color games 
23. Suikoden successor’s Kickstarter raises $1.5 million on day one: Upcoming Japanese RPG Eiyuden Chronicle aims for release on PC, Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 in 2022 
24. Investment health check: Preparing for the due diligence process: In the second of two articles, Sheridans’ Kamila Bochenek describes how preparing for the due diligence process can benefit your games business overall 
25. US homes with a console jump 31% year-over-year, says Comscore: Media tracking firm also sees surge in gaming site traffic after pro sports leagues halted 
26. Report: Twitch viewership grew by 56% in Q2 
27. Livestreaming pandemic surge sustained through Q2: StreamElements says hours watched on Twitch jumped 56% over first quarter of year while Facebook Gaming rose 75%
28. Amidst pandemic, the ESA focuses on positive impacts of gaming: Stanley Pierre-Louis discusses COVID-19 impacts, digital E3, its lobbying responsibilities, and the industry’s recent #MeToo movement 
29. Respawn responds to crunch and burnout complaint posted on Glassdoor 
30. Respawn responds as Glassdoor review warns of crunch during lockdown: Apex Legends game director Chad Grenier says the problem “is not with the intent of Respawn’s leadership”
31. Ubisoft Quebec managing director steps down 
32. Ubisoft Québec boss departs ‘independently’ of emerging allegations
33. Tell Me Why FAQ clarifies game’s depiction of trans and Indigenous characters
34. Dontnod’s Tell Me Why aims for a transgender story not “rooted in pain or trauma”: “The idea that being transgender is caused by trauma is a stereotype that has no basis in fact, and it plays no role in Tyler’s story” 
35. “I don’t envision us going back to everybody being in the studio five days a week — ever”: 2K’s Cloud Chamber Games expects permanent changes to its work culture after the COVID-19 pandemic 
36. Ghost of Tsushima holds No.1 as Paper Mario slips l UK Charts: Animal Crossing: New Horizons returns to No.2 
37. Ghost of Tsushima sold over 2.4 million copies in three days
38. Ghost of Tsushima sells 2.4 million in three days: Sucker Punch’s latest becomes Sony’s fastest-selling new IP of the generation 
39. PlayStation Japan warns of Ghost of Tsushima stock shortage: Sucker Punch Productions’ exclusive has surpassed expectations in Japan, Sony advises customers to purchase the digital version 
40. The console war is over | Opinion: Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo all want different things from the next generation — is it really a war if everyone wins? 
41. Suikoden creators launch Rabbit & Bear Studios for crowdfunded JRPG: Eiyuden Chronicle will be “an ode to the classic JRPG genre from the PlayStation era”
42. Xbox’s cross-gen pledge might not apply to every upcoming first-party game
43. Xbox Games Showcase bookended by Halo Infinite, Fable: A total of nine Xbox Games Studios and a number of third-parties showed off 21 games
44. Xbox’s July event: Halo Infinite finally has some first-party company
45. We should talk about Halo Infinite’s not quite next-gen premiere 
46. Xbox Game Pass is all about the power of word-of-mouth marketing
47. Xbox confuses its cross-generation message | Podcast
48. Editorial: Microsoft Partnering With Facebook Gaming Could Be Big For Xbox VR
49. Huuuge Games has acquired Bow Land developer Double Star
50. Huuuge Games acquires Double Star: Mobile firms had already worked together to publish Double Star’s casual RPG Bow Land
51. SuperData: Valorant and The Last of Us Part 2 set records for digital sales in June – Riot’s shooter had the best launch for a free-to-play PC title, while TLOU2 sold more digital units than any PlayStation exclusive 
52. Report: Digital game revenue increased by 9% year-over-year in June (SuperData) 
53. Animal Crossing, FIFA, The Last of Us top European game sales so far this year: Both Animal Crossing: New Horizons and FIFA 20 were the best-selling game in seven countries each 
54. Animal Crossing is Japan’s best-selling game of the year so far: Japanese gamers spent more than $1.6 billion on physical games and download cards in the first half of 2020
55. Report: Valve is quietly testing a Playtest button on Steam
56. Gaming Talent Firm Loaded Signs Rising Twitch Streamers ‘CohhCarnage’ And ‘Sacriel’
57. Ferrari launching esports series this September: Fastest racer will be given the chance to join the sports car manufacturer’s esports team in 2021 
58. Konami is now making esports PCs: New Arespear brand of computers is manufactured by Konami Amusement, starts shipping in September 
59. GAME sells its Belong brand to esports firm Vindex: GAME CEO Martyn Gibbs joins Vindex to oversee global expansion of esports arenas 
60. eSports Players and Teams Benefit from Negotiated Contracts
61. Squanch Games shelves VR focus for now 
62. Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality Litigation Update: AR Design Innovations Litigations Cases Consolidated into Single Action 
63. Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality Patent Prosecution Update: 2020 Q2 Prosecution Statistics 
64. Moss developer Polyarc raises $9 million to explore AR development
65. Moss dev Polyarc secures $9m investment to branch into augmented reality: Series B funding round led by Hiro Capital
66. SuperData raises XR forecast for 2020 to $6.9 billion: But it’s lowering its long-term projections for the second time this year
67. The sublime theatrics and pacing of Metal Gear Solid 4 | Why I Love: Nomina Games co-founder Darrel Wijaya talks about Hideo Kojima’s interactive cinematic blockbuster
68. The five-year quest to remove all nuclear weapons from Metal Gear Solid V
69. EA’s strategy for remastering Command & Conquer
70. Blog: When debug UI ruins your game design
71. Blog: An agil-ish approach to game jams 
72. Blog: Stay at home development and family management
73. Blog: The Rapid Prototyping Game
74. Blog: Using emergent systems to improve interactive storytelling
75. Video: ILMxLab’s perspective on pioneering immersive entertainment 
76. Video: Expanding animation & design capabilities in Battlefield 1 post-launch 
77. Video: Designing great interactive narratives on mobile 
78. Video: Crafting multiplayer maps for casual and competitive play 
79. Don’t Miss: Understanding the successful relaunch of Final Fantasy XIV
80. Final Fantasy XIV Online has surpassed 20 million registered users 
81. Don’t Miss: Inside the campaign design of Halo 5: Guardians
82. Don’t Miss: StarCraft II and the art of single-player storytelling
83. The Google Play Indie Games Festival winners have been announced
84. We don’t need E3 anymore: Fancensus head of analytics Ryan Janes analyses the media impact for the summer’s biggest announcements

