News of the Week; January 20, 2021
GAMES
- CD Projekt faces a second class-action lawsuit over Cyberpunk 2077
- CD Projekt Red exec disputes Cyberpunk 2077 demo were “almost entirely fake”
- CD Projekt vows ‘vigorous’ defense as investors launch second Cyberpunk class action
- Inside Cyberpunk 2077’s Disastrous Rollout
- Epic Games takes legal action against Apple and Google in UK
- Epic submits claims against Google and Apple to UK Competition Appeal Tribunal
- “Loot boxes” and other in-game purchases: ASA launches consultation
- European Commission fines Valve, others $9.4 million for ‘geo-blocking’ games
- EU fines Valve and five publishers €7.8m for geo-blocking practices
- FTC Cracks Down on Mobile Gaming Middlemen Offering In-Game Rewards and Offers
- FTC reaches settlement over misleading mobile advertisements for in-game rewards, and warns of growing scrutiny towards today’s gaming gatekeepers
- FTC Pursues Advertising Network that Failed to Deliver In-Game Rewards in Exchange for Payment or Personal Information
- Planning a Super Bowl-themed Marketing Campaign? 5 Tips for Staying In Bounds
- ITC Threat for Gaming Companies Grows with PTAB Discretionary Denials
- Twitch’s Trump ban sustained after leaving office
- Nintendo blocks videos by Game & Watch hacker
- Nintendo uses copyright claims to take down Game & Watch hacking videos
- Nintendo Hates You: Gaming Giant Lobs A DMCA Nuke At Hundreds Of Fan Games
- Universal delays opening of Super Nintendo World again due to COVID-19
- Super Nintendo World opening on “indefinite hiatus”
- Analyst: The Nintendo Switch outsold every other console in 2020
- Chinese Switch sales expose a failure to counter the import market | Opinion
- Studios and designers: Are you sure that you own the intellectual property rights to your video games?
- Gaming the system: How GameStop stock surged 1,500% in nine months
- GAME details efforts to prevent PS5 scalpers
- Epic Games Store exclusivity muddles Hitman 3’s legacy DLC promise on PC
- IO Interactive assures Hitman 3 players will not have to repurchase previous entries
- Hitman III review: Let’s call it Hitman 2.5 and be fine with it
- Hitman 3 | Critical Consensus
- US environmental agency warns against Xbox Series X, PS5 energy consumption
- Report: Xbox’s “instant on” feature could consume 4 billion kWh by 2025
- Mobile gaming saw surge of new players in 2020
- Bungie is shutting down its Halo stats archive in February
- Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor has lost its online features, including Vendetta missions
- Games investments reached $33.6bn in 2020
- InvestGame: 2020 game deals hit value of $33.6 billion across 664 transactions
- 2020 sees record US games spending at $56.9bn | US Annual Report
- NPD reveals the best-selling games of 2020 in the U.S.
- Battle.net gets a fresh coat of paint to improve navigation, accessibility, and more
- The triumph of mobile core games heralds a demographic shift | Opinion
- The Switch has officially shipped 1 million units in China
- Nintendo Switch accounted for 87% of consoles sold in Japan last year | Japan Annual Report
- Nintendo and GTA 5 come top in big year for Australia game sales | Australia Annual Report
- Nintendo continues to prop up UK games retail | UK Boxed Charts
- Ace Combat 7 has topped 2.5 million sales worldwide
- Puzzle Quest dev Infinity Plus Two acquired by 505 Games parent Digital Bros
- Playtech sells YoYo Games to Opera for $10m
- Opera buys GameMaker Studio maker YoYo Games for $10 million
- Opera opens new video game division and confirms YoYo Games purchase
- 505 Games acquires Infinity Plus Two
- Playtika IPO raises $1.88bn
- IPO plans value Krafton at up to $27bn
- Impending IPO values PUBG Studio parent Krafton at as much as $27 billion
- Casino game studio Huuuge looking to raise $150 million through IPO
- Savage Game Studios raises $4.4m
- Mobile developer Savage Game Studios nets $4.4 million for competitive shooter
- Miniclip acquires Online Soccer Manager studio Gamebasics
- Miniclip acquires Online Soccer Manager developer Gamebasics
- How MTG’s acquisition will fuel Hutch’s race to No.1
- Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Blockbuster IP
- PC fan port of early Sonic games lets you zoom the camera way, way out
- How to localize a game video: A checklist for developers
- YouTube channel GameXplain accused of overworking and underpaying staff
- PewDiePie Signs Exclusive Facebook Distribution Deal With Jellysmack
- Leyline: “We don’t care about the money — we want to make the world better”
- Esports’ Wild 2020 Ride Culminates In 69 Percent Growth And A Continuing Rising Trend
- Kuato raises £4.5m, expands to VR
- Educational game studio Kuato nets $6.1 million to finance VR pivot
- Tilting Point opens studio in Russia to work on multiple projects
- The return of Peter Moore
- Industry vet Peter Moore returns to games as Unity SVP
- Peter Moore joins Unity as SVP and GM of sports and live entertainment
- Blog: The successful steps of Early Access games
- Blog: How can we improve support powers in RTS games?
- Blog: Understanding the types of game currencies in mobile free-to-play
- Video: Next-level creature sound design
- Video: Unscoring the world of Kenshi
- Don’t Miss: Monolith Productions’ postmortem of Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
- Don’t Miss: Building a ‘homebrew’ video game console
DIGITAL
- YouTube Extends Trump Ban For Another Week, Citing Concerns About “Ongoing Potential For Violence”
- YouTube Removes Onision From Partner Program, Demonetizes His Channels Over Child Safety Concerns
- Facebook knew about violent extremists before insurrection, reports find
- Sheryl Sandberg Makes Disingenuous Push To Argue That Only Facebook Has The Power To Stop Bad People Online
- They Used to Post Selfies. Now They’re Trying to Reverse the Election.: Right-wing influencers embraced extremist views, and Facebook rewarded them.
- Inside Twitter’s Decision to Cut Off Trump
- The Capitol Rioters Are Giving Insurrection a Bad Name
- Disinformation creep: ADOS and the strategic weaponization of breaking news
- Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones but Words Incite a Riot
- I’m a First Amendment scholar – and I think Big Tech should be left alone
- No Political Advertising on Google, At Least Until After Inauguration Day
- Inauguration Has Happened, Google And Facebook Should End The Ban On Political Advertisements
- Social Media Platforms See 73% Drop In Election Misinformation After Trump’s Ban (Study)
- Dominion Voting Systems Files Defamation Lawsuit Against Former Trump Lawyer, Sidney Powell
- GitHub regrets firing Jewish employee who called Trump-incited mob “Nazis”
- Trump pardons engineer who copped to stealing a Google secret for Uber: Peter Thiel, Palmer Luckey, and others asked Trump to pardon Levandowski.
- Chinese Ad for Make-Up Wipes Pulled Over Charges of Sexism and Victim-Blaming
- Applying Uber v. Heller – Ontario Superior Court of Justice applies unconscionability doctrine to standard form arbitration clause
- Jonathan Zittrain on the Great Deplatforming
- 2021 Is the Year the Internet Gets Rewritten: As Silicon Valley flails to combat an insurrection at home, Europe is marching ahead with a plan to revise the web’s basic rulebook.
- Jack Dorsey Explains The Difficult Decision To Ban Donald Trump; Reiterates Support For Turning Twitter Into A Decentralized Protocol
- What motivates the motivated reasoning of pro-Trump conspiracists?
- Trump’s Facts-Optional Assault On Chinese Tech Continues With Blocking Of Xiaomi
- As Beijing Continues To Creep Into Hong Kong, Internet Censorship Begins
- Amazon offers Biden help to speed up vaccine distribution
- Judge Not Impressed By Parler’s Attempt To Force Amazon To Put It Back Online
- Parler CEO admits site may never recover from Amazon ban
- Parler’s CEO Promises That When It Comes Back… It’ll Moderate Content… With An Algorithm
- Ridiculous: Yale Law Prof Argues That Because Some In Congress Want More Moderation, That Makes Twitter A State Actor
- A Few More Thoughts On The Total Deplatforming Of Parler & Infrastructure Content Moderation
- Parler seems to be sliding back onto the Internet, but not onto mobile
- Parler Attempting to Come Back Online, Still Insisting The Site’s Motivation Is ‘Privacy’ Despite Leaking Details On All Its Users
- Questions Raised About Why Online Retailers Are Promoting Attack on Capitol Hill-Themed Products
- Hackers alter stolen regulatory data to sow mistrust in COVID-19 vaccine
- When Can a Politician Block Constituents on Social Media?–Garnier v. O’Connor-Ratcliff (Eric Goldman)
- Facebook Isn’t Liable for Account Hack/Hijack–Damner v. Facebook (Eric Goldman)
- The local politics of AirBNB’s ban on DC rentals
- Samsung’s top executive gets 30 months in prison for bribery
- Mobile Advertising Company Gets Flack from FTC for Failure to Deliver Upon Advertised Promises
- “Big Tech” under pressure – new Rules for Digital Platforms in the EU and UK
- UK government sets out final approach to regulating online harms
- Should my Will refer to Digital Assets
- Google says it’s closing the Fitbit acquisition—uh, without DOJ approval?
- Former FCC Boss Tom Wheeler Continues To Misunderstand And Misrepresent Section 230 And The Challenges Of Content Moderation
- Understanding the Controversy over Section 230
- Content Moderation Case Study: Dealing With Demands From Foreign Governments (January 2016)
- Content Moderation Case Study: Using Hashes And Scanning To Stop Cloud Storage From Being Used For Infringement (2014)
- The New Age of Content Moderation(?)
- Free Access To Academic Papers For Everyone In India: Government Proposes ‘One Nation, One Subscription’ Approach As Part Of Major Shift To Openness
- Indonesian Government Prioritizes Influencers — Alongside Healthcare Workers — In COVID Vaccine Rollout
- Influencer and brand under fire for failing to clearly identify marketing communication on TikTok (Jamella t/a GHD in association with Emily Canham)
- Influencer Marketing Guide
- 2020 Advertising Law Year in Review
- Netflix’s First Inclusion Report Lays Out Its Diversity Efforts, Shortfalls, Goals
- Netflix Soars Past 200 Million Subscribers, Clocked $25 Billion In Revenues Last Year
- ViacomCBS Sets March 4 Launch For Paramount+ Streaming Service
- CBS All Access is dead, long live Paramount+: “New” streaming service launches March 4
- Apple Looking To Monetize Podcasting Platform Via Subscription Service (Report)
- Apple pulls the plug on user-found method to sideload iOS apps on Mac
- Some Creators Are Making Millions Uploading Videos To Snapchat’s Spotlight
- YouTube Adds Safety Feature Targeting Comments With External Links
- YouTube Adds New Metric Letting Creators Track Video Performance Over 24-Hour Span
- The Dolan Twins, With 11 Million Subscribers, Resign From YouTube To Pursue Other Ventures
- YouTube Wonderkid ‘Like Nastya’ Topples 200 Million Subs Across Portfolio Of 14 Channels
- PC sales finally saw big growth in 2020 after years of steady decline
- Newly-Formed ‘Group Nine Acquisition Corp.’ Prices $200 Million IPO, Kicking Off Today
- Wattpad Acquired By Webtoon’s Parent Company ‘Naver’ In $600 Million Deal
- CAA Acquires Creative Agency ‘Tandem’ To Bolster Digital Partnerships, Branded Content Efforts
- Treasury nominee Yellen is looking to curtail use of cryptocurrency
- The internet didn’t kill counterculture—you just won’t find it on Instagram
- Rhode Island clarifies sales taxation of advertising software
- Zeros and Ones in 2021: Next Moves in the Digital Tax Debate
- Emoji Law Year-in-Review for 2020 (Eric Goldman)
A.I.
- Facebook will pay more than $300 each to 1.6M Illinois users in settlement
- WorkLife 2.0: A robot in control – should AI have a voice on the Board?
- Brainard weighs benefits and risks of using AI in financial services industry
- AI-powered text from this program could fool the government
- Microsoft invests in $30 billion driverless car company Cruise
- FDA Issues Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Action Plan
- Five highlights from FDA’s new AI device regulation Action Plan
- House of Lords liaison committee report on AI published
- “AI in the UK: No room for complacency” and no room for a separate AI regulation
- The AI Council calls for a National AI Strategy: building public trust
- What You Need to Know About M&A and Investing in AI
- Blockchain, AI and Cloud in the Luxury Sector
- An interview with Cirio Advokatbyrå AB discussing artificial intelligence in Sweden
COMMUNICATIONS
- Federal Enforcement Agencies Remind Canadian Mobile App Companies of their CASL Obligationsl
- Fox News Needs To Accept Some Of The Blame For The Insurrection; But That Doesn’t Mean We Toss Out The 1st Amendment
- FCC fines white-supremacist robocaller $10 million for faking caller ID
- FCC Fines White Supremacist ~$10 Million for Spoofed RoboCalls
- In Departing Statement, FCC Boss Ajit Pai Pretends He ‘Served The People’
- As Ajit Pai exits FCC, Charter admits defeat on petition to impose data caps
- With Trump Loss, Charter Backs Off FCC Request To Allow Broadband Caps
- 3Mbps uploads still fast enough for US homes, Ajit Pai says in final report
- FCC’s new foreign ownership review rules set to take effect
- House Lawmakers Question Telecom Giants Over Broadband Price Gouging During A Pandemic
- Broadband Market Failure Keeps Forcing Americans To Build Their Own ISPs
- US declares Xiaomi a “Communist Chinese military company,” bans investments
- English Premier League wins latest round in battle over satellite decoder cards
- UK faces major telecoms regulation overhaul courtesy of the European Electronic Communications Code
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
- Foreign Certificate of Registrations of Copyright may not suffice to prove ownership of copyright in Canada
- How one musician took on the world’s biggest TV network over copyright—and won
- Ninth Circuit Panel Adopts “Asserted Truths” Doctrine in Holding Jersey Boys Musical Does Not Infringe Copyright
- INSTA-FRAUD Instagram ‘Copyright Infringement’
- Martin v Kogan: High Court re-writes script as Kogan succeeds in copyright co-authorship retrial
- Why Software Developers Should Provide Licensees With Software Escrow Services
- Getting Your Website Ready for the New Library of Congress Copyright Claims Board
- A Short Summary of the CASE Act (Tyler Ochoa)
- Mixed reactions as copyright owners ring in 2021 with CASE Act
- In CASE You Missed It: Significant New Dispute-Resolution Process for Copyright Claims
- New Stimulus Bill Creates Small Claims Copyright Court
- Pepe the Frog
- Knobbe Practice Webinar Series – Protecting User Interface Technologies
- Celebrated graffiti artist Futura sues The North Face for its FUTURELIGHT apparel line alleging copyright and trademark infringement
- A COVID-19 fast-track for Canadian trademark applications
- Canadian Trademark Law: 2020 Year in review
- Year in Review – Key Trademark Cases from 2020
- The Case of the ‘Missing S’
- A not so EASY task after all – UKIPO finds EASY mark devoid of distinctive character
- SCOTUS Refuses To Hear Case Between Jack Daniels And VIP Products Over Doggy Chew Toy
- Are Commercial Parody Dog Toys Subject to the Heightened Rogers Test, and Do They Qualify As Non-Commercial Works under the Trademark Dilution Revision Act?
- Everything Old is New Again: Presumption of Irreparable Harm Restored to Third Circuit Trademark Cases Seeking Injunctive Relief
- TTAB KO’s Mayweather PAST PRESENT FUTURE Trademark Application
- Trademark Modernization Act Becomes Law: Establishes Procedures to Remove Deadwood Registrations, Restores Presumption of Irreparable Harm, and Protects the Independence of the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board
- Trade Mark Filings increase worldwide in 2019
- A Trademark is Not a Copyright or a Patent
- Manufacturers Must Not be Blind to Their Rights Against Counterfeiters
- Shoe design found valid and infringed in the UK Court’s last Community registered design case
- Case Study | Breach of Confidence by employees
- Litigation finance helps companies keep their cool during trade secrets disputes
- How Not to Build a Case of Trade Secret Misappropriation
- Federal Court invalidates Janssen ZYTIGA® Patent
- Federal Court decision regarding glatiramer acetate finds one patent obvious and another valid and infringed
- PM(NOC) Invalidity Grounds May Extend Beyond NOA
- Federal Court continues recent trend of granting summary judgment in appropriate patent proceedings
- The new rules of Canadian patent litigation: Federal Court of Appeal affirms the viability of summary judgments in patent actions, upholds interpretation of file wrapper estoppel
- Recent Amendments to the Patented Medicines Regulations Declared Unconstitutional by Québec Superior Court
- Have any Patents Issued under the USPTO’s COVID-19 Prioritized Patent Examination Program?
- Patenting the 3D Bioprinting Innovations that Combat COVID-19
- Revenge of the Grammer Nerds: Grammatical Canons Overturn $8.6 Million Jury Infringement Verdict
- No Reasonable Expectation of Success, No Obviousness
- The China Pivot: Closing the “Back Door” to Trade Secret and IP Theft
- Rapid Rise in Blockchain Patent Filings in China
- Everyday IP – Brushing up: When were toothbrushes invented?
- UK-EU Trade Agreement and IP Rights
- Proposed University Technology Licensing Program Gets Nod from Justice Department
- Making the best of a bad year: Winning IP cases in 2020
- World Intellectual Property Indicators Report 2020
- 2020 Engineering & Technology Year in Review
- Importance of Protecting Intellectual Property in the Digital Age
- 10 things every new IP counsel should do
PRIVACY
- Defunct Photo App Agrees to Erase Biometric Data in FTC Settlement
- FTC Settles Allegations of Deceptive Practices by Photo Storage App Provider
- FTC Takes Aim at Facial Recognition Claims in Latest Deception Settlement
- Tiktok faces lawsuit for violating children’s data privacy law in the UK
- Fired former data scientist Rebekah Jones arrested, tests positive for COVID-19
- Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Vacates MD Anderson HIPAA Penalty
- CJEU rules that the UK’s “mass surveillance” regime is out of line with EU law
- The NSA warns enterprises to beware of third-party DNS resolvers
- Security firm Malwarebytes was infected by same hackers who hit SolarWinds
- How law enforcement gets around your smartphone’s encryption
- Beware of biometric data compliance pitfalls under BIPA
- Another Day, Another Location Data Privacy Scandal We’ll Probably Do Nothing About
- Oceans Apart? Mass Privacy Litigation in the US and Europe
- Key lessons from the first major GDPR fines for cyber breaches
Jon
News of the Week; January 13, 2021
GAMES
- ESA suspends political contributions after assault on U.S. Capitol
- ESA PAC to pause political contributions following insurrection at US Capitol
- Twitch suspends Trump account following insurrection at US Capitol
- Updated: Twitch, Discord suspend Trump-related accounts after Capitol assault
- Twitch removes popular emote after pro player’s support for Capitol Hill mob
- Twitch pulls Pogchamp emote over link to Capitol siege supporter
- Twitch removes PogChamp emote it says was “the face of… further violence”
- Riot and Bungie file lawsuit against Destiny 2 and Valorant cheat-maker
- Riot Games and Bungie file joint lawsuit against cheatmakers
- Koei Tecmo says it will sue over bootleg Dead or Alive video
- Dangen Entertainment settles dispute with Protoculture Games
- Nintendo Appears To Be Using A Fan-Made Drawing Of Mario Without Artist’s Permission Or Credit
- Legal risks and implications of hyper-realistic videogames
- CD Projekt apologizes again for Cyberpunk 2077 on consoles
- CD Projekt faces scrutiny from consumer protection org over Cyberpunk 2077
- CDPR CEO blames “in-game streaming” for Cyberpunk’s console problems
- CD Projekt leadership vows no ‘obligatory overtime’ during Cyberpunk 2077 fixes
- Polish competition watchdog investigating Cyberpunk 2077
- Capcom confirms at least 16,000 people affected by Nov. data breach
- Personal information of 16,415 people compromised during Capcom security breach
- Capcom security breach compromised personal data of 16,415 people
- Take-Two officially ends pursuit of Codemasters following EA offer
- Take-Two withdraws bid for Codemasters following EA offer of $1.2bn
- Wolfenstein 3D + Super Monkey Ball = free Nazi-flattening fun!
- Payload Studios launches incubator for underrepresented developers
- FTC wary of Apple and Google “squeezing developers”
- The FTC slams Tapjoy over deceptive ads, pledges to keep ‘gatekeeping giants’ in check
- FTC Settles With Mobile-Game Platform for Misleading In-Game Advertisements
- FTC Pursues Advertising Network that Failed to Deliver In-Game Rewards in Exchange for Payment or Personal Information
- Federal Trade Commission orders Tapjoy to better police fraudulent advertising
- Peter Moore: FIFA Ultimate Team is a “long way” from gambling
- EA’s hold over Star Wars games ends with Ubisoft’s open-world announcement
- Lucasfilm Games taps Ubisoft Massive to create new open-world Star Wars title
- Lucasfilm re-establishes Lucasfilm Games as home for all its gaming titles
- Star Wars games are now housed under a revived Lucasfilm Games brand
- Disney brings back the Lucasfilm Games brand for future Star Wars titles
- Bethesda lands Indiana Jones license
- Bethesda, Lucasfilm tease new Indiana Jones video game
- Lucasfilm and Ubisoft partner on Star Wars game
- GameStop holiday sales down 3.1% in 2020
- GameStop: Fewer stores, ‘industry-wide decline’, supply woes led to holiday sales slide
- N95 masks, gamer style: Razer’s crazy face-mask prototype revealed
- Video Games & the Novel (Eric Hayot)
- Video games have replaced music as the most important aspect of youth culture
- Forget power fantasies: pandemic-era players crave companionship | Opinion
- What will a post-pandemic games industry look like? | This Week in Business
- Tencent confirms 1m Nintendo Switch shipments in China
- Amazon’s 2020 gaming best-sellers again led by gift cards, Switch games
- Nintendo Switch dominates Top Ten as lockdown boosts game sales | UK Boxed Charts
- 43 million games sold in the UK in 2020 | UK Annual Report
- Number of mobile gamers increased 50% in the UK due to COVID-19
- Core gamers generated 66% of mobile revenues in 2020
- Newzoo sees mobile marketing upheaval in 2021
- Nerts! is the free, pleasant six-player card game we could all use right now
- GameFly introduces movies-only subscription
- Tilting Point signs $10 million publishing deal with South Korean dev Storytaco
- Best Fiends publisher Playtika launches $1.6B IPO
- Playtika launches IPO, looks to raise as much as $1.6b
- Roblox to go public through direct listing, not IPO
- Roblox secures fresh $520 million investment, outlines plans for direct listing
- Turtle Beach acquires Neat Microphones
- Epic acquires Rad Game Tools
- Steam saw 21% more games sold in 2020
- Over 8 million demos played during 2020’s Steam Festivals (and other nifty Steam stats)
- How did Rust make $1 million in Steam revenue in a day – twice?
- Genvid targets “a huge opportunity for game developers” with Rival Peak
- The future is digital — right?
- What does 2021 hold for the African games industry?
- What I learned playing 30+ years’ worth of Jeopardy! video games
- Handheld hardships | 10 Years Ago This Month
- Twitter says gaming posts up 75% in 2020
- Streamer TheGrefg breaks Twitch peak concurrent viewership records
- Twitch, Facebook see best months for viewership yet in December
- Dolphin Entertainment acquires esports and game PR agency B/HI
- B/HI acquired by Dolphin Entertainment
- Financing in the Esports sector
- Oculus Quest 2 players make up nearly half of Rec Room’s 1 million VR-using MAUs
- Making Chestnut Grove (a game set in the pandemic) during the pandemic
- Blog: Deconstructing the product strategy of PC Building Simulator
- Blog: Have video games become products like any other?
- Blog: Studying physical elements of play
- Blog: How many currencies should my game have?
- Blog: How studios can prevent unauthorized spending in games
- Don’t Miss: The challenges BioWare faced designing Mass Effect 3
- Don’t Miss: A 2014 Lucasfilm Games postmortem, told by those who lived it
- Don’t Miss: Leveraging physical animation to sell Force powers in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
- Video: The appeal of ‘legacy’ board games
- GI 100 | Game Changers
DIGITAL
- Trump deletes tweets after being banned from Twitter
- Donald Trump has finally earned a permaban from Twitter
- Not Easy, Not Unreasonable, Not Censorship: The Decision To Ban Trump From Twitter
- Facebook, Instagram ban Trump through at least Inauguration Day
- YouTube suspends Trump’s account, disables comments “indefinitely”
- Just-Formed Alphabet Union Condemns YouTube’s “Lackluster” Response To Pro-Trump Capital Mob
- Wednesday, January 6th: The Day The Game Of Politics Turned Into Insurrection
- Politics Is Not A Game
- Republican state lawmaker livestreamed himself in mob storming US Capitol
- FBI arrests Republican lawmaker who stormed Capitol with pro-Trump mob
- Republican lawmaker resigns after arrest for storming US Capitol
- Identifying Insurrectionists Is Going To Be Easy — Thanks To Social Media And All The Other Online Trails People Leave
- Insurrectionists’ social media presence gives feds an easy way to ID them
- Dominion Voting suing “kraken” lawyer Sidney Powell for $1.3B
- Michael Flynn and Sidney Powell banned from Twitter in QAnon purge
- Trump social media ban will feature in future antitrust hearings
- The real lesson of Trump’s social media silencing
- Trump Is Banned. Who Is Next?
- Reddit’s largest remaining Trump community banned for “inciting violence”
- Google bans Parler from Android app store
- Amazon cuts off Parler’s Web hosting following Apple, Google bans
- After white supremacists storm US capitol, Apple expands racial justice initiative
- Parler goes dark, sues Amazon to demand immediate reinstatement
- Parler’s Laughably Bad Antitrust Lawsuit Against Amazon
- Filing: Amazon warned Parler for months about “more than 100” violent threats
- Parler’s amateur coding could come back to haunt Capitol Hill rioters
- Trump, Parler, and the internet regulation fallout (Andres Guadamuz)
- Facebook says it’s blocking posts with the phrase “stop the steal”
- Big ISPs pause donations to 147 Republicans who tried to reverse Biden’s win
- Snowflake Josh Hawley Seems To Think The 1st Amendment Means Simon & Schuster Has To Give Him A Book Contract
- Some Thoughts On Twitter Pulling The Plug On Trump’s Account
- Irony: German Chancellor Merkel Upset At Twitter For Banning Trump; Meanwhile Germany Demands Social Media Blocks Dangerous Content
- More Plaintiffs (and Lawyers) Need To Be Reminded That YouTube Isn’t a State Actor–Divino v. Google (Eric Goldman)
- The First Amendment: Where it is Implicated, and Where it is Not
- A New Year, a new approach to digital regulation: the DSA and Online Harms
- SolarWinds malware has “curious” ties to Russian-speaking hackers
- “Baby-making machines”: Chinese tweet on Uighurs not against Twitter rules
- Twitter takes down China’s “baby-making machines” tweet on Uighur women
- Appeals Court: Just Because Someone Used An Email Account To Send Threats Doesn’t Make It An ‘Interstate’ Crime
- Mossack Fonseca & Co. v. Netflix Inc. (California: Central District December 23, 2020): In libel action concerning Netflix’s 2019 film The Laundromat, district court grants anti-SLAPP motion.
- PSA: If Someone Doesn’t Accept Your Friend Request, Do Not Threaten To Kill Them And Kick In Their Front Door
- Goliath Beater Roku Rockets Into ‘The Streaming Decade’
- Quibi’s $1.75B experiment ends with Roku acquisition for “less than $100M”
- Roku Has Officially Acquired Quibi’s Pricey Programming Library
- Internet Shutdowns in 2021
- The Year That Changed the Internet
- New proposals for regulation of online platforms in Europe
- Dear Section 230 Critics: When Senators Hawley And Cruz Are Your Biggest Allies, It’s Time To Rethink
- New Op-Ed: People Who Understand Section 230 Actually Love It (Eric Goldman)
- Section 230 Year-in-Review for 2020 (Eric Goldman)
- Content Moderation Case Study: SoundCloud Combats Piracy By Giving Universal Music The Power To Remove Uploads (2014)
- Content Moderation Case Study: Yelp Attempts To Tackle Racism On Its Platform (2020)
- The Slope Gets More Slippery As You Expect Content Moderation To Happen At The Infrastructure Layer
- Everything Pundits Are Getting Wrong About This Current Moment In Content Moderation
- Twitter Bans Sci-Hub’s Account Because Of ‘Counterfeit Goods’ Policy, As Indian Copyright Case Heats Up
- Apple allegedly working with Hyundai on electric car for 2027
- Bummed about new Google Photos storage limits? Amazon Photos says “hi”
- A Google smart display with radar-based sleep tracking is reportedly happening
- How YouTube helps form homogeneous online communities
- YouTube Re-Teams With Demi Lovato For ‘Dancing With The Devil’ Docuseries
- YouTube Turns On Post-Roll Ads By Default On All 10-Minute, Monetizing Videos
- YouTube Names Dr. Garth Graham Global Head Of Healthcare, In Bid To Bolster Authoritative Health Content
- ‘#YouTubeBlack Voices Grant Program’ Unveils Inaugural Class Of 132 Creator Recipients
- MrBeast Smashes 50 Million Subs, Though Recent Videos Have Lost A “Ridiculous” Amount Of Money
- 100 Thieves Snags AT&T Sponsorship, Will Install Branded ‘Valorant’ Team Training Room
- Some Uber, Lyft drivers sue over California ballot measure: Lawsuit says Proposition 22 is unconstitutional because it limits right to organize
- Sway House Investment Spurs Tinder Founder Sean Rad To Seed $1 Million In ‘Versus Game’ App
- Music and Social Media – Times are changing for brands on TikTok
- TikTok Launches 3-Month Incubation Program For Black Creators
- TikTok Breakout Noah Beck Lands Reality Series At AwesomenessTV
- Context is key: ASA dismisses complaint against a Laphroaig whisky ad accused of linking alcohol with sexual activity
- After corporate blunders and setbacks, Intel ousts CEO Bob Swan
- Qualcomm will acquire chip company founded by Apple execs for $1.4 billion
- Nvidia’s next laptop GPU generation powers a leap to 1440p displays
- Nvidia’s takeover of Arm is being investigated by UK competition authorities
- UK competition regulator to investigate Nvidia’s takeover of Arm
- 2H 2020 Quick Links, Part 5 (Contracts, E-Commerce, Defamation, Censorship, & More) (Eric Goldman)
A.I.
- UKIPO patent guidance updated for DABUS judgment
- Landmark artificial intelligence legislation becomes law
- Eye on AI
- An interview with Covington & Burling discussing artificial intelligence in the United States
- New York City proposes regulating algorithms used in hiring
- AI Update: Provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act Signal the Importance of AI to American Competitiveness
- Why Big Tech Wants Your Body
- Remember Sony’s electric car from CES? Now it’s being road-tested
- Tesla’s main self-driving rival isn’t Google—it’s Intel’s Mobileye
- FRB Governor Promotes Financial Inclusion through AI
- One piece of optical hardware performs massively parallel AI calculations
COMMUNICATIONS
- Ajit Pai offers mild criticism of Trump incitement, drops Section 230 plan
- In His Last Two Weeks, Ajit Pai Finally Finds A Backbone And Refuses To Move Forward With Trump’s Ridiculous 230 Attack
- Reminder – 2021 Will Include Some Off-Year Elections for State and Local Office – and FCC Political Broadcasting Rules Do Apply
- Big Telecom Wants A Cookie For Pausing PAC Donations After Hoovering Up Billions In Trump Favors
- AT&T kills off the failed TV service formerly known as DirecTV Now
- AT&T Is Restoring Its Bullshit Broadband Caps Because Apparently The COVID Crisis Is Over
- Jared Mauch didn’t have good broadband—so he built his own fiber ISP
- 6G Hype Is Already Getting Stupid, When 5G Hype Hasn’t Even Finished Disappointing Us Yet
- A Few Reminders Before The Tired Net Neutrality Debate Is Rekindled
- Report: Tencent and Alibaba may get blacklisted by the Trump administration
- Radio, Radio: FM Radio Licenses Soon to be Available to Educational Institutions
- Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation – Legal compliance reminder for mobile app industry
- Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation – 2020 Year in Review
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
- Eleventh Circuit Says Netflix Series Does Not Infringe Copyrighted Memoir
- Ninth Circuit Holds Dr. Seuss-Star Trek Mashup an Infringement, Not a Parody
- This Mashup Is Not a Place You’ll Go – Seuss Copyright Will ‘Live Long and Prosper’
- Copyright Troll Richard Liebowitz Helps Protect Free Speech & Fair Use By Losing Yet Another Case
- Dickinson v. Ryan Seacrest Enterprises, Inc. (USCA, Ninth Circuit, Dec. 21, 2020): Dismissal of claims by Janice Dickinson over allegedly false portrayal of her in reality television series.
- Copyright Royalty Board Announces SoundExchange Audits of Royalty Payments for Webcasters (Including Broadcast Simulcasts) and Other Digital Music Services
- Digital Collections: Reflections on copyright
- Copyright Office Begins Review of Changes in Satellite Television Statutory License for Carriage of Local Television Stations
- Is 2021 the year for artists to sell their music catalogues?
- Art law – Recent developments January 2021
- Use My Likeness? Over My Dead Body!
- Canadian Madrid Applications: Practice Note for Foreign Agents
- Trademark litigation: a global guide 2021 – Canada
- Louisville Courier-Journal Wins ‘Derby Pie’ Trademark Dispute
- USPTO v Booking.com: Whether a “.com” can transform a generic mark into a registrable trademark under the Lanham Act
- The Trademark Modernization Act Establishes New Trademark Cancellation Procedures
- United States: Key considerations in parallel criminal and civil trade secrets cases
- Ten Trade Secret Resolutions to Keep for 2021 and Beyond
- Court Rejects Attempt to “Stretch” Patent Claim Language
- Watch What You Say! Prosecution History Estoppel in Canada
- Election Ballot Verification – A Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Analysis
- Patent Owner’s ex parte communications with members of Congress, the president, and PTAB APJs are sanctionable and the Board may craft its own reasonable sanctions
- Patent protection in the time of COVID-19
- Why standard essential patents are now essential to you
- The Right to Repair in Massachusetts Rolls Forward
- Not Patent Misuse to License U.S. Patents in Foreign Jurisdictions for “Administrative Convenience”
- 10 Patent Prosecution, Litigation Practice Trends From 2020
- What Was Old Is New Again In IP Litigation — Thanks To Suspected Russian State-Sponsored Hack
- What Were the Top Intellectual Property Stories in 2020?
- Cloud computing: overview of IP issues
- The EU / UK Trade Agreement: Three myths busted – Intellectual property
PRIVACY
- Trends to watch in 2021 – Privacy: issues in a hyper-connected world
- Privacy and Our New Virtual World
- Internet-Connected Chastity Cages Hit By Bitcoin Ransom Hack
- DOJ, US Court System Latest To Announce They’re Victims Of The Massive Solarwinds Hack
- Proactive Steps to Address the Issues Raised after Cyberattack on U.S. Federal Judiciary’s Electronic Filing System
- The SolarWinds hack is stunning. Here’s what should be done
- FTC Settles With Photo App Over Use of Facial Recognition Technology
- New York and Others Settle with CafePress Over 2019 Data Breach
- Cops Love Body Camera Footage… When It Clears Officers Of Any Wrongdoing
- Fifth Circuit Tosses Child Porn Conviction Predicated On Unconstitutional Searches Of Three Cellphones
- Five Key Developments in the Privacy and Data Security Sector in 2020 and Five Predictions for 2021
Jon
News of the Week; January 6, 2021
GAMES
- The Sinking City returns to stores as legal dispute over publishing rights continues
- CD Projekt gearing up for ‘vigorous action’ against investor lawsuit
- Apple removes 39,000 games from the App Store in China
- Apple removes 39,000 games from China store in biggest single-day takedown
- Microsoft calls for Xbox drift lawsuit to be handled by arbitration
- Koei Tecmo’s sites offline following cyber attack
- Netflix producer, Yoozoo Games CEO Lin Qi dead at 39 amid poisoning probe.
- Washington ALJ Rules Video Game Developer’s Attendance at Trade Show Created Substantial Nexus
- A closer look at Raw Fury’s publishing contract
- Tencent and Huawei resolve revenue share dispute
- Minecraft Earth shutting down
- Minecraft Earth is going dark at the end of June
- Saving video gaming’s source code treasures before it’s too late
- The SpongeBob SquarePants effect: Why THQ Nordic is doubling down on licenses
- Where do we go from here? Analysts give 2021 predictions
- Analysing the major mobile game design and feature trends of 2020
- 2020’s most disappointing games, as led by Blizzard’s WarCraft III: Reforged
- Quantifying the Xmas day video game sales bump
- Call of Duty: Mobile makes $14m in first week in China
- Football Manager 2021 has sold over 1 million copies in record time
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons ends 2020 at the top | UK Boxed Charts
- Fall Guys, Doom and Cyberpunk represent 2020 in Steam’s top earners of the year
- Polygon’s 50 most anticipated games of 2021
- The SpongeBob SquarePants effect: Why THQ Nordic is doubling down on licenses
- Ubisoft’s game subscription service now supports Google Stadia for free.
- Sony discontinues all but one PS4 model in Japan
- PS4 Pro and most other models discontinued in Japan
- Sony Pictures Developing 3 Movies, 7 TV Shows Based On PlayStation Games
- Tenet director Christopher Nolan is ‘definitely interested’ in adapting his films into games.
- Nintendo’s Power-Up Band—a physical key to Japan’s upcoming Super Nintendo World
- Nintendo acquires Next Level Games
- Nintendo acquires Luigi’s Mansion 3 developer Next Level Games
- Xbox once pitched an acquisition of Nintendo, and was met with laughter
- The SpongeBob SquarePants effect: Why THQ Nordic is doubling down on licenses
- Niantic acquires community gaming platform Mayhem
- Pokemon Go maker Niantic acquires community platform Mayhem
- Epic Games acquires shopping mall for new headquarters
- Spotify is the first nongaming app on the Epic Games Store, and Epic says it won’t be the last.
- Honor of Kings foresees a borderless, mobile future
- How Riot Games is gunning for its second big esports with Valorant.
- Blog: How I wasted time and money developing a game that earned $30
- Blog: Historians discuss Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
- Blog: An empathy-driven way to design games
- Video: Clint Hocking’s 2011 game design keynote
- Gamasutra’s Best of 2020: The top 10 game developers of the year
DIGITAL
- Bucking Trump, NSA and FBI say Russia was “likely” behind SolarWinds hack
- DoJ says SolarWinds hackers breached its Office 365 system and read email
- Pro-Trump reporter gloats over access to fleeing Hill staffer’s computer
- Court says Uber can’t hold users to terms they probably didn’t read
- Ticketmaster admits it hacked rival company before it went out of business
- Laura Loomer Loses Another Lawsuit Related to Her Twitter Ban–Illoominate v. CAIR (Eric Goldman)
- Defamation Law Can Slow the Plague of Fake News: Challenging falsehoods about voting machines is a good place to start. (Cass Sunstein)
- Cass Sunstein’s No Good, Horrible, Very Bad Idea For Using Defamation To Fight ‘Fake News’
- Study: Folklore structure reveals how conspiracy theories emerge, fall apart
- Women’s victimization by online hate impedes their democratic participation: LEAF
- Activist hedge fund advises Intel to outsource CPU manufacturing
- Why don’t PCs use error correcting RAM? “Because Intel,” says Linus
- 60 Minutes Episode Is Pure Misleading Moral Panic About Section 230; Blames Unrelated Issues On It
- Parler, Desperate For Attention, Pretends It Doesn’t Need Section 230
- Content Moderation Case Study: Dealing With Controversial & Sexual Fan Fiction (May 2007)
- WhatsApp gives users an ultimatum: Share data with Facebook or stop using the app
- Google and Facebook Sued for Antitrust Violations in the U.S
- Too big not to fail? Google’s antitrust woes
- Google employees announce union open to all Alphabet workers
- Google employees kick off union membership drive for 120,000 workers
- Amazon promises $2B for affordable housing projects near its corporate offices
- European Commission Unveils Sweeping Proposals to Regulate the Digital Sector
- Regulating the Internet, at Last? The Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act
- Use of fake identities found deceitful in commercial email — why not elsewhere on the Internet?
- UK blocks Assange extradition due to suicide risk, poor US jail conditions
- Judge Refuses To Extradite Julian Assange, Citing US Prison Conditions & Assange’s Mental Health
- Logan Paul Sued By Production Company Over Fallout From Aokigahara Video
- Top 50 Most Viewed US YouTube Channels • Week Of 12/28/2020
- Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 12/28/2020
- Ars Technica’s 2021 Deathwatch—2020 was just the beginning
- After Months of Deadlock, Congress Extends Lifeline for the Arts and Entertainment Industry through the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant Program
- ASA publishes 12 month review of gender stereotyping rule in advertising
- Cryptocurrency stealer for Windows, macOS, and Linux went undetected for a year
- United States President’s Working Group on Financial Markets Releases Statement on Regulatory and Supervisory Considerations for Stablecoin Arrangements
- Synchronized violin players reveal uniqueness of human networks
- Seven Years Ago, CERN Gave Open Access A Huge Boost; Now It’s Doing The Same For Open Data
- 2H 2020 Quick Links, Part 4 (FOSTA) (Eric Goldman)
A.I.
- House of Lords Committee publishes new report “AI in the UK: No Room for Complacency”
- AI Council publishes roadmap for UK AI strategy
- When AI goes wrong, how will the courts determine why?
- Facial Recognition Technology Involves More Than Meets the Eye
- Artificial intelligence and transparency in the public sector
- How Smart Software And AI Helped Networks Thrive For Consumers During The Pandemic
- Waymo CEO: Building safe driverless cars is harder than rocket science
- Birds of a feather flock together, but patterns change with the mission
- You can’t unsee Tedlexa, the Internet of Things/AI bear of your nightmares
COMMUNICATIONS
- Broadband Infrastructure Companies Ripe for M&A, Experts Say
- Pudding-Brained 5G Conspiracies Somehow Get Even Dumber
- FCC Issues Ruling Limiting Call Volumes Permitted Under TCPA Exemptions
- FCC issues voluntary caller id authentication best practices for Voice service providers
- FCC Takes A Break From Not Caring About Consumers To Hassle Some Landlords Over Pirate Radio
- ViaSat Asks FCC To Investigate Space X For Space Pollution
- President Trump Issues Executive Order Banning Transactions Involving Eight Chinese Software Applications
- Comcast data cap blasted by lawmakers as it expands into 12 more states
- Lawmakers Complain About Comcast’s Bullshit Expanded Usage Caps
- Frontier agrees to fiber-network expansion in plan to exit bankruptcy
- Last-minute Brexit deal extends free flow of personal data to UK with 6 months
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
- The Copyright Board Begins 2021 with Less Transparency and More Potentially Dysfunctional Delays
- UK Music Rights Group Demands Payment From A Pub That Isn’t Playing Any Music Because It’s Closed Due To COVID
- U.S. Amends the Copyright Act to Establish Copyright Small Claims Tribunal
- Why You Should Be Cautious of the New Copyright Small Claims Court
- Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P. v. ComicMix LLC (USCA, 9th, 12.18.20): Unauthorized Dr. Seuss & Star Trek mash-up “Oh, the Places You’ll Boldly Go!” was not fair use of copyrights because the book did not parody or critique
- A New CJEU Judgment on Copyright-Related Geoblocking – One Step Forward or One Step Back in the EU Commission’s Fight Against Geoblocking? (Eric Goldman)
- 1925 Was an Annus Mirabilis for Culture
- Ferrari‘s Testarossa passes the “Test of Genuine Use” before CJEU
- Battle of the Bentleys: Bentley Motors loses trade mark appeal against Bentley Clothing
- USA: 25% Fee hike for Trademark Applications via Madrid Protocol
- US Trademark Modernization Act Provides New Relief to Trademark Owners
- Trademark Modernization Act of 2020 – Use It or Lose It
- What to Know About the Trademark Modernization Act of 2020
- 2H 2020 Quick Links, Part 3 (Trademarks) (Eric Goldman)
- Battle of the ballet shoes: UK court finds infringement of registered community design
- Software and Business Method Patents – How to Improve Your Chances?
- Court Interprets Purported Contour Lines in Design Patent Drawings as Claimed Features
- No Simulating Alice Requirements: Application of Abstract Ideas Alone Cannot Transform Patent Ineligible Subject Matter
- Twelve Cannabis Plant Patents and Counting
- Looking for a patent database? Need a little Inspire-ation?
- Patent Licensors Can Prevent Challenges to Patent Validity
- 2021 Intellectual Property Primer: Cases to Watch this Year
PRIVACY
- Child’s Play: Federal Judge Shuts Down Privacy Litigation Brought Against Tech and Toy Companies Alleging They Violated Kids’ Privacy Rights
- Government Users of Facial Recognition Software Sued by Plaintiff Alleging Wrongful Imprisonment Over Case of Mistaken Identity
- FBI Warns Assholes Are Now Combining Compromised IoT Devices With Swatting Because That’s The Hell We Now Live In
- Telegram feature exposes your precise address to hackers
- FTC Focuses on Privacy Practices of Social Media and Video Streaming Companies
- FTC’s Confusing Guidance on How Merchants Should Manage Their Consumer Reviews (Eric Goldman)
- Update on global privacy expectations of Video Teleconferencing companies
- Global Privacy Roundup: The World Beyond Europe and California
- Data Breach Litigation Without a Data Breach? Not So Fast Walmart Says…
- Federal Court Grants Preliminary Approval of First CCPA Settlement
- Portland’s Ban on Facial-Recognition Technology Takes Effect
- New York Temporarily Bans Facial Recognition Technology in Schools
- En Banc First Circuit Will Decide Whether Government Needs a Warrant to Put Pole Camera Outside Your Home
- Obscure Analytics Tool Helps Cops Make Sense Of All That Location Data They’re Grabbing Without A Warrant
- COVID-19 contact-tracing data is fair game for police, Singapore says
- Surprise! Singapore Backtracks On Privacy Pledge And Opens Contact Tracing Data To Police
- What the heck is a token, and is it considered personal information in California and Europe?
- 10 Areas Of Privacy Law That Look Ripe For Change In 2021
Jon
News of the Week; December 30, 2020
GAMES
- CD Projekt Red investors sue company over Cyberpunk 2077 debacle
- Apple reportedly warns devs of more app takedowns in Chinese App Store
- What makes for a good game publishing contract?
- Nier: Automata surpasses 5 million shipped
- Steam’s end of year bonanza gets ‘experimental’
- Blackstone makes big investment in mobile ad firm Liftoff
- Parents Who Gift Quest 2 to Kids Under 13 Years Old are in for an Unfortunate Surprise
- Games of the Year 2020 | Xbox Game Pass
- Moving Out | Games of the Year 2020
- Gamasutra’s Best of 2020: Kris Graft’s top 5 games (+1)
- Gamasutra’s Best of 2020: The top 10 games of the year
DIGITAL
- Ninth Circuit Says Amazon Isn’t “Seller” of Marketplace Items–State Farm v. Amazon (Eric Goldman)
- Amazon Acquires Podcast Network Wondery In Reported $300 Million Deal
- Amazon still hasn’t fixed its problem with bait-and-switch reviews
- European Union Rules: Facebook Hopes Limits on Apple, Too
- Facebook Isn’t a Constructive Public Trust–Cameron Atkinson v. Facebook (Eric Goldman)
- Chinese Government Sentences Journalist To Four Years In Jail For Reporting On The Spread Of The Coronavirus
- Reddit clone Voat, home to hate speech and QAnon, has shut down
- Computer repairman suing Twitter for defamation, seeks $500 million
- Repair Shop Owner Who Supposedly Had Hunter Biden’s Laptop Sues Twitter For Defamation… Has Lawsuit Tossed The Same Day
- Private party app pulled from App Store by Apple
- Ushering in a new age of accountability for big tech- UK government response to Online Harms White Paper consultation
- EU turns the screw on Big Tech: The Digital Services Act Package
- Revamp image rights to fight deepfakes (Andres Guadamuz)
- Washington State Attorney General’s Office Announces $65,000 Settlement with Online Retailer for Illegal Online Tobacco Sales
- Unimpressed Judge Tosses One Of Devin Nunes’ SLAPP Suits Against The Washington Post
- When You Can’t Innovate, You Litigate: Oracle Gleefully Takes Credit For Attacks On Section 230 And Google
- House overrides Trump veto, defying demand to repeal Section 230
- McConnell introduces bill tying $2K stimulus checks to Section 230 repeal
- Mitch McConnell Using Section 230 Repeal As A Poison Pill To Avoid $2k Stimulus Checks
- Coalition Of Internet Companies Who Are Decidedly Not ‘Big Tech’ Raise Their Voices About The Importance Of Section 230
- Who’s responsible for content posted on the Internet? Section 230, explained
- Section 230 Isn’t A Subsidy; It’s A Rule Of Civil Procedure
- 2H 2020 Quick Links, Part 2 (Section 230) (Eric Goldman)
- Content Moderation Case Study: Profanity Filter Causes Problems At Paleontology Conference (October 2020)
- Content Moderation Case Study: Understanding Cultural Context To Detect Satire (2020)
- Elsevier Wants To Stop Indian Medics, Students And Academics Accessing Knowledge The Only Way Most Of Them Can Afford: Via Sci-Hub And Libgen
- After 2020’s Crucial Role In Our Lives, Social Media Will Face A Far More Critical 2021
- Discord Raises $100 Million, Rolls Out Much-Requested Feature Amid Boom In User Acquisition
- TikTokers’ Collaborative ‘Ratatouille’ Musical To Star Wayne Brady, Tituss Burgess, Adam Lambert
- Google Is Testing A Search Feature That Exclusively Serves Short Videos From TikTok, Instagram
- MrBeast, Jimmy Fallon, MatPat, And More Join YouTube’s NYE Special ‘Hello 2021’
- ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ Was Watched By “Nearly Half” Of HBO Max Subscribers On Christmas Day
- TikTok Taps Brittany Broski, Lil Yachty To Host Live New Year’s Eve Festivities
- Ontario Amends Rules of Civil Procedure to Embrace Virtual Proceedings and Electronic Processes
- All I want for Christmas is an awesome new curriculum
- Divers recover a WWII Enigma Machine from the Baltic Sea
A.I.
