News of the Week; May 9, 2018

GAMES

1. Gamevice v Nintendo – Let’s try this again, at the ITC: Certain Portable Gaming Console Systems with Attachable Handheld Controllers and Components Thereof – International Trade Commission, Inv. No. 337-TA-1111 -and- Gamevice, Inc. v. Nintendo Co., Ltd.
2. NBA 2K Tattoo Copyright Dispute Blocked
3. Man sentenced to prison over 2010 World of Warcraft DDoS attack
4. Don’t Miss: How a band of modders restored Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II
5. Free-to-play game Loadout ending service in wake of GDPR regulation
6. GDPR spells closure for free-to-play shooter Loadout: Developer says new regulations are a “major burden” for small studios doing business in EU
7. Gaming Industry And Game Consumers On A Collision Course Over Loot Boxes
8. EA will continue to use loot boxes that are ‘transparent, fun, and fair’
9. EA adamant loot boxes aren’t gambling: Publisher pushes back after Belgian Gaming Commission finds fault with FIFA 18, talks game-streaming plans and Fortnite/PUBG phenomenon
10. EA experiences growth in revenue from digital downloads and live services
11. EA celebrates a record year, forecasts another: Full game downloads and physical game sales drop as booming live services now make up 40% of publisher’s income
12. EA: ‘Innovators’ like Fortnite can benefit the entire games industry
13. Madden NFL creative director Rex Dickson departs EA
14. Madden NFL could go in “new direction” following departure of creative director: Rex Dickson leaves EA after 12 years with publisher
15. Vulcan debuts new Holodome shared immersive reality platform
16. Analyst: Mobile to make up over half of worldwide game revenue in 2018
17. An in-depth breakdown of how mobile game media coverage fared in 2016
18. New Nintendo president targets ¥100bn mobile business: Incoming chief Shuntaro Furukawa believes a Pokémon Go-style hit will transform the platform holder’s fortunes on smart devices
19. Mobile Now Makes Up Majority Of Gaming Sales And Nintendo’s New President Wants To Get The Company On Board
20. Switch online service will introduce cloud saves and NES multiplayer
21. Nintendo courts families with Switch Online service: Eight-person membership available, alongside cloud saves and free NES games
22. Nintendo says Switch won’t get Virtual Console classic game downloads
23. Virtual Console Is Not Coming To Switch, Nintendo Says
24. Nintendo drops Virtual Console model in favor of subscriptions: Focus turns to the Nintendo Switch Online service for future monetization of classic games
25. Nintendo introduces Switch cloud saves as part of paid online subscription
26. Nintendo starts moving to a Wii-like “non-gamer” strategy for the Switch
27. Push the button: Steam now supports the Switch Pro Controller
28. Hackers find “official,” usable PSP emulator hidden in PS4’s PaRappa
29. PS4 expands its sales lead, now 71% of “two-console” market with Xbox One
30. Future Minecraft updates won’t come to last-gen consoles
31. Top 25 companies made up 77% of global games market in 2017 – Newzoo: Market intelligence firm points to industry consolidation as largest companies solidify positions
32. Supercell: Meet the industry’s “least powerful CEO”: Ilkka Paananen on the value of leaving power in the hands of developers, and Supercell’s ambition to create a “truly global” mobile hit
33. Google Play Instant leaves closed beta, now open to all developers
34. Report: Google has quietly opened a new game studio called Arcade
35. Google confirms new social gaming startup: Arcade is an “experiment” that will reportedly release its first game this summer
36. Chrome update auto-mutes audio on many web-based games
37. Google breaks HTML5 games with latest Chrome update: Efforts to mute autoplay video ads have unexpectedly affected browser-based web games
38. Google slams “for-profit bail-bond providers,” won’t let them advertise
39. God of War sold 3.1M copies in three days
40. God of War tops 3.1 million sold in three days: Sony says PS4-exclusive game is the fastest-selling first-party game on the system to date
41. Sony updates warranty terms following FTC warning 
42. FTC Calls Out Nintendo, Microsoft, And Sony For Their Illegal ‘Warranty Void If Removed’ Stickers
43. Capcom sees improved profits from sales of Monster Hunter: World
44. Monster Hunter: World drives Capcom’s most profitable year ever – Fantasy action game has now sold 7.9 million units, offsetting “worsened conditions” in amusement market
45. Xbox One sales up by 15% for 2018: Record-setting start to the year for platform holder
46. The Kinect lives on through Microsoft’s new project for Azure
47. Twitch tries ‘Bounty Board’ approach to setting streamers up for sponsored streams
48. Zynga posts $5.6m profit last quarter after predicting $9.5m loss: Meanwhile, company founder Mark Pincus reduces personal voting power from 70 per cent to ten per cent
49. The Curious Case Of The Fortnite Cheater: Is it illegal to cheat in a video game?
50. Fortnite pulls in fives times more revenue than PUBG on iOS: First week of monetisation for PUBG Mobile sees combined platform revenue reach only one third of Epic Games’ offering
51. Why do mobile games get a ‘free’ pass?: The mainstream media launches attacks on Fortnite’s business model, but ignores more egregious behaviour in mobile – does this reflect a bias?
52. Activision Blizzard sees new Q1 records, though share prices still falter
53. Activision shows PC some love, plans “significant” resources for Call of Duty
54. Activision is feeling the heat from battle royale titles 