DIGITAL

1. Saskatchewan Proposes Retroactive PST Changes to Target Online Vendors Like Amazon and Airbnb
2. “Zuck off”: Doctors, nurses, scientists rail against Zuckerberg
3. Zuckerberg wrote “Instagram can hurt us” days before acquisition
4. Facebook Employee Revolt Shows, Yet Again, That There Are Other Incentives Beyond Section 230
5. Google wants Samsung to kill Bixby, Galaxy App Store
6. Google reportedly peeks into Android data to gain edge over third-party apps: Google is already under investigation by Congress, DOJ, and 50 state AGs.
7. Google’s Top Search Result? Surprise! It’s Google
8. Under Investigation For Antitrust Abuse, Trump DOJ Rubber Stamps Major Ad Industry Consolidation
9. Woz sues YouTube over “bitcoin giveaway” scam videos using his name
10. Apple Cofounder Steve Wozniak Sues YouTube For “Unapologetically Hosting” Bitcoin Scammers
11. Apple Publishes Study Which Defends Its 30% App Store Cut
12. Apple defends its controlled ecosystem in the face of antitrust investigation: Commissioned study says digital marketplaces “need governance to thrive,” reiterates that 30% cut is standard
13. Epic Games’ Sweeney calls out Apple, Google for ‘exploitative’ platform fees
14. Tim Sweeney: Apple has “gone crazy” over rev share approach: “Apple has no right to take any percent of any company’s revenue just because they made the phone people use to access the stuff,” says Epic Games founder
15. Geotagged Social Media Posts Didn’t Support Personal Jurisdiction–Court of Master Sommeliers v. Pilkey (Eric Goldman)
16. U.S. Federal Court Rules That Bitcoin is “Money”
17. New Crypto Services Address Custody, Payment Cards and ATS’s, OCC Says Banks Can Custody Crypto, DOJ Charges Bitcoin ATM Operator and Crypto Fraudster
18. Can Purpose-Built Equipment Bring Blockchain Back as a Tech Solution?
19. House of Lords: we need an Online Harms Bill to save our democracy
20. UK regulator publishes consultation on video-sharing platform regulation
21. New Rules for Online Platforms and Search Engines Offering Services to Businesses in the European Union and the United Kingdom
22. Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada urges Zoom to abide by international human rights obligations
23. Google will keep 200,000 workers home through next summer
24. EU demands major concessions from Google over Fitbit deal
25. Bumble Settles over Multistate Dating Lawsuit
26. Repeated Amazon Purchases Sufficient to Impute Notice of Arbitration Clause
27. Unauthorized Amazon Seller Enforcement: Two Metrics That Matter and Two That Don’t
28. Instagram User’s Lawsuit Over Terminated Account Gets Revived (But Not For Long)–Teatotaller v. Facebook (Eric Goldman)
29. Philippines Senator Targets Critics With ‘Cyberlibel’ Law, Gets Hailed As A Son Of A Bitch By Thousands Of Citizens
30. The First Amendment Bars Regulating Political Neutrality, Even Via Section 230
31. Comments on the “Platform Accountability and Consumer Transparency Act” (the “PACT Act”) (Eric Goldman)
32. Content Moderation Case Study: Talking About Racism On Social Media (2019)
33. Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 7/20/2020
34. Top 50 Most Viewed US YouTube Channels • Week Of 7/20/2020
35. Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 7/27/2020
36. Top 50 Most Viewed US YouTube Channels • Week Of 7/27/2020
37. MrBeast Reveals He Spent $3 Million On YouTube Videos For August Alone
38. Lollapalooza Trades IRL Fest For Lolla2020, A 4-Day, YouTube-Exclusive Live Stream
39. Spotify Says Listening Time For Its 1.5 Million Podcasts More Than Doubled Last Quarter
40. Creator-Owned Streaming Service Nebula Hits 100,000 Monthly Paying Subscribers
41. Chrissy Teigen Gets Second Quibi Series That Riffs On The ‘Everything Is Cake’ Meme
42. Jake Paul Announces Next Boxing Match On Mike Tyson-Roy Jones Jr. Undercard
43. Update on transparency requirements for influencers in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States
44. Insights: What Will It Take For Livestreamed Shopping To Take Off In U.S.?
45. Nick Sandmann’s Wacky QAnon Supporting Lawyer Threatens Reporters For ‘Speculating’ On Washington Post’s Settlement With Sandmann
46. Twitter Finally Cracked Down on QAnon—but There’s a Catch
47. Twitter suspends Donald Trump Jr. for posting COVID misinformation
48. Moderation Of Racist Content Leads To Removal Of Non-Racist Pages & Posts (2020)
49. Twitter “Likely” To Test Subscription Options This Year As COVID Shrinks Ad Revenue, CEO Says
50. Japan’s Top Court Says 45 Million Twitter Users Must Check That Anything They Retweet Is Not A Copyright Infringement
51. Trumpian Loudmouths Apparently Losing Interest In Parler With No One To Play Victim To
52. TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer Strikes Back At Facebook For Maligning Attacks “Disguised As Patriotism”
53. TikTok chief Kevin Mayer launches stinging attack on Facebook
54. After Standoff, TikTok Signs Multi-Year Deal With National Music Publishers Association
55. Instagram’s TikTok Competitor, Reels, Is Reportedly Looking To Poach Creators With Six-Figure Payments
56. TikTok Establishes $200 Million Fund To Get Its Creators Paid
57. Joe Biden Campaign Demands Staffers Delete TikTok From Their Personal, Professional Devices
58. Banning TikTok Will Accomplish Nothing. Fix Our Broader Security & Privacy Problems Instead.
59. Judge orders New York to pay unemployment to Uber and Lyft drivers
60. How Technology And The Pandemic Are Bringing People Closer Together, Even As We’re Physically Apart
61. Heads roll at Intel after 7nm delay
62. AMD: No delays for PS5, Xbox Series X, Zen 3 CPUs, and RDNA 2 GPUs
63. 20 years ago, Steve Jobs built the “coolest computer ever”—and it bombed
64. International – European Commission launches a Sector Inquiry into the Consumer Internet of Things

A.I.

