News of the Week; December 2, 2020

By Jon Festinger on December 8, 2020

GAMES

  1. Twin Galaxies attacks Billy Mitchell as a fraud in new legal claims
  2. Nicalis issues DMCA against free Cave Story games
  3. Subverse developer under fire for partnering with racist YouTuber Arch
  4. Supercell cancels Hay Day Pop
  5. Supercell shutting down Hay Day Pop after less than a year 
  6. ‘As abstract as killing people in a video game,’ doctor says of Alek Minassian’s mind
  7. The Legality of Loot Boxes: A Primer
  8. Fortnite’s Nexus War event could expose Twitch streamers to DMCA problems
  9. Travis Scott reportedly grossed roughly $20m for Fortnite concert appearance
  10. Fortnite’s Season 4 finale attracted a record 15.3 million concurrent players
  11. Marvel finale was Fortnite’s biggest event ever at 15.3m concurrent users
  12. Wallace & Gromit maker Aardman partners with Bandai Namco on new game franchise
  13. What are the biggest changes impacting the games industry?
  14. Survey finds gaming by Americans over 45 has spiked in 2020
  15. Remote work is here to stay — but it won’t be cheap or easy
  16. How meditation and cooperation shaped Vela Games
  17. The Witcher 3 is the bedrock of CD Projekt Red’s financials one last time
  18. Fall Guys developer Mediatonic opens new UK studio
  19. How ‘buoyant’ Sega Europe is helping Sega Sammy stay afloat
  20. EG7 acquires Daybreak
  21. MechWarrior developer Piranha Games acquired by EG7 for $24.2 million
  22. EG7 pens deal to acquire EverQuest and H1Z1 dev Daybreak for $300 million
  23. Uri Geller retracts 20-year ban on Kadabra Pokémon trading cards
  24. Super Nintendo World now opening in February
  25. Universal Studios Japan will open Super Nintendo World in February
  26. The PlayStation 5’s ‘Activities’ quick-select is Sony’s answer to common single player woes
  27. PS5 comes out top in massive month for console sales | UK Monthly Charts
  28. UK mobile game spending reaches new single-day record on Black Friday
  29. Black Friday physical game sales drop 20% over 2019 l UK Boxed Sales
  30. Worldwide digital games spending down 10% between Black Friday and Cyber Monday
  31. Console remains largest employer of development staff in the UK
  32. GTA5: A Living World Eyeing A Decade Of Rabid Play Instead Of Just A ‘Game’
  33. TinyBuild invests $3m in Secret Neighbor developer Hologryph
  34. Tinybuild sinks $3 million into Secret Neighbor developer Hologryph
  35. Saudi Arabian charity Misk acquires 33.3% stake in SNK
  36. Phoenix Labs expands to Montreal and LA
  37. Dauntless dev Phoenix Labs opens two new studios to support growth
  38. Remnant: From the Ashes tops 1.7 million base game sales in just over a year
  39. Marvel’s Avengers fails to meet Square Enix sales targets
  40. Playco charts a course to the billion-player mobile game
  41. Krafton to consolidate Pnix and Delusion Studio into new studio, RisingWings
  42. Was Activision Blizzard right to ignore mobile? | 10 Years Ago This Month
  43. Cyberpunk 2077 pre-orders “visibly higher” than any Witcher title
  44. CDPR will take down Cyberpunk 2077 streams & let’s plays aired before launch
  45. Dead Cells sells over 3.5m copies
  46. Dead Cells surpasses 3.5 million sold ahead of second DLC announce
  47. Genshin Impact made almost $400m in two months on mobile
  48. Genshin Impact wins iPhone Game of the Year
  49. Apple picks Genshin Impact as its iPhone Game of the Year 
  50. Google names Genshin Impact its best game of 2020
  51. Bigger Games raises $6 million for casual puzzle games
  52. Immortals: Fenyx Rising | Critical Consensus
  53. Sonic The Hedgehog 2 movie expected to start production in March
  54. That time Roger Ebert said games will never be as worthy as movies
  55. ‘Interactive reality TV’ project Rival Peak launches on Facebook
  56. We test Herman Miller’s $1,499 gaming chair: All business—to a fault
  57. The Game Theorists Raise Staggering $3 Million For St. Jude During 9-Hour YouTube Stream
  58. Food Publishers Surprisingly Didn’t Lean On Thanksgiving Video Content This Year
  59. Sega unveils never-before-seen prototype ‘Venus’ handheld
  60. BBTV Signs 5 International Gamers Who Count 23 Million Collective Subscribers
  61. Esports platform Smashgg acquired by Microsoft
  62. AR Mario Kart anchors Universal’s Super Nintendo World in February
  63. VR spending to pass $1bn in 2020
  64. Analyst: 2020 will see 6.4 million consumer VR headsets sold, spending surpass $1bn 
  65. Blog: A pre-postmortem about marketing
  66. Blog: Key ingredients for compelling video game characters 
  67. Q&A: Hand-painting the watercolor world of Dordogne
  68. Video: A look at Insomniac Games’ cache simulator
  69. Video: Lessons from Sony Interactive Entertainment’s localization process
  70. Don’t Miss: Using procedural destruction to unleash chaos in Control
  71. Don’t Miss: Why do devs love Slack, and how do they get the most out of it?
  72. Best of 2020: Rebuilding a classic in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition
  73. Best of 2020: Behind the dizzying ride to the top for Among Us

