News of the Week; September 30, 2020

GAMES

1. Take-Two sued over use of tattoos in WWE 2K: A judge has ruled that a trial will be required to decide whether it constitutes copyright infringement
2. WWE 2K maker Take-Two heading to trial after copying tattoo artist’s work
3. Alexander v. Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.
4. Alexander v. Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.: Memorandum And Order of September 26, 2020
5. Nintendo’s lawsuit against Switch hack seller to land it $2 million in damages
6. Supercell to pay $8.5 million over patent dispute with F2P dev Gree
7. Epic and Apple don’t want Fortnite dispute settled by a jury 
8. Epic vs Apple judge calls for trial by jury: Trial could begin in July 2021 at the earliest, still no ruling on whether Fortnite can return to iOS
9. Apple and Epic’s big anti-trust showdown likely to take place next summer
10. Epic Games goes to battle with Apple and Google: The dispute so far
11. Apple v. Epic hearing previews a long, hard-fought trial to come
12. Breaking Down the Epic v. Apple Fight
13. Epic and Apple decline trial by jury: Apple withdraws demand for jury from countersuit as both firms look to court to settle Fortnite dispute
14. Loot Boxes in Video Games – A Call for Evidence
15. EA under fire for promoting FIFA loot boxes in toy catalogue: Ad encourages children to use virtual currency FIFA Points to open more Ultimate Team card packs
16. Cyberpunk studio breaks promise, forces overtime on developers
17. CD Projekt backtracks on anti-crunch commitments ahead of Cyberpunk launch
18. CD Projekt Red reportedly enforcing mandatory crunch on Cyberpunk 2077: Studio head Adam Badowski assures “everyone is well compensated for every extra hour they put in”
19. Michel Ancel denies link between departure and Ubisoft abuse scandal: Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot reportedly renewed his trust towards Ancel in August, despite the creative director being under investigation
20. Genshin Impact removes controversial anti-cheat system: PC players expressed concerns for their privacy as the game’s anti-cheat program would always run in the background
21. India unlikely to revoke PUBG ban: Government official says violence is the main issue now ties to Chinese giant Tencent have been severed
22. Cloud streaming has larger carbon footprint than downloads, physical games: However, PlayStation study reveals that streaming has lower comparable emissions for games played under eight hours
23. Amazon is muscling into cloud gaming with Luna 
24. Amazon announces streaming gaming service Luna, launching next month
25. Amazon announces new cloud gaming service, Luna: Early access launches soon on Fire TV, PC, Mac, and iOS web browser
26. Amazon Luna servers will run Windows games directly on Nvidia T4 GPUs
27. How Amazon’s Luna cloud gaming service compares to Stadia, xCloud, and GeForce Now: Amazon’s jumping into an increasingly crowded market
28. Google’s new $50 Chromecast won’t support Stadia until sometime in 2021
29. Zynga is shutting down FarmVille after over a decade
30. FarmVille—yes, the original—is finally meeting its demise
31. Zynga to sunset FarmVille after 11 years: The publisher’s most formative product will be shut down at the end of this year
32. Glu Mobile opens e-commerce platform within Design Home: Design Home Inspired lets players buy real “home décor accessories” in-game
33. Google to make third-party app store use easier with Android 12: But it’s also doubling down on its requirements that it get a 30% cut of Play Store sales
34. Google announces crackdown on in-app billing, aimed at Netflix and Spotify
35. Analysts and publishers say the boom in game sales is here to stay: Corporate heads and industry analysts expect at least some of the increased revenue of 2020 to stick around going forward
36. ShopTo warns PS5 preorders may not arrive for launch: Retailer says Sony isn’t sending enough systems to cover initial preorders
37. Xbox launching app for remote gameplay on iOS: Android version came out in beta just a few days ago
38. The first Xbox Series S/X 1TB storage expansion card costs $220
39. The 1TB storage expansions cards for the Xbox Series S and X will cost $220
40. Xbox Series X previews report shorter load times, 802GB of usable storage: Quick Resume feature lets users quickly swap between multiple games
41. Xbox Series X hands-on: The big back-compat dive begins
42. Starting in November, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate will include EA Play
43. Japan is Xbox’s fastest growing market: Microsoft is aiming for simultaneous product launches for Japanese market; cloud streaming expected to launch in Japan in first half of 2021
44. With Xbox Live MAUs up 82%, Phil Spencer calls Japan Xbox’s ‘fastest growing region’
45. Phil Spencer: Microsoft ‘absolutely’ plans on releasing future console hardware