1. Appeals Court Bashes Predictive Policing And The Judge Who Argued People In High Crime Areas Want Fewer Rights
2. Are AI produced works protectable under Copyright Law?
3. In Report to Congress, FTC Says Malicious Use of Social Media Bots Is a “Serious Issue”
4. Deepfakes: An EU and U.S. perspective
5. NIST Study Confirms The Obvious: Face Masks Make Facial Recognition Tech Less Useful, More Inaccurate
6. Video: A game dev’s guide to going beyond the hype of deep learning

COMMUNICATIONS

1. Trump’s call for crackdown on Twitter and Facebook now on Ajit Pai’s desk
2. NTIA Follows Trump’s Unconstitutional Order To Request The FCC Review Section 230
3. Former Rep. Chris Cox Used His Testimony At Tuesday’s Senate Hearing On The Internet’s Foundational Law To Do Some Myth-Busting
4. Tech And COVID-19: Stop Using Video Game Graphics For Fake Crowds, Fox
5. FCC Boss Ajit Pai Pretends To Care About A Prison Telco Monopoly Problem He Helped Protect
6. Why Is The Boys And Girls Club Trying To Kill A Cable Monopoly’s Merger Conditions?
7. Telecom company welcomes Federal Court of Appeal tax decision despite being denied interim relief
8. FCC Clarifies Pole Attachment Rules
9. FCC Takes Action and Requests Comments on Next Gen TV (ATSC 3.0) Matters
10. Charter’s donations to charities and lawmakers may help it impose data caps
11. After 100 Years As A Bullying Gatekeeper, AT&T Pivots To Whining Unironically About Bullying Gatekeepers
12. AT&T’s epic DirecTV losses mount as another 954,000 video customers flee
13. District court enters nearly $13.9 million judgment in FTC robocall action
14. New process for Executive Branch review of foreign investments in the U.S. telecoms sector
15. Trump campaign foiled in early appeal attempt
16. Trump campaign angry that cell carriers blocked spammy texts to voters
17. Trump Campaign Gets Pissed At Wireless Carriers For Blocking Unwanted Political Spam
18. Sweeping New Interim Rule Further Implements Ban on Targeted Telecommunications and Video Surveillance Companies

