News of the Week; March 4, 2020
GAMES
- Plague Inc. pulled from Chinese App Store over ‘illegal’ content
- Pandemic simulation game Plague Inc. pulled from iOS App Store in China
- Statement on The Removal of Plague Inc. From the China App Store
- Plague Inc. pulled from Chinese App Store: Developer Ndemic Creations says outbreak simulation game removed because it “includes content that is illegal in China”
- China Bans ‘Plague Inc.’ Amid Coronavirus Outbreak
- Zynga faces class action lawsuit over 2019 data breach
- Zynga faces class action lawsuit over data breach: Plaintiffs warn that millions of users, including minors, will be at risk of fraud and identity theft “for years to come”
- Grand Theft Auto cheat software; an infringement story
- FaZe Clan Indefinitely Suspends Fortnite Star ‘Dubs’ For On-Stream Racial Slur
- Smaller devs say they won’t back Stadia due to a lack of incentives
- Google Stadia Lacks Games In Its Library, Isn’t Shelling Out For New Games
- Modus Games’ narrative puzzler Lost Words becomes ‘First on Stadia’ exclusive
- Google picks California as the home for its second Stadia studio
- Stadia opens new studio in Playa Vista: Ex-Sony Santa Monica head Shannon Studstill will oversee a team creating exclusive games for Google’s streaming service
- The Division 2 is headed to Stadia this month with PC cross-play
- Real Property Dispute in a Virtual World
- Hinterland Studio pulls The Long Dark from Nvidia GeForce Now
- Nvidia didn’t ask permission to host The Long Dark on GeForce Now, says dev: Hinterland Studio becomes third game company to pull its content from fledgling streaming service
- New publisher Ziggurat Interactive to revive dormant IP for PC and console: Company has access to over 140 titles from as far back the ’80s, first three games revealed
- Why Destiny 2 is leaving cosmetic loot boxes behind and working to balance ‘FOMO’
- China and Asia show their influence over the top grossing mobile games: Sensor Tower’s data for January 2020 underlines the commanding role Asian markets play in the global games industry
- NetEase revenue and profits ride high on the back of diverse portfolio: World of Warcraft Classic drives WoW subscribers to record heights in China
- Improbable’s losses rose 65% last year to £63.7 million: But SpatialOS developer says accounts do not reflect “major changes” that have taken place in the last nine months
- Echo Fox admits to defamation charge in settlement: Esports organization agrees former general partner Rick Fox made false statements that harmed a co-founder and investor
- FIFA pro is “done” after server issues force Rock, Paper, Scissors decision
- FIFA 20 esports qualifiers decided by Rock, Paper, Scissors when players can’t connect: Another pro defaulted after he was unable to connect for three hours
- EA is working with FIFA 20 players to test and fix connectivity issues
- Torque Esports to operate Overwatch Collegiate League: Participating schools to compete for $40,000 in esports scholarships
- Twitch To Surpass 40 Million Monthly U.S. Viewers Next Year, Report Finds
- My.Games annual revenue spikes by 23% to $474m: Top-performing franchise Warface surpasses 85 million registered users
- Roblox closes $150m funding round: Investment lead Andreessen Horowitz also tenders $350 million minority stake offer
- Kwalee and the power of profit sharing: Pocketing the extra cash would have a “detrimental effect on the success of the company” says CEO David Darling
- Games firms “have to be ready” to support employees with mental health issues: Safe In Our World’s Kim Parker-Adcock offers advice on how to cultivate a more understanding work environment
- Six ways video game composers are missing out on money: Video game music is more accessible than ever before, but a lack of business knowledge among composers means money is being left on the table
- UK Charts: Two Point Hospital debuts at No.2 – Call of Duty Modern Warfare returns to No.1
- Free-to-play PS4 and PC game Let it Die surpasses 6 million downloads
- Pokerist maker KamaGames grows revenue 18% to $90.4 million in 2019
- Mobile studio FunCraft nets $1.8 million to push into casual market
- What does $1M in Steam sales look like? Academia: School Simulator case study
- GOG will now refund games within 30 days, even if they’ve been played
- Labworks secures £500,000 investment for voice game subscription service: “The new service will be designed to cater for both gamers and the needs of wider sectors such as education and the visually impaired community”
- TinyBuild and Guts & Glory dev HakJak open new studio in Idaho
- TinyBuild opening new Boise studio with Guts and Glory developer: Former solo dev Jed “HakJak” Steen will build a team to make “a world-class emergent gameplay IP”
- Tilting Point acquires Star Trek Timelines from Disruptor Beam
- Tilting Point buys Star Trek Timelines from Disruptor Beam; Key team members will join Tilting Point to operate Timelines as Wicked Realms Games
- Phoenix Games acquires Romanian live-ops company Studio Firefly
- Zordix acquires mobile dev Invictus Games
- Zordix acquires Invictus Games: Swedish publisher doubles in size with addition of Hungarian mobile developer
- Blastlands: Team Combat dev Strange Quest is closing down
- Next-gen will be “tectonic plates” shifting underneath marketers: Behaviour’s new chief marketer officer David Reid talks about how much the strategy of selling games has changed and the future of streaming
- Designing the end of all Longing: Studio Seufz’s Anselm Pyta talks about his 400-day exploration/idle game, and the importance of time, empathy, and endings
- Spellbreak beta stands out from the copycat battle royale crowd
- GDC 2020 postponed: Organizers now intend to host a show in the summer after health concerns prompt numerous participants to drop out
- GDC postponed to later in 2020 amid coronavirus cancellations [Updated]
- Unity pulls out of GDC as coronavirus “presents too much risk”: Engine provider will no longer exhibit, plans to showcase its GDC content online
- Amazon, Blizzard withdraw from GDC: Novel coronavirus concerns keeps more big names away from next month’s conference
- The ESA is ‘actively assessing’ new COVID-19 info, but says E3 is still on
- ESA moves ahead with E3 2020 despite coronavirus concerns – Update: Los Angeles declares state of emergency, E3 team “actively assessing” the situation
- CCP calls off EVE Fanfest event over coronavirus concerns
- Baldur’s Gate 3 gameplay reveal: A huge leap past THAC0, early access in 2020
- Nvidia switches GTC 2020 to online conference amid coronavirus concerns: Chip maker scraps in-person event due to take place in San Jose this month
- Epic cancels Unreal Fest Europe 2020 due to coronavirus concerns
- Epic cancels Unreal Fest Europe: Following its withdrawal from GDC 2020, engine provider scraps its own event due to “uncertainty around health concerns and travel”
- GamesFirst London 2020 and Google I/O cancelled: Organizers pull plug on events citing novel coronavirus concerns
- Industry rallies to offer relief after GDC cancellation: Publishers, developers and trade bodies collaborate to raise funds for financially-stricken attendees
- Final Fantasy VII Remake demo finally gets official, free release [Updated]
- PlatinumGames: The Wonderful 101 Kickstarter wasn’t about the money – “We thought it would be a good opportunity to bring the fans together — to unite them — and gauge interest,” says executive director Atsushi Inaba
- Autistica Play launches inclusive game jam: Charity hopes to show how games can be used to raise awareness and funds for research into the challenges autistic people face
- The Great Divide: A look at Africa’s very different dev scenes – Creators discuss what separates the continent’s South and North from its East and West, and what unifies them
- Iran video games timeline: from 1970 to 2019
- War Stories: How Crash Bandicoot hacked the original PlayStation
- Blog: Programming visual effects for Lightmatter
- Blog: Designing the perfect video game tutorial
- Blog: The secret AI testers inside The Division 22
- Don’t Miss: How Game Freak designs the iconic monsters of Pokemon
- Don’t Miss: Using the language of film & theater to entice new players in FMV game Erica
- Don’t Miss: Reflections on the afterimage of Final Fantasy VII
- Don’t Miss: Why multiplayer almost didn’t make it into Halo: Combat Evolved
- Don’t Miss: Defining direction, writing, art and music on Yakuza 4
- Video: Procedural level design in XCOM 2
- Video: Understanding the illusion of choice in game design
- Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima to receive BAFTA Fellowship award
- Control and Death Stranding lead BAFTA Games Awards 2020 nominations
- Control and Death Stranding nominated for 11 BAFTAs each: Hideo Kojima to receive Fellowship as Death Stranding ties for most nominations in BAFTA Game Award history
- Hideo Kojima to receive BAFTA Fellowship: BAFTA’s highest honour will be given to Metal Gear Solid’s creator at the Games Awards on April 2, 2020
- Konami Code creator Kazuhisa Hashimoto has died: Publisher pays tribute to former programmer and producer
- Erica dev Flavourworks nets $650,000 to further develop tactile FMV tech
- Valve: Half-Life: Alyx is “not the end” of the franchise
- Ten minutes of Half-Life: Alyx: The biggest VR goosebumps we’ve ever had
- Half-Life’s mechanics are a ‘surprisingly natural fit for VR’ says Valve
- VR 2020 — can Sony’s PlayStation catch PC in the virtual reality game?
DIGITAL
- Data shows who was reading “fake news” before 2016 US election
- Spanish Government Moves Ahead With First ‘Fake News’ Prosecution
- Reddit Cofounder Steve Huffman Calls TikTok “Spyware” That’s “Fundamentally Parasitic”
- How Information on the Coronavirus is Managed on Chinese Social Media
- How Hackers and Spies Could Sabotage the Coronavirus Fight: Intelligence services have a long history of manipulating information on health issues, and an epidemic is especially tempting for interference.
- Turns Out Most People Still Don’t Hate ‘Big Internet’ As Much As Politicians And The Media Want Them To
- Defeating Tech Giants With Open Protocols, Interoperability, And Shared Stewardship
- Did Apple throttle your iPhone? Settlement will give you a whopping $25
- Apple can’t break up with China, Wall Street Journal report argues
- It’s not just ‘big tech’ that should be wary of regulatory changes
- Everyone agrees: Facebook, Twitter should block disinfo—but probably won’t
- 8chan Founder, Who Has Denounced The Site, Now Facing ‘Criminal Cyberlibel’ Charges From Current Owner
- Facebook Gives Thumbs Up to Sponsored Content by Politicians
- Facebook Announces Restrictions on Coronavirus-Related Ads
- Facebook Messenger is getting a much simpler new design: Chatbots and games are gone as part of a broader streamlining of Messenger
- Who’s Afraid of the IRS? Not Facebook.: Social media behemoth is about to face off with the tax agency in a rare trial. But onerous budget cuts have hamstrung the agency’s ability to bring the case.
- Facebook Files Anti-SLAPP Motion Against Defunct App Developer Who Sued Over Revamp Of Facebook’s App Platform
- Facebook cancels F8 conference over coronavirus fears
- Facebook denies reports it is backing away from Libra cryptocurrency
- Cisco: Avoid coronavirus, stay home, use Webex
- Google cancels I/O developer conference amid coronavirus concerns
- Fantasy Baseball Players Sue MLB, Houston Astros, and Boston Red Sox
- Twitter’s New Investor Wants To Replace CEO Jack Dorsey
- Twitter’s newest major investor wants to oust CEO Jack Dorsey
- Twitter Introduces ‘Fleets,’ Its Years-Late Version Of The Stories Format
- Twitter is testing ephemeral tweets in Brazil and calling them ‘fleets’: Snapchat Stories finally arrive on Twitter
- Snapchat’s Speed Filter Protected by Section 230–Lemmon v. Snap (Eric Goldman)
- Defendants Keep Getting Arbitration Despite the Anarchy in Online Contract Formation Doctrine (Eric Goldman)
- YouTube Isn’t a State Actor (DUH)–PragerU v. Google (Eric Goldman)
- Yelp Finally Defeats a False Advertising Lawsuit Over Its Review Functionality–Demetriades v. Yelp (Eric Goldman)
- Pricing and the online channel
- Microsoft expects to miss Q3 targets due to coronavirus: Supply chain returning to normal at a “slower pace than anticipated”
- Amazon Removes More Than One Million Products for Inflated Prices or False Coronavirus Claims
- Amazon’s New Grocery Store Is Watching Our Every Move. But We Asked For This.
- Making History at Amazon: If they can disrupt the supply chain, Amazon workers could transform an industry that constitutes one of the commanding heights of the twenty-first-century economy.
- Tech firms push telework as Amazon employee confirmed with coronavirus
- Quibi Closes $750 Millon Round, Bringing Total Funds Raised To $1.75 Billion
- Quibi Closes Upsized $750 Million Second Round of Funding for Mobile-Video Launch
- LinkedIn tests Stories feature to be like Snapchat too: Even LinkedIn is copying Snapchat now.
- Supreme Court Decides Intel Corporation Investment Policy Committee v. Sulyma
- Food Delivery Drivers Open to Unionization – Expanding Labour Relations to E-commerce
- How e-commerce platforms get drawn into global war on counterfeit goods
- Mind the Wrapping: Ensuring the Validity of Online Agreements
- Can YouTube Quiet Its Conspiracy Theorists?
- YouTube’s Plan to Stop Recommending Conspiracy Theory Videos Is Actually Working
- YouTube Is Considering Letting Creators Sell Their Own Ads
- YouTube May Allow Content Creators to Sell Ad Space on their Own Videos
- BTS Shatters Record For Biggest YouTube ‘Premiere’ With 1.54 Million Concurrent Viewers
- Meghan Rienks Says Her Channel Has Been Hacked, Rebranded For 2 Months Amid Idle Response From YouTube
- YouTube Rolls Out Kids App To 11 More Countries
- YouTube TV Is Dropping YES Network, Fox Sports Networks
- After 109,000 Video Removal Appeals Last Quarter, YouTube Says It Reinstated 22%
- YouTube’s New Subscriber Notification Metrics Show Creators Exactly How Many Are (And Aren’t) Sent Per Upload
- Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 3/02/2020
- FX launches on Hulu, offering over 40 shows and originals`
- Netflix Takes The Stage With First-Ever Live Comedy Festival Featuring Wanda Sykes, Jane Fonda, David Letterman, More
- Vine Successor ‘Byte’ To Launch Pooled Monetization Program On April 15
- Abrams Artists Signs TikTok Stars Avani Gregg, Andre Swilley, And Tayler Holder
- Chipotle Says Its #Boorito TikTok Campaign Got 3.9 Billion Views In 4 Months. But What Exactly Does TikTok Count As A “View”?
- TikTok Owner ByteDance Launches Resso App in India, Taking on Spotify
- MTV’s New Digital Series Sees Sneaker Influencers Compete In Customization Battles
- FTC Guidelines: Possible Civil Penalties to Deter Deceptive Influencer Marketing
- The Influencer Industry: Constructing and Commodifying Authenticity on Social Media (Emily Hund)
- Actor Steven Seagal Settles With SEC Over Improper Endorsements
- Emma Chamberlain Unveils Reimagined Podcast With Broader Focus: ‘Anything Goes’
- Casey Neistat Joins Advisory Board For Social Stock Market Investment Startup ‘Public’
- New Platform Taki Lets Digital Creators Share Their Skills With Fans Through Custom Commissioned Videos (Exclusive)
- Spotify tries making its app easier to use in latest update
- Kevin Hart’s LOL Forges Multi-Year Deal With ‘Advertising Week’ For Podcast, Branded Studio, Event Integrations
- Yelp Names And Shames Business Buying Reviews
- Endeavor Invests In Latest $13 Million Round For Creator Marketplace ‘Tongal’
- PetNet ‘Smart’ Pet Feeders Go Offline For A Week, Customer Service Completely Breaks Down
- Bernie Sanders Captures Commanding Social Video Lead Among Democratic Hopefuls
- Bogus Automated Copyright Claims By CBS Blocked Super Tuesday Speeches By Bernie Sanders, Mike Bloomberg, And Joe Biden
- European Commission’s communication on the European digital agenda: shaping Europe’s digital future
- Maryland hearing on Digital Advertising Tax highlights problems, hints at amendments
- The Evolution of E-Money: What Is In A Definition?
- Regulators Unveil Guidance On Best Practices for Internet Vehicle Sales
A.I.
- The pope’s plan to fight back against evil AI: The Vatican’s interest in artificial intelligence isn’t new, but pay attention to the tech companies that are joining along.
- AI has no personality: EPO rules that an AI machine cannot be an inventor in patent applications
- How do you keep an AI’s behavior from becoming predictable?
- Bringing Washington D.C. to life: The AI of The Division 2
- Big Data promises better deals. But for whom?
- AI Outlook: Europe initiates AI regulation introducing the principle of trustworthy AI
- European Commission Unveils Bold European Approach to AI Regulation
- SEC Issues Guidance on International Intellectual Property and Technology Risks
- Ars Technicast special edition, part 3: Putting AI to work defending your stuff
- Chinese Hospitals Deploy AI to Help Diagnose Covid-19
- Machine Learning Patentability in 2019: 5 Cases Analyzed and Lessons Learned Part 3
- Two New California Laws Tackle Deepfake Videos in Politics and Porn
- Patenting Artificial Intelligence and quantum technologies
- Social work thinking for UX and AI design
- OPC Consults on Regulation of Artificial Intelligence
- New entry in commercial quantum computing, using entirely different tech
COMMUNICATIONS
- Ontario’s Record Breaking, Multi-Billion Dollar Film Production Year: “A Healthy Balance Between Domestic and Foreign Production” (Michael Geist)
- The CUSMA Culture Poison Pill: Why the Broadcast Panel Report Could Lead to Millions in Tariff Retaliation (Michael Geist)
- Clarence Thomas Regrets Brand X Decision That Paved Way For The Net Neutrality Wars
- FCC issues wrist-slap fines to carriers that sold your phone-location data
- FCC To Dole Out Some Dainty Wrist Slaps For Wireless Carrier Location Data Scandals
- T-Mobile Cares So Much About Consumer Privacy, It’s Fighting The FCC’s Flimsy Fine For Location Data Sharing
- Right On Cue, Post-Merger T-Mobile Layoffs Begin
- T-Mobile conducts layoffs as it prepares to complete Sprint merger
- DOJ Sues Telecommunications Operators Over Robocalls
- New Charges Leveled Against Huawei, et al.
- Congress gives small ISPs $1 billion to rip out Huawei, ZTE network gear
- Many of Cable TV’s Dumbest Habits Will Make The Leap To Streaming
- AT&T’s new online TV has contracts, hidden fees, big 2nd-year price hike
- Struggling AT&T plans “tens of billions” in cost cuts, more layoffs
- FCC Proposes Over $200 Million in Fines Against “Big 4” Carriers for Failing to Protect Consumer Location Data
- FCC chair reportedly seeks fines for carrier sharing of location data
- FCC Adopts Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Looking to Allow Higher Power and Greater Height for Unlicensed White Space Devices Operating in the TV Bands
- Old Media Content – Not Dead Yet
- Telemedicine and the Coronavirus Crisis: Key Legal Issues for Providers to Consider
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
- Can someone copyright every possible melody? (Andres Guadamuz)
- Simple Solutions Simply Don’t Suffice to Solve the Slew of Song Infringement Substantial Similarity Suits
- Castillo v. G&M Realty L.P.: 2nd Circuit affirms $6.75 million damages against property owner for painting over graffiti art at 5Pointz exhibition, ruling that works were protected under Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990.
- Second Circuit Affirms $6.7M VARA Judgment for Aerosol Artists
- United Kingdom: Court of Appeal Clarifies When a Work is a Product of Joint Authorship
- Netflix argues ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ has become a generic term
- Netflix Seeks Cancellation Of “Choose Your Own Adventure” Trademark
- Court Dismisses Author’s Claim that TV Series “Billions” Copied Her Work – No Substantial Similarity Under Any Applicable Test
- The Vatican Apostolic Library enters the digital age – and promptly asserts copyright
- Bobby Brown’s Claims for the Use of His Name and Likeness Not His Prerogative
- Copyright Registration – A Prerequisite to a Copyright Infringement Suit
- Landmark ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on Digital Exhaustion in the Tom Kabinet Case
- Clash of IP and competition to pharma’s detriment? The CJEU’s decision in the GSK case
- Google v. Oracle – Copyright Battle of the Tech Titans
- Breaking Down the Briefing in Google v. Oracle: Petitioner’s Brief
- Four major factors at play in the Google-Oracle IP rights dispute
- U.S. Copyright Office: Renewal of DMCA Designated Agent Required for DMCA Safe Harbor
- Fifth Circuit Tosses Statutory Damages Award, Reinforcing the Importance of Early Copyright Registration
- Geo-blocking of copyright protected content: The elephant in the room
- Copyright: protection of designs as copyright works
- Who Owns the Copyright? Work-Made-For-Hire Edition
- Move to terminate Paramount Decrees may effect IP in the film industry
- UK confirms withdrawal from the Unitary Patent
- The UK will not be part of the UPC, Prime Minster’s Office confirms to IAM
- The European unified patent court – a Brexit casualty?
- Federal Court of Appeal remands REMICADE new use patent decision on anticipation and obviousness
- A Practical Guide to the transition to Canada’s new Patent Act and Rules
- Music – First Sale Doctrine, Fair Use and Protectability
- Key Estate Planning Considerations for Individuals with IP (Part I: Introduction & Copyrights)
- The Past and Future of Canada’s Criminalization of Trade Secret Theft – Part I
- The Past and Future of Canada’s Criminalization of Trade Secret Theft – Part II
- Intellectual Property Outlook: Cases and Trends to Follow in 2020 – PART 3
- Banking on Intellectual Property | Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in Banking
- Millennium and Janssen seek leave from Supreme Court in Section 8 bortezomib case
- Architects’ copyright
- The Future of Patent Research
- Senator Thom Tillis Pushed Awful Patent Reform Idea Last Year; Now Looks To Top It With Awful Copyright Reform This Year
PRIVACY
- State Actors Are Increasingly Targeting Journalists With Surveillance Malware
- “We Don’t Have Any Specific Analysis”: CUSMA Negotiators Surprising Admission On Key Privacy Issues (Michael Geist)
- HTTPS for all: Let’s Encrypt reaches one billion certificates issued
- Hoping To Combat ISP Snooping, Mozilla Enables Encrypted DNS
- State Court Says It Isn’t Theft To Remove An Unmarked Law Enforcement Tracking Device From Your Car
- FBI And DOJ Personnel Confirm Agents Frequently Fudge Facts When Seeking FISA Warrants
- From Wi-Fi to Spy-Fi—we test Plume’s new motion detection feature
- Should Antitrust Laws Tackle Privacy Issues? DOJ and State AGs Continue Google Investigations in Response to Privacy Concerns
- No, Google Isn’t Hiding Elizabeth Warren’s Emails To Promote Mayor Pete
- Disruptionware II – The “Cyber Terminator” and What This New Threat Means to You and Your Data
- How a hacker’s mom broke into prison—and the warden’s computer
- Documents Show Clearview Is Selling Facial Recognition Tech To Retailers, Fitness Centers, And Human Rights Violators
- More than 2,200 agencies and companies have tried Clearview, report finds
- Clearview Is Handing Out Access To Dozens Of UK Entities, Setting Up Accounts For Congressional Reps
- ‘Consumer Privacy Act’ Introduced in the Land of Lincoln
- The Washington Privacy Act Is Back
- Stealing advanced nations’ Mac malware isn’t hard. Here’s how one hacker did it
- Year in Review: Federal Privacy Enforcement Summarized
- The Year of Record Penalties: The Federal Trade Commission’s 2019 Privacy & Data Security Update
- 2019 Cybersecurity and Data Privacy Year in Review
- What’s scarier than hosts gone rogue? Westworld’s idea for privacy laws
CREATIVITY
- I Wish More Countries ‘Stole’ Our Movies
- Sixth Circuit: Criticizing Refs Is Protected Speech, Even If Lots Of Sports Fans Are A-holes
- Court Dismisses Defamation Claim Against Crain Communications
- The Law Doesn’t Care About Your Feelings: 9th Circuit Slams Prager University For Its Silly Lawsuit Against YouTube
- Trump Campaign Files Laughably Stupid SLAPP Suit Over A NY Times Opinion Piece
- Another Day, Another Bogus SLAPP Suit From Devin Nunes And Steven Biss
- Watchdog Group Asks Congressional Ethics Office To Investigate How Devin Nunes Is Paying For His Many SLAPP Suits
- Shia LaBeouf Walks Into a Bar . . . And Ends Up Losing an Anti-Slapp Motion
- NY Times Political Reporter Believes Telling Right From Wrong Is Beyond His Job Description; He’s Wrong
- Mamadou Sakho allege that WADA is liable for negligence and defamation
- Why the Success of The New York Times May Be Bad News for Journalism: Our new media columnist says The Times has become like Facebook or Google – a digital behemoth crowding out the competition.
- NBCUniversal Fined €14.3 Million as European Commission Completes Trilogy of Sales Restriction Cases
- Unpaid Interns and a Lunch Order Gone Bad: Jury Returns FLSA Retaliation Verdict Against Martina McBride’s Production Company
- Hollywood Action Star Settles SEC Charges for Failing to Disclose ICO Promotion Payments
- The Tail of the Phillie Phanatic – The Hidden Underbelly of the New-Look Mascot
- U.S. Immigration Considerations for Media and Entertainment Industries
Jon
News of the Week; February 26, 2020
GAMES
- Crytek’s lawsuit against Star Citizen devs ends in settlement
- TIGA principles for protecting players are quietly radical | Opinion: UK trade group’s endorsement of common sense best practices shows good faith effort, puts peers to shame
- NHS’ gaming addiction clinic only needed by ‘a very small percentage’: Founder Dr Bowden-Jones hopes the numbers will remain lower than problem gambling
- Copyright In The Modern Era: Fortnite Lets Players Mute Emote To Avoid Auto-Copyright Claims Against YouTubers
- UK High Court Confirms That Grand Theft Auto Cheat Software Infringes Copyright
- EA bans pro FIFA player from all EA games for threatening messages and behavior
- The nuclear option: EA bans “abusive” FIFA player from all of its games
- Activision subpoenas Reddit in hopes of tracking down Call of Duty leaker
- Activision goes after Reddit to expose Call of Duty leaker: DMCA subpoena issued to identify user who posted new screenshot
- Well Then: Activision Issues DMCA Subpoena To Have Reddit Unmask Whoever Posted That CoD Image Leak
- Kitfox’s Victoria Tran aims to kill toxic game communities with kindness
- Panic Art Studios CEO posts racist remarks on Twitter: Elias Viglione describes outburst as “moment of temporary insanity”
- Kobe Bryant: Washington Post reporter reinstated after tweet row
- New legal counsel takes over class action lawsuit against Riot Games
- New legal counsel seeking ‘institutional reform’ in Riot Games’ discrimination lawsuit
- Two of Riot Games’ next few projects are being developed with Unity
- The next Xbox will quadruple XB1’s CPU, octuple its GPU performance
- Microsoft confirms Xbox Series X will pack 12 teraflop GPU, shares more tech specs
- Xbox boss Phil Spencer: Game streaming won’t hinder home consoles
- GeForce Now passes 1 million signups during free trial period
- Weeks after launch, Nvidia’s GeForce Now attracts a million streaming gamers
- Bethesda Softworks pulls all games but Wolfenstein: Youngblood from GeForce Now
- Bethesda pulls games from GeForce Now, more publishers may follow: But Nvidia promises new games will be added every week as trial period comes to an end
- Google wants to bring HTML5 titles to low-end devices with GameSnacks
- Google Stadia will come pre-installed in certain smartphones: Starting with the Asus ROG Phone 3
- The strange, unexplained journey of ToTok in Google Play fuels user suspicions
- Google Pulls 600 Apps From the Google Play Store for Disruptive Advertising
- Kunai becomes the latest title review bombed on Metacritic by a single person: TurtleBlaze’s Metroidvania was targeted at random, dropping from an 8.1 user score to a 1.7 in a single day
- Game crunch lessons: How to avoid game development crunch – “Teams who are having fun make better games and making games should be fun — otherwise, what’s the point?”
- Around 20 employees laid off at mobile studio Kixeye
- Kixeye lays off around 20: Parent company Stillfront says cuts were “a natural step” after acquisition, won’t affect portfolio or business in general
- UK studio Ultimatum Games has shut down after four years
- Adventure game trailblazer Roberta Williams to receive Pioneer Award at GDC 2020
- Roberta Williams to receive GDCA Pioneer Award: King’s Quest designer will be recognized for her work in graphic adventures and for co-founding Sierra On-Line
- Is the US market ready to embrace a $500 game console?
- Roblox raises $150 million for game-making, game-playing platform
- COVID-19 looms over planning for next-gen launches | Opinion: The epidemic threatens to shut down supply chains the entire games industry relies on — and even push new console launches into next year
- PlayStation cites coronavirus, backs out of multiple major gaming expos [Updated]
- PlayStation and Facebook cancel GDC appearances citing coronavirus concerns: Kojima Productions also pulls out, cancelling founder’s talk
- Australian retailers limit Ring Fit Adventure sales as resellers and coronavirus cause stock shortage: Staff reportedly warned new stock will not be available until end of March or early April
- PUBG, Black Desert add new PS4 and Xbox One cross-play features
- CD Projekt Red and PUBG Corp cancel event plans due to coronavirus: But Cyberpunk 2077 developer currently still plans to attend GDC 2020
- The Wonderful 101 dev PlatinumGames to open 100-person studio in Tokyo
- Platinum Games opening new Tokyo studio: Bayonetta developer plans to build new team to 100 people to work on Viewtiful Joe and Wonderful 101 follow-up
- Employees say “sheer desperation” drives GameStop’s aggressive sales tactics: Chain focuses on pre-orders and buying used phones, with the potential threat of termination for staff who miss targets
- Nintendo severely limits save file options for Animal Crossing on Switch
- UK Monthly Report: GTA V and Nintendo Switch Lite shine in quiet January
- Pokemon Home first week downloads reached 1.3m: Sensor Tower -Estimated first week revenue from subscription plans is around $1.8 million
- Pokemon-inspired MMO Temtem passes 500,000 copies sold
- Steam’s latest search features are straight from Steam Labs experiments
- Metro Exodus off to strong start on Steam, despite Epic exclusivity: Embracer Group CEO says shooter has already sold 200,000 copies, also discusses Shenmue III’s performance
- UK Charts: Bayonetta and Vanquish return to Top Ten: Half-Term sales boosts Team Sonic Racing, Call of Duty Black Ops 4 and Forza Horizon 4
- Games’ European mobile market share expected to shrink to 55% by 2022: But category will still be biggest source of user spending, expected to hit $12.9 billion
- GOG expands refund policy to 30 days: New policy allows for customers to get their money back even if the game was played
- GOG asks you to please not abuse its expansive new 30-day refund policy
- Netmarble’s full year sales are up, but profit is down: Korean mobile developer to continue focus on global expansion
- Giants opening Chicago office: Farming Simulator developer’s first outpost outside of Europe to focus on support for North and South American players
- Starbreeze looks toward Payday 3 with $5m share sale: New series A shares are equivalent to 30% of voting rights in the embattled Swedish publisher
- Animal Crossing New Horizons lost save files can only be recovered once: Cloud saves will be limited to Switch Online members, and can only be accessed in case of loss or damage
- Take-Two forms new internal studio to finish Kerbal Space Program 2
- Private Division moves Kerbal Space Program 2 development to new, internal studio: Jeremy Ables, other KSP2 leads join Private Division, but former developer Star Theory’s status is unknown
- Deathtrap Dungeon adaptation aims to demonstrate the true potential of interactive fiction: Branching Narrative’s Matt Spall also discusses how the scariest graphics are your imagination
- Black Desert Online and the diverging MMO ecosystem; Pearl Abyss America CEO Jeonghee Jin discusses the changing face of MMO monetisation
- On Kirby 64 and Impressionism: Sketch House Games’ Nate Buck considers how N64 developers discarded details while preserving an aesthetic
- Games sales up 51% at THQ Nordic at end of 2019
- The Witcher 3 earns $50 million on Steam in 18 months to hop revenue tiers
- Make-A-Wish launches GameStars charity intiative: UK branch of the charity will make it simpler for the games community to raise money
- YouTube Millionaires: MMG Balances College And A “Cuul” Gig As One Of YouTube’s Top ‘Madden’ Creators
- Twitch is making it easier to understand League of Legends matches: Helping you keep track of your favorite League of Legends streamers
- Twitch Star Dr DisRespect To Pen “Memoir” About His Gaming Persona For Simon & Schuster
- Twitch to top 40 million US viewers next year, forecast says
- Newzoo: Global esports market will reach $1.1b in 2020 – Nearly three-fourths of all revenue will come from sponsorships and media rights
- Esports firm Tempo Storm raises $3.3 million to launch a game
- Esports company Tempo Storm nets $3.3 million to start making games
- Tempo Storm raises $3.3 million: Esports team will use latest funding to expand into blockchain game development and livestreamed entertainment
- Adapting to the evolution of esports: Major League Gaming co-founder Mike Sepso explains why the original MLG wouldn’t work today, and how his new start-up Vindex is positioned for the future
- Wales. Golf. Madrid. Esports. In that order? Gareth Bale sets up a new esports team
- Ride on…in accordance with the rules
- Space Channel 5 VR review: The worst value proposition for a PSVR game yet
- Facebook acquires Asgard’s Wrath dev Sanzaru Games
- Facebook acquires Sanzaru Games: Studio behind Asgard’s Wrath to join Oculus Studios and continue VR development
- More Than 100 VR Games Have Exceeded $1 Million in Revenue
- HTC takes its own magic leap, announces Vive Proton prototype headset
- Index Will Return to Stock Ahead of ‘Half-Life: Alyx’, but “far fewer units” Due to Coronavirus
- How a new wave of developers are using voxels to create jaw-dropping worlds
- Push-button warfare: How artists use games to capture drone strike horror
- DeltaDNA and Earplay partner to bring analytics to voice-based games and apps
- PewDiePie Returns To Daily YouTube Uploads After “Really Healthy And Good” Break
- An extended interview with Atrus himself, Myst creator Rand Miller
- Video: Inside the AI systems of Final Fantasy XV
- Blog: Crafting nightmares to define Othercide’s art direction
- Blog: Dear game developers everywhere – go teach!
- Blog: A decade-spanning retrospective of the Indonesian games industry
- Blog: A critical analysis of The Outer Wilds
- Blog: My full-time indie developer life – Year 3
- Don’t Miss: A Game Design Deep Dive into SteamWorld Dig’s digging mechanic
- Don’t Miss: A water interaction model for great video game boat physics
- Don’t Miss: The Resident Evil 4 postmortem
- Don’t Miss: A look back at the history of Konami’s Gradius
- Red Candle Games’ delisted game Devotion added to Harvard Library collection
- Eli Roth to direct Borderlands movie: Long-in-the-works adaptation will be helmed by filmmaker behind Hostel, Cabin Fever, and Death Wish remake
- The Outer Worlds, Outer Wilds, and more named Nebula Award finalists
- Obituary: Konami Code creator Kazuhisa Hashimoto has passed away
DIGITAL
- First Amendment doesn’t apply on YouTube; judges reject PragerU lawsuit: YouTube can restrict PragerU videos because it is a private forum, court rules.
- Father Of Alison Parker Files FTC Complaint Against YouTube, Alleging It Refuses To Remove Videos Of Her Death
- T-Series’ YouTube Channel Becomes First To Collect 100 Billion Views
- YouTube Confirms Demonetization Of Controversial Vlogger JayStation, As He Announces Indefinite Hiatus
- YouTube Reinstates Popular Music Streaming Channel ChilledCow After Fan Outcry
- Section 230 Protects Zillow for Bogus Submissions of House Details–924 Bel Air v. Zillow (Eric Goldman)
- Why Section 230 Matters And How Not To Break The Internet; DOJ 230 Workshop Review, Part I
- Section 230 and Criminal Law; DOJ 230 Workshop Review, Part II
- Barr’s Motives, Encryption and Protecting Children; DOJ 230 Workshop Review, Part III
- Rep. Cicilline Wants To Remove Section 230 Protections For Platforms That Host ‘Demonstrably False’ Political Ads
- Apple Pay under Competition Law scrutiny
- Apple is considering letting users change default email, browser, music apps in iOS
- Apple Maps expands its Street View competitor to Boston, DC, Philadelphia
- Apple tells moviemakers that villains can’t use iPhones, Rian Johnson says
- New Sony Xperia 1 II smartphone looks handsome, costs a ridiculous $1,300
- UK Government Releases Details of New ‘Online Harms’ Regime for Online Platforms
- UK Government’s Action Tackles Online Harms
- EU’s new digital strategy targets data-hoarding tech firms
- Digitalization, a high priority for Europe’s future – the European Commission showcases its new digital and AI strategy
- European Commission Announces Strategy for Data, Artificial Intelligence and Competition in the Digital Age
- CMA publishes interim report on online platforms and digital advertising
- How the Coronavirus Revealed Authoritarianism’s Fatal Flaw: China’s use of surveillance and censorship makes it harder for Xi Jinping to know what’s going on in his own country. (Zeynep Tufekci)
- China Expels Three Wall Street Journal Reporters: China’s Foreign Ministry says move was punishment for a recent opinion piece published by the Journal
- US government agencies are banning TikTok, the social media app teens are obsessed with, over cybersecurity fears — here’s the full list
- Amid Security Concerns, TSA Bans Employee Usage Of TikTok For Social Posts
- Prada Taps TikTok Megastar Charli D’Amelio For Milan Fashion Week Appearance
- Significant online defamation damages in Canada – are online platforms immune?
- Attorney General William Barr Raises Concerns over ISP Immunity
- The system is rigged against users: Another reason why getting compensated for data is not a good idea (Beatriz Botero Arcila)
- Clickwrap Agreement: Consent or Not Consent, That Is A Question
- Swinging the Vote?: Google’s black box algorithm controls which political emails land in your main inbox. For 2020 presidential candidates, the differences are stark.
- Federal Circuit Finds Presence Of Google’s Cache Servers In The Eastern District Of Texas Does Not Justify Venue
- 300 Oracle employees walk out over Ellison’s Trump fundraiser: The Trump administration just sided with Oracle in its legal battle with Google.
- Report: 300 Oracle employees walk out over Ellison’s Trump fundraiser
- Inside the Seething Boardroom Drama That Poisoned HQ Trivia: The app was America’s favorite gameshow until a toxic culture and co-founder feuding drove it off the air. Now, the CEO wants to bring it back.
- Companies are stealing influencers’ faces
- Federal Circuit Rules Presence of Google Servers in District Insufficient to Establish Venue
- FTC Toughens Enforcement against Comparison Websites and Influence Marketers
- FTC Seeking Public Comment on Revisions to Endorsement Guides
- Get ready for price hikes up to 10% annually after sale of .org registry
- The Drive-Thru Creator Problem: How Low-Quality Content Is Hurting Brands (And Creators)
- Instagram influencer Natalia Taylor fakes Bali vacation with Ikea pics: Taylor wanted to remind people not everything they see on Instagram is the real deal.
- Children’s Content Studio Pocket.Watch Unveils Kid-Centric Ad Agency ‘Clock.Work’
- Tana Mongeau Debuts Second Season Of MTV Reality Series, Adding Trevor Moran To Primary Cast
- Nickelodeon Nabs Social Star Annie LeBlanc For 13-Episode Linear Sitcom ‘Side Hustle’
- Facebook Aims To Get 3.5 Billion People Online So That It Can Profit From Their Data
- Facebook offers to pay users for their voice recordings
- Facebook will now pay you for your voice recordings: But it won’t pay much
- New Decade, New Facebook? Facebook Reaches $550 Million Settlement in Facial Recognition Class Action, Agrees to Upgrade Privacy Safeguards
- Facebook Unveils Creator-Centric ‘Studio’ App For Upload Management, Video Analytics, More
- Are Your Facebook Posts Discoverable? Application of the Forman Test in New York
- WCB Seeks to Refresh Record in Restoring Internet Freedom Proceeding in Wake of D.C. Circuit’s Mozilla Decision
- YouTube TV Adding HBO, HBO Max, Cinemax To Channel Lineup Come Spring
- WarnerMedia, YouTube TV Expand Distribution Deal to HBO, Cinemax, HBO Max
- YouTuber Partnerships Are Playing Big At This Year’s Toy Fair New York
- The Dolan Twins’ ‘Love From Sean’ Cancer-Fighting Venture Raises Roughly $200,000 In 24 Hours
- Tubular Labs Introduces New ‘Video Categories’ Tool, Co-Developed By Former Netflix Exec
- Netflix’s Top 10: What Is It, And Why Has It Shown Up Now?
- Fox Looking To Acquire Tubi For Reported $500 Million, As NBCUniversal Sets Sights On Vudu
- TikTok Rolls Out Tools Enabling Parents To Police Screen Time, Direct Messaging
- Petnet goes offline for a week, can’t answer customers at all
- Twitter now makes it easier to add new tweets to old threads: Now you can keep tweetstorms going forever
- This is Amazon’s newest grocery store concept
- Amazon made a bigger camera-spying store—so we tried to steal its fruit
- Spotify revamps the brand of its New Music Friday playlist
- Amid A Sudden Gold Rush, Is Podcasting’s Market “Anyone With Ears?”
- Sweep” of European websites
- Overview of internet intermediary and media law cases for Northern Ireland in 2019: Part 1
- Overview of internet intermediary and media law cases for Northern Ireland in 2019: Part 2
- The Mandalorian was shot on a holodeck-esque set with Unreal Engine, video shows
- A peanut butter brand has put its spoon into the GIF pronunciation debate
A.I.
- How Should AI be Regulated in Canada? Speak now, or forever hold your peace!
- 2020 Update: Data-Driven Online Targeting
- The Regulator: European Commission sets out approach on the future regulation of AI
- AI Update: European Commission Presents Strategies for Data and AI (Part 1 of 4)
- Contextual Analysis of Social Media: The Promise and Challenge of Eliciting Context in Social Media Posts with Natural Language Processing
- Who’s protecting the machines? Will IP law offer incentives to AI developers in the battle to beat bacteria?
- A neural network picks promising antibiotics out of a library of chemicals
- Dark, Beyond Deep: A Paradigm Shift to Cognitive AI with Humanlike Common Sense
- 2019 Artificial Intelligence Year in Review
- NTSB blasts Tesla, CalTrans, and NHTSA for Autopilot death
COMMUNICATIONS
- Complaint filed against Bell Canada and Rogers for anti-competitive conduct: Bell and Rogers sometimes inflated rates by more than 900 per cent, CRTC found
- Deja Vu All Over Again: Looking Back at Two Decades of Bell, Telus and Rogers Battles Over the Canadian Wireless Market (Michael Geist)
- Who Runs Canadian Telecom Policy Anyway?: Why the Telus Threats at the CRTC Will Backfire (Michael Geist)
- Broadcast Panel Chair Says Canada Already Licenses News Organizations So Why Not Internet Companies? (Michael Geist)
- The Broadcast Panel Report and Canadian Stories: Take the Cancon Quiz (Michael Geist)
- NY AG Gives Up, Won’t Appeal T-Mobile Merger Ruling
- AT&T loses key ruling in class action over unlimited-data throttling
- AT&T Loses California Case After Lying To Consumers About ‘Unlimited’ Data Throttling
- Time Warner Cable Enters Into $18.8M Settlement With California DAs Over Internet Speeds
- Clarence Thomas regrets ruling that Ajit Pai used to kill net neutrality
- Trump report bizarrely claims net neutrality repeal raised incomes $50B a year
- The FCC To Field More Comments On Net Neutrality. Maybe They’ll Stop Identity Theft And Fraud This Time?
- FCC Does Bupkis As US Telco Networks Fall Apart, Putting Lives At Risk
- FCC Adopts Strict Processing Policies on Requests for Modification of TV Markets for Cable and Satellite Carriage
- FCC Announces Data Collection on Huawei and ZTE Equipment Replacement Effort
- U.S. Alleges Huawei Involved in Long-Running Scheme to Steal Trade Secrets
- FCC Seeks Anti-Robocall Information from Seven “International Gateways” Believed to be Originating Illegal Robocalls
- FCC Proposed Nearly $13 Million Fine for Illegal Spoofing
- As satellite TV tanks, Dish says merger with DirectTV is “inevitable”
- Dish Floats DirecTV Merger, Because What’s A Little Mindless Monopolization Among Friends?
- Thanks, Qualcomm: Mandatory 5G means phones now ship with disabled 5G modems
- Federal Trade Commission Reminds 19 VoIP Providers of the Telemarketing Sales Rule
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
- Musicians Algorithmically Generate Every Possible Melody, Release Them to Public Domain: Damien Riehl & Noah Rubin generated and saved every possible melody to a drive, then turned it around to the commons.
- Attempt To Put Every Musical Melody Into The Public Domain Demonstrates Craziness Of Modern Copyright
- Can a Machine Be Considered an ‘Inventor’ for Patent Purposes?
- Drake’s Sampling is a Fair Use
- Judge upholds decision awarding $6.75 million (£5.2 million) damages to 5 Pointz graffiti artists
- Second Circuit Affirms Visual Artists Rights Act Protects Famed Graffiti-ed Building
- An introduction to copyright for creatives
- Merchandising Monsters – European Commission imposes €14.3 million fine on NBCUniversal
- The NCAA Blocks the Use of “March Madness” in Trademark Dispute
- Brakes put on Bentley Motors’ use of trademark
- Infringement by ReTweet?
- Copyright term under Disney’s spell?
- Can You License A Video You Don’t Hold The Copyright Over?
- Copyright Can’t Bend Far Enough to Be Used Like a Patent
- Protecting the Design of Consumer Goods
- Compete, monetise, abandon: the strategic path to IP value
- Intellectual Property Alert: Where and How You Store Your Servers May Subject You to Patent Litigation in a Distant Jurisdiction
- Canadian patent law: 2019 year in review
- Obtaining patent protection for software in Europe
- 2019 U.S. Patents Hit All Time High
- Is Chinese IP Theft Coming to an End?
- The US Spent Years Telling China To Take Patents Seriously; Now It’s Freaking Out That China Is Doing So
- Design Patent Guidance Found in Recent Court Decisions
- Intellectual Property and Brexit
- IP after Brexit: consequences and checklists
- Revolution in enforcement of intellectual property rights in Poland – Introduction of specialised IP courts
- Hiding Actualities: Whether Art Should Exist Independent of the Artist (Derek Diemer)
- Open source licenses: What, which, and why
- The Next Risk In Buying An IOT Product Is Having It Bricked By A Patent Dispute
- Smithsonian Releases 2.8 Million Images And 3D Models Into The Public Domain
PRIVACY
- Ontario Recognizes False Light Tort of Invasion of Privacy
- Coronavirus brings China’s surveillance state out of the shadows
- Google cracks down on location-tracking Android apps
- NSA Blew $100 Million On Phone Records Over Five Years, Generated Exactly One Usable Lead
- Kentucky Appeals Court Says Cops Need Warrants To Obtain Real-Time Cell Site Location Info
- Yelp Defeats Businesses’ “Right to Be Forgotten” Claims—Spiegelman v. Yelp (Eric Goldman)
- Comments on the DOJ’s Proposed Modifications to the CCPA Regulations (Eric Goldman)
- Stalkerware Developer Found Leaking Sensitive Data From Thousands Of The Software’s Victims
- Stalkerware Developer Demands TechCrunch Remove Article Detailing Its Leaking Of Sensitive Data
- California man arrested on charges his DDoSes took down candidate’s website
- Senators Pitch Temporary Facial Recognition Ban, Leave Door Wide Open For Abuse By Federal Agencies
- Google faces state lawsuit alleging misuse of schoolkids’ private data
- Removing a GPS tracking device from your car isn’t theft, court rules
- Secretive face-matching startup has customer list stolen
- Flaw in billions of Wi-Fi devices left communications open to eavesdropping
- Firefox turns encrypted DNS on by default to thwart snooping ISPs
- The House wants to know what Ring is doing with footage from your house
- Ring Says It Helps Cops Fight Crime But The Data Shows It’s No Better At This Than Any Other Security Camera
- Ring Continues To Pitch Facial Recognition To Law Enforcement While Claiming It Won’t Be Adding Facial Recognition To Its Cameras
- An Airbnb For Farmland Hits A Snag, As Farmers Raise Data Privacy Concerns
- Data Breaches and complaints up over 70% – key findings of DPC Annual Report
- The Overlooked IoT Data Security Law in California
- UK Government to Introduce New Law to Strengthen Security of Consumer IoT Devices
- February 21, 2020 Commissioners launch joint investigation into Clearview AI amid growing concerns over use of facial recognition technology
- Russia’s War On Encryption Stumbles Forth With Ban Of Tutanota
CREATIVITY
- Trump campaign says it is suing New York Times over Russia opinion piece
- As Court Finally Dumps One Of Devin Nunes’ Ridiculous Lawsuits (With A Warning About Sanctions), Nunes Promises To File Another
- Public Citizen Weighs In On Why Court Should Protect @DevinCow’s Information Under The 1st Amendment
- Group Promoting ‘Religious Freedom’ Around Vaccines Appears To Want To Stifle Free Expression Of Critics
- NPR Pulls Out The Big Guns: Asks For Sanctions Against Lawyer Steven Biss For Lying
- Corona Beer Takes a Hit From Coronavirus as Brand Image Suffers
- Judge Sullivan Dismisses Former Knick Charles Oakley’s Defamation Suit Against James Dolan and MSG
- Discovering Ed Sheeran’s Concert Income
Jon
News of the Week; February 19, 2020
GAMES
- UK Court Finds GTA V Cheat Makers Guilty of Copyright Infringement
- Rockstar Joins Other Publishers In Misusing Copyright Law To Go After Cheat Developers For GTA5
- GTA IV to return to Steam after cutting Games for Windows Live support
- GTA IV returns to Steam with Complete Edition next month: But transition from Games For Windows Live means loss of multiplayer mode
- Capital C Infringement of Capitol Records: EMI April Music Inc. v. 4MM Games, LLC, 2014 WL 1383468
- Fortnite boss says game loot boxes ’cause harm’
- After Confusion, IRS Clarifies Tax Treatment Of Fortnite & Gaming Currencies
- Italy Introduces Content Rating System for Videogames and Launches Permanent Observatory
- Game Developer Decides Best Way To Get Back At Pirates Is To Pirate Them Back
- Ex-Starbreeze exec convicted of insider trading
- Former Starbreeze CFO convicted of insider trading
- Can cheaters ever prosper? Videogames, esports and the gamers breaking the rules to get ahead
- How to Make Billions in E-Sports: There’s a gaming gold rush on, with companies cashing in on competitions, sponsorships and merch. But it all comes down to signing the best players.
- Fortnite and FIFA honoured at the Game Shaker Awards 2020: Esports Bar Cannes event also gave awards to Riot Games and Astralis Group
- ESL, DreamHack sign revenue-sharing deal with 13 esports teams: Agreement ensures Team Liquid, Evil Geniuses, Fnatic compete in MTG-owned circuits, grants partner teams a portion of ESL Pro Tour proceeds
- Here to stay – Faker becomes part-owner of T1 in 3-year deal
- Creators Going Pro: Meet KOT4Q, The ‘NBA 2K’ Enthusiast Who Hosted House Of Highlights’ All-Star Game Coverage
- Ninja criticized for calling out gamers who aren’t angry after losing
- Google Reportedly Paying Activision Blizzard $160 Million For YouTube’s Exclusive Livestreaming Rights
- Cyberpunk 2077 confirmed for GeForce Now, will have ray tracing via the cloud
- Activision Blizzard Pulls Its Games From Nvidia’s Streaming Service
- Activision Blizzard pulls all games from GeForce Now a week after launch: Nvidia clarifies that initial inclusion of publisher’s titles was due to a “misunderstanding”
- Nvidia’s GeForce Now loses Bethesda Softworks games: Second major publisher to pull its catalog following streaming service’s launch
- Activision Tries To Bury Cover Art For New CoD Game Via Copyright Threat…So Let’s All Look At It Together, Shall We?