46. Microsoft won’t try to buy industry dominance | Opinion: Microsoft was expected to buy control of the games biz from the start — the Zenimax acquisition echoes those times, but today’s Microsoft is a much smarter company
47. Epic Games acquires SuperAwesome to create a range of ‘kid safe’ services
48. Epic Games acquires SuperAwesome: The deal will see the two companies work together on “kid-safe” online services
49. Krafton merging with PUBG Corp: Parent company of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds developer will claim PUBG Corp’s publishing and support teams, leaving development team to operate independently
50. Worldwide digital games market: August 2020
51. Two Mafia games break Top Ten, but Mario remains in charge | UK Boxed Charts: Super Mario 3D All Stars is the biggest game of September
52. Nintendo Switch dominates in September | UK Monthly Charts: Mario games and Switch consoles perform strongly, but FIFA’s absence is felt
53. Among Us drives record Discord installs: Discord’s daily downloads worldwide have reached around 800,000
54. Niantic makes most Pokémon Go pandemic changes permanent: But the developer will also revert some of the game’s temporary bonuses this October
55. The social media strategy behind Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout – Oliver Hindle explains how Mediatonic rapidly grew its hit game’s Twitter to one million followers
56. Tekken franchise surpasses 50 million sales
57. Rocket League tops 1 million concurrent players after free-to-play switch
58. Rocket League passes 1m concurrent players: Psyonix reaches a new milestone as its competitive driving/football hybrid goes free-to-play
59. Innersloth cancels Among Us 2 because the first game has become so popular
60. Sumo Group acquires development studio Pipeworks to break into the U.S.
61. Sumo Group acquires Pipeworks for $100m: Deal for Oregon-based studio adds 134 people to Sumo’s global workforce, and indicates ambitions to expand into the US
62. Armada Interactive declares bankruptcy: Coffers run dry for Finnish mobile PvP studio four years after securing its first seed funding
63. How former Techland staff plan to “cut the crap” from publishing: Untold Tales promises shorter and more transparent publishing agreements as it seeks single-player narrative-driven games
64. Live-action Yakuza movie is in the works: Sega partners with 1212 and Wild Sheep for adaptation based on the franchise
65. Tribeca Film Festival issues call for games submissions: Tribeca Games Award introduced alongside newly-formed games advisory board including Geoff Keighley, Hideo Kojima, Sam Lake
66. Insomniac re-casts Peter Parker’s face model in Spider-Man Remastered: Ben Jordan to replace John Bubniak due to closer resemblance with voice actor Yuri Lowenthal
67. A guide to designing transformative, empowering experiences: Robin Arnott and Heather Ray look into the many ways to create impactful games that evoke a wide range of emotional responses
68. Streamers NarcolepticNugget And Dysmo Sign With Up North Management
69. Gaming Company Settles SEC Charges for Sales of Unregistered Tokens
70. UTA Taps Activision’s Eugene Wu To Work On Esports Brand Partnerships
71. The US Navy paid $2m to marketing company to assist with foray into esports: Young & Rubicam, now VMLY&R, to promote Navy’s image, expand awareness, and ultimately up recruitment
72. Facebook’s virtual reality push is about data, not gaming
73. Oculus imaginaries: the promises and perils of Facebook’s virtual reality
74. Outer Wilds’ existential loneliness is engaging, entertaining | Why I Love: Lovable Hat Cult’s Patrick Jarnfelt explores Mobius Digital’s curiously uplifting story of a doomed solar system
75. Lessons from a year of running Remnant: From the Ashes
76. Q&A: Lair of the Clockwork God devs on the infinite hustle of indie development
77. Blog: A Space Moguls map screen retrospective
78. Blog: Amazon’s Luna, what’s on the Steam front page, and more on discoverability
79. Blog: Historians discuss A Total War Saga: Troy
80. Blog: Understanding detective game design – Puzzles vs. story
81. Blog: Which do you need – a UX designer, game designer, or both?
82. Blog: Creating my facts-first game metrics website GameDataCrunch
83. Video: Building teams that can prevent abuse
84. Video: How game companies can do better philanthropy
85. Video: Designing game communities for kindness
86. Video: The business of fair play
87. Video: How Star Renegades borrowed the Nemesis system for a turn-based RPG
88. Don’t Miss: Evolving the combat design of id Software’s Doom Eternal
89. Don’t Miss: ‘Make me think, make me move’: Doom’s deceptively simple design
90. Don’t Miss: How Jackbox CEO Mike Bilder is grappling with quarantine-driven success
91. Don’t Miss: The real story of Torchlight’s music
92. Don’t Miss: How Insomniac built Marvel’s Spider-Man to do whatever a spider can
93. 50 standout indie games nominated in this year’s IndieCade Awards
94. Game Pink event to raise money for the National Breast Cancer Foundation
95. U.S. Patent no. 9,533,229: Custom reward for viral help in game