- Google develops an AI that can learn both chess and Pac-Man
- House of Lords Committee publishes new report “AI in the UK: No Room for Complacency”
- Facial Recognition Helps New Jersey Cops Jail The Wrong Man For Ten Days
- 2020 In Review: An AI Roundup
- Why AI is so power-hungry
COMMUNICATIONS
- FCC Seeks Input on FM Booster “Zonecasting” Proposal
- FCC Threatens Large Fines Against Landlords Who Allow Pirate Radio Broadcasts on Their Property
- Congress Appropriates $7 Billion to Fund Broadband Initiatives
- Impact of Section 889’s Telecommunications and Video Surveillance Equipment Prohibitions on Federal Grant and Loan Recipients
- Verizon’s Latest 5G Innovation: A 5G ‘DSS’ Network That’s Slower Than 4G
- Comcast’s Pandemic Price Hike Bonanza Continues
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
- Ninth Circuit Provides Holiday Win to Copyright Owners with Fair Use Decision
- Neoprene Tote Bags: Watertight Not Copyright
- Corellium notches partial victory in Apple iOS copyright case
- The Man With The Tiger Tattoo Prances Forward*
- Copyright Claims Board To Be Established; Criminal Streaming Law
- Substantial similarity in copyright: It matters where you sue
- EUIPO report on online copyright infringement of film, TV and music – so what’s popular?
- 2H 2020 Quick Links, Part 1 (Copyright) (Eric Goldman)
- US Trademark and Copyright Reforms Accompany COVID-19 Relief
- A brand story: Santa and Coca-Cola
- Girl Scouts Continuing To Fight Boy Scouts Of America Over Trademarks, Branding
- Congress Passes the Trademark Modernization Act
- Avoid New Trademark Email Scams
- Brexit – Are you prepared? Pending UK Trade Mark proceedings: 3 key points to remember
- UDRP: hydroquébec.com
- Design disputes: combatting copycats with a collection of IP rights – Freddy SPA v Hugz Clothing Ltd
- Snapshot: procedure for design registration in USA
- Quebec Court finds price and revenue calculation provisions of amended PMPRB Regulations unconstitutional
- Federal Circuit Finds Video Signal Conversion Claims Patent Ineligible
- Senators Tell The USPTO To Remove The Arbitrary Obstacles Preventing Inventors (Especially Women Inventors) From Getting Patents
- Why Everyone Is Patenting Software Inventions
- Inventions behind the music: From Eddie Van Halen to Michael Jackson and beyond
- Towards a Better Patent System for Europe: The Unified Patent Court (UPC)
- Chinese Court Rules that It Can Set Patent License Terms outside China
- The Wuhan Submarine surfaces at Christmas, to be met by a Texan TRO
- Lewis Hamilton’s IP struggles highlight some important issues
- Cloud computing: A brief overview of intellectual property issues “in the cloud”
PRIVACY
- Responding to the SolarWinds Breach: Compliance and Oversight Considerations
- ICO issues statement on potential data breaches resulting from the recent SolarWinds Orion cyber-attack
- United Kingdom: Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) issues statement on SolarWinds Orion compromise
- Five Things to Do in Response to SolarWinds Compromise
- Marriott and BA fined a combined £38.4m for data security failures
- Tweeting Tardy: Twitter fined $500,000 for GDPR breach
- Canada: Watch out, GDPR – Canada proposes strict new privacy law framework backed by significant fines
- Brexit Deal Keeps EU-UK Data Flows Open as Parties Pursue Mutual Adequacy
- The Deal is There! EU-UK Trade Agreement Facilitates Data Transfers
- Brexit Deal Copied And Pasted Recommendations For Netscape, Outdated Encryption
- How your digital trails wind up in the hands of the police
- How Sweepstakes Compliance Can Save Your Reputation
- Can a litigant use an access request as a means of obtaining quasi-discovery?
- Still Not ‘Going Dark:’ Device Encryption Still Contains Plenty Of Exploitable Flaws
- 2020 had its share of memorable hacks and breaches. Here are the top 10
- The decade-long quest to stop “Spamford” Wallace
Jon
News of the Week; December 23, 2020
GAMES
- Games Are Now Making More Than Movies And Sports Combined: Gaming sales are up to almost $180 billion per year.
- GamesIndustry.biz presents… The Year in Numbers 2020
- Digital gaming just had its best revenue month ever in November
- 31% of young UK gamers struggle to track spending on loot boxes: New report from Gambling Health Alliance says one in four gamers spend over £100 on randomised in-game items
- Blizzard Sued for “Wiretapping” World of Warcraft Website Visitors
- World of Warcraft Maker Hit with Privacy Invasion Class Action Lawsuit
- Gearbox reaches settlement with Bobby Prince over Duke Nukem music
- Jury Will Decide If Videogame Character Infringes a Wrestling Persona–GI Bro v. Call of Duty (Eric Goldman)
- Investors reportedly considering class action lawsuit against CD Projekt Red
- Sony removes Cyberpunk 2077 from PlayStation Store, promises refunds
- Sony Removes Cyberpunk 2077 from PS Store, Will Offer Refunds to PlayStation Players Who Already Bought It
- Sony pulls Cyberpunk 2077 from PlayStation Store
- Sony delists PlayStation version of Cyberpunk 2077, offers refunds to all owners
- Cyberpunk 2077 troubles cost CD Projekt founders more than $1bn
- Xbox offering full refunds for Cyberpunk 2077 but isn’t removing it from sale
- Cyberpunk 2077 has sold over 13m copies
- Cyberpunk 2077 sales climb to 13 million copies despite launch issues
- Microsoft granting full refunds to anyone who purchased Cyberpunk 2077 digitally
- CD Projekt hasn’t discussed removing Cyberpunk from Xbox platforms
- CD Projekt Red Heaps Bullshit Via Tweet After Removing Game To Appease China
- CD Projekt now pledges to help refund retail copies of Cyberpunk 2077
- Red Candle Games announces launch of Devotion on GOG; GOG says it won’t list it
- Raw Fury publicly shares publishing agreement
- Read Raw Fury’s publishing terms (without signing your soul away first)
- Assassin’s Creed Valhalla takes Christmas No.1 as Cyberpunk 2077 falls to third | UK Boxed Charts
- Microsoft Flight Simulator has amassed over 2 million players in four months
- Nintendo and Sony share prices rise to record highs
- Miyamoto leads fans through Super Nintendo World—and it looks incredible
- BuzzFeed Launches First Mobile Game — A Mental Health-Inspired Endless Runner
- China introduces new age rating system
- An insider’s perspective on China’s new age ratings | Opinion
- “Simp,” “incel” part of newly banned insults on Twitch
- These People Helped Shape Video Game Culture in 2020: Designers, competitors, streamers, voice actors and labor activists have been working to make gaming more inclusive.
- Lost Sega arcade classics born anew in cute, $130 Astro City Mini
- 2020: Games boomed, but the industry was treading water | Opinion
- 2020: A year of success and responsibility
- Four takeaways from the GI 100 Game Changers | Opinion
- The Gaming Industry Generated 2 Million Sponsored Posts From 400,000 Creators This Year, Report Finds
- The Game Awards sets new viewership record with 83m livestreams
- Monster Hunter movie makes $2.2m in US opening weekend
- Human: Fall Flat sells 2m in China
- IP licensing for games: How to profit from brand injections
- Discord valued at $7bn as it raises $100m
- MAG Interactive acquired word game specialist Apprope
- MAG Interactive acquires mobile studio Apprope for $6 million
- Eneba raises $8m for online gaming marketplace
- Distributed computing startup Salad raises $3.2m
- Suikoden successor Eiyuden Chronicle was top video games Kickstarter of 2020
- Nordisk Games buys 40% of MercurySteam
- TikTok owner reportedly in talks to buy stake in Chinese mobile games publisher
- Tencent officially acquires Splash Damage parent Leyou in $1.5 billion deal
- Warframe studio “expects no changes” under Tencent ownership
- Microids announces in-house distribution arm
- Keywords acquires PR company Indigo Pearl and recording studio Jinglebell
- Unity partners with Snap to extend reach of Unity Ads and deliver Snap Kit integration
- Opinion: Game company acquisitions & the ‘growth stock bubble’
- Mass market, mystery boxes and metric-driven design: The legacy of FarmVille
- Making weirdness work: The sun-drenched horror of Paradise Killer
- Esports to debut as medal event at Asian Games 2022
- Esports Milestone: Esports Becomes A Medal Event At The Asian Games
- Esports Milestone: The Philadelphia Eagles Become The First NFL Team To Dive Into Esports
- Skillz goes public: Mobile esports platform is trading up 7% during its first day on the New York Stock Exchange
- NRG Esports Unveils New ‘Full Squad’ Content Brand Targeting Casual Gamers
- Twitch Signs Swedish ‘Fortnite’ Streamer Loeya To Exclusive Two-Year Deal
- Rebecca Zamolo Launches $8 Video Subscription Service Inside Of Her Mobile Game
- Microsoft Flight Simulator in VR: A turbulent start for wide-open skies
- A rare look at the compassionate game design of Shigeru Miyamoto
- Who’s playing what on PlayStation 5?
- Ars Technica’s best games of 2020
- Blog: 5 technical lessons learned making Art Sort in VRChat
- Blog: Hands on – Predicting players’ thinking
- Blog: Developing Raji: An Ancient Epic and crossing the finish line
- Blog: A postmortem of Cogmind’s 2020 ARG
- Blog: Torchlight 3 – Data fixup war stories
- Best of 2020: Breaking linear character progression with Outer Worlds’ flaw system
- Best of 2020: How System Era overcame creative paralysis to fix Astroneer’s crafting system
- Best of 2020: The trends and events that defined the year for game devs
- Best of 2020: Level Design Analysis – Oxenfurt level in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
- Best of 2020: How Jackbox CEO Mike Bilder is grappling with quarantine-driven success
- Gamasutra’s Best of 2020: Bryant Francis’ top 10 games
- Gamasutra’s Best of 2020: Chris Kerr’s top 5 games
- Gamasutra’s Best of 2020: Alissa McAloon’s top 6(ish) games
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons | Games of the Year 2020
- The Last of Us Part 2 | Games of the Year 2020
- Yakuza: Like a Dragon | Games of the Year 2020
- 1997 – 2002 | Games of the Year 2020
DIGITAL
- SolarWinds hack that breached gov networks poses a “grave risk” to the nation
- Microsoft is reportedly added to the growing list of victims in SolarWinds hack
- Microsoft president calls SolarWinds hack an “act of recklessness”
- A Cybersecurity Storm and Winds of Change: NY DFS requires all New York financial institutions to report effects of SolarWinds hack
- SolarWinds Fallout Warrants Vendor Pulse Check
- Russia’s hacking frenzy is a reckoning
- The Urgent Need to Assess and Respond to Russian Supply Chain Attacks
- Secret Agents Implicated In The Poisoning Of Opposition Leader Alexey Navalny Identified Thanks To Russia’s Black Market In Everybody’s Personal Data
- After riots, iPhone manufacturer says it “deeply regrets” exploiting workers
- Google Isn’t Liable for Allegedly Problematic Search Results–Diez v. Google (Eric Goldman)
- Google committed “antitrust evils,” colluded with Facebook, new lawsuit says
- Embarrassing: New Antitrust Suit Against Google Confuses WhatsApp Encrypted Backup Option With Giving Google A Backdoor
- Another Day, Another Antitrust Lawsuit For Google:
- Czech Search Engine Seznam Joins In the ‘Let’s Sue Google’ Fun, Seeks $417 Million in Damages
- Google kills Android Things, its IoT OS, in January
- Google, Facebook reportedly agreed to work together to fight antitrust probes
- FTC Seeks Information from Nine Social Media and Video Streaming Companies Regarding Their Data Collection, Use, and Advertising Practices
- FTC orders social media and video streaming companies to provide data on privacy practices
- TikTok Bars Content Promoting Multi-Level Marketing, Pyramid And Ponzi Schemes
- Alibaba Says It’s Not Going After Uighurs (At Least Not Yet)
- CDT Lacks Standing to Challenge Trump’s Anti-230 Executive Order (Eric Goldman)
- Americans For Prosperity Sue Commerce Department To Find Out Who Was Influencing NTIA’s Attack On Section 230
- Trump vetoes $740B defense bill, citing “failure to terminate” Section 230
- Apparently Trump Refuses To Allow The Government To Do Anything At All Until The Open Internet Is Destroyed
- Once Again, Section 230’s Authors Feel The Need To Tell Everyone That Section 230 Is Not The Evil You Think It Is
- Content Moderation Case Studies: Copyright Claims On White Noise (2018)
- Content Moderation Case Study: Using Copyright To Take Down A Transformative Criticism Video (2019)
- Twitter repeals retweet roadblocks, Facebook follows suit
- Dutch Prosecutors Say One Man Got Into Trump’s Twitter Account With ‘MAGA2020!’ Password
- Apple is allegedly working on a passenger car, breakthrough battery tech
- Musk says Apple passed on Tesla acquisition three years ago
- 2021 Predictions For YouTube, feat. D’Angelo Wallace, Rebecca Zamolo, And Hank Green
- NikkieTutorials To Lift Veil On Personal Turmoil, Triumphs In New YouTube Docuseries
- MrBeast Launches Nationwide, Delivery-Only Burger Chain
- Latest Drop From Creator-Focused Startup ‘Stir’ Will Help Nascent Vlogger Airrack Reach 1 Million Subs
- David Dobrik To Host ‘Peace Out 2020’ Year-End Special On Facebook Watch
- Emma Chamberlain Named Global Ambassador For New ‘Bad Habit’ Skin Care Brand
- 2HYPE’s ‘Jesser’ Drops Limited Edition Sneaker Collab With Champs Sports, Puma
- Scotty Sire Signs With Indie Rock Label Fearless Records, Drops Christmas Track
- The D’Amelio Family’s Eight-Episode Reality Series To Arrive On Hulu Next Year
- Netflix Testing Audio-Only Mode, Enabling Background Content Consumption
- Vice Becomes First Publisher To Launch Verified OnlyFans Account For Its ‘Munchies’ Brand
- Tesla Cybertruck Hot Wheels toy ships late—just like real Tesla cars
- How an obscure British PC maker invented ARM and changed the world
- Art, Technology and the Law: Capture by Paolo Cirio
A.I.
- Copyright and Privacy Legal Issues Resulting from the Rising Popularity of Artificial Intelligence Use
- AI Hospital Startup Olive Valued at $1.5B After Latest Funding Round
- Video: Building better AI sensory systems
COMMUNICATIONS
- BILL C-10: An Act to amend the Broadcasting Act and to make related and consequential amendments to other Acts
- The Broadcasting Act Blunder, Day 19: The Misleading Comparison to the European Union (Michael Geist)
- The Broadcasting Act Blunder, Day 20: The Case Against Bill C-10 (Michael Geist)
- Early Warnings: Canada’s Regulators Issue Warning Letters to Mobile App Companies
- We Had To Pass A Law To Stop Telecom Monopolies From Charging You ‘Rental Fees’ For Things You Already Own
- Lawmakers Question Why FCC Is Throwing Taxpayer Money At Incompetent Telcos With History Of Fraud
- FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr Again Misrepresents The Debate Over Section 230
- FCC Seeks Comment on Modernized Equipment Marketing Rules
- With Terrible Federal Broadband Data, States Are Taking Matters Into Their Own Hands
- New COVID Bill Includes Billions To Shore Up Broadband Access. But…
- Next Generation Broadcast TV Services Promoted in ATSC 3.0 Order
- Big Changes Coming to Calling & Texting Legal Landscape? TCPA Update
- AT&T Pisses Off Everybody (Especially Christopher Nolan) For Launching Movies Straight To Streaming
- AT&T reportedly struggling to sell DirecTV at anything but a huge loss
- AT&T Is Sad Because Nobody Wants To Overpay For DirecTV
- Wonder Woman Forces AT&T & Roku To End Their Petty Squabbles
- Law banning “rental” fees for customer-owned routers takes effect Sunday
- Funding Europe’s broadband ambitions
- UK Government Plans for an Online Safety Bill
- EU Publishes Proposal For Digital Services Act
- US government bans tech exports to top drone maker DJI
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
- Fair Use Permits Newspaper to Republish Photo Taken By Drone–Castle v. Kingsport Publishing (Eric Goldman)
- Dr. Seuss/Star Trek Mash-Up Not Fair Use, Ninth Circuit Rules
- The Mystery Of The Copyright On Sherlock Holmes’ Emotions Goes Unsolved Due To Settlement
- The Copyright Office Will Not Weigh in on Philadelphia Phillies’ Copyright Dispute
- US COVID-19 relief bill would punish streaming of copyrighted content
- Congress (Once Again) Sells Out To Hollywood: Sneaks CASE Act And Felony Streaming Bill Into Government Funding Omnibus
- Senator Tillis Releases Massive Unconstitutional Plan To Reshape The Internet In Hollywood’s Image
- Congress creates new copyright court that could make trolling easier
- States can invoke sovereign immunity against claims of copyright infringement
- To Die For – New York Recognizes Publicity Rights of Deceased Performers.
- ‘Imagine’ This: John Lennon Would Have Received Post-Mortem Right to Publicity in New York
- Jackson v. Netflix, Inc. (California Central District, December 9, 2020): Dismissal of trademark & copyright claims. “Tiger King” marks in popular Tiger King series is protected by First Amendment.
- Fifth Circuit Says No Preliminary Injunction in Boozy Beverage Trademark Fight
- Cerverceria Modelo SA de CV v Marcon.
- Lemonade Beats Deutsche Telekom In French Court Over Use Of The Color Magenta
- The Court of Appeal Adds a Few More Shades to Canada’s Grey Market
- Brand protection: A comparison of U.S. and Canadian trademark systems
- New Year, New Trademark Fees
- US trade mark costs rise and Madrid Protocol grows
- Domain Name Lawsuits Are Stupid (and the Initial Interest Confusion Doctrine Is Too)–Wooster Floral v. Green Thumb (Eric Goldman)
- A Tale of Two Cookies: Third Circuit Dunks Cookie Stick Trade Dress Claims
- 4 Mass. Trade Secret Litigation Tips From Facebook Ruling
- Court Battle Between India’s SaaS Industry Leaders Being Fought in California
- What to expect from Canada’s new examination guidelines for patentable subject matter – interview
- Secret prior art: a trap for the unwary?
- US Courts Can Compel Parties to Transfer Ownership of Foreign Patents
PRIVACY
- C-11 – An Act to enact the Consumer Privacy Protection Act: Five top measures to get ready
- Where Things Stand: Update on the Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2020
- Making Connected Devices? Federal Privacy Commissioner Publishes Guidance for Manufacturers of Internet of Things Devices
- Pornhub squarely targeted in bipartisan bill to regulate sex work online
- A Major Wireless Network Flaw Is Still Being Exploited To Track User Locations
- Zero-click iMessage zero-day used to hack the iPhones of 36 journalists
- A New Antitrust Class Action Threat: Anticompetitive Invasion of Privacy
- Cyber litigation will be the new battleground in 2021
- Tracking the privacy issues stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic
- Schools Are Using Phone-Cracking Tech To Access The Contents Of Students’ Devices
- A Little Gloom for the Zoom Boom: FTC Settlement for Unfair and Deceptive Security Practices
- FTC Issues Orders to Nine Social Media and Video Streaming Service Companies Regarding Privacy Practices
- You Can’t Get There from Here: Did the EU Just Outlaw Almost All Transfers of Personal Data to the U.S.?
- Kazakhstan spies on citizens’ HTTPS traffic; browser-makers fight back
- The California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) – 2020 Year in Review
- Does a business have to provide a privacy policy directly to a consumer if it obtains the consumer’s data from a third party (i.e., purchases it)?
- Use of facial recognition technology increasing
J0n
News of the Week; December 16, 2020
GAMES
- Nintendo Hates You: DMCA Takedowns Of Game Music Continue While Nintendo Offers No Legit Way To Listen
- Germany Opens Legal Action Against Facebook Account Requirement for Oculus Headsets
- GOG backtracks on Devotion re-launch hours after it was announced
- The Strong Museum now includes decades of files from the LGBTQ Game Archive
- Copyright law is bricking your game console. Time to fix that
- British MPs want console scalping made illegal, call for more consumer protection
- UK Members of Parliament call for ban on bulk buying consoles
- Major Gaming Company Sued for Making Games Too Challenging
- Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony unite to create safer online spaces
- Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony release joint commitment to online safety
- Microsoft delays launch of EA Play on Game Pass Ultimate for PC until 2021
- CD Projekt offering refunds to Cyberpunk players on consoles after shaky launch
- Amid massive bugs, CDPR offers refunds for Cyberpunk 2077 on consoles
- CD Projekt: Polarizing Cyberpunk 2077 launch ‘the wrong approach’
- CDPR admits it “ignored the signals” of Cyberpunk 2077’s console issues
- Cyberpunk 2077 developers were “updating the last-gen version until the very last minute”
- Requests for refunds on Cyberpunk 2077 met with inconsistent response
- PC version of Cyberpunk 2077 now features an epilepsy warning
- Cyberpunk 2077’s Stream-Safe Setting Option For Its Music Failed To Keep Streamers Safe
- Cyberpunk 2077 launches with some real dystopia in tow | Opinion
- CD Projekt Red stock falls 29% in run-up to Cyberpunk 2077 launch
- Cyberpunk 2077 racked up 8m pre-orders, 74% were digital
- Cyberpunk 2077 already passed 1m concurrent users on Steam
- CD Projekt Red boasts 8 million preorders for Cyberpunk 2077
- CDPR estimates Cyberpunk 2077 has recouped development, marketing costs
- Cyberpunk 2077 developers promised full bonuses despite declining review scores
- CD Projekt Red apologises for not showing last-gen Cyberpunk 2077, offers refunds
- Cyberpunk 2077 is the second biggest retail launch of the year | UK Boxed Charts
- EA agrees $1.2 billion acquisition of Codemasters
- EA set to pay $1.2 billion for Codemasters and its stable of racing games
- Sky News reports EA has gatecrashed Take-Two’s Codemasters takeover
- EA outbids Take-Two to buy Codemasters Group for $1.2 billion
- EA to acquire Dirt developer Codemasters, scuppering Take-Two deal
- Publicity on the Pitch? Football Superstars vs EA Sports
- Keywords acquires High Voltage Software for $50m
- New Unity updates target programming, graphics, quality of life improvements
- Steam gets ‘experimental’ with discovery
- Valve’s latest Steam Labs experiment is an expansive discoverability overhaul
- Valve upgrades News Hub from experiment to full-fledged Steam feature
- Inside ‘Browsing Steam’: the biggest change to Steam Discovery in recent history
- Steam breaks concurrent users record at nearly 25m
- Streamloots launches mental health support program for streamers
- Facebook Gaming creators have earned $50m in Stars in 2020
- 2020 has shown our lack of leadership | Opinion
- Maximizing the 2020 holidays for mobile user acquisition
- The Last of Us Part 2 dominates at The Game Awards
- Tilting Point pens $40 million UA team up with Gunship Battle: Total Warfare dev Joycity
- Five mobile games topped $1b in revenue this year – Sensor Tower
- Nintendo Switch is the best-selling console in Canada for 25 straight months
- Switch cracks down (further) on extreme discounting
- “Mass Effect Will Return:” Teaser trailer sets a new (old) direction for the sequel
- UK games industry made record $3.84 billion economic contribution in 2019
- Developers and publishers contributed £2.91bn to UK economy last year
- US games spending breaks November records at $7bn
- Report: PlayStation 5 breaks unit and dollar sales records for a new console launch month (NPD)
- PS5 makes its mark but Nintendo Switch holds No.1 in huge November for video games | EMEAA Charts
- The Nintendo Switch sold over 1.3m units in China this year
- Nintendo Switch was the best-selling console in November in the US, despite next-gen launches
- The Super-est SuperFX: An unmodified SNES, revved up with ray tracing [Updated]
- Subscription library Ubisoft+ is now on Google Stadia
- Stadia is now on iOS, but not through the App Store
- Dr. Seuss gets serious about games
- Ark Survival Evolved gets an animated series: David Tennant, Russell Crowe, Vin Diesel, Elliot Page among the cast of show coming in 2022
- Vin Diesel joins Studio Wildcard as executive producer on Ark
- Unity acquires 3D content creator RestAR
- Tilting Point invests up to $40m in UA funding for Gunship Battle: Total Warfare
- Steam introduces new discovery tools
- Rollic acquires matching game Onnect for $6m
- Zynga’s Rollic fully acquires Onnect from Chef Game Studio
- Zynga-owned Rollic acquires Onnect from dev Chef Game Studio for $6 million
- SteelSeries acquires KontrolFreek
- Fnatic raises over £2m in crowdfunding
- Roblox purchases digital avatar firm Loom.ai
- Roblox delays IPO to 2021
- Leyou shareholders approve Tencent takeover
- Bad Robot Games’ first in-house dev studio will create ‘cross-medium’ franchises
- J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Games Forms In-House Studio Led by Gaming Vet Mike Booth
- Control has surpassed 2 million sales 15 months after launch
- Pocket Mortys developer Big Pixel Studios is shutting down
- Big Pixel Studios shuts down, impacting about 40
- Fortnite focuses in on boosting playability on lower-powered PCs
- Talent Firm Loaded Signs 16-Year-Old Fortnite Pro BenjyFishy
- Philadelphia Eagles Reach Multi-Year Deal with Esports Entertainment Group to Become NFL’s First Esports Tournament Club Provider
- Facebook Slashes Price of Oculus Rift S to $300
- Zynga veterans launch VR gaming company ForeVR
- VR Destination ‘Sandbox VR’ Emerges from Chapter 11 Bankruptcy After Reorganization
- Leaked Photos Reveal Possible Lenovo AR Glasses Ahead of CES 2021
- Niantic donated a total of $7m in 2020 to Black Lives Matter charities
- Make Way – ‘Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond’ Needs 180GB and Recommends Demanding Specs
- ‘Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond’ Review – War Never Felt so Bland
- We have a winner in the world’s first quantum chess tournament
- How Watch Dogs: Legion’s ‘play as anyone’ simulation works
- “No adaptation without interpretation” — turning Animal Farm into a game
- The Last of Us Part II dominates The Game Awards 2020
- The Game Awards’ Future Class highlights 50 people shaping the future of the game industry
- How beautiful voxels laid the way for Teardown’s heist-y framework
- Blog: The not-so-secrets to success in the games industry
- Blog: Integrating Joustus in Shovel Knight: King of Cards – Part 3
- Blog: How to make a decent game trailer for less than $100
- Blog: A postmortem of asynchronous 1v1 horror title Antithesis
- Blog: Softening polygon intersections in Blightbound
- Blog: A BioShock Infinite level design analysis
- Blog: Zen and the art of retro level design in Kudzu
- Blog: A look at the revenue, expenses and statistics of Starlight X-2
- Blog: What every game designer should know about human psychology
- Blog: A developmental look at game aesthetics
- Video: How embedded QA can improve games accessibility
- Video: Telling location-based stories in games
- Don’t Miss: From The Witcher 3 to Cyberpunk – The evolution of CD Projekt’s quest design
- Best of 2020: Nintendo Switch Game Sales – The Three Biggest Misconceptions
- Best of 2020: Creating the ever-improvising text adventures of AI Dungeon 2
- Best of 2020: How Dishonored and Assassin’s Creed designers craft iconic stealthy encounters
- Best of 2020: A look back at the 5-year development of Eastshade
- Best of 2020: How Blizzard, Ubisoft, and other studios went remote in the time of COVID-19
DIGITAL
- Russian hackers hit US government using widespread supply chain attack
- ~18,000 organizations downloaded backdoor planted by Cozy Bear hackers
- DHS Cyber Warriors Issue Warning About Massive Hacking Campaign, Disclose They’ve Been Hacked A Day Later
- Security Researcher Reveals Solarwinds’ Update Server Was ‘Secured’ With The Password ‘solarwinds123’
- US diplomats’ brain injuries may be from covert microwave attack, experts say: Data from Russian experiments on pulsed RF energy offers best explanation.
- Fireeye victim of “state-sponsored” hacking
- Oracle joins Silicon Valley’s Texas exodus
- Huawei Is Crafting Facial Recognition Tech That Will Make It Easier For The Chinese Government To Target Citizens It Doesn’t Like
- Apple’s app store is an illegal monopoly, rival Cydia claims in suit
- Apple introduces privacy labels to make data mining transparent
- iPhone factory workers say they haven’t been paid, cause millions in damages
- Uber defends sexual assault victims’ privacy, gets fined $59 million
- Google and Amazon made to Toe the French Line? Oui!
- Digital regulation 2.0: UK and EU announce details of major reforms
- The Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act: A new era for online regulation within Europe
- Pinterest agrees to $22.5 million settlement in discrimination lawsuit
- Digital platforms – let the games begin!
- US law proposal could make streaming copyrighted material a felony
- Not This Again: Senator Tillis Tries To Slide Dangerous Felony Streaming Bill Into Must Pass Government Funding Bill
- Tillis Release Details Of His Felony Streaming Bill; A Weird Gift To Hollywood At The Expense Of Taxpayers
- Reddit Buys TikTok Competitor Dubsmash, Will Integrate App’s Video Creation Tools
- TikTok Introduces Extensive Policies Against Sexual Harassment, Dangerous Pranks
- The Christchurch shooter and YouTube’s radicalization trap
- Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Terrorist Attack on Christchurch Mosques on 15 March 2019
- People affiliated with French military used Facebook to meddle in Africa
- FTC Launches Investigation Into Facebook, Twitter, and Other Social Media Sites
- FTC kicks off sweeping privacy probe of nine major social media firms
- Facebook Violated Antitrust Laws, Say FTC and More than 40 States
- FTC’s Misses Opportunity To Understand Social Media; Instead Goes For Weird Fishing Expedition Against Odd Grouping Of Companies
- New Facebook advertising terms, new Apple iOS 14 privacy rules and updated cookie guidance: help!
- EU warns that it may break up Big Tech companies
- The Peril of Persuasion in the Big Tech Age
- NLRB Finds Executive’s Joking Tweet Violated Federal Labor Law
- AZ GOP Goes Full Bullshit: Claims It took Down Violence-Inciting Tweet Over Copyright Concerns
- ICE Withdraws Demand For Journalists’ Sources After Having Its Unconstitutional Demand Outed By BuzzFeed
- Facebook says hackers backed by Vietnam’s government are linked to IT firm
- People affiliated with French military used Facebook to meddle in Africa: It’s the first time Facebook has identified people affiliated with a Western government for sanction
- Facebook Testing ‘Super’, Which Lets Fans Pay To Interact With Their Favorite Creators On Stream
- Pornhub Purges 80% Of User-Uploaded Videos After Allegations Of Child Exploitation, Rape Content
- Millions of videos purged from Pornhub amid crackdown on user content
- Visa and MasterCard ban Pornhub over abusive videos
- 40 GirlsDoPorn victims sue Pornhub for hosting “sex trafficking” videos
- China fines Alibaba, Tencent unit under anti-monopoly laws
- Twitter To Sunset Periscope App In March After Years Of Declining Usage
- Disney+ drops Andor teaser, announces gazillion other Star Wars projects
- More Disney 2021 plans: Kate McKinnon as Elizabeth Holmes, Y: The Last Man on FX
- We’ve got our first real look at Loki as Disney drops lengthy teaser trailer
- Op-Ed: Social Media Companies Should Permanently Ban Political Advertising (Eric Goldman)
- Justice Thomas’ Anti-Section 230 Statement Doesn’t Support Reconsideration–JB v. Craigslist (Eric Goldman)
- As A Parting Shot, Tulsi Gabbard Teams Up With Paul Gosar To Introduce Yet Another Unconstitutional Attack On Section 230
- USA Today Publishes Yet Another Bogus OpEd Against 230, Completely Misrepresents The Law
- District Court Rejects CDT’s Challenge Of Trump’s Ridiculous Executive Order On Section 230
- Trump Appoints Unqualified Guy Who Hates Section 230 To Top Justice Department Role
- Smaller Internet Companies Say They’re Open To 230 Reform… To Keep Facebook From Being The Only Voice In The Room
- Lindsey Graham’s Latest Attack On Section 230: Reform It By 2023, Or We Take It Away
- Content Moderation Case Study: Facebook’s AI Continues To Struggle With Identifying Nudity (2020)
- Content Moderation Case Study: Vimeo Moderates Uploads Of ‘Commercial-Use’ Videos Using Unclear Guidelines (2009)
- Sony-Owned Anime Streamer Funimation To Buy Crunchyroll For $1.2 Billion
- Can Influencers’ Failure to Disclose Sponsorship Constitute False Advertising?–EIS v. WOW Tech
- YouTube Will Enable Viewers To Toggle Out Of Ads For Alcohol And Gambling
- After 6 Years, YouTube Supergroup O2L Reunites In The Name Of Charity
- R.I.P. Henri, le Chat Noir, angst-ridden feline YouTube star for the ages
- The D’Amelios, Marques Brownlee, Demi Lovato To Headline YouTube’s New Year’s Eve Special ‘Hello 2021’
- Helping your child make the best use of time online
- YouTube Greenlights ‘Creator Spotlights’ Docuseries, An Intimate Glimpse Into The Lives Of Top Stars
- David Dobrik’s Latest Venture, ‘The Hundred Thousand Dollar Puzzle,’ Sells 17,000 Units In One Hour
- Liza Koshy Signs Overall Deal With Jada And Will Smith-Founded Westbrook Inc.
- Walmart Looking To Turn Salaried Employees Into Social Influencers With Nascent ‘Spotlight’ Program
- Meghan Markle, Prince Harry, And Their New Podcast Company ‘Archewell Audio’ Sign Exclusive Deal With Spotify
- Google sees major services outages two days in a row
- The Google Home Max is dead—Google shuts down production
- Instagram Makes ‘Reels’ Shoppable, Bringing Ecommerce To Every Format On The App
- Giving by Taking Away: Big Tech, Data Colonialism and the Reconfiguration of Social Good
- 2021 NewFronts Will Stay Virtual, Be Immediately Followed By Podcast Upfronts
- Here Are Your 2020 Streamy Award Winners
- CentOS Linux is dead—and Red Hat says Stream is “not a replacement”
- Where do I go now that CentOS Linux is gone? Check our list
- VR meetings are weird, but they beat our current reality
- Stroll down memory lane with this 1996 instruction video on How To Internet
A.I.
- Arendt’s Algorithm: AI’s Disenfranchising Effect on Refugees as Examined through China’s Uighur Population (Gideon Salutin)
- How our data encodes systematic racism
- CDEI publishes review into bias in algorithmic decision-making
- From whistleblower laws to unions: How Google’s AI ethics meltdown could shape policy
- White House Finalizes AI Regulatory Framework and Directs Agencies to Develop Plans for AI Regulation and “Non-Regulation”
- Why CD Projekt used AI to localise Cyberpunk 2077
- Bias in algorithmic decision-making: recommendations from the UK’s Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation
COMMUNICATIONS
- The Broadcasting Act Blunder, Day 15: Mandated Confidential Data Disclosures May Keep Companies Out of Canada (Michael Geist)
- The Broadcasting Act Blunder, Day 16: Mandated Payments and a Reality Check on Guilbeault’s Billion Dollar Claim (Michael Geist)
- The Broadcasting Act Blunder, Day 17: The Uncertain Policy Directive (Michael Geist)
- The Broadcasting Act Blunder, Day 18: The USMCA Trade Threat That Could Lead to Billions in Retaliatory Tariffs (Michael Geist)
- FCC Accused Of Falsely Inflating U.S. Gigabit Broadband Availability
- Deep Dive Shows FCC’s Covid Response Was Largely Theatrical Nonsense
- SpaceX won “rural” FCC funding in surprising places, like major airports
- Space X Gets $886 Million From FCC To Put Very Small Dent In U.S. Broadband Gaps
- Senator tries to block Frontier’s FCC funding, citing ISP’s various failures
- Consumer Groups Say The FCC Just Blew $9 Billion To Deliver Broadband To Already Served Rich People
- The Cost Of Broadband Is Too Damned High
- Can Broadband Policy Help Create A More Equitable And inclusive Economy And Society Instead Of The Reverse?
- Stupid Cable TV Retrans Feuds And Blackouts Make Their Way To Streaming TV
- AT&T sells Crunchyroll to Sony for $1.2B amid “streamlining” efforts
- Untouchable No More: Reinforcements Arrive for TCPA Defendants Battling the FCC’s Aggressive Expansion of the Statute
- The other shoe drops: court holds SCOTUS didn’t find TCPA unconstitutional after all
- The FCC Reverses Course—Finds Government Contractors Subject to the TCPA
- Georgia executive order requires telework, virtual conduct of business
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
- Eve of destruction: Moral rights infringement and destroying works of art
- Two Turntables, No Microphone: Using Technical Diagram Is Not Copyright Infringement
- Brophy v. Belcalis Almanzar (California, Southern District 12.4.20): In lawsuit against Cardi B for using plaintiff’s back tattoo on cover of her album, court holds that transformative fair use is question for jury.
- Atlantic Recording Corp. v. Spinrilla, LLC (Georgia ND, 10.30.20): Court finds that streaming constitutes “public performance” under Copyright Act and that defendant did not qualify for safe harbor protections under DMCA.
- Lego’s copyright victory against Lepin in China
- Ancestry.com Sued Over Yearbook Pic Database
- Copyright Trolling/SEO Scam, Changing The Photo Credits On Wikimedia Commons
- Is Your Company Accidentally Granting Implied Copyright Licenses?
- House Passes PACER Bill As Budget Office Says It Will Cost Less Than $1 Million A Year To Provide Free Access To Court Documents
- US House passes bill to tear down judiciary’s paywall
- APIs front and centre in age of digital interconnectivity
- Why Canadian trademark owners should consider whether international registration is right for them
- Trademarks Office to allow expedited examination for COVID-related goods and services
- The Swiss Shield: A Trademark Registration Is a Defence to Damages Even if Later Invalidated
- French Film Company Somehow Trademarks ‘Planet’, Goes After Environmental NGOs For Using The Word
- A Rare Case of a Judge Relying on the Initial Interest Confusion Doctrine (Boo)–Nike v. Warren Lotas (Eric Goldman)
- Battling Bubbles: Beverage Behemoth Coors Defeats Upstart Future Proof’s Motion for a Preliminary Injunction
- Dishonest Abe? Trademark Battle erupts over THE LINCOLN PROJECT
- Trade mark rights IN THE RED!
- Owner of ‘Derby Pie’ Trademark Sues Newspaper For Using The Term, Publishing Recipe
- Tasty Trademarks: An Analysis of the Canadian Trademark Applications Covering Taste
- Trademarks: 1 registration for 107 member states and 123 territories: trinidad and tobago has joined the international trademark system
- Judge Upholds “Willful and Malicious” Trade-Secret Misappropriation Verdict in Produce Preservation Case
- Judge Rakoff Sanctions Patentee for Sharing Confidential Documents with Counsel in Overseas Trade Secret Case
- Recently Filed Lawsuit by Trinseo Highlights the Potential for the Rapid Spread of Misappropriated Trade Secrets
- Ontario Court Affirms the Enforceability of Patent No-Challenge Clauses
- Federal Circuit Compels Transfer of Ownership of Japanese Patent Applications
- Today’s No Patent Challenge Provisions in License Agreements
- What are the rules around software patents?
- The Unified patent court and unitary patent – Introduction
- Top Section 101 Patent Eligibility Stories of 2020
- The UK Supreme Court, patent infringement, and the challenges of judging IP cases: In conversation with Lord Neuberger
- World Trade Organization Considers IP Rights for Covid Vaccines
- Software development intellectual property joint ventures
- Intellectual property infringement on the rise
PRIVACY
- Oh, Canada! Government Proposes New Federal Privacy Law with Enhanced Individual Rights and Hefty Fines
- Privacy Limits on Employee Background Checks in Ontario
- What’s “So” Important: Computer Fraud and Abuse Act Gets a Close Look from SCOTUS
- Supreme Court Says Muslim Men Can Sue The FBI For Placing Them On The No-Fly List For Refusing To Become Informants
- Apple, Cloudflare Join Forces To Encrypt DNS
- New Report Shows Cellphone Encryption Isn’t Really Stopping Cops From Searching Phones
- Up to 3 million devices infected by malware-laced Chrome and Edge add-ons
- Brave browser-maker launches privacy-friendly news reader
- 4 major browsers are getting hit in widespread malware attacks
- Regulatory Crackdown on Ransomware
- IoT Goes Federal under Newly Signed Law
- Yes, data privacy regulations apply to IoT devices too
- As Voice Recognition Technology Market Surges, Organizations Face Privacy and Cybersecurity Concerns
- RCMP commits to changes in how it collects, uses information about protesters
- Home Depot’s Agrees to Multistate Settlement Related to 2014 Breach – The Cost: $17.5 Million and Updated Cybersecurity Requirements
- Augmented reality and e-commerce: IP implications of a powerful alliance
- Biden Faces Early Test on Digital Trade With EU Privacy Talks
- Schrems II is a Board / CEO-Level issue because
- Top 5 Privacy Developments in 2020 and 5 More to Prepare for in 2021
Jon
News of the Week; December 9, 2020
GAMES
- Activision lawsuit accuses Netflix of poaching CFO
- Activision sues Netflix for poaching former CFO: Suit alleges Netflix incited Spencer Neumann to break his contract to become CFO of Netflix
- Consumer rights groups launch joint investigation into Nintendo Switch Joy-Con drift
- Nintendo Plays ‘Control Inception’, Cancelling Splatoon Broadcast After Teams Protest Canceling Smash Bros. Tourney
- Ubisoft names VP of global diversity and inclusion to improve workplace culture
- Bale and Ibrahimovic’s responses to FIFA 21 echoes the complications of sports person’s image rights
- Cyberpunk 2077 features epileptic triggers
- Cyberpunk 2077 under fire for epileptic triggers
- Cyberpunk 2077 could trigger seizures in photosensitive players
- CD Projekt adding seizure warning to Cyberpunk after reporter finds multiple triggers
- Cyberpunk 2077 is equal parts beautiful and messy
- Highlights from the Foreign Investment Review Committee’s Town Hall with the Investment Review Division and Cultural Sector Investment Review
- Newsflash: Update on Epic Games’ dispute with Apple
- Epic Games is ditching in-person Fortnite events in 2021
- Twitch harassment policy update aims to focus less on intent, more on impact
- Twitch revises hateful conduct and harassment policy
- Twitch Institutes Sweeping Changes To ‘Harassment And Hateful Conduct’ Policies, Beginning Jan. 22
- Twitch removes ‘blind playthrough’ tag after feedback over ableist language
- BioWare studio GM and Dragon Age lead are both leaving company
- GM Casey Hudson, Dragon Age executive producer Mark Darrah depart BioWare
- Next-gen consoles helped raise GameStop’s November store sales by 16.5%
- GameStop has closed 462 stores so far this year, 783 in last two years
- Did Genshin Impact swipe an opportunity from under Nintendo’s nose? | Opinion
- Small developers and creators can now use FMOD Studio for free
- Modio raises $4 million to grow its cross-platform modding service
- Destiny 2 will open up cross-platform play in 2021
- Platform share, platform share, platform share!
- SIE head pushes back against claims that PlayStation is deprioritizing Japan
- How Young Horses leveraged PS5’s unique features in Bugsnax
- Xbox to expand cloud gaming beta to iOS and PC in 2021
- Xbox cloud gaming service hits iOS, Windows PCs in spring 2021
- Xbox Game Pass cloud streaming arrives for iOS, PC next spring
- Stadia expands to 8 more European countries
- Analyst: Research reveals 4 in 5 consumers don’t know what cloud gaming can offer
- Facebook launches Black Gaming Creator Program
- Ubisoft appoints former Uber D&I head as VP of global diversity and inclusion
- 72% of all 2020 mobile revenue generated by games at $81bn
- Digital Black Friday sales jump almost 50% over 2019 l UK Download Charts
- Honor of Kings once again tops mobile game spending charts in November
- World of Warcraft: Shadowlands sells 3.7 million copies in 24 hours
- Call of Duty has brought in $3 billion in past year
- Call of Duty made $3 billion for Activision in 12 months
- Fashion x Gaming: Fashion Catches the Gaming Bug
- Lumikai invests $1m in Bombay Play
- MTG acquires Hutch for an expected $375 million
- MTG acquires UK mobile studio Hutch Games for initial $275 million
- Kalypso Media fully acquires Realmforge Studios
- MyGames grabs minority stakes in three mobile studios
- Control has sold more than 2m units
- Aglet raises $4.5m for location-based sneaker game
- Tencent invests in Wizard Games
- ZeniMax Online Studios forms new satellite studio in San Diego
- Gfinity acquires Epicstream as it seeks growth amid financial troubles
- Starbreeze has paid off most of its creditors
- Payday maker Starbreeze settles debts with majority of creditors
- A word from a Destiny 2 acolyte | Why I Love
- A look back at the storied history of action RPG Torchlight
- Metal Gear Solid film reportedly will star Oscar Isaac
- FIFA 21 holds No.1 during Cyber Monday sales week | UK Boxed Charts
- Halo Infinite delayed to Fall of 2021
- Halo Infinite gets new fall 2021 release date
- Minecraft tops YouTube’s list of most watched games of 2020
- Not all Steam wishlists are created equal: GameDiscoverCo’s Simon Carless explores why developers are seeing wildly different conversion rates of wishlists after launch
- Manticore bolsters Core platform with ‘creator-friendly’ Perks monetization
- Manticore announces a 50% revenue share for users of its Core game creation platform
- Facebook Launches ‘Black Gaming Creator Program’ With Monthly Pay, Other Perks
- More Than 350 Gaming Creators Hit 10 Million Subscribers In 2020, YouTube Says
- Wendy’s Teams With Tfue, Myth, Flight23white, itsHafu, And xChocoBars For ‘Never Stop Gaming’ Menu
- Epic won’t hold in-person Fortnite events in 2021
- FaZe Clan Launches ‘FaZe Academy’ Talent Incubator, Through Which All Future Recruits Must Pass
- FTC Sues Facebook Over Alleged Monopolization – What it Could Mean for Oculus
- Wacom Unveils VR Pen Built for “the next creative future”
- A deep dive into the making of King of Cards’ Joustus mini-game
- Case study: making Core Defense a solo dev success
- Blog: Six mistakes that’ll drain the ‘Juice’ out of your game
- Blog: Understanding pain points in game design
- Blog: Using luck to your advantage in marketing
- Blog: Building a mono profiler for Unity
- Video: The cost of doing nothing about trolls
- Video: The efficient art direction of Tooth and Tail
- Best of 2020: How a new wave of developers are using voxels to create jaw-dropping worlds
- Best of 2020: Iran video games timeline – from 1970 to 2019
- Best of 2020: Leveraging physical animation to sell Force powers in Jedi: Fallen Order
- Best of 2020: How deeply personal RPG The Wagadu Chronicles explores new realms of Afrofantasy
DIGITAL
- The FTC, 48 Attorneys General File Antitrust Lawsuits Against Facebook
- FTC, 47 states file suits to break up Instagram and WhatsApp from Facebook
- Feds say Facebook broke US law offering permanent jobs to H-1B workers
- Open Season: FTC & 48 Attorneys General File Separate Antitrust Lawsuits Against Facebook
- The tech industry needs regulation for its systemically important companies
- Trump Doubles Down On Threat To Defund Military Because People Are Mean To Him Online; Republicans Threaten To Override His Veto
- Trump Makes It Official: He’s Going To Pull Military Funding, Because Congress Won’t Kill The Open Internet
- Senator Tillis Is Mad That Twitter Won’t Testify About Copyright Infringement; Since When Is Twitter A Piracy Problem?