- Nifty Games signs licensing deal with NBA for its first game
- What the CEO of Epic Games gets wrong about video games and politics
- Detroit: Become Human dev Quantic Dream will self-publish from here on out
- Lydia developer’s quest to make a ‘feel bad’ game about substance abuse: “If we can make a difference for even one child’s life, what could be better?”
- Report: Nintendo facing global Switch shortage because of coronavirus
- CryEngine finally hits Switch with low-resolution Warface port
- “The Switcher” improves: Witcher 3 reduces blur, now works with Steam, GOG
- NPD: January sales down 26% year-over-year – Dragon Ball Z Kakarot tops charts as hardware spending declines 35% year-over-year
- UK Charts: PS4 exclusives Yakuza and Dreams crack Top Ten – But it’s the classic FIFA and Call of Duty duo that come out top
- Anthem gets a rare second chance | Opinion: Most games that fail at launch are quickly passed over — but Bioware’s Anthem is getting a rare and expensive second chance at success
- The risky business of sexuality in games: Games with sexual themes have always been difficult to distribute and sell — is the games industry ever going to catch up to the rest of entertainment?
- Disney Invites Game Developers to Tell Original Stories With Popular Franchises
- Disney wants developers to “reimagine” its IP for video games: Exec invites DICE Summit attendees to “come and play” with its catalogue
- Sony drops out of PAX East due to novel coronavirus concerns: The Last of Us Part II and other demos will not be available at the show next week
- PlayStation backs out of PAX East due to coronavirus concerns
- Report: Sony can’t build a PS5 for less than $450
- Report: Sony facing PS5 pricing quandary as manufacturing cost rises
- Sony Is Struggling With PlayStation 5 Price Due to Costly Parts
- Expensive components drive PS5 production costs to $450 per unit: Retail price of Xbox Series X will be deciding factor in PlayStation 5 price tag
- Microsoft and Samsung team up for “cloud-based game streaming”
- Panzer Dragoon Remake flies to Stadia as Google reveals new games
- Stadia expands to support some non-Google mobile devices: Subscribers will soon be able to stream games on some models from Samsung, Razer, and ASUS
- Stadia support arrives on 19 non-Google Pixel phone models this week
- “The people in the suits, in the expensive boardrooms, are nerds now”: At the Yorkshire Games Festival, Mike Bithell discussed John Wick Hex as part of a positive shift in the way movie licenses are handled
- Blind Squirrel Games’ decade-long drift from work-for-hire to original IP: CEO Brad Hendricks on what it took for the company to grow beyond its engineering focus and make its own IP
- Remedy holds steady, posting solid growth across the board: Finnish developer moves forward on live-service multiplayer game plans
- Nexon’s Korean business holds full-year revenues steady despite declines in China: Both Maple Story and Maple Story M in Korea achieve highest-ever Q4 and full-year revenues
- GDC gives COVID19 update: Organizers say US travel restrictions on China impact about 2% of exhibitors and attendees
- China is approving more foreign games, but not so many American ones
- THQ Nordic parent Embracer Group acquires World War Z dev Saber Interactive
- Embracer Group acquires Saber Interactive in $525m deal: World War Z developer retains autonomy as Embracer’s fifth subsidiary, takes total headcount to over 2,500
- THQ Nordic parent Embracer Group now has 26 studios, more to be announced: Koch Media acquires Let’s Sing developer Voxler, two new studios have been opened but yet to be unveiled
- Embracer-owned Koch Media acquires Let’s Sing developer Voxler
- THQ Nordic approves Gothic remake and confirms plans to open Barcelona studio
- Ultimatum Games shuts down: Four years after founding studio, Shahid Ahmad confirms closure of Virtue Reality idle clicker game developer
- Half-Life: Alyx finally has a concrete release date
- ‘Half-Life: Alyx’ Release Date Set for March 23rd, New Screenshots Revealed
- Half-Life: Alyx is one step closer to existing with new, firm release date
- Sonic the Hedgehog beats Detective Pikachu in US opening weekend: Blue blur pulls $57 million in North America to become highest-grossing video game adaption
- Review: At the very least, ‘Sonic The Hedgehog’ revitalizes the Jim Carrey experience – This is the rare case where a video game film is decent, and the true MVP here is the seasoned comedy vet, Carrey.
- ‘Crossfire’ Movie Adaptation Lands at Sony
- Smilegate, Sony, and Tencent partner to give Crossfire the movie treatment
- Sony Pictures and Tencent partner on Crossfire movie: Film based on Smilegate’s hugely successful shooter will be handled by producer behind Sonic The Hedgehog and Fast and the Furious
- Sony Patents Valve Index-Like VR Controller With Finger Tracking
- Untitled Goose Game comes out on top at DICE Awards
- Untitled Goose Game wins Game of the Year at DICE Awards 2020: House House received three awards, while Remedy Entertainment won four for Control
- Angry Birds franchise can’t prevent profits slipping at Rovio
- Tekken 7 closed out 2019 with 5 million copies sold
- Operating profits up at Paradox as monthly active players hits record high
- Jordanian mobile publisher Tamatem nets $3.5 million to expand globally
- Facebook Gaming Rings In Ronda Rousey As New Livestreaming Partner
- Insurance is necessary to navigate the uncertain waters of the games industry
- Following Project Nova’s ‘end’, CCP won’t be as public with its early projects
- Eve Online shooter Project Nova is not cancelled, it’s just changing: CCP dedicates London studio to FPS concept, will no longer announce internal project codenames
- Rebuilding a classic in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition
- Don’t Miss: How Neopets has influenced a generation of game developers
- Don’t Miss: Turning love into a cooperative game mechanic in Haven
- Don’t Miss: What went right (and wrong) during the development of Persona 4
- Meet the community still obsessing over Mass Effect 2 10 years later
- A peek at the risks and reworks that gave Rainbow Six Siege a chance to thrive
- Releasing an update archive benefits both devs and players, says Dead Cells dev
- How Supergiant weaves narrative rewards into Hades’ cycle of perpetual death
- Video: The raw numbers behind indie game success, from $0 to $1 million
- The ten commandments of indie survival
- The state of Steam discoverability: February 2020
- The latest Steam Labs experiment will tell you what game to play next
- Razor Edge Games nets $1.3 million to bring debut title to Steam Early Access
- Video: Valve’s Portal postmortem
- Blog: My experience as a game creator in an artist residency
- Blog: How AlphaStar became a StarCraft grandmaster
- Blog: When history gets interactive
- Blog: A firsthand account of coronavirus’ impact on China’s game industry
- Blog: What is reward fatigue?
- U.S. Patent no. 10,279,266: Monitoring game activity to detect a surrogate computer program
DIGITAL
- Amazon wins court injunction on controversial JEDI contract: Amazon’s suit argues it lost the deal because Trump personally hates Jeff Bezos.
- Who’s responsible for what you buy on Amazon? A court is about to decide
- Jeff Bezos pledges $10 billion to stop climate change
- The Billion-Dollar Disinformation Campaign to Reelect the President: How new technologies and techniques pioneered by dictators will shape the 2020 election
- Assange lawyer claims congressman offered Trump’s pardon in exchange for absolving Russia in WikiLeaks case
- Trump offered Assange a pardon if he denied Russia gave him emails, lawyer says
- Trump Offered Assange Pardon if He Covered Up Russian Hack, WikiLeaks Founder’s Lawyer Claims
- College Student Gets Thrown On The Ground And A Gun Pointed At His Head For Committing The Crime Of ‘Taking A Selfie While Black’
- Answering Impossible Questions: Content Governance in an Age of Disinformation (John Bowers, Jonathan Zittrain)
- Divided, we fall: How ant behavior mimics political polarization – Division of labor, polarization arise from social influence plus interaction bias.
- Snapchat Temporarily Defeats Another Case Over Its Speed Filter–Lemmon v. Snap (Eric Goldman)
- Ninth Circuit Decision Has Significant Implications for Terms and Conditions in Smartphone Apps
- Google plans to move UK users’ accounts outside EU jurisdiction
- “Why is Facebook drawing the line where it’s drawing the line?”: Discussing Facebook’s Oversight Board
- A picture of a same-sex kiss on Facebook wreaks havoc: Beizaras and Levickas v. Lithuania
- Mark Zuckerberg Suggests Getting Rid Of Section 230; Maybe People Should Stop Pretending It’s A Gift To Facebook
- Ron Wyden: Modifying Section 230 Will Give More Censorship Power To Trump; And Lock In Facebook’s Dominance
- The “EARN IT” Act Is Another Terrible Proposal to “Reform” Section 230 (Eric Goldman)
- Hey Tom Wheeler: Stick To Net Neutrality, Because Your Understanding Of Section 230 Is… Not Right
- What A Shame: Legacy Newspapers Want To Take Away Free Speech On The Internet
- Facebook quietly releases a Pinterest clone: Hobbi is an app from Facebook’s new product experimentation team
- Strategic Framing and Social Media Engagement: Analyzing Memes Posted by the German Identitarian Movement on Facebook
- Facebook backs Indian education startup Unacademy
- UK Government announces proposed legislation aimed at reducing online harm
- Creating a safe space online: Government provides initial response to consultation on its Online Harms White Paper
- UK is set to introduce a new duty of care to protect children online backed by increased fines and personal liability for senior management
- Pay-for-Play Website Pays FTC Over Fake Reviews, Deceptive Rankings
- The FTC Wants To Hold Brands, Platforms Like YouTube Financially Liable For Improper #SponCon Disclosures
- FTC Announces Endorsement Guide Review — Are There New Rules on the Horizon for Influencers?
- FTC Aims to Shake Up Endorsements, Seeks Public Comment on Its Endorsement Guides
- With an Eye on Social Media Platforms and Influencer Marketing, the FTC Seeks Public Comment on Endorsement Guides
- FTC Seeks Comments on Revamping its Endorsement Guides
- After Four Decades, FTC Announces Regulatory Review of The Endorsement Guides: What Does This Portend for Digital Advertisers and Social Media Platforms?
- Can Public Infrastructure Fix Social Media? Ethan Zuckerman at Cornell
- Competition Bureau to focus on digital economy: 4-year strategic plan shows intention to increase use of interim measures, say competition lawyers
- Competition Bureau’s Marketing and Advertising Priorities: Dishonest Information about Data Privacy
- Drip pricing: StubHub enters into $1.3M consent agreement with Competition Bureau
- Kickstarter workers make history with unionization vote
- Kickstarter becomes one of the first major US tech companies to unionize: Employees vote in favor of joining the Office and Professional Employees International Union
- William Barr’s Move To Rid The DOJ Of Independence Shows One Of Many Reasons Josh Hawley’s FTC Plan Is Dangerous
- “We Are Going To Be The Best”: How Newly Launched TalentX Plans To Become Every Digital Star’s Dream Management Company
- Mobile quizzing company HQ Trivia has shut down
- HQ Trivia shuts down: 25 full-time employees reportedly let go as troubled mobile start-up loses investors
- After Investors Pull Plug, HQ Trivia Ceases Operations And Moves To Dissolution
- Juul bought ads on CartoonNetwork.com, NickJr.com, other kid sites, suit says
- Court Allows Chooseco’s Lawsuit Against Netflix Over ‘Bandersnatch’ To Move Forward
- Mills v. Netflix, Inc.: District court dismisses plaintiff’s DMCA claim of removal and altering of copyright management information
- PremFlix: the Premier League’s plans to introduce a ‘Netflix-style’ OTT service
- Doctor Suing A Patient Over A Negative Review Has His Case Dismissed Under Tennessee’s New Anti-SLAPP Law
- SLAPP Suits And The Enemies Of Writing And Ideas
- Devin Nunes’ Lawyer Continues To Use Unrelated Case To Try To Unearth Satirical Internet Cow Account
- Feds launch a probe into Big Tech’s smallest acquisitions
- Twitter acquires Stories template maker Chroma Labs
- Susan Wojcicki Reveals YouTube Paid Out $3 Billion To Music Industry Last Year
- YouTube TV To Cancel All Subscriptions Purchased Via Apple App Store In March
- Apple’s new iPad Pro could be delayed due to the coronavirus, report claims
- Spotify mimics Apple’s design with new podcast show page updates
- Anatomy of a Spotify scam (Andres Guadamuz)
- Hughes v. Benjamin: Court dismisses copyright and DMCA claims, finding use of plaintiff’s YouTube video was for criticism and commentary, and therefore transformative fair use
- Bell v. Chicago Cubs Baseball Club, LLC: District court grants motion to dismiss contributory infringement claim against Chicago Cubs based on retweet that allegedly copied key passage from plaintiff’s book.
- Jake Paul Launches ‘The Financial Freedom Movement,’ A $19.99/Month Program For Kids To Become Influencers
- After Mike Bloomberg Meme Sweep, Instagram Introduces Guidelines For Influencers Posting Political Sponcon
- Instagram Prototyping ‘Latest Posts’ Feature, Which Would Let Users See Certain Posts In Reverse Chronology
- House Of Highlights Is NBA’s Slam Dunk For All-Star Video Content
- Bosses tell social media celebrities: TikTok on your own time
- TikTok ‘family safety mode’ gives parents some app control
- Semaphore Launches Licensing Business, Signs 3 Popular YouTube Channels For Toy Deals
- YouTube Phenom Collins Key Inks Global Deal For Toy Collection
- Preschool-Aimed YouTube Goliath ‘Morphle’ Inks Global Toy Licensing Deal
- MrBeast Reveals He Has Already Spent $100,000 On Scrapped Videos This Year
- Condé Nast Forms New Entertainment Studios Around Key Titles Amid Push Into Film, TV, Podcasts
- A new spin on 3D printing can produce an object in seconds
- Electronic signatures are valid: so what’s the catch on finance transactions?
- Samsung Galaxy S20 vs. iPhone 11 Pro: A deeper division lurks beneath the spec sheets
- Samsung’s “Ultra Thin Glass” doesn’t seem much stronger than plastic
- Samsung’s 2020 TV lineup forces high-end buyers to go 8K whether they want it or not
- Snap Taps Third Class Of Startups For Its Media And Tech Accelerator ‘Yellow’, Offering $150K In Equity Funding
- A new era: what’s in store for tech regulation in 2020?
- English High Court declines jurisdiction for “Satoshi Nakamoto” libel claim
- Driver Stranded After ‘Smart’ Rental Car Can’t Phone Home
- The future of work looks like staying out of the office
A.I.
- Researchers have already tested YouTube’s algorithms for political bias
- The FTC, AI and Algorithms
- Can computers invent? EPO says no to AI inventors
- EPO rejects AI inventor patent applications
- Can AI Be an Inventor? Not at the European Patent Office.
- California Introduces Bill to Regulate Automated Decision Systems
- Liability for Artificial Intelligence — Why Canadian Businesses Should Pay Attention to Recent Developments in Europe
- What fairness can learn from AI
- Why AI is crucial for patent searching and mining
- A case study comparison of the AI chips patent landscape
- Ars Technicast special edition, part 1: Machine learning assimilates athletics
- Machine Learning Patentability in 2019: 5 Cases Analyzed and Lessons Learned Part 2
- Intelligent (patent) agents: should the patent profession be afraid of AI?
- Enforcing Cybertech Patents is Increasingly Possible, Even for Small Companies
- Numerical Ranges: More Than Just Endpoints in Patent Process
- Data shows Tesla owner experienced repeated glitch days before deadly 2018 crash
- The AI-development Connection – A View from the South
COMMUNICATIONS
- Broadcast Panel Commissioned Report Found Canada Ranks First Among Peer Countries in Spending on TV Production, Domestic TV Production, and Employment Per Capita (Michael Geist)
- The BTLR and USMCA, Part Two: Why the Broadcast Panel Recommendations Could Cost Canadians Millions in Retaliatory Tariffs (Michael Geist)
- CBC Leads Call for New Government Regulations to Support “Trusted” News Sources (Michael Geist)
- Appeals court seems poised to reverse landmark Qualcomm antitrust ruling
- T-Mobile’s Marathon to Acquire Sprint: Five Takeaways from the T-Mobile/Sprint Antitrust Litigation
- T-Mobile claims it didn’t lie about 4G coverage, says FCC measured wrong
- Not All Automatic Dialed Messages are Restricted, Says a US Appeals Court
- Circuit split on automatic telephone dialing systems under the TCPA reinforces importance of obtaining prior express written consent
- Seventh Circuit Joins The Party: Another Circuit Rejects Marks And Holds A Random or Sequential Number Generator Is Required For A System to be An ATDS
- Narrow Definition of ATDS Prevails in the Seventh Circuit
- Breaking: Seventh Circuit rejects marks- holds random or sequential number generation required for ATDS usage
- Uh, I Dunno – Maybe the FCC Just Isn’t Into You?
- UK green-lights Ofcom as the first internet regulator….but the devil is in the detail
- Google Fiber Ditches Cable TV While Broadband Effort Remains Stuck In Neutral
- What’s New in 5G – February 2020
- Wi-Fi 6E isn’t here yet—but Broadcom is clearly banking on it
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
- The Copyright Board’s Access Copyright Post Secondary Decision: The Incorrect Correction (Howard Knopf)
- Oops, the Board did it again, and again, and again (Ariel Katz)
- Moschino Counterpunches on Cardi B Paparazzi Pic
- District Court Grants Judgment on the Pleadings, in Part, in Kanye West Copyright Suit
- Let Go of My LEGOs: Copyright Protection for Plastic People
- “Into the Garbage, Fly Boy”: A Review of the Star Wars Legal World; One Court at a Time
- Expansion of UK copyright law for the fashion industry
- Otto v. Hearst Communications Inc: District court denies attorneys’ fees to photographer who prevailed in copyright suit against Hearst Communications based on its unauthorized use of photograph of President Trump
- Artist Sues Cannabis Company and Agencies Over Mural Used in Ads
- No, Disney Probably Didn’t Infringe A Unicorn Van Artist’s Copyright, But It Would Have Sued If The Roles Were Reversed
- Making waves: Copyright in ‘Wave Fabric’ can be protected as a ‘work of artistic craftsmanship’
- I Scream, You Scream: Museum of Ice Cream Vindicated in Copyright Infringement Lawsuit
- Failure to Register Copyrights in the U.S. Can Bar Statutory Damages for Infringements
- A guide to intellectual property in the creative industries – protecting pitches, brands and concepts
- IP Enterprise Court expands copyright protection for designs
- Open access journals get a boost from librarians—much to Elsevier’s dismay
- IPCom GMBH & CO KG v Vodafone Group PLC and others
- Open Source Voice Assistant Promises To ‘Nuke From Orbit’ Patent Troll
- Judge Shuts Down Copyright Troll’s Cut-And-Run Effort; Hits It With $40K In Legal Fees
- Lost in the Amazon: how to combat trademark infringement in the e-commerce marketplace
- Xiaomi Sues Sisvel in Beijing: The First Lawsuit Seeking a Determination of Chinese SEP Royalty
- Presidents’ Day 2020: Presidential Patents Beyond Lincoln
- Patentability 101: A Review of the 2019 Guidance and Update on Subject Matter Eligibility
- Motivation to Combine Prior Art Can Come from Knowledge of those Skilled in the art, the Art Itself, or the Nature of the Problem
- Top five cosmetic trends shaping IP in 2020
- Top Issues in 2020: Trademark
- Happy Valentines Day (Patents) 2020
- Patentability in Canada: Federal Court of Appeal questions the fixed dosage amount vs dosage range distinction
- The Best of the Decade – Canadian Patent Law in the 2010s
- 2020 Outlook – Patents
- Top Issues in 2020: Patents
- The New Cybersquatters: The Evolution of Trademark Enforcement in the Domain Name Space (Michael Karanicolas)
PRIVACY
- Competition Bureau Flexes Muscles in The Privacy Sphere
- ISPs sue Maine, claim Web-privacy law violates their free-speech rights
- Comcast, AT&T Sue Maine Over Privacy Law, Claim It Violates Free Speech
- Anatomy of a dumb spear-phish: Hitting librarians up for Zelle, CashApp cash
- CBP, ICE Hoovering Up Cell Location Data From Third Party Vendors To Track Down Immigrants
- Hackers exploit critical vulnerability found in ~100,000 WordPress sites
- US natural gas operator shuts down for 2 days after being infected by ransomware
- Surprise! MIT Study Claims Voatz E-Voting Technology Is A Security Dumpster Fire
- Illinois Residents File Class Action against Biometrics Company for Collecting Information without Consent
- Ring cameras are more secure now, but your neighbors still snoop with them
- Ransomware Attacks Predicted to Occur Every 11 Seconds in 2021 with a Cost of $20 Billion
- Facebook Dating misses European launch for Valentine’s Day over regulatory dispute: Ireland’s data protection regulator stepped in
- NYPD Lied About National Security During An Attempt To Obtain A Journalist’s Records From Twitter
- Nasty Android malware reinfects its targets, and no one knows how
- 500 Chrome extensions secretly uploaded private data from millions of users
- US Takes Baby Steps Toward Providing Actual Public Evidence Of Huawei Spying
- Racketeering and Trade Secret Theft Added to List of Charges Against China’s Huawei
- Judge rules a 2019 law singling out Huawei is constitutional
- US government goes all in to expose new malware used by North Korean hackers
- Pwns for sale: Scythe prepares a marketplace for sharing simulated hacks
- Signal is finally bringing its secure messaging to the masses
- Why fixing security vulnerabilities in medical devices, IoT is so hard
- Federal Agencies Are Still Abusing Their Favorite, Super-Vague FOIA Exemption Thousands Of Times A Year
- The NFL Twitter Hack Shows We Need to Move Past Password Protection
- Manipulate to empower: Hyper-relevance and the contradictions of marketing in the age of surveillance capitalism
CREATIVITY
- Harassment and The Handmaid’s Tale
- Trouble At The Law Firm Filing Patently Ridiculous Lawsuits On Behalf Of Tulsi Gabbard
- PGA Tour Calls Big Miss, Requests Dismissal of Hank Haney Lawsuit
- Texas Appeals Court Rules Private Communications with Customers Not Protected Free Speech
- Antitrust: EU Commission fines NBC universal Euro 14.3 for restricting sales of merchandise products
- ‘Star Wars’ May Never Recover From The Damage Done By ‘Rise Of Skywalker’
Jon
News of the Week; February 12, 2020
GAMES
- Sweeney criticizes “customer adversarial” industry tactics: Epic CEO condemns privacy invasion, pay-to-win, and loot boxes, calls for companies to “divorce ourselves from politics”
- Epic’s Sweeney: Game companies should be platform agnostic, ‘divorce’ from politics
- Proposed Washington Gambling Law Changes Aimed at Keeping State Video Gaming Industry Around
- Mario Kart Just Added Vancouver As A Race Track Location
- Games industry faces major disruption across all sectors as coronavirus spreads: PUBG Corporation postpones Berlin esports event in response to coronavirus
- Mobile World Congress Barcelona show cancelled over virus fears: Organizing body GSMA says travel concerns and other factors “made it impossible” to hold 2020 edition of annual conference
- Coronavirus concerns lead to delay of The Outer Worlds Switch port
- Switch production delayed in China due to coronavirus outbreak
- Coronavirus concerns lead to delay of The Outer Worlds Switch port
- Coronavirus concerns lead to delay of The Outer Worlds Switch port
- Nintendo: Switch “just entering the middle of its lifecycle”: President Shuntaro Furukawa says Switch Lite purchasers who already owned a Switch down to 30% from 43%
- The world’s only known Nintendo PlayStation could be yours—for over $15,000
- With 2 million sold, Take-Two is unsure how Game Pass affected The Outer Worlds
- Take-Two stock slumps following Dan Houser’s departure from Rockstar: Publisher’s share price has increased eight-fold since the day that Grand Theft Auto V launched
- Grand Theft Auto Online just had its best holiday quarter ever: Six and a half years after launch and 120m units sold, Rockstar’s behemoth leads Take-Two Interactive’s Q3 alongside Red Dead Online
- GTA, Red Dead can’t stop Take-Two’s revenue from sliding in Q3 2020
- Take-Two still isn’t sure about subscription services
- Recurrent consumer spending made up 37% of Take-Two’s $930 million Q3 revenue
- Team Ninja’s Nioh surpasses 3 million sold
- With no profit motive, new kids’ mobile IP from BBC focuses on a “safe gaming experience”: A luxury not afforded to most developers yields interesting results
- Accessible design and focusing on the gaps: HyperDot dev Charles McGregor explains how he stumbled into accessibility after an experiment with eye-tracking
- King’s Sabrina Carmona wants more women in game dev leadership
- Black game pros assess industry’s diversity efforts: Panelists at Ubisoft Toronto event say they see progress but there’s still a lot left to do
- The road to removing crunch is a long one | Opinion: RCP Scotland head Mark Lloyd says a revolution is coming as developers new and old discover a better way of working
- Nexon Korea agrees to 6.8% pay rise after talks with union
- Nexon Korea and union agree on pay raises: Publisher tentatively agrees with Starting Point labor union on an average 6.8% salary increase for this year
- Survey: Game devs, what are you doing about your studio’s carbon emissions?
- Blizzard president on Warcraft 3 Reforged: “We stand behind our games”: J Allen Brack commits to continued updates and support after poor reception
- GeForce Now loses all Activision Blizzard titles weeks after launch
- Activision Blizzard pulls support for Nvidia’s GeForce Now streaming platform
- Activision Blizzard pulls all games from GeForce Now a week after launch: Nvidia hopes to work with publisher on bringing its titles back to streaming service’s catalogue
- Mobile is now Activision Blizzard’s leading platform for revenue
- Call of Duty rises as rest of Activision Blizzard stumbles: Handful of bright spots in year-end financial results came courtesy of flagship shooter series
- Activision Blizzard saw $6.49 billion in revenue during 2019
- EA handing Need for Speed franchise back to Criterion
- EA will move Need for Speed development back to Criterion: Ghost Games to become an EA engineering hub with 30 staff at risk
- Atari acquires Wonder assets to expand capabilities of VCS console
- Atari acquires assets from tech start-up Wonder: Technology nods to possible cross-platform functionality with mobile and Atari VCS
- Steam brought in 95 million monthly active users in 2019
- Metro Exodus comes to Steam after a year of Epic Games Store exclusivity
- Zynga posts record revenue of $1.32B in 2019; Q4 revenue and bookings were highest in its history
- Ubisoft’s net bookings beat expectations, though still down from last year
- Ubisoft quarterly revenues down 26%: Rough Q3 results still beat forecast as publisher points to full slate for next fiscal year
- How will Brexit affect investment opportunities for the UK games industry?: With Britain leaving the EU, VC investment is up and game dev tax breaks could be strengthened, but uncertainty looms over every outcome
- Profits flat at Bandai Namco as video game sales dip slightly
- UK Charts: FIFA 20 reclaims No.1 and Ring Fit Adventure re-enters Top Five – Zombie Army 4 Dead War is the only new game to enter the charts this week
- 30% of Switch Lite owners already owned a Nintendo Switch
- Nintendo will no longer work with outlet that leaked Pokemon Sword and Shield details: Company publicly denounces Portuguese website that broke review embargo with early photos
- Sony files patent which encourages stuck players to spend money on DLC: Machine learning system also uses contextual data to help players overcome challenges using in-game resources
- Sony’s 2019 acquisition of Insomniac Games priced at $229 million
- Sony paid $229 million for Insomniac: SEC filing reveals acquisition cost of Ratchet & Clank and Marvel’s Spider-Man developer in a majority-cash deal
- ‘Games need to find players’: Phil Spencer talks Game Pass, Series X as next gen looms
- Phil Spencer: “There’s no slide deck that says we want to turn everyone into a subscriber” – Xbox head wants to “put the player at the center” in the next gen through services, hardware, and models that fit different needs
- Xbox Chief Says Its Main Competitors Are Now Google, Amazon Rather Than Sony, Nintendo
- Who are Microsoft’s “real” competitors?: Google and Amazon being the “real” competition for Xbox reveals the tricky balancing act that Microsoft’s games team now faces
- Xbox extends Project xCloud preview to iOS devices
- Stadia’s free tier to launch at some point in ‘the next few months’
- Have we got Google Stadia all wrong?: Google Stadia’s focus should be on accessibility, not on subscription models or exclusives
- BioWare hits pause on seasonal content to work on full Anthem overhaul
- BioWare promises “substantial reinvention” for year-old Anthem
- Anthem team ditches major seasonal updates in favor of “longer-term redesign”: BioWare intends to “reinvent the core gameplay loop” after a challenging first year
- Glu Mobile returns to profitability with $8.9 million net income for 2019
- Glu Mobile avoids second year of loss thanks to Q4 surge: Mobile dev posts $8.9 million profit as revenue rises across portfolio
- Mobile drives Innogames’ FY19 sales to $208 million
- THQ Nordic opens Slovakian studio Nine Rocks Games
- THQ Nordic opens new studio Nine Rock Games: Slovakia-based developer staff by team who has worked on DayZ, Conan and Soldier of Fortune 3
- IronSource opens mobile studio Supersonic Games to create ad-based games
- IronSource launches new mobile studio Supersonic Games: Debut game Sort It 3D already a chart topper in Europe, America, Korea, and Japan
- Fledgling mobile studio Double Loop secures $2.5 million in seed funding
- Double Loop Games raises over $2.5m for mobile games: LVP leads investment in push to make relaxing, connective titles for everyone
- PUBG Mobile was the top-grossing mobile game for the fifth month in a row – Sensor Tower: Tencent’s title brought in $176.3 million in January, over half of which came from Chinese users
- Yager receives strategic investment from Tencent
- Spec Ops: The Line developer Yager nets minority investment from Tencent
- 2K Silicon Valley studio becomes 31st Union and expands to Spain: “We want to identify opportunities where they haven’t traditionally existed for underrepresented voices”
- Payday ‘front and center’ as Starbreeze closes out its reconstruction-filled 2019
- Starbreeze relies on Payday as full-year losses increase to $12m: Co-op heist game accounted for 99.4% of the developer’s Q4 net sales
- Clash of Clans maker Supercell to ‘significantly’ cut back on hiring
- Supercell to “slow growth significantly” in coming year: As mobile studio enters its second decade, CEO Ilkka Paananen reaffirms goal to be “as small as possible”
- Report: System Shock 3 developers are “no longer employed”
- System Shock 3 development staff reportedly “no longer with the studio”: Highly-anticipated sequel supposedly halted after studio falls “critically behind” in development
- Lineage 2 M surpasses $152m in three months: NCSoft’s Mobile MMORPG is currently only available in South Korea
- The New Zealand games industry has doubled its annual revenue in two years
- New Zealand’s games industry has doubled revenue in two years: National industry earned more than $200m in revenue in the last fiscal year, but investment and skills remain impediments to growth
- UK spend on Video Games Tax Relief rose to record £582.6m in 2019: But number of projects receiving interim certification reduces as console cycle nears its end
- Bigben Interactive is now Nacon as publishing and accessories businesses merge
- Ultimate Rivals dev Bit Fry Game Studios lands $3.5 million investment
- Putting together an All-Star team of sports licenses: Bit Fry’s Ben Freidlin talks about how & why the developer got the NHL, NBA, MLB, WNBA, NFL Players Association and more on board for Ultimate Rivals
- Twitch, Gillette Further Three-Year-Old Brand Deal With Fleet Of Five Top Gaming Creators
- Riot Games Rioting Over Esports Team’s Trademark Infringement
- Major esport organisations launch new team-owned CS GO league: Flashpoint aims to address “lack of stability and long-term investment” issues of current pro scene
- Hitmarker: Number of full-time esports jobs doubled last year – The number of senior-level jobs in esports grew an impressive 190% in 2019
- $1.4bn divestment offsets modest annual loss for MTG: Esport and gaming revenue continues to climb for Swedish entertainment group
- Teamwork makes the dream work – the crossover between sports and esports
- Bit Fry backers invest additional $3.5 million: Bitkraft Esports Ventures and 1Up Ventures increase their stake in creator of many-licensed sports franchise Ultimate Rivals
- Facebook Expects Coronavirus Will Have “additional impact” on Oculus Quest Availability: Quest “unavailable” in most regions
- Facebook expects coronavirus outbreak to impact Oculus Quest production
- How to get the best game publishing deal: Don’t be afraid to negotiate and realise your value to avoid a publishing deal gone wrong
- How Star Trek Online managed to live long and prosper: In a decade when many licensed MMOs struggled and died, lead designer Al Rivera discusses why Cryptic Studios’ voyage to the final frontier has survived
- Light Brick wants to rebuild how we play with digital Lego: Studio head Karsten Lund explains why Lego’s new internal studio is getting back to basic building bricks with Lego: Builder’s Journey
- After another major E3 data leak, a gaming luminary says bye to the expo: Comes as reaction to E3 organizers’ plans for the event.
- ESA names 10 companies still attending E3: Xbox, Nintendo, Ubisoft, and Take-Two among the bigger outfits participating in 2020 show, which will have an industry-only day
- Ultra-tough dungeon-crawler Below adds easier “Explore” mode
- Cloudspire: a $130 MOBA for your tabletop?
- 15 co-op games to play with your partner this Valentine’s Day
- 5 important realizations about game balance
- Don’t Miss: The world design of Diablo III
- Don’t Miss: Sonic the Hedgehog co-creator’s philosophy of game design
- Sonic the Hedgehog film review: You can slow your roll, Sega fans
- Don’t Miss: Devs look back at the influential BioShock 2
- Don’t Miss: Translating the humor & tone of Yakuza games for the West
- An inside look at how Bungie found and fixed Destiny 2’s currency-deleting bug
- Video: How Guerrilla crafted the lush vegetation of Horizon Zero Dawn
- Video: Indexing and iterating design space permutations in game dev
- Video: How the Nyamakop team broke into game dev from Africa
- Video: Monetization design and overcoming the dark side of gacha
- Video: Monitoring and validating world design data in Assassin’s Creed Origins
- Blog: How my sci-fi adventure Aquamarine found Kickstarter success
- Blog: Finding the right publisher for your game and other dev tips
- Blog: Video game composers and the importance of research
- And Yet it Hurt: How I made a game played in Notepad
- Humble Bundle rolls out regional pricing for a handful of currencies
- Humble Bundle joins efforts to raise money for Australian bushfire relief: Humble Bundle sells 60,000 bundles to raise over $2.4 million for bushfire relief effort
DIGITAL
- TikTok reportedly waited nearly 3 hours to call police in Brazil after a teen’s death was livestreamed on the platform, but the company notified its own PR team almost immediately
- When You Set Out To Block Misinformation, You Can Wind Up Blocking A Hero Like Li Wenliang
- Chinese Hacking Is Alarming. So Are Data Brokers.
- The Speaker, the President, and the Case of (the) Ripped Up Speech (Jonathan Zittrain)
- The Billion-Dollar Disinformation Campaign to Reelect the President
- Audit Indicates Intuit Made $1 Billion By Hiding Free File Program From The Public
- Can Public Infrastructure Fix Social Media?
- Defamation, social media and the right to insult
- Ninth Circuit Rules that LinkedIn Cannot Block Data Scraping
- Registrars raise alarm over proposal for big .com fee hikes: Proposed contract allows Verisign to raise registration fees 7 percent per year.
- Understanding Internet Culture
- Competition Bureau’s Marketing and Advertising Priorities: False Online Consumer Reviews
- Logitech debuts $169 StreamCam: A streamer-focused, USB-C webcam
- Canadian Government Officially Warns 100 Brands And Ad Agencies To Comply With Influencer Marketing Laws
- Bad Influence: FTC Settles Two Complaints Alleging Fake Social Media Influence
- US says Chinese military stole masses of Americans’ data
- Equifax breach was the work of Chinese state hackers, DOJ says
- China’s To Blame For The Equifax Hack. But It Shouldn’t Let Equifax, Or US Regulators, Off The Hook.
- DOJ Charges China With Hacking Equifax. That’s No Reason to Forgive Equifax: We’ve identified the culprits. But corporate accountability and meaningful victim compensation remains nowhere in sight.
- Justice Department Ramps Up Google Probe, With Heavy Focus on Ad Tools: Antitrust enforcers have contacted more than a dozen publishers, ad tech rivals and ad agencies
- Why Google Might Prefer Dropping a $22 Billion Business: Divesting its third-party ad operation could stave off even worse regulatory action.
- Google Tells Websites–Including YouTube–To Remove “Particularly Disruptive” Ads On Short Videos
- YouTube Wants To Hook Its Users Up With Third-Party Video Subscriptions (Report)
- The Young Turks Launches Google-Funded Video Course For Aspiring Local Journalists
- We Need to Talk About ‘Cloud Neutrality’: A multibillion-dollar, privately-owned infrastructure is now essential to the modern internet economy. That should freak you out.
- Video Sharing Site Protected by CDA Immunity for Removal of Poster’s “Objectionable Material”
- Sun To Rise on .GAY
- The Iowa caucuses were a comedy of tech errors and poor planning
- Snapchat introduces new interventions for mental health
- Snapchat is testing a big new redesign: A new home for the Snap Map and its original shows – plus a new test of news briefs
- Justin Bieber Docuseries Becomes YouTube’s Most-Viewed Original In One Week
- YouTube continues to mirror Twitch, tests new clap feature that lets fans donate to creators: Clapping costs $2 on YouTube now
- YouTube could compete with Apple and Amazon by offering third-party video subscription services: The report comes after Google boasted good subscriber numbers on YouTube
- Patreon Adds European Currencies, Will Open Berlin Offices As It Eyes Global Expansion
- Brazil judge rejects hacking accusation against Greenwald
- Brazilian Court Refuses To Move Forward With Bogus Charges Against Glenn Greenwald ‘For Now’
- European Commission continues crack down on cross-border online trade restrictions
- Can a Retweet Constitute Copyright Infringement? Uh….–Bell v. Chicago Cubs (Eric Goldman)
- Two New Mass Copyright Lawsuits – Rambo: Last Blood & Angel Has Fallen
- What Happens When a High-Tech Apparel Brand Shares the Same Name as the Company that Backed the Controversial Iowa Caucus App?
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- Mother Meets Recreation of Her Deceased Child in VR
- Ubisoft’s next Prince of Persia game is a VR escape room
- Oxford VR Picks up $12.5M in Funding for Its VR-based Therapy Platform
- Steam: Virtual reality’s biggest-ever jump in users happened last month
- Acer Has Cancelled its ConceptD OJO Headset
- Nreal Temporarily Halts Production of ‘Light’ AR Headset due to Coronavirus
- Mobile World Congress canceled due to coronavirus [Updated]
- Facebook Watch Sets Limited John Legend Series For Valentine’s Day
- What it takes to get a hate page off Facebook: A letter from the state AG
- Senators Threaten Twitter For Allowing Iranian Official Who Helped De-Escalate Tensions Via Twitter To Tweet
- Twitter beats revenue, user growth estimates in fourth quarter
- Arizona Legislator Wants To Strip Platforms Of Section 230 Immunity If They’re ‘Politically Biased’
- Pigs Fly As Charles Harder And Donald Trump Support Anti-SLAPP Laws (When They Protect Trump, Of Course)
- Good News: Virginia Legislature Passes Anti-SLAPP Law
- Federal Court Ignores Journalist Privilege For Reporting On Court Documents; Allows Bullshit Defamation Suit To Proceed
- Downloading public court documents costs a dime a page—is that legal?
- Google Maps gets new icon, tweaked UI for 15th birthday
- Instagram Launches New Tool To Help Users Tidy Up Their Follows
- Instagram Confirms It’s Prototyping An Ad-Share Monetization Program For IGTV
- Instagram Claims Should Be Discontinued, NAD Recommends
- Amazon might offer Twitch’s streaming technology to businesses: Twitch would still exist, but Amazon would have a new way to monetize its technology.
- Regulator Ofcom to have more powers over UK social media
- Logan Paul Drops Antonio Brown Diss Track, Compounding Reports Of Boxing Bout
- Apple will introduce universal app purchases for iOS and macOS
- Here Are All The Titles Netflix Has Removed Because Of Government Censorship
- Netflix Finally Lets Users Turn Off Contentious Autoplay-While-Browsing Feature
- Hell freezes over as Netflix finally lets users turn off autoplaying previews
- Quibi’s Oscar Ad Blitz A Decent Start Amid Disney Networks’ Promotional Blizzard
- Brands Owning Super Bowl Social Video Conversation Before And After Game
- ViacomCBS plan would unify all of Star Trek (and more) in one new streaming service
- WarnerMedia Forms New Film Division To Produce “Mid-Budget” Originals For Streamer HBO Max
- Hilton Hotels Named Title Sponsor Of BuzzFeed’s ‘BringMe’ Travel Vertical In Sweeping Pact
- Spotify’s Purchase Of The Ringer Won’t Be Cheap, But The Payoff Could Be Huge
- Spotify is giving songwriters their own pages and playlists
- Spotify launches ‘walled garden’ app Spotify Kids to millions more users
- Tentpole Events Boost Celebs’ Engagement On Social
- Just one day after launch, Moto Razr durability problems begin to pile up
- Bitcoin, CRA, and telemarketing scams in Metro Vancouver, Whistler and Squamish, and Vancouver Island
- The End Of Ownership: Tesla Software Updates Giveth… And Tesla Software Updates Taketh Away…
- Electronic signatures – legally binding or not worth the paper they’re written on?
- New Paper Explains How FOSTA Devastated Male Sex Workers (Eric Goldman)
- AOC Supports Full Repeal Of FOSTA
- The Future of International Crime: AI, 5G, Encryption, Cryptocurrencies and 3D technologies?
- Who’s Prone to Drone? A Global Time-Series Analysis of Armed Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Proliferation (Michael Horowitz,Joshua Schwartz. Matthew Fuhrmann)
- ’90s nostalgia: Dancing Baby does the cha-cha once more in new HD rendering
- Techdirt Podcast Episode 238: Larry Lessig Defends His ‘Clickbait Defamation’ Lawsuit
A.I.
- Review of Artificial Intelligence May Result in Significant Changes to PIPEDA
- Facebook, YouTube order Clearview to stop scraping them for faces to match
- Google Says Clearview’s Site Scraping Is Wrong; Clearview Reminds Google It Scrapes Sites All The Time
- Clearview AI and the Legal Challenges Facing Facial Recognition Databases
- Clearview Looking To Expand Its Market To Problematic Countries Known For Human Rights Abuses
- Ajunwa to Congress: Help stop employers’ AI-fueled bias
- AI isn’t just coming to the world of dating—it’s already here
- Artificial Intelligence at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board
- LAW’s Danielle Citron: How Campaigns Can Counter Deepfakes – Cybersecurity expert and MacArthur Fellow has devised an eight-point plan for political campaigns to protect against fabricated video and audio
- Machines have learned how to be creative. What does that mean for art?: A.I. is imbuing computers with the most human of traits, creativity. Not everyone is happy about it
- AI-Mediated Communication: Definition, Research Agenda, and Ethical Considerations (Jeffrey Hancock, Mor Naaman, Karen Levy)
- Can Fiction Introduce Empathy Into AI? Do We Want It To?: Flynn Coleman on the Potential for Ethical Technology
- Radiant app taps Spotify for ‘digital radio hosted by AI’
- EPO Publishes Grounds for Refusing AI-Invented Patent Applications
- The EPO explains why the inventor has to be a human being, not a machine
- The untapped potential of AI for conglomerates
- Canadian Privacy Regulator Launches Consultation on its Proposals for Ensuring AI Regulation
- Personal choices and situated data: Privacy negotiations and the acceptance of household Intelligent Personal Assistants (Jason Pridmore, Anouk Mols)
COMMUNICATIONS
- The Broadcast Panel Report and Discoverability of Canadian Content: Searching for Evidence of a Problem (Michael Geist)
- The BTLR and USMCA, Part One: Why the Broadcast Panel Recommendations Conflict With Canada’s Emerging Trade Obligations (Michael Geist)
- Higher Costs and Less Choice: Why Consumers Will Pay the Price for the Broadcast Panel’s Plans to Increase Costs of Internet Services and Sites (Michael Geist)
- Canadian Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review Panel releases Final Report
- Update on Allarco Litigation – Allarco’s Potential Exit Costs in the Federal Court (Howard Knopf)
- Judicial Review: Impact of the Vavilov Judgment
- Goodbye, Sprint: US judge approves T-Mobile’s purchase of competitor
- US Antitrust Enforcement Clearly Broken As Court Rubber Stamps T-Mobile Merger
- US Broadband Gaps Are Twice As Bad As The Government Claims
- FCC data fails to count 21 million people without broadband, study finds
- Ajit Pai defeats another attempt to restore FCC’s net neutrality rules
- Comcast “not welcome” here: Customers protest sale of tiny cable company
- AT&T Keeps Pretending It Wants Real Net Neutrality And Privacy Laws. It Doesn’t.
- 5G choices: a pivotal moment in world affairs
- 5G Could Actually Make The ‘Digital Divide’ Worse
- iPhones Will Get Bigger And More Expensive This Year Thanks To 5G
- Microsoft’s first-ever Android Phone, the Surface Duo, spotted in the wild
- Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip is the first foldable with a flexible glass cover
- Samsung’s Galaxy S20 is official, with bigger screens, higher prices
- Andy Rubin’s smartphone startup, Essential, is dead
- IoT Update: FCC Raises the Benchmark for Rural Broadband Deployments
- Frontier, nearing bankruptcy, faces scrutiny over weeks-long phone outages
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
- Downtown Music Publishing LLC v. Peloton Interactive, Inc.
- “Pound Cake” Sampling Is Fair Use According to the Second Circuit
- 2nd Circuit Appeals Court Upholds Drake Sampling Fair Use Victory, But Doesn’t Think It’s Useful For Anyone Else
- Estate of James Oscar Smith v. Drake (USCA 2nd Circuit, 2.3.20)
- Transformative Editing as Fair Use Under Copyright
- Google v. Oracle: Will Software Be Free?
- Supreme Court Set to Hear Copywrite Arguments in “Google v. Oracle”
- China and United States see eye to IP
- Copyright Troll Lawsuit Over Duct Taped Banana Picture
- Photo Of $120K Banana Art Leads To Copyright Fight
- Seattle Kraken or Sockeyes: How Legal Implications May Influence Seattle’s Decision
- Get Up, Stand Up, For Your Copyrights
- Fashion designers to have more protection against copying
- Can copyright protect your fabric design from copycats and competitors?
- Making Waves: IPEC finds fabric design a work of artistic craftmanship
- CJEU rules that the provision of e-books is an act of communication to the public
- Caltech Ten-Figure Patent Verdict Showcases Impact of University Intellectual Property
- Patenting Coronavirus Treatments
- EU’s top court clarifies when a patent settlement agreement can infringe EU antitrust rules
- You Mess With Me, You Mess With My Whole (Patent) Family
- Express License of Patent Includes Implied License of Continuations
- The six big ways the US and Europe differ on software patents
- What will France’s PACTE law mean for patents?
- Standard-essential patents in United Kingdom
- The future of 5G patent licensing
- Top Issues in 2020: 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing
- Government Looking in the Mirror: How to Do Better in IP Protection and Commercialization
- Tech tools to draft patent applications could revolutionise IP proceedings
- BREXIT’s Projected Impact on Intellectual Property Rights
- Copyright Troll Richard Liebowitz Drops Case After Suing On Behalf Of The Wrong Party And Trying To Swap Plaintiffs
PRIVACY
- Man who refused to decrypt hard drives is free after four years in jail
- Appeals Court Rules That People Can’t Be Locked Up Indefinitely For Refusing To Decrypt Devices
- Harvard Students Again Show ‘Anonymized’ Data Isn’t Really Anonymous
- As The World Frets Over Social Media Tracking For Advertising, Young People Are Turning Fooling Sites Into Sport
- US says it can prove Huawei has backdoor access to mobile-phone networks
- Huawei fires back, points to US’ history of spying on phone networks
- Privacy Commissioner says Facebook violated PIPEDA: OPC made an application to Federal Court Thursday, seeking declaration Facebook broke the law
- IP Addresses No Longer Protected in Alberta: From a privacy perspective, the decision is “exceedingly troubling” argues Lisa Lifshitz
- One of the most destructive botnets can now spread to nearby Wi-Fi networks
- Personal Data of All 6.5 Million Israeli Voters Is Exposed
- Transparency Report Shows Ancestry.com Rejected A Warrant Demanding Access To Its DNA Database
- Inside the closed-door campaigns to rewrite California privacy law, again: How Google, Facebook, the EFF and others lobbied Alastair Mactaggart — and what they managed to get.
- For decades, US and Germany owned Swiss crypto company used by 120 countries
- New “red team as a service” platform aims to automate hacking tests for company networks
- Do Sports Clubs’ WhatsApp Groups Breach the GDPR?
- Windows trust in abandoned code lets ransomware burrow deep into targeted machines
- Google Play apps with 470k installs can log in to your Facebook and Google accounts
- How Attorney General Barr’s War On Encryption Will Harm Our Military
- Why is the healthcare industry still so bad at cybersecurity?
- Why you can’t bank on backups to fight ransomware anymore
- The CJEU’s cookie judgment: why the cookie consent debate continues
CREATIVITY
- Advertising Watchdog Says Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop Is Making False Health Marketing Claims
- Philadelphia Police Clear Gritty of Alleged Assault
- Former “Bachelor” Contestant Stripped of $1 million Fantasy Football Win
- MLB Drops Joint Promotion with Roger Waters Over Anti-Semitism Charges
- Was it all a fantasy? New York Appeals Court says fantasy sports are illegal
- New York Appellate Court Rules Fantasy Sports is Illegal Gambling
- Ohio minister may face uphill fight in Super Bowl halftime
- Could employers ban office football chat?