55. Activision Blizzard jumping on battle royale bandwagon: Executives say Fortnite and PUBG have expanded the industry; publisher is “very quick to figure out how to capture inspiration from innovation”
56. Battlegrounds item trading shut down due to marketplace abuse
57. Fortnite Is Getting An Avengers: Infinity War Crossover
58. “The reason we’re killing ourselves isn’t because we love what we’re doing”: Night in the Woods’ Scott Benson and Bethany Hockenberry discuss unionizing in games and what to do about indie devs crunching themselves
59. Why the Campo Santo team hung up their indie spurs and joined Valve
60. Tequila Works’ Raul Rubio on the dangers of building on stereotypes: “If you look at games made in Spain, you will notice a shocking lack of bullfighters”
61. DDoS attack against Blizzard lands Romanian man in US federal prison: Calin Mateias extradited to face charges over 2010 cyber attack
62. Pink Mercy skin comes to Overwatch, all proceeds go to charity
63. Blizzard to donate more than $250,000 to Breast Cancer Research Foundation: Overwatch’s Pink Mercy charity skin will drive fundraising, alongside livestreams and more merchandise
64. ‘Overwatch’ Esports League Launches Social VR Experiences With Sansar
65. UK Charts: God of War beats Donkey Kong to No.1: Nintendo Labo slips down the charts in a quiet week for games retail
66. Chinese games market expected to reach $42bn revenue by 2022: Increase in number of female users puts China on path to 720 million gamers
67. Activision Blizzard posts record Q1 – Call of Duty: WWII helps drive Activision business even as engagement metrics drop for King and Blizzard
68. Activision share price wounded following “extraordinary error” by Dow Jones: Confusion overshadowed record Q1 revenue for publisher; stock value down 2.3 per cent by market close
69. PUBG most downloaded mobile game last quarter, but revenue flags: Sensor Tower Data Digest: Mobile game downloads up to 2.4 billion on iOS and 7.23 billion on Android
70. Google’s ARCore 1.2 enables multiplayer AR across Android and iOS
71. Ninja Hits 10 Million YouTube Subscribers, Gaining 3 Million Subs Over The Past Month
72. Hi-Rez Studios announces new esports production company: Studio co-founder and COO to head up Skillshot Media as president
73. Digi-Capital: Combined Asian markets could deliver over half of AR/VR revenue by 2022: “Western companies might need to adopt a ‘we try harder’ approach to compete at the same level,” says investment bank
74. Oculus Go to ship 1.8 million this year – Superdata: Market intelligence firm expects new stand-alone offering to lead all premium headsets in shipments this year, downgrades overall VR projections
75. Oculus: “We don’t want exclusivity. We want VR to thrive” – At Reboot Develop, Oculus’ Matt Conte urged developers to make the most of a small market by shipping on every VR platform possible
76. Facebook changes an Oculus division’s name, invents term “Facebook Reality”
77. ‘I AM A MAN’ Puts You At The Heart Of The Civil Rights Struggle, Now Available On Rift
78. Square Enix reports decreased sales, increased profits: Dragon Quest XI publisher only takes a 2.5% hit to revenues despite 32% dip in software unit sales
79. Rising revenues in US and Europe drive profits for Bandai Namco
80. Bandai Namco sees game sales up 14%: Company’s full-year results show strong gains in revenues, units sold over previous year
81. Inside Bandai Namco’s Innovation Department: Why the Pac-Man publisher is turning to Alexa and other emerging technologies
82. Tencent partners with UK government’s cultural and creative industries
83. Harmonix denies association with Columbus Nova
84. Steam reviews study suggests ‘bad design,’ not bugs, irks players most
85. Players less concerned by bugs than bad game design, study finds: Study of over 10 million Steam user reviews unearths valuable data for developers
86. New Steam Link app allows players to stream Steam games to mobile
87. Valve will soon let you stream Steam games to phones and tablets
88. Using Steam reviews to estimate sales: A game dev guide
89. Early Access effort Conan Exiles surpassed 1M sales ahead of launch
90. Analyzing the financial impact of 2 years spent on Early Access
91. Blog: A marketing perspective on trademarking
92. Game streaming service Utomik has officially launched
93. Jagex shutting down online game portal FunOrb after ten years: Advancements in technology have made it “increasingly difficult to access and play the games”
94. Artificial Intelligence Is Making Video Game Levels So Good That Even Other AI Thinks They’re Man-Made
95. Why pseudo-localization is essential 
96. In blocking autoplay videos, Chrome is breaking many Web-based games
97. Attentat 1942 wins a top honor at A MAZE Berlin, remains banned in Germany
98. Episode, Old Man’s Journey, and Empires & Puzzles win at 2018 Google Play Awards
99. Empires and Puzzles wins Best Breakthrough Hit at Google Play Awards: Best Android apps and games announced at award ceremony ahead of Google I/O 2018
100. Shadow of the Tomb Raider and the risk of making an introspective AAA game
101. Spacewar!, Tomb Raider, and others join World Video Game Hall of Fame
102. Devs share personal touches they’ve hidden in games
103. Republican politician and lobbyist runs for election in EVE Online: “Maybe 20 years ago this would be weird, but given how mainstream gaming has become…how can anyone say ‘You’re throwing your life away playing these games?'”
104. Blog: 10 negotiation tips from a video game lawyer (Pete Lewin)