DIGITAL

1. Microsoft boots apps out of Azure used by China-sponsored hackers
2. Trump likely overstepped authority with TikTok ban, judge rules
3. Judge Rejected Ban On TikTok Because Trump’s DOJ Can’t Show Any Real National Security Threat
4. Court Enjoins Trump Administration’s Attempt to Kick TikTok Out of App Stores–TikTok v. Trump (Eric Goldman)
5. The Politics and Optics of the TikTok Ban: Data privacy and security concerns are not TikTok specific
6. Judge grants TikTok a reprieve, ban will not go into effect tonight
7. Court Says Trump’s Plan To Block TikTok Can’t Go Into Effect Yet
8. TikTok And The DOJ Still Fighting It Out In Court Despite Oracle ‘Deal’
9. Judge gives Trump admin. Friday deadline to delay or defend TikTok ban
10. TikTok and the First Amendment: TikTok users have free speech rights—and courts should pay attention.
11. Restrictions Affecting WeChat and TikTok: Now Clearly Defined, But Facing Legal Challenges
12. Further TikTok Developments: Commerce Identifies and Prohibits Certain Transactions Effective Sept 27
13. On The Podcast: As YouTube Tests A TikTok Competitor, It Wants You To Remember It’s ALWAYS Been About Short Videos
14. The New US Restrictions on WeChat Usage
15. Internet terms and conditions: Second Circuit declines to enforce arbitration agreement accessible through browsewrap hyperlink
16. Disinformation, QAnon efforts targeting Latino voters ramp up ahead of presidential election
17. Study Finds ‘Single Largest Driver’ of Coronavirus Misinformation: Trump – Cornell researchers analyzing 38 million articles about the pandemic found President Trump was the largest driver of the “infodemic.”
18. Facebook needs to enforce misinfo rules against Trump, Biden campaign says
19. Former Facebook manager: “We took a page from Big Tobacco’s playbook”
20. Facebook Sued For Not Preventing A Bunch A White Guys With Guns From Traveling To A Protest To Shoot People
21. Facebook’s long-awaited oversight board to launch before US election: Body will be able to overrule some content moderation decisions and plans to be ready to hear user appeals next month
22. The Social Dilemma Manipulates You With Misinformation As It Tries To Warn You Of Manipulation By Misinformation
23. Alphabet, shareholders settle in lawsuits over sexual harassment at Google
24. YouTube celebrates Deaf Awareness Week by killing crowd-sourced captions
25. YouTube Unveils New Tools To Thwart Misinformation About Mail-In Voting
26. Text Message-Based Social Platform ‘Community’ Onboards President Obama
27. Charges filed in hack that caused NFL athlete’s nude pics to be posted on Twitter
28. Apple backs down on taking 30% cut of paid online events on Facebook
29. Epic, Spotify, and others take on Apple with “Coalition for App Fairness”
30. Chernin Entertainment To Develop Spotify Podcasts For Film, TV In First-Look Deal
31. China Blocks Wikimedia From WIPO… Because There’s A Taiwanese Wikimedia Chapter
32. Time to decolonise the Internet (Andres Guadamuz)
33. Germany Drops Idea Of ‘Pre-Flagging’ Legal Uploads, Which Could Have Stopped EU Copyright Filters Blocking Memes, Parodies, Quotes And Creative Commons Material
34. Hate speech: can we all agree on a definition?
35. Justice Department Releases Its Dangerous & Unconstitutional Plan To Revise Section 230
36. Part I: The History and Evolution of Section 230
37. Part II: Section 230 and Proposals for Revision – Some Critical Commentary on Executive Branch Updates
38. Sen. Graham Cares More About Trolls Than Section 230 (Comments on Online Content Policy Modernization Act) (Eric Goldman)
39. I See This Stupid New Section 230 Bill, And I Say It’s A Stupid Section 230 Bill
40. Why Do Republican Senators Seem To Want To Turn Every Website Into A Trash Heap Of Racism & Abuse?
41. Content Moderation Case Study: Twitter’s Algorithm Misidentifies Harmless Tweet As ‘Sensitive Content’ (April 2018)
42. Content Moderation Case Study: Ask.fm Responds After A Teen’s Suicide Is Linked To Bullying On The Site (August 2013)
43. Covid ‘long haulers’ have nowhere else to turn — so they’re finding each other online
44. The Need For A Robust Critical Community In Content Policy
45. Josh Hawley Is A Lying Demagogue Who Has Built A Fake Fantasy World About ‘Evil Big Tech’
46. The Biden campaign wants to take back YouTube: Biden is courting YouTubers ahead of the election
47. How a Slacker Frog in an MS Paint Zine Became a Villain for the Alt-Right: In the new documentary “Feels Good Man” filmmakers Angelini and Jones carefully examine Pepe the Frog’s fraught and fascinating legacy.
48. Conceptualising technology, its development and future: The six genres of technology
49. The commodification of time and memory: Online communities and the dynamics of commercially produced nostalgia
50. Lifestyle Enclaves in the Instagram City?
51. Meet OnlyTweets, The Unofficial Twitter Feature That Lets Creators Monetize Their Feeds
52. Proposed EU rule may mean you can finally delete some apps from your phone
53. Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 9/28/2020
54. Top 50 Most Viewed US YouTube Channels • Week Of 9/28/2020
55. David Dobrik’s Tesla Giveaway Has Driven A Staggering 82,000 Voter Registrations Thus Far
56. Insights: An Agent’s Advice On How Creators And Brands Can Navigate Social Media’s Messiest Moment
57. Senator asks DHS if foreign-controlled browser extensions threaten the US
58. TikTok Is Now Sponsoring A NASCAR Driver
59. Digital Marketplace The Lobby Wants To Be “QVC Meets TikTok”
60. How Internet-connected voter check-in devices can create election chaos
61. OCC Clarifies Status of Stablecoins, US Agencies Procure Blockchain Applications, Solutions Launch on Hedera Hashgraph and VeChain, DOJ Targets Darknet Markets
62. Coinbase doubles down on anti-politics stance with exit package offer
63. D-Wave releases its next-generation quantum annealing chip
64. Feels Good Man, a film that truly gets how things are passed across the Internet