- ABC Rejects Frida Mom Commercial for Oscars Broadcast
- The Beguiling: Glamour in/as Platformed Cultural Production (Alison Hearn, Sarah Banet-Weiser)
Jon
News of the Week; February 5, 2020
GAMES
- Nintendo switches it up with website blocking injunction
- FBI catches hacker that stole Nintendo’s secrets for years
- Appeals Court Tells Serial Litigant Runescape Didn’t Violate His Constitutional Rights By Muting His Account
- Federal court: Getting muted in RuneScape doesn’t violate your civil rights: Serial litigator in Pennsylvania loses latest appeal
- First ever UK Games Industry Census highlights need for more diversity
- GDC State of the Industry: Nearly half of game makers still work over 40 hours/week
- Bleszinski regrets being too political with LawBreakers: In reflecting on Boss Key’s demise, studio co-founder says it was a mistake to push his personal beliefs in a divided world
- Fable Fortune is being shut down two years after launch
- Creators Going Pro: ImSuda And Friends Put The “Fun” In ‘Fortnite’ With Their Content Goldmine Group Gaming Sessions
- Kentucky officials trying to ban Fortnite from varsity esports: “There is no place for shooter games in our schools,” says Kentucky High School Athletic Association commissioner
- For the love of the (video) game: Canadian law firms are rising to the challenge as the esports industry spreads like wildfire
- FaZe Clan Seeking To Sign Newest Member In Upcoming Quibi Competition Series
- The UK games industry is still overwhelmingly young, white, and male: But on the heels of its first UK Games Industry Census, UKIE launches initiative to improve diversity
- How to identify and avoid unconscious bias: The GamesIndustry.biz Academy explores the effect of unconscious biases on the workplace, and how you can steer away from them and towards diversity
- ESA launches Game Generation campaign to highlight positive impact of gaming: “Game Generation is about celebrating the more than 164 million Americans who love video games and the positive impact,” says ESA
- Taipei Game Show postponed in response to coronavirus outbreak: With 320,000 people set to attend, organisers take action to avoid “unthinkable risks” of cluster infection
- STJV issues call for testimonials from those in video game education: French game workers union concerned about reports of dysfunction in academic settings, hopes to implement action plan
- Cheat software: Can publishers level the playing field? – Legal expert Dr Andreas Lober offers practical advice to publishers battling the rise of cheat software in online games
- Only 23% of EA’s $5.4 billion net bookings in the last year came from non-digital sources
- Digital net revenue was 70% of EA’s total revenue in Q3: And The Sims 4 has now passed 20m unique players worldwide
- EA beats expectations with $1.98 billion in Q3 revenue as live operations grow
- EA planning to publish 14 games next fiscal year: Publisher wants to rely on a “broad-based model,” avoid dependence on any one title
- Jedi: Fallen Order sells almost 8 million copies to beat EA expectations
- Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order has sold around 8m units: EA says single-player adventure hit the “high-end” of its expectations, projects 10m units by end of fiscal year
- EA wants to stop including daily and monthly active user data in earnings reports
- EA still lukewarm on bringing its portfolio to Switch: Blake Jorgensen – “We’re conscious of the fact that the top selling titles are all Nintendo software”
- Nintendo Switch overtook the SNES’ lifetime sales over the holidays: The Switch Lite’s launch pushed the hybrid console’s sales over 52 million, while Pokemon Sword and Shield sold more than 16 million copies.
- Profits and sales up at Nintendo as Switch continues momentum
- The Nintendo Switch has surpassed 52 million lifetime sales
- Nintendo raises Switch forecast as console shipments pass 52 million: Switch software sales now expected to hit 140 million for the year
- Nintendo: No new Switch model planned for 2020
- Nintendo’s 2020 plans don’t include a new Switch model
- The Outer Worlds will be digital-only on Switch: Launches March 6, retail version will contain a download code
- Free-to-play Fire Emblem Heroes is adding a $9.49 monthly subscription pass
- Nintendo’s latest subscription model is attached to Fire Emblem Heroes: $10/month Feh Pass offers free heroes and gameplay augments
- UK Charts: Nintendo Switch games dominate as stock shortages end – Call of Duty Modern Warfare is at No.1
- PlatinumGames turns to Kickstarter to self-publish The Wonderful 101 on Switch
- PlayStation game sales pass one billion units: More than 1.18 billion first- and third-party PlayStation games had been sold as of January 31, 2020
- PlayStation Vue Officially Shuts Down
- PS4 hardware and software sales down as next-gen looms large
- Sony gaming revenue and profit on the decline as new console generation looms: Network service revenue rises, while software and hardware take considerable hit
- Take Two stock dips as Rockstar scribe Dan Houser announces departure
- Capcom credits jump in profit to increasing interest in digital sales
- Monster Hunter World Iceborne boosts profits at Capcom: Strong digital sales lead to best ever nine-month “profit levels” at the Japanese publisher
- Koei Tecmo games profits slide in slow Q3: A single retail release kept revenue at a standstill, but a busier quarter lies ahead
- Dena shuts down two of its Japanese mobile titles: Fantasy Earth Genesis and Torikago Scrap March servers to shutter in March
- DeNA’s existing titles out-performed new games during the last nine months
- DeNA reassessing games strategy as older titles fail to deliver: Mobile games firm posts hefty operating losses in Q3, thanks to games business impairment loss
- Mobile Yu-Gi-Oh! and PES titles are Konami’s top revenue earning games this year
- Code Vein passes 1 million sales in under five months
- Zynga posts record full-year revenues: Q4 revenues up 63% year-over-year but Words With Friends publisher still posts modest net loss
- The mobile games market is getting bigger — and not just for the top ten: Battle passes made money for the major publishers in 2019, but there was growth outside of the top ten
- Microsoft’s gaming revenue down 21% in Q2, but subscriptions are still up: Holiday hardware sales were predictably low as current console generation comes to a close
- Phil Spencer claims Amazon and Google are ‘main competitors’ to Xbox
- Phil Spencer: “We see Amazon and Google as the main competitors”: Sony and Nintendo are out of position to keep up with “tens of billions” Microsoft has invested in cloud tech, says Spencer
- GeForce Now: Nvidia implements aggressive pricing to consolidate cloud gaming position
- Nvidia launches GeForce Now cloud gaming service at $4.99/month: Paid subscription gives priority server access and six-hour sessions, but there’s a free version too
- Now out of beta, GeForce Now offers cloud-based streaming of owned Steam and EGS games
- RIP Stadia? Nvidia’s newly launched cloud-gaming service is (mostly) a stunner
- Google Stadia’s latest free game only has a few thousand total players
- Google responds to Stadia complaints over lack of announcements
- Google responds to complaints of slow Stadia announcements: Internet giant tells GamesIndustry.biz there will be more news on streaming service exclusives “soon”
- Stadia Isn’t Starting Off Well, Even Judging By Player Counts On Free Games
- Android app developers have earned over $80 billion through Google Play
- In Europe, Google Play users spent more on mobile gaming in 2019 than App Store users: Sensor Tower High Google Play spending of $1 billion in Germany helped buck the global trend
- Fate/Grand Order just passed $4 billion in revenue: It was the most talked-about game on Twitter and the No.8 free-to-play game by revenue in 2019
- Discord no longer doubles as a game launcher as two non-core features get the axe
- Improbable has purchased online game hosting company Zeuz
- Improbable acquires game hosting service company Zeuz: Deal marks Improbable’s third acquisition in six months
- What I learned about community management from my immigrant parents
- Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser is leaving the studio
- Dan Houser departs Rockstar Games: Co-founder to leave company in March after year-long hiatus
- UK trade bodies respond to points-based immigration proposal: UKIE suggests “little impact” on games industry, while TIGA welcomes attention given to creative and STEM sectors
- Facebook Seeks To Arm Gaming Creators With Preset Tools To Encourage Inclusion
- Digital games driving growth at Sega as packaged titles underperform
- Sega Europe announces fully recyclable packaging for all PC titles: Building on work from Sports Interactive last year, Sega Europe introduces blanket policy for PC titles
- Sega lowers full-year forecast on soft Q3 packaged sales: Mario & Sonic, Persona 5 Royal, and New Sakura Wars all launched in the quarter, but packaged sales did not meet expectations
- Creative Chronicles: Designing for colour blindness in games
- Barclays introduces video games tax relief loans: Developers able to claim 90% of their tax credit before it is fully processed
- Bigben Group forms new entity ahead of planned IPO: Nacon will unite accessories and games publishing assets in a proposed listing on the Euronext exchange
- Nacon buys Rig headset brand from Plantronics: Bigben gaming business preparing for IPO picks up communications company’s gaming line
- Amplifier Game Invest opens new Seattle studio CC7 Entertainment
- Supercell sinks $1.1 million into fledgling Swedish studio Wild Games
- Supercell backs new mobile studio formed by EA DICE veterans: Stockholm-based Wild Games breaks cover to announce $1.1m investment
- In Elsinore, more matter is more art: Golden Glitch’s Katie Chironis and Connor Fallon on the nearly decade-long challenge of making Shakespeare’s Hamlet into a time loop video game
- Scopely scores partnership with Mattel and Hasbro for new Scrabble mobile game
- Ubisoft acquires mobile studio Kolibri Games to expand into ‘idle’ genre
- Ubisoft acquires free-to-play mobile dev Kolibri Games: Idle Miner Tycoon to strengthen Ubisoft’s idle game portfolio
- GameRefinery acquires Reflection.io: UK market data firm adds to new parent’s services for mobile developers
- WarCraft III Reforged: Not the flavor of chaos we were hoping for
- Can a solo indie developer use ray tracing in their game?: Zeng Xiancheng on why the realistic lighting technique is not solely the realm of AAA developers
- Who saved Rare?: “We were so worried about challenging ourselves technically, that we paused a little bit with worrying about people”
- PlayStation to close Manchester VR studio: VR outfit to close its doors after five years
- Sony Interactive Entertainment’s VR-focused Manchester Studio to close down
- Can Alyx pull VR out of its niche? | Opinion: Half-Life Alyx is driving headset sales before it’s even released — but it’s going to take a lot more to make VR into a viable market for AAA games
- The Oculus Store made almost $5 million on Christmas Day2
- Mark Zuckerberg: ‘people bought nearly $5M in Oculus Store content on Christmas Day’
- More than $5m worth of Oculus content was sold on Christmas Day: Mark Zuckerberg points to holiday surge as sign of progress for the VR ecosystem
- Exploring new frontiers of color with The Outer Worlds: Art director Daniel Alpert discusses the visually striking approach to Obsidian’s latest RPG
- 38,000 Flash games will live on after Flash support dies this year thanks to Flashpoint
- Video: A game artist’s guide to escaping your comfort zone
- Video: Cursed problems in game design
- Video: Using chance to enhance fun
- Video: Why forums can be great for indie discoverability and community
- Don’t Miss: A Classic Postmortem on how Maxis avoided sequel-itis on The Sims 2
- Blog: Organizing engaging and dynamic forces
- Blog: Utilizing 3D cameras in 2D games
- Blog: How Tencent’s global mobile games biz took the crown in 2019
- Blog: Lessons and statistics after four years as an indie developer
- Blog: Pack-ratting in games – Do players need to have it all?
- Are gamers scarier than biker gangs?: 10 Years Ago This Month: South Australian attorney general compares the threats he receives while Activision Blizzard starts a new layoff tradition
- What ‘Dragons Love Tacos’ taught me about game discoverability
- The Coalition’s Rod Fergusson leaves Gears of War for Diablo: Former Xbox studios leader departs for Blizzard
- Where now for Gears of War?: As franchise lead Rod Fergusson departs, Xbox commits to the IP and its studio
- Call of Duty raises $1.6 million for Australian fire relief through in-game campaign
- The games industry continues to rally behind Australian bushfire relief: Activision led widespread efforts with $1.6m raised through the sale of a special COD pack
- U.S. Patent no. 10,279,260: Cut-scene gameplay
DIGITAL
- Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault on Regulating Foreign News Sites: “What’s the Big Deal?” (Michael Geist)
- Weak Walk-Back: Why Steven Guilbeault’s Reversal on Government Licensing News Sites Still Leaves a Huge Regulatory Structure in Place (Michael Geist)
- Video Excerpts Qualify as Fair Use (and Another 512(f) Claim Fails)–Hughes v. Benjamin (Eric Goldman)
- Twitter Suspends Reporter For ‘Posting Private Info’ That Is Merely Internal Deutsche Bank Email That Could Implicate Trump
- Twitter Moves To Quash Fishing Expedition Subpoena For Info On Devin Nunes Cow By Devin Nunes’ Lawyer In Unrelated Case
- YouTube Sends Cease-And-Desist To Facial Recognition Company That Scrapes Social Media Images For Law Enforcement
- YouTube Emphasizes Its Ban On Birtherism, Deepfakes As 2020 Election Gets Underway
- YouTube Says It Will Ban Misleading Election-Related Content: On the day of the Iowa caucuses, the video platform rolled out a complete policy of how it planned to handle false election content.
- Email release reveals chaos sowed by President Trump’s hurricane tweets
- ‘Fake news’ – the perfect storm: historical perspectives
- An Artist Used 99 Phones to Fake a Google Maps Traffic Jam: With his “Google Maps Hack,” artist Simon Weckert draws attention to the systems we take for granted—and how we let them shape us.
- Google Fiber kills TV service, focuses on broadband and YouTube TV
- Nightmare Google Photos bug sent private videos to the wrong people
- Nextdoor Post Isn’t Protected by Anti-SLAPP Law–Jeppson v. Ley (Eric Goldman)
- Can a “Fire” Emoji Support a Manslaughter Conviction?–Johnson v. State (Eric Goldman)
- Amazon Tells Ukraine Publication To Alter Its Article After It Links The Company To Ring’s Problematic Ukraine Branch
- Amazon Value Tops $1 Trillion After Results Beat Expectations
- Amazon reports big earnings, crosses $1 trillion in value
- What can Amazon do for you?
- Record labels want to ask potential jurors: Do you read Ars Technica?
- Microsoft’s failures to renew: Teams, Hotmail, and Hotmail.co.uk
- Microsoft now sees Amazon and Google as its main gaming threats
- Lindsey Graham’s Sneak Attack On Section 230 And Encryption: A Backdoor To A Backdoor?
- The Plot Against Section 230 Is Being Run By Big Legacy Companies Who Failed To Adapt To The Internet
- Google Search Qualifies For Section 230, Whether or Not It’s a “Platform”–Chukwurah v. Google (Eric Goldman)
- The Digital Millennium Copyright Act: Protections for Copyright Owners and Online Service Providers
- RIAA, Stream-Ripping Sites Engaged In Dumb Game Of Whac-A-Mole With Search Engines
- Dune’s New Logo Started Disappearing From Twitter Due To Copyright Claims, But No One Is Quite Sure Why
- What is a porn website’s duty to accommodate?
- New FTC Settlement Targets Fake Ratings and Reviews
- Cheap rooms? Probably not? Trivago’s top deals are hotels which pay the most
- How lawyers brought down internet trolls – without ever uncovering their identities
- How to virtually block a road: Take a walk with 99 phones
- YouTuber JayStation Concedes He Faked Girlfriend’s Death To Drive Subscriptions
- YouTube Takes Down Live Stream Over Copyright Claim…Before Stream Even Starts
- YouTube Shares Insights Into How It Will Deploy $100 Million Kids Content Fund
- YouTube Millionaires: Meet Steph Pappas, YouTube’s Up-And-Coming Queen Of Mukbang
- YouTube Finally Reveals Exactly How Much It Makes From Ads: $34.4 Billion In Last 3 Years
- Alphabet finally reveals YouTube revenue—$15 billion in 2019
- Alphabet discloses YouTube ad revenues of $15.15 billion, cloud revenues of $8.92 billion for 2019
- YouTube Finally Reveals Exactly How Much It Makes From Ads: $34.4 Billion In Last 3 Years
- CBS makes Star Trek: Picard pilot free on YouTube for a limited time
- Linux Star Trek fans, rejoice: CBS All Access now works in your OS [Updated]
- ViacomCBS-Owned Pluto TV To Enter Latin American Market Next Month
- Amid Push To Build Platform, Editor ‘VSCO’ Will Now Let Members Publish Videos
- Disney’s Licensing Dogs Charge Underserved School District A Third Of Fundraiser Money For Playing ‘Lion King’ DVD
- Verizon Says Disney+ Deal Helped It Bring In 790K New Wireless Customers Last Quarter
- Disney expected to announce up to 30 million subs for Disney+
- Hulu CEO Randy Freer Exits Amid Streamer’s Ongoing Integration Into Disney
- Netflix Signs 4-Film Deal With Adam Sandler, After Banking 6 Features To Date
- Sony, Wattpad Unveil First Original Shows In Development After First-Look Deal
- Insights: Frumpy Hulu Sharpens Its Edge With Reorg, Big Sundance Deals
- Spotify needed a huge podcast, and it just bought one of the biggest: Why it matters that Spotify bought The Ringer and Bill Simmons’ podcast
- China’s New Digital Stars Are Construction Vehicles–And They Have 40 Million Viewers
- Competition Bureau’s Marketing and Advertising Priorities: Influencer Marketing
- The FDA Is Studying Influencers Who Endorse Healthcare Products
- Competition Bureau’s Marketing and Advertising Priorities: Influencer Marketing
- Casey Neistat Invests In $4.5 Million Seed Round For Aperitif Startup ‘Haus’
- Chipotle Taps David Dobrik, Zach King, Avani Gregg For TikTok Super Bowl Campaign
- TikTok Testing New Profile Layouts That Look Strikingly Similar To Instagram
- James Charles To Attend VidCon 2020 For The First Time As A Featured Creator
- Jake Paul Defeats AnEsonGib In First Round, Setting Stage For KSI Showdown
- Messenger Kids adds expanded parental controls, details how much kids’ data Facebook collects
- Instagram Brings In More Than a Quarter of Facebook Sales
- Instagram Reportedly Clocked $20 Billion In Ad Revs Last Year, Toppling YouTube’s Tally
- Teens have figured out how to mess with Instagram’s tracking algorithm: Teenagers are using group accounts to flood Instagram with random user data that can’t be tied to a single person.
- Snapchat launches Bitmoji TV: zany 4-min cartoons of your avatar: Facebook’t can’t copy this one
- Snapchat hits 218M users but big Q4 losses sink share price
- Snapchat Triples Video Ad Earnings And Snags 8 Million New Users, But Misses Q4 Revenue Target
- Here are the 62 brand-new emoji for 2020
- OneWeb joins the satellite Internet gold rush this week
- Tracking the future of remote workplaces: Apps, communication, and liability
- Social AR/VR Workspace ‘Spatial’ Secures $14M Series A Financing
- Maryland State Senate’s Budget and Taxation Committee Hears Testimony on Proposed Digital Advertising Tax
- “Of Ransoms, Bitcoin, and Injunctions”: English High Court grants subrogee insurer proprietary injunction over ransomed Bitcoin
- SaaS, cashless and convergence drive tech to the top
- “OK, Boomer”: From Social Media to the Supreme Court
- Internet Law and Regulation
A.I.
- Patent law’s approach to AI: finding the way forward
- Could Star Trek’s DATA Be a Patent Inventor?
- UK Intellectual Property Office finds that patent law does not cater for inventions created by AI machines and calls for debate
- Patenting Considerations for Artificial Intelligence in Biotech and Synthetic Biology – Part 2: Key Issues in Patent Subject Matter Eligibility
- Someone used neural networks to upscale a famous 1896 video to 4k quality (Updated)
- Modl.ai closes $1.7m seed funding round: Startup uses AI-driven player archetypes to drastically reduce playtest times
- Machine behaviour
- Oyez! Robot
- Closing the AI accountability gap: defining an end-to-end framework for internal algorithmic auditing
- Transhumanism, Moral Perfection, and Those 76 Trombones (Tom Koch)
COMMUNICATIONS
- The CRTC Knows Best: Panel Report Recommends Costly Overhaul of Canadian Communications Law to Regulate Internet Sites and Services Worldwide (Michael Geist)
- Not Neutral: Why the Broadcast Panel Report Weakens Net Neutrality in Canada (Michael Geist)
- Broadcasting report constitutes a stunning overreach
- Jonathan Kay: The federal government’s unsettling communications power grab – No one should trust any agency of government to regulate speech. I’m no fan of the Rebel. But free countries don’t ban book sales. Ever.
- No Netflix Tax? (Sort Of…): The Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review Panel Releases Its Final Report
- Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review Panel Releases its Final Report to the Federal Government
- Broadcaster to Pay $50,000 for Failing to Announce That “Live” Program Was Prerecorded
- 1 Year Later, FCC Finally Admits Wireless Carriers Broke The Law On Location Data
- FCC accuses carriers of being “gateways” for foreign robocallers
- Sinclair Pays Tribune $60 Million To Settle Lawsuit Over Dodgy Merger
- Did You Know that There is a Rule that Broadcasters Have to Tell Their Audience that a Program Is Recorded When It Seems to Be Live? – FCC Sends a $50,000 Reminder
- AT&T is doing exactly what it told Congress it wouldn’t do with Time Warner
- AT&T’s Attempt To Dominate The Pay TV Sector Continues To Go…Poorly
- AT&T Keeps On Firing Employees Despite Claims The Trump Tax Cut Would Boost Job Growth
- AT&T slashed billions from network spending, cut tens of thousands of jobs
- AT&T, Comcast Dramatically Cut Network Spending Despite Net Neutrality Repeal
- FCC proposes to fine racist troll $13 million for robocalling spree
- Quick Thoughts on a Few Political Broadcasting Legal Issues to Survive the Primary Season
- The United States vs. Robocalls
- Federal robocall watchdogs flex enforcement muscles
- Eleventh Cir. Rejects Broad Reading of “Autodialer”
- FCC Makes Permanent At-Home Call Handling by Sign Language Interpreters for VRS
- Ajit Pai’s “surprise” change makes it harder to get FCC broadband funding
- Ajit Pai: Carrier sales of phone-location data is illegal, FCC plans punishment
- Smaller Cable Companies Are Giving Up On Cable TV Altogether
- DoD’s Squeeze of Chinese Telecom Equipment Continues
- The electronic communications code: a new year, a new approach?
- The end of BlackBerry phones: TCL will cease sales in August 2020
- Telecom pioneer and convicted fraudster Bernard Ebbers has died
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
- Conservative MP Dan Albas on Copyright Term Extension in USMCA: Government Needs to Mitigate Damage to Copyright Law (Michael Geist)
- Woman Threatens Rep. Steve King With A Lawsuit For Using A 12-Year-Old Meme On His Facebook Page
- Success kid’s mom won’t stand for Steve King’s “meme” ad: Laney Griner, mother behind the meme, sent cease-and-desist to the Iowa congressman.
- The EPO’s fourth law of robotics: a robot must not be the inventor of a patent
- EPO publishes reasons for rejecting AI as inventor on patent application
- Can your AI machine be an inventor? The EPO says no….
- Caltech wins $1.1 billion patent award against Apple and Broadcom
- Patent Re-examination in Canada: Court Takes Truck Argument Off the Road
- Seedlings Clarifies Key Patent Litigation Issues
- Federal Circuit Alters Landscape for Design Patent Litigation
- Kendall and Kylie Jenner “Klauber-ed” for Allegedly Infringing Lace Designs
- Blockchain and intellectual property – the de-centralised alliance
- Creative Interpretations of a Creative Commons License
- Do you want to build a snowman? No, but I’d like to protect one! IP for animated characters.
- BMI Settlement of Royalty Battle with RMLC to Include Music in Podcasts? – Not So Fast….
- Schrödinger’s Shades of Grey: the CJEU’s landmark paroxetine ruling – antitrust market definition and patent settlement agreements
- The United Kingdom will not implement the European Union Copyright Directive
- Will rejecting the EU’s new copyright directive #savetheinternet?
- It’s That Time Of Year: No, The NFL Can’t Stop Every Business From Using ‘Super Bowl’ In Every Instance
- Update to Trademark Practice in Canada
- How the New U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Deal (Mostly) Expands Intellectual Property Protections
- Brexit: Implications for IP
- Brexit & IP – status quo for the transition period; changes to come post-transition
- Brexit is a Done Deal: What Are the Implications for Your IP?
- Cofemel’s first UK outing – The wooly world of copyright and designs
- Risk of Electronic Device Search For Patent Attorneys and Inventors Crossing the US-Canada Border with Confidential Information
- File When Ready! Criteria for Determining if an Invention Should Be Patented
- Fifth Circuit Holds that Mitigation is Not an Absolute Defense to Statutory Damages for Copyright Infringement and DMCA Violations
- Ninth Circuit Affirms $3.9 Million Attorney’s Fees Award in Ultraman Copyright Dispute
- Competition between generics and originators – what’s the relevance of a patent? (Part II)
- Intellectual Property Outlook: Cases and Trends to Follow in 2020 – Part 2
PRIVACY
- Facebook Agrees to Landmark 550 Million Dollar Settlement in BIPA Class Action
- Ring LLC Faces a Proposed Class Action Alleging Camera Doorbells Should Incorporate Enhanced Cybersecurity Features
- Amazon Ring now lets users opt out of receiving police video requests
- Ring Updates Privacy Dashboard Again, Allows Users To Preemptively Block All Law Enforcement Requests For Footage
- Facial Recognition Developer Told Cops To Test Out The Software By Running Searches On Friends And Family
- Avast shutters data-selling subsidiary amid user outrage
- YouTube demands Clearview AI stop scraping its videos for facial recognition database
- Lawsuit Says Clearview’s Facial Recognition App Violates Illinois Privacy Laws
- NJ AG Bans Clearview AI – Preventing a Chain of Privacy Violations or Interfering with Clearview’s Intellectual Property?
- Facebook Pays $550 Million Settlement In Illinois Facial Recognition Lawsuit, Which Could Pose Problems For Clearview
- New ransomware doesn’t just encrypt data. It also meddles with critical infrastructure
- Flaws in WhatsApp’s desktop app allowed remote access to files
- Court Order Shows DEA Demanding Tons Of Data From WhatsApp And Bunch Of Other Service Providers
- ‘Wake-up call’: Iowa caucus disinformation serves as warning about 2020 election – On Monday night, it didn’t take foreign interference to highlight the persistent vulnerabilities that Russia exploited in 2016.
- Who Needs the Russians?: Don’t blame shadowy foreign hackers for the chaos in Iowa. Blame Shadow’s caucus app. (Zeynep Tufekci)
- “Untagging” From Photo Privacy Lawsuit: Facebook Settles Its Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Litigation For $550 Million
- Big News in Biometrics – Supreme Court Declines to Weigh in on What Plaintiffs Must Show to Bring Biometric Privacy Suit
- Cyber Criminals Using Coronavirus Concern to Assist with Intrusions
- If You Give a User a Cookie (Notice)
- A Comprehensive Review of the new Washington Privacy Act
- Cambridge, Massachusetts Passes Ban On Facial Recognition Tech Use By Government Agencies
- London Police Move Forward With Full-Time Deployment Of Facial Recognition Tech That Can’t Accurately Recognize Faces
- Criminal Charges Finally Dropped Against Security Researchers Who Broke Into An Iowa Courthouse
- Why we don’t know as much as we should about police surveillance technology: Despite a growing number of high-tech tools, law enforcement agencies don’t seem to want to disclose what they’re using.
- Should Your Antivirus Software Be Spying On You?
- Dear Ashley Madison user, I know everything about you. Pay up or else
- Britain Cracks Down on Child Data Privacy
- Blurred Lines: Navigating The Modern Day Data Privacy And Security Labyrinth
- The fractured future of browser privacy
- More than 200 browser extensions ejected from Firefox and Chrome stores
CREATIVITY
- Prince Harry loses IPSO complaint against Mail on Sunday over criticism of his Instagram wildlife photography
- Bachelor Contestants Embroiled in Fantasy Sports Law Controversy
- The Guardian to Ban Advertising for Fossil Fuels
- What we learned from studying makerspaces – implications for policy
Jon
News of the Week; January 29, 2020
GAMES
- Japanese court ups punishment for unlicensed Mario Kart-themed go-karts: Maricar must change its name, pay out $458k instead of $92k to Nintendo
- Blizzard automatically owns any and all Warcraft 3: Reforged custom games
- Blizzard now claims full copyright for player-made “custom game” mods
- Warcraft 3 Reforged EULA gives Blizzard total ownership of all custom games: With the remake, Blizzard appears to be trying to avoid another Dota situation
- How Warcraft III birthed a genre, changed a franchise, and earned a Reforge-ing
- Riot Games denies collusion in gender discrimination lawsuit: 2 US government agencies attempt to discredit Riot Games and plaintiffs’ legal counsel in bid for $400 million compensation for current and former employees
- Game companies fall short on Bloomberg Gender Equality Index: Just five publicly-owned gaming or gaming-related companies appear on 2020 index measuring gender equality in the workplace
- Over one-fourth of developers say their studio has no diversity or inclusion initiatives – State of the Industry: Over half of developers are in favor of unionization; meanwhile, needle hasn’t moved on accessibility
- The industry is becoming more diverse, and more developers support inclusion efforts: IGDA developer survey: 85% of developers said that diversity in the games industry was important
- Crunch and ‘extended hours’ both down in latest IGDA dev satisfaction survey
- Bethesda restores characters who lost their clothes in Fallout 76 hack
- Industry faces “significant” regulatory risk following 2019 government inquiry: Concerns around bullying and gaming disorder could lead to “badly-informed regulation that damages the functioning of the industry”
- FTC Public Workshop on Loot Boxes – So What Now?
- When do deceptive playable ads help, and when do they hurt?: Dan Greenberg of ironSource says misleading interactive mobile ads were huge in 2019, but likely to be reined in this year
- Rockstar defends the $49m it received in UK tax relief last year
- Court rules Nintendo’s strict digital pre-order policies don’t violate EU laws
- The story of how Nintendo’s iconic logo escaped an “age-up” remake
- Analyst: Nintendo passes $1 billion revenue on mobile, largely thanks to Fire Emblem
- Plague Inc. maker: Don’t use our game for coronavirus modeling
- There are better ways to learn about coronavirus, says Plague Inc. developer
- Plague Inc dev: Game is “not a scientific model” for coronavirus outbreak – Ndemic Creations compelled to release statement as sales spike in China
- Blitzchung on Hong Kong protest: “Even if I had a chance to go back, I would still do it” – Hearthstone pro still “disappointed” in Blizzard but doesn’t hate the company
- Game revenue down 21% at Microsoft as Xbox hardware sales slow
- Microsoft’s Azure is still growing fast to take on AWS, but Xbox is still struggling: The tech giant reported impressive revenue in everything but gaming.
- Console tariff off the table as tensions ease between US and China: Tariff backtrack is well-timed as PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X prepare for launch
- U.S.-China trade deal clears way for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X
- Don’t Miss: How a ragtag band of modders restored Star Wars KOTOR II
- Don’t Miss: What went right (and wrong) during the development of BioShock
- Gabby DaRienzo wants to talk about burnout
- Rocket League ending MacOS and Linux support in March
- Rocket League left behind on macOS and Linux due to DirectX 11 shift
- Rocket League will drop support for Mac, Linux versions in March: Change comes eight months after Epic Games acquired the game’s creators.
- Rocket League is dropping Mac, Linux because of crazy-low player counts [Updated]
- Rocket League support ending on Mac and Linux, offers refunds: Psyonix woking with Valve to expand refunds beyond normal two-week policy but requires manual request
- Project xCloud is coming to Canada at the end of January
- Counterplay Games’ Duelyst is going offline for good in February
- Paradox has been quietly testing a DLC subscription service
- Paradox trialling subscription model to address DLC criticism: But strategy publisher assures long-running fans that no future expansions will be exclusive to subscribers
- EA ends support for mobile Tetris, Tetris Blitz
- You Don’t Own What You Buy: The Tetris Edition
- US game content revenues hit $35.4 billion in 2019, say NPD and ESA: Overall spending on gaming similar to last year when omitting hardware revenues from the equation
- GDC State of the Industry: Devs torn on whether subscription services devalue games
- Developers are divided on how subscription services will affect game values – GDC State of the Industry: One-fourth of devs are concerned such services will devalue games, another fourth aren’t worried at all
- Game consoles excluded from tariffs on Chinese imports ‘until further notice’
- GDC State of the Industry: Game devs shifting focus to next-gen consoles
- UK Charts: The Witcher 3 rises as Dragon Ball holds No.1 – Meanwhile, Rugby 20 makes the Top 20
- Minecraft was the UK’s best-selling new IP of the decade: Mojang’s hit sold more retail units than any other new games property, but Destiny led the way in revenue generated
- Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption 2 have sold a combined 150m units: Red Dead Redemption 2 is the best-selling game of the last four years in the US, by dollar sales
- Red Dead Redemption 2 digital unit sales doubled in December, thanks to Steam launch
- GDC State of the Industry: Most devs feel Steam’s 30% cut isn’t justified; many prefer 10-15%
- The State Of Game Discoverability: January 2020
- Mobile publishing platform Coda secures $4 million to expand operations
- Stardew Valley has sold 10 million copies in 4 years
- Nintendo mobile games have brought in $1b in lifetime revenue: Sensor Tower Fire Emblem Heroes accounted for 61% of the total; Dr. Mario World brought in less than 1%
- Nintendo is halting Wii repairs in Japan due to parts shortage
- Digital Bros moves to acquire all Starbreeze assets from Smilegate
- Torchlight successor pivots away from free-to-play following alpha feedback
- THQ-owned Amplifier Game Invest opens new studio in Sweden
- Amplifier Game Invest opens new development studio in Sweden: River End Games is funded by recently rebranded investment arm of THQ Nordic parent Embracer Group
- The Witcher heralds an era of game IPs on TV | Opinion: As media giants prepare to do battle over streaming, well-known IPs are a potent weapon — and videogames remain the last great untapped source
- Netflix is also developing a standalone The Witcher anime film: “Nightmare of the Wolf” to be led by The Witcher showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, animated by Legend of Korra and Voltron studio
- What new console features are important to gamers?: ISFE and Ipsos Mori’s GameTrack consumer survey find shorter load times a close second to better graphics; VR and handheld modes less crucial
- Facebook Withdrew Oculus Go From Enterprise Platform, Now Offers Quest Only
- Pokemon Home keeps cross-platform cloud storage in the mix with free, paid tiers
- Pokémon Home cloud service detailed and priced: Launches on mobile and Switch next month, will cost up to £15.99 per year
- Chrono.gg secures $5.5m to build its answer to the discoverability problem: CEO Justin Sacks explains why tackling the issues with PC storefronts means letting content creators make a whole lot more of them
- Atari to Open Game-themed Hotels Across the US with “the latest in VR and AR”
- Atari wants to open gaming hotels in at least eight US cities: Planned locations to include VR and AR experiences, esports venues
- Hero bans work for some games but aren’t a fit for Overwatch, argues Jeff Kaplan
- Activision Blizzard And YouTube Execs Say Rewards Are Coming For Viewers Of Overwatch, Call Of Duty Leagues
- Esports events delayed, cancelled as coronavirus spreads: Competitions for League of Legends, Pokemon, CS GO already affected, Overwatch League currently in discussions
- Lifting the veil on antitrust questions arising in the distribution of esports: mandatory commissions
- Creators Going Pro: How 23-Year-Old Formula Went From Esports Team Manager To ‘Fortnite’ Maven
- YouTube’s Call Of Duty League Livestream Peaks At 102K Viewers, With Related Videos Bringing 4+ Million Views
- Ninja was reportedly paid between $20m and $30m for Mixer exclusivity deal: Other top streamers above certain viewership thresholds may have been offered as much as $10m
- Esports Organization 100 Thieves Unveils New Facility in Los Angeles
- Gaming Org ‘100 Thieves’ Opens Massive Compound For Player Training, Streaming, Retail, More
- Stadia owners on Reddit are blasting Google over radio silence and lack of support
- Google deal lands Activision Blizzard esports events exclusively on YouTube Gaming
- Activision Blizzard and Google sign esports, cloud deals: Overwatch League and others will air exclusively on YouTube and Google Cloud becomes preferred cloud service for game hosting
- Esports player contracts – knowing your worth and ‘equalising’ the contractual playing field
- Patrick Johnston: Esports’ gaming gladiators starring in digital – and real – arenas
- YouTube Scores Exclusive Streaming for Activision Blizzard’s E-Sports, Including Overwatch and Call of Duty Leagues
- YouTube Gaming To Exclusively Livestream Overwatch, Call Of Duty Leagues As Part Of Multiyear Activision Blizzard/Google Partnership
- Doom Eternal hands-on: It’s more, more, more—and maybe just a little bit less, too
- Doom Eternal dev team were ‘crunching pretty hard’ during 2019
- Id Software was “crunching pretty hard most of last year” on Doom Eternal: But studio confident that four-month delay has made upcoming shooter the “best game we’ve ever made”
- Disney to Sell Fox Video Game Division to Scopely
- Report: Disney is shutting down Storyscape developer Fogbank Entertainment
- Disney reportedly closing down Fogbank Entertainment: FoxNext’s San Francisco studio was not part of recent sale to Scopely
- Tencent wants to buy ‘full ownership’ of Conan Exiles developer Funcom
- Com2us and Skybound will partner on new The Walking Dead mobile game
- Com2uS leads new investment round in Skybound Entertainment: C Ventures and Third Wave Digital were also involved in the round, new The Walking Dead mobile game confirmed
- Housemarque puts all other projects on hold to focus on “most ambitious game to date”: Stormdivers, other upcoming titles paused for unannounced project now three years in development
- Riot takes its licensing game up a league: Hire of Disney and Nickelodeon vet Ron Johnson coincides with increased focus on external partners for consumer products
- Bare-bones Tetris mobile game arrives to replace EA’s departing ones: Tetris 2011 and Tetris Blitz will go offline in April
- No plans for a full Source 2 SDK, and other tidbits from Valve’s Half-Life: Alyx AMA
- Report: Valve Index sales more than doubled amid Half-Life Alyx reveal
- Valve Index sales more than doubled following Half-Life Alyx announcement – SuperData: The Index sold 149k units in 2019, 103k of which were sold in Q4
- “The devil is in the details” when creating a metaverse: Novaquark’s user-generated MMO Dual Universe is clear on its grand ambition, but has lots of specifics to nail down
- This amazing glitch puts Star Fox 64 ships in an unmodified Zelda cartridge
- Blog: Designing fun movement in games (with video)
- Blog: Analyzing the storytelling of Kingdom Hearts III
- Video: A game dev’s guide to the UX of engagement and immersion
- Video: How Myst’s designers stuffed an entire universe onto a single CD-ROM
- Video: What a decade with Thoreau can teach you about game design
- Video: How Bungie crafted the music of Destiny 2’s open world
- Designing the simulation of the wild and wonderful Planet Zoo
- A fleet of Arwings were just spawned in vanilla Ocarina of Time for the first time ever
- State of The Game Industry 2020
- Ustwo earns B Corp status, plans to further reduce environmental impact: Parent of Monument Valley developer joins movement of companies working to “balance purpose and profit”
- Untitled Goose Game dev will donate 1 percent of income to Indigenous Australians
- Untitled Goose Game dev promises at least 1% of future revenues to Australian Indigenous groups: “Our games are made on stolen land,” says House House as it joins Pay The Rent movement
- One single EVE Online ship sale raises over $30,000 for Australian fire relief
DIGITAL
- YouTube, Facebook, Twitter Try To Crack Down On Coronavirus Conspiracies
- Here’s how Facebook plans to make final decisions about controversial content it’s taken down: The company announced details Tuesday about how what’s been called its “Supreme Court” for content moderation will work.
- Feds, states consider tag-teaming massive Google investigation
- Congressional Committee Pens Letter Urging YouTube To Stop “Incentivizing Climate Misinformation”
- YouTube Streamer Hit With Demonetization Over Copyright Claims To Numbers ’36’ And ’50’
- This Is Why Researchers Studying Radicalization On YouTube Need To Be Logged In
- Oscar De La Hoya Slams YouTuber Boxing Matches: “Just Stick In Your Own Lane”
- YouTube Moderators Reportedly Ordered To Sign Document Acknowledging Their Job Could Cause Long-Term Mental Health Issues
- As Tulsi Gabbard’s Silly Attention Seeking Lawsuit Against Google Falters, She Files Equally Silly Lawsuit Against Hillary Clinton
- Google’s tenth messaging service will “unify” Gmail, Drive, Hangouts Chat
- Prince Harry And Meghan Markle Video Views Balloon After Royal Exit
- Influencer Post Lacked Necessary Disclosure, Says British Ad Authority
- Germany Wants To Limit Memes And Mashups Derived From Press Publishers’ Material To 128-by-128 Pixels In Resolution, And Three Seconds In Length
- Dolly Parton’s Meme Exposes Social Media’s Masquerade: The country star’s “LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Tinder” post speaks to people’s desire to be what any platform needs them to be.
- My Instagram: We all die immediately of a Brazilian butt lift
- Welcome News: DC Circuit Revives The Constitutional Challenge Of FOSTA
- FOSTA Constitutional Challenge Revived–Woodhull Freedom Foundation v. US (Eric Goldman)
- BuzzFeed Wins Libel Suit Regarding “King of Bullsh*t News” Article
- BuzzFeed Editor Ben Smith To Depart, Named ‘New York Times’ Media Columnist
- Massachusetts Fire Marshal Warns Against TikTok ‘Outlet Challenge’, Says Student Participants Will Face Charges
- Linus Torvalds pulled WireGuard VPN into the 5.6 kernel source tree
- Former Microsoft IP counsel joins social video firm TikTok as GC
- StreamElements Opens New Creator Vending Platform SE.Merch To All Twitch Streamers
- As We Get Closer And Closer To The EU Requiring ContentID Everywhere, More Abuses Of ContentID Exposed
- Copyright As Censorship: Gun Rights Advocate Gets Video Taken Down With Bogus Copyright Claim
- The Grim Conclusions of the Largest-Ever Study of Fake News: Falsehoods almost always beat out the truth on Twitter, penetrating further, faster, and deeper into the social network than accurate information.
- ‘Fake news’ as infrastructural uncanny (Jonathan Gray, Liliana Bounegru, Tommaso Venturini)
- Do Not Gamble with Browsewrap Terms of Use
- Employers Get their Email Systems Back: NLRB Overrules Purple Communications
- Academic Consensus Growing: Phones And Social Media Aren’t Damaging Your Kids
- Will 2020 be the year of reckoning for social media regulation?
- Canada ready to ‘impose costs’ on malicious cyberactors, advisers tell Trudeau: Canada will work with allies to strike back at foreign cyberattackers
- 11th Circ. Insurance Ruling Views Cybercrime Realistically
- SmileDirectClub Is Trying To Silence Criticism By Tying Refunds To Non-Disparagement Agreements
- Aspirant Host David Dobrik Makes Late-Night Debut On Fallon, Nabbing 9 Million Views
- CBS Gets Angry Joe’s YouTube Review Of ‘Picard’ Taken Down For Using 26 Seconds Of The Show’s Trailer
- Attorney General Barr’s Anti-Encryption Efforts Aren’t Supported By Many FBI Officials
- Is William Barr’s Latest Attack On Section 230 Simply An Effort To Harm Tech Companies For Blocking His Desire To Kill Encryption?
- Time Magazine Explains Why Section 230 Is So Vital To Protecting Free Speech
- Twitter Asks Judge To Dismiss Devin Nunes’ Frivolous Lawsuit Via Section 230
- Is Devin Nunes’ Lawyer Using Questionable Subpoenas In An Unrelated Case To Seek Info On Satirical @DevinCow Account?
- Emoji reactions are sliding into Twitter’s DMs
- Netflix Inks Overall Deal With ‘Big Mouth’ Animation Studio Titmouse
- Netflix And ‘Big Mouth’ Studio Titmouse Hook Up For Multiyear Adult Animation Deal
- Netflix to Lay Off Roughly 15 in Marketing Department Shift
- Netflix to Lay Off Employees as It Shifts Marketing Strategy: Sources say at least 15 people are expected to exit this week as the company moves to better advertise the service rather than its individual shows.
- WarnerMedia takes $1.2 billion revenue hit in hopes that HBO Max pays off in the long run: Most of that $1.2 billion hit is because of HBO Max investment
- Vox Media aims for $20m-plus podcast business in 2020
- Samsung Galaxy Fold review: The future is an ugly disappointment
- After a decade of drama, Apple is ready to kill Flash in Safari once and for all
- Microsoft’s sneaky plan to switch Chrome searches from Google to Bing
- Amazon faces employee revolt over slow climate action
- Amazon Music passes 55M customers, still lags behind Spotify and Apple
- Get ready to see Spotify’s looping videos on Instagram
- Instagram Allows Businesses to See and Share Stories that Mention Them
- Sonos sunsets several smart speakers’ software support, spurring storm [Updated]
- You Don’t Own What You’ve Bought: Under Armour Smart Hardware Gets Lobotomized
- Apple reports a blowout Q1 2020, but names coronavirus as a worry for the next quarter
- Apple TV+ Has Reportedly Amassed A Formidable 33.6 Million Subscribers In The U.S.
- Insights: Will Peacock’s Throwback Approach Take Flight For Comcast?
- Snapchat And NBC Expand Olympics Content Pact Around 2020 Tokyo Games
- NBC partners with Snapchat on four daily shows for 2020 Tokyo Olympics
- Vine Successor ‘Byte’ Now Live On iOS And Android — With Monetization Soon To Follow
- Byte Ascends U.S. App Store Charts In Debut, Vows To Fix Comment Spam Issue
- The tools and tricks that let Ars Technica function without a physical office
- Home Owners Association Threatens Residents With Lawsuit For Online Criticism
- FTC and State AGs Continue Focus on Deceptive Social Media Marketing
- Competition Bureau’s Marketing and Advertising Priorities
- The dangers of electronic signatures – can you prove who signed?
- (We)Work is a Scam: What the fall of WeWork tells us about the unicorn economy and worker exploitation.
- 2019 Emoji Law Year-in-Review (Eric Goldman)
- Top Issues in 2020: Digital Technology
- Tax Wars: How to End the Conflict over Taxing Global Digital Commerce
- Proliferating Predation: Reverse Redlining, the Digital Proliferation of Inferior Social Welfare Products, and How to Stop it (Sam Gilman)
A.I.
- EPO refuses to name machine as legal inventor
- Google and Microsoft shouldn’t decide how technology is regulated: A researcher who studies AI principles warns that giving too much credence to Big Tech is like “asking the fox for guidance on henhouse security procedures.”
- Stop Blaming Algorithms For Misinformation And Threats To Democracy; The Real Problem Is Societal
- Privacy Tip #223 – Navigating Individual Data Privacy in a World with AI
- AI and drug discovery
- How a $300 projector can fool Tesla’s Autopilot
- Facial Recognition Is Only The Beginning
- The EU is funding dystopian Artificial Intelligence projects
- Black-Boxed Politics: Opacity is a Choice in AI Systems
- Algorithmic Experts: Selling Algorithmic Lore on YouTube (Sophie Bishop)
- Automation in Moderation (Hannah Bloch-Wehba)
- Explainable AI under contract and tort law: legal incentives and technical challenges (Philipp Hacker, Ralf Krestel, Stefan Grundmann, Felix Naumann)
- Algorithmic Realism: Expanding the Boundaries of Algorithmic Thought (Ben Green, Salomé Viljoen)
COMMUNICATIONS
- Canada’s Communication Future: Time to Act (Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review Panel)
- Independent panel report calls for more Canadian streaming content and an ad-free CBC
- A Demonstrably False Premise: Why “Inevitable” Canadian Internet and Cancon Regulations Won’t Level the Playing Field, Support Canadian Stories or Save a Thriving Industry (Michael Geist)
- Conservative critic says broadcast review report doesn’t address inequalities in media market
- Telecommunications review includes ‘extreme’ recommendations, warns expert
- Telecommunications Industry and Regulators Work Together to Thwart Fraudsters and Scam Artists
- Update on Allarco’s “Unusual” Litigation (Howard Knopf)
- DOJ sues US telecom providers for connecting Indian robocall scammers
- AT&T loses another 1.2 million TV subscribers as DirecTV keeps tanking
- DirecTV races to decommission broken Boeing satellite before it explodes
- CenturyLink, Frontier took FCC cash, failed to deploy all required broadband
- Oh Look, More Giant ISPs Taking Taxpayer Money For Unfinished Networks
- FCC Commissioner Asks Record Labels for Information About Payola Practices – What are the FCC Rules? How Do These Practices Compare to Online Music Providers?
- FCC Fines Broadcaster $1.13 Million for Improper Monitoring of Tower Lighting
- FCC Taps Four “Spectrum Administrators” for 3.5 GHz, Including Sony and Google
- Ajit Pai promised faster broadband expansion—Comcast cut spending instead
- Comcast Says It Will Respond To Cord Cutting In 2020 With…More Price Hikes
- Traditional TV Enters Its Final Death Spiral
- Verizon’s 5G Superbowl Ads Will Hype Nonexistent Firefighter Tech And A Barely Available Network
- Verizon brings 5G to the Super Bowl—for part of the stadium, anyway
- The ‘Race To 5G’ Is A Giant Pile Of Lobbyist Nonsense
- Telus’ CLO discusses growth plans
PRIVACY
- Stopping the Press: New York Times Journalist Targeted by Saudi-linked Pegasus Spyware Operator
- “Totally Clueless”: Dating apps Grindr and OkCupid reported for breach of privacy rules
- Italian Spyware Company Execs Arrested After Company Employees Spied On Innocent Citizens
- China fears lead Interior Department to limit use of foreign drones
- UK Ignores US, Won’t Fully Ban Huawei Gear From Its Networks
- FISA Court Orders FBI To Start Cleaning Up Its Carter Page Surveillance Mess
- Amazon’s Ring app shares loads of your personal info, report finds
- Letter To Judge Details Vault 7 Leaker’s Post-Incarceration Leaking
- Dozens of companies have data dumped online by ransomware ring seeking leverage
- Keepin’ It “Real”: OPC Finds that PIPEDA Applies to Foreign-Incorporated Business
- Canada’s Piece Of The Regulatory Pie: Application Of Canadian Data Privacy Laws To A Local Data Processor With A Global Reach
- New “Off-Facebook Activity” portal lets you know where you’re being followed
- Puerto Rico’s Justice Department Demanded Info From Facebook About Journalists Who Livestreamed Protests
- Skimming heist that hit convenience chain may have compromised 30 million cards
- ICO Code: Think of the Children
- Do retailers drop more cookies on Americans or Europeans?
- What percentage of United States retailers configure their cookie notice to respond differently to visitors with European IP addresses?
- Why it’s time to stop force-feeding cookies to users
- Protecting the ‘Smart World’ Around Us: California’s ‘Internet of Things’ Law
- Maryland bill would outlaw ransomware, keep researchers from reporting bugs
- London to deploy live facial recognition to find wanted faces in a crowd
- Law Enforcement’s New Facial Recognition Toy Scrapes Photos From Websites, Serves Up ‘Matches’ In Seconds
- Facial Recognition Company Clearview Lied About Its Crime-Solving Power In Pitches To Law Enforcement Agencies
- Leaked Document Suggests Possible Facial Recognition Ban In Europe
- Cy Vance Is So Sure Encryption Is Pure Evil He Thinks Over-The-Air Software Updates Are Just Encryption Backdoors Apple Won’t Tell Him About
- Two-Factor Authentication—Not Broken Yet, But the Bad Guys Are Doing Their Worst
- New document-tracking technology created for legal departments to protect data privacy: Usage controls will be applied to confidential legal documents to enable in-house counsel to track files
- Lawmakers Propose COPPA Expansion
- Google researchers find serious privacy risks in Safari’s anti-tracking protections
- Yelp Disclosures Cost Mortgage Broker $120K in FTC Deal
- Advertising technology: A short introduction to the relationship between adtech, privacy and data protection
- Ransomware Attacks Reached Unprecedented Numbers in 2019
- Identity Theft and Imposter Scams Were the Most Common Complaints That the FTC Received in 2019
- FTC Fines Five Companies for Falsely Claiming Privacy Shield Certification
- Emerging Cyber-Security Threats for 2020: The Rise of Disruptionware and High-Impact Ransomware Attacks
- International Data Privacy Day: Privacy, Technology, and Cybersecurity Trends to Watch in 2020
- The Limitations of European Data Protection As A Model for Global Privacy Regulation (Shannon Mercer)
- The Wiretapping of Things (Eldar Haber)
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
- How the Supreme Court’s New Standard of Review Will Impact IP
- USMCA amendments: implications for Canadian IP law
- Article 13: UK will not implement EU copyright law
- Tom Kabinet: CJEU rules resale of e-books requires permission of copyright holder
- CJEU judgement in Sky v Skykick (case C-371/18)
- UK Government “has no plans” to implement the Copyright Directive
- UK Says It Won’t Implement The EU Copyright Directive, Which Wouldn’t Have Passed Without Its Support During A Crucial Vote
- Here’s why the UK is (finally) dumping Article 13 for good: The UK had plenty of opportunities to veto the controversial EU copyright legislation, so why did it wait so long to torpedo Article 13?