DIGITAL

1. New Québec “Netflix / Amazon Tax” Will Affect Non-Canadian Businesses 
2. Report: Chinese government is behind a decade of hacks on software companies
3. As Iran Joins Russia’s Block On Telegram, The Echoes Of The Arab Spring Begin To Sound
4. House Democrats Release 3,500 Russia-Linked Facebook Ads
5. Facebook security analyst is fired for using private data to stalk women
6. Facebook’s New Focus On ‘Community’ Might Actually Depress You
7. German Politician Decries Censorship, Follows It Up By Suing Facebook To Have A Critical Comment Deleted
8. Irish Judge Slaps Down Facebook’s Attempt To Halt EU’s Top Court Examining The Legality Of Sending Personal Data To US
9. UN Celebrates World Press Freedom Day By Suppressing Presentation Of Turkey Suppressing Press
10. Artificial intelligence will sharpen the East-West divide
11. Four days at the wild, AI-filled Collision Conference—before it bails for Canada
12. DeepMind has trained an AI to unlock the mysteries of your brain: While it seems like second nature, what goes on in your brain when you navigate between two places is surprisingly complex.
13. Ars ex machina: artificial intelligence, the artist
14. Microsoft continues its quest to bring machine learning to every application
15. With Timeline and Your Phone, Microsoft makes a PC the phone’s second screen
16. Sorry Elon Musk, there’s no clear evidence Autopilot saves lives
17. Elon Musk hung up on NTSB chief during call about Tesla crash probe
18. Report: Software bug led to death in Uber’s self-driving crash
19. Ai Isn’t A Crystal Ball, But It Might Be A Mirror
20. Everyone Is Flipping Out About Google’s AI Assistant That Just Booked A Haircut On The Phone
21. How Google’s Eerie Robot Phone Calls Hint At Ai’s Future
22. Google’s ML Kit offers easy machine learning APIs for Android and iOS
23. The Price Of Google’s New Conveniences? Your Data
24. Android Things 1.0 launches, Google promises 3 years of updates for every device 
25. Google And The Rise Of ‘Digital Well-Being’
26. The Research Behind Google’s New Tools For Digital Well-Being
27. Google News gets Material Design look, better personalization with AI
28. Google releases open source framework for building “enclaved” apps for cloud
29. Google Maps unveils its first-ever augmented reality interface                     
30. Microsoft Charts Its Own Path On Artificial Intelligence
31. Apple reportedly removing apps that share location data with third parties
32. Signal’s “disappearing messages” live on in macOS notifications
33. Want To Prove Your Business Is Fair? Audit Your Algorithm
34. Section 230 Doesn’t Provide a Basis To Remove Cases to Federal Court–A.R.K. v. Grindr
35. Airbnb, Homeaway, And The Importance Of Holding The Line On Section 230 
36. Another Convicted Fraudster Attempts To Manage His Reputation With Bogus DMCA Takedown Notices
37. GoDaddy has shut down Richard Spencer’s white supremacist site
38. Nigerian Email Scammers Are More Effective Than Ever
39. Reserve Bank of India reins in cryptocurrency
40. Hundreds of big-name sites hacked, converted into drive-by currency miners
41. YouTubers Are Mad Again After YouTube Deletes Videos With Paid Promos for Academic Cheating
42. Over a 5th of the world’s population is logging in to YouTube—despite scandals