- Dead Celebrities and Digital Doppelgangers: New York Expands Its Right of Publicity Statute and Tackles Sexually Explicit Deepfakes
- Rebekah Vardy v Coleen Rooney: What next in the war of the WAGs?
- Court Again Enjoins Anti-TikTok Executive Order–TikTok v. US (Eric Goldman)
- Google parts with top AI researcher after blocking paper, faces blowback
- Google illegally spied on and retaliated against workers, feds say
- YouTube bans videos claiming Trump won
- Google and YouTube Aren’t “Censoring” Breitbart Comments–Belknap v. Alphabet (Eric Goldman)
- It’s Meshugenah to Operate a Streaming Mixtape Site–Atlantic v. Spinrilla (Eric Goldman)
- Section 230 Protects Amazon from Manufacturer’s Ad Copy–Brodie v. Amazon (Eric Goldman)
- CRM Software Vendor Didn’t Qualify for Section 230–Tan v. Konnektive (Eric Goldman)
- Biden’s Top Tech Advisor Trots Out Dangerous Ideas For ‘Reforming’ Section 230
- Content Moderation Case Study: Google’s Photo App Tags Photos Of Black People As ‘Gorillas’ (2015)
- Content Moderation Case Study: Scammers Targeting Scrabble Chat (2020)
- Reform The DMCA? OK, But Only If It’s Done Really, Really Carefully
- Pornhub under investigation by Visa, MasterCard amid abuse allegations
- Pornhub blocks uploads and downloads in crackdown on child-sexual-abuse videos
- Social media bet on labels to combat election misinformation. Trump proved it’s not enough
- Tackling misinformation: What researchers could do with social media data
- Toward a Digital Economy That’s Truly Collaborative, Not Exploitative
- 2021 predictions: increased regulation of online platforms
- Debate: Is open scholarship even possible with Zoom?
- After years of fighting it, Nest will work with Samsung’s SmartThings
- Amazon Sues Social Media Influencers for Promoting Counterfeit Goods
- Amazon and U.S. IPR Center announce “Operation Fulfilled Action”
- YouTube Finally Bans Content Endorsing Election Conspiracies
- YouTube Will Now Support ‘High Dynamic Range’ Video Quality For Live Streams
- YouTube Wants To Use Creators’ Data To See If Its Algorithms Target Marginalized People
- Influencer marketing Q&A
- Logan Paul Will Fight Floyd Mayweather In An Exhibition Match On February 20
- Juanpa Zurita, Kyle Exum, NikkieTutorials, More To Bestow First-Ever ‘Streamys Creator Honors’
- Charli D’Amelio Invests In Teen-Targeted Banking Startup ‘Step,’ Which Just Raised $50 Million
- How Much More Money Do Creators Make During the Holidays?
- Loren Gray, TikTok’s Fourth Biggest Creator, Debuts ‘&Always’ Jewelry Brand
- For Its Latest Drop, Startup ‘Stir’ Blindly Paired Creators To Collab On Custom Face Masks
- Brands Taking Stands: Six Non-Negotiable Tenets For 2021
- Where Netflix goes, the world follows – BBFC suggests that all streaming sites should introduce age-ratings in the UK
- AT&T, HBO Put Another Bullet In Antiquated Theatrical Release Windows
- Warner Bros. will release entire 2021 film slate in theaters and on HBO Max
- Georgia Court Streams Ridiculous ‘Kraken’ Lawsuit Hearing On YouTube; Then Tells People They Can’t Repost Recordings
- Federal Court System Pushes Back Against Free Access To Court Documents
- Trial by Webex, but Not Zoom?
- In narrow ruling, law firm escapes liability for not thwarting real estate cyber-scam
- B.C. Technology Sector Makes the Grade – But Not Yet Top of the Class
- Apple’s new AirPods Max over-ear headphones cost $549
- Apple’s Failure To Ensure Backwards Compatibility In Big Sur Leaves Developers Quite Sour
- Enrollment opens for Apple’s fee-reducing Small Business Program
- Google promises “spectacular” city GPS improvement with 3D building data
- New RISC-V CPU claims recordbreaking performance per watt
- Quantum device performs 2.6 billion years of computation in 4 minutes
- Google’s secretive Fuchsia OS is open for contributions
- Lidar startup goes public, makes founder a billionaire
- “A damn stupid thing to do”—the origins of C
- Grand theft GPU: $340,000 worth of RTX 3090s “fell off a truck” in China
A.I.
- Is Canada on the Brink of AI and Diagnostics Patent Rush?
- Use of patents in artificial intelligence: What does the new CIPO report say?
- Intellectual property rights to AI works: The EP proposal
- Artificial Intelligence and Creativity: Why We’re Against Copyright Protection for AI-Generated Output (Creative Commons)
- New York Schools Putting Students In The Crosshairs Of Tech That Targets Minorities, Thinks Broom Handles Are Guns
- Executive Order 13960 Establishes Government-wide Principles for its Use of AI
- AI Update: New Executive Order on Promoting the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Federal Agencies Pushes Developing Public Trust for Future Expansion
- Shining a Headlight on AI Blindspots
- Guidance on artificial intelligence and data protection
- This Arizona college student has taken over 60 driverless Waymo rides
- Uber abandons dreams of self-driving domination, sells self-driving unit
- The A.I. behind unique ‘interactive reality TV’ game Rival Peak
- Looking ahead to 2021: AI – A brave new world?
COMMUNICATIONS
- The Broadcasting Act Blunder, Day 11: The “Regulate Everything” Approach – Licence or Registration Required (Michael Geist)
- The Broadcasting Act Blunder, Day 12: The “Regulate Everything” Approach – The CRTC Conditions (Michael Geist)
- The Broadcasting Act Blunder, Day 13: The “Regulate Everything” Approach – Targeting Individual Services (Michael Geist)
- The Broadcasting Act Blunder, Day 14: The Risk to Canadian Ownership of Intellectual Property (Michael Geist)
- Broadcast Reform Bill Could Spell the End of Canadian Ownership Requirements (Michael Geist)
- The Trump FCC Has Failed To Protect Low-Income Americans During A Health Crisis
- GOP Confirms Unqualified Simington to FCC With Eye On Crippling Biden FCC
- GOP clinches 2-2 deadlock for Biden FCC as Senate approves Trump nominee
- With Simington Vote, The GOP And Big Telecom Maneuver To Cripple The Biden FCC
- McConnell pushes Trump nominee toward vote that would deadlock Biden FCC
- A New White House, a New FCC
- $125,000 FCC Penalty to Broadcaster for Tower Structure and Contest Rule Violations – Including Violation of Rule Against Broadcasting Seemingly Live Recorded Programming Without Informing Listeners
- FCC Starts Rulemaking on Possible Adoption of GeoBroadcast Solutions Zonecasting Proposal to Allow FM Boosters to Originate Limited Amounts of Programming
- FCC Terminates Proceeding to Dedicate TV Channel in Each Market to Unlicensed Wireless Use
- FCC acts on blocking one-ring scam calls
- SpaceX gets $886 million from FCC to subsidize Starlink in 35 states
- The FCC, 2.5 GHz Spectrum, And The Tribal Priority Window: Something Positive Amid The COVID-19 Pandemic
- Facing Massive Subscriber Defections AT&T Chooses: Rate Hikes & New, Bogus Fees
- Somehow, 5G Paranoia Is Only Getting Dumber
- Largest Auction for 5G Spectrum Starts Today!
- What’s New in 5G – December 2020
- U.S. Broadband Speeds Jumped 90% in 2020. But No, It Had Nothing To Do With Killing Net Neutrality.
- Benton Study Again Shows How ‘Open Access’ Broadband Networks Can Drive Competition, Improve Service
- Colorado’s Broadband Internet Doesn’t Have to Be Rocky
- Insurer Can’t Mute TV Station’s Recovery for $25 Million Malpractice Claim
- Verizon has been leaking customers’ personal information for days (at least)
- Samsung finally starts its Android 11 rollout, three months after release
- UK Government proposes laws to implement Huawei equipment ban and stricter telecommunications security controls
- A good day for UltraHD: HBO Max, The Lord of the Rings will stream in 4K HDR
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
- Linking and Copyright Law in the European Union – Where do we go from here?
- Another Court Says Embedding Instagram Photos May Be Fair Use–Boesen v. United Sports (Eric Goldman)
- 576 German Artists Want EU Copyright Directive Made Worse, With No Exceptions For Memes Or Mashups
- Nancy Pelosi Sells Out The Public: Agrees To Put Massive Copyright Reform In ‘Must Pass’ Spending Bill
- ACLU Tells Congress: Do Not Add Copyright Trolling Bill To Government Funding Bill
- Legendary MC5 Guitarist Wayne Kramer Doesn’t Like the Smell of Proctor & Gamble’s “Guitar Solo” Body Wash
- Taking down copycat websites and defending against cybersquatting
- GSK v Teva – The Federal Circuit’s First Look at Skinny Labels and 35 U.S.C. 271(b)
- Deus ex Machina Motorcycles Pty. Ltd. v. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. (Cal., 10.23.20): Dismissal of trademark claims of Australian motorcycle brand against MGM for use of mark in The Sun Is Also a Star.
- The Bentley Clothing and Bentley Motors trade mark dispute: Take 2
- Can a Company Own ‘Enby’? Sex Toy Company Sues Black/Trans-Owned Company for Trademark Infringement
- “Too many cooks… ‘Fit Kitchen’ trade mark infringed”
- “Naked” at the Federal Circuit
- General Liability Insurer Must Defend Trademark and Other IP Claims
- Tips When Using the Madrid Protocol to Register a Trademark in Canada
- Global brand expansion: Why Canadian trademark owners should consider whether international registration is right for them
- First Circuit Reversal Highlights Importance of Satisfying Trade Secret Definition
- Protecting trade secrets in the era of remote working
- Patent Term Extension in Canada: an Overview of Certificates of Supplemental Protection
- 2020: A year of clarity for Canadian life sciences and software patents
- Canadian Intellectual Property Office issues new guidelines for reviewing patent applications
- Federal Court of Appeal clarifies standard for granting leave in NOC cases
- Employment Law and Patent Law Collide: Federal Circuit Rules that California’s Non-Compete Restrictions Also Limit the Scope of Patent and Invention Assignment Clauses
- Patent-Eligible Subject Matter in Biotech Should Recite More Than a “Telescope”
- Deciding Whether Your Software Is Patentable
- The UK Retains the Doctrine of Exhaustion of IP Rights After the Transition Period
- IP Litigation Quarterly Update: Q3 2020
PRIVACY
- A year featuring a flurry of Canadian privacy legislative reform
- CPPA: identifying the inscrutable meaning and policy behind the de-identifying provisions
- Long-awaited privacy reform welcomed by lawyers, could help bring national consistency
- ICE Sends Subpoena To BuzzFeed, Hoping To Force It To Turn Over Its Sources
- Patriot Act Used By The FBI To Collect Internet Browsing Data, Contradicting Claims Made To Oversight
- Florida State Police Raid Home Of COVID Whistleblower, Point Guns At Her & Her Family, Seize All Her Computer Equipment
- Nation-state backed hackers going after COVID vaccine supply chain
- COVID-19 vaccine data has been unlawfully accessed in hack of EU regulator
- Premiere security firm FireEye says it was breached by nation-state hackers
- NSA says Russian state hackers are using a VMware flaw to ransack networks
- Feds logged website visitors in 2019, citing Patriot Act authority
- Massachusetts Poised To Become The Next State To (Temporarily) Ban Facial Recognition Tech
- Federal Court Says Sanctions Are On The Way For Portland PD Over Violations Of Protest Restraining Orders
- CBP’s warrantless use of cell phone location data is under investigation
- After Being Notified Of Info It Should Have Already Been Aware Of, LAPD Bans Clearview Use By Investigators
- Provision Added To Defense Bill That Would Make Federal Officers Policing Protests Identify Themselves
- Cloudflare, Apple, and others back a new way to make the Internet more private
- New Privacy Requirements for App Developers Using the Apple App Store
- Settlement with App Developers Requires Limits on Collection and Use of Children’s Personal Information
- Zoom’s FTC Settlement a Good Guidepost to Avoiding Data Security Missteps
- FireEye cybersecurity tools compromised in state-sponsored attack
- Is an IP address considered personal information?
- Cyberattacks Discovered on Vaccine Distribution Operations
- German Court Orders Encrypted Email Service Tutanota To Backdoor One Account
- Lack of Standing: The Gift That Keeps on Giving for Defendants in Data Privacy Litigation
- FTC “Zooms” Into Settlement Agreement with Communications Company Over Concerns with its Security Practices
- Home Depot Enters Into Multistate $17.4 Million Settlement With State AGs Concerning Data Breach
- Satellite company to pay over $200 million for telemarketing violations
- International Data Transfers Post Schrems II: A Dance of Six Steps
- Are law firms considered “processors” or “controllers” of the personal data that they collect from third parties as part of a representation of a client?
- Are barristers and solicitors “separate controllers” or “joint controllers?”
- Solutionism, Surveillance, Borders and Infrastructures in the “Datafied Pandemic”
- Privacy in 2021: The Big Picture
Jon
News of the Week; December 2, 2020
GAMES
- Twin Galaxies attacks Billy Mitchell as a fraud in new legal claims
- Nicalis issues DMCA against free Cave Story games
- Subverse developer under fire for partnering with racist YouTuber Arch
- Supercell cancels Hay Day Pop
- Supercell shutting down Hay Day Pop after less than a year
- ‘As abstract as killing people in a video game,’ doctor says of Alek Minassian’s mind
- The Legality of Loot Boxes: A Primer
- Fortnite’s Nexus War event could expose Twitch streamers to DMCA problems
- Travis Scott reportedly grossed roughly $20m for Fortnite concert appearance
- Fortnite’s Season 4 finale attracted a record 15.3 million concurrent players
- Marvel finale was Fortnite’s biggest event ever at 15.3m concurrent users
- Wallace & Gromit maker Aardman partners with Bandai Namco on new game franchise
- What are the biggest changes impacting the games industry?
- Survey finds gaming by Americans over 45 has spiked in 2020
- Remote work is here to stay — but it won’t be cheap or easy
- How meditation and cooperation shaped Vela Games
- The Witcher 3 is the bedrock of CD Projekt Red’s financials one last time
- Fall Guys developer Mediatonic opens new UK studio
- How ‘buoyant’ Sega Europe is helping Sega Sammy stay afloat
- EG7 acquires Daybreak
- MechWarrior developer Piranha Games acquired by EG7 for $24.2 million
- EG7 pens deal to acquire EverQuest and H1Z1 dev Daybreak for $300 million
- Uri Geller retracts 20-year ban on Kadabra Pokémon trading cards
- Super Nintendo World now opening in February
- Universal Studios Japan will open Super Nintendo World in February
- The PlayStation 5’s ‘Activities’ quick-select is Sony’s answer to common single player woes
- PS5 comes out top in massive month for console sales | UK Monthly Charts
- UK mobile game spending reaches new single-day record on Black Friday
- Black Friday physical game sales drop 20% over 2019 l UK Boxed Sales
- Worldwide digital games spending down 10% between Black Friday and Cyber Monday
- Console remains largest employer of development staff in the UK
- GTA5: A Living World Eyeing A Decade Of Rabid Play Instead Of Just A ‘Game’
- TinyBuild invests $3m in Secret Neighbor developer Hologryph
- Tinybuild sinks $3 million into Secret Neighbor developer Hologryph
- Saudi Arabian charity Misk acquires 33.3% stake in SNK
- Phoenix Labs expands to Montreal and LA
- Dauntless dev Phoenix Labs opens two new studios to support growth
- Remnant: From the Ashes tops 1.7 million base game sales in just over a year
- Marvel’s Avengers fails to meet Square Enix sales targets
- Playco charts a course to the billion-player mobile game
- Krafton to consolidate Pnix and Delusion Studio into new studio, RisingWings
- Was Activision Blizzard right to ignore mobile? | 10 Years Ago This Month
- Cyberpunk 2077 pre-orders “visibly higher” than any Witcher title
- CDPR will take down Cyberpunk 2077 streams & let’s plays aired before launch
- Dead Cells sells over 3.5m copies
- Dead Cells surpasses 3.5 million sold ahead of second DLC announce
- Genshin Impact made almost $400m in two months on mobile
- Genshin Impact wins iPhone Game of the Year
- Apple picks Genshin Impact as its iPhone Game of the Year
- Google names Genshin Impact its best game of 2020
- Bigger Games raises $6 million for casual puzzle games
- Immortals: Fenyx Rising | Critical Consensus
- Sonic The Hedgehog 2 movie expected to start production in March
- That time Roger Ebert said games will never be as worthy as movies
- ‘Interactive reality TV’ project Rival Peak launches on Facebook
- We test Herman Miller’s $1,499 gaming chair: All business—to a fault
- The Game Theorists Raise Staggering $3 Million For St. Jude During 9-Hour YouTube Stream
- Food Publishers Surprisingly Didn’t Lean On Thanksgiving Video Content This Year
- Sega unveils never-before-seen prototype ‘Venus’ handheld
- BBTV Signs 5 International Gamers Who Count 23 Million Collective Subscribers
- Esports platform Smashgg acquired by Microsoft
- AR Mario Kart anchors Universal’s Super Nintendo World in February
- VR spending to pass $1bn in 2020
- Analyst: 2020 will see 6.4 million consumer VR headsets sold, spending surpass $1bn
- Blog: A pre-postmortem about marketing
- Blog: Key ingredients for compelling video game characters
- Q&A: Hand-painting the watercolor world of Dordogne
- Video: A look at Insomniac Games’ cache simulator
- Video: Lessons from Sony Interactive Entertainment’s localization process
- Don’t Miss: Using procedural destruction to unleash chaos in Control
- Don’t Miss: Why do devs love Slack, and how do they get the most out of it?
- Best of 2020: Rebuilding a classic in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition
- Best of 2020: Behind the dizzying ride to the top for Among Us
DIGITAL
- Increased Web Page Accessibility Requirements for Private and Non-Profit Organizations in Ontario Come into Effect in 2021 and AODA Accessibility Report Due Date Extended
- Utter Insanity: Trump Lawyer Suggests Former Trump Cybersecurity Official Should Be ‘Taken Out And Shot’ For Saying The Election Was Secure
- Just As #DiaperDon Starts Trending, Trump Claims That Twitter Uses ‘Fake’ Trends, Calls For ‘Termination’ Of Section 230
- Trump Promises To Defund The Entire Military, If Congress Won’t Let Him Punish The Internet For Being Mean To Him
- Trump to Congress: Repeal Section 230 or I’ll veto military funding
- White House Still Pushing To Slip Section 230 Repeal Into ‘Must Pass’ Military Spending Bill
- Congress Decides To Ignore Trump’s Ridiculous Veto Threat If Military Authorization Doesn’t Wipe Out Section 230
- New Ebook on Zeran v. AOL, the Most Important Section 230 Case (Eric Goldman)
- Twitter To Relaunch Account Verification In 2021
- Pinterest shareholders sue firm over rampant gender, race discrimination
- Federal Court Strikes Down California’s Ban On ‘Offensive’ License Plates
- European regulator hits Apple with a fine over iPhone water-resistance claims
- Amazon to roll out tools to monitor factory workers and machines
- Amazon Web Services adds macOS on bare metal to EC2
- Amazon to pay employee bonus amid threat of Black Friday strikes
- Oracle vulnerability that executes malicious code is under active attack
- Cases against Facebook are reportedly coming… when FTC decides how
- Facebook Gaming Introduces Non-Gaming Content Hub For Partners Called ‘Hanging Out’
- Facebook’s libra currency to launch next year in limited format
- Lilly Singh, Liza Koshy, More Hosted Instagram Live Fundraisers For ‘Giving Tuesday’
- The Material Conditions of Platforms: Monopolization Through Decentralization
- 512(f) Claim Against Robo-Notice Sender Can Proceed–Enttech v. Okularity (Eric Goldman)
- Content Moderation Case Study: Reclaiming A Hashtag (2020)
- Is Free Speech Online About To Get A Lot Less Free?
- Salesforces buys Slack for $27.7bn
- Salesforce to acquire Slack in $27.7 billion deal
- Salesforce strikes deal to acquire Slack for $27.7 billion
- Snapchat Taps Michael Le, Dytto To Host Interactive Dance Series, With Potential For Viewers To Monetize (Trailer)
- How to restore moral and technical order in a time of misinformation
- As a Service | Selling to consumers using a subscription model
- Platform Regulation Should Focus on Transparency, Not Content
- New Tech Regulation for the UK? Sounds familiEUr…
- New York Passes Wide-Ranging Automatic Renewal (Subscription Model) Law
- The risks and rewards of influencer marketing
- Influencer Philanthropy and Social Media – What are the Rules, What are Best Practices?
- Bella Poarch, The #YouHaveTo Hashtag, “Savage Love” Top TikTok’s Biggest Trends Of 2020
- TikTok Users Can Now Auto-Skip Videos That Might Trigger Photosensitive Epilepsy
- TikTok Is Reportedly Testing 3-Minute Videos
- I Turn My Camera on. Notes on the Aesthetics of Tiktok
- YouTube Suspends ‘OANN’ From Monetization, Strikes Channel For Repeated COVID Misinformation
- YouTube Teams With British Vogue For ‘Masterclass’ Series Starring Fashion Experts, Influencers, More
- How old, ambient Japanese music became a smash hit on YouTube
- Creators Can Now Host Live Pre-Shows, Embed Trailers Ahead Of Their YouTube Video ‘Premieres’
- Top 50 Most Viewed US YouTube Channels • Week Of 11/30/2020
- Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 11/30/2020
- YouTube’s Latest Original Is A Charitable ‘Secret Santa’ Exchange With AsapSCIENCE, Molly Burke, More
- Jake Paul Says He’s In Talks To Fight UFC Champ Conor McGregor
- Washington considers digital advertising tax
- Big Tech’s carbon problem: Energy-guzzling data centres and supply chains mean our online lives leave a heavy environmental footprint.
- Google, the Media Patron: How the Digital Giant Ensnares Journalism
- Is Google Really the Borg?
- ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ Becomes Netflix’s Most-Watched Limited Scripted Series, 4th Biggest TV Show Overall
- Taylor Swift Re-Teams With Disney+ For ‘Folkore’ Concert Documentary
- As organizations accelerate their digital transformation initiatives, they are increasingly embracing the power, affordability and versatility of open source software.
- Perpetually Missing from Tech Policy: ISPs And The IoT
- Choose your movies and also their endings!
A.I.
- DeepMind AI handles protein folding, which humbled previous software
- Amazon inquiry after Alexa accused of antisemitism
- Amazon’s Alexa accused of sharing anti-Semitic conspiracies, Holocaust denial
- The Time Has Come for International Regulation on Artificial Intelligence’
- A robot’s muse: when AI creates art
- AI inventors? Why should we care?
- Thinking outside the black box: explainable AI is coming into focus
- Artificial Intelligence and Recruitment – how to address the pitfalls
- Artificial intelligence, robotics and automation: The best or the worst thing to ever happen to humanity?
- The use of artificial intelligence: interesting technological developments in the legal and accountancy sectors
- AI can run your work meetings now
- The Full Automation Fallacy
- Speaking to algorithms? Rhetorical political analysis as technological analysis
- Deciding what’s fair
- A “Light Touch” Regulatory Framework for AI – Transparency at the Heart of AI Regulation
- Machines as Manifestations of Global Systems: Steps toward a Sociometabolic Ontology of Technology
- Artificial Intelligence, Aesthetics, and Future of Culture
- AI did it My Way
COMMUNICATIONS
- The Broadcasting Act Blunder, Day Six: The Beginning of the End of Canadian Broadcast Ownership and Control Requirements (Michael Geist)
- The Broadcasting Act Blunder, Day Seven: Beware Bill C-10’s Unintended Consequences (Michael Geist)
- The Broadcasting Act Blunder, Day 8: The Unnecessary Discoverability Requirements (Michael Geist)
- The Broadcasting Act Blunder, Day 9: Why Use Cross-Subsidies When the Government is Rolling Out Tech Tax Policies? (Michael Geist)
- The Broadcasting Act Blunder, Day 10: Downgrading the Role of Canadians in their Own Programming (Michael Geist)
- Ajit Pai announces departure from FCC after four-year deregulatory blitz
- Ajit Pai, Easily The Most Controversial FCC Boss In History, Will Step Down January 20
- Senate rushes to confirm Trump FCC nominee in order to hinder Biden admin
- FCC agenda meeting to evaluate items of interest for manufacturers and operators of radiofrequency equipment
- FCC Makes More Spectrum Available in 5.9 GHz Band for Unlicensed Use
- President-Elect Biden Announces FCC Transition Team
- FCC Proposes $20,000 Fine for TV Station Program-Length Commercial in Children’s Programming
- FCC Adopts New Program Carriage Complaint Procedures
- Comcast Increases Prices And Bogus Fees In The Middle Of A Pandemic
- Verizon, NYC Settle Lawsuit Over Verizon’s Empty Fiber Promises
- Verizon wiring up 500K homes with FiOS to settle years-long fight with NYC
- In the Conversion to NextGen TV, Who is Responsible for the Content of the Simulcast Streams?
- More Subsidies Alone Won’t Fix What Ails U.S. Broadband
- Broadband and the UK’s National Infrastructure Strategy
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
- Nicki Minaj Safeguards the Right for Artists to Experiment with Unlicensed Work
- Skateboard Graphic Artist Sues Jack Black, Tony Hawk, and The Berrics for Copyright Infringement of Skateboard Graphic Design
- PewDiePie’s “My Heart Will Go On”: A Case Study in the DMCA and YouTube’s Copyright Dispute Process (Part I)
- Peace does not get a chance
- Supermodel Sues for Alleged Unauthorized Use of Her Likeness
- The EU Commission better get its skates on when it comes to copyright
- World’s Worst Copyright Troll, Richard Liebowitz, Suspended From Practicing Law
- ‘Tis The Season: Congress Looks To Sneak In Unconstitutional Copyright Reform Bill Into ‘Must Pass’ Spending Bill
- Circumventing technological protection measures and website blocking orders: An EU perspective
- Ferrari Wins Legal Case Against Designer Philipp Plein’s Use Of Its Supercars, But He Says It’s Not Over
- Philipp Plein Loses Court Battle Against Ferrari Over Illegal Use of Its Brand
- How the Freddy copycat fashion case opens up new options for designers
- Nevermind: Who Really Owns Nirvana’s Iconic Smiley Face Design?
- From football stadiums to railway stations…covering the bigger picture with registered designs
- When Trademarks Get Messi: Likelihood of Confusion and Leo Messi’s Big European Trademark Win
- Deus ex Machina Motorcycles Pty. Ltd. v. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.
- AMERICAN EAGLE found to infringe EAGLE RARE trade mark in the UK
- EUIPO: What’s in the name…………… Hamilton!
- A Butler cannot be Royal!
- Minimalist trademarks: trend to follow or end of the road for uniqueness?
- The Burberry case: influencers, rappers and VIPs, watch out for improper use and associations to reputed brands
- A guide to trade mark revocation for legacy brands
- Snap Removal in Trade Secret Cases
- Risks and rewards of trade secrets in Europe
- Patenting antibody-based biologics in Canada
- Federal Circuit Confirms That “Magnetic Fuzz” Is Too Fuzzy for a Patent Claim
- Working from home — does it affect patent ownership for employee inventions?
- It’s a Date – Twitter Reply Proves Prior Art Publication Date
- Effectively using experts in IP litigation part two: practice
- (S)he´s making a list, (S)he´s checking it twice: An IP due diligence checklist for the holidays – or any time
PRIVACY
- Proposed Canadian Privacy Bill Introduces Fines and New Requirements for Private Organizations
- Understanding the Draft Consumer Privacy Protection Act: A Summary of the Key Changes Proposed
- French Gov’t Walks Back Proposal To Make Publishing Images Of Police Officers Illegal After Massive Protests Erupt Across The Nation
- Once more unto the breach: The Supreme Court weighs in on a circuit split on what constitutes a hack
- New Orleans PD Finally Admits It Uses Facial Recognition Tech After Denying It For Years
- Autonomous vehicles and big data: Managing the personal information deluge
- Canada Re-enters the International Ring with Bold New Privacy Law Including Significant Fines
- Post-Schrems II: European Data Protection Board’s Recommendations Bring Further Clarity and Practical Steps Regarding International Data Flows
- Does Tor provide more benefit or harm? New paper says it depends
- The Supreme Court will finally rule on controversial US hacking law
Jon
News of the Week; November 25, 2020
GAMES
- Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Gareth Bale question use of likeness in FIFA
- Mine, Mine, Mine! Nintendo Neuters The Cool Ways People, Groups Are Using ‘Animal Crossing’
- Nintendo axes fan-run Smash tournament over online play mod
- Nintendo orders cancellation of Smash Bros tournament over mod use: The Big House’s first online competition scrapped due to modified Melee that enables smoother online play
- Nintendo lawsuit takes aim at yet another Nintendo Switch hack seller
- Nintendo suing yet another Switch hack reseller: Amazon seller taken to court in platform holder’s ongoing fight against “serious, worsening international problem” of piracy
- Super Mario Maker Wii U to be delisted, lose some online features in early 2021
- Nintendo issues new Animal Crossing guidelines to keep politics out of the game
- Nintendo publishes Animal Crossing guidelines for businesses: The platform holder asked organisations to “refrain from bringing politics” into New Horizons
- Next-gen consoles have few answers to Argentina’s longstanding reliance on piracy: Argentina’s gamers approach next-gen with uncertainty, due to rising prices and the difficulty of turning to the black market
- Bossa Studios confirms layoffs amid complaints against management
- Game Workers Unite UK rebrands to IWGB Game Workers
- Can game studios radically transform how they hire?
- Does Apple’s 15% platform cut change the game?
- Tim Sweeney on Apple’s 15% cut: “We’re not fighting for a lower commission” – Epic Games CEO says 30% commission “is not wrongful, it’s just a bad deal”
- Epic adds a subscription service to Fortnite
- Epic Games launches ‘Fortnite Crew’ monthly subscription plan
- Epic Games’ MegaGrants program surpasses $60m in financial support
- 100 Thieves Becomes First Brand To Take Over Fortnite’s Creative Hub
- Twitch’s No Good, Very Bad Time Continues: Part 2
- Twitch Co-Founder Kevin Lin Departs Company After 12 Years: “I Will Build Again”
- The New York Times Is Broadcasting Collaborative Crosswords On Twitch
- This Streamer Took The Sims’ Lack Of Diversity Into Her Own Hands — And Then Became An Advisor To EA
- EA publishes first annual Impact Report: Report includes company demographic breakdown; 50% of EA Studios leadership is female
- GamesIndustry.biz writer Rebekah Valentine wins Journalist of the Year at GameHERs Awards: First year of the GameHERs recognises “women in all aspects of gaming”
- Harassment costs this industry too much | Opinion: From dollars to basic human decency, the status quo of online multiplayer gaming is taking a heavy toll
- Square Enix confirms Avengers missed expectations
- Square Enix to implement permanent work-from-home program in December
- Square Enix shifts all eligible staff to permanent remote working
- Pokémon Go restores social distancing benefits to the game
- The $70 AAA price point — it’s about time | Opinion: No consumer is going to be enthused about a price rise, but 15 years of $60 has done no favours to either gamers or creators
- Bandai Namco invests $3m in avatars creator Genies
- The ultimate guide to selling your indie game: Network N’s James Binns laid out the strategy and tactics indies should follow to sell more games
- 5 years below minimum wage: the financial history of Awesomenauts dev Ronimo
- Roblox files for IPO: Kid-focused, user-generated content platform has not yet turned a profit despite skyrocketing DAUs, bookings
- Lightfox Games raises $3.3m: March Gaming leads seed round to fund more accessible midcore games
- Seattle mobile studio Lightfox nets $3.3 million to bring debut title to market
- Report: Activision Blizzard laying off staff at Asia-Pacific offices
- More layoffs expected at Activision-Blizzard, this time at APAC offices: Company confirms around 30 employees face redundancy following announcement it needed to hire over 2,000
- Netease Q3 strengthened by multiple mobile game releases in China
- Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War was the real No.1 last week | UK Digital Charts: Assassin’s Creed enjoyed one of its biggest weeks to-date
- Hitman developer IO Interactive teases Project 007: James Bond licence emerges from stealth and will be used to tell a brand new origin story
- Red Dead Online gets a stand-alone release
- Rockstar is turning Red Dead Online into a standalone game
- Crowded field of racers drives Codemasters revenues up
- Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity ships 3 million
- Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin tops 500,000 digital sales and shipments
- Genshin Impact leads October digital game spending
- Piranha Games acquired by Enad Global 7
- Learning platform Kahoot acquires language game dev Drops for $50 million
- Keywords Studios acquires marketing agency G-Net Media
- Supercell invests $2.8m in 2UP Games
- As World of Warcraft enters the Shadowlands: “Why should it ever end?”: John Hight and Morgan Day share how the World of Warcraft team is still building on its MMORPG 16 years after launch
- Yakuza: Like a Dragon’s turn-based combat came from an April Fools joke that went too well
- Aiming to curb DMCAs, CDPR builds copyrighted music toggle into Cyberpunk 2077
- ‘Cyberpunk 2077’ Has A Built-In Mode For Content Creators That Disables Copyrighted Music
- Ridiculous: ‘Cyberpunk 2077’ Will Ship With A Mode Just To Help Streamers Avoid DMCA Notices
- The bulk of CD Projekt’s $27.9 million in Q3 revenue came from The Witcher 3
- Nvidia developed a radically different way to compress video calls
- Nvidia sidesteps the App Store to bring GeForce Now game streaming to iOS
- Analysis: Nvidia GeForce Now cloud gaming service comes to iOS
- Stadia plans to bypass App Store with web app iOS launch
- Google Stadia begins public iOS test in a few weeks: With Apple blocking games streaming via apps, Google moves Stadia to Safari as a web app
- Controller use on Steam has doubled in past two years
- Controller use on Steam has ‘more than doubled’ since 2018
- Steam beefs up DualSense support with LED, rumble, and more
- The anatomy of a Steam sale
- “The time is right to re-evaluate open worlds. We can do better”
- Unknown 9’s multimedia awakening
- The forgotten Flash Website movement (when websites were ‘the new emerging artform’)
- GeForce Now arrives on iOS via Safari: Nvidia gets around App Store’s game streaming policies with a beta version of browser-based offering, will soon add support for GOG storefront titles
- PS5 is biggest console launch in history
- PlayStation 5 delivers ‘biggest console launch ever’ for Sony
- PlayStation 5 sold almost six times as many units as Xbox Series X|S in Japan: Sony’s consoles sold 118,085 units in four days, while Microsoft’s machines sold 20,534 in six days
- Spider-Man: Miles Morales is PS5’s biggest launch game as Call of Duty grabs No.1 | UK Boxed Charts
- Scalpers and bots reportedly driving PS5 shortages
- Xbox Series X/S vs. PlayStation 5: Our launch-month verdict
- Microsoft: Bethesda Games Will Be ‘First, Best’ On Xbox, PC
- Xbox experimenting with how to pay studios for Game Pass “because we don’t think we have it figured out
- What agreements land games on Game Pass? Xbox head says they’re ‘all over the place’
- How to turn your Xbox Series X/S into an emulation powerhouse
- How one developer is sneaking emulators through a hole in the Xbox Store
- The Winner of the Console Wars is…Light Beer?
- JoJo Siwa, Loren Gray To Host 2-Day ‘Among Us’ Event
- TikTok developer launches publishing arm and casual gaming platform
- COVID-19 expected to boost investment in esports: But esports activity won’t go back to pre-pandemic levels for another year, some execs believe
- Esports company Blast receives £1.7m in funding from Edge Investments
- Insert Coin, the arcade documentary worth feeding all your quarters into
- OpenBCI Announces Brain-Computer Interface Designed Specifically for VR/AR Headsets
- Video: Making compelling character interactions for VR NPCs
- Lost “Sega VR” game unearthed, made playable on modern VR headsets
- Veteran VR Studio of ‘Waltz of the Wizard’ Pausing PSVR Development Until Sony Addresses PS5 Roadmap
- Warner Music: “If artists want to be in the next James Bond, they should want to be in the next AAA game”
- Don’t Miss: How GoldenEye 007 set a new standard for video game AI
- Don’t Miss: Defining direction, writing, art and music on Yakuza 4
- Don’t Miss: The story behind Remedy’s viral dog mocap star
- Don’t Miss: Mapping out the subtle social cues throughout Hitman’s level design
- Don’t Miss: A PC game for consoles – Remaking Divinity: Original Sin
- Video: Bugsnax’s devs discuss launching on the PS5
- Video: A deep dive into Ubisoft’s VR escape rooms
- Video: Breaking down the making of Teardown
- Video: The world generation tech behind Far Cry 5
- Blog: Is Apple’s platform fee reduction a PR move or sound investment?
- Blog: General tips for ‘Games as a Service’ indie games
- Blog: Power of storytelling in blockbuster casual games?
- Blog: The art of compelling quest design in Ghost of Tsushima
- Blog: The Impact of video game criticism
- Blog: Historians discuss Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
- Blog: Four hyper-casual prototype best practices
- Deep Dive: Evolving the UX/UI of A Total War Story: Troy using user testing & feedback
- Hugo Awards adds video game category for 2021
- Patenting video games in Europe – The EPO’s Board of Appeal decide in favour of Nintendo (T1504/17)
- U.S. Patent No. 10,532,290: Sharing recorded gameplay to a social graph
DIGITAL
- Twitter, Facebook Plan For Post-Trump Era
- Why it’s easy to hate Facebook but hard to leave
- Facebook AI catches 95% of hate speech; company still wants mods back in office
- Facebook Could See Antitrust Charges From Nearly 40 States Over Acquisitions Of Instagram, WhatsApp
- Advertisers Challenge Facebook’s Representations on Audience Targeting and Fraudulent Traffic
- Facebook Says Ads for Giving Tuesday Are OK, So Long as They Aren’t About Social Issues
- Disappointing: Netflix Decides To Settle With Chooseco LLC Over ‘Bandersnatch’ Lawsuit
- Instagram Adds Branded Content Tags To ‘Reels’, ‘Live’, Unveils Several Updates To ‘Branded Content Ads’ Format
- Age Gating on Instagram is Now a Bit Easier
- David Attenborough Departs Instagram Mere Months After Record-Breaking Foray
- White House Offers To Allow Renaming Confederate Bases… In Exchange For Getting Rid Of Section 230
- Content Moderation Case Study: Facebook Attracts International Attention When It Removes A Historic Vietnam War Photo Posted By The Editor-in-Chief Of Norway’s Biggest Newspaper (2016)
- Bad Analogy: Comparing Social Media To Guns
- AMD laptops have a hidden 10-second performance delay. Here’s why
- Apple security chief maintains innocence after bribery charges
- Apple moving forward with plan to limit “creepy” user tracking
- “We are giddy”—interviewing Apple about its Mac silicon revolution
- Mac mini and Apple Silicon M1 review: Not so crazy after all
- Snapchat Giving $1 Million Per Day To “Top” Creators With New Short Video Platform ‘Spotlight’
- BuzzFeed Acquires HuffPost In Stock Deal As Part Of Larger Pact With Its Parent, Verizon Media
- Creator-To-Consumer Vendor Gumroad Launches Monthly Memberships
- Wonder What’s Ahead For Film? Watch What WarnerMedia Does
- Nvidia developed a radically different way to compress video calls
- Will Parler Users Treat Its ‘Glitch’ That Hid Georgia Election Content The Same Way They Treated A Twitter Glitch?
- YouTube Defeats Lawsuit Over Cryptocurrency Scam–Ripple v. YouTube (Eric Goldman)
- After Quitting YouTube, Ingrid Nilsen To Launch Fragrance Studio ‘The New Savant’
- As Billie Eilish Hits 1 Billion Views, YouTube Unveils ‘Infinite Music Video’ Concept For “Bad Guy”
- Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide Last Week
- Top 50 Most Viewed US YouTube Channels Last Week
- Snapchat Giving $1 Million Per Day To “Top” Creators With New Short Video Platform ‘Spotlight’
- Is Food The New Merch For Creators? And Are Ghost Kitchens The Next Frontier?
- MrBeast Launches New Channel, ‘Beast Philanthropy,’ To Raise Money For His Food Bank
- Inconceivable: TikToker Who Made Paint Mixing Very, Very Cool… Is Fired From Sherwin-Williams For Doing So
- Charli D’Amelio Has Amassed 100 Million TikTok Followers In One-And-A-Half Years
- A general introduction to the regulation of virtual currencies in USA
A.I.
- USPTO Releases Public Comments on AI
- Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property: Transatlantic Approaches
- Intellectual property strategies for data and artificial intelligence – ThinkHouse
- Florida Sheriff’s Pre-Crime Software Says D-Students And Victims Of Domestic Violence Are Potential Criminals
- AI & cybersecurity: reflections on a multidimensional relationship
- When AI sees a man, it thinks “official.” A woman? “Smile”
- AI Trends Part 1: IoT privacy and security risks
- AI in the boardroom: opportunities and challenges
- Robots invade the construction site
COMMUNICATIONS
- Canadian Government introduces legislation that would fundamentally transform the broadcasting system
- The Broadcasting Act Blunder, Day One: Why There is No Canadian Content Crisis (Michael Geist)
- The Broadcasting Act Blunder, Day Two: What the Government Doesn’t Say About Creating a “Level Playing Field” (Michael Geist)
- The Broadcasting Act Blunder, Day Three: Minister Guilbeault Says Bill C-10 Contains Economic Thresholds That Limit Internet Regulation. It Doesn’t. (Michael Geist)
- The Broadcasting Act Blunder, Day Four: Why Many News Sites Are Captured by Bill C-10 (Michael Geist)
- The Broadcasting Act Blunder, Day Five: The Narrow Exclusion of User Generated Content Services (Michael Geist)
- 10 Years Of U.S. Broadband Policy Has Been A Colossal Failure
- ‘Activist’ Investor Elliott Management Sells Stake In AT&T After Encouraging Mass Firings
- AT&T raises DirecTV prices again amid customer losses and possible sale
- More Evidence FCC Claims That Killing Net Neutrality Would Boost Broadband Investment Were Bullshit
- FCC reallocates transportation safety spectrum for Wi-Fi use, endorses C-V2X for auto safety
- Ajit Pai’s FCC Does Something Good, Frees Wireless Spectrum The Auto Industry Had Done Little With
- Trump’s FCC Nominee Asked Fox News To Help Destroy Section 230 To Help Elect More Republicans
- Comcast raising TV and Internet prices, including a big hike to hidden fees
- UK government buys chunk of bankrupt Starlink competitor, OneWeb
- OneWeb exits bankruptcy and is ready to launch more broadband satellites
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
- Using music in your business? Copyright fees proposed to increase
- Disney (Disney!) Accused Of Trying To Lawyer Its Way Out Of Paying Royalties To Alan Dean Foster
- Who Owns Vacation Photos of You? Probably Not You–Hubay v. Mendez (Eric Goldman)
- Hyperlinking: more control for copyright owners
- “Cultural misinterpretation” or designer’s freedom?
- Due diligence of copyright is key when purchasing a record label business
- Poland’s Bid To Get Upload Filters Taken Out Of The EU Copyright Directive Suddenly Looks Much More Hopeful
- Brexit and copyright: 6 key things to know
- Good News: Academics Can Make Their Articles Published In Top Journal Nature Freely Available As Open Access. Bad News: They Must Pay $11,000 For Each One
- Bricks and mortar or is online in order? Federal Court of Appeal checks in to trademark use and hotel services
- UK High Court finds EAGLE RARE infringed by AMERICAN EAGLE
- Puma v Nike Footwear brands dispute FOOTWARE
- The Lord Chamberlain v Grant Harrold – British Queen blocks Royal Butler trade mark
- Taiwanese Semiconductor Pleads Guilty, To Pay $60 Million Fine for Criminal Trade Secret Theft
- Understanding compulsory licensing: a global overview
- Recent Patent Developments in the Autonomous Vehicle Market
- Common Patent Misconceptions – Myth #5 – Provisional Applications
- Printed Matter Is Patentable If It’s Functional, Not Just Communicative
PRIVACY
- Canada Proposes Federal Privacy Law Overhaul – Key Takeaways
- The dawn of Canadian Privacy Law 2.0: The Consumer Privacy Protection Act introduced
- Attention, mall shoppers: your data is being collected!
- ‘You Have Zero Privacy’ Say RCMP Social Media Surveillance Documents Before Going On To Demonstrate Why
- US Military Is Buying Location Data From Data Brokers, Including Data Pulled From US App Users
- Portland, Maine Passes Facial Recognition Ban That Says The City Can Fire Employees For Violating It
- Seattle PD Detective Took Clearview Facial Recognition Tech For A Spin, Possibly Violating Local Laws
- Very Little Stands Between the U.S. and a Technological Panopticon
- Court Sends Wyze Labs Privacy Suit to Arbitration (Eric Goldman)
- Google is testing end-to-end encryption in Android Messages
- Make the Web Great Again (Andres Guadamuz)
CREATIVITY
Jon
News of the Week; November 18, 2020
GAMES
- Nintendo faces yet another Joy-Con drift lawsuit: An expert analysis noted that the drift is caused by “extensive wear on the pad surface on the interior of the Joy-Con”
- The dance-off ends: a (partial) resolution to Fortnite’s slurry of copyright lawsuits.
- Oxford University study finds playing games can positively impact emotional well-being
- Oxford University study shows video games can benefit well-being and mental health: But researchers call for more studies into this field, following its success in collaborating with EA and Nintendo
- Pokémon Go raises its level cap for the first time in over four years
- Video game play is positively correlated with well-being (Niklas Johannes, Matti Vuorre, Andrew K. Przybylski)
- Court Upholds Gaming App’s Clickthrough TOS–Ball v. Skillz (Eric Goldman)
- Survey finds growing harassment among US gamers: ADL-Newzoo poll finds 68% of online multiplayer games experienced severe harassment in past six months, 22% said it made them quit playing certain games entirely
- Free to Play? Hate, Harassment and Positive Social Experience in Online Games 2020
- Ubisoft Singapore MD stepping down after misconduct allegations
- Ubisoft removes Singapore studio head: Hugues Ricour no longer leading Skull and Bones studio after report of sexual harassment, but remains with the publisher
- Global Game Revenues Up an Extra $15 Billion This Year as Engagement Skyrockets
- Judge dismisses Apple’s “theft” claims in Epic Games lawsuit
- Apple will halve App Store platform fees for smaller developers in 2021
- Apple drops its cut of App Store revenues from 30% to 15% for some developers
- Apple to cut down App Store share to 15% for small developers: The company’s new App Store Small Business Program means studios earning less than $1m a year in proceeds will benefit from a reduced commission
- Epic CEO: App Store changes offer ‘no relief to customers’ from ‘Apple Tax’
- Epic Games files against Apple Australia: Fortnite firm claims battle royale’s removal breaches Australian consumer law
- Apple settles with states for $113M over iPhone battery throttling
- Streamers protest Twitch DMCA policy with homemade video game noises: Beep beep beep. Pow! Schooooo… po-pow!
- Twitch eyes new tools, licensing deals after ‘understandably frustrating’ DMCA takedowns
- Twitch streamers report DMCA takedowns for in-game sound effects: Content creators report flags on sounds such as clock chimes, police sirens, bird noises, and wind
- Twitch Continues To Trip Over Itself In Response To DMCA Apocalypse
- Twitch’s No Good, Very Bad Time Continues: Part 1
- xQcOW, Pokimane Are Twitch’s Top-Earning Streamers Of 2020
- Twitch sees record viewership in October – Report: StreamElements and Arsenal find 1.6 billion hours watched on the platform last month, nearly doubling previous October
- EA launching FIFA spend-tracking tool: FIFA Playtime gives players an overview of how much time and money they’ve spent on FIFA 21, ability to set spending and Ultimate Team limits
- EA has loot boxed itself in with FIFA Ultimate Team | Opinion: Publisher is in the position of having to fix its gambling problem without admitting there’s a problem to fix
- EA must reconsider its FIFA goals | Podcast: The team discusses EA’s reluctance to acknowledge the resemblances of Ultimate Team to gambling, and the consequences that could bring
- FIFA 21 debuts at No.1 in the US for October in a first for the franchise: Nintendo Switch hardware sets a new dollar sales record for the month, surpassing the Wii in 2008
- Is a Tattoo Protected by Copyright? Is it Infringed if it Appears in a Computer Game?
- Star Trek’s Space-Traveling Tardigrades Live Long and Prosper After Second Circuit Affirms Non-Infringement of Video Game Copyright
- Capcom says personal details of 350,000 potentially compromised after recent hack
- Capcom: Up to 350,000 people could be affected by ransomware leak
- Capcom confirms it was the victim of a ransomware attack: Employee personal information, sales reports, and other financial information was compromised
- Playrix: gameplay footage must be representative of the gaming experience
- Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla sees the franchise’s best launch sales so far: It sold more copies at launch than any other Assassin’s Creed game, and set a new record for Ubisoft PC launch sales
- Assassin’s Creed Valhalla beats Call of Duty in race for No.1 | UK Boxed Charts: It’s a massive, massive week for UK game sales
- Genshin Impact was the top-grossing mobile game worldwide in October: It brought in nearly $239m in player spending, beating out Honor of Kings
- Graffiti Games leaders launch Indie Game Coach: Alex Josef and Alex Van Lepp to provide free and low-cost resources, coaching, and consulting for new, independent developers
- How a Guilty Gear project contributed to the collapse of Skullgirls dev Lab Zero
- Epic releases thousands of What Remains of Edith Finch assets for free
- Epic Games acquires real-time animation firm Hyprsense: The company will collaborate closely with 3Lateral and Cubic Motion to “make content production more accessible”
- Half of US and UK players want more diverse characters in games: Research conducted by Newzoo shows that gamers want publishers to take an “active stance” on societal issues
- Respawn emphasises its no crunch policy: Accused of being too slow with content, Apex Legends game director says the studio “refuses to crunch the team”
- Animal Jam data breach exposes personal info of approximately 46m accounts: Emails, usernames, encrypted passwords, billing addresses, and real names were posted on public hacker forum
- Ubisoft Montreal staffers barricade on roof, escorted out by police
- Police operation underway at Ubisoft Montreal: Reported hostage situation may have been a hoax, police begin evacuating building
- Police say ‘hoax’ emergency call prompted Ubisoft Montreal studio scare
- The challenge and promise of DualSense | Opinion: PlayStation 5’s advanced haptic system is arguably the most interesting innovation of the new generation, but it creates a tricky marketing conundrum
- Discovery takeaways from the new PlayStation 5 store?
- Sony thinks cross-gen games will be ‘important’ for the next 3 years as players transition to PS5
- Demon’s Souls PS5 review: A gorgeous game worth dying (repeatedly) for
- Ghost of Tsushima passes 5m sold: Sucker Punch’s game is the fastest selling new IP for the PS4 from a Sony first-party studio
- Xbox Series X and S deliver Microsoft’s biggest ever console launch
- Xbox Series X|S is biggest console launch in Microsoft’s history: But Phil Spencer says platform holder still focused on player numbers of unit sales
- How will the Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 benefit indies?: We speak to indie studios and publishers about the possibilities afforded by the new consoles
- Xbox Series S|X launch, big releases drive new records for UK broadband use: Service providers report new highs among Call of Duty updates and preloads, debuts of Destiny 2: Beyond Light and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
- Microsoft expects Xbox Series X and S to be in short supply until after holidays
- Microsoft expects Xbox Series X|S shortages until Q2 2021: CFO Tim Stuart points to summer next year for “the supply profile meeting the demand profile”
- Microsoft suggests higher AAA price-point is “warranted”: CFO Tim Stuart said that publishers need to “make the right decision for their content”
- The Falconeer: An unexpected jewel in the Xbox launch line-up
- Bethesda games will likely be “first or better” (not “only”) on Xbox
- Microsoft to begin testing Project xCloud in new regions including Australia and Japan
- Microsoft to roll out Project xCloud in four new markets: The cloud gaming beta is coming to Australia, Brazil, Japan, and Mexico this November
- What next-gen consoles really mean for audio: Sumo Digital discusses the audio tools that could be a game changer for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S
- Switch sets new October sales record in the U.S. as next-gen arrives
- The Switch had the second-best October sales in the US of any console ever: At over 735,000 units sold, it was outpaced only by the Wii in 2008
- Happy 20th Birthday To ‘No One Lives Forever’, The Classic PC Game That Can’t Be Sold Today Thanks To IP
- Why are there no James Bond games?: In the absence of new film No Time To Die, we explore 007’s ongoing absence from video games and the challenge of developing with a licence
- Assassin’s Creed Valhalla debuts with record launch week sales for the franchise
- Assassin’s Creed Valhalla doubles Odyssey’s player count at launch: The latest entry in Ubisoft’s series also saw record viewership on Twitch and YouTube
- Freshly founded Gunzilla Games aims to take on triple-A shooter development
- Gunzilla Games enters AAA shooter market with $25m in funding: After helping Warface developer Blackwood spin out from Crytek, Vlad Korolev is looking to build a studio from scratch
- The careful cultivation and localization of Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin: Edelweiss and XSeed discuss the historical Japanese roots of the in-depth rice farming sim, and the challenges of bringing it West
- PUBG Corp is bringing a new version of banned PUBG Mobile to India
- PUBG Corp. creating new PUBG Mobile for India to get around ban: Korean publisher establishes Indian subsidiary that will hire 100 people, pledges to invest $100 million into local gaming and entertainment industry
- Fortnite mulls monthly paid subscription
- New League of Legends character not based on real person, says Riot
- Grubhub Taps Addison Rae, CrankGameplays, More For Virtual Friendsgiving Promo On ‘Animal Crossing’
- Unity revenue up 53.3% year-over-year at close of first public quarter
- Unity shares first earnings following IPO with $201 million in Q3 revenue: On earnings call, CEO John Riccitiello addresses price hikes, COVID-19 impacts, future investments, and finding a casual audience
- Ghost of Tsushima has topped 5 million sales in under four months
- Fall Guys has sold over 10 million copies on Steam
- Fall Guys has sold more than 10 million copies on Steam alone
- Data deep dive: What’s the ‘long tail’ like for Steam games?
- Steam’s initial PS5 controller support doesn’t include the controller’s advanced haptics
- Zynga opens Austin studio to work on upcoming Star Wars project
- Zynga to open new studio in its Austin office: The new studio will focus on the development of NaturalMotion’s Star Wars game
- Google and My.Games launch mobile accelerator program
- My.Games launches cloud gaming service
- Thunderful acquires long-time LittleBigPlanet collaborator Station Interactive
- Thunderful acquires Station Interactive: Swedish development studio’s employees, IP, and assets will be incorporated into Thunderful Development
- As lockdowns lift, Tencent gaming revenues continue to rise: Online games revenues up 45% year-over-year, 8% quarter-over-quarter thanks to Honour of Kings, Peacekeeper Elite
- Paradox reports record quarterly revenues as Crusader Kings III sales top 1 million
- Embracer acquires 13 studios including Shadow Warrior dev Flying Wild Hog
- Embracer Group H1 sales up 132% to $524.2m: THQ Nordic and Koch Media parent reports growth across all divisions as it adds 13 new studios
- Thunderful Group intends to go public to raise cash for further acquisitions
- Thunderful Group prepares for IPO on NASDAQ First North Premier: Listing expected to raise close to $90 million for Swedish games firm, company valued at $395 million
- Female-led Queens Gaming Collective raises $1.5m: Gaming lifestyle company launches after seed round led by Bitkraft Ventures
- Mobile startup Lila Games raises $2.8m: Indian developer attracts investment from execs at Super Evil Megacorp and Machine Zone
- Conversation as the crewmate: Understanding the rise of Among Us: Barbie Koelker from conversation analysis platform Spiketrap explores Among Us’ growing popularity
- New toolbox shows teachers how to best use games in their classroom
- Wiggin acquires games law firm Purewal & Partners: Founder Jas Purewal is joining as partner, alongside his team
- All eyes on esports: staying ahead of the legal hurdles: As investment pours into the sector, legal firm Reed Smith offers advice to new companies seeking to avoid legal pitfalls
- The pandemic-fuelled esports boom: legal and regulatory considerations for investors
- NRG Esports Unveils Sprawling Content Creation “Castle” In Los Angeles
- Valve adds extensive developer commentary to Half-Life: Alyx
- Double win for Valve at 2020 VR Awards: Index headset won best hardware, while Half-Life: Alyx was crowned Game of the Year
- VR dev Resolution Games kicks off push into publishing with Odd Raven deal
- Resolution Games launches VR publishing arm: First partnership will bring Odd Raven Studio’s Carly and the Reaperman to Oculus Quest and Quest 2 next year
- Video: Lessons in developing functional artificial intelligence using VR
- Blog: The psychology of irresistible game offers
- Blog: 12 misconceptions that hurt the player experience
- Blog: Roguelike lessons horror games need to learn
- Blog: Spilt Milk Devlog 06 – Fascism Fighters 4000 (Part 1)
- Blog: What mechanics should you add to an Early Access game?
- Video: Porting your game to Oculus Quest
- Video: Why Survios builds new tech for games like Battlewake
- Don’t Miss: Looking back to Mark Cerny’s 2013 tech breakdown of the then-next-gen PS4
- Don’t Miss: Bad crediting hurts the game industry and muddles history
- Don’t Miss: How games like Super Mario Galaxy and Demon’s Souls handle subjective difficulty
- Don’t Miss: Inside the development of Supergiant Games’ Hades
- Q&A: Why Assassin’s Creed Valhalla did away with side quests
- The Last of Us Part 2, Hades dominate The Game Awards nominations: Sony received 22 nominations for its published games, including ten for The Last of Us Part 2
- U.S. Patent No. 10,471,357: Systems and methods for simulating a particular user in an interactive computer system
DIGITAL
- Amazon Sues Two TikTok, Instagram Influencers For Alleged Scheme To Sell Knockoff Designer Goods
- The Case Against Holding Amazon Liable for Third-Party Merchants’ Sales in its Marketplace (Eric Goldman)
- Massive, China-state-funded hack hits companies around the world, report says
- Hackers sponsored by Russia and North Korea are targeting COVID-19 researchers
- Russian Internet Research Agency Disinformation Activities on Tumblr: Identity, Privacy, and Ambivalence
- WHO Is Blocking Commenters From Even Mentioning Taiwan On Its Facebook Page
- Facebook Expands Access To ‘Rights Manager’ Video Copyright Tool, Rolls Out In-Stream Ads To 4 More Countries
- Facebook Can Block Scraper (For Now)–Facebook v. BrandTotal (Eric Goldman)
- Day After Senator Lindsey Graham Is Credibly Accused Of Trying To Undermine The Election, He Hosts Hearing Attacking Social Media For Undermining Election
- Trump Fires US Cybersecurity Director Chris Krebs After Krebs Debunks Trump’s Claims Of Election Systems Fraud
- US Cybersecurity Director Expecting To Be Fired After Refusing To Edit Page Debunking Election Hacking Myths
- Trump Campaign Gets Laughed Out Of Court For Claiming A Bunch Of Unvetted Webform Submissions Is ‘Evidence’ Of Voter Fraud
- Trump Campaign’s Ridiculous SLAPP Suit Against CNN Tossed Out Easily
- After Trump tweets Defcon hacking video, voting security experts call BS: Dozens of computer scientists say there’s “no credible evidence” of election fraud.
- Trump admin puts a hold on TikTok ban it seems to have forgotten about
- Trumpland Apparently Just Forgot About Its Manufactured TikTok Hysteria
- Commerce Department Remembers It Was Supposed To Ban TikTok; Says It Won’t Enforce For Now
- Insights: Social Media In The Post-Trump Era Headed To Splitsville
- The announcement of election results prompted the expected chorus of brands messaging about “unity,” but some opted to celebrate on social media.
- Facebook Extends Political Advertising Ban for Another Month, Including Advertising for Run-Offs
- Google to Extend Political Advertising Ban Through Year-End
- Google Pay relaunch transforms it into a full-fledged financial service
- Alphabet CEO: Plan to target EU commissioner was not “sanctioned” by me
- UK Politician Demands The Impossible: Social Media Companies Must Not Take Down Political Speech, But Must Block Disinformation
- Wish.com: sexually explicit in-app ads deemed offensive and inappropriately targeted
- Upload Filters And The Internet Architecture: What’s There To Like?
- Content Moderation Case Study: GoFundMe Addresses Controversial Fundraising Efforts (2020)
- Counterfeit Merch Is A Big Problem For Creators, And It’s Even Worse Than You Think.
- Markiplier, Ethan Nestor Bid Farewell To High-Concept ‘Unus Annus’ Channel — A Metaphor For Death
- Hulu raises Live TV price to $65, matching YouTube TV’s latest price hike
- Top 50 Most Viewed US YouTube Channels • Week Of 11/16/2020
- Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 11/16/2020
- YouTube Is Serving Young Viewers Age-Inappropriate Ads, Videos With Little Educational Value, Study Finds
- YouTube Shelves Annual ‘Rewind’ Video Given Hardships, Heaviness Of 2020
- YouTube Launches ‘Audio Ad’ Format To Capture Background Content Consumers
- Steph Curry’s YouTube Series ‘5 Minutes From Home’ Is Becoming An Audible Original Podcast
- Trump-Endorsed Right-wing YouTube Channels See Rise In Viewership
- On The Podcast: Ninja Doesn’t Want To Be Called A ‘YouTuber’. Is He Right?
- YouTube Will Now Serve Ads On Channels That Aren’t Eligible For Its Partner Program — Though Creators Won’t Earn A Cut
- GitHub agrees RIAA claim is bunk, restores popular YouTube download tool
- Teespring Teams Up With YouTubers For Merch-Selling Cyber Monday Live Streams
- Audiovisual Media Services Directive – European Commission adopts guidelines on video-sharing platforms and the promotion of European works
- BuzzFeed Seeking Next Social Video Star In IGTV Competition ‘Show Off’
- ‘The Good Place,’ ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ Developer Tracey Pakosta Is Netflix’s New Head Of Comedy
- Instagram Gives Reels, Shop Permanent Spots On Nav Bar
- Instagram Finally Adds Ability To Search Platform Via Keyword
- TikTok’s ‘Hashtag Challenge Plus’ Ad Format Is Generating Billions Of Views For Brands
- ICE Briefly Becomes A Stranded Minor: Loses Its Twitter Account For Being Too Young
- Twitter Launches Stories-Like ‘Fleets’ Feature, With ‘Audio Spaces’ Soon To Follow
- What is Parler, and why is everyone suddenly talking about it?
- ‘Stop the Steal’ supporters, restrained by Facebook, turn to Parler to peddle false election claims
- What If Cambridge Analytica Owned Its Own Social Network? CA Backer Rebekah Mercer Admits She’s A Co-Founder Of Parler
- A history of Intel vs. AMD desktop performance, with CPU charts galore
- Beyond Screen Time: Identity Development in the Digital Age
- Nova Scotia’s eCourt platform is first online judicial dispute resolution service in Canada
- Why Does Silicon Valley Want to Reengineer Humans?: Human beings are not the problem. We are the solution.
- Japan-UK Trade Deal Shows How Controversial Digital Policies Can Be Slipped Through With Little Scrutiny Or Resistance
A.I.
- IP Rights and AI-Generated Works
- Amazon begins shifting Alexa’s cloud AI to its own silicon
- Video: Using AI to create interactive digital actors
- ICO publishes guidance on AI decision making
- Artificial intelligence and gender discrimination
- Artificial vision, white space and racial surveillance capitalism
- Technology vs Ideology: How Far will Artificial Intelligence and Distributed Ledger Technology Transform Corporate Governance and Business?
- AI revolution in medicine
COMMUNICATIONS
- Law Bytes Episode 69: Bram Abramson on the Government’s Plan to Regulate Internet Streaming Services (Michael Geist)
- Two Trump Defamation Claims Dismissed Including Claim Against TV Station for Political Attack Ad – What is the Relevance for Broadcasters?
- How the Presidential Transition Will Affect the FCC
- Big TCPA News: Biden Announces FCC Transition Team that Includes Former Commissioner Clyburn
- FCC Boss Pai Urged To Accept Trump Loss, Pause Dumb Attack On Social Media
- FCC takes spectrum from auto industry in plan to “supersize” Wi-Fi
- Broadband power users explode, making data caps more profitable for ISPs
- Digital Redlining: ISPs Widening The Digital Divide
- How Our Biggest ISPs Are Failing Students During COVID-19
- TV services head towards complex post-Brexit regulatory world
- FTC Tries to Clean Out 25 Fake Disinfectant Websites
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
- Boesen v. United Sports Publications, Ltd.: Court dismisses copyright claim, holding that publisher’s article that “embedded” Caroline Wozniacki’s Instagram post featuring plaintiff’s photograph constituted fair use.
- Flo & Eddie, Inc. v. Pandora Media, Inc.: Court denies anti-SLAPP motion by owners of pre-1972 sound recordings created by The Turtles, holding Pandora’s failure to pay for use of recordings was not a speech right
- Artistic license and use of copyright in creative pursuits
- The Pose Is Prologue
- Despite RIAA’s Claim That YouTube-dl Is Infringing, Journalists Use It All The Time
- GitHub, EFF Push Back Against RIAA, Reinstate Youtube-dl Repository
- YouTube Seeks To Crack Down On COVID-19 Vaccine Conspiracies In Fact-Check Panels
- Donald Trump Argues That Use Of ‘Electric Avenue’ In Campaign Video Was Transformative
- Montgomery v. Holland: Second Circuit affirms dismissal of copyright infringement claim targeting 2014 television miniseries Rosemary’s Baby, holding it was not substantially similar to plaintiff’s short stories.
- Is Software Patentable?
- Scientific publishers propose installing spyware in university libraries to protect copyrights: The hypothetical plan to combat digital piracy called for the use of software to monitor those accessing academic material
- Proctorio used DMCA to take down a student’s critical tweets: “This is really a textbook example of fair use”
- Copyright rides to the rescue: Brompton Bicycle is protected by copyright
- Copyright: Online platform operators’ liability for users illegally uploading copyright material
- No Future for Copyright or Trade Dress Protection for Personal Planner Layout
- The First Step to Protecting Your Brand in Canada
- EMPOWER-ing trademark infringement claims against public authorities
- Four Seasons Total Landscaping: trademark lessons from a bizarre political event
- In a Galaxy Not So Far, Far Away: Millennial Falcon v. Millennium Falcon
- Can Clickbait Cause Confusion? Purchasing AdWord Did Not Constitute Trademark Infringement or an Unfair Trade Practice
- Will the growing second-hand market for fashion fuel trademark disputes?
- Hugo Boss And Art Teacher Reach ‘Amicable Solution’ Over ‘Be Boss, Be Kind’ Trademark Application
- Trademark everything: The not-so-secret world of celebrity IP
- Why Don’t Conservatives Care About Copyright?
- Food Industry Insight – The Trade Dress of a Cookie is Held to be Functional
- Ninth Circuit Rules That the Identification of a Trade Secret May Be Developed Through Discovery
- Patent eligibility in Canada clarified with new Examination Guidelines
- CIPO’s new guidelines on patentable subject matter explained
- Presumed essential: CIPO clarifies its approach toward eligibility analysis following Federal Court decision
- Canadian Patent Office Issues Guidance to “Cooperate” With Inventors of Computer-Based Inventions
- Supreme Court to Decide Constitutionality of Patent Board
- Moderna’s covid vaccine is promising news, but IP issues may mean the financial windfall it enjoys are limited
- Working with known materials in life sciences: Key patent considerations
- Canadian courts show trend of awarding higher costs in IP litigation
- Five things to know about protecting IP rights on Amazon
PRIVACY
- “Publicity Placing the Plaintiff in a False Light” is the Newest Privacy Tort in Ontario
- Canada’s GDPR Moment: Why the Consumer Privacy Protection Act is Canada’s Biggest Privacy Overhaul in Decades (Michael Geist)
- Privacy Pressure Points: A Closer Look at Ten Consumer Privacy Protection Act Concerns (Michael Geist)
- Canada’s proposed new privacy law – Summary of business impacts
- The Canadian Government Proposes Significant Changes to Privacy Law: Key Features include New Requirements, Orders, Penalties and a Private Right of Action
- Information privacy and security in a virtual learning world
- Appeals Court Says Baltimore PD’s Aerial Surveillance Program Doesn’t Violate The Constitution
- Federal Court Says State Regulation That Compels Production Of Code May Violate The First Amendment
- Barbash v. STX Financing, LLC: Court dismisses adult entertainment host’s invasion of privacy and defamation claims against producers and distributors of film Hustlers
- How the U.S. Military Buys Location Data from Ordinary Apps: A Muslim prayer app with 98M downloads connects to a supply chain that sends people’s personal data to brokers, contractors & the military.
- Zoom Gets An FTC Wrist Slap For Misleading Users On Security, Encryption
- Instructors And School Administrators Are Somehow Managing To Make Intrusive Testing Spyware Even Worse
- EU Data Protection Regulators Issue Critical Draft Guidance on Personal Data Transfers
- Not Again! California Voters Enact California Privacy Rights Act: Now What?
- FTC requires video conferencing provider to safeguard against security risks
- Election 2020: Looking Forward to What a Biden Presidency May Mean for Data Privacy and Data Privacy Litigation
- ICO Fines Ticketmaster £1.25 Million for Security Failures
- Marriott International, Inc. fined £18.4m for personal data breach by the UK ICO under the GDPR (reduced from £99.2m)
- H&M hit with €35.3m fine for GDPR employee breach
- Resisting the rise of facial recognition
- Five months after the Schrems II decision, the EDPB has added long awaited clarity to the CJEU’s language regarding ‘supplemental measures’
- The iOS COVID-19 app ecosystem has become a privacy minefield
- Information privacy and security in a virtual learning world
- The Posthumous Privacy Paradox: Privacy preferences and Behavior Regarding Digital Remains
CREATIVITY
- Court of Appeal rules on the confidentiality of live sports data
- EU Court Backs Austrian Court, Says Local Libel Law Applies Everywhere In The World
- Conspiracy theories masquerading as news may be the biggest threat to our democratic world
- About Time: NY Governor Cuomo Signs Anti-SLAPP Law
- Freedom of Speech Gets a Big Boost With New York’s Passage of Widely Expanded Anti-SLAPP Law
- Devin Nunes Files Another SLAPP Suit; Sues The Washington Post Again
- COVID-19: Court Dismisses MLB Ticket Purchasers’ Action for Reimbursement After Shortened Season
Jon
News of the Week; November 11, 2020
GAMES
- Class action lawsuit accuses EA of changing game difficulty to push loot boxes
- EA faces yet another class-action lawsuit connected to loot boxes: EA calls claims “baseless,” says they “misrepresent our games”
- What’s Loot Got to do With It?
- Judge dismisses Apple’s claim of theft in Epic case: Court says ongoing legal battle should focus on breach of contract and anti-trust claims
- Judge says Apple isn’t entitled to extra monetary damages over Fortnite lawsuit
- SAG-AFTRA extends video game voice acting contract to November 2022
- Tommy Tallarico, Roblox come to agreement over “oof” sound effect: Popular death sound effect to be replaced in game, asset will be sold via Roblox store going forward
- Ubisoft apologises for ableist description in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: The publisher said it will address the issue in an upcoming update
- Assassin’s Creed Valhalla review: A Viking quest worth sinking your axe into
- Ubisoft removing UK journalist from Watch Dogs over “controversial remarks”: The Atlantic writer Helen Lewis voiced a character on an in-game podcast
- MiHoYo reportedly discloses Genshin Impact players phone numbers: The studio said they took “immediate action to fix the problem,” which should now be resolved
- EA renews UFC, NHL, NHLPA partnerships with fresh ‘multi-year’ deals
- EA extends UFC, NHL licensing deals: Publisher will have exclusive rights to MMA league’s games through 2030 while hockey deal is a “multi-year renewal”
- EA quarterly sales slide due to later FIFA, Madden launches: Full game sales for the second quarter halved but publisher still beats guidance, announces stock buyback and dividend plans
- FIFA leads renewed mobile strategy at EA: CEO Andrew Wilson says “six new FIFA titles” are in development on mobile for “new genres and new markets”
- EA: Apex Legends on track to become billion dollar franchise by March 2021
- EA Play crosses 6.5 million paying subscribers
- EA Play reaches 6.5 million paid subscribers, EA aims to double that within a year
- EA looks to revamp its mobile biz to tap into an ‘unbelievable exponential opportunity’
- Live games continue to lead at Take-Two as recurrent consumer spend jumps 56%
- NBA 2K21 drives Take-Two earnings: Revenues and bookings flat but net income hops as CEO Zelnick reports pandemic-driven engagement boost hasn’t let up at all
- Take-Two president “highly sceptical” about games subscriptions: Karl Slatoff tells investors services like Xbox Game Pass will become the primary way games are consumed
- Take-Two in talks to acquire Dirt dev Codemasters
- Take-Two confirms $994 million purchase of Dirt developer Codemasters
- Take-Two in talks to buy Codemasters: Racing publisher says it has discussed a deal that would value it at nearly $1 billion
- Take-Two bids to buy Dirt 5 publisher Codemasters for $973.8 million
- Take-Two acquisition of Codemasters expected to go through in early 2021: Both publishers’ board of directors approve the proposed deal, valuing Codemasters at £726 million
- Sega Sammy calls for 650 staff to voluntarily retire: Japanese publisher records extraordinary losses around structural reform
- Sega Sammy struggling to weather the pandemic despite strong game sales
- Sega Sammy raises forecasts, despite losses driven by COVID-19: Publisher expects structural reform and increased games sales to carry company through tough financial year
- Mobile games set new quarterly revenue record at Konami
- Grounded tops 5 million players in under six months
- Nexon posts its best Q3 ever thanks to mobile revenue surge: Mobile revenue up 140% thanks to The Kingdom of the Winds Yeon, KartRider Rush+ and V4
- ‘HD Games’ profit dips at Square Enix following Marvel’s Avengers launch
- Capcom says customer information is secure following cyber attack
- Ten risks associated with the new EU Digital Content Directive: Legal expert Sebastian Schwiddessen breaks down how buggy games at launch, shutting titles down early and more can violate consumers’ rights
- Dontnod to embrace self-publishing for multiple future titles: CEO Oskar Guilbert says the studio wants to be “as independent as possible” going forward
- Griffin Gaming Partners raises $235 million to invest in games
- Griffin Gaming Partners raises $235m for gaming investments: Gaming-focused VC firm run by Philip Sanderson, Peter Levin, and Nick Tuosto already invested in Discord, Skillz and more
- Enthusiast Gaming plans to list on NASDAQ: Parent behind The Escapist and Luminosity Gaming
- First impressions: How are reviewers reacting to the PlayStation 5?
- PlayStation 5 | Critical Consensus: Critics agree that Sony’s PS5 transcends on-paper comparisons to Xbox, and is the only new console that “feels” next-gen from the first moment
- No day one stock for retail as Sony focuses PS5 launch sales online: Platform holder urges PlayStation fans to order through retail partners’ websites
- The PlayStation 5 has a hidden Web browser; here’s how to find it
- Sony debuts PS5 games ad as part of “memorable” launch efforts: Travis Scott returns alongside Spider-Man, Gran Turismo, Demon’s Souls, Horizon and more
- Sony launches PS5 remote play app for the PS4 with next-gen looming
- The PlayStation 5 was even larger in initial design concepts
- PlayStation 5 review: Not just a more-powerful PS4
- PlayStation 5 forgoes day one in-store launch as a COVID-19 precaution
- Sorry, you can’t move your discontinued copy of PT to the PS5
- PlayStation exec: Dual support for PS4 and PS5 planned for 3 years
- A tale of two consoles: Xbox Series X and S in review
- Xbox Series X/S review: Beautiful, powerful—but whatcha gonna play?
- If Xbox is Netflix, then PS5 is cinema | Console analysis: PlayStation’s new console is an extension of the games it makes
- The Different Strategies Of Microsoft And Sony’s Next-Generation Consoles: Choosing between a console is a more philosophical choice this generation
- First impressions of PS5 and Xbox Series X|S | Podcast: The team share their own experiences with the next-generation consoles on our latest episode, available to download now
- The last great console leap? | Opinion: Microsoft and Sony have different strategies, but they’re both launching consoles that feel less like a “clean break” with the past generation
- Xbox Series X|S | Critical Consensus: Reviewers like quality-of-life improvements on Microsoft’s new systems, but recommendations come with big caveats
- Microsoft: Xbox Series S does not hold back the next generation, it advances it – Platform holder explains why it dropped Xbox One X, rather than maintaining it as a low-end console
- Xbox: Next-gen battle will “not be a reflection of demand — it’ll be a reflection of supply” – Phil Spencer disregards tendency to declare ““a winner and… a loser” between sales of Xbox and PlayStation
- Report: Microsoft holding acquisition talks with a number of Japanese developers
- Spencer: Microsoft almost abandoned Xbox brand after the Xbox One launch
- Dev-friendliness, scalability at top of mind for Xbox development chief
- Some Amazon Xbox Series X pre-orders may not arrive until December: A Microsoft spokesperson said the company is “working tirelessly with retail partners to replenish Xbox hardware as quickly as possible”
- Nintendo raises forecasts as H1 profits triple to $2.8bn: Full-year Switch sales predicted to reach 24 million, five million units higher than previously expected
- Switch driving growth at Nintendo as console nears 70 million sales
- Google Is Giving YouTube Premium Subscribers A Free Stadia Controller, Chromecast Ultra
- Steam adds frictionless playtesting feature: The new tool will make playtests accessible directly from a title’s store page
- BioWare confirms Mass Effect remaster in 2021, new Mass Effect later
- Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Avengers push Square Enix H1 sales up 43%: Publisher’s HD Games division posts profits for the six-month period, but last quarter was in the red
- FIFA 21 and Star Wars: Squadrons come out top in October | EMEAA Charts: Nintendo Switch console sales up 77% in October 2020 vs 2019
- Watch Dogs: Legion knocks down FIFA 21 | UK Digital Charts: Ni No Kuni Wrath of the White Witch on Switch makes No.3
- Slight jump in boxed game sales as lockdown returns | UK Boxed Charts: Nintendo Switch games post strong week-on-week increases
- NPD says US consumers spent a record amount on games in Q3: $11.2 billion total for July-September span is up 24% on last year; market research firm expects Q4 to set records as well
- Descenders has sold over 250,000 units: Nearly 3.5 million people have played the biking title across all platforms, thanks to its success on Xbox Game Pass
- Hitman franchise crosses 70 million players in 20 years
- Assassin’s Creed Valhalla | Critical Consensus: Critics agree that Valhalla is one of the very best Assassin’s Creed games, but its underlying themes are tainted by Ubisoft’s year of scandal
- Spider-Man: Miles Morales review: New hero, same heroic gameplay
- Why do some games just… keep selling?
- The Game Developer’s Playlist: Full Throttle with Chandana Ekanayake | Outerloop Games co-founder shares how the 1995 biking adventure inspired him to get into games
- Light Brick, the once and possibly future Lego studio: Builder’s Journey studio co-founders say they spun out to be more agile and independent, but Lego Ventures backed them with an eventual reunion in mind
- Amber opens new studio in Montreal: New branch will focus on QA, localisation and engineering
- Epic is gauging interest in a Fortnite monthly subscription plan
- Epic Games gauging interest in monthly Fortnite subscription: If implemented, subscribers would receive Battle Pass, early access to free skins and regular V-Bucks
- Which publishers are the game subscription believers?
- Night Media Signs 6-Channel Family Gaming Empire FGTeeV
- After Mixer Closed, Ninja Chose Twitch Over YouTube Because He Didn’t Want To Be Known As “A YouTuber”
- Twitch Unveils Full Rundown For Saturday’s ‘GlitchCon’ — Its Virtual Reimagining Of TwitchCon
- Twitch Apologizes To Creators Hit By Mass DMCAs And Content Deletions, Says It’s In Talks With Record Labels
- Twitch explains confusing copyright crackdown, urges users to delete videos
- Twitch apologizes for handling of mass copyright claims: Streaming platform apologizes for giving streamers unhelpful warnings, little notice in face of avalanche of DMCA claims from record labels
- Esports brand Fnatic raises $10m: Also offering fans the chance to invest via $1.3m Crowdcube campaign
- Esports platform Edge raises $1.5m: Investment will be used for recruitment and improving its tech, which simplifies esports contracts, payments and more
- 100 Thieves To Enter Call Of Duty League With New Team, Los Angeles Thieves
- ESPN Confirms Future Shut Down of Esports Editorial Operations
- ESPN ends its daily esports coverage, laying off at least eight: Network to continue covering esports on a story-by-story basis following cost-cutting measures, layoffs
- Original founder re-acquires OpTic Gaming: Hector Rodriguez takes esports organization back after Immortals Gaming Club acquisition last year
- Fortnite reportedly returning to iOS via GeForce Now: An announcement from Nvidia is expected “before the winter holidays” the BBC reported
- Lifting the VR veil: How PlayStation 5 works with Sony’s last-gen headset
- It Took Just 5 Minutes Of Movement Data To Identify ‘Anonymous’ VR Users
- Composing the blockbuster soundtrack of Ghost of Tsushima: Written to reflect the game’s historical setting, Ilan Eshkeri discusses the creative and practical process behind the PlayStation exclusive’s music
- Video: Making great key art for your game’s front end
- Video: How to wrangle inflation in your online game economy
- Don’t Miss: A deep dive into Forza Horizon 3’s online co-op multiplayer
- Don’t Miss: How Onrush harnesses the chaos of a racing battle
- Don’t Miss: A 2013 snapshot of game developers’ motion control tips, lessons, and dreams
- Don’t Miss: Translating the humor & tone of the Yakuza games for the West
- Don’t Miss: What was it like programming Skyrim?
- Blog: How spreadsheets power civilian AI in Watch Dogs 2
- Blog: The argument for simpler games
- Blog: Combining 2D and 3D effects in Blightbound
- Blog: How to run offers in free-to-play (and avoid backlashes)
- Blog: Developing a tabletop game
- Analyst: The next-gen console race is Sony’s to lose
- U.S. Patent No. 10,478,735: Video game system with spectator mode hud
- U.S. Patent No. 10,509,461: Augmented reality video game systems
DIGITAL
- Amazon’s use of marketplace data breaks competition law, EU charges
- Antitrust: Commission sends Statement of Objections to Amazon for the use of non-public independent seller data and opens second investigation into its e-commerce business practices
- Facebook and Twitter struggle with online fury from Trump supporters
- Microsoft engineer gets nine years for stealing $10M from Microsoft
- QAnon Conspiracy Theorists Can’t Force YouTube to Carry Their Videos–Doe v. Google (Eric Goldman)
- United States v Google: A Re-Found Willingness to Regulate Technology Monopolies?
- Bot or Not? Authenticating Social Media Evidence at Trial in the Age of Internet Fakery
- Facebook’s latest attempt to slow disinformation means probation for groups
- YouTube Election Loophole Lets Some False Trump-Win Videos Spread
- How Well Did Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube Handle Election Misinformation?
- YouTube Touted Its Handling Of Election Misinformation. But Now It Says Videos Spreading Vote Tabulation Conspiracies, False Win Claims Are Fine.
- Google Photos is the latest “Unlimited” plan to impose hard limits
- Google Photos will end its free unlimited storage on June 1st, 2021: After 15 gigs, you’ll need to pony up for Google One
- Netflix files copyright claims against tweets criticizing movie, trailer
- Netflix Targets Critical ‘Cuties’ Tweets With Copyright Takedown Requests
- Netflix Gets Cute Using DMCA Notices To Take Down Tweets Critical Of ‘Cuties’
- Netflix Testing Pre-Programmed, Linear TV-Style Channel Called ‘Direct’ In France
- FCC General Counsel Issues Guidance on the Agency’s Section 230 Authority
- Section 230 Faces the Heat
- Content Moderation Case Study: Google Refuses A Law Enforcement Agency Demand To Remove A Video Depicting Police Brutality (2011)
- Content Moderation Case Study: Using Fact Checkers To Create A Misogynist Meme (2019)
- Ten Common Mistakes When Conducting Sweepstakes or Contest Promotions on Social Media
- If You Want an Enforceable Online Contract, You Better Keep a Good Chain of Evidence–Snow v. Eventbrite Eric Goldman)
- Emojis & The Law: An Interview with Professor Eric Goldman
- The Latest Influencer Hotspot Is An Abandoned California Ghost Town
- UK Wing Of TikTok Swears It Isn’t Helping The Chinese Government Oppress Uighur Muslims
- UK Advertising Regulator makes first ever ruling on disclosures required for commercial marketing via a TikTok video
- TikTok Predicted To Hit 1 Billion Users In 2021
- TikTok users troll Trump “voter fraud” reporting hotline en masse
- TikTok says it’s been waiting weeks for a Trump response on US ban
- Fullscreen To Be Dramatically Affected By WarnerMedia Layoffs
- Vimeo Raises $150 Million Amid Record Revenue Growth, Eyes Spinoff From Parent IAC
- Spotify May Be Eyeing Podcast-Only Subscription Tiers
- In Biggest Podcast Purchase Yet, Spotify Acquires Ad And Publishing Platform ‘Megaphone’ For $235 Million
- Patreon, Acast Partner To Help Podcasters Distribute Paywalled Content More Broadly
- Intel SGX defeated yet again—this time thanks to on-chip power meter
- Apple dishes details on its new M1 chip
- First ARM-based Mac laptops: MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro
- Update! Apple Announces New Privacy Disclosures Required Starting December 8
- Apple, Sony Reportedly Eyeing $300-$400 Million Acquisition Of Podcast Network Wondery
- Apple supplier Pegatron found using illegal student labor in China
- After IPO, BBTV Signs Parkour Athlete Nick Pro, Lifestyle Vlogger Francesca Farago, More
- Reebok Sits Down With Hit YouTube Franchise ‘Hot Ones’ For Footwear, Apparel Collaboration
- Top 50 Most Viewed US YouTube Channels • Week Of 11/09/2020
- Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 11/09/2020
- The anatomy of Zoom fatigue
- Key Takeaways from New Cryptocurrency Enforcement Framework by US Department of Justice
- The feds just seized Silk Road’s $1 billion stash of bitcoin
- US Seizes $1 Billion in Bitcoin Associated With Silk Road
A.I.
- Patenting Artificial Intelligence in Canada, the UK and Europe: A Primer
- AI Application Examination: 5 Key trends
- Understanding the AI Patent Landscape
- Plans for new AI legal framework gather pace
- A global legal standard for Artificial Intelligence? The European Parliament proposes legislation
- AI and Climate Change: The Promise, the Perils and Pillars for Action
- The De-democratization of AI: Deep Learning and the Compute Divide in Artificial Intelligence Research
- Co-regulating algorithmic disclosure for digital platforms
- Extending the framework of algorithmic regulation. The Uber case
- AI and health data: cracking the privacy code
- James Corden is a snarky AI that might take out humanity in Superintelligence
COMMUNICATIONS
- Cultural Uncertainty: A Closer Look at Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault’s Timeline For Internet Regulation (Michael Geist)
- Universal Broadband Fund and Telesat low Earth orbit capacity agreement (Government of Canada)
- Merger ‘Synergies’ Force T-Mobile To Pay $200 Million Fine For Sprint Falsehoods
- ESPN Lays Off 300 Staffers Amid Resource Shift Toward DTC, Digital Businesses
- No Chips? No Worries. Ninth Circuit Rejects FTC’s Petition for En Banc Review of Decision Holding that Qualcomm Has No Antitrust Duty to Deal with Rivals
- Fox News doubles down on calling Arizona for Biden
- The moment Fox News projected Joe Biden will win 2020 presidential election – video
- Ajit Pai urged to accept Trump loss and stop controversial rulemakings
- D.C. Circuit Rejects Petitions to Strike Down FCC’s 2019 Unbundling and Resale Forbearance Order
- FCC Opens Application Portal for $100 Million in Funding to Support Connected Care Services
- FCC Adopts Order Expanding Unlicensed Wireless Operations in TV White Spaces
- FCC Announces T-Mobile Will Pay $200 Million Penalty Resolving Sprint Lifeline Investigation
- Wireless 5G Networks in 2021
- There Is No ‘Race To 5G.’ And The U.S. Wouldn’t Be Winning Even If There Was
- Alphabet delivers wireless Internet over light beams from 20km away
- Improperly installed Ring doorbells are catching on fire
- Your Slingbox Will Be A Useless Brick In A Few Years
- We Do Not Have the Internet We Deserve
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
- Game, set, match: Sometimes the photo is the story
- Federal Judge Rules Embedding of Instagram Post Containing Copyrighted Photo is Fair Use
- Embedding in a State of Flux: New York Courts Challenge Decade Old Reasoning from the Ninth Circuit
- Vallejo v. Narcos Productions LLC (USCA, Oct.27, 2020): Held that portions Netflix’s Narcos series are not substantially similar to journalist’s memoir regarding romantic relationship with Pablo Escobar
- Capote Charity Claims Copyright
- Anti-Cheat Student Software Proctorio Issuing DMCA Takedowns Of Fair Use Critiques Over Its Code
- Copyright Plaintiffs Can’t Figure Out What Copyrights They Own, Court Says ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (Eric Goldman)
- Canada’s Forever Register: Newfoundland Trademark Registrations
- Anita White Strikes Back With Second Trademark Suit
- He May be Undefeated in the Ring, but Floyd Mayweather Got Knocked Out at the Trademark Office.
- Augusta National Blazes a Trail to Registration of its Iconic Green Jacket
- “I sense a disturbance in the force” When Star Wars universe meets Trademark law: Millennial Falcon v Millennium Falcon
- Glossier’s Pink Pouch TM Registration Could Mean a Rosy Future for Non-Traditional Marks
- Alleged bait-and-switch selling found not to constitute trade mark infringement
- Aussie Brewer Keeps Digging Holes With Trademark Lawsuits, Now Owes Court Costs
- Trademark protection on e-commerce platforms
- Seeing Green – Post-Election Day 2020: State Trademarks for Cannabis Goods & Services
- TTAB Refuses Registration of .SUCKS
- Trade Secret Strategies: Using Standstill Agreements to Resolve Disputes Out of Court
- Sedona Conference Publishes Commentary on Proper Trade Secret Identification
- Federal Court finds that discoverability principle applies to limitation periods under Section 55.01 of Patent Act
- The Impact of CIPO’s New Guidance on the Prosecution of Patent Applications Directed to Diagnostic Methods
- Canadian Intellectual Property Office issues Practice Notice regarding patentable subject matter
- 2020 Brings Growing Trend of Patent Cases Decided by way of Summary Trial
- Is the new toilet on the International Space Station patentable?
- Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality Patent Prosecution Update: 2020 Q3 Prosecution Statistics
- How to protect a user interface with a patent
- Massachusetts Voters Overwhelmingly Support Expanded ‘Right To Repair’ Law
- Proactive Protection: Intellectual Property Audits
- Under President Biden, IP evolution is much more likely than revolution
- WIPO Launches “WIPO Lex-Judgments” Database
PRIVACY
- Anonymous video analytics’ future uncertain after Canadian privacy regulators’ investigation
- Privacy Enforcement Update: Possible Collaboration Between the Competition Bureau and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner
- Mall real estate company collected 5 million images of shoppers, say privacy watchdogs
- Facial Recognition Company’s Employees Abused Tech To Sexually Harass Coworkers
- Software snoops on students during exams
- FTC Settles Complaint Against Zoom Regarding End-to-End Encryption
- Zoom Settles with FTC Over Deceptive Security Claims
- Zoom lied to users about end-to-end encryption for years, FTC says
- California Court Says Wiretap Target Should Have Access To Wiretap Documents
- Mississippi City Trying To Turn Residents’ Doorbell Cameras Into Law Enforcement Surveillance Network
- San Diego’s spying streetlights stuck switched “on,” despite directive
- EU Takes Another Small Step Towards Trying To Ban Encryption; New Paper Argues Tech Can Nerd Harder To Backdoor Encryption
- Surprise: Latest Draft Of The EU’s Next Big Privacy Law Includes Some Improvements
- Data Broker On The Hook For $5 Million After Abusing Its Access To North Carolina DMV Data
- Portland’s Facial Recognition Ban Won’t Stop Private Citizens From Rolling Their Own Tech To ID Cops
- The DOJ Will Finally Allow Local Cops To Wear Body Cameras When Working With Federal Agencies
- California Voters Adopt the California Privacy Rights Act
- California Ramps up Consumer Privacy Enforcement
- California Privacy Rights Act Passes – Dramatically Altering the CCPA
- Democratizing Platform Privacy
- Michigan Voters Add Constitutional Protections for Electronic Data and Communications
- Building a Robust Biometric Compliance Program in the US: A Five-Step Checklist
- Schrems II: Court Orders the DPC to Pay Majority of Costs
CREATIVITY
- Gun-Toting Couple Sues Photographer For Privacy Violation Over Photo They Used As Christmas Cards, After He Billed Them
- Using hate speech as an excuse
- China’s Hong Kong Protester-Targeting ‘See Something, Say Something’ Hotline Is A Big Success
- How Should Social Media Handle Election Polls That Turned Out To Be Misinformation?
- Xiaolu Guo: “The way we read has changed radically in the digital age” – The Chinese novelist on her book A Lover’s Discourse, her love of Roland Barthes, and why fragmented narratives best represent modern life.
Jon
News of the Week; November 4, 2020
GAMES
- Bandai Namco, AtGames resolve legal dispute: Judge dismisses lawsuit over Ms. Pac-Man rights, clearing way for re-release of AtGames’ Namco arcade microconsole
- EA fined €10m over loot boxes as Dutch court sides with gambling authority: District court unmoved by FIFA publisher’s defenses, denies its bid to keep fines from being made public
- Dutch judge rules that EA should be fined €500k every week until it removes FIFA loot boxes: FUT Had Been Deemed In Violation Of Gambling Rules
- Opening Pandora’s Loot Box? Canadian Class Action Lawsuit Over Loot Boxes May Provide Guidance On The Legality of Loot Boxes in Canada
- Sony legal threat compels PS5 faceplate company to cancel all orders: CustomizeMyPlates also had to rebrand from PlateStation5 following complaints from platform holder
- Judge rejects Google’s attempt to push Epic case to October 2022: Fortnite firm has suggested February 2021 as judge tells both companies to “get moving”
- Amazon patents method of grouping toxic players together online: Patent filing suggests gamers would be able to specify preferences for the behaviours they would accept
- Ubisoft investigating after ransomware group claims to have leaked Watch Dogs source code: 560GB code for Legion reportedly available online, could endanger anti-piracy measures
- Reports of Watch Dogs Legion source code leak prompts Ubisoft investigation
- Take-Two Finds Less Success with Second Take on Copyright and Tattoos
- Randy Orton’s Tattoos Divide Courts as Gamers Prepare for PS5 and Xbox Series X
- 2020 is already a record year for games investment: $5.2 billion in investment in Q3 alone brings the year’s total to $9.9 billion so far
- Scopely raises $340 million at $3.3 billion valuation as mobile games thrive during pandemic
- Newzoo raises its annual games industry forecast for 2020 once again: COVID-19’s impact on the market expected to bring industry revenue to $174.9 billion this year
- Billy Mitchell’s Defamation Case Against Twin Galaxies Over ‘Donkey Kong’ High Score Can Go Forward
- Opportunity for Game Publishers & Developers: Over a Quarter of Western Lapsed Gamers Are Looking to Play Again
- Lab Zero founder Mike Zaimont suspended from work on Guilty Gear update
- Standing on the shoulders of Riot Grrrl: Story Juice and punk feminism in games: “When you can’t see your stories and perspectives in an industry, then you have to put them there,” says studio founder Dr Hannah Wood
- Game developers have too much job security | 10 Years Ago This Month
- Biden/Harris Campaign Deploys Custom ‘Fortnite’ Map To Teach Voters About Key Policies
- Old School Runescape breaks concurrent player record during Leagues II event
- Is the games industry open to working class people?
- Black representation in games | Podcast
- Twitch Marketing Promo Over Golden Emoji Goes Horribly Wrong After DMCA Nuclear Strike
- Hasan Piker’s Twitch Stream Is the Future of Election Night Coverage: Last night’s Twitch stream was so thoroughly modern that I was actually able to calm down.
- Elastic Audio announces Intonal, a new audio programming language for games: CEO Andrew Beck says Intonal would allow game sound design to be as reactive and adaptive as graphic design
- Pokémon Go’s 2020 revenues estimated at $1bn so far: Niantic game on course to record its best year ever, third biggest mobile game globally
- Digital and catalog sales continue to drive growth at Capcom
- Capcom’s games business rescues six-month results: Total revenue and profits increased despite the impact of COVID-19 on arcades and amusement centres
- Frostpunk board game raises over €2m on Kickstarter
- Guild Wars 2 pauses Steam plans to focus on expansion development
- Steam rolls out built-in playtest invite and management tool beta for devs
- The Lego Group helps Builder’s Journey dev Light Brick go independent
- PUBG Mobile has ceased operations in India due to government ban: Tencent statement defends protection of user data — “we deeply regret this outcome”
- Tencent shutting down PUBG Mobile in India following government ban
- Tencent leads $25 million investment in Avakin Life dev Lockwood Publishing
- Tencent invests in Lockwood Publishing: Chinese tech giant leads a $25 million investment round in the Avakin Life creator
- Tencent-owned Honor of Kings is recording 100 million average daily active users
- Sega Sammy sells off arcade business as COVID takes its toll
- Sega Sammy sells arcade business Sega Entertainment to Genda Inc: Company says arcades suffered due to COVID-19; expects “extraordinary losses” for fiscal year related to the sale
- Gfinity cuts costs, seeks stability following another year of losses: Operating loss for the year was £5.5 million as company ponders acquisitions, partnerships, or sale
- Zynga posts record quarterly revenues, bookings: Social publisher sees even more acquisitions in its future as revenue, engagement metrics grow, but net loss remains
- Stillfront acquires collectible card game developer Everguild for $1.37 million
- Stillfront Group acquires Everguild for £1.06m: Studio collective expands into the CCG genre with Madrid-based developer
- Curve Digital acquires For the King developer IronOak Games
- Curve Digital acquires IronOak Games: Canadian studio behind For the King becomes Curve’s second studio acquisition
- UK startup Sugar closes £1.5m pre-seed round: Passion Capital leads investment in new firm offering finance to games studios wishin to avoid equity funding
- Phil Spencer: “Our motivation is not to turn everybody into a subscriber” – The Xbox chief renewed his commitment to retail and said Game Pass is not here to “take options away from people”
- Phil Spencer calls for more diverse leaders in games: Having “visible leaders” should be the industry’s focus, Xbox chief said, addressing the role Microsoft has to play against racial inequity
- Bethesda exec says an Xbox-exclusive Elder Scrolls is “hard to imagine”
- Bethesda, Microsoft Make Conflicting Statements About Game Exclusivity After Studio Purchase
- Microsoft tightens Xbox security to prevent DDOS attacks: Xbox players were being targeted through “random party invites” in multiplayer titles
- Xbox Party Chat security is being improved to protect IP addresses
- PlayStation boss prefers organic studio growth over ‘frenzied’ spending
- PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan on making PS5 more successful than PS4: “I’ve done them all, and this has easily been the most extraordinary PlayStation launch of any of them.”
- Sony expects PS5 to exceed PS4’s 7.6m launch sales this fiscal year: But CFO Hiro Totoki says each unit will make a “negative contribution to earnings for the time being”
- The big boost – PlayStation Plus & Fall Guys’ success?
- Does PlayStation need to buy more games studios? | Opinion: With Microsoft snapping up major studios and publishers in recent years, we consider the implications for Sony
- Sony reportedly puts a stop to third-party PS5 faceplate plans
- War Stories: How Nintendo sold the NES to a skeptical country
- Bringing more franchises to mobile is Activision Blizzard’s biggest opportunity, says COO
- Activision-Blizzard needs to hire 2,000 people to meet production demands: Publisher to beef up for franchise-focused strategy a year and a half after laying off 800
- Activision Blizzard reports $1.95 billion in revenue
- Activision Blizzard beats forecasts with $1.95 billion in Q3 net revenue
- Call of Duty drives Activision Blizzard revenues up 52% year-over-year: Modern Warfare reboot sets franchise record for first-year premium sales as engagement dips for Blizzard, King
- Far Cry 6, Rainbow 6 Quarantine delayed: Ubisoft pushes upcoming games into next fiscal year as it reports record profits for first half of year
- Live games keep cash flow steady as Ubisoft readies for big launches
- Some current-gen Ubisoft games are forward compatible on Xbox but not PlayStation
- Ubisoft ‘undertook profound actions’ to address studio culture concerns, says CEO
- Ubisoft’s strong earnings benefit from live service games and back catalog sales during pandemic
- Facebook’s cloud isn’t for the birds | Opinion
- CD Projekt Red’s stock fell 25% in two months amid Cyberpunk uncertainty: Negative stories about the production and release of Cyberpunk 2077 coincided with €2.5b decline in market cap
- CD Projekt attributes new Cyberpunk delay to working with current-gen consoles: Co-CEO Adam Kiciński apologizes to staff for “demeaning and harmful” comments about crunch during investor call
- CD Projekt: Cyberpunk crunch ‘not that bad’, ‘mostly’ hits QA, engineers, programmers
- Developer talent representation evolving alongside the industry: CAA head of games Derek Douglas discusses how Hollywood agencies have handled gaming over his 15-year career
- Friday the 13th: The Game winds down with final patch, end of dedicated servers
- Skate 3 returns to top three ten years after release | UK Digital Charts: But FIFA 21 remains at the top
- Soft opening week for Watch Dogs Legion and Pikmin 3 | UK Physical Charts: New Dark Pictures game breaks Top Ten
- What could game publishers be doing better?
- Gears Pop! to shut down as long-term support becomes unfeasible
- Light Brick Studio splitting off from Lego: Builder’s Journey developer goes indie with investment from Lego Ventures, will continue to work on Lego games
- Caspar Lee-Founded Fund Invests In Spanish Creator Monetization Startup ‘Streamloots’
- Oculus Quest 2 pre-orders were five times higher than Oculus Quest: Mark Zuckerberg sets a target of “ten million active units” to make Facebook’s VR platform self-sustaining
- PlayStation boss suggests the ‘meaningful’ future of VR is still years away
- Jim Ryan: “We’re more than a few minutes from the future of VR” – PlayStation’s CEO said VR will not be “meaningful component of interactive entertainment” until at least 2022
- Sony to give away adapters to allow VR use on PlayStation 5: PSVR is not compatible with the PS5 out of the box, but Sony will start shipping adapters for free from the end of October
- The PlayStation 5 only supports PlayStation VR for PS4 games right now
- Saved by Morrowind, striving for Starfield: Todd Howard and the story of Bethesda
- Blog: Breaking down the level design of Die Young: Prologue
- Blog: A study on modern mobile design
- Blog: What I learned after making an Among Us-like game in 10 days
- Blog: What is the Unity Asset Store and how to make money on it?
- Video: Designing the robot dinosaurs of Horizon Zero Dawn
- Video: Creating Michelangelo’s David in VR
- Don’t Miss: The six year journey to Donut County
- Don’t Miss: Game dev advice for creating terrifying and memorable 2D monsters
- Don’t Miss: Building the PvE features in World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth
- Don’t Miss: Building a light-hearted puzzle game around Friday the 13th
- Don’t Miss: 6 techniques to make game narratives more dynamic
- Video: Building a writer’s room for Life is Strange: Before the Storm
- Mobile game sales deep dive: Meteorfall: Krumit’s Tale
- Thanks To Fair Use, One Man Is Trying To Preserve Old School Video Game Manuals
DIGITAL
- Facebook Charged Biden a Higher Price Than Trump for Campaign Ads: In swing states, Biden paid average ad rates of $34 compared with Trump’s average of $17 in July and August
- The Trump Camp Has Bought YouTube’s Masthead Ad 20 Times This Election—Including On Election Day
- What Twitter Did After Trump Said Democrats Are Trying to “STEAL” the Election
- Trump’s campaign and family boost bogus conspiracy theories in a bid to undermine vote count: Campaign sent estimated 9 million texts according to anti-robocall firm, some seeking money to launch voting challenges
- Court tosses constitutional challenge to Trump order on social media
- Facebook targeted in U.K. legal action over Cambridge Analytica
- Facebook sued by UK group over Cambridge Analytica breach
- Insights: Social Media Platforms’ Election-Protection Plans A Start, But Not Nearly Enough Change For Long-Term
- What The Election Means For Tech
- While Social Media Was Quick To Highlight And Limit The Spread Of False Claims Of Election Victory, Traditional Media Just Let It Flow
- Another Court Rejects Trump’s Censorial Anti-TikTok EO–Marland v. Trump (Eric Goldman)
- Judge: Trump Admin‘s TikTok ban would cause “irreparable harm” to creators
- Three TikTok Influencers Influenced A Judge To Block Trump’s TikTok Ban
- TikTok Countersues Triller, Says Its Tech Doesn’t Violate Patent
- TikTok Re-Ups Licensing Deal With Sony, Adding Marketing, Artist Discovery Components
- Nixon Scandal Resulted In A Law To Prevent The Politicization Of Antitrust Cases; Meanwhile Trump Uses His Politicized Antitrust Effort In Campaign Ad
- As Trump falsely claims victory, Twitter and Facebook counter misinformation
- How Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Reddit are handling the election
- Turkish President Sues Dutch Lawmaker Over A Bunch Of ‘Insulting’ Tweets
- U.S. Department of Justice Sues Google for Antitrust Violations
- Google Kills Nest Secure, Can’t Be Bothered To Explain Support Roadmap
- Senate hauls Zuckerberg, Dorsey into hearing to yell at them about tweets
- The Senate Snowflake Grievance Committee Quizzes Tech CEOs On Tweets & Employee Viewpoints
- A Digital Tech New Deal to break up Big Tech: Antitrust efforts in the US are not enough to counter the global power of Big Tech.
- NZ Supreme Court Gives A Mixed Bag Extradition Ruling To Kim Dotcom; Extradition Still Alive, But He Can Raise Procedural Issues
- Transparency Is Important; Mandated Transparency Is Dangerous And Will Stifle Innovation And Competition
- Constitutional Challenge to Trump’s Anti-230 EO Fails–Rock the Vote v. Trump (Eric Goldman)
- Free Market Advocate Switches Sides, Calls For Direct Government Interference In Online Moderation Decisions
- Trump campaign out $2.3 million after hack of Wisconsin GOP
- Changing Section 230 Won’t Fix Politicians’ Issues With Section 230
- Twitter, Facebook, Google Heads Testify on Section 230 and Local Journalism
- Your Problem Is Not With Section 230, But The 1st Amendment
- Snapchat Isn’t Liable for Its Speed Filter (Even if Section 230 Doesn’t Apply)–Maynard v. Snapchat (Eric Goldman)
- Creators Are Starting To Make A Lot Of Money On Facebook
- Facebook’s Handy Identity Crisis: Publisher or bulletin board? Can it really give up news sharing? Why the tech giant works hard to resist definition.
- Facebook Takes Aim at NYU Web Scrapers
- This microscopic 3D-printed Star Trek Voyager can move on its own
- Apple One, Apple’s answer to Amazon Prime, is finally launching
- On The Podcast: All The Reasons Why Quibi Didn’t Work
- A Quick Bite Post Mortem For For Quibi: Hollywood Still Doesn’t Get The Internet
- BEN Group Acquires YouTube Channel-Optimizing Browser Extension ‘TubeBuddy’
- YouTube Hits $5 Billion In Ad Revenue, 30 Million Premium And Music Subscribers In Q3
- YouTube Soundtracking Service Epidemic Sound Launches ‘Music Recommender’ Tool For Creators
- Ryan Kaji Becomes First YouTuber To Be Featured In Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade In Roughly A Century
- “Baby Shark” Overtakes “Despacito” To Become YouTube’s Most-Watched Video Of All Time
- Tati Westbrook Sued By Former Business Partner In Her Halo Beauty Vitamin Venture
- David Dobrik Links Up With Leonardo DiCaprio For Second Voter Registration Contest
- Google says it’s “committed” to Nest Secure but won’t ship any new features
- Senate hauls Zuckerberg, Dorsey into hearing to yell at them about tweets
- Netflix Raises Subscription Prices In The U.S., Causing Shares To Jump 4%
- Spotify CEO Says ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ Is No. 1 English Podcast, Has “Outperformed Our Expectations”
- Filtering feminisms: Emergent feminist visibilities on Instagra
- Creator Community Standard Beefs Up In-House Video Production With Acquisition Of Studio Mighteor
- The Ongoing Transformation of the Digital Public Sphere: Basic Considerations on a Moving Target
- Decentralize the feedback infrastructure! (Pedro Garcia Lopez)
- Revisiting the Black Box Society by rethinking the political economy of big data (Benedetta Brevini, Frank Pasquale)
- Dark pools and data markets: an exploration of the regulatory challenges
- The Janus faces of Silicon Valley
- Freedom of Expression and Alternatives for Internet Governance: Prospects and Pitfalls (Emma Ricknell)
- A Digital Tech New Deal: Digital Socialism, Decolonization, and Reparations for a Sustainable Global Economy (Michael Kwet)
- California votes against granting Uber and Lyft drivers employee status
- Who Needs to Tell the U.S. Internal Revenue Service About Their Cryptocurrency Activity?
- US Bank Crypto Services Proceed, Crypto Debit Cards Launch in US and Mexico, Blockchain Enterprise Developments, and Crypto Enforcement Continues
- Someone has transferred ~$1 billion from a bitcoin wallet quiet since 2015
A.I.
- A new way to plug a human brain into a computer: Via veins
- Acknowledging AI as an Inventor of IP – A Slippery Slope to Giving AI the Same Rights as Humans?
- AI use in U.S. criminal justice reinforced racialized decision-making: Law Commission of Ontario
- Racial Discrimination in Face Recognition Technology
- Legal and Ethics Checklist for AI Systems
- Draft Proposal for the Regulation of Ethical AI
- Weak Ties: The Urban History of an Algorithm
- Patent protection of machine learning and artificial intelligence inventions in Europe
- “Oh Jeeeesus”: Drivers react to Tesla’s full self-driving beta release
- Tesla raises “full self-driving” price from $8,000 to $10,000
- Connected cars must be open to third parties, say Massachusetts voters
- Content Moderation Case Study: Moderating An Anonymous Social Network (2015)
- Content Moderation Case Studies: Using AI To Detect Problematic Edits On Wikipedia (2015)
- Video: Character control with neural networks in Assassin’s Creed
- More Than a Feeling: Emotion detection doesn’t work, but it will try to change your behavior anyway (Frank Pasquale)
- No longer sci-fi: our bodies as computers
- Apply for UK Government funding for robotic AI by 20 November 2020
COMMUNICATIONS
- Altering the broadcasting landscape – Canada’s Broadcasting Act to be amended
- Feds propose changes to Broadcasting Act that may raise $800 million from streamers: New regulations would ensure streaming platforms face same rules as traditional broadcasters
- Broadcasting Act Amendments
- The Government’s Internet Regulation Bill: Why Bill C-10 Will Mean a CRTC-Approved Netflix Service, Reduced Consumer Choice, and Less Investment in Canadian Culture (Michael Geist)
- Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault’s “Get Money from Web Giants” Internet Regulation Bill: An Unauthorized Backgrounder (Michael Geist)
- What’s Another Way Supporters of Mandated Facebook Media Payments Promote Their Position? Paid Facebook Advertising (Michael Geist)
- The tech antitrust problem no one is talking about: Americans pay more for broadband, have fewer choices than consumers in other countries.
- Monopolistic U.S. ISPs Take Full Advantage Of The Covid Crisis
- “Stay Home” robocalls to voters prompt FBI, FCC investigations
- FCC forces T-Mobile to pay $200 million fine for subsidiary Sprint’s fraud
- Time to Treat Broadband Like the Essential Service It Is
- The Enormous Cost Of Digital Inequality
- Cable TV Execs Move Past Denial Stage, Now Fully Expect A ‘Cord Cutting’ Bloodbath
- FCC Approves All-Digital AM Radio Broadcasts
- FCC Establishes $9 Billion Fund to Support 5G Services in Rural America
- FCC to Lift Freeze on TV Station Technical Improvement Applications
- More on the FCC Rule Changes on Public Notice of Broadcast Applications and Required New Link on Station Homepages
- Comcast Tells Customers They May Lose Access To Comcast Channels If Comcast Can’t Agree With Comcast
- What’s New in 5G – November 2020
- Audiovisual Media Services Regulations 2020 Made
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
- Use Your Illusion: Rights in posthumous holographic performance
- Intellectual Property & Architecture – Copyright Protection in Focus
- Tenth Circuit Breathes New Life into a Spooky Skeleton Copyright Dispute
- Protect Your Posts: New Group Copyright Registration Option for Online Blogs and Articles
- The US election: a vote on IP?
- New Working Paper – Memes and Parasites: A discourse analysis of the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive
- Canada: Official marks can lead to damages for infringement of regular trademarks, according to Canada’s Federal Court of Appeal
- Procedures and strategies for anti-counterfeiting: Canada
- Ninth Circuit: Likelihood of Confusion Required to Sustain TM Counterfeiting Claim
- Hallmark Win in Greeting Card Trademark Dispute: Court Finds Unauthorized Sale of Cards Meant for Destruction Infringing
- Neat infringement claim leaves whiskey competitor’s trade mark on the rocks
- Counterfeit luxury goods
- Brand protection in the digital world
- Distilling the value of corporate trademarks
- Descriptive Use of a Registered Trademark is not Infringement
- Slogans as marks: when does a slogan function as a mark
- Trademark Cancellation Is Appropriate Sanction for Misconduct
- Cookie Trade Dress Infringement Case Crumbles in Face of Functionality Challenge
- A Clear Need: To Allege Misappropriation, Identify Trade Secret
- CIPO’s Patentable Subject-Matter Guidance – Same Code, Different Syntax
- The Canadian Patent Office Releases New Guidelines: The Diagnostic’s Industry Should Be Cautiously Optimistic
- Canadian Patents: What to Keep in Mind One Year After the Coming into Force of the New Rules?
- The Intersection between Drop-Shipping and Patent Infringement
- The Changing Patent Landscape in the Semiconductor Space
- Size Matters in Obviousness Analysis
- Marathon musings – Patenting running watch algorithms in Europe
- Five Patents You Should Know About for Halloween 2020
- Courtrooms and the America’s Cup – Patent infringement set to be the latest out-of-water battle
- A “Bitterly Divided” Federal Circuit Declines to Stay Decision Invalidating Car Driveshaft Patent
- Clearing the 5G Patent Forest!
- People With Silly Patents Would Really Like It If It Was Harder To Cancel Them
- Final PMPRB guidelines released
- “Zombie” Privacy & IP Rights: Protecting the Rights to an Individual’s Image after Death: Part 1 of 2
- “Zombie” Privacy & IP Rights: Protecting the Rights to an Individual’s Image after Death: Part 2 of 2
- How Might New Supreme Court Justice Barrett Rule on IP Cases?
PRIVACY
- Alberta Court of Appeal rules that searches of electronic devices at the border are unconstitutional
- Cybersecurity Among Factors Driving Privacy Law Reform in Canada
- Use of Facial Recognition Software for Customer Analytics
- California Voters Approve New Data Privacy Law
- California Voters Pass Proposition 24 – the California Privacy Rights Act
- California Passes Proposition 24: California Privacy Rights Act to Become Law
- California Voters Approve Reworking of Landmark Consumer Privacy Law – What CCPA 2.0 Will Mean for Businesses and Consumers
- Clearview Resurfaces To Make Some Empty Promises About Keeping Cops From Abusing Its Tech
- Portland, Maine has voted to ban facial recognition
- Risks and Compliance Under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act: No Actual Harm Required for Private Cause of Action
- One Clear Message From Voters This Election? More Privacy
- Stanford Research Shows VR Users Can Be Identified Using Only 5 Minutes of Motion Data
- How the Upcoming Election Could Change Privacy Law in the U.S.
- Google’s Project Zero discloses Windows 0day that’s been under active exploit
- EFF Asks Government To Dump DHS’s Plan To Massively Expand Its Biometric Collections
- Senator Wyden Wants To Know If The NSA Is Still Demanding Tech Companies Build Backdoors Into Their Products
- ICO fines Marriott 18.4 million pounds for failing to secure customer data
- A New Wave of Class Action Lawsuits is Targeting Online Customer Tracking
- UK Privacy Regulator Dramatically Reduces Fine for British Airways’ GDPR Violations
- Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield Invalidated by Swiss Commissioner
- Dr. Strangenet—or, how I stopped worrying and embraced the WFH IT apocalypse
CREATIVITY
- Trump Appointee Removes ‘Firewall’ Preventing Administration From Meddling In VOA Reporting
- President-For-Life Hopeful Donald Trump Issues Executive Order Mandating ‘Patriotic’ Education For Kids
- Johnny Depp loses high-risk libel trial against NGN and Dan Wootton
- To Prevent Free, Frictionless Access To Human Knowledge, Publishers Want Librarians To Be Afraid, Very Afraid
Jon
News of the Week; October 28, 2020
NoW October 28, 2020
GAMES
- EA hit with class action lawsuit in Canada over loot box usage
- EA Accused Of Running “Unlicensed, Illegal Gaming System”
- Billy Mitchell’s Donkey Kong high-score case will move forward to trial
- AOC’s Twitch stream is a milestone for games — and for politics | Opinion: Embarrassing copycats are inevitable, but Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez opened a new frontier by showing how to reach younger voters
- Twitch Deletes Content for Copyright Infringement Without Warning
- 2K Sports Could Have Avoided Its Un-Skippable Ads Backlash If The Ads Were Better Content
- Music industry organisations slam Twitch in open letter: The streaming giant denied the claims that its Soundtrack service is not fully licensed
- Epic refutes Apple’s theft claims as “implausible and deficient as a matter of law”: “Apple seeks to compare Epic’s conduct to stealing cash from a vault in ApplePark,” new legal filing argues
- Epic hits back at Apple, saying it ‘has no rights to the fruits of Epic’s labor’
- Casino Game App Settles Gambling Accusations for $6.5 Million
- Wasteland 3 removed “interactive use” of recreational drug for Australian release: InXile’s game was the only title out of 316 to be denied a certificate by the Australian ratings board in the last fiscal year
- “The industry has come of age — we take our responsibilities seriously”: UKIE’s Jo Twist on the right response to “a new phase of regulatory scrutiny” for the games industry
- Lifting the barriers for Black professionals in the games industry: Focusing on retention and promotion, the GamesIndustry.biz Academy looks at the barriers facing Black talent in games
- Microsoft’s game revenue up by $550 million as Xbox readies for Series X debut
- Microsoft quietly closes its final quarter before next-gen: Company projects 40% growth in hardware sales next quarter, constrained by supply
- Xbox Series boxes unboxed, revealing a series of Xboxes inside of boxes
- Microsoft explains how the Xbox Series S and X will shape up on day one
- Xbox Brazil host says she was fired to protect her from harassment: Microsoft says termination of Isadora Basile was unrelated to harassment, was instead due to increased focus on Xbox Wire
- Xbox muses xCloud expansion through ‘lower priced’ gear like streaming sticks
- All Xbox, 360, and One games playable on Xbox One work on Xbox Series X and S: Except the ones that require Kinect
- Phil Spencer: “You’re going to see lower-priced hardware as part of our ecosystem” – Xbox head suggests future tech could include streaming sticks, TV controllers for xCloud access
- Xbox wants more “E-rated content” to strengthen its portfolio: Phil Spencer also says its priorities for Game Pass put Chromebook, smart TV access above Switch or PS4
- First-party releases are driving sales and operating income at Sony
- PS4 shipments near 114m as new generation looms: More than 75% of all PlayStation revenue came from digital sources in the second quarter, with only 41% of games bought physically
- Clearing up which media apps will be available on PS5 at launch
- Sony delays PS5 launch title Destruction AllStars until 2021
- Destruction AllStars delayed from PS5 launch: Sony pushes arena combat game’s debut to February, when it will be free to PlayStation Plus subscribers
- First 12 hours of PS5 preorders match first 12 weeks of PS4’s – CEO Jim Ryan: “It may well be that not everybody who wants to buy a PS5 on launch day will be able to find one”
- PlayStation’s new (web) store, genre viability & more
- Battle of the launch line-ups: What games make for a successful console launch?: How important are first-party games? What will be the key titles for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S? We look at the data
- 30 years later, Nintendo is localizing the first Fire Emblem game
- Control and Hitman 3 are heading to the Switch via the cloud
- Control, Hitman 3 receive streaming versions on Switch: Ultimate Edition of Remedy’s latest arrives today; both games will be free-to-start so players can test performance
- Nintendo’s new translation tune? What a Fire Emblem re-release means in 2020
- Nintendo drops price of single Joy-Cons in the US: Controllers get $10 price cut, as well as another color option for individual purchase
- Uplay+ rebrands to Ubisoft+, adding Luna and Stadia support by 2021: Ubisoft launches beta program on Amazon’s streaming service November 10 before hitting Google’s service by year’s end
- Ubisoft details next-gen improvements for its upcoming games: Most of the publisher’s upcoming titles releasing on current generation hardware will benefit from a free upgrade
- Ubisoft and Netflix partner on Assassin’s Creed live-action series: The deal also includes work on animated and anime series
- FIFA 21 retains No.1 in quiet week before the storm | UK Boxed Charts: Cadence of Hyrule sneaks into the Top 40
- Digital console spending up 40% last month thanks to wave of big releases – SuperData: NBA 2K21, Avengers, Tony Hawk, and Super Mario 3D All-Stars lead console spending for September
- Report: Latest Cyberpunk 2077 delay announcement blindsides its dev team
- Cyberpunk 2077, after going gold, gets delayed another month
- Cyberpunk 2077’s third delay pushes it to December 10: CD Projekt Red says it needs an extra three weeks to work on launch day patch
- CD Projekt Red devs speak out after Cyberpunk 2077 delay met with death threats
- Facebook quietly debuts cloud-streaming service for Facebook Gaming
- Facebook takes its first small steps into the world of cloud gaming: It’s not a new service, but cloud-powered games are playable on Facebook
- Facebook enters cloud streaming with free-to-play mobile games, playable ads: Jason Rubin explains the company’s plans to make the bottom line work, and how he expects streaming to change play patterns
- Deleting Facebook wipes out Oculus purchases: Users who have not linked their Facebook account to their VR headset yet are not impacted
- Facebook’s cloud-gaming offering focuses on free-to-play mobile games
- Analysis: Facebook gears up for ad-supported cloud gaming service
- Facebook’s cloud gaming push, why social gaming took off, more!
- “We need a real shift in the tide”: Black professionals on representation in the UK: As the UK celebrates Black History Month, we speak to developers, players and more about racial equality in the games industry
- Creative Director At Google Stadia Advocates Streamers Paying Game Devs And Publishers
- Google distances itself from Stadia creative director’s comments
- Google distances itself from Stadia creative director Alex Hutchinson: Internet giant asserts that tweets about streamers paying royalties “do not reflect those of Stadia, YouTube or Google”
- Mojang games to require Microsoft account: All the titles from the Minecraft developer will be impacted by the change, including Minecraft Java Edition
- We need to talk about Steam & China
- Roblox player spending passes $2 billion on mobile: Sensor Tower estimates suggest half of that total arrived in the last 12 months
- Devolver Digital brings in licensing specialist to work on Fall Guys: Fée Heyer brings experience from Dunlop Sports, describes Mediatonic’s game as “a phenomenon rarely seen before”
- The constant tug of war between AAA developers and “the money people”: Massive Entertainment boss David Polfeldt discusses the instability of AAA and the influence of self-inflicted crunch
- Scopely acquires Genjoy: Match-three developer and its 150 employees add to Scopely’s presence in Spain
- Scopely acquires Spanish mobile studio Genjoy to expand match-3 roster
- Scopely raises $340 million to forge new partnerships in mobile games
- Scopely picks up $340 million in Series E funding: At least 14 investors lend support to Star Trek Fleet Command company
- Shotcall closes $2.2m seed round: The platform aims to connect content creators and their community by letting them play together
- Genshin Impact made $245m in its first month on mobile alone: This makes it one of the biggest mobile launches ever
- Riot Games appoints first ever chief marketing officer to help expand player base
- Call of Duty: Mobile has topped 300 million downloads
- Clever game dev tech is at the core of Watch Dogs Legion’s London
- Watch Dogs: Legion review: A meaningless mob, with mostly merry mayhem
- Watch Dogs Legion | Critical Consensus: Ubisoft’s latest draws largely warm reception as the play-as-anyone idea works, but critics split on how far that carries the game
- Uplay+ subscription rebrands as Ubisoft+ and adds multi-platform support
- Ubisoft and Netflix partner for live action Assassin’s Creed series
- How Indiana Jones, Rambo, and others ended up in 1980s Czechoslovak text-adventures
- Why bringing Donkey Kong 64 into the third dimension required a mental shift
- Building concept art workflows with neural net-powered ‘generative adversarial networks’
- Unity teams up with Lego to teach game development fundamentals
- MrBeast-Backed Gaming Venture Launches Backbone One, A Controller That Turns iPhones Into Consoles
- Cloud9 signs its first-ever all-woman esports roster: Valorant team formerly known as MAJKL becomes Cloud9 White, begins competing this week
- Tencent leads $100 million investment into Chinese esports company VSPN
- Tencent leads $100m Series B round in VSPN: Chinese esports firm eyes international expansion after growing to 1,000 employees in the space of four years
- VENN closes $26m Series A funding: The esports and gaming broadcast network secured Nexstar Media Group as an exclusive local television partner
- CS GO pro players banned for betting on themselves: The accused had accomplices that were placing identical bets
- Esports Entertainment Group to acquire Helix Esports and ggCircuit: The deal will be worth $43 million, Esports Entertainment Group teases more “near-term” acquisitions
- Not Just America: CEO Of Esports Org In India Says COVID-19 Resulted In Explosive Growth
- Trademarks and E-games
- VR lessons from Arizona Sunshine’s success: Vertigo Games dives into the strategies behind its virtual reality hit, and how it paved the way for future projects such as After the Fall
- Ubisoft’s VR Space Sim ‘AGOS: A Game of Space’ Launches Today
- How Agos A Game Of Space Will Turn Players Into A Spaceship: Will you be the benevolent AI spaceship guardian of the human colonists in the VR space sim Agos, or will you go homicidal like HAL?
- Tilt Five on working around the pandemic to deliver tabletop AR: CEO Jeri Ellsworth explains how the platform adapted its manufacturing and fundraising to COVID-19, and what the strategy is going forward
- Video: The lighting technology of Detroit: Become Human
- Video: How internal game jams can help art teams.
- Video: How Jagex has evolved to change with the times over 16 years
- Video: A better way of depicting war in games
- Video: Bridging community divides in cross-platform online games
- Blog: The Zynga analytics platform in 2020
- Don’t Miss: What Nintendo’s indie program looked like way back in 2014
- Don’t Miss: Why Clint Hocking wanted every NPC in Watch Dogs: Legion to be playable
DIGITAL
- Facebook Seeks Shutdown of NYU Research Project Into Political Ad Targeting: In letter this month, Facebook says the project violates provisions in its terms of service that prohibit bulk data collection
- No Robots, Spiders, or Scrapers: Legal and Ethical Regulation of Data Collection Methods in Social Media Terms of Service (Casey Fiesler, Nathan Beard, Brian Keegan)
- Facebook’s Threat To NYU Researchers Is A Mistake, But It’s The Inevitable Follow On To Overreaction To Cambridge Analytica
- Zuckerberg And Facebook Throw The Open Internet Under The Bus; Support Section 230 Reform
- Sacha Baron Cohen Demands Facebook Remove Conspiracies; Flips Out When Facebook Removes His Article With Conspiracy Images
- S.D.N.Y. Dismisses Defamation Case Arising Out of “Battle by Tweet”
- Yet Another Twitter Account Suspension Case Fails–Jones v. Twitter (Eric Goldman)
- Trump’s website defaced with claim that Trump admin created coronavirus
- Hacker says he correctly guessed Trump’s Twitter password—it was “maga2020!”
- Trumpist Republicans Latest Freakout A Total Self-Own, As They Reveal They Don’t Read What They Tweet
- Ninth Circuit Dumps Sentencing Enhancement Handed To Defendant For Opening Social Media Accounts For ISIS Sympathizers
- Iran behind supposed “Proud Boys” voter-intimidation emails, Feds allege
- Google Will Temporarily Ban Election-Related Advertising Once the Polls Close
- RIP Google Play Music, 2011 – 2020
- We’re Still Unsure If Instagram Grants Users a Sublicense to Embed Photos (Eric Goldman)
- President’s Promise to Limit 230 Immunity is Underway
- Section 230 – Everything You Love and Hate About the Internet
- Another Section 230 Reform Bill: Dangerous Algorithms Bill Threatens Speech
- Content Moderation Case Studies: Facebook Removes Militia Event Following A Shooting (August 2020)
- Content Moderation Case Study: Facebook’s Moderation Of Terrorist Content Results In The Removal Of Journalists’ And Activists’ Accounts (June 2020)
- DOJ Antitrust Case Against Google Draws Allusions to Landmark Microsoft and Standard Oil Cases
- Google’s Data Collection Practices Face Scrutiny in Recent Lawsuits
- YouTube Is Running Out Of Room For Political Ads
- YouTube Music To Hold All-Day Digital Fest Featuring Artists From Its Foundry
- YouTube Adds New Navigational Gestures To Mobile App, Thumbnail View For Video ‘Chapters’
- Top 50 Most Viewed US YouTube Channels • Week Of 10/26/2020
- Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 10/26/2020
- RIAA Tosses Bogus Claim At Github To Get Video Downloading Software Removed
- GitHub boots popular YouTube download tool after RIAA claim
- Twitch’s Freak Out Response To RIAA Takedown Demands Raises Even More DMCA Questions
- Join The Fan Fiction Deep State And Watch This Latest Video That Addison Cain Really Doesn’t Want You To See
- Tubular Labs Debuts New Industry-Standard Viewership Metrics For Digital Video
- Invisalign Shares Soar Following Huge Quarter, With Substantial Jolt From Charli D’Amelio
- Startup ‘Kindred’ Wants To Help Socially-Conscious Influencers Speak With Greater Authority
- Amazon launches new Counterfeit Crimes Unit
- TikTok To Provide Greater Insight Into Video Takedowns With New Notification System
- Adult Card Game ‘What Do You Meme?’ Launches Official TikTok Edition
- TikTok Links Up with Shopify For Ad Integration Amid Social Commerce Push
- A Biden-Harris PAC Is Behind TikTok’s First Virtual Creator House
- YouTube Introduces New Icon For TikTok-Like ‘Shorts’ Tool, Shares Discovery Tips For Creators
- TikTok Partners With Associated Press To Display Live Election Results In ‘For You’ Feed
- Zoom Shuts Down NYU Event To Discuss Whether Zoom Should Be Shutting Down Events Based On Content
- The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart will return in new Apple TV+ series
- Apple develops alternative to Google search
- Insights: How To Avoid Quibi’s Gigantic Bust-Out In Your Own Startup
- BBTV Goes Public On Toronto Stock Exchange
- Bumble, the Popular Dating App, Eyes $6 Billion IPO
- Record Deals Are So Yesterday. Here’s The New Playbook For Musicians On The Internet.
- Spotify Inks Overall Podcast Deal With Talent Manager Scooter Braun
- Digital, Culture, Media and Sports Committee launches inquiry into the impact of streaming on the music industry
- Bot orders $18,752 of McSundaes every 30 min. to find if machines are working
- DOJ and IRS May Soon Begin Enforcement Actions Against Virtual Currency Tax Fraudsters
- PayPal Pushes Crypto Further into the Mainstream
- A general introduction to the regulation of virtual currencies in Canada
- SEC Resolves Digital Token Offering Case
- Bitcoin “Mixer” Operator Penalized by FinCEN for AML Violations
- Scanning the European Ecosystem of Distributed Ledger Technologies for Social and Public Good
A.I.
- Bias behind bars: A Globe investigation finds a prison system stacked against Black and Indigenous inmates – Black & Indigenous inmates are more likely to get worse scores than white inmates, based solely on their race
- AI Predicts Aggressiveness of Early Stage Breast Cancer
- USPTO publishes report on public views on artificial intelligence and IP Policy – US IP law adequate for now, until artificial general intelligence is reached?
- UK Court Decision: Artificial Intelligence Machine Is Not An Inventor
- Use of Aggregated Data in Artificial Intelligence Solutions
- Regulating AI: EU proposes legal framework for Artificial Intelligence
- Don’t Miss: 7 examples of game AI that every developer should study
- Don’t Miss: Looking back at Left 4 Dead’s dynamic AI
COMMUNICATIONS
- Canadian News Media Lobby Group Calls for Creation of Government Digital Media Regulatory Agency (Michael Geist)
- Where is Canada’s News Media Lobby Promoting Its Link Licensing Plan for Facebook? On Facebook (Michael Geist)
- Senator wants Google, Facebook to pony up for local news
- Pai’s FCC squeezes in one more vote against net neutrality before election
- FCC Ignores The Courts, Finalizes Facts-Optional Repeal Of Net Neutrality
- The Trump Swamp Fights Itself Over Multi-Billion Dollar No-Bid Spectrum Grab
- Wall Street: Traditional Cable TV Sector ‘Unraveling’ In Wake Of Covid
- As EU Starts To Draft Its Most Important New Online Law, The Digital Services Act, MEPs Want Basic Rights High On The Agenda
- TCPA Bites Political Speech Again: Trump Campaign Sued for Alleged Illegal Robotexts
- AT&T loses another 600,000 TV customers as it seeks buyer for DirecTV
- T-Mobile screwups caused nationwide outage, but FCC isn’t punishing carrier
- It’s Opposite Day At The FCC: Rejects All Its Own Legal Arguments Against Net Neutrality To Claim It Can Be The Internet Speech Police
- Congress, With Nothing Important On Its Hands, Seeks To Rush Through Nomination Of Anti-230 FCC Commissioner
- We’re Already Hyping 6G When 5G Hasn’t Even Finished Disappointing Us Yet
- The Network: How a Secretive Phone Company Helped the Crime World Go Dark
- Stupid Use Of Profanity Filter Makes A Mess Of Virtual Paleontologist Conference
- FCC Proposes Expansion of Sponsor ID Rules to Require Disclosure of Foreign Government Support
- Community Broadband In The Age Of Covid
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
- Enforcing Copyright Outside the Courtroom – The New Notice Regimes
- FLVTO.biz Petitions SCOTUS To Hear Jurisdiction Argument In Stream-Ripping Lawsuit
- Battle Lines Drawn Over Font Copyright Protection
- Tom Lehrer, Still Awesome, Releases Lyrics Into The Public Domain
- Armes v. Post: In action asserting co-authorship of Post Malone’s hit song “Circles,” court dismisses alleged co-authorship of recording, but denies motion to dismiss based on co-authorship of underlying composition.
- SCOTUS Reaches for Cup of Java in Oracle v. Google Oral Argument
- New Working Paper – Memes and Parasites: A discourse analysis of the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive
- Canada’s Official Marks – A Public Nuisance?
- Jack Daniel’s Petitions for Certiorari to Clarify Trademark Fair Use
- Monster Mash: Minor League Hockey Team Prevails Over Energy Drink Giant in Trademark Dispute
- One Restaurant Sends Cease And Desist To Another Over The Word ‘Juicy’
- Trade Secret Battle Waged in Legal Services Market
- Second Chances From the Second Circuit: Tiffany’s $21m Judgment Is Overturned and Remanded Back to the SDNY
- Federal Court of Appeal affirms largest reported Canadian patent infringement award in history
- Navigating your Global Patent Prosecution Strategy under Canada’s new Patent Rules
- IP monitor: Claim construction revisited: Positive changes for applicants seeking to protect computer-related inventions
- Solving the ‘problem-solution’ problem for patent applicants: Choueifaty decision
- Can you patent software?
- Spotlight On: Neulasta® (pegfilgrastim) / Fulphila® (pegfilgrastim-jmdb) / Udenyca® (pegfilgrastim-cbqv) / Ziextenzo® (pegfilgrastim-bmez) / Nyvepria™ (pegfilgrastim-apgf)
- U.S. Court Values Cybersecurity Patents at Nearly $2 Billion, but Why?
- A Patentee’s Dismissed Lawsuit Will Preclude a Subsequent, Effectively Identical Suit in the Absence of Different Conduct, Different Alleged Violations or Litigants, or Different Subsequent Facts
PRIVACY
- Sensitive Personal Information: Another Concept Borrowed From The GDPR
- Hacked Healthcare Provider Refuses to Pay Ransom, Attackers Target Psychotherapy Patients
- Advisories: “Brazen” Russian ransomware hackers target hundreds of US hospitals
- Data as Property?
- 2020 Data Privacy Compendium
- Top Five Tips to Protect Privilege in a Data Breach
CREATIVITY
- Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner Threaten Defamation Suit Over Lincoln Project’s Non-Defamatory Billboards
- Dark Ironies: The Financial Times and Cambridge Analytica
- Appeals Court Reinstates Injunction Blocking Federal Agents From Assaulting Portland Journalists
- Demonstrating the Strength of the “Opinion Defense,” Rose McGowan Defeats Defamation Suit
Jon
News of the Week; October 21, 2020
GAMES
- Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against EA in Canada Over Loot Boxes
- EA facing Canadian class action lawsuit over loot boxes: Two plaintiffs seeking damages as suit calls out “unlicensed, illegal gaming system” in over 60 titles
- Mark Sutherland and Shawn Moore v. Electronic Arts Inc. (Notice of Civil Claim The Supreme Court of B.C., September 30, 2020)
- Rune 2 lawsuit alleges deliberate sabotage from Bethesda, ZeniMax
- ZeniMax, Bethesda, Roundhouse added to lawsuit over Rune 2: Ragnarok accuses companies involved in Human Head demise and Roundhouse formation of sabotaging Rune 2 and a game based on the Oblivion Song comic
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is running an Among Us stream to drive voter turnout
- AOC makes explosive Twitch debut with over 435,000 Among Us viewers
- AOC’s debut Twitch stream is one of the biggest ever: And she’s genuinely pretty good at Among Us
- 439,000 People Watched Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Take On Top Content Creators In ‘Among Us’
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Storms Twitch: More than 400,000 people tuned into AOC’s stream of a marathon Among Us session with representative Ilhan Omar and Twitch luminaries.
- US Rep Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez’s Twitch stream drew 439k peak viewers: Among Us stream with fellow Representative Ilhan Omar and popular Twitch streamers saw highest peak of any politician on Twitch
- AOC’s record-breaking Twitch stream is the future of politics: Young, tech-savvy, meme-literate, and accessible
- Twitch purges videos after “thousands” of requests from music labels: Streaming site offers content creators the ability to delete all videos as it issues “a one-time warning to learn about copyright law”
- Women and gamers of color detail experiences with online harassment in games like Call of Duty
- More allegations surface against Rooster Teeth’s Ryan Haywood: Former Achievement Hunter host described as “predatory,” allegedly taking advantage of power imbalance to solicit sexual favours from young women
- A lawyer’s perspective on the industry’s abuse problem: Toxic family notions, favoritism and lack of regulation all lead to abuse, says legal expert Siobhán Crawford
- Summer video game reveals showed record number of female protagonists: But Feminist Frenquency’s annual analysis warns this may be a “one-off statistical anomaly”
- Liar Liar, Mobile Game Ads Under Fire — ASA Bans Misleading Ads for Mobile Games
- Epic vs. Apple is losing PR steam | Opinion: Sensible rulings in Epic’s legal dispute with Apple have pared the case back to its core question — and shown just how disruptive Epic’s demand really is
- Take-Two Opposes Trademark For An Entertainment Company Running An Axe-Throwing Facility
- NBA 2K21 adds unskippable ads to loading screens: 2K Sports introduces new monetization method to latest basketball title weeks after launch
- Players slam 2K after publisher inserts unskippable ads into NBA 2K21
- Sega takes flak for releasing Golden Axe prototype made ‘under crunch conditions’
- Sega criticised for launching Golden Axe prototype created “under crunch conditions”: Sega edited the Steam page and said in a statement that it “didn’t mean to dredge up painful memories”
- Bungie cease and desist pulls Destiny 2 cheat tool offline
- GameStop’s Microsoft partnership reportedly lands it a cut of digital Xbox revenue
- Microsoft will give GameStop a share of Xbox’s digital revenues
- Xbox’s GameStop deal: lifeline or table scraps?
- Microsoft will share digital revenues with GameStop on every Xbox it sells: Investment advisor says retailer will even get a share of DLC sales if physical game was purchased from another company
- Microsoft confirms Xbox Series X|S launch titles: 30 games will be “fully optimized” for next-gen system upon release, none exclusive to next-gen
- Xbox Series X unleashed: Our unrestricted preview
- Phil Spencer: Xbox could recoup Bethesda acquisition without PlayStation releases
- Xbox head: Bethesda purchase wasn’t to keep games away from other platforms – While each game’s platforms will be decided case-by-case, Phil Spencer says Elder Scrolls doesn’t need to be on PlayStation to recoup costs
- What happened with Microsoft’s Switch publishing experiments?
- Nintendo Nukes ‘Zelda’ Fan Game, As Per Usual
- Switch game discovery – look on the bright side?
- Nintendo Switch shines on Amazon’s Prime Day | UK Boxed Charts: 29 out of the Top 40 jumped in sales week-on-week
- One-third of US gamers surveyed plan to buy a next-gen console this year: Baird finds purchase intent for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S roughly equal, Call of Duty expected to top holiday sales
- The PlayStation 5 user interface is an instant hub that prioritizes gameplay
- PlayStation 5 UI revealed: “Activity” shortcuts, picture-in-picture
- PlayStation Store to drop PS3 content and Wishlists on desktop and mobile: PS Vita and PSP games will also be gone as part of incoming store revamp
- PlayStation clarifies how its voice chat reporting tool will work on PS5
- Future PS5 updates will optimize cooling based on data from individual games
- PS5 will use downloadable updates to control game-by-game fan speed
- Google Stadia’s free demos could prove the value of game streaming
- Amazon Luna is live, and it’s already out-streaming Google Stadia
- Luna, Amazon’s take on cloud-based gaming, launches in (limited) early access
- Growth in UK games industry fastest ever recorded: Games development headcount is at an all-time high of 18,279 in the UK
- Lessons in community building from EVE Online
- YouTube: Among Us videos reached 4bn views in September – Video platform’s report shows US as largest audience, but viewers flooding in from around the world
- Unity creates Social Impact Division to support non-profits
- Unity launches Social Impact Division backed by $67m fund: New division will provide grants for work in education, sustainability, and health and well-being
- FIFA download launch sales spike 31% over last year | UK Digital Charts: Overall sales down only slightly over last year’s entry
- EA Motive boss: ‘player autonomy’ is key to studio’s future
- Avengers assembles September sales chart heavy on new releases: Square Enix’s latest just one of seven games debuting in the top 20 as NPD’s total US game sales for the month rise 10% year-over-year
- Marvel’s Avengers’ next-gen version delayed to 2021 to ensure product quality: Crystal Dynamics is taking its time after initial launch that “was not without turbulence”
- Report: China-owned mobile studio Playtika is chasing an IPO in the U.S.
- Mobile game publisher Playtika files to go public in window for game IPOs
- Playtika files IPO draft: Publisher behind Best Fiends, June’s Journey has confidentially submitted preliminary paperwork to go public
- MAG Interactive reports $25 million in sales: Revenue at the mobile games company also grew 28% from June to August 2020
- Game rental shop GameFly acquired by Alliance Entertainment group
- GameFly sold to distributor Alliance Entertainment: New owner says it will expand US rental-by-mail service’s selection of games, as well as hardware, accessories, and collectibles for sale
- ‘Fortnite’ Taps J Balvin For Latest In-Game Concert In Honor Of Halloween
- New nonprofit organisation Hit Save to support games preservation: The community-driven organisation is based in the US but will operate globally
- Z Event raises €5.7m for Amnesty International: The live streaming event broke the record for the most money raised for charity on Twitch
- Talent Firm Loaded Adds Pro Gamer Maria ‘Chica’ Lopez To Starry Roster
- Facebook Gaming Streamer Avori Henderson Signs With Ford Models’ New Esports And Gaming Division
- Blizzard winding down development on StarCraft II after over a decade
- Blizzard no longer developing new content for StarCraft 2: Developer will continue to issue balance fixes and work with partners on esports
- New ex-Blizzard game studio formed to pick up a fallen RTS mantle
- Ex-Blizzard devs land $4.7m for new studio Frost Giant
- EVOS Esports closes $12m Series B round: Southeast Asia-focused esports firm has raised more than $16m in its lifetime
- Devolver Digital acquires Serious Sam dev Croteam
- Devolver Digital acquires Serious Sam developer Croteam: Publisher further cements partnership following decades of publishing deals
- How the Nemesis system got an indie makeover in Star Renegades
- Ubisoft Connect announced as a ‘refreshed’ replacement for Uplay and Ubisoft Club
- Overcoming AR’s limitations with Mario Kart Live Home Circuit: Velan Studios president Guha Bala on reinventing Nintendo’s best-selling racing franchise for augmented reality
- Sony Unveils ‘Spatial Reality Display’ with Eye-tracking for Glasses-free 3D Viewing: Priced at $5,000 and launching in November
- PSVR Not Compatible With PS5 Camera, New Japanese Bundles Include Adapter for PS4 Camera
- Oculus Quest 2 quietly drops support for Oculus Go games
- Facebook Develops Hand Tracking Method to Touch Type in VR Without a Keyboard
- Cliff Bleszinski may return to games development “slowly and cautiously”: Fall Guys and Among Us has given Gears of War designer hope as he reflects on the mistakes of Boss Key Productions
- Devolver brings in head of licensing to put Fall Guys ‘on the licensing map’
- Ken Williams doesn’t know how his design philosophy could work today: Sierra On-Line co-founder talks about his new book, disconnecting from the games industry, and what’s changed since he left nearly 25 years ago
- Tides of Chaos: How Baldur’s Gate 3 tackles the pure RNG of D&D-inspired dice rolls
- Learn how Supergiant brought Hades’ hand-painted characters to life
- Rocket League’s appeal isn’t rocket science | Why I Love
- Blog: Networking into the games industry as a new grad
- Blog: The in-app purchase merchandising playbook – Part 1
- Video: How Criterion Games improved its studio leadership
- Video: Why your game community is now a marketing asset
- Video: The developers of Ghostrunner discuss the making a cyberpunk platformer
- Don’t Miss: The undying allure of the Metroidvania
- Don’t Miss: Crafting GoNNER’s modular abilities
- Don’t Miss: How the developers of New Vegas took back Fallout
- Don’t Miss: Crafting Danganronpa to surprise players
- Don’t Miss: The designer is god–or the devil–in The Talos Principle
- Q&A: Designing for seasons in bumbling platform royale Fall Guys
- Data Deep Dive: Meteorfall: Krumit’s Tale on Steam
- New non-profit Hit Save! wants to help preserve video games and their history
- The Video Game History Foundation is working to save our source code
- French charity steam Z Event raises $6.7 million for Amnesty International
- U.S. Patent no. 9,492,740: Remote and/or distributed equipping of video game characters
- U.S. Patent No. 10,625,156: Method and system for sharing video game content
DIGITAL
- Justice Dept. files long-awaited antitrust suit against Google
- What we know about the DOJ’s antitrust case against Google so far
- Bill Barr’s Google ‘Antitrust Inquiry’ Is A Weaponized Farce
- Trademark Genericide And One Big Way The DOJ Admits That Its Antitrust Lawsuit Against Google Is Utter Garbage
- Supporters Of Using Antitrust Against Big Tech Should Be Very Disappointed In How Weak The DOJ’s Case Is
- AOC makes explosive Twitch debut with over 435,000 Among Us viewers
- Facebook and the Group That Planned to Kidnap Gretchen Whitmer: Extremist groups and conspiracy theorists like to connect with each other just like everyone else.
- Facebook Is So ‘Biased Against Conservatives’ That Mark Zuckerberg Personally Agreed To Diminish The Reach Of ‘Left-Leaning’ Sites
- Cambridge Analytica’s Crime Was Not Violating Your Privacy Or Taking Data From Facebook, It Was A Massive Campaign Finance Scam
- Facebook to pause all political advertising—after the election
- Facebook Will Temporarily Ban All Political and Issue Advertising After the Presidential Election
- Facebook Abuses Trademark To Give New Prominence To Group Of Facebook Critics Who Are Trying To Shame Company Into More Moderation
- Facebook announces ban on anti-vaccination ads
- Facebook Bans Ads That Discourage People From Getting Vaccinated
- Facebook’s Oversight Board: what is it and will it make a difference?
- Six Russians accused of the world’s most destructive hacks indicted
- DOJ Says Trump’s Tweets Declassifying All Russia Investigation Docs Doesn’t Mean Anything; Judge Says They Better Go Ask Him
- Twitter abruptly changes hacked-materials policy after blocking Biden story
- Twitter Fixes Its Bad Policy On Blocking ‘Hacked’ Documents
- How Not to Cover Voter Fraud Disinformation: Journalists should treat systematic disinformation campaigns from President Trump no differently than from Russian propagandists and Facebook clickbait artists (Yochai Benkler)
- Court Says Trump Appointee Had No Authority To Fire Open Technology Fund Board; Says They Remain In Place
- How Zello Became A Recruitment & Organizing Tool For The Far Right
- CARU Says: Discord Is Not Directed At Children Under 13
- How a Road Trip Through America’s Battlegrounds Revealed a Nation Plagued by Misinformation
- Google search being searched for Anti-trust
- China Micro-Censors The VP Debate In The Most Hamfisted Way
- Mumbai Police Help Indian Prime Minister Modi Scrub BuzzFeed Of Images That Offended His Delicate Sensibilities
- Democracy & Dragons
- Against Platform Determinism
- Trolling for Truth on Social Media
- Global disinformation campaigns and legal challenges
- Hacking democracy: managing influence campaigns and disinformation in the digital age
- Global competition and the emerging challenge to open data
- The Law and Political Economy of Workplace Technological Change (Brishen Rogers)
- Where Platform Capitalism and Racial Capitalism Meet: The Sociology of Race and Racism in the Digital Society
- Wired Norms: Inscription, resistance, and subversion in the governance of the Internet infrastructure (Niels ten Oever)
- Replicating Silicon Valley? Law and Human Capital in the Making of China’s Tech Startups (Li-Wen Lin)
- Forget TikTok. IRS Inquiry Shows The Continued Abuse Of Location Data Is The Real Scandal.
- WeChat and TikTok Win Preliminary Injunctions Against Trump Administration’s Efforts to Ban the Apps
- Pakistan Reverses TikTok Ban, But Has Stipulations
- TikTok Unboxing Videos Are Driving Record Sales For Mini Brands, VIP Pets
- LinkedIn Isn’t a State Actor–Perez v. LinkedIn (Eric Goldman)
- DOJ Seizes Domains, Claiming They Pushed Iranian Disinformation; Should Raise 1st Amendment Concerns
- The GOP’s Blisteringly Hypocritical Road From Whining About Net Neutrality To Supporting Trump’s Idiotic Attack On Social Media
- While Trump Continues To Complain About 230, It’s Copyright Law That Once Again Actually Gets His Content Removed
- League Of California Cities Want Congress To Change Section 230… To Let Cops Spy On Everyone Using Social Media
- Section 230 Liability Shield Continues to Receive Scrutiny
- Section 230 Basics: There Is No Such Thing As A Publisher-Or-Platform Distinction
- Another Anti-Section 230 Bill? Sure, Why Not?
- Justice Thomas Writes a Misguided Anti-Section 230 Statement “Without the Benefit of Briefing”–Enigma v. Malwarebytes (Eric Goldman)
- Blatant Hypocrite Ajit Pai Decides To Move Forward With Bogus, Unconstitutional Rulemaking On Section 230
- FCC Announces Section 230 Rulemaking
- Chairman Pai: FCC to Address Social Media Immunity Under Section 230
- Jeffrey Toobin’s Zoom Dick Incident Is The Perfect Example Of Why We Need Section 230
- FCC trying to help Trump win election with Twitter crackdown, Democrats say
- FCC cites Title II in defense of helping Trump’s attack on social media
- FCC Too Afraid To Go On Record To Truly Support Trump’s Dumb Attack On Social Media
- Ajit Pai says he’ll help Trump impose crackdown on Twitter and Facebook
- Insights: With Zoom And Its Many Competitors, We’re All Livestreamers Now
- Ted Cruz Once Insisted That Net Neutrality Was The Gov’t Takeover Of The Internet; Now Demands That Twitter Host All Nonsense
- Republicans, Who Have Made Sure The Federal Election Commission Can’t Do Anything, File A Complaint About Twitter’s Moderation Practices
- Content Moderation Case Study: Facebook’s Internal ‘Hate Speech’ Guidelines Appear To Leave Protected Groups Unprotected (June 2017)
- Content Moderation Case Study: Apple Removes Games Containing Confederate Flags (June 2015)
- Content Moderation Case Study: Handling Trolls Invading A Community (1993)
- Assessment of the Code of Practice on Disinformation
- Instagram Agrees To New Measures To Curb “Hidden” Influencer Advertising In The U.K.
- Quibi Is Shutting Down
- Quibi streaming service shutting down after less than 1 year
- YouTube cracks down on QAnon conspiracists
- YouTube Bans Content Endorsing QAnon, Pizzagate
- YouTube Expands COVID Misinformation Policy To Ban Vaccine Conspiracies
- New Google Nest Hub experiment nixes the “Hey Google” voice hotword
- Google Chat goes free in 2021, while Hangouts loses features this month
- Google wants to turn YouTube into QVC with new shopping features
- Can You Avoid Creator Burnout By Working The YouTube Algorithm? Is More Actually Less? We Take A Look.
- YouTube Unveils First 5 Originals Produced By Its $100 Million ‘Black Voices’ Fund
- YouTube Gives Premium Subscribers Exclusive Access To Test New Features
- YouTube Testing Ecommerce Tools That Turn Creator Videos Into Product Catalogs
- Top 50 Most Viewed US YouTube Channels • Week Of 10/05/2020
- Top 50 Most Viewed US YouTube Channels • Week Of 10/12/2020
- Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 10/05/2020
- Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 10/12/2020
- Is The Creator-Owned “Smart YouTuber Mafia” A New Standard For Digital Content?
- Blast off with Scott Manley as he discusses his top 1,000 YouTube comments
- Google shuts down Trusted Contacts, its emergency location sharing app
- Google kills the Nest Secure, its $500 home security system
- David Dobrik, Emma Chamberlain, James Charles Lead This Year’s Pack Of Streamy Nominees
- MrBeast’s ‘Creator Games’ Sequel Sets YouTube Record With 1 Million Concurrent Viewers
- YouTube Exec Ryan Wyatt Says Valkyrae Is “The Fastest-Growing Livestreamer In The Entire World”
- France Passes Law Giving Child Influencers Same Protections As Young Actors, Models
- Snap Hits Record $50 Billion Valuation After Significant Q3 Growth In Revenue, DAUs
- Snapchat Launches ‘Sounds’, Enabling Users To Orchestrate Snaps, Stories With Licensed Music
- Teespring Will Now Let Creators Vend ‘Digital Products’, Like Photo Presets And Ebooks
- Reels Rolls Out New Content Discovery, Sharing Features
- Twitter Disables Core Functions To Prevent Spread Of Election Misinformation
- Joe Biden Taps Portal A For #ImVotingFor Influencer Campaign On Instagram, Twitter
- Twitter Will Turn Off Some Features to Fight Election Misinformation
- QAnon/8chan sites back online after being ousted by DDoS-protection vendor
- Google Music shuts down smart speaker support and music store
- Logan Paul’s Pokemon Card Unboxing Stream Gets 300,000 Concurrent Viewers, Raises $130,000 For Charity
- Facebook Unveils Free Tool Enabling Creators To Test Video Post Performance Before Publishing
- Spotify Now Lets Podcasters Use Its Entire Music Library In Their Shows
- Riot Games and Spotify team up
- Brooklyn-Based Startup MSCHF Wants To Pay Influencers To Take Down “Evil” Brands
- Stupid Use Of Profanity Filter Makes A Mess Of Virtual Paleontologist Conference
- IBM to split into two companies by end of 2021
- Insights: Could The Streaming Services Killing Movie Theaters Save Them Instead?
- Netflix Nixes Free Trials In U.S.
- ‘Ratched’ Hooks 48 Million Viewers In 28 Days, Becoming Netflix’s Most-Watched Debut Of 2020
- Following Staff Exodus, Bon Appetit Relaunches YouTube Channel With 8 New And 3 Returning Hosts
- Apple pays $288,000 to white-hat hackers who had run of company’s network
- Microsoft thumbs its nose at Apple with new “app fairness” policy
- Trickbot—the for-hire botnet Microsoft attacked—is scrambling to stay alive
- 1980s MTV is back, sort of: Apple launches Apple Music TV channel
- Coordinating office space: Digital technologies and the platformization of work
- Targeting Ontological Security: Information Warfare in the Modern Age
- We’re touching our smartphones more than ever. And it’s changing the ancient connection between the body and the brain
- The pernicious contagion of misinformation: False statements – about Covid-19 and so much else – spread like a virus online. Scientists should study them like one.
- The Internet is full of business cats: Dealing with the breakdown of the work/home divide
- A giant cat picture was just discovered among the Nazca Lines: Archaeologists haven’t yet located an accompanying giant meme caption.
- Another Significant Cryptocurrency Decision: SEC v. Kik Interactive Inc. and Token Offerings Under the Securities Laws
- Unpacking the DOJ’s cryptocurrency guidance: Enforcement priorities and industry implications
- DOJ’s Evolving Framework for Cryptocurrency Enforcement
- The US Department of Justice issues Cryptocurrency Enforcement Framework forecasting increased scrutiny of activities involving cryptocurrency
- Chinese City Issues Digital Currency in Pilot Program
- A Map for the New World of Blockchain
- New Export Controls: Emerging Technologies
- New Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy launched at McGill University’s Max Bell School of Public Policy
A.I.
- Waymo finally launches an actual public, driverless taxi service
- The Unforeseen Benefits of Driverless Transport during a Pandemic
- Trustworthy artificial intelligence
- Are we being too hard on HAL? Some thoughts on the legal need for “explainable” artificial intelligence.
- AI and Your Legal Analysis
- Artificial Intelligence Licensing: What You Need to Know
- The Losers of automation. How the introduction of robotics changed the European occupational class structure
- To Surveil and Predict: A Human Rights Analysis of Algorithmic Policing in Canada
- Expanding Biometric Class Actions Beyond Illinois
- AI and the fight for inventorship – DABUS patent knocked out in UK High Court
- ‘Machines set loose to slaughter’: the dangerous rise of military AI
- Human Judgment in algorithmic loops: Individual justice and automated decision‐making
- Algorithmic Censorship by Social Platforms: Power and Resistance
- Is Facebook too big to know? The Markup has a plan (and a browser) to wrap its arms around it: The CBP will pay Americans to monitor the choices that tech company algorithms are making for them.
- Artificial intelligence – from principles to practice
- Doctor Alexa will see you now – regulating artificial intelligence in healthcare
- USPTO Releases Report on Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property Policy
- Government Data Practices as Necropolitics and Racial Arithmetic
- Artificial Intelligence improves clinical trials
- Legal industry ramping up adoption of artificial intelligence, says AI platform partner
COMMUNICATIONS
- How Can Linking to an Article be Immoral When the Media Source Itself Does the Posting? (Michael Geist)
- How Can Linking to an Article be Immoral When the Media Source Itself Does the Posting, Part 2: A Day in the Life of the Toronto Star on Facebook (Michael Geist)
- Forget Link Licensing and Cross-Subsidies: When it Comes to Tech, Canada Should be Focused on Competition Law and Tax Policy (Michael Geist)
- Class dismissed: CRTC finds OneClass in violation of Canada’s anti-spam legislation
- NASA and Nokia are putting a 4G network on the moon
- AT&T plans thousands of layoffs at HBO, Warner Bros., rest of WarnerMedia
- AT&T Is Taking An Absolute Bath On Its DirecTV Merger
- AT&T Gives Up On DSL, Leaving Many Out Of Broadband’s Reach
- Comcast says gigabit downloads and uploads are now possible over cable
- Verizon’s New ‘Nationwide’ 5G Isn’t Nationwide, Barely Faster Than 4G
- Successful 5G implementation
- Half Of Smartphone Users Incorrectly Think They Already Have 5G
- FCC Adopts Final Rule Formalizing Team Telecom Foreign Ownership Review
- FCC Adopts Rules Codifying Foreign Investment Process
- The November Election and the FCC: Predictions for Five Key Policies
- Wisconsin Gets Wise To Foxconn’s Grift, Blocks New Subsidies
- Employees Say Foxconn & Donald Trump’s Wisconsin Factory Scam Was An Absurdist Hellscape
- Access to Infrastructure: using existing ducts and pipes to install new fibre broadband
- Five Bar Owners Arrested In France For Not Logging Internet Use By Patrons Using Bars’ WiFi Connections
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
- Supreme Court of Canada to Hear York University/Access Copyright Appeals
- Justice Luc Martineau is new chair of Copyright Board of Canada
- Google gets mixed reception in Supreme Court clash with Oracle: Justices held a low-tech telephone session in one of the biggest software fights in American history on Wednesday
- Google’s Supreme Court faceoff with Oracle was a disaster for Google
- IP Alert | Supreme Court Hears Arguments in “Copyright Case of the Century”
- Supremes won’t review the morality of whitewashing graffiti art
- Denial of Certiorari Leaves in Place Ninth Circuit En Banc Decision Finding No Infringement in “Stairway to Heaven”
- hiQ Labs v. LinkedIn Corp., the Web Scraping Saga Continues
- Music in Podcasts – As Podcasts Shut Down Following Infringement Notices, Looking at the Required Music Rights
- 512(f) Claim Survives Motion to Dismiss–Brandyn Love v. Nuclear Blast America (Eric Goldman)
- By the Book: Unauthorized Material Doesn’t Forfeit Training Guide’s Copyright Protection
- Nicki Minaj’s Experimentation with Tracy Chapman’s Classic “Baby Can I Hold You” Qualifies as a Fair Use Under Copyright
- NY Art Disputes Highlight Fame’s Role In Copyright Suits
- “Can’t Hold Us” Liable: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis Win Affirmance in Copyright Suit
- We Interrupt This Hellscape With A Bit Of Good News On The Copyright Front
- DMCA Takedown Notices: A New Opponent for Twitch Streamers
- Twitch blasts streamers with vague, unhelpful DMCA takedown emails
- Lessons from a pandemic: long-term impacts on Canadian trademark practice
- The Cousteau Society, Inc. v. Cousteau: Court holds granddaughter of Jacques-Yves Cousteau cannot escape trademark infringement based on unauthorized use of Cousteau’s trademarks in film projects and materials.
- Microsoft Wields Its IP For Good, Cripples Botnet Via Trademark Litigation
- Will Disney’s newest Toy Story 4 character go ‘caboom’?
- Boston University students launch “F*ck It Won’t Cut It” campaign, University files a Trademark application
- Lehman Brothers is Gone but Not Abandoned
- EU: What does Brexit mean for EU trade marks and designs?
- Comparative aspects of trademark dilution between the United States and China
- Versace ripped off the Canucks’ spaghetti-skate logo
- Depreciation of goodwill with cannabis trademarks
- Determined not to tumble: British Gymnastics’ trade mark dispute and IP protections for sports properties
- The Third Circuit Shares Some Food for Thought on the Bounds of Trade Dress Protection
- Court of Appeal Upholds Interim Injunction in Trade Secrets Case
- How to Keep Trade Secrets Secret
- New Trade Secret Protections in China
- Protection of store layout under IP law
- Protecting Recipes and Food as Intellectual Property
- $644-million award for patent infringement upheld on appeal; Accounting of profits remedy removes “economic incentive to infringe”
- IP monitor: Quebec Superior Court dismisses application for disavowal of a IP monitor – Quebec Superior Court dismisses application for disavowal of admissions of patent invalidity
- Federal Court Freezes Out Motion to Vary Injunction in Patent Case
- US Patent Boss Says No Evidence Of Patents Holding Back COVID Treatments, Days Before Pharma Firms Prove He’s Wrong
- Federal Circuit Restores Induced Infringement Verdict Against Teva
- Watch Out: The Patent Maximalists Are On The Warpath To Destroy Innovation And Empower Patent Trolls
- Applying the Broadest Reasonable Interpretation of the Claim in Light of the Specification, Federal Circuit Revives Claims in Heart Valve Patent
- Why Is My Company Being Sued For Patent Infringement In Waco, Texas?
- Beyond borders: Extraterritorial reach of Australian patents
- Inadequate Translation of a Non-English Application Leads to US Patent Invalidation
- Skinny Label Does Not Prevent Finding of Induced Infringement
- Expert Testimony Stricken Where Expert Did Not Show Non-Infringing Alternatives Were Available in the United States
- Worried about being sued for patent infringement in multiple jurisdictions? Three ways to gain control
- New Grape Varieties – Raisin Awareness of Plant Patents
- High Stakes: Protecting Your Cannabis Intellectual Property
- Nobel Prize 2020: A Chemistry Patent Attorney’s View
- Key IP Agreements for Startups
- Blowing away the competition: design evolution, and what it’s like to be Head of IP at Dyson
PRIVACY
- Canadian privacy and data protection basics for emerging companies
- Sask. privacy commissioner finds clinic’s loss of Dictaphone with patient info was privacy breach
- Location Data Obtained By CBP Comes From Phone Apps, Is Capable Of Tracking People On Both Sides Of The Border
- H&M fined €35.3m under GDPR for ‘Return to Work’ practices
- Fancy Bear imposters are on a hacking extortion spree
- COVID-19 Is Driving The Uptake Of Chess — And Of Surveillance Tools To Stop Online Players Cheating
- Adblockers installed 300,000 times are malicious and should be removed now
- Privacy as an aggregate public good
- United States: California Privacy Rights Act – what you need to know
- Schrems II Series: United States Defence
- In wake of the Schrems II, CNIL challenges use of Microsoft cloud storage to host public health data lakes (the Health Data Hub case – Part 1)
- Judge Shuts Down Vallejo PD’s Illegally-Obtained Stingray
- SF Chronicle Op-Ed: “Prop. 24 is the Wrong Policy Approach, at the Wrong Time, via the Wrong Process” (Eric Goldman)
- The Right to be Forgotten
CREATIVITY
- Quebec court acquits fiction author of child pornography charges
- DOJ Is Suing Melania Trump’s Ex-Friend Over Her Book, Despite Never Being A Government Employee
- Administration Officials (Again) Break The Law By Investigating Voice Of America Journalist For ‘Anti-Trump Bias’
- Devin Nunes Asks Appeals Court To Invalidate Bedrock Supreme Court 1st Amendment Ruling
- ICE Spent Your Tax Dollars Dragging A Journalist Through The Internet Sewer Over A Mistake She Apologized For
- Federal Judge Ridiculously Says That Holding A Sign Telling People Cops Are Ahead Is Not Free Speech
Jon
News of the Week; October 14, 2020
GAMES
- Professional Splatoon player arrested for alleged sexual assault of a minor: Japanese esports organization Creatives parts ways with player
- Console hackers are shocked after DOJ arrests prominent mod-chip makers
- Blizzard workers in France called to strike over closure of Versailles office
- Nintendo forces rebranding for adult entertainer “Pokeprincxss”
- Nintendo issues cease and desist against influencer and adult entertainer Pokeprincxss: Social media personality rebrands after trademarking her name and selling merchandise bearing Pokémon characters
- From Game Boy to 3DS: The legacy of Nintendo’s handhelds: Analysts, developers and former Nintendo staff look back at the why the platform holder dominated the portable gaming space for over three decades
- Judge denies request to force Fortnite back on iOS App Store pending trial
- Apple Does Not Need to Return Fortnite to App Store, Judge Rules: Fortnite’s parent company, Epic Games, had broken its contract with Apple, a federal judge found. The case goes to trial next year.
- Epic Games vs Apple trial set for May 2021: It’s uncertain at this stage whether the trial will be conducted in person or virtually
- Epic vs. Apple judge warns of ‘serious ramifications’ for console makers
- Epic vs Apple case may have “serious ramifications” for Nintendo, PlayStation and Xbox: Court order prevents Apple from blocking Unreal Engine until dispute is settled but Fortnite remains banned on iOS
- Xbox Elite Series 2 added to Microsoft controller drift lawsuit: The updated lawsuit also shed light on what’s allegedly causing the drift
- DiRT 5 and our first Xbox Series X “enhanced” tests: 120Hz saves the uneven ride
- UK regulator bans misleading Homescapes, Gardenscapes pin puzzle ads
- Game Over With Hefty Fine in Gaming Patent Clash
- Hyper casual developer Voodoo wins copycat case against Zynga’s Rollic Games
- ASA bans misleading Homescapes, Gardenscapes ads: Despite pin puzzles being present in the game, UK ad authority concluded Facebook posts were not representative of the overall gameplay
- Amazon cancels free-to-play shooter Crucible
- RIP to Crucible, Amazon Games’ first PC shooter: 2020-2020
- Amazon ends Crucible development for good: Servers will shut down on November 9, just over five months after launch
- Gaming will be a frontline in China’s censorship drive | Opinion: China’s censorious tendencies have begun to creep overseas through commercial pressure, and games companies are in the authorities’ sights
- Staff say Twitch has a chronic problem with racism, sexism, and indifference
- Twitch staff call the company out on sexual assault, racism, more: Employees from throughout the streaming platform’s history describe a culture of indifference to inappropriate, unsafe, and abusive behavior
- How Twitch failed to create a safe space for staff and streamers | Podcast: Latest episode delves deeper into the stories of sexual assault and racism at the company behind the leading streaming site
- Following His Grand Return To Twitch, Ninja Signs With CAA
- Rooster Teeth’s Ryan Haywood and Adam Kovic let go amid ‘explicit photos’ scandal: The Achievement Hunter and Funhaus hosts reportedly sent inappropriate unsolicited photos to fans
- Retaining and fostering women in the games industry: Victoria Setian gave a GDC Summer talk addressing how to fight discriminatory attitudes in the workplace and develop female talent into leadership
- Normalizing depression in the games industry: Chris Charla, Mike Wilson, and Callum Underwood talk about their own struggles with depression, what’s worked for them, and changing attitudes within the industry
- Successful indie devs on coping with failure, imposter syndrome
- UK National Videogame Museum awarded grant to ensure its short-term survival
- Survey: 35% of gamers have a subscription service – 9% of current subscribers already pay for multiple gaming services while 71% would consider multiple subs, according to global poll of 13,000+ consumers
- Report: Microsoft will deploy browser workaround to bring Game Pass to iOS
- Microsoft exploring browser workaround to bring Xbox Game Pass to iOS: Meanwhile, former App Store boss says Apple Arcade violates the same policies blocking Game Pass and Stadia
- Here’s how backwards compatible titles will look on the Xbox Series S and X
- Report: Xbox game streaming will land on iOS in 2021 using Web workaround
- Xbox Game Studios has a record year heading into console launch
- New Microsoft Store principles take a dig at Apple: Company also explains why it will not apply these app fairness principles to Xbox store
- 72% of US next-gen pre-order customers chose PS5: 29% of the respondents to a VGM study said they tried to pre-order a next-gen console but were not able to do so
- PlayStation 5 will only leave 10 old PS4 games in the back-compat dust
- Sony details limits of PS5 backward compatibility: 10 PS4 titles including Hitman Go and Afro Samurai 2 will not play on PS5, while new PS5 HD Camera won’t work in place of PS4’s PlayStation Camera
- Apple touts the new iPhone 12 and its 5G as a game changer for mobile games
- Analyst predicts Switch will outsell PS5, Xbox Series X/S this Christmas: NPD’s Mat Piscatella also says US games spending could be on course for a record year at over $50 billion
- Nintendo reducing price of individual Joy-Cons in Japan: No word yet on whether price drop will be reflected in other markets
- FIFA 21 | Critical Consensus: The new FIFA has the lowest Metacritic average in the series’ history — but does a game with a license to print money have any reason to evolve?
- FIFA physical sales continue to fall sharply | UK Boxed Charts: But digital will likely tell a different story
- Celebrity endorsement? How did Burger King’s sponsorship of Stevenage F.C. lead to Lionel Messi appearing in a Burger King-branded football shirt?
- Star Wars Squadrons stays on target to beat Crash Bandicoot | UK Digital Charts: EA’s flight shooter does significantly better as a digital release
- Super Mario 3D All-Stars dominates September, even without digital | GSD Monthly Chart: Nintendo Switch consoles continue to sell well across Europe
- Super Mario 3D All-Stars was Japan’s biggest-selling game in September: Nintendo compilation sold nearly five times more copies than Marvel’s Avengers
- Mario Kart Live is a fun, if flawed, excuse to race around the house
- Roblox quietly submits draft registration for proposed public offering
- Virtuos acquires CounterPunch Studios and opens Montreal branch
- Virtuos acquires CounterPunch Studios, opens Montreal studio: Los Angeles animation specialist will be integrated into Virtuos’ global team while new Canadian team will focus on concept art
- Embracer Group issues new shares to raise money for future acquisitions: Company completes issue of shares worth over $648 million
- My.Games buys controlling stake in mobile studio Deus Craft for $49.1M
- My.Games buys a controlling stake in Deus Craft: Deal for the Grand Hotel Mania could rise from $14m to $49m based on earnout targets
- MyGames buys minority stake in hyper-casual studio Mamboo Games
- My.Games buys minority stake in Mamboo Games: Partnership enables Russia-based games publisher to expand hypercasual department
- Level-5 has virtually halted operations in North America
- Beamable, once known as Disruptor Beam, files for bankruptcy
- Beamable files for bankruptcy: The studio formerly known as Disruptor Beam reported $3.4 million in liabilities
- Nag Studios raises $1m in pre-seed funding: Stockholm-based company to grow its team as it works to build a “digital super bowl”
- Unknown number of layoffs at GameSpot following Red Ventures deal
- Rockstar buys Ruffian Games, rebrands to Rockstar Dundee: Companies have been working together on unspecified titles for the last year
- 505 Games officially ends production on Indivisible: Publisher will release final Switch update following dissolution of Lab Zero Games
- Com2us buys Out of the Park Developments: South Korean development and publishing company plans to turn historically PC franchise into a mobile one
- Crackdown 2 dev Ruffian Games is now a Rockstar Games studio
- Report: Ni No Kuni dev Level-5 winds down North American presence
- Unity launches Game Growth Program to help indie mobile devs flourish
- Kids vs. Zombies dev Donut Lab raises $1.6 million
- Russian mobile studio Donut Lab raises $1.6 million: Level-Up leads funding round to support upcoming game Kids vs Zombies
- Voodoo to release mobile games in China through The9: Shanghai-based firm has received licenses to release two of the French developer’s games so far
- Tencent proceeds with Huya and DouYu merger: The agreement is expected to close during the first half of 2021
- Tencent-owned Sharkmob opens triple-A studio in London
- 10mg: invading Steam with microgames to make a point
- The weirdest Steam refund messages (& lessons for game devs!)
- YouTube Newcomer Overwatch League Brings Record 1.55 Million Viewers For 2020 Grand Finals
- Esports March On: Nike Jumps In With Glitzy Ad While Forbes Ponders If Esports Will Be Our New Pastime
- Esports organisation RektGlobal secures $35m in funding: Summit Partners invests into firm as new debt capital partner
- Nag Studios nets $1 million to create esports games
- Honour of Kings professional league welcomes first all-female team: Fire Leopard will compete in the King G-League starting next year
- Gfinity begins formal sales process: A “formal sales process” is underway following a difficult year for the UK esports firm
- Newzoo reduces its esports market forecast for 2020 for the third time: Firm attributes revision to lack of in-person attendance at esports events due to ongoing pandemic
- How to get on the good side of media & streamers
- How Arthurian tragedy drives the design of Pendragon
- How pinball made us better RPG developers — and vice versa: Zen Studios COO Mel Kirk on what the pinball specialist learned by leaving its comfort zone with two RPG titles
- An in-depth analysis of IAP pack design in free-to-play mobile games
- Early Among Us character concepts depict the birth of the bean
- Still There examines how far one can run from grief | Why I Love
- Don’t Miss: The Door Problem of Combat Design
- Don’t Miss: The making of Crackdown 2
- Don’t Miss: How Playground imports real skies into Forza Horizon
- Don’t Miss: How Brawlhalla built a fighting game community from the ground up
- Video: Facing down failure as a freelancing game dev
- Video: Game art remastered – From Crash, to Kerrigan, to Corley Motors
- Video: Bridging the gap between UX and game design
- Video: An accessibility Q&A with EA’s Karen Stevens
- Blog: Game composers and the importance of themes – Part 5
- Blog: How do you know when you need ray-tracing?
- Blog: How to Judge Game Design With Achievement Analytics
DIGITAL
- Facebook and the Group That Planned to Kidnap Gretchen Whitmer: Extremist groups and conspiracy theorists like to connect with each other just like everyone else.
- Facebook Doesn’t Have a Duty to Prevent a Murder–Godwin v. Facebook (Eric Goldman)
- Twitter, Facebook face blowback after stopping circulation of NY Post story
- Court Says Twitter Must Unmask User Whose Bogus Document Jumpstarted Seth Rich Conspiracy Theory
- Twitter Attempts To Add A Bit Of Friction In Run Up To The Election
- Facebook bans Holocaust denial amid rapid rise in “deceptive” content
- Facebook to pause all political advertising—after the election
- Facebook Will Temporarily Ban All Political and Issue Advertising After the Presidential Election
- Facebook Abuses Trademark To Give New Prominence To Group Of Facebook Critics Who Are Trying To Shame Company Into More Moderation
- Facebook Bans Marketing Firm for Engaging in “Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior”
- Facebook announces ban on anti-vaccination ads
- How Not to Cover Voter Fraud Disinformation: Journalists should treat systematic disinformation campaigns from President Trump no differently than from Russian propagandists and Facebook clickbait artists (Yochai Benkler)
- China Micro-Censors The VP Debate In The Most Hamfisted Way
- Wisconsin blames Foxconn, says $3 billion factory deal is off
- Democracy & Dragons
- Against Platform Determinism
- Trolling for Truth on Social Media
- EU targets Big Tech with “hit list” facing tougher rules
- Forget TikTok. IRS Inquiry Shows The Continued Abuse Of Location Data Is The Real Scandal.
- WeChat and TikTok Win Preliminary Injunctions Against Trump Administration’s Efforts to Ban the Apps
- DOJ Seizes Domains, Claiming They Pushed Iranian Disinformation; Should Raise 1st Amendment Concerns
- While Trump Continues To Complain About 230, It’s Copyright Law That Once Again Actually Gets His Content Removed
- League Of California Cities Want Congress To Change Section 230… To Let Cops Spy On Everyone Using Social Media
- Section 230 Liability Shield Continues to Receive Scrutiny
- Clarence Thomas Doesn’t Like Section 230, Adding To His Anti-Free Speech Legacy
- Content Moderation Case Study: Facebook’s Internal ‘Hate Speech’ Guidelines Appear To Leave Protected Groups Unprotected (June 2017)
- Content Moderation Case Study: Handling Off Platform Harassment On Platform (June 2020)
- Assessment of the Code of Practice on Disinformation
- YouTube Expands COVID Misinformation Policy To Ban Vaccine Conspiracies
- Google wants to turn YouTube into QVC with new shopping features
- Can You Avoid Creator Burnout By Working The YouTube Algorithm? Is More Actually Less? We Take A Look.
- YouTube Unveils First 5 Originals Produced By Its $100 Million ‘Black Voices’ Fund
- YouTube Gives Premium Subscribers Exclusive Access To Test New Features
- YouTube Testing Ecommerce Tools That Turn Creator Videos Into Product Catalogs
- Top 50 Most Viewed US YouTube Channels • Week Of 10/05/2020
- Top 50 Most Viewed US YouTube Channels • Week Of 10/12/2020
- Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 10/05/2020
- Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 10/12/2020
- F-Factor CEO Sues Influencer Alleging Defamation and More
- France Passes Law Giving Child Influencers Same Protections As Young Actors, Models
- Teespring Will Now Let Creators Vend ‘Digital Products’, Like Photo Presets And Ebooks
- Reels Rolls Out New Content Discovery, Sharing Features
- Twitter Disables Core Functions To Prevent Spread Of Election Misinformation
- Twitter Wins Another Account Suspension Case–Wilson v. Twitter (Eric Goldman)
- Joe Biden Taps Portal A For #ImVotingFor Influencer Campaign On Instagram, Twitter
- Twitter Will Turn Off Some Features to Fight Election Misinformation
- Logan Paul’s Pokemon Card Unboxing Stream Gets 300,000 Concurrent Viewers, Raises $130,000 For Charity
- Facebook Unveils Free Tool Enabling Creators To Test Video Post Performance Before Publishing
- Spotify Now Lets Podcasters Use Its Entire Music Library In Their Shows
- Brooklyn-Based Startup MSCHF Wants To Pay Influencers To Take Down “Evil” Brands
- IBM to split into two companies by end of 2021
- Insights: Could The Streaming Services Killing Movie Theaters Save Them Instead?
- Netflix Nixes Free Trials In U.S.
- Following Staff Exodus, Bon Appetit Relaunches YouTube Channel With 8 New And 3 Returning Hosts
- Apple pays $288,000 to white-hat hackers who had run of company’s network
- Microsoft thumbs its nose at Apple with new “app fairness” policy
- Coordinating office space: Digital technologies and the platformization of work
- Targeting Ontological Security: Information Warfare in the Modern Age
- The pernicious contagion of misinformation: False statements – about Covid-19 and so much else – spread like a virus online. Scientists should study them like one.
- Another Significant Cryptocurrency Decision: SEC v. Kik Interactive Inc. and Token Offerings Under the Securities Laws
- New Export Controls: Emerging Technologies
- A Lawyer’s Duty of Technological Competence
- How Linus Torvalds Invented Today’s Work From Home Paradigm In 1991
A.I.
- Waymo finally launches an actual public, driverless taxi service
- Trustworthy artificial intelligence
- Are we being too hard on HAL? Some thoughts on the legal need for “explainable” artificial intelligence.
- Artificial Intelligence: the key to successful decommissioning in the North Sea?
- The Losers of automation. How the introduction of robotics changed the European occupational class structure
- To Surveil and Predict: A Human Rights Analysis of Algorithmic Policing in Canada
- Smart cities | How AI is boosting understanding of urban dynamics
- Human oversight, individual rights and AI systems in the workplace in the UK
- Behavior trees and the future of intelligent control
COMMUNICATIONS
- The Guilbeault Internet Plan: Leave it to the CRTC and Copyright Board of Canada to Get Money from Web Giants (Michael Geist)
- AT&T plans thousands of layoffs at HBO, Warner Bros., rest of WarnerMedia
- AT&T Is Taking An Absolute Bath On Its DirecTV Merger
- With 42,000 Layoffs Since 2017, AT&T Plans Thousands More Layoffs At HBO, Time Warner
- AT&T has trouble figuring out where it offers government-funded Internet
- AT&T Gives Up On DSL, Leaving Many Out Of Broadband’s Reach
- As COVID Highlights U.S. Broadband Failures, State Bans On Community Broadband Look Dumber Than Ever
- Comcast says gigabit downloads and uploads are now possible over cable
- Successful 5G implementation
- Verizon “nationwide” 5G ready for iPhone 12—don’t expect a big speed boost
- Verizon forced to pull ad that claimed firefighters need Verizon 5G
- SpaceX gets FCC approval to bid in $16 billion rural-broadband auction
- FCC’s Pai Puts Final Bullet In Net Neutrality Ahead Of Potential Demotion
- Access to Infrastructure: using existing ducts and pipes to install new fibre broadband
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
- Google gets mixed reception in Supreme Court clash with Oracle: Justices held a low-tech telephone session in one of the biggest software fights in American history on Wednesday
- Google’s Supreme Court faceoff with Oracle was a disaster for Google
- IP Alert | Supreme Court Hears Arguments in “Copyright Case of the Century”
- hiQ Labs v. LinkedIn Corp., the Web Scraping Saga Continues
- 512(f) Claim Survives Motion to Dismiss–Brandyn Love v. Nuclear Blast America (Eric Goldman)
- By the Book: Unauthorized Material Doesn’t Forfeit Training Guide’s Copyright Protection
- Graffiti artists see victory under Visual Artists Rights Act claim
- Nicki Minaj’s Experimentation with Tracy Chapman’s Classic “Baby Can I Hold You” Qualifies as a Fair Use Under Copyright
- “Can’t Hold Us” Liable: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis Win Affirmance in Copyright Suit
- Obtaining Copyright Registrations for Blogs and Social Media Posts Just Got Easier
- Kanye’s Twitter Rant Flags Issues with Copyright Ownership in Music Deals
- Lehman Brothers is Gone but Not Abandoned
- EU: What does Brexit mean for EU trade marks and designs?
- Versace ripped off the Canucks’ spaghetti-skate logo
- Depreciation of goodwill with cannabis trademarks
- Dior loses PRETTY SAVAGE trade mark dispute in the United Kingdom
- If Something Is Advertised As A Knockoff Product… Is It No Longer Counterfeiting?
- Court of Appeal Upholds Interim Injunction in Trade Secrets Case
- How to Keep Trade Secrets Secret
- Court Finds that Trade “Secrets” Aren’t Secret on Zoom Call
- $644-million award for patent infringement upheld on appeal; Accounting of profits remedy removes “economic incentive to infringe”
- IP monitor: Quebec Superior Court dismisses application for disavowal of a IP monitor – Quebec Superior Court dismisses application for disavowal of admissions of patent invalidity
- Federal Court Freezes Out Motion to Vary Injunction in Patent Case
- US Patent Boss Says No Evidence Of Patents Holding Back COVID Treatments, Days Before Pharma Firms Prove He’s Wrong
- Beyond borders: Extraterritorial reach of Australian patents
- Skinny Label Does Not Prevent Finding of Induced Infringement
- New Grape Varieties – Raisin Awareness of Plant Patents
- In Memory of Guitarist Eddie Van Halen; 10 Musical Patents You Should Know: The Saxophone, Electric Guitar, Electric Double Bass, Concertina and “Band in a Box” – Who Invented These Musical Instruments?
- Promoting the Progress of Science: Written Description and Enablement
- High Stakes: Protecting Your Cannabis Intellectual Property
- 2020 Supreme Court Intellectual Property Case Review
PRIVACY
- Canada’s New Cybersecurity Certification Goes Live
- Undocumented backdoor that covertly takes snapshots found in kids’ smartwatch: The X4, made and jointly developed in China, raises concerns.
- Law Enforcement Also Using ‘Reverse’ Warrants To Obtain Google Searches
- FBI Sent A Special Task Force To Portland To ‘Exploit’ Phones Taken From Protesters
- Now you can enforce your privacy rights with a single browser tick
- United States: California Privacy Rights Act – what you need to know
- Five Eyes Countries Band Together To Complain About Facebook And End-To-End Encryption
- Schrems II Series: United States Defence
- Schrems II – what next for data transfers?
- Office of Foreign Assets Control: Making or Facilitating Ransomware Payments May Violate U.S. Sanctions
CREATIVITY
- Administration Officials (Again) Break The Law By Investigating Voice Of America Journalist For ‘Anti-Trump Bias’
- Devin Nunes Asks Appeals Court To Invalidate Bedrock Supreme Court 1st Amendment Ruling
- ICE Spent Your Tax Dollars Dragging A Journalist Through The Internet Sewer Over A Mistake She Apologized For
- Federal Judge Ridiculously Says That Holding A Sign Telling People Cops Are Ahead Is Not Free Speech
Jon
News of the Week; October 7, 2020
GAMES
- Nintendo wins $2m in lawsuit against Team Xecutor resellers: UberChips.com ordered to cease sale of Switch hack devices and destroy all remaining stock
- Genuine Enabling Tech’s Lawsuit Alleging Patent Infringement by Nintendo Wii and Switch Products Dismissed
- Mother and son seeking $5m in latest Joy-Con drift lawsuit against Nintendo: Plaintiff argues platform holder has not done enough to address Switch issue and does not warn about drift in marketing
- Depicting Randy Orton’s Tattoos in a Video Game Could Be Copyright Infringement–Alexander v. WWE 2K (Eric Goldman)
- Take-Two Going To Trial Over Yet Another Tattoo Artist Claiming Copyright On Athlete Bodies
- Epic Games and Apple will head to trial in May 2021
- What lessons can be learnt from Voodoo’s action against Rollic? | Opinion: Harbottle & Lewis’ Kostya Lobov looks at what the casual games giant’s victory means for fighting clones
- 20% of Ubisoft staff don’t feel respected or safe at work, reveals internal survey
- Designer accuses Ember Labs of underpayment, unfulfilled promises: Ember Labs spokesperson says studio has paid all invoices, “never promised a certain salary”
- Nexus Mods bans political content until after next US presidential inauguration: “We have neither the time, the care or the wish to moderate such things”
- UK Government launches consultation on loot boxes
- WBIE head says Rowling is “entitled to express her personal opinion”: Hogwarts Legacy publisher’s David Haddad tells employees anti-trans Harry Potter author “has the right to hold her opinions”
- The thing about trolls is they regenerate | 10 Years Ago This Month: It’s time to tell the scary story of Edge Games, Tim Langdell, and the trademark dispute that would not die
- Burger King, Stevenage and my FIFA confusion
- Rare, Playground Games and Ninja Theory unite for Women of Xbox UK: Rare’s Louise O’Connor discusses the new initiative, which kicks off with a video series that starts today
- Aaron Greenberg: “Does the price of a game even matter, if it’s in Game Pass?”: Xbox games marketing GM responds to question over whether Microsoft will raise game prices
- Apex Legends brings cross-play to PS4, Xbox One, and PC next week
- Download-free demos via xCloud is (somewhere) on Xbox’s to-do list
- Sony expects PS5 to sell more than 7m units by April: PlayStation president Jim Ryan says “the value is obvious” when it comes to $70 price point for games
- PS5 will change Sony’s Japanese button standards: Next PlayStation switches menu confirmation button from O to X to bring Japan in line with other regions
- Astro’s Playroom devs played a key part in the creation of the PS5’s DualSense
- PlayStation 5 runs cool and quiet, according to initial hands-on reports
- The first PlayStation 5 teardown reveals some hardware secrets
- PlayStation 5 teardown offers an up-close look at the next-gen console
- Has Xbox changed discoverability with its new store?
- Hardware launches and pre-orders desperately need a shake-up | Opinion: Retailers and manufacturers have failed consumers with the botched, badly-managed launches of consoles and graphics cards in recent weeks
- Chromecast with Google TV won’t support Stadia until 2021: Google’s new replacement for Stadia-compatible dongle won’t officially have game streaming for several months, but Stadia Android app can be sideloaded
- Antstream can stream over 1,200 retro games for $10 a month
- Blizzard delays World of Warcraft’s Shadowlands expansion: Release moved to later in the year for additional polish and balancing
- Capcom tries again with Monster Hunter Stories 2 — but why?: Capcom slips another quarter into the machine and makes a play for Japan’s kids market
- Sky: Children of the Light has topped 50 million installs worldwide
- Starbreeze says Payday 3 development is underway, this time using Unreal Engine
- Report: Roblox readies to go public in early 2021
- Roblox’s user-generated game platform could go public at $8 billion valuation
- Roblox reportedly is preparing to go public: Children’s gaming platform expects an $8 billion valuation
- Rovio CEO Kati Levoranta will leave the company at the end of 2020
- Thirdverse secures $8.5m in Series A funding: The Japanese studio, previously known as Yomuneco, is currently working as publisher on inXile’s Frostpoint VR
- Riot Games shuts Sydney office and scraps OPL esports league
- Riot Games closes Sydney office: Company confirms ten employees impacted by the closure
- Report: Call of Duty publisher Actvision Blizzard to shut down French office
- Activision Blizzard closing France office – Report: Publisher pulling the plug on marketing, customer service and localizing office that had hundreds of employees
- Thunderful Group acquires UK developer Coatsink for $29.8 million
- Tencent grabs ‘major stake’ in GTFO developer 10 Chambers
- Tencent takes “a major stake” in GTFO studio 10 Chambers: Swedish dev from veterans of Payday needed “more muscle” to realise its ambitions for co-op shooter GTFO
- Genshin Impact censors “Hong Kong” and “Taiwan” in in-game chat: But Niko Partners’ Daniel Ahmad explains why this is common to all Chinese-developed games
- Genshin Impact becomes biggest international launch for a Chinese game: The free-to-play RPG is the second top-grossing app on iOS in China, only beaten by the Chinese version of TikTok
- Genshin Impact hit 17m mobile downloads in four days
- Genshin Impact made $60m in its first week on mobile alone: Sensor Tower MiHoYo’s open-world adventure was the second-highest grossing mobile title worldwide during its launch week
- Mortal Kombat 11 has topped 8 million sales in under two years
- I played 15 hours of Baldur’s Gate 3 early access, and I want them back
- Star Wars Squadrons impressions: A heavy asterisk at launch for PC players
- Mario’s early levels wear out their welcome in Super Mario Bros. 35
- Interior Night’s mission to turn non-gamers into gamers: We speak to CEO Caroline Marchal about the nuanced narrative of upcoming Microsoft exclusive As Dusk Falls
- Some Epic Games Store games can now be purchased through GOG Galaxy 2.0
- GOG Galaxy 2.0 to sell Epic Games Store titles: The client will offer games that were previously exclusive to Epic’s platform
- Chat Filtering exits Steam Labs testing, is now a bonafide Steam feature
- Valve adds chat filter after successful Steam Labs test: The new tool hides hateful language from people you don’t know by default in Steam Chat
- ‘Resident Evil’ Reboot: Kaya Scodelario, Robbie Amell, Hannah John-Kamen, Neal McDonough & More To Star In Origin Story Adaptation
- Twitch Reinforces Guidelines Surrounding Terrorist, Violent Extremist Content
- Facebook Gaming surpassed one billion hours watched in Q3: Twitch viewership cools somewhat after pandemic spike, while YouTube and Facebook continue stready rise
- Twitch Launches ‘Soundtrack’, A Library Of 1 Million Licensed Songs For Streamers
- Twitch signs exclusive deal with CohhCarnage: Variety streamer agrees to multi-year pact that will have him livestreaming full-time on the platform
- Streamer Ben ‘CohhCarnage’ Cassell Re-Signs To Twitch In Exclusive, Multi-Year Deal
- Activision Blizzard esports CEO Pete Vlastelica is stepping down
- OWL Commissioner and Activision Blizzard Esports CEO Pete Vlastelica steps down: Vlastelica first took on the commissioner role last year following the departure of Nate Nanzer
- G-Loot secures $56m in new investment for expansion plans: Swedish esports firm closes a huge round for its democratic esports tournament platform
- Tilting Point acquires TerraGenesis from Edgeworks Entertainment
- ‘Star Wars: Squadrons’ Review – The New Top Gun of VR Dogfighters
- ‘Star Wars: Squadrons’ VR FAQ – Supported Headsets, Comfort Settings, Min Specs & More
- Google officially ends support for Daydream VR
- Going in-depth with Nintendo’s augmented reality Mario Kart RC car
- Niantic launches new Pokemon Go initiative to help small businesses hit by COVID
- The history of Galloping Ghost, the USA’s largest classic arcade
- The player-focused design and development of battle royale breakout Spellbreak
- Hades makes endless struggle entertaining | Why I Love: Lucid Tales co-founders dive into what elevates Supergiant Games’ underworld roguelike
- The strange flexibility of boundaries in strategy games
- Push and pull: How to build an in-game economy – Unity Technologies’ Julie Shumaker explains how to knit together the key components of a robust and engaging game economy
- Blog: What to expect when you’re expecting (a content creator)
- Blog: Using statistics to design balanced dice
- Blog: Switch & Steam discount strategies? Here’s some good ones
- Blog: Notes from the Q&A sessions with Steam
- Blog: Estimating platform revenues – a discovery conundrum!