- An IP Roadmap for Phase-One Sino-US Economic and Trade Agreement
- Phase 1 U.S. China Trade Deal: Patent Provisions
- PMPRB Publishes Draft Guidelines to Operationalize Amendments to the Patented Medicines Regulations
- Court of Appeal clarifies rules for joint authorship of copyright
- Fair Use and Fanatic Fans
- Lego A/S v. Zuru, Inc.
- Structured Asset Sales, LLC v. Sheeran
- Two Cases Raise New Copyright Infringement Concerns for Internet Linking
- #CopyrightInfringement: The Sequel
- IP Insight: Is Linking to Radio Streams Online Copyright Infringement?
- In ‘N Out Burger Continues Its BS Pop-Up Technique To Keep Trademarks It Isn’t Actually Using
- SDNY: Collateral Estoppel Halts Social Media Patent Case
- Conversant Wireless v Huawei: patents valid & essential
- Competition between generics and originators – what’s the relevance of a patent?
- Cannabis patent litigation update: construing cannabis claims
- Recent Suit By US Olympic Committee Is Excellent Reminder Of Special Protection Afforded To The Words “Olympic” and “Paralympic”
- Life sciences intellectual property: 2019 highlights
- 2020 Intellectual Property Primer: Cases to Watch this Year
- Tricks of the trade: Can you just do a quick search on …?
CREATIVITY
- Goop’s Netflix series: It’s so much worse than I expected and I can’t unsee it
- JLo Character Hustles Into Court Over Publicity Rights
- Deaf man demands closed captioning for porn videos in federal lawsuit
- Patreon can’t solve its porn pirate problem
- In the ’60s, America’s wearable art movement reflected true counterculture
- Guardian to ban advertising from fossil fuel firms: Move follows efforts to reduce carbon footprint and increase reporting on climate crisis
- Class Action Alleges MLB Cheating Scandal Tainted Fantasy League
- Tied Up in Knots? Tied House Laws and the First Amendment
- Planning a Super Bowl-themed Marketing Campaign? 5 Tips for Staying In Bounds
Jon
News of the Week; January 22, 2020
GAMES
- California claims $10 million gender discrimination settlement lets Riot off lightly
- Nintendo Wins Battle with Pirates on UK Seas
- Court Sides With Nintendo Over RomUniverse In Atttempt To Dismiss The Former’s Lawsuit
- Court overturns $10.1 million verdict against Nintendo in Wii Remote lawsuit
- Court reverses $10.1 million judgement against Nintendo in Wii patent case
- Patent infringement ruling against Nintendo Wii Remotes overturned: Dallas federal court declares patent invalid, nullifies $10m payout to iLife Technologies
- Nintendo can continue preventing cancellation of pre-orders in Germany: Lawsuit instigated by Norwegian Consumer Council dismissed, but may be appealed
- Unsubtle Rainbow Six Siege DDoS dealers hit with Ubisoft lawsuit
- Ubisoft files lawsuit against site that enabled Rainbow Six Siege DDoS attacks: Publisher claims group behind ShortNameGame sold the software used to disrupt the game
- Crytek, Cloud Imperium battle over how to end Star Citizen lawsuit
- Cloud Imperium responds to Crytek’s attempt to dismiss its own lawsuit: Star Citizen developer maintains engine providers claim “is and always has been meritless”
- Researchers Scientifically Create Video Games To Benefit Cognitive Function
- UK’s top mental health nurse wants crack down on loot boxes
- NHS mental health director calls for loot box ban: UKIE responds, emphasising that industry already addresses spending caps and disclosed drop rates
- UK lays out standards for handling children’s data: Information Commissioner finalizes Age Appropriate Design Code with 15 standards for developers to meet
- Joe Biden Can’t Tell The Difference Between The 1st Amendment & Section 230; Still Thinks Video Games Cause Violence
- Women suing Riot Games may be entitled to $400m not $10m: Two state regulators attempt to intervene with gender discrimination class action lawsuit in plaintiffs’ favour
- The top 7 reasons women quit game development
- Game dev union leader: “Dream job” passion “can open us up to exploitation”
- Activision Blizzard, EA, Sony, Microsoft included in HRC’s 2020 Corporate Equality Index
- GTA developer Rockstar pushes back against UK tax abuse allegations
- Rockstar responds to claims it abuses tax relief: But Grand Theft Auto developer makes no comment on reports it has not paid corporate tax in four years
- The best-selling games of the decade show AAA was left behind by innovation | Opinion: The games industry has made great strides forward in the past ten years – but none of that is apparent in the retail charts
- Stillfront Group acquires Dragon Story dev Storm8 for as much as $400 million
- Stillfront Group acquires Storm8 for up to $400m: Game studio coalition also raises $220m in additional financing
- Current Prison Architect developer Double Eleven opens Malaysian office
- Digital Bros. to buy Starbreeze assets from Smilegate: The €19.2m deal will give Italian publisher 30% of Starbreeze stock and 40% of voting rights
- Tencent wants to fully acquire Conan Exiles developer Funcom
- Tencent bids to acquire 100% of Funcom: Proposed deal would value the Norwegian studio at around $148 million
- Tencent intends to further diversify investments outside of games
- Tencent ramping up investments – but may veer away from games: Having already poured money into eleven games firms, Chinese giant is concentrating on new industries such as ‘smart retail’
- Daybreak Games restructures internal studios around key franchises
- Following Cyberpunk delay, CD Projekt Red expects dev team crunch
- Cyberpunk 2077 release pushed back to September 17, 2020
- CD Projekt Red delays Cyberpunk 2077 from April to September
- Cyberpunk 2077 pushed to September: CD Projekt reveals that development staff have been required to crunch on upcoming RPG
- Dying Light 2 delayed, no new release window given: Techland drops spring release target for open-world zombie shooter, says it will have more details “in the coming months”
- Leaked images show Xbox Series X is missing Xbox One’s HDMI input
- Xbox continues to expand Project xCloud’s preview library as testing continues
- Microsoft goes all-in on the ‘evergreen platform’: Bowing out of launch exclusives for Xbox Series X means Microsoft is now fully committed to the bold vision it’s talked about for so many years
- Report: Major PlayStation-exclusive series will get a PC port this year
- Report: The Switch Lite topped 1 million sales in Japan in three months
- Switch sales up 29% in Japan for 2019 as PS4 sales drop 29%: Famitsu numbers have hardware unit sales flat for the year; Switch Lite moves more than 1 million in just over three months
- YouTube TV comes to PS4, replacing PlayStation’s own doomed TV service PS Vue
- YouTube TV comes to PS4 as PS Vue moves out: Sony hardware maintains a live TV option at about the same price
- Google expects 120 games to hit Stadia this year, including some exclusives
- Stadia embracing timed exclusive strategy: Google says it wants to have more than 10 games debuting only on its streaming service in the first half of this year
- BT becomes first European partner for Google Stadia: Google attempts to address Stadia lag problems with new high-speed broadband deal
- Report: Google wants to bring the Steam game store to… Chrome OS?
- NetEase launches own digital distribution platform in China
- OpenCritic reviews have been added to the Epic Games Store
- Epic Games Store avoids review bombing with OpenCritic integration: Review aggregation site will display how many critics recommend purchase on each title’s store page
- Scopely acquires Marvel Strike Force dev FoxNext Games from Disney
- Disney confirms sale of FoxNext, Cold Iron Studios to Scopely: Acquisition does not include Fox IP licensed games, which will stay with Disney
- Significant layoffs at Super Lucky’s Tale developer Playful Studios
- Playful Studios “significantly reduces” full-time staff: Super Lucky’s Tale devs undergoes layoffs amid transition to new production model
- Amazon’s Twitch Drops Sharp after YouTube, Microsoft Say ‘Game On’
- Only YouTube Gaming saw hours watched, streamed, and concurrent viewership up last quarter: Streamlabs – Twitch viewership began a decline in 2019, but other platforms have a long way to go to catch up
- Video: YouTuber Mark “Markiplier” Fischbach reflects on his video history
- Call of Duty Modern Warfare was the best-selling game of the year in the US: But Nintendo thrived in hardware and software sales at the end of its competitors’ console generations
- Grand Theft Auto V was the best-selling game of the decade in the US: Joining it in the top ten – Seven Call of Duties, Red Dead Redemption II, and Minecraft
- UK Charts: Star Wars Battlefront II returns to Top Five: Otherwise, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is No.1 again
- Dragon Ball Z and 3DS conquer latest UK Charts
- The transcendent appeal of Mount & Blade Warband – Why I Love: The difficulty got John Nejady interested in TaleWorlds’ medieval battle game, but the community he found made it something more
- Why the traditional product lifecycle “maybe doesn’t apply” to League of Legends: After ten years, League of Legends is still one of the most popular games on earth and Riot Games is riding that wave into new spaces
- Report: PS4 exclusive Horizon Zero Dawn could come to PC
- Horizon Zero Dawn reportedly coming to PC: Current PS4 exclusive may be part of suggested Sony strategy to “lean into a wider installed base”
- Don’t Miss: Designing the stealth, economy, and encounters of Horizon Zero Dawn
- Don’t Miss: Making Horizon Zero Dawn’s Machines feel like living creatures
- 2020 African Games Industry Trends: Games Industry Africa’s Vic Bassey forecasts seven key storylines for the continent’s developing market in the year ahead
- Media firm behind Autosport plans to “change the landscape” of racing games: Ex-Codemasters creative director Stephen Hood on how the new Motorsport Games group can disrupt the market
- What is the best game engine for your game?: In-depth guides to finding the best game engine to develop your game, including Unreal, Unity, GameMaker, and more
- How to apply for Video Games Tax Relief and make a VGTR claim
- China Leading Esports Boom: More than a quarter of Internet users in China watch esports at least once per month, a new report finds, more than double the rate of audiences in the U.S. and Western Europe.
- Turner Sports Pacts With Twitch On Linear And Digital Series, ‘ELeague Super Punch’
- Oculus Go Now Permanently Priced at $150, All Supported Countries to See Similar Drop
- Every classic Half-Life game is now free on Steam
- Valve Makes All ‘Half-Life’ Games Free to Play Until ‘Half-Life: Alyx’ Launches in March
- Valve: ‘Half-Life: Alyx’ Dev Team is the ‘single largest we’ve ever had’
- Valve opens up about Half-Life: Alyx, Source 2 engine on Reddit
- No plans for a full Source 2 SDK, and other tidbits from Valve’s Half-Life: Alyx AMA
- Valve Confirms ‘Left 4 Dead’ VR Game Not in Active Development
- Designing the mind-bending perspective puzzles of Superliminal
- Don’t Miss: Deconstructing the success of The Witcher 3’s open world
- Q&A: Evolving the combat design of id Software’s Doom Eternal
- Blog: Resources for video game music composers – The big list 2020
- Blog: How to keep adding content without hitting a limit
- Blog: Is your 21st century games career what you thought it’d be?
- Blog: Video game marketing predictions for 2020
- Video: How to talk about games with those who don’t approve
- Video: A performance and memory postmortem of Middle-earth: Shadow of War
- Humble Bundle joins efforts to raise money for Australian bushfire relief: Meanwhile, Warframe dev Digital Extremes donates $30,000 to two chairties
- U.S. Patent no. 10,278,001: Multiple listener cloud render with enhanced instant replay
- U.S. Patent no. 10,279,252: Game execution environments
DIGITAL
- San Francisco Pride Members Have Voted To Ban YouTube From This Year’s Parade
- Anonymous Internet Posters Not Immune To Default Judgment
- Your online activity is now effectively a social ‘credit score’: Especially when the Morality Police get acquired.
- Facebook Still Isn’t Obligated to Publish Russian Troll Content–FAN v. Facebook (Eric Goldman)
- Who is right about political ads, Twitter or Facebook?
- Turkish Government Finally Lifts Wikipedia Ban
- Harry and Meghan, the royal family of surveillance capitalism: From tabloid nationalism to international Instagram influencers – Meghan and Harry aren’t leaving the monarchy, they are leading it.
- Brazil charges American journalist Glenn Greenwald with cybercrimes
- Brazil prosecutes Glenn Greenwald in “attack on press freedom”
- In A Blatant Attack On Press Freedom, Brazilian Government Charges Glenn Greenwald With ‘Cybercrimes’ For Reporting On Leaked Documents
- The Similarities Between The US’s Case Against Julian Assange And Brazil’s Against Glenn Greenwald Are Uncanny
- PayPal Giving Fund Enters Multi-State Settlement to Ensure Transparency to Donors
- 23 Attorneys General Band Together to Make PayPal’s Charitable Donations Platform More Transparent
- Vimeo Defeats Lawsuit for Terminating Account That Posted Conversion Therapy Videos–Domen v. Vimeo (Eric Goldman)
- Does the principle of exhaustion apply to digital media? The CJEU provides clarity
- A Sale or Not a Sale? The Digital Advertising Debate
- Are legislators too slow to respond to digital trends?
- Disney Accelerates Rollout Of ‘Plus’ Service In Key European Markets
- Bad Ideas: Raising The Arbitrary Age Of Internet Service ‘Consent’ To 16
- The Silicon Valley Economy Is Here. And It’s a Nightmare.: Low pay, soaring rents, and cities littered with e-scooters. Welcome to the future.
- The psychology of Silicon Valley: We have to understand the people behind big tech in order to fix it
- Biden wants Sec. 230 gone, calls tech “totally irresponsible,” “little creeps”: Biden had harsh words about tech, seemingly spurred by anger with Facebook.
- Critics fear Facebook fact-checkers losing misinformation fight
- Facebook Watch Axes 2 Tentpole Series Amid Reported Shift Toward Unscripted Content
- UFC Signs 3-Show Deal With Facebook Watch, Aiming To Promote Its PPV Matches
- DraftKings Comes Under Fire Following Collusion Scandal Involving “Bachelor” Stars
- Amazon retains world’s most valuable brand title by smashing through $200 billion barrier
- TikTok Moves To Five-Floor Office In Culver City, Reportedly Looking For New CEO
- TikTok Brought In 500% More Revenue, 738 Million Downloads In 2019
- TikTok Entices Brands With Self-Serve Ad Buying, But Struggles With Lack Of User Data, Few Performance Metrics (Report)
- Famous Birthdays Surpasses 25 Million Monthly Visitors, Driven By TikTok Surge
- Report: TikTok owner ByteDance planning big push into mobile games
- Spotify Reportedly In Talks To Acquire Media And Podcast Upstart ‘The Ringer’
- Spotify’s new test lets influencers post Stories to introduce their own playlists
- Instagram is testing direct messaging on desktop
- Instagram is dropping the annoying IGTV button: ‘Very few are clicking into the IGTV icon’
- Instagram’s Standalone IGTV App Has Clocked Just 7 Million Downloads To Date
- Opinion: The Dishonest and Wasteful Practice Of Influencer Marketing – Stop chasing vanity metrics and unproven tactics, and return to the fundamentals of marketing and advertising
- ASA continues to focus on Influencer Marketing in 2020
- Influencer Marketing: Top Business and Legal Considerations for 2020
- Learn From Sofia Vergara – Are Your Online Ads Legal?
- Liza Koshy’s ‘Liza On Demand’ Gets Third Season Order At YouTube Originals
- YouTube Rolls Out Profile Cards, Which Display Users’ Comment Histories (Sort Of)
- Clorox Establishes Influencer Advisory Board, Tapping Hundreds To Bolster YouTube Presence
- Bombay High Court in a Landmark Decision Restrains Review Video by Youtuber and Emphasizes on Responsible Use of the Power of Social Media
- Leading European MCN Divimove Acquires Digital Talent Firm ‘Tube One’
- Creators Going Pro: Walk Off The Earth’s Gotye Cover Went Viral On YouTube. Less Than A Month Later, They Had A Record Deal.
- Apple TV+: Can it be saved before everyone’s free trials run out?
- Netflix Now Counts 2 Minutes Of Watching As A “View” — A Change That Boosts Its Viewership Figures By 35%
- Netflix To Spend An Estimated $17.3 Billion On Content In 2020
- Studio Ghibli Signs First Streaming Deals, Bringing 21 Films To Netflix And HBO Max
- Turner Sports Pacts With Twitch On Linear And Digital Series, ‘ELeague Super Punch’
- Smart scale goes dumb as Under Armour pulls the plug on connected tech
- Microsoft pledges to wipe out its carbon footprint by 2050
- Microsoft announces plans to be “carbon negative” by 2030: Company also plans to remove all its historical carbon emissions by 2050
- The PinePhone starts shipping—a Linux-powered smartphone for $150
- The Horizons of Technology and Digitalization in Arbitration
- Canadian Securities Administrators Provide Guidance on Platforms that Facilitate Crypto Asset Trading
- Somewhere over the rainbow: Dealing with evidence stored on a cloud
- Political information in the age of the internet (Filip Matějka & Guido Tabellini)
- Nobody can see all of CES. But I tried
A.I.
- Alexa, Should We Trust You?: The voice revolution has only just begun. Today, Alexa is a humble servant. Very soon, she could be much more – a teacher, a therapist, a confidant, an informant.
- Chinese court rules that AI article has copyright (Andres Guadamuz)
- The Killer Algorithms Nobody’s Talking About: Activists fret about armies relying on killer robots, but some forms of artificial intelligence that don’t actually pull the trigger could still be a nightmare
- Update on Federal Register Notice on Artificial Intelligence (AI) Patent Issues
- The rise of AI and WIPO consultation on intellectual property issues
- Why do we get sad when robots die?: It’s not about seeming “human” – it’s about the work machines do for us.
- And an Algorithm to Entangle them All? Social Credit, Data Driven Governance, and Legal Entanglement in Post-Law Legal Orders (Larry Backer)
- Robot Rights? Let’s Talk about Human Welfare Instead (Abeba Birhane & Jelle van Dijk)
- Artificial Intelligence and Community Well-being: A Proposal for an Emerging Area of Research (Laura Musikanski, Bogdana Rakova, James Bradbury, Rhonda Phillips, Margaret Manson)
- Artificial Intelligence, 5G and the Future Balance of Power
- Intellectual Property and Artificial Intelligence
- A Tangled Web: How the Internet of Things and AI Expose Companies to Increased Tort, Privacy, and Cybersecurity Litigation
- The machines are whispering: We tested AI Dungeon 2 and cannot stop laughing
COMMUNICATIONS
- Comcast settles lying allegations, will issue refunds and cancel debts
- Four defendants settle, six remain in FTC illegal robocalling suit
- Verizon Launches New Private Search Engine In Hopes You’ve Forgotten Its Terrible Track Record On Privacy
- Verizon Kills Cable Contracts As TV Sector Finally Starts Listening To Cord Cutters. Kind Of.
- FCC shuts New York out of $20B broadband fund, and senators are angry
- Smart homes will turn dumb overnight as Charter kills security service
- Real or fake: New NBC Peacock shows
- Combating Improper Robocalls: The TRACED Act Signed into Law
- Lowest Unit Charge Windows Open in About 30 States and Territories – Reviewing A Broadcaster’s Political Advertising Obligations
- Frontier, an ISP in 29 states, plans to file for bankruptcy
- After Years Of Scandal And Incompetence, US Telco Frontier Files For Bankruptcy
- The good, the bad and the 5G – an unprecedented level of threat (and opportunity)
- Globalization, International Organizations, and Telecommunications (Kirsten Rodine-Hardy)
PRIVACY
- Report: Bezos’ phone uploaded GBs of personal data after getting Saudi prince’s WhatsApp message – The gigabytes-big data grab allegedly came over WhatsApp text from Mohammed bin Salman.
- Report Says Saudi Prince MBS’s Whatsapp Account Personally Sent Jeff Bezos Malware Used To Access His Phone
- The Secretive Company That Might End Privacy as We Know It: A little-known start-up helps law enforcement match photos of unknown people to their online images – and “might lead to a dystopian future or something”
- Reuters: Apple cut backup end-to-end encryption plans after FBI complained
- New Report Says Apple Dropped Plans To Fully Encrypt Backups After FBI Complained
- The FBI Can Get Into The Latest IPhones, So Why Is It Asking Apple To Break Encryption On Older Models?
- The EU might ban facial recognition in public for five years
- We’re Banning Facial Recognition. We’re Missing the Point. (Bruce Schneier)
- California’s Ban Of Facial Recognition Tech Killed Off San Diego’s Mostly Useless Biometric Program
- GirlsDoPorn website goes offline after $13M judgment, criminal charges
- Privacy issues with e-discovery in Canada
- WeLeakInfo gets pwned by FBI; Dutch, N. Irish police arrest alleged breach brokers
- A Georgia election server was vulnerable to Shellshock and may have been hacked
- Bipartisan Legislation Aims to Expand Federal Protections for Children’s Online Privacy
- The AdTech and the data protection debate
- Study Shows The Internet Is Hugely Vulnerable To SIM Hijacking Attacks
- Dear Reuters: This Is NOT How You Report On Dishonest, Disingenuous Talking Points From US Officials Regarding Encryption
- Another reason to hurry with Windows server patches: A new RDP vulnerability
- Researchers find serious flaws in WordPress plugins used on 400k sites
- Top Issues in 2020: Privacy & Cybersecurity
- What percentage of United States retailers have decided to block European visitors from reaching their websites?
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
- IP Insight – Harry and Meghan Prioritise Trade Marks
- Harry and Meghan seek global trademark for ‘Sussex Royal’ brand: Filings suggest plans for items and activities from clothing to ‘emotional support groups’
- The “M” Word in Canadian Copyright Law – The “Mandatory” Matter (Howard Knopf)
- Exceptional Circumstances Now Required for Extensions In Trademark Examination
- Peppa Pig Owner Wins Copyright Infringement Case
- Zazzle’s Insufficient Copyright Oversight Procedures Support Willful Infringement Finding
- Fifth Circuit Holds Failure to Mitigate is No Bar to Statutory Damages Under Copyright Act
- Federal Court dismisses patent infringement action for delay
- Facebook Surges in U.S. Patent Rankings Due to Mounting AR Strategy
- Trademark Opposition Stupidly Prevents Indians Pitcher Shane Bieber From Telling Everyone He’s ‘Not Justin’
- Fair use or fair dealing? Where are we now?
- A Blog’s RSS Feed May Not Grant an Implied Copyright License–MidlevelU v. Newstex (Eric Goldman)
- CRISPR Patent – “Appeal Dismissed, Patent Revoked”
- Breaking: EPO Board of Appeal upholds invalidation of Broad’s CRISPR-Cas9 patent
- Patent battle over CRISPR
- A Mixed Bag on New Rules – Juggling Copyright Preclusion and Patent Infringement
- How Sonos’s case against Google could help shift the US patent narrative
- Trade secret or patent protection – how do we decide?
- Can newly discovered cannabis compounds be protected by patents?
- Beat the Weeds: File Your Cannabis Trademarks in Canada
- Intellectual Property Outlook: Cases and Trends to Follow in 2020 – PART 1
- China update: IP section in the China-US trade deal (phase one)
- EU Advocate General suggests pay-for-delay settlement agreements may be an abuse of dominant position
- A new route to patent protection in Italy from July 2020
- The EU Copyright Directive: Potential Copyright Liability and a “Best Efforts” Standard for Platforms
CREATIVITY
- No cameras in the courtroom in Meng Wanzhou case, B.C. judge rules: 13 Canadian and international media outlets had applied for right to broadcast extradition hearing
- Why Is The NYC MTA Going After A Random Artist Who Created A Different Subway Map For Infringement?
- Radiohead.com unveils “The Radiohead Library,” an official band repository
- Radiohead Public Library: archive of band’s work goes live – Band collate music videos, newsletters and other ephemera on site, and upload rarities to streaming services
- Rep. Lieu Tells Rep. Nunes He Looks Forward To Discovery, As More Evidence Of Nunes Connections With Parnas Emerge
- Airbus Asks Court To Dismiss Chuck Yeager’s Lawsuit, Pointing Out It Doesn’t Allege Anything Actionable
- “Come See Us At The Superb Owl” – Don’t Try This At Home! 2020 Update on Super Bowl Advertising and Promotions
- Advertising – False Advertising Claims: Opting for Court
- Klimt art thieves confess to stealing then returning painting: Portrait of a Lady was hidden in same Italian gallery from which it went missing in 1997
- Additional Compliance for the Art World
- Digital Street Culture Decoded: Why Criminalizing Drill Music is Street Illiterate and Counterproductive (Jonathan Ilan)
Jon
News of the Week; January 15, 2020
GAMES
- Report: China to further regulate online games and streaming to curb addiction
- China reveals new mental health initiative that may further limit violence in games: “Healthy China 2030” includes crackdown on games considered violent, pornographic, or promoting gambling
- Japanese prefecture considers restrictions on gaming time for minors: Proposed ordinance in Kagawa Prefecture would limit those under 18 to one hour of gaming per day
- How Game Companies Use Credits To Reward, Or Punish, Developers
- How can Rio Ferdinand help protect kids from inappropriate video games?: UKIE CEO Dr Jo Twist on why spending time gaming with children is just as important as using parental controls
- Nintendo Escapes Vice Grip in ITC Challenge
- Inside TASBot’s semi-secret, probably legal effort to control the Nintendo Switch
- Nintendo Switch was best-selling console in France last year: Lifetime sales exceed expectations to reach 3.3 million, Switch Lite outsells Xbox One
- Super Nintendo World to focus on “interactive experiences”: New details about the Osaka theme park were revealed ahead of its summer opening
- Nintendo looking at ‘interesting’ ways it can use AR technology
- In a series first, Pokemon Sword and Shield will offer an expansion pass
- Game Dev Torrents Its Way To More Sales, Not Less
- Analyst: With $894 million in revenue, 2019 marked Pokemon Go’s best year so far
- 2019 was Pokemon Go’s best year ever: Niantic’s location-based game brought in $894 million last year, even more than its 2016 launch year
- Microsoft first-party titles to be cross-compatible between Xbox One, Xbox Series X
- Xbox Series X won’t have next-gen exclusives for a while
- Xbox won’t kick off the Series X generation with next-gen exclusives
- Xbox still plans to attend E3 2020
- Phil Spencer confirms Xbox will be at E3 2020: Platform holder responds to Sony’s decision to ditch major games showcase for a second consecutive year
- Sony’s skipping E3 again in 2020
- PlayStation will not participate in E3 2020: The company will instead attend ‘hundreds of consumer events across the globe’
- On eve of PS5, Sony confirms it will skip E3 for second year in a row
- Is PlayStation right to skip E3?: Sony does not need to go to LA to get people excited for PS5
- Sony’s PS5 marketing strategy does away with convention | Opinion: E3 absenteeism is just the latest example of a company paying little heed to conventional wisdom, but will that help or hurt it?
- Call of Duty, Beat Saber, and Apex Legends led PlayStation downloads in 2019
- SIE boss: The ‘biggest, more unique’ PS5 features have yet to be revealed
- Square Enix is shutting down Mobius Final Fantasy after four years
- Final Fantasy VII Remake delayed: Hotly-anticipated remake of beloved PlayStation classic pushed back by one month for polish
- Square Enix Delays Final Fantasy VII Remake And Avengers
- Call of Duty and GTA V dominated PlayStation Store downloads in 2019
- ‘Beat Saber’ Takes Top Spot as PSVR’s Most Downloaded Game of 2019
- HTC permanently trims $200 off Vive Pro price tag
- Report: Valve Index headset sold out globally as Half-Life: Alyx nears launch
- Valve Index out of stock around the globe ahead of Half-Life Alyx launch: Prospect of VR exclusive Half-Life drives sales of high-end hardware, despite $999 price tag
- Riot Games launches new tabletop division
- Riot Games sets up Riot Tabletop to take another stab at board games
- Subscriptions will “unlock the market to weirder things,” says Outer Wilds dev
- Look at how digital changes the UK charts: Call of Duty retains No.1, but Uno, The Sims 4 and Rainbow Six make the Top Ten
- Growth of mobile gamers slows while revenue continues rising – Research firm finds number of US and Canada mobile users playing games was up just 2% last year, but revenues jumped 24% to more than $11.82 billion
- FIFA 2020 enjoys sixth consecutive week at No. 1 in EMEAA charts: Both Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Luigi’s Mansion 3 make appearance in top ten despite Nintendo not reporting digital sales figures
- GameStop says its unexpectedly low holiday sales follow an industry-wide trend
- GameStop holiday sales down 27.5% in 2019: CEO lowers full-year guidance again, maintains declining sales are reflective of market trends
- GameStop stock tumbles by 16 percent following poor holiday sales
- GAME threatens to close 40 UK stores unless rents are cut: Retailer says ‘landlords need to work with us’
- Subnautica has surpassed 5 million sales worldwide
- Subnautica has sold over 5m copies: Unknown Worlds founder Charlie Cleveland comments on milestone reached nearly two years after game’s full launch
- Monster Hunter World: Iceborne’s PC release pushes it past 4 million shipped
- Don’t Miss: How Monster Hunter: World’s director breathed new life into the series
- Call of Duty Mobile reached 180m downloads in launch quarter
- Video: How Call of Duty handles automated testing and profiling
- Comical career sim Job Simulator has crossed 1 million sales
- Terry Cavanagh has released the source code for VVVVVV on Github
- YouTuber Extortion? MxR Plays v. Jukin – Real Law Review // LegalEagle
- YouTube signs on exclusive streaming deals with 3 big gaming creators: LazarBeam, Muselk and Valkyrae
- YouTube Signs Creators LazarBeam And Muselk, Poaches 100 Thieves Member Valkyrae From Twitch
- Twitch Reportedly Fell Short Of Ad Revenue Projections Last Year
- Twitch is launching Hype Train this afternoon, which means you’ll get emotes for going off in chat
- Researchers find 17 Google Play apps that bombard users with battery-draining ads
- Google Stadia is like the early days of Steam, says Tequila Works CEO: Developer of Stadia-exclusive Gylt believes platform hasn’t reached its potential yet, but that game streaming services will only get better
- Analyst: Facebook Gaming saw sizable growth in viewers and stream time during 2019
- Facebook Gaming streaming market share sees end-of-year rise: In December 2019, Facebook held 8.5% of the market, compared to 3.1% a year prior
- Mobile gaming projected to surpass $100b in spend in 2020: Mobile games now bring in more spending than all other game types combined
- 32 notable mobile games released in December 2019 you may have missed
- Mobius Final Fantasy shutting down after five years: Japanese version of the game has already ended; global service to conclude in June 2020
- GTA IV unavailable on Steam because Rockstar can no longer generate keys
- Rockstar says defunct Games for Windows Live to blame for GTA IV delisting
- Analyzing the top Steam tags
- Steam’s year in graphs: An in-depth 2019 breakdown
- Exclusives helped the Epic Games Store earn $680 million during 2019
- Epic Games Store tops $680 million in player spending: Storefront touts 108 million PC customers a little over a year after launch, extends weekly free game promotion through 2020
- Ninja’s Getting His Own ‘Fortnite’ Skin, Epic Games Says More Creator Skins To Come
- In 2019, video game projects on Kickstarter held steady: Ico Partners – Though tabletop drove segment’s rise, video games saw only minute growth in funded projects, money raised
- Overwatch League addresses on-air talent departures: Activision Blizzard’s esports outfit will “evolve” its broadcast after losing five hosts and casters in the past month
- BT becomes first major UK brand to sponsor an esports team: Excel Esports signs multi-year partnership with British telecom giant
- Professional gaming… Are there investment opportunities in esports?
- UK retailer GAME likely to close 40 stores amid ‘challenging retail market’
- This simulator company reverse-engineered the Tesla Nürburgring lap
- The tiniest controller we’ve ever tested is a lot better than you might think
- The Witcher’s Netflix success: How three timelines somehow became cohesive
- RuneScape saw 1.1 million paid subscriptions in 2019, an all-time high
- The RuneScape franchise reached a record peak of 1.1m paid subscribers in 2019: Old School RuneScape on mobile also achieved a new milestone of 8m installs
- Kansas Game Invest rebrands as Amplifier after THQ Nordic acquisition
- Phoenix Games acquires Promotion Software and Emergency dev Sixteen Tons
- Hamburg creates $2.2 million fund to support local game developers
- Designing user interfaces for visually impaired players
- Blog: A condemnation of time
- Blog: A Kirby Super Star retrospective
- Blog: The importance of the new player’s experience
- Blog: A TILTit postmortem (or how to not publish a game in today’s market)
- Blog: What I learned making 12 games in one year
- Blog: A conversational Touring Karts postmortem
- Blog: Kickstarter and games in 2019
- Blog: How monster design influences player behavior and level design
- Control and Death Stranding lead nominations for 2020 DICE Awards
- Control, Death Stranding each receive eight DICE 2020 nominations, including Game of the Year: Disco Elysium and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare honored with six nominations
- Jägermeister’s indie game soundtrack competition returns for second year
- Super Crate Box: Elegant, frantic, and unapologetically small
- GDC YouTube Top 5: Mipumi Games’ Eline Muijres
- Ubisoft, Bungie join ranks of devs raising funds for those affected by Australian fires
- Infinity Ward, Bungie and Ubisoft join Australian bushfire relief efforts: Modern Warfare DLC, Destiny 2 T-shirt sales and AUS$30,000 donation all go towards charities and emergency services
- Awesome Games Done Quick 2020 raises a record $3.13 million for charity
- Australian developers organising global fundraising auction for fire services: Game Devs For Firies calls on industry to help encourage donations to bushfire relief by offering signed games, services and more
- Toward a Critical History of Touch Feedback in Video Games (David Parisi)
DIGITAL
- Indian Supreme Court finds 150-day Internet blackout in Kashmir illegal
- India’s Supreme Court Declares Country’s 5 Month Internet Blackout Illegal
- Instagram is taking down posts supporting slain Iranian general Soleimani
- Instagram Now Placing Warnings Over Posts Deemed To Contain “False Information”
- China: Privacy, Security and Content Regulation to Increase in 2020
- Brazil supreme court sides with Netflix over gay Jesus comedy
- On Russian Troll Journalism
- Fake News as a Tool of Populism in Turkey: The Pastor Andrew Brunson Case
- ‘On the Shoulders of Giants’, Analysis of a Social Network of Intellectual Influence
- Website Denied Section 230 for No Good Reason, Wins the Case Anyways–DF Pace v. Baker-White
- Academic Journals In Russia Retract Over 800 Papers Because Of Plagiarism, Self-Plagiarism And ‘Gift Authorship’
- Gambling on Browsewrap: Casino App Loses Huuuge Bet on Enforcing Terms of Use
- Facebook Says (Again) That It Won’t Limit Political Ads
- Facebook Not Fact-Checking Candidate Ads – Looking at the Contrast Between Online Political Ads and Those Running on Broadcast and Cable
- Malware Marketer NSO Group Looks Like It’s Blowing Off Facebook’s Lawsuit
- Misleading political ads are the user’s problem to avoid, Facebook says: Rather than ban lies or microtargeting, the company’s putting the onus on users.
- Instagram adds new tools to Boomerang feature to catch up with competitors: Users can now choose where the loop starts and ends
- On Novel Grounds, Philadelphia Judge Rejects Uber’s Bid to Arbitrate Passenger’s Personal Injury Claim
- William Gibson: ‘I was losing a sense of how weird the real world was’ – The writer who invented ‘cyberspace’ – and possibly the most influential living sci-fi author – on the challenges of a reality even stranger than fiction
- FBI arrests man suspected of orchestrating dozens of “swatting” calls
- New Feature Alert: Twitter to Allow Users to Limit or Block Replies Completely
- Deleting WhatsApp chats during dawn raids may cost you dearly
- Mozilla lays off 70 people as non-search revenue fails to materialize
- Google gives Chrome OS Apps a shutdown date
- Inside Google’s Quest for Millions of Medical Records: The company has struck deals that grant it access to troves of patient data; ‘We want to be helpful’
- Chrome’s Move To Stomp Out Third Party Cookies? Good For Privacy, Good For Google’s Ad Business… Or Both?
- When YouTubers Cry: Prince Concert Videos Deemed Not Fair Use
- Content Moderation At Scale Is Impossible: YouTube Says That Frank Capra’s US Government WWII Propaganda Violates Community Guidelines
- YouTube To Stream Coachella For 10th Year Running, Announces Doc About Festival
- YouTube Studio Adds New ‘Restrictions’ Column, Ability to Manually Insert Mid-Roll Ads, More
- ASA rules that Betway YouTube video breached the CAP Code
- YouTube App Introduces New Subscription Feed Filters For ‘Unwatched’, ‘Live’ Videos, More
- Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 1/12/2020
- Beauty Creator NikkieTutorials Thwarts Apparent Blackmail Attempt By Coming Out As Trans
- Justin Bieber Faces “Yummy” Backlash After Posting Guide Showing How To Game Billboard Charts
- ‘RackaRacka’ Prankster Appears In Court After Arrest For Underwater Car Prank
- Olay Spokesmodel Lilly Singh To Star In Brand’s Super Bowl Commercial
- Instagram Creator Behind ‘House Of Highlights’ Tapped By ESPN To Helm Social Content, Strategy
- Tell the Whole Story – New Rules for Influencer Marketing under the Competition Act
- Casper Flags Its Use of Influencers as a Risk
- The Israeli Chipmunk Emoji Mystery Resolved! (Eric Goldman)
- Golden Globes Piloted Facebook’s ‘Collaborative Stories’ Feature At 77th Awards (Exclusive)
- Snapchat was overtaken by Pinterest in US users last year. But the real threat is coming from China’s TikTok and no one knows how fast it’s growing.
- WME Signs TikTok Luminary Chase Hudson And His Creator Collective ‘The Hype House’
- Spotify Makes Push Into Sports Podcasting
- Spotify is now making playlists for your pets
- Spotify, Warner Music Sign Global Deal, Ending Dispute in India
- Amazon lifts ban on FedEx for third-party marketplace sellers
- Amazon Sets Cast For ‘Lord Of The Rings’ Series, Production To Start Next Month
- Amazon asks court to block US/Microsoft contract because of Trump interference
- New Bluetooth standard copies best features of Apple, Qualcomm’s proprietary tech
- Apple launches replacement program for iPhone battery cases
- ECJ toughens the requirements for the use of cookies: Active consent of users required
- How online sales of food pose a regulatory challenge in the EU
- Tax on digital advertising introduced in Maryland Senate
- Maryland Proposes (French) Tax on Advertising – Digital Platforms and Advertisers Beware!
- New Trend Developing? Another Digital Advertising Tax Proposal
- Anti-SLAPP Laws Work: Tennessee Doctor Suing Patient Over Negative Review Drops Lawsuit
- Dear Larry Lessig: Please Don’t File SLAPP Suits
- SEC Staff Issues Guidance on Technology, Data and Intellectual Property Risks in International Operations
- NIST Solicits Comments on Revised Draft IoT Cybersecurity Device Guidance
- Tesla is now worth more than Ford and GM—combined
- Linus Torvalds says “Don’t use ZFS”—but doesn’t seem to understand it
- The Way We Train Doctors Is Backward – And Cyberpatient Has The Treatment
- Notes on the networked psyche: Exploring online hyper-sensibilities
- Digital Transformation is a matter of survival
- An Oral History of Rickrolling: From the pages of 4chan to the White House, the story behind the meme that’s never going to give you up
- Shifting Capitalist Critiques: The Discourse about Unionisation in the Hi-Tech Sector (Eran Fisher & Ben Fisher)
- Turf wars: Using social media network analysis to examine the suspected astroturfing campaign for the Adani Carmichael Coal mine on Twitter (Hanna Della Bosca, David Schlosberg & Chao Sun)
- To-Do Is to Be: Foucault, Levinas, and Technologically Mediated Subjectivation (Jan Peter Bergen & Peter-Paul Verbeek)
- Digital Platform Policy and Regulation: Toward a Radical Democratic Turn (Bart Cammaerts & Robin Mansell)
A.I.
- Technology Can’t Fix Algorithmic Injustice: We need greater democratic oversight of AI not just from developers and designers, but from all members of society.
- Chinese court rules AI-written article is protected by copyright
- Chinese Court Says AI-Generated Content Is Subject To Copyright Protection
- Evolution of IP Protection for Artificial Intelligence in France
- “Alexa, Can You Receive a Patent?”: Chris Mammen Discusses AI as Inventors in MIT Technology Review Article
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) Machine can be an Inventor? EPO says NO!!!
- AI Update: WIPO Begins Public Consultation Process on Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property Policy
- Ad Delivery Algorithms: The Hidden Arbiters of Political Messaging
- Do androids dream of product liability?
- Creating the ever-improvising text adventures of AI Dungeon 2
- What is AI-Based Contract Management?
- Insights: Deepfake Videos Go Commercial! In Election Season! WCGW?
- The line between deepfake legislation and deeply fake legislation
- How Google researchers used neural networks to make weather forecasts
- Principled Artificial Intelligence: Mapping Consensus In Ethical And Rights-Based Approaches To Principles For AI (Jessica Fjeld, Nele Achten, Hannah Hilligoss, Adam Christopher Nagy, Madhulika Srikumar)
- From a ‘Race to AI’ to a ‘Race to AI Regulation’ – Regulatory Competition for Artificial Intelligence (Nathalie Smuha)
- Addressing the Growing Need for Algorithmic Transparency (Hugh J. Watson & Conner Nations)
- ‘Move Fast and Break Things’: Law, Technology, and the Problem of Speed (Simon Chesterman)
COMMUNICATIONS
- Don’t trust the US gov’t, states tell court in T-Mobile/Sprint merger case
- US may subsidize Huawei alternatives with proposed $1.25 billion fund
- PIRATE Act Passes Senate, and Now on to the President for Signature – Provides for Big Fines and Enforcement Sweeps in Big Markets
- Congress Adopts New Cable Operator Advertising and Billing Requirements Affecting Both Video and Broadband Internet Offerings
- FCC Fines Noncommercial Broadcaster $76,000 for Airing Commercial Advertisements
- Ajit Pai Hits CES… To Make Up Some Stuff About Net Neutrality
- FCC Kicks Off 2020 by Establishing the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund
- Some FCC Subsidized Low Income Phones Are A Chinese Malware Shitshow
- Verizon’s great FiOS offer to me: Pay $50 extra for slower Internet
- Verizon offers no-tracking search engine, promises to protect your privacy
- FCC will pay ISPs to deploy broadband with 250GB monthly data cap
- Washington And Oregon Fine CenturyLink For Completely Bogus Broadband Fees
- Scripps Broadcasting Agrees to Pay $1,130,000 to Settle Investigation of Tower Violations
- ISP settles with two more states over hidden fees and false advertising, agrees to pay $15 million
- AT&T TV Service Goes Dark On Roku As The Streaming Wars Get Stupid
- Bipartisan Senators Introduce 5G Bill Pushing Non-Chinese Vendors
- China Isn’t the Only Problem With 5G: The network has plenty of other security weaknesses, including ones the United States doesn’t want to fix since they help its own surveillance efforts.
- New Law Bans ISPs From Charging You A ‘Rental’ Fee For Hardware You Already Own
- President Signs Sweeping New Robocall Legislation
- Dissolving privacy, one merger at a time: Competition, data and third party tracking (Reuben Binns & Elettra Bietti)
PRIVACY
- Attorney General William Barr Says Apple Isn’t Doing Enough To Let The DOJ Check Out A Dead Man’s Phones
- Bill Barr: Apple Is Holding Up This Investigation. Apple: You Waited A Month To Tell Us You Needed More Help
- Unable to unlock gunman’s iPhones, the FBI (once again) asks for Apple’s help (updated)
- San Bernardino 2.0: FBI Asking Apple To Crack Encryption On Phones Owned By Pensacola Naval Station Gunman
- The broken record of breaking encryption skips again in Florida shooter case
- Exploit that gives remote access affects ~200 million cable modems
- Advocates ask colleges to avoid facial recognition as surveillance grows
- Google plans to drop Chrome support for tracking cookies by 2022
- Patch Windows 10 and Server now because certificate validation is broken
- Windows 7: “I’m not dead yet!” – Over half of businesses still haven’t finished move to Windows 10; zombie systems flourish.
- Failure to Apply Recent Microsoft Patch May Create Legal Liabilities
- Critical Windows 10 vulnerability used to Rickroll the NSA and Github
- Senator Wyden Wants Paid Ad Blocking Whitelists Investigated
- Grindr shares personal data with ad companies in violation of GDPR, complaint alleges: A Norwegian nonprofit has filed three complaints against the company
- Amazon’s Ring fired at least four employees for snooping on user videos
- Shocking Absolutely No One, Ring Admits Employees Improperly Accessed Customers’ Data
- Ring Throws A Moist Towelette On Its Dumpster Fire With A Couple Of Minimal Security Tweaks
- It’s 2020. American elections are still “frighteningly easy” targets
- Ninth Circuit Doubles Down on Bad Ruling That Undermines Cybersecurity–Enigma v. Malwarebytes (Eric Goldman)
- Iranian hackers have been “password spraying” the US grid
- US Government-funded Android phones come preinstalled with unremovable malware
- The Deadline for Registration of “Data Brokers” in California Is Near: Are You Ready?
- Data From Smartwatch Help Investigators Solve The Case Of The Stabbing That Never Happened
- Amazon takes a swipe at PayPal’s $4 billion acquisition: Holiday shoppers warned that Honey, a popular browser extension, was a “security risk.”
- Paul Krugman’s no good, very bad Internet day
- Company Sells Surveillance Cameras Hidden In Tombstones, Threatens Websites For Talking About Its Tombstone Cameras
- Unpatched Citrix vulnerability now exploited, patch weeks away
- January 2020 Survey of Fortune 500 Companies’ Privacy Representations
- Are you protected against phishing email? What the Court of Appeal said in insurance matters
- Federal Privacy Law – Is It About to Change?
- Federal Privacy Law – Is It About to Change: Part Deux?
- Towards a Transatlantic Concept of Data Privacy (Erdem Büyüksagis)
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
- Appeals Court Makes The Right Call Regarding Non-Commercial Creative Commons Licenses
- Notable Works Entering the Public Domain in 2020
- Life + 70 Years: Copyrighted Works That Have Entered into the Public Domain in 2020 – Economic Rights Gone with the Wind
- Harry and Meghan seek global trademark for ‘Sussex Royal’ brand: Filings suggest plans for items and activities from clothing to ‘emotional support groups’
- Can Booking.com Trademark Its Company Name? How Will the U.S. Supreme Court Resolve Whether a Generic Term Plus a Top-Level Domain Is Protectable?
- Carve It All Up: Compumark Report Shows Trademark Registrations, Claims Of Infringement Both Rising Fast
- Smartphone Apps for Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram declared patent infringing by German Court – The End of Social Networks?
- Who owns the ink? Reproduction of tattoos in film, photographs and video games
- Wells Fargo Twice Found Guilty of Willfully Infringing Patents on Remote Check Depositing Technology
- Non-Prior Art Evidence May Be Used to Prove Inherency
- When Merger Clauses Don’t Merge
- A Different Analysis for Manufacturing Method Patents under the 35 U.S.C. § 271 (e)(1) Safe Harbor Provision?
- Biosimilar Litigation Trends and Lessons Learned in 2019
- Athena Diagnostics v. Mayo Collaborative Services
- The EU should not contemplate abandoning the Unified Patent Court system
- 2019 Will Go Down in History as “The Year of Change” in Canadian Trademark Law
- 2019 Will Go Down in History as “The Year of Change” in Canadian Trademark Law Part II
- Key Patent Decisions of 2019
- Who Holds the Right to Exclude for Machine Work Products? (Garry Gabison)
CREATIVITY
- The Rorshach Test Of The Covington Catholic Boy’s DC Encounter Now Extends To Bogus Lawsuits And Confidential Settlements
- Professor Removed From Teaching For Sharing A Downfall Parody Video
- Former “Bachelor” Contestant’s $1 million Fantasy Football Win Under Investigation
- Defamation and Wrongful Termination Claims Against the Los Angeles Times Were Properly Dismissed
- Sober ad campaign leaves brewery with an unwanted hangover.
- Beer Institute Says Modelo Commercials with Athletes Don’t Violate its Advertising Guidelines
- Don’t Oversell It – False or Misleading Advertising
- Marvel Studios’ ‘Avengers: Endgame’ Receives Oscar Nomination: The film also took home two Critics’ Choice Awards!
- How Years Of Copyright Maximalism Is Now Killing Pop Music
- The Revolutionary Sixties: Poetry and Social Change (Viviane Carvalho da Annunciação)
- Video Screen Interfaces as New Sites of Media Circulation Power (David Hesmondhalgh, Amanda D. Lotz)
- Impact of Censorship on Translating and Publishing Virginia Woolf During the 1930s in Italy (Anna Maria Cipriani)
- Popular Music and the State: The British Honours System and its Treatment of Popular Musicians (Emma-Jayne Reekie)
Jon
News of the Week; January 8, 2020
GAMES
- Nintendo wins injunction against seller of Switch mod, pirated games: Defendent allegedly also sold modded NES Classic with over 800 games
- Nintendo Responds To RomUniverse’s Lame Argument That First Sale Doctrine Makes The Site Non-Infringing
- Crytek wants to dismiss its own lawsuit against Star Citizen developers
- Crytek seeks to dismiss its own Star Citizen lawsuit until Squadron 42 launches: Creator of CryEngine believes Star Citizen’s single-player game will be delayed past June, moves for October trial
- CD Projekt signs new agreement and ends dispute with The Witcher author: The game developer has the rights to the IP in video games, graphic novels, board games and merchandise
- Take 2 Sues Fan Over Project To Finally Bring ‘Red Dead 1’ To The PC
- Ragnarok acquires Rune II source code and assets following legal complaint
- Rune II source code returned to publisher: More than a month after launch, Ragnarok Game LLC may have what it needs to update game left in limbo by demise of Human Head
- Case Update: Iron Maiden Holdings Ltd. v. 3D Realms Entertainment ApS
- Labor union CWA takes steps to organize game workers
- Campaign to organise industry backed by major US communications union: Communication Workers of America allies with Game Workers Unite on new campaign to unite tech and gaming sector
- Rockstar Spouse and the slow change of culture – 10 Years Ago This Month: Red Dead Redemption and its sequel both had crunch controversies, but the studio’s reactions show some change in thinking
- Tackling online abuse in the games industry is “not optional” – 2019 in Review: “Whatever the platforms are doing, we’ve got to behave as if the cavalry is not coming,” says digital security expert
- Escape from Tarkov dev says no playable women because of lore, “huge amount of work” required: Statement made in an effort to walk back three-year-old comment that war was only for “hardened men”
- WWE 2K20 crashes because it’s 2020, and no, that’s not a joke: This Y2K bug can be called “Crash Jericho.”