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

1. Print-on-Demand Vendor Doesn’t Qualify for DMCA Safe Harbor–Feingold v. RageOn (Eric Goldman)
2. CBS’ overzealous copyright bots hit Star Trek virtual Comic-Con panel
3. Viacom’s Copyright Bots Take Down ‘Star Trek’ Comic-con Panel Because These Bots Suck Out Loud
4. Reagan Foundation Tells President Trump and the RNC to Stop Using Reagan for Fundraising Purposes
5. Fight or Flight
6. Legal implications of syncing copyrighted music with other content
7. Marano v. Metropolitan Museum of Art
8. Hot topics in media and entertainment – Right of publicity: Evolving law around the use of a person’s name or likeness in documentaries and docudramas
9. Makeup Art May Be Copyrightable, Says Second Circuit
10. Publisher Decries Damn Libraries Entertaining The Masses Stuck At Home For Free
11. Engineering Drawings: A Case of Copyright or Design
12. Copyright protection granted to computer programs
13. DNA Company Accidentally Exposes Opted Out Users’ Data To Law Enforcement
14. Any Way You Slice It, D.C. Circuit Holds That &Pizza Can’t Get Piece of @Pizza
15. Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia Pet Just Applied For Trademark On Jingle For Some R-R-R-Reason
16. Sky v SkyKick battles on but permission to appeal granted: more uncertainty for brand owners
17. Redskins Re-Brand: Did Trademark Speculator Fumble?
18. Flagging the importance of Trade Mark choice
19. Federal Circuit Holds Cancellation Standing Does Not Require Proprietary Interest in Asserted Mark
20. Supreme Court: “Generic.com” Trademarks May Be Registered if Consumers Do Not Perceive Them as Generic
21. Damages still available for infringement even where trade mark revoked
22. Stone Brewing Is Very Upset That People Don’t Like Its Trademark Bullying
23. Reputation and the power of the influencer: Sugar Bear Hair v Beauty Bear
24. The real IP issues with virtual influencers
25. Cannabis Industry Insight – U.S. Trademark Registrations Continue to be Denied for Foods and Dietary Supplements containing Hemp-Derived CBD
26. Trademarks: ‘HERBS R US Design’ Found to Depreciate the Goodwill attaching to the ‘TOYS R US Design’
27. Certification Mark Protectability
28. A grey area? How to register colours as trademarks
29. Equipping U.S. Rightsholders with the Tools to Deal with the Challenges of 3D Printing
30. EPO filing statistics: is 3D printing due some hype (again)?
31. Playing Keep-Away: Protecting Your Trade Secrets in a Remote Work Environment
32. On redetermination, PMPRB concludes that Galderma’s patent ‘pertains to’ DIFFERIN
33. Around 1600 viewers register for live video stream of computer software patent case
34. Federal Circuit Explains When You Can Ignore the Words Before the Colon in a Patent Preamble
35. The Federal Circuit Provides a Refresher on Joint Inventorship
36. Independently Performed, Publicly Disclosed Prior Work Can Lead to Joint Inventorship
37. Federal Circuit Confirms Joint Inventorship on Nobel Prize Winner’s Cancer Treatment Patents
38. Then You Didn’t See Them; Now You Do: Co-Inventors Added
39. Judge Matsumoto Holds That “Very Small Side Load” Is Indefinite and That “Retention Element” Is a Means-Plus-Function Claim Limitation
