News of the Week

GAMES

1. Philip Champion v. Take Two Interactive Software, Inc.
2. Champion v Take Two Interactive Software, Inc. (Decided on May 10, 2019 Supreme Court, New York County, Kahn, J.)
3. Hey! That’s My Move!
4. The dangers of in-game data collection: Can your choices come back to haunt you?
5. Devs reflect on the privacy risks surrounding how games subtly collect data
6. Newzoo: More than one billion women are active gamers – Firm’s latest analysis shows 46% of all video game enthusiasts are female
7. Only 9% of ESRB rated-games were deemed Mature in 2018
8. Antitrust lawsuit over iOS App Store to move forward, despite Apple’s arguments
9. Supreme Court Rules Against Apple in Case Alleging App Store Is a Monopoly
10. US Supreme Court says Apple can be sued for monopolization: Decision from lower court that iPhone owners are direct purchasers from Apple rather than from developers is upheld, opening door to future storefront suits
11. Supreme Court Allows Consumers to Sue Apple for Antitrust Violations
12. Supreme Court Says iPhone Users Can Pursue Antitrust Claims Against Apple Over App Store
13. Taking a Bite at the Apple: Ensuring a Level-Playing-Field for Competition on App Stores
14. Supreme Court ruling could threaten Apple’s 30 percent app commission
15. Former Claptrap voice actor details Randy Pitchford assault allegations
16. YouTube Gamer ‘ProJared’ Accused Of Soliciting Nude Photos From Underage Fans
17. Loot boxes should be banned, says US senator
18. Sweden investigating loot boxes: Swedish Consumer Agency has been instructed to review casino-like elements of gaming mechanics
19. What yesterday’s EU court ruling means for the games industry: Companies are advised to start acting quickly or face legal trouble once ruling implemented
20. Employers must track staff working hours, EU court rules: Ruling to help uphold EU Working Time Directive should help tackle industry crunch problem
21. NetherRealm reportedly responding to crunch concerns with meeting, survey: Studio-wide meeting sees employees share experiences, WB assembling focus groups to address issues
22. The GamesIndustry.biz Podcast: Crunch and walkouts are failures of management – Latest episode available to download now, discussing the recent incidents at NetherRealm Studios and Riot Games
23. Big game, small team, no crunch: Behind the success of open world RPG Outward
24. One month later, $249 All-Digital Xbox One S still seems unsustainable
25. Microsoft patented a braille-displaying controller accessory for the blind
26. WWE 2K dev establishing second wrestling IP to foster internal competition: “I think having no competitor isn’t healthy at all,” says Yuke’s senior vice president Hiromi Furuta
27. ESA reportedly troubled by eroded trust, harsh management styles: Former president Michael Gallagher said to have exhibited “challenging” management approach that celebrated burnout
28. Stanley Pierre-Louis named CEO and president of the ESA
29. ESA names Stanley Pierre-Louis CEO: Trade group’s newly appointed head downplays reports of disarray and concerns about E3, crunch, loot boxes, and the WHO’s decision on gaming disorder
30. Revenue and profit up at Tencent despite stagnant games revenue
31. Tencent adds ‘Gameplay Management’ system to PUBG Mobile to encourage “healthy gaming”: Players under 18 will receive pop-ups reminding them to take a break
32. PUBG Mobile now reminds minors to take breaks from playing in some countries
33. Blog: Dealing with China’s ban on blood in video games
34. The Epic Games Store quietly launches in China
35. Epic Games Store stealth launches in China: Chinese players now able to purchase games from Fortnite creator’s marketplace
36. Ghost Recon Breakpoint will skip Steam for Epic Games Store: Newly announced Ubisoft title follows The Division 2 into PC exclusivity
37. Epic bolsters Unreal Engine with Twinmotion acquisition 
38. Epic Games to receive BAFTA Special Award for contribution to game development
39. Epic’s store continues to absorb PC gaming exclusives large and small
40. Crowdfunded Outer Wilds joins growing list of Epic Games Store exclusives
41. Google Play Store tweaks ratings system to focus on recent reviews
42. Sony releases documentary detailing God of War’s development
43. Nintendo Switch sales pass PS4 in Japan
44. Nintendo Switch lifetime sales outstripping the PS4 in Japan
45. Nintendo predicts tough expansion into China despite Tencent partnership
46. Super Mario Maker 2 news dump: Finally, Mario gets an online-versus mode
47. 28 years later, hacker fixes rampant slowdown on SNES‘ Gradius III
48. Blog: Requiem for a Game Gear
49. Sports and mobile titles driving growth at Konami
50. Key franchises boost video game sales at Bandai Namco
51. Bandai Namco sales and profits up last year, led by gaming segment: Company projects fewer releases next year, elevates Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada to general manager of original IP
52. DeNA and The Pokemon Company have a mobile Pokemongame on the way
53. DeNA reveals new Pokémon mobile game amid declining revenue: Games revenue and profit fell at DeNA, but Mario Kart and Pokémon are due to launch this fiscal year
54. Insights: ‘Fortnite’ Is The New Social-Media Platform – Here’s What It Means
55. Capcom creates feeder leagues to grow Street Fighter esports: Three new competitions kick off this summer to prepare players for professional tournaments
56. Bigben Interactive aims to be “the middleweight champion” of games publishing: Head of publishing describes the French publisher’s escalating ambitions after acquiring Cyanide, Eko and Kylotonn
57. New releases driving sales at Square Enix, but launch costs cause profits to dip
58. Profits tumble at Square Enix due to escalating launch costs: Kingdom Hearts, Tomb Raider drove revenue, but higher costs led to sharp declines in profit
59. Square Enix-founded RPG dev Studio Istolia closes down
60. Studio Istolia closes down: Square Enix assigning staff elsewhere in company as Project Prelude Rune is cancelled
61. Take-Two sees record net bookings thanks to flagship franchises
62. GTA V is nearing 110 million sales worldwide
63. Take-Two ends fiscal year with a group effort: Red Dead Redemption 2 sales slowing down but GTA V and NBA 2K19 continue to drive Take-Two results
64. Grand Theft Auto V has sold 110m copies: Borderlands series has sold over 43m units, with Borderlands 2 accounting for 20m
65. Take-Two: Investors are re-rating the games business –
66. It’s still an entertainment business, reminds CEO Strauss Zelnick
67. Take-Two CEO: Subscriptions not a ‘foregone conclusion’ for game industry
68. Ubisoft sees record player engagement as full-year net bookings surpass $2.2 billion
69. Ubisoft posts record sales again, delays Skull & Bones again: CEO Yves Guillemot says the games industry will reach 5 billion players in the next ten years
70. Record-breaking Q1 revenues for Nexon at $840m
71. Korean publisher exceeds forecasts thanks to stronger-than-expected performances for Dungeon&Fighter and MapleStory
72. EA and Activision need to show us something new | Opinion: The industry’s biggest publishers now focus on pumping old franchises for incremental growth rather than honing their ability to create the next big thing
73. ‘Record high’ investments see profits fall at Paradox
74. Profit and revenue down at Paradox as investments reach “record high”: Q1 2019 performance “characterised by a focus on long-term growth and expansion” says CEO
75. Nier: Automata has shipped over 4 million copies
76. The Killing Floor series has earned $100 million in revenue in 10 years
77. Discord surpasses 250 million registered users in four years
78. Discord reaches 250m users after just four years: Gaming chat platform has doubled audience in a year, with 56m monthly active users
79. Unity seeks another $125 million in funding
80. Unity is looking to raise $125 million in additional funding
81. Rage 2 aims to encourage streaming through interactive Twitch extensions
82. The Australian Labor Party wants to restart the Interactive Games Fund
83. Australian Labor party pledges to reinstate $25m Interactive Games Fund: If elected, Labor promises to end six years of budget cuts around creative industries
84. Assassin’s Creed should partner with Stranger Things: Lessons from Changing Channels – We report back on the key takeaways from last week’s TV and games conference with BBC Studios
85. Starbreeze lacks funds to operate for another year
86. Rockstar acquires Indian art studio Dhruva from Starbreeze
87. Rockstar acquires Dhruva Interactive from Starbreeze for $7.9m: Indian art production studio joins Red Dead Redemption publisher as Starbreeze continues to struggle
88. Epic Games acquires Twinmotion: Developer offers visualisation toolkit for free with “no strings attached”
89. Following your dreams: Pursuing a career making games | Opinion
90. Blog: Four steps for branding your studio
91. Blog: Tools for selling your story
92. Blog: Creating a physics based fighting game in Unity
93. Don’t Miss: Lessons of game design learned from Super Mario Maker
94. Blog: The challenges of teamwork and game design
95. Blog: We’re looking at accessibility all wrong
96. Blog: Using your YouTube channel to market your games
97. The 12 principles of animation in video games 
98. When grinding is fun: Forager’s compelling approach to ‘idle game’ design
99. Video: Insomniac’s technical postmortem of Marvel’s Spider-Man
100. Don’t Miss: Reflections on the afterimage of Final Fantasy VII
101. How hit crafting game Forager happily handles thousands of instances
102. Sega has acquired Two Point Hospital developer Two Point Studios
103. TinyBuild: Development to publishing, and back again
104. Valve Index asks for innovation without incentive | Opinion: Platform agnosticism and high price may inhibit the innovative VR game development Valve claims the headset was made for
105. Valve breaks down different tools for marketing games on Steam
106. ‘Beat Saber’ Has Been PSVR’s Top Download for 6 Months Running
107. Somnium Space Raises $1M to Expand Social VR Platform
108. High Fidelity lays of 25% of staff and pivots to virtual communications: Founder Philip Rosedale admits “we probably still have a few years to wait” for tech to catch up with original vision
109. Scopely acquires Digit Game Studios 
110. Fig Open Access offers devs an ‘open-ended’ crowdfunding option
111. Facebook’s VP of VR Hugo Barra steps down
112. Hugo Barra steps down as Oculus head for new Facebook AR/VR role
113. Facebook Shuffles Top Oculus Executives
114. Challenging player entitlement by making them homeless: Homelessness is “intimidating for any artists who really wants to take it seriously” says Delve Interactive founder Danny Hayes
115. The timeless magic of Shadow of the Colossus
116. AI-generated pokemon that should not be
117. Detective Pikachu film review: This is how you adapt a video game for theaters
118. Detective Pikachu earned $161m worldwide in its opening weekend: Pokémon tie-in had best ever opening weekend for a video game film in the US, but its worldwide performance is still behind Warcraft
119. Party like it’s 2004 with WoW Classic starting August 27

DIGITAL

1. White House refuses to sign international statement on online extremism: Trump administration is “not currently in a position to join” global statement.
2. Chinese owners of Grindr forced to sell by US over spying and blackmail fears
3. CBS Happily Engages In Censorship To Placate China
4. Your 5G Phone Won’t Hurt You. But Russia Wants You to Think Otherwise.
5. Facebook co-founder calls for breakup of Facebook
6. While Trump Complains About Facebook Takedowns, Facebook Is Helping Trump Take Down Content He Doesn’t Like
7. Facebook is a capitalism problem, not a Mark Zuckerberg problem: Regulating social media is more important than breaking up Facebook.
8. Facebook Says New Political Ad Policies are being Circumvented
9. How far-right extremists rebrand to evade Facebook’s ban
10. Facebook Should Be Broken Up Because Mark Zuckerberg Has ‘Unchecked Power,’ Company Co-Founder Says
11. It’s Time to Break Up Facebook
12. Breaking Up Facebook? 
13. Facebook Co-Founder Chris Hughes Calls For Facebook’s Breakup… But Seems Confused About All The Details
14. More Democrats are considering a breakup of Facebook: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are the latest to say they are thinking about it
15. Facebook: Brussels Court of Appeal refers case to Court of Justice of the EU
16. Facebook’s ‘Please Regulate Us’ Tour Heads To France
17. Facebook sues app maker, says it made millions misusing Facebook user data
18. Imagine A Facebook Without Facebook: How A.I. Will Soon Disrupt Social Media
19. Facebook imposes restrictions on live-streaming to prevent future abuse: ‘Our goal is to minimize risk of abuse on Live,’ Guy Rosen said
20. Facebook Implements One-Strike Policy Barring Users From Livestreaming If They Post Hateful Content
21. Section 230 Protects Facebook’s Account and Content Restriction Decisions–Ebeid v. Facebook
22. Vox Admits It Got Section 230 Wrong, Fixes Its Mistake
23. Section 230 Keeps The Internet Open For Innovation
24. Democracy’s Dilemma: Democracies rely on the free exchange of ideas, but that freedom can be weaponized. How can democratic societies protect the free flow of information? (Henry Farrell, Bruce Schneier)
25. The Bizarre Accuracy of Online Ads: A Case Study of Trackers on the Internet – A call for transparency and consent
26. Online Retailer Redbubble Says It Will Pull Auschwitz-Themed Merchandise
27. Google, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Microsoft Take On Hate Content With ‘Christchurch Call To Action’
28. Selling Fear? There’s An App For That
29. Audit suggests Google favors a small number of major outlets
30. White House launches tool to report censorship on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter: ‘If you suspect political bias caused such an action to be taken against you, share your story with President Trump’
31. Friend portability is the must-have Facebook regulation: FTC must pave the path to competition
32. Taliban fighters double as reporters to wage Afghan digital war
33. French media is polarizing. But not in the way we expected.
34. Higbee Tries To Shake Down Forum For Deep Linked Photograph
35. Strike 3 Gets Another Judge To Remind It That IP Addresses Aren’t Infringers
36. Don’t Suppress Customer Reviews: The FTC Really Means It
37. You can’t spell FinTech without FTC
38. Broad Coalition Tells Congress To Bring Back The Office Of Technology Assessment
39. Instagram blocks vaccine hoax hashtags
40. How Silicon Valley’s successes are fueled by an underclass of ‘ghost workers’: The invisible labor that makes our technology run
41. Court Filing Reveals Kim Kardashian West Can Command $500,000 Per Sponsored Instagram Post
42. Terms and Conditions: Recent Supreme Court Decisions Highlight There is More to Consider than Just the Privacy Policy 
43. Disney takes full control of Hulu as Comcast steps aside
44. Comcast is giving Disney full control of Hulu
45. Disney In Total Control Of Hulu After $5.8 Billion Deal With Comcast
46. Disney Takes Full Control Of Hulu, Ending Years Of Managerial Schizophrenia
47. Hulu CEO Randy Freer explains why Hulu never promoted its ad-free version: The more expensive Hulu No Commercials plan was announced in 2015, and almost four years later, the company is finally ready to start advertising that it exists.
48. Hulu’s VP Of Brand Nick Tran On Influencer Marketing: “It’s Not Bad To Be A Sellout If You Embrace It”
49. #Advert – Transparency requirements for influencers
50. How low prices could make for an antitrust case against Amazon: A theory of ‘predatory pricing’
51. Talking to the Law Student With a Novel Theory About Amazon’s Power
52. Is Amazon Violating the Sherman Act? (Shaoul Sussman)
53. Prime Predator: Amazon and the Rationale of Below Average Variable Cost Pricing Strategies Among Negative-Cash Flow Firms (Shaoul Sussman)
54. Exclusive: Amazon rolls out machines that pack orders and replace jobs
55. Amazon to employees: Quit your job, we’ll help you start a delivery business
56. “Goodwill Hunting”: Latest on Cybersquatting 
57. Accessing a Deceased’s Digital Accounts
58. New Citizen Lab report suggests Iran spreads fake news
59. Editorial: Can Apple News+ kill ‘fake news’ and save journalism?
60. Apple Launches New TV App, Providing Access to Over 150 Video Apps Including HBO, Hulu, CBS, Showtime, Starz, ESPN and Amazon Prime Video
61. Parodies are coming for house HBO
62. The Tinder Hacker: When I asked Sean about his hobbies, I wasn’t prepared for what he said.
63. Gigi Gorgeous, Troye Sivan To Feature In YouTube’s Pride Month Programming
64. VidCon Pacts With The Trevor Project To Curate LGBTQ+ Programming And Panels
65. VidCon Unveils Creator Attendees, Industry-Track Lineup for 2019 U.S. Confab
66. The EU Copyright Directive Passes – But Member States Remain Split on Upload Filters
67. YouTube and its users face an existential threat from the EU’s new copyright directive
68. CJEU considers individuals’ liability under data protection law in respect of videos published on YouTube: Individuals publishing online in breach of data protection laws may benefit from a ‘journalistic exemption’.
69. YouTube Premium, YouTube Music Now Available In More Than 50 Countries
70. Digital Rights Startup SuperBam Wants To Help YouTubers Reclaim The Millions They Lose From Piracy
71. Is the war on piracy over?
72. Tati Westbrook Rockets Past 10 Million Subscribers After Cutting Ties With Mentee James Charles
73. Amid YouTube Beauty Rift, James Charles Loses 2.8 Million Subscribers As Tati Westbrook Gains 3.2 Million
74. Tati Westbrook-James Charles Scandal Spawns Thousands Of Third-Party Videos And Tens Of Millions Of Views
75. James Charles’ Sisters Apparel Seemingly No Longer Affiliated With Jeffree Star’s ‘Killer Merch’ In Wake Of Scandal
76. James Charles’ YouTube downfall is big business for the rest of the community: Commentary and news channels are the big winners
77. There’s No One To Root For In The James Charles Beauty YouTuber Drama
78. YouTube Launches ‘Bumper Machine’ Tool, Which Auto-Generates 6-Second Ads
79. YouTube Creators Will Receive Revenue From New Google Shopping Features
80. Google’s Translatotron can translate speech in the speaker’s voice: It’s the first tool that can directly translate speech from one language into another.
81. One Year Later, Restaurants Are Still Confused By Google Duplex: Google Duplex works until it breaks in unexpected ways
82. Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 5/12/2019
83. Nest, the company, died at Google I/O 2019
84. Report claims Google has 15m paying music subscribers
85. YouTube Music And Google Play Music Count A Collective 15 Million Subscribers 
86. TikTok Is the New Music Kingmaker, and Labels Want to Get Paid
87. Audible Teams With Reese Witherspoon For Its First Original Programming Slate
88. The Eternal Revenue Stream of Led Zeppelin: In the streaming era, record companies are cashing in anew on old hits – and getting more creative about how to do it
89. As ‘Game of Thrones’ Comes To An End, Maisie Williams Launches Creator Collaboration App Daisie
90. Netflix has made a rare acquisition, to help it make more kids’ stuff: The streaming company has bought StoryBots, a kids’ brand made by the guys who made JibJab.
91. Videos On ‘Avengers: Endgame’ Are Still Racking Up Over 200 Million Views A Day
92. Government of Canada creates Advisory Council on Artificial Intelligence
93. When Humans Attack: Re-thinking safety, security, and AI
94. The AI Supply Chain Runs on Ignorance: Tech companies often fail to tell users how their data will be employed. Sometimes, the firms can’t even anticipate it themselves.
95. Turn Your Pet Into Another Species With This AI Tool: Using similar algorithms to deepfakes, Nvidia developed a new way to turn your pets into tigers, wolves, and other animals.
96. Why Google believes machine learning is its future: We heard so much about machine learning at Google I/O this year.
97. Another Day, Another Company Scraping Photos To Train Facial Recognition AI
98. AI in Focus – Robotics
99. Fired by a robot!
100. Starbucks to test out bean-to-cup blockchain
101. Supply chain is obviously not a blockchain use case
102. Adobe Warns Users Someone Else Might Sue Them For Using Old Versions Of Photoshop
103. New Blockchain Solutions Across Industries, Institutional Cryptocurrency Trading Announced, Major Cryptocurrency Exchange Is Hacked 
104. Bitcoin and cryptocurrency negotiability is an uncertain landscape
105. Bitcoin-Bashing Democrat Calls for Blanket Ban on Cryptocurrencies
106. It took just five days for bitcoin to rise from $6,000 to $8,000
107. Improving upon the SEC’s Blockchain “Framework”: Toward a Reasonable Regulation of Digital Tokens
108. Facebook Updates Ad Policies on Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, and Other Financial Products
109. Legal and regulatory issues for custodians and administrators of digital assets
110. How to Attract Startups and Tech Companies to a City Without Relying on Tax Breaks
111. Why you should be rooting for startups like Uber
112. Esther Wojcicki explains how she raised the CEOs of YouTube and 23andMe
113. Technology Is as Biased as Its Makers
114. We’re a Niche, We Just Didn’t Know: Why you probably belong to an inter-intellect and why this matters
115. Microsoft: The open source company
116. Microsoft open sources algorithm that gives Bing some of its smarts
117. Miami Plastic Surgeon Sues Two Patients For Negative Reviews After He Had Them Sign Illegal Non Disparagement Agreements
118. Lenovo shows off a folding-screen laptop, coming some time in 2020
119. Why I (Still) Love Tech: In Defense Of A Difficult Industry
120. Q&A: Melinda Gates opens up about tech industry, equality and 3 women who changed her life
121. Mind the Gap: The Status of Digital Files Under Property Law (Johan Michaels & Christopher Millard)

COMMUNICATIONS

1. 1.28 Million US Residents Cut The TV Cord Last Quarter
2. All Four Major Wireless Carriers Hit With Lawsuits Over Sharing, Selling Location Data
3. AT&T promised 7,000 new jobs to get tax break—it cut 23,000 jobs instead
4. AT&T, Verizon Employees Caught Up In DOJ SIM Hijacking Bust
5. Ajit Pai’s robocall plan lets carriers charge for new call-blocking tools
6. Pai FCC ‘Solution’ To Nation’s Great Robocall Apocalypse? More Meetings
7. The Pai FCC Sits On Its Hands While Phone Companies Rip Off American Taxpayers 
8. FCC Denies China Mobile Application to Provide Service in US
9. FCC Seeks Comments on Univision Request to Exceed 50% Foreign Ownership 
10. FCC says carriers failed Florida after hurricane—but lets them off the hook
11. 5G likely to mess with weather forecasts, but FCC auctions spectrum anyway
12. Elon Musk’s Starlink Could Bring Back Net Neutrality and Upend the Internet: Thousands of spacecrafts could power a new global network.
13. Advertising Message or Informational Content? – How Israeli Courts Interpret the “Spam Law” 
14. 2019 Ranking Digital Rights: Corporate Accountability Index

PRIVACY

1. Canadian Border Agents Also Routinely Demanding Passwords From Travelers And Searching Their Devices
2. Amazon’s Echo Dot Kids Edition is illegally recording your children, 19 privacy advocates warn
3. Millions of people uploaded photos to the Ever app. Then the company used them to develop facial recognition tools.
4. New Data On London Metro Police Facial Recognition Tech Shows It’s Still Wrong 96 Percent Of The Time
5. San Francisco Bans Facial Recognition Technology
6. San Francisco bans city use of facial recognition surveillance technology
7. San Francisco PD Raids Journalist’s Home To Find Out Which One Of Its Cops Leaked An Autopsy Report
8. Surveillance software targets WhatsApp users
9. WhatsApp reveals major security flaw that could let hackers access phones
10. Justice Department charges Chinese hacker for 2015 Anthem breach
11. Feds charge Chinese national in 2015 breach of health insurer Anthem
12. Hackers breached 3 US antivirus companies, researchers reveal
13. The kidtech is all right: Dylan Collins, CEO of SuperAwesome, describes how his six-year-old company is hitting a growth spurt by leading the charge on digital privacy for children.
14. Ralph Lauren Must Defend TCPA Suit Over Excessive Text Messages 
15. Seventh Circuit Finds That Autodialing Platform Providers Can Be Held Liable Under The TCPA When Controlling Calls Made By Clients 
16. People say they care about privacy but they continue to buy devices that can spy on them: Experts explain why people are giving mixed signals about smart tech.
17. Reading the Tea Leaves: What Do GDPR Enforcement Efforts Tell Us?
18. GDPR Concerns Temporarily Result In The Removal Of Trash Cans From Ireland Post Office
19. Enveloped in Suspicion

CREATIVITY

1. The “Bulte Report” Redux: Canadian Heritage Committee Releases Embarrassingly One-Sided Remuneration Models Study (Michael Geist)
2. The Canadian House of Commons Copyright “Shifting Paradigms” Report – Let’s Just Call it the “Values Gap” Report (Howard Knopf)
3. Heffel Gallery decision is good news for museums building public art collections
4. Hotel Can Legally Destroy Artwork, but Can’t Reproduce It, Says Court
5. Copyright As Censorship: American Law Institute Uses Copyright To Stop Discussion Of Controversial Publication Prior To Vote
6. A Complex Picture
7. Batman-turned-artist faces copyright lawsuit 
8. Arthur Lee Alfred v. The Walt Disney Co.
9. Putting some teeth into Copyright law
10. Conan O’Brien Explains The Insanity Of Fighting Bogus Joke Stealing Lawsuit For Years
11. U.S. journalism really has become more subjective and personal – at least some of it: Analysis finds newspapers are a lot like 30 years ago. But TV news – especially cable news – has ramped up the emotion and arguing.
12. Is It Still Punk When the Musician Makes It Big?
13. Rapper on the Run: When Spanish authorities sentenced this provocative musician to prison for “glorifying terrorism,” his dedicated fans helped him make a daring escape across the border.
14. In the Jungle: Inside the Long, Hidden Genealogy of ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’ – How American music legends made millions off the work of a Zulu tribesman who died a pauper.
15. Pittsburgh’s Rap Scene Is Wounded But Optimistic:
16. Following the deaths of Mac Miller and Jimmy Wopo, rappers like Benji. and My Favorite Color are doing their best to pick up the pieces.
17. New rules on harmful gender stereotypes
18. Coalition Of Rights Activists And Journalists Wants To Know Why DHS, CBP, And ICE Are Spying On Activists And Journalists
19. Judge rejects Musk’s arguments to dismiss “pedo guy” defamation suit
20. Guns N’ Roses sue brewery over Guns ‘N’ Rosé beer
21. Copycat Flattened by Patent & Trade Dress Jury Verdict in Win for Tieks Shoes
22. Joel Embiid Registers Trademarks in THE PROCESS
23. Chicago Cubs Successfully Oppose Iowa Man’s ‘Cubnoxious’ Trademark; Court Cites Obnoxious Cubs Fans
24. Using Third Party Trademarks as Hashtags Creates an Implied Association–Align v. Strauss
25. Apples Only For Apple: Apple Opposes A German Bicycle Path
26. A Fight for Authorship and Ownership of 150+ Quilt Patterns, and Bad Business Planning

Jon

GAMES

1. Riot Games employees organize walkout over forced arbitration 
2. Riot Games employees hold walkout over forced arbitration: In one of the first games industry walkouts, League of Legends studio employees protest studio policy in light of gender discrimination lawsuits
3. Riot Games walkout sees 150 developers protest forced arbitration 
4. Riot Games will drop mandatory arbitration following walkout threats: Staff at League of Legends developer will no longer be blocked from filing lawsuits over sexual harassment or assault
5. Riot agrees to scrap mandatory arbitration, but only for new employees
6. Study sees link between loot boxes and gambling: Most gamers surveyed believe loot boxes are a form of gambling, more than a quarter have sold loot box items
7. US Senator introducing legislation banning loot boxes in games aimed at minors
8. U.S. Senator Introduces Bill To Ban Loot Boxes And Pay-To-Win Microtransactions
9. Senator Wants to Ban Loot Boxes and Pay-to-Win Aimed at Kids 
10. Senator Hawley announces bill banning loot boxes, pay-to-win mechanics: “Game developers shouldn’t be allowed to monetize addiction,” Mo. Republican says.
11. Proposed legislation aims to ban loot boxes in the United States
12. Senator Hawley To Introduce Legislation Banning Manipulative Video Game Features Aimed At Children
13. Blog: Complying with China’s new loot box rules
14. Don’t Miss: Pay-To-Flay: Examining microtransactions inMortal Kombat X
15. Bethesda’s latest Elder Scrolls adventure taken down amid cries of plagiarism
16. Don’t Miss: How a ragtag band of modders restored Star Wars KOTOR II
17. Game Devs Trolling Pirates Goes All The Way Back To At Least The Playstation Days With Spyro 2
18. Video: Legal experts discuss the law’s impact on game dev in 2019
19. Tencent shuts down PUBG Mobile in China following approval struggles
20. China Replaces PUBG With Bizarre, Propaganda-Filled Clone
21. Tencent pulls blockbuster game PUBG in China, launches patriotic alternative
22. Tencent gives up on monetising PUBG in China: Long wait for approval prompts Chinese publisher to migrate users to new battle royale title, Game for Peace
23. China remains a massive PC game market despite regulation hiccups
24. Niko Partners: China online PC gaming revenue saw slight decline in 2018 – Domestic revenue dropped by approximately $300m from 2017 in the face of game license freeze
25. Niko Partners: Chinese mobile gaming revenue up 29% last year despite license freeze
26. Germany considers new youth protection guidelines for mobile monetisation: Deliberately broad draft guidelines leave questions hanging around enforcement
27. Pitchford promises no “free-to-play junk” for Borderlands 3
28. WHO gaming disorder could cost South Korean economy over $9bn: Korean culture ministry writes to World Health Organisation protesting ICD-11 draft
29. GWU calls for testimonies against reported sexual predators at Quantic Dream – Update: French developer claims no knowledge of any incidents and urges victims to, “contact the relevant authorities”
30. Claptrap voice actor accuses Gearbox CEO of assault, underpayment
31. Claptrap voice actor accuses Randy Pitchford of assault amid pay dispute: Gearbox takes Eddings’ allegations “very seriously” but declines to comment due to it being “a personal matter”
32. Star Citizen development reportedly troubled by mishandled money, micromanagement: Cloud Imperium Games has raised $288 million so far over a nearly eight-year development, but the end still isn’t in sight
33. Starbreeze seeks funding to avoid imminent “liquidity shortfall”: Swedish company’s Q1 report suggests it won’t last 12 months without a new source of funds
34. Bandai Namco’s long-running Tales series has crossed 20 million lifetime sales
35. World War Z has topped 320,000 sales on the Epic Games Store
36. World War Z sold 320k on Epic Games Store: Saber Interactive’s hit game skipped Steam, but PC still accounted for 25% of its week one sales
37. Watch Close To The Sun’s developers talk launching on the Epic Game Store
38. Risk of Rain 2 crosses 1 million sales in first month
39. Mordhau sells 500,000 copies in one week 
40. Live service roster helps Zynga deliver record mobile revenue and bookings
41. Apple’s first new game in 10 years is Warren Buffett’s Paper Wizard
42. Xbox’s new Code of Conduct: yes to “get wrecked,” “potato aim,” no to hate
43. Gameloft to bring Xbox Live features to 3 mobile games
44. Xbox Live coming to select Gameloft mobile titles: Asphalt 9: Legends, Asphalt 8: Airborne, and Dragon Mania Legends among the first mobile games to use recently-announced mobile SDK from Microsoft
45. Anthem fell short of EA’s sales expectations
46. Revenue drops at Electronic Arts despite strong digital bookings
47. EA Access is launching on PlayStation 4
48. EA Access is launching on PlayStation 4 in July: Almost five years after its Xbox and PC debut, EA’s subscription service is finally available on Sony’s console
49. Apex Legends, Anthem can’t save EA’s fourth quarter: Revenue and net income down double-digits as company falls off last year’s pace, but publisher forecasts a record-setting rebound ahead
50. EA in ‘advanced negotiations’ to bring Apex Legends to China and mobile
51. EA’s plan for a record year revolves around ongoing games: Apex Legends hopes are high as it heads to mobile and China, while the publisher projects unit sales of up to 8m for single-player Jedi Fallen Order
52. GTA V becomes third most-watched game on Twitch thanks to role playing server: Live viewership hours increases nearly sixfold in space of single month
53. Key franchises help Capcom to record profits for second consecutive year
54. Capcom’s full-year results boosted by software strength: Devil May Cry, Resident Evil and Monster Hunter drive profit to record levels
55. Supercell invests $3.8 million into Swedish studio Luau Games  
56. Activision Blizzard quarterly revenues take a dip
57. Activision Blizzard sees predicted Q1 start to “transition year”: Revenue down largely due to 16% drop in Blizzard earnings as the segment begins a year with “no major frontline release”
58. The Call of Duty series has sold over 300 million games
59. Activision Blizzard looks to esports, mobile, free-to-play during company transition: Call of Duty’s city-based league sells first five franchise teams; company staffs up for numerous mobile initiatives
60. Danish government launches esport strategy to foster growth and tackle toxicity: Dedicated esports panel aims to build a “sustainable structure for the entire food chain”
61. Creators Going Pro: ‘Fortnite’ Creative Expert Swiftor Doesn’t Just Make Content For His 3 Million Subscribers — He Makes Content With Them
62. Former Fortnite UX lead digs into ethical game design
63. Global console content, services spend reaches record high in 2018 – IHS Markit: 2019 expected to see continued market growth largely thanks to the Nintendo Switch
64. Nintendo: “The reality is that the Chinese market is almost all mobile and PC games” – Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa cools enthusiasm around the Chinese launch of the Switch
65. Nintendo says 3DS demand ‘stable’ despite notable declines
66. Pokémon characters have their own pea-sized region in brain, study finds
67. United devs stand, divided they crunch | Opinion: Management doesn’t need to mandate excessive overtime when it has developers policing each other
68. CEO and co-founder Emily Greer departs Kongregate
69. Former temps claim NetherRealm has long history of exploitation and abuse
70. NetherRealm’s self-sustaining culture of crunch: Current and former employees describe pressures at Mortal Kombat studio placed on them from management and peers alike
71. NetherRealms Studios investigating crunch and toxicity allegations: Following multiple exposés on self-sustaining culture of crunch, Mortal Kombat developer vows to “improve our company environment”
72. Mortal Kombat 11 review: Great gameplay, excessively packaged
73. Path of Exile devs “sometimes feel we are being asked to crunch” by fan demands: Grinding Gear Games asks fans for patience as it works on improvements for Path of Exile
74. The pressure to constantly update games is pushing the industry to a breaking point: Live service games have trained players to expect a constant stream of new content, and only constant work can deliver it.
75. What responsibility do leaders have to their developers?
76. Microsoft files patent for controller accessory with Braille input and output: Gamepad would allow users to read and input Braille text, as well as convert speech commands to input
77. Kerbal Space Program’s Breaking Ground DLC adds robotics and more experiments
78. After 32-bit purge, GameClub raises $2.5M to bring back classic iOS games
79. GameClub raises $2.5m for premium mobile game development: Studio is currently working to revitalize and update over 50 classic titles
80. Phoenix Games has acquired UK studio Well Played Games
81. Phoenix Games’ first acquisition is UK developer Well Played Games
82. Echo developer Ultra Ultra closes down
83. Google Stadia caused investors to walk away from Slightly Mad’s console: Future of the “Mad Box” is in question following the emergence of Google’s streaming service
84. Google’s current VR plan is more about services than new hardware
85. Google pivots away from VR hardware to focus on software: Company says it is in ‘deep R&D’ on new headsets, and is focused on games and apps for now
86. Location-based VR Attraction ‘Hologate’ Celebrates 2 Million Player Milestone
87. Microsoft announces HoloLens 2 Development Edition 
88. HoloLens 2 dev kits: $3,500, or $99/month, with Azure credits, Unity trials
89. Developer’s edition of HoloLens 2 launches today at $3,500: Alternatively, studios can pay $99 per month for access to the kit
90. ‘High Fidelity’ Refocuses on Enterprise Market, Lays off 25% of Staff
91. The Terrawurm experiment: Can indies work together on multiple games?
92. Developing out loud for Amazon Alexa: Amazon head of voice design education Paul Cutsinger talks about how independent developers are rising to the unique challenges of making games for voice
93. Remedy: “Single-player games are stronger than they have ever been” – At Reboot Develop, CEO Tero Virtala examined the new opportunities streaming services will create for independent AAA developers
94. Ubisoft and Genba aim to thwart key resellers with silent key activation
95. Ubisoft and Genba to “kill the grey market” with silent key activation: Genba’s Matt Murphy reveals how the two companies are clamping down on key reselling
96. Sindiecate founders go AWOL, owing staff and contractors over €30,000: Spanish indie publisher collapses without answers after founders cultivate toxic work environment
97. How Denuvo is tackling cheaters who think outside the box: Publishers face an uphill battle as cheats get more sophisticated and harder to detect
98. BlizzCon 2019 tickets revolve around invasive, poorly reviewed smartphone app: And, lo, did fans sarcastically reply, “You guys all have phones, right?”
99. After trailer outcry, Sonic the Hedgehog director tells fans to expect “changes”
100. Sonic The Hedgehog film character design will change, says director: Jeff Fowler promises to overhaul Sonic’s look following the negative response to the film’s trailer
101. Blog: What is ‘live support’ and how does it fit into the games industry?
102. Blog: Transitioning from desktop to mobile game development
103. Blog: Tips for finding and working with a publisher
104. Blog: Creating music and SFX for games
105. Blog: A mini-postmortem of the hero theme
106. Don’t Miss: Analyzing how friendly AI ‘cheats’ in Ghost Recon Wildlands
107. U.S. Patent No. 8,814,677: Using real-time constructive solid geometry to provide painting and thinning game mechanics 
108. Evil Video Games Great At Detecting Early Dementia In People
109. Brexit and its impact on the gaming sector | Opinion: Wright Hassall solicitor Patrick McCallum offers an update on the potential impact of the UK’s departure from the EU
110. Nordic Game Discovery Contest reveals 15 finalists for 2019: Finalists were picked during heats at 15 global games events
111. Marvel Strike Force and Shadowgun Legends honored at 2019 Google Play Awards
112. Windows Solitaire inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame
113. Mortal Kombat, Microsoft Solitaire, and more join World Video Game Hall of Fame
114. Microsoft Solitaire, three others join World Video Game Hall of Fame: Super Mario Kart, Mortal Kombat, Colossal Cave Adventure also among Strong Museum’s 2019 inductees
115. Take a look at some of the earliest designs for Plants vs. Zombies

DIGITAL

1. Feds take down dark web index and news site Deep Dot Web
2. How Chinese Spies Got the N.S.A.’s Hacking Tools, and Used Them for Attacks
3. A mysterious hacker gang is on a supply-chain hacking spree: Group of likely Chinese hackers has poisoned software of at least six companies.
4. China Stole NSA Cyberweapons And Used Them Against Us Allies
5. Putin signs “Internet sovereignty” bill that expands censorship
6. Canadian Billionaire Sues Twitter For Nasty Things Twitter Users Said About Him
7. Why a Republican senator wants the FTC to throw the book at Facebook
8. FBI And Half The World Bust Operators Of A Site That Made The Dark Web Searchable
9. Mark Zuckerberg has to go. Here are 25 reasons why
10. Alex Jones was banned from Facebook, but an hour later he was back on Facebook livestreaming
11. Facebook And Instagram Permaban Alex Jones, Milo Yiannopoulos, Laura Loomer For Posting Hate Content
12. Instagram and Facebook Ban Far-Right Extremists: Alex Jones, Infowars, Milo Yiannopoulos, Paul Joseph Watson, Laura Loomer, Paul Nehlen, and Louis Farrakhan have all been removed from the platforms.
13. Facebook Rolls Out Broad Changes To How Its Algorithm Will Rank Videos
14. Facebook will change video ranking to prioritize original content: It will prioritize videos that holds viewers’ attention.
15. Report: Facebook looking to disrupt credit cards with cryptocurrency
16. Facebook’s cryptocurrency might work like loyalty points
17. Bitcoin is worth $6,000 for the first time this year: Bitcoin’s price has been rising in recent weeks and it’s not clear why.
18. Amazon discriminates against pregnant women, seven lawsuits have said
19. Amazon’s “Zero” Tolerance for Counterfeiting
20. Wisconsin Supreme Court Fixes a Bad Section 230 Opinion—Daniel v. Armslist (Eric Goldman)
21. New Essay: The Complicated Story of FOSTA and Section 230 (Eric Goldman)
22. It’s One Thing For Trolls And Grandstanding Politicians To Get CDA 230 Wrong, But The Press Shouldn’t Help Them
23. The Ninth Circuit Broke The Internet. So We Asked Them To Unbreak It.
24. Twenty-one States Inadvertently Tell The DC Circuit That The Plaintiffs Challenging FOSTA Have A Case
25. The Human Cost Of FOSTA
26. Content Moderation is Broken. Let Us Count the Ways.
27. Content Moderation At Scale Is Impossible: Facebook Still Can’t Figure Out How To Deal With Naked Breasts
28. Global regulation threatens to take a bite out of the FAANGs 
29. Instagram Planning AI-Powered Pop-Ups To Ratchet Down Anti-Vaccination Content
30. The Legislation That Targets the Racist Impacts of Tech: A proposed law would make big companies determine whether their algorithms discriminate
31. Your phone isn’t spying on you – it’s listening to your ‘voodoo doll’: An ex-Google employee has described what’s going on when you think your phone has been listening to you
32. Google unveils auto-delete for location, Web activity, and app usage data
33. Apple to be formally investigated over Spotify’s antitrust complaint, says report: EU investigation will launch ‘in the next few weeks,’ according to the FT
34. FBI Reports An Increasing Rate Of Internet-Facilitated Crime 
35. Fourth Circuit Rejects “Good Faith” as Defense to Copyright Infringement
36. “Please don’t stop the music”: Peloton Files Counterclaims Against Music Publishers in Copyright Infringement Lawsuit
37. #1 app YOLO Q&A is the Snapchat platform’s 1st hit
38. Disney could take full control of Hulu, but that doesn’t mean subscribers’ favorite shows disappear: Disney CEO Bob Iger comments on Hulu’s future
39. Disney Writes Off Its Vice Stake in Latest Sign of Trouble
40. Disney+ will not be a “Netflix killer” because at this point, nothing can kill Netflix: Redef CEO Jason Hirschhorn watches a lot of TV and he says Netflix has sucked him into watching less of everything else.
41. Netflix Has Propelled The ‘Fab 5’ From ‘Queer Eye’ Into Bonafide Social Media Stars
42. Open Source Makes Kodi Add-ons Proliferate — And Hard To Eradicate
43. YouTube Now Has 2 Billion Monthly Users, Who Watch 250 Million Hours on TV Screens Daily
44. More Than 250 Million Hours Of YouTube Content Are Watched On TV Screens Every Single Day
45. More Than 500 Hours Of Content Are Now Being Uploaded To YouTube Every Minute
46. YouTube Copyright Filters Suck: The ‘Beat Saber’ And ‘Jimmy Fallon’ Edition
47. Ex-YouTube engineer reveals how video site worked to kill off Internet Explorer 6
48. YouTube’s Always Wanted TV Ad Dollars. But At This Year’s Brandcast, Execs Upped The Intensity Of The Pitch.
49. YouTuber Austin Jones Sentenced To 10 Years Behind Bars For Child Pornography
50. Pornhub wants to buy Tumblr and restore site to former porn-filled glory
51. Justin Bieber Pacts With YouTube for Project Premiering in 2020
52. YouTube Renews Kevin Hart Comedy Series, Sets Maluma and Paris Hilton Documentaries, Lollapalooza Live-Streaming Deal
53. Kris Jenner, Gary Vaynerchuk Talk Life And Business With 120 YouTubers At The Site’s ‘Top Creator Summit’
54. YouTube Plays A Major Role In Google’s Plans To Revamp Ecommerce Arm 
55. Bad Influence: Complying with FTC’s Endorsement Guide
56. FTC Warns Ukraine Company: You Can’t Let Kids Use Your Dating Apps 
57. Dating Apps Warned of Potential COPPA and FTC Act Violations Removed from App Stores 
58. Liza Koshy, James Charles, And Lilly Singh Got Coveted Invites To The Met Gala
59. Police Investigating Alleged Drugging Of Guest At Jake Paul-Hosted House Party
60. After Streamlining Web Presence, Vice Reportedly Raises $250 Million In Debt Funding
61. Vice Media Gets $250 Million in Debt Funding From George Soros, Other Investors
62. ‘Game Of Thrones’ Videos Are Collecting Nearly 100 Million Views A Day
63. CatCon Partners With Cats Of Instagram To Celebrate The Internet’s Greatest Cat Videos
64. Sock Startup Bombas Says YouTube Yields More First-Time Orders Than Any Other Ad Platform
65. Instagram’s In-App Shopping Feature ‘Checkout’ Helped Boost Adidas’ Online Sales By 40%
66. Instagram Planning AI-Powered Pop-Ups To Ratchet Down Anti-Vaccination Content
67. The Comedian Is In The Machine. AI Is Now Learning Puns
68. Can AI Fairness Be Regulated?
69. How to prepare students for the rise of artificial intelligence in the workforce
70. The impact of intellectual property on artificial intelligence
71. Blockchain, zero-code machine learning coming to Azure
72. Blockchain Technology Embraced by Maryland Legislature
73. Binance exchange hackers steal bitcoins worth $41m
74. 3D-printing and IP rights
75. Microsoft joins Climate Leadership Council: Company becomes first tech organization to join controversial group pursuing carbon fees, legal immunity for oil giants
76. This Year’s Biggest NewFronts Buzzwords Were “Audio” And “Brand Safety”, Says Mindshare’s Christine Peterson
77. Man Wins Legal Battle Over Traffic Ticket By Convincing Court A Hash Brown Is Not A Phone