- Record $120.1 billion earned by games and interactive media in 2019: Superdata report shows $4 out of every $5 spent on digital games goes on free-to-play titles
- Number of adults over age 50 playing games regularly is on the rise: More older adults prefer puzzle and logic games, and most are playing on phones and tablets
- If History Repeats, Video Game Stocks Could Soar 690%+
- UK video game sales drop for the first time since 2012: Physical sales plunge as digital growth slows
- Analyst: Free-to-play games pushed digital game spend over $109 billion in 2019
- The number of Steam releases remained relatively flat from 2018 to 2019
- These are the highest grossing Steam games of 2019
- Major slowdown of new releases on Steam last year
- Only two of the biggest Steam games in 2019 were new releases: “Sekiro Shadows Die Twice” and “Total War Three Kingdoms” manage to secure a place in platform’s highest grossers
- The Witcher 3 hits new peak player record on Steam in wake of Netflix show
- Amazon’s best-selling games of 2019 dominated by gift cards and Switch: Top three items were digital currency, 22 of top 50 products were for Nintendo’s console
- On Christmas, mobile game spending reached $210 million: Sensor Tower accounted for 76% of all mobile in-app spending that day
- UK Charts: Call of Duty retains No.1 as Brain Training Switch makes Top 20
- It’s FIFA 20’s ninth week at No.1 in EMEAA
- Twitter reveals which games dominated the online chatter in 2019
- Square Enix eyes potential of XR, blockchain, and cloud gaming in 2020
- Blizzard signs three-year deal with ESL, Dreamhack: StarCraft II World Championship Series is being retired as Blizzard commits to ESL Pro Tours for StarCraft II and Warcraft III: Reforged
- League of Legends professional Maria ‘Remilia’ Creveling dies at 24: In 2015, Creveling became the first woman to compete in the League of Legends Championship Series
- Destiny’s Sword presents a double-edged dilemma: 2Dogs’ Ken Hall talks about dealing with PTSD, anxiety, and addiction in a strategy MMO intended to be fun first and foremost
- 2K Games resolves New Year bug in WWE 2K20: Y2K-style error rendered game unplayable as 2019 ended
- Pokemon Go: Documents show Canadian military’s struggle with game
- Final Fantasy VII Remakedemo has leaked, is packed with teases, spoilers
- PlayStation VR sales have topped 5 million units worldwide
- 5 Million PlayStation VR Units Sold, Sony Announces: PSVR continues to sell but slows in light of Quest and newer headsets
- How Sony’s PlayStation 2 took the world by storm
- Sony reveals PlayStation 5 logo, touts PlayStation 4 sales milestones
- Feelreal VR Scent Mask Hits Roadblock Amidst Crackdown on Flavored Vaping Products
- Subscriptions: When are auto-renewals fair game? | Opinion – As the CMA investigates the use of subscriptions in video games, legal experts at Lewis Silkin offer advice on best practices`
- Nexon sells off mobile dev Gloops for a single yen
- From licensing to lunch: How to work with Chinese partners – Unit 2 Games’ Hannah Waddilove on some of the less-discussed aspects of targeting the world’s largest games market
- Simplified Chinese is now the dominant language among Steam users: Chinese users flock to Steam as platform provides more localised experience and uncensored games
- Uncharted movie loses sixth director: Travis Knight leaves project over crunch and scheduling conflicts with lead actor
- Don’t Miss: How classic games make smart use of random number generation
- Breaking linear character progression with Outer Worlds’ flaw system
- Superhot VR grossed over $2 million in the final weeks of 2019
- Untitled Goose Game has topped 1 million sales in three months
- Here are your finalists for the 2020 Independent Games Festival Awards!
- Death Stranding leads the pack of 2020 Game Developers Choice Awards nominees
- Team 17 acquires UK studio Yippee Entertainment for $1.85 million
- At 10 million players, Xbox calls Sea of Thieves its most successful new IP this gen
- Team17 acquires Yippee Entertainment for £1.4m: Developer behind Chimpact and Commandos 2 remaster will work on new IP, plus brands owned by Worms firm and its partners
- Razer applies for digital bank licence in Singapore, proposes ‘youth bank’: Gaming accessories firm will take 60% stake in company and is leading a consortium of partners to bolster its bid
- Clever design, lack of Bluetooth make Razer’s new phone gamepad a winner
- Dell’s new Concept UFO puts PC gaming on a Nintendo Switch-like device
- Alienware’s handheld Concept UFO PC takes cues from the Nintendo Switch
- Report: Rumors suggest a new Switch model is due out this year
- Fantasy Flight Interactive to close after company-wide layoffs
- Platinum Games will use Tencent investment to ‘explore self-publishing’
- Legal issues a new game studio should consider
- Dead Cells Steam owners can now play previous versions of the game: The studio introduces the ability to roll-back the game to previous iterations
- Report: Amazon’s Twitch Not Meeting Ad Revenue Expectations
- The Last of Us director Bruce Straley on ludonarrative dissonance
- Video blog: Historians discuss Assassin’s Creed II
- Blog: Luring players with gratification
- Blog: How Disco Elysium’s interjections turn information into gameplay
- Blog: Game accessibility quotes of 2019
- Blog: 3 disruptive game design trends to look out for in 2020
- Analysts dole out 2020 predictions: Panel of industry watchers call their shots for the upcoming year in games (and assess how their 2019 calls turned out)
- Gamasutra’s Best of 2019: Kris Graft’s top 10 games
- Gamasutra’s Best of 2019: The top 10 game developers of the year
- Gamasutra’s Best of 2019: The top 10 games of the year
- Games of the Year 2019: Our favourite games of the year ranged from epic adventures to innovative indie games – plus a couple of Switch hits
- The Universim developer Crytivo donating two months’ revenues to Australian bushfire relief
- U.S. Patent no. 10,275,947: Modifying a simulated character by direct manipulation
DIGITAL
- Russia Disconnects Itself From The Internet, Asks UN To Let It Have More Control Of Internet Usage Around The World
- Academic Publishers Get Their Wish: DOJ Investigating Sci-Hub Founder For Alleged Ties To Russian Intelligence
- U.S. Army Bans TikTok On Government Phones, Calling App A “Cyber Threat”
- China strengthens regulation of online audiovisual services
- Amazon threatens to fire critics who are outspoken on its environmental policies: E-commerce giant warned workers who participated in protests that future comments regarding business practices could lead to termination
- Oracle copied Amazon’s API—was that copyright infringement?
- Turns Out Oracle Copied Amazon’s S3 APIs; When Confronted, Pretends That’s Different (Spoiler Alert: It’s Not)
- Amazon partners with India’s second largest retailer to sell its goods online
- EU top court rules out possibility to create second-hand marketplaces for digital content
- Judge awards women $13 million in massive lawsuit against GirlsDoPorn
- New Civil FOSTA Lawsuits Push Expansive Legal Theories Against Unexpected Defendants
- Minnesota Appeals Court Nukes State’s Broadly-Written Revenge Porn Law
- It’s the network, stupid: Study offers fresh insight into why we’re so divided: Social perception bias might simply be an emergent property of our social networks.
- The FTC’s 2020 COPPA rules have YouTube creators scared
- YouTube decides it’s easier to treat all watchers of kids’ content as kids
- SCOTUS Grants Google’s Cert Petition in Oracle API Dispute
- Java API Classes as Fictional Characters – A Proposal for Google v. Oracle
- Court (Barely) Allows Class Action Lawsuit Over Google’s Location Tracking To Move Forward
- Google’s Ad Network Prepares for the California Consumer Privacy Act
- Researchers unearth malicious Google Play apps linked to active exploit hackers
- Apple targets jailbreaking in lawsuit against iOS virtualization company
- Apple’s app sales hit record $1.4 billion in the final days of 2019: App Store spending on the first day of 2020 reached US$386 million, a single-day record and a 20 per cent increase from last year
- Apple and GPU-maker Imagination make nice in new licensing deal
- Text and data mining under the digital copyright directive
- Sonos’ Wasteful ‘Recycle Mode’ Bricks Perfectly Usable Tech
- Films are quietly disappearing from Disney Plus: Movies like Home Alone and Pirates of the Caribbean On Stranger Tides have vanished from the streaming service
- Disney Plus removes some films from service with no explanation: Users noticed a handful of titles went missing from the streaming library as soon as 2020 began
- Disney+ Titles Disappear Without Warning, Bringing Confusion To The Streaming Wars
- Here’s Why Some of Your Favorite Movies Are Disappearing from Disney Plus
- Twitter Blocks Animated PNGs After A Bunch Of Shitbirds Spend National Epilepsy Month Harassing Epileptics
- Twitter will put options to limit replies directly on the compose screen
- YouTube officially rolls out changes to children’s content following FTC settlement
- YouTube Disables More Product Features On Kid-Oriented Content After FTC Settlement
- New Tool Enables YouTubers To Snip Sections Of Videos That Have Been Copyright Claimed
- ‘Justin Bieber: Seasons’ Is Reportedly YouTube’s Most Expensive Original Ever
- In 2019, WWE Uploaded 500 YouTube Videos Per Month—Making A Reported $13 Million In AdSense
- Control and Influencers: ASA bans Love Island star Molly Mae Hague’s Instagram post
- UK Advertising Standards Authority Bans Unlicensed E-Cigarette Instagram Posts
- “Naked Philanthropist” Kaylen Ward Has Raised $700K For Bushfire Relief By Sending Nudes
- Tana Mongeau, Jake Paul “Taking A Break,” Potentially Leaving MTV Collab In The Lurch
- Jake Paul Sets Second Boxing Match With Gamer ‘AnEsonGib’, Streaming On DAZN From Miami
- Michelle Obama To Launch College Docuseries On IGTV, ‘A Year Of Firsts’
- Facing the Music: Protecting Photography in the Age of Instagram
- Snapchat To Introduce ‘Bitmoji TV’, Fully-Animated Cartoons Starring Users’ Bitmojis
- Spotify will use everything it knows about you to target podcast ads: One step closer to becoming a podcast ad network
- Insights: Two Months In, Apple TV+ And Disney+ Hit The Churn Zone
- Apple hires former HBO chief to produce TV, film, and documentaries exclusively for Apple TV Plus: Richard Plepler signs a five-year contract with Apple
- Apple Shares Top $300 Amid Optimism About Holiday Sales
- Disappointing: Apple The Latest To Abuse DMCA 1201 To Try To Stifle Competition, Security Research, Jailbreaking And More
- Apple reunites with iPhone graphics chip partner to license technology: The company split with Imagination Technologies back in 2017
- CES has never been great for women. Is 2020 the year that changes?: Keynotes or he-notes?
- IRS drops longstanding promise not to compete against TurboTax
- How modern tech has powered our favorite superheroes through the years
- This time, for sure! Ars Technica’s 2020 Deathwatch
- In This Time Of Techlash, It’s Important To Remember That Sometimes Social Media Is Actually Good
- Goop’s Netflix trailer: Paltrow sinks into a vagina, spews pseudoscience
- Can you resell an e-book online?
- Redistributing E-Books Online Constitutes Copyright Infringement, Says Top EU Court
- Troublesome Emojis in Criminal Cases
- Tired of hearing about Wi-Fi 6? Great, let’s talk about Wi-Fi 6E
- Top Internet Law Developments of 2019 (Eric Goldman)
A.I.
- New Study Suggests That YouTube’s Recommendation Algorithm Isn’t The Tool Of Radicalization Many People Believe (At Least Not Any More)
- The US just released 10 principles that it hopes will make AI safer: All future AI regulations will need to clear the checklist.
- EU Patent Office Rejects Two Patent Applications In Which An AI Was Designated As The Inventor
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) Patents – Will the Patent Office Change the Rules?
- The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Takes on Artificial Intelligence
- WIPO Releases Draft Issues Paper on IP Policy for AI Inventions
- Ex Parte Linden Gives a Boost to the Subject Matter Eligibility of AI inventions
- USPTO Designates Ex Parte Linden as an Informative § 101 PTAB Decision
- NextMind Unveils $400 Brain-Computer Interface Developer Kit
- Video: Valve’s perspective on brain-computer interfaces in games
- European Law Enforcement Officials Upset Facebook Is Warning Users Their Devices May Have Been Hacked
- Facebook is banning (most) deepfakes: The policy doesn’t cover videos doctored using more conventional techniques.
- Facebook Says It Will Ban ‘Deepfakes’: The company said it would remove videos altered by artificial intelligence in ways meant to mislead viewers.
- Facebook bans deepfakes, but new policy may not cover controversial Pelosi video
- Welcome to the age of uncertainty: If everything can be faked, how can we know anything is real?
- European Union – Algorithmic Pricing under Article 101 TFEU
- Snap Acquires Ukraine Startup ‘AI Factory,’ Which Helped Build Its ‘Cameos’ Feature, For $166 Million
- Snap Confirms Acquisition of Deepfakes Startup AI Factory, Used to Power ‘Cameos’ Selfie Videos
COMMUNICATIONS
- Notice of Violation: Orcus Technologies: Investigation Into The Orcus Rat
- Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation – 2019 Year in Review
- Merger Lawsuit Docs Reveal T-Mobile Eyed Merging With Comcast
- FCC Seeks Comment on Designations of Huawei and ZTE as National Security Threats
- AT&T et al. fight against higher upload speeds in $20-billion FCC program
- There’s A Recurring Theme With 5G, And It’s Disappointment
- US finally prohibits ISPs from charging for routers they don’t provide
- NYC broadband plan calls for fiber everywhere, with ISPs sharing network
- TV Ratings Sag As Cord Cutting Continues To Surge
PRIVACY
- Unable to unlock gunman’s iPhones, the FBI (once again) asks for Apple’s help
- No, cops aren’t using SiriusXM to find criminals. Here’s how they do it
- Department of Homeland Security Warns of Cyber-attacks by Iran
- Unpatched US government website gets pwned by pro-Iran script kiddie
- Iran courted US security expert for years, seeking industrial hacking training
- There Is No ‘Going Dark:’ Always-On Surveillance Posing Risks To US Covert Operations
- Florida Appeals Court Asks State’s Top Court To Decide Whether Compelled Password Production Violates The Fifth Amendment
- Ring Sued Because ‘Taking Customers’ Security Seriously’ Means Selling Easily-Hijacked Cameras
- “Cache issue” causes Xiaomi cameras to show other people’s camera feeds
- Wyze Breach Leaves Data Of 2.4 Million Users Exposed Online
- Unpatched VPN makes Travelex latest victim of “REvil” ransomware
- Firefox gets patch for critical 0-day that’s being actively exploited
- Firefox 72 blocks fingerprinting scripts by default, rethinks notification pop-ups
- Chrome to start blocking annoying notification requests
- UL Pushes Security Standards For The Internet Of Broken Things
- ENISA releases report detailing security guidelines for Internet of Things
- BitTorrent claims require more proof than an IP address to name a defendant
- Jones Day Global Privacy & Cybersecurity Update
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
- What the amendments to the USMCA mean for Canadian IP law
- 2019 Highlights in Canadian Life Sciences IP and Regulatory Law
- Appeals Court Smacks Down Patent Troll Blackbird, Orders It To Pay $363k In Attorneys Fees To Company It Sued
- In flashpoint for the rebellion against big tech, Sonos sues Google for patent infringement
- Securing Copyright and Trademark Rights for Broadcasts and Promotions Related to NFL Championship Games and Super Bowl LIV (54)
- George Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue Is In The Public Domain And Gerswhin’s Nephew Is Worried Someone Might Turn It Into Hip Hop
- The Murkiness of the Public Domain
- Tackling bad faith registration of domain names in a fast-changing landscape
- Fox Factory v. SRAM – According to CAFC, No Presumption of Nexus for Bicycle Chainring Patents; IPR Decision Reversed and Remanded
- The big IP stories you will be reading about in 2020
CREATIVITY
- Chinese Skiers Training In Norway Ask Local Library To Remove ‘Controversial’ Books
- Turkey Continues Its Attempt To Pass China In The ‘Most Journalists Jailed’ Category
- Ex-Fox News reporter Courtney Friel claims Donald Trump invited her to Trump Tower to ‘kiss’
- Susan J. Demas: Why are there so few stories about Trump’s health and sexual harassment scandals?
- Class action lawsuits may be available for copyright infringement cases in some instances
- Devin Nunes Libel Tourism Continues To Highlight The Problems Of Virginia’s Weak Anti-SLAPP Laws
- Connecticut Cop Sues Local Blogger To Get Him To Turn Over Personal Info On Commenters Who Said Thing The Cop Didn’t Like
- Hank Haney Sues PGA Tour, Claims They Forced SiriusXM to Cancel His Radio Show
- Navy SEAL Leader Accused Of War Crimes Threatens Defamation Suit Against NY Times Reporter For Revealing Videos & Text Of Men Who Reported Him
- Academic paper in comic form explores ethics of treating torturer with PTSD
Jon
News of the Week; January 1, 2020
GAMES
- Running Man Stars Suing Epic Games for Fortnite Dance
- Fortnite Lawsuit a Battle Over Jack-o’-Lantern Figures
- Corinna Kopf Leaving Twitch to Stream Exclusively on Facebook Gaming
- Blog: Scalable content management with Unity addressables
- The one video game my kids played all year long
- How much of a genius-level move was using binary space partitioning in Doom?
- UK Charts: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is the final No.1 of the year – Official charts to change suppliers in 2020 and to include a digital chart
- Police Departments Are Using Swatting Registries To Help Protect Swatting Targets From Police Officers
- U.S. Patent no. 10,272,346: Bounded competitions in a video game framework
- The 2010s were full of video games we’ll gladly revisit for decades to come
- Best of 2019: How Steam users see your game
- Gamasutra’s Best of 2019: 8 standout Apple Arcade games
- Gamasutra’s Best of 2019: Bryant Francis’ Top 10 Games
- Gamasutra’s Best of 2019: Chris Kerr’s Top 5 Games
- Gamasutra’s Best of 2019: Alissa McAloon’s top 5 games (from 2018’s backlog)
DIGITAL
- European Court of Justice’s Landmark Decision on the Resale of E-Books
- U.S. Internet Access Provider Hit with a Billion Dollar Verdict for Copyright Infringement by its Subscribers
- Internet Access Provider Gets Another Devastating Result in a Secondary Copyright Infringement Case – Sony v. Cox (Eric Goldman)
- Huuuge Mistake in Contract Formation
- A Lost Gamble on Enforcement of Electronic Terms and Conditions in a Browsewrap Agreement
- Internet Access Provider Gets Another Devastating Result in a Secondary Copyright Infringement Case—Sony v. Cox (Eric Goldman)
- Federal Circuit Decides Apple’s Invalidity Challenges Were Properly Litigated; Are Precluded
- Sour Note: Mraz Sues MillerCoors for ‘I’m Yours’ Clip in Instagram Ad
- Doctor’s Promotion of ‘Vampire Facial’ a Pain in Kim Kardashian’s Neck
- FTC Approves Settlement with Former Cambridge Analytica CEO and Application Developer Over Claims of Deceiving Consumers
- Amid Ongoing ‘Explore’ Tab Tests, YouTube Makes ‘Creator On The Rise’ Shelves More Prominent
- Facebook Wants To License Official Music Videos — A Massive Draw On YouTube
- YouTube Takes Down Chanukkah Parody Of Old Town Road… Because It Infringes On A Date?
- Why the 2010s were the Facebook Decade
- Turkish Court Says Government’s Two-Year Ban Of Wikipedia Violates Freedom Of Expression Rights
- Driver training was reportedly too much of “a bottleneck” for Amazon
- Spotify will ‘pause’ political ads in early 2020: The platform says it does not have the capability to ‘responsibly validate’ ad content
- Spotify Says “No” to Political Advertising
- Cloudflare Removes Warrant Canary: Thoughtful Post Says It Can No Longer Say It Hasn’t Removed A Site Due To Political Pressure
- CMA seeks new regulatory regime to regulate online platforms
- “They’re abysmal students”: Are cell phones destroying the college classroom?
- Travis Kalanick quits Uber’s board, sells off all his Uber stock
- NYTimes Predicted San Francisco Would ‘Drown In Millionaires’ Post IPO Boom; Now Whines That It Never Happened
- NIST digitized the bullets that killed JFK
- GPS is going places
- 88% of Americans use a second screen while watching TV. Why?
- No foolin‘—the 2010s were a crazy decade for tech
- New Year’s Message: Opportunities Come From Unexpected Places
A.I.
- Enhanced Intelligence, VR Sex, and Our Cyborg Future: Recent progress in AI, many believe, makes the promise and peril of transhumanism increasingly possible.
- NIST Study Of 189 Facial Recognition Algorithms Finds Minorities Are Misidentified Almost 100 Times More Often Than White Men
- Counting the Countless: Why data science is a profound threat for queer people
- How AI helps unlock the secrets of Old Master and modernist paintings
- Attack of the terrifying robot vacuum
- Data Science as Political Action Grounding Data Science in a Politics of Justice (Ben Green)
- The Second Wave of Algorithmic Accountability (Frank Pasquale)
COMMUNICATIONS
- Court backs Comcast, puts Maine’s à la carte cable law on hold
- Court Blocks Maine Attempt To Force Cable Providers To Sell Individual TV Channels
- New Law Finally Bans B.S. Cable TV Fees
- DOJ Antitrust Boss Delrahim Ignored Hard Data As He Rubber Stamped T-Mobile Merger
- Wired for sound: How SIP won the VoIP protocol wars
- FCC Postpones Filing Deadline for First Annual Children’s Television Programming Report and Announces Effectiveness of Other Changes in Children’s Television Rules
PRIVACY
- IoT vendor Wyze confirms server leak: Details for 2.4 million users were exposed online for 22 days.
- Employee error to blame for massive data leak, Wyze says
- Tracking College Students Everywhere They Go On Campus Is The New Normal
- Survey of Fortune 500 Companies’ Privacy Representations
- NAI Issues New Guidance on Consumer Opt-In Consent for Sharing of “Sensitive” Data
- SEC reminds public companies to assess technology and IP theft risks when preparing their disclosures
- The 2019 Privacy Legislation Bomb Cyclone
CREATIVITY
- UK Metropolitan Police Admit They’ve Finally Shelved ‘Investigation’ Into Journalists Who Reported On Snowden Docs
- Federal Court Blocks Unconstitutional Arkansas Law That Prevents Plant-Based Food Companies From Using Meat Words
- Chris Cornell’s Widow Sues Soundgarden for Copyrights to Unreleased Songs
- No Apologies: Marc Jacobs Pushes Back on Nirvana’s Copyright and Trademark Infringement Claims
- Washington Court Says Local Pot Dealers Can Hang Up Christmas Lights That Spell ‘POT’
- Austrian Hotel Drops Libel Lawsuit Against Guest Who Complained About Pictures Of Nazis In The Lobby
- Too Funny to Be Believed? NAD Says No.
- IP Alert: Copyright Course Correction of the Year
- Right of Publicity Punch: Bruce Lee Enterprises Sues Kungfu Catering
- Trump could mandate free access to federally funded research papers
- The 2010s were a veritable golden age of opening credits in television
- TV Technica 2019: These were our favorite shows and binges this year
- Journalists under siege around the world: The global assault on journalists continued unabated in 2019.
- Ars Technica’s best films of 2019
- 2019 – The Copyright Year
- The 2020 Intellectual Property Year in “Preview” Article
Jon
News of the Week; December 25, 2019
GAMES
- Arsenal’s Mesut Özil removed from PES 2020 after criticising China’s treatment of Muslims: NetEase also pulls the midfielder from two other Chinese version of Konami’s football game
- Mesut Ozil removed from Pro Evolution Soccer 2020 in China: NetEase said Ozil’s comments ‘hurt the feelings of Chinese fans and violated the sport’s spirit of love and peace’
- Police Arrest, Charge Twitch Streamer With Child Abuse After Receiving Tips From Community
- Mixer, Facebook Gaming chipped away at Twitch market share in 2019: But Twitch is still far and away the streaming giant, with 73% of all streaming hours watched
- Mixer Sees 149% Year-Over-Year Jump In Hours Watched, But Is Still Far From Challenging Twitch’s 9.3 Billion
- CD Projekt and The Witcher author Andrzej Sapkowski settle royalties disagreement
- The Witcher 3 sees jump in Steam players after debut of The Witcher Netflix show
- Every major older version of Dead Cells is now preserved and playable on Steam
- Ethics in the video game industry: A mythbusting and scientific approach
- Dangen Entertainment’s new CEO to let devs cancel existing contracts: Developers remain skeptical of plan to right the ship after former CEO accused of harassment, unethical business practices
- UK charity calls on government to regulate loot boxes: The Royal Society for the Protection of Health releases report on attitude of young people toward loot boxes
- Telltale Games revival is aiming for a “stable, non-crunch work environment”: “We are a new company – with different ownership and management, and a different approach as to how we structure a studio”
- Analyst: Red Dead Redemption 2 sold 400k copies on Epic Games Store
- Google acquires Typhoon Studios to boost Stadia-exclusive content
- Google Stadia acquires Typhoon Studios: Stadia head and Typhoon co-founders explain why the upstart studio is giving up being indie before its first game even launches
- Panic will ship Playdate preview units to curious devs ahead of full launch
- Facebook acquires cloud gaming service PlayGiga
- Facebook acquires cloud gaming company PlayGiga for $78 million
- Facebook acquires cloud gaming outfit PlayGiga: Madrid-based services provider reportedly cost $78m
- Tencent expands ‘Start’ cloud gaming platform in China
- Tencent launches its Start cloud gaming service: Blade & Soul, Path of Exile, Fortnite, NBA2K Online 2 are part of the beta test
- The Rainbow Six Siege core team is shifting to new Ubisoft projects
- After Inking Multiyear Endorsement Deal, Ninja Unveils First Adidas Sneakers
- Global Esports Federation announced, backed by Tencent: Federation aims to be “the voice and authority for the worldwide esports movement”
- Embracer Group acquires Little Nightmares developer Tarsier Studios
- Embracer Group acquires Little Nightmares dev Tarsier Studios for $10.5m: Also gains Statik IP, but Little Nightmares and Stretchers remain with their publishers
- Dragon Quest XI ships 5.5 million: Number includes digital sales and physical shipments of PS4, PC, 3DS, and Switch versions of Square Enix RPG
- The long game: Running PR in the games-as-a-service era – Prezly’s Kate Bystrova talks to PR experts on the unique challenge of getting exposure for games that can be played for years and years
- N3twork acquires Funko Pop Blitz after NBCUniversal winds down game business
- Half-Life: Alyx Hands-On! Tested on 8 VR Headsets
- 15 VR Games We Can’t Wait to Play in 2020
- Road to VR’s 2019 Game of the Year Awards
- In February, Apple TV+’s Mythic Quest is the next “game devs on TV” show
- Video: Crafting the unsettling sounds of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
- Blog: Pillars of playability – Exploring dynamic difficulty
- Blog: The mighty MMM concept in hyper-casual game design
- Blog: Engaging level design for combat – Part 3
- Blog: Why Epic’s attempt to go fee-free on Google Play is bad news
- Blog: Procedural texturing for hand-painted stylized character pipelines
- Blog: Improving resource harvesting in real-time strategy games
- Video Game Deep Cuts: 2019’s Best Best Best Best & Other Animals
- Death Stranding, Control and next-gen teases among industry’s 2019 highlights: We asked publishers, platform holders, developers and more for their favourite moments and games of the year
- Games of the Year 2019: The Outer Worlds – Obsidian Entertainment’s RPG showed what the studio can achieve with the time and space to express its talent
- Games of the Year 2019: Eastshade – Stopping a moment to paint the Bloomsacs. Then another moment. Then so many more
- 4 events that shook up the game industry in 2019
- What we can learn from…The Future – 2019 in Review: Department of Play’s Will Luton on the trends technologies and that will disrupt the games business over the next decade
- Mobile’s fast risers of 2019 could be leaders in 2020: Call of Duty and Mario Kart fell away in November, according to Sensor Tower, while Playrix’ Township and Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle were ascendant
- 38 reasons why 2019 was not all bad: From charitable acts to crank-powered consoles, we round-up the best things to happen in the games industry over the past 12 months
- Best of 2019: Level design patterns in 2D games
- Gamasutra’s Best of 2019: Katherine Cross’ Top 5 Games
- Ars Technica’s best games of 2019
- Console makers lay out their 2020 visions | Opinion: Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo all have very different ideas of where the console market is going in 2020 and beyond – and it’s even possible that they’re all correct
- U.S. Patent no. 10,265,627: Virtual reality simulation of a live-action sequence
- U.S. Patent no. 10,272,335: Systems and methods of serving video for remote play
DIGITAL
- FTC Rules Political Ad Marketing Firm Cambridge Analytica Deceived Facebook Users
- FTC Approves Final Settlement Agreements Concerning Collection of Facebook Data
- Facebook vs. the FTC: It’s Not Over Till It’s Over
- 267 Million Names And Phone Numbers Leaked Online – And They’re All From Facebook
- Facebook removes accounts with AI-generated profile photos
- Facebook is working on its own OS that could reduce its reliance on Android
- Glawischnig-Piesczek v Facebook: CJEU ruling on online defamation and liability of hosting services providers under the e-Commerce Directive
- Schrems v Facebook: AG says Standard Contractual Clauses are Valid
- Facebook Releases New Advertising Rules for the 2020 Census
- ‘I am going to say quiet words in your face just like I did with Trump’: a conversation with the Zuckerbot -Mark Zuckerberg won’t talk to the Guardian. So we fed everything he says into an algorithm, and interviewed it
- Sorry, but cryptocurrency will likely make you uncomfortable in 2020: It might even piss you off.: Thanks, Libra.
- Financializing authoritarian capitalism: Chinese fintech and the institutional foundations of algorithmic governance (Julian Gruin)
- Beyond scandal?: Blockchain technologies and the fragile legitimacy of post-2008 finance
- Swiping right: face perception in the age of Tinder
- Cox Communications hit with $1 billion verdict over music piracy
- Dear Americans: Be Very, Very Afraid Of The EU’s New Copyright Rules
- Inside the Koch data mine: Meet the guys building the right’s new machine.
- The Surprising Nuance Behind the Russian Troll Strategy: We set out to study #BlackLivesMatter – instead, we were unintentionally learning about the Russian information operation to undermine democracy
- The case for publicly enforced online rights: Democracies should establish a single infrastructure for the digital identity (Evgeny Morozov)
- New German draft law to fight online hate speech obliges social media providers to notify police of suspicious online posts
- ECJ rules that the sale of second-hand e-books infringes copyright
- Indian Government Sets New Record For ‘Internet Shutdown By A Democracy’
- Canadian ISPs Subject to Site-Blocking Order
- Competition Bureau Hones in on #SponsoredContent and Social Media Advertising
- Losing Streak Continues For Litigants Suing Social Media Companies Over Violence Committed By Terrorists
- Report: Apple is developing satellites so the iPhone can skip wireless carriers
- Apple, Google, and Amazon create “CHIP,” a new smart home standard [Updated]
- Accountability Is Nowhere To Be Found For Foxconn’s Wisconsin Head Fake
- Google fined ~$166 million by France over search ads
- Chrome is getting a dedicated media control button
- The Canadian Digital Law Decade: The Ten Most Notable Cases, Laws, and Policy Developments (Michael Geist)
- CJEU rules that the provision of ebooks is an act of communication to the public (so there is NO digital exhaustion under the InfoSoc Directive) (Eleonora Rosati)
- Study: Hadopi Has Been Great For Big Artists And Labels, Bad For The Spread Of Culture And Smaller Or New Artists
- Contractor admits planting logic bombs in his software to ensure he’d get new work
- The Hassle of Housework: Digitalisation and the Commodification of Domestic Labour (Ursula Huws)
- Insanity (AKA Copyright Statutory Damages) Rules: Cox Hit With $1 Billion (With A B) Jury Verdict For Failing To Magically Stop Piracy
- Ghosh Yoga College Claims Copyright Infringement Over Netflix Documentary On Bikram Choudhury
- Dethroning the Digital Platform Champions
- Elon Musk And SpaceX Just Backed Down From Earlier Promise To Release SpaceX Photos To The Public Domain
- Jake Paul Sued For Copyright Infringement Over 2017 Holiday Track “Litmas”
- Influencers face backlash for promoting a Saudi Arabian music festival: And were reportedly paid six-figure sums
- ‘Influencing is heading into the void’: Natasha Stagg and Kate Durbin on the future of social media
- Tana Mongeau Lands ‘Here Comes Tana Claus’ YouTube Special At MTV
- Want to Become A World-Famous YouTube Personality? Don’t Forget the Fine Print
- Under the Influence: The Canadian Competition Bureau’s Stand on Misleading Product Endorsements
- Cameron Dallas To Star As Aaron Samuels In Broadway Adaptation Of ‘Mean Girls’
- Latte Lover Emma Chamberlain To Launch Her Own Coffee Business This Sunday
- In Just 55 Days, MrBeast And Mark Rober’s #TeamTrees Raised $20 Million To Plant 20 Million Trees
- Influencer marketing must be accurate and based on actual experience, says Competition Bureau
- #InfluencerMarketing and #Transparency in #Ads: Competition Bureau Sends Letters to Brands and Agencies
- How to Decrease Your Influencer Marketing Legal Risk
- Pixel Perfect: The Legal Implications of Virtual Influencers and Supermodels
- For Beauty Influencer Campaigns, YouTube Delivers
- Instagram To Enforce Ban On Sponsored Content Involving Weapons, Tobacco, Vaping
- Instagram To Enforce Ban On Sponsored Content Involving Weapons, Tobacco, Vaping
- Australian Millionaire Seeking Personal Instagram Photographer, At $55,000 Salary
- Instagram Announces Restrictions on Branded Content and Says Further Policies are Coming
- All Def Digital’s Assets Acquired, Content Slate To Be Rebooted By Startup Culture Genesis
- Not so IDLE hands: FBI program offers companies data protection via deception
- I went undercover as an Amazon delivery driver. Here’s what I learned about the hidden costs of free shipping
- Motorola gets cold feet, delays $1,500 Razr foldable days before launch
- Leaked images of new Samsung foldable surfaces: It’s a flip phone
- Is Your Website Accessible and Are You Liable if it Isn’t?
- Social Media Made America Tired of Rich People: It used to be easier to hide your wine cave.
- The 84 Biggest Flops, Fails, And Dead Dreams Of The Decade In Tech
- Tech regulation and protecting children online; latest thinking from the UK
- Reflections on 2019 in Technology Law, and a Peek into 2020
- Tech & Comms 2020 Predictions
A.I.
- World Intellectual Property Organization Weighs in on Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property
- World Intellectual Property Organisation and UK Information Commissioner’s Office announce consultations on AI
- Patents Created by Artificial Intelligence?
- EPO refuses DABUS patent applications designating a machine inventor
- Towards a Critical Race Methodology in Algorithmic Fairness (Alex Hanna, Emily Denton, Andrew Smart & Jamila Smith-Loud)
- 2019 Quantified Self Report Card
- Artificial Intelligence Is Rushing Into Patient Care – And Could Raise Risks: AI systems are not as rigorously tested as other medical devices, and have already made serious mistakes
- Is the idea of ‘care robots’ an oxymoron?: Pursuing efficiency by seeking to dehumanise human interaction by use of robotic support is a worrying development
- United States – E-commerce and Big Data: Merger Control
- Intervention – “Is Legal Technology a New ‘Moment’ in the Law and Development Trajectory?”
- Do all marketing lists discriminate against consumers that exercise a right to be deleted?
- Why I dislike what “quantum supremacy” is doing to computing research
- Can Computers Dream? Refik Anadol Explores The Future of Artificial Intelligence: Anadadol’s installation at Light Art Space explores how our world will transform as humans and computers come closer together.
COMMUNICATIONS
- Touchdown! The Supreme Court of Canada simplifies the standard of review analysis in historic Super Bowl trilogy
- Supreme Court of Canada Establishes New Approach to Standard of Review
- Phone companies must block scam calls starting today. Here’s what you can expect
- Congress Passes Bipartisan Robocall Legislation
- Congress passes legislation expanding robocall penalties
- T-Mobile/Sprint deal is good actually, Feds tell court in states’ lawsuit
- Spectrum Customers Stuck With Thousands In Home Security Gear They Can’t Use
- TV changed a lot in the 2010s, and the decade’s best reflects that
- What’s New in 5G – December 2019
- FCC Announces Improved Wireless Emergency Alerts
- Supreme Court Declines to Overturn Landmark TCPA Jury Verdict
- GDPR and the Cloud – Helpful DPC Guidance for Organisations
PRIVACY
- Data Protection Changes Are Coming to Canada
- Nearly 4,000 Ring Credentials Leaked, Including Users’ Time Zones And Device Names
- NY Times Shows The Scope Of The Cell Location Data Scandal Nobody’s Doing Anything About
- San Francisco Amends Facial Recognition Ban After Realizing City Employees Could No Longer Use Smartphones
- Second Circuit Says Warrantless Backdoor Searches Of NSA Collections Might Violate The Fourth Amendment
- Update privacy policies post-tech backlash, report tells smart watch and fitness tracker makers
- PoS malware skimmed convenience store customers’ card data for 8 months
- Dark Overlord taunted, threatened, and extorted. Now alleged member is behind bars
- The California Consumer Privacy Act Is Upon Us; Here’s What Your Company Should Be Doing
- Hospitality company’s bid to dismiss data breach suit rejected
- Attorney General issues opinion on validity of Privacy Shield and Model clauses
- Austria’s Top Court Says Police May Not Install Surveillance Malware On Computers And Phones, Nor Collect Vehicle And Driver Information Covertly
- Top EU Court’s Adviser Says Personal Data Can Be Transferred Using ‘Standard Contractual Clauses’ — But Also Suggests That Privacy Shield Should Be Ruled Invalid
- Giant surveillance balloons are lurking at the edge of space
- The Internet of Things (IoT) will see an increase in regulation and self-regulation
- How many websites are using opt-in, opt-out, or deemed consent cookie notices?
- How many third party behavioral advertising cookies deploy on most websites?
- Is Your Privacy Policy Ready for 2020?
- When We Fail To Understand Privacy As A Set Of Trade-Offs, Everyone’s ‘Solutions’ Are Unhelpful
- Rethinking privacy in the age of psychological targeting: Direct regulation of psychological targeting may lift from users the burden of actively protecting their privacy (Sandra Matz, Ruth Elisabeth Appel & Michal Kosinski)
CREATIVITY
- Paris Court of Appeal confirms that Koons’s ‘Naked’ sculpture infringes copyright in ‘Enfants’ photograph, rejecting freedom of the arts and parody defences (Eleonora Rosati)
- US government lists fictional nation Wakanda as trade partner
- No Surprise: Judge Says US Government Can Take The Proceeds From Snowden’s Book
- Billionaire Sheldon Adelson Is Trying To Use An Anti-SLAPP Law To Get Out Of Paying Anti-SLAPP Damages And It Ain’t Working
- Street art raises novel copyright issues – or does it?
- Guity v. Santos: Court dismisses copyright claims against Santos, finding plaintiff had not identified protectable elements that were allegedly infringed, and that parties’ songs in their entirety were not substantially similar.
- Remedies in IP antitrust cases in USA
- China and Hollywood: Is the romance over?
- ‘Cats’ Director Rushes Visual Effects Update Into Theaters After Disastrous Opening
- Minority Report: How Canada’s Electoral System Disrupts Copyright Reform
- The craziest Christmas patents you didn’t know existed
- Naughty or Nice? A Few Last Minute Tips for Using Santa Claus in Your Advertising
- Ars’ favorite movies of the 2010s (John Wick most definitely included)
Jon
News of the Week; December 18, 2019
GAMES
- Russia’s Rambler Group suing Twitch for $2.8 billion: Internet giant takes takes legal action against streaming service in the region over pirated football broadcasts
- Twitch facing $2.9 billion lawsuit over broadcast of pirated soccer streams
- Nreal files motion to dismiss Magic Leap copycat suit
- Company fined nearly $100k for publishing unapproved game in China: Chinese law allows companies to be fined between 5 and 10 times their revenue for unlicensed titles
- Dangen chief Judd steps down following harassment, mismanagement allegations
- Ben Judd departs Dangen, DDM amid accusations of harassment, bad business: Sources allege Judd mishandled communications and payments, publicly exposed himself, upheld harmful power dynamic
- Bethesda adds John Romero Sigil mod to Doom console ports: Publisher recognises unofficial sequel alongside other free community mods
- Xbox Series X is Microsoft’s next console, launching holiday 2020
- Xbox’s next-gen Project Scarlett revealed as Xbox Series X
- The Xbox Series X will support backwards compatibility at launch
- The next Xbox has a name and a new design: Behold, 2020’s Xbox Series X
- Microsoft returning to simpler “Xbox” branding for next gen hardware: Xbox Series X is not the brand, Microsoft says, and name will allow “room for additional consoles in the future”
- Nintendo Switch outsells Xbox One worldwide
- Developing Switch-first eases the porting process, says Axiom Verge dev
- Sony launching DualShock 4 rear button attachment: Plug-in peripheral will let players map actions to two new buttons on the back of the controller
- Apple Arcade introduces a cheaper annual subscription option
- Apple Arcade rolls out $50 yearly subscription option
- Apple Arcade now has a cut-price annual payment tier: New subscription option gives a year’s access for the price of ten individual months
- Atari details revenue splits, engine partnerships ahead of Atari VCS 2020 launch
- Atari offers 88% of revenue to exclusive VCS games: Non-exclusive games will get an 80/20 revenue split from sales through the VCS store
- Gameloft teams up with Blacknut for new cloud gaming service
- Why new consoles probably won’t be enough to save GameStop
- Mortal Kombat 11 will soon bring cross-console ‘Krossplay’ into the fray
- Mario has the most fans in the US, but Call of Duty ranks higher for most people: Over 44% of Americans are fans of Nintendo’s mascot, but 26% put Activision’s shooter in their Top Five
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare narrowly beats Star Wars ahead of UK Christmas chart – There are nine Mario-related games in the Top 40
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has topped $1 billion in sell-through revenue
- FIFA 20 is still at the top of the EMEAA charts: EA’s latest entry returns to No.1 for the sixth week since its launch
- Mobile games made 15 times more revenue than entertainment apps in a single year: Liftoff report on app industry shows games leading the way in downloads, in-app revenue and number of new releases
- Survey finds parents getting stricter on kids’ in-game spending: ISFE finds parents more likely than last year to have an agreement with children regulating purchases or to forbid children from in-game spending entirely
- Undead Labs setting up new studio, game development academy in New Orleans
- Warcraft III: Reforged will release on January 28, not in 2019
- Rainbow Six Siege switches core team: Leroy Athanassoff to lead new group as Xavier Marquis and Alexandre Remy move on to new projects at Ubisoft
- Animoca Brands buys Power Rangers: Legacy Wars developer nWay
- Animoca Brands acquires Power Rangers developer nWay: Studio behind mobile fighting game Legacy Wars purchased for $7.69 million
- Brawl Stars brought in $422m in its first year: Sensor Tower – Supercell’s multiplayer arena brought in $94m in South Korea alone
- Final Fantasy XIV Online has passed 18 million registered players
- Wargaming finally branching beyond World of Tanks with UK studio’s new IP: CEO Victor Kislyi and UK studio director Sean Decker discuss how the publisher’s newest team aims to conquer the West
- Zynga opens new UK mobile studio to expand racing game portfolio
- Zynga starts a new racing game studio in United Kingdom
- Analyst: Clash of Clans claimed the most consumer spend of any mobile game this decade
- Riot Forge is publishing two new League of Legends games
- Dobre Brothers Launch ‘Dobre Dunk’ Mobile Game With BroadbandTV
- Just 15% of Shroud’s US audience followed him to Mixer: Shroud’s US audience on Mixer is one-third of what it was on Twitch
- Game.tv raises $25 million to bring esports to Discord, Twitter, and Facebook
- Esports platform Game.tv secures $25 million in funding: Also launches AI-driven platform via Discord and web app
- EA, Respawn announce Apex Legends Global Series: $3m at stake in the game’s first international, multi-tournament esports program
- League of Legends World Championship 2019 was the most-watched LoL esports event ever: The Finals reached an average minute audience of 21.8m, and 44m peak concurrent viewers
- Local split-screen has been added to Fortnite on the PS4 and Xbox One
- PewDiePie Quits Twitter Over Amount Of “Virtue Signaling,” Says He’ll Take A Break From YouTube In 2020
- Playable Gothic prototype will let fans decide direction of possible remake
- High Fidelity lays off half of studio in pivot away from VR
- High Fidelity lays off half of staff, pulls plug on open-source VR platform: Company cuts headcount for second time this year, says it is refocusing on new project early in development
- Boneworks review: An absolute VR mess—yet somehow momentous
- Blog: Analyzing the pitfalls of the Virtual Boy
- N3twork acquires Funko Pop! Blitz: The game, along with several key developers, picked up from defunct NBCUniversal gaming arm
- Why the creator of Kerbal Space Program is returning to the troposphere: After leaving Squad, Felipe Falanghe has created his own two-person studio to make Balsa Model Flight Simulator
- How ArenaNet is rewriting the narrative for its narrative writers: Novera King and Bobby Stein discuss the studio’s first run of a narrative writing mentorship program — and its next iteration
- A QA breakdown of The Outer Worlds’ elusive companion killing bug
- Watch the lead dev of Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition break down the game’s rebirth
- Blog: Building a fantasy VR world in Unity
- Blog: Practical tools for game designers
- Video: Designing efficient, effective branching narratives for games
- Video: To make 1997’s Blade Runner, Westwood first had to create the universe
- Video: Inside the UX of onboarding and player engagement
- Case Study: A ‘peek’ at Golf Peaks’ multiplatform sales
- Industry vet Kate Edwards to be honored with Ambassador Award at 2020 GDCAs!
- Kate Edwards to be honored with GDCA’s Ambassador Award: Former IGDA head and current executive director of Global Game Jam to accept award at GDC in March
- Naughty Dog to donate all cash from Jak and Daxter re-releases to charity
- The 12 biggest announcements from The Game Awards 2019
- Sekiro claims GOTY, but Disco Elysium leads The Game Awards winners
- The Game Awards: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice takes game of the year
- The Game Awards reached 7.5m concurrent viewers: Total livestreams of the event were up 73% from last year to 45.2m
- People of the Year 2019: From charity pioneers and environmental movements to legendary designers and AAA studios, our choices reflect the depth and breadth of the modern games industry
- Epic’s exclusivity push leads to ugliness – 2019 in Review: How consumer grumbling over Steam’s newest competition snowballed into outright abuse
- People of the Year 2019: Respawn Entertainment – Starting with Apex Legends and finishing with Jedi Fallen Order, in 2019 Respawn became EA’s single most important studio
- Analyst: Clash of Clans claimed the most consumer spend of any mobile game this decade
- Subway Surfers is the top mobile game of the decade by downloads: Clash of Clans was No.1 in consumer spend from 2010 to 2019
- The 50 best games of 2019
- Games of the Year 2019: Sea of Thieves – Rare’s pirate adventure offered an object lesson in how service-based games can get better and better with age
- Games of the Year 2019: Untitled Goose Game: Is the goose horrible, or is it me?
- Games of the Year 2019: Heaven’s Vault – Inkle delivers a deep adventure where everything from the world’s history to individual puzzles is open to interpretation
- Games of the Year 2019: Divinity: Original Sin II – The Switch version of Larian’s latest captures the feel of pen-and-paper role-playing in ones and zeroes
- Games of the Year 2019: Super Mario Maker 2 – Nintendo delivered the sequel Super Mario Maker deserved this year and finally learnt to trust its community
- Best of 2019: Designing the gameplay and aesthetic of Diablo IV
- Best of 2019: Former Fortnite UX lead digs into ethical game design
- Gamasutra’s Best of 2019: Alex Wawro’s top 5 games
- Video Game Deep Cuts: (More Of) The Best Games Of 2019
- The GamesIndustry.biz Podcast: Games of the Year 2019 – Download the latest episode now to find out which games have most impressed the editorial team this year
- GamesIndustry.biz presents… The Year In Numbers 2019: Find out this year’s global games market value, biggest games on social media, speediest digital discounts and more
- U.S. Patent no. 10,265,621: Tracking specific gestures related to user movement
DIGITAL
- People who are given correct information still misremember it to fit their own beliefs: “What we have had in lieu of a well-informed citizenry is what might be termed a myth – the myth of the attentive public.”
- Can fact-checkers save Taiwan from a flood of Chinese fake news?
- Change to Chinese university’s charter dropping ‘freedom of thought’ stirs debate
- Chinese students denounce limits on free speech, in a rare protest
- Iran Accelerates Longstanding Quest To Cut Itself Off From The Internet
- Nevada’s Top Court Says The State’s Journalist Shield Law Also Applies To Bloggers
- Maryland Disclosure Requirements for Online Political Ads Violates the First Amendment–Washington Post v. McManus (Eric Goldman)
- Breach of Contract/Promissory Estoppel Claims Bypass Section 230 But Fail Anyways—Yue v. Miao (Eric Goldman)
- AG William Barr Attacks Section 230… Even Though It Doesn’t Hinder The DOJ At All
- Engineer says Google fired her for browser pop-up about worker rights
- This 3D-printed Stanford bunny also holds the data for its own reproduction
- Russian media group Rambler attempting to hold Nginx hostage
- Facebook fails to convince lawmakers it needs to track your location at all times
- Twitter and Facebook Want to Shift Power to Users. Or Do They?: A decentralized internet was hailed as a way to dethrone Twitter and Facebook. But to the tech giants, the idea could unload some of their burdens.
- Hungary Has Fined Facebook For ‘Misleading Consumers’ Because It Promoted Its Service As ‘Free’
- FTC may block Facebook from integrating messaging apps, per WSJ report
- Regulator weighs action against Facebook over plans to integrate WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger
- Instagram to start warning users before they post ‘potentially offensive’ captions: The AI-powered feature came to comments earlier this year
- Instagram Launches AI Tool That Warns Users Before They Post Potentially Offensive Captions
- Instagram now lets you upload multiple photos on one Story post with ‘layout’ feature: A third-party tool brought inside
- Instagram Won’t Pull These Racist, Violent, Russian-Inspired Accounts: Neo-Confederates are posting racist memes – and reusing material from Kremlin trolls. But Instagram says the accounts don’t violate its rules.
- Sons Of Confederate Veterans Sued Over Bogus DMCA Takedown
- NC, Or Not NC: Why Suing The Sons Of Confederate Veterans In N.D.Cal For Violating The DMCA Makes Sense
- Bing’s Top Search Results Contain an Alarming Amount of Disinformation
- Are you sharing too much about your kids online? Probably
- Lumen Presents Comments to the Third Meeting of the Stakeholder Dialogue on Art. 17 of the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market in Brussels
- Shedding light on fraudulent takedown notices: Berkman Klein Center’s Lumen database helps bring attention to falsified court orders
- Beware your automatic email footer!