43. More Than 250 Creators Get Into Hot Water For Promoting Academic Essay-Writing Service EduBirdie 
44. YouTube Removes Hundreds Of Videos To Quash Advertisements From “Academic Aid” EduBirdie 
45. YouTube Announces New Ad-Supported Originals From Stars Like Will Smith, Priyanka Chopra
46. YouTube TV Enters Streaming Pact With Third Major League Soccer Club
47. Amid Growth To 1.8 Billion Logged-In Users, YouTube CEO Vows To Remain “On The Right Side Of History”
48. Google News And New VR180 Camera App To Add YouTube Integrations
49. Google News to be revamped, incorporate YouTube videos and magazines
50. YouTube investing $5 million on 47 creators trying to make platform more positive: Creators for Change program looks to tell stories about important topics
51. YouTube and Vevo have struck a new ad deal
52. Did YouTube Phenomenon Poppy Steal Her Style From Another Star?
53. Philip DeFranco Launches Interactive Website And App Dubbed ‘DeFranco Now’ In Partnership With Snakt
54. Lele Pons Drops Debut Music Video, Clocking 10 Million Views In 4 Days
55. Patreon Has Paid Out $350 Million To Creators Since Its Founding 5 Years Ago
56. Racing needs new fans—and paywalls and geoblocking aren’t helping
57. The Media’s Paywall Obsession Will End In Disaster For Most
58. Snapchat, Despite Redesign Woes, Keeps Adding Media Partners – Including Disney’s ‘Star Wars’
59. Spotify Ends First Quarter as a Public Company With 75 Million Paying Subscribers
60. Instragram, In Continued Quest For Social Video Domination, Will Launch Video Chat
61. Digital Media Company Popsugar Lays Off 19 Amid Financial Struggles 
62. Hulu Hits 20 Million Subscribers, Picks Up ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ For Third Season
63. Hulu will soon offer offline viewing and episode downloads
64. Following Facebook, Verizon Quietly Backs Off Opposition To Modest California Privacy Rules
65. Facebook Canada’s Hard Questions Series Turns to Privacy (Michael Geist)
66. $2-Billion Class Action Commenced Against Facebook
67. An Overview of Facebook’s Election-Related Disclosure Program for Advertisers
68. Facebook to release “clear history” tool
69. Facebook Dating Looks A Whole Lot Like Hinge
70. Why Facebook Won’t Put Ads on Its Dating App
71. Facebook Adds New Live Stream Tools, One Like Twitch Co-Streams 
72. What’s The Deal With Facebook And The Blockchain? 
73. Facebook Wants To Explore Blockchain Technology. Here’s What They Might Be Up To.
74. The Second Coming Of Vine Is On Indefinite Hold
75. V2, The Planned Successor To Vine, Postponed Indefinitely Due To “Financial Hurdles”
76. How Collab Built A Digital Talent Network And Rights Management Powerhouse Six Seconds At A Time
77. ESPN To Launch Daily Edition Of ‘SportsCenter’ On Redesigned Mobile App
78. Conan O’Brien’s TBS Show Trimmed To 30-Minute Episodes Amid Digital Pivot
79. What Ecologists Can Learn From Memes
80. CLOUD Act – clever acronym or real certainty for Cloud Service providers?
81. A short primer on applicable US eSignature laws
82. EU Commission Asks Public To Weigh In On Survey About Just How Much They Want The Internet To Be Censored
83. The Sinar Project shines light on Malaysian Internet Censorship
84. The First Amendment in the Second Gilded Age – The 2018 Mitchell Lecture (Jack Balkin)