DIGITAL

  1. Increased Web Page Accessibility Requirements for Private and Non-Profit Organizations in Ontario Come into Effect in 2021 and AODA Accessibility Report Due Date Extended
  2. Utter Insanity: Trump Lawyer Suggests Former Trump Cybersecurity Official Should Be ‘Taken Out And Shot’ For Saying The Election Was Secure
  3. Just As #DiaperDon Starts Trending, Trump Claims That Twitter Uses ‘Fake’ Trends, Calls For ‘Termination’ Of Section 230
  4. Trump Promises To Defund The Entire Military, If Congress Won’t Let Him Punish The Internet For Being Mean To Him
  5. Trump to Congress: Repeal Section 230 or I’ll veto military funding
  6. White House Still Pushing To Slip Section 230 Repeal Into ‘Must Pass’ Military Spending Bill
  7. Congress Decides To Ignore Trump’s Ridiculous Veto Threat If Military Authorization Doesn’t Wipe Out Section 230
  8. New Ebook on Zeran v. AOL, the Most Important Section 230 Case (Eric Goldman)
  9. Twitter To Relaunch Account Verification In 2021
  10. Pinterest shareholders sue firm over rampant gender, race discrimination
  11. Federal Court Strikes Down California’s Ban On ‘Offensive’ License Plates
  12. European regulator hits Apple with a fine over iPhone water-resistance claims
  13. Amazon to roll out tools to monitor factory workers and machines
  14. Amazon Web Services adds macOS on bare metal to EC2
  15. Amazon to pay employee bonus amid threat of Black Friday strikes
  16. Oracle vulnerability that executes malicious code is under active attack
  17. Cases against Facebook are reportedly coming… when FTC decides how
  18. Facebook Gaming Introduces Non-Gaming Content Hub For Partners Called ‘Hanging Out’
  19. Facebook’s libra currency to launch next year in limited format
  20. Lilly Singh, Liza Koshy, More Hosted Instagram Live Fundraisers For ‘Giving Tuesday’
  21. The Material Conditions of Platforms: Monopolization Through Decentralization
  22. 512(f) Claim Against Robo-Notice Sender Can Proceed–Enttech v. Okularity (Eric Goldman)
  23. Content Moderation Case Study: Reclaiming A Hashtag (2020)
  24. Is Free Speech Online About To Get A Lot Less Free?
  25. Salesforces buys Slack for $27.7bn
  26. Salesforce to acquire Slack in $27.7 billion deal
  27. Salesforce strikes deal to acquire Slack for $27.7 billion
  28. Snapchat Taps Michael Le, Dytto To Host Interactive Dance Series, With Potential For Viewers To Monetize (Trailer)
  29. How to restore moral and technical order in a time of misinformation
  30. As a Service | Selling to consumers using a subscription model
  31. Platform Regulation Should Focus on Transparency, Not Content
  32. New Tech Regulation for the UK? Sounds familiEUr…
  33. New York Passes Wide-Ranging Automatic Renewal (Subscription Model) Law
  34. The risks and rewards of influencer marketing
  35. Influencer Philanthropy and Social Media – What are the Rules, What are Best Practices?
  36. Bella Poarch, The #YouHaveTo Hashtag, “Savage Love” Top TikTok’s Biggest Trends Of 2020
  37. TikTok Users Can Now Auto-Skip Videos That Might Trigger Photosensitive Epilepsy
  38. TikTok Is Reportedly Testing 3-Minute Videos
  39. I Turn My Camera on. Notes on the Aesthetics of Tiktok
  40. YouTube Suspends ‘OANN’ From Monetization, Strikes Channel For Repeated COVID Misinformation
  41. YouTube Teams With British Vogue For ‘Masterclass’ Series Starring Fashion Experts, Influencers, More
  42. How old, ambient Japanese music became a smash hit on YouTube
  43. Creators Can Now Host Live Pre-Shows, Embed Trailers Ahead Of Their YouTube Video ‘Premieres’
  44. Top 50 Most Viewed US YouTube Channels • Week Of 11/30/2020
  45. Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 11/30/2020
  46. YouTube’s Latest Original Is A Charitable ‘Secret Santa’ Exchange With AsapSCIENCE, Molly Burke, More
  47. Jake Paul Says He’s In Talks To Fight UFC Champ Conor McGregor
  48. Washington considers digital advertising tax
  49. Big Tech’s carbon problem: Energy-guzzling data centres and supply chains mean our online lives leave a heavy environmental footprint.
  50. Google, the Media Patron: How the Digital Giant Ensnares Journalism
  51. Is Google Really the Borg?
  52. ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ Becomes Netflix’s Most-Watched Limited Scripted Series, 4th Biggest TV Show Overall
  53. Taylor Swift Re-Teams With Disney+ For ‘Folkore’ Concert Documentary
  54. As organizations accelerate their digital transformation initiatives, they are increasingly embracing the power, affordability and versatility of open source software.
  55. Perpetually Missing from Tech Policy: ISPs And The IoT
  56. Choose your movies and also their endings!

