News of the Week; October 28, 2020

NoW October 28, 2020 

GAMES

1. EA hit with class action lawsuit in Canada over loot box usage
2. EA Accused Of Running “Unlicensed, Illegal Gaming System”
3. Billy Mitchell’s Donkey Kong high-score case will move forward to trial
4. AOC’s Twitch stream is a milestone for games — and for politics | Opinion: Embarrassing copycats are inevitable, but Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez opened a new frontier by showing how to reach younger voters
5. Twitch Deletes Content for Copyright Infringement Without Warning
6. 2K Sports Could Have Avoided Its Un-Skippable Ads Backlash If The Ads Were Better Content
7. Music industry organisations slam Twitch in open letter: The streaming giant denied the claims that its Soundtrack service is not fully licensed
8. Epic refutes Apple’s theft claims as “implausible and deficient as a matter of law”: “Apple seeks to compare Epic’s conduct to stealing cash from a vault in ApplePark,” new legal filing argues
9. Epic hits back at Apple, saying it ‘has no rights to the fruits of Epic’s labor’
10. Casino Game App Settles Gambling Accusations for $6.5 Million
11. Wasteland 3 removed “interactive use” of recreational drug for Australian release: InXile’s game was the only title out of 316 to be denied a certificate by the Australian ratings board in the last fiscal year
12. “The industry has come of age — we take our responsibilities seriously”: UKIE’s Jo Twist on the right response to “a new phase of regulatory scrutiny” for the games industry
13. Lifting the barriers for Black professionals in the games industry: Focusing on retention and promotion, the GamesIndustry.biz Academy looks at the barriers facing Black talent in games
14. Microsoft’s game revenue up by $550 million as Xbox readies for Series X debut
15. Microsoft quietly closes its final quarter before next-gen: Company projects 40% growth in hardware sales next quarter, constrained by supply
16. Xbox Series boxes unboxed, revealing a series of Xboxes inside of boxes
17. Microsoft explains how the Xbox Series S and X will shape up on day one
18. Xbox Brazil host says she was fired to protect her from harassment: Microsoft says termination of Isadora Basile was unrelated to harassment, was instead due to increased focus on Xbox Wire
19. Xbox muses xCloud expansion through ‘lower priced’ gear like streaming sticks
20. All Xbox, 360, and One games playable on Xbox One work on Xbox Series X and S: Except the ones that require Kinect
21. Phil Spencer: “You’re going to see lower-priced hardware as part of our ecosystem” – Xbox head suggests future tech could include streaming sticks, TV controllers for xCloud access
22. Xbox wants more “E-rated content” to strengthen its portfolio: Phil Spencer also says its priorities for Game Pass put Chromebook, smart TV access above Switch or PS4
23. First-party releases are driving sales and operating income at Sony
24. PS4 shipments near 114m as new generation looms: More than 75% of all PlayStation revenue came from digital sources in the second quarter, with only 41% of games bought physically
25. Clearing up which media apps will be available on PS5 at launch
26. Sony delays PS5 launch title Destruction AllStars until 2021 
27. Destruction AllStars delayed from PS5 launch: Sony pushes arena combat game’s debut to February, when it will be free to PlayStation Plus subscribers
28. First 12 hours of PS5 preorders match first 12 weeks of PS4’s – CEO Jim Ryan: “It may well be that not everybody who wants to buy a PS5 on launch day will be able to find one”
29. PlayStation’s new (web) store, genre viability & more
30. Battle of the launch line-ups: What games make for a successful console launch?: How important are first-party games? What will be the key titles for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S? We look at the data
31. 30 years later, Nintendo is localizing the first Fire Emblem game
32. Control and Hitman 3 are heading to the Switch via the cloud
33. Control, Hitman 3 receive streaming versions on Switch: Ultimate Edition of Remedy’s latest arrives today; both games will be free-to-start so players can test performance
34. Nintendo’s new translation tune? What a Fire Emblem re-release means in 2020
35. Nintendo drops price of single Joy-Cons in the US: Controllers get $10 price cut, as well as another color option for individual purchase
36. Uplay+ rebrands to Ubisoft+, adding Luna and Stadia support by 2021: Ubisoft launches beta program on Amazon’s streaming service November 10 before hitting Google’s service by year’s end
37. Ubisoft details next-gen improvements for its upcoming games: Most of the publisher’s upcoming titles releasing on current generation hardware will benefit from a free upgrade
38. Ubisoft and Netflix partner on Assassin’s Creed live-action series: The deal also includes work on animated and anime series
39. FIFA 21 retains No.1 in quiet week before the storm | UK Boxed Charts: Cadence of Hyrule sneaks into the Top 40
40. Digital console spending up 40% last month thanks to wave of big releases – SuperData: NBA 2K21, Avengers, Tony Hawk, and Super Mario 3D All-Stars lead console spending for September
41. Report: Latest Cyberpunk 2077 delay announcement blindsides its dev team
42. Cyberpunk 2077, after going gold, gets delayed another month
43. Cyberpunk 2077’s third delay pushes it to December 10: CD Projekt Red says it needs an extra three weeks to work on launch day patch
44. CD Projekt Red devs speak out after Cyberpunk 2077 delay met with death threats
45. Facebook quietly debuts cloud-streaming service for Facebook Gaming
46. Facebook takes its first small steps into the world of cloud gaming: It’s not a new service, but cloud-powered games are playable on Facebook
47. Facebook enters cloud streaming with free-to-play mobile games, playable ads: Jason Rubin explains the company’s plans to make the bottom line work, and how he expects streaming to change play patterns
48. Deleting Facebook wipes out Oculus purchases: Users who have not linked their Facebook account to their VR headset yet are not impacted
49. Facebook’s cloud-gaming offering focuses on free-to-play mobile games
50. Analysis: Facebook gears up for ad-supported cloud gaming service
51. Facebook’s cloud gaming push, why social gaming took off, more!
52. “We need a real shift in the tide”: Black professionals on representation in the UK: As the UK celebrates Black History Month, we speak to developers, players and more about racial equality in the games industry
53. Creative Director At Google Stadia Advocates Streamers Paying Game Devs And Publishers
54. Google distances itself from Stadia creative director’s comments 
55. Google distances itself from Stadia creative director Alex Hutchinson: Internet giant asserts that tweets about streamers paying royalties “do not reflect those of Stadia, YouTube or Google”
56. Mojang games to require Microsoft account: All the titles from the Minecraft developer will be impacted by the change, including Minecraft Java Edition
57. We need to talk about Steam & China
58. Roblox player spending passes $2 billion on mobile: Sensor Tower estimates suggest half of that total arrived in the last 12 months
59. Devolver Digital brings in licensing specialist to work on Fall Guys: Fée Heyer brings experience from Dunlop Sports, describes Mediatonic’s game as “a phenomenon rarely seen before”
60. The constant tug of war between AAA developers and “the money people”: Massive Entertainment boss David Polfeldt discusses the instability of AAA and the influence of self-inflicted crunch
61. Scopely acquires Genjoy: Match-three developer and its 150 employees add to Scopely’s presence in Spain
62. Scopely acquires Spanish mobile studio Genjoy to expand match-3 roster
63. Scopely raises $340 million to forge new partnerships in mobile games
64. Scopely picks up $340 million in Series E funding: At least 14 investors lend support to Star Trek Fleet Command company
65. Shotcall closes $2.2m seed round: The platform aims to connect content creators and their community by letting them play together
66. Genshin Impact made $245m in its first month on mobile alone: This makes it one of the biggest mobile launches ever
67. Riot Games appoints first ever chief marketing officer to help expand player base
68. Call of Duty: Mobile has topped 300 million downloads
69. Clever game dev tech is at the core of Watch Dogs Legion’s London
70. Watch Dogs: Legion review: A meaningless mob, with mostly merry mayhem
71. Watch Dogs Legion | Critical Consensus: Ubisoft’s latest draws largely warm reception as the play-as-anyone idea works, but critics split on how far that carries the game
72. Uplay+ subscription rebrands as Ubisoft+ and adds multi-platform support
73. Ubisoft and Netflix partner for live action Assassin’s Creed series
74. How Indiana Jones, Rambo, and others ended up in 1980s Czechoslovak text-adventures
75. Why bringing Donkey Kong 64 into the third dimension required a mental shift
76. Building concept art workflows with neural net-powered ‘generative adversarial networks’
77. Unity teams up with Lego to teach game development fundamentals
78. MrBeast-Backed Gaming Venture Launches Backbone One, A Controller That Turns iPhones Into Consoles
79. Cloud9 signs its first-ever all-woman esports roster: Valorant team formerly known as MAJKL becomes Cloud9 White, begins competing this week
80. Tencent leads $100 million investment into Chinese esports company VSPN
81. Tencent leads $100m Series B round in VSPN: Chinese esports firm eyes international expansion after growing to 1,000 employees in the space of four years
82. VENN closes $26m Series A funding: The esports and gaming broadcast network secured Nexstar Media Group as an exclusive local television partner
83. CS GO pro players banned for betting on themselves: The accused had accomplices that were placing identical bets
84. Esports Entertainment Group to acquire Helix Esports and ggCircuit: The deal will be worth $43 million, Esports Entertainment Group teases more “near-term” acquisitions
85. Not Just America: CEO Of Esports Org In India Says COVID-19 Resulted In Explosive Growth
86. Trademarks and E-games
87. VR lessons from Arizona Sunshine’s success: Vertigo Games dives into the strategies behind its virtual reality hit, and how it paved the way for future projects such as After the Fall
88. Ubisoft’s VR Space Sim ‘AGOS: A Game of Space’ Launches Today
89. How Agos A Game Of Space Will Turn Players Into A Spaceship: Will you be the benevolent AI spaceship guardian of the human colonists in the VR space sim Agos, or will you go homicidal like HAL?
90. Tilt Five on working around the pandemic to deliver tabletop AR: CEO Jeri Ellsworth explains how the platform adapted its manufacturing and fundraising to COVID-19, and what the strategy is going forward
91. Video: The lighting technology of Detroit: Become Human
92. Video: How internal game jams can help art teams.
93. Video: How Jagex has evolved to change with the times over 16 years
94. Video: A better way of depicting war in games
95. Video: Bridging community divides in cross-platform online games
96. Blog: The Zynga analytics platform in 2020
97. Don’t Miss: What Nintendo’s indie program looked like way back in 2014
98. Don’t Miss: Why Clint Hocking wanted every NPC in Watch Dogs: Legion to be playable

DIGITAL

1. Facebook Seeks Shutdown of NYU Research Project Into Political Ad Targeting: In letter this month, Facebook says the project violates provisions in its terms of service that prohibit bulk data collection
2. No Robots, Spiders, or Scrapers: Legal and Ethical Regulation of Data Collection Methods in Social Media Terms of Service (Casey Fiesler, Nathan Beard, Brian Keegan)
3. Facebook’s Threat To NYU Researchers Is A Mistake, But It’s The Inevitable Follow On To Overreaction To Cambridge Analytica
4. Zuckerberg And Facebook Throw The Open Internet Under The Bus; Support Section 230 Reform
5. Sacha Baron Cohen Demands Facebook Remove Conspiracies; Flips Out When Facebook Removes His Article With Conspiracy Images
6. S.D.N.Y. Dismisses Defamation Case Arising Out of “Battle by Tweet”
7. Yet Another Twitter Account Suspension Case Fails–Jones v. Twitter (Eric Goldman)
8. Trump’s website defaced with claim that Trump admin created coronavirus
9. Hacker says he correctly guessed Trump’s Twitter password—it was “maga2020!”
10. Trumpist Republicans Latest Freakout A Total Self-Own, As They Reveal They Don’t Read What They Tweet
11. Ninth Circuit Dumps Sentencing Enhancement Handed To Defendant For Opening Social Media Accounts For ISIS Sympathizers
12. Iran behind supposed “Proud Boys” voter-intimidation emails, Feds allege
13. Google Will Temporarily Ban Election-Related Advertising Once the Polls Close
14. RIP Google Play Music, 2011 – 2020
15. We’re Still Unsure If Instagram Grants Users a Sublicense to Embed Photos (Eric Goldman)
16. President’s Promise to Limit 230 Immunity is Underway
17. Section 230 – Everything You Love and Hate About the Internet
18. Another Section 230 Reform Bill: Dangerous Algorithms Bill Threatens Speech
19. Content Moderation Case Studies: Facebook Removes Militia Event Following A Shooting (August 2020)
20. Content Moderation Case Study: Facebook’s Moderation Of Terrorist Content Results In The Removal Of Journalists’ And Activists’ Accounts (June 2020)
21. DOJ Antitrust Case Against Google Draws Allusions to Landmark Microsoft and Standard Oil Cases
22. Google’s Data Collection Practices Face Scrutiny in Recent Lawsuits
23. YouTube Is Running Out Of Room For Political Ads
24. YouTube Music To Hold All-Day Digital Fest Featuring Artists From Its Foundry
25. YouTube Adds New Navigational Gestures To Mobile App, Thumbnail View For Video ‘Chapters’
26. Top 50 Most Viewed US YouTube Channels • Week Of 10/26/2020
27. Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 10/26/2020
28. RIAA Tosses Bogus Claim At Github To Get Video Downloading Software Removed
29. GitHub boots popular YouTube download tool after RIAA claim
30. Twitch’s Freak Out Response To RIAA Takedown Demands Raises Even More DMCA Questions
31. Join The Fan Fiction Deep State And Watch This Latest Video That Addison Cain Really Doesn’t Want You To See
32. Tubular Labs Debuts New Industry-Standard Viewership Metrics For Digital Video
33. Invisalign Shares Soar Following Huge Quarter, With Substantial Jolt From Charli D’Amelio
34. Startup ‘Kindred’ Wants To Help Socially-Conscious Influencers Speak With Greater Authority
35. Amazon launches new Counterfeit Crimes Unit
36. TikTok To Provide Greater Insight Into Video Takedowns With New Notification System
37. Adult Card Game ‘What Do You Meme?’ Launches Official TikTok Edition
38. TikTok Links Up with Shopify For Ad Integration Amid Social Commerce Push
39. A Biden-Harris PAC Is Behind TikTok’s First Virtual Creator House
40. YouTube Introduces New Icon For TikTok-Like ‘Shorts’ Tool, Shares Discovery Tips For Creators
41. TikTok Partners With Associated Press To Display Live Election Results In ‘For You’ Feed
42. Zoom Shuts Down NYU Event To Discuss Whether Zoom Should Be Shutting Down Events Based On Content
43. The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart will return in new Apple TV+ series
44. Apple develops alternative to Google search
45. Insights: How To Avoid Quibi’s Gigantic Bust-Out In Your Own Startup
46. BBTV Goes Public On Toronto Stock Exchange
47. Bumble, the Popular Dating App, Eyes $6 Billion IPO
48. Record Deals Are So Yesterday. Here’s The New Playbook For Musicians On The Internet.
49. Spotify Inks Overall Podcast Deal With Talent Manager Scooter Braun
50. Digital, Culture, Media and Sports Committee launches inquiry into the impact of streaming on the music industry
51. Bot orders $18,752 of McSundaes every 30 min. to find if machines are working
52. DOJ and IRS May Soon Begin Enforcement Actions Against Virtual Currency Tax Fraudsters
53. PayPal Pushes Crypto Further into the Mainstream
54. A general introduction to the regulation of virtual currencies in Canada
55. SEC Resolves Digital Token Offering Case
56. Bitcoin “Mixer” Operator Penalized by FinCEN for AML Violations
57. Scanning the European Ecosystem of Distributed Ledger Technologies for Social and Public Good

A.I.

1.  Bias behind bars: A Globe investigation finds a prison system stacked against Black and Indigenous inmates – Black & Indigenous inmates are more likely to get worse scores than white inmates, based solely on their race
2. AI Predicts Aggressiveness of Early Stage Breast Cancer 
3. USPTO publishes report on public views on artificial intelligence and IP Policy – US IP law adequate for now, until artificial general intelligence is reached? 
4. UK Court Decision: Artificial Intelligence Machine Is Not An Inventor 
5. Use of Aggregated Data in Artificial Intelligence Solutions
6. Regulating AI: EU proposes legal framework for Artificial Intelligence 
7. Don’t Miss: 7 examples of game AI that every developer should study 
8. Don’t Miss: Looking back at Left 4 Dead’s dynamic AI 

COMMUNICATIONS

1. Canadian News Media Lobby Group Calls for Creation of Government Digital Media Regulatory Agency (Michael Geist)
2. Where is Canada’s News Media Lobby Promoting Its Link Licensing Plan for Facebook? On Facebook (Michael Geist)
3. Senator wants Google, Facebook to pony up for local news
4. Pai’s FCC squeezes in one more vote against net neutrality before election
5. FCC Ignores The Courts, Finalizes Facts-Optional Repeal Of Net Neutrality
6. The Trump Swamp Fights Itself Over Multi-Billion Dollar No-Bid Spectrum Grab
7. Wall Street: Traditional Cable TV Sector ‘Unraveling’ In Wake Of Covid 
8. As EU Starts To Draft Its Most Important New Online Law, The Digital Services Act, MEPs Want Basic Rights High On The Agenda
9. TCPA Bites Political Speech Again: Trump Campaign Sued for Alleged Illegal Robotexts
10. AT&T loses another 600,000 TV customers as it seeks buyer for DirecTV
11. T-Mobile screwups caused nationwide outage, but FCC isn’t punishing carrier
12. It’s Opposite Day At The FCC: Rejects All Its Own Legal Arguments Against Net Neutrality To Claim It Can Be The Internet Speech Police
13. Congress, With Nothing Important On Its Hands, Seeks To Rush Through Nomination Of Anti-230 FCC Commissioner 
14. We’re Already Hyping 6G When 5G Hasn’t Even Finished Disappointing Us Yet
15. The Network: How a Secretive Phone Company Helped the Crime World Go Dark
16. Stupid Use Of Profanity Filter Makes A Mess Of Virtual Paleontologist Conference
17. FCC Proposes Expansion of Sponsor ID Rules to Require Disclosure of Foreign Government Support
18. Community Broadband In The Age Of Covid

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

1.  Enforcing Copyright Outside the Courtroom – The New Notice Regimes 
2. FLVTO.biz Petitions SCOTUS To Hear Jurisdiction Argument In Stream-Ripping Lawsuit 
3. Battle Lines Drawn Over Font Copyright Protection
4. Tom Lehrer, Still Awesome, Releases Lyrics Into The Public Domain
5. Armes v. Post: In action asserting co-authorship of Post Malone’s hit song “Circles,” court dismisses alleged co-authorship of recording, but denies motion to dismiss based on co-authorship of underlying composition. 
6. SCOTUS Reaches for Cup of Java in Oracle v. Google Oral Argument
7. New Working Paper – Memes and Parasites: A discourse analysis of the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive
8. Canada’s Official Marks – A Public Nuisance? 
9. Jack Daniel’s Petitions for Certiorari to Clarify Trademark Fair Use
10. Monster Mash: Minor League Hockey Team Prevails Over Energy Drink Giant in Trademark Dispute
11. One Restaurant Sends Cease And Desist To Another Over The Word ‘Juicy’ 
12. Trade Secret Battle Waged in Legal Services Market
13. Second Chances From the Second Circuit: Tiffany’s $21m Judgment Is Overturned and Remanded Back to the SDNY 
14. Federal Court of Appeal affirms largest reported Canadian patent infringement award in history
15. Navigating your Global Patent Prosecution Strategy under Canada’s new Patent Rules
16. IP monitor: Claim construction revisited: Positive changes for applicants seeking to protect computer-related inventions
17. Solving the ‘problem-solution’ problem for patent applicants: Choueifaty decision
18. Can you patent software? 
19. Spotlight On: Neulasta® (pegfilgrastim) / Fulphila® (pegfilgrastim-jmdb) / Udenyca® (pegfilgrastim-cbqv) / Ziextenzo® (pegfilgrastim-bmez) / Nyvepria™ (pegfilgrastim-apgf) 
20. U.S. Court Values Cybersecurity Patents at Nearly $2 Billion, but Why?
21. A Patentee’s Dismissed Lawsuit Will Preclude a Subsequent, Effectively Identical Suit in the Absence of Different Conduct, Different Alleged Violations or Litigants, or Different Subsequent Facts 

PRIVACY

1. Sensitive Personal Information: Another Concept Borrowed From The GDPR
2. Hacked Healthcare Provider Refuses to Pay Ransom, Attackers Target Psychotherapy Patients
3. Advisories: “Brazen” Russian ransomware hackers target hundreds of US hospitals
4. Data as Property?
5. 2020 Data Privacy Compendium
6. Top Five Tips to Protect Privilege in a Data Breach 

CREATIVITY

1. Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner Threaten Defamation Suit Over Lincoln Project’s Non-Defamatory Billboards
2. Dark Ironies: The Financial Times and Cambridge Analytica
3. Appeals Court Reinstates Injunction Blocking Federal Agents From Assaulting Portland Journalists
4. Demonstrating the Strength of the “Opinion Defense,” Rose McGowan Defeats Defamation Suit

Jon