News of the Week; August 8, 2018
GAMES
- Tired of legal threats, emulation hub EmuParadise drops its ROM library
- Inside The Culture Of Sexism At Riot Games
- Current and former Riot employees discuss the toxic feedback culture of the studio
- Riot Games responds to sexist work culture exposé: “We haven’t lived up to our own values,” says League of Legends developer as criticism mounts in wake of damning report
- Minecraft boss says US work culture needs more “off-ramps” for employees: Employees should be able “immerse themselves in their life experiences” without damaging their careers, says Helen Chiang
- SNK artist discusses discrimination in the Japanese games industry
- EA issues apology after removing Kaepernick’s name from song in Madden 19 [Updated]
- EA says mistake led to censorship of Colin Kaepernick’s name in Madden 19’s soundtrack
- EA made “unfortunate mistake” removing Colin Kaepernick’s name from Madden 19 song: Company issues official statement on omission after it was discovered in early copies
- GameFly to axe video game streaming service in August
- BioWare is still exploring new projects outside of Anthem
- “Netflix of games” a threat to developers: If subscription streaming services take off, creators likely to lose leverage in dealing with platform holders
- IGN Pulls Review After Plagiarism Accusations
- IGN drops Dead Cells reviewer after plagiarism investigation
- Fallout 76 won’t be launching on Steam
- War changes: Fallout 76 is series’ first in a decade to skip Steam
- Fallout Shelter surpasses $90M in lifetime mobile revenue
- ZX Spectrum and Sinclair trademark holder to pull branding rights from Vega+
- EmuParadise removes ROMs: Users won’t be able to download games from long-running site any more; “It’s not worth it for us to risk potentially disastrous consequences”
- Facebook introduces AR games to group chats
- Fake apps find a way to Google Play!
- Confirmed: Fortnite on Android will drive its bus past Google’s 30% cut [Updated]
- “30% store tax is a high cost,” says Sweeney as Fortnite skips Google Play: Epic Games CEO explains studio’s decision to aim for direct downloads, praises openness of Google’s platform
- Epic Games is bypassing the Google Play Store forFortnite’s Android release
- Google not at fault for clones and unsanctioned apps on Google Play, says Epic CEO
- Analyst: Fortnite streams have racked up over 600M hours viewed in 2018
- The battle royale boom helped Turtle Beach achieve a record quarter
- Gamefly ends video game streaming service
- Faeria: The CCG that abandoned free-to-play and went premium
- New Unity report suggests 67% of indies plan to self-publish
- Unity survey shows over half of indie studios working in mobile, 40% in VR or AR: Top-ranking studios by revenue and DAU showed a preference for mobile and freemium models
- Unity partners with Google to introduce AdMob integration for mobile games
- Minecraft’s studio head says devs and studios benefit from generous time off policies
- Netmarble’s Lineage 2: Revolution has seen $1.3 billion in player spending – Sensor Tower data indicates the importance of the mobile RPG to Netmarble’s business
- Crackdown and confidentiality: Sumo Digital’s approach to AAA development – The UK studio discusses handling coveted IP and why it’s not afraid of missing out on the limelight
- Nexon withholds shareholder dividends to “review and execute effective investments”: Korean games firm sees simultaneous two per cent revenue increase and profit decline
- Sony and Nintendo’s strategies converge: Bumper results for both platform holders point to a similar key to success – seeing themselves as game creators first and foremost
- WarioWare Gold: A fine example of Nintendo’s weird “end of life” history
- How do you pronounce “NES”? Nintendo throws a wrench in the debate
- You Can’t Compete With Free Meets Its Ultimate Counterexample In The NES Classic
- With $400M+ revenue, Fire Emblem Heroes reigns as Nintendo’s big mobile earner
- Octopath Traveler has shipped 1M copies worldwide
- Elon Musk adding Atari classics to Tesla software, wants original games for car display: Billionaire reveals Tempest, Missile Command and Pole Position coming in next four week – with the latter controlled by steering wheel
- Mobile revenue failed to meet Square Enix’s expectations this quarter
- Square Enix sees revenue and profit tumble in quiet Q1 for games
- Bandai Namco sees flat first quarter with little help from game sales