- Where’d You Get Your Tech? New Rules May Allow the U.S. Government to Unwind Your Latest IT Purchase
- Samsung chair imprisoned and 24 others found guilty in union-busting case
- Netflix docuseries Broken highlights prevalence of counterfeit cosmetics products on online marketplaces
- Another ex-Google employee accuses company of union busting: A fifth fired worker attests company let her go for coding internal notification about workers’ rights
- Trump administration says employers can ban organizing via company email
- Rather Than Radicalize, YouTube’s Algorithm Brings Viewers Toward “Mainstream” Content, CEO Says
- Robert Downey Jr.’s Long-Awaited YouTube Original To Drop Dec. 18
- Susanne Daniels, Robert Kyncl Talk Pros And Cons Of YouTube’s Switch To Ad-Supported Originals
- Billboard 200 to Include Official Video Plays From YouTube, Streaming Services
- These Are The 10 Most-Viewed YouTube Ads Of The Year
- Ryan Kaji Is Reportedly YouTube’s Top-Earning Creator This Year, Raking In $26 Million
- For The First Time, YouTube Consumption Will Inform The ‘Billboard 200’ Albums Chart
- YouTube Music gets Spotify-like personalized playlists
- Apple’s new Screen Time Communication Limits are easily beaten with a bug
- iPhones and iPads finally get key-based protection against account takeovers
- Mac Pro teardown finds a largely traditional desktop inside
- Apple Filed A Silly, Questionable DMCA Notice On A Tweeted iPhone Encryption Key… Before Backing Down
- Bogus DMCA Notices Still A Huge Problem As Apple Gets Unfairly Blamed For Reddit Takedown
- Abbott Laboratories Sends Heavy-Handed Copyright Threat To Shut Down Diabetes Community Tool For Accessing Blood-Sugar Data
- Copyright Trolls Go Mostly Silent In US Federal Courts
- Yup, Strike 3 Is Going The Prenda Route By Filing ‘Pure Discovery’ Suits In FL State Court
- Spotify debuts a new original podcast that looks back on the last decade in music
- Spotify prototypes Tastebuds to revive social music discovery
- Sponsorship: good faith and measuring the value of influencers
- Tana Mongeau, Jake Paul Land Linear MTV Series ‘Bustedness’
- Snap Dropping Complex-Produced Doc About Incarcerated Rapper Tekashi69
- Deji Olatunji Appealing U.K. Court’s Decision To Euthanize His Dog After “Nasty” Attack
- Bretman Rock Lands ‘No Filter’ Digital Reality Series At MTV
- Streamys Bestows ‘Premiere’ Awards To Ninja, JoJo Siwa Ahead Of Tomorrow’s Flagship Ceremony
- Here Are Your 2019 Streamy Awards Winners
- NLRB Restores Employers’ Right to Restrict Employees’ Personal Use of Company Email and Other IT Resources
- Be Careful What You Wish For: TikTok Tries To Stop Bullying On Its Platforms… By Suppressing Those It Thought Might Get Bullied
- Parents Sue TikTok for COPPA Violations, Settle for $1.1M
- VidCon 2020 Goes All In On TikTok With Featured Creators Andre Swilley, ThunThun Skittles, More
- VidCon Makes Middle Eastern Foray In 5-Year Deal With Abu Dhabi Tourism Department
- TikTok Inks Deal With WWE For 30 New Wrestler Accounts, Entrance Music Licensing
- Amazon bans third-party merchants from shipping with FedEx
- Some junk for sale on Amazon is very literally garbage, report finds
- Amazon Prime Reportedly Lands Rihanna Documentary For A Cool $25 Million
- Amazon and Google Are Practically Giving Away Smart Speakers. Here’s Why.
- Hulu debuts a new type of ad that will reward binge-watchers
- Large tech merger provides an early opportunity to test the fitness of the competition regime in 2020
- What’s App? – End of Year Round-up on mHealth App Developments
- Trust, Decentralization, and The Blockchain
- Exhume dead cryptocurrency exec who owes us $250 million, creditors demand
- This alleged Bitcoin scam looked a lot like a pyramid scheme
- Controversial sale of .org domain manager faces review at ICANN
- The idiot’s guide to why you should not steal a domain name at gun point
- This “essential piece of computing history” just sold for $43,750
- The LawBytes Podcast, Episode 36: The Year in Canadian Digital Law and Policy (Michael Geist)
A.I.
- A sobering message about the future at AI’s biggest party
- I created my own deepfake—it took two weeks and cost $552
- Owning Intelligence: The United States Patent and Trademark Office is trying to answer a very complicated question: who owns artificial intelligence?
- Does AI generated work give rise to a copyright claim?
- Deep Learning breakthrough made by Rice University scientists
- Rigid machines meet human creativity: Advising on data strategies
COMMUNICATIONS
- The CRTC Imposes New Obligation on Telecommunications Service Providers to Combat Nuisance Calls
- Mozilla, Consumer Groups Petition For Rehearing of Net Neutrality Case
- FCC’s “illogical” claim that broadband isn’t telecommunications faces appeal
- Bernie’s Broadband Plan Gives A Big Green Light To Community Broadband
- CRTC Enforces CASL in Case of Malware Distribution
- CASL Enforcement Action – $115,000 in Penalties for Distributing Malware
- Netflix Data Suggests Streaming Giant Spending One-Third of Canadian Revenues on Film and TV Production in Canada (Michael Geist)
- Tax Policy Confusion: What Digital Taxes are on the Canadian Government’s Agenda? (Michael Geist)
- New communications law research platform will strengthen policymaking: Analyzing millions of pages of legal documents, new tools will simplify legal data for the public
- AT&T Said Trump Tax Cuts Would Create Thousands Of Jobs. Instead, AT&T’s Laying Off Thousands.
- AT&T doesn’t want you to see its slow Internet speed-test results
- The FCC Helped AT&T Hide Its Crappy Broadband Speeds
- FCC Proposes Fines of Over $600,000 to Two Boston-Area Pirate Radio Operators
- Cheaters Never Prosper: FCC Proposes $10MM Fine On Man Who Used His Business Rival’s Phone Number on Spoofed Robocalls
- TCPA Legislative Update — After Much Negotiation, House Passes Consensus Robocall Legislation; Senate Vote Imminent
- Constitutional Challenges to TCPA: What’s Next?
- TCPA Regulatory Update — FCC Wakes from TCPA Hibernation with Orders Granting Two Petitions
- FCC Admonishes and Cites ISPs for Failure to Comply with the Transparency Rule
- FCC Seeks Comment on Cable Service Change Notifications
- FCC Seeks Comment on Establishing 988 Suicide Crisis Hotline
- FCC Announces Deadlines for the Next Auction for New FM Channels – And a Filing Freeze
- FCC Adopts Changes to Rules for New Noncommercial FM and LPFM Stations – Changing Application Processing Procedures and Holding Periods
- No-fiber zone: FCC funds 25Mbps, data-capped satellite in rural areas
- 5G deployment stands ready to supercharge the Internet of Things
- 5G Phones Will Be Bigger & More Expensive With Crappy Battery Life. Excited Yet?
- Commerce Department Takes Steps To Thwart Use of Information and Communications Technology and Services Associated With Foreign Adversaries
- What now for UK telecoms regulation?
- The Access Act: Can Data Portability Increase Online Platform Competition?
- €2.6bn for the Irish National Broadband Plan Approved by the European Commission
- 988 will be the new 911 for suicide prevention—by sometime in 2021
PRIVACY
- Avast CEO Downplays Collection Of 400 Million Users’ Browsing Data
- Guess What? Many Cookie Banners Ignore Your Wishes, So Max Schrems Goes On The GDPR Attack Again
- Recent Developments on Cookies – a Pan-European Overview
- Chrome’s data disaster: Browser update wipes out Android app data
- Chrome 79 will continuously scan your passwords against public data breaches
- Building trust as a foundation for a growth mindset around data
- Nebula VPN routes between hosts privately, flexibly, and efficiently
- Feds reap data from 1,500 phones in largest reported reverse-location warrant
- Michael Hayden Ran The NSA And CIA: Now Warns That Encryption Backdoors Will Harm American Security & Tech Leadership
- Florida Appeals Court Says Govt’s Lack Of Good Faith Can’t Save A 2012 Warrantless Stingray Deployment
- Inspector General’s Report On Investigation Of Trump Campaign Finds More FISA-Related Abuse By The FBI
- FISA Court Benchslaps FBI For Its Abuse Of The FISA Warrant Process During The Trump Campaign Investigation
- Hackers steal data for 15 million patients, then sell it back to lab that lost it
- LifeLabs pays ransom after cyberattack exposes information of 15 million customers in B.C. and Ontario
- What is the IAB’s CCPA Compliance Framework for “Do not sell my personal information?”
- The CCPA is Only Two Weeks Away and Only 6% Of Companies Have Deployed a “Do Not Sell My Personal Information” Link
- California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) – You are not California Dreamin’!
- Resetting the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)…with 2 Weeks To Go! (Part 1 of 3) (Eric Goldman)
- Some Lessons Learned from the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), 18 Months In (Part 2 of 3) (Eric Goldman)
- Eric Goldman’s Comments to the California DOJ Draft Regulations for the Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) (Part 3 of 3) (Eric Goldman)
- EDPB Publishes Guidelines on the Right to Be Forgotten in Search Engine Cases
- Purple Communications, Inc. Overruled: Employees have no presumptive statutory right to use employer equipment, including email systems, under the NLRA
- Privacy Peril: Is Your Smart TV Too Smart?
- Wave of Ring surveillance camera hacks tied to podcast, report finds
- Online Forum Members Exploited Weak Credentials To Turn Ring Cameras Against Their Owners
- Privacy Tip #219 – Holiday Shopping Tip for Internet-Connected Gifts
- A new draft code of practice for consumer IoT devices – hardening IoT supply chains
- Evaluating Risks in the IoT Supply Chain
- The IOT is Here and so is the Regulation
- Upload – 2019 Data Protection update
CREATIVITY
- Objections Filed re Access Copyright Proposed Post-Secondary Tariff for 2021-2023 and Update re 2011-2017
- Why Are Members Of Congress Telling A Private Organization Not To Comment On Copyright Law?
- Free-riding on reputation of LOUIS VUITTON mark
- Pepsi Scores Dismissal Of Copyright Dispute Over Super Bowl Ad
- Arsenal’s Mesut Özil Slams Uighur Repression and China Pulls Premier League Game: The move puts Beijing in conflict with a second major global sports league
- Hallmark Apologizes for Pulling Commercials That Show Brides Kissing
- Does Elon Musk’s Defamation Defense Verdict Spell “Open Season” for Social Media Insults? Answer: Nope.
- Robyn Openshaw, ‘The Green Smoothie Girl,’ Threatening SLAPP Suits Over Mediocre Reviews
- Tennessee Doctor Decides He Wants To Take The State’s Anti-SLAPP Law For A Spin, Files Bogus Defamation Lawsuit Over A Negative Review
- No, Filing A Defamation Lawsuit Is Never The Only Way You Can Clear Your Name
- Teespring Takes Down Our Copying Is Not Theft Gear, Refuses To Say Why
- Why Intermediary Liability Protections Matter: Our ‘Copying Is Not Theft’ T-Shirt May Be Collateral Damage To A Bad Court Ruling
- Delhi High Court Rules That Making A Copy Of The Film Is Not Only Restricted To Making A Physical Copy Of The Film But It Also Includes A Substantial And Fundamental Reproduction Of The Original
- US government is entitled to all Snowden book proceeds, judge rules
- Restaurant Association Looks To Take Back Taco Tuesday For The People
- Beyond The Taco: Someone Is Now Trying To Trademark ‘Breakfast Burrito’
- Copyright in designs: G-Stars in their Eyes
- University of Phoenix Settles FTC Deceptive Advertising Law Allegations
- Intellectual Property Rights and the Employer-Employee Relationship: A Canadian Law Q&A
- At Oral Argument Justices Consider Copyright Protection for Legal Annotations
- European Copyright: Memes, GIFs, and Other Images on the Internet
Jon
News of the Week; December 11, 2019
GAMES
- German regulator prompts Valve crackdown on Steam Nazis: Valve pledges to better train moderators after media agency finds dozens of banned symbols, slogans, anti-Semitism
- Epic Games files preemptive lawsuit against Dancing Pumpkin Man: Fortnite developer responds to cease and desist letter with a lawsuit
- Epic Games Store implements in-game purchases for third-parties: Developers who use their own payment tools will not share revenue with Epic on in-game transactions
- Epic Games Store policy change expands in-game payment options for devs
- Indies hit with takedowns over trademarked ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ term
- Chooseco Chooses An Adventure In Bullying Indie Game Devs Over Trademark
- Ex-Razer employees accuse CEO of abusive behavior: Former employees say Min-Liang Tan yelled, threw objects, made threats, demanded unreasonable overtime, and was verbally abusive
- Latest Rocket League update replaces loot boxes with an item store
- Chucklefish apologizes after casting white voice actors for non-white characters
- Chucklefish apologizes for Wargroove’s whitewashed voice casting: Developer says it made decision based only on audio files, pledges to be more sensitive in the future
- Federal Communications Commission Rules Require Communications in Video Games to Be Accessible and Usable
- 2K opens new in-house studio to work on BioShock franchise
- 2K opens Cloud Chamber to build “another unforgettable BioShock experience”: We speak to the publisher’s first female studio head Kelley Gilmore about continuing Ken Levine’s acclaimed franchise
- Nintendo Switch faces an uphill slog in China | Opinion: China is a country with little interest in consoles, so success for the Switch will require building a whole market segment from nothing
- Nintendo Switch sold estimated 50k units in China on launch day: Niko Partners – Console on track to reach 100k units in the country by the end of 2019
- Nintendo stock rises following Switch launch in China: Share price up 2.9%, reaching highest intraday level since May 2018
- Nintendo Indie World showcase talks exclusives, sequels, and 2020 lineup
- Sony will bring MLB: The Show to rival console platforms ‘as early as 2021’
- Sony’s MLB The Show will be released on rival consoles: No new platforms confirmed for baseball series, but both Nintendo and Microsoft have shared the news
- Sony pulls PS4 Lineup video after accusations of plagiarism: Video showcase appeared to directly copy animation styles from multiple other properties
- Resident Evil 2 remake has passed 5 million sales
- Resident Evil 3 remake headlines a handful of PS4 announcements
- Sony announces plan to publish PlayStation games on non-PS consoles [updated]
- PS4 finally gets Minecraft cross-platform play with Bedrock Edition – Sony overcomes worries about “safety risk” a year and a half after all other platforms connected
- Minecraft update brings cross-platform play to PlayStation 4
- Minecraft beats Fortnite and GTA as YouTube’s most-watched game of 2019
- Choose Your Own Adventure publisher cracks down on Itch.io devs: Chooseco issues trademark infringements to four developers
- Starbreeze exits reconstruction, looks toward continued Payday development
- Payday 2 won’t see parity on consoles and PC, future Switch updates ‘unlikely’
- Starbreeze completes reconstruction process after 12 months: It’s been a “toilsome journey” says CEO Mikael Nermak
- Layoffs as mobile developer Gameloft closes UK office
- Gameloft UK shuts down: Seven staff affected as mobile giant ditches British presence
- Avakin Life dev Lockwood Publishing closes Leamington Spa studio: All four members of staff declined opportunity to move to growing Nottingham studio
- The dawn of streaming requires contract revisions: Beiten Burkhardt’s Dr Andreas Lober explains why developers and publishers should check their contracts as services like Google Stadia emerge
- Some Stadia games cost more than their downloadable counterparts
- E3 without the lines: System Shock, other games to get 48-hour Steam demos
- Important Updates to Google Play Developer Policies
- Google refuses to budge on Play Store fees after Epic asks for Fortnite exemption
- Kongregate acquires mobile and browser battle royale shooter Surviv.io
- Kongregate acquires browser and mobile 2D battle royale Surviv.io: This marks the publisher’s second acquisition this year, more planned to come
- Playrix acquires Eipix Entertainment: Homescapes creator enters Serbian market to create more free-to-play mobile games
- Voodoo acquires mobile dev Gumbug
- Voodoo acquires Gumbug: Mobile publisher picks up London-based developer of Smash Supreme and Notorious 99
- Wildlife Studios raises $60m, now valued at $1.3b: Benchmark leads funding for Sao Paulo studio to grow mobile reach
- Tatsuya Minami reportedly starts new, Capcom-backed studio M-Two Inc: Former PlatinumGames president’s Osaka-based team said to be contributing to Resident Evil 3
- NetEase launches its own cloud gaming platform in beta: Service currently supports 38 games on mobile, but testers are waiting in long queue times to play
- 12 years later, players somehow keep Team Fortress 2 alive on the PS3
- The modders who spent 15 years fixing Knights of the Old Republic 2: From missing planets to missing romance options, players are restoring a classic.
- FIFA 20 returns to No.1 on EMEAA charts for fifth week since launch: No new major releases and holiday sales kept momentum for Pokemon, Star Wars
- UK Charts: No new releases means Mario Kart 8 Deluxe races back to No.3 – Nintendo racer boosted by new Switch bundle, FIFA and COD still top
- Sales down 25 percent at close of GameStop’s third quarter
- GameStop Q3 global sales down again, expected full-year decline in the high-teens: Collectible sales was once again the only segment that showed any year-over-year growth
- GameStop plans to wind down Nordic presence, close more stores to cut costs
- GameStop winding down operations in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden: 140 stores globally have been closed already this year, 250 to 300 total closures planned by end of 2019
- GameStop CEO: Financial struggles are a console issue, not a GameStop issue – George Sherman says industry headwinds are “having an outsized impact on our business”
- Black Friday saw US mobile game spending hit nearly $70m: Sensor Tower Marvel Contest of Champions led record single day sales for mobile in the US
- Call of Duty Mobile made almost $87m in its first two months: Sensor Tower reports Activision’s smartphone shooter has been downloaded 172 million times
- Resident Evil 2 remake surpasses five million sales: Franchise lifetime sales at 94 million
- Review aggregator site GameRankings is shutting down
- GameRankings to close down after 20 years: Site will go offline on December 9
- Rental kiosk Redbox is giving up on video game rentals
- Redbox will no longer rent video games: Games will still be sold through the end of the year before it goes movies-only
- CD Projekt Red ending Gwent console support to focus on PC and mobile
- Mobile developer Wildlife Studios nets $60 million in funding
- GAME’s Belong esports division opens 100-seat venue in London: Oxford Street location will be the home of the London Lionhearts esports team
- PatronGG secures $1m for esports engagement app Kokyo: Bitkraft leads funding to continue its string of esports investments
- Pole to Win opens product development unit: Orange Rock Studios will also contain Orange Rock Esports division
- Canada a hub for booming esports industry, says lawyer
- TV Academy Unveils First Emmy Category for Esports
- The Emmys Adds First Category For Esports, Recognizing Outstanding Journalism
- Riot teams up with Louis Vuitton for League of Legends clothing
- Riot Games opens publishing label for League of Legends games from other devs
- Amid Flurry Of Departures, Twitch Locks Down DrLupo, LIRIK, TimTheTatman In Exclusive Deals
- Twitch signs three exclusivity deals with major streamers: Video platform responds to Ninja and Shroud departure with own deals
- Twitch just locked down top streamers DrLupo, TimTheTatman, and Lirik: According to the e-sports consultant Rod Breslau, the deals are potentially worth millions
- Skybound Entertainment to make TV series based on DrDisrespect: Scripted, narrative series to focus on origins of popular, contentious Twitch streamer Guy Beahm’s character
- Pokemon Go developer Niantic raised $100,000 for STEM programs in 2019
- Niantic releases 2019 social impact report: Pokémon Go dev has raised $100,000 for STEM programs, hosted 90,000 players at charity events and picked up 20 elephants’ worth of trash
- Niantic and Qualcomm collaborating on augmented reality glasses: Multi-year partnership will see Pokémon Go developer working on hardware and software for new AR platform
- ‘Apollo 11 VR’ Studio to Launch ‘Shuttle Commander’ Next Week on PSVR
- Fast Travel CEO navigates VR’s speed bumps: With two new VR titles launching in quick succession, Oskar Burman talks about how far the market has come and where it can improve
- Oculus is rolling out controller-free hand tracking for the Quest this week
- Surprise! Oculus Quest becomes first VR set with native hand tracking—this week
- Oculus Quest Hand-tracking Starts Rolling Out This Week, Developer SDK Next Week
- Report: Magic Leap laid off ‘dozens’ following slow sales of its debut AR headset
- Magic Leap launches upgraded headset, reportedly lays off dozens: Company said to have planned to sell over 100k Magic Leaps in first year, only sold 6k in six months
- Niantic and Qualcomm join forces to create new AR glasses
- Adobe acquires 3D VR sculpting tool Medium from Facebook
- Behind the ingenious audio design of action RPG classic Diablo II
- How MechWarrior’s return took me back to the early ‘90s mall in my mind
- Brenda Romero breaks down Empire of Sin’s complex relationship system
- BioShock will return, but without Ken Levine
- Halo Reach on PC is the customizable combat we’ve been wanting—but just barely
- How Angry Birds broke the limits for mobile games: Marking the original game’s ten-year anniversary, we take a look at the impact the series had on the industry and the resilience of Rovio
- How God of War converted a non-believer – Why I Love: Double Eleven’s Matt Dunthorne says the 2018 revamp turned him from uninterested onlooker into full-on fanboy
- Bethesda updating Doom 1, 2 to include select mods like John Romero’s Sigil
- Bethesda suspends The Elder Scrolls Legends development
- Betheda has halted development on The Elder Scrolls: Legends
- Elder Scrolls Legends development “on hold for the foreseeable future”: Bethesda no longer making new content for fantasy card battler, but will continue support with monthly rewards and regular events
- Minecraft is most popular game on YouTube in 2019 with 100bn views: Controversial YouTuber Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg drives popularity of Minecraft as Fortnite settles
- People of the Year 2019: Sam Barlow: We speak to the Telling Lies director about showcasing the true potential of interactive narrative in video games
- Rockstar and Nintendo fill top five in Metacritic’s Games of the 2010s: Mario Galaxy 2, Breath of the Wild, Red Dead 2, GTA V and Mario Odyssey all had 97 average ratings
- IndieBI: Superhot Team’s biz dev platform that helps indies stay indie – Business developer Tomas Kaczmarczyk on why good business intelligence benefits the whole industry
- Kalypso opens third internal studio to work on ‘next-gen’ Commandos title
- Kalypso opening third German studio: New team will work on next-gen Commandos title from the greater Frankfurt area
- Report: iDreamSky in talks to acquire Leyou Technologies for $1.4 billion
- iDreamSky in talks to buy Leyou: Mobile publisher would get controlling interest in fellow Chinese outfit with stakes in Digital Extremes, Splash Damage, SNK Playmore
- Imgur Launches New ‘Melee’ App Where Users Can Host, Discover Gaming Memes
- Staying Alive: How some indies are setting their studios up for survival
- Blog: How Ghost Recon Breakpoint broke the rules of player intel
- Blog: How do bullets work in video games?
- Blog: Building a procedurally generated Hearthstone
- Blog: Five books to help you better understand player behavior
- Blog: Sharing accessible narratives through environmental design
- Blog: Emotional context in decision design
- Blog: Turning a negative Steam review into a positive
- Blog: Getting your big break as a game composer (2020 edition)
- Watch Russ Bullock break down the dev process for MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries
- Video: How women-in-games initiatives make a difference
- Video: How Eve Online addressed exploit abuse with customer care
- Best of 2019: Designing Baba is You’s delightfully innovative rule-writing system
- Best of 2019: Dissecting the development of Dwarf Fortress with creator Tarn Adams
- Best of 2019: Designing Baba is You’s delightfully innovative rule-writing system
- Best of 2019: Exploring the secret depths of Bubble Bobble’s design
- People of the Year 2019: Yu Suzuki – Shenmue III came out 18 years after its predecessor and picked up exactly where it left off
- People of the Year 2019: Media Molecule – The full version of Dreams will launch on February 14 — and Media Molecule spent 2019 paving the way for its success
- People of the Year 2019: Hermen Hulst – Guerrilla Games’ former MD on the journey from Killzone to Horizon Zero Dawn, and his next challenge as PlayStation’s head of Worldwide Studios
- The Year of PR Disasters – 2019 in Review: Industry figures and companies said or did ridiculous, inappropriate, and outright harmful things… and got away with it
- The state of PC gaming in 2019.
- Video Game Deep Cuts: PlayStation’s 25th, Top Games Of 2019
- Industry-backed campaign encourages gamers to vote: Gamechanger Giveaway offers prizes in effort to increase voter turnout
- Steam to host demos for The Game Awards digital spin-off event The Game Festival
- Mourning the end of the video game rental era
- A nebbishy bank teller discovers he’s trapped in a video game in Free Guy
DIGITAL
- American WeChat Users Getting Banned For Celebrating Hong Kong Election Results
- TikTok settles children’s data lawsuit one day after it was filed
- The USA is investigating social media app TikTok – what does this mean for social media platforms & transparency?
- TikTok CEO Cancels Capitol Hill Meetings Amid Investigation Into Chinese Surveillance, Censorship
- TikTok Wraps 2019 With First-Ever Top 10 Lists Of Creators, Videos, Memes
- TikTok’s Parent Company Piloting Spotify Competitor ‘Resso’ In Emerging Markets
- Russia Blocks All Of Shutterstock Due To ‘Offensive’ Image Involving The Russian Flag
- Russian ‘Evil Corp’ Was Behind a Decade of Hacks, U.S. Says
- Kingpin of Evil Corp lived large. Now there’s a $5 million bounty on his head
- FTC Slaps Cambridge Analytica With An Order Barring The Already Defunct Company From Illegally Collecting Data Ever Again
- DHS Sued Over First Amendment-Trampling Social Media Vetting Program
- Critics say Facebook’s powerful ad tools may imperil democracy. But politicians love them.
- Trolling The Trademark Troll: Lemonade CEO Releases Chrome Extension To Remove Magenta From Websites
- Senate Judiciary committee interrogates Apple, Facebook about crypto
- Who’s Spreading Disinformation in U.K. Election? You Might Be Surprised
- Social media platforms leave 95% of reported fake accounts up, study finds: Fake accounts are easy to buy and make, and platforms are bad at yanking them.
- Twelfth Lawsuit Against Social Media Providers for “Materially Supporting Terrorists” Fails–Retana v. Twitter (Eric Goldman)
- The Subtweet Defense Wins: Elon Musk Cleared In Defamation Case
- Jury sides with Elon Musk in “pedo guy” defamation case
- Lawyer Asks Racists To Use Sketchy Millions They Got From UNC To Fund Scholarships For Black Students To Avoid Lawsuit For Bogus Takedown
- 3D printing can keep aging Air Force aircraft flying
- DOL’s $400M pay-discrimination suit is unconstitutional, Oracle argues
- Pinning Copyright Violations on Pinterest
- Digital Entrepreneur To Serve 14 Years For Criminal Plot To Wrest Domain Name
- Failed plot to steal domain name at gunpoint brings 14-year prison term
- ADA Website Compliance: It’s back to the trial court for Domino’s Pizza
- Verizon To Lay Off 150 More Employees From ‘Media’ Division
- Verizon lays off more Yahoo/AOL employees after another drop in revenue
- Verizon Media Pacts With Advisory Chair Serena Williams On Branded ‘Yahoo Shopping’ Series
- Verizon reportedly blocks archivists from Yahoo Groups days before deletion
- Verizon Is Undermining Efforts To Archive Yahoo Groups…For No Coherent Reason
- Sledgehammer or scalpel? EU policy makers and industry debate digital regulation
- Europe’s bid to re-nationalise tech
- Alibaba and the forty infringers: IP enforcement with China’s biggest online marketplace
- France, As Promised, Is First Out Of The Gate With Its Awful Copyright Directive Law: Ignores Requirements For User Protections
- Sony Music Entertainment v. Cox Communications: Summary judgment for copyright holders, finding that ISP had specific knowledge of copyright infringement by subscribers on its networks and was contributorily liable.
- Revolving Door Revolves Some More: Head Of Copyright Office Leaves To Join MPAA
- Why Won’t Creative Future’s Members Comment About This Hollywood Front Group Smearing A Well Respected Law Professor?
- Disney’s Decision Not To Renew SecuROM License Bricks ‘Tron: Evolution’
- Disney+ Has Gotten 22 Million App Downloads In One Month (Report)
- Netflix To Develop Limited Series About The Birth Of Spotify
- Netflix Orders Limited Series Chronicling Origins Of Fellow Streamer Spotify
- Hulu is finally offering 4K and 5.1 audio on Roku devices
- Instagram Will Ask New Users For Birthdays
- Instagram Is Finally Asking New Users If They’re Over 13, But Will That Protect It From COPPA?
- Mraz Sues Festival Sponsor Over Use of Footage
- Building a More Honest Internet: What would social media look like if it served the public interest? (Ethan Zuckerman)
- The memefication of knowledge (Andres Guadamuz)
- Netflix And Scorsese’s ‘The Irishman’ Brought 17 Million TV Viewers In First 5 Days
- Netflix Is Spending $420 Million on Indian Content, CEO Says
- Platforms, publishers, and the end of scale
- Fewer than 10% of Americans are buying $1,000 smartphones, report says
- Apple to speak at CES for first time in decades
- Digital Kids’ Content Company ‘Moonbug’ Launches VOD Channel On Apple TV
- Devin Nunes’ Virginia SLAPP Suits Causing Virginia Legislators To Consider A New Anti-SLAPP Law
- Amazon: Trump used “improper pressure” to block AWS from DOD cloud contract
- Amazon Secures Live Champions League Rights In Germany
- Amazon Creates a Cost-Effective and Efficient Patent Infringement Remedy for Infringing Products Sold on its Marketplace by Third Parties
- Ex-Governor Tries To Silence A Critic With A Bar Complaint; Gains Critic 70,000+ New Twitter Followers
- Twitter is funding research into a decentralized version of its platform: The outside research team will be called Bluesky
- Twitter Unveils New ‘Retweets’ Account To Fete User Community
- Twitter Makes A Bet On Protocols Over Platforms
- Snapchat Cameos edit your face into videos
- It Doesn’t Take A Genius To Recognize How Dumb Genius’ Lawsuit Against Google Is Over ‘Stolen’ Lyrics
- New YouTube policy tries to ban “implied” threats, “malicious” insults
- YouTube Asks The FTC To Give Creators Clearer COPPA Guidelines Ahead Of Jan. 1 Enforcement
- YouTube asks the FTC to clarify how video creators should comply with COPPA ruling
- YouTube’s Revamped Harassment Policy Will Remove Videos With Insults Based On Race, Gender, Sexual Orientation
- Michelle Obama, Liza Koshy, Julia Roberts Venture To Vietnam For YouTube Learning Original
- YouTube Treads Safe Approach To This Year’s ‘Rewind’, With Series Of Data-Driven Lists
- Shane Dawson, MrBeast, James Charles, Jeffree Star In YouTube’s Top Trending Videos Of 2019 Amid More Rewind Lists
- Michelle Khare Debuts ‘YouTube Rewind 2019: The Musical,’ Chronicling Creator Community’s Successes And Scandals
- Streamys Announces Host-Less Ceremony In Lieu Of ‘Collaborators’ Brandon Rogers, Mark Rober, Emma Chamberlain, Hannah Stocking, And More
- Hyperlinks killed the radio star: High Court of England and Wales “Tunes In” to the radio streaming debate
- BuzzFeed Loses 3 More Creators, Who Have Exited To Launch Indie Studio ‘Watcher’
- BroadbandTV Reorganizes Music Services Under ‘Opposition’ Division
- The LawBytes Podcast, Episode 35: Allen Mendelsohn on Canada’s Copyright Site Blocking Saga (Michael Geist)
- Hosted copyrights – are you bound by the EU directive?
- Canadian Copyright 2.0: A look back at the 2019 statutory review recommendations for guidance on the future of copyright reform in Canada
- OSC Orders Approval of Prospectus for Canada’s First Bitcoin Investment Fund
- Patenting Blockchain Technologies
- Electronic signatures – progress, but don’t throw away your pen
- Australia remains closed for business on computer implemented business method patents
- Insights: Seven Social Media Trends That Point To A Vexing 2020 For Creators, Brands
A.I.
- Biased Algorithms Are Easier to Fix Than Biased People: Racial discrimination by algorithms or by people is harmful — but that’s where the similarities end.
- Addressing indirect discrimination and gender stereotypes in AI virtual personal assistants: the role of international human rights law (Rachel Adams & Nora Ni Loideáin)
- Who Owns an AI-generated Invention?
- Does the FTC’s Recent Influencer Guidance Address Robots?
- Best of 2019: How GoldenEye 007 set a new standard for video game AI
- Video: The alchemy and science of machine learning for games
- The case for artificial intelligence: 2020 will be the year for broad AI adoption in Canada, argues Sean Lynch
- Bringing a balance of arms to communications policy making: CIPPIC and vLex deploy expert knowledge and artificial intelligence to improve the ability of Canadian citizens to make a difference.
- Public opinion lessons for AI regulation
- Biased Algorithms Are Easier to Fix Than Biased People
- How Deepfakes Scramble Our Sense of True and False
- Emotion-sensing robot launches to assist space station astronauts
- Chatbots – Trends, Predictions and Five Key Legal Issues
- An intersection of technology and life sciences: The impact of big data and social media
- The “Ghost Workers” Underpinning the World’s Artificial Intelligence Systems: Ron Orol speaks with Mary Gray, author of a book on the unseen labour that powers the internet
- Competing in an AI-driven world
- AI and healthcare
- Cloudy with a chance of neurons: The tools that make neural networks work
COMMUNICATIONS
- Court of Appeals Finds Maryland Law Imposing Political Disclosure Obligations on Online Platforms to be Unconstitutional – Finding Different Treatment of Broadcasters is Justified
- Tucker Carlson and the Russification of the GOP
- Fox News Is Now a Threat to National Security: The network’s furthering of lies from foreign adversaries and flagrant disregard for the truth have gotten downright dangerous.
- Bernie Sanders vows to break up huge ISPs and regulate broadband prices
- Study Says US Ranked 68th Out Of 100 In Mobile Video Quality
- As Trial Begins, Evidence Shows Sprint, T-Mobile Know Merger Will Raise Prices
- AT&T raises DirecTV prices again despite losing millions of customers
- AT&T Says The Real Problem With The Internet Is We Pay Too Much Attention To Giant ISPs
- Lawsuit forces CenturyLink to stop charging “Internet Cost Recovery Fee”
- Huawei sues FCC to stop ban on Huawei gear in US-funded networks
- FCC proposes new rules and spectrum reallocation that could change the future of auto safety communications – agency seeks comments and input
- Another Day, Another Telecom Giant Caught Taking Taxpayer Subsidies They Didn’t Deserve
- Franken FMs – The FCC Asks if It Should Continue to Allow Channel 6 LPTV Stations to Operate as FM Broadcasters
- FCC Issues New Radio Frequency Safety Rules, Seeks Comment on Additional Measures
- FCC Grants Waivers of Geocoded Location Data Deadline
- FCC Plans Major Overhaul of Suspension and Debarment Rules for its USF, TRS, and Other Funding Programs
- FCC Issues New Radio Frequency Safety Rules, Seeks Comment on Additional Measures
- FCC Rules That Unsolicited Ads Sent to Online Fax Services are not Prohibited
- New York Enacts New Telemarketing Law
- 5G Spectrum Auctions in Kinstellar Jurisdictions
- Can 5G replace everybody’s home broadband?
- Google Fiber ends $50, 100Mbps plan, but 1Gbps is still $70 with no data cap
- CIPPIC and Legal Tech Firm vLex Partnering on LFO-Funded and AI-Fueled Communications Policy Analysis Project
PRIVACY
- The Afghanistan Papers v. The Pentagon Papers: How A Whistleblower Worked Much Better Than Endless FOIA Litigation
- Foreign Companies Can Use 28 U.S.C. § 1782 to Unmask Anonymous Internet Posters
- Colorado Appeals Court: Three Months Of Surveillance Via Pole-Mounted Camera Is Unconstitutional
- California Supreme Court Closes Warrantless Vehicle Search Loophole
- Another Federal Court Says Compelled Production Of Fingerprints To Unlock A Phone Doesn’t Violate The Constitution
- NYPD Finally Releases A Body Camera Policy That Gives The Department Plenty Of Ways To Withhold Footage
- The FBI Says Your TV Is Probably Spying On You
- DOJ Headed By William Barr Asked To Explain Warrantless Bulk Data Collection William Barr Authorized 27 Years Ago When He Was The Head Of The DOJ
- Do cookie banners receive different acceptance rates on desktops and on smartphones?
- Does the placement of a cookie banner impact user acceptance rate?
- Do cookie banners receive different acceptance rates depending upon how many choices are provided to website visitors?
- Getting Cookie Consent Right
- EDPB Finalizes Guidance on GDPR Applicability Outside EU
- The Fate Of EU Legislation Designed To Bolster Data Protection Beyond The GDPR, The ePrivacy Regulation, Hangs In The Balance
- Framing a Federal Privacy Standard: Congressional Efforts Continue
- Intel’s SGX coughs up crypto keys when scientists tweak CPU voltage
- Defense Department To Congress: ‘No, Wait, Encryption Is Actually Good; Don’t Break It’
- Keybase moves to stop onslaught of spammers on encrypted message platform
- Newly discovered Mac malware uses “fileless” technique to remain stealthy
- Louisiana State Government Systems Down Following Ryuk Ransomware Attack
- Pensacola confirms ransomware attack but provides few details
- Maze ransomware was behind Pensacola “cyber event,” Florida officials say
- Fund Managers Targeted in Sophisticated Cyberattacks
- The iPhone 11’s U1 chip necessitates constant geolocation checks, Apple says
- Cops Offered Deeper Discounts On Ring Cameras Depending On How Much Of The Neighborhood The Cameras Would Surveil
- Uploaded Ring footage reportedly provides location to the square inch
CREATIVITY
- Taking Value out of the Copyright Tariff Process: The Copyright Board’s Access Copyright Post-Secondary Tariff Decision (Michael Geist)
- Making the Best of a Bad Provision: Why Canada Should Work Toward a Copyright Term Extension Registration Requirement (Michael Geist)
- Ad Agency Loses Copyright Infringement Attack on Pepsi
- Ben and Jerry’s Hit With Two Sticky Suits
- Last Christmas – Copyright and sound recordings
- Marvin Gaye Family Not Done With Pharrell Just Yet: Bring Him Back To Court Claiming Perjury
- The £90,000 banana – Why is it so appealing to the art market?
- Questions Raised Over Marketing Restrictions on Olympic Athletes
- Bias Disguised as Neutrality Gives Rise to False Advertising Claims
- Spate of FDA and FTC Warning Letters Sets Stage for Wave of False Advertising Consumer Class Action Lawsuits
- Smells Like Infringement: Court’s Refusal to Dismiss Copyright and Trademark Claims Makes Nirvana Smile
- Standing Up for Stand-Up Comedy: Joke Theft and the Relevance of Copyright Law and Social Norms in the Social Media Age (Hannah Pham)
- Watch: The Law of Advertising
- Judge Orders Man Who Violated Recording Ban To Publish An Essay About Respecting The Court AND To Delete All Negative Comments From Readers
Jon
News of the Week; December 4, 2019
GAMES
- Riot Games to pay $10 million in gender discrimination settlement
- Riot Games to Pay $10 Million to Settle Gender-Discrimination Lawsuit
- Riot Games offers female employees $10 million in settlement
- Riot Games to pay out $10m to former employees in gender discrimination settlement: Total will be spread across up to around 1,000 former women employees
- Ragnarok files legal complaint against Human Head Studios over Rune II assets
- Ex-Human Head devs sued by Rune II publisher: Ragnarok Game accuses defunct studio and its co-founders of fraud, holding game assets hostage
- Pausing the Game: Take-Two Seeks to Pause WWE Copyright Infringement Lawsuit
- EA removes Marco van Basten from FIFA 20 after Nazi comment: Former Netherlands striker was suspended from working at Fox Sports last month
- Are publishers doing enough with their brands? | Opinion: EA hasn’t produced much with the Star Wars brand, and it’s not alone among publishers in the west — it’s high time they took some lessons from Japan
- Quantic Dream on the hook for €7,000 for allowing vulgar images to circulate
- Quantic Dream to pay former employee €7,000 over offensive photoshopped image: Tribunal found the Detroit Become Human developer guilty of having breached the security obligation it has towards its employees
- Overcoming unconscious bias in the games industry: Diversity advocates Cinzia Musio and Leon Killin discuss the dangers of unconscious bias, and how to foster an inclusive studio
- Atari VCS enters final stages of pre-production following series of delays: “Atari will always prioritise delivering a high-quality product over a self-imposed deadline,” says Atari VCS COO
- Patrice Désilets: Ancestors fell foul of critics’ expectations – “People expected my studio of 35 people to ship a game that is close to Assassin’s Creed — and it’s just not possible”
- Campo Santo’s In the Valley of the Gods on hold as team shifts to Valve projects
- Firewatch developer’s next game “on hold” after Valve acquisition
- A group of senior Ubisoft devs have joined Google’s in-house Stadia studio
- Google hires senior Assassin’s Creed developers to build Stadia games: Three experienced Ubisoft staff join Jade Raymond’s Stadia Games and Entertainment studio
- Important Updates to Google Play Developer Policies
- Call of Duty Mobile is Google Play’s best game of 2019: Tencent and Activision collaboration won top award as well as users’ choice and best competitive
- Report: A cheaper Project Scarlett alternative remains in Xbox’s next gen plans
- The next Xbox is in the wild, connecting to current-gen Xbox One players
- Xbox One was the UK No.1 games console over Black Friday: It narrowly beat Switch, but Nintendo generated the most revenue from hardware sales
- Microsoft’s cheaper, discless next-gen Xbox reportedly still in the works: New report indicates Lockhart still planned as a logical fit with Game Pass, xCloud
- Valve Index Backordered Until After Christmas Due to “recent high demand” in Some Regions
- Half-Life Alyx changes the game for VR exclusives | Opinion: Never mind the hardware — Valve is dipping deep into its own playbook to become the default storefront for VR software
- Why Steam’s discoverability improvements may still mean your game won’t sell
- CD Projekt dismisses investor fears over Cyberpunk and Half-Life: Alyx release clash: “That niche is very, very, very — and I could add a few ‘verys’ here — small”
- CD Projekt Red will shut down Gwent on consoles: Players will be able to copy accounts to PC, mobile via GOG
- ‘Angry Birds Movie 2 VR’ Studio Raises $2M to Continue Development on AR/VR Games
- Microsoft Affirms VR Isn’t a Focus for Xbox Scarlett
- Phil Spencer: “Nobody’s asking for VR” on Xbox – Xbox boss cites concerns with VR’s form and popularity in strategy around Microsoft’s next console
- Xbox boss: We want to deliver a new first-party game ‘every three or four months’
- XR Games secures £1.5m investment: Virtual and augmented reality studio looks to grow team and portfolio
- The GamesIndustry.biz Podcast: How unconscious bias is holding back the industry – This week the team discuss the dangers of unconscious bias, the benefits of diversity, and the slow progress of virtual reality
- Rocketwerkz CEO shares how and why the studio offers unlimited time off
- Dean Hall’s Rocketwerkz offers unlimited annual leave: Most experienced staff get unlimited sick days, and four weeks minimum annual leave with no cap
- Super Mario Maker 2 becomes Super Zelda Maker with playable Link
- Super Mario Maker 2’s first big update brings new mode, playable Link
- Nintendo Switch sees best US sales week ever: Thanksgiving week saw a total of 830k Nintendo Switch and Lite units sold
- The Switch sold over 830,000 units during Thanksgiving week alone
- Nintendo and Tencent have set a launch date for the Switch in China
- Tencent launching Nintendo Switch in China next week: Will cost 2,099 yuan (approx $300), comes with New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe demo and a one-year warranty
- Nintendo to launch Switch in China on Dec. 10 priced $300
- Nintendo Switch sees best ever week of sales in US as it prepares to enter China
- Football Manager 2020 releases at No. 1 in EMEAA charts: Football Manager beats out Q4 big-hitters, but otherwise charts remain steady as holiday season looms
- Sea of Thieves is No.4 as Black Friday transforms UK Charts: FIFA 20 is No.1 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare takes No.2
- Black Friday weekend digital game spending reached record $4.36b: In-game spending in free-to-play games up 13% YOY as digital interest continues to grow
- Shenmue III comes up short in the Japanese chart: Ys Net’s sequel failed to make waves in its home market, with less than 18k sales on PS4
- The truth about revenue sharing | Opinion: Revenue sharing has allowed great games to be made, says Unlock Audio’s Elliot Callighan, but it’s also used as a crutch by inexperienced teams
- An inside look at one indie dev-publisher relationship (with contract details!)
- What will the next UK gaming IPO look like? | Opinion: Liberum’s Andrew Bryant reflects on the flood of floatations in the last two years, and discusses why the next will need to be different
- Codemasters acquires Project Cars developer Slightly Mad Studios
- Codemasters acquires Project CARS developer Slightly Mad Studios: Racing studio grows to 700 people
- Codemasters buys Slightly Mad Studios for $30m: Project CARS studio will join the UK publisher in a deal that could rise by $67m based on three-year earnout clause
- Persona 5 has topped 3.2 million sales worldwide
- In the Valley of Gods “on hold” indefinitely: Former Campo Santo devs now at Valve have moved to other projects, including Half-Life: Alyx
- Pathfinder: Kingmaker dev Owlcat Games raises $1 million to fund new project
- Peripheral maker Logitech pledges to become carbon neutral by 2030
- YouTube no longer equates video game and real-world violence for age restrictions
- YouTube’s new gaming policy will allow creators to produce more violent footage: Advertising concerns are still high on creators’ agendas
- YouTube lightens restrictions on violent video game content: Policy update aims to better reflect difference between real-world and simulated violence
- YouTube Officially Separates Ad Policies For Video Game And Real-World Violence
- Dicebreaker launches news and reviews site to serve thriving tabletop community: Editor-in-chief Matt Jarvis discusses how the games industry can capitalise on the explosive growth of board games
- Streaming startup Genvid nets $27 million to expand ‘dev-grade’ broadcasting platform
- Twitch introduces new dashboard so more people can create livestreams
- ESL reportedly shuts down Spain, France branches, UK is “at risk”: Esports league tells GamesIndustry.biz no offices have closed, but are being restructured
- Counter-Strike World Champions Aim for First Esport Team IPO
- Astralis Group plans first ever IPO for an esports team: Danish Counter-Strike outfit seeks as much as €20 million from December 9 listing
- Esports Laws of the World
- Star Citizen hits $250m raised through crowdfunding: Almost 2.5m players have now funded the game, which is closing in on $300m in total investment
- Genvid closes $27m Series B round: Interactive streaming tech firm has also opened new offices in Berlin and California
- Area28 raises $2.15m for cloud-based development platform: Technology will add “significant value to the game development process” says Alibaba investor
- XR Games raises £1.5 million for new projects and staff
- Owlcat Games raises $1m for new Pathfinder video game: Gem Capital and My.Games investment arm lead funding for Moscow studio’s second foray into Pathfinder
- Persona 5 has sold 3.2m copies worldwide: Latest edition Persona 5 Royal has sold 400,000 copies in Japan, series’ lifestime sales now past 11 million
- Meet the young developer turning her severe anxiety into a games career
- “Winning and measuring engagement is no longer enough”: Midia’s Karol Severin warns entertainment firms should be measuring positive sentiment in this age of abundance
- Over 450 million PlayStation home consoles have been sold in 25 years
- PlayStations 1 to 4 have sold more than 450 million systems: Sony touts Guinness record for “best-selling home video game console brand ever”
- Don’t Miss: A brief history of PlayStation, from one-time frontman Phil Harrison
- The $0 marketing game guide
- Blog: Breaking down the Steam sales of Battle Royale Tycoon
- Blog: An introduction to wargame design – Part 1
- Blog: The perception of fairness in games
- Blog: Lessons learned from building a digital board game business
- Video: Breathing life into the machines of Horizon Zero Dawn
- Video: How Oddworld solved its narrative problems with mind control
- Video: A game dev’s guide to designing games with social impact
- Best of 2019: The ‘Door Problem’ of combat design
- Best of 2019: Downscaling, upscaling, same-scaling – Porting to Switch and under-powered consoles
- How “randomizers” are breathing new life into old games
- Video Games Without Borders wins UN Refugee Agency’s Innovation Award: Non-profit studio was selected from 259 entries for its mobile game promoting literacy and well-being among Syrian children
- Logitech commits to carbon neutrality by 2030: “We want to leave our mark on the future. We know that mark can be positive or negative, depending on the large and small decisions we make every day,” says CEO
- People of the Year 2019: Jeffrey Rosen and John Graham – We explore the legacy of Humble Bundle’s co-founders in the first of this year’s series on outstanding contributions to the industry
- People of the Year 2019: Remedy Entertainment: The Finnish studio’s bid for independence was about building a more stable future — Control proved it was also about creating the best possible games
- People of the Year 2019: SonicFox and Blitzchung – In a year where major industry figures were increasingly reluctant to take stances, two esports pros used their reach to demand change
- People of the Year 2019: Playing for the Planet Alliance – Unifying against climate change is the first of many steps the games industry must take
- The state of Xbox One in 2019.
- The state of the PlayStation 4 in 2019.
- The state of the Nintendo Switch in 2019.
- EA donating $500,000 to Team Trees: Donation, in the name of new Plants Vs Zombies game, will see half a million trees planted by January 1, 2020
- Apple has named the best iOS games of 2019
- Sky Children of the Light and Hyper Light Drifter among Apple’s Games of the Year: Meanwhile, Mario Kart Tour and Minecraft top most downloaded charts and The Gardens Between honoured in Apple Design Awards
- Google Play names Call of Duty: Mobile as best Android game of 2019
- Did “Fewer, Bigger, Better” actually work? – 10 Years Ago This Month: Major publishers have been narrowing their release slates for years, but has it produced the intended results?
- The Game Theorists’ Star-Studded Stream Raises $1.3 Million — And Counting — For St. Jude
- E3 media study shows declining media attendance, coverage: ESA says over 3,700 members of the media attended E3 in 2019
- U.S. Patent no. 10,258,880: Dynamic selection of voice quality over a wireless system
- U.S. Patent no. 10,258,882: Recording companion
DIGITAL
- China Uses DNA to Map Faces, With Help From the West: Beijing’s pursuit of control over a Muslim ethnic group pushes the rules of science and raises questions about consent.