A.I.

  1. DeepMind AI handles protein folding, which humbled previous software
  2. Amazon inquiry after Alexa accused of antisemitism
  3. Amazon’s Alexa accused of sharing anti-Semitic conspiracies, Holocaust denial
  4. The Time Has Come for International Regulation on Artificial Intelligence’
  5. A robot’s muse: when AI creates art
  6. AI inventors? Why should we care?
  7. Thinking outside the black box: explainable AI is coming into focus
  8. Artificial Intelligence and Recruitment – how to address the pitfalls
  9. Artificial intelligence, robotics and automation: The best or the worst thing to ever happen to humanity?
  10. The use of artificial intelligence: interesting technological developments in the legal and accountancy sectors
  11. AI can run your work meetings now
  12. The Full Automation Fallacy
  13. Speaking to algorithms? Rhetorical political analysis as technological analysis
  14. Deciding what’s fair
  15. A “Light Touch” Regulatory Framework for AI – Transparency at the Heart of AI Regulation
  16. Machines as Manifestations of Global Systems: Steps toward a Sociometabolic Ontology of Technology
  17. Artificial Intelligence, Aesthetics, and Future of Culture
  18. AI did it My Way

COMMUNICATIONS

  1. The Broadcasting Act Blunder, Day Six: The Beginning of the End of Canadian Broadcast Ownership and Control Requirements (Michael Geist)
  2. The Broadcasting Act Blunder, Day Seven: Beware Bill C-10’s Unintended Consequences (Michael Geist)
  3. The Broadcasting Act Blunder, Day 8: The Unnecessary Discoverability Requirements (Michael Geist)
  4. The Broadcasting Act Blunder, Day 9: Why Use Cross-Subsidies When the Government is Rolling Out Tech Tax Policies? (Michael Geist)
  5. The Broadcasting Act Blunder, Day 10: Downgrading the Role of Canadians in their Own Programming (Michael Geist)
  6. Ajit Pai announces departure from FCC after four-year deregulatory blitz
  7. Ajit Pai, Easily The Most Controversial FCC Boss In History, Will Step Down January 20
  8. Senate rushes to confirm Trump FCC nominee in order to hinder Biden admin
  9. FCC agenda meeting to evaluate items of interest for manufacturers and operators of radiofrequency equipment 
  10. FCC Makes More Spectrum Available in 5.9 GHz Band for Unlicensed Use 
  11. President-Elect Biden Announces FCC Transition Team 
  12. FCC Proposes $20,000 Fine for TV Station Program-Length Commercial in Children’s Programming
  13. FCC Adopts New Program Carriage Complaint Procedures
  14. Comcast Increases Prices And Bogus Fees In The Middle Of A Pandemic 
  15. Verizon, NYC Settle Lawsuit Over Verizon’s Empty Fiber Promises
  16. Verizon wiring up 500K homes with FiOS to settle years-long fight with NYC 
  17. In the Conversion to NextGen TV, Who is Responsible for the Content of the Simulcast Streams?
  18. More Subsidies Alone Won’t Fix What Ails U.S. Broadband
  19. Broadband and the UK’s National Infrastructure Strategy