A.I.

1.  To Surveil and Predict: A Human Rights Analysis of Algorithmic Policing in Canada (Kate Robertson, Cynthia Khoo, Yolanda Song)
2. Virality, Algorithms, and Illiberal Attacks on the Press: Legitimation Strategies for a New World
3. Human Says No: AI Can’t Be Patent Inventor, Rules High Court Judge
4. Should the legal definition of “inventor” encompass an AI machine? The position following “DABUS”
5. Thaler v Comptroller-General: Part 1 – AI systems cannot be an inventor under the Patents Act 
6. UK High Court Denies DABUS Appeal 
7. Is AI leaving IP behind? HMG consults 
8. Artificial Intelligence Licensing: What You Need to Know
9. Patent application strategies in the field of artificial intelligence based on examination standards 
10. Deep fakes, inventorship and ethics – WIPO revised issues paper on Artificial Intelligence
11. Artificial Intelligence and its challenges for Intellectual Property 
12. Episode 2: Ulrike till, Director of the division of Artificial Intelligence policy at the World Intellectual Property Organisation 
13. Considerations and Challenges Regarding Patents for Drug Discovery Using Artificial Intelligence 
14. Employment Law Red Flags in the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Hiring 
15. California Intelligence Center’s Facial Recognition Searches Are Turning Good Evidence Into Illegally-Obtained Evidence 
16. Can Algorithms Violate Fair Housing Laws?: Landlords increasingly use screening services to weed out renters. Advocates say both landlords and the algorithms should be accountable when things go wrong.
17. ICE Is Hauling In More Data Than Ever And Palantir Is Helping It Turn Data Into Detainments
18. Intel, Heidelberg University team up to bring Radeon GPU support to AI
19. Deep algebra for deep beats: The beautiful sounds of musical programming 
20. Ofqual and the Algorithm 
21. Uber case highlights risks of automated decisions about employees
22. New ICO guidance on AI: Privacy by design saves retro-fitting later