- Ukraine condemns Apple for calling Crimea part of Russia in its apps
- Apple ‘looking at how it handles borders’ after Crimea map controversy
- Apple ‘taking a deeper look’ at map policies after calling Crimea part of Russia
- Apple ‘looking at how it handles borders’ after Crimea map controversy
- When politi-fact veers into politi-fiction, broadcast and internet advertising rules diverge sharply
- As Devin Nunes Threatens More SLAPP Suits, He May Have To Explain Why Cows Can Type In His First SLAPP Suit
- Devin Nunes Follows Through And Sues CNN In Laughably Dumb SLAPP Suit
- Tony Robbins Crosses The Atlantic For Some Libel Tourism In Ireland; Files SLAPP Suit Against Buzzfeed
- Human rights standards apply to online sellers on sites such as Kijiji, says N.L. Human Rights case
- Copyright Troll Threatens Criminal Charges In Germany Against Domain Registrar
- Warner Music and Sony Music win copyright case against internet music radio service TuneIn
- Capitol Records v ReDigi appeal decision
- TekSavvy Appeals Canada’s First Site-Blocking Order
- Canadian ISP Teksavvy Fights Back Against Overbroad Copyright ‘Blocking Order’ For GoldTV
- A Tale of Two Copyright Decisions: Canada’s Federal Court Issues First Site-Blocking Order & Denies Certification of Reverse Class Action Test Case
- Justices debate allowing state law to be “hidden behind a pay wall”
- Copyright Clash to Receive Supreme Treatment
- The US’s reaction to France’s DST
- Notifying Twitter of TOS Violations Isn’t Tortious Interference–Illoominate v. CAIR (Eric Goldman)
- Content Moderation At Scale Is Impossible: That Time Twitter Nazis Got A Reporter Barred From Twitter Over Some Jokes
- Online harmful content: the race to regulate
- Bipartisan Bill Seeks to Increase Internet Transparency and Consumer Control Over Content
- Microsoft shareholders reject call for gender pay gap report: Additional proposal to report on employee representation on board of directors also dismissed
- Twitter introduces a Privacy Center to keep users informed: Its new privacy policies go into effect January 1st.
- Intimidation or Free Speech: Are Trump’s Tweets Witness Tampering?
- Study Says Russian Trolls Didn’t Have Much Influence On Election; But It’s More Complicated Than That
- Assessing the Russian Internet Research Agency’s impact on the political attitudes and behaviors of American Twitter users in late 2017
- Facebook Now Altering Users’ Posts To Add Singapore Government’s ‘Fake News’ Warnings
- Facebook updates crisis response tools, adds WhatsApp integration
- UNC Gave Racists $2.5 Million To Settle A Lawsuit That Hadn’t Been Filed Yet, And The Racists Are Abusing The DMCA To Hide The Details
- Amazon Faces Widening U.S. Antitrust Scrutiny in Cloud Business
- Intellectual Property Alert: Amazon Creates a Cost-Effective and Efficient Patent Infringement Remedy for Infringing Products Sold on its Marketplace by Third Parties
- CreateSpace Isn’t Liable for Publishing Allegedly Infringing Uploaded Book–King v. Amazon (Eric Goldman)
- Copyright, State Sovereignty, and Pirates: Some Thoughts on Oral Argument in Allen v. Cooper
- This free tool maps propaganda and misinformation as it goes viral
- The Baby Yoda gif debacle exposes the messy world of meme law: Gifs from The Mandalorian went viral on social media. But then they disappeared
- Why Baby Yoda Unequivocally, Unfortunately Rules (Column): The breakout star of ‘The Mandalorian’ is impossibly cute for a reason.
- TikTok Moderators Were Told To Suppress Videos Made By Marginalized Users Because They Might Be Bullied
- TikTok Apologizes After Banning A Teen Whose Video About Muslims In China Went Viral
- TikTok’s parent company sued for collecting data on kids: Everything’s coming up COPPA
- CJEU: Courts may Order Host Providers to Take Down Illegal Content
- Instagram finally launches 13+ age checkups
- Quibi Picks Up Kendall Jenner-Produced Series Based On Parody Instagram Account
- Insta-Famous Lil Bub, A Special Needs Cat Known For Her Altruism, Has Passed Away At Age 8
- Insights: ‘Tis The Season For Instagram Sponsored Posts, But Perhaps ‘Tis Too Much?
- Sundar Pichai becomes CEO of Alphabet and Google, as Larry Page steps down
- Facebook’s new tool lets you transfer pictures to Google Photos: Available worldwide in first half of 2020
- Fired Google employees accuse company of union-busting: Group will take grievances to National Labor Relations Board “as a first step”
- Google workers fired amid organization efforts file retaliation complaint
- Certiorari Granted in Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc.
- Google attempts to protect users from sketchy stem cell clinics
- Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin step back from executive roles: Sundar Pichai to assume role as CEO of both Google and Alphabet, founders will remain on board
- YouTube says viewers are spending less time watching conspiracy videos. But many still do.
- YouTube Says Watch-Time On ‘Borderline’ Content By Non-Subscribers Has Dropped 70% This Year
- YouTube Has Removed At Least 300 Donald Trump Campaign Ads Since 2016
- YouTube Says Creators Could See Subscriptions Drop As It Purges Shuttered Accounts
- Olivia Jade Returns To YouTube Nine Months After College Admissions Scandal
- YouTubers Attempt Levitation In BBC Original ‘The Edge Of Science’
- Netflix And YouTube’s Share Of Daily Viewership To Drop As Field Grows (Study)
- How To Make A ‘Heist’: Markiplier’s Interactive Special Is A Whole New Kind Of Content For YouTube
- TYT Launches 24-Hour Channel On Xfinity X1, As Election Coverage Looms
- BBTV Signs Five Creators, Including Purposeful Prankster ThatWasEpic, Rapper-Skater Roy Purdy
- FTC Releases Disclosure Manual for Social Media Influencers
- Retailer Reminder: FTC Releases Guidance for Social Media Influencers
- Collab Asia, A Spin-Off Of The U.S.-Based Influencer Network, Raises $7.5 Million Series B
- Updated Advice and Practical Tips from the FTC for Social Media Influencers and the Companies that Hire Them
- Content Changes Challenge YouTube Creators; FTC to the Rescue
- The FTC Issues a New Disclosure Guide for Influencers
- Spotify offers half-price annual subscription in India
- Online shopping on Thanksgiving hit $4.2B, up 14.5% on 2018, 45% of sales via mobile
- Black Friday shoppers spent more in stores, broke records online over the weekend
- Never mind the naysayers: Emoji are a vital part of online communication
- ICANN report wipes the smile off emoji domains
- Blockchain Basics: Global Regulations
- Developer faces prison time for giving blockchain talk in North Korea
- Blockchain and the Financial Industry
- The Future of Stablecoins—Anything But Stable?
- Lawyer ‘monopoly’ hampers consumer access to legal tech, says former AG Chris Bentley
- The LawBytes Podcast, Episode 34: The Fight to Save the Dot-Org (Michael Geist)
- Honouring Ian Kerr’s Legacy: University of Ottawa Launches the Kerr Fellows Program (Michael Geist)
- Half an operating system: The triumph and tragedy of OS/2
- Geo-blocking or global take-down
- What You Should Know before Launching a Website or App
- Tech Regulation Series: The End of Permissionless Innovation?
- Ambush Marketing in the Digital Age
- Cross-Border Supplies of Intangible Services, Digital Content and Rights: Global VAT Guide – Fourth edition – November 2019
- Launch of .ευ
- Brexit from another angle: Domain names and donkeys
- Competition Law and the Digital Economy in Canada
A.I.
- Senators want answers about algorithms that provide black patients less healthcare
- To stop a tech apocalypse we need ethics and the arts
- How neural networks work—and why they’ve become a big business
- Life Under the Algorithm: How a relentless speedup is reshaping the working class
- Quantum computing’s also-rans and their fatal flaws
- The Rise of Artificial Intelligence Will Usher Changes to Patent Law
- Patents – When artificial intelligence authors the invention
- Designing strategically intelligent AI in Halo Wars 2
- AI Innovators Should Be Listening to Kids: Input from the next generation is crucial when it comes to navigating the challenges of new technologies. (Urs Gasser)
- Robots Are Taking Over (the Rental Screening Process): Landlords are using artificial intelligence to vet prospective renters
- What should newsrooms do about deepfakes? These three things, for starters: Researchers argue the dangers of deepfakes are overblown, but require journalists to give thought to how they handle unconfirmed information.
COMMUNICATIONS
- Canada’s New Internet Code
- Huawei funds $56M in academic research in Canada. That has some experts concerned
- Huawei is now shipping smartphones with zero US components
- Current “Whole of Government” Approach to Perceived National Security Risks from Chinese Technology Reflected in the FCC’s Latest Universal Service Fund Order
- The True Impact of the Chinese Telecom Ban on Government Contractors
- FCC Seeks Comment on All-Digital AM and Radio Non-Duplication NPRM
- DOJ Wimps Out On Wireless Sector eSIM Antitrust Investigation
- Mobile industry has stifled eSIM—and the DOJ is demanding change
- Prison Telecom Monopolies Bring Their ‘Innovation’ To Prison Ebooks
- Priority Filing Deadline Set for Tribes’ Access to Spectrum
- 5G on the horizon: Here’s what it is and what’s coming
- T-Mobile’s ‘Nationwide’ 5G Isn’t Nationwide, Only Slightly Faster Than 4G
- T-Mobile touts “nationwide 5G” that fails to cover 130 million Americans
- FCC tries to bury finding that Verizon and T-Mobile exaggerated 4G coverage
- FCC to Propose National Crisis Hotline, Tackle Mid-Band Spectrum Items at December Meeting
- FCC Suspends the Processing of Renewal Applications for the 470-512 MHz Spectrum Band (T-Band)
- Vulnerability in fully patched Android phones under active attack by bank thieves
- Librem 5 backers have begun receiving their Linux phones
- What is a Prerecorded Call for TCPA Purposes?: The Czar and the Baron Speak with the FCC to Push for Clarity on this Critical Issue
- IoT Update: FCC Proposes New Spectrum Plan for Vehicle Safety and Unlicensed Uses
- Today’s Hot Topic: News Simulatio
- AMFM Act Introduced in Congress to Impose Sound Recording Performance Royalty on Broadcast Stations
- Telecoms Law Update – The Right to Survey Clarified by the Court of Appeal
- Court of Appeal confirms that telecoms operators can obtain Code rights to carry out site visits
- AT&T says TV losses have peaked after latest loss of 1.3 million customers
PRIVACY
- Cell Phone Searches at the Border: What you need to know
- Egyptian Government Plans To Track The Movement Of 10 Million Vehicles With Low-Cost RFID Stickers
- New Iranian wiper discovered in attacks on Middle Eastern companies
- Cops Are Running Ring Camera Footage Through Their Own Facial Recognition Software Because Who’s Going To Stop Them
- Draft Code of Practice: securing the Internet of Things for consumers
- IoT patent owners still hold the future in their own hands – but the clock is ticking
- HackerOne breach lets outside hacker read customers’ private bug reports
- Code Blue: Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities for Medical Device Makers Require Urgent Care
- Ring Coyness About Adding Facial Recognition Tech To Its Cameras Doesn’t Extend To Its Marketing Materials
- Wireless ISP Starry Says It Will Apply California’s Privacy Requirements Nationwide
- Payment card-skimming malware targeting 4 sites found on Heroku cloud platform
- The (Extra) Territorial Scope of the GDPR: The Right to Be Forgotten
- Revised Guidelines on the Territorial Scope of the GDPR and Local Representatives
- The Right to be Forgotten Shoots the Shark
- Privacy & Cybersecurity Update: November 2019
- EU Cookie Compliance: Getting Ready for 2020
- The Digitization of Vehicles: Privacy Concerns
- New crypto-cracking record reached, with less help than usual from Moore’s Law
CREATIVITY
- Federal Court rejects controversial copyright litigation strategy
- Right of publicity in Canada
- Artist wins court battle to stop luxury watchmakers from cutting up his painting
- Intellectual Property Update – Is there protection in an idea?
- Copyright licenses are as easy as a quick few words
- New Balance v Liverpool FC
- Want To See Pete Davidson Do Standup? There’s An NDA You Have To Sign First…
- Musk takes the stand in first day of “pedo guy” trial
- Proving bad faith at registration time could be a good ‘Techtrend’
- Tenuous Common-Law Trademark Rights Inadequate to Sustain UDRP Complaint
- Exhaustion of trademark rights: Barcelona Court of Appeal rules in Schweppes case
- Cambridge University repatriate bronze cockerel to Nigeria
- Eco-friendly or falsely advertised? Sustainable fashion advertising in Europe: do’s and don’ts
- State’s Rejection Of Driver’s ‘IMGOD’ Vanity Plate Unconstitutional, Federal Court Rules
- Author Tries To Trademark The Word ‘Dark’ For All Of Literary Fiction
Jon
News of the Week; November 27, 2019
GAMES
- Blizzard and NetEase win Overwatch copyright lawsuit in China
- Patent Infringement Suit Over Apex Legends and Anthem
- The Pokemon Company is suing unknown parties over Sword and Shield leaks
- The Pokemon Company sues Pokemon Sword and Shield leakers: Unknown US individuals sought for posting early, unreleased images of new Pokemon on Discord, 4chan
- What happens if loot box regulation passes into UK law? | Opinion: Reed Smith’s Emily Daniels and Hunter Thomson offer tips on how to stay ahead of any future legal restrictions
- Man Spends $1.4 Million On Game Character, Which His Friend Then Accidentally Sold For Only $552
- EA: “Cloud gaming is going to bring in another billion players” – CTO Ken Moss on EA’s huge investment in AI, cloud streaming and tech
- EA/Origin Rewards Adopters Of Extra Security By Scaring Them
- Analyst: Men more likely than women to buy games based on reviews
- Brass Lion Entertainment and the critical business of diversity: Manveer Heir, Bryna Dabby Smith, and Rashad Redic on why their focus on diverse games is both a business decision and a human one
- Google responds to claims it misled consumers over Stadia launch performance
- Google addresses complaints of sub-4K image quality on Stadia
- Google Stadia’s Claims For Streaming In 4K Seem… No, Just No
- Stadia access codes have now reached Founder’s Edition buyers, days after launch
- Google Stadia: Critical Consensus: Critics say Google Stadia is the best game streaming option around, but still falls short in almost every way that matters
- Stadia Issues Continue And It’s The One Thing That Can’t Happen If We’re Going To Give Up Our Consoles
- Google responds after Stadia owners accuse it of breaking promises over game performance
- Google responds to criticisms of Stadia’s 4K support: After Red Dead Redemption 2 and Destiny 2 found to be upscaling lower resolutions, company says it expects developers to improve their games’ performance
- Google offers refunds to Stadia players who bought games added to Pro subscription: Subscribers who purchased Farming Simulator and Tomb Raider are entitled to compensation
- Google is offering refunds for players who bought new Stadia freebies
- Google hires senior Assassin’s Creed devs for first Stadia studio
- IP Insight – Blizzard v Bossland: Cheaters Never Prosper
- Report: Amazon plans to announce long-rumored game streaming service in 2020
- Amazon reportedly announcing game streaming service next year: Analyst suggests the retail giant will launch its service in time to compete with PlayStation 5 and Project Scarlett
- PlayStation controller patent shows larger triggers, no light bar
- The hidden gems of Apple Arcade
- Why are developers betting on Apple Arcade?: The mobile subscription service frees developers from monetisation worries, but questions linger about its future
- AirConsole raises $3 million to expand library and reach
- AirConsole raises $3m in Series A round: Cloud-based casual gaming platform looks towards partnership development
- Toadman Interactive acquires publisher Sold Out
- Toadman Interactive buys Sold Out for £16 million: UK publisher joins Swedish firm’s growing network of games companies
- Top 1% of mobile publishers take 82% slice of downloads: Sensor Tower data showed 95% of IAP revenue going to just 1% of publishers in Q3 2019
- Check out Xbox’s latest guidelines for building more accessible games
- State of Decay 2, from Xbox Games Studios’ Undead Labs, headed to Steam
- Xbox currently has no plans for xCloud exclusives, though it has been discussed
- “No plans” for Project xCloud exclusives: Microsoft emphasises that it is “very early in the multi-year journey” for games streaming service
- Shenmue III: Critical Consensus – The 18 year wait for a new Shenmue is over, and critics are split over a game deliberately out of step with the times
- How Modern Warfare smooths over the horrors of war
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare sold 4.75m digital units in its launch month – SuperData’s October report also shows Apex Legends having its best month since its launch quarter
- UK Charts: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is back at No.1 as Nintendo Switch conquers top ten – Shenmue III debuts at No.17 and Football Manager 2020 comes in at No.16
- Metacritic reveals the best 15 games of 2019 by review scores: Only One Nintendo Title Makes The Top Ten, According To Site’s Metascores
- Making a career in games more sustainable: Goodbye Kansas’ Henrik Jonsson on how different corners of the games industry can stop driving away talent and support individuals long-term
- Straight talk on funding — five top tips: Fundamentally Games’ Ella Romanos on forecasts, fees, the value of debt, and why failure can be useful
- Ubisoft partners with blockchain distribution platform Ultra: “[Ubisoft] believes that all blockchain use cases that bring value to players are important to support,” says blockchain initiative director
- Paid subscriptions coming to Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp: Nintendo follows Mario Kart subscription with two tiers for Animal Crossing amounting to $10.98 per month
- Who Leaked ‘Sword And Shield’ Secrets? Pokémon Lawyers Want To Catch ’Em All
- Pokemon Sword and Shield have topped 6 million sales worldwide
- Pokémon Sword & Shield are the fastest-selling games in Switch’s history: Switch duo sells six million copies worldwide in first week of release
- The Witcher 3 continues to sell well as CD Projekt reports rising revenue
- The Witcher 3, Gwent drive revenue growth at CD Projekt: Polish company looks toward strong Q4 with Gwent iOS and The Witcher 3 for Switch
- Mobile developer and tool maker N3twork secures $40 million in funding
- NetEase buys minority stake in Bossa Studios: Deal worth an alleged $30m precedes Bossa’s push into China with the launch of Hogwash
- Coffee Stain invests in Kavalri: Goat Simulator publisher puts money into Equestrian the Game developer as part of initiative to address industry’s gender imbalance
- Candy Crush Soda Saga and Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle hit $2b lifetime revenue – But Dragon Ball reached the milestone faster, according to Sensor Tower estimates
- ‘Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order’ broke multiple sales records for EA: Turns out Star Wars fans love a classic single-player game.
- Jedi: Fallen Order sets records for EA Star Wars titles – Publisher says Respawn’s latest has best two-week digital sales in franchise history, best PC launch sales as well
- Roblox grosses $1 billion in mobile revenue
- Roblox surpasses $1b in lifetime revenue: Sensor Tower: Kid-friendly game creation platform has already grossed $435m so far in 2019
- Analyst: Roblox revenue on mobile alone surpasses $1 billion
- Rebellion has purchased Xenon and Speedball developer The Bitmap Brothers
- Rebellion acquires The Bitmap Brothers: Sniper Elite developer plans to develop new games based on classic IPs from The Bitmap Brothers
- Behaviour Interactive scrapping Deathgarden due to lack of players
- Behaviour Interactive shuts down Deathgarden: Bloodharvest development: This is the second title Behaviour has shuttered this year, after its mobile Westworld game
- Battleborn pulled from digital stores, going offline in 2021
- 2K begins slow sunset of Battleborn: Free-to-play hero shooter will shut down virtual currency in February, game will remain live through January 2021
- Swedish startup Coherence nets $2.5 million to build ‘democratic’ dev platform
- Valve issues string of Steam bans after publishers caught abusing Steamworks
- Steam removes hundreds of games after publishers abuse Steamworks: Russian publisher Dagestan Technology among those affected, although Valve has yet to offer further explanation
- Valve is clearing out the last of its Steam Controller inventory
- Valve discontinues Steam Controller: Ill-fated controller put out to pasture after four years
- The Steam Controller is dead, but its legacy lives on
- Intel granted patent for a new gamepad
- VR would be “a really dark space right now” without Facebook’s money: At Reboot Develop Red, Chet Faliszek reflected on progress in the VR industry since he departed Valve
- ‘Half-Life: Alyx’ Trailer Revealed, Release Date Set for March 2020
- Valve’s Gabe Newell: ‘We’re excited to return to Half-Life, VR has energized the studio’
- First Look: ‘Half-Life: Alyx’ Screenshots Are Classic Valve, with a Decade More Detail
- Valve releasing Source 2 tools alongside Half-Life: Alyx next March
- ‘Half-Life: Alyx’ Will Run on All SteamVR Headsets, Free for Index Owners
- Valve Index is Sold Out in Some Regions Following ‘Half-Life: Alyx’ Announcement
- Source 2 Tools Will Ship with ‘Half-Life: Alyx’ for VR Content from the Modding Community
- Valve shares platform and launch details for VR exclusive Half-Life: Alyx
- Half Life Alyx hits PC VR headsets in March 2020
- Xbox chief: “Nobody’s asking for VR” for Project Scarlett
- Phil Spencer: VR is isolating, isn’t a priority for Project Scarlett
- Hey Surgeon, Is That a HoloLens on Your Head?: Mixed reality displays are entering the operating room, first as surgical planning tools and soon as real-time guides to help doctors zap tumors.
- Beat Saber dev Beat Games acquired by Facebook
- Facebook acquires Beat Games: Beat Saber developer joins Oculus headset maker to continue work on music VR games
- Facebook just bought the developers behind virtual reality mega-hit ‘Beat Saber’ as part of a plan to ‘push VR to new heights’
- Russian dairy cows wear VR glasses for better milk production: Farmers try virtual reality headwear to see if it will help cows calm down and produce more milk.
- SuperData: Russia to surpass France as third-largest games market in Europe – Growth of mobile, esports, and free-to-play PC games expected to offset end of generation slowdown
- DisguisedToast, a top Twitch streamer, is moving to Facebook Gaming
- Facebook Makes First Play In Gaming Streamer Sign-Up Wars With ‘Disguised Toast’
- Hearthstone streamer Jeremy ‘DisguisedToast’ Wang signs Facebook exclusivity deal: Wang follows in the footsteps of several other top streamers departing Twitch in recent months
- Esports Org ‘Rogue’ Launches Latest Accelerator Program For Teen Fortnite Players
- NBA star Tony Parker to be honoured at Esports BAR Cannes: Former San Antonio Spurs player will be given Ambassador award for his activities in esports
- Why Session’s skateboarding design is more Skate than Tony Hawk
- Snapchat’s journey to be a “gaming destination”: Global partnerships lead John Imah offers insight into the early days of Snap Games, and how it fits the company’s broader gaming strategy
- The origins of Out Making Games, the UK’s first games industry LGBTQ+ network: We speak to the group’s founders about its initial success and plans to spread awareness and support in 2020 and beyond
- Mike Pondsmith: “If you want to get somebody to see your point of view, don’t preach” – The veteran designer on adapting to new technology and using games to tackle political and social themes
- Shovel Knight Showdown: Designing a roulette of gameplay
- Reworking the combat system in Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2
- NetEase has purchased a stake in Surgeon Simulator dev Bossa Studios
- Don’t Miss: Designing characters as UI in games like State of Decay
- Don’t Miss: A game dev postmortem of the original BioShock
- Don’t Miss: The legacy of Street Fighter II, in the words of the experts
- Video: Adopting continuous delivery to combat crunch on Sea of Thieves
- Video: How Riot creates new League of Legends champions
- Blog: Handling Unity scene hierarchy and performance
- Blog: What lessons can action games learn from Doom?
- Blog: A trailer analysis of Manifold Garden
- Blog: Combining film and comics to create the noir aesthetic of Interrogation1
- Blog: The community-driven development of Vecter
- Obituary: Stuido Studios co-founder Jose Zambrano
DIGITAL
- Surprised about Mark Zuckerberg’s secret meeting with Trump? Don’t be
- Facebook and Twitter data was exposed to developers through app store bug
- Facebook is building an Instagram-style Close Friends feature: ‘Favorites’ sorts your actual friends from your Facebook acquaintances
- Instagram Campaign Use Grows — But What Could The Removal Of Likes Mean For Creators?
- Instagram’s @bitch Isn’t Your Typical Social Video Aggregator. It Actually Credits Content Creators And Licenses Their Work.
- Singapore Government Tests Out Its Fake News Law Against An Opposition Party Leader
- TikTok issues public apology for suspending the account of the teen behind the viral Chinese takedown video disguised as a makeup tutorial
- YouTube Is Still Struggling To Label Videos From State-Controlled Outlets
- Germany’s CDU, Angela Merkel’s Party Of Fuddy-Duddies, Decides To Join The Cool Kids: Backs Open Standards, Open Source, Open Data, Open APIs — Open Everything
- Google fires four employees at center of worker organization efforts
- Google Photos rolls out manual face tagging: Tutorial, benefits, and a big asterisk
- Google bans microtargeting and “false claims” in political ads: Google’s new policy, like Twitter’s, is a shot across Facebook’s bow.
- Google Permits Sports Betting Advertisements
- Google Updates Its Political Advertising Policies
- Supreme Court to Weigh in on Google-Oracle Copyright Dispute
- A seismic cert – what to watch out for following the Supreme Court’s decision to hear Google v Oracle
- Copyright Troll Mathew Higbee Demands ~$1,000 For Image Only His Team Viewed
- Indiana manipulated report on Amazon worker’s death to lure HQ2, investigation says
- State ignored worker death to lure Amazon business, report says
- Amazon: Cops Can Get Recordings From Ring, Keep Them Forever, And Share Them With Whoever They Want
- Court Says It’s Not Tortious Interference To Report Your Account Or Ask Twitter To Ban You
- Twitter halts plan to remove inactive accounts until it can memorialize dead users: The company apologized for confusion around its plan to remove accounts
- Twitter Just Confirmed A Better Way To Secure Your Account
- Twitter will remove inactive accounts and free up usernames in December: No exact date for when usernames will be available
- When Does a Tweet Fall Afoul of Regulation FD
- Photographer Doubles Down On Tweet Copyright Protection
- The Sketchy, Sketchy Case Of ICANN Execs And Self-Dealing Regarding The .Org Domain
- Love Baby Yoda, you must
- People can’t stop sharing Baby Yoda memes (and we don’t want them to)
- Baby Yoda GIFs Removed Over Disney Copyright Issues: Leave our precious powerful alien infant alone!
- Adorable ‘Baby Yoda’ GIFs return after Giphy mix-up: Disney wasn’t responsible for removing the cute little scamp.
- Disney+’s The Mandalorian joins a long list of fake HDR content, analysis finds
- Viacom’s Pluto TV Launches 24-Hour AwesomenessTV Channel In The U.K.
- Former Devin Nunes’ Aide Uses Nunes’ Lawyer To File SLAPP Suit Against Politico
- Alexander Vindman Now Threatens Bogus SLAPP Suit Against Fox News & Laura Ingraham
- Google Will No Longer Allow Political Ad Targeting Based On Party Affiliation, Voter Records
- Google Assistant can now navigate websites, book movie tickets
- Google will pay $1.5 million for the most severe Android exploits
- Google is killing Google Cloud Print
- Rehearing Briefs in Enigma Software v. Malwarebytes (Eric Goldman)
- Review Services Aren’t Liable for Removing Business Profiles (and Associated Reviews)–PCS v. HomeAdvisor (Eric Goldman)
- More Evidence That Print-on-Demand Vendors May Be Doomed–Greg Young Publishing v. Zazzle (Eric Goldman)
- Be careful with your AdWords: The German Federal Court of Justice sets a limit on the use of keywords for online advertising
- Content and Conduct: How English Wikipedia Moderates Harmful Speech
- Why can’t Internet companies stop awful content? – Opinion: Section 230 already got the balance right.
- Sacha Baron Cohen Is Wrong About Social Media, Wrong About Section 230… And Even Wrong About His Own Comedy
- Potential Amendments To CDA Section 230 Relating to Immunity Provided To Internet Intermediaries
- Despite clear warnings, Europe is out of IP addresses—again
- CCPA – Adtech Update
- The Impact of Uber Eats, SkipTheDishes, and Other Online Ordering and Delivery Platforms on your Franchise Agreement
- Netflix Starts To Harden Its Stance On Password Sharing
- Netflix Clinches More K-Dramas In Multiyear Deals With Studio Dragon, JTBC
- Netflix cancels its Mystery Science Theater 3000 revival
- The Librem 5 has been “shipping” for a month—but not to backers
- Bill Nye, Casey Neistat, iJustine Among Guests For Marques Brownlee’s YouTube Original ‘Retro Tech’
- YouTube Test Matching “Edgy” Creators And Advertisers Has Resulted In Hundreds Of Thousands In Ad Dollars
- YouTube Launches Largest ‘Masthead’ Ad Format On TV Screens Globally
- YouTube Powerhouse ‘Bon Appétit’ Launches Linear Channel On Samsung TV Plus
- YouTube Millionaires: Sierra Schultzzie Tries It All On In Her Adventurous, Body-Positive Videos
- ‘Ryan’s World’ Continues Global Domination With Japanese-Language YouTube Hub
- Epidemic Sound, A Music Licensor For Creators, Onboards YouTube, Spotify Vet Kate Vale
- Spotify Faces Lawsuit From Indie Music Company Claiming Mistreatment
- Just in case you didn’t get the message – Apple issues SEP FRAND statement
- Apple and Intel Sue SoftBank-Funded Patent Troll, Claiming Antitrust Violations For Patent Trolling
- Apple cancels theatrical premiere of its Oscar hopeful, The Banker
- Apple Pulls “The Banker” From Premiere After Sexual Abuse Claims Against Real-Life Subject’s Son
- To cut down on bugs, Apple is changing how it develops its software
- ‘Rick And Morty’, Adult Swim Drive Social Video Views Amid Show’s Highly-Anticipated Return
- Liza Koshy’s Latest Hosting Gig Is A Dance Competition Series For Quibi
- Hey influencers! The FTC is talking to you – new guidance from the FTC
- FTC Releases Sponsorship Disclosure Guide for Influencers on Social Media
- Influencer Disclosure Update 101, Courtesy of the FTC
- Influencer Marketing Pioneer ‘Best Fiends’ Taps Joey Graceffa, LaBrant Fam For Latest Launch
- How MagicLinks Is Measuring Influencers’ Sales Data To Help Them Know Their Worth
- UTA Signs Viral TikTok Star Brittany ‘Kombucha Girl’ Tomlinson (Exclusive)
- Insights: College Sports Is About To Unleash An Influencer Deluge
- Shane Dawson Concludes Jeffree Star Series With 142 Million Collective Views
- Browser Extension ‘Honey’, A Frequent Shane Dawson And MrBeast Sponsor, Acquired For $4 Billion
- Donut Media Drives In Creators MatPat, Linus Tech Tips, Gus Johnson, ChrisFix For Kia Challenge Series
- Internet radio streams and the communication to the public right in Warner Music & Sony Music v TuneIn Inc.
- Spotify’s Plans For Podcast Domination Involve Deals With Ryland Adams, Lele Pons
- Spotify Awards to Debut in 2020, Geared to Mexico & Latin America
- Spotify Is Launching Its Own Music Awards, Based on Streaming Data
- Understanding Regulation of Cookies
- Facebook posts that revealed client info bring public reprimand for MA lawyer
- WayBack machine, a valid tool to verify a prior version of a web page
- Private equity firm buys .org domain months after ICANN lifted price caps
- The right T-shirt may increase medical implant’s battery life
- Legal statement on cryptoassets and smart contracts
- Cryptoassets: UK Jurisdiction Taskforce Publishes Statement
- Legal statement on cryptoassets and smart contracts – the breakdown
- Blockchain Basics: What GCs Need to Know About the Disruptive Technology
- What does the FBI regard as the main cybercrimes? A closer look at the typologies
- Voltage v. Salna + ~55,000 – Costs Implications of Dismissal of Reverse Class Action Certification Motion (Howard Knopf)
- Website “Blocking Orders” Now Available In Canada
- Can Canadian Courts Issue Site-Blocking Orders?
- Federal Court Issues Site-Blocking Order for ISPs
- Teksavvy Fights Back Against GoldTV Website Blocking Order – Interveners: Start Your Engines (Howard Knopf)
- Canadian Copyright Website Blocking Underway As TekSavvy Appeals Federal Court Ruling (Michael Geist)
- The Curious Case Of The Bogus CC License On A 3D Scan Of A 3000-Year-Old Bust Of Nefertiti
- Rana Foroohar On How Tech Lost Its Way
- Kate Klonick On Facebook’s Oversight Board
- Digital assets and estate planning
- Is it time to turn away from touchscreens in our cars?
- Ubuntu 19.10: It’s fast, like “make old hardware feel new” fast
A.I.
- NYC wants a chief algorithm officer to counter bias, build transparency
- When Innovation Creates: Additional Developments in Artificial Intelligence at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
- Can artificial intelligence systems patent their inventions?
- “The UK Patents Act leaves no doubt that an inventor is a person…”
- Sony establishes AI R&D division: New organisation will have offices in Japan, the US and Europe
- FaceIt asking players to help train Minerva AI in fairly tackling toxicity: Upcoming Justice update will allow Counter-Strike community to review cases flagged by the machine learning tool
- To secure a safer future for AI, we need the benefit of a female perspective
- How A.I. Invoice Review Actually Works (Legal Tech Lesson)
- How will AI transform the management of Intellectual Property?
- Intel Core i9-10980XE—a step forward for AI, a step back for everything else
COMMUNICATIONS
- Competition Bureau Continues Advocacy on Telecom Competition and Regulation
- Cable Execs Now Falsely Claiming Cord Cutting Is Slowing Down
- Huawei Files SLAPP Suits In France Against Critics Who Highlighted The Company’s Ties To The Chinese Government
- FCC finalizes ban on Huawei and ZTE equipment in Universal Service Fund
- FCC Adopts Order Restricting USF Funding on Huawei/ZTE; Possible Future Ban on All Equipment
- FCC Proposes Rules Eliminating Outdated Network Unbundling/Resale Requirements
- FCC Proposes Rules to Remove Bad Actors from Federally-Funded Programs
- Third Circuit Denies Petition for Rehearing of Decision Overturning FCC Ownership Rule Changes
- Empty T-Mobile Promises Convince Texas To Back Off Merger Lawsuit
- Robocall Legislation Likely to Move Forward for White House Approval
- NAB Seeks Reconsideration of FCC’s Clarification of Issue Advertising Public Disclosure Requirements – Rules Remain in Effect Though Some Clarification Provided
- AT&T Exec Insists That No Broadband Company Is Violating Net Neutrality Even Though AT&T Is Absolutely Violating Net Neutrality
- At launch, AT&T’s real 5G will only be as fast as its fake 5G
- The Washington Post And AT&T Team Up To Over-hype 5G
- Verizon’s new 5G coverage maps show just how sparse the network is
- DOD joins fight against 5G spectrum proposal, citing risks to GPS
- MediaTek and Intel team up to bring 5G networking to laptops and PCs
- University of London v Cornerstone Telecommunications Infrastructure Limited [2019] EWCA Civ 2075
- Telecoms: Court of Appeal ruling on operator’s right to survey
PRIVACY
- Suspect can’t be compelled to reveal “64-character” password, court rules
- Pennsylvania Supreme Court Says Compelled Password Production Violates The Fifth Amendment
- California Makes $50 Million Annually Selling Your DMV Data
- EU’s High Court Issues Important Opinion on Website Cookie Consent
- EU Tells US: Ban Strong Encryption, And Privacy Shield Data Sharing Agreement Could Be At Risk
- Senate takes another stab at privacy law with proposed COPRA bill
- Law Enforcement Agencies Bumping Up Demands For Uber Customers’ Data
- A notorious Iranian hacking crew is targeting industrial control systems
- 2.2 Million GateHub and RuneScape Passwords Compromised
- Scammers try a new way to steal online shoppers’ payment-card data
- Louisiana was hit by Ryuk, triggering another c
- IIROC introduces mandatory cyber breach reporting
- FedEx securities class action following the NotPetya cyberattack – implications for D&O insurance
- Preparing for the California Consumer Privacy Act
- States Set to Regulate the Internet of Things (IoT)
- GDPR Privacy FAQs: Which supervisory authorities have released guidance on compliance with European cookie laws?
- GDPR Privacy FAQs: What are the major differences between the Information Commissioner’s Office guidance on cookies and the CNIL’s guidance on cookies?
- GDPR Privacy FAQs: Can organizations use “terms and conditions” consent to gain consent to the deployment of cookies?
- IP and data protection for fintech businesses in United Kingdom
- Increased Ransomware Attacks Affecting All Industries
- Hacker’s paradise: Louisiana’s ransomware disaster far from over
- Senator Cantwell Releases Another Federal Privacy Law That Won’t Go Anywhere And Doesn’t Deal With Actual Issues
- Governments Are Feeding on Facebook Data: Report Shows Recent Rise in Official Requests for User Information
CREATIVITY
- Lawyer With Neo-Nazi Ties Loses Defamation Lawsuit Against SPLC For Calling Him A Neo-Nazi
- This Week In Free Speech Hypocrites: ‘Free Speech’ Supporter Sheila Gunn Reid Gleefully Sues Someone For Calling Her A Neo-Nazi
- Three Media Corporations Avoid Defamation Liability in Suit Brought by Joseph Arpaio
- Supreme Court allows climate scientist’s defamation case to proceed
- Australian Attorney General Wants To Make The Country’s Defamation Law Even Worse
- The Federal Circuit’s Determination That Administrative Patent Judges are Unconstitutionally Appointed
- The LawBytes Podcast, Episode 33: “Canadian Patenting is Not Going to Drive Anything” – Aidan Hollis on New Research on Patents and Innovation (Michael Geist)(
- Banksy – showing “use” of his trademark or attempting to avoid evidential requirements of copyright law?
- Nirvana Smiling as Motion to Dismiss Its Copyright and Trademark Claims is Denied
- Beer Trademarks At Record High In UK As The Locking Up Of Language Continues To Boom
- Nirvana, LLC v. Marc Jacobs International, LLC
- Betty, Inc. v. PepsiCo, Inc.: District dismisses ad agency’s copyright infringement and breach of contract lawsuit accusing PepsiCo of copying concepts from rejected pitch for 2016 Super Bowl commercial.
- Court of Appeal summarises law of joint authorship – Kogan v Martin
- Transfer of “Know-How” includes Copyrights
- The End Of Ownership, Military Edition: Even The US Military Can’t Fix Its Own Equipment Without Right To Repair Laws
Jon
News of the Week; November 20, 2019
GAMES
- Game On: FaZe Clan’s $20 Million Lawsuit Against eSports Gamer Will Continue
- To find new games, more women value social circles, while men look to influencers – Newzoo: More women than men tend to value games that are easy to pick up and play quickly
- Bobby Kotick: Games are not a platform for my political views
- ‘Perpetual franchises’ are key to Activision Blizzard’s strategy, says CEO Kotick
- Google’s Stadia Game Streaming Service Arrives To A Collective ‘Meh’
- Google Stadia Launch Review: A Technical, Conceptual Disaster
- Google Stadia review: Gaming’s streaming future isn’t here yet
- Google Stadia launch review: Gaming’s “future” looks rough in the present
- Google Stadia review — It works, but it doesn’t matter
- Stadia delivers on low-latency, high quality cloud gaming – but is that enough?
- Unplayable at times, magical in others: Stadia’s dream is still in the clouds
- Google Stadia will be missing many features for Monday’s launch
- Google Stadia will launch without key features: Reddit AMA confirms that streaming service will not have Family Sharing, achievements, 4K for PC or Buddy Pass at launch
- Will Google’s Stadia Game Streaming Platform Be A Dud?
- Google Stadia nearly doubles launch lineup to 22 games on eve of debut
- Google expands today’s Stadia’s launch lineup to 22 games
- Google expands Stadia launch lineup to 22 titles right before launch
- Stadia nearly doubles line-up just days before launch: Ten titles pulled forward to November 19 as Google gears up to take streaming service live
- Stadia what? Xbox game streaming will become part of Game Pass in 2020
- Finalists named in Google’s annual Change the Game Design Challenge
- Xbox Game Pass subscriptions have doubled as its library continues to grow
- Project xCloud preview sees 50 more games, hits Windows 10 in 2020
- Xbox: “People are using xCloud to create couch co-op” – Microsoft’s xCloud leaders discuss what they’ve learned — and still need to learn — about game streaming
- From Project xCloud to New Rare Studio Game: Everything Revealed at Microsoft’s X019 Event
- Logitech has made an expansive accessory kit for the Xbox Adaptive Controller
- Logitech’s $100 Adaptive Gaming Kit finishes what Xbox’s XAC started: “People buy the XAC, then ask, ‘what should go with this? ’” Logitech made the answer.
- PlayStation has 100 million reasons to feel confident | Opinion: X019 saw Microsoft ready for the next generation, but the power remains with PlayStation
- Sony controller patent points to potential PS5 permutations
- Apple Arcade may be accelerating premium game decline, but not by much: Apple’s subscription service coincided with lower premium revenue during launch month, but sales have already been declining for years
- Games and datacenter chips drive Nvidia’s Q3 revenue to $3.01 billion
- Forge of Empires dev InnoGames surpasses $1 billion revenue
- InnoGames’ lifetime revenues pass €1bn: More than half of this came from Forge of Empires, company has grown revenues every year since 2007
- Report: BioWare planning revitalizing overhaul for Anthem
- Sources: BioWare Plans A Complete Overhaul For Anthem
- NPD: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is the best-selling game of 2019 so far – The Switch remains the best-selling console of the year so far in the US
- Call of Duty and Mario Kart front a siege of PC and console IP on mobile: Sensor Tower looks back on a busy month in the mobile charts, and reflects on the growing influence of console and PC brands
- Call of Duty tops EMEAA chart for third straight week: Death Stranding debuts in second spot on the charts as Need for Speed Heat races into third place
- UK Charts: Pokémon Sword and Shield post huge opening weekend sales – But the new games can’t top Sun and Moon
- Report: Pokemon Sword and Shield have sold over 1.36 million retail copies in Japan
- Pokemon Sword and Shield sold 1.36m retail copies in three days in Japan: Sales reportedly mark the best opening week a Nintendo Switch title has had in Japan so far
- Nintendo is bringing paid subscriptions to Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp
- Paid subscriptions coming to Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp – Nintendo follows Mario Kart subscription with two tiers for Animal Crossing amounting to $10.98 per month
- A Nintendo designer reviews your Super Mario Maker 2 levels
- Analyst: Borderlands 3, NBA 2K20 helped 2K dominate online chatter in Q3
- 2K Games apologises after social media feeds were hijacked on Friday: Publisher lost control of official Twitter account, along with pages for WWE, Borderlands, and Civilization
- Sustained mobile portfolio brings continued growth for NetEase in Q3: Chinese mobile giant sees year-over-year increases in net revenue and profit amid new releases, WoW Classic launch in China
- Southeast Asia is the world’s fastest-growing mobile games market – Newzoo: Mobile revenue expected to be up 17% in 2019 to $2.6 billion, nearly 70% of the region’s total games revenue
- Niko Partners: Southeast Asia’s $5 billion game market expected to grow to $8.3 billion in 2023
- Mobile party app Bunch nets $3.85M from Supercell, Tencent, and others
- Bunch raises $3.85m toward development, expanded partnerships: Supercell, Tencent, and Riot Games among investors in mobile game chat and party app
- Net profit up 53.7% as Netmarble closes Q3
- New studio Dream Games raises $7.5 million to fuel mobile game development
- Dream Games raises $7.5m to develop casual puzzle titles: Investment in Turkish studio made by Makers Fund, Balderton Capital
- German government to continue $55 million game development fund
- Mythical Games closes $19m funding round
- Mobile party app Bunch nets $3.85M from Supercell, Tencent, and others
- Take-Two leads $20 million funding round into Spellbreak developer Proletariat
- Proletariat raises $20m for self-publishing, expansion: Spellbreak developer nets investment from Take-Two as it ramps up development
- Rune II publisher Ragnarok ‘shocked’ by closure of dev Human Head Studios
- Rune II publisher “shocked” by Human Head closure: Ragnarok Game confirmed it will continue to support Rune II and launch on other PC platforms in 2020
- Net game sales up 117% at THQ Nordic parent Embracer Group
- Wreckfest drives games revenue up 117% at Embracer Group: Company formerly known as THQ Nordic looks ahead to a Q3 with Darksiders and Shenmue 3
- How Koch Media is ensuring classic brand comebacks are worth the wait: From Shenmue III to TimeSplitters, CEO Klemens Kundratitz discusses the publisher’s upcoming line-up
- Goodbye Kansas grabs 45 percent stake in Norwegian studio Misc Games
- Goodbye Kansas Game Invest now owns 45% of Misc Games: Minority stake in ship simulation dev acquired in two separate deals
- Tencent grabs 10 percent stake in UK game company Sumo Group
- Revenue up at Paradox as it maintains focus on games with ‘long lifespans and strong IPs’
- Rebellion launches board games division: UK developer and publisher will kick off new business with tabletop version of Sniper Elite
- LG and Twitch Reveal Streaming Partnership with Pokimane
- FaZe Clan’s First Deaf, Female Gamer — 14-Year-Old ‘Ewok’ — Is Latest Twitch Departee To Sign With Mixer
- Faze Ewok is the latest streamer to jump ship from Twitch: She’s set to stream exclusively on Mixer
- FaZe Clan To Open First Storefront, Aims To Be Esports’ Supreme
- Esports Org 100 Thieves Adds Fortnite Pros ‘Falconer’, ‘Grandma’ To Growing Roster
- esports – gearing up to play in the pro leagues!
- Esports gamers experience same stressors as pro athletes, study finds
- The beauty of the indie spin-off: Binding of Isaac developer Edmund McMillen explains how and why he followed up the action game with a deckbuilding puzzle prequel
- Blog: Going indie in Syria
- Blog: Understanding Agile game development – Part 1
- Blog: Designing interesting decisions in games (and when not to)
- Blog: A guide to scrappy social media management
- The Game Theorists To Host Nine-Hour Stream For St. Jude With Markiplier, Colleen Ballinger, More
- Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Review – A Good Feeling About This
- Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order review: the Star Wars game no one was expecting – Jedi Fallen Order focuses on exploration, with moments of explosive combat
- Jedi Fallen Order Shows That A Good Star Wars Game Doesn’t Have To Be Original: Part Zelda, part Tomb Raider, part Uncharted – all Star Wars
- Jedi: Fallen Order game review: More like, the Force goes back to sleep
- Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order: Critical Consensus – Respawn Entertainment delivers on the experience of being a Jedi, critics say, but did the new film’s imminent release cause EA to push the game out early?
- Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky’s design lessons from The Outer Worlds
- Steam’s online couch co-op feature Remote Play Together leaves beta
- Genre viability on Steam and other trends – An analysis using review count
- How players shop during a Steam sale: An in-depth analysis
- Valve is making a new VR Half-Life game
- Half-Life: Alyx: What we know about Valve’s upcoming full-length VR game
- Oculus Link launches in beta, opening Rift games up to Quest owners
- Oculus Link for PC is live: Everything we know about cables, GPU support [Updated]
- John Carmack steps down as Oculus CTO to explore artificial intelligence
- John Carmack moves to “consulting CTO” role at Oculus: Industry veteran will focus on AI, with Oculus now taking a “modest slice” of his time
- Oculus, Unity partner on free VR development course: 20+ hour course will teach VR build and launch best practices
- Snapchat Pledges $750,000 To Support AR Influencers In 2020
- Snapchat Will Invest $750,000 For AR Influencers To Create New AR Lenses
- Mixed reality game streaming platform LIV secures $2.6 million in funding
- New 3D display combines visuals, haptic feedback, and sound: A small sphere levitated on sound can be moved around fast enough to be a display.
- How Mario 64 inspired that horrible goose’s moveset
- What went into Apex Legends’ surprise launch?: Respawn’s Arturo Castro and Drew McCoy explain how they made and marketed a Titanfall game with none of the key elements of Titanfall
- Ars talks fighting games with Guilty Gear creator Daisuke Ishiwatari
- Don’t Miss: Translating the humor & tone of Yakuza games for the West
- Don’t Miss: Shenmue director Yu Suzuki shares his unique approach to game design
- Don’t Miss: The secrets of great voice acting
- Don’t Miss: How Neopets has influenced a generation of game developers
- Video: Inside Far Cry Primal’s character pipeline and customization tech
- Video: Top game composers share hard-won advice and lessons learned
- Video: Inside the art design of Firewatch
- Video: Game design insights from the GDC 2019 Failure Workshop
- Video: How Rockstar tackles environment design as spatial cinematography
- The never-ending journey of No Man’s Sky – Why I Love: EA Vancouver games researcher James Berg loses himself in Hello Games’ vast universe
- Designing the drunken dialogue puzzles in Night School Studio’s Afterparty
- Charity streaming event Desert Bus for Hope surpasses $6 million in lifetime donations
- Bungie raises $1.6 million for charity through Game2give pledge drive
- U.S. Patent no. 10,252,167: Location graph adapted video games
- Smash Bros, Death Stranding among GOTY nominees for The Game Awards 2019
- EverQuest lead producer and designer Brad McQuaid has passed away
- Obituary: Everquest designer and MMORPG vet Brad McQuaid
DIGITAL
- TikTok Head Says He’s “Quite Optimistic” About U.S. National Security Probe
- TikTok Hits 1.5 Billion Total Downloads, Driven By Explosive Growth In India
- TikTok Taps In Social Shopping Tools, Letting (Some) Users Add Buy Links To Bios And Videos
- Federal Court Short-Circuits Voltage Pictures’ Canadian File Sharing Class Action Copyright Lawsuit Strategy (Michael Geist)
- Supreme Court agrees to review disastrous ruling on API copyrights
- Big News: Supreme Court To Hear Google v. Oracle Case About API And Copyright
- Site blocking orders come to Canada: GoldTV.biz
- Federal Court issues landmark website-blocking injunction with significant implications for ISPs
- Fool’s Gold: Why a Federal Court Judge Was Wrong To Issue a Website Blocking Order Against GoldTV (Michael Geist)
- Bell Media Inc. Groupe TVA Inc. Rogers Media Inc. v. goldtv.biz goldtv.ca (Federal Court, November 15, 2019)
- More Evidence That IP Law Protects Individual Emoji Depictions–Nirvana v. Marc Jacobs (Eric Goldman)
- Rules of the game? Digital political campaigning for the 2019 UK general election
- Judge Says The FBI Can’t Keep Refusing To Confirm Or Deny The Existence Of Social Media Monitoring Documents
- Google search results have more human help than you think, report finds: Google is sometimes hands-on under the hood, and investigators want to know more.
- How Google Interferes With Its Search Algorithms and Changes Your Results: The internet giant uses blacklists, algorithm tweaks and an army of contractors to shape what you see
- Google outlines plans for mainline Linux kernel support in Android
- The Ethical Dilemma at the Heart of Big Tech Companies
- Microsoft says yes to future encrypted DNS requests in Windows
- Twitter Releases New Global Political Advertising Policy
- Twitter’s ban on paid political advertisement comes into effect
- You might be able to schedule tweets from Twitter’s web app starting today: You used to have to use Tweetdeck or another service
- Evan Spiegel Says Snapchat Has A Team That Fact-Checks All Political Ads
- Snapchat Introduces Extended Play Commercials: The 6-second non-skip format still applies, but video can run up to 3 minutes
- Andrew Yang’s Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Tech Policy
- Disney+ Has a Hacking Problem
- The version of Star Wars on Disney+ changes the canon once again: Han Solo vs. Greedo might look different than it did in 1977. And 2004. And 2011.