- Blog: Tips and advice for pitching your game to a publisher
- Blog: Moving to 170 mini remote offices while maintaining your culture
- Blog: Should game devs become YouTubers to get (more) successful?
- Video: Maintaining your mental health while working in games
- Video: Brenda Romero’s hidden histories of women in programming
- Video: The data-driven game design of Rainbow Six Siege
- Video: Working in games with chronic illness
- Video: Best practices for accessible in-game communication
- Don’t Miss: Interior Mapping – rendering real rooms without geometry
- Don’t Miss: The buzzer-beating bug fix that saved Crash Bandicoot
- Don’t Miss: Spilling data-driven indie marketing secrets with No More Robots’ Mike Rose
- Don’t Miss: Double Fine’s in-depth postmortem of Costume Quest 2
- U.S. Patent no. 9,498,706: System and method for providing an enhanced research game mechanic
DIGITAL
- US House committee says Amazon, Google, Apple, Facebook engaged in monopolistic behavior: Investigation recommends stronger antitrust actions, but requires Congressional approval for further action
- House: Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Google have “monopoly power,” should be split
- Congress Issues Antitrust Report on Large Tech Platforms
- Should Big Tech Be Setting the Terms of Political Speech?
- Step into My Parler: Suspected Russian Operation Targeted Far-Right American Users on Platforms Including Gab and Parler, Resembled Recent IRA-Linked Operation that Targeted Progressives
- Shaking Up the Internet: An Update
- Publishers worry as ebooks fly off libraries’ virtual shelves
- 4th Circuit Finds Jurisdiction Over Foreign Website Operator Who Never Worked in or Visited the United States
- US Commerce Department Identifies Prohibited Transactions with WeChat But Implementation Delayed
- Trump Administration’s Bans on WeChat and TikTok Temporarily Enjoined by Federal Courts
- Further TikTok Developments: D.C. District Court Blocks Commerce’s TikTok Ban
- Coronavirus misinformation: quantifying sources and themes in the COVID-19‘infodemic’ (SarahEvanega, MarkLynas, JordanAdams, KarinneSmolenyak)
- A new study shows how Trump and the RNC duped traditional media into covering mail-in voter fraud
- New Study: Once Again, The Mainstream Media Is A Bigger Problem In Spreading Disinformation Than Social Media
- Mail-In Voter Fraud: Paper Shows Disinformation Campaign Surrounding Risk Of Voter Fraud Associated With Mail-In Ballots Follows An Elite-Driven, Mass Media Model – Social Media Plays A Secondary Role
- QAnon shows that the age of alternative facts will not end with Trump
- Snapchat Has Registered 1 Million Voters, And 65% Of Them Are Gen Z
- hiQ Labs, Inc. v. LinkedIn Corp.
- US Labor Department investigates Microsoft’s efforts to improve diversity – Microsoft: “Our continued focus is to work hard to consider and develop the broadest range of qualified candidates for opportunities”
- Megaupload Lawsuits Remain on Hold Until 2021, Or (Much) Later
- Congressional Republicans With No Strategy On Pandemic, Healthcare, Societal Problems… Have Decided That The Internet Is The Real Problem
- Why Are Senate Democrats Helping Move Forward Trump’s Strategy Of Attacking The Internet?
- Donald Trump Now Wants To Repeal Section 230, Which Will Actually Make The Stuff He Complains About Worse
- Because Congress Apparently Has NOTHING AT ALL IMPORTANT To Work On, It Introduced TWO MORE Section 230 Bills Yesterday
- Jim Jordan Releases Yet ANOTHER Anti-230 Bill (Yes Another One)
- Reps. Gabbard And Gosar Introduce Ridiculous House Companion To Ridiculous Anti-230 Senate Bill From Senator Kennedy
- Section 230 Preempts Another Facebook Account Termination Case–Zimmerman v. Facebook (Eric Goldman)
- Content Moderation Case Study: Sensitive Mental Health Information Is Also A Content Moderation Challenge (2020)
- Content Moderation Case Study: Suppressing Content To Try To Stop Bullying (2019)
- Thank you for posting: Smoking’s lessons for regulating social media: Former Facebook executives admit they used the tobacco industry’s playbook for addictive products. Perhaps it can also be used to undo the damage.
- Hiding hate speech: political moderation on Facebook
- Facebook and Fake News in the “Anglophone Crisis” in Cameroon
- Facebook bans QAnon entirely, says previous crackdown wasn’t enough
- Facebook Pulls Trump Ads Connecting COVID-19 to the Acceptance of Refugees
- Facebook Expands Restrictions on Election-Related Advertising and Prohibits Ads Promoting Militarized Social Movements
- Facebook’s latest “groups” disaster will only make it more toxic
- Facebook Internal Memo Reveals Challenges Social Media Companies Face In Protecting Democracy
- Internet Shutdown: Is It Violation of Fundamental Rights?
- The (Potentially) Shifting Landscape of Online Marketplace Liability
- John McAfee arrested, indicted on tax evasion charges, sued for fraud
- Triller Has Inflated Active User Counts, Former Staffers Say
- How Amazon hid its safety crisis: Robots. Prime Day. Holiday peak. Internal records show Amazon has deceived the public on rising injury rates among its warehouse workers.
- If You’re Going To Sue YouTube For Infringement, Maybe First Don’t License Your Music To YouTube Or Setup Fake Accounts To Upload Your Own Works
- YouTube Revamps Retention Analytics To Give Creators More Data About How Their Videos Perform With Viewers
- YouTube Music Spins Up Global Charts Based On Video View Count
- YouTube Music drops monthly fee for Chromecast support
- 73% Of Brands Are Upping Their Influencer Marketing Spend (Report)
- Snap Doubles Down On Docuseries, Unscripted Originals With New Shows From Kevin Hart, Loren Gray
- David Dobrik’s ‘Dispo’ Raises $4 Million Seed Round From Alexis Ohanian, Vlog Squad Members, More
- Instagram Expands Shoppable Ads To IGTV—And, Later This Year, To TikTok Competitor Reels
- How AMC Used Social Video To Keep ‘The Walking Dead’ Fans Living This Summer
- Spotify Will Now Enable Podcasters To Generate Shareable ‘Promo Cards’ For Social Media
- How Much Money Are Creators Making On TikTok’s $1 Billion Creator Fund?
- From selling songs to engineering experiences: exploring the competitive strategies of music streaming platforms
- Open Access Faces Many Problems; Here’s One That The Indispensable Internet Archive Is Helping To Solve
- Trapped-ion quantum computer sets new mark for quantum volume
- Sourcegraph: Devs are managing 100x more code now than they did in 2010
- Our New Monetization Experiment: Coil & The Web Monetization Protocol
- Can I keep my .eu domain name after the post-Brexit transition period?
- Court holds $100 million Kin coin offering violated federal law
- Form 1040 Cryptocurrency Question is New for 2020
- Owner Of Bitcoin Exchange Convicted of international conspiracy to commit money laundering and racketeering
- “Life Moves Pretty Fast”: a decade on from bitcoin, English law confronts cryptoassets
- Court Rules That Sales of Digital Tokens Were Illegal Unregistered Securities Offerings
A.I.
- High Court confirms that the class of inventions created by AI machines is not patentable
- Patents Court Determines Machines Can’t be Inventors
- High Court Holds that AI Machines Cannot Be Inventors, Further Paving Way for Legislative Phase of the DABUS Saga
- Focusing on Value: Viewing AI Through an IP Lens
- Thaler v Comptroller-General: Part 2 – What now for AI inventions following Thaler?
- Toyota’s ceiling-mounted robot is like GLaDOS for your kitchen
- Palantir Presentations Show How The LAPD Is Able To Turn Tons Of Garbage Data Into Ineffective Policing
- After Years Of Claiming It Doesn’t Use Facial Recognition Software, The LAPD Admits It Has Used It 30,000 Times Since 2009
- SITREP: With “Skyborg,” Air Force hopes to give pilots a “loyal wingman”
- The laughing policebot: automation and the end of policing
- Getting into the engine room: a blueprint to investigate the shadowy steps of AI ethics
- Artificial intelligence – machine or real contractual partner?
- Will AI replace humans? The GPT-3 Guardian op-ed shows the humans have a continuing, but evolving, role.
- Advising AI Start-Ups
COMMUNICATIONS
- What Happened to Canada’s Innovation Agenda?: How Innovation Policy Has Been Sidelined By Cultural Policies and Misplaced Provincial Prioritization of Patents (Michael Geist)
- Guide to Doing Business in Canada: CASL
- Mississippi Says AT&T Took $283 Million For A Network It Never Fully Deployed
- AT&T kills DSL, leaves tens of millions of homes without fiber Internet
- AT&T offloading DirecTV could be a “fire sale” as company weighs low bids
- Report Says 20 Million U.S. Broadband Complaints Went Unresolved Last Year
- The real risks of 5G
- Buying Verizon 5G Home is even harder than finding a Verizon mobile 5G signal
- Verizon Is Still Abusing The Hell Out Of The Word ‘Unlimited’
- SpaceX has launched enough satellites for Starlink’s upcoming public beta
- Order Responding to Net Neutrality Court Decision Circulated for Consideration at FCC’s October Meeting
- FCC Formalizes Foreign Investment Review Process
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
- Fake News, Fake Views and the Parody Exception
- Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc. (SCOTUS Oral Arguments Transcript, October 7, 2020)
- Oracle Is Wrong About Having Permission To Reimplement Amazon’s API. But They Shouldn’t Need It.
- The Supreme Court hears Oracle v. Google tomorrow—here’s what’s at stake
- Copyright Owner Claims Ownership Over Depicting Emoji Symbols in Multiple Colors–Cub Club v. Apple (Eric Goldman)
- Does Copyright Literally Protect Source Code Figuratively?
- Nikola issues copyright takedowns against critics who use rolling-truck clip
- Nikola’s Plan To Combat Its No Good, Very Bad Month Appears To Be Using Copyright To Silence Critics
- Knowingly Removing Photographer’s Credit Costs Buzzfeed Under DMCA
- Hugo Boss Opposes Artist’s ‘Be Boss, Be Kind’ Trademark For Merch
- Toy Story 4’s Duke Caboom Crashes into Evel Kneivel’s Son
- Breaking news: the queen monitors trade mark filings
- David Dobrik Looks To Be Cooking Up ‘Doughbrik’s Pizza’ Business, Per Trademark Filings
- The Fit Kitchen Case and the value of trade marks
- Supreme Court Settles Long-Standing Circuit Split on Trademark Damages: Willful Infringement Is Not a Prerequisite for Awarding a Trademark Infringer’s Profits
- Spolar v. Discovery: Court refuses to restrain Discovery from broadcasting documentary about last photograph of Lincoln, finding prior restraint and that plaintiffs failed to establish claim for misappropriation of trade secrets.
- DOJ Indictment of Chinese Hackers for Break-Ins at 100 Companies Reinforces The Importance of Protecting Trade Secrets and Implementing Security Protections
- Revisiting Supreme Court Nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s Recent Trade Secret Opinion
- Federal Court of Appeal affirms largest reported Canadian patent infringement award in history
- Patentability of Computer-Implemented Inventions in Canada – The Amazon Saga Continues
- Federal Court rejects problem-solution approach, opening field for computer-implemented inventions
- Challenges for Extended Reality (XR) Companies in Patent Prosecution and Litigation
- Lithium-ion battery separators – crucial patent developments
- GSK v. Teva – Induced Infringement Liability Despite Skinny Label
- GSK vs. Teva: Induced Infringement, Skinny Labels and Fat Damages
- Skinny Labelling on Generic Drugs Does Not Avoid Induced Infringement of Patents Covering Non-Indicated Uses
- Former Patent Litigator Becomes Federal Judge And Begins Advertising For Patent Trolls To Come To His Court (And They Have In Droves)
- US Patent Law Year in Review: October 2019 – September 2020
- Guide to Doing Business in Canada: Intellectual property
- Democratising Knowledge: Transforming Intellectual Property and Research and Development
- Jim Murphy’s Article “5 Areas of Intellectual Property You Should Focus on Now,” Featured in Built In
PRIVACY
- A decision by the Québec Access to Information Commissioner highlights the importance of compliance with both federal and provincial privacy legislation
- 40% of data breach records insufficient – Canadian Privacy Commissioner releases findings on data breach register inspections
- Four Million Downloads and Counting: Everyone Should Install the COVID Alert App (Michael Geist)
- European Court of Justice Invalidates EU-US Privacy Shield Framework
- Mass claims for data breaches: if Lloyd v Google doesn’t open the floodgates then perhaps the DCMS will?
- Give up Google, don’t hit ‘accept all’: how to fight for your privacy – In Privacy Is Power, professor Carissa Véliz has made a shocking survey of how much intimate data we are surrendering. But she has a plan to fight back
- Paying ransomware demands could land you in hot water with the feds
- Biggest Ransomware Attack Yet Crippled U.S. Hospitals Last Weekend
- U.S. Government Warns Companies of Legal Risk for Paying Ransom to Cybercriminals
- Palantir, Big Data’s scariest, most secretive unicorn, is going public. But is its crystal ball just smoke and mirrors?
- U.S. Government Publishes White Paper Following Schrems II Decision
- In the Aftermath of Schrems II, an Irish Court Temporarily Allows Facebook’s Data Transfers to the US to Continue
- US responds to Schrems II judgment
- The Privacy Shield Sunk, but Is There a Life Raft for the Standard Contractual Clauses? Strategies for Transferring Personal Data Across the Atlantic from a Post-Schrems II Europe
- Right to privacy: will reliance on WhatsApp messages in misconduct proceedings be a breach of the right to privacy?
- What Does the Legislature Have to Show for Its CCPA Amendments in 2020? Not Much
- Consumer Reports Study Shows California’s Privacy Law Is A Poorly-Enforced Mess
- Over 50 Privacy Professionals & Experts Oppose Prop. 24 (Eric Goldman)
- UK Tribunal To Decide Whether Gov’t Agencies Can Continue To Pretend There’s A Residency Requirement For FOI Requests
CREATIVITY
- Judge Refuses To Dismiss Batch Of Nicholas Sandmann’s Media Lawsuits In The Laziest Defamation Ruling I’ve Ever Seen
- Texas Grand Jury Indicts Netflix For ‘Lewd Exhibition’ Of Children In Its Movie ‘Cuties’
- NY Times Editorial Pages Mess Up Again: Publishes Chinese Official’s Ridiculous Defense Of Stifling Freedom In Hong Kong
- Court Gives Vanilla Ice Cream False Advertising Claims a Frosty Reception
Jon
News of the Week; September 30, 2020
GAMES
- Take-Two sued over use of tattoos in WWE 2K: A judge has ruled that a trial will be required to decide whether it constitutes copyright infringement
- WWE 2K maker Take-Two heading to trial after copying tattoo artist’s work
- Alexander v. Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.
- Alexander v. Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.: Memorandum And Order of September 26, 2020
- Nintendo’s lawsuit against Switch hack seller to land it $2 million in damages
- Supercell to pay $8.5 million over patent dispute with F2P dev Gree
- Epic and Apple don’t want Fortnite dispute settled by a jury
- Epic vs Apple judge calls for trial by jury: Trial could begin in July 2021 at the earliest, still no ruling on whether Fortnite can return to iOS
- Apple and Epic’s big anti-trust showdown likely to take place next summer
- Epic Games goes to battle with Apple and Google: The dispute so far
- Apple v. Epic hearing previews a long, hard-fought trial to come
- Breaking Down the Epic v. Apple Fight
- Epic and Apple decline trial by jury: Apple withdraws demand for jury from countersuit as both firms look to court to settle Fortnite dispute
- Loot Boxes in Video Games – A Call for Evidence
- EA under fire for promoting FIFA loot boxes in toy catalogue: Ad encourages children to use virtual currency FIFA Points to open more Ultimate Team card packs
- Cyberpunk studio breaks promise, forces overtime on developers
- CD Projekt backtracks on anti-crunch commitments ahead of Cyberpunk launch
- CD Projekt Red reportedly enforcing mandatory crunch on Cyberpunk 2077: Studio head Adam Badowski assures “everyone is well compensated for every extra hour they put in”
- Michel Ancel denies link between departure and Ubisoft abuse scandal: Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot reportedly renewed his trust towards Ancel in August, despite the creative director being under investigation
- Genshin Impact removes controversial anti-cheat system: PC players expressed concerns for their privacy as the game’s anti-cheat program would always run in the background
- India unlikely to revoke PUBG ban: Government official says violence is the main issue now ties to Chinese giant Tencent have been severed
- Cloud streaming has larger carbon footprint than downloads, physical games: However, PlayStation study reveals that streaming has lower comparable emissions for games played under eight hours
- Amazon is muscling into cloud gaming with Luna
- Amazon announces streaming gaming service Luna, launching next month
- Amazon announces new cloud gaming service, Luna: Early access launches soon on Fire TV, PC, Mac, and iOS web browser
- Amazon Luna servers will run Windows games directly on Nvidia T4 GPUs
- How Amazon’s Luna cloud gaming service compares to Stadia, xCloud, and GeForce Now: Amazon’s jumping into an increasingly crowded market
- Google’s new $50 Chromecast won’t support Stadia until sometime in 2021
- Zynga is shutting down FarmVille after over a decade
- FarmVille—yes, the original—is finally meeting its demise
- Zynga to sunset FarmVille after 11 years: The publisher’s most formative product will be shut down at the end of this year
- Glu Mobile opens e-commerce platform within Design Home: Design Home Inspired lets players buy real “home décor accessories” in-game
- Google to make third-party app store use easier with Android 12: But it’s also doubling down on its requirements that it get a 30% cut of Play Store sales
- Google announces crackdown on in-app billing, aimed at Netflix and Spotify
- Analysts and publishers say the boom in game sales is here to stay: Corporate heads and industry analysts expect at least some of the increased revenue of 2020 to stick around going forward
- ShopTo warns PS5 preorders may not arrive for launch: Retailer says Sony isn’t sending enough systems to cover initial preorders
- Xbox launching app for remote gameplay on iOS: Android version came out in beta just a few days ago
- The first Xbox Series S/X 1TB storage expansion card costs $220
- The 1TB storage expansions cards for the Xbox Series S and X will cost $220
- Xbox Series X previews report shorter load times, 802GB of usable storage: Quick Resume feature lets users quickly swap between multiple games
- Xbox Series X hands-on: The big back-compat dive begins
- Starting in November, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate will include EA Play
- Japan is Xbox’s fastest growing market: Microsoft is aiming for simultaneous product launches for Japanese market; cloud streaming expected to launch in Japan in first half of 2021
- With Xbox Live MAUs up 82%, Phil Spencer calls Japan Xbox’s ‘fastest growing region’
- Phil Spencer: Microsoft ‘absolutely’ plans on releasing future console hardware
- Microsoft won’t try to buy industry dominance | Opinion: Microsoft was expected to buy control of the games biz from the start — the Zenimax acquisition echoes those times, but today’s Microsoft is a much smarter company
- Epic Games acquires SuperAwesome to create a range of ‘kid safe’ services
- Epic Games acquires SuperAwesome: The deal will see the two companies work together on “kid-safe” online services
- Krafton merging with PUBG Corp: Parent company of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds developer will claim PUBG Corp’s publishing and support teams, leaving development team to operate independently
- Worldwide digital games market: August 2020
- Two Mafia games break Top Ten, but Mario remains in charge | UK Boxed Charts: Super Mario 3D All Stars is the biggest game of September
- Nintendo Switch dominates in September | UK Monthly Charts: Mario games and Switch consoles perform strongly, but FIFA’s absence is felt
- Among Us drives record Discord installs: Discord’s daily downloads worldwide have reached around 800,000
- Niantic makes most Pokémon Go pandemic changes permanent: But the developer will also revert some of the game’s temporary bonuses this October
- The social media strategy behind Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout – Oliver Hindle explains how Mediatonic rapidly grew its hit game’s Twitter to one million followers
- Tekken franchise surpasses 50 million sales
- Rocket League tops 1 million concurrent players after free-to-play switch
- Rocket League passes 1m concurrent players: Psyonix reaches a new milestone as its competitive driving/football hybrid goes free-to-play
- Innersloth cancels Among Us 2 because the first game has become so popular
- Sumo Group acquires development studio Pipeworks to break into the U.S.
- Sumo Group acquires Pipeworks for $100m: Deal for Oregon-based studio adds 134 people to Sumo’s global workforce, and indicates ambitions to expand into the US
- Armada Interactive declares bankruptcy: Coffers run dry for Finnish mobile PvP studio four years after securing its first seed funding
- How former Techland staff plan to “cut the crap” from publishing: Untold Tales promises shorter and more transparent publishing agreements as it seeks single-player narrative-driven games
- Live-action Yakuza movie is in the works: Sega partners with 1212 and Wild Sheep for adaptation based on the franchise
- Tribeca Film Festival issues call for games submissions: Tribeca Games Award introduced alongside newly-formed games advisory board including Geoff Keighley, Hideo Kojima, Sam Lake
- Insomniac re-casts Peter Parker’s face model in Spider-Man Remastered: Ben Jordan to replace John Bubniak due to closer resemblance with voice actor Yuri Lowenthal
- A guide to designing transformative, empowering experiences: Robin Arnott and Heather Ray look into the many ways to create impactful games that evoke a wide range of emotional responses
- Streamers NarcolepticNugget And Dysmo Sign With Up North Management
- Gaming Company Settles SEC Charges for Sales of Unregistered Tokens
- UTA Taps Activision’s Eugene Wu To Work On Esports Brand Partnerships
- The US Navy paid $2m to marketing company to assist with foray into esports: Young & Rubicam, now VMLY&R, to promote Navy’s image, expand awareness, and ultimately up recruitment
- Facebook’s virtual reality push is about data, not gaming
- Oculus imaginaries: the promises and perils of Facebook’s virtual reality
- Outer Wilds’ existential loneliness is engaging, entertaining | Why I Love: Lovable Hat Cult’s Patrick Jarnfelt explores Mobius Digital’s curiously uplifting story of a doomed solar system
- Lessons from a year of running Remnant: From the Ashes
- Q&A: Lair of the Clockwork God devs on the infinite hustle of indie development
- Blog: A Space Moguls map screen retrospective
- Blog: Amazon’s Luna, what’s on the Steam front page, and more on discoverability
- Blog: Historians discuss A Total War Saga: Troy
- Blog: Understanding detective game design – Puzzles vs. story
- Blog: Which do you need – a UX designer, game designer, or both?
- Blog: Creating my facts-first game metrics website GameDataCrunch
- Video: Building teams that can prevent abuse
- Video: How game companies can do better philanthropy
- Video: Designing game communities for kindness
- Video: The business of fair play
- Video: How Star Renegades borrowed the Nemesis system for a turn-based RPG
- Don’t Miss: Evolving the combat design of id Software’s Doom Eternal
- Don’t Miss: ‘Make me think, make me move’: Doom’s deceptively simple design
- Don’t Miss: How Jackbox CEO Mike Bilder is grappling with quarantine-driven success
- Don’t Miss: The real story of Torchlight’s music
- Don’t Miss: How Insomniac built Marvel’s Spider-Man to do whatever a spider can
- 50 standout indie games nominated in this year’s IndieCade Awards
- Game Pink event to raise money for the National Breast Cancer Foundation
- U.S. Patent no. 9,533,229: Custom reward for viral help in game
DIGITAL
- Microsoft boots apps out of Azure used by China-sponsored hackers
- Trump likely overstepped authority with TikTok ban, judge rules
- Judge Rejected Ban On TikTok Because Trump’s DOJ Can’t Show Any Real National Security Threat
- Court Enjoins Trump Administration’s Attempt to Kick TikTok Out of App Stores–TikTok v. Trump (Eric Goldman)
- The Politics and Optics of the TikTok Ban: Data privacy and security concerns are not TikTok specific
- Judge grants TikTok a reprieve, ban will not go into effect tonight
- Court Says Trump’s Plan To Block TikTok Can’t Go Into Effect Yet
- TikTok And The DOJ Still Fighting It Out In Court Despite Oracle ‘Deal’
- Judge gives Trump admin. Friday deadline to delay or defend TikTok ban
- TikTok and the First Amendment: TikTok users have free speech rights—and courts should pay attention.
- Restrictions Affecting WeChat and TikTok: Now Clearly Defined, But Facing Legal Challenges
- Further TikTok Developments: Commerce Identifies and Prohibits Certain Transactions Effective Sept 27
- On The Podcast: As YouTube Tests A TikTok Competitor, It Wants You To Remember It’s ALWAYS Been About Short Videos
- The New US Restrictions on WeChat Usage
- Internet terms and conditions: Second Circuit declines to enforce arbitration agreement accessible through browsewrap hyperlink
- Disinformation, QAnon efforts targeting Latino voters ramp up ahead of presidential election
- Study Finds ‘Single Largest Driver’ of Coronavirus Misinformation: Trump – Cornell researchers analyzing 38 million articles about the pandemic found President Trump was the largest driver of the “infodemic.”
- Facebook needs to enforce misinfo rules against Trump, Biden campaign says
- Former Facebook manager: “We took a page from Big Tobacco’s playbook”
- Facebook Sued For Not Preventing A Bunch A White Guys With Guns From Traveling To A Protest To Shoot People
- Facebook’s long-awaited oversight board to launch before US election: Body will be able to overrule some content moderation decisions and plans to be ready to hear user appeals next month
- The Social Dilemma Manipulates You With Misinformation As It Tries To Warn You Of Manipulation By Misinformation
- Alphabet, shareholders settle in lawsuits over sexual harassment at Google
- YouTube celebrates Deaf Awareness Week by killing crowd-sourced captions
- YouTube Unveils New Tools To Thwart Misinformation About Mail-In Voting
- Text Message-Based Social Platform ‘Community’ Onboards President Obama
- Charges filed in hack that caused NFL athlete’s nude pics to be posted on Twitter
- Apple backs down on taking 30% cut of paid online events on Facebook
- Epic, Spotify, and others take on Apple with “Coalition for App Fairness”
- Chernin Entertainment To Develop Spotify Podcasts For Film, TV In First-Look Deal
- China Blocks Wikimedia From WIPO… Because There’s A Taiwanese Wikimedia Chapter
- Time to decolonise the Internet (Andres Guadamuz)
- Germany Drops Idea Of ‘Pre-Flagging’ Legal Uploads, Which Could Have Stopped EU Copyright Filters Blocking Memes, Parodies, Quotes And Creative Commons Material
- Hate speech: can we all agree on a definition?
- Justice Department Releases Its Dangerous & Unconstitutional Plan To Revise Section 230
- Part I: The History and Evolution of Section 230
- Part II: Section 230 and Proposals for Revision – Some Critical Commentary on Executive Branch Updates
- Sen. Graham Cares More About Trolls Than Section 230 (Comments on Online Content Policy Modernization Act) (Eric Goldman)
- I See This Stupid New Section 230 Bill, And I Say It’s A Stupid Section 230 Bill
- Why Do Republican Senators Seem To Want To Turn Every Website Into A Trash Heap Of Racism & Abuse?
- Content Moderation Case Study: Twitter’s Algorithm Misidentifies Harmless Tweet As ‘Sensitive Content’ (April 2018)
- Content Moderation Case Study: Ask.fm Responds After A Teen’s Suicide Is Linked To Bullying On The Site (August 2013)
- Covid ‘long haulers’ have nowhere else to turn — so they’re finding each other online
- The Need For A Robust Critical Community In Content Policy
- Josh Hawley Is A Lying Demagogue Who Has Built A Fake Fantasy World About ‘Evil Big Tech’
- The Biden campaign wants to take back YouTube: Biden is courting YouTubers ahead of the election
- How a Slacker Frog in an MS Paint Zine Became a Villain for the Alt-Right: In the new documentary “Feels Good Man” filmmakers Angelini and Jones carefully examine Pepe the Frog’s fraught and fascinating legacy.
- Conceptualising technology, its development and future: The six genres of technology
- The commodification of time and memory: Online communities and the dynamics of commercially produced nostalgia
- Lifestyle Enclaves in the Instagram City?
- Meet OnlyTweets, The Unofficial Twitter Feature That Lets Creators Monetize Their Feeds
- Proposed EU rule may mean you can finally delete some apps from your phone
- Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 9/28/2020
- Top 50 Most Viewed US YouTube Channels • Week Of 9/28/2020
- David Dobrik’s Tesla Giveaway Has Driven A Staggering 82,000 Voter Registrations Thus Far
- Insights: An Agent’s Advice On How Creators And Brands Can Navigate Social Media’s Messiest Moment
- Senator asks DHS if foreign-controlled browser extensions threaten the US
- TikTok Is Now Sponsoring A NASCAR Driver
- Digital Marketplace The Lobby Wants To Be “QVC Meets TikTok”
- How Internet-connected voter check-in devices can create election chaos
- OCC Clarifies Status of Stablecoins, US Agencies Procure Blockchain Applications, Solutions Launch on Hedera Hashgraph and VeChain, DOJ Targets Darknet Markets
- Coinbase doubles down on anti-politics stance with exit package offer
- D-Wave releases its next-generation quantum annealing chip
- Feels Good Man, a film that truly gets how things are passed across the Internet
A.I.
- To Surveil and Predict: A Human Rights Analysis of Algorithmic Policing in Canada (Kate Robertson, Cynthia Khoo, Yolanda Song)
- Virality, Algorithms, and Illiberal Attacks on the Press: Legitimation Strategies for a New World
- Human Says No: AI Can’t Be Patent Inventor, Rules High Court Judge
- Should the legal definition of “inventor” encompass an AI machine? The position following “DABUS”
- Thaler v Comptroller-General: Part 1 – AI systems cannot be an inventor under the Patents Act
- UK High Court Denies DABUS Appeal
- Is AI leaving IP behind? HMG consults
- Artificial Intelligence Licensing: What You Need to Know
- Patent application strategies in the field of artificial intelligence based on examination standards
- Deep fakes, inventorship and ethics – WIPO revised issues paper on Artificial Intelligence
- Artificial Intelligence and its challenges for Intellectual Property
- Episode 2: Ulrike till, Director of the division of Artificial Intelligence policy at the World Intellectual Property Organisation
- Considerations and Challenges Regarding Patents for Drug Discovery Using Artificial Intelligence
- Employment Law Red Flags in the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Hiring
- California Intelligence Center’s Facial Recognition Searches Are Turning Good Evidence Into Illegally-Obtained Evidence
- Can Algorithms Violate Fair Housing Laws?: Landlords increasingly use screening services to weed out renters. Advocates say both landlords and the algorithms should be accountable when things go wrong.
- ICE Is Hauling In More Data Than Ever And Palantir Is Helping It Turn Data Into Detainments
- Intel, Heidelberg University team up to bring Radeon GPU support to AI
- Deep algebra for deep beats: The beautiful sounds of musical programming
- Ofqual and the Algorithm
- Uber case highlights risks of automated decisions about employees
- New ICO guidance on AI: Privacy by design saves retro-fitting later
COMMUNICATIONS
- An Anti-Digital Agenda: Forget the Digital Policy Reboot, the Government Just Hit Delete Instead (Michael Geist)
- “Get Money from Web Giants” Grows: Canadian Heritage Minister Guilbeault Says Government Working on a New Data Tax (Michael Geist)
- Guilbeault’s Bogus Billion Dollar Claim: What the Data Actually Says About Canadian Film and TV Production (Michael Geist)
- Cord Cutting Has Utterly Exploded During the Covid Crisis
- The EU Makes It Clear That ‘Zero Rating’ Violates Net Neutrality
- Verizon, AT&T to pay $127M for allegedly overcharging government agencies
- Telecom providers support Federal Court of Appeal’s decision to uphold lowering of wholesale rates
- Hypocrite FCC Commissioner Cheers On Zoom Block Usage By Person He Disagrees With; While Insisting Social Media Shouldn’t Block People
- FCC Keeps Using Bogus Data To Claim It’s Closing The ‘Digital Divide’
- FCC Adopts New Rules on Transparency and Timeliness of Foreign Ownership Review
- Stacked Deck?: Trump Nominates Judge that Has Already Ruled on TCPA’s ATDS Definition to Supreme Court Just In Time For Facebook ATDS Appeal
- Senator Blumenthal Warns AT&T Not To Make Wireless Privacy A Luxury Option
- Report Notes Musk’s Starlink Won’t Have The Capacity To Truly Disrupt U.S. Telecom
- Ubiquitous technologies and 5G development. Who owns the rarest technologies?
- Smart cars, cities and 5G – what does the future hold for the IoT and connectivity
- Will the Passing of Justice Ginsburg Impact the Future of the TCPA?
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
- Access Copyright v. York University – Update on Supreme Court – Replies Have Been Filed (Howard Knopf)
- The Outpost – Mass Copyright Litigation (Howard Knopf)
- How To Be Funny And Not A Jerk In A Cease And Desist Notice, From The Doobie Brothers
- Bill Murray Responds To Doobie Bros. Copyright Letter With Snark, No Offer To Pay For Use Of Song
- Threats with a smile: The cease-and-desist letter in a time of social media
- Federal District Court Rules Nicki Minaj’s Remake of Tracy Chapman Song Protected by Fair Use
- Celebrities v. Paparazzo Copyright in Photographs of Themselves
- Supreme Court denies copyrightability of Georgia code annotations
- Federal Court of Appeal upholds Hilton’s right to use the Waldorf Astoria trademark in Canada: Ruling says registered trademark can be enforced even if there is no physical presence in country
- Not all pun and games: Federal Court not amused with cannabis company’s brand parody
- Woof: Jack Daniels Takes Fight Over Doggy Chew Toy To The Supreme Court
- BrewDog’s ‘Elvis Juice’ Now An Approved Trademark In The UK, But Not the EU
- Burger King Fights Proxy War Against McDonald’s Over Hungry Jack Trademark Dispute
- Back of the net: Messi scores definitive victory in a nine-year legal dispute over his trade mark
- Royal opposition
- High Court rejects appeal to register Jaguar Land Rover shape marks
- No defence for the Defender – Land Rover loses trade mark shape battle with Ineos
- Second Circuit Reverses Tiffany & Co.’s $21 Million Judgment Against Costco Wholesale Corporation
- Pizza & Chicken finger lickin’?
- Is Western Sahara a no-go for trademark protection?
- Trade-secret protections are getting stronger – and other IP trends chemical companies need to know
- Defining design life: The importance of precision
- Federal Court of Appeal affirms largest reported Canadian patent infringement award in history
- 8 important life sciences IP issues for innovators doing business in Canada
- Federal Court finds Eli Lilly’s tadalafil dosage form and process patents invalid
- Federal Court Finds CIPO Examination Practice Out of Line with Supreme Court Precedents
- Problem Found with Problem-Solution Approach to Claim Interpretation
- Egenera Inc. v. Cisco Systems Inc.
- Inventiveness+? Divergent theories of the “inventive concept” in patent-eligible subject matter
- An Old Method Using an Old Product From a New Source Is Not New
- Actual Definitions Can Help Avoid Erroneous Constructions of Patent Claims
- Speedfit’s Treadmill Patent “Runs Into” On-Sale Bar Invalidity Due to Collateral Estoppel Stemming from a Prior Litigation on a Different Patent
- IPR Estoppel: It’s Not A Second Bite at the Apple if You Didn’t Get a First Bite
- Drug Patent Invalid Due to Poor Quality Translation
- Finding Claims Non-obvious Was Not Error, It Was the Application of the Proper Evidentiary Standard
- When Are Recombinant Proteins Structurally Different Than Their Natural Counterparts?
- If Patents Are So Important To Innovation, Why Do Innovative Companies Keep Opening Up Their Patents Rather Than Enforcing Them?
- Ninth Circuit Overturns FTC-Requested Injunction Against Refusal To License Standard Essential Patents
- Implementers of Standard Essential Patents in Germany Must “Clearly and Unambiguously” Express Their Willingness to Take a License Under Fair, Reasonable, and Non-Discriminatory Terms
- Intellectual Property Rights in Recipes and Food
- Purchasing intellectual property by way of an asset sale and purchase
PRIVACY
- Federal Court finds reasonable Health Canada’s decision that enantiomer of previously approved drug not entitled to data protection
- Court of Appeal for British Columbia might recognize common law tort of breach of privacy
- Sask. privacy commissioner finds clinic’s loss of Dictaphone with patient info was privacy breach
- When coffee makers are demanding a ransom, you know IoT is screwed
- The High Privacy Cost of a “Free” Website: Trackers piggybacking on website tools leave some site operators in the dark about who is watching or what marketers do with the data
- Clouds without borders: the dangers of non-localized cloud contracts
- EU Still Asking For The Impossible (And The Unnecessary): ‘Lawful Access’ To Encrypted Material That Doesn’t Break Encryption
- DHS Probably Didn’t Clone Phones To Intercept Protesters’ Communications
- Ex-eBay employees to plead guilty in “bloody pig mask” cyberstalking case
- Mapping power and jurisdiction on the internet through the lens of government-led surveillance
- U.S. Government White Paper to Help Companies Address the EU’s National Security Concerns in Schrems II
- Unspoken truths about Schrems II
- U.S. Government issues white paper regarding EU-U.S. personal data transfers
- The EU personal data transmission guarantees have universal application: Schrems v Facebook
- Out of Control: Failing EU Laws For Digital Surveillance Export
- Portland City Council Passes Strongest Ban on Facial Recognition in US
- Inspector General’s Report Confirms CBP Contractor Was Hacked, Resulting In Sensitive Info Making Its Way To The Dark Web
- Home A-Drone: Surveillance Invited into Our Houses
- An Early Recap of Privacy in 2020: A US Perspective
- California Governor Vetoes Genetic Information Privacy Act
CREATIVITY
- Court of Queen’s Bench judge upholds bylaw banning trailer ads that blight southern Alberta vistas
- A Deaccessioning Decision Tree Grows in Brooklyn—Selling Museum Art in Hard Times
- Judge Vyskocil: Tucker Carlson’s “Extortion” Jab Was Hyperbole, Not Defamation
Jon
News of the Week; September 23, 2020
GAMES
- Voodoo wins plagiarism lawsuit against Zynga-owned Rollic Games: Judge rules that Istanbul-based firm’s Wood Shop copies key elements of Voodoo carpentry game Woodturning
- Supercell ordered to pay $8.5 million for infringing Gree’s patents: Texas jury found Clash Royale developer infringed four patents, fine could be increased by up to three times
- Nintendo sued for planned obsolescence over Joy-Con drift: French organisation found controllers suffer from premature wear of the electronic circuits and an airtightness defect
- UK Government launches call for evidence on loot boxes: Inquiry seeks to examine concerns over whether randomised monetisation mechanics can lead to problem gambling
- FTC Group Up On Loot
- Apple presses court to deny Epic’s request for lift on Fortnite ban: iPhone maker reiterates argument that this situation is of Epic’s own making, says Fortnite firm is “a saboteur, not a martyr”
- Epic Games: Fortnite is doing fine, actually
- Clash of Game Companies: Lessons learned from GREE and Supercell Dispute
- Microsoft set to acquire Bethesda parent ZeniMax for $7.5B
- Microsoft purchases Bethesda Softworks in industry-changing acquisition
- Microsoft buys ZeniMax Media and The Elder Scrolls dev Bethesda for $7.5 billion
- What happens to Bethesda’s multi-platform games under Microsoft?
- Bethesda x Xbox – what does it mean for ‘regular’ game devs?
- Xbox buys Bethesda parent ZeniMax for $7.5bn: Deathloop and Ghostwire Tokyo exclusivity agreements to be honored, future releases to be decided on a case-by-case basis
- ZeniMax Media won’t be the last of Microsoft’s game dev acquisitions
- Microsoft is open to still more games acquisitions – CEO Satya Nadella: “We will always look to grow inorganically where it makes sense”
- Frictional Games’ Amnesia: The Dark Descent, A Machine for Pigs are now open source
- Report: Trump admin looking into Tencent’s US gaming investments
- Report: Riot Games, Epic Games come under US Gov’t scrutiny over Tencent ties
- Trump administration reportedly questions Epic, Riot about Tencent investment: Both companies said to have received letters from Committee on Foreign Investment in the US following executive order against WeChat
- Epic leads $15m funding round in Manticore Games: Core platform “exemplifies” the user-generated future of video games, Epic says
- Epic is offering $10 coupons to Rocket League players that use the Epic Games Store
- Activision says Call of Duty account hack reports are false: Publisher assures it investigates all privacy concerns, but reiterates that players should protect online accounts
- Games industry a “prime target” for cyber attacks: Data shows there were 3,072 DDoS attacks in games over the course of one year
- Ubisoft Bows To Monster Energy To Rename An Upcoming Game Horribly
- Ubisoft apologises after male-only Assassin’s Creed promo video: Publisher has since re-edited and released a version showcasing the female protagonists of the best-selling series
- Hammer drops on hackers accused of targeting game and software makers
- BTS To Debut Exclusive “Dynamite” Music Video Inside ‘Fortnite’
- Nintendo 3DS discontinued
- Nintendo winds down 3DS production after almost a decade
- The end of the 3DS marks an inflection point for portable gaming
- A fond farewell to the weird and wonderful Nintendo DS
- Super Mario 3D All-Stars beats Avengers to No.1 | UK Charts: Nintendo’s compilation celebrating Mario’s 35th anniversary is the third biggest launch of the year in the UK
- You can now stream your Xbox One games to your Android phone for free: Microsoft opens up Xbox remote play streaming to everyone with new Android app beta
- The new Xbox App for smartphones will create a ‘unified Xbox experience’
- We are in possession of a working Xbox Series X
- Xbox Game Pass has topped 15 million subscribers
- Google debuts first Stadia Makers recipients in pitch for indie support
- Microsoft still determined to get Xbox Game Pass on iOS: Xbox boss Phil Spencer also says the platform holder plans to “leave ZeniMax alone” following $7.5 billion acquisition
- Microsoft’s Game Pass now has over 15m subscribers: That’s up from 10 million as of April 2020
- Xbox chief Phil Spencer confident xCloud will gain iOS support
- Microsoft wants to replenish more water than it consumes by 2030
- Microsoft commits to becoming “water positive” by 2030: The company wants to replenish more water than it uses by the end of the decade
- China is ready for the PS5 and Xbox, even if Sony and Microsoft aren’t ready for China | Opinion: Imported next-gen consoles are already available for pre-order in China, says Apptutti’s Daniel Camilo
- Spider-Man Remastered won’t get physical PS5 release: PS4 save files from Marvel’s Spider-Man also won’t carry over to the PS5 version
- PlayStation’s Jim Ryan: “We want to give gamers certainty that they’re buying a true next-generation console”
- PlayStation 5 backwards compatible with most PS4 titles, but nothing older: System will not be able to play PS3, PS2, or PS1 games
- Sony makes it official: PlayStation 5 won’t natively support PS1, PS2, PS3
- PlayStation 5 already selling out at some retailers: Sony will open direct pre-orders by invitation tomorrow
- PS5 retailers have many fewer Digital Edition systems for preorder
- Sony promises more PS5 pre-order stock for retailers: Platform holder apologises for confusion after major stores sold out one day before pre-orders were supposed to begin
- PlayStation 5 demand and miscommunication cause pre-order chaos
- SIE has now successfully tested thousands of PlayStation 4 games on PS5
- Sony sees another three to four years of life in the PlayStation 4
- Amazon is telling those who pre-ordered PS5s they may not get them at launch: Cautionary email cites “high demand” as retailers, Sony sell out of pre-orders
- Apparent prototype photos show Sony’s canned “PlayStation phone” followup
- Editor roundtable: As next-gen heats up, which game console has the edge?
- NPD analyst says higher next-gen prices shouldn’t hurt sales
- Firing the starting pistol on the next generation | Opinion: The details of November’s launches are now in the wild — for once, this will be a console race with no clear winner from the start
- Game streaming start-up Playco lands $100m in Series A funding: Zynga co-founder, ex-DeNA director, Game Closure co-founder and senior producer raise money for browser-based approach
- CD Projekt “shortened” Cyberpunk’s campaign over length complaints: Too many players failed to reach the end of The Witcher 3’s story, so Cyberpunk 2077 will take less time to finish
- The average cost to acquire a mobile game user plummeted this year: Liftoff – But the cost to convert that user into a paying player has been on the rise over the last two years
- Metacore gets €25m investment from Supercell: Finnish studio has rebranded from Everywear Games, and launched its first game today
- Unity valued at $13.7 billion following $1.3 billion IPO
- Unity valued at $13.7bn after successful IPO: Engine provider raised $1.3 billion through sale of shares on New York Stock Exchange
- Nanobit acquired by Stillfront in $100 million deal
- Stillfront Group acquires Nanobit for at least $100 million: Acquisition expands Stillfront’s portfolio into narrative lifestyle RPGs
- Keywords acquires development studio Heavy Iron for $13.3 million
- Keywords splashes $13.3m on Heavy Iron Studios acquisition: Co-development studio most recently worked with Crystal Dynamics on Marvel’s Avengers
- Bandai Namco acquires Unknown 9 developer Reflector Entertainment
- Bandai Namco acquires Unknown 9 developer Reflector Entertainment: Purchase of Montreal developer continues publisher’s goal to produce 50% of its content outside of Japan
- Core dev Manticore Games raises $15 million, thanks in part to Epic Games
- Bunch raises $20m toward multiplayer social platform expansion: Investment led by General Catalyst, included Take-Two, Ubisoft, Supercell, EA, and Riot
- Beyond COVID-19: Lessons from an unprecedented global challenge: EGDF president and ISFE chairman are encouraged by the industry’s response to crisis, but the way forward is far from certain
- Football Manager 2020 sees 1 million players in first days of Epic Games Store free week
- Free Football Manager scores 1m new players on Epic Games Store: The 2020 entry in Sports Interactive’s football management sim franchise is currently free on Epic’s shop
- Hades has sold over 1 million copies in under two years
- Spellbreak hits 5 million players in under three weeks
- Super Mario 3D All-Stars | Critical Consensus
- Luck is a failing strategy for developers | Opinion: Leverage Partnership’s David O’Connor shares a cautionary tale about indies whose first game was a smash hit
- Digital Schoolhouse expands to Nigerian classrooms with Kucheza partnership: Kucheza Games will help UKIE-backed initiative deliver computer science lessons in Nigeria
- Avatars and artists: Musical mash-ups in gaming
- Riot signs deal for League of Legends toys: Multi-year agreement with Paw Patrol toy maker Spin Master should see action figures hit shelves in fall of 2021
- Twitch Experiments With Intrusive Ads That Piss Off Its Most Important Asset, Its Talent
- Twitch’s Most-Subscribed Streamer, ‘NickMercs’, Re-Ups With FaZe Clan For 3 More Years
- Mobile Premier League raises $90m in funding: The esports mobile gaming platform is looking to expand outside of India
- Legend of Grimrock leaves no stone unpressed | Why I Love: Worm Jazz developer Yu He explains how the 2012 dungeon crawler was designed to draw players in
- Directing The Outer Worlds’ first narrative expansion The Peril on Gorgon
- Q&A: Why Apex Legends players are so in love with Skull Town
- Blog: Game composers and the importance of themes – Part 4
- Blog: Why 2021 will be a landmark year for cloud gaming
- Blog: What does cross-platform mean to you?
- Blog: Rules for a future-proof 2D render order
- Blog: Combating toxicity in online games
- Blog: Designing a thrilling enjoyable arcade experience for VR
- Blog: How to better represent older characters in your game
- Don’t Miss: Inside the development of Supergiant Games’ Hades
- Don’t Miss: The evolutionary process of building Rayman Origins
- Don’t Miss: How Prey gives players space to tell their own stories
- Don’t Miss: How Supergiant Games adds new deities to Hades’ pantheon
- Don’t Miss: Ray Muzyka’s Baldur’s Gate II postmortem
- Video: Everything you wanted to know about unionizing your workplace
- Video: Preventing online harassment in games by studying social media’s failures
- Video: Behind Riot Games’ Player Dynamics design philosophy
- Video: How company leaders can tackle systemic inequality in the game industry
- Video: How Pendragon went from side project to full Arthurian adventure
- Video: How the Duolingo team balances profits and ethical design
- NantWorks, LLC v. Niantic, Inc.