COMMUNICATIONS  

1. CRTC Issues Its First Penalty Against a CEO for Violating Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation
2.  CRTC ups the CASL liability ante for directors and officers 
3. More Than 100 CNN Staffers Take Buyouts as AT&T Pares Debt
4. CMS Finalizes Rule Requiring Disclosure of Drug Prices in TV Ads 
5. Verizon Media Said to Be Looking for Tumblr Buyer
6. US Bandwidth Consumption Surges As Usage Caps Pose A Looming Threat
7. Charter squeezes more money out of Internet users with new cancellation policy
8. Megamergers Can’t Help Charter Spectrum As Cord Cutting Exodus Continues
9. FCC Fixes Giant Error Over-Stating Broadband Availability… Then Doubles Down On Bogus Claims
10. Ajit Pai refuses to investigate Frontier’s horrible telecom service
11. The Super ‘Transparent’ Pai FCC Is Still Trying To Hide Details On Those Fake Net Neutrality Comments
12. The FCC Hasn’t Done A Damn Thing To Seriously Police Wireless Location Data Scandals 

PRIVACY

1.  Student Files $1 Billion Lawsuit Against Apple Over Supposedly Faulty Facial Recognition Tech That Falsely Accused Him Of Theft
2. Refunds for 300 million phone users sought in lawsuits over location-data sales 
3. Does Canadian Privacy Law Matter if it Can’t be Enforced? (Michael Geist)
4. How Mass Surveillance Works in Xinjiang, China: ‘Reverse Engineering’ Police App Reveals Profiling and Monitoring Strategies
5. Chinese Spies Intercepted NSA Malware Attack, Weaponized It Against Targets Around The World
6. “RobbinHood” ransomware takes down Baltimore City government networks
7. Smart Lock Vendors Under Fire For Collecting Too Much Private Data
8. Massachusetts Judge Says ATF Can Apply A Suspect’s Fingerprints To Unlock An IPhone
9. Latest ODNI Transparency Report Shows Steep Spike In Unmasking Requests For US Person Caught In NSA Collections
10. Unless you want your payment card data skimmed, avoid these commerce sites
11. Google Is Finally Copying Apple’s Approach to Privacy: New features will help keep your data on your device
12. Google’s Sundar Pichai snipes at Apple with privacy defense: ‘Privacy cannot be a luxury good’
13. Facebook’s contract workers are looking at your private posts to train AI: Human workers have to categorize posts to create training data for AI systems
14. Canada Border Services seizes lawyer’s phone, laptop for not sharing passwords
15. $3 Million Settlement for Exposure of and Latent Response to Exposure of 300,000 Patients’ Protected Health Information 
16. Accused CIA Leaker Files Complaint Against The Government Seeking $50 Billion In Damages
17. Governments are deploying spyware on killers, drug lords – and journalists
18. Schools Are Safer Than Ever, But That’s Not Stopping Schools From Buying Social Media Monitoring Software
19. First GDPR fine issued! 
20. GDPR, ePrivacy and cookies: an update
21. GDPR Penalties Prove Why Compliance Isn’t Enough—And Why Companies Need Clarity
22. Senator Markey Announces ‘Privacy Bill of Rights’
23. The Lure Of Learning Analytics: Researchers now have access to a flood of educational data on students that they hope will offer insights on how to improve the learning experience. Will it work?
24. Spot the not-Fed: A day at AvengerCon, the Army’s answer to hacker conferences

CREATIVITY

1. Infringement Plagues Pharaoh’s Fortune
2. Artist’s trash is treasure 
3. Saatchi Gallery decides to cover up artworks dubbed “blasphemous” 
4. The male torso: Is it distinctive?
5. UMG Fails To Get Trademark For ‘As Heard On TV’ In A Remarkably Sane Ruling From The TTAB
6. Sturgis Motorcycle Rally Inc. Keeps Telling Licensees Its Trademarks Are Valid While Courts Keep Insisting They Are Not
7. The Russo Brothers Break Down the Biggest Marvel Moments
8. Unsurprisingly, Larry Klayman’s Veiled Threats And Insulting Of Judges Isn’t Helping Roy Moore’s $95 Million Defamation Lawsuit
9. Why we are addicted to conspiracy theories: Outsiders and the disenfranchised have always embraced the existence of wild plots and cover-ups. But now the biggest conspiracy-mongers are in charge.
10. Just Because The Rest Of The World Doesn’t Have A 1st Amendment, Doesn’t Mean It Can Trample Online Speech
11. Federal Judge Says Flashing Headlights To Warn Drivers Of Hidden Cops MIGHT Be Protected Speech

Jon

GAMES

1. Report: Talks of developer walkouts prompt conversation inside Riot Games
2. Citing arbitration clauses, Riot Games moves to block employee lawsuits
3. Riot Files Motions To Block Current Employees From Taking Legal Action
4. Riot employees threaten walkout over forced arbitration: League of Legends developer’s attempt to keep workers’ gender discrimination claims out of court draws backlash
5. Riot says women waived right to sue when they were hired: League of Legends maker wants to enforce private arbitration clauses for gender discrimination claims
6. The heavy toll of making games in the San Francisco Bay Area
7. Swery’s White Owls is building a better work culture for Japan: Hidetaka Suehiro says his new studio’s treatment of employees is, “inspired by foreign game companies”
8. New York Saxophonist Latest To Sue Fortnite Developers For Supposedly Ripping Off His… ‘Likeness’
9. Musician Leo Pellegrino sues Epic Games over alleged misappropriation of his identity: Pellegrino’s “trademark moves have become inseparable from his persona and his life story” argues filing
10. Epic Games acquires Rocket League dev Psyonix
11. Epic acquires Rocket League studio, bringing game to Epic’s store this year: Steam sales will continue for now; Steam “support” will continue indefinitely.
12. If Epic Vs Steam Is To Be A PR War, Epic’s Boss Just Issued A Brilliant Retaliatory Strike
13. Steam crosses 1 billion registered accounts
14. NCSoft Has A Great Opportunity To Be Awesome And Human To ‘City Of Heroes’ Enthusiasts
15. The streaming service that wants to save the retro gaming biz from piracy
16. Cox Internet now charges $15 extra for faster access to online game servers
17. Google removes Do Global Games from Play Store: Developer with over 100 apps and 600m installs banned following reports of concealing ownership info, ad fraud
18. Google CEO: Publishers “want to see our commitment” to Stadia – But Sundar Pichai says giving games execs hands on time with streaming service “completely wins people over”
19. Publishers see Stadia as an ‘opportunity for a shift,’ says Google CEO
20. Google Stadia will support “a variety of business models”
21. Coming Facebook Gaming features focus on discovery and engagement
22. Banned Republican politician restored to EVE Online council following investigation: “We made a mistake here and we offer our formal apologies,” says CCP Games
23. EA lays out Apex Legends community tournament guidelines: This is what you need to know if you want to hold a local tournament without fear of EA’s legal department.
24. Apex Legends updates less to maintain dev quality of life: Respawn’s Vince Zampella says studio is wary of overworking the team and reducing quality of work in the process
25. BioWare delays multiple Anthem features: “There is a long way to go before Anthem becomes the game we all want it to be,” says BioWare
26. Epic Removed A Popular Fortnite Mechanic Because It Made People Play Less
27. Epic Games Boss Says They’ll Stop Doing Exclusives If Steam Gives Developers More Money
28. Tim Sweeney: Epic would stop pursuing exclusives if Steam improved its revenue share – Epic CEO says Steam committing to permanent 88% revenue share would be “a glorious moment in the history of PC gaming”
29. Phoenix Labs’ undaunted quest for cross-platform play: Founder Jesse Houston on choosing the Epic Games store over Steam, and how that choice is helping to realise its cross-platform vision for Dauntless
30. Epic Games acquires Psyonix: Epic seems to leave door open for game to continue to be sold on Steam after Epic Games store release
31. Snap’s big plan to turn Snapchat into a gaming platform
32. Watch the Borderlands 3 gameplay reveal streams and you might win in-game loot: A new Echocast plugin will also enable viewers to look at streamers’ loadouts, inventories, and skill trees.
33. Borderlands 3 is about more bullets, not new bullet points: Gearbox developers say the latest entry was about broadening the familiar, share thoughts on collaboration, crassness, and crunch
34. Adult gaming portal Nutaku launches Android storefront: Restrictions on Google Play and App Store demanded new measures to “improve accessibility” for mobile users
35. In-depth: Portfolio-scale machine learning at Zynga
36. Zynga’s Q1 revenues, losses top expectations: Publisher credits “outstanding performances” from Empires & Puzzles and Merge Dragons for helping top line and hurting bottom line
37. Record-breaking year for Jagex with revenues of £92.8m: Launch of Old School RuneScape on mobile drives fourth consecutive year of growth
38. Original Earthworm Jim team reunites for new, Intellivision Amico-exclusive entry: Ten of the game’s original developers participating in creation of new title for upcoming, exclusive-heavy console
39. There’s a 1 percent chance Valve announces a Half-Life VR game this week
40. Valve Index is a 120Hz-plus ‘fidelity first’ VR headset, and it isn’t cheap
41. Valve Index VR headset ships June 28 for $499-$999
42. Hands-on: Valve’s Index Headset Sets an Impressive New Bar for VR Fidelity
43. Oculus Rift S and Oculus Quest launch May 21 for $399 each  
44. Oculus Quest Review – The First Great Standalone VR Headset
45. A VR game is helping researchers learn about and potentially detect Alzheimer’s
46. Japanese mobile operator Docomo sinks $280 million into Magic Leap
47. Magic Leap gets $280m investment from Docomo: Japanese telecomms deal pushes lifetime funding above $2.6 billion
48. ‘Super Mario Odyssey’ & ‘Zelda Breath of the Wild’ Updated with Switch VR Support
49. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate driving new Switch sales for Nintendo
50. Nintendo Slays The Threat From Modded Nintendo Games For The Commodore 64
51. Over 9.8 million people are using Nintendo’s premium Switch Online service
52. Nintendo saw over $1 billion in digital sales this year, a company first
53. Game with hidden Ruby interpreter pulled from Nintendo Switch eShop
54. Nintendo’s VR Upgrade for Zelda Messed Me Up
55. The Switch is closing in on 35 million lifetime sales
56. Software driving growth at Nintendo as Switch falls just short of sales goal
57. Nintendo remains the industry’s best long-term bet | Opinion: With Switch soaring and clear space ahead as competitors prepare next-gen offerings, Nintendo is back on top – and the long-term outlook is even more rosy
58. Nintendo Switch had 23 million-selling games in the last fiscal year: Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa says there will be no new hardware announcement at E3 this year
59. Nintendo Switch Online reaches 9.8m subscribers in six months: Just under one third of Switch owners are paid members of the online service
60. Nintendo pulls A Dark Room from eShop over secret code editor
61. Nintendo shares drop 5% after conservative Switch forecasts: But platform holder’s share price has still risen 29% since the start of the year
62. A Dark Room pulled from Switch eShop for including code editor: Developer added Ruby editor at the “last second” without publisher’s knowledge
63. Mario Kart Tour steps closer to launch with closed beta test: Nintendo’s upcoming mobile game was delayed from March 2019 launch due to concerns over its quality
64. Xbox should absolutely team up with Nintendo at E3 | Opinion: This could be the quietest E3 yet, making it the ideal time for Microsoft and Nintendo to call a truce
65. Microsoft is using the Xbox Adaptive Controller to support U.S. veterans
66. Sega keen to improve profitability of digital titles after disappointing year
67. Don’t Miss: A postmortem of the original Sonic the Hedgehog
68. Mojang has released the ‘biggest Minecraft update yet’
69. Microsoft continues to distance itself from Minecraft creator: Citing “his comments and opinions,” Mojang parent explains why Marcus “Notch” Persson won’t be involved in anniversary event
70. Minecraft creator Notch unwelcome at 10th anniversary due to online conduct: Transphobia, homophobia, and racism aren’t Microsoft’s core values.
71. Mojang donates $100k to water charity after Minecraftplayers rally to the cause
72. PlayStation Now has 700,000 subscribers
73. PlayStation Now downloads get double the play time of streamed games: Sony’s on-demand service has 700k subscribers, and many of them are choosing downloads over streams
74. Rising PS4 game sales drive Sony to $78.1bn full-year revenues: Game segment’s operating income to take a $278.3 million hit as investment increases in PlayStation 5
75. PS4 software sales up at Sony as hardware decline continues
76. UK Charts: Days Gone defeats Mortal Kombat 11 to claim No.1 – PS4 exclusive scores decent debut in UK Top 40
77. Slightly Mad Studios withdraws trademark for Mad Box console: Withdrawal follows opposition from French casual games firm called Madbox
78. Project Cars dev fails to secure ‘Mad Box’ trademark for new console
79. St. Jude’s PLAY LIVE Gamer Fundraising Summit Kicks Off In Memphis With Tons Of Twitch Stars
80. Fans Can Now Buy Their Own Ninja Headbands For $22, Exclusively At Walmart
81. Capcom restructures esports and media licensing business units: Company forms Capcom Media Ventures to manage global esports projects
82. Denmark creates ‘national esports strategy’ to nurture competitive gaming
83. Fnatic Secures $19m Funding, Announces Management Changes
84. YouTube Millionaires: ProPepper’s YouTube Channel Is All ‘Fortnite,’ All The Time — And That’s What Drives His 10+ Million Monthly Views
85. The GamesIndustry.biz Podcast: The slow journey to killing crunch
86. Ex-NetherRealm devs: crunch and exploiting contractors was the studio norm
87. Codemasters moves F1 team into new Birmingham studio: Studio head Ian Flatt says new premises allows developer to “recruit even further to expand the franchise”
88. Starbreeze sells 10 Crowns publishing rights back to developer Mohawk Games
89. Starbreeze sells publishing rights for 10 Crowns back to developer: Marks third such deal in just over a year, but still holds on to Psychonauts 2
90. Snapchat is launching an SDK to let devs use Bitmoji avatars in their own games
91. Four years after launch, Angry Birds 2 is still Rovio’s top-earning game
92. Dino Patti: “If you get what you expected, it always gets boring”
93. Blog: Approaching player choice in video games
94. Blizzard will skip Gamescom this year to ‘focus on development’
95. Bloodborne board game adaptation raises $1.6m in two days: Tabletop adaptation of FromSoftware’s nightmarish monster-fest breaks funding goal in 17 minutes
96. AbleGamers reveals plan to get accessibility experts into AAA studios: “We’ve found that once we embed champions within the studio space, accessibility becomes a really cheap thing to add,” says CEO
97. This Video Game Detects Alzheimer’s Earlier Than Lab Tests
98. Ubisoft is rewarding players for reporting reproducible bugs in Rainbow Six Siege
99. Mobile VR game Sea Hero Quest generates 1,700 hours of research into Alzheimer’s: Researchers claim every two minutes of gameplay is equal to five hours of lab-based studies
100. Valve Index reveal: The best of VR’s first generation—but is it worth $999?
101. Valve has a ‘flagship’ game headed to SteamVR headsets
102. Oculus Quest review: 2019’s best new gaming system is wireless, affordable VR
103. UK government awards £12m funding for innovation projects based on homegrown IP: Augmented and virtual reality games in development for Oscar-winning Wallace and Gromit, and BAFTA-winning Peaky Blinders
104. Mass Effect-inspired porn game is now one of the biggest gaming Kickstarters of all time: Subverse, a “kinky sci-fi RPG,” will likely break $2 million, putting it in an exclusive crowdfunding club.
105. The Indie Guide To Marketing: Freelance marketer Bee Wakefield offers devs advice on how to promote their game – and why it takes more than just social media
106. Understanding Inkle’s approach to making unique game settings
107. Knockin’ on Heaven’s Vault: How Inkle designed its first 3D game
108. A brief history of 3D texturing in video games
109. Don’t Miss: The making of the N64 classic, GoldenEye 007
110. Deux Ex: The game you can’t win – Why I Love – Bow to Blood developer Matthew Hoesterey says the immersive sim was everything he hoped for, but not what he expected
111. Did a vigilante ROM leaker go too far to “preserve” a lost Atari ROM?
112. Don’t Miss: How the developer of Dig Dog learned to make games without using his hands
113. Coding without a keystroke: The hands-free creation of a full video game

DIGITAL

1. Can we ever regulate online spaces? (Andres Guadamuz)
2. Inside the Team at Facebook That Dealt with the Christchurch Shooting
3. PewDiePie Addresses Christchurch Massacre, Urges Fans To Stop Using “Subscribe To PewDiePie”
4. Facebook Files Questionable Lawsuit Over Fake Followers And Likes
5. Austrian Government Wants To Outlaw Online Anonymity
6. Smoking, depression apps sell your data to Google and Facebook, study finds
7. How a Google Street View image of your house predicts your risk of a car accident
8. Behind The Scenes Look At How Facebook Dealt With Christchurch Shooting Demonstrates The Impossible Task Of Content Moderation
9. Regulating Facebook will be one of the greatest challenges in human history
10. Facebook’s Zuckerberg announces privacy overhaul: ‘We don’t have the strongest reputation’
11. Insights: Will We Still Like Instagram If We Don’t Know Who Likes What?
12. Instagram Enlists Kim Kardashian, Kathleen Lights, And More To Roll Out Shoppable Posts
13. Content Moderation At Scale Is Impossible: Some Republican Politicians Are Indistinguishable From Neo Nazis
14. Impossible Content Moderation Dilemmas: Talking About Racism Blocked As Hate Speech
15. Samsung Made A Vertical TV To Display Instagram Stories, TikToks, And Snapchats
16. The Wisconsin Supreme Court Gets Section 230 Right
17. Ninth Circuit Chunks Another Section 230 Ruling – HomeAway v. Santa Monica
18. Supreme Court Asks White House To Weigh In On Copyrightability Of APIs
19. As Brand Safety Concerns Mount, Vice Denounces Keyword Blacklists For Restricting Diversity
20. Vodafone Found Hidden Backdoors in Huawei Equipment
21. Bloomberg alleges Huawei routers and network gear are backdoored
22. Bloomberg Appears To Flub Another China Story, Insists Telnet Is A Nefarious Huawei Backdoor
23. Silicon Valley is awash in Chinese and Saudi cash — and no one is paying attention (except Trump): A tough, new enforcement regime is becoming a geopolitical minefield for venture capitalists and startups.
24. Judge blasts Assange for jumping bail, sentences him to almost one year
25. Putin signs law to create an independent Russian internet
26. Why Won’t Twitter Treat White Supremacy Like ISIS? Because It Would Mean Banning Some Republican Politicians Too.: A proactive, algorithmic solution to white supremacy would also catch Republican politicians.
27. How The Alt-Right Infiltrated Architecture Twitter – And Turned Notre-Dame Into A Political Lightning Rod: Why are online white nationalists obsessed with modern architecture? It’s all a cover to push a racist agenda
28. After White House stop, Twitter CEO calls congresswoman about death threats
29. Texas Senator Pushing A Bill That Would Allow The State To Sue Twitter For Banning Conservatives
30. Why Your Holiday Photos And Videos Of The Restored Notre Dame Cathedral Could Be Blocked By The EU’s Upload Filters
31. Elon Musk reaches settlement in SEC tweet battle
32. Disinformation Threatens 2020 Election
33. Was Russia’s 2016 intervention for Trump a strategic failure?: Putin won the political battle, but the war’s outcome is still uncertain.
34. HootSuite cuts jobs in reorganization at social media management business
35. At NewFronts, Twitter Pitches Programming Pacts With Wall Street Journal, Live Nation, Univision
36. Twitter Expands Live-Streaming Video Lineup, Sets Content Deals With Viacom, ESPN, Live Nation, Univision, and More
37. YouTube Is Communicating Directly With Creators And Viewers More Than Ever – Through Its Twitter Account
38. YouTube CEO addresses top creator issues including copyright claims and trending section
39. YouTube Swings For The Fences In First-Ever Exclusive Deal With Major League Baseball
40. YouTube Scores MLB 13-Game Package With Exclusive Rights in U.S., Canada
41. Following Shane Dawson Summit, YouTube’s Tweaking Its ‘Trending’ Tab To Be 50% Native Creators
42. Taylor Swift’s “Me!” Shatters YouTube Record For Most-Viewed Solo Female Debut
43. Microsoft is now a $1 trillion company: Strong earnings push Microsoft toward a new milestone
44. Microsoft market cap reaches $1 trillion: Company value edges over milestone this morning for the first time, making it most valuable US publicly traded company
45. Apple sets sights on services as iPhone revenue continues to fall
46. iPad and services on the rise at Apple as iPhone sales continue to fall
47. Robotics company Anki lays off entire workforce ahead of closure
48. Security Experts Unite Over the Right to Repair
49. Minnesota May Be First State To Pass A Right To Repair Law
50. SiriusXM financials reveal continued decline in Pandora users
51. Post-Ticketfly, Pandora Integrates Ticketmaster Shows Into Its Artist Streams
52. The Next Step In The Podcast Wars: Two Companies Looking To Be The Netflix Of Podcasts Start Fighting
53. Despite Spielberg’s ‘Get Off My Lawn’ Moment, The Oscars Won’t Ban Netflix
54. Now more expensive to sue multiple online infringers 
55. Don’t let industry write the rules for AI: Technology companies are running a campaign to bend research and regulation for their benefit; society must fight back (Yochai Benkler)
56. World Economic Forum’s AI head on how to protect human rights without stifling innovation 
57. Is Artificial Intelligence Good for Our Health?
58. Can algorithms themselves be biased?
59. Google’s poetry algorithm automates teen angst: Give it a word and it’ll give you a masterpiece (of sorts). 
60. Why Congress Needs The Office Of Technology Assessment More Than Ever 
61. Google’s VP Of Agency And Brand Solutions Wants Facebook Watch To Get Bigger
62. GroupM’s Global Head Of Social Says Marketers Must Practice Non-Linear Storytelling
63. The Age Of The Influencer Has Peaked. It’s Time For The Slacker To Rise Again 
64. Amazon Posts Record Profit in Q1 of $3.6 Billion, Plans to Upgrade Prime to Free One-Day Shipping
65. How Amazon automatically tracks and fires warehouse workers for ‘productivity’: Documents show how the company tracks and terminates workers
66. A doorbell company owned by Amazon wants to start producing “crime news” 
67. Amazon Spent $1.7 Billion on Content in Q1, but Original Video Investments Still Unknown
68. Amazon plans to make Prime shipping one-day by default
69. Amazon Takes Direct Aim At Jay-Z’s Tidal
70. BBC Expanding News Coverage With Interactive Video, Audio Articles, And New Verticals
71. Hulu Greenlights Two New Marvel Series, Inks Two-Year Programming Pact With Chrissy Teigen
72. Hulu tops 28 million customers, unveils new shows and a ‘binge watch’ ad experience
73. Vudu Announces ‘Blue’s Clues’ Remake, Studio71 Film ‘Adventure Force 5’
74. Technological Warnings from the Inside
75. MIT finally gives a name to the sum of all AI fears
76. The AI Group Elon Musk Quit Just Released An Amazing Music AI
77. Spotify Now Has Over 100 Million Subscribers, Narrows Q1 Losses
78. Layer and Nio’s intelligent Pal scooter learns your favourite routes
79. The Vast Majority of All Futures Trading Is Now Automated
80. Amazing AI Generates Entire Bodies of People Who Don’t Exist: The algorithm whips up photorealistic models and outfits from scratch.
81. The Role of Professional Norms in AI Governance: Some Observations and Outline of a Framework (Urs Gasser)
82. Beyond Bias: Re-imagining the Terms of “Ethical AI” in Criminal Law (Chelsea Barabas)
83. Do You Know the Origin of your Website Content? . . . and Why You Should. 
84. Condé Nast Entertainment Says It Has 100 Pilots In The Works
85. Condé Nast Taps Joe Sugg For New YouTube Series, To Launch Sports-Themed ‘GQ’ Channel
86. Vice to Relaunch Main Site, Bring Noisey Under Flagship Umbrella: Exclusive
87. Viacom’s Kelly Day Wants To ‘Build Digital Worlds’ Around Its Biggest TV Hits
88. Viacom is launching Pluto TV channels for Comedy Central, MTV and more
89. Viacom Taps Eva Gutowski, Tana Mongeau, And Jason Nash For Latest YouTube Series Slate
90. Billboard Music Awards Pacts With Nascent Stories-Editing App ‘Unfold’
91. Slack plans to go public after hitting 10 million daily users
92. Shoddy Software Is Eating The World, And People Are Dying As A Result
93. In Its Race to Be First, Samsung Screwed Itself
94. Samsung puts the screws to iFixit, makes it remove the Galaxy Fold teardown
95. UWinnipeg receives $2.4 million to grow digital agriculture
96. The leading “stablecoin” is no longer backed by $1 for every coin

COMMUNICATIONS

1.  SCC decision could focus on CRTC’s reach
2. Anti-spam laws are overreaching, say lawyers 
3. Of Course Wireless Carriers Are Fighting a Bill That Stops Them From Throttling Firefighters’ Data 
4. Verizon Media Unveils Augmented Reality News Partner Program, 5G Tech At NewFronts
5. AT&T Settles Lawsuit Over ‘Fake 5G,’ Won’t Change A Thing
6. Ajit Pai-proposed upgrade to 25Mbps starts paying off for rural ISPs
7. Ajit Pai says he’s fixed giant FCC error that exaggerated broadband growth
8. Comcast usage soars 34% to 200GB a month, pushing users closer to data cap
9. Charter Spectrum Won’t Get Kicked Out Of New York State After ISP Promises To Suck Less
10. Charter data use “rising rapidly” as cord cutters average 400GB a month

PRIVACY

1. Canada Says Facebook Broke Privacy Laws With ‘Superficial’ Safeguards
2. Facebook data leak: Province-by-province breakdown of affected Canadians
3. Zero-day attackers deliver a double dose of ransomware – no clicking required: High-severity hole in Oracle WebLogic under active exploit for 9 days.
4. At Long Last, NSA Finally Recommends Its Bulk Phone Collection Program Be Put Out Of Its Misery
5. Vulture with GPS tracker held in Yemen on suspicion it was used for spying
6. Probable Russian Navy covert camera whale discovered by Norwegians
7. Massachusetts’ Top Court Says Warrants Are Needed For Real-Time Cell Site Location Info
8. Coercive and Non-Coercive Surveillance Authorities
9. Fear the Man in the Middle? This company wants to sell quantum key distribution
10. Appeals Court: Chalking Tires For Parking Enforcement Violates The Fourth Amendment

CREATIVITY

1. Myths and Reality About Canadian Copyright Law, Fair Dealing and Educational Copying (Michael Geist)
2. The Copyright Board’s “New Leaf”? Not So Much and Not at All (Howard Knopf)
3. The Toronto Real Estate Board is Back in the Copyright News (Howard Knopf)
4. Can the taste of a cheese be copyrighted? (Eleonora Rosati)
5. Today In Bananas Copyright Law: Court Urged To Rule That A Banana Costume Is Not Infringing
6. Second Circuit Judges Brawl Over the Meaning of “Volition” in Copyright Cases–BWP v. Polyvore
7. Announcing: The Public Domain Song Anthology
8. Watch: The Latest Avengers Movie Is Already On Torrent Sites, But That Won’t Stop A Torrent Of Sold Theater Tickets
9. Picture this: no direct infringement but no fair use either
10. FanX, Previously Salt Lake Comic Con, Ordered To Pay $4 Million For San Diego’s Con’s Attorney’s Fees, Barred From Calling Itself A Comic-Con
11. How Queer Is Star Trek?
12. First teaser for Veronica Mars revival is everything we loved about the series
13. Encyclopedia Brown And The Case Of The Mysterious Author: Donald J. Sobol created a mystery icon and sold millions of books. But who was he?
14. Oxford Professor Argues Invisible Aliens Are Interbreeding With Humans
15. The world is sadder and angrier than ever, major study finds
16. A theory of style: We can analyse how fashion works by breaking it down into networks of style elements. What role, then, for human creativity?

Jon

GAMES

1. Iraq bans PUBG, Fortnite: Country joins Nepal and some parts of India in forbidding Bluehole’s shooter, citing impact on youth and addictive qualities
2. Nepal lifts short-lived ban on PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
3. Fortnite and PUBG are now banned in Iraq: The Iraqi government is concerned about the negative effect the games have on youth.
4. Iraq parliament votes to ban Fortnite and Battlegrounds
5. Don’t Miss: How working on gross, violent games can mess with developers
6. Nintendo issues DMCA takedown for Super Mario Bros.Commodore 64 port
7. Super Mario Bros. Commodore 64 fan port hit with DMCA takedowns
8. Nepal Supreme Court suspends ban on PUBG: Government ordered to show cause for its prohibition on popular survival shooter
9. Over 200 Fortnite World Cup prize winners caught cheating: Over 1,200 total cheaters caught in first week of competition, most for circumventing region locks
10. Supercell partners with Internet Matters to improve child safety online
11. Constant development means a perpetual push to crunch at Epic, say Fortnite devs
12. Epic devs speak out on Fortnite crunch: “I was working at least 12-hour days, seven days a week, for at least four or five months” after survival shooter became a mainstream phenomenon
13. Apex Legends is on the decline with streamers after a record-setting month
14. Overwatch lets players create custom modes with in-game scripting tools
15. Respawn CEO: Sticking to seasonal updates better for Apex Legends devs
16. 996.ICU accuses NetEase, Tencent and Chinese devs of overworking staff: Chinese tech workers use GitHub to highlight intensive overtime schedules, Microsoft employees petition to keep list uncensored
17. China’s game approval rules will soon apply to HTML5 and WeChat mini-games
18. China’s new gaming rules to ban poker, blood and imperial schemes
19. China introduces new game approval process, limiting total approvals per year: HTML5 games now require approval, anti-addiction system policy expanded to mobile titles
20. Tencent raises minimum age for “digital lock” to 16: New measure will be trialled in upcoming game, limiting gamers aged 15 and under to two hours a day
21. Chinese streaming platform DouYu files for $500m IPO: Tencent-backed Twitch rival could be one of the largest Chinese floatations in the US so far this year
22. Amnesia dev makes the case for why lying to players is sometimes good game design
23. Nintendo and Tencent gain approval to bring the Switch to China
24. Tencent cleared to distribute Nintendo Switch in China: Government of Guangdong province offers provisional go ahead for sale of the Switch in China
25. Report: Cheaper Switch model will focus on portability
26. Google coy with new Stadia details, pushes the promise of discoverability
27. PUBG Corp sees $920 million in 2018 revenue: PC accounted for $790 million of total revenue; over half of total earnings came from Asia
28. South Korean FTC to review in-game purchase policies
29. South Korean FTC examining consumer regulations surrounding in-game purchases: Government body currently investigating issues surrounding minors making purchases and “unfair” limitations on refunds
30. Assassin’s Creed Unity hit by review bombers intent on spreading positivity
31. Burnout Paradise’s online servers are shutting down after 11 years
32. Disney reportedly offered controlling stake in Nexon: Search for a buyer continues as Korean publisher’s founder meets with high-ranking Disney exec
33. Welcome to The New Era of High Fashion and Video Game Collaborations: Inside Moschino and The Sims Partnership
34. Mortal Kombat 11: Critical Consensus – Reviewers applaud the meat and bones of NetherRealm’s latest, but question the method for unlocking skins
35. World War Z has surpassed 1 million sales in first week
36. Frostpunk has surpassed 1.4 million sales in first year
37. Persona 5 has sold over 2.7 million copies worldwide
38. Nintendo stock leaps following Switch approval in China: 17% rise on Tokyo exchange is company’s largest percentage gain since Pokemon Go’s summer of 2016
39. More powerful Nintendo Switch reportedly still in experimental stages: Other, smaller Switch version also rumored may be dockable after all, could launch this fall
40. NPD: Nintendo Switch continues strong sales in quarter of hardware declines
41. Report: Cheaper “Switch Lite” will be dockable, come in the fall
42. Report: Cheaper Switch coming by June
43. Happy 30th B-Day, Game Boy: Here are six reasons why you’re #1
44. GB Studio offers a free Game Boy-inspired way to create 2D games
45. Video: The making of the Xbox Adaptive Controller
46. Sagging Xbox hardware sales offset by software, services growth: Microsoft says gaming revenues were up 5% in its third quarter thanks to third-party games’ monetization and subscription growth
47. Xbox revenue held up by software and services as hardware sales fall
48. GAME and GameStop shrug off Xbox One S All-Digital Edition threat: GaneStop survey finds around half of consumers are less likely to purchase console without disc drive
49. Game Informer Australia closed down in wake of GameStop cuts
50. The GamesIndustry.biz Podcast: PlayStation 5 vs disc-less Xbox: Will the future of consoles be defined by Sony’s SSD, Microsoft’s digital focus, or Capcom’s corporate branded arcade panel?
51. Contributing devs up in arms over Capcom’s use of the FB Alpha emulator
52. Sony promises “appealing” price for new PlayStation console: Wired releases more interview material after hardware’s high-spec prompts speculation over price
53. Sony Brings Social VR Theater App to PSVR Users in Japan
54. Linden Lab CEO: ‘We’re Pitching ‘Sansar’ Less as a VR Platform Now’
55. Oculus Explains Why It Doesn’t Think the Time is Right for ‘Rift 2’ or ‘Rift Pro’
56. The Simple Guide to Four Major VR Headsets Launching This Spring
57. Iron Man VR preview makes me want to put on nerdy headgear again
58. Nintendo’s past VR research laid the foundation for Labo VR
59. Epic Games Store exclusivity helps Phoenix Point achieve 191% return: “Cash advance” from engine provider will be shared with Fig backers as part of game’s revenue
60. Here’s why the Epic Games Store takes a 12 percent revenue cut from devs
61. Gearbox CEO: Both devs and players benefit from Epic and Steam competition
62. Gearbox’s Pitchford: Steam may be “a dying store” in 5 to 10 years
63. Diverging paths: Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo’s radically different visions | Opinion: After decades of platform holders releasing similar hardware, we should celebrate their new, wildly different visions of gaming’s future
64. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s new Stage Builder mode is recommending inappropriate content: Stages with inappropriate images, names are being listed as “Recommended” and do not disappear
65. Spectator Throws Dead Crab At Super Smash Bros. Tournament Winner
66. European Esports Federation to be formed with 12 countries: Organization to serve as a “moderating partner” rather than a governing body for the industry
67. Player Safeguarding, Welfare and Education in Esports – A Pragmatic Approach for Tournament Organizers 
68. Actor Will Smith joins $46m investment into esports organisation Gen.G: Smith joined by investment partner and Japanese soccer star Keisuke Honda
69. Branded for success | Opinion: Game Dragons’ Philip Oliver offers advice on how to licence IP, and how to identify IP that is now in the public domain
70. AbleGamers launches new accessibility website: Accessible.Games provides means to connect developers and players with disability to help design more accessible games
71. Kitfox: People are more important than projects – Co-founder Tanya X. Short says she’s reconsidering putting gameplay and quality on equal footing with respect and personal development
72. Amy Hennig: Streaming must be more than “just an invisible console” – Real-time streaming will start a revolution in storytelling, Hennig said at Reboot Develop – but new kinds of content will be required
73. Neo Cab: Staying human in a world where an algorithm is your boss – “We’re building these systems without thinking about the human costs… we only do it as numbers and aggregate”
74. Warren Spector: “If immersive sims disappear, I disappear” –  System Shock developer explains why the struggles of Dishonored and Deus Ex won’t deter him from his chosen genre
75. Frostpunk sells 1.4m units in first year: Publishing director Paweł Feldman unpacks some of the lessons learned in building 11 Bit Studios’ latest hit
76. SuperData: Sekiro sells 1.4m digital units in March, beating Dark Souls III launch – Battle royales continue to drive growth alongside console games as premium PC digital sales decline
77. World War Z sells 1m copies in first week: Co-op zombie shooter saw 70k concurrent players during launch
78. CCP Games: EVE Online’s tech is “absolutely at its breaking edge” – At Reboot Develop, Hilmar Petursson detailed CCP’s plans to keep pace with the huge battles staged by EVE’s remarkable community
79. Life after EVE Online: From intergalactic warfare to “elegant, cosy” card games: CCP Games co-founder Ívar Kristjánsson talks starting a new studio with his brother to fill a niche in the digital card game market
80. Blog: What makes a game prologue gripping?
81. Blog: Three lessons for narrative game design students
82. Blog: Referencing objects—Names vs GUIDs
83. Blog: Discussing the ins and outs of composing for games at the Library of Congress
84. Blog: What happens when game artists design a mural
85. Blog: Evolving difficulty modes in survival horror – Resident Evil 2
86. Blog: 10 important Kickstarter hacks from an expert
87. Street Fighter II designer walks through the creation of the game’s stranger fighters
88. Don’t Miss: Making debugging into a mechanic inBeglitched
89. Video: Why you should put your name on your indie game
90. Boldly she rode: How Heaven’s Vault reinvents adventure games  
91. Mojang sets March 2022 date for Minecraft movie premiere: Long in development project has a new director, and plenty of time to get ready for release
92. Eight ways the UK games industry can work better with education
93. Finnish games industry employed over 3,000, brought in over $2b in 2018
94. Artificial Intelligence Is Helping Old Video Games Look Like New: Modders are taking advantage of AI tools to update old graphics
95. Code to Inspire is creating “Afghan Hero Girls” through education
96. The ethics of smurfing: Why players smurf, and what developers are doing about it.
97. Keywords nabs Japanese HTML5 developer Wizcorp for $1.1 million
98. A Kickstarter for a game that’s basically hentai Mass Effect has raised over a million dollars
99. GTA 6 showed up on a Rockstar artist’s resume: With Red Dead Redemption 2 out presumably Grand Theft Auto 6 will follow, but is this confirmation?
100. Don’t Miss: Devs reflect on the impact and legacy ofBurnout Paradise
101. Spider-Man Developer Reveals Undiscovered Easter Egg That Only Happens On Saturdays
102. Video: Procedurally creating Manhattan for Marvel’s Spider-Man
103. The imperfect science of Falcon Age’s baby bird-based social media marketing
104. You can now download the source code for all Infocom text adventure classics
105. Reverse review bomb? AC: Unity draws praise for Notre Dame preservation: Average Steam user score shifts from “Mixed” to “Very Positive” in recent days.
106. Top 10 Best-Selling Video Games Of All Time: Minecraft and GTA V have dominated the last decade, but where do they rank among the all-time bestsellers?

DIGITAL

1. Twitter shuts down 5,000 pro-Trump bots retweeting anti-Mueller report invective: Bots were tied to account formerly used for pro-Saudi messaging.
2. In meeting with Twitter chief, Trump complains about lost followers
3. Eleventh Lawsuit Against Social Media Providers for “Materially Supporting Terrorists” Fails–Palmucci v. Twitter (Eric Goldman)
4. How Twitter Has to Change
5. Twitter Is Not America: A new Pew study finds a gulf between the general population and Twitter users.
6. Sixth Circuit Court Dumps Lawsuit Seeking To Hold Twitter Responsible For The Pulse Nightclub Shooting
7. Another Attempt To Tie Twitter To Terrorist Acts And Another Dismissal With Prejudice
8. Twitter Permanently Suspends (Then Unsuspends) Lawyer For Telling NRA Supporters To ‘F— Off’ And ‘Own The Death’
9. Sri Lanka Temporarily Bans Social Media Following Terror Attacks: The government hopes to stem the spread of fake news about the bombings.
10. Sri Lanka’s social media ban enters its second day
11. When a Country Bans Social Media – Sri Lanka’s ban on social media forces a question nobody wants to ask: What if a global media network is impossible?
12. Sri Lanka attacks: government’s social media ban is an assault on free speech and ethnic harmony
13. Sri Lanka Shut Down Social Media. My First Thought Was ‘Good.’
14. Like Clockwork After A Big Tragedy, People Rush In To Blame… Social Media
15. Facebook fights to “shield Zuckerberg” from punishment in US privacy probe
16. In new gaffe, Facebook improperly collects email contacts for 1.5 million
17. Facebook Expects Record Fine Up to $5 Billion From FTC for Privacy Violations
18. Facebook while black: Users call it getting ‘Zucked,’ say talking about racism is censored as hate speech
19. Facebook’s privacy issues could impact usage of its forthcoming voice assistant
20. Facebook’s flood of languages leave it struggling to monitor content
21. Facebook’s auto-captions for a recent launch video are hilariously bad
22. Facebook is working on an AI voice assistant similar to Alexa, Google Assistant
23. China Bans the Word ‘Leica’ on Social Media
24. China censors ban Leica name over Tiananmen Square video
25. NIH, FBI accuse scientists in US of sending IP to China, running shadow labs
26. Russian court fines Internet user hundreds of dollars for calling Vladimir Putin an ‘unbelievable f—wit’
27. Russians Will Soon Lose Uncensored Access to the Internet: A new law allows the Kremlin to spy on, filter, and control the country’s online activity, alarming human-rights watchdogs.
28. A mystery agent is doxing Iran’s hackers and dumping their code
29. Disinformation Is Drowning Democracy: In the new age of lies, law, not tech, is the answer.
30. How Cambridge Analytica breached all the privacy laws
31. My TED talk: how I took on the tech titans in their lair
32. Photographer Sues for Failure to Provide Creative Commons-Required Attribution–Philpot v. WOS (Eric Goldman)
33. New Paper: Why Section 230 Is Better Than The First Amendment
34. New Paper: “Why Section 230 Is Better Than the First Amendment” (Eric Goldman)
35. Forming an Online Contract May Be Harder Than Tough Mudder’s Salmon Ladder (Eric Goldman)
36. Universal And Warner Block Time Live Streaming Its Time 100 Event Because Copyright Censors
37. Platforms Want Centralized Censorship. That Should Scare You
38. Scribd taking down the Mueller Report is the future the EU has voted for
39. Scribd’s Takedown Of The Public Domain Mueller Report Is A Preview Of The EU’s Future Under The Copyright Directive
40. Another Week, Another Hollywood Company Files A Takedown Against TorrentFreak
41. Don’t Regulate The Internet Like Every Company Is The Same
42. The UK’s Dubious Plan For Age-Based Porn Filters Begins On July 15
43. Digitas Creative Chief Scott Donaton Says Brands Must Redress Broken Trust Across Digital
44. Google Walkout Organizers Say They’re Facing Retaliation
45. Google, YouTube and Alphabet Shake Off COPPA-Related Complaint
46. YouTube Rolls Out Tools To Curb Misinformation Ahead Of EU Elections
47. YouTube will label videos to help European users avoid fake news: The aim is to limit misinformation during the EU elections.
48. Google, Verizon Pact To Bring YouTube TV To More Mobile Users
49. Amazon and Google settle feud, bring YouTube back to Fire TV devices
50. YouTube Returning To Fire TV After Amazon And Google Find Friendly Ground
51. Here Are the Winners of the 2019 YouTube Works Awards
52. Malala Yousafzai’s Nonprofit Debuts YouTube Series ‘Roll Call’ Spotlighting Girls Around The World
53. YouTube Spotlights Eco-Minded Creators Krystn Keller, Justine LeConte, Others On Earth Day
54. LeBlanc Family Cookoff Series ‘Annie Vs. Hayley’ Debuts On Nickelodeon’s YouTube Channel
55. Susan Wojcicki Has “Tea Sessions” With Shane Dawson And James Charles To Discuss Creator Concerns
56. Viewership On Twitch And YouTube Live Was Booming In Record-Breaking First Quarter
57. Vimeo Bows ‘Showcase’ Toolkit To Help Creators Make Custom Websites, Smart TV Channels
58. E*Trade Sued for Creating ‘Clone’ of Instagram Influencer
59. Tag Two Friends but Please Don’t Sue – A Guide to Instagram Contest Rules
60. Allegedly Defamatory Tweet About Non-Resident Insufficient to Confer Jurisdiction (Eric Goldman)
61. HBO Objects to the President’s “Game of Thrones”-Themed Tweet
62. Willful Copyright Infringement Requires Proof of Intent in the Ninth Circuit 
63. Snapchat Gains 4 Million Users in Q1 as Snap Beats Earnings Estimates
64. How publishers are using Snapchat’s curated stories tool for breaking news and more
65. How to Avoid Copyright Infringement of Online Image
66. Emilio Estevez Uses Some Public Domain Footage In Film, So Universal Studios Forces Original Public Domain Footage Offline
67. Amazon will no longer sell Chinese goods in China
68. Amazon demands selfies from delivery drivers to combat fraud
69. If You Care About Privacy, Throw Your Amazon Alexa Devices Into the Sea
70. Insights: What Netflix Says You’re Watching When You’re Not Watching Netflix, And Why It Matters
71. Netflix To Grow New York City Footprint With Production Hub, Expanded Corporate HQ
72. Netflix Further Experimenting With Episode Order In Test Randomizing ‘The Office,’ Our Planet,’ More
73. Beyoncé Inks Three-Project Deal With Netflix Worth A Reported $60 Million
74. Netflix offers $2 billion more in debt to fund its content spending
75. All Your Favorite Shows Are Probably Leaving Netflix
76. The Oscars decides Netflix is OK after all, following DOJ warning
77. The Netflix-Twitter Complex
78. Jumprope Is A New Social Network Where Users Create How-To Videos — And Then Post Them Everywhere
79. Pinterest Shares Up 26% on IPO Day
80. New Developments in Ongoing Website Accessibility Litigation 
81. The Worst Thing About Instagram Might Be Going Away
82. The Second-Most Instagrammed Car in the World Is the Honda Civic
83. The CIA is joining Instagram: ‘Our team worked with the CIA, as they do with many partners,’ says Instagram
84. ‘It’s not play if you’re making money’: how Instagram and YouTube disrupted child labor laws – ‘Kidfluencers’ are earning millions on social media, but who owns that money?
85. NFL Taps Instagram to Feature Photos of 2019 Draftees and Let Fans Shop for Their Draft Hats 
86. The Criterion Channel Should Be My Favorite Streaming Platform
87. The future of high-speed computing may be larger CPUs with optics
88. Elon Musk: Brain-Computer Interface Update “Coming Soon”
89. AI Could Predict Death. But What If the Algorithm Is Biased?
90. Applying for Your Next Job May Be an Automated Nightmare
91. Artificial Intelligence Can Detect PTSD in Your Voice: Speech analysis software could revolutionize how we diagnose mental disorders
92. Speech‐based markers for posttraumatic stress disorder in US veterans
93. Some AI just shouldn’t exist: Attempts to “fix” biased AI can actually harm black, gay, and transgender people.
94. This YouTube Channel Streams AI-Generated Death Metal 24/7: Dadabots was developed by two music technologists who wanted to prove that a neural network was capable of capturing  subtle stylistic differences
95. Streamlabs: Twitch is still streaming king, though YouTube is gaining ground – YouTube reaches 24% of Twitch’s total streaming viewership
96. The Gentle Side of Twitch
97. TV Ratings Are Down For NBA Playoffs, But the League’s Worldwide Social Numbers Are Up
98. Disney+ Is Betting On Quality Over Quantity With One Of Streaming Space’s Smallest Libraries
99. Airbnb Delves Further Into Content Business With First Feature Film
100. Facebook Watch Breakout ‘Red Table Talk’ Returns For New Batch Of Episodes May 6
101. Foxconn’s Wisconsin Facility is a Ghost Town Where Workers Are Just ‘Moving Dirt Around’
102. Foxconn: So, About That Factory in Wisconsin You Offered Us $4 Billion in Incentives to Build
103. Samsung Galaxy Fold: Everything you need to know –
104. Breaking news – Samsung responds to reported Galaxy Fold display issues
105. After the Galaxy Fold breaks in the hands of reviewers, Samsung delays launch [Updated]
106. Samsung Confirms It Will Delay Galaxy Fold Launch Following Early Disasters [Updated]
107. The Samsung Galaxy Fold Is a Flawed Start to Something Amazing
108. iFixit’s Samsung Galaxy Fold teardown reveals how the phone is dying
109. Microsoft 3Q19 revenue up 14% on the back of strong cloud and, uh, Windows?: The PC market declined, but the Windows market did not.
110. Microsoft engineer complains that company is biased against white men
111. Thriller in Manhattan – NY Regulator and Declined BitLicense Applicant Engage in Extraordinary Public Brawl in Media Blog
112. The Airbnb Invasion of Barcelona: In the tourist-clogged city, some locals see the service as a pestilence.
113. Why are Canadian universities so slow to adopt digital learning?: Online courses are popular with students who juggle tough workloads. But only one in five institutions has a significant number of ‘blended’ options.
114. New Paper: “Why Section 230 Is Better Than the First Amendment” (Eric Goldman)
115. Dirty Data, Bad Predictions: How Civil Rights Violations Impact Police Data, Predictive Policing Systems, and Justice (Rashida Richardson, Jason M. Schultz & Kate Crawford)

COMMUNICATIONS

1. Millimeter-wave 5G will never scale beyond dense urban areas, T-Mobile says
2. The DOJ Isn’t Buying T-Mobile’s Nonsensical Merger Benefit Claims
3. AT&T’s fake 5G icons aren’t going away despite settlement with Sprint
4. AT&T says 5G will be priced like home Internet—pay more for faster speeds
5. Exit of AT&T’s WarnerMedia could spell trouble for OpenAP
6. AT&T Misses Q1 Revenue Target as Premium TV, DirecTV Now Lose Subscribers
7. White House Won’t Share Data On Whether It Interfered In AT&T Merger Review 
8. Disney Makes Big Play to Stay in NFL’s TV-Football Game 
9. FCC Under Fire For Putting ALEC Rep On ‘Consumer’ Advisory Board
10. Ajit Pai proposes blocking China-owned telecom from US phone market

 PRIVACY

1. How one country blocks the world on data privacy: The GDPR is the world’s toughest standard for data privacy. But its chief enforcer has yet to take a single action against major tech firms like Facebook and Google.
2. Facebook’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Privacy Week
3. No expectation of privacy in child-luring cases on the Internet, SCC rules
4. Japanese Taxis Are Using Facial Recognition to Target Ads to Riders: Cameras in the back seat guess your age and gender – and then use them to serve you with ads.
5. A Seamless Journey Awaits You On The Outbound Flights: All You Have To Give Up Is Your Face
6. John McAfee Vows to Reveal Bitcoin’s Creator
7. Shocker: John Mcafee Suspends Plan To Unmask Bitcoin’s Creator
8. Marcus Hutchins, slayer of WannaCry worm, pleads guilty to malware charges
9. Marcus Hutchins — The Guy Who Stopped Wannacry — Pleads Guilty To Conspiracy Charges
10. The US wants to scan the faces of all air passengers leaving the country
11. When License-Plate Surveillance Goes Horribly Wrong: The pitfalls of automated policing, where one piece of bad information can lead to a guns-drawn confrontation.
12. State Investigator Granted Immunity For Hours-Long Detention Of Doctor At Gunpoint During A Search For Medical Records
13. Marcus Hutchins, Security Researcher Who Stopped WannaCry, Pleads Guilty to Malware Charges
14. Court Rules Chelsea Manning Must Stay in Jail for Refusing to Provide Testimony in WikiLeaks Case
15. Cybercrime for dummies: cracking internet passwords is as easy as 123456 – GCHQ survey finds millions using most obvious passwords – including ‘password’, ‘qwerty’ and superhero names
16. How Social Media, Technology and Privacy Laws Are Changing the E-Discovery Landscape
17. Moving the Goalposts for Canadian Data: Federal Privacy Commissioner Changes Position on Cross-Border Transfers 
18. Guidelines to protect client information on phones, laptops released: Tips on what to do when border officers request your password
19. Bug in French government’s WhatsApp replacement let anyone join Élysée chats
20. The French Govt’s Hand-Rolled Encrypted Messaging Service (Briefly) Allowed Anyone To Pretend They Were A Government Official

CREATIVITY

1. Esplanade Productions, Inc. v. The Walt Disney Company: 9th Cir. dismisses copyright claim alleging Disney film Zootopia infringed materials for contemplated “Zootopia” franchise.
2. Batiste v. Lewis: In copyright infringement lawsuit against Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, court finds no probative evidence that defendants copied any of Plaintiffs musical compositions or sound recordings.
3. Copyright Lawsuits Over Product Shots Are Stupid–eTrailer v. Automatic Equipment (Eric Goldman)
4. Mercedes Goes To Court To Get Background Use Of Public Murals In Promotional Pics Deemed Fair Use
5. Werner Herzog Joins Plenty Of Other Artists In Recognizing Piracy Isn’t The Problem
6. McQueen Estate Wants to Unravel a Tom Ford Sweater
7. Dallas Mavericks Fail To Get Trademark For Its Star Player’s Nickname
8. Why celebrities try to trademark their catchphrases and baby names: Taylor Swift wanted to own “This sick beat.” Kylie Jenner wants the name of her 1-year-old’s birthday party. Tim Tebow does own his prayer pose.
9. The 50 Best Music Documentaries of All Time

Jon

GAMES

1. ISFE calls on European gambling authorities to tackle online skin betting: Comments come following move by Danish Gambling Authority to block 15 skin betting websites
2. Rocket League halts loot box use in Belgium and the Netherlands  
3. The Native American Quinault Nation has filed a lawsuit against Valve over gambling
4. Native American nation files lawsuit against Valve over skins gambling: “Valve has profited handsomely for years from illegal online gambling, and has made only token efforts to stop it,” says Quinault Nation
5. Game Exclusivity Wars Are Upon Us And Valve’s Anti-Review-Bombing Process Is Without A Rip-Cord
6. The legal dispute between Take-Two, Rockstar, and Pinkerton has ended
7. Take-Two, Rockstar complaint against Pinkerton dismissed: Suit dropped as defendant withdraws cease and desist claim against Red Dead Redemption 2 publisher and developer
8. Take-Two Dismisses Its Lawsuit Against Pinkerton Agency As The Latter Runs From Its Own Cease And Desist
9. Nepal bans PUBG over addiction concerns in children
10. Nepal bans PUBG: Battle royale shooter prohibited over concerns about violence, addiction, and distraction from school work
11. AbleGamers opens Accessible.Games, a dev portal for accessibility info
12. Sony Reveals PlayStation 5 Details
13. Sony teases next-gen PlayStation specs in new interview
14. Sony Teases the World With First Details About the PS5, and The Wait Is Going to Be Excruciating
15. Sony’s PS4 successor sports 3D audio tech, faster SSD storage
16. Exclusive: What To Expect From Sony’s Next-Gen PlayStation
17. Sony Reveals First PlayStation 5 Details
18. Next PlayStation will have discs, backward compatibility: System won’t launch until 2020 at the earliest, will feature a solid-state hard drive, PSVR compatibility, 8K support
19. PS5 Price Will Be ‘Appealing To Gamers In Light Of Its Advanced Feature Set’: A little hint, but not much more.
20. Sony will start replacing offensive PSN IDs with temporary placeholders
21. Sony is now auto-changing offensive PlayStation Network IDs: User IDs found to be offensive will be switched to a placeholder
22. Sony has internal policies in place to reduce sexual content in PS4 games
23. A now-fixed Origin vulnerability potentially opened the client to hackers  
24. The Sims 4 is getting mouse and keyboard support on consoles
25. Capcom debuts its own classic system, a $260 plug-n-play home arcade
26. Capcom rolling out its own retro system: Capcom Home Arcade dual joystick set-up launches in October with 16 built-in games, €230 price tag
27. Report: Apple willing to spend over $500 million bringing games to Arcade
28. Apple invested a reported $500 million in Arcade partnerships: Financial Times’ sources reveal the high price of Apple Arcade subscription service
29. Becoming part of the furniture: eSports in the mainstream
30. Football clubs and eSports: A natural pairing? 
31. Esports teams and players to get revenue from new Rocket League Esports Shop
32. OpenAI’s machine learning bots defeat Dota 2 champion team
33. Machine learning bots beat DOTA 2 world champions in best-of-three: After millions of learning matches, OpenAI Five readily best world champs
34. OpenAI bot crushes Dota 2 champions, and now anyone can play against it
35. Ninja named to Time 100: Popular streamer represents gaming on magazine’s annual list of influential people
36. Epic can’t stop pissing off Fortnite pros
37. In lieu of Store-hosted forums, Epic wants devs to link to external communities
38. Hajime Tabata’s first post-Square Enix project is a licensed Paralympics game
39. Hajime Tabata to lead development of first ever Paralympics game: Final Fantasy XV director’s new studio will help to build a young audience for the 2020 Paralympic Games
40. Red Dead Redemption 2 named Game of the Year at Italian Video Game Awards
41. Ubisoft pledges over $500,000 to Notre-Dame restoration efforts
42. Ubisoft donates €500K to help restore Notre-Dame, gives away Assassin’s Creed Unity for free
43. Ubisoft Pledges More Than $500,000 To The Notre-Dame Cathedral Restoration Effort
44. Video: Creating a living open world for Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
45. Ubisoft patches art containing homophobic slur out of The Division 2
46. Ubisoft removes slur from The Division 2: Publisher apologizes for in-game street art image depicting police officer with a slur in ‘leetspeak’
47. YouTube, Facebook put up ad roadblocks for Weedcraft, Inc.business sim
48. Weedcraft Inc meets advertising, video blocks: Tycoon game about growing and selling marijuana has Facebook page restricted, YouTube videos demonetized
49. Devolver: Publishing Weedcraft Inc “has been a nightmare” – Co-founder Mike Wilson says US marijuana tycoon title has been the hardest to bring to market due to industry resistance
50. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice sold 2 million copies in under 2 weeks
51. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice sells 2m in less than ten days
52. “Accessibility” and “difficulty” aren’t the same thing | Opinion: The debate about Sekiro rapidly descended into straw-man bashing over “easy modes” – differently abled gamers’ needs are being lost in this mess
53. Don’t Miss: Totally Accurate Battle Simulator and finding the fun in physics engines
54. Google opens its Indie Games Accelerator to mobile devs across 37 countries
55. Amy Hennig thinks game streaming could spark a creative revolution
56. Xbox exec: Game streaming competitors like Stadia lack content
57. Xbox: Stadia has the infrastructure, but doesn’t have the content – Platform holder suggests recently announced streaming service will struggle without more leading developers and publishers on board
58. Aiming for affordability, Xbox announces the Xbox One S All Digital Edition
59. Report: Fresh disc-less Xbox One S leaks suggests pricing shake up
60. Student sues CEO of Minecraft Education Edition’s Chinese publisher: Minneapolis woman claims Richard Liu forced himself on a woman at her apartment following a company-funded networking event
61. Xbox merges Live Gold and Game Pass under Xbox Game Pass Ultimate
62. How a mobile game is reopening a hidden chapter in Taiwan’s history
63. Disc-less Xbox One leaks ahead of expected reveal
64. Digital-only console will be priced at €229.99, comes bundled with Minecraft, Sea of Thieves and Forza Horizon 3
65. Xbox One S All-Digital Edition Console Reveal Trailer
66. Report: “All Digital” Xbox One coming May 7, for €229 in Europe
67. Why $249 is an unsustainable price for the first all-digital Xbox [Updated]
68. Everything we know about the first discless Xbox One, coming May 7 for $249
69. Forza goes free-to-play with Forza Street: Microsoft rebrands and reboots Miami Street, out now for Windows with mobile versions to follow
70. The Nintendo Switch’s Labo VR Kit Is Cheap VR That Doesn’t Suck
71. Nintendo Labo VR Kit Review: Well, would you look at that.
72. Nintendo Labo VR review: There’s no “Nintendo magic” inside these lenses
73. HD emulation mod makes “Mode 7” SNES games look like new
74. Clash of Clans season pass drives 145% revenue spike
75. What the Breakout Success of ‘Apex Legends’ Could Mean for Respawn’s Upcoming VR Game
76. Apex Legends patch nerfs Wingman, gives Gibraltar and Caustic damage reduction: Gibraltar and Caustic are too easy to hit, so Respawn is making them a little tougher instead.
77. Dark Slope thinking bigger with warehouse-scale VR
78. Superhot VR has out-earned the original Superhot
79. Superhot VR sells 800k: Superhot Team’s FPS has now made more in revenue across VR releases than it has in non-VR
80. Telltale’s The Walking Dead “made Skybound what it is”: Skybound Stories CEO Dan Murray says episodic game had more impact on the company than the TV show
81. How Clone Wars and Rebels influenced Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
82. Animoca Brands acquires majority stake in Trilliona dev Skytree for $850k
83. Revealed: The most successful UK game developers
84. Here is every boxed game to sell over 1m copies in the UK
85. UK Charts: The Division 2 holds No. 1 in another week without big releases – Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, God of War, Spider-Man see increases due to spring, Easter sales
86. CCP: China will be EVE Online’s biggest market in two years – At Reboot Develop, CCP’s Hilmar Petursson discussed the importance of China and Korea to the future of EVE Online
87. Twitch launches first game, Twitch Sings: Free karaoke game developed in conjunction with Harmonix, designed for streaming
88. Gayming Magazine to launch in June: New online gaming magazine to present LGBTQ+-focused news, reviews, features
89. The Witcher Netflix series is coming in late 2019
90. Halo Tv Series Casts Pablo Schreiber As Master Chief
91. Activision Blizzard pays employees for health tracking
92. NetEase investment is bringing indies East
93. Kickstarter’s games category surpasses $1 billion in pledges
94. Miyazaki vs Ueda: The path to compelling fantasy – Renowned Japanese developers discussed their differences at Reboot Develop, including opposing philosophies on animation and setting
95. Amy Hennig: AAA industry is at “an interesting crossroads” with storytelling – At Reboot Develop, the revered creator confessed to feeling “overwhelmed” by the scale of AAA games, which are now too big for their own stories
96. How Inkle developed its own ancient language forHeaven’s Vault
97. Don’t Miss: Alien: Isolation and the evolution of horror sims
98. Blog: How punishment systems can hurt gameplay
99. Blog: Motivating players for better engagement and retention
100. Blog: Some thoughts on difficulty in games  
101. Blog: Turning your community into an extension of your team  
102. Video: Steps for building a game’s community from scratch
103. Blog: Orchestrating game worlds using Event SuperVision
104. Blog: Exploring the ‘what’ of bittersweet game design
105. The source code for Infocom’s classic text adventures is now on Github
106. “The bankers are actually much more metal than publishers”: Headbang Club’s David Elahee talks about Double Kick Heroes’ path from Ludum Dare prototype to multiplatform launch
107. Trion Worlds is shutting down Atlas Reactor this summer
108. Gamigo shuts down Atlas Reactor: Trion Worlds’ F2P tactics title closes after two years, “can no longer sustain itself”
109. Even Konami Code Couldn’t Rescue Its Slot-machine Game-related Patents from being Invalidated under Alice
110. U.S. Patent No. 9,687,733: Game apparatus, storage medium, game controlling method and game system 
111. Managing your game dev career, from early to late stages
112. Video: Practical advice for saving video game history before it’s too late
113. The new grammar of television (and games): Lessons from an avocado

DIGITAL

1.  Facebook’s role in Brexit – and the threat to democracy
2. Mark Zuckerberg leveraged Facebook user data to fight rivals and help friends, leaked documents show: Facebook’s leaders seriously discussed selling access to user data – and privacy was an afterthought. 
3. 15 Months Of Fresh Hell Inside Facebook
4. Facebook v. Sullivan: Building Constitutional Law for Online Speech (Thomas Kadri & Kate Klonick)
5. TED offers Mark Zuckerberg a stage to explain himself once and for all
6. British investigative journalist Carole Cadwalladr sticks it to the gods of Silicon Valley in Vancouver TED talk
7. Carole Cadwalladr blasts tech titans at TED: Your technology is “a crime scene”
8. Ethics Alone Can’t Fix Big Tech
9. Grandstanding GOP Senators Continue To Mislead About Social Media Bias, Demand A ‘Fairness Doctrine’ For The Internet 
10. No, Section 230 Does Not Require Platforms to Be “Neutral”
11. Platform Liability Doesn’t — And Shouldn’t — Depend On Content Moderation Practices
12. Nancy Pelosi Joins Ted Cruz And Louis Gohmert In Attacking CDA 230
13. Section 230 Applies to ADA Closed Captioning Claims–National Federation of the Deaf v. Harvard (Eric Goldman)
14. Stop Saying That Section 230 Was A ‘Gift To Internet Companies’
15. Wherein The Copia Institute Updates The Copyright Office On The First Amendment Problems With The DMCA
16. Apple and Qualcomm settle patent fight after one day in court
17. Intel quits 5G modem business hours after Apple settles with Qualcomm
18. New laws to block election meddling miss the mark, claims journalist who uncovered Facebook’s role in Brexit
19. Another Government Impermissibly Censors Constituents on Facebook–Robinson v. Hunt County
20. Facebook’s reckoning? The global battle to regulate social media: After fake news scandals, suicides and the Christchurch massacre, internet groups face a profound change in mood
21. No, YouTube Cannot Reasonably Moderate All Content On Its Platform
22. AI Won’t Save Us From Fake News: YouTube’s Fact Checking Tool Thinks Notre Dame Fire Is About 9/11
23. Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp back up after widespread outages
24. A cognitive scientist explains why humans are so susceptible to fake news and misinformation: “We might like to think of our memory as an archivist that carefully preserves events, but sometimes it’s more like a storyteller.”
25. EU Tells Internet Archive That Much Of Its Site Is ‘Terrorist Content’
26. EU Parliament Takes Up Its Next Attempt To Wipe Out An Open Internet: Terrorist Content Regulation Vote On Wednesday 
27. EU Parliament Votes To Require Internet Sites To Delete ‘Terrorist Content’ In One Hour (By 3 Votes) 
28. What Will Happen When Governments Disagree Over Who Is A Terrorist Organization… And Who Needs To Be Blocked Online?
29. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings To Leave Facebook Board In May
30. DOJ to academy: don’t cancel Netflix
31. Netflix’s Next Bid To Charm Awards Voters Is Its Own Magazine, Coming In June
32. Netflix Is Close To Buying Hollywood’s Historic Egyptian Theatre — But Won’t Use It To Lure Film Awards
33. Foxconn’s Wisconsin ‘Factory’ Is An Even Bigger Joke Than Everybody Thought
34. Film, TV studios filing lawsuits against Canadian BitTorrent users
35. T-Series Court Order Sees “Abusive, Vulgar, Racist” PewDiePie Diss Tracks Blocked In India
36. Porn sites must age-verify British users starting July 15: Sites that don’t verify age could get blocked by British ISPs.
37. Online harms white paper misses the mark (Andres Guadamuz)
38. UK: online harms white paper – potential new regulatory framework for social media 
39. UK Seeks to Establish Internet Watchdog 
40. An Internet Regulator For The UK: 10 Things You Need To Know
41. The future of free speech: The panic button and social media regulation – The special internet standard and its independent arbitration system
42. German competition authority pushes the boundaries of abuse of dominance with infringement finding on online data collection 
43. EU Council Officially Approves European Copyright Law Reforms: A New Digital Age Is Born 
44. European Parliament Approves Controversial EU Copyright Directive
45. The EU Copyright Directive – Filtering the Internet
46. As Expected, EU Nations Rubber Stamp EU Copyright Directive
47. As the EU Copyright Directive was approved, Germany admitted it requires copyright filters, putting it on a collision course with the EU-Canada trade deal
48. DSM Directive Series #4: Article 17 obligations … in a chart (Eleonora Rosati)
49. The Phantom Menace: Office Depot Settles with FTC Over Fake Virus Scans 
50. COPPA Safe Harbor Hit by Storm 
51. N.D. California Straightens Out Competitor’s Use of Infringing Hashtags: #newdevelopments in Using Trademarks as Hashtags
52. An Email Inbox Isn’t a “Place” for Purposes of Florida Privacy Law–Hall v. Sargeant (Eric Goldman)
53. Ian McEwan: ‘Who’s going to write the algorithm for the little white lie?’
54. AI Robot paints its own moonscapes in traditional Chinese style
55. AKQA says it used AI to invent a new sport called Speedgate
56. Notes on AI Bias
57. AI’s white guy problem isn’t going away: A new report says current initiatives to fix the field’s diversity crisis are too narrow and shallow to be effective.
58. We’ve Been Warned About AI And Music For Over 50 Years, But No One’s Prepared
59. People Are Horrified When They Have to Torture a Virtual Person: Even in a VR simulation, the Milgram Shock Experiment continues to traumatize.
60. Participant concerns for the Learner in a Virtual Reality replication of the Milgram obedience study (Mar Gonzalez-Franco, Mel Slater, Megan E. Birney, David Swapp, S. Alexander Haslam & Stephen D. Reicher)
61. Microsoft overhauling HR complaint process: After employees trade harassment stories, CEO Satya Nadella promises consistent, transparent enforcement of company policy
62. HQ Trivia replaces Quiz Daddy Scott Rogowsky
63. Longtime HQ Trivia Host Scott Rogowsky Exits Company
64. Over half of HQ Trivia staff tried to oust CEO: Co-founder Rus Yusupov survived demands for his removal, but the search for a replacement chief has begun
65. Another Appellate Court Rejects “Material Support for Terrorist” Claims Against Social Media Platforms–Crosby v. Twitter (Eric Goldman)
66. Marvel Set to Launch Live-Streaming Twitter Fan Show, Hosted by ‘Agent M’ and Angélique Roché
67. Twitter Doesn’t Want You Sharing This Link About TV Piracy
68. Twitter blocks EFF tweet that criticized bogus takedown of a previous tweet
69. How Jack Dorsey plans to change Twitter
70. A healthier Twitter: Progress and more to do
71. Nichification
72. AMC Networks boss Josh Sapan wants the people who make TV to look at the data – but not too much: There’s no algorithm for creativity yet, Sapan says on the latest Recode Media.
73. Vimeo Breaks Into Shortform Space With Acquisition Of Video Creation Service Magisto
74. Girls Who Code Helps Draft ‘Landmark’ Legislation Aimed at Closing the Gender Gap
75. Google+ is back! Meet the enterprise-focused “Google Currents”
76. Susan Wojcicki On YouTube’s Fight Against Grotesque Content: “I Own This Problem, And I’m Going To Fix It”
77. YouTube tries a new metric to answer critics: Responsibility
78. YouTube Is Plotting A New Metric That Would Reward ‘Quality Watch Time’ 
79. YouTube Axes Four More Series As It Overhauls Original Programming Strategy
80. YouTube Millionaires: Top ‘Madden NFL’ Gamer YoBoy Pizza Takes On Real-Life NFL Stars In New YouTube Series
81. YouTube Teams Up With Enterprise For ‘Cobra Kai’ Campaign
82. Horror Vloggers Sam And Colby Sign With CAA Amid YouTube Hiatus Announcement
83. Korean Boy Band BTS Annihilates Record For Biggest 24-Hour YouTube Debut
84. Clevver News, Style Channels Return To YouTube With Original Hosts After Defy’s Collapse
85. YouTube Names New Head Of Unscripted; Says Upcoming Originals Slate Will Center On Music, Education, And Creators
86. YouTube TV adds channels and raises price—you can’t opt out of either change
87. Awesomeness Co-Heads Elucidate Vision For Gen Z Purveyor After Viacom Acquisition
88. Top Scandinavian MCN ‘United Screens’, Which RTL Bought For $15 Million, Names New CEO
89. Logan Paul’s Latest Podcast Guest Is Banned Conspiracy Theorist Alex Jones
90. Here’s Why Simply Nailogical, With 7 Million Subscribers, Still Maintains Day Job At Canadian Government
91. Gaining Followers: Use of social media by Canadian public companies while navigating Canadian securities laws 
92. Viceland To End Nightly Series ‘Vice Live’ Weeks After Show’s Premiere
93. Creator Of Silk Road 2.0 Did Double The Business, Sentenced To Only Five Years In Prison
94. Bendgate 2.0: Samsung’s $2,000 foldable phone is already breaking [Update]
95. AT&T is selling its stake in Hulu
96. AT&T Sells Back Its 10% Stake In Hulu, Valuing Streamer At $15 Billion
97. Hulu, Netflix May Face Subpoena Over Fyre Documentaries
98. Starz Really, Really Doesn’t Want You To Know That TorrentFreak Wrote About Leaked Shows, Or That Anyone Tweeted About It
99. Starz Issues Laughably Unbelievable Excuse And Apology For Taking Down Tweets
100. Legacy Music Industry Shouldn’t Get To Watch Over The Royalties Of Independent Songwriters
101. Insights: As Video Streamers Turn Over Some Cards, Can They Avoid The Real Flop?
102. Apple News+ Is a Total Mess
103. Here’s the Weirdest Apple Bug I’ve Ever Heard Of
104. The Incredible Old-School iTunes Feature I Hope Apple Doesn’t Kill
105. Amazon reportedly set to launch a free music streaming tier: It could be available as soon as this week
106. Another Federal Court Ruling Strengthens Brands’ Approach to Reduce Gray Market Sales on Amazon 
107. TikTok Hiring “Talent Ambassadors” At 17 Colleges To Help Rake In Older Users
108. Insights: Snap Reaction To New Initiatives Is Great, But Can Spiegel Sustain This Win Streak?
109. Peyton Manning Hosting NFL History Docu-Series for ESPN+ Streaming Service
110. Conde Nast now has 28 shows on Snapchat, with plans for more
111. Instagram Launches Moody Camera Effects For Coachella, Billie Eilish
112. Disney Streaming Service To Launch In November At $6.99 Per Month
113. Disney+ launches on November 12 for $6.99/mo, plus new Marvel, Star Wars series
114. Disney confirms it will ‘likely’ bundle Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu for one price
115. How Vevo Is Boosting Views by Optimizing Video Thumbnails 
116. DVD and Blu-ray sales nearly halved over five years, MPAA report says
117. Leaked Avengers: Endgame Footage Has Hit the Internet
118. In A First, VidCon Will Host Panels, Meet-And-Greets With Internet-Famous Pets
119. New York State Department of Financial Services Revokes Crypto Exchange’s Safe Harbor to Operate Without BitLicense
120. How Far We Haven’t Come: SEC Resistance to Blockchain Securities Continues?
121. Keeping it real: Implications of blockchain technology on privacy obligations
122. Strong corporate desktop sales limit the decline of the PC market
123. Fortunately, There Are Incredible 3D Scans of Notre Dame – The good news: we have a highly-detailed digital template for how to rebuild.
124. The Images That Could Help Rebuild Notre-Dame Cathedral: And the young, brilliant professor who made them before he died

COMMUNICATIONS

1. Wind, Sleet, and Dead Zones: My Quest to Map Chicago’s Spotty 5G
2. What will journalism do with 5G’s speed and capacity? Here are some ideas, from ‘The New York Times’ and elsewhere
3. T-Mobile/Sprint merger is in danger of being rejected by DOJ
4. T-Mobile’s ‘Revolutionary’ New TV Service Looks Like The Same Old Crap 
5. FCC Seeks Comments on Proposal to Allow All-Digital AM Radio Transmission 
6. FCC Releases Notices on Radio License Renewal Process – New Form, New Database and More Scrutiny of the Public File 
7. FCC “consumer advisory” panel includes ALEC, big foe of municipal broadband
8. Very Little In Trump’s ‘Bold’ New Rural Broadband Plan Is Actually New
9. FCC Warns Marketers of Video Streaming Devices to Comply with Device Authorization Rules 
10. Telecoms: clarification on neighbouring landowners’ rights to require removal of apparatus 
11. Landlord owners vs telecoms operators – The cat has got the cream
12. Google Fiber exits Louisville, pays city $3.8M to clean up the mess it left
13. Google Pays $3.8 Million To Clean Up Its Fiber Mess In Louisville 
14. House Passes Net Neutrality Bill, McConnell Promises It Won’t Survive Senate
15. Investor Lawsuit Accuses AT&T Of Downplaying Streaming Video Losses 

PRIVACY

1. Julian Assange arrested, charged with conspiracy to hack US computers
2. Julian Assange Arrested On Behalf Of The US, For Trying To Help Manning Crack CIA Password 
3. There Are Many Reasons To Be Concerned About The Impact On Press Freedoms In The Assange Indictment
4. Federal Privacy Commissioner Proposes A Complete Reversal Of Its Longstanding Approach To Data Transfers, Including Cross-Border Transfers
5. Rewriting Canadian Privacy Law: Commissioner Signals Major Change on Cross-Border Data Transfers (Michael Geist)
6. UK Government Issues Report on Huawei Vulnerabilities
7. An Email Inbox Isn’t a “Place” for Purposes of Florida Privacy Law–Hall v. Sargeant (Eric Goldman)
8. The FBI Wanted A Backdoor To The iPhone. Tim Cook Said No
9. Motel 6 To Pay Out Another $12 Million For Handing Guest Info To ICE
10. Court Says Headphone App Not Eavesdropping, But May Be Deceptive
11. Why the US still won’t require SS7 fixes that could secure your phone
12. Illinois bill banning eavesdropping by IoT devices defanged by tech lobby
13. 5 Times Jeff Bezos Tried to Warn Us Amazon Is Listening
14. Virtual Cupids Hit With $3 Million CAN SPAM Judgment
15. The many lessons of the Equifax data breach
16. The California Consumer Privacy Act
17. The ePrivacy Regulation: The Next European Initiative in Data Protection
18. Cops Are Trying to Stop San Francisco From Banning Face Recognition Surveillance
19. FBI Cyber Crimes Division Not So Great About Passing Info To Victims Of Cyberattacks
20. Why You Can No Longer Get Lost in the Crowd: Once, it was easy to be obscure. Technology has ended that. (Woodrow Hartzog & Evan Selinger)
21. A security researcher with a grudge is dropping Web 0days on innocent users
22. Hackers could read non-corporate Outlook.com, Hotmail for six months
23. The wave of domain hijackings besetting the Internet is worse than we thought
24. An Oxford philosopher who’s inspired Elon Musk thinks mass surveillance might be the only way to save humanity from doom
25. The Vulnerable World Hypothesis (Nick Bostrom)

CREATIVITY

1. My ADA Keynote: What the Canadian Experience Teaches About the Future of Copyright Reform (Michael Geist)
2. Access Copyright Proposed Tariffs: Is the Copyright Board Turning Over New Leaves? (Howard Knopf)
3. Trump Campaign Uses ‘Dark Knight’ Music In Campaign Ad, Warner Bros. Says It’s Looking At Legal Options
4. Devin Nunes Admits That His Bogus Defamation Lawsuits Are Really About Phishing For Journalists’ Sources
5. U.S. copyright: numerous works enter public domain for First Time in over two decades
6. Changing the Cycle: Peloton Removes Songs at Heart of Copyright Infringement Suit
7. Conan O’Brien joke-theft trial begins next month with testimony from Patton Oswalt
8. How Private Equity Ate Hollywood – and Why Writers Are Fighting Back: Now largely owned by private equity firms, the big talent agencies have turned to producing films and shows—both representing and employing writers. That, say the writers, doesn’t work.
9. The End Of The Absurdity: Iceland, The Country, Successfully Invalidates The Trademark Of Iceland Foods, The Grocerer
10. AB/InBev, Jealous Protectors Of Trademark, Pretty Blatantly Committing Trademark Infringement
11. Pepsi Moves for Summary Judgement in 2016 Super Bowl Ad Suit
12. F.A. Panel Says Wayne Hennessey Is Too Stupid To Have Done Nazi Salute
13. False Advertising: The Theory of Necessary Implication and the Presumption that Runs with It 
14. How Kevin Feige Super-Charged Marvel Studios Into Hollywood’s Biggest Hit Machine
15. In China, tattoos border on illegal – and they’re his life’s work
16. Parody and abuse

Jon

GAMES

1. MIT Prof: It’s More Likely We’re Living In A Simulation Than Not
2. Are we living in a computer simulation? I don’t know. Probably.: Why this computer scientist thinks reality might be a video game.
3. Are we living in a simulation? This MIT scientist says it’s more likely than not
4. Google Could Learn a Lot About You From Its New Gaming Platform: Stadia sounds great, but don’t forget that Google is a research company
5. Google Play hosting inappropriate games with kid-friendly ratings: Free-to-play games featuring violent content and gambling routinely hit the platform thanks to reliance on developers to rate their own titles
6. Snap Inc announces Snap Games, launching with six titles
7. Snapchat Unveils Gaming Platform, New User Features, 10 Upcoming Originals At First Partner Summit
8. Snapchat’s new Snap Games platform includes games from Zynga, Spry Fox
9. Snapchat Unveils Gaming Platform, New User Features, 10 Upcoming Originals At First Partner Summit
10. EU Commission accuses six game companies of illegal geo-blocking
11. EU investigating Valve and 5 major publishers for illegal geo-blocking
12. Valve argues it should be excluded from EU geo-blocking accusations
13. PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch online services face UK investigation
14. Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo under investigation for consumer rights violation
15. PSN name change feature goes into effect today
16. PSN name changes launch today
17. Starting Today, You Can Finally Change Your PSN Name
18. PlayStation launches PSN ID change option, though not all games are supported
19. You Can Now Change Your PSN Online ID—But There Are a Few Things You Need to Know
20. BioWare Boss Addresses Studio Issues, Vows To ‘Continue Working To Solve Them’
21. Charting the missteps that led to the decline of Telltale Games
22. IGDA executive director Jen MacLean has stepped down
23. FTC Loot Box Workshop Announced 
24. FTC to Hold Public Workshop on Video Game Loot Boxes
25. The FTC is holding a public workshop in August to discuss loot boxes
26. What’s In the Box? FTC Solicits Public Comments Regarding Video Game Loot Boxes Amidst Uncertainty 
27. FTC sets date for loot box workshop: Date set for August 7 on gathering of stakeholders, industry representatives, consumer advocates, and others to discuss consumer concerns
28. The failure of the Russian global license proposal and the future of alternative remuneration systems (Gaetano Dimita & Ruslan Nurullaev)
29. Fallout 76 Repair Kits raise new “pay-to-win” concerns
30. How Fallout almost didn’t ship with its key SPECIAL system 
31. The complicated process of making licensed video games
32. Pre-order refunds could force publishers to shift priorities | Opinion
33. Survey: More teenagers are getting into video games because of Fortnite
34. Prince Harry Wants ‘Fortnite’ Banned
35. Prince Harry Says Fortnite “Shouldn’t Be Allowed,” Calls Social Media “More Addictive Than Alcohol”
36. Fortnite un-features community build containing inappropriate imagery
37. Google Play is still struggling with inappropriate children’s games
38. Why Valve actually gets less than 30 percent of Steam game sales
39. Epic Games’ Tim Sweeney addresses Chinese spyware rumor
40. Epic to continue signing exclusivity deals regardless of Steam plans
41. Valve silences Borderlands review bombers with ‘off-topic’ fix
42. Borderlands review bomb triggers Steam’s “off topic” fix [Updated]
43. Steam users review bomb Borderlands in response to Epic exclusivity deal
44. Valve finally tackles review bombing as Borderlands 2 attacked over Epic exclusivity: Last week’s work of user scores discounted under Steam’s new ‘off-topic review activity’ system
45. A deep dive into Steam’s discovery queue
46. Sold Out and Epic offering up to $500,000 in The Unreal Box Offer: UK publisher seeking games that “feel fresh in a genre that isn’t overcrowded” as it teams up with engine provider
47. Retro streaming platform picks up Arc System Works, SNK, others
48. Tencent launches early access WeGame X storefront internationally 
49. Tencent stealth launches international version of WeGame storefront: WeGame X platform is available but still in “testing” phase, the Chinese publisher confirmed
50. Tencent raises nearly $6bn in bond sale: Funds marked for general corporate use despite having $20 billion cash on hand
51. Weaker currency could encourage foreign investment post-Brexit: Tencent Europe’s senior manager Li Ma also says Brexit will be damaging, but Britain will bounce back
52. Microsoft increases Xbox Live Gold price in the UK: 12-month subscription goes from £39.99 to £49.99 to “address changing market conditions”
53. Game Pass “Ultimate” and Game Pass for PC rumored to be coming soon
54. The difficulties of researching gaming disorder and addiction: Dr Pete Etchells says there is an endemic problem with psychological research, as confirmation bias shapes the literature
55. Battlefield V: Firestorm Review – A solid battle royale that doesn’t pack quite enough punch to get to the final circle.
56. Gender pay gap widens in UK games industry: Women increase their representation throughout gaming, but median wages losing ground
57. Meet 100 of the most influential women working in the UK games industry
58. Brenda Romero’s guide to becoming a game designer
59. Gaming is not a meritocracy: Vlambeer’s Rami Ismail pokes holes in the notion of cream rising to the top, explains why devs and platforms may believe in it anyway
60. John Romero: “There are always people who question games that push the boundaries”
61. “Games that have succeeded in Turkey are all localised — that’s hands down”: Vardiya co-founder Meriç Eryürek on the untapped opportunity in Turkey’s population of 30 million gamers
62. Black Desert franchise tops $1 billion in revenues: Pearl Abyss says multiplatform MMORPG franchise has reached milestone in less than four years
63. The second launch of Sea of Thieves: Rare on sustainable working ahead of its biggest game update so far
64. Breach developer QC Games has shut down
65. Daybreak Game Company back in control of H1Z1 battle royale spin-off
66. How When Ski Lifts Go Wrong hits the right mix of blood and physics puzzles
67. Buy-one-get-one-free sale helps Risk of Rain 2 attract 650,000 players in first week
68. What makes a good Kickstarter campaign?: Anya Combs talks about ideal video length, the right number of .gifs, and one mistake that will keep any project from being featured
69. 60% of Greater Southeast Asia gamers are “strongly drawn to esports”: New Niko Partners report finds 42% of players from the region prefer competitive arena titles, spend the most on games
70. The concept of eDoping in eSports – cyber security as a safety measure, enforcement and sanctions in case of non-compliance 
71. Loaded, A Talent Firm For Top Gaming Stars, Signs Dakotaz, Skadoodle, and Sjokz
72. Sonic The Hedgehog Footage Reveals Plot Details, Setting And Jim Carrey’s Robotnik: The adaptation of the Sega game is (largely) set in our world.
73. How Lockwood pulled off giving 4.5 million festive gifts to over a million players: Sponsored article: Lockwood Leamington’s Studio Director Oliver Clarke on the seasonal gifting feature created for virtual world Avakin Life
74. Ubisoft ends production of Starlink toys following poor sales
75. Ubisoft cancels Starlink physical toys following game’s under performance: Development team plans to “do right by our passionate fans” with biggest update so far
76. Ubisoft CEO: Live games give devs a chance to refine rather than start from scratch
77. BioWare GM (internally) addresses complaints fromAnthem devs
78. BioWare admits workplace, production issues: “These problems are real and it’s our top priority to continue working to solve them,” says general manager Casey Hudson
79. Super Meat Boy Forever delayed, will miss April launch
80. Team Meat delays Super Meat Boy Forever to maintain “healthy and sustainable pace”: Studio opts not to “run ourselves into the ground” to finish game by previously announced April release
81. Nintendo adding VR modes to Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey
82. VR modes coming to Super Mario Odyssey, Breath of the Wildon Nintendo Switch
83. Nintendo Labo Toy-Con 04: VR Kit Trailer
84. Black Desert franchise has crossed $1 billion in gross sales
85. Roblox now has over 90 million monthly active users
86. Moonlighter sells 500,000 copies in less than a year
87. Good Shepherd picks up majority stake in new studio, Artificer
88. Disruptor Beam plans to offer a mobile live ops platform to other devs
89. European gamers shows progressive streak on diversity: Ipsos MORI survey shows there is growing demand for a wider array of characters in games, although industry still faces apathy
90. Future recognizes staff union: Publisher voluntarily recognizes organized employees of PC Gamer, GamesRadar and nine other publications
91. How to effectively use procedural generation in games
92. Don’t Miss: How devs deal with making enemies that feel ‘okay’ to kill
93. Don’t Miss: A 2008 analysis of branching dialogue, fromMass Effect to Facade and beyond
94. How playgrounds can inform multiplayer level design in video games
95. Avalanche: “The industry is going to calm down on tech and focus on creativity”
96. CVG team reunite for new games media website: Video Games Chronicle launches this month
97. Video blog: Historians discuss Return of the Obra Dinn
98. Watch Falcon Age’s lead dev dive into the making of this bird-tastic tale
99. God of War wins big at BAFTA Game Awards 2019
100. God of War takes home five BAFTAs
101. God of War director: accessibility isn’t at odds with creative vision
102. “Accessibility has never and will never be a compromise to my vision”: God of War director Cory Barlog’s statement becomes a rallying cry for developers in support of more accessibility options in games

DIGITAL

1. The Sky Is Rising: The Entertainment Industry Is Thriving, Almost Entirely Because Of The Internet
2. The UK Has Released Its Plan for Cracking Down on Social Media Content
3. UK government proposes sweeping new regulations of online content
4. Online Harms
5. UK Now Proposes Ridiculous Plan To Fine Internet Companies For Vaguely Defined ‘Harmful Content’
6. Aussie Senate Rushes Thru Bill That Would Fine Social Media Companies For Not Taking Down ‘Abhorrent’ Content Fast Enough
7. European Parliament Adopts the Copyright Directive 
8. Techdirt Podcast Episode 207: MEP Julia Reda Explains What’s Next With The EU Copyright Directive
9. Canadian ISPs Call For Standardization And Fines For Copyright Trolls Ignoring Changes To Copyright Law
10. Copyright Enforcement Service Claims $600 Billion-Worth Of Images Are ‘Stolen’ Every Day
11. Include a ‘Creative Commons’ Argument in Your IP Defense 
12. The death of Section 230
13. Singapore Government Pushes Fake News Law Which Will Give It More Options To Shut Down Critics
14. German Publishing Giant Claims Blocking Ads Is Copyright Infringement, In Yet Another Lawsuit Against The Industry Leader
15. German Government’s Bullying Of FOI Group Provides A Warning Of How EU’s New Upload Filters Will Be Used For Censorship
16. UK Government Misses Another Ship Date On Its Porn Filter
17. Be Cautious About Big Internet Platforms Bearing Plans For Global Censorship
18. Devin Nunes Has Filed A Second B.S. Defamation Lawsuit Telling You All About A News Article He Doesn’t Want You To Read
19. It’s Fun To Laugh About Congressional Reps Suing A Satirical Internet Cow, But It’s A Real Attack On Free Speech
20. Email chain prompts Microsoft to investigate reports of sexual harassment ignored by HR
21. Leaked Microsoft Email Chain Reportedly Describes Hellish Workplace for Women
22. Microsoft investigating more sexual harassment claims
23. Microsoft responds to sexual harassment allegations within company
24. Microsoft’s eBook store: When this closes, your books disappear too
25. Amazon will launch thousands of satellites to provide internet around the world: 3,236 satellites will provide internet from low Earth orbit
26. Amazon plans satellite broadband for “tens of millions” of people
27. Amazon admits that employees review “small sample” of Alexa audio
28. Yahoo tries to settle 3-billion-account data breach with $118 million payout
29. Researchers unearth 74 Facebook cybercrime groups with 385,000 members
30. Facebook Will Stop Suggesting You Invite Dead People to Events
31. I Can’t Believe This Dopey, Busted-Ass Website Is What Messed Up Our Lives
32. Where to Find Evidence on Facebook
33. Facebook Issues Additional Transparency Rules for Political Advertising
34. Facebook’s AI Helps Block Or Remove 1 Million Accounts Each Day
35. China is reportedly trialing attention-detecting bands in schools
36. Chinese government proposes ban on bitcoin mining
37. Teens ‘not damaged by screen time’, study finds 
38. Canada may regulate social media companies to avoid election meddling: Firms are not doing enough to combat potential interference, minister said after report found foreign meddling is ‘very likely’
39. DOJ Warns Academy That Being An Anti-Streaming Luddite Could Violate Antitrust
40. Marketers see progress in Twitter’s efforts to stamp out hate
41. Twitter blocks Trump 2020 video over Dark Knight Risesmusic
42. Be Careful What You Wish For: Twitter Temporarily Bans ‘Get Out The Vote’ Ads To Comply With ‘Fake News’ Law
43. Children’s Advertising Review Unit Findings Should Not Be Ignored by App Developers 
44. The rise of the killer robots – and the two women fighting back
45. You call that EDM? Moritz Simon Geist’s robots make the most technical techno
46. The basics of modern AI—how does it work and will it destroy society this year?
47. AI pioneer: ‘The dangers of abuse are very real’ – Yoshua Bengio, winner of the prestigious Turing award for his work on deep learning, is establishing international guidelines for the ethical use of AI.
48. Ethics guidelines for trustworthy AI (European Commission)
49. Google Gives Up on AI Ethics (Board)
50. Exclusive: Google cancels AI ethics board in response to outcry – The controversial panel lasted just a little over a week. 
51. Hey Google, sorry you lost your ethics council, so we made one for you
52. Watch Google’s AI Make Trump Sing Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams”
53. Android TV update puts home-screen ads on multi-thousand-dollar Sony Smart TVs [Update]
54. Netflix: Coming Up Next… Emerging competitors and legal implications of the changing TV and film industry 
55. Netflix ends AirPlay support on iOS in an ongoing souring of its Apple relationship
56. Ironically, Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy
57. YouTube to develop interactive content like Netflix’s Bandersnatch
58. YouTube wants to make choose-your-own-adventure shows
59. YouTube creating interactive narratives: Video service establishes new unit to produce original Bandersnatch-style content
60. YouTube is planning its own interactive Choose Your Own Adventure-style content: It’s looking to compete with Netflix
61. YouTube Exec Ben Relles Named Head Of Innovation, Will Lead Platform’s Push Into Interactive Content
62. YouTube Forced To Disable Comments On Livestreams Of White Nationalism Hearing In Congress
63. YouTube TV Hikes Monthly Price To $50 As It Strikes Carriage Deal With Discovery 
64. YouTube Millionaires: Danielle Cohn Got Her Start On Musical.ly — Now, Her YouTube Music Videos Are Viewed By Millions 
65. Jennifer Lopez Revamps Her YouTube Channel To Give Viewers More Personal Content 
66. YouTuber Charlie Ross Arrested For Impersonating Police Officer In April Fools’ Prank
67. K-Pop Phenoms Blackpink Snatch Biggest YouTube Music Video Premiere Of All Time 
68. YouTube Will Livestream Blackpink’s Coachella Performance In Times Square 
69. YouTube Photographer Peter McKinnon Gets Photo Minted On Canadian Currency 
70. PewDiePie Signs Deal To Livestream Exclusively On Blockchain-Based Platform DLive
71. Brittany Furlan Launches ‘Worst Firsts’ Podcast With Studio71
72. The LaBrants Apologize For Prank On 6-Year-Old Daughter: “We Think We’re Awesome Parents” 
73. Disclosing Endorsements on Social Media: General Considerations for FTC Compliance by Brands and Influencers
74. Why influencers need to use the right #hashtag
75. Jeffree Star Says “Major Player” Was Arrested After $2.5 Million Makeup Burglary
76. Cyber Group, YoBoHo team up on co-pro deal
77. FTC Emphasizes that Providing Free Products Can Bias Reviews 
78. Shiseido is increasing its influencer marketing spending by 50% in 2019
79. Here’s How The Warp Zone Survived Defy Media’s Collapse — And Regained Control Of Its Content
80. Snacks for Props: FTC Says No
81. Fullscreen Signs 10 Clients to Talent Management Roster, Including Mikaela Hoover 
82. Fullscreen’s Talent Unit Signs 10 Creators, Including Sierra Schultzzie, Josh Ovalle
83. Digital Vets Launch ‘UNCMMN’ Talent Management Upstart, Repping Jay Versace, Jc Caylen
84. Someone Hacks Defy Media’s Twitter Account, Promptly Uses It To Troll Everyone (Including Defy)
85. Research analyst predicts Snapchat’s user base in the US will decrease in 2019
86. Snapchat Announces 10 New Originals From BuzzFeed, New Form and Others 
87. Beyoncé Is Dropping A Netflix Documentary Next Week (Trailer)
88. Netflix in Italy: Emerging competitors and legal implications of the changing TV and film industry 
89. Netflix’s DVD Rental Service Brought In $212 Million Last Year From 2.7 Million Subscribers
90. Movie Theaters Don’t Like Netflix. Netflix’s Solution: Buy Its Own Movie Theater Chain.
91. ‘Netflix Is a Joke’ Comedy Channel Sets SiriusXM Launch 
92. MicTurn takes the idea of open-mic concerts online
93. More people pay for Apple Music than Spotify in the US now
94. Will Apple Just Kill iTunes Already?
95. Why Would Anyone Buy an iPad Mini in 2019?
96. Apple slashes HomePod price and introduces Powerbeats Pro 
97. 3-year-old locks parents out of iPad for 25,536,442 minutes
98. Hello world: Shining a light onto the culture of computer programmers
99. Shani Hilton Departs BuzzFeed To Take Over As The Los Angeles Times’ Deputy Managing Editor Of News
100. I Was Ready to Dunk on the Bose Frames… But I Actually Like Them?
101. How Have Section 512(f) Cases Fared Since 2017? (Spoiler: Not Well) (Eric Goldman)
102. Online Marketplace Defeats Trademark Suit Because It’s Not the “Seller”–OSU v. Redbubble (Eric Goldman)
103. Somebody forgot to upgrade: Flights delayed, cancelled by GPS rollover
104. Area Man Takes Over the Onion and Gizmodo Group in Private Equity Deal 
105. Is It Time for a Blockchain Brexit?
106. New Quantum Device Can “Generate All Possible Futures”
107. Interfering trajectories in experimental quantum-enhanced stochastic simulation (Farzad Ghafari, Nora Tischler, Carlo Di Franco, Jayne Thompson, Mile Gu & Geoff J. Pryde)
108. When Twitter Fingers Turn to Trigger Fingers: A Qualitative Study of Social Media-Related Gang Violence (Desmond U. Patton, David Pryooz, Scott Decker, William R. Frey & Patrick Leonard) 

CREATIVITY

1. A Thousand Words: Getty Images Trigger Class Action
2. Former Intelligence Officials Sue The Government Over Its Unconstitutional Pre-Publication Review Process
3. Horse Race Announcer Sues Over Bill Murray Film That Included His Trademarked Tagline
4. Kobe Bryant Every Bit As Useless As His Lawyers Predicted In Trademark Opposition
5. Tennessee Senate Unanimously Passes Actual Anti-SLAPP Bill
6. Battle of the Beers—Can Anheuser’s Bud Light Ads Be Literally True but Legally False?
7. Are Vulgar Trademarks Protected Free Speech? Recent First Amendment Cases are Changing the Contours of Trademark Law
8. The Emmys Are Still Going After A Pet Products Company Despite All The Concessions They’ve Been Given
9. Legislator Irritated By A Journalist Decides State’s Government Should Start Regulating Journalism
10. News organizations have all but abandoned their archives
11. Alex Jones switches up defense in Sandy hook case
12. When Asked About Marvel LGBTQ Heroes, Kevin Feige Says He Wants All Fans to ‘See Themselves Reflected’
13. Viacom Prepares for Content Arms Race: ‘We’re Looking Beyond Our Own Networks’
14. 20 years on, The Matrix remains influential

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. Supporting a More Competitive Canadian Wireless Market: Speak Out on Navdeep Bains’ Proposed CRTC Policy Direction (Michael Geist) 
2. FCC Proposes Protections for 5G Infrastructure Hub and Relay Antennas to Spur Deployment 
3. In Verizon 5G launch city, reviewers have trouble even finding a signal
4. Verizon’s ‘World First’ 5G Launch Was A Bit of a Dud
5. New FCC Commissioner: Hey, Maybe Somebody In Government Could Address These Wireless Location Data Scandals?
6. Just $6,790 Of $208 Million In Robocall Fines Have Been Collected By The FCC
7. Not All Customers Are the Same: Top Court Rules Business Customers Cannot Join Consumer Class Action
8. House Democrats Pass Bill to Restore Net Neutrality
9. House Democrats refuse to weaken net neutrality bill, defeat GOP amendments
10. House votes to restore net neutrality as White House threatens Trump veto
11. Colorado Net Neutrality Bill Heads To Governor’s Desk For Signing
12. Telecom Lobbyists Crushed San Francisco’s Quest For Better Broadband
13. Pai FCC Tours The Country Promising Better Rural Broadband, But His Policies Routinely Undermine That Goal
14. Lawsuit: AT&T’s DirecTV Now is a flop and AT&T lied to investors about it
15. The robocall crisis will never totally be fixed
16. More jails replace in-person visits with awful video chat products
17. Rupert Murdoch, the NFL, and the Negotiation That Remade TV

 SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Canadian Privacy Commissioner Signals Major Shift in Approach on Cross-Border Data Transfers (Michael Geist)
2. Court Says Government Can Continue To Withhold Six ‘Significant’ FISA Court Opinions In Their Entirety
3. Polish Supervisory Authority issues GDPR fine for data scraping without informing individuals
4. Samsung Galaxy S10 fingerprint sensor defeated by a $450 3D printer
5. Ongoing DNS hijackings target Gmail, PayPal, Netflix, banks and more [Updated]
6. ACLU Asks CBP Why It’s Threatening US Citizens With Arrest For Refusing Invasive Device Searches
7. Amazon Workers Are Listening to What You Tell Alexa: A global team reviews audio clips in an effort to help the voice-activated assistant respond to commands. 
8. Oversight Report Says DEA Ran Multiple Bulk Data Collection Programs With Zero Legal Clearance
9. Chicago’s Ankle Monitors Can Call and Record Kids Without Their Consent
10. Well-funded surveillance operation infected both iOS and Android devices
11. Counting the Countless: Why data science is a profound threat for queer people
12. Yahoo tries to settle 3-billion-account data breach with $118 million payout
13. Thumb drive carried by Mar-a-Lago intruder immediately installed files on a PC
14. USB Drive Found on Jailed Mar-a-Lago Party-Crasher Contained Self-Executing Code
15. Chapter 19: Glossary – Unlocking the EU General Data Protection Regulation
16. Court Says California’s Anti-Spam Statute Doesn’t Regulate Affiliate Networks–Bank v. Hydra
17. Airbnb guest found hidden surveillance camera by scanning Wi-Fi network
18. Court Says Virginia PD’s Use Of Automatic Plate Readers Violates State’s Data Privacy Law
19. New variants of Mirai botnet detected, targeting more IoT devices
20. Mysterious safety-tampering malware infects a second critical infrastructure site
21. DHS, FBI say election systems in all 50 states were targeted in 2016

Jon

GAMES

1. Oxford Researcher Blames ESA Reaction for Prolonged Gaming Addiction Crisis
2. Screens, Teens, and Psychological Well-Being: Evidence From Three Time-Use-Diary Studies (Amy Orben & Andrew K. Przybylski)
3. MIT Prof: If We Live In A Simulation, Are We Players Or NPCs?
4. Google: We’re “committed to protecting and respecting privacy” with Stadia – Harrison assures streaming service’s users will be able to create an online persona “distinct and different” from their Google one
5. Deep Silver deactivates stolen Metro Exodus Steam keys
6. Sony is shutting down all Driveclub online servers
7. Sony will switch off the DriveClub servers in March 2020
8. Man gets 20 years for deadly “swatting” hoax
9. Man responsible for fatal swatting call sentenced to 20 years
10. Call Of Duty Gamer Behind Nation’s First “Swatting” Fatality Sentenced To 20 Years
11. Security researcher pleads guilty to hacking into Nintendo and Microsoft
12. Hacker sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for accessing Microsoft, Nintendo servers
13. China’s frozen game approval process continues long thaw
14. Latest batch of Chinese game approvals includes 30 foreign titles: Nearly 1,000 games have been approved since freeze was lifted in December
15. Don’t Miss: A different approach to difficulty
16. Event feedback leads Falcon Age devs to make combat optional
17. No fooling: Reddit’s r/games goes silent for one day to call out hate, bigotry
18. Ten tips for pitching from the head of ID@Xbox: Chris Charla gives developers a crash course on the dos and don’ts of selling potential partners on game ideas
19. Inside look at BioWare explains exactly how fake E3 2017’s Anthem demo was
20. Devs recall moments of instability, indecision, and crunch on Anthem
21. How BioWare’s Anthem Went Wrong
22. Blog: A short analysis of monetization in Apex Legends
23. Drake invests in esports betting startup Players’ Lounge
24. Video games are now a legitimate high school sport
25. Players’ Lounge raises $3M for a wager-based, competitive video game platform
26. Players’ Lounge raises $3m for buy-in gaming competitions: Drake, Take-Two CEO, Comcast, and former Yahoo CEO all invest in low-stakes tournament platform
27. Durham College opens first-of-its-kind Esports Gaming Arena
28. Blockchain: the real fuel for eSports 
29. F1 To Release Official Blockchain Game
30. Brendan Greene: “I’m done with battle royale” – PUBG designer discusses his move to the new Special Projects team, and the privilege of now working without a deadline
31. This War of Mine has topped 4.5 million sales and raised over $500k for charity
32. At Ubisoft you always have a second chance”
33. Apple’s Arcade can succeed – if it aims at families | Opinion: New service can avoid joining a decade of “noble failures” trying to create alternatives to F2P by focusing on children and parents
34. Borderlands 3 trailer shows some of its “over one billion guns”
35. Borderlands 3 Is A Six-Month Epic Store Exclusive On PC
36. Borderlands 3 will be a six-month Epic Games Store exclusive on PC
37. Borderlands 3 is the next big Epic Games Store exclusive
38. Borderlands 3 joins list of Epic Games store PC exclusives: 2K says its goal is “to embrace new distribution platforms that will contribute to our effort to grow the audience” for Gearbox’s shooter
39. Epic wants to leave the Epic Games Store exclusivity decision up to devs
40. Epic: “It’s never our intent to keep people away from playing a game” – David Stelzer and Sergey Galyonkin discuss Epic Games store exclusivity backlash and attracting devs
41. Romero Games partners with Paradox Interactive for upcoming project
42. Video: Sean Murray reflects on No Man’s Sky and grit in game dev
43. UK video game spending rose to record $7.43 billion in 2018 
44. What Astroneer’s devs learned while leaving Early Access
45. Kenichiro Takaki departs Marvelous for Cygames: Senran Kagura producer resigns to work on new project following frustrations with restrictions on sexual content
46. Today, WarCraft 1 & 2 get their first-ever digital launch—and it’s on GOG
47. Is it all over for pre-owned video games?: Second-hand game sales remain significant, but the recent decline is by no means temporary
48. GameStop posts massive loss as pre-owned game sales plummet
49. GameStop posts $673m full-year loss: Specialty retailer acknowledges “the challenges facing our pre-owned video game business” and a need to change its business model
50. GameStop: Sony pulling game cards won’t “have a material impact” on sales: Executive chairman Daniel DeMatteo believes PS4 owners will still fund digital purchases by buying currency in-store
51. GameStop’s fortunes fall amid declining sales of games and consoles
52. Sony updates policy to allow refunds on pre-orders: Refunds also allowed up to 14 days past purchase date if game has not yet been downloaded
53. Sony tweaks PlayStation Store refund and cancelation policy in the U.S.
54. Bethesda reveals “buddy pass” for Wolfenstein: Youngblood – Deluxe edition allows owner to share game with as many friends as they like for co-op play
55. Microsoft scrubs Notch references from Minecraft: Platform holder distances itself from controversial creator
56. Minecraft creator Markus “Notch” Persson eradicated from splash text
57. Minecraft update removes mentions of creator Notch from splash screens
58. Minecraft: Java Edition surpasses 30 million lifetime sales
59. Minecraft on PC surpasses 30m sales: In total, all editions of the game combined have sold over 150m
60. Xenoblade developer Monolith Soft staffing up for Zeldaproject
61. The case for a smaller, more portable Nintendo Switch | Opinion – Portables were said to be dead — so why would Nintendo consider releasing a smaller Switch?
62. Twitch Prime users are being gifted a free year of Nintendo Switch Online
63. Civilization VI update brings cross-platform cloud saves to Steam and Switch
64. How Mario Kart Tour could bring Mario Kart up to speed | Opinion
65. Sega Will Release The Genesis Mini On September 19
66. Sega joins the mini-console revolution with Genesis Mini
67. Sega Mega Drive Mini will launch September 19: Sonic, Ecco and ToeJam & Earl will be among 40 games built into the $80 retro console
68. The Analogue Mega Sg answers why anyone would pay $190 for a new Sega Genesis
69. Tencent opens new cloud streaming platform ‘Start’ for public testing
70. Cloud streaming startup Polystream nets $12 million in funding
71. CD Projekt plans to create 250 new jobs despite last year’s profit and revenue decline: Company still posts a healthy profit of €25.6 million as research and development spending hits €56.4 million
72. Matchington Mansion surpasses $100m as competition sees downloads rise: Homescapes, Gardenscapes experience surge in installs despite no recent updates to either
73. gamigo AG: acquisition of the game publisher WildTangent Inc. in the form of an asset deal leads to further profitable growth
74. Rovio invests $3m in Play Ventures gaming fund: Fund has reached goal of $30m intended for investment in 20-25 companies
75. FoxNext VP on turning Marvel: Strike Force into the Starbucks of mobile games
76. Why 11 Bit Studios endeavors to put emotion and meaning first in game dev
77. Designing for deck-building in video games
78. Xsolla introduces new funding opportunity for indie developers
79. Video: How devs can maintain their sanity for crunch and beyond 
80. Humble Bundle cofounders step down because ‘we’re more startup kinda guys’
81. Humble Bundle co-founders stepping down after best year ever: New vice president and general manager Alan Patmore pledges to grow company as “a force for good in this industry”
82. Flaregames founder launches Phoenix Games to give smaller devs a leg up
83. Gameloft partners with CARE for Dragon Mania Legends charity event
84. Digital Minister Margot James: “This government is committed to helping games companies” – Writing for GamesIndustry.biz, the UK Minister details how the government is supporting British games developers and more
85. Record year for UK games market as spending nears £6bn: Software alone accounted for £4 billion in revenue for the first time, records broken in hardware and digital spending
86. Valve teases its own VR headset, the Valve Index, for May reveal
87. Valve’s long-rumored VR headset is finally real: the Valve Index, coming in May
88. Valve Index to launch June 15: VR headset to be sold separately from optional base station and motion controllers
89. Space Channel 5 VR hands-on: Ulala’s back, and I met her
90. Social VR Hits ‘Rec Room’ and ‘VRChat’ Coming to Oculus Quest
91. Virtual & Augmented Reality Through the Legal Lens
92. Abrams Artists Signs 5 Gaming Creators Including Meg Turney, Matt Cobuzio
93. Hyper Light Drifter dev confirms TV series is in the works
94. Adi Shankar producing Hyper Light Drifter TV series: Netflix’s Castlevania producer teams up with developer Alex Preston for animated adaptation
95. Into the Pixel exhibit calls for submissions of game art
96. Don’t Miss: Streamlining how players deal with death in games
97. Blog: A different take on Sekiro Shadows Die Twice
98. Why HandCircus rebuilt the early iOS game Rolando for modern devices
99. The Elder Scrolls Online: Summerset takes home GLAAD award for outstanding video game
100. The Elder Scrolls Online honored with inaugural GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Video Game
101. Making piracy and pre-owned games problems of the past – 10 Years Ago This Month: Gaming execs kill two birds with one server-based stone, while Konami insists Six Days in Fallujah has no message
102. Blog: 20 Years of retention in EverQuest
103. Gratitude for the Miracle Man: Why I Love: Pumped BMX developer Adam Hunt pays heartfelt homage to a magazine disc demo of Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX
104. This Ebook Company Is Trying to Make Reading More Like Videogames
105. Blockchain Games and Collectibles – Patents and Other Legal Issues 
106. U.S. Patent No. 9,511,292: Video game competition notifications 
107. Mayor Sadiq Khan opens London Games Festival 2019: Praised industry’s contributions to city’s economy and the diverse talent it is attracting
108. These are Gamasutra’s favorite slides from GDC 2019
109. Video: Laralyn McWilliams on staying optimistic and creative in game dev

DIGITAL

1. 540 Million Facebook User Records Exposed Online, Plus Passwords, Comments, and More
2. Facebook asked some users for their email passwords, because why not: And two third-party developers left the data from millions of Facebook users exposed in S3 bucket.
3. Facebook’s Ad Algorithm Is A Race And Gender Stereotyping Machine, New Study Suggests
4. Facebook’s Efforts ‘Not Nearly Sufficient’ in Genocide-Torn Myanmar, UN Investigator Says
5. Mark Zuckerberg calls for more regulation of the internet
6. Mark Zuckerberg To Congress: Okay, Fine, Please Regulate Me And Lock In My Dominant Market Position
7. Mark Zuckerberg: The Internet needs new rules. Let’s start in these four areas.
8. Mark Zuckerberg Is Developing The Facebook Watch Of News — With Monetization For Publications
9. HUD Charges Facebook With Enabling Housing Discrimination 
10. Facebook Cracks Down On White Supremacist Hate Content After Christchurch Massacre
11. Complete Overreaction: Professor Calls For Shutting Down Facebook Live, Post-Christchurch
12. Three Lessons In Content Moderation From New Zealand And Other High-Profile Tragedies
13. The Bundeskartellamt’s Facebook Decision and the intersection of competition law and data protection 
14. EFF Fights For Redditor Targeted By Religious Organization For Forum Posts About Its Data Collection Policies
15. Elizabeth Warren Wants to Break Up Big Data – Could She Do It? 
16. Countries Want to Ban ‘Weaponized’ Social Media. What Would That Look Like?
17. What If Google And Facebook Admitted That All This Ad Targeting Really Doesn’t Work That Well?
18. Russia Expands Site Blocking To VPNs
19. Government’s “porn block” roll out delayed
20. Blogger’s Screenshot of a Newspaper Page Qualifies as Fair Use–Clark v. TransAlt (Eric Goldman)
21. Data dividend? California governor proposes plan to have companies pay consumers for using their info
22. YouTube reportedly ignored extremism in order to boost engagement
23. YouTube Won’t Ban Far-Right Activist Tommy Robinson — Here’s What It’s Doing Instead
24. YouTube Terminated Yeah1’s MCN Status, But Now It Looks Like They’re Working Out A Deal
25. YouTube Once Proposed Overhauling Its Entire Business Model, Paying Creators Based On Video Engagement (Report)
26. YouTube TV Is Now Available In Every U.S. Market 
27. Popular YouTube Stuntsman Was Behind The Mysterious Spacefaring Big Mac Found On A U.K. Soccer Field
28. YouTube Facing Criticism After Promoting Zac Efron’s New Channel Instead Of Resident Creators 
29. PewDiePie concedes to T-Series in battle for YouTube’s biggest channel 
30. YouTube Video Essayist Lindsay Ellis Has Been Nominated For A Hugo Award
31. Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” Sees Massive YouTube Spike Each April Fools’ Day
32. AI Ethics: Seven Traps
33. As AI Spreads, Tech Needs ‘Chief Bias Officers’
34. God in the image of white men: Creation myths, power asymmetries and AI
35. The Boundaries of Artificial Emotional Intelligence
36. How Algorithms Can Learn to Discredit the Media: Defamation is efficient, and AIs may have already figured it out
37. Why Community and Collaboration is the Key for Building Ethical AI
38. Can AI be a fair judge in court? Estonia thinks so
39. Researchers trick Tesla Autopilot into steering into oncoming traffic
40. Google Employees Call on Company to Kick Heritage Foundation Ghoul Off AI Ethics Board
41. Inside the Google employee backlash against the Heritage Foundation: ‘They think that some of our colleagues either do not or should not exist’
42. Google Employees Step Up to Demand Fair Treatment for Contractors
43. Here lies Google Inbox, a radical rethink of how email should work
44. Google’s constant product shutdowns are damaging its brand
45. Google Duplex arrives on iPhones, most Android devices
46. Southern District of Indiana Rules that Property Manager is Subject to Personal Jurisdiction Based on Text Messages Sent to the Forum State
47. Insights: Apple Echoes Amazon In A Rebuke Of Everything Google And Facebook Do
48. Apple apologizes for failing MacBook keyboards yet again
49. iFixit teardown: Apple’s AirPods are “disappointingly disposable”
50. The New AirPods Are Fine
51. Apple just confirmed once and for all that AirPower will never come out
52. Latest iPhone Rumors: Apple Adding the Stuff Samsung Already Has
53. EU Approves Controversial New Copyright Rules 
54. The EU’s Catastrophic Copyright Directive Can Still Be Stopped, If Governments Of Sweden And Germany Do The Right Thing
55. Much ado about “Article 13” (or is it 17?)
56. After Insisting That EU Copyright Directive Didn’t Require Filters, France Immediately Starts Promoting Filters
57. EU Commissioner Gunther Oettinger Admits: Sites Need Filters To Comply With Article 13
58. “Very Short” and Incredibly Loud: New EU Copyright Directive a Shot in the FANGs
59. Here Comes The Splinternet: How The EU Is Helping Break Apart The Internet
60. Free Software Foundation Comes To Its Senses After Calling For EU To Fund Open Source Upload Filters
61. EU’s Never Ending Quest To Rip The Internet And Free Expression To Shreds Continues With The Terrorist Content Regulation
62. Cole And Savannah LaBrant Under Fire After “Prank” Convincing Daughter They Were Giving Her Dog Away
63. DSM Directive Series #1: Do Member States have to transpose the value gap provision and does the YouTube referral matter?
64. DSM Directive Series #2: Is the press publishers’ right waivable? (Eleonora Rosati)
65. UK cyber security officials report Huawei’s security practices are a mess
66. Salesforce Sued For Sex Trafficking… Because Backpage Used Salesforce’s CRM
67. 9th Circuit’s Bad AirBnB Decision Threatens Basic Internet Business Models
68. The Marriage of Silicon Valley and the Pentagon Is Happening Whether You Like It or Not
69. Twitter now lets users appeal violations within its app
70. Think before you tweet – the perils of social media for the accountancy profession
71. What’s Gimlet’s Problem?
72. Office Depot rigged PC malware scans to sell unneeded $300 tech support
73. Office Depot And Partner Ordered To Pay $35 Million For Tricking Consumers Into Thinking They Had Malware
74. Legal experts weigh in on controversial European copyright directive: Legislation shifts responsibility onto platform holders, but won’t necessarily affect content creators
75. Section 230 Holds On As Grindr Gets To Use It As A Defense
76. Important Section 230 Ruling from the Second Circuit–Herrick v. Grindr (Eric Goldman)
77. Welcome To The Prude Internet: No More Sex Talk Allowed
78. Senator Keeps Attacking a Law Crucial to Internet Speech—Only He Can’t Seem to Read It
79. Cardi B, Juice WRLD, More Inducted Into Spotify’s RapCaviar ‘Pantheon’
80. Department Of Justice Warns Academy That Banning Netflix From Oscars Could Violate Antitrust Laws
81. Netflix Ranked as No. 1 Fastest-Growing U.S. Brand in 2019
82. Netflix’s Biggest Price Hike Is Now Rolling Out To Existing Subscribers
83. iHeartMedia Files for Potential IPO 
84. Streaming drove 9.7% rise in global recorded-music revenues in 2018
85. Nickelodeon Buys Learning App ‘Sparkler’ To Bolster Its Preschooler Streaming Service
86. After 21st Century Fox Purchase, Disney Bows Out Of This Year’s NewFronts
87. Hulu Is Exploring New Ad Experiences For Binge Watching: Advertisers could sponsor shows when the audience is clearly in it for the long haul
88. Spielberg proposal to ban streaming from Oscars may be illegal, DOJ warns 
89. Sony Sells Majority Stake In Its Crackle Streaming Service To Chicken Soup For The Soul
90. Sony Sells Stake in Crackle, Launches Joint Venture With Chicken Soup for the Soul 
91. Sony veteran Kaz Hirai has left the company after 35 years 
92. Kaz Hirai retires as chairman of Sony Corporation: Former CEO departs company after 35 years
93. Microsoft kills off the book store you probably didn’t know it had
94. Viacom Will Tout New Suite of Advertising Options as TV’s Sales Season Draws Near
95. Hiring Influencers: Are You Playing With Fyre? 
96. Creators for Good: Karlie Kloss Inspires Young Girls in STEM
97. Teacher Says She Was Fired for Not Being a ‘Role Model’ After Topless Selfie Leaks
98. TikTok To Join Instagram, Snapchat In The Realm Of Geolocation Filters Following GeoGif Acquisition
99. Not Quite So Sweet: POPSUGAR’s Removal of Instagram Sidebar Leads to a Loss on All Fronts
100. Instagram Considers Ad Products To Compensate Stars On IGTV: Creators and publishers could share in riches from new ad opportunities on fledgling video service
101. Mercedes-Benz sued four artists whose murals appeared in its Instagram posts.
102. Instagram’s big bet on shopping could be worth $10 billion in 2021
103. Rounding Up Three Recent Keyword Advertising Cases–Comphy v. Amazon & More (Eric Goldman)
104. Google and Walmart team up to let users buy groceries with voice commands
105. The First Smartwatch to Read Your Blood Pressure Is an Ugly Marvel
106. The future of conveyancing – A new digital age?
107. Russia’s Shotgun-Wielding Drone Is the Flying Nightmare You Didn’t Know You Had 
108. Bitcoin Surges 15% Overnight Because Nobody Learned Their Lesson After the Last Crash
109. As new prepaid rule takes effect, virtual currency wallet providers need to take notice
110. How Automation Turns Us Into Trump Voters
111. On the Early Web, People With Disabilities Found Community and Autonomy
112. Taxing the sharing economy 
113. The Online Icons That Didn’t Survive the Web’s First 30 Years
114. Old, Online, And Fed On Lies: How An Aging Population Will Reshape The Internet 
115. Copyright Registration, Publication on the Internet, and the Revolving “Back Door to Berne” (Eric Goldman)
116. Rounding Up Three Recent Keyword Advertising Cases–Comphy v. Amazon & More (Eric Goldman)

CREATIVITY

1. Alabama Court Decides Publicity Rights Trump First Amendment In S-Town Lawsuit
2. Getty Images Sued Yet Again For Trying To License Public Domain Images
3. Ariana Grande Demands All Photographers At Her Concerts Transfer Copyright To Her, NPPA Revolts
4. Can an artist deem his own art worthy of protection? 
5. Ed Sheeran’s copyright woes continue
6. Texas A&M Wants out of the “12th Man” Copyright Suit
7. Copyright’s Memory Hole (Eric Goldman & Jessica Silbey)
8. Federal Court Says Teen’s ‘F— Cheer’ Is Protected Speech
9. FTC hits predatory scientific publisher with a $50 million fine
10. Infringers walk the plank as the Premier League’s anti-piracy campaign scores big success
11. Australian Prosecutors Trying To Throw Reporters In Jail For Accurately Reporting On Cardinal George Pell’s Conviction
12. Journalist Maria Ressa Arrested Yet Again As Philippines Keeps Finding Bogus Reasons To Arrest Vocal Critic
13. The Moment The Matrix Changed Everything
14. At Last! Mystery of Garfield Phone Beach Solved After 35 Years
15. EU to introduce anti-money laundering legislation for the art industry

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. A Netflix Crisis?: Foreign Funding Now By Far the Largest Source of Financing for Canadian Fictional English Language TV Production (Michael Geist)
2. Company Ordered to Pay Woman $459K After Spamming Her With More Than 300 Robocalls
3. FCC “fined” robocallers $208 million since 2015 but collected only $6,790
4. FTC Shuts Down Companies Responsible for Over One Billion Robocalls 
5. District Court: “Ringless” voicemail is a “call” under the TCPA 
6. Second District Court in the Nation Holds That a Ringless Voicemail is a “Call” Under the TCPA 
7. The FTC Says It’s Totally Cool With Anti-Competitive Internet Fast Lanes 
8. Ajit Pai wants to cap spending on broadband for poor people and rural areas
9. FCC Plans to Eliminate Rural “Rate Floor,” Heading Off Potential Price Hikes 
10. April Fool’s Day is Monday – Don’t Let the Joke Be on You by Forgetting the FCC’s Hoax Rule 
11. Cohen Payment Kerfuffle Forces AT&T To Be Slightly More Transparent About Lobbying
12. Verizon’s Spam-Blocking Call Filter Is Now Free
13. Verizon refuses to admit that its “first to 5G” commercials are misleading
14. Watch a Verizon 5G phone hit speeds faster than your home Internet
15. UK ISPs now automatically refund customers £8 a day for Internet outages
16. Telecom Lobby Suddenly Pretends To Care About Accurate Broadband Maps
17. FTC gives ISPs green light to block applications as long as they disclose it
18. FTC reaches settlements with multiple operations alleged to be responsible for placing billions of robocalls 
19. FTC Launches Probe Into Telecom Privacy Issues. But Whether They’ll Act Is Another Matter Entirely
20. FTC investigates whether ISPs sell your browsing history and location data 
21. The Electronic Communications Code – First Tribunal Decision on Consideration and Compensation payable by Operators 
22. Have You Been Sued by Manuel Hiraldo? 
23. Court Grants Primary Jurisdiction Stay in TCPA Case Pending FCC Clarification of ATDS 
24. New year, new rights for telecoms providers
25. Wall Street Thinks The Cable TV Sector Could Easily ‘Unravel.’ That’s Probably A Good Thing.

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Court Documents Show Canadian Law Enforcement Operated Stingrays Indiscriminately, Sweeping Up Thousands Of Innocent Phone Owners
2. Bezos rep says Saudis stole racy texts, leaked them to the Enquirer
3. Elizabeth Warren wants jail time for CEOs in Equifax-style breaches
4. 7th Circuit Punts On Border Smartphone Searches; Says Riley Decision Doesn’t Affect Anything
5. Seventh Circuit Wades into Big Data Case Law
6. YouTube Defeats Lawsuit Over Children’s Privacy
7. FTC imposes unprecedented fine for violations of children’s online privacy rules
8. Ancestry-Testing Company: It’s Our ‘Moral Responsibility’ to Give The FBI Access to Your DNA
9. FamilyTreeDNA Deputizes Itself, Starts Pitching DNA Matching Services To Law Enforcement
10. Riding the waves of U.S. data privacy legislation 
11. Utah – The First State to Require a Warrant for Third-Party Data 
12. Woman from China, with malware in tow, illegally entered Trump’s Mar-a-Lago
13. LAPD Watchdog Says Department’s Data-Based Policing Is Producing Nothing But Wasted Time And Rights Violations
14. Kaspersky Lab Will Now Alert Users to ‘Stalkerware’ Used In Domestic Abuse
15. Facial Recognition Tech Now Capable Of Getting You Kicked Out Of The Mall
16. Facial recognition can drive business goals, but where do we draw the line?
17. HTTPS Isn’t Always As Secure As It Seems
18. FTC Seeks Information from ISPs on Privacy Procedures 
19. Washington State Pushes Forward With Comprehensive Privacy Legislation
20. Will Washington Be the Next California?
21. Thoughts on personal data vs non-personal data
22. To catch a drug thief, hospital secretly recorded births, women’s surgeries
23. Clinic Files Amicus Brief Arguing for Broader Access to Government Databases Through FOIA
24. Machines Shouldn’t Have To Spy On Us To Learn (Zeynep Tufekci)

Jon

GAMES

1. Blog: How games software and hardware could top $200 billion by 2023
2. Opinion: After Christchurch – What we owe our game communities
3. “If we make room for them, then there is no room for anyone else”: IGF Award host Meg Jayanth calls for devs to reject fascists, demand better treatment for themselves and their colleagues
4. #1ReasonToBe: “Inclusivity is a battle we can win”: Rami Ismail’s final stint hosting the panel shares the stories of a refugee turns games developer, an Egyptian woman who refused to let a visa rejection silence her, and more
5. Overwatch saw 40% less disruptive behavior with the endorsement system
6. PUBG Corp and NetEase settle Battlegrounds lawsuit
7. PUBG Corp, NetEase settle copyright lawsuit: After suit alleging Knives Out, Rules of Survival copied PUBG and countersuit against “shameless attempt” at genre monopoly, companies now dismissing cases
8. Madden Litigation Sputters Out With Settlement
9. EA Lays Off 350 People In Marketing, Publishing, And More
10. EA lays off 350 staff in marketing, publishing, and operations 
11. EA closes Japan and Russia offices amid mass layoffs
12. EA lays off 350 amid major organizational changes: Company reorganizing marketing, publishing, operations teams, decreases presence in Japan and Russia
13. Electronic Arts closes Japan office as part of mass layoffs: Russian division also appears to be shuttering with operations moving to larger, regional office
14. EA signs publishing deal with Vicarious Visions founders
15. Sega removing actor from Western version of Judgmentafter drug scandal
16. Judgment has sold through 97% of stock following controversy
17. “Hard Rock” Hamilton Says Microsoft Can’t Leave Gears of War Lawsuit
18. Judgement sales surge following voice actor drug charge controversy: There was “no correct way to deal with the situation,” says Sega chief creative officer
19. Labor organizers share insight and tips on unionizing the game industry
20. Roblox on creating kinder communities
21. Game source code is a teaching tool, not a trade secret, argues VGHF founder
22. Apple Finally Jumps Into Games with Subscription Service Featuring 100+ Exclusives
23. Apple announces its own game subscription service, Apple Arcade
24. Apple unveils Apple Arcade subscription service for iOS, Mac, Apple TV games
25. Apple Arcade Games Subscription Service Announced
26. Apple reveals game subscription service Apple Arcade: Program to launch this fall with focus on new, premium titles
27. KO_OP, ustwo games announce Apple Arcade exclusives
28. Opinion: A closer look at the strategy behind Apple Arcade
29. Google Stadia Streaming Platform Launch, Game, And Feature Details Revealed
30. Google Exec On Stadia’s Internet Speed Requirements
31. Hands-On With Google Stadia
32. Google Claims Stadia Is More Powerful Than PS4 And Xbox One Combined – GDC 2019
33. Google’s Stadia Could Take Video Games Out of Your Hands: The new streaming service could make owning a video game a thing of the past
34. In Wake Of Google Stadia, Reports Suggest Walmart Is Exploring A Game Streaming Service
35. Report: Walmart is looking to enter the game streaming business
36. Walmart exploring its own game streaming service – Report: Retail giant began talking to developers and publishers about its plans earlier this year
37. Phil Spencer Reportedly Says Stadia Announcement Had ‘No Big Surprises’, Says Xbox Will ‘Go Big’ At E3
38. Xbox will reportedly “go big” on streaming at E3 2019: Internal email from Phil Spencer says Google Stadia is a “validation” and notes “no big surprises” in Google reveal
39. Report: Microsoft’s disc-less Xbox One S gets name and launch date
40. Microsoft unveils new indie game showcase calledID@Xbox Game Pass
41. Another World designer Eric Chahi sets up indie studio Pixel Reef
42. Blog: My full time indie developer life – Year 2
43. Blog: The colonial, non-colonial, and decolonial in video games
44. All the Game Streaming Services Google Stadia Is Up Against
45. Would a Google Stadia subscription service be bad news for the industry?: Analysts discuss Stadia’s potential to drive “a major downward trend” on prices, and what subscriptions mean for developers and diversity of games
46. Google Stadia will support the Xbox Adaptive Controller: Microsoft’s accessible device included among third-party controllers Google’s platform will support
47. Google tries to reassure gamers about Stadia speed and latency concerns
48. How id Software went from skeptical to excited about Google Stadia streaming
49. Slow Broadband, Usage Caps Could Mar Google Stadia’s Game Streaming Ambitions
50. Google Stadia can succeed if it follows Fortnite’s footsteps | Opinion
51. Nav promoted his new album in Fortnite stream with Ninja
52. In-venue streaming and broadcasting of live sporting events – key legal issues for sports clubs and leagues
53. Valve stays the course despite intensifying competition
54. Valve Software dreams of analyzing your brainwaves to tailor in-game rewards: “We can figure out what kinds of rewards you like, and the kinds you don’t.”
55. Valve is pushing new social features for Steam later this year 
56. Standalone Vive Focus Plus will cost $799 when it arrives in April
57. Valve Psychologist: Brain-computer Interfaces Are Coming & Could Be Built into VR Headsets
58. PlayStation VR headset sales have topped 4.2 million
59. ‘No Man’s Sky’ is Getting Full VR Support for PSVR, Rift, and Vive
60. Sony Announces 4.2 Million PlayStation VR Units Sold
61. Putting Sony’s 4.2 million PSVR sales in context
62. Sony is pulling digital PS4 games from sale at GameStop, other retailers
63. Sony stops selling digital game codes at physical retailers
64. Sony pulls full game download codes from all stores: PlayStation confirms to GamesIndustry.biz new strategy starts April 1, cards for DLC and virtual currency will still be available
65. Devil May Cry 5 shipped 2m units in two weeks
66. Devil May Cry 5 has sold 2 million copies in first two weeks
67. 6 years in, Warframe nears 50 million lifetime players
68. Fallout 76 and a handful of upcoming Bethesda titles now headed for Steam
69. Metro Exodus on Epic Store outsells its predecessor on Steam — but what does that tell us?: “It’s about the game, and not the store you sell on,” suggests Epic
70. Observation will be an Epic Games Store exclusive, Steam page pulled
71. Epic offers support for third-party key sales — but not for exclusives
72. Sweeney commits to human moderators & quality filters for Epic’s Games Store
73. Epic Games Store is making the industry better but “gamers don’t see that”: CEO Tim Sweeney addresses backlash against exclusivity deals, promises human curation to block “shock controversy games” like Rape Day
74. Report: Nintendo Is Releasing Two New Switch Models
75. Report: Nintendo planning two new Switch models
76. Nintendo Allegedly Set To Release Two New Switch Models
77. Report: Nintendo to release two new Switch models in 2019
78. Stardew Valley is the best-selling indie game on Nintendo Switch
79. Dead Cells has passed 1 million sales, and Switch leads the way on consoles
80. Nintendo’s Labo VR Kit Is Its Wildest Cardboard Adventure Yet
81. This Might Be the Least Fun Switch Accessory
82. Oculus Founder: Rift S Suitable for Only About 70% of Population Due to IPD
83. eSports and Copyright between choreographies and UGC 
84. GameStop moving into esports with new events venue 
85. GameStop partners with three esports organisations: Games retailer signs deals with Houston Outlaws, Envy Gaming, and OpTic Gaming
86. Comcast plans to build a $50 million esports arena in Philadelphia
87. SuperData: Apex Legends’ $92m launch month the best ever for a free-to-play game
88. Mobile strength pushed Tencent past $19bn games revenue in 2018
89. WarDucks raises $3.8 million to expand studio and create location-based AR game
90. WarDucks raises €3.3 million for location-based AR mobile game
91. I played 11 Assassin’s Creed games in 11 years, and Odyssey made them all worth it
92. UK Charts: Sekiro Shadows Die Twice is the seventh new No.1 of the year – Activision and From Software title narrowly beats The Division 2
93. Kabam acquires Montreal-based mobile studio Riposte Games & Co
94. GAME revenue dips but profits jump on ‘relentless’ cost savings
95. Indies clean up at GDC Awards 2019: God of War takes home yet another Game of the Year gong, and Return of the Obra Dinn wins $33,000 in IGF prizes
96. GDC 2019 attendance sets new record at 29,000
97. GDC celebrates record-breaking attendance and locks in 2020 dates!
98. Blog: The best slides I saw at GDC 2019
99. GDC 2019, as told through livetweets 
100. Video Game Deep Cuts: The Game Developers Conference Aftermath
101. A dev trained robots to generate “garbage” slot machine games—and made $50K
102. Intel and Spirit AI are working on machine learning-powered voice chat moderation
103. Video: Systemic AI design in Just Cause 3
104. Get a job: DeepMind is hiring a Games Designer
105. Deep Dive: Flexiscope, the play-time aware dungeon generator in Book of Demons
106. Don’t Miss: Devs weigh in on the best ways to write and design characters
107. Relinquishing Control: Remedy’s paradigm shift – Game director on leaving behind the tightly controlled experiences of Alan Wake and Quantum Break for, “a world that can support many stories, not just one story”
108. Daedalic: “If we do this right, no one else will be able to make a Gollum game” – CEO discusses plans for the iconic character, who will star in the first of many Lord of the Rings games
109. Critical Consensus: Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 –  Critics lament the lack of political heft in its story, but The Division 2 gets much right that BioWare’s Anthem got wrong
110. ‘Buddy pass’ will let Wolfenstein: Youngblood players share with friends
111. Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt spent heavily on R&D in 2018
112. Boyfriend Dungeon dev examines why game fashion sucks, and what to do about it
113. First-person digger: Stanley Black & Decker’s game controller for excavators
114. The next generation starts with you | Opinion: Game Dragons’ Philip Oliver offers advice on how to better work with academia to improve the quality of graduates
115. Twitch Launches ‘Squad Stream’ Feature, Enabling Four-Person Multiplay
116. Ninja Is Getting His Face On A Red Bull Can
117. Building a ‘homebrew’ video game console
118. Niantic announces second Pokémon GO Earth Day event
119. Obituary: Take-Two founder Ryan Brant has passed away
120. Take-Two founder Ryan Brant dies: Publisher expresses condolences, gratitude to Brant for his vision and contributions

DIGITAL

1. Muslim Advocacy Group Files Suit Against YouTube, Facebook For Hosting Christchurch Shooting Videos
2. Microsoft calls for ‘industrywide’ moderation plan after New Zealand shooting: The company’s president calls for more coordination
3. New Zealand Censors Declare Christchurch Shooting Footage Illegal; Start Rounding Up Violators
4. Brutal Startup Is Using Eye Tracking to Force You to Watch Ads: It’s basically like “A Clockwork Orange.”
5. Social media platforms under increasing pressure to protect users from harm
6. Facebook and Instagram Finally Ban White Nationalism and White Separatism
7. Facebook’s new rules come down against white nationalism, separatism
8. Will Facebook’s New Ban On White Nationalist Content Work?
9. Facebook Settles Claims Alleging Discriminatory Ad Targeting 
10. Vice Media to Pay $1.9 Million to Settle Pay Discrimination Case
11. Music labels sue Charter, complain that high Internet speeds fuel piracy
12. RIAA Continues Its Legal War To Turn ISPs Into The Copyright Police: Sues Charter Communications
13. The Latest Pro-PewDiePie Hackers Locked Users’ Files Until They Subscribed
14. New Virus Steals Your Files Until PewDiePie Gets 100M Subscribers: Another ransomware variant encrypts your files unless you subscribe to PewDiePie – but even if you do, it deletes them anyway.
15. PewDiePie fans keep making junk ransomware: Please, YouTube! Just hide PewDiePie and T-Series’ followers count and put this competition to bed.
16. How Microsoft found a Huawei driver that opened systems to attack
17. New Huawei phone has a 5x optical zoom, thanks to a periscope lens
18. US Is Forcing A Chinese Firm To Sell Gay Dating App Grindr
19. HMD admits the Nokia 7 Plus was sending personal data to China
20. How Internet Mercenaries Do Battle for Authoritarian Governments
21. HTML email reborn, as Google brings AMP to your inbox
22. Google regrets ‘minor glitch’ that sent Ghanaian currency plummeting
23. U.S. Supreme Court Refuses to Search Google Settlement Agreement for Fairness  
24. SCOTUS Remands Google Case to the Ninth Circuit for Spokeo Standing Analysis 
25. Tenth Lawsuit Against Social Media Providers for “Materially Supporting Terrorists” Fails–Sinclair v. Twitter (Eric Goldman)
26. The echo of American Fair Use and of its boundaries, in the EU and Italian System. A comparative analysis in the wake of the Fox News victory over TVEyes
27. Nevada Judge Says Online News Publications Aren’t Protected By The State’s Journalist Shield Law 
28. Talking Cat App Should Keep Quiet on Advertising, CARU Recommends
29. A ‘Dark Day’: Copyright Law That Threatens the Internet as We Know It Passes Final EU Vote
30. EU parliament passes controversial copyright overhaul [Updated]
31. EU Puts An End To The Open Internet: Link Taxes And Filters Approved By Just 5 Votes
32. The European Parliament has voted in favour of Article 13: Critics argued that Article 13, and related legislation passed today by MEPs, risked infringing on freedom of speech
33. Article 13 – MEME Law is coming…
34. “Memes banned” – the European Parliament votes in the EU Copyright Directive including controversial Articles 11 and 13 
35. EU Parliament Passes Controversial “Meme Ban”: It’s a “dark day for internet freedom.”
36. Swedish MEPs Announce Support For Article 13, Demonstrate Near Total Ignorance Of What It Actually Entails
37. New Report: Germany Caved To France On Copyright In A Deal For Russian Gas
38. Enough MEPs Say They Mistakenly Voted For Articles 11 & 13 That The Vote Should Have Flipped; EU Parliament Says Too Bad
39. Tell The EU Not To Wreck The Internet
40. A Century Ago We Killed The Radio Commons; Don’t Let The EU Do That To The Internet
41. EU Commission Refuses To Explain Why It Published Medium Article Mocking The Public’s Concerns Over Article 13
42. EU Internet Companies Warn EU Parliament Not To Vote For Articles 11 & 13; Say They’ll Hand The Internet To Google 
43. MEPs Realizing How Bad Article 13 Could Be, Begin To Back Away From EU Copyright Directive
44. Independent Musician Dan Bull’s New Song, Robocopyright, Warns Of The Dangers Of Article 13
45. Sites Warn EU Users Of Just How Bad Article 13 Will Be
46. Huge Protests Across Europe Protest Article 13; Politician Lies And Claims They Were Paid To Be There
47. Supporters Of Article 13, After Denying It’s About Filters, Now Say It’s About Regulating Filters Which They Admit Don’t Work
48. After EU Copyright Reform Passes, Susan Wojcicki Says “This Is The Beginning” Of YouTube’s Fight
49. Most Advertisers Have Returned To YouTube After Comments Scandal, Google Exec Says 
50. YouTube Usage Comprises 37% Of All Mobile Web Traffic, Study Finds
51. YouTube Facing Lawsuit That Alleges Toy Unboxing Videos Are “Abusive Advertising Practices” Aimed At Children 
52. YouTube Disabled Comments On Thousands Of Creators’ Channels To Prevent Child Predation. Tech Startup Respondology Thinks It Has A Solution. 
53. YouTube Shutters ‘Fantastic Adventures’ Channel After Proprietor’s Arrest For Child Abuse
54. YouTube Millionaires: AR12Gaming Started Sharing His Love For Racecar Games On YouTube In 2012. Now, His Company Sponsors Real-Life Racers.
55. How YouTube is changing toys
56. YouTube cancels two original series but denies moving away from original content
57. YouTube Content Head Susanne Daniels Denies Eyeing Exit Amid High-End Series Cancellations
58. Kim Kardashian’s Daughter North West Entering YouTube Fray In Collab With JoJo Siwa
59. Influencers Allegedly Run Roughshod Over FTC Warnings
60. Influencer Law 101: influencer exclusivity
61. Law School Exam Part 5: Am I An Influencer?
62. #InfluencerMarketing: What advertisers need to know about disclosure
63. Lil Miquela, Shudu, Bermuda and Sophia The Robot: CGI and Robot IT Girls Who Will Become the Influencers of the Future 
64. Studio71 Launches Weekly Reaction Series With Tal Fishman, Caylus Cunningham On ‘Caffeine’
65. Ryan ToysReview’s Nickelodeon Series To Premiere On April 19
66. YouTube’s FaZe Clan Inks Sponsorship, Content Pact With Automaker Nissan
67. Liza Koshy Will Return To Her YouTube Channel After Yearlong Absence
68. Liza Koshy Returns To YouTube With A Glitzy Musical For Her Dollar Store Shenanigans
69. Creators Going Pro: Elle Mills’ YouTube Channel Is Becoming A Diary About The Raw, Vulnerable Parts Of Her Life
70. Priyanka Chopra Launches YouTube-Funded Inspirational Special ‘If I Could Tell You Just One Thing’
71. Admitted Meme Thief F-Jerry Sued for Allegedly Stealing a Meme 
72. Popular Meme Account Sued For Copyright Infringement and Other Claims
73. Expansion of the Madrid System 
74. Ruling in Emoji Beach Ball IP Case Left Me Confused: Kangaroo v. Amazon (Eric Goldman)
75. March Madness! Court Dismisses Lawsuit Over Massive Cyberattack After Basketball Game Loss–Higgins v. Kentucky Sports Radio (Eric Goldman)
76. Amazon Will Soon Launch Mobile Ads In Search Results
77. To rival Amazon, UPS enters healthcare—with doorstep nurse delivery
78. StyleHaul Notifies Employees Of Layoffs, Shutdown Of U.S. Operations (Exclusive) 
79. Here’s Why Netflix Launched ‘Love, Death & Robots’ With A Different Episode Order For Certain Users
80. Netflix Reaches Tipping Point As Originals Now Outpace Acquired Titles – Study
81. Netflix Asks Court To Dismiss Chooseco’s Lawsuit For All The Obvious Reasons
82. Here’s How Apple’s Spending Its Massive $1 Billion Original Content Budget Ahead Of Streaming Service Launch
83. Here’s the Full Rundown on Apple TV and the New Apple TV+
84. Apple finally enters TV streaming space with new Apple TV+ service
85. Here’s all the TV+ shows Apple flew out celebrities for
86. Apple’s New Genre Shows Are Still Mysterious, But Here’s What We Learned Today
87. Apple’s Streaming Service Apple TV+ To Launch This Fall, Will Have Zero Third-Party Content — But Plenty Of Add-Ons
88. Liveblog: Apple unveils its TV service and more at the March 25 “It’s show time” event
89. Apple promises its new credit card is a privacy-protecting beast
90. Apple debuts its own credit card with a physical version to complement the app
91. The Apple Card Is Great at Privacy but Mediocre Overall
92. Everything that’s happening with Apple’s News+ subscription service
93. Apple News+: A newsstand of 300 glossy magazines for $9.99/month
94. Apple Used Its Oprah Moment to Pull One Over on Us
95. Apple Designates Amazon As an Authorized Reseller of Apple – Highlighting the Importance of Online Sales Control for Even the World’s Most Powerful Brand
96. Clippy briefly resurrected as Teams add-on, brutally taken down by brand police
97. Microsoft ships antivirus for macOS as Windows Defender becomes Microsoft Defender
98. Microsoft exec bans company from pulling any dumb April Fools’ pranks 
99. Streaming Powers U.S. Latin Music Market to 18% Growth
100. eMarketer claims Spotify US will overtake Pandora by 2021
101. AI-music startup Endel to release albums through Warner Music
102. A Survey Of The EU’s AI Ecosystem
103. Expert views on the frontiers of AI and conflict  
104. How to develop a successful IP strategy for AI
105. Can AI Be A Fair Judge In Court? Estonia Thinks So
106. How Artificial Intelligence Is Changing Science
107. Artificial Intelligence: A Potential Cybersecurity Safeguard or Viable Threat to the Healthcare Industry? 
108. Algorithmic Accountability: A Primer
109. Inside Google’s Rebooted Robotics Program
110. Study shows complexity and uncertainty of IoT regulation in Europe 
111. New York City Apartment Residents Sue Landlord Over New Smart Locks [Updated]
112. US computer science grads outperforming those in other key nations
113. Rethinking the rights of children for the internet age
114. Disruptive Developments @20EssexStreet: What is the difference between a cryptocurrency trading platform and a kitchen blender? 
115. What’s in a (User)Name? 
116. Freetown Man Arrested for Keeping Flat-Screen TV Delivered to Him by Accident With Amazon Order 
117. This Truck Spilled 40,000 Pounds of Printer Ink In a Crash That Probably Cost a Gazillion Dollars
118. Man Steals $122 Million From Google And Facebook By Just Asking Them For Money
119. Digital Business in Canada
120. Internet Platform Governance, Part 1: What’s the Problem?
121. Cloud computing in the United States
122. Federal Prosecutors Recommend Paul Hansmeier Spend The Next 12 Years In Prison

CREATIVITY

1. Photographer loses lawsuit over use of her photo in political mailer
2. $35 billion in research funding “now at stake” after Trump executive order
3. New waves in the battle against piracy of sports rights
4. Copyright Ownership DJ Claim Must Plead Disputed Ownership 
5. What do Bruce Springsteen and Venus and Serena Williams all have in common?
6. Counterfeiting and the importance of brand protection in beauty
7. Fashion and cultural expressions
8. Dutch Golden Age painting returned to heirs of Nazi Spoliation victims
9. Intellectual Property Law Year in Review – March 2019

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. Cable Industry Embarrassed By The Word ‘Cable,’ Stops Using It
2. FCC has to pay journalist $43,000 after hiding net neutrality records
3. FCC (Read: Taxpayers) Forced To Pay Journalist’s Legal Bills After Tap Dancing Around FOIA Requests
4. T-Mobile’s $50 home Internet service has no data cap, but plenty of limits
5. AT&T’s “5G E” is actually slower than Verizon and T-Mobile 4G, study finds
6. Another Study Finds Verizon’s 5G Is Barely Available, Not Scaleable
7. Current Telecom Developments
8. Bill To Restore Net Neutrality Moves Forward, And The Public Is Still Angry
9. The regulators are coming: New EU online Platforms Regulation
10. Five Minutes On… The EU Electronic Communications Code
11. Comcast’s New Rented Streaming Box Is A Flimsy Attempt To Remain Relevant

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Facebook apps logged users’ passwords in plaintext, because why not
2. Facebook stored hundreds of millions of passwords in plain text
3. Facebook Screws Up Again
4. Vigilant And Its Customers Are Lying About ICE’s Access To Plate Records
5. Thomas Goolnik Again Convinces Google To Forget Our Story About Thomas Goolnik Getting Google To Forget Our Story About Thomas Goolnik
6. Illinois Appeals Court Says Fifth Amendment Protections Apply To Cellphone Passwords
7. California and European Privacy FAQs: Does the GDPR require that a company obtain consent from a website user before placing cookies on its browser?
8. The privacy risks of unchecked facial-recognition technology
9. The Government Is Using the Most Vulnerable People to Test Facial Recognition Software
10. Having Privacy in Public: Limits to Unwanted Surveillance in Public Spaces
11. Hijacked ASUS software updates installed backdoor on at least 0.5 million PCs
12. Asus Goes Mute As Hackers Covertly Install Backdoors Using Company Software Update
13. Reckless VII: Wife of Journalist Slain in Cartel-Linked Killing Targeted with NSO Group’s Spyware
14. Critical flaw lets hackers control lifesaving devices implanted inside patients
15. A rogue’s gallery of bad actors is exploiting that critical WinRAR flaw
16. Telegram Goes Nuclear With New Message Deletion Feature
17. Preparing for Compliance with the California Consumer Privacy Act 
18. Casino Screwup Royale: A tale of “ethical hacking” gone awry

Jon

GAMES

1. Community management post-Christchurch massacre | Opinion: Veteran product manager James Kozanecki says the industry can no longer dismiss toxic behavior as harmless trolling 
2. The Culling: Origins’ servers are being switched off in May
3. ‘No console required’: Google unveils streaming game platform, ‘Stadia’
4. Google jumps into gaming with Google Stadia streaming service, coming “in 2019”
5. Google Reveals Stadia Streaming Console
6. Google unveils first details of Stadia streaming service
7. Google’s new Stadia streaming service will let you play video games without downloading them
8. Hands on with Google Stadia: It works, but is that enough?: Playing Assassin’s Creed on a Chromebook is neat but only part of the story.
9. Google Stadia supports the Xbox Adaptive Controller
10. Google Is Better Positioned For Cloud Streaming Than Anyone, But Don’t Expect The World Just Yet: Google isn’t afraid to shut down projects when they don’t work.
11. ‘Care more about your streamers’ advises Magic: The Gathering Arena dev
12. Google Made Chromecast Cool Again
13. Google’s New Cloud Gaming Platform ‘Stadia’ Comes With Major Features Built Specifically For YouTubers
14. Google Stadia has promise, but GDC failed to address its biggest obstacles | Opinion: The GI team weighs in on bandwidth, business models, and the potential link between accessibility and diversity
15. Stadia’s biz dev director talks challenges, opportunities in new age of cloud games
16. Phil Harrison: Stadia starts an “inevitable and one-way shift” away from consoles: Google VP also addresses concerns about bandwidth caps and those cryptic game teases shown before the keynote
17. Opinion: Chez Stadia – Google’s new cloud platform
18. Snapchat Said to Launch Gaming Inside Its App 
19. Snapchat Will Reportedly Launch An In-App Gaming Platform Next Month
20. Snapchat to unveil gaming platform next month – Report
21. Report: Snapchat’s rumored game platform to be announced in April
22. Axiom Verge getting its physical Wii U release after ongoing legal battle
23. The high cost of a Wii U retail release: Limited Run Games and BadLand Publishing give their sides of the falling out over a Wii U physical version of Axiom Verge, and why it’s finally launching
24. Axiom Verge producer files suit against BadLand Publishing for $200k: Dan Adelman alleges publisher hasn’t paid share of European distribution earnings, flaked on promise of healthcare fund for developer’s ill son
25. Four Indian cities ban PUBG Mobile: Battle royale game suspected of triggering violent behaviour, police have already arrested players
26. Mukti: Acknowledging the grim reality of human trafficking in India – UnderDogs founder and CEO Vaibhav Chavan discusses his hope to raise awareness of a growing problem
27. Loot boxes aren’t the problem but how we use them is, says legal expert: “The key is how we use these mechanics, not whether we use them,” says Will Bucher
28. Epic says its Game Store is not spying on you
29. Epic’s Tim Sweeney addressees privacy concerns for the Epic Games Store
30. Julian Gollop defends Epic Games Store exclusivity for Phoenix Point: Developer assures that refunds will be offered to those who don’t want to use Epic, or Steam keys if they wait a year
31. Epic Games Store roadmap outlines cloud saves, achievements, user reviews
32. Epic responds to accusations of Steam data mining: Sweeney says issue stems from “our rush to implement social features in the early days of Fortnite”
33. Epic offers support for third-party key sales — but not for exclusives: Tim Sweeney reveals Epic Game Store roadmap, but concedes it will have to compete on games to compensate for lack of features
34. Devs can now sell Epic Game Store keys on the Humble Store
35. Epic Games announces $100m MegaGrants program, launches free Online Services tools
36. Epic expands its dev grants program with $100M in Epic MegaGrants
37. Quantic Dream, Ubisoft lead next wave of Epic Games Store exclusives
38. Remedy, Quantic Dream, and other devs sign on for Epic Games Store exclusives
39. Google unveils first-party game studio led by Jade Raymond
40. Epic CEO: “You’re going to see lower prices” on Epic Games Store
41. “Energizing Times”: Microsoft to “go big” at E3 in response to Google Stadia
42. Games for Change debuts new accelerator program for ‘social impact’ games
43. Carlos Santana Smashed A TV With A Bat Because The Phillies Were Playing Fortnite During Games
44. Kicking off the streaming wars | Opinion: GDC 2019: Industry giants have decided that the medium’s future lies in streaming – but success is far from assured even for enormous players like Google and Amazon
45. Steam Link Anywhere beta drops Steam Link’s local-wifi-only restriction
46. Any Steam game can now use Valve’s low-latency, DoS-proofed networking
47. Steam Link Anywhere lets you take your PC gaming with you
48. Steam devs can now use the networking APIs created forCS:GO and Dota 2
49. Steam removes “off-topic review bombs” from overall game review scores
50. Steam user reviews will no longer count ‘off-topic review bombs’
51. Microsoft is bringing Xbox Live to iOS and Android
52. Xbox Live is coming to iOS and Android, but not Switch (yet) – GDC 2019: Microsoft reveals new cloud services and packages for games studios
53. Cuphead is heading to the Nintendo Switch with Xbox Live support
54. Cuphead will bring Xbox Live to Switch: Microsoft plans to add features from its online service to Nintendo’s platform with a post-launch update to StudioMDHR game
55. Minecraft is joining Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass lineup
56. Pokemon Go’s PvP was designed to appeal to players new and old–and it worked
57. Facebook launching new Gaming Tab: Update will make all gaming content accessible from main navigation, serve as new hub for streaming
58. Nvidia moves toward global rollout for GeForce Now cloud platform
59. Unity unveils new ties to Nvidia RTX pipeline, takes shots at Unreal
60. Epic lays plans for Unreal Engine ray tracing and physics revamps
61. Unity and Nvidia partner to launch real-time raytracing tech 
62. Unity partners with Havok to roll out new physics systems
63. Unity partners with Tencent for China, cloud gaming services
64. Unity partnering with Tencent to help its devs make waves in China
65. Tencent shares reach six month high after difficult 2018
66. Tencent Music financials reveal revenues grew by 72.9% in 2018
67. Devs share an inside look at Armello’s games-as-a-service success
68. How indie devs can form their own worker cooperative
69. 3 indie leaders share tips on keeping your small studio afloat without a hit
70. Call of Duty Mobile announced for iOS, Android, made by China’s Tencent
71. Call of Duty: Mobile will launch outside of China: Activision and Tencent unveil free-to-play title, confirm launch in North America, South America and Europe
72. The next Zelda game on Switch is an indie mash-up with Crypt of the Necrodancer
73. Suda51: Grasshopper team “stronger” for Travis Strikes Again experience – Grasshopper’s CEO may use the experience for a full sequel to the divisive Switch spin-off
74. Unknown Nintendo Game Gets Digitized With Museum’s Help, Showing The Importance Of Copyright Exceptions
75. UK Charts: Slow start for The Division 2: However, Ubisoft’s new action game makes No.1
76. Atari VCS console delayed following spec boost: Console will now be cooler and quieter, the manufacturer states
77. Discord evolves verified servers with new community tools
78. When and what to culturalize?: Netmarble US president Simon Sim lays out the Marvel Future Fight company’s approach to adapting games and monetization for new markets
79. Update: Lucasfilm Games job postings apparently not linked to studio revival
80. Chet Faliszek and Kimberly Voll form co-op game studio Stray Bombay
81. Chet Faliszek and Kimberly Voll form Stray Bombay Company: Former Valve writer and Riot Games designer launch their own co-op focused development studio
82. Former Valve designer, writer dishes on his new “co-op” game studio – Joined by ex-Riot dev: “Chet said one sentence. I said, ‘Oh my god. That’s the game.'”
83. Left 4 Dead’s developers are Back 4 Blood with new spiritual successor
84. Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery grosses $110m in first year: Mobile RPG becomes most successful game from Jam City
85. Netflix Getting Its First Capcom Anime Series
86. Wargaming announces new IP in built with Amazon game tech: World of Tanks developers partners with Frag Lab on “next generation” free-to-play shooter
87. Mega Crit’s Slay the Spire has sold 1.5m copies
88. A Letter To The Apex Legends Player I Probably Disappointed
89. EA opens ‘multi-million dollar’ esports broadcast studio
90. EA builds its own esports broadcast studio: New facility “signals EA’s commitment to competitive gaming for years to come,” will host tournaments, esports-focused shows
91. NPD: Anthem was the best-selling game in February
92. EA: People want inclusive games with friendlier communities
93. Team spaces in Call of Duty esports league reportedly cost $25m each: Preparations begin for franchised, city-based competition around Activision’s flagship shooter
94. The Simpsons Producers Worked With Riot Games On An Upcoming Esports Episode
95. 5th Planet closes Nottingham studio: CEO says “now is the time to take the consequences” for underperforming games as it lays off 14 people
96. Doodle Jump Space Chase dev’s closure was third wave of layoffs since November: 5th Planet Games repeatedly slashed headcount at its Nottingham studio before shutting it down outright
97. “We need to move away from short-form VR experiences”: NDreams’ VP of development Tom Gillo discusses the company’s plans to become a AAA VR developer
98. ‘Beat Saber’ Sells Over One Million Copies
99. Beat Saber has crossed 1 million sales in under a year
100. Beat Saber sells over 1m copies: Milestone was reached in February across PSVR, Steam, and Oculus Home
101. Oculus Quest’s powerful, portable VR, as proven by the fun of Beat Saber
102. The Oculus Rift S is a new PC VR headset with built-in tracking
103. Hands-on with the new $399 Oculus Rift S: More pixels, zero webcams, better fit
104. Rohrer: Make fewer consumable games, more ‘unique situation generators’
105. The U.S. Army is building a giant VR battlefield to train soldiers virtually
106. Corporations, not consumers, drive demand for HP’s new VR headset
107. God of War leads BAFTA Games Award nominations
108. God of War leads BAFTA nominations: Sony’s epic in the running for 10 prizes, while Red Dead Redemption 2, Florence and Return of the Obra Dinn are up for six
109. Blind Squirrel lands $5M in funding to self-publish its first game, Drifters
110. Shadow Warrior developer Flying Wild Hog acquired by Supernova 
111. Bomber Crew dev Runner Deck acquired by Catalis
112. Double Eleven acquires VooFoo Studios: UK developer and publisher adds Mantis Burn Racing studio for undisclosed fee
113. Turtle Beach acquires PC peripherals company Roccat
114. Asteri acquires Prima Games: Strategy guide brand leaves behind physical releases, looks to help developers gather player feedback on unfinished titles
115. UK games retail: Prices continue to rise as supermarket power wanes
116. Blog: Engaging players through ritual
117. Wargroove dev demystifies game development by involving its community
118. Video: Unpopular opinion: All narrative is linear
119. How Neopets has influenced a generation of game developers
120. Games for Change Accelerator to offer funding and support for social impact games
121. Blockchain Games and Collectibles – Patents and Other Legal Issues 
122. U.S. Patent No. 7,628,688: Game apparatus, game control method, recording medium and program 
123. Former EA and THQ exec Danny Bilson to helm USC Games program
124. Return of the Obra Dinn takes Grand Prize at the 21st IGF Awards!
125. God of War wins Game of the Year at the 2019 Game Developers Choice Awards

DIGITAL

1. Supreme Court rules key part of law against child-luring via internet is unconstitutional
2. Canada Supreme Court Rules That Privacy is Not An “All-or-Nothing Concept” 
3. R. v. Morrison (2019 SCC 15)
4. 49 Dead and Dozens Wounded in New Zealand Terror Attacks That Were Livestreamed on Facebook
5. Facebook: No one reported NZ shooting video during 17-minute livestream 
6. The New Zealand Massacre Was Made to Go Viral: The attack marks a grim new age of social media-fueled terrorism.
7. Social media sites struggle to contain video of New Zealand shooting
8. One Video Of The Christchurch Massacre Was Uploaded To YouTube Every Second
9. New Zealand ISPs Say They’re Blocking Sites That Fail to Remove Christchurch Shooting Video
10. NZ declares massacre video “objectionable,” arrests people who shared it
11. 4chan, 8chan blocked by Australian and NZ ISPs for hosting shooting video
12. If You Think Big Internet Companies Are Somehow To Blame For The New Zealand Massacre, You’re Wrong
13. Americans Built Tech for China’s Sinister “Re-Education Camps”: MIT and Yale – and possibly Microsoft – are helping build China’s surveillance state.
14. Vladimir Putin signs sweeping Internet-censorship bills: Publishing “unreliable socially significant information” can lead to big fines.
15. Terrified Of The Internet, Putin Signs Laws Making It Illegal To Criticize Government Leaders Online
16. Court Dismissed Lawsuit Brought Against Social Media Companies Alleging An Anti-Conservative Conspiracy
17. People Call On YouTube, Facebook, Twitter To More Stringently Monitor Hate Content Following Christchurch Shooting
18. Using Networks To Govern Network Problems
19. FTC Takes Hard Line On Fake Paid Reviews
20. YouTube Creators Are Trying To Move On From ‘Subscribe To Pewdiepie’
21. Arizona Woman Who Ran Popular Kids’ YouTube Channel Arrested On 7 Counts Of Child Abuse
22. YouTuber Adam22 Held At Gunpoint While Livestreaming, Suspect In Custody
23. YouTube Tattooist Romeo Lacoste On Inappropriate Messages To Young Fans: “Some Are Real, And Some Are Fabricated”
24. After YouTube Disables Comments On ‘Special Books By Special Kids’ Organization’s Channel, Founders Say It’s Discrimination
25. YouTube Will Require Content Owners To Give Timestamps When They Copyright Claim A Video
26. Blackpink are first K-Pop artist with 20m YouTube subscribers
27. YouTube creators are using a hilarious tactic to combat copyright policies
28. Axel Voss Says Maybe YouTube Shouldn’t Exist
29. Sephora Severs Product Partnership With YouTuber Olivia Jade In Wake Of College Bribery Scandal
30. Lilly Singh Lands Late-Night TV Slot On NBC, Will Host ‘A Little Late With Lilly Singh’
31. Disney now owns 21st Century Fox, X-Men, and most of Hulu
32. LSO bencher candidates leverage Twitter to promote platform, engage readers
33. Devin Nunes’ ludicrous $250 million lawsuit against Twitter, explained
34. “He’s literally suing an imaginary cow”: Late-night hosts mock Nunes
35. Rep. Devin Nunes Sues Internet Cow For Saying Mean Things About Him Online
36. @DevinCow Now Has More Twitter Followers Than Devin Nunes
37. US Huawei Blackballing Efforts Stall Due To Lack Of ‘Actual Facts’
38. Court Tosses Antitrust Claims That Internet Giants Are Biased Against Conservatives–Freedom Watch v. Google (Eric Goldman)
39. Thai Government Uses Fake News Law To Lock Up Opposing Party Leaders
40. Political agreement reached on Online Platform Regulation
41. Google Hit With $1.7 Billion Fine in Europe for Abusing Advertising Dominance
42. The EU fines Google $1.69 billion for bundling search and advertising: Showing Google Ads above Custom Search results lands the company in hot water.
43. How Google influences the conversation in Washington
44. Social Video App ‘Firework’ Emerges From Beta, Enabling Creators To Film Horizontal And Vertical Clips Simultaneously
45. Spotify vs. Apple: the latest updates
46. Spotify’s EU antitrust complaint could be a serious threat to Apple
47. Ahead of Streaming Launch, Apple’s Iron-Clad Secrecy Is Reportedly Stressing Out Hollywood
48. Apple Objects To Norway Political Party’s Logo Claiming Potential Customer Confusion Over Trademark
49. Apple Watch accurately spotted heart condition 34% of the time in study
50. How Canadian Copyright Reform Could Support the Government’s Supercluster Investment (Michael Geist)
51. News Organization Like Reuters Supporting The EU Copyright Directive Is A Shameful Support For Censorship
52. The 2012 Web Blackout Helped Stop SOPA/PIPA And Then ACTA; Here Comes The 2019 Version To Stop Article 13
53. Proposed EU Copyright Directive shifts balance of responsibilities between rights holders and platforms
54. As Recording Industry Announces Massive Growth, Why Do We Need Article 13 Again?
55. Internet Blackout Coming To Show The EU Parliament It’s Not Just ‘Bots’ Concerned About Article 13
56. Silicon Valley’s Fingerprints Are All Over the College Bribery Scandal
57. Ethics before algorithms: Technology needs to be used ethically and sometimes not at all
58. Europe’s silver bullet in global AI battle: Ethics – EU experts hope ‘trust’ will prove to be the bloc’s competitive edge.
59. Bill Gates Compares Artificial Intelligence to Nuclear Weapons
60. There’s a Power Struggle Inside Google to Control Superhuman AI: If DeepMind builds a superhuman AI, who will control it?
61. A Quarter of Europeans Trust AI More Than Politicians: They’d rather ditch human politicians and put robots in charge, according to new research.
62. Washington Prison Management Software Setting People Free Too Early, Keeping Other People Locked Up Too Long
63. New Google App Describes Objects To Blind People
64. When Google Fiber Abandons Your City as a Failed Experiment
65. Supreme Court Reverses Google Settlement But Ducks Ruling on Its Fairness 
66. Facebook Had A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day 
67. Mark Zuckerberg discovers privacy
68. Facebook Blames Protracted Outage on a ‘Server Configuration Change’
69. Insights: Has All Of “Social Media,” Not Just Facebook, Reached A Pivot Point?
70. Online ‘Reputation Management’ Company Brags About Abusing Copyright Law To Take Down Bad Reviews
71. Bogus DMCA Takedown Targeting Indian Copyright Blog Demonstrates The Problems Of Notice And Takedown
72. Japanese Government Puts Restrictive Copyright Amendments On Hold Over ‘Internet Atrophy’ Worries
73. $900 Robot Commits Adorable Seppuku, Showing Again How In The Modern Era You Don’t Own What You Buy
74. Ninth Circuit Tells Online Services: Section 230 Isn’t For You
75. It’s time to start caring about “VR cinema,” and SXSW’s stunners are proof
76. Oculus grabs Beat Saber as an Oculus Quest launch title
77. Oculus “phasing out” Rift, launching $399 Rift S this spring
78. Oculus: “It’s no longer a burden to get into virtual reality”
79. Do Adjacent Organic Search Results Constitute Trademark Infringement? Of Course Not…But…–America CAN! v. CDF (Eric Goldman)
80. Viacom’s Awesomeness Inks Deals To Distribute 18 Flagship Series, Films Internationally
81. Netflix Won’t Be Integrated Into Apple’s Forthcoming Video Service, CEO Says
82. ‘Subscription Fatigue’: Nearly Half of U.S. Consumers Frustrated by Streaming Explosion, Study Finds
83. Two Examples of How Courts Interpret Emojis (Eric Gold
84. More Kardashian Drama: A Legal Fight Over Ownership of the Kimoji Emoji Set–Liebensohn v. Kardashian
85. Insider is finding new revenue on Snapchat from old Facebook news-feed videos
86. Facebook’s ‘Red Table Talk’ Garners Daytime Emmy Nomination
87. Myspace apparently lost 12 years’ worth of music, and almost no one noticed
88. Snapchat ramps up UK pitch, but ad buyers remain unconvinced
89. Instagram just took advantage of Amazon’s biggest weakness: Amazon’s failure in “discovery shopping” is Instagram’s opportunity, as its users can now shop inside the app.
90. Art Law & More Instagram 
91. Republican Devin Nunes sues Twitter, users over attacks 
92. No, Twitter Is Not Completely Removing Likes And Retweets — But Here’s Why It’s Hiding Them
93. Twitter wants workforce to be at least 5% black, 5% Latinx by the end of this year
94. When online harassment doesn’t follow the rules
95. Security Researcher Discovers Flaws In Yelp-For-MAGAs App, Developer Threatens To Report Him To The Deep State
96. Patreon Launches Tiered Pricing for Creators, Introduces Rates for Micropayments 
97. Patreon Launches 3 New Creator Plans — ‘Lite’, ‘Pro’, And ‘Premium’ — That Vary By Features And Fees
98. Kickstarter employees launch unionization effort
99. Building an inclusive studio culture begins with retention 
100. Tech support: law firms lining up to take advantage of tech boom
101. Plenty of likes for defamation reform in a digital world
102. Can I Use This Song In My Podcast? It Depends. 
103. D-Wave 2000Q hands-on: Steep learning curve for quantum computing: Reconceptualizing a problem is the hard part, but the end is rewarding.
104. California Becomes 20th State To Push ‘Right to Repair’ Legislation

CREATIVITY

1. NMPA Publishers File $150M Lawsuit Against Peloton Over Unlicensed Music by Drake, Ariana Grande & More
2. Peloton is being sued for using music without permission in its video fitness classes
3. Competition Bureau Releases Updated Enforcement Guidelines on Abuse of Dominance and Intellectual Property
4. So you think you can dance? Copyright protection of dance moves
5. Protected or Unprotected: The Supreme Court Hears Iancu v. Brunetti 
6. Supreme Court Clarifies the Rules for Enforcing Copyrights
7. NYC’s New Tourist Trap Claims the Rights to Every Photo You Take Inside of It
8. Miss Vanjie! Miss Vanjie!: What RuPaul’s Drag Race Can Teach Us About Fair Use Under Copyright
9. Florida College Asked Local Sheriff To Declare Faculty Member’s Artwork Obscene
10. Monster Energy Loses Trademark Opposition As UK IPO Mentions That The Letter ‘M’ Isn’t Distinctive
11. Captain Marvel Presents Complicated Political Messages Worth Examining
12. Report: James Gunn has been un-fired from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
13. Holy Rocket Raccoon! James Gunn Is Back onGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 [Updated]
14. James Gunn Is Doing Both Guardians 3 and Suicide Squad 2
15. Adnan Virk Agrees Not To Sue ESPN After He Gets New Job
16. Report: In Bollywood, Movie Piracy Is Largely Carried Out By Rival Publishing Houses

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. Cable lobby seeks better reputation by dropping “cable” from its name: American Cable Association is now “America’s Communications Association.”
2. Verizon Confirms That Yes, 5G Will Cost You Extra
3. NBA commissioner ‘surprised’ by changes after AT&T, Time Warner merger: “They are going to have to retool their packages so they are able to connect directly with that younger fan base,” said the head of the NBA.
4. ISPs strike deal with Vermont to suspend state net neutrality law
5. Hearing On New Net Neutrality Law Once Again Conjures Up A Greatest Hits Of Nonsense
6. Ajit Pai’s plan for phone location data never mentions the word “privacy”
7. AT&T and Comcast claim “anti-robocalling milestone” with new Caller ID tech
8. Why, Exactly, Do We Still Trust Telecom Megamerger ‘Synergy’ Promises?
9. It Ends Today: FCC’s Disastrous Solicited Fax TCPA Rules Now Officially Withdrawn 
10. Smartphone Stops Arrow When Absurdly Lucky Man Tries to Photograph Attacker

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Appeals Court: Stored Communications Act Privacy Protections Cover Opened And Read Emails
2. Federal Court Blocks Washington State’s Unconstitutional Cyberstalking Law
3. Sharing Computers and Sharing Space: Privacy interests persist
4. United States Federal Trade Commission strikes one for children’s privacy
5. Burn After Reading? – DOJ Loosens Previous Ban on Secretive Messaging Apps
6. How hackers pulled off a $20 million bank heist
7. “Severe” ransomware attack cripples big aluminum producer
8. Senate Judiciary Committee Holds Hearing on GDPR and CCPA
9. A new rash of highly covert card-skimming malware infects ecommerce sites
10. Nasty WinRAR bug is being actively exploited to install hard-to-detect malware
11. Travelers Beware – Compelled to Open Your Phone?
12. Urgent Message: Privacy Shield Notices Need Updating Before No-Deal Brexit Withdrawal Date

Jon

GAMES

1. Take-Two settles copyright case with another GTA V cheat creator: Defendant Erik Cameron acknowledges violations, pays undisclosed settlement
2. Take-Two Interactive shares jump after Sony acquisition rumors
3. About those rumors Sony is buying Take-Two…: How “purely unconfirmed market speculation” turns into headlines around the industry
4. Sega pulls Judgment from sale in Japan following drug arrest
5. Sega pulls Judgment from sale in Japan after actor arrested for alleged cocaine use: Publisher is considering next move after Pierre Taki admits to violating nation’s drug laws
6. Anita Sarkeesian talks about exposing gaming’s most toxic trends with sheer data
7. Inclusion in games a pressing concern for players, according to survey
8. Spyro Reignited Trilogy now features subtitles in cutscenes
9. Activision adds classic Spyro subtitles months after fan outcry [Updated]
10. War Child UK’s Armistice fundraiser raised $380k in 2018
11. The ‘equal pay and equal say’ structure of the game dev studio KO_OP
12. Don’t Miss: Dealing with the scourge of burnout in game dev
13. EA says it failed in response to Sims influencer’s alleged sexual harassment
14. EA apologises for delay in dealing with Sims community sexual predator: “We are disappointed in how events have unfolded and we own our responsibility to that,” says The Sims general manager
15. Respawn has banned 355,000 in ‘ongoing war’ againstApex Legends cheaters  
16. Respawn has banned over 355,000 Apex Legends cheaters since launch: “We take cheating very seriously and care deeply about the health of Apex Legends for all players,” says developer
17. MrBeast Drops Video Of Real Life, EA-Sponsored ‘Apex Legends’ Battle Starring 39 YouTubers Competing For $200,000
18. App Annie: Tencent retains spot as top revenue-earning publisher for third year – NetEase takes second once more, Activision Blizzard rises to No. 3
19. NetEase and Tencent included in latest round of China game approvals
20. Ninja reportedly earned $1m for promotion of Apex Legends: Top streamer Tyler Blevins one of the few paid for promotion of EA and Respawn’s surprise release battle royale
21. Celebrities drop Fortnite dance lawsuits, but only temporarily
22. Fortnite adjusts cross-platform play to separate out Switch and mobile users: Xbox One and PS4 players will be together by default with Switch and mobile in their own pool
23. ‘The Carlton’ Dances Its Way Out of Copyright Protection
24. 2 Milly, Alfonso Ribeiro, others drop lawsuits against Epic Games over dances: Supreme Court ruling on copyright law forces plaintiffs to wait for dances to be granted copyright registration 
25. Valve removes rape fantasy game from Steam: “We think ‘Rape Day’ poses unknown costs and risks and therefore won’t be on Steam”
26. With Rape Day ban, Steam shows it’s not as “hands off” as it claims
27. UK politician calls for review of Steam, sexually violent content  
28. Rape Day prompts call for UK government review: British MP questions how Valve is “able to get away with this kind of stupidity” 
29. When good monetization meets bad ethics: Riot Games’ Leanne Loombe says the industry needs to be driven by more than revenue to avoid regulation
30. Building a better world through games: Riot’s Soha El-Sabaawi, Microsoft’s Gabi Michel, Tru Luv’s Brie Code, and Ubisoft’s Kaitlin Tremblay discuss challenges and strategies for making the industry and the world beyond it a better place
31. New Microsoft app lets users stream PC games to an Xbox One 
32. PS4 Remote Play is now possible on iPhones and iPads
33. Newest PS4 Update Lets You Stream Your PS4 Screen To iOS Devices
34. You can now play PlayStation 4 games on your iPhone
35. Sony launches PS4 Remote Play for iOS: App allows users to play PS4 games on mobile device, but sans DualShock 4 controllers
36. PlayStation Now launches in 7 more countries
37. Google patent application describes notification system for multi-device controller: Filing unearthed ahead of big GDC reveal next week
38. Jade Raymond appointed new VP at Google: EA Motive founder joins company just ahead of teased GDC reveal
39. Game industry vet Jade Raymond signs on as a Google VP
40. Jade Raymond Named Vice President of Google
41. All signs point to a Google game console announcement at GDC
42. Google Play apps with 150 million installs contain aggressive adware
43. Hennig: “Things are clearly not working the way they used to” – Uncharted creative director says mass layoffs a red flag that AAA development must change, shift to outsourcing “feels inevitable”
44. 209 were laid off from Blizzard as part of earlier Activision Blizzard cuts
45. Blizzard cuts more than 200 US jobs as part of Activision restructure: IT and marketing sees most layoffs, Overwatch firm’s cuts account for more than a quarter of planned 800 redundancies 
46. Blizzard brings original Diablo to GOG: Game is available now DRM-free, Warcraft and Warcraft II planned as well
47. Devil May Cry 5 is Capcom’s second UK No.1 of 2019
48. Anthem tumbles to No.4
49. Brawl Stars made $150m in its first three months: Supercell’s newest game has also passed 75 million installs, biggest audience is US
50. Marvel Strike Force first-year revenue topped $150 million
51. Octopath Traveler shipped 1.5 million copies, has a mobile prequel on the way
52. The Division 2 won’t be sold on digital third-party stores following its launch 
53. EA isn’t hosting a press conference at E3 2019  
54. EA foregoes EA Play press conference for E3: EA Play will begin the Friday before E3 and focus on hands-on demos, livestreams
55. Anthem’s launch and the power of the sunk-cost fallacy | Opinion: Bioware’s latest is one of the most egregiously unfinished and broken launches in many years, but these games often get free pass – for now
56. Halo: Master Chief Collection is finally confirmed for PC, will include Reach
57. Game studio funding: The right investor at the right stage
58. “Our whole world fell apart”: The fall of Splendy Games – Simon Sparks offers a cautionary tale of how an ambitious indie collapsed, and the toll it took on his mental health
59. Don’t let your first game be your last | Opinion: Game Dragons’ Philip Oliver advises indies on how to select a project that will set up the future of their studio
60. Evolving the way we think about community | Opinion: Abusive influencers show companies need to reconsider who they lend their legitimacy to, and how 
61. SpatialOS dev Improbable is setting up its own game development studios
62. Improbable opens first development studios in London and Edmonton: Former BioWare GM Aaryn Flyn to lead Canadian team, while UK will be headed by former DICE producer John Wasilczyk 
63. Tim Sweeney: Storefront battle will be won with developer support – Epic Games CEO says PC digital storefronts are “nearly perfect” for consumers already
64. Epic plans to add an undo button to Fortnite’s in-game store
65. Phoenix Point will be an Epic Games Store exclusive for a year  
66. Konami building esports centre to help Japan catch up with Western ‘pioneers’
67. Konami building esports centre in downtown Tokyo: 12-storey building will open doors this November, will offers classes to help grow Japan’s esports scene
68. How do you spell e-Stadium? 
69. Gaming Luminaries Ninja, DrLupo, And CouRage Sign With Talent Management Firm ‘Loaded’
70. Valve laid off 13 staff and terminated ‘a portion’ of contracted devs last month
71. Valve lays off 13, some involved with VR: Company says layoffs “do not represent any major changes”
72. Valve Laid Off Contractors and 13 Employees, Some Working on VR
73. Magic: The Gathering creator Richard Garfield is no longer working on Valve’s Artifact
74. Valve terminates contract with Artifact designer: “We weren’t surprised by the layoff considering how rocky the launch was,” says Richard Garfield
75. GameByte: Parents’ increase game spending for their kids by 34% in 2018 – Nintendo Switch is the console children request to spend money on the most
76. Nintendo reportedly asks mobile partners to stop players from spending so much: Company concerned with being perceived as greedy, requests third party developers adjust microtransactions
77. Nintendo introduces Nintendo Labo VR Kit: Fourth Labo series kit includes six creations, including VR goggles for “shareable, simple VR gaming experiences”
78. Brand new Nintendo Labo kits will turn your Switch into a VR headset
79. Nintendo veterans reflect on the risks and rewards of hardware development
80. Nintendo Jumps into VR (Again) With Switch VR ‘Labo’ Kit Coming in April
81. How VR brought me inside a scary-real radioactive Fukushima reactor: Here’s what it’s like inside the melted down reactors of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
82. CAA Continues Foray Into Gaming Creator Space With ‘Criken’, Elspeth Eastman (Exclusive)
83. Cloud games tech firm Hadean raises £7m
84. Black jackets, sunglasses, and radical accountability as a worker co-op: Scott Benson and Bethany Hockenberry explain why and how The Glory Society follows a “no bosses needed” model
85. U.S. Patent No. 6,231,444: Operating device for game machine 
86. Don’t Miss: A water interaction model for great video game boat physics
87. Video: Creating the unique visuals of Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak
88. Video: Recreating a classic era in automotive history inMafia III
89. Netflix is turning Dragon’s Dogma into an anime series
90. Dwarf Fortress is headed to Steam and itch.io, 17 years into its development
91. Unknown NES wrestling game discovered, beaten 30 years later
92. The death of Flash is exaggerated, argues one Flash developer
93. The eyes have it: Creating believable digital humans
94. Blog: The psychology of matchmaking
95. Blog: The two philosophies of gameplay
96. Blog: How music enhances virtual presence

DIGITAL

1. Elizabeth Warren Proposes Plan to Break Up Big Tech
2. Elizabeth Warren proposes breaking up Amazon, Google, and Facebook
3. Here’s how we can break up Big Tech
4. How To Actually Break Up Big Tech
5. SXSWarren: A day later, Elizabeth Warren defends her Big Tech breakup proposal
6. Elizabeth Warren Wants To Break Up Amazon, Google And Facebook; But Does Her Plan Make Any Sense?
7. Everyone’s Overreacting To The Wrong Thing About Facebook (Briefly) Blocking Elizabeth Warren’s Ads 
8. It Sure Sounds Like Elizabeth Warren Wants To Bring The EU Copyright Directive Stateside 
9. House of Lords calls for new Digital Authority to regulate tech giants: New authority would oversee regulation to “facilitate the urgent change that is needed” 
10. Seeking the “right regulation” of digital services: Lords’ Communications Committee articulates its vision 
11. UK lords call for central ‘Digital Authority’ to help regulate internet: They want government to take a more aggressive approach.
12. Regulating in a digital world (House of Lords) 
13. FTC Launches a New Task Force Dedicated to Monitoring the Tech Industry for Anti-Competitive Practices 
14. Tim Berners-Lee on 30 years of the world wide web: ‘We can get the web we want’
15. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says democracy ‘has a Facebook problem’: The comments came after the platform took down ads criticizing its power
16. Facebook and Google to be fined for harmful content, Margot James says
17. As anti-vax movement gets weirder—and dumber—Facebook announces crackdown
18. Anti-vaxx ‘mobs’: doctors face harassment campaigns on Facebook
19. Zuckerberg: Facebook will shift focus to private networks instead of open ones
20. Why Facebook’s pivot to privacy could backfire: If all this is a PR stunt, it would be a very bad bargain
21. Facebook Watch Sets New 24-Hour Viewing Record With Jada Pinkett Smith’s ‘Red Table Talk’
22. Facebook Watch’s New Video Incubator To Act As Matchmaker For Publishers, Influencers
23. Zuckerberg: Facebook is Building a Machine to Read Your Thoughts
24. Facebook’s Privacy Cake
25. A Trip Inside Mark Zuckerberg’s Sprawling, Embattled Compound in Hawaii
26. Yes, Actually, There Is A Lot Of Good News In Zuckerberg’s New Plans For Facebook
27. Facebook is testing ‘Watch Party’ features on Instagram, too
28. Facebook Watch’s New Video Incubator To Act As Matchmaker For Publishers, Influencers
29. When Facebook Goes Down, Don’t Blame Hackers
30. Instagram founders on Snapchat and breaking up Facebook
31. Do People Want A Better Facebook, Or A Dead Facebook?
32. How Two Years Of Instagram Stories Has Altered The Way We Love, Act And Play
33. Dangerous Speech and Misinformation Fans India – Pakistan War
34. GOP funds messaging sites that look remarkably like trusted local news
35. The Company That Owns MrBeast And Jake Paul’s YouTube MCN Just Lost Its Network Status For “Egregious and Repeated” Policy Violations
36. YouTube Terminated Yeah1’s MCN Status, So It’s Selling ScaleLab Back To Original Owners For $12 Million
37. YouTube Terminates All ‘SevenAwesomeKids’ Channels After Owner Ian Rylett Pleads Guilty To Child Abuse
38. YouTube Star Olivia Jade Emerges As Beneficiary In College Bribery Scandal
39. YouTube Continues Conspiracy Crackdown With Fact-Checking Cards On Search Results
40. Here’s How YouTube Fought ‘Captain Marvel’ Trolls 
41. YouTube fought Brie Larson trolls by changing its search algorithm 
42. Father Of Alison Parker Accuses YouTube Of Promoting Conspiracy Theories About His Daughter’s Murder
43. Youtube’s Family Vloggers Worry About Their Future Amid Comment Section Crackdown: Without comments, YouTube is just ‘short films’ 
44. YouTube, Louis Vuitton Host Emma Chamberlain At Paris Fashion Week
45. Disaster In The Making: Article 13 Puts User Rights At A Disadvantage To Corporate Greed
46. Major Labels Split On Support For Article 13; As Music Publishers Whine That They Can’t Make Money From Parodies
47. UN Human Rights Expert Warns EU Not To Pass Article 13
48. German Government Confirms That Article 13 Does Mean Upload Filters, Destroying Claims To The Contrary Once And For All
49. 170 Years Of German Publishers Demanding Special Copyrights For The Press Because Of New Technology
50. YouTube Premium, YouTube Music Roll Out To Critical Indian Market
51. Logan Paul Investigates One Of YouTube’s Top Conspiracies In ‘Flat Earth: To The Edge And Back’
52. Man Arrested After Driving Across U.S. To Confront Google Employees He Suspected Shut Down His YouTube Channel
53. Google Hardware makes cuts to laptop and tablet development, cancels products
54. Identifying and acting on fake advertorial content
55. Court Ruling Provides Help to Brands Struggling with Grey Market Sales on Online Marketplaces
56. Elon Musk’s late-night announcement to raise prices and reopen some stores
57. Musk lawyers accuse SEC of “unconstitutional power grab”
58. EU Parliament Paid News Publisher AFP To Create Bogus Propaganda Video In Favor Of EU Copyright Directive
59. Beyond Hybrid War: How China Exploits Social Media to Sway American Opinion
60. Netflix “Doubling Down” On Interactive Content After Success Of ‘Bandersnatch’
61. Bandersnatch was a hit, so Netflix plans to make more interactive shows like it 
62. Netflix wants to make more interactive shows after the success of Black Mirror: Bandersnatch: Wacky comedies or romantic Choose Your Own Adventure-style stories are possibilities 
63. Netflix And ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ Producer Team On Scripted Thai Cave Rescue Series
64. Netflix’s Formula 1: Drive to Survive finds pressure at the core of F1
65. Disney to close “vault” for good as it moves film library to streaming service
66. With Fox, Disney will have an even bigger footprint in Hollywood
67. Amazon to close all its pop-up shops: Company said Wednesday it will focus on opening more bookstores instead
68. Sorry Amazon: Philadelphia bans cashless stores
69. Hearst Opens L.A. Production Studio Ahead Of Clevver Relaunch In Coming Weeks 
70. BuzzFeed CEO Says Company Is Generating Over $200: Million Annually From Businesses That Didn’t Exist Two Years Ago
71. Microsoft proves the critics right: We’re heading toward a Chrome-only Web
72. Nvidia to acquire high performance computing company Mellanox for $6.9 billion
73. Allo Could Have Been Great. Google Blew It.
74. Do You Really Need Disclosures in Google Ads?
75. Google to Ban Political Ads in Canadian Election
76. Boeing Promises Software Update For Plane That Crashed
77. eCommerce Executive Pleads Guilty to Price Fixing on Online Marketplace
78. N.Y. Court of Appeals: No Difference Between “Private” and “Public” Posts in Discovery 
79. Windows 10 passes 800 million devices
80. Why I Regret Upgrading to an iPhone XS
81. A “serious” Windows 0-day is being actively exploited in the wild
82. Competition Bureau chief expected to continue focus on Big Data
83. Artificial Intelligence: Canadian and International Trends 
84. AI & Global Governance: The Advantages of Applying the International Human Rights Framework to Artificial Intelligence (Centre for Policy Research at United Nations University)
85. Laws should monitor bias in AI, experts say
86. U.S. Army Assures Public That Robot Tank System Adheres to AI Murder Policy
87. Could On-Demand Artificial Intelligence-based Authentication End The Fake News Menace?
88. Why Inclusion Matters for the Future of Artificial Intelligence
89. “What can artificial intelligence teach us about fairness?”
90. Patch is using AI to write 3,000 articles a week
91. Degenerate Feedback Loops in Recommender Systems (Ray Jiang, Silvia Chiappa, Tor Lattimore, Andras Agyorgy, Pushmeet Kohli)
92. This Site Detects Whether Text Was Written by a Bot
93. Tech That Can “Detect Emotion” Could Keep You From Getting A Job 
94. See The Robot Head That Might Interview You For Your Next Job
95. You’re Hired! This Site Generates Random Neural Network Résumés: These gibberish résumés show that HR might still require a human touch.
96. Facial recognition’s ‘dirty little secret’: Millions of online photos scraped without consent – People’s faces are being used without their permission, in order to power technology that could eventually be used to surveil them, legal experts say. 
97. Using Creative Commons images to train artificial intelligence (Andres Guadamuz)
98. Why IBM Thinks Quantum Computers Will Boost Machine Learning
99. Data mining, AI and Media: A brave new world? 
100. Why Self-Checkout Is and Has Always Been the Worst
101. Failure to Launch – OSC Director Determines That Bitcoin Fund is Not Ready for the Retail Spotlight
102. The ability to say NO on the Internet
103. Reclaiming the Data Commons
104. Twitter Defeats Yet Another Lawsuit from a Suspended User–Cox v. Twitter (Eric Goldman)
105. Section 230 Preempts Unfair Competition Law Claim–Taylor v. Twitter (Eric Goldman)
106. Appeals Court Upholds Dismissal Of Defamation Lawsuit Against Actor James Woods
107. Tweet Containing Question Mark Isn’t Defamatory–Boulger v. Woods 
108. “We’re killing our capacity for creativity”: Twitter VP Bruce Daisley explains why checking emails outside of work and the misuse of open plan offices is creating so much stress
109. Twitter Debuts An In-App Camera Function
110. Twitter Launches Improved In-App Camera With 280-Second Video Limit
111. Filtering Software Defeats Another Lawsuit–PC Drivers v. Malwarebytes (Eric Goldman)
112. Vice May Be Looking to Raise Another $200 Million (Report)
113. After Laying Off 250 Staffers, Vice Is Now Looking To Raise $200 Million (Report)
114. Copyright in the Digital Single Market – Link Tax
115. Empowering the Marginalized: Tales of the Digital Good Life
116. You are seeing this because you are…:  Targeted advertisements are getting so specific they’ll choose the color of your next panties before you even knew you wanted them.
117. Design Justice, A.I., and Escape from the Design Justice, A.I., and Escape from the Matrix of Domination
118. Calling Doctor Google? Technology Adoption and Health Information Seeking among Low-income African-American Older Adults (Hyunjin Seo, Joseph Erba, Mugur Geana, Crystal Lumpkins)
119. Cookie Policy
120. Website Law Alert – A Website’s Non-Compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act or the Copyright Act Can be Expensive
121. Is It Actually Okay To Touch Your Computer Screen? 
122. Who are the next billion users and what do they want?
123. A Book Review Of Code And Other Laws Of Cyberspace
124. Thoughtful design as the gateway to ethical data processing
125. ­­­
126. The Web’s Dad Isn’t Angry, Just Disappointed  
127. German Football League To Try Novel Antipiracy Strategy Of Actually Having Legal Alternatives For Its Content
128. The Trouble With Emojis
129. ‘Sealioning’ Is A Common Trolling Tactic On Social Media–What Is It?
130. Even the Queen Needs a Social Media Policy
131. Delete Never: The Digital Hoarders Who Collect Tumblrs, Medieval Manuscripts, and Terabytes of Text Files

CREATIVITY

1. Supreme Court Says Of Course You Need To Register Your Copyright Before You Can Sue; Copyright Trolls & Hollywood Freak Out
2. SCOTUS issues ruling in Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com, LLC 
3. Supreme Court Requires Completed Copyright Registration Before Filing Suit–Fourth Estate Public Benefit v. Wall-Street
4. Application Rejected: Supreme Court Requires Registration to Commence Copyright Infringement Suit 
5. More Copyright Policy Should Be As Boring As This Supreme Court Decision
6. Banksy wins pivotal case against museum for trademark infringement
7. Court Rules “Transformed” Photo of Candidate is Fair Use, Not Infringement
8. Big Fair Use Win For Mashups: ‘Oh, The Places You’ll Boldly Go!’ Deemed To Be Fair Use
9. NYTimes Reporter Gets Bogus Defamation Lawsuit Dismissed As Judge Philosophizes About SLAPP Suits
10. Adverts must avoid harmful gender stereotypes 
11. Race and Resistance Amid Feminism, Priming, and Capitalism: The (surprisingly-globalized) Visual of an Asian American Woman Activist
12. Captain Marvel review: The hero we, and Marvel Studios, need right now
13. Captain Marvel is kicking the box office’s ass
14. Captain Marvel’s Box Office Success Defies Trolls: In spite of the haters and the controversy, Captain Marvel prevailed at the box office this weekend.
15. Why It’s Actually Great That ‘Captain Marvel’ Is Just Fine 
16. Captain Marvel’s Directors Discuss the Importance of the Women in Carol Danvers’ Life
17. calc.exe is now open source; there’s surprising depth in its ancient code
18. 5 Reasons You Really Need To Go See ‘Captain Marvel’
19. Stan Lee’s Captain Marvel cameo raises a lot of questions
20. Man angry his photo was used to prove all hipsters look alike — then learns it wasn’t him
21. Supreme Court Issues Two Important Decisions Tackling Copyright Registration and Litigation Costs
22. DuBay v. King
23. Denver Club “Stripped” Carmen Electra and Others of Compensation, Suit Says 
24. How generational attitudes towards IP are impacting the law
25. Was La Toya Jackson Right About Her Family All Along? 
26. Music Writer From 1999 Predicts What Bands Will Still Be Around in 2019

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY 

1. I feel cheated’: Big telcos hike prices for $60 plans with 10 GB, sparking complaints
2. The Federal Government Signals a New Policy Approach for the CRTC in the Telecom Sector (Stephen Zolf)
3. Net Neutrality Update: House Hearing and Proposed Legislation
4. New Bill Would Enshrine The FCC’s Net Neutrality Rules Into Standalone Federal Law
5. John Oliver Robocalls Ajit Pai For Not Doing More To Thwart Robocalls
6. John Oliver fights robocalls… by robocalling Ajit Pai and the FCC
7. Combatting Illegal Robocalls: FCC’s “Top Consumer Protection Priority” 
8. T-Mobile Still Pretending That Staying At Trump’s DC Hotel Isn’t An Obvious Ploy To Gain Merger Approval
9. Report Claims Trump Pushed For AT&T Time Warner DOJ Lawsuit To Hurt CNN, Help Rupert Murdoch 
10. AT&T CFO Says Growing WarnerMedia, Reducing Debt Are Key Priorities
11. AT&T raises DirecTV Now price—again—after promising lower post-merger bills
12. Sprint steps up fight against AT&T’s “fake 5G” with full-page Sunday NYT ad
13. Yes, 5G will cost you more—Verizon plans $10 add-on charge for 5G access
14. Russian Telecom Giant Agrees to Pay $850 Million in Penalties to Resolve Alleged Involvement in FCPA Bribery Scheme 
15. Tucker Carlson’s war on the ruling class is a master class of misdirection
16. DramaFever’s Former Finance VP Sues Warner Bros., Alleging Anti-Asian Bias
17. Do TV Program Ratings Do a Good Job Telling Families Which Programs are Appropriate for Kids to Watch? Congress Wants to Know, So the FCC is Asking 
18. Cable and satellite TV sinks again as online streaming soars
19. Ajit Pai’s rosy broadband deployment claim may be based on gigantic error
20. Much Of The Broadband Growth Ajit Pai Credits To Killing Net Neutrality Was Actually Due To A Clerical Error
21. New York hasn’t followed through on order to kick Charter out of state
22. Portland Lawmakers Want to Block 5G Rollout, Citing Shaky Health Risks
23. A Call to Regulate E-Cig Advertising – What is the FCC’s Role in Regulating Advertising For the Vices? 
24. Researchers Tune In To Smallest Radio Frequency In Quantum Mechanics 

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Redefining our privacy expectations: The SCC’s recent Jarvis ruling will have broad effects, particularly in the grey areas, on the use of surveillance technology.
2. Be Careful What You Wish For: ‘Privacy Protection’ Now Used As An Excuse To Cut Off Investigative Journalists From Key Database
3. New Florida Bill Seeks To Bury Recordings Of Mass Shootings
4. A world of hurt after GoDaddy, Apple, and Google misissue >1 million certificates
5. Appeals Court Doesn’t Buy Government’s National Security Assertions; Says Lawsuit Against FBI Can Continue
6. OSFI Provides New Guidance on Technology and Cybersecurity
7. United States Federal Trade Commission strikes one for children’s privacy
8. FTC Not Kidding Around with TikTok’s Record-Setting COPPA Fine – Five Steps to Reduce Your Risk Now
9. Data Privacy Alert: TikTok to Pay $5.7 Million for Violating COPPA
10. FTC Enters Consent Decree with TikTok and Issues Largest-Ever Fine Under COPPA 
11. JavaScript infinite alert prank lands 13-year-old Japanese girl in hot water
12. Citrix says its network was breached by international criminals
13. Three men cop to $21 million vishing and smishing scheme: Phone-based scam may be low-tech, but it netted big bucks, prosecutors say.
14. An email marketing company left 809 million records exposed online
15. A brief history of Wi-Fi security protocols from “oh my, that’s bad” to WPA3
16. CBP Put A Bunch Of Journalists, Immigration Lawyers, And Activists On A Secret Watchlist
17. Clapper Continues To Pretend He Didn’t Lie To Congress About Domestic Surveillance Programs
18. Owner of MAGA-Friendly Yelp Knockoff Threatens to Call FBI After Researcher Exposes Security Holes
19. “Yelp, but for MAGA” turns red over security disclosure, threatens researcher
20. Major Data Privacy Changes at Tech Companies Are a Sign of the Times 
21. The Galaxy S10’s face unlock fooled by pictures, siblings
22. Why people think their phones are listening to them
23. It’s Apparently Easy To Pretend To Be A Cop, Grab Location Data From Cellular Carriers
24. FOIA Documents Detail DHS/CBP’s Rules-Free Rollout Of Biometric Scanning Program
25. Thailand Decides To Make Its Terrible Cybersecurity Law Even Worse

Jon

GAMES

1.  Epic Games is now being sued over loot boxes in Fortnite: Save the World
2. Epic Games sued over ‘predatory’ Llama loot boxes: Even though randomized llama loot boxes aren’t a thing anymore
3. California man sues Epic Games over “predatory” loot boxes: Complaint alleges Save the World’s loot llamas were “like playing a slot machine”
4. Shakedown: Hawaii coming first to the Epic Games Store
5. Kartridge is the latest PC storefront using exclusive games to entice players
6. Unpacking Recent Loot Box Updates  
7. Anthem: Bioware Addresses Fan Concerns With Loot Update, Here’s What It Changes
8. Anthem is crashing entire PlayStation 4 systems, say players
9. EA soliciting help from Anthem players to figure out PS4 crashing issues
10. Sony begins refunding Anthem purchases in light of “full power down” reports
11. How games whitewash Nazism, and the responsibility developers have to history: Through the Darkest of Times devs explore the industry’s dangerous failure when it comes to depicting fascism
12. One week later, THQ Nordic disavows 8chan AMA
13. THQ Nordic group CEO apologizes for perturbing 8chan AMA
14. THQ Nordic parent company apologizes for 8chan AMA: Co-founder and CEO Lars Wingefors “condemns all unethical content this website stands for”, regrets implicit endorsement
15. Valve bans sexual violence game from Steam, but stops short of condemning it
16. Steam is in the rape fantasy business | Opinion – Upcoming visual novel highlights the problems with Valve’s refusal to apply content standards to its storefront
17. Developers are manipulating Steam’s Popular Upcoming list
18. Academics call for industry co-operation on gaming disorder: “We are scrabbling around in the dark here, lighting little matches and seeing tiny bits of the pictures around us,” says Dr David Zendle.
19. Nintendo to smartphone game makers: You can only gouge our players so much
20. Report: Nintendo is telling mobile development partners to stop players overspending
21. Average Nintendo Japan employee earns $80,000, works less than 8 hours per day: Platform holder’s recruitment page also reveals average worker spends 13.5 years at the company
22. Nintendo’s first VR product in 24 years is coming to Nintendo Switch
23. Newzoo: Games are the third most-popular mobile app category – Half of mobile app users at least check into gaming apps, social media and shopping remain more popular 
24. Fortnite teams with Weezer in attempt to become the next Second Life: Follows record-breaking stream of DJ Marshmello concert inside its battlegrounds.
25. Vivendi has sold off its final Ubisoft shares
26. Vivendi sells remaining Ubisoft shares: Media conglomerate ultimately gained €1.2 billion from failed attempt to acquire publisher
27. There’s confusion around an unofficial adaptation of One Hour One Life, says dev  
28. One Hour One Life dev struggles with unofficial port: Jason Rohrer stands by decision to release game into the public domain despite problems with customer confusion around mobile adaptation
29. Multiplayer Skyrim mod criticized for lifting code from another mod
30. Devil May Cry 5 deluxe edition will let players experience the game like a low-budget movie
31. How Artificial Intelligence Will Revolutionize The Way Video Games Are Developed And Played: The advances of modern AI research could bring unprecedented benefits to game development_­­­
32. Duplication or innovation? How games become genres: Earthbound Games’ Colin Anderson reflects on the rise of the FPS, the sandbox RPG and more 
33. A new triple-A Star Wars game will be announced at Celebration Chicago in April 
34. What Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is and how it could change EA
35. Apex Legends attracts 50 million players in first month 
36. Apex Legends hits 50 million players: Respawn’s free-to-play battle royale game passes milestone in its first month of release
37. Is Red Dead Redemption Online tanking Take-Two’s share price? | Opinion: Despite fantastic sales, Take-Two can’t catch a break – perhaps because investors expected RDR2 to be something it simply isn’t 
38. Activision Blizzard: 800 job cuts could “negatively impact” our business: Call of Duty publisher has set aside $150 million to compensate affected staff
39. Activision recognises $164m revenues from giving up Destiny rights: Publisher reiterates it “no longer has any material rights or obligations” to Bungie’s franchise
40. New ToeJam & Earl game, 8Bitdo controller get Genesis nostalgia right: Sega wasn’t involved with game or controller, but its Sega Ages line gets a shout, too. 
41. One of Pokémon’s New Starters, in the Style ofDetective Pikachu
42. Why arcade Pac-Man players literally grabbed onto the game
43. Don’t Miss: Between a rock and a ‘Harada’ place: The massive Tekken interview
44. Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Links hits 90 million downloads 
45. Cloud gaming will determine the new lord of digital distribution 
46. Tencent set to unveil new cloud gaming service: Tencent Instant Play to bring cloud gaming to PC and Android, overview with Intel planned for GDC 
47. Nexon shortlists five bidders including Kakao and Tencent
48. Tencent among shortlisted bidders for Nexon: Netmarble not invited but forms consortium with MBK partners, main bidding to begin in early April
49. Electronic Arts, Amazon, and Comcast make bids to buy Nexon
50. Horizon Zero Dawn sold over 10 million copies in 2 years
51. PlayStation’s upcoming Chinese conference aims to boost locally-made games
52. Sony PlayLink developer Wish Studios has shut down
53. PlayStation Japan signals imminent end to PS Vita shipments
54. Sony ends PlayStation Vita production in Japan
55. Blog: Move or Die and its four year journey to the PS4
56. Here are the most popular PlayStation games, based on public trophy data
57. Wish Studios closing down: Brighton-based indie developer shutters, leading to 13 redundancies
58. Dev shares real talk about the personal costs of living in fear of layoffs
59. Discless Xbox “Maverick” could arrive as soon as May
60. Disc-less Xbox arriving in May, report suggests: Latest information appears to confirm several rumours from last year
61. Phil Spencer claims Xbox’s multi-device future will benefit everyone  
62. From “schokly” licensed games to a critically acclaimed indie: Oxenfree co-director Sean Krankel on the collapse of shovelware and how it helped shape Night School Studio
63. Dear Villagers: “We’re trying to find the best indie games that could be AA” – Head of publishing Guillaume Jamet talks us through the ambition behind Playdius’ rebrand 
64. Playdius rebrands as Dear Villagers, plans to focus on PC and console titles
65. Dying Light dev TechLand to close Polish publishing department
66. Techland planning to shut down Polish publishing division by the end of the year: 13 employees expected to be laid off by end of 2019, global publishing business to remain intact
67. Merch maker Numskull Designs is getting into game publishing
68. Merchandise firm Numskull forms games publishing division with Rising Star vets
69. Dropbox’s Angela Roseboro is Riot Games’ first chief diversity officer: “I was so taken by the heart and soul of this company and – in spite of setbacks or hurdles – I’m excited to be part of this journey”
70. POC in Play formed to promote racial diversity, equity in UK gaming industry: Founders include multiple industry veterans, with UsTwo Games offering support
71. BrightLocker dissolved as devs claim unpaid debts: Holding company takes over community-building platform as developers say they haven’t been paid money owed
72. Roblox boasts over 1 billion hours of engagement per month
73. In Less Than A Day, ‘Critical Role’ Fans Pledge $3.3+ Million To Bring Animated ‘Vox Machina’ Special To Life
74. Update: Critical Role Animated Special Kickstarter Hits $4 Million
75. eSports – Advergaming and the new frontier of advertising law and image rights 
76. Nintendo announces Tetris 99 Maximus Cup tournament
77. ESL & Oculus Announce Esport’s VR League Season 3, Biggest Prize Pool Yet
78. Warriors Gaming Squad drafts NBA 2K League’s first woman player – Chiquita Evans: “Barriers are made to be broken… I’m just the beginning”
79. VR and cloud gaming frenzy seizes MWC as 5G hype builds
80. Hipfire Games raises additional $205k for VR gameFailspace
81. VR and mobile developer Hipfire Games raises over $200,000: Financial investment to boost debut game Fail Space
82. Crowdfunding platform BrightLocker shuts down  
83. Why HTC targeted Vive Pro at gamers, and why Pro Eye won’t replace it 
84. Magic Leap Announces First Round of Independent Creator Program Grant Recipients 
85. Oculus planning a stricter, ‘quality-first’ approach for Quest app submissions
86. Oculus Quest targets “quality-first” approach with more stringent store curation: Developers must have concept document approved before submitting games to Quest store
87. Blog: Designing a planet-scale real-world AR platform
88. Blog: Remembering Advance Wars
89. Road to the IGF: Seemingly Pointless’ eCheese Zone
90. YouTube Premium’s Woman-Led Video Game Dramedy ‘It’s A Man’s World’ Sets Core Cast
91. The Influencer is dead. Long live the influencer: Latest analysis shows Top 10 influencers account for 84% of yearly view growth – but a spot in that list is not secure year-on-year
92. U.S. Patent No. 4,445,187: Video games with voice dialog 
93. Blog: Historians discuss Far Cry 2