COMMUNICATIONS

1. An Anti-Digital Agenda: Forget the Digital Policy Reboot, the Government Just Hit Delete Instead (Michael Geist)
2. “Get Money from Web Giants” Grows: Canadian Heritage Minister Guilbeault Says Government Working on a New Data Tax (Michael Geist)
3. Guilbeault’s Bogus Billion Dollar Claim: What the Data Actually Says About Canadian Film and TV Production (Michael Geist)
4. Cord Cutting Has Utterly Exploded During the Covid Crisis
5. The EU Makes It Clear That ‘Zero Rating’ Violates Net Neutrality
6. Verizon, AT&T to pay $127M for allegedly overcharging government agencies
7. Telecom providers support Federal Court of Appeal’s decision to uphold lowering of wholesale rates
8. Hypocrite FCC Commissioner Cheers On Zoom Block Usage By Person He Disagrees With; While Insisting Social Media Shouldn’t Block People
9. FCC Keeps Using Bogus Data To Claim It’s Closing The ‘Digital Divide’ 
10. FCC Adopts New Rules on Transparency and Timeliness of Foreign Ownership Review 
11. Stacked Deck?: Trump Nominates Judge that Has Already Ruled on TCPA’s ATDS Definition to Supreme Court Just In Time For Facebook ATDS Appeal 
12. Senator Blumenthal Warns AT&T Not To Make Wireless Privacy A Luxury Option
13. Report Notes Musk’s Starlink Won’t Have The Capacity To Truly Disrupt U.S. Telecom 
14. Ubiquitous technologies and 5G development. Who owns the rarest technologies?
15. Smart cars, cities and 5G – what does the future hold for the IoT and connectivity 
16. Will the Passing of Justice Ginsburg Impact the Future of the TCPA?