40. Weight Loss Patent Application Does Not Survive Section 101 Scrutiny
41. Dead on Arrival? Federal Circuit Majority Finds That Substitute Claims Live On (Uniloc v. Hulu: Part 1)
42. IP Alert | Federal Circuit Affirms Alice’s Applicability in IPR Proceedings
43. Extendable hose patent appeal unravels before the Court
44. Fractured Federal Circuit Panel Finds That Sovereign Immunity Does Not Prevent Exclusive Licensee from Pursuing Unlicensed Infringement Alone
45. Disclosure of “Preferred” Compounds Having a Complex Chemical Structure May Teach Away from Simpler Compounds Encompassed by a Broad Chemical Genus
46. TopGolf Wins Patent Appeal
47. You Can’t Clasp That: Judge Schofield Finds No Infringement Under Doctrine of Equivalents Due To Prosecution History Estoppel
48. Federal Circuit: Licensees’ Failure to Mark Eliminates Entitlement to Pre-Suit Damages
49. Diamonds are forever, but patents can tell us about the next 20 years
50. Projection effects in a 3D motion graphical user interface: non-technical
51. Dissecting the Regeneron v Kymab mouse case – what it says and its impact on patents
52. Patent first, science later: the Federal Court’s ‘clear and unmistakable direction’ to patentees
53. The Game Begins: Strategies for the Early Stages of Patent Litigation – The Claimant’s View
54. US Patent Litigation
55. Participation of Women Inventors in the US Patent System Is Increasing Slowly but Surely
56. Patent Trivia – Fun with Some Facts about Patents

PRIVACY

1. Washington State AG Settles with Online Platform Over Alleged COPPA Violations
2. No free lunch: global privacy regulators set expectations of video teleconference providers
3. Russia’s GRU hackers hit US government and energy targets
4. North Korea’s Lazarus brings state-sponsored hacking approach to ransomware
5. Texas AG Investigates Facebook’s Use of Biometric Identifiers
6. EU Plans To Use Supercomputers To Break Encryption, But Also Wants Platforms To ‘Create Opportunities’ To Snoop On End-To-End Communications
7. Garmin’s four-day service meltdown was caused by ransomware
8. CBP Has Access To Billions Of License Plate Images Collected By Private Companies
9. Rite Aid deployed facial recognition in hundreds of stores, report finds
10. Hackers actively exploit high-severity networking vulnerabilities
11. No free lunch: global privacy regulators set expectations of video teleconference providers
12. Data Privacy and Cybersecurity Schrems II Decision – what does it mean in practice?
13. Schrems II Decision – what does it mean in practice?

CREATIVITY   

1. About Time: New York Finally Passes Anti-SLAPP Bill
2. Content Moderation Case Study: Talking About Racism On Social Media (2019)
3. A Legen-dairy Victory: Ben & Jerry’s Wins “Happy Cows” False Advertising Lawsuit
4. Study: Magicians’ priming techniques are effective at influencing choice – Card trick priming technique used by illusionist Derren Brown inspires psychologists.
5. Court Blocks Federal Officers From Attacking, Arresting Reporters Covering Protests In Portland
6. We can see the true face of Van Eyck Lamb of God after latest restoration

Jon