- Disney+ Promises To Fix Cropped Episodes Of ‘The Simpsons,’ But That’s Not Users’ Only Issue
- Hulu, Which Reportedly Has Nation’s Most-Subscribed Skinny Bundle, Institutes $10 Price Hike
- Online content and take down requirements- what are the boundaries?
- Narcos Defeats Yet Another Silly Copyright Lawsuit
- Court Sanctions Defendant for Failure to Preserve Text Messages in Copyright Infringement Suit Brought by Prince’s Estate
- Court Finds Communications Decency Act Protects Tumblr Against Revenge Porn Claim
- Unrelenting “ad blocker” plasters users with—you guessed it—ads
- Elsevier Gets Sci-Hub And LibGen Blocked In Austria, Thereby Promoting The Use Of VPNs And Tor In The Country
- Giant Publisher Macmillan Goes To War Against Libraries
- David Dobrik Nabs People’s ‘Sexiest Man Alive’ Honors, People’s Choice Award
- David Dobrik Says Monthly YouTube Ad Earnings Went From $275,000 To $2,000 In Two Years
- Logan Paul Filing Appeal With Athletic Commission After KSI Boxing Defeat: “I Don’t Think I Lost”
- Studio71 UK Talent Firm ‘Moxie’ Signs Pro-Biker Ryan Taylor, Comedian Munya Chawawa, More
- Evangelical ‘Financial Whiz’ Who Apparently Hates Gossip, Sues YouTuber For Criticism
- James Charles To Host YouTube’s First Beauty Influencer Competition Series
- Manny MUA, FouseyTube, Andrea Russett Tapped For Season 2 Of ‘The Reality House’
- ICYMI: FTC Summarizes Existing Influencer Rules
- Influencing the Influencers: FTC Staff Release “Disclosures 101” Guidance for Online Endorsers
- Spreading The Influence: FTC Issues New Guidance for Influencers
- Senators ask if Facebook really lets users opt out of location tracking
- Facebook Claims Users Sign Up Because They Want To See Personalized Ads, Max Schrems Disagrees — And Usually Wins These GDPR Arguments
- Facebook Seeks Post-Spokeo Review of Biometric Privacy Class Action
- Facebook Levels Up Charity Livestreaming Tools, Opening Them To All Partner Creators
- Facebook quietly built “Popular Photos”, an in-app Instagram
- Facebook gets into the meme-making biz with experimental Whale app: The app was quietly released in Canada last week
- Pay Data Pitfalls: What We Can Learn From Facebook’s Discrimination Case
- Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is the single leading source of anti-vax ads on Facebook
- Is it Time to Prioritize Making Websites and Mobile Apps Accessible?
- We Need to Fix Online Advertising. All of It.: For the sake of democracy.
- Troll Lawyer Shows Up In Court To Explain His ‘Dead Grandfather’ Excuse, Gets His ‘Fitness To Practice’ Questioned By The Judge
- Should Doxxing Be Illegal?
- Google’s acquisition of Fitbit proves that data is king
- Google Maps translate feature will speak local place-names
- Google gives up on US carriers, will roll out its own RCS chat system
- Google Pixel 4 review—Overpriced, uncompetitive, and out of touch
- Google Earth gets content creation tools for geography-focused presentations
- InterDigital reveals new licensing deal with Google secured through mystery platform
- YouTube’s Top 5 Most-Viewed Music Videos Of 2019 All Belong To Latino Artists
- Japanese Hotel Charges Guests $1 If They Agree To Stream Their Stays For 24 Hours
- Following Positive Feedback, Instagram Expands Test Of Hidden ‘Like’ Counts Globally
- Condé Nast Reveals Latest IGTV Slate Amid Revamped Ad Strategy
- Instagram tests hiding Like counts globally
- Apple plans a Prime-like subscription bundle, but that has News+ publishers worried
- Apple bans vaping apps from the iOS App Store
- No, Apple isn’t opening a new manufacturing plant in Texas
- Insurer Must Face Email Spoofing Lawsuit
- Spotify confirms it’s testing real-time lyrics synced to music
- Spotify’s free music service will now stream on Alexa devices, plus Bose and Sonos smart speakers
- Spotify will now make a road trip playlist for you: It’s not as frighteningly accurate as the Daily Mix playlists, though
- Spotify turns its personalization technology to podcasts with launch of Your Daily Podcasts
- Amazon makes its music streaming service free with ads
- It’s the user’s fault if a Ring camera violates your privacy, Amazon says
- AMS Neve vs. Heritage Audio: What does the CJEU ruling mean for online infringement cases?
- The LawBytes Podcast, Episode 32: Reflections from the Open Source Member of Parliament – A Conversation with Ex-MP David Graham (Michael Geist)
- Masnick’s Impossibility Theorem: Content Moderation At Scale Is Impossible To Do Well
- Shipping Firms Pilot Blockchain, New Crypto Payment Gateways and Products, Wyoming Announces Crypto Custody Rules
- Financial Institutions and D&O International Review – Facebook’s Libra: watershed moment for digital currencies?
- Patreon Now Counts 4 Million Patrons That Have Paid Creators $1 Billion To Date
- Every Tech Company Wants to Be a Bank – Someday, At Least: Apple, Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Uber are all eyeing financial services as the next frontier. Getting there might take some work.
- IBM, Microsoft, the Linux Foundation and OIN join forces to counter open source threat
- Price Parity Clauses and Online Platforms: Is There a New Way Forward?
- Online intermediaries: Fresh guidance from the CJEU on the scope of the E-Commerce Directive
- “Where the Wi-Fi sucks” is where a new wireless protocol does its magic
- Should The Big Tech Companies Voluntarily Fund The Journalism Business?
A.I.
- Deepfakes are already breaking democracy. Just ask any woman: It doesn’t take a faked prime ministerial address to threaten the democratic process
- What should newsrooms do about deepfakes? These three things, for starters
- Microsoft sends a new kind of AI processor into the cloud
- Blog: Automating machine learning for mobile games
- Google’s FreddieMeter AI Experiment rates how well you sing ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’
- Algorithms were supposed to make Virginia judges fairer. What happened was far more complicated.
- Improving autonomous autos by having them guess which humans are selfish
- Protecting AI-Created Works – US seeking comments on copyright. What about Canada?
- Request for Comments on Intellectual Property Protection for Artificial Intelligence Innovation
- Will AI replace IP attorneys?
- AI & Privacy: PrActIcal AdvIce for OrgAnIzAtIons
- Capital One Asks the FCC To Make It Easier For You Communicate With its Very Polite Texting Robot: Here’s Why That’s a Good Thing
- Delaware Court Allows Stockholder To Inspect AI Company’s Books
- Write AI code once, run anywhere—it’s not Java, it’s Intel’s oneAPI
COMMUNICATIONS
- The US gives Huawei its third 90-day support exemption from export ban
- Apathy Isn’t A Business Model: Major US Telcos Teeter Toward Bankruptcy
- Comcast trying to drive local sports network out of business, lawsuit says
- 46 Cities Sue The FCC For Trampling Their Rights
- FCC sued by dozens of cities after voting to kill local fees and rules
- Congress Says The FCC Is Trying To Run Out The Clock On Wireless Location Data Scandals
- FCC Announces Schedule for Transition to Annual Children’s Television Reports
- Ajit Pai Does a Good Thing As He Pushes For Public C Band Auction
- Who is leading the 5G patent race?
- PSA: DirectTV Pushes Back By Mentioning All The Refunds For Blackouts Its Issued… To Customers That Asked
- 11th Cir. Reverses Class Cert. in DIRECT TV; Says “Fairly Traceable” Analysis Has Some Bite Under Art. III
- 11th Circuit vacates class certification in TCPA action against satellite TV provider
- Clarification of the Electronic Communications Code
- Federal robocall legislation: “agreement in principle”
- Federal robocall legislation update
- As DirecTV tanks, AT&T says it will “re-bundle” TV with HBO Max
- AT&T to Pay $60 Million to Settle Dispute Over “Unlimited” Claims
- John Legere leaving T-Mobile after 7 fun years of bashing AT&T and Verizon
- Knowing What Happens Next, T-Mobile CEO Legere Heads For The Exit
PRIVACY
- Federal Court Says ICE, CBP’s Suspicionless Searches Of Electronic Devices Is Unconstitutional
- Supreme Court’s Warrant Requirement For Cell Site Location Info Apparently Killed Another Domestic Surveillance Program
- Cops put GPS tracker on man’s car, charge him with theft for removing it
- Attorney General Calls FOIA Requests ‘Harassment’ During Long Rant About How Much It Sucks To Be Running The Nation
- Password data for ~2.2 million users of currency and gaming sites dumped online
- Nikki Haley lost her password, so she sent confidential info over unclassified system
- Impeachment hearing reveals major White House phone security fail
- Impeachment Hearings Highlight More Trump Phone OPSEC Failures
- FTC head asks Congress for real privacy laws he can enforce
- New EDPB guidelines on processing personal data through video devices
- Think of the children: FBI sought Interpol statement against end-to-end crypto
- Official Monero website is hacked to deliver currency-stealing malware
- How Did A Hacker Allegedly Access A Million Customers’ Personal Data? Let the FTC Count the Ways.
- Court Provides Guidance on What Constitutes “Telemarketing” to Residential Phone Numbers
- What the newly released Checkra1n jailbreak means for iDevice security
- Beware of PureLocker Ransomware
- Legal Aspects of Managing Data
- Privacy Policy Requirements
- Leveraging open source intelligence for cyber threat modeling
- Watch: Cyber threats in the Internet of Things
- Brexit and data protection: What to do next (when you don’t know what’s happening next)
- GDPR Enforcement Update: Can European Union Authorities Enforce Their Laws On U.S.-Based Companies?
- Interpol Confirms, Denies It’s Against Strong Encryption
- Google & Samsung fix Android spying flaw. Other makers may still be vulnerable
CREATIVITY
- Court To Racist Douchebags: It’s Not Defamatory For A Newspaper To Call You ‘Racist Douchebags’
- Journalists Publish List Of Convicted Cops The State’s Attorney General Said Was Illegal For Them To Have
- Taylor Swift says she’s been stopped from performing her own music on TV by Scooter Braun.
- Taylor Swift says she’s being blocked from singing her songs at American Music Awards
- Taylor Swift’s fight with Big Machine is getting support from Elizabeth Warren and AOC
- Leave Taylor Alone! Why Swift Action Is Needed Now
- Rap Song, Video Trigger Sharon Stone Lawsuit
- Bullock, DeGeneres Fight ‘Celebrity Endorsement Theft Industry’
- The Ins and Outs of Canadian Copyright: Movies and the real and substantial connection test
- Universal Music Claims Copyright Over Newly Public Domain ‘Yes! We Have No Bananas’
- Music Collection Org: Revenues Are Booming… And That’s Proof Why We Need Even More Draconian Copyright Laws
- Auction of ‘kidnapped’ Banksy work reignites bitter feud
- Restrictive Covenants Do Not Inhibit Free Speech
- Needless Trademark Spat In Canada At Least Has Exactly As Polite Ending As You’d Expect
- Supreme Court to Hear Dot-Com Trademark Issue
- Trade Marks – where to sue when infringement occurs online
- Running an International Prize Promotion Without Breaking the Law
- How to defend yourself in case the artwork you bought at auction does not match its pre-sale description?
Jon
Implications of Forthcoming YouTube Policy Updates on Gaming Content
YouTube is looking to update their policies so as to better differentiate between real-world violence and gaming violence. In her quarterly letter, the platform’s CEO said the policy changes look to include fewer restrictions on violence in gaming content and matching interested advertisers with ‘edgier content’.
The existing policy has seen a crackdown on violent and “mature” content, which is often prone to demonetisation or being flagged for removal. At the moment, footage of real-world violence and simulated graphic violence in video games are treated the same on the platforms. This has led to frustration among YouTubers who produce gaming content, as they have been less likely to receive ad revenue unless they were playing something obviously family friendly. Perhaps the new policies to come will be beneficial to YouTubers who want to produce more adult-oriented gaming content.
The quarterly letter also addressed other issues including:
- Changes to treatment of data for children’s content as part of a settlement YouTube made back in September with the US FTC over violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (‘COPPA’), including requirements for creators to mark videos directed at kids;
- Progress in relatino to addressing aggressive copyright claims on the platform by rightsholders, especially for short music clips in monetised videos;
- Securing liability protections under the EU Copyright Directive, which is now being implemented into member-states’ national laws;
- Expansion of YouTube’s Self Certification pilot to enable content creators to self-report how their videos comply with ad policies.
All in all, quite a few interesting developments look to be coming to YouTube; we’ll have to wait and see how things unfold. Read the CEO’s letter in this blog post.
News of the Week; November 13, 2019
GAMES
- Epic is suing another tester for leaking Fortnite Chapter 2 content
- Another tester is being sued by Epic Games for leaking Fortnite Chapter 2: Keywords Studio employee was fired day after leak, now faces claim for over $85,000 in damages
- Activision and EA insiders have been profiting from selling stock during buybacks: CEOs Bobby Kotick and Andrew Wilson have made millions, but companies insist there is no improper practice
- China details new play time and spending restrictions for minors playing online games
- US and China agree to roll back tariffs that were set to affect console and mobile
- Blizzard Confirms It Won’t Rescind Blitzchung’s Suspension
- US congressman calls out Blizzard for allowing racist groups in WoW: “Racism isn’t a game,” rep. Lou Correa said after being made aware of far-right user guild, The Enclave
- Overwatch director thinks Blitzchung ban “should be reduced more or eliminated”: Jeff Kaplan says the process for a suspension or ban in OWL “takes about four to five days”
- Activision Blizzard sees slumping sales, sliding engagement: Revenues and monthly active users down across the board for Activision, King, and Blizzard divisions
- CoD and WoW push Activision Blizzard to better-than-expected Q3
- Blizzard plans to merge Overwatch 1 and 2 clients down the line
- Has Blizzard solved the sequel dilemma? | Opinion: Launching a sequel to a service-based game can easily lose player goodwill — but Overwatch 2 may have found a clever way to thread the needle
- Blizzard: Overwatch and Overwatch 2 clients will merge eventually – Jeff Kaplan says that all benefits of the paid sequel will be available to players of the first game
- Why the Hearthstone devs wanted to make an auto battler
- Player spending in Grand Theft Auto Online jumped 23% following casino update
- Ignore the critics — Tax Relief is vital to the UK games industry | Opinion: Criticising Rockstar, Rocksteady and Creative Assembly for benefiting from VGTR misses the point, says legal expert Tim Davies
- Take-Two raises guidance as microtransaction spending grows 32%
- Net revenue up 74% at Take-Two thanks to Borderlands 3, NBA, GTA, and others
- Live games propel Take-Two toward quiet holiday as GTA V reaches 115m units sold – CEO Strauss Zelnick: “There’s no rulebook around how you create transitions or new products in a world of live services”
- Key resellers claim legitimacy — the courts say otherwise | Opinion: Beiten Burkhardt’s Andreas Lober probes the legal basis for key resellers, and finds those marketplaces on shaky ground
- Indie storefront Itch.io now boasts 200,000 games
- Valve appears to be working on a “Steam Cloud Gaming” service
- Steam game sales for ‘the other 50%’
- Steam search suggestions & premium positioning
- Death Stranding will launch simultaneously on Steam and the Epic Games Store
- UK Charts: Death Stranding is the second biggest PS4 launch of 2019 – Hideo Kojima’s game debuts at No.2 behind Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
- Roblox survey reveals disconnect between parents and teens over online bullying: Majority of parents believe their children will discuss online behaviour with them, but more than half of teens disagree
- U.S. VA evaluating how more accessible games help veterans heal
- NPD: U.S. games spending up 1% in Q3 as live-services offset consoles
- Revenue down at Nexon as Dungeon&Fighter works to win back players
- Nexon sales slip in Q3: MapleStory publisher shows modest revenue growth, but can’t offset double-digit percentage declines everywhere else
- PUBG Mobile generated $154 million during October 2019
- Call of Duty: Mobile racks up almost $60 million in launch month
- Call of Duty holds off Luigi’s Mansion 3 in the EMEAA chart: Activision’s shooter remained top of every chart despite competition from Nintendo’s latest exclusive
- Call of Duty Mobile beats Mario Kart Tour’s first month downloads: Sensor Tower estimates 148m downloads, behind only Pokémon Go in the all-time list
- Pokémon Sword and Shield review: A big adventure with a small Pokédex
- Just Dance 2020 is the last Ubisoft title on the Wii: Nintendo won’t say if it’s the last Wii game ever
- Nintendo: While nostalgia has appeal, remakes need to offer new game experiences
- Nintendo’s 3DS support will continue into 2020
- Don’t Miss: How Game Freak designs the iconic monsters of Pokemon
- Pokémon fans rally around Game Freak amid Sword and Shield unrest: The new Nintendo Switch games are due out this week
- Nintendo expects “remarkable results” from Mario Kart Tour: President Shuntaro Furukawa told investors that “earnings are off to a good start” following strong launch
- Bandai Namco revealed as a development partner for Mario Kart Tour
- Playtonic dismisses Microsoft buyout rumours: The Yooka-Laylee studio also confirmed it’s not working on a new Banjo-Kazooie game
- Xbox Elite Series 2 Controller review: For $180, it better be this good
- Microsoft using Xbox Adaptive Controller to rehabilitate US veterans: Company is working with Veteran Affairs to roll out device to medical centres
- Minecraft nearing 300 million registered users in China
- Minecraft closes in on 300m registered accounts in China: Mojang’s game now has 112m monthly active users worldwide
- Net sales and profits up at Square Enix despite HD game struggles
- Square Enix profits up 32% in first half of fiscal year: Publisher’s success driven by MMOs and mobile games as HD games sales slip year-on-year
- Flavourworks raises $3.8 million to make interactive games with live-action video
- Erica dev Flavourworks nets $3.85 million to make more interactive games
- Flavourworks raises £3m to expand Touch Video platform: Series A round was led by Hiro Capital, making its first investment after launching earlier this year
- TabTale changes its name to Crazy Labs with focus on hyper-casual mobile games
- Stillfront reaps rewards of Kixeye acquisition in Q3: Revenue from Core games division rises almost 200% following $90m deal
- Indie publisher Kiss launches Intelligent Finance ISA: Company tells GamesIndustry.biz it will fund future games by promising investors 6.8% profit per year through tech bond
- Playtika considering IPO as Chinese acquisition plans collapse: Mobile games firm seeks listing in unspecified market, according to the company that failed to buy it
- Epic Games acquires photogrammetry asset library and toolset maker Quixel
- Epic acquires Megascans creator Quixel: All Megascans assets to become free for Unreal Engine users
- Epic Games acquires photogrammetry startup Quixel to make games more realistic
- Atlas Empires dev Cerberus acquires marketplace platform Tastebud
- Cerberus Interactive acquires Tastebud: Texas studio wants to incentivise real-world purchases in its location-based title Atlas Empires
- Sony opening Malaysian art studio to boost first-party development
- PlayStation to open development studio in Malaysia: The new office will provide animation services to developers building exclusive PlayStation 5 games
- Sony’s Jim Ryan: We had to make changes to deliver our PlayStation 5 dream – PlayStation’s CEO on the globalisation of Sony Interactive Entertainment
- Sony has a PlayStation Now problem
- Abbey Games will terminate all employee contracts next month: Dutch indie “forced to scope down significantly” after Early Access version failed to live up to expectations
- Susan Wojcicki Talks Self Certification, Monetization, And Video Game Violence At YouTube’s First Gaming Creator Summit
- Starbreeze proposes plan to pay debts in full: Administrator signs off on reconstruction schedule that would see Payday outfit meet obligations to creditors within five years
- Homescapes has grossed $1b in lifetime revenue
- Tencent’s online game revenue surpasses $4 billion in Q3
- The Tencent zombie game trying to advance the battle royale formula – We speak to Next Studios about how Synced: Off-Planet recreates the tension of Fortnite or DayZ without copying the structure
- Report: Tencent wants to develop console games with help from Nintendo
- Tencent reportedly looking to use Nintendo IP as it expands internationally
- Tencent wants to make console games with Nintendo IP to boost US and Europe presence: It follows the two companies’ partnership to bring Switch to China
- PUBG Mobile, Call of Duty: Mobile help drive Tencent gaming revenues: Chinese publisher cites increased contributions from overseas titles as driving growth in mobile gaming business, offsetting declines from PC
- Zynga: “Not every DAU is created equal”: President of publishing Bernard Kim talks about long-running live ops games and the decision to sunset or reinvest in them
- Gaming Industry Associations Agree on Universal Esports Principles
- Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag to be honoured at Esports Bar Cannes: 100 Thieves founder will be named Shaker of the Year at annual awards
- Hitmarker raises £200k for esports recruitment platform: Startup eclipsed £80k equity crowdfunding target in less than a week
- Twitch Studio, the company’s streaming software for new users, is now in open beta: The streaming site’s first software product is now available to everyone
- Q&A: Designing the foreboding Apple Arcade Soulslike Bleak Sword
- Apple reportedly making a VR/AR headset with a focus on gaming: Combined headset planned for 2021 or 2022, with lightweight AR glasses following in 2023
- Two years later, Apple’s AR/VR headset plans reportedly pushed back two years
- John Carmack wins Lifetime Achievement prize at VR Awards 2019: Oculus Quest crowned best hardware, while A Fisherman’s Tale is declared best game
- Virtual reality: Infringement in cyberspace
- Pistol Whip review: The year’s freshest VR game—and oh-so close to greatness
- Oculus and Unity team up for free course on VR game development
- Google brings DIY virtual reality to the masses by open-sourcing Cardboard SDK
- Only 12 games will be available on Google Stadia in time for Nov. 19 launch
- Stadia launch includes familiar lineup, one exclusive
- Google Stadia’s launch lineup includes 12 games: Only one title is an exclusive; three of them are Tomb Raider games
- Google unveils Stadia’s full 12-game launch day line-up: Plus 14 more titles for 2019.
- Stadia launch dev: Game makers are worried “Google is just going to cancel it”
- Kine creator: “The biggest concern with Stadia is that it might not exist” – DLC. At PAX West, developers Lucy Morris, Ken Hall, and Gwen Frey discuss diversity, community, and Stadia’s long-term potential
- Google plans to roll out Stadia features weekly after a barebones Nov. 19 launch
- Q&A: Respawn’s Mohammad Alavi works for greater diversity in game dev
- Diablo 4 impressions: Soaking in dark atmosphere and feel-good combat
- World of Warcraft: Shadowlands impressions: Leveling alts is about to get a lot more fun
- Activision Blizzard hits Q3 earnings targets with strong World of Warcraft Classic results
- Voodoo opens Canadian studio to expand beyond hypercasual market
- Voodoo opens Montreal studio as it expands beyond hypercasual games: New branch will be led by former Gameloft producer Mehdi El Moussali
- Human Head shuts down, staff to join Bethesda’s new studio: Co-founder Chris Rhinehart becomes creative director at Roundhouse Studios
- Prey dev Human Head Studios closes, is immediately revived by Bethesda
- What games are people talking about on Twitter?: Platform’s head of gaming content Rishi Chadha discusses what sparks conversation and how it differs from region to region
- Goldeneye 007’s lost remaster emerges again via massive, polished video leak
- Turning love into a cooperative game mechanic in The Game Bakers’ Haven
- Soul Reaver: Audacious, pulpy, intelligent, trashy, uncompromising
- “Expectations for full-price games is very high. You need a large budget to have a chance”: CI Games CEO Marek Tymiński on the struggles of Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 and how upcoming sequel Contracts will rectify this
- Video: A chat with Mac Walters on the unsolved mysteries of the Mass Effect universe
- Video: Insights from the GDC 2019 Narrative Innovation Showcase
- Video: How Techland built Dying Light’s remarkable parkour system
- Blog: A battle royale analysis from Q3
- Blog: Analysing the success of Free Fire, the other king of battle royale
- Blog: When theme and mechanics collide
- Blog: Making a successful indie game using the GemuKai framework
- Don’t Miss: The Binding of Isaac postmortem
- Don’t Miss: Devs recount their near-catastrophic run-ins with the sunk cost fallacy
- Don’t Miss: How moving from 2D to 3D shaped the design of Risk of Rain 2
- Don’t Miss: Designing decisions that matter in Orwell
- “I believe I am preserving digital art in a physical form”: Special Reserve Games CEO Jeff Smith talks about the business of selling physical copies of indie hits, from speculators to customers buying games “almost blindly”
- New Noclip vid offers devs an inside look at how the ESRB works
- Video: An indie game dev’s guide to contracting
- Video Gaming / E-Gaming Law Update: Does Your Gaming Stream Violate the Copyright Act?
- Galaga and Pole Position composer Nobuyuki Ohnogi has passed away
DIGITAL
- India Is Stifling Kashmir Journalists And Twitter Is Helping Get The Job Done
- Insider Threats: DOJ Says Twitter Employees Spied On User Accounts For Saudi Arabia
- Hong Kong Court Hands Down Protest-Targeting Order Banning Online Content That ‘Incites Violence’
- Did a UK Judge Just “Break the Internet”? Stay Tuned re the TuneIn Decision
- UK Premier League scores big in battle against illegal streaming devices
- Is it time to look at monetisation as a new exclusive right of the author? (Andres Guadamuz)
- Court Deems Screenshot Fair Game for Fair Use Defense in Copyright Action
- Section 230 Helps Salesforce Defeat Sex Trafficking Lawsuit–Doe v. Salesforce (Eric Goldman)
- Biden Spreads False Info By Saying That Taking Away Section 230 Will Make Facebook Liable For Spreading False Info
- John Oliver Takes On SLAPP Suits And Anti-SLAPP Laws With A Grand Musical Number
- Massive Facebook document leak gives ammunition to investigators
- ECJ rules on Facebook “Like” button
- NY regulators investigating Apple Card after viral complaint of sexism: Customer service reportedly blamed “the algorithm” for discrepancies.
- Copyright Troll Lawyer Serves Up BS ‘Dead Grandfather’ Excuse For Missing Court; Now Facing Sanctions And Arrest
- Techdirt Podcast Episode 232: Copying Is Not Theft
- New Class Action Targets Discriminatory Ad Practices
- Members of violent white supremacist website exposed in massive data dump
- Netflix CEO defends censoring anti-government video in Saudi Arabia
- Netflix: We’re Not In The Truth To Power Business, We’re In The Entertainment Business
- Netflix Unveils Multi-Year Pact With Nickelodeon One Day After Disney+ Launch
- Too Many Streaming Exclusives Is Already Starting To Tick Users Off
- One Day In, Disney+ Already Has More Than 10 Million Subscribers
- High demand causes login problems on Disney+ launch day
- Defamation by Hyperlink
- Uber CEO: Time To Forgive The Saudis For Murdering That Journalist
- Uber CEO Defends Saudis After Jamal Khashoggi Murder: ‘Doesn’t Mean They Can Never Be Forgiven’ (Video)
- Softbank is getting exactly what it deserves, and it’s thanks to something way bigger than WeWork: Softbank took a $6.5 billion loss on investments in Uber and WeWork this quarter, and it deserves to lose more.
- Uber CEO says he was wrong to call slaying of Saudi Arabia journalist Jamal Khashoggi ‘a mistake’
- Uber CEO downplays Khashoggi murder, then walks back his comments
- Uber CEO downplays murder of Jamal Khashoggi as ‘mistake,’ then backtracks
- How terrible software design decisions led to Uber’s deadly 2018 crash
- Report Suggests Rampant Negligence In Uber Self Driving Car Fatality
- Amazon gains unfair edge by making sellers use its shipping, complaint says
- Amazon fails to unseat pro-tax city council members in Seattle
- Heineken challenged for targeting under 18s on Instagram
- Instagram is testing a new video editing tool called Reels that copies TikTok’s best features
- Twitter And Instagram Both Begin Experiments In Decreasing The More Socially Questionable Incentives Of Their Platforms
- TikTok Facing CFIUS Scrutiny
- US committee warned of China’s bulk data collection
- Google enlists outside help to clean up Android’s malware mess
- Google has access to detailed health records on tens of millions of Americans
- Google: You can trust us with the medical data you didn’t know we already had – Google has 50M people’s medical records but won’t merge them with other Google data.
- Google fires staffer, suspends two others, amid rising workplace tensions
- Google will offer checking accounts, says it won’t sell the data
- YouTube Insists It Isn’t Changing “Right To Monetize” After Terms Of Service Update Sparks Backlash
- YouTube To Host Charity Tribute Concert In Nashville To Fete Its Johnny Cash Doc
- YouTube Overhauls Homepage With Bigger Thumbnails, New Queue Button, More
- Federal and State Authorities Increase Scrutiny and Enforcement of Children’s Privacy; Google, YouTube Agree to Pay a Record $170 Million Fine
- Operation Full Disclosure, Continued: FTC Releases Disclosure Guides for Influencers
- FTC Releases New User-Friendly Disclosure Guidelines for Influencers
- FTC offers guidance for social media influencer disclosures
- FTC Releases Guidance for Influencers
- FTC Guidance for Social Media Influencers and Endorsements Continues to Evolve
- FTC Releases New Disclosures Guidance for Influencer #Ads
- Avoiding both irresponsible and misleading influencer marketing
- ASA ruling on “celebrity” status – ThisMamaLife
- ASA ruling on weight loss post – Jemmy Lucy
- ASA ruling on audience composition – Tanya Burr
- Tis the Season: Act in Time, or Your Nonprofit Will Say Goodbye to Any DMCA Safe Harbor Protection from Copyright Infringement Liability
- Liza Koshy Named Co-Chair Of Michelle Obama-Founded Nonprofit ‘When We All Vote’
- With 25 Million Views On Season 1, Kian And JC Are Readying Another ‘Reality House’
- Logan Paul vs. KSI 2 Turned Into A Legit Boxing Event
- Ahead Of Logan Paul Rematch, KSI Drops “Down Like That” Rap Track With Rick Ross, Lil Baby
- Spotify taps Viacom for content marketing globally
- Spotify’s Magic Leap app will change playlists as you change rooms: With an interface that appears in your real-world environment
- On Podcasting
- How Ipsy And Warby Parker Are Harnessing The Engagement Power Of Micro Influencers For Social Video
- Deloitte Ranks BroadbandTV One of The Fastest Growing Companies in North America
- How Canadian media-tech giant BroadbandTV is giving content owners a boost
- Microsoft’s Project Silica offers robust thousand-year storage
- Why more than 168,000 Valentine’s day text messages arrived in November
- The perils of messaging apps
- How Airbnb’s fight to overturn a New Jersey law imploded
- Will the Music Industry Continue To Win Its Copyright Battle Against ISPs?
- CISAC Labels Canada a “Digital Champion” for Digital Music Royalty Growth (Michael Geist)
- The LawBytes Podcast, Episode 31: Is Canadian Media in a Financial Crisis? – Marc Edge With a Different Take on What the Data Says
- Cloudflare Explains What It Takes To Slay A Patent Troll
- What is cyber insurance and how popular is it becoming?
- Safeguarding User Freedoms in Implementing Article 17 of the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive: Recommendations from European Academics
- Spotlight on Digital Competition Issues – A Digital Legacy
A.I.
- Twitter wants your feedback on its proposed deepfakes policy
- Intellectual property in open innovation and co-innovation in the field of artificial intelligence
- This system from Garmin can land a private plane when your pilot can’t
- When AI systems cause harm: the application of civil and criminal liability
- Task force on artificial intelligence hearing: AI and the evolution of cloud computing – key testimony on the risks, challenges and opportunities
- Uber still using Waymo-derived self-driving technology, expert says
- Meet MLPerf, a benchmark for measuring machine-learning performance
- Robot delivery services: the latest in anthropomorphic marketing?
COMMUNICATIONS
- Comcast is trying to “dismantle” Civil Rights Act of 1866, MLK’s daughter says
- How the FCC solves consumer problems—well, it doesn’t, really
- Third Circuit Asked to Rehear Decision Overturning FCC Ownership Rule Changes – Where Do We Go from Here?
- FCC To Consider All-Digital AM at its November Meeting – What Questions are Being Asked?
- AT&T switches customers to more expensive plans without asking them first
- A Decade Later, AT&T Pays A Pittance For Lying About Its Unlimited Data Plans
- States Are Being Conned By Lobbyists Into Backing Off The T-Mobile Merger Lawsuit
- The Color Magenta, Or How T-Mobile Thinks It Owns A General Color
- ‘Unlimited’ Data Plans With Very Obvious Limits Are Only Getting More Confusing
- DirectTV Forgot To Stop Charging Customers For Channels That Were Blacked Out
- Mozilla: ISPs Are Lying About Encrypted DNS, Should Have Privacy Practices Investigated
- Defense Department and FCC to Collaborate on 5G Testbeds
- 2020 Political Broadcasting Rules
- 2019 – 2020 Political Issue Advertising The Blessing and the Curse!
- How does Plume get all these ISP partnerships? Open source software
PRIVACY
- US violated Constitution by searching phones for no good reason, judge rules
- FBI Asks Congress To Permanently Reauthorize The Phone Record Collection The NSA Voluntarily Shut Down
- Breach affecting 1 million was caught only after hacker maxed out target’s storage
- Ring Spends The Week Collecting Data On Trick-Or-Treating Kids And Being An Attack Vector For Home WiFi Networks
- Ring-a-ding: IoT doorbell exposed customer Wi-Fi passwords to eavesdroppers
- Search warrant overrides 1M users’ choice not to share DNA with cops
- One of the world’s most advanced hacking groups debuts new Titanium backdoor
- The Battle Over Encryption
- Microsoft Says It’s Cool With California’s New Privacy Law
- IoT Security: NIST Spotlight
CREATIVITY
- Copyright & Colourable Imitation – Inside Out or Upside Down?
- Religion and belief discrimination: dismissing employee who refused to sign a copyright agreement was not discriminatory
- Indirect religion and belief discrimination: Did an employee suffer indirect discrimination because of her beliefs about copyright?
- Artists’ moral rights in the frame
- Vallejo v. Narcos Productions LLC
- Everybody must get (Sharon) Stoned
- Federal Court Says Man Arrested For ‘Criminally Defaming’ Cops Can Continue Suing To Block The Law From Being Enforced
- ASA ruling on gender stereotyping Philadelphia
- ASA ruling on gender stereotyping – Volkswagen
- Sandra Bullock & Ellen DeGeneres Lawsuit Takes on “Celebrity Endorsement Theft Industry”
- ASA ruling on alcohol and social responsibility – Macallan
- Public Backlash Leads To Backcountry.com Backing Down From Trademark Bullying
- Just Sue It: Nike Takes Skechers to Court For Copying Design Patents
- The best science and math moments in Sesame Street’s first 50 years
- A snapshot of the global patent landscape in eight charts
Jon
Inside the ESRB
Noclip, a video game documentary series on YouTube, recently released a documentary about the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB). This is the first time in ESRB’s 25 year history that they have agreed to allow media to enter their doors. “How Does the ESRB Rate Video Games?” gives a sneak peek inside the offices of the ESRB, chatting with Patricia Vance, president of the ESRB and other senior staff. Notably missing from the documentary are the ESRB raters, as they must work under anonymity to protect themselves from publisher influence.
The three main topics explored in the documentary include:
- The process for rating games.
- The enforcement of advertising standards in video game marketing material.
- How, if at all, the ESRB has evolved with the times (i.e. adapting to new challenges such as digital distribution, indie self-publishers and loot boxes).
Some key highlights from the documentary:
- The whole process of rating usually takes 45 minutes, in which a team of 3 raters are asked to rate individually and come together to discuss the rating. Surprisingly, the raters don’t play the game, but instead, view game clips submitted by publishers through the digital submission forms.
- They rely heavily on publisher disclosure of the pertinent content, but do engage with the game post-release to ensure compliance (especially with long-form games), as well as reviewing the specific game once every few years to adapt to any ESRB changes.
- The ESRB’s Advertising Review Council (ARC) enforces ESRB guidelines in video game marketing materials such as trailers, commercials and print ads (Fun fact: Dave Gossett, the Director of Advertising Review Council (ARC) does the voice-overs for the ESRB ratings).
- Although a game may contain violence, publishers are not allowed to include certain types of violence in their marketing material according to the ARC Guidelines (i.e. marketing material may not depict characters being shot and no blood can be shown), but the material must still accurately depict the type of content that audiences can expect in the game.
- To tackle the growing volume of mobile games being released internationally, the ESRB along with other international regulatory rating bodies created the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC), a semi-automated rating process, where publishers submit details about their game digitally and are then simultaneously given ratings for each participating region.
In this documentary, the ESRB briefly addressed the issue of loot boxes and their decision to not disclose or label it as gambling. Vance replies that due to the demands for the public to disclose loot boxes, they conducted research on loot boxes and discovered that parents did not know what they were. When informed, parents expressed concerns relating only to spending.
“Now, gamers may be concerned about [how] it looks and feels like gambling. Why don’t you ESRB, call it gambling? It doesn’t fit into the criteria of either simulated gambling or gambling, so that was not an avenue that we were going down.”
This sparked heavy discussion in the comment section, with viewers critiquing ESRB’s stance on loot boxes (with many believing that this is due to corporate lobbying) as well as Noclip for not pressing the issue with ESRB further. In the last two years especially, ESRB has received a lot of criticism for their failure to disclose loot boxes as gambling. The controversy led to ESRB adding an “in-game purchases” descriptor to their labels.
Despite the mixed reviews on this documentary, I feel that it has along with the resulting feedback from viewers has provided necessary insight into the growing discourse and public perception of video game ratings and loot boxes.
For more information on ESRB and the loot-box controversy:
- ESRB Frequently Asked Questions
- A brief history of the ESRB Rating System
- ESRB Blog: What Parents Need to Know About Loot Boxes (and Other In-Game Purchases)
- ESRB Responds to the NBA 2K20 In-Game Gambling Controversy
- E for Ignored: The Failing ESRB Rating System
- 20 years, 20 questionable game ratings: A timeline of ESRB oddities
News of the Week; November 6, 2019
GAMES
- Blizzard president gives vague apology for Hong Kong protest response
- Blizzard president J. Allen Brack apologizes for bungled Hearthstone punishment
- Hong Kong protesters shine, but don’t quite spark at BlizzCon
- Blizzard’s substance-less BlizzCon statement speaks volumes | Opinion: Allen Brack’s speech rings hollow as company changes no policies, stands by Hearthstone pro’s ban for supporting Hong Kong protesters
- Allen Brack apologizes for Blizzard’s “tough Hearthstone esports moment”: At BlizzCon, company president alludes to ban of Hearthstone player Blitzchung for pro-Hong Kong support, welcomes protests
- Brack confirms Blizzard won’t repeal Blitzchung ban: The sanction against the casters won’t be withdrawn either, Blizzard’s president said
- Blizzard won’t reverse Hearthstone pro’s Hong Kong protest suspension: Blizzard boss shifts some blame for initial decisions to Chinese publishing partner.
- Blizzcon: Blizzard Apologizes For Banning Blitzchung, Keeps Him Banned, More Fallout Ensues
- Hearthstone developers think Blizzard was “too harsh” with Blitzchung: But creative director Ben Thompson said that taking control of a platform that is “very much not your own” is not free speech
- Xiaomeng ‘Liooon’ Li is the first woman to win Hearthstone GrandMasters: Li is also the first woman to win a major competition across all Blizzard games at Blizzcon
- China fears young people are addicted to video games. Now it’s imposing a curfew
- China gaming regulator publishes new rules for minors targeting playtime, spending: Age-rating system still in the works as restrictions are tightened, expanded to mobile games
- “If we’re going to be drug dealers, let’s not literally mine for addicts”: At Reboot Develop, indie publisher Mike Wilson used the game addiction debate to call for devs to “be intentional” about what they create
- Video: Addiction science and advice for devs on promoting healthy play
- ‘Fortnite’ Pro FaZe Jarvis Banned From Game For Life After YouTube Videos Showed Him Cheating
- Aimbot video leads to lifetime ban for popular Fortnite pro
- General Court says that relevant public’s attention is ‘average at best’ when assessing likelihood of confusion relating to games and computer games (“Dungeons” is confusingly similar to “Dungeons & Dragons”)
- Reselling Digital Video Games Now entering the age of the digital yard sale?
- ZeniMax ordered to issue refunds for Fallout 76 in Australia: Well, this can’t be good.
- ZeniMax to offer refunds for faulty Fallout 76 in Australia: ZeniMax admits it likely misled consumers over their digital rights
- ZeniMax to grant Fallout 76 refunds under pressure from Australian commission
- Less than half of US gamers purchased in-game content last month – SuperData: Additional content spending stagnating on PC and console as players gravitate toward fewer titles overall
- Fabulous investigating after Devolver Digital accuses its app of ripping off Gris
- Self-help app “investigating” after accusations of stealing art, animation from Gris: Devolver Digital shares side-by-side comparison of Fabulous video, Gris gameplay and cutscenes
- Brendan Greene: “I [only] have one woman on my team, and I hate that” – At the View Conference, PUBG’s creator discussed hiring for diversity, and why education will be the best long-term solution
- Amazon blocks sales of all unauthorised Nintendo products: Third-party sellers now need platform holder’s approval before selling second-hand games or hardware
- Amazon reverses sudden restriction of third-party “Nintendo product“ sales
- Report: Amazon cracking down on third-party sales of Nintendo products
- Switch Lite sells strong at launch, as total Switch sales near 42M
- Nintendo: Switch Lite is expanding the Switch market, especially with women
- The Nintendo Switch has sold over 10 million units in Japan
- The Nintendo Switch has sold 10m units in Japan: Japanese sales make up nearly one-fourth of total console sales (including the Lite)
- UK Charts: Luigi’s Mansion 3 is the biggest Switch launch of 2019 (so far) – At least until Pokémon comes along
- Nintendo Profits Lifted by Switch Lite Sales
- Nintendo has nearly doubled its first-party game sales in 2019
- So far, game spending is over $27 billion for 2019 in the US
- US gamers have spent $27.9bn in 2019 so far: Spending is only up 1% over 2018 year-to-date, with hardware sales down 23%
- How Arcade1Up found a sweet spot for scaled-down home game cabinets
- Abbey Games ‘scoping down’ and terminating all employee contracts by 2020
- Call of Duty was the UK’s best-selling game in October
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare dominates the EMEAA charts – Meanwhile, FIFA fends off new releases The Outer Worlds, MediEvil and WWE 2K20
- Supercell scraps upcoming title Rush Wars after failing to find the fun
- Supercell shuts down Rush Wars after three months of beta: PvP strategy title cancelled due to “repetitive” nature, concerns about longevity
- Profits down 48.1% for Rovio Entertainment in Q3: Angry Birds dev in discussions to potentially lay off staff as The Angry Birds Movie 2 falls short of expectations
- PS4 slows as the transition nears | Opinion: Sony’s next year will be vital; as PS4 sales decline faster than expected, can the company balance support for its older console with building excitement for the new?
- Retrospective: As Sony Clearly Wins This Generation’s Console Wars, Let’s Recall How It All Began
- Watch Dogs Legion, Rainbow Six Quarantine and Gods & Monsters heading to PS5, Project Scarlett: Delayed Ubisoft titles will be joined by two unannounced AAA games in the next fiscal year
- Industry veterans form ‘diverse and inclusive’ studio Brass Lion Entertainment
- Brass Lion Entertainment aims to diversify the industry: New studio from AAA vets will focus on original games “that center on Black and Brown characters, cultures, and stories”
- Epic Games Store update brings new navigation and in-game store options
- Epic adds free Infinity Blade content to Unreal Engine Marketplace
- Does French streaming platform Shadow have its head in the clouds?: Co-founder Emmanuel Freund on opening up games to more people, the tech side of things and Google’s entry into the space
- F1 extends licencing deal with Codemasters until 2025: Codemasters has extended its deal for exclusive video game rights for the Formula 1 World Championship until 2025, with an option for a further two years.
- Modern Warfare dev compares game’s “awareness building” to Schoolhouse Rock: Narrative director responds to criticism about ‘Highway of Death’ mission: “This is not some kind of propaganda”
- Modern Warfare. Modern Warfare never changes.: 10 Years Ago This Month: No Russian turns the mass shooting into mass market entertainment and Nokia buries the N-Gage for good
- Which platforms are publishers and investors really interested in?: Xsolla shares lessons from its funding club and offers advice on how to impress potential investors
- Death Stranding is Kojima unleashed, and it’s as weird as you’d expect
- Death Stranding: Critical Consensus – A haunting experience that succeeds in spite of its own clumsy excess, Death Stranding arrives to frequently mitigated praise
- Hideo Kojima and Kojima Productions to start making movies
- Hideo Kojima to venture into film production: “Games, films and dramas will have to compete in the same space,” Death Stranding director said
- Blizzard announces Overwatch sequel at BlizzCon
- Overwatch 2 announced, will be cross-compatible with original game: Overwatch surpasses 50 million players, all of whom will be able to PvP match with, transfer cosmetics to Overwatch 2
- Jeff Kaplan: Leaks impact developer morale more than anything else
- Hearthstone Battlegrounds is Blizzard’s card-based take on auto chess
- Blizzard confirms Diablo IV is coming to consoles and PC
- Diablo IV is revealed, sure looks like a supercharged Diablo II
- Designing the gameplay and aesthetic of Diablo IV
- Don’t Miss: David Brevik’s tale of designing the original Diablo
- Blizzard is adding ethnically diverse character skins with World of Warcraft: Shadowlands: Fifteen years after launch, players will be able to customise their character to match their ethnicity
- Wargaming partners with Gearbox for its first full retail release: World of Warships: Legends will get a retail version in Firepower Deluxe Edition
- Vainglory dev Super Evil Megacorp raises $10.5 million as it refocuses on next project
- Super Evil Megacorp closes $10.5m financing round as it prepares to launch new project: Vainglory developer hands off publishing responsibilities for its cross-platform MOBA to Rogue Games
- Improbable and Tencent Cloud team up to help devs bring games to China
- Improbable partners with Tencent Cloud for game development program: New Improbable/Tencent Cloud Developer Program to support creators making games in SpatialOS for the Chinese market with cloud services
- Unity acquires 3D application streaming platform creator Obvioos
- Unity acquires cloud application streaming service creator Obvioos: French studio begins aligning Furioos’ 3D application streaming tech closely with development platform
- Video: Inside BioWare’s embedded QA process
- Video: Advice for game devs on creating believable heroes
- Zordix secures $1.4 million in funding, acquires Dimfrost Studio
- Chad Wild Clay And Vy Qwaint’s ‘Spy Ninja’ Mobile Game Surpasses 3 Million Downloads
- Games industry international trade bodies unite on universal esports principles: Set of four principles for engagement agreed upon by representatives of the ESA, ESAC, UKIE, ISFE, and IGEA
- Yoshinori Ono on Street Fighter’s road to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics: The Capcom producer discusses the Intel World Open, a tournament that aims to break the barriers to entry for esports
- Esports tournament platform Mainline closes $6.8m funding round: Funding led by Work America Capital will help expand software platform
- Report: Embattled real estate startup WeWork mulling esports investment
- Esports Org 100 Thieves Signs Rapidly-Ascending Twitch Star ‘Brooke AB’
- Another major streamer leaves Twitch, this time for YouTube
- YouTube Steals CouRage From Twitch As The Celebrity Streamer Gold Rush Heats Up
- CouRage Becomes Latest Streamer To Ditch Twitch — In Exclusive Deal With YouTube Gaming
- 100 Thieves’ Jack “CouRage” Dunlop signs YouTube exclusivity deal: Dunlop asks over 2m Twitch subscribers to follow him as exodus of major streamers from Twitch to other platforms continues
- Twitch Teams With Analytics Provider Moat To Measure Its Unblockable ‘SureStream’ Ads
- Longtime NASCAR Exec Lou Garate Switches Lanes, Becoming Twitch’s First Global Head Of Sponsorship Sales
- Twitch CEO Emmett Shear On How Moderation Creates Communities: Twitch is bigger than it’s ever been, and here’s how it’s going to change
- Mixer Price-Matches Twitch, Dropping Monthly Creator Subscription From $5.99 To $4.99
- New Oculus Social Tools Will Help VR Feel More Like a Place, Less Like a Game
- Facebook CEO: ‘VR is Taking Longer Than Expected, but We’ll See It to Mass Adoption’
- Reality Gaming Group expanding to China: Chengdu government will help promote the studio and its flagship game Reality Clash, as well as AR and blockchain tech
- Rumor: Apple Reportedly Partners With Valve to Develop AR Headset
- Toys R Us partners with Snapchat to create AR shopping experience: The augmented reality experience aims to help users with their holiday shopping
- Niantic opens Niantic Creator Program to fund and support AR-minded devs
- Niantic opens up Pokemon Go sponsored location program for smaller businesses
- Niantic announces Creator Program to support AR development: Pokemon Go developer also offering funding opportunities, AR development kit
- Braid and the beauty of not wasting time – Why I Love: A Duel Hand Disaster dev Jaycee Salinas takes inspiration from the indie time manipulation platformer
- Video: Advice for game devs on creating believable heroes
- Video: Game preservation lessons learned on EA’s biggest sports games
- Blog: Kickstarter lessons learned from a 300 percent funded solo project
- Net sales down at Starbreeze as company readies for Payday-centric future
- Starbreeze losses were $30.8 million for the first nine months of 2019: But company is confident reconstruction efforts and new publishing deal Payday 3 will save the studio
- Bake ‘n’ Switch wins big at the Reboot Develop Indie Awards: Streamline Studios’ original IP picked up GOTY, while Myst creator Rand Miller received the Hero award
- Don’t Miss: Designing the stealth, economy, and encounters of Horizon Zero Dawn
- Red Dead Redemption 2 on PC: More frames, more volumetric beauty, no Steam
- Don’t Miss: Composing the music of Red Dead Redemption
- SingStar servers slated for January 2020 shutdown
- Sony will close down SingStar servers in January 2020: Online sales, support and shared content will be pulled, 15 years after the series debuted
- Just Dance launches campaign to raise money for Alzheimer’s Research UK: Ubisoft will donate £1 for every dance memory shared on social media
- U.S. Patent no. 10,252,163: Music video game with user directed sound generation
DIGITAL
- Twitter will ban political ads, Jack Dorsey announces
- Man Sues Twitter For $1 Billion Claiming His Account’s Suspension Violated His Right To Worship President Trump As A Demigod
- Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Announces New Ban On Political Ads, Takes Shot At Facebook
- Twitter Bans Political Ads – Doing What Broadcasters are Forbidden to Do
- Twitter is rolling out Topics, a way to follow subjects automatically in the timeline: Starting with more than 300 subjects across sports, gaming, and entertainment
- Former Twitter employees charged with spying on users for Saudis
- Twitter’s Decision To Ban Political Ads Is A Moderation Choice Itself That Likely Will Backfire In Its Own Way
- 8chan gets back online—and is promptly forced off again
- Breaking the law: How 8chan (or “8kun”) got (briefly) back online
- Devin Nunes Demands Satirical Internet Cow Stop Making Fun Of Him… Or Else