- U.S. Patent no. 9,555,334: System and method for managing virtual worlds mapped to real locations in a mobile-enabled massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG)
- U.S. Patent no. 9,561,433: Providing event rewards to players in an online game
DIGITAL
- Facebook Has Been a Disaster for the World: How much longer are we going to allow its platform to foment hatred and undermine democracy?
- StopHateForProfit Campaign Enlists Celebrities for 24 Hour Facebook and Instagram Freeze
- Facebook vows to restrict users if US election descends into chaos
- Facebook warns privacy rules could force it to exit European market
- Google could face federal, state antitrust suits next week, reports say
- Google Maps gets a COVID-19 layer
- Companies can track your phone’s movements to target ads
- Experts Say Internet Shutdowns Don’t Thwart Protests
- The TikTok ‘Deal’ Was A Grift From The Start: Accomplishes None Of The Stated Goals; Just Helps Trump & Friends
- Everything we know so far about Oracle not actually buying TikTok
- Blowback Time: China Says TikTok Deal Is A Model For How It Should Deal With US Companies In China
- China Calls TikTok Deal ‘Extortion’; Says It Will Not Approve
- Judge Issues Preliminary Injunction Saying That The US Cannot Block WeChat, Says The Ban Raises 1st Amendment Concerns
- Court blocks Trump’s WeChat ban from taking effect today
- Executive Orders on Pause: WeChat and TikTok Bans Temporarily Suspended
- Commerce Department’s Ban on WeChat and TikTok Mobile Applications Delayed on Eve of Implementation
- WeChat Executive Order Enjoined Because (Of Course) It’s Unconstitutional–WeChat Users v. Trump (Eric Goldman)
- Walmart and Oracle Deal with TikTok and WeChat Lawsuit Delay Commerce’s Ban on Transactions with WeChat and TikTok
- Details Of Unconstitutional WeChat/TikTok Ban Actually Would Make Users Of Those Apps Less Secure, Not More
- US Commerce Department Identifies Prohibited Transactions Involving WeChat and TikTok
- US-EU-UK Export Controls and Sanctions Alert The Commerce Department Announces Prohibitions on TikTok and WeChat – September 2020
- Department of Commerce Notices on Prohibited Transactions Relating to WeChat and TikTok
- TikTok Bans Ads For Diet Pills And Fasting Apps, Restricts Other Weight-Related Ads To Users 18+
- Impending WeChat ban won’t actually ban users from WeChat, DOJ says
- WeChat Users Fighting To Block Trump’s Executive Order Banning The App In The US
- Trump admin orders TikTok, WeChat gone from app stores on Sunday
- On The Podcast: Snapchat Really Is Planning To Take On TikTok
- Trump approves Oracle, TikTok deal “in concept”
- Trump Tentatively Approves Oracle, Walmart Deal For 20% Of TikTok
- Twitter Isn’t Liable for Defamatory Impersonation Account–Brikman v. Twitter (Eric Goldman)
- Trump Still Hates The 1st Amendment: Meeting With State Attorneys General To Tell Them To Investigate Internet Companies For Bias
- Facial Recognition Database Vendor May Not Qualify for Section 230–Vermont v. Clearview
- Online Content Policy Modernization Act Duplicates Existing Senate Republican Proposal to Limit Section 230 Liability Protections
- Justice Department sends its Section 230 rewrite to Congress
- Authors Of CDA 230 Do Some Serious 230 Mythbusting In Response To Comments Submitted To The FCC
- Court Rejects Clearview’s First Amendment, Section 230 Immunity Arguments
- Senator Lindsey Graham Must Be Desperate For Donations; Announces Terrible Bill That Mashes Up Bad 230 Reform With Bad Copyright Reform
- California Cities Voting On Ridiculous Resolution Asking Congress For Section 230 Reform… Because Of Violence At Protests?
- Busting Still More Myths About Section 230, For You And The FCC
- Content Moderation Case Study: Twitter Freezes Accounts Trying To Fact Check Misinformation (2020)
- YouTube, Facebook, Twitter Agree To Adopt Shared Harmful Content, Brand Safety Policies
- YouTube Facing $3 Billion Class Action Suit In The U.K. Alleging Collection Of Underage User Data
- Former YouTube Content Moderator Sues Company After Developing Depression, PTSD Symptoms
- FTC Signals Intent to Focus on Use of Social Media Bots in Advertising
- Political Digital Ads: Disclosure, Free Speech, and Legislation
- Who Done It?: Royal Seas Cruises to Face Bench Trial on Issue of Arbitrability After Plaintiff Denies Visiting Website
- YouTube Bringing More Human Mods Back To Work After Coronavirus-Related Pause
- Patient dies after ransomware attack reroutes her to remote hospital
- $100,000 in bribes helped fraudulent Amazon sellers earn $100 million, DOJ says
- User-generated video sharing platforms subject to new obligations
- Content Moderation Case Study: Usenet Has To Figure Out How To Deal With Spam (April 1994)
- Instagram Doubles Maximum ‘Reels’ Length To 30 Seconds
- Wayback Machine and Cloudflare team up to archive more of the Web
- Top 50 Most Viewed US YouTube Channels • Week Of 9/21/2020
- Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 9/21/2020
- YouTube Creators Are Taking A New Approach To Make Sure Their Fans Are ‘Good To Vote.’ And It’s Working.
- YouTube Feeds K-pop Fervor With Next Original Series—An Inside Look At Weeklong Convention KCON:TACT
- Mozilla Is Trying To Dissect YouTube’s Recommendation Algorithm Using Data Donated By Viewers
- Facebook Extends 4-Year-Old ‘Rights Manager’ Video Copyright Tool To Still Photography
- Quibi Reportedly Seeking A Buyer After Lackluster First Months
- Cryptocurrency: Theft and Asset Recovery
- Cryptocurrency Tax Laws & What to Know in 2020
- The First Cryptocurrency Bank
- UK Government Consultation on the Promotion of Cryptoassets
- Blockchain and Digital Assets News and Trends Achieving Digital Transformation and Securing Digital Assets
- OCC Issues Clarification on Stablecoin Custody Services
- Lenovo begins selling OEM Ubuntu PCs to the general public
A.I.
- The Cruel New Era of Data-Driven Deportation
- YouTube Will Now Harness Machine Learning To Auto-Apply Video Age Restrictions
- Bridging the Gap: Automated Facial Recognition Technology in Police Surveillance
- Cop arrests apparently sleeping Tesla driver going 93mph
- How algorithms discern our mood from what we write online: Researchers and companies are harnessing computers to identify the emotions behind our written words.
- Inventor or creator: How is AI’s rapid development influencing the evolution of IP protection?
- Lessons in ‘Ethics by Design’ from Britain’s A Level algorithm
- UKIPO launches ‘AI and IP Call for Views’
- AI inventors at the UKIPO and EPO
- Patently Obvious? AI as an Inventor After DABUS
- Artificial intelligences as extended minds. Why not?
- Artificial (un)intelligence and the U.S. military: Will they make better decisions than humans — or worse?
- Poverty Lawgorithms: A Poverty Lawyer’s Guide to Fighting Automated Decision-Making Harms on Low-Income Communities
- Current and future regulatory landscape for AI and machine learning in the investment management sector
- Are we being too hard on HAL? Some thoughts on the legal need for “explainable” artificial intelligence.
- Artificial Intelligence and Telework: Security Measures to be Taken
COMMUNICATIONS
- Why It’s Time to Reboot Canada’s Failed Digital Agenda (Michael Geist)
- “Get Money From Web Giants”: Why Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault’s Top Legislative Priority is Risky Business (Michael Geist)
- Trump Nominates Guy Who Wants To Police Speech Online To Be The Next FCC Commissioner
- DOJ Continues Its Quest To Kill Net Neutrality (And Consumer Protection In General) In California
- FCC Releases Draft Order Formalizing “Team Telecom” Process
- FCC Holds that Fax Broadcasters are Solely Responsible for TCPA Violations When They Deceive Advertisers
- Facebook and the United States Submit Briefs in Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid
- Comcast shut off Internet to hundreds, saying they were illegally connected
- Verizon Buys Tracfone As U.S. Wireless Gets Even More Consolidated
- AT&T Whines That The T-Mobile Merger Consolidated Too Much U.S. Spectrum In One Place
- T-Mobile amassed “unprecedented concentration of spectrum,” AT&T complains
- T-Mobile hits back at AT&T and Verizon after spectrum-hoarding accusations
- AT&T Says It’s Eyeing ‘Wireless Discounts For Ads.’ But It’s Not Going To Be What You Think.
- The Geopolitics of 5G
- Major overhaul of UK telecoms regulation to go ahead by the end of December 2020
- Old TV set interfered with village’s DSL Internet each day for 18 months
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
- Mandatory copyright tariffs – Uncharted territories
- Nicki Minaj’s “Artistic Experimentation” with a Tracy Chapman Song “to Seek License Approval” Qualifies as a Fair Use Under Copyright
- LEGO Blocks Out ZURU in Copyright Dispute Over Minifigures
- Schwartzwald v. Oath Inc.: Court dismisses photographer’s copyright claim against HuffPost, finding media site’s altered reproduction of photographer’s viral “crotch shot” of Jon Hamm constituted fair use.
- Corbello v. DeVito: Court rules musical Jersey Boys did not infringe biography, holding musical depicts historical facts not protectable by copyright law and author cannot claim work was fictional for copyright protection.
- It’s September 21st And Demi Abejuyigbe Has Another Great September 21st Video For Charity, Marred By Copyright Takedowns
- Should an Advertising Agency Display Client Work on its Website After the Relationship Ends?
- Federal Court of Appeal does not disturb lower court’s finding of ‘use’ for hotel services
- Company Owning ‘Evel Knievel’ Rights Sues Disney Over ‘Toy Story 4’ Amalgam Parody Character
- Banksy’s “Flower Thrower”-n off the EUTM register
- Banksy’s trade marks at risk as artist loses legal battle over registration of Flower Thrower mural
- Controlling Black Lives Matter: the battle to trademark a movement
- No love for XOXO application
- Battle of the b(r)ands: Lady A vs Lady A
- USPTO Warns of Email Scam Targeting Trademark Owners
- “Brands will be more and more resource-challenged”: five predictions for the future of IP practice
- Dior loses PRETTY SAVAGE trademark dispute in the United Kingdom
- Cannabis, BLM and FCUK — dealing with moral objections to UK trade marks
- Economic link puts an end to lengthy dispute: Gugler France’s decade-long trade mark campaign
- Who will reign Supreme in the battle for the trade marks?
- Seventh Circuit Upholds $140 Million Compensatory Damages Award and Caps Punitive Damages at $140 Million in Trade Secret Case
- Guarding Trade Secrets and Rethinking IP Indemnity Risks in the New OSS/Open Source World
- Designer panel: is being copied ever good news?
- The Federal Court of Appeal Upholds $640 Million Accounting of Profits Award for Patent Infringement
- Federal Court finds a problem with problem-solution
- VirnetX v. Apple: Delay of Five Months Justifies Denial of Motion to Amend Judgment of More Than $400 Million
- Canadian Patent Office’s approach to computer-implemented inventions rejected by Federal Court
- COVID-19 and the compulsory licensing of patents
- Publication of Part of Complex Invention Does Not Prevent Joint Inventorship
- Justice Ginsburg’s Dissents – in Patent Law
- The Impact of Intellectual Property on Virtual Reality
- WIPO’s Global Innovation Index breaks new ground as brand value included for first time
- IP monitor: CIPO announces fee increases beginning January 1, 2021
- Blockchain & IPR a breakthrough collaboration
PRIVACY
- B.C. Court of Appeal confirms there is no “federal common law” privacy tort, but suggests the existence of a provincial privacy tort is an “interesting question”
- The Times They Are A Changin’ Canadian Privacy Law in the Private Sector
- Canadian privacy law reform is coming – are you ready?
- A tip from a kid helps detect iOS and Android scam apps’ 2.4 million downloads
- The fight over the fight for California’s privacy future
- The Uncertain “State” of US Data Protection Law: California Leads the Way
- Government Warns of New Cyber Threats Targeting U.S. Businesses
- USPS Regrets Its Transparency, Asks FOIA Requester To Remove 1,200 Pages It Forgot To Withhold
- New York AG Announces Settlement with Dunkin’ Regarding Data Breach Lawsuit
- House Passes Bill To Address The Internet Of Broken Things
- Telegram messages are a focus in newly uncovered hack campaign from Iran
- Portland Passes Ban On Facial Recognition Use By City Agencies And Private Businesses
- Preparing for the Next Front in Biometric Class Actions: Portland’s Facial Recognition Ban
- Californians: VOTE NO ON PROP. 24, The California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) (Eric Goldman)
- OFAC sanctions Iranian cyber threat group
- Fourth Circuit Appeals Court Seems Skeptical That Baltimore’s Aerial Surveillance System Violates The Fourth Amendment
- Irish Data Case Against Facebook Could Complicate All Data Transfers to the US
- Impact of Swiss Privacy Shield Inadequacy Decision
- GDPR Hot Issues: Cookies, Data Transfers, and Enforcement Trends
CREATIVITY
- Human Rights Organization Issues Press Freedom Alert Over UK Government’s Refusal To Speak To Critical Journalists
- Return to upward trend seen in 2017 of defamation claims taken in the Circuit Court
- SDNY Relies on “Simple Reading” of Label to Dismiss False Advertising Claim
- Alan Dershowitz Files SLAPP Suit Against CNN; Says Not Airing More Of What He Said Is Defamation
- How do music festivals adapt to a pandemic? They Fest in Place, of course
- How To Avoid Acquiring Fake Art
Jon
News of the Week; September 16, 2020
GAMES
- Lawsuit over Atari 2600 Copycat Is Going to Trial
- Ubisoft renamed Immortals Fenyx Rising after trademark dispute: Upcoming game given current name after Monster Energy opposed trademark application for original title Gods & Monsters
- Twitch apologizes for offensive Hispanic Heritage Month emotes: Emote modifiers including sombreros and maracas “clearly missed the mark” and were inappropriate, streaming platform says
- Apple asks to block iOS Unreal Engine development in new court filing
- Apple claims Epic started legal battle to ‘reinvigorate interest’ in Fortnite
- Apple allows streaming games on iOS, but there’s a catch
- Apple’s updated iOS App Review Guidelines basically put the kibosh on Stadia, xCloud
- Ubisoft CEO issues apology for past misconduct ahead of Ubisoft Forward event
- Ubisoft CEO addresses abuse scandal, Elite Squad controversy: Yves Guillemot apologizes for failing to protect victims, condemns “anyone using our game as a proxy for hate or toxicity”
- Ubisoft adds Riders Republic, Prince of Persia remake to early 2021 lineup: Publisher plans Immortals Fenyx Rising and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World re-release for this holiday season, Rainbow 6 World Cup event next summer
- Private data gone public: Razer leaks 100,000+ gamers’ personal info
- Razer apologises for exposing 100,000 customers’ personal data
- Trans games professionals explore Tell Me Why’s landmark depiction of trans identity
- Darewise: “We have a social responsibility” to provide alternatives to game violence – Why the former AAA developers are focusing on social interactions and collaboration in Life Beyond
- Mediatonic’s plan to exile Fall Guys cheaters to a cheaters-only queue backfired
- Gaming engagement begins to return to post-pandemic levels in Europe: GameTrack survey finds that players spent an average of 1.5 more hours per week on games during lockdown
- EA to replace Origin with EA Desktop as services rebrand continues
- EA To Rebrand Its Origin Platform As It Bows Out Of The PC Gaming Platform Wars
- EA furthers its strategy for “frictionless,” “democratized” gaming
- Take-Two CEO questions cloud gaming hype, claims tech won’t be transformative
- Strauss Zelnick doubts cloud gaming will transform the industry: Take-Two CEO questions the logic that removing the console or PC dramatically expands gaming’s audience
- US labor agency finds merit in Kickstarter termination complaint: NLRB says union organizer has a case in claiming he was illegally fired by the crowdfunding platform
- Roblox launches digital civility curriculum to teach students about online safety
- Roblox wants to teach kids how to spot fake news and be safe online: Firm rolls out free ‘digital civility’ course with 20 hours worth of educational content
- Cloud streaming support is being added to over 150 Xbox Game Pass Ultimate titles
- Codemasters: “It would be naive to think costs remain the same” on next-gen – But CEO Frank Sagnier is optimistic as Dirt 5 is positioned as a key title in Xbox Series, PS5 launch line-up
- Series S redefines “next-gen” – and throws down a gauntlet to Sony | Opinion: Microsoft shows its commitment to disrupting the market as the $299 Series S questions the concept of console generations
- Xbox updates privacy settings, promises more transparency about data collection: Platform holder will no longer collect data from voice search, will allow users to opt-in to additional diagnostics sharing
- PlayStation 5 event: $499 with a disc drive, $399 without, on Nov. 12
- PlayStation 5 priced at $399 & $499, but it won’t see a cohesive global launch
- PlayStation 5 will cost $500, all-digital version is $400: Both consoles launch November 12 in select regions, November 19 worldwide
- Sony embraces increased next-gen software pricing: Demon’s Souls and Destruction All Stars will cost $70 as PlayStation 5 console exclusives
- Sony pushes back on reports that it’s reducing PS5’s launch availability
- Sony denies rumors that PS5 production has been cut over chip manufacturing issues
- Sony: “We have not changed the production number for PlayStation 5” – Hardware maker denies reports it has cut production by 4 million units
- Sony rolls out PS Plus Collection for PS5 launch: Subscribers will be able to download more than 15 PS4 games to play on the new console
- Sony reportedly using air freight to move PlayStation 5 to US retailers: Use of pricier transit could be due to factors including need for more production time, higher demand, COVID-19
- Analysis: Sony banks on PlayStation Studios to deliver winning console generation
- First-party PlayStation 5 games priced from $49 to $69, with some also coming to PS4
- GameStop reportedly preparing Xbox, PS5 payment plans: Struggling retailer aims to make next-gen consoles more affordable with its own alternative to Xbox All Access
- The Next Generation Of Video Game Consoles Could Be The Beginning Of GameStop’s Death
- Console options without disc drives could be GameStop’s final death knell
- Control snafu shows how one publisher is struggling with next-gen upgrades
- Report: Nintendo Switch has sold more than 15m units in Japan – While Animal Crossing New Horizons has apparently shifted more than 5.6m copies in the region
- Mario Kart Tour more than doubled Nintendo Account user base to 200m: Platform holder also planning more movies and TV projects, hints at next console
- Super Mario 3D All-Stars review: A bare-bones nostalgia warp zone – It’s no more and no less than three of the best 3D platformers ever made.
- Apple One subscription bundles Apple Arcade with other Apple services
- Apple bundles Apple Arcade in with other subscription services via Apple One: Individuals can get Apple Arcade, Music, and TV+ for $15/month
- Introducing Apple One, Apple’s subscription bundle answer to Amazon Prime
- Feds seize OnePlus Buds, mistaking them for “counterfeit” AirPods
- CBP So Confused It Seizes Clearly Labeled OnePlus Earbuds, And Falsely Claims They’re Counterfeit Apple Airpods
- Asobu: Putting Japan’s indies on the international map
- Asobu launches support initiative to help Japan’s indie scene flourish
- Gameloft looks to diversify with The Other Guys acquisition
- ViacomCBS sells Metacritic, GameSpot, others to Red Ventures in $500 million deal
- Niko Partners: 75% of China’s 720 million gamers live outside the biggest cities
- Addicting Games acquires Mope.io game: US site spends undisclosed seven-figure sum on browser and mobile title with 72 million players
- Black Desert Online has amassed almost $2 billion in revenue since 2014
- Black Desert Online has made $1.7bn in revenue to date: Pearl Abyss reports its five-year-old MMO has brought in around $700m in the last 17 months
- Slime Rancher tops 3 million sales in just over three years
- Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 sells 1 million copies in less than two weeks
- Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 is the biggest UK launch for the series since 2003: With digital, it is probably the biggest launch ever
- Rocket League’s life as a free to play game starts September 23
- E-sports pros have “dream” jobs—but game publishers have all the power
- Ninja Returns To The Platform That Started It All — Twitch — In Exclusive, Multi-Year Deal
- Twitch Unveils ‘Versus,’ Which Lets Anyone Create, Manage, And Livestream Their Own Esports Competition
- Twitch Tests Automated Mid-Roll Ad Format To The Dismay Of Several Top Creators
- Guild Esports’ IPO Announcement
- Farming Simulator League: Bringing agriculture and gaming together
- Oculus users who violate Facebook rules may lose access to VR content: Violations can include using pseudonyms or providing an inaccurate date of birth
- Facebook to discontinue Oculus Rift S, will no longer develop PC-only VR hardware
- Facebook’s Oculus Quest 2 leaks ahead of official reveal
- Facebook leak reveals Oculus Quest 2 as a 4K standalone VR headset
- Oculus Quest 2 launches in October for $299
- Review: We do not recommend the $299 Oculus Quest 2 as your next VR system
- Ubisoft is making Assassin’s Creed, Splinter Cell titles for Oculus: Titles will be platform-exclusive, developed by Ubisoft’s Red Storm Entertainment
- Over 35 Oculus Quest games have generated revenue in the millions
- Facebook announces Oculus Quest 2, discontinues Rift and original Quest: New standalone headset ships October 13, costs $300 for a 64GB model, $400 for 256GB
- Embracer Group enters VR market with purchase of Arizona Sunshine dev Vertigo
- Koch Media acquires Vertigo Games for €50m
- Blog: Procedural map generation in The Riftbreaker
- Blog: A half-decade sales analysis of Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime
- Blog: Designing non-violent games
- Blog: The road to Ruinarch – Part 2
- Blog: A King of Cards: Joustus deep dive – Part 1
- Blog: A deep dive into Dwerve’s dynamic 2D lighting
- Blog: The hidden art of pacing – Part 3
- Blog: Xbox goes for lock-in with All Access
- Don’t Miss: The making of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
- Don’t Miss: What did the devs of 2009 imagine video games would look like in 2020?
- Don’t Miss: The long shadow of Super Mario Bros.
- Don’t Miss: Spelunky and why it’s okay for game designers to be mean
- Don’t Miss: The challenges BioWare faced designing Mass Effect 3
- Video: Tips for jumpstarting creativity and finishing your games
- Video: Strategies for small developers launching their first game
- Video: Unearthing Japanese arcade history for historical preservation
- Video: Designing social play for Sky: Children of Light
- Video: Learn how to better use emotion in game design
DIGITAL
- Publishers Are Taking the Internet to Court: In a lawsuit against the Internet Archive, the largest corporations in publishing want to change what it means to own a book.
- Sweeping internal Facebook memo: “I have blood on my hands”
- Facebook’s latest hollow effort to fight climate change denial
- Trump vows not to extend TikTok deadline beyond September 15
- TikTok Rejects Microsoft Buy, Instead Names Oracle As “Trusted Tech Partner”
- Oracle’s TikTok non-acquisition seeks Treasury, White House approval
- Oracle, one of Donald Trump’s favorite companies, wins TikTok deal
- The TikTok Oracle Grift: Insiders Admit They Went Hunting For A Tech Company The President Liked
- Oracle Doesn’t Buy TikTok, But Gets A Lucrative Hosting Deal, And Trump & Friends Will Pretend This Means Something
- Court Refuses To Block Trump Exec Order On TikTok As Requested By TikTok Employee After DOJ Says He Can Still Get Paid
- TikTok Denies That Joining ‘Creator Fund’ Diminishes Views, Stays Mum On How Money Is Distributed
- YouTube Unveils TikTok Competitor ‘Shorts,’ Launching In Beta This Week
- NAD Clarifies Material Connection Disclosure Requirements for TikTok Videos Gone Viral
- TikTok Empress Charli D’Amelio Launches Account At Rival App Triller
- Insights: What TikTok’s Debacle Means For The World’s Fastest-Growing Social Media Site, And Everyone Else
- White House Insisted It Had 16,000 Complaints Of Social Media Bias Turned Over To The FTC; The FTC Has No Record Of Them
- Trump and Twitter are on likely showdown path with expanded misinfo rules
- Russian state hackers are targeting Biden and Trump campaigns, MSFT warns
- Rush Limbaugh downplaying hurricane Irma may have decreased evacuations
- Defying crackdowns, QAnon continues its relentless global spread
- Sex Trafficking Lawsuit Against Craigslist Moves Forward–ML v. Craigslist (Eric Goldman)
- PayPal Blocks Purchases Of Tardigrade Merchandise For Potentially Violating US Sanctions Laws
- Google faces US$3bn UK suit over use of children’s data: It’s the first class action suit in Europe brought against a tech firm on behalf of children, according to the claimants
- YouTube unlawfully violates kids’ privacy, new $3.2B lawsuit claims
- Blogger’s Descriptions of Domestic Violence Protected by Freedom of Expression
- Facebook To Limit The Number Of Digital Ads Businesses Can Run At Once
- Price gouging and defective products rampant on Amazon, reports find
- Amazon To Begin Hosting Podcasts, Sets Exclusive Series With DJ Khaled, Dan Patrick, More
- Could A Narrow Reform Of Section 230 Enable Platform Interoperability?
- Fight For The Future Wants To Help You Tell The FCC Where To Shove The NTIA’s Anti-Section 230 Petition
- An Interview on Why Section 230 Is On the “Endangered Watch List” (Eric Goldman)
- Content Moderation Case Study: Detecting Sarcasm Is Not Easy (2018)
- Content Moderation Case Study: Pinterest’s Moderation Efforts Still Leave Potentially Illegal Content Where Users Can Find It (July 2020)
- Content Moderation Case Study: Twitter Removes Account For Pointing Users To Leaked Documents Obtained By A Hacking Collective (June 2020)
- International Human Rights Law Is Not Enough to Fix Content Moderation’s Legitimacy Crisis
- The First Hard Case: Zeran V. AOL And What It Can Teach Us About Today’s Hard Cases
- Addison Cain Really Doesn’t Want You Watching This Video About Her Attempts To Silence Another Wolf Kink Erotica Author
- Addison Rae Heads To Hollywood With Starring Role In ‘She’s All That’ Remake
- Disney+ Adds Co-Viewing Feature ‘GroupWatch’
- Disney+ On Track To Surpass Sister Streamer Hulu’s U.S. Subscribers By 2024
- Instagram Testing ‘Reels’, ‘Shop’ Tabs On Homepage To Bolster Creators’ Livelihoods
- Logan Paul Says His ‘Maverick’ Merch Brand Made Between $30 And $40 Million In Its First Year
- Which NFL Teams Won The Offseason On Social Video?
- Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 9/14/2020
- Top 50 Most Viewed US YouTube Channels • Week Of 9/14/2020
- YouTube Appeals To Advertisers With More Performance, Prediction Metrics For TV Ads
- YouTube’s New ‘Dynamic Lineups’ Ad Tool Lets Marketers Buy Against Granular Topics, Cultural Moments, More
- Revisiting the spectacular failure that was the Bill Gates deposition
- Gwyneth Paltrow’s pseudoscience Goop series renewed on Netflix
- Rooster Teeth, Michael B. Jordan Pledge To Increase Representation For Season 2 Of ‘gen:LOCK’
- False equivalencies: Online activism from left to right (Deen Freelon, Alice Marwick, Daniel Kreiss)
- Legal Aspects of Digital Transformation
- European Commission formally opens in-depth state aid investigation into Belgian virtual betting
- Wealthsimple Digital Assets Inc. Becomes Canada’s First Registered Crypto Asset Platform
- Nvidia to acquire processor and software design company Arm for $40 billion
- Nvidia buys ARM Holdings from SoftBank for $40 billion
- Nvidia will keep ARM licensing “neutral,” wants to license GPU tech, too
- Nvidia RTX 3080 review: 4K greatness at $699—and good news for cheaper GPUs
- Microsoft declares its underwater data center test was a success
- Zooming In On The Flaws Of Virtual Court
- The agile dream – contracting for uncertain outcomes
A.I.
- YouTube’s Plan to Silence Conspiracy Theories: From flat-earthers to QAnon to Covid quackery, the video giant is awash in misinformation. Can AI keep the lunatic fringe from going viral?
- Artificial Intelligence fuels TikTok’s popularity; but could that very asset prevent its sale?
- Safety driver in 2018 Uber crash is charged with negligent homicide: Prosecutors decided not to prosecute Uber in 2019.
- Tackling Bias Issues in Artificial Intelligence
- AI and algorithms: Why the human touch is important
- When to Give Legal Rights to AIs? When They Can Dream
- Are you ready (and protected) for the AI healthcare revolution?
- Artificial Intelligence in Construction: Part I
- Automakers and regulators must educate consumers on mobility AI
- UKIPO calls for views: AI and IP
- Another consultation on AI and opens … this time in the UK
- AI ruined chess. Now it’s making the game beautiful again
- War Stories: How Forza learned to love neural nets to train AI drivers
- Building AI to fight to the beat in roguelike shooter BPM: Bullets Per Minute
COMMUNICATIONS
- Court rejects Bell, Rogers appeals of CRTC decision on internet wholesale rates
- Court rejects Bell, Rogers appeals of CRTC decision on wholesale internet rates: Big telecom companies ordered to pay court costs for smaller ISPs on other side of case
- Weakening Net Neutrality: How the Government’s Internet Regulation Plan Abandons the Principle of Equal Treatment of Content Online (Michael Geist)
- No Policies on Real Issues and Harmful Policies on Non-Issues: How the Government Bungled the Internet Regulation File (Michael Geist)
- Trump replaces FCC member in bid to push through Twitter/Facebook crackdown
- FCC Formally Kills Rules That Would Have Brought Competition To The Cable Box
- Apparently The New Litmus Test For Trump’s FCC: Do You Promise To Police Speech Online
- AT&T wants to put ads on your smartphone in exchange for $5 discount
- AT&T hopes you’ll forget its years-long fight against accurate broadband maps
- Over At Politico, The AT&T Monopoly Gives Tips On Fixing A Broadband Problem It Spent Thirty Years Creating
- T-Mobile Merger Approval Violated Every Last One Of the DOJ’s Updated ‘Antitrust Principles’
- Verizon to buy TracFone, expanding big carriers’ control of prepaid industry
- New Google Fiber plan: $100 for 2Gbps, plus Wi-Fi 6 router and mesh extender
- NTIA Gives Green Light to FCC to Expand Commercial Use of Federal Mid-Band Spectrum
- The FCC Slated to Take Further Steps to Combat Robocalls
- Rule Banning Chinese Telecommunications Equipment Is Released
- 5G in rural areas bridges a gap that 4G doesn’t, especially low- and mid-band
- Yet Another Study Shows U.S. 5G Over Promises, Under Delivers
- Further clarity on the public benefit test and terms of a Code Agreement
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
- In Another Instagram Embedding Decision, SDNY Finds Use of Image of Cardi B Fair
- Performing a DNA Test on Lizzo’s “Truth Hurts”: Joint Works and Derivative Works Under Copyright
- A Closer Look at a Troubling Anti-Scraping Ruling from Spring – Compulife Software v. Newman
- This Copyright Fair Use Opinion Discusses Jon Hamm’s Crotch 25 Times–Schwartzwald v. Oath (Eric Goldman)
- Publishing a Cropped Shot of Jon Hamm’s Crotch is Fair Use Under Copyright Law
- Moral rights: why should developers care?
- Schwartzwald v. Oath Inc.: Dismissal of photographer’s copyright infringement claim against HuffPost, finding media site’s altered reproduction of photographer’s viral “crotch shot” of Jon Hamm constituted fair use.
- This Week at The Ninth: Jersey Boys and Restroom Doors
- Jersey Boys Don’t Cry: No Copyright Protection for Facts “Based on a True Story”
- Corbello v. DeVito: Court rules that Broadway’s Jersey Boys did not infringe on plaintiff’s copyright of Tommy DeVito’s biography, holding musical depicts historical facts that are not protectable by copyright law
- Hall v. Swift: Court denies dismissal of claim over Taylor Swift’s song Shake It Off, holding that it cannot conclude merger doctrine applies, & plaintiffs sufficiently alleged protectable selection & arrangement to support claim.
- UMG Recordings, Inc. v. RCN Telecom Services: Court finds plaintiffs sufficiently pled contributory & vicarious infringement against ISP by alleging failure to terminate subscribers’ accounts after millions of copyright notices.
- Small photo credit removal may result in big damages
- Public Performance Rights (and Wrongs), the use of pop music in political campaigns
- Copyright Companies Want Memes That Are Legal In The EU Blocked Because They Now Admit Upload Filters Are ‘Practically Unworkable’
- Is It Broken and Should We Fix It? A Discussion of the Copyright Office’s Report on Section 512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
- Trademark “Services” Online Finally Defined in Canada by Federal Court of Appeal
- Federal Court of Appeal Confirms Use of a Trademark with “Hotel Services” can be Established Without Brick and Mortar Hotels in Canada
- “I’ll Have the B.C. VQA, Sub-GI Certified Pinot” — Promoting B.C. Wines Through Legal Recognition of Our Unique Wine Regions
- AB InBev And Patagonia Trademark Dispute Will Proceed To Trial
- Brewery Industry Insight – Different Parties May Register the Identical Mark for Beer and Restaurant Services
- Craft Brewing Trade Mag Argues Beer Is The Most IP Product Ever, Ignores History Of The Industry
- Banksy’s Weakass Attempt To Abuse Trademark Law Flops, Following Bad Legal Advice
- A Right Royal Rejection: “Royal Butler” Trade Mark Application Denied in the UK
- The Unique Challenges Of Protecting A Law Firm Brand
- BMW v. Premier Alloy Wheels (UK): breach of settlement agreement purported to stop intellectual property infringement
- Pigment of our imagination? Colour trademarks could be inherently distinctive
- Colour Purple is not for Protection (via Passle)
- A Refresher on the Importance of Trademarks and Trade Dress in the Food and Beverage Industry
- Trade Mark success for the gymnastics National Governing Body
- Economies are battered but many major offices set for record trademark numbers
- Trade Secrets Regulations: interim injunction preventing use of confidential information
- ITC Administrative Law Judge Decision Implicates Scope of Trade Secret Protections
- An introduction to Trade Secrets: What they are and why they matter to your business
- Fact-Specific Inquiry: Deciding Between Trade Secret and Patent Protection
- Federal Court invalidates tadalafil dosage patent finding dose selection to be routine
- Patent Trial and Appeal Board obligated to articulate a satisfactory explanation for its actions
- Common Patent Misconceptions – Myth #4 – Disclosures
- Claim Construction and Prosecution History Estoppel Require Viewing Patent and Prosecution History as a Whole
- Less is more when seeking patent protection for chemical compounds possessing a therapeutic effect
- Essential guidance on patenting software-based inventions at the EPO
- Patent Infringement Suit Alone Does Not Justify Anonymous Filing
- A Brief History of Virtual Reality, in Patents
- I’m an academic, get me out of patents: Strategies for promoting patenting among academics and researchers
- IP due diligence – The art of leaving nothing to chance
- 3D printing and IP: Lessons from the EPO’s ‘Shaping Tomorrow’ conference
- Assistant Attorney General Describes “New Madison” Approach to Antitrust and Intellectual Property Law
PRIVACY
- Personal data handling and processing in Canada
- British Columbia Court of Appeal upholds certification of data breach class action
- Keeping Criminal Background Checks in Check: Privacy Law Limits on Employee Criminal Background Checks in B.C.
- Assessments Of Privacy-Related Factors: The New Bread And Butter For Quebec Organizations Processing Personal Information?
- Ninth Circuit Appeals Court May Have Raised The Bar On Notifying Defendants About Secretive Surveillance Techniques
- California Enacts the Genetic Privacy Information Act
- Portland adopts strictest facial recognition ban in nation to date
- Amazon Is Quietly Fighting Against a Sweeping Facial Recognition Ban in Portland
- FDPIC finds that Swiss-US Privacy Shield does not offer adequate level of data protection
- Schrems II fall-out: Irish DPC reportedly to order suspension of Facebook data transfers to the U.S.
- European Data Protection Board Forms Two New Taskforces to Address Schrems II Aftermath
- Privacy Shield invalidated and use of appropriate safeguards (including Standard Contractual Clauses) require case by case assessments (Facebook Ireland and Schrems)
- City of Portland Bans Private Entities From Using Facial Recognition Technologies
- California Legislature Passes Bill Requiring Social Media Companies to Obtain Parental Consent for California-based Children Under 13
- Private Eyes & Public Profiles: The Ethics of Using Social Media in Investigations
- New guidance on the concepts of controllers, processors and joint controllers
- F for Failure: Takeaways from the Cyberattack on Miami-Dade County Public Schools
CREATIVITY
- DOJ Tries To Step In To Trump Defamation Case To Get It Dismissed; Claims His Statements About Alleged Rape Were Part Of His Presidential Duties
- Third Circuit Strikes Down Transit Authority’s Ban on Political Advertising
- Don’t risk your health to see Tenet, which is uber-fun but still just a movie
- French language requirements in Québec: Part 4 – Public signs, posters and commercial advertising
- London’s largest Bronze Age hoard on show for first time
Jon
News of the Week; September 9, 2020
GAMES
- Apple is now seeking damages from Epic Games over breach of contract
- Apple goes on offensive in Epic Games lawsuit: Apple’s official login system will work with Fortnite “indefinitely” but users are encouraged to update Epic accounts
- Apple pauses plans to end ‘Sign In with Apple’ support for Epic Games accounts
- Apple says Epic’s Fortnite payment scheme “is theft, period.”
- Epic is attempting to have Fortnite reinstated on the App Store
- Epic asks court to force Fortnite back onto the iOS App Store
- Epic Games wants court order to reinstate Fortnite on iOS: Unreal firm files another preliminary injunction to “stop Apple from retaliating” during antitrust case
- Plaintiff Epic Games, Inc.’s Notice Of Motion And Motion For A Preliminary Injunction And Memorandum Of Points And Authorities In Support Thereof
- Google distances itself from Epic versus Apple legal dispute
- Google requests court not connect it to Apple vs Epic: Firm says it has yet to be officially served a complaint, but will challenge “based on circumstances unique to Android”
- Epic Games commits to live concert series in Fortnite: Company has constructed a state-of-the-art soundstage in Los Angeles to host events
- ‘Fortnite’ Spins Up ‘Spotlight’ Series Of Weekly In-Game Concerts
- Data Transmission Patent Asserted Against Amazon and Blizzard is Partially Invalidated
- Amazon imagines a genre-blended New World for MMOs: Scot Lane describes how action RPGs, survival titles, and Twitch influenced the PvP combat of Amazon’s upcoming foray into the MMO space
- Abdin v CBS: Second Circuit affirms dismissal of copyright action alleging that Star Trek: Discovery series infringed Tardigrades video game, holding that parties’ works are not substantially similar as matter of law.
- Paradox QA staff allege poor treatment: Company’s shutdown of publishing QA department last year leads to report of mismanagement, ignored concerns
- EA removes intrusive ads from UFC 4 following fan complaints
- EA removes new in-game ads from UFC 4 after player complaints: Publisher patched in promos that flashed on screen during action replays
- Coffee Stain expands Levelling the Playing Field to fund racially diverse studios: Publisher also makes its third investment through the program, in Happy Broccoli Games
- Indian dev unveils FAU:G in the wake of government’s PUBG Mobile ban: Ncore Games’ new title will feature current Chinese-Indian border dispute as a setting
- PUBG responds to India’s ban on PUBG Mobile: PUBG Corp withdraws license to run PUBG Mobile in India from Tencent, will self-publish franchise instead
- Cloud gaming revenue to reach $585m in 2020: Revenue generated by the cloud gaming market is expected to reach $4.8 billion by 2023
- Sony May Just Be Loosening The Reins As Gaming Brings In A Plurality Of Its Revenue
- Marvel’s Avengers shows how a “beta” can be a pitfall | Opinion: Early reviews express surprise at the full game being good after disappointing “beta” weekends — suggesting a gigantic failure on the publisher side
- Marvel’s Avengers defeats Tony Hawk and NBA to claim No.1 | UK Charts: But it’s the biggest Tony Hawk’s game since its heyday
- Game Creator Has His YouTube Video Of Game Demonetized Over Soundtrack He Also Created
- What’s wrong with the games industry, and how to fix it: At Devcom, Kate Edwards highlighted the main issues affecting game creators, and what the industry can do to address them
- Remaining Lab Zero staff laid off following dev exodus
- Lab Zero Games lays off remaining employees: Skullgirls studio turns to redundancies following staff exodus over alleged behaviour of owner Mike Zaimont
- Kotaku UK shutting down: Rights reverting to G/O Media as Future Publishing decides not to renew licensing deal
- Duke Nukem throws a spanner in the Gearbox | 10 Years Ago This Month: Borderlands studio revives Duke Nukem Forever, dooming itself to a decade (and counting) of legal battles
- Madden NFL 21 sells 20% more copies in first week than last year’s game: EA’s latest football sim tops early numbers of a predecessor that had produced “the most successful year in franchise history”
- Colin Kaepernick returns to Madden NFL: EA Sports makes free-agent quarterback available for the first time since Madden 18
- Colin Kaepernick hits the field in Madden NFL 21 without actual NFL deal
- Microsoft Flight Simulator: 1 million pilots so far, flying 1 billion miles
- Microsoft Flight Simulator attracts 1 million players in just over two weeks
- Report: Nintendo boosting Switch production to meet consumer demand
- Report: Nintendo increases Switch production targets again – Platform holder wants to make 30m units this year as it asks devs to get games 4K ready
- Nintendo’s next Mario Kart title is a mixed reality racer set in your living room
- Super Mario 3D All-Stars brings three high-res ports to Switch
- Super Mario 3D All-Stars is already Amazon’s second biggest game of 2020: Nintendo release is behind only Animal Crossing on the US storefront less than a week since its announcement
- Barrage of games coming for Super Mario Bros.’ 35th anniversary: Nintendo reveals limited time release of Super Mario 3D All-Stars with four more Mario products debuting by March
- Nintendo eShop policy change gives shoppers more time to cancel pre-orders
- With profit and revenue on the rise, CD Projekt heaps praise on The Witcher 3
- The Witcher 3’s next-gen debut promises free upgrade for current-gen owners
- CD Projekt Red confirms next-gen version of The Witcher 3: New version of the blockbuster RPG will be sold as a standalone product, but available as a free update to existing owners
- Wargaming UK rebrands as DPS Games to reflect global growth
- What can the games industry learn from Netflix and Spotify?: During our recent Changing Channels conference, experts discussed the impact of subscriptions on the world of entertainment
- Cloud gaming not ready for disruption – Report: Juniper Research sees streaming game services as a subset of a subscription service market that will hit $8 billion in 2023
- Can influencer-branded game stores work?
- Game Discoverability Now: Are the ‘store wars’ really upon us?
- Microsoft confirms next-gen pricing and launch dates, touts new financing options
- The compact Xbox Series S launches Nov 10 with promises of ‘next-gen performance’
- Xbox Series S confirmed by Microsoft after next-gen Xbox price leak
- Xbox Series S finally announced, priced at $299: Official video shares specs, console will launch November 10 and is digital only
- Microsoft confirms $499 Xbox Series X for Nov. 10
- Xbox Series X will sell for $499: Console launches November 10 with pre-orders starting September 22; All Access subscription price is $35 monthly for two years
- Xbox’s next-generation strategy threatens to disrupt the console business l Opinion: Xbox Series S and Game Pass could change console gaming forever. Maybe.
- EA Play is being added to Game Pass Ultimate at no extra cost
- EA Play added to Xbox Game Pass at no extra cost: Ultimate and PC subscribers will gain access to over 60 of the FIFA publisher’s titles
- Xbox All Access seems like one of the best deals in gaming
- Assassin’s Creed Valhalla bumps up release date to match next-gen Xbox launch
- GameStop continues to post heavy losses amid pandemic, end of console cycle: Retailer saw an adjusted net loss of $92 million in Q2, though global e-commerce sales spiked
- GameStop will close another 400 to 450 stores this fiscal year: It’s already closed 388 stores year-to-date
- Despite pandemic and its reboot, GameStop says it’s ready for next-gen demand
- CI Games opens internal studio Hexworks to develop Lords of the Fallen 2
- Wasteland 3 | Critical Consensus: InXile’s warmly received new RPG is a sign that Microsoft’s run of studio acquisitions is starting to pay off
- Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 PC impressions: No pretending for this Superman
- Marvel’s Avengers | Critical Consensus: The critics found much to like in Crystal Dynamics’ campaign, and rather less in Square Enix’s ambitions to make its own Destiny
- Shenmue returns again—this time as a Crunchyroll, Adult Swim anime
- The Soulcalibur still burns | Why I Love: Namco’s Dreamcast fighter ushered in the era of better-than-arcade ports and built friendships in competitive communities that last to this day
- Masterpiece: Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island
- From Pong to Civilization: How I made “one more turn” work on consoles
- Esports Milestone: Guild Esports Looks For London Stock Exchange Listing
- David Beckham-backed Guild Esports sets sights on London IPO: Esports firm eyes £50m valuation when it floats on the London Stock Exchange later this year
- Facebook Gaming Signs Esports Pro ‘King’ Richard Nelson (Exclusive)
- Esports team brings University of Waterloo athletics into the digital age: UW will compete in Rocket League, Overwatch and League of Legends
- Changing the game: women in esports
- As Esports Go Mainstream, Some Important Lessons for Brands
- Rocket League drops PS Plus and Switch Online services for online play: Psyonix’s game will remove paywall from multiplayer on PlayStation and Switch when it transitions to free-to-play
- Facebook halts Oculus Quest sales in Germany amid privacy concerns
- Blog: Dynamic map elements in RTS games
- Blog: The hidden art of pacing – Part 2
- Blog: Building Cogmind’s ambient soundscape
- Blog: A Neon Climber postmortem
- Blog: A launch postmortem of Dungeons of Edera
- Video: Cultivating female talent in big-budget studios
- Video: How a newbie solo dev landed their game on Xbox Game Pass
- Video: Inside the physical animation of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
- Video: Using project management to tame the chaos of game dev
- Don’t Miss: Deaf accessibility in video games
- Don’t Miss: What was it like developing for the Dreamcast?
- U.S. Patent no. 9,582,147: Inserting game objects through contactless communication
- In Major Blow To Sony’s Upcoming PlayStation 5, Microsoft Announces PlayStation 6
- Gaming historian Curt Vendel dies at 53: Atari Museum founder, Atari Flashback designer, and “an unquestioned giant in computer history” died unexpectedly August 30
DIGITAL
- TikTok Employee Files Motion That Could Mark First Judicial Look At Trump’s Executive Order
- White House Supposedly Blocked Walmart From Buying Tiktok Because It Would Prove Its Rationale For Forcing A Deal Was Bullshit
- If We’re So Worried About TikTok, Why Aren’t We Just As Worried About AdTech And Location Data Sales?
- Trump Gets Mad That Twitter Won’t Take Down A Parody Of Mitch McConnell; Demands Unconstitutional Laws
- Bill Barr’s ‘Antitrust Crackdown’ Of Google Is Going To Be A Weaponized Farce
- There’s a partisan schism over the timing of a Google antitrust lawsuit
- Google Updates Ad Policies Related to “Sensitive Events”
- Right-wing media thrives on Facebook. Whether it rules is more complicated: Untangling the influence of right-wing media is hard, especially with limited data.
- Facebook Moves to Limit Election Chaos in November
- Facebook Says it Will Limit Election Advertising in the Week Before the U.S. Election
- Facebook Paying Users To Shut Down Their Accounts For Science Ahead Of The 2020 Election
- Facebook Watch Hits 1.25 Billion Monthly Users, Company Says
- Facebook complains, Apple responds: iOS 14’s big privacy change gets postponed
- Facebook’s plan to prevent election misinformation: Allowing it, mostly
- There Are Many Serious Concerns About Facebook. Why the Australia News Fight Isn’t One of Them (Michael Geist)
- It’s Time To Regulate The Internet… But Thoughtfully
- Pentagon’s review of controversial $10B contract was a sham, Amazon claims
- E-commerce: Amazon held liable for damages caused by defective product sold on its online marketplace
- Amazon Is Strictly Liable for Marketplace Items, Reinforcing That Online Marketplaces Are Doomed–Bolger v. Amazon (Eric Goldman)
- In China, GitHub Is a Free Speech Zone for Covid Information: As COVID news was increasingly trapped behind the Great Firewall, the programming platform became a refuge from censorship. It may not last long.
- China plans new data policy in response to Trump admin’s “bullying”
- Court Denies TRO Seeking to Remove Facebook’s “Russia State-Controlled Media” Label–Maffick v. Facebook (Eric Goldman)
- Another Roundup of Online Contract Formation Cases (Eric Goldman)
- GOP Senators Release Latest Truly Stupid Section 230 Reform Bill; Would Remove ‘Otherwise Objectionable’; Enable Spamming
- The Copia Institute’s Comment To The FCC Regarding The Ridiculous NTIA Petition To Reinterpret Section 230
- 512(f) Claim Fails in the 11th Circuit–Johnson v. New Destiny Christian Center (Eric Goldman)
- Twibel Lawsuit Fails–Ganske v. Mensch (Eric Goldman)
- The User Always Loses: How did the Internet get so bad?