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

1.  Access Copyright v. York University – Update on Supreme Court – Replies Have Been Filed (Howard Knopf)
2. The Outpost – Mass Copyright Litigation (Howard Knopf)
3. How To Be Funny And Not A Jerk In A Cease And Desist Notice, From The Doobie Brothers
4. Bill Murray Responds To Doobie Bros. Copyright Letter With Snark, No Offer To Pay For Use Of Song 
5. Threats with a smile: The cease-and-desist letter in a time of social media
6. Federal District Court Rules Nicki Minaj’s Remake of Tracy Chapman Song Protected by Fair Use
7. Celebrities v. Paparazzo Copyright in Photographs of Themselves
8. Supreme Court denies copyrightability of Georgia code annotations 
9. Federal Court of Appeal upholds Hilton’s right to use the Waldorf Astoria trademark in Canada: Ruling says registered trademark can be enforced even if there is no physical presence in country
10. Not all pun and games: Federal Court not amused with cannabis company’s brand parody
11. Woof: Jack Daniels Takes Fight Over Doggy Chew Toy To The Supreme Court
12. BrewDog’s ‘Elvis Juice’ Now An Approved Trademark In The UK, But Not the EU
13. Burger King Fights Proxy War Against McDonald’s Over Hungry Jack Trademark Dispute
14. Back of the net: Messi scores definitive victory in a nine-year legal dispute over his trade mark
15. Royal opposition
16. High Court rejects appeal to register Jaguar Land Rover shape marks
17. No defence for the Defender – Land Rover loses trade mark shape battle with Ineos
18. Second Circuit Reverses Tiffany & Co.’s $21 Million Judgment Against Costco Wholesale Corporation
19. Pizza & Chicken finger lickin’? 
20. Is Western Sahara a no-go for trademark protection? 
21. Trade-secret protections are getting stronger – and other IP trends chemical companies need to know 
22. Defining design life: The importance of precision
23. Federal Court of Appeal affirms largest reported Canadian patent infringement award in history 
24. 8 important life sciences IP issues for innovators doing business in Canada
25. Federal Court finds Eli Lilly’s tadalafil dosage form and process patents invalid
26. Federal Court Finds CIPO Examination Practice Out of Line with Supreme Court Precedents 
27. Problem Found with Problem-Solution Approach to Claim Interpretation 
28. Egenera Inc. v. Cisco Systems Inc. 
29. Inventiveness+? Divergent theories of the “inventive concept” in patent-eligible subject matter 
30. An Old Method Using an Old Product From a New Source Is Not New
31. Actual Definitions Can Help Avoid Erroneous Constructions of Patent Claims
32. Speedfit’s Treadmill Patent “Runs Into” On-Sale Bar Invalidity Due to Collateral Estoppel Stemming from a Prior Litigation on a Different Patent
33. IPR Estoppel: It’s Not A Second Bite at the Apple if You Didn’t Get a First Bite
34. Drug Patent Invalid Due to Poor Quality Translation 
35. Finding Claims Non-obvious Was Not Error, It Was the Application of the Proper Evidentiary Standard
36. When Are Recombinant Proteins Structurally Different Than Their Natural Counterparts?
37. If Patents Are So Important To Innovation, Why Do Innovative Companies Keep Opening Up Their Patents Rather Than Enforcing Them?
38. Ninth Circuit Overturns FTC-Requested Injunction Against Refusal To License Standard Essential Patents
39. Implementers of Standard Essential Patents in Germany Must “Clearly and Unambiguously” Express Their Willingness to Take a License Under Fair, Reasonable, and Non-Discriminatory Terms 
40. Intellectual Property Rights in Recipes and Food
41. Purchasing intellectual property by way of an asset sale and purchase

PRIVACY

1.  Federal Court finds reasonable Health Canada’s decision that enantiomer of previously approved drug not entitled to data protection
2. Court of Appeal for British Columbia might recognize common law tort of breach of privacy
3. Sask. privacy commissioner finds clinic’s loss of Dictaphone with patient info was privacy breach 
4. When coffee makers are demanding a ransom, you know IoT is screwed
5. The High Privacy Cost of a “Free” Website: Trackers piggybacking on website tools leave some site operators in the dark about who is watching or what marketers do with the data 
6. Clouds without borders: the dangers of non-localized cloud contracts
7. EU Still Asking For The Impossible (And The Unnecessary): ‘Lawful Access’ To Encrypted Material That Doesn’t Break Encryption
8. DHS Probably Didn’t Clone Phones To Intercept Protesters’ Communications 
9. Ex-eBay employees to plead guilty in “bloody pig mask” cyberstalking case 
10. Mapping power and jurisdiction on the internet through the lens of government-led surveillance
11. U.S. Government White Paper to Help Companies Address the EU’s National Security Concerns in Schrems II
12. Unspoken truths about Schrems II 
13. U.S. Government issues white paper regarding EU-U.S. personal data transfers 
14. The EU personal data transmission guarantees have universal application: Schrems v Facebook
15. Out of Control: Failing EU Laws For Digital Surveillance Export 
16. Portland City Council Passes Strongest Ban on Facial Recognition in US 
17. Inspector General’s Report Confirms CBP Contractor Was Hacked, Resulting In Sensitive Info Making Its Way To The Dark Web 
18. Home A-Drone: Surveillance Invited into Our Houses
19. An Early Recap of Privacy in 2020: A US Perspective 
20. California Governor Vetoes Genetic Information Privacy Act 

CREATIVITY

1. Court of Queen’s Bench judge upholds bylaw banning trailer ads that blight southern Alberta vistas
2. A Deaccessioning Decision Tree Grows in Brooklyn—Selling Museum Art in Hard Times
3. Judge Vyskocil: Tucker Carlson’s “Extortion” Jab Was Hyperbole, Not Defamation

Jon