DIGITAL

1.  To Fight Pedophiles, YouTube Disables Comments On Videos Featuring Kids
2. YouTube will disable comments on most videos of kids because of pedophiles
3. YouTube Disables Comments On Tens Of Millions Of Videos Featuring Kids In Effort To Prevent Adpocalypse 2.0
4. YouTube Bans Comments on Videos With Minors
5. YouTube is demonetizing all videos about Momo
6. Susan Wojcicki Says YouTube’s Mass Disabling Of Comments On Videos Of Kids Is “A Trade-Off” For Young Creators
7. YouTube CEO Defends Its Efforts To Reduce Violent Content
8. YouTube Is Demonetizing Every Video About The ‘Momo Challenge,’ Which Isn’t Actually A Thing
9. That Creepy Momo Sculpture Has Been Destroyed
10. YouTube TV Crosses 1 Million Subscriber Mark, Hulu With Live TV Nears 2 Million 
11. Michael Jackson Estate Turns To YouTube To Shift Focus From HBO’s ‘Leaving Neverland’
12. Marzia Bisgonin Says She “Feels Good” About Quitting YouTube, After Adjustment Period
13. YouTube May Never Be 100% Safe For Advertisers, Says Company’s U.K. Marketing Director
14. YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki Agrees To “Tea Session” With Shane Dawson Over ‘Trending’ Tab Concerns
15. Comedy Central Launches YouTube Channel To Host Slate Of Original Digital Programming
16. EU Set to Make Sweeping Copyright Changes
17. The politics behind the proposed copyright directive (Andres Guadamuz)
18. Supporters Of Article 13 Briefly Tried To Move Parliament Vote Up Before Scheduled Protests; Now Deny Plan That They Clearly Had
19. Why Does MEP Axel Voss Keep Lying About Article 13?
20. Article 13 Supporters Find Smoking Gun That Isn’t: Majority Of Tweets Criticizing Copyright Directive Are Not Coming From DC
21. Clash Of EU’s Poorly Thought Out Laws: German Data Protection Commissioner Warns That Article 13 Might Violate GDPR
22. EU officials say Facebook, Twitter, Google failing in “fake news” battle
23. The Equustek Effect: How One Case Has Sparked Canada’s Aggressive Approach Over Internet Jurisdiction (Michael Geist)
24. Twitter’s Shift Away From GPS-Tagged Tweets Suggests It Will Be Harder To Fight ‘Deep Fakes’
25. Twitter Unveils ‘Timing Is Everything’ Tool To Help Creators Maximize Video Viewership
26. BlackBerry Continues Its Shameful Descent Into Patent Trolling By Suing Twitter
27. Data Exploiting as an Abuse of Dominance: The German Facebook Decision
28. Facebook faces complaints from more former content moderators in lawsuit: The contract workers say repeated exposure to violent images caused significant psychological harm.
29. Facebook Finally Shuts Down Its Snooping, B.S. ‘VPN’ After A Full Year Of Complaints
30. In Wake Of Data Scandals, Mark Zuckerberg Lays Out Plan To Transform Facebook Into A “Privacy-Focused Communications Platform”
31. Mark Zuckerberg On Facebook’s Future And What Scares Him Most
32. Mark Zuckerberg pivots to privacy
33. Facebook’s Pivot To Privacy Is Missing Something Crucial
34. Instagram Fashionista’s Suit Survives Clever Challenges
35. Instagram is Working on a New Ad Unit for Sponsored Posts
36. Model Misbehavior? Gigi Hadid Faces Copyright Suit Over Instagram Post 
37. Willie’s Creative Commons lesson: The essential attribution requirement 
38. Supreme Court Holds Copyright Owners Must Wait to Commence an Infringement Suit Until After the Copyright Office Acts
39. Swiss Supreme Court Refuses To Order ISPs To Block ‘Pirate’ Sites
40. Oracle Shoots for “Full Moon” and Loses: Supreme Court Says Copyright Award of “Full Costs” Limited to Statutorily Enumerated Costs
41. A Big Copyright Mess: Miel Bredouw, Barstool Sports, Slob On My Carol Of The Bells And The DMCA
42. The rise of tech-worker activism
43. Closing the gender gap in the tech industry: Despite efforts from companies and universities, the number of women majoring in computer science is declining. A non-profit is trying to change that by offering coding lessons to girls as early as kindergarten
44. Get ready for a Facebook-sponsored cryptocurrency
45. After buying firm run by HackingTeam vets, Coinbase CEO has some regrets
46. ‘The Washington Post’ Streamed Michael Cohen’s Testimony On Twitch — With Emojis And Memes Aplenty
47. Twitch To Launch ‘Stream Star’ Singing Competition Series With $20,000 Prize
48. Legendary Shutters ‘Alpha’ Streaming Service From Nerdist And Geek & Sundry, Moves Programming To Twitch
49. The TikTok Takeover: How Gen Z’s New Favorite App Is Turning Memes Into Hits
50. TikTok, the Party has Stopped: FTC Levies Record COPPA Fine
51. FTC Issues Largest Fine Ever Under COPPA 
52. FTC Slams TikTok With Record Fine For Spying on Pre-Teens: “This record penalty should be a reminder to all online services and websites that target children.”
53. FTC Issues Record $5.7 Million COPPA Penalty Against Music.ly 
54. Musical.ly’s COPPA Failure Falls Flat at the FTC; Will Pay Note-Worthy Fine 
55. The FTC Probably Doesn’t Need A New ‘Big Tech’ Task Force. It Just Needs To Do Its Job
56. Can a Hashtag Make a False Claim? #Yes
57. The Deep Vault of Millennial Fintech Apps: Savings, investment, and credit card debt services are increasingly marketing to younger users. But they might be useless—or even predatory.
58. The Impossibility Of Content Moderation Extends To The People Tasked With Doing Content Moderation
59. Google pay equity analysis leads to raises for thousands of men
60. What Did Google Actually Find Out About How It Pays Women and Men?
61. Google to ban political ads ahead of federal election, citing new transparency rules
62. Google decision to ban political ads could leave election war rooms struggling to get message to voters
63. The Volvo Polestar 2 is the first Google Android car
64. Amazon to give power to brands to remove fakes from website: Retailer also introduces serial numbers and automatic detection to curb frauds sales
65. Amazon’s latest program to curb emissions? One delivery day per house, per week
66. Amazon to open all-new grocery stores separate from Whole Foods
67. Amazon Becomes Latest Video Platform To Pull Anti-Vaccination Content
68. NZ Study Yet Again Concludes That Piracy Is A Function Of Price And Ease Of Access
69. Insights: Sports Programming Is Digital Media Investors’ Hot New Game
70. Can the media business be saved? A “Spotify for news” is not the answer: Chavern’s organization advocates on behalf of 2,000 print and online media outlets.
71. Insights: Here’s Why Netflix’s ‘Roma’ Near Miss Still Means It Won Oscar Season
72. Steven Spielberg is gunning to make sure Netflix never has another Oscars contender like Roma
73. After Roma swept the Oscars, Steven Spielberg seeks to block streaming films
74. Steven Spielberg Wants To Bar Netflix From The Academy Awards
75. Roma wasn’t built in a day; how Netflix conquered the Oscars 
76. Netflix is testing even more expensive subscription prices 
77. Inside the secretly effective–and underrated–way Netflix keeps its shows and movies at the forefront of pop culture 
78. Netflix Heads to Court: How Fox’s Poaching Trial Could Reshape Hollywood
79. With Big Stars and Paid Subscriptions, Luminary Aims to Be the Netflix of Podcasts
80. Until the Disney-Fox Deal Closes, Networks Find Themselves in Limbo: Upfronts are looming, but post-acquisition plans can’t be put into action yet 
81. How Fox Employees Are Bracing for Life Under Disney
82. Disney Is Reportedly In Active Discussions To Purchase AT&T’s 10% Stake In Hulu
83. Why Is Disney Releasing ‘Avengers,’ ‘Star Wars,’ ‘Frozen’ And ‘Maleficent’ Sequels In The Same Year?
84. AT&T Plans to Revamp CNN’s Digital Arm: Telecom giant sees opportunity to reach larger audience; intends to focus on product development and analytics
85. Medium lowers its paywall for Twitter users
86. Once Again, Sharing Streaming Passwords Is Not ‘Piracy’ Or ‘Freeloading’
87. Elon Musk said he doesn’t respect the SEC—he might come to regret it
88. Thunderbolt 3 becomes USB4, as Intel’s interconnect goes royalty-free
89. Chromium-based Edge screenshots might as well be Chrome
90. Microsoft’s latest security service uses human intelligence, not artificial
91. Microsoft is first major cloud provider to open African data centers
92. Behind the Hype of Apple’s Plan to End Mining
93. ‘The risk paid off’: How Apple prevailed in the U.S.-China trade war – But Apple could face future threats if the latest trade talks fail.
94. Yes, Apple. Siri Is Extremely Terrible
95. Apple no longer refuses to fix iPhones with third-party batteries
96. After the Galaxy Fold, Samsung has two more foldable smartphones coming
97. Y Combinator CEO: AI Will Replace Jobs, But Life Will Be Awesome
98. Are robots competing for your job? Probably, but don’t count yourself out.
99. Your March Horoscope Is Here, And Our AI Astrologer Is Getting Smarter
100. Making artificial intelligence socially just: why the current focus on ethics is not enough
101. Robo ART! – Copyright originality
102. Why vinyl records survive in the digital age
103. Theranos: How a broken patent system sustained its decade-long deception
104. Toughest Work in Technology Transactions: Due Diligence Turnaround
105. Emerging Digital Technology and the “Law of the Horse” (Alicia Solow-Niederman)
106. Blockchain-based Digital Assets and the Case for Revisiting Copyright’s First Sale Doctrine (Phillip Shaverdian)
107. Blockchain Technology and the Government: Dealing With the Threat of Data Manipulation and Increasing Records Longevity (Alexander Fung)
108. Injustice Ex Machina: Predictive Algorithms in Criminal Sentencing (Andrew Lee Park)
109. Destination Unknown: The Perilous Future of Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence Technologies Under the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (Chris Ott)
110. Weirdly interconnected qubits give D-Wave a big jump in performance

CREATIVITY

1. Australia Threatening Over 100 Journalists For Accurately Reporting On Cardinal Pell’s Sex Abuse Trial
2. How to protect journalism in the digital age? The Cairncross Review reports 
3. The Making of the Fox News White House: Fox News has always been partisan. But has it become propaganda?
4. How David Pecker Built His Tabloid Empire AMI on Fear
5. Source: Leaked Documents Show the U.S. Government Tracking Journalists and Immigration Advocates Through a Secret Database – The documents detail an intelligence-gathering effort by the United States and Mexican authorities, targeting more than 50 people
6. Meet J2’s Vivek Shah, the CEO quietly presiding over a $4 billion media business: J2 Global owns a portfolio of media and internet service companies that includes PCMag, Mashable, and Speedtest by Ookla.
7. The Tyranny Of Copyright: How A Once-Humble Legal Issue Has Tormented A Generation Of Speech
8. Big Win For Open Access, As University Of California Cancels All Elsevier Subscriptions, Worth $11 Million A Year
9. Access Copyright v. York U – the Federal Court of Appeal Hearing is March 5 and 6, 2019
10. Big Win For Open Access, As University Of California Cancels All Elsevier Subscriptions, Worth $11 Million A Year
11. Milan court partly sides with Banksy in interim proceedings for trade mark and copyright infringement
12. Judge Refuses To Hand The Government Biker Gang’s Trademark
13. Hollywood Accounting Rears Its Ugly Head Again: Fox’s ‘False Testimony’ And ‘Aversion For The Truth’ Leads To $179M Fine
14. Don’t Celebrate Copyright Being Used For Political Censorship Just Because You Don’t Like The President
15. Producer Scott Rudin Going Around Killing Off Licensed Community Theater Shows Of To Kill A Mockingbird
16. U.S. Supreme Court Decides Two Copyright Cases and Impacts Registration Strategy for Copyright Owners
17. Registrations, not Applications: Supreme Court Says Copyright Owners Must Wait to Sue 
18. Supreme Court’s Strict Construction of Copyright Act Pre-Suit Requirements Likely to Up the Ante on “Preregistration”
19. Supreme Court Defines “Full Costs” with Respect to the Copyright Act
20. Copyright Lawsuits: Harder to Bring, Harder to Collect
21. E.D. Pa. Court Dismisses Case, Finding That Fax Was Not An Advertisement 
22. Captain Marvel Review: Carol Danvers’ debut puts a fresh spin on Marvel’s Phase One origin story formula.
23. It’s Been 20 Years Since “Cruel Intentions,” And There’s Never Been Another Movie Quite Like It
24. There’s Only One Surviving Blockbuster Left on Planet Earth

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. Democrats’ net neutrality bill would fully restore Obama-era FCC rules
2. AT&T Begins Trying To Screw Up HBO In Earnest
3. HBO CEO Richard Plepler, Who Forever Shifted TV Landscape, Abruptly Steps Down
4. HBO boss quits as owner AT&T seeks more shows and more profit
5. “The AT&T Guys, At The End Of The Day, Are Bean Counters”: With Plepler Out Of HBO, Wall Street Scrutinizes The Logic Of AT&T’s Monster Reorg
6. As HBO and Turner bosses quit, AT&T announces big Time Warner reorganization
7. TV’s brand illusion: It’s no longer about the network. And it probably never was.
8. Trump to staff on AT&T/Time Warner merger: “I want that deal blocked!”
9. T-Mobile has spent $195,000 at Trump hotel while lobbying for Sprint merger
10. US Telcos Teeter Toward Bankruptcy As Comcast’s Broadband Monopoly Grows
11. Comcast set mobile pins to “0000,” helping attackers steal phone numbers
12. Class Damages Models After Comcast: Rigorous Proof or Expert’s Promise?
13. Democrats’ Net Neutrality Bill Would Force Ajit Pai to Actually Do His Job
14. The future of cable may be no TV at all, as one small company from Arizona shows
15. Broadcasting and Brexit: 10 Things You Need to Know Today

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. China’s “democracy” includes mandatory apps, mass chat surveillance: Researcher discovers servers in China collecting data on 364 million social media profiles daily.
2. The Democratization of Surveillance
3. Report: The NSA’s Domestic Metadata Collection System Is Not Being Used and May Be Discontinued
4. Telephony Metadata: Is the Contact-Chaining Program Unsalvageable?
5. The NSA Appears To Have Shut Down Its Bulk Collection Of Phone Records
6. House aide: NSA has shut down phone call record surveillance
7. Google temporarily shuts down Android TV photo sharing after privacy bug
8. Post-Charlottesville Doxxing and Misidentification Creates Legal Risks–Vangheluwe v. GotNews
9. Seventh Circuit Ignores Two Supreme Court Decisions To Hand Out Bad Precedent On Cell Site Location Info
10. Two Months Later, News Orgs Are Finally ‘Allowed’ To Report On Top Vatican Official’s Child Molestation Conviction
11. Mozilla Says Australia’s Compelled Access Law Could Turn Staff There Into ‘Insider Threats’
12. Do professionals have the “right to be forgotten”? 
13. Deception & Trust: A Deep Look At Deep Fakes
14. Stupid Patent Of The Month: Veripath Patents Following Privacy Laws
15. Why ‘ji32k7au4a83’ Is a Remarkably Common Password
16. The Digital Revolution Takes on New Meaning: Among Calls for Heightened U.S. Data Privacy Measures, California is King
17. California and European Privacy FAQs: Do all companies have to post their privacy notices online?
18. Congress Holds Hearings on Privacy and Data Protection 
19. Chicago Tried To Justify Not Informing ACLU Of Social Media Monitoring Partner By Saying ACLU Is Really Mean
20. The Importance of Privacy by Design in Mobile Apps (Debunking the Aphorism that any Publicity is Good Publicity) 
21. Company’s Facebook Snooping Didn’t Prevent Critical Trade Secrets Injunction 

Jon

GAMES

1. THQ Nordic inexplicably hosts AMA in a notorious internet cesspool
2. Three hours after allying with 8chan, THQ Nordic goes into full apology mode
3. FTC to begin loot box investigation with public workshop
4. FTC to hold a public workshop on loot box concerns this year: It will bring industry groups and advocates together
5. FTC plans to examine loot boxes with public workshop later this year
6. ZeniMax hit with trademark dispute over its application for ‘Redfall’
7. The duo behind the Running Man challenge are suing Epic over a Fortnite dance
8. Epic Games accused of exploiting African American talent in latest dance move lawsuit: Jared Nickens and Jaylen Brantley file for $20 million in damages over Running Man emote, despite questionable ownership of dance 
9. Epic pulls YouTube ads after predatory videos discovered: Fortnite pre-roll ads removed as YouTube continues to struggle with recommendation algorithm
10. Fortnite’s Marshmello concert beats game’s concurrent player record: 10.6 million players showed up to event, breaking past record by around 2.5 million
11. Fortnite Players Sue for Alleged Exposure of Payment Information for Vbucks 
12. PUBG’s dev team has turned to machine learning to fight off cheaters
13. EA and Activision Blizzard CEOs featured in ‘The 100 Most Overpaid CEOs’ report
14. Activision’s Bobby Kotick and EA’s Andrew Wilson among most overpaid CEOs in US: Latest study shows the two chief execs earn more than 300 times the average wage of their employees
15. ESA’s acting CEO stays neutral on unionization, opposes ‘gaming disorder’
16. A New Player Joins the Battle – The AFL-CIO Throws Its Support Behind Game Development Employees And Urges Them To Form A Union 
17. Devs pull Devotion from Steam following review bombing spree
18. Taiwanese developer under fire for mocking Chinese president: Red Candle Games’ Devotion removed from Steam for QA check after in-game art calls Xi Jinping “Winnie the Pooh moron”
19. Starbreeze applies for extended reconstruction period as it looks to regroup  
20. Starbreeze applies for extension on reconstruction period: Troubled publisher wants until June to “focus on its core business of internal game development and publishing” 
21. Report: Amazon, Comcast, and EA now among potential Nexon buyers  
22. EA, Amazon, Comcast reportedly bidding for Nexon: Companies join Netmarble, Kakao in pursuing founder’s controlling stake
23. Report: EA makes layoffs at Australian mobile studio FireMonkeys  
24. Massive layoffs at EA’s Australian studio: FireMonkeys will refocus on live services as up to 50 staff prepare for redundancy
25. Anthem: Critical Consensus – Exhilarating flight and stylish combat dazzle the critics, but they can’t hide a lack of substance in BioWare’s latest title 
26. Wave of layoffs expected at Guild Wars 2 dev ArenaNet 
27. ArenaNet bracing for layoffs: Owner NCSoft CEO says current situation not sustainable, plans for cuts across the board and merging of publishing divisions
28. Overkill’s The Walking Dead postponed, not cancelled on console: 505 Games confirms this is the same delay announced last month, despite confusion over PS4 pre-order refunds
29. Capcom COO calls out the growing value of PC as a platform
30. The Future of Gaming Is Subscription 
31. Psychonauts and surviving the publisher shuffle: Tim Schafer says the studio’s experiences with partners aren’t that unusual, addresses struggles of Psychonauts 2 publisher Starbreeze 
32. Superdata: Digital revenue down in January as major console franchises underperform – Premium PC games see largest decline, leaving Fortnite near the top on both console and PC
33. Rising development costs forced Square Enix to find its soul | Opinion: When Final Fantasy was no longer enough, the venerable publisher dug deeper
34. Brexit has fostered a culture of fear among British game devs  
35. No Deal Brexit will mean “dark, dystopian UK” | Opinion: Andy Payne discusses the potential impact of a No Deal Brexit on the UK games industry
36. Twitch’s fight against EU copyright laws continues with MEPs playing Mario Kart: Two members of the European Parliament will discuss how to combat the divisive Article 13 on Twitch’s official channel
37. Nintendo of America head Reggie Fils-Aime retires, Bowser taking over
38. How Reggie Fils-Aime Became A Nintendo Legend
39. Nintendo Announces Pokémon Sword And ShieldFor Switch
40. Pokémon Sword and Shield will hit Switch in “late 2019”
41. $100K Mario seller: “It’s probably the wrong move, long term, to sell” 
42. Mattel’s video game division eyes original IP: The joint venture between Mattel and NetEase plots three to four new games a year 
43. Report: Microsoft plans to announce two next-gen Xbox consoles at E3  
44. Microsoft to reveal new Xbox hardware at E3 2019 – Report: Code-named Lockhart and Anaconda to be shown, but not available until fall of 2020
45. Microsoft takes a big step towards putting Xbox games on Windows
46. Report: Xbox Game Pass headed to the Nintendo Switch
47. Game Pass, Xbox-exclusive games reportedly heading to Switch: Ori and the Blind Forest, others may be streamable to Nintendo’s console sometime this year
48. Why putting Xbox games on Switch isn’t as ridiculous as it might sound
49. Crackdown 3 shows a vision of the future | Opinion: The new Xbox title points toward the radical changes that Game Pass will bring to the industry’s commercial and cultural landscape
50. Fallout: Wasteland Warfare: A “rad” miniatures game full of Nuka-Cola flavor
51. Halo Infinite now linked to next Xbox’s launch, rumor suggests RPG elements
52. Report: Microsoft plans to announce two next-gen Xbox consoles at E3
53. Microsoft puts mixed reality, high-speed 3D rendering, and Kinect vision into cloud
54. Microsoft unveils HoloLens 2, promises greater mixed reality immersion
55. Microsoft unveils HoloLens 2: twice the field of view, eye tracking
56. Microsoft adds eye-tracking, doubles field of view for HoloLens 2: Will launch later this year for $3,500, Unreal Engine support on the way
57. Microsoft Significantly Misrepresented HoloLens 2’s Field of View at Reveal
58. Employees demand Microsoft cancels $479m HoloLens military contract: Engineers on the project believed it would “push the boundaries of gaming”, not “turn warfare into a simulated video game
59. Razer lays off 30 from shut down projects: Organization’s “realignment” plans result in cut of 2% of workforce
60. GOG lays off a dozen employees over reported financial strain
61. Funcom enters partnership with Legendary to create Dune games
62. Skybound cuts ties with Overkill’s The Walking Dead devs mid-release  
63. GOG lays off “around a dozen,” reportedly due to financial trouble: Estimated 10% of total staff may have been affected due to revenue share competition from other storefronts
64. GOG drops Fair Price Package program, blames rising dev revenue shares
65. Ebba Ljungerud’s grand strategy: A chat with Paradox’s CEO
66. THQ Nordic issues new shares to raise $225 million for future acquisitions
67. THQ Nordic raises $225m for further acquisitions: “Substantially oversubscribed” share issue brings on a range of new investors for growing publisher
68. Media Molecule to launch Dreams in paid Early Access this spring: Long-awaited game is among the first to introduce Early Access concept to PlayStation 4
69. NetEase maintains revenue growth despite Chinese approvals freeze: Online games revenue was up 11% in 2018, with ten new games still waiting for approval in China
70. Tencent and NetEase’s combined non-China mobile revenues leap 505% to $472m: IHS Markit says Chinese publishers’s efforts overseas helped weather game freeze, let by NetEase’s battle royale Knives Out
71. Tencent partners with Intel on its streaming service, Instant Play
72. Snail Games launches indie publishing label: Chinese outfit establishes Wandering Wizard to bring Western indie titles to the market, starting with Virtual Basement’s Outlaws of the Old West
73. Paratopic haunts the walking sim with verbs and violence
74. Blog: Why 2018 was a landmark year for accessibility  
75. Kabam founder forms blockchain gaming startup Forte: Kevin Chou hopes to encourage adoption of blockchain in the gaming industry by building, supporting new projects 
76. Embark Studios grows to over 50 people, working on first title: Patrick Söderlund’s new studio larger than anticipated as it starts work on co-op, free-to-play action game
77. Technical deep dive: The wild and windy aerodynamics ofJust Cause 4
78. FIFA announces eNations Cup tournament: Latest series is one of three officially hosted by the football association in partnership with EA Sports
79. Overwatch League Boston Uprising, New England Patriots owner charged with soliciting prostitution: Robert Kraft, 24 others charged after eight-month-long investigation in southern Florida
80. “China is saying is that esports is cool, and more healthy than gaming itself”: What role can “offline” esports events like summer camps play in repairing the industry’s relationship with the Chinese government?
81. Female viewership of esports increasing: Interpret finds girls and women account for 30% of esports watchers, up more than 6% in just two years
82. Hi-Rez Studios: Turning battle royale into an entertaining esport – Esports BAR Cannes speaker Alex Grimonpont explains why “we still haven’t seen a significant success” from battle royale in terms entertaining spectators
83. Use of excerpts of videogames and eSports competitions without the right holder’s consent: is it fair use (or the Princess is in another castle)? 
84. HTC is launching the Vive Focus Plus this year, complete with 6DoF controllers
85. US Future staff to unionize with Writers Guild of America: PC Gamer, GamesRadar, others join growing industry push for unionization
86. U.S. Patent No. 9,138,648: System and method for dynamically loading game software for smooth game play 
87. U.S. Patent No. 9,266,022: System to pause a game console whenever an object enters an exclusion zone 
88. U.S. Patent No. 8,882,594: Control scheme for real time strategy game 
89. 5 Ways Black Panther’s Success Could Inspire Video Games
90. How Black Women Made The Sims 4 Their Own
91. 5 Awesome Black Video Game Characters: In honor of Black History Month, we celebrate some of the best black characters in video games.
92. Jerry Lawson: The Black Man Who Revolutionized Gaming As We Know It – Meet Gerald “Jerry” Lawson, the man who pioneered the video game cartridge.
93. Games Developed By Black Developers You Should Look Out For: In celebration of Black History Month, here are some indie games that should be on your radar. 
94. No Doubt v. Activision Publishing, Inc. 
95. Resident Evil 2 Remake: The Tofu Survivor Challenge- Hot Keys
96. Resident Evil 2 remake ships 4 million copies in first month
97. The Interactivity of Reading
98. Amy Hennig calls single-player games ‘just a harder and harder proposition’
99. Opinion: Civilization VI’s (Green) New Deal
100. Blog: A student game postmortem (or how not to make a game)

DIGITAL

1. Digital rights are *all* human rights, not just civil and political: The UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights consults with the field
2. Report: US Cyber Command took Russian trolls offline during midterms
3. Does Twitter Have An Anti-Conservative Bias, Or Just An Anti-Nazi Bias?
4. Latest Garbage Twitter/Terrorism Lawsuit Is The Stupidest Twitter/Terrorism Lawsuit
5. Twitter co-founder Ev Williams has stepped down from the $24 billion company’s board
6. Facebook Reportedly Let Marketers Advertise to Nazis: Advertisers can pay to make sure their messages reach neo-Nazis.
7. Facebook decided which users are interested in Nazis – and let advertisers target them directly
8. These Apps Reportedly Shared Sensitive Personal Information With Facebook
9. Facebook Ups Surveillance Of Users To Keep Tabs On People Who Don’t Like Facebook
10. Facebook VPN that snoops on users is pulled from Android store
11. Facebook pulls the plug on its data snooping Onavo VPN service: Its research programs will also gain more clarity
12. The Trauma Floor: The secret lives of Facebook moderators in America
13. Facebook’s promised Clear History privacy tool to launch later this year following delay
14. Facebook Orders Animated Comedy Series Starring Anna Kendrick and Zac Efron, Sets ‘Real World’ Reboot Fan Voting
15. Beware The Rise Of Censorship Under The Guise Of Stopping Fake News: UK Regulators Push For Dangerous Plan
16. Open Letter From New York State Budget Director Robert Mujica Regarding Amazon
17. How a coat on Amazon took over a neighborhood – and then the internet: A case study of a trend that maybe wasn’t one.
18. Amazon Is Now Ditching on Seattle Plans, Too
19. When Kids Realize Their Whole Life Is Already Online
20. YouTube loses advertisers over “wormhole into pedophilia ring”
21. After Child Video Scandal, YouTube Says Ad-Friendly Videos Can Be Demonetized For Inappropriate Comments
22. YouTube And Demonetization: The Hammer And Nail Of Content Moderation
23. YouTube recommendations for ‘alt-right’ videos have dropped dramatically, study shows: But YouTube denies demoting content based on “specific political perspectives”.
24. When the Alt-right Loves Your App
25. Suicide instructions spliced into kids’ cartoons on YouTube and YouTube Kids
26. YouTube Demonetizes Anti-Vaccination Channels Following Advertiser Outcry
27. YouTube Music Launches New Mini-Series Format, Beginning With Billie Eilish
28. Michelle Obama Joins YouTube’s Book Panel Discussion Special
29. T-Series Surpassed PewDiePie For 10 Minutes Following Routine YouTube Audit
30. “Despacito” Becomes First Video In YouTube History To Pass 6 Billion Views
31. Legal Update: Influencing The Influencers
32. Lilly Singh Comes Out As Bisexual, Urging Fans To Embrace Their Differences As “Superpowers”
33. Crunchyroll, Portal A To Shine Light On Diverse Anime Fandom In New Docuseries
34. Amid 1 Billion Downloads, TikTok Launches Video Series To Protect Its Young Users
35. Police: Uber Data Helped Prove Jussie Smollett Faked Hate Crime
36. Apple closes two Dallas stores in apparent bid to ward off patent trolls
37. Apple Shutting Down Stores In East Texas To Avoid Patent Trolling Cases In The Troll’s Favorite Docket
38. Report: Apple is working on a new SDK for painless porting from iOS to Mac
39. Apple Car: Apple’s vehicle project, focused on building an autonomous driving system.
40. How Apple and app developers will try to entice you to subscribe, not just pay once
41. Investigating the Higbee & Associates Copyright Trolling Operation
42. One Person’s Unsettling Experience With A $20k Higbee Copyright Troll Demand Letter
43. Teen Musician Turns Down $3 Million Record Deal: No Need For A Label Thanks To The Internet
44. European governments approve controversial new copyright law
45. European Journalists Point Out That Article 11 Will Enrich Publishers At The Expense Of Journalists 
46. New EU Directive threatens the Internet as we know it (Andres Guadamuz)
47. Europe Against the Net
48. Who Needs Article 13: Italian Court Finds Facebook Liable For Hosting Links
49. Japanese Academics Issue The Tamest ‘Emergency’ Statement Over Proposed Copyright Amendment
50. Inside the Rise and Fall of a Multimillion-Dollar Airbnb Scheme: Multiple misleading identities, more than 100 host accounts and 18 corporations were created to run an illegal hotel business in Manhattan, according to a lawsuit filed by the city. 
51. After Child Video Scandal, YouTube Says Ad-Friendly Videos Can Be Demonetized For Inappropriate Comments
52. YouTube’s Commenter Controversy Is Putting Creators in a Tricky Position
53. Major Companies Are Pulling Ads From YouTube Over Pedophile Concerns
54. One Month After Returning To YouTube, AT&T Once Again Yanks Ad Spending Following Discovery Of Pedophilic Comments
55. Disney reportedly in talks to buy AT&T’s stake in Hulu
56. Disney Pulls YouTube Ads Amid Child Video Scandal, As Platform Disables Comments On Tens Of Millions Of Videos
57. Anti-Vaccination Videos May Be YouTube’s Latest Front In Battle Against Conspiracies
58. YouTube Says No Ads on Anti-Vaccine Videos
59. Influencing the Influencer – how to be #CMAcompliant
60. Who Won The PewDiePie And T-Series YouTube Subscriber Battle? The Two Canadian Teens Behind FlareTV.
61. Jimmy Fallon Becomes First Late-Night Host To Hit 20 Million YouTube Subscribers
62. Netflix Is the Most Intoxicating Portal to Planet Earth: Instead of trying to sell American ideas to a foreign audience, it’s aiming to sell international ideas to a global audience.
63. Netflix Spent As Much As $60 Million Trying (And Failing) To Win ‘Roma’ The Best Picture Oscar
64. Netflix and the Economics of Bundling 
65. ‘Bon Appétit’ Launches Free OTT Channel With Slate Of 3 New Series 
66. Older Adults Are Especially Prone to Social Media Bubbles  
67. Insights: Doing A Better Job Counting What Counts In Social Media 
68. Surprise: Uganda’s New Social Media Tax Seems To Have Led To Fewer People Using The Internet, And Total Value Of Mobile Transactions To Drop 
69. Be Careful What You Wish For: Demanding Platforms Delete Disinformation May Make It Harder To Understand What Happened
70. Court Refuses To Allow Defendant In Copyright Trolling Case To Proceed, But Hints At Reform
71. DoorDash Is a Bunch of Snakes
72. Beyond HoloLens: Microsoft expands its augmented-reality vision with iOS, Android apps 
73. Hands-on: HoloLens 2 is a More Than Just a Larger Field of View 
74. Microsoft Significantly Misrepresented HoloLens 2’s Field of View at Reveal
75. Employees urge Microsoft to pull HoloLens military contract
76. Microsoft CEO defends ‘principled and democratic’ HoloLens military contract
77. Nadella: Microsoft will sell war tech to democracies to “protect freedoms”
78. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella defends HoloLens military contract: “We’re not going to withhold technology from institutions that we have elected in democracies to protect the freedoms we enjoy”
79. Why IBM’s “Dear Tech” Ad Is So Enraging
80. A New AI Draws Cats, and They’re Utterly Grotesque: No cats were harmed in the making of this creepy website.
81. AI Writes Article About AI: Does The Newspaper Hold The Copyright?
82. An NYU professor explains why it’s so dangerous that Silicon Valley is building AI to make decisions without human values 
83. Humanity + AI: Better Together
84. When Algorithms Think You Want To Die
85. Twenty minutes into the future with OpenAI’s Deep Fake Text AI 
86. How Google, Microsoft, and Big Tech Are Automating the Climate Crisis
87. Google ends forced arbitration for all employees
88. Google Fesses Up To Hidden Microphone In Nest Home Security Platform
89. Samsung Galaxy S10, S10+, and S10e hands-on: Samsung is slowly getting better
90. Guidemaster: The least-awful Android phones
91. Oppo’s foldable smartphone is another futuristic wraparound display device
92. LG’s V50 answers the foldable phone craze with a detachable second screen
93. Forget Face ID, the LG G8 comes with palm-reading “Hand ID” biometrics
94. USB 3.2 is going to make the current USB branding even worse: People already get the names wrong, so the USB group has doubled down on bad naming.
95. Nike’s self-lacing sneakers turn into bricks after faulty firmware update
96. Blockchain based smart contracts equal to written documents in Italy 
97. Surge In Cryptocurrency Exchange Hacking Activity 
98. Perhaps the QuadragaCX Story Will Have a Happy Ending
99. Upcoming Tech IPOs Will Mint Hundreds of Overnight Millionaires and Silicon Valley Vultures Are Licking Their Chops
100. Why Big Cap Tech is So Big
101. New FTC task force will take on tech monopolies: And they’re going to look at previous mergers
102. The FTC Probably Doesn’t Need A New ‘Big Tech’ Task Force. It Just Needs To Do Its Job
103. FTC’s first case over fake paid Amazon reviews targets dodgy diet pills
104. FTC Brings First Case Challenging Fake Paid Reviews on an Independent Retail Website 
105. FTC Announces Settlement Involving Fake Amazon Reviews 
106. For the First Time, FTC Fines Company for Fake Amazon Reviews: “When a company buys fake reviews to inflate its Amazon ratings, it hurts both shoppers and companies that play by the rules.”
107. String of ions may out-compute best quantum computers 
108. Ariana Grande Becomes Most-Followed Female Creator On Instagram
109. Canada’s Internet Music Success Story: SOCAN’s Canadian Internet Streaming Revenues Surpass Radio Royalties (Michael Geist)
110. Here’s why we’re entering the Golden Age of Podcasts, in 10 graphs
111. Why Musicians Are Starting Their Own Podcasts  – and Why the Podcast Industry Should Pay Attention: In sidestepping media middlemen, artists are creating their own DIY music-media economy
112. Spotify launches in India amidst legal battle with Warner
113. Why Did Music Visualizers Disappear?
114. Providing Software Source Code Key to Powering Future Software Development (UNESCO)
115. Back to the Stratosphere: How the Rarest Music in the World Comes Back – Duster was a small, largely forgotten band from the late ’90s. Then their legend began to grow on sites like Discogs. Now, they’re the subject of a major reissue.
116. Unmasking the internet’s favourite novelist: Todd Noy was said to be a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and a towering figure in the online fan-fiction community. His books were delivered around the world. But he may have never existed.
117. Kickstarter to Remove That Rat From the End of The Departed Whacked By DMCA Takedown
118. 2H 2018 Quick Links, Part 7: Content Moderation, Section 230, & More (Eric Goldman) 
119. Top Internet Law Developments of 2018 (Eric Goldman)

CREATIVITY

1. China Extends Its Censorship To Australian Books, Written By Australian Authors For Australian Readers
2. Clarence Thomas Has a Point About Free-Speech Law: The constitutional foundations of New York Times v. Sullivan are not looking all that firm.
3. Catholic School Teen’s Lawyers File $250M Defamation Suit Against The Washington Post; Fail To List Any Actual Defamation
4. Be warned – you can be held liable for the defamatory comments of another! 
5. ASA publishes new guidance to protect children from irresponsible gambling ads
6. Wherein The Copia Institute, Engine, And Reddit Tell The DC Circuit That FOSTA Is Unconstitutional
7. No Apologies: Nirvana v. Marc Jacobs
8. The company that commissioned “Fearless Girl” is suing its creator.
9. Ad Standards Announces New Dispute Procedure
10. EU, Chile, Singapore and Spain IP offices named most innovative in the world

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. Enough is Enough: Bains Proposes CRTC Policy Direction Grounded in Competition, Affordability, and Consumer Interests (Michael Geist)
2. Proposed Order Issuing a Direction to the CRTC on Implementing the Canadian Telecommunications Policy Objectives to Promote Competition, Affordability, Consumer Interests and Innovation
3. The CRTC Opens a Penske File: Chair Ian Scott Commits to Little Action Despite Finding Misleading Telecom Sales Tactics (Michael Geist)
4. A CRTC More Interested in Protecting Incumbent Companies Than Consumers: My Appearance on the Broadcast Dialogue Podcast (Michael Geist)
5. Appeals court rejects government bid to reverse AT&T/Time Warner deal
6. Judge Ruling In AT&T Merger Again Highlights Broken Antitrust Enforcement, Court Myopia
7. AT&T Throwing FundRaiser For Senate Chair Ahead Of Privacy Hearings
8. FCC Uses Cherry-Picked Stats To Justify Giving Consumers A Giant Middle Finger
9. Super Bowl Commercial for “Us” Generates FCC Complaints
10. Frontier demands $4,300 cancellation fee despite horribly slow Internet
11. Trump Administration’s ‘National Broadband Plan’ Comically Refuses To Acknowledge A Lack Of Competition
12. Trump Calls For “6G,” Which Doesn’t Exist: Let’s focus on actually setting up 5G first.
13. Trump demands quick rollout of “6G” wireless tech, which doesn’t exist
14. Is 5G Being Weaponized?
15. 5G Is Going to Be an Incredibly Tough Sell in 2019
16. HTC Did the Unthinkable and Made a Hotspot That’s Cool
17. There’s No End in Sight to Our Robocall Hell
18. Industry Claims That Cord Cutting Would Be A Fad Aren’t Looking So Hot 
19. Investigators, Reporters Close In On The Origins Of Those Fake Net Neutrality Comments
20. Verizon says phone-sale fraud is up, wants to lock new phones to fight it
21. Windstream, ISP with 1 million customers, files for bankruptcy

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. ICO prosecutes Cambridge Analytica parent company
2. 9 Years After: From Operation Aurora to Zero Trust –  How the first documented nation-state cyberattack is changing security today.
3. Piracy v. Privacy – The Federal Court Significantly Restores the Balance in Canadian Mass Copyright Litigation by Insisting on “Best Available Evidence”
4. Consent: Is It Meaningful?
5. Yahoo! Data Breach Settlement Increases Risk for Companies’ Directors and Officers
6. Plain wrong: Millions of utility customers’ passwords stored in plain text – “It’s ridiculous vendors are replying to researchers via general counsel, not bug bounty.”
7. Court Says DOJ’s Attempt To Force Facebook To Break Encryption Can Remain Under Seal
8. Amazon Echo and Google Home should be able to snitch on owners, says professor: Marija Slavkovik at the University of Bergen, Norway wonders whether your digital assistant needs a moral, ethical dimension. But of course.
9. EU Law Enforcement Preps To Start Sharing Sensitive Data With A Number Of Human Rights Abusers
10. 8 GDPR compliance tips explained by Queen songs
11. How criminals are using the low-interest credit card scam to steal your identity
12. Many websites threatened by highly critical code-execution bug in Drupal
13. Google: Software is never going to be able to fix Spectre-type bugs
14. Love (or hate) Data?
15. Five UK Privacy and Data Protection Predictions for 2019

Jon

GAMES

1. Oxford study finds no link between violent video games and teen aggression
2. No link between violent video games and increased aggression in teens, study finds: Oxford University describes study as “one of the most definitive to date”
3. Violent video game engagement is not associated with adolescents’ aggressive behaviour: evidence from a registered report (Andrew Przybylski & Netta Weinstein)
4. Niantic poised to settle Pokémon Go trespassing complaints
5. Pokémon GO Lawsuit Settlement Might Lead To Some Pokéstops And Gyms Being Removed
6. The mythos and meaning behind Pokémon’s most famous glitch 
7. Epic Games pulls Fortnite YouTube ads over child predator concerns  
8. Organizers of unsanctioned Fortnite festival facing lawsuit from Epic Games
9. Epic Games files legal claim against Fortnite Live event organizers: Organizer Exciting Events forced to stop trading to limit losses
10. Fortnite dance off: Fresh Prince star refused copyright on ‘Carlton Dance’ 
11. One Of The People Suing Fortnite Over ‘Stolen’ Dance Steps Gets His Dance Rejected By The US Copyright Office
12. Alfonso Ribeiro denied copyright to Carlton dance, damaging Fortnite lawsuit: US Copyright Office says routine is too simple to be protected by law
13. ‘Fortnite’ Publisher Pauses YouTube Ads After They Ran On Videos Where Commenters Fetishized Children
14. Respawn has already banned over 16,000 cheaters fromApex Legends
15. Ninja Wins Twitch’s First ‘Apex Legends’ Tournament By One Point 
16. Apex Legends already beat Fortnite’s single-day viewership record on Twitch
17. Apex Legends beats Fortnite record for single-day Twitch viewing: Respawn’s Twitch Rivals event racked up 8.4 million hours viewed, streaming platform’s fourth highest in five years
18. ‘Fortnite’s’ Massively Attended Virtual Concert is a Potent Glimpse of VR’s Future
19. Wrestler Booker T Sues Activision For Copyright Infringement Over Fairly Generic Character Depiction
20. US labor organization AFL-CIO urges game developers to unionize in open letter
21. How did Yoshi’s Island music end up in an official US gov’t Web game?
22. Revenue and profit up as Paradox experiences best year to date
23. Paradox Interactive breaks new ground for modding on consoles: Independent Paradox Mods platform will provide a direct channel to console audiences “without pre-moderation”
24. Paradox and Microsoft have created an open modding platform for Paradox titles
25. Microsoft, Paradox allow open game modding on Xbox One for the first time
26. Devs accuse Sony of “playing favorites” with PS4’s cross-platform support 
27. Stubbornness over cross-play reminds us of bad old Sony | Opinion
28. Sony: We Are Totally Open For Crossplay, Game Developers: No, You Totally Are Not
29. Sony is readying to shut down PlayStation Vita production in Japan
30. PS4-exclusive Dreams is launching into early access this spring  
31. Employees at Blizzard’s France location unsure if their jobs are safe
32. 134 jobs in danger at Blizzard’s French office
33. Rewarding profit and nothing else | Opinion : Activision Blizzard’s mass layoffs amid record profits fits the company’s disregard for optics, but it may be self-defeating in the long run
34. Nitro Games begins layoff talks, could cut workforce in half
35. Mobile dev Next Games lays off 26 staff  
36. Q&A: Non-profit Take This addresses mental health challenges among gaming community and creators 
37. Ubisoft holds steady in Q3 despite competitive holiday 
38. Ubisoft isn’t worried about an influx of new games stealingRainbow Six Siege’s thunder
39. Why Ubisoft moved The Division 2 to the Epic Games store: CEO Yves Guillemot praises Epic’s terms, but says move was to “increase player exposure to our own store”
40. Shadow of the Tomb Raider ships 4.12 million: Lara Croft’s latest adventure “got off to a weak start” for Square Enix alongside Just Cause 4 
41. Square Enix consolidating its business divisions: Company plans to reorganize from 11 to four units, won’t involve workforce reduction
42. Overkill’s The Walking Dead earned $3.7m from sales in Q4: Starbreeze full-year financial report underlines commercial performance of key title
43. Report: China freezes new game approvals as regulators tackle backlog  
44. Chinese government halts new game approvals to work through backlog: State Administration of Press and Publications to clear backlog before approving new submissions
45. Tencent introduces streaming rules to stay on the up-and-up with Chinese law
46. Report: Tencent wants to distribute Apex Legends in China 
47. Tencent in talks to bring Apex Legends to China – Report 
48. Tencent joins Netmarble consortium in Nexon bid
49. Report: Netmarble and Tencent could buy Nexon as part of consortium  
50. Kingdom Hearts III, Resident Evil 2 can’t stop January US sales dip: NPD Group finds gaming revenues down 19% year-over-year to $893 million; growth of Switch sales offset by declines in all other platforms 
51. Revenue down by 5.4% at Rovio, but games segment holds firm
52. Com2uS acquires majority stake in visual novel developer Day 7  
53. That’s a wrap: Valve is axing Steam’s video section
54. Valve retires non-gaming content from video on-demand service: Blockbuster movies fail to find traction on Steam
55. Razer Game Store shutting down after 10 months
56. Live support for Heroes of Newerth scaled back to essentials only: Former League of Legends rival to receive one last major update after ten years of live service 
57. eSports: a new frontier for the advertising law and image rights? 
58. EA opts Origin users out of “real-name sharing” after complaints
59. Don’t Miss: Common problems when translating games into Japanese
60. Anthem review: BioWare’s sky-high gaming ambition crashes back to Earth
61. ‘Human Eye Resolution’ VR Is a Treat If You Know Where to Look
62. Retina resolution headset puts the “reality” into “virtual reality”
63. After Machinima Shutdown, Rooster Teeth Revives ‘Inside Gaming’ and Rescues Other Machinima Shows 
64. Nintendo’s greatest strength this generation is self-acceptance | Opinion: The platform holder has returned to its roots, and it is stronger and more well-rounded as a result
65. Dealmaster: As Switch sales slow, Nintendo launches a new bundle
66. Porn Star Comes To The Nintendo Switch 
67. Report: Early adopters of the Nintendo Switch weren’t in target demographic
68. Tetris 99 isn’t just a great twist on a classic—it’s a gameplay revolution
69. Breaking down categories of action in strategy games
70. Insights: How Marshmello, MassMutual and Microsoft Are Remaking Content Marketing
71. BOY, God of War won big at the DICE Awards
72. God of War sweeps 2019 DICE Awards: Meanwhile, Halo boss Bonnie Ross welcomed into Hall of Fame and Celeste wins two categories
73. Getting to the heart of art in the delightfully strange Art Sqool
74. Enjoy a ’93 video tour of id Software while Doom was being made
75. Blog: What is a meta-game?  
76. Blog: Examining the issues with battle royale game design

DIGITAL

1.  The U.S. is About to Hit Facebook With a Multi-Billion Dollar Fine: It could be the largest tech fine in history.
2. Facebook may face multi-billion dollar fine for Cambridge Analytica scandal
3. Facebook is a law-breaking “digital gangster,” UK government report says
4. It’s time for a “radical shift in the balance of power between the platforms and the people,” the British parliament says: Facebook acts like “digital gangsters,” “Mark Zuckerberg has shown contempt” toward governments
5. Facebook, Google, CDC under pressure to stop anti-vax garbage from spreading
6. Behold, the Facebook phishing scam that could dupe even vigilant users 
7. Leaked Zuckerberg Email Reveals Facebook’s XR Strategy, ‘Our goal is not only to win, but to accelerate its arrival’ 
8. The Hatebook: Inside Facebook’s thriving subculture of racism
9. Facebook Blames Users for Its Latest Privacy Scandal as Lawmakers Ask to Chat
10. Roger McNamee: ‘It’s bigger than Facebook. This is a problem with the entire industry’
11. Zuckerberg defends big tech, says Facebook should remain free 
12. Mark Zuckerberg is ‘potentially interested’ in putting Facebook login on the blockchain: ‘There’s a lot of things I think would be quite attractive about that’
13. Zuckerberg, forgetting about Facebook’s Portal: ‘We definitely don’t want a society where there’s a camera in everyone’s living room’ 
14. ‘They have no clue about network security’: China data leak exposes mass surveillance across Muslim Xinjiang
15. When surveillance meets incompetence: Evil, and poorly done at that
16. A Court Just Sent a Man to Prison For 3D Printing a Gun
17. Someone Impersonated New Jersey’s Attorney General To Demand Cloudflare Takedown 3d Printed Gun Instructions
18. Florida inmate says prison sold him $569 of music, then took it away
19. Hollywood tries to cripple several alleged pirate TV services in one lawsuit
20. Study Reinforces How Much The Internet Has Enabled Content Creators To Make Money
21. Sony Using Copyright To Take Down Its Own Anti-Piracy Propaganda
22. HuffPost Fires Social Media Editor For Being Incredibly Racist On Social Media
23. Disinformation and ‘fake news’: Final Report published
24. This Site Uses Deep Learning to Generate Fake Airbnb Listings: The future of the internet is lots and lots of fake stuff.
25. Twitter CEO Says Users Could Get a Feature to ‘Clarify’ Their Bad Tweets
26. Another Politician Probably Violated the First Amendment By Blocking a Constituent on Twitter–Campbell v. Reisch (Eric Goldman) 
27. Indian Lawmakers Considering TikTok Ban, Calling App “Inimical To Law And Order”
28. European Parliament Approves Controversial “Meme Ban”
29. The EU’s Digital Copyright Directive – where are we now? 
30. EU Moves Forward With Agreement To Fundamentally Change The Internet From Open To Closed
31. The Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive: text agreed in trialogue discussions
32. EU Commission Decides To Mock The Public; Insists Fears About EU Copyright Directive Are All Myths 
33. As EU Politicians Insist That It’s All Just ‘Bots’ And ‘Astroturf’ Tons Of People Showing Up In Real Life To Protest
34. Beijing’s denial of Huawei control bucks expert analysis
35. Can Russia Actually ‘Unplug’ From The Internet? 
36. Nestle and others have suspended YouTube ads over news of a pedophile network on the site
37. Disney Reportedly Pulls YouTube Ads Over Child-Exploitation Controversy
38. Disney reportedly pulls ads from YouTube following child exploitation controversy: Following Nestlé and Epic Games
39. The YouTube Pedophile Commenting Scandal, Explained: The predator problem has been public knowledge since at least 2017. But the online video giant has been done nothing meaningfully to fix it.
40. How YouTube reactionaries are breaking the news media 
41. Texas Study Finds Majority Of ‘Flat Earthers’ Are Indoctrinated On YouTube
42. Study blames YouTube for rise in number of Flat Earthers: Conspiracy theories shown on video-sharing site persuade people to doubt Earth is round 
43. YouTube revamps community guidelines strike system: In an effort to make policies clearer and consistent
44. YouTube Is Changing Its Community Guidelines Strike System For The First Time In A Decade
45. How Kids YouTube Star Blippi Used Copyright Law to Hide His Harlem Shake Poop Video: Someone claiming to represent Blippi filed DMCA copyright takedown requests to Google in order to get an embarrassing viral video hidden.
46. German Politician Thinks Gmail Constituent Messages Are All Faked By Google
47. Jimmy Fallon Becomes First Late-Night Host To Hit 20 Million YouTube Subscribers
48. Vox lawyers briefly censored YouTubers who mocked The Verge’s bad PC build advice
49. Users alarmed by undisclosed microphone in Nest Security System
50. Google Says Unlisted, Built-In Microphone on Nest Devices Wasn’t Supposed to Be ‘Secret’
51. Google’s Waymo risks repeating Silicon Valley’s most famous blunder
52. Google partially backtracks on Chrome changes that would break ad blockers
53. Google Play apps with >10 million installs drain batteries, jack up data charges
54. YouTuber Matt Watson Uncovers “Wormhole” Of Fetishizing Comments On Videos Of Young Children
55. Fitness Influencer ‘Scammer’ Brittany Dawn Is “Getting This Business In Order,” Though Some Fans Are Unconvinced
56. 7-Year-Old YouTube Megastar Ryan ToysReview Is Getting His Own Nickelodeon Series
57. Victoria Beckham Launching YouTube Fashion Channel
58. Matthew Patrick Slams Defy Media’s Bank For Comparing Itself To YouTubers Who Lost Money 
59. The latest Instagram influencer frontier? Medical promotions.: Big pharma is partnering with influencers to sell new drugs and medical devices.
60. The Latest In Trademark Abuse Is Registering Marks To Obtain Ownership Of Instagram Accounts 
61. Meet The Beauty Influencer Who Isn’t Afraid To Say What She Thinks: Jackie Aina has been unapologetic about holding the makeup industry accountable to the black women who buy its products.
62. Elon Musk Says He Filmed PewDiePie Collab As T-Series Subscriber Race Heats Up
63. Rooster Teeth Resurrects Select Machinima Series, Including ‘Inside Gaming’, In Wake Of Shutdown
64. Hulu Acquires Award-Winning Documentary About 16-Year-Old Influencer 
65. Hulu Ad Campaign Spells Out That Its Influencers Get Paid
66. Hulu’s New ‘Sellouts’ Ad Campaign Tells Viewers It Pays Influencers To Endorse It
67. Snapchat Expands NHL Pact to Add Hockey Highlights, Curated Stories
68. The New York Times quietly paused its Snapchat channel
69. New Algorithm Detects Fake Online Dating Profiles 
70. Netflix Unveils Canadian Production Hub To Accommodate Projects From Guillermo Del Toro, John Green
71. Claiming for Unlawful Prophets – $50 Million Satanic Netflix Suit Settled
72. Netflix’s The Punisher and Jessica Jones Are Officially Cancelled
73. Netflix makes it official, canceling Punisher and Jessica Jones 
74. How Dark Horse is building its own movie and TV empire out of comic books, from Netflix to a ‘Hellboy’ reboot 
75. Netflix isn’t talking about itself like a tech company anymore
76. “Hollywood is now irrelevant,” says IAC Chairman Barry Diller
77. Feeling unwelcome, Amazon ditches plans for New York hub
78. Facing opposition, Amazon scraps New York HQ2 plans
79. Amazon Abandons HQ2 Campus in New York
80. Bill de Blasio Does Not Appear to Be Taking the Amazon HQ2 Breakup Well
81. Amazon’s grave HQ2 mistake: The political landscape changed but the company’s playbook didn’t 
82. Amazon Launches Social Media Strategy For Massive ‘Lord Of The Rings’ Prequel
83. Amazon Alexa And The Search For The One Perfect Answer
84. Amazon caught selling counterfeits of publisher’s computer books—again
85. India is turning its back on Silicon Valley
86. The Big Data Revolution Will Be Sampled: How ‘Big Data’ Has Come To Mean ‘Small Sampled Data’
87. Are the algorithms that power dating apps racially biased?: If the algorithms powering these match-making systems contain pre-existing biases, is the onus on dating apps to counteract them?
88. Two Pricing AIs Went Rogue and Formed a Cartel to Gouge Humans: Capitalism is just another game that the AI intends to win.
89. AI Executive Order – What’s Next? 
90. Elon Musk-backed AI Company Claims It Made a Text Generator That’s Too Dangerous to Release
91. The AI Text Generator That’s Too Dangerous To Make Public
92. OpenAI built a text generator so good, it’s considered too dangerous to release
93. Researchers, scared by their own work, hold back “deepfakes for text” AI
94. Robots Are Already Driving and Painting, Now They’re Directing Films Too: A new documentary lets robots interview and film humans.
95. India’s first RoboCop: Kerala Police inducts robot, gives it SI rank: Chief Minister Vijayan welcomed the Sub Inspector (SI) ranked robot into the service with an honorary salute and the ‘RoboCop’ responded with a perfect salute. It has been named KP-Bot.
96. Gambling Commission announces new rules for online gambling 
97. New WIPO study on A.I. inventions and EDPB opinion on clinical trials 
98. This is why AI has yet to reshape most businesses
99. We should treat algorithms like prescription drugs
100. Ocasio-Cortez is right, algorithms are biased – but we can make them fairer
101. On WhatsApp, Rumours, and Lynchings
102. Did an employer breach its duty of care to an employee when it changed the passwords on his personal internet accounts on his company-provided mobile?
103. What happens when you create a fake music record label and upload bad music to Spotify: A scholarly experiment to figure out how Spotify works (and how to trick it) 
104. Spotify Paid Nearly $340 Million to Buy Podcast Startups Gimlet and Anchor
105. SoundCloud Launches Tool to Distribute Music to Other Streaming Services
106. DJ Deadmau5 Quits Twitch After Platform Suspends Him For Homophobic Remarks 
107. The Record Label of The Future is No Label At All: Spotify’s acquisitions of Gimlet and Anchor signal ambitious plans to disintermediate the music industry.
108. It Sounds Like It Could Be a While Until We Actually Get Apple’s Streaming Service
109. Apple Taps Reese Witherspoon, J.J. Abrams, More For Video Service Launch Event On March 25
110. Gambling, porn, and piracy on iOS: Apple’s enterprise certificate woes continue
111. Apple reportedly planning to combine iPhone, iPad, and Mac apps by 2021
112. Samsung’s foldable phone is finally official—meet the Galaxy Fold
113. Microsoft culls secret Flash whitelist after Google points out its insecurity
114. Florida Court Finds Virtual Currency Subject to Money Service Businesses Law 
115. Trouble in Paradise: Florida Court Rules that Selling Bitcoin is Money Transmission
116. JPMorgan is creating a cryptocurrency pegged to the dollar
117. Inside the London tech scene’s frantic plan to stop Brexit: Britain’s techies still want to bring Brexit crashing down – and they’re scrambling to build the tools to do so
118. The Internet Was Built on the Free Labor of Open Source Developers. Is That Sustainable?: A look at the complicated business of funding open source software development.
119. GoFundMe: Hope, but no solution, for the needy 
120. Judges Are Struggling To Interpret Emoji In Court Cases
121. How Would You Feel Having Your Emoji Messages Read Out in Court?
122. Queensland drivers set to get emoji number plates: Apparently there’s no stopping the spread of emoji – and road users are about to start seeing more of the little characters.
123. Ong’s Hat: The Early Internet Conspiracy Game That Got Too Real
124. Welcome to the cyber world: The real-world tech behind Alita: Battle Angel

CREATIVITY

1. Alec Baldwin Wants to Know if Donald Trump Is Threatening Him
2. Fox News Bans Ad For Documentary About American Nazi Rally in 1939
3. Justice Thomas Is Apparently Serious About Completely Upturning Over 50 Years Of 1st Amendment Law
4. Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, threatens to sue Mail on Sunday: Paper published letter from royal saying father Thomas Markle had ‘broken her heart’
5. Copyright May Protect a Car Wash’s Liability Disclaimer–Rassamni v. Fresno Auto Spa (Eric Goldman)
6. Red Sole Diaries: another chapter
7. How sexist will the media’s treatment of female candidates be? Rule out ‘not at all.’
8. One of Anime’s Biggest Voices Accused of Sexual Harassment
9. We get the journalism we deserve
10. Dentist’s failed suit demonstrates a copyright’s bite needs more than teeth 
11. The Hard Truth About Innovative Cultures
12. This Video Explores Starship Troopers’ Messy Satirical Relationship With Fascism
13. Smoke and mirrors? Big Tobacco slip(stream)s back into Formula One sponsorship deals 
14. If you call this firm a “patent troll,” it might sue for defamation
15. Appeals Court Takes No Time At All In Rejecting Patent Troll’s Ridiculous Lawsuit Against Cloudflare
16. Calling Out Copyright Troll Mathew Higbee
17. When does an Oscar speech become defamatory? 

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1.  Canada’s telecom industry uses misleading and unacceptable sales practices, CRTC report confirms: CRTC report says aggressive practices harm vulnerable consumers, such as seniors, and exist across all sales channels
2. FTC Opts Out of Updating Anti-Spam Rule 
3. Ajit Pai orders phone companies to adopt new anti-robocall tech in 2019
4. Ajit Pai says broadband access is soaring—and that he’s the one to thank
5. Sprint, T-Mobile Execs Continue To Hallucinate Competitors In Their Post-Merger Dreamscape
6. FCC Issues Staff Report on “Robocalling”
7. How an Investigation of Fake FCC Comments Snared a Prominent D.C. Media Firm 
8. In Wake Of Verizon Flub, New Law Would Ban Wireless Throttling Of First Responders
9. 5G Has Become The Magic Pixie Dust Of Tech Policy Conversations
10. Why the future of satellite internet might be decided in rural Alaska

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Actually, Secretly Filming Students’ Cleavage Is Illegal, Canada’s Supreme Court Rules
2. The Supreme Court’s Jarvis ruling delivers a win for privacy, but it’s a missed opportunity for equality
3. Right to privacy not an all-or-nothing concept, says SCC in voyeurism case
4. “Privacy is Not an All-or-Nothing Concept”: The Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in R. v. Jarvis
5. R. v. Jarvis (2019 SCC 10)
6. Canadian Privacy Commissioners jointly issue guidelines to organizations for obtaining meaningful consent 
7. When a privacy policy is not enough: Canadian Privacy Commissioners issue new guidance on obtaining meaningful consent
8. Yet Another Breach 
9. The Lucrative Government Spyware Industry Has a New ‘One-Stop-Shop’ for Hacking Everything
10. Deputies Sued After False ALPR Hit Leads To Guns-Out Traffic Stop Of California Privacy Activist
11. With elections weeks away, someone “sophisticated” hacked Australia’s politicians
12. Inside the DNSpionage hacks that hijack domains at an unprecedented scale
13. Automakers Could Give Police Control Over Your Self-Driving Car
14. Hard-to-detect credential-theft malware has infected 1,200 and is still going
15. Nasty code-execution bug in WinRAR threatened millions of users for 14 years

Jon

GAMES

1. Judge orders $150,000 in damages in GTA Online cheating case
2. Federal court orders Grand Theft Auto V cheat creator to pay $150,000 
3. Gaming disorder diagnosis puts industry at risk – ESA: Acting president Stanley Pierre-Louis discusses World Health Organization’s gaming addiction concern, loot boxes, unions, and more
4. Konami ends sale of in-game currency for PES 2019 in Belgium
5. Konami halts sales of PES 2019 currency in Belgium over loot box ruling: “We fully respect the BGC’s interpretation of relevant laws,” says publisher 
6. Activision offers to refund some Guitar Hero Live players following GHTV shutdown
7. Following lawsuit, Activision starts refund program for Guitar Hero Live
8. Report: Activision Blizzard to make significant layoffs this week 8
9. Activision Blizzard share price slumps to two-year low: Reports of layoffs and expected earnings decline lead to further pessimism over publisher’s fortunes 
10. Activision-Blizzard Employees Brace For Massive Layoffs
11. Activision Blizzard sees “record year,” plans to lay off hundreds: Company prepares for “transition year” as it refocuses on development of core franchises, cuts back on admin and under-performing initiatives
12. Activision Blizzard reports historic financial gains amid major layoffs
13. Significant layoffs hit Activision Blizzard
14. Amid layoffs, Blizzard won’t release a “major” new game in 2019
15. Activision Blizzard reportedly shutters King’s Seattle studio: King communication manager confirms that Seattle and San Francisco studios have closed
16. Crash Bandicoot N Sane Trilogy has sold over 10m units: Remake of classics reaches milestone less than two years after launch
17. Activision-Blizzard lays off 775 people after “record results in 2018”
18. Activision Blizzard Lays Off 800 Employees, Expects Revenue Drop And Few New Games In 2019
19. Activision Blizzard staff cuts largely hurt support teams, IT, QA, and publishing: Blizzard especially affected as company restructures gearing toward more new game releases over less time
20. The Fallout Of Activision Blizzard’s Massive Layoffs
21. Game Workers Unite sparks campaign to fire Activision Blizzard CEO following mass layoffs: “We, the workers of Activision and their friends, have had enough. Join us in saying that it’s time to #FireBobbyKotick,” says advocacy group
22. Activision split with Bungie because Destiny “was not meeting financial expectations”: COO Coddy Johnson reiterates that decision to part was mutual, is “right for both parties” 
23. For Activision, giving up Destiny 2 was the result of ‘missed financial expectations’
24. Following Activision Blizzard layoffs, King shuts down mobile studio Z2Live
25. King’s San Francisco studio closed in wake of Activision Blizzard layoffs
26. Swedish Tax Agency targets King with $389m fine: Skatteverket claims Candy Crush firm has disposed immaterial rights out of its home nation 
27. King signs Tech Talent Charter to drive diversity: Candy Crush Saga developer is first UK games company to pledge to the initiative
28. Blog: Being gay in the games industry – Research from the field
29. American Sign Language emotes added to Star Citizen
30. Don’t Miss: How devs design the Lego games to appeal to all ages
31. Video: How Overwatch’s gameplay architecture creates variety
32. Mobile games continue to drive App Store spending in the U.S.
33. Hardsuit shutting down Blacklight: Retribution to focus on new projects 
34. Putting Red Dead Redemption 2’s 23 million shipments in context
35. Shares slump for big four publishers after latest financials: Take-Two and Electronic Arts suffer the most but analyst maintains games industry still “in rude health” 
36. Fortnite alone can’t explain tumbling game stocks: The industry’s biggest firms have lost around 13% of their value in the past week, and many are down a third in recent months
37. Fortnite iOS revenue estimated at $500 million: Sensor Tower’s data shows Epic’s game reaching that milestone faster than Clash Royale and Honor of Kings
38. Fortnite Sparks a Battle Royale Over the Right to Use Dance Moves 
39. Epic claims it’s not really copying rapper 2 Milly’s dance in Fortnite
40. Epic critical of Fortnite dance lawsuit, urges court to dismiss case
41. Epic Games files for dismissal of 2 Milly’s Fortnite dance lawsuit: Developer insists dance routines are an “unprotectable idea” and claims rapper’s complain is “at odds with free speech” 
42. PUBG takes home Steam Awards 2018 Game of the Year
43. Zynga’s mobile games generated a record $228 million revenue last quarter  
44. Zynga CEO: It’s “too early to tell” if more will follow Epic’s anti-App Store stance – Frank Gibeau says casual games firm has a “great partnership” with both Apple and Google 
45. Zynga “turnaround now complete” as dev posts record mobile performance for 2018: Company reports second profitable year in a row after a lengthy period of recovery 
46. Zynga’s turnaround: How once-beleaguered game company plans for 2019 growth 
47. WWE Hall of Famer sues Activision for character copyright infringement: Booker T Huffman claims Black Ops 4 character too similar to his own comic book hero
48. EEDAR: Nintendo Switch attracting more women, wider age ranges over time – System on track to follow certain demographic trends of Nintendo predecessors rather than those of console competition
49. Switch missed hardware target because Nintendo didn’t ‘convey appeal’ of the system
50. Mario Maker 2 and a Link’s Awakening remake drive today’s Nintendo Direct
51. Nintendo plans to “boost” Switch Online after surge in short subscription plans: Proportion of single month subs is rising, Nintendo president expresses “critical” need to increase value of the service
52. Quality over quantity is Nintendo’s first-party focus as the Switch nears year 3
53. Nintendo: 3DS sales falling “faster than anticipated”
54. 3DS sales have slowed, but Nintendo still sees a market for its long-running handheld
55. Gaming business bolsters Bandai Namco’s Q3 profits: Soulcalibur publisher increases full-year guidance following solid holiday sales in network entertainment segment 
56. THQ Nordic net sales rose 713% to $447.6m in 2018: Publisher now has 77 games in development, including 48 unannounced projects 
57. THQ Nordic to acquire Kingdom Come: Deliverance dev for $37.5 million  
58. Australian publishing partner 18Point2 acquired by THQ Nordic
59. THQ Nordic acquires Warhorse Studios in a €33.2m cash deal: Kingdom Come Deliverance has sold 2m units one year on from its release
60. Apex Legends Review
61. Apex Legends: Critical Consensus – Respawn’s surprise release praised for its polish and innovative mechanics, hailed as the future of battle royale
62. Apex Legends crossed 1 million concurrent players in under 72 hours
63. Apex Legends reaches 25m players, 2m concurrent: Respawn’s battle royale reaches milestone in first week, after reaching 1m concurrent in first 72 hours
64. Respawn played with muted mics to get Apex Legends’ smart comms system just right
65. Video Game Deep Cuts: The Apex Of Legends, Observing The Sunless Skies
66. After glitch grants access, Bethesda says locked Fallout 76vault will open
67. EA pays respects to Emiliano Sala, removes him from FIFA: FC Nantes player also pulled from Ultimate Team packs, card prices fixed
68. EA CEO claims poor marketing, delays, and battle royale woes hurt Battlefield V
69. Bigben acquires publishing rights for two Cyanide titles: Following last year’s acquisition, publisher adds Tour de France and Pro Cycling Manager to portfolio 
70. Behind The AI of Horizon Zero Dawn (Part 1)
71. Behind The AI of Horizon Zero Dawn (Part 2)
72. Global esports revenues to top $1 billion in 2019: report
73. Newzoo: Global esports market will exceed $1 billion in 2019 – North America, China to continue to represent majority of esports revenue, though global awareness remains on the rise
74. Esports now officially a profession in China: ‘Esports operator’ and ‘esports professional’ formally recognized by Chinese government
75. Riot, Sega, four more join ESA: League of Legends studio, Intellivision, and Wizards of the Coast sign up as Sonic publisher, Natsume, and THQ Nordic return to the US trade group’s ranks
76. Russ Pitts steps down from Take This, on leave from Escapist: Charity co-founder, site editor-in-chief takes hiatus after “diminishing” experience of Gamergate abuse survivor in Twitter fight
77. Riot Games: “Before we take on football, we have to be humble”: League of Legends European Championship makes less revenue than a German second division football team, Riot’s Alban Dechelotte said at Esports BAR Cannes yesterday 
78. AppLovin: Mobile users play games 3-4 times per week on average, but are reluctant to identify as gamers – US, UK mobile users most commonly play games to pass the time, relax, and relieve stress
79. Bill imposing new excise tax on video games with “mature” or “adults-only” ratings introduced in Pennsylvania Legislature
80. Nexon celebrates record year for revenue and income: 2018 full-year financials show highest full-year PC and mobile results so far
81. New releases can’t stop sales and profits falling at Square Enix  
82. Supercell revenue down second year in a row as titles reach revenue milestones: CEO Ilkka Paananen remains optimistic, outlines plan for studio to become carbon-neutral in 2019
83. Starbreeze sells back publishing rights to System Shock 3
84. Starbreeze sells System Shock 3 publishing rights: Troubled publisher and OtherSide Entertainment “mutally agreed” rights should return to the latter
85. Report: Unity is looking to go public in 2020
86. Unity reportedly considering IPO for 2020: But engine provider will only float if market conditions are favourable, sources claim
87. Sony ‘open for business’ on cross-play, but Wargroove dev claims otherwise
88. Devs refute Sony claims that it’s “open for business” with cross-platform play: “We were told in no uncertain terms that it was not going to happen,” says Chucklefish CEO
89. Layden recalls PS3 ‘Icarus moment,’ looks ahead to expanding PlayStation’s audience
90. PS3 was “a stark moment of hubris” – Layden: Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios chairman reflects on last generation’s missteps and how the company changed course for PS4
91. Sony’s Shawn Layden on making fewer PlayStation games: ‘We’re spending more energy on them’  
92. E3 has lost its impact in a changing industry, says Sony’s Shawn Layden
93. Monster Hunter: World nears 12 million sales – Sales stood at 11.9m at the end of December, 60% more than any game in Capcom’s history
94. 20th Century Fox announces indie games fund: Etherborn becomes first title to take advantage of fund aimed at developers “taking creative risks”
95. Marvel Strike Force dev FoxNext Games opens up indie dev fund  
96. League of Geeks: “We are a response to what was before” – Blake Mizzi and Trent Kusters on using the mistakes of Australia’s past to build a better studio, and moving on from its hit digital board game Armello
97. Tearing down the lone developer myth: Iconoclasts creator Joakim Sandberg says developers should learn from his mistakes rather than follow his example
98. New conference hopes to improve UK games skills crisis: The Games Education Summit 2019 will unite educators and developers under one roof this April 
99. Ubisoft aims to help machine learning find a place in every stage of game dev 
100. Ubisoft partners with Mozilla on AI coding assistant Clever-Commit
101. Ubisoft partners with Mozilla on AI coding assistant: Clever-Commit promises to quickly identify and fix bugs from code changes
102. Mozilla to use machine learning to find code bugs before they ship
103. Learn how machine learning can help you make better games at GDC 2019
104. “They’re more attractive than real boyfriends.” Inside the weird world of Chinese romance video games: In China, love and romance designed by women for women could be the next video game trend
105. Steam Responds To Epic’s Competition By Weaponizing The Steam Community
106. Turning painting into a game mechanic in the gorgeousEastshade 2
107. Valve has some new thoughts on what’s “humanly possible” in SteamVR
108. Microsoft teases next-gen HoloLens ahead of February 24 reveal
109. Video: Designing games to better support player expression
110. Video: To make 1997’s Blade Runner, Westwood first had to create the universe
111. Video: How to invite player creativity through game mechanics
112. Amy Hennig sees a social future for storytelling games
113. Video: Injecting originality into the music of Fallout
114. Blog: Getting your big break as a game composer
115. Blog: How does the future of the streamer-developer relationship look?
116. Obituary: Renowned Atari ST programmer Steve Bak has passed away

DIGITAL

1. Just when an end seemed near, two 3D-printed gun-file legal battles get new life
2. Change how Facebook uses our data: Scandals underscore the need to regulate use of customers’ information
3. Our Thoughts on Facebook’s Oversight Board for Content Decisions
4. How Facebook Screwed Us All: It’s not just spreading phony stories everywhere – it’s killing real news.
5. I Was A Facebook Fact-Checker. It Was Like Playing A Doomed Game Of Whack-A-Mole.
6. Facebook Wants You To Know Jay Shetty Made $1 Million In Ad Revenue As It Tries To Appeal To More Creators
7. Facebook Orders Stephen Curry Docu-Series, Sets BuzzFeed News’ Live Trivia Game Launch
8. Court upholds conviction of girl who urged suicide with texts and calls
9. Lessons from Estonia on digital government: What Canada can learn from a tiny country that devised a coordinated, efficient system to serve its citizens using what’s called platform government
10. ESPN+ Debuts ‘The Boardroom’ Talk Show From NBA Star Kevin Durant
11. I Cut the ‘Big Five’ Tech Giants From My Life. It Was Hell
12. Canada needs to commercialize AI, not just do research, industry leaders say – Fewer than half of 100 machine-learning patents developed in Canada remain here: CIGI study
13. A Bill of Rights for the Age of Artificial Intelligence: We should be concerned about the rights of all sentients as an unprecedented diversity of minds emerges 
14. When Are Advertisers Responsible For Unsupported Claims Made By Consumers on Third Party Sites? NAD Weighs In. 
15. Reddit Raises $300 Million at $3 Billion Valuation 
16. Lack Of Internet Access Threatens 2020 Census Success And The Future Latino Voting Power
17. As Trump Prepares Ban On Huawei, Few Notice The Major Holes In The Underlying Logic 
18. Tech Genius Donald Trump to Sign Executive Order on Artificial Intelligence Today
19. White House Touts Artificial Intelligence (as FTC’s Chopra Flags AI Concerns) 
20. Microsoft Is Worried Its AI Will Go Rogue And Hurt Its Reputation
21. Windows 7 Extended Security Updates will double in price each year
22. Microsoft: Yeah, we make Office 2019 and Internet Explorer, but don’t use ‘em
23. Hackers keep trying to get malicious Windows file onto MacOS
24. Messy office owners, rejoice: Skype now blurs the background to your video
25. A Human Debater Just Roasted IBM’s “Intelligent Debate” AI Onstage: Project Debater can formulate arguments, but can’t quite refute opponents.
26. Artificial Intelligence: The New Driving Force Behind Sports Performance and Entertainment
27. Mysterious Site Uses AI to Create Realistic Yet Horrifying Faces
28. R.I.P., Opportunity Rover: The Hardest-Working Robot In The Solar System
29. Tesla Driver Claims Autopilot Wouldn’t Let Him Prevent Crash
30. Driverless delivery startup Nuro raises almost $1 billion
31. Sex robots are here, but laws aren’t keeping up with the ethical and privacy issues they raise
32. Will Tech Workers Rise Up Around Automation, Too? 
33. Bots and Sockpuppets and Scammers, Oh My!
34. Bot or Not: California Mandates Disclosure of Online Accounts Used by Bots
35. Fake news threatens our businesses, not just our politics
36. Dirty Data, Bad Predictions: How Civil Rights Violations Impact Police Data, Predictive Policing Systems, and Justice (Kate Crawford, Rashida Richardson, Jason Schultz)
37. Insights: In The Battle Of Data Versus Privacy, Whose Team Are You On?
38. Copyright Holders Still Don’t Support EU’s Already Awful Upload Filter Proposal; Demand It Be Made Worse
39. EU countries agree on copyright reforms, deal in sight next week
40. The text of Article 13 and the EU Copyright Directive has just been finalised
41. Article 13 Was Purposefully Designed To Be Awful For The Internet; EU Moves Forward With It Anyway
42. EU’s New ‘Open By Default’ Rules For Data Generated By Public Funding Subverted At The Last Minute 
43. Bandersnatch, the case for Trade Mark Infringement: Whose right was it to let you choose your own adventure?
44. Netflix records all of your Bandersnatch choices, GDPR request reveals: Frosties or Sugar Puffs? Netflix knows your preference 
45. AR Will Spark The Next Big Tech Platform – Call It Mirrorworld
46. Expert: AR Will Let Hackers Steal “Deep Psychological Data”
47. Most Online ‘Terms of Service’ Are Incomprehensible to Adults, Study Finds: Reading the terms and conditions of online consumer contracts requires, on average, more than 14 years of education.
48. Augmented Reality, Advertising, and Practical Legal Considerations
49. Apple to developers: disclose screen recording or get booted from App Store
50. Apple worked on biometric unlock for cars: One day you could unlock your car just by looking at it.
51. Apple Patented Facial Recognition to Unlock Your Car
52. The logic behind Apple’s give-us-half-your-revenue pitch to news publishers
53. The Cost of Apple News
54. Apple in talks to create “Netflix for news” subscription service
55. Apple pushes fix for “FacePalm,” possibly its creepiest vulnerability ever
56. Apple Is Compensating the Kid Who Figured Out Its Sketchy Eavesdropping FaceTime Bug
57. Apple, Google Both Hosting Saudi Government App That Lets Men Track Women, Restrict Their Travel
58. Google, Apple Called Out For Hosting Saudi Government App That Allows Men To Track Their Spouses’ Movements
59. Apple’s insider-trading policy enforcer accused of insider trading
60. Google Caves On Russian Censorship
61. NYPD Demands That Google Stop Flagging DWI Checkpoints on Waze
62. Google Chrome Extension That Optimized YouTube Videos Pulled After Spamming Millions Of Users
63. Google wants a VP of Wearables, might finally take smartwatches seriously
64. Augmented Reality Google Maps is coming, starts testing in private
65. Former Algorithm Engineer Guillaume Chaslot Calls YouTube’s Decision To Stop Recommending Conspiracy Videos “A Historic Victory”
66. Here’s How A Scammer Abused YouTube’s Copyright Infringement System In An Attempt To Extort Money From Users
67. NFL Star Quarterback Cam Newton Launches YouTube Channel
68. The Taxonomy Of YouTube Videos (And How You Can Develop Original Content That Works)
69. Ariana Grande Becomes Most-Subscribed Female Artist On All Of YouTube
70. The dodgy, vulnerable fame of YouTube’s child ASMR stars: Right now, children are filming themselves chewing, whispering and tapping to give their adult audience an ASMR buzz. The Chinese government banned them, and PayPal blocked their payments, yet some
71. YouTube Reverses Course, Deletes Austin Jones’ YouTube Channel
72. Kids’ Content Upstart Moonbug Acquires 2 More YouTube Heavyweights
73. Influencers under fyre: celebrities commit to be more transparent regarding product endorsements
74. Influencers Tagged in Fyre Festival Subpoena
75. ‘Roblox’ Bans PewDiePie For “Continued Inappropriate Behavior”
76. Chuck E. Cheese’s Refutes Shane Dawson Conspiracy That It Recycles Uneaten Pizza
77. Jake Paul To Discontinue ‘Uncut’ Docuseries Because It “Became Too Real” 
78. Gigi Hadid Photo Provokes Copyright Lawsuit
79. Movie Torrents Shown To Actually Boost Box Office Sales For Post-Release Movies 
80. Philip DeFranco Launches Hair Care Line ‘Beautiful Bastard,’ Is On Track To Sell Out Today
81. How TikTok Gets Rich While Paying Artists Pennies: The company behind lip-sync app TikTok is reportedly worth three times as much as Spotify, but the artists whose music powers the platform are seeing very little of that money.
82. Does The Spotify Gimlet Purchase Signal The End Of The Open World Of Podcasting?
83. Jeff Bezos goes public with alleged AMI blackmail over nudes
84. Report: Bezos-hired sleuth suspects sexts stolen by “government entity”
85. Woody Allen Sues Amazon for Cancelling Multi-Film Contract 
86. Woody Allen Files $68 Million Lawsuit Against Amazon Studios For Backing Out Of Four Film Deals
87. Why an Amazon Router Freaks Me Out
88. Amazon Calls for Regulation of Its Own Facial Recognition Tech: The company may be hoping to pen some of the government’s ethical standards.
89. Amazon is Right: Thresholds and Legislation Matter, So Does Truth
90. Amazon and Hulu’s algorithms are recommending conspiracy theory films, and the consequences could be more serious than you might think
91. Amazon acquires Eero, maker of mesh Wi-Fi routers
92. ChooseCo Inks Lucrative Deal With Amazon, Possibly Thanks To Netflix’s ‘Bandersnatch’
93. Instagram Integrates IGTV Previews Into Main Feed To Bolster Fledgling Video Hub
94. Instagram Tries to Boost IGTV Views With Previews in Users’ Feeds
95. Instagram Looking Into Issue That Caused Users’ Follower Counts To Drop
96. Instagram Bug Causes Katy Perry And Kylie Jenner To Lose Millions Of Followers Temporarily
97. 4-Year-Old Instagram Phenoms Mila And Emma Stauffer To Launch Clothing Line At Target
98. Bhad Bhabie’s Original Snapchat Series Banks 10 Million Viewers In 24 Hours
99. Snapchat Posts Better-Than-Expected Revenues, As Q4 User Growth Remains Flat
100. Twitter keeps losing monthly users, so it’s going to stop sharing how many
101. UK Cop Calls Up 74-Year-Old Woman To Ask Her To Stop Tweeting Mean Things
102. Disney+ will be a true Netflix competitor, with non-Disney shows streaming, too 
103. After Netflix Breakup, Disney Courts Hulu With 4-Show Marvel Deal, Potential For Hulu To Revive Cancelled Netflix Series
104. ‘Howard the Duck’ Among Four Marvel Animated Shows Ordered at Hulu
105. BuzzFeed Employees Vote to Unionize After Major Layoffs
106. The business of Patreon: Building a new economy for creators requires a focused business strategy
107. The Internet Civil War
108. Tech’s Long Hours Are Discriminatory and Counterproductive
109. Revolt of the gig workers: How delivery rage reached a tipping point
110. Can Big Tech be fixed? Center for Democracy and Technology CEO Nuala O’Connor is “long-term optimistic.”
111. The Secret History of Women in Coding: Computer programming once had much better gender balance than it does today. What went wrong?
112. Tech debate hits bencher election
113. Password to $200m digital currency account lost on death
114. Google Play caught hosting an app that steals users’ cryptocurrency
115. Cryptocurrencies – A quandary for Quadriga 
116. Virtual Currency Regulation in Canada: A Changing Landscape Comes Into Focus
117. IRS Makes Cryptocurrency a Compliance Priority 
118. Emoji 12.0 brings us waffles, more diversity, suggestive “finger pinch” glyph
119. What’s New With Emoji Law? An Interview (Eric Goldman)
120. Captain Marvel’s Official Website Is Basically a Geocities Fansite