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

  1.  Nicki Minaj Safeguards the Right for Artists to Experiment with Unlicensed Work
  2. Skateboard Graphic Artist Sues Jack Black, Tony Hawk, and The Berrics for Copyright Infringement of Skateboard Graphic Design
  3. PewDiePie’s “My Heart Will Go On”: A Case Study in the DMCA and YouTube’s Copyright Dispute Process (Part I)
  4. Peace does not get a chance
  5. Supermodel Sues for Alleged Unauthorized Use of Her Likeness 
  6. The EU Commission better get its skates on when it comes to copyright
  7. World’s Worst Copyright Troll, Richard Liebowitz, Suspended From Practicing Law
  8. ‘Tis The Season: Congress Looks To Sneak In Unconstitutional Copyright Reform Bill Into ‘Must Pass’ Spending Bill
  9. Circumventing technological protection measures and website blocking orders: An EU perspective
  10. Ferrari Wins Legal Case Against Designer Philipp Plein’s Use Of Its Supercars, But He Says It’s Not Over
  11. Philipp Plein Loses Court Battle Against Ferrari Over Illegal Use of Its Brand
  12. How the Freddy copycat fashion case opens up new options for designers
  13. Nevermind: Who Really Owns Nirvana’s Iconic Smiley Face Design? 
  14. From football stadiums to railway stations…covering the bigger picture with registered designs
  15. When Trademarks Get Messi: Likelihood of Confusion and Leo Messi’s Big European Trademark Win 
  16. Deus ex Machina Motorcycles Pty. Ltd. v. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.
  17. AMERICAN EAGLE found to infringe EAGLE RARE trade mark in the UK
  18. EUIPO: What’s in the name…………… Hamilton!
  19. A Butler cannot be Royal!
  20. Minimalist trademarks: trend to follow or end of the road for uniqueness?
  21. The Burberry case: influencers, rappers and VIPs, watch out for improper use and associations to reputed brands
  22. A guide to trade mark revocation for legacy brands
  23. Snap Removal in Trade Secret Cases
  24. Risks and rewards of trade secrets in Europe
  25. Patenting antibody-based biologics in Canada
  26. Federal Circuit Confirms That “Magnetic Fuzz” Is Too Fuzzy for a Patent Claim 
  27. Working from home — does it affect patent ownership for employee inventions?
  28. It’s a Date – Twitter Reply Proves Prior Art Publication Date 
  29. Effectively using experts in IP litigation part two: practice 
  30. (S)he´s making a list, (S)he´s checking it twice: An IP due diligence checklist for the holidays – or any time 

PRIVACY

  1.  Proposed Canadian Privacy Bill Introduces Fines and New Requirements for Private Organizations
  2. Understanding the Draft Consumer Privacy Protection Act: A Summary of the Key Changes Proposed
  3. French Gov’t Walks Back Proposal To Make Publishing Images Of Police Officers Illegal After Massive Protests Erupt Across The Nation
  4. Once more unto the breach: The Supreme Court weighs in on a circuit split on what constitutes a hack 
  5. New Orleans PD Finally Admits It Uses Facial Recognition Tech After Denying It For Years 
  6. Autonomous vehicles and big data: Managing the personal information deluge 
  7. Canada Re-enters the International Ring with Bold New Privacy Law Including Significant Fines
  8. Post-Schrems II: European Data Protection Board’s Recommendations Bring Further Clarity and Practical Steps Regarding International Data Flows
  9. Does Tor provide more benefit or harm? New paper says it depends
  10. The Supreme Court will finally rule on controversial US hacking law

Jon

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