CREATIVITY

1. The fake news Russians hear at home
2. Then they came for Peppa Pig
3. Malaysian ‘Fake News’ Law Claims Its First Victim 
4. Maybe InfoWars defense will be – “Hey nobody believe us anyway”
5. First Amendment Doesn’t Protect Encouraging Readers to Make Anti-Semitic Attacks–Gersh v. Daily Stormer
6. Monkey See, Monkey Do: Ninth Circuit Declines to Go Bananas over “Monkey Selfie” Copyrights
7. ‘Monkey Selfie’ Film in the Works at Conde Nast  
8. Olivia de Havilland Looks to Revive ‘Feud’ Defamation Suit
9. Duke Administrator Gets Baristas Fired For Listening To Rap Music 
10. Dispute over rap song leads to protest at Duke and apology from coffee shop owner
11. Nike, Great Protectors Of IP, Found To Be Infringing On Copyright And Refusing To Pay After Software Audit
12. Raging Bull and Fearless Girl – moral rights in copyright
13. New Report Shines Much-Needed Light On Shadow Libraries Around The World
14. Romance Novelist Secures Trademark For Word ‘Cocky,’ Begins Beating Other Novelists Over The Head With It
15. Springer Nature Opens Up on Educational Publishing: “E-Piracy” Sites Do Not Replace Traditional Subscription Services, Business Risks Primarily Stem from Marketplace Changes (Michael Geist)
16. Canadian Publisher on the Term of Copyright: Life Plus 50 Years is “Already Too Long” (Michael Geist)

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. World’s Worst Wireless Pricing?: Report Finds Canadian Wireless Broadband Pricing Offers Least Bang for the Buck in Developed World (Michael Geist)
2. Why one man’s victory against Bell won’t resolve telecom’s customer-service problems
3. Bell Backroom Pressure: Internal Documents Reveal How a Brock University Executive Came to Provide Support for Website Blocking (Michael Geist)
4. Text “Y” to confirm your subscription! Companies agree to $100,000 payment for alleged CASL violations
5. AT&T Stumbles As It Tries To Explain Why It Paid $200K To Cohen’s Shady Shell Company
6. AT&T’s Estimated Payment to Trump’s Lawyer Rises to $600,000 as Investigations Ramp Up
7. AT&T explains why it blocked Cloudflare DNS: It was just an accident
8. AT&T/Verizon lobby asks FCC to help raise prices on smaller ISPs
9. AT&T will ask Supreme Court to cripple the FTC’s authority over broadband
10. The Sprint And T-Mobile Merger Will Test The Department Of Justice’s Mettle
11. Sprint announces highest profit ever after saying it needs T-Mobile merger
12. T-Mobile pays ex-FCC commissioner to lobby for Sprint merger
13. T-Mobile CEO Hallucinates Competitors In Bid To Sell Competition-Killing Sprint Merger
14. Comcast preparing hostile bid for Fox properties—and control of Hulu 
15. Your Favorite Websites Are Rallying In A Last-Ditch Effort To Save Net Neutrality
16. Senate will vote to kill or keep net neutrality rules by June 12
17. Facebook Quietly Backs Away From Its Net Neutrality Killing ‘Free Basics’ Program Overseas
18. Cord Cutting Is The Obvious Result Of A 70% Spike In Cable TV Prices Since 2000

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1.  Once more unto the breach: Canada’s PIPEDA breach notification and reporting regulations in force November 1, 2018
2. Police Drop Charges Filed Against 19-Year-Old Who Downloaded Public Documents From Gov’t FOI Portal
3. Oakland passes “strongest” surveillance oversight law in US: “They are even being exploited by the federal government to fuel mass deportations.”
4. Oakland Residents Now Protected By The ‘Strongest’ Surveillance Oversight Law ‘In The Country’
5. Georgia governor vetoes cyber bill that would criminalize “unauthorized access”
6. Facial Recognition Tech Is Creepy When It Works  – And Creepier When It Doesn’t
7. UK police say 92% false positive facial recognition is no big deal 
8. Not Ready For Prime Time: UK Law Enforcement Facial Recognition Software Producing Tons Of False Positives  
9. Privacy Group Files Legal Complaint Over UK Law Enforcement’s Warrantless Phone Searches
10. You Can’t Opt Out Of Sharing Your Data, Even If You Didn’t Opt In
11. Equifax breach exposed millions of driver’s licenses, phone numbers, emails
12. FTC settles with cellphone manufacturer over data security issues 
13. We Don’t Need a National Data Center of the Poor: The many, many ways the food-stamp database proposed by House Republicans could go wrong. 
14. Change Your Twitter Password Right Now
15. Twitter alerts users: Please change your passwords, we’ve seen them
16. Yahoo Fined $35 Million for Failing to Report Data Breach
17. Welsh Police Used Face Scanning Software That Incorrectly Flagged Thousands
18. Virginia Supreme Court Says License Plate Readers Collect Personal Data; Suggests Use Violates State Law
19. Smart Doorbells That Call The Police Are Going to Endanger Some Innocent People

Jon