- Game sales and revenue down at Bandai Namco
- Game revenue down at Sega despite increase in physical sales
- Sega Sammy net sales down 35.8% in latest financial report: Entertainment contents arm suffers least with only 10.5% decline
- Capcom: “We’d prefer a game that got a 9 and sold less, than a 6 but sold more.” – Publisher on its fear over Resident Evil 2’s E3 reveal, the Monster Hunter gamble and new IP
- Harmonix signs multiplatform publishing deal with NCSoft
- Take-Two expects GTA Online sales to ‘moderate’ as it beats estimates again: Publisher anticipates international growth for NBA2K, too
- Digital sales drive Take-Two’s rising profits ahead of Red Dead Redemption 2
- NBA 2K18 reaches ten million units sold: Lifetime franchise sales exceed 80 million
- Activision Blizzard exceeds Q2 revenue goals thanks to in-game spending
- Activision Blizzard exceeds second quarter outlook despite headwinds: Call of Duty season, record Hearthstone pre-purchases drove $1.64 billion in net revenue
- Activision Blizzard: Tech issues will halt wide adoption of streaming in the near term
- Blizzard confirms “multiple Diablo projects” in production, news by end of 2018
- Spyro Reignited Trilogy only has one game on the disc: Activision warns that second and third instalments will need to be downloaded after purchase
- Tencent and Activision bringing Call of Duty to mobile in China
- Fire Emblem Heroes earns $400 million globally: Mobile game nearly ten time more profitable than Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp
- Fallout Shelter surpasses $90m lifetime revenue
- China’s “enormous opportunity” for Eve Online
- CCP partners with NetEase to grow Eve Online in China: Major local publisher takes over Serenity server following collaboration on mobile spin-off Eve Project Galaxy
- Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins Becomes First Creator In Twitch History To Amass 10 Million Followers
- Fortnite powers Ninja to become first Twitch streamer with 10m followers
- No Man Sky scores biggest Twitch numbers since launch
- With NEXT update, No Man’s Sky finally brings it all together
- After two years, is No Man’s Sky everything Hello Games originally promised?: Hello Games’ procedurally generated creation is better than ever after two years of persistent updates
- Opinion: Battle for Azeroth and the death of nuance
- Frostkeep Studios is serious about making “the game that players want” with Rend
- PUBG developers launch “Fix PUBG” campaign
- PUBG dev launches ‘Fix PUBG’ website to address longstanding bug complaints
- Elon Musk-funded Dota 2 bots spank top-tier humans, and they know how to trash talk
- Newzoo: Esports viewership will continue to bear greater resemblance to traditional sports
- Overwatch League adds new teams in Guangzhou and Atlanta
- Kakao Games sinks $16.8M into esports studio Neptune
- Esports Business Projected to Reach $1.5 Billion in Revenue by 2020
- EA: Diversity and engagement key to growing FIFA eWorld Cup – FIFA competitive gaming commissioner shares how the game’s accessibility will lead to success across a wider swath of media
- Inside Magic Leap’s Quest To Remake Itself As An Ordinary Company (With A Real Product)
- After years of hype, Magic Leap starts selling $2,300 AR headset
- Inside Magic Leap: How it works and what it means for game devs
- Oculus Removes Handful of Fake Game Reviews, Says They’re Uncommon
- Facebook introduces AR games to Messenger
- Augmented Reality Recreates A New York City Not Seen for Centuries
- Innovation Report: 1 in 3 AR/VR/MR devs are making a platform exclusive
- Metaari: Game-based learning market will reach $17 billion by 2023 – Improved VR, AR, and AI technology will drive further investment, development opportunity
- Halo TV series confirmed for a 2020 release
- Digital collectable card games will generate $1.5 billion revenue in 2018: SuperData report forecasts global rise to $2 billion by 2020
- Blog: What men and women consider hardcore gaming are not the same
- Tips and best practices for localizing licensed IPs
- Book Excerpt: Tips on negotiating key legal agreements in games
- Real Estate Developer Found Using Video Game Footage In Marketing Material… Which Is Pretty Cool!
DIGITAL
- How bots amplify hoaxes and propaganda on social media: Zignal Labs CEO Josh Ginsberg says consumers and companies need to know what’s bot-generated and what’s not so they can make informed decisions about things like elections.
- ‘It’s our time to serve the Motherland’ How Russia’s war in Georgia sparked Moscow’s modern-day recruitment of criminal hackers
- As ‘DNC Hacked Itself’ Conspiracy Theory Collapses, Key Backer Of Claim Exposed As UK Troll
- Bill Says US Tech Companies Must Let The Feds Know When Foreign Companies Poke Around In Their Source Code
- Court Says Comey And Other DOJ Officials Must Answer BuzzFeed’s Questions About The Steele Dossier
- The Expensive Education of Mark Zuckerberg and Silicon Valley: They have weaponized social media, and we are all paying the price.
- Alex Jones’ Infowars Channels Scrubbed From YouTube, Facebook, Apple, And Spotify
- YouTube bans Alex Jones, following Facebook and Apple’s lead
- YouTube Bans InfoWars Following Removals From Apple, Facebook, and Spotify
- Alex Jones hit with bans from Facebook and Apple
- Alex Jones podcast episodes yanked from Spotify over “hate content”
- Alex Jones Is Shirtlessly Screaming Into the Void on Popular Social Network Google+
- Filling the void Alex Jones left behind: YouTube’s attempt to burst the (far-)right bubble is a chance for Fox News
- Twitter Founder Jack Dorsey Explains Why Twitter Isn’t Banning Alex Jones
- Op-ed: Alex Jones is a crackpot—but banning him from Facebook might be a bad idea [Updated]
- How journalists should not cover an online conspiracy theory: The QAnon narrative shows the need for better practices in reporting on baseless claims and hoaxes. Here’s how the media can take action
- Online Hate Is Rampant. Here’s How To Keep It From Spreading
- Report: Feds investigating whether Musk’s buyout tweet broke the law
- In Germany, a news site is pairing up liberals and conservatives and actually getting them to (gasp) have a civil conversation
- Saudi State Media Posted a Photo That Sure Looks Like a Threat to Attack Toronto
- Senators Demand Answers on Google’s Reported Plans for Censored Search Engine in China
- BBC Migrates Everything To HTTPS, Immediately Finds Itself Blocked By The Chinese Government
- Apple becomes first US public company worth $1 trillion: Q3 earnings report bolsters stock to record amount, maintained to market close
- That’s trillion with a T—Apple hits market value of $1 trillion
- Apple Kills App Affiliate Program In Pointless Move
- Apple shuts App Store affiliate program, imperiling recommendation sites
- Sensing Blood In The Water, All Major Labels Sue Cox For ‘Ignoring’ Their DMCA Notices
- Indian Court Grants PepsiCo’s Takedown Request Targeting Thousands Of ‘Disparaging’ Social Media Posts
- Yet Another Study Shows You Beat Piracy Through Innovation, Rather Than Enforcement
- SESTA, FOSTA, And How To Make Sense Of The Acronym Soup
- Evidence Mounts: UK Study Shows Better Legal Alternatives Pushing Pirates To Become Customers
- The War On Fan-Subtitles Comes To Australia in The Form Of Site-Blocking
- Microsoft adding support for Movies Anywhere, giving away free X-Men movie
- Amazon’s Head Of Unscripted TV Out After Investigation Into Inappropriate Comments (Report)
- Wells Fargo Admits ‘Computer Glitch’ May Have Contributed to 400 Foreclosures
- Only a small percentage of users buys stuff through Alexa, report claims
- Report: Almost Nobody Is Using Amazon’s Alexa to Actually Buy Stuff
- Amazon launches grocery pickup at Whole Foods for Prime members
- Facebook Faces Another Consequence of Its Privacy Problems: Shareholder Lawsuits
- Facebook Wanted Us to Kill This Investigative Tool
- Facebook Is Asking Banks to Share Data on Customers’ Spending Habits
- Facebook: We’re not asking for financial data, we’re just partnering with banks
- This Facebook Feature Shouldn’t Exist
- Facebook Asked To Change Terms Of Service To Protect Journalists
- ‘People You May Know:’ A Controversial Facebook Feature’s 10-Year History
- YouTube Set To Overtake Facebook As Second Largest Website In America
- YouTube is about to pass Facebook as the second biggest website in US, according to new study: Facebook’s web traffic has declined by nearly half in the last two years, while YouTube is climbing.
- YouTube Premium Announces First Spanish-Language Slate With Gael García Bernal, Maluma, Sofia Niño de Rivera
- Go90 or bust: How AwesomenessTV’s fate was tied to Verizon
- Easier streaming services put dent in illegal downloading
- Fight Over Virginia Tech Sportswriter’s Twitter Account: Who Owns Employees’ Social Media Accounts?
- Warner Music Group Acquires UPROXX: The 10-year-old online hub and video production house aimed at youth boasts a reach of 40 million people.
- Warner Music Group Sells Its Entire Stake in Spotify
- Spotify’s $30 billion playlist for global domination
- Bytedance Nixes Musical.ly Brand As Short-Form Video Site Merges Into Sister Platform ‘TikTok’
- Music Streaming Service Deezer Raises $185 Million
- Crowd-Sauce: How Memes Are Helping Rappers Reach Number One
- Why Fitness Is The New Hot Marketing Platform And Revenue Stream For Music
- Snapchat Made $262 Million During Q2 But Lost 3 Million Daily Active Users
- Roku Exceeds Q2 Earnings Expectations, Brings Free Streaming Service To Web
- Why Did Anyone Think MoviePass Could Have Worked?: The company had deep-pocketed backers and a plan. It just overlooked a few important details.
- Katzenberg’s WndrCo Confirms $1 Billion Raise For Shortform Subscription Service, Doesn’t Plan To Compete With Netflix, Hulu
- Warner Bros. And DC Comics’ ‘DC Universe’ Streaming Service Launching In Beta This Month
- Disney Will Shuttle Marvel Cinematic Universe To Its Own Streaming Service Starting With ‘Captain Marvel’ In 2019
- Peloton Raises $550 Million As It Builds “A Media Company Akin To Netflix,” Says CEO
- Researchers Inadvertently Discover Crypto Scam Involving 15,000 Twitter Bots
- Some Traders Are Talking Up Cryptocurrencies, Then Dumping Them, Costing Others Millions
- America Needs a Blockchain Strategy ASAP
- 3D-printed (and CNC-milled) guns: Nine questions you were too afraid to ask
- New in School: AI-Driven Gun Detection Systems
- The Algorithm That Could Save Vulnerable New Yorkers From Being Forced Out of Their Homes
- Uber driver who struck, killed young girl is convicted of vehicular manslaughter
- Patreon Creators See Dip In Earnings Due To Payments Being Mistakenly Marked As Fraudulent, Company Says
- Silicon Valley Writes A Playbook To Help Avert Ethical Disasters
- The Free-Market Fraud: Tech Innovation and Alternatives
- New open source effort: Legal code to make reporting security bugs safer
- Is there such a thing as Internet politics? (Andres Guadamuz)
CREATIVITY
- Some Notes About Recent Developments at the Copyright Board of Canada (Howard Knopf)
- When Copying Isn’t Infringement
- Court Awards $12,500 For ‘Emotional Harm’ From Bogus Copyright Lawsuit
- Alvin Toffler Investigated by FBI for Communist Activities According to Newly Released Files
- Moneyballing the Movies: How the Box Office Became a Sport – Every weekend, new releases are graded on their box office returns. How did covering the movie business become a haven for statheads?
- Warner Bros. Is Finally Realizing Supergirl Should Be the Center of the DC Universe
- Is This the End of the TV Writers’ Room as We Know It?
- ‘Anything For A Hit’ Exclusive Book Excerpt: Atlantic Records in the ’80s Was Like Plunging Into ‘A Circus Mixed with an Orgy’
- MPAA: To Save Free Speech, We Must Broadly Censor Free Speech
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- FCC lied to Congress about made-up DDoS attack, investigation found
- Here’s the Internal Report Proving the FCC Made Up a Cyberattack
- That Hack of the FCC’s Comment Section Last Year? It Never Actually Happened, Agency Admits
- Ajit Pai Throws His Employees Under The Bus After Investigation Proves FCC Made Up DDOS Attack
- Ajit Pai admits FCC lied about “DDoS,” blames it on Obama administration
- Trump admin asks Supreme Court to re-kill already-dead net neutrality rules
- Trump Admin Hopes Kavanaugh Supreme Court Delivers The Killing Blow To Net Neutrality
- Report Highlights How U.S. Telcos Abandoned Rural American Broadband
- ISPs’ listed speeds drop up to 41% after UK requires accurate advertising
- FCC sides with Google Fiber over Comcast with new pro-competition rule
- Verizon lied about 4G coverage—and it could hurt rural America, group says
- FCC Tackles “Slamming and Cramming”
- Charter CEO Apparently Unaware He Runs One Of The Most Despised Companies In America
- Will The “Real Journalists” At Fox News Please Stand Up?: It’s time for the Shep Smiths of Fox News to speak out against the pro-Trump propagandists like Hannity, Carlson, and Pirro.
- AT&T Acquires The Chernin Group’s Stake In Otter Media In Reported $1 Billion Deal
- $50 a month for 1Mbps: How AT&T and Verizon rip off DSL customers
- Behind Ryerson’s Support for Site Blocking: Bell Reviewed Draft Submission, Was Warned It Did Not Represent Faculty View
- “One of Our Key Hiring Companies”: The Missing Link in the George Brown College Support for Bell’s Site Blocking Plan
- Aiding by Omission in CASL? Good Enough, CRTC Says
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- Does the Canada Border Services Agency Have the Authority to Search Your Electronic Devices?
- The Pentagon Tells Soldiers To Stop Sharing Their Locations With Apps
- Pentagon tells troops: Turn off fitness tracker GPS when you head to warzones
- Facebook Granted ‘Unprecedented’ Leave To Appeal Over Referral Of Privacy Shield Case To Top EU Court
- FTC Asks Whether to Expand Enforcement Power over Corporate Privacy Practices
- ICANN Loses Yet Again In Its Quixotic Quest To Obtain A Special Exemption From The EU’s GDPR
- China’s influence on digital privacy could be global
- Cramming Software With Thousands of Fake Bugs Could Make It More Secure
- Unixiz Agrees to Settle Charges Under COPPA and the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act
- The Legal Paradox of Commoditizing Athlete Data Trade Secrets
- How to win (or at least not lose) the war on phishing? Enlist machine learning
Jon
News of the Week; August 1, 2018
GAMES
- Detroit dev Quantic Dream loses in court case brought by ex-employee
- Former Quantic Dream employee wins court case against developer: Court rules in favour of employee who quit due to circulation of offensive photoshopped images
- SimCity 2000 remake removed by EA for using copyrighted assets
- EA shuts down open source SimCity 2000 over lifted assets: “The current audio visual output of the repository creates content that infringes on Electronic Arts copyright,” says publisher
- EA financials show quiet Q1 reflective of few releases: Net revenue of $1.137 billion nonetheless above estimates ahead of packed Q2
- FIFA Mobile’s debut in China brings EA its highest grossing day for a mobile game
- EA open to cross-platform playability for Battlefield, other key franchises: Publisher also eyeing Fortnite’s success as a model for future free-to-play mobile releases
- Area 35 ends legal dispute over Kickstarter embezzlement claims in settlement
- Area 35, ex-employee settle defamation suit: Tariq Lacy retracts embezzlement accusations against studio CEO Hiroaki Yura
- Abstractism removed from Steam store for ‘cryptojacking’: Game disguised as indie platformer installed programs to mine cryptocurrency using players’ computers
- Valve removes Steam game after allegations of hidden cryptocurrency miner [Updated]
- Valve adds safeguards to Steam to address concerns over fake item scams
- Steam sees surprising, significant usage dip in 2018
- Prominent Denuvo hacker arrested for breaching anti-piracy tech
- Denuvo investigation reportedly leads to arrest for games pirate Voksi: However, Bulgarian cracker claims he voluntarily went to police, reached out to DRM firm for “peaceful solution”
- An overlooked line of code led to slow performance forWarhammer Online
- Daily Mirror paid interview subject of Fortnite hit piece: “Fortnite made me a suicidal drug addict” author offered £300 for case study
- Fortnite mobile earned average of $3.47 per install 90 days after launch – SensorTower: Battle royale ranked #6 most-downloaded app in the US for Q2 despite iOS exclusivity
- Analyst estimates put Fortnite at more than 100M downloads on iOS
- Fortnite mobile breaks 100m downloads and $160m IAP revenue: PUBG not expected to reach 100 million milestone for another 206 days
- Fortnite cosmetics possibly taking revenue from top console games
- Dutch Dota 2 players can now see the contents of their next loot box: Valve’s attempts to comply with loot box regulations continue apace
- Forza Motorsport 7 will not feature loot boxes
- Forza Motorsport 7 removes prize crates, avoids paid tokens: Microtransaction system from prior Forza games will not appear in Forza Horizon 4, either
- Gran Turismo Sport gets microtransactions in July update: Polyphony Digital adds ability to purchase in-game cars for real money
- Gran Turismo Sport, revisited: More tracks, more cars, more everything
- Spectrum ISP kicked out of NY for allegedly throttling online games and streams
- New York shows Spectrum ISP the door, in part for throttling League of Legends: State public service commission revokes approval of Charter, Time Warner merger due to “various instances of misconduct”
- One Week Later, Blizzard Still Doesn’t Know WhyWorld Of Warcraft’s Leveling System Is Borked
- Nintendo barely improves conflict minerals sourcing over two years: One-fourth of company’s smelters and refiners aren’t following protocols to prevent human rights abuses
- NPD: NES Classic was the highest unit-selling platform for June – Retro consoles help lead 52% YOY hardware sales growth
- Nintendo has sold nearly 20M Switch systems and 87M Switch games
- Switch sales lead Nintendo’s first quarter while 3DS and mobile income stagnate
- Increased profits and $1.5bn sales kick off Nintendo’s financial year: Platform holder maintains forecast as Switch lifetime sales reach 19.7 million consoles, 86.93 million games
- Nintendo stock increase trips up hedge fund’s $400 million bet: Melvin Capital’s months-long short position in Switch maker suffers setback, may still prove profitable
- Nintendo’s next Labo kit coming in Sept, looks like next-gen Pilotwings
- The Sinclair ZX Vega+ is finally being shipped to Indiegogo backers
- Sales up at Sony as PS4 software exceeds expectations
- Worldwide PlayStation 4 shipments have topped 80 million
- PlayStation drives $17.9 billion Q1 for Sony: Higher-than-expected software sales and 43% digital ratio among financial highlights
- The business case for a streaming Xbox
- Zynga Q2 sees bookings jump 12%: Social publisher beats guidance with $233.9 million in non-GAAP sales, net losses of just over $900,000
- Glu Mobile narrows losses with record Q2 bookings
- Zynga’s mobile ‘forever franchises’ contribute to Q2 growth
- Sega capitalizing on foreign exchange with Yakuza, Total War: Sega Europe exec John Clark says audiences in Asia and the West are increasingly interested in games from the other region’s developers, but for different reasons
- Sea of Thieves has attracted over 5 million players
- Sea of Thieves reaches five million players as Cursed Sails expansion launches: Plus, 40 million hours broadcast on Twitch but it’s still unclear how player count translates to sales due to Game Pass inclusion
- Live Streams Of A Chinese Robot-Fighting Tournament Are Getting Millions Of Views On Twitch
- No Man’s Sky Next reaches over 50,000 concurrent players: Hello Games’ space exploration game sees resurgence after a 200k+ concurrent user peak at launch
- No Man’s Sky hit almost 100,000 concurrent players on Steam this past weekend
- Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle revenue tops $1B after two years
- Dragon Ball Z mobile title reaches estimated $1 billion revenue: Sensor Tower data indicates Bandai Namco’s Dokkan Battle has hit major milestone after two years
- MapleStory M achieves three million downloads in first week: Mobile version of hugely popular Korean MMO tops highest grossing charts in key Asian markets
- Monster Hunter: World helps Capcom to record-breaking first quarter
- Monster Hunter: World passes 8m sold in strong Q1 for Capcom – Game revenue increased 79 per cent year-on-year on the strength of Monster Hunter and Street Fighter
- $2.65m Binding of Isaac card game Kickstarter smashes target by over 5,000%: Almost 40,000 backers successfully funded tabletop spin-off of popular indie roguelike
- From failed Kickstarter to career-defining success: The story of Pony Island: Daniel Mullins discusses how he bounced back from failure to create “the smartest game of 2016”
- The art of failing: What 11 bit Studios learnt from Beat Cop – Marketing director Patryk Grzeszczuk – “We were too far away from the times and the culture that were depicted in the game”
- Mail.ru took a $27m impairment charge on Armored Warfare development in Q2: The charge was related to the game’s recent poor performance, in a quarter that saw revenues rise but profits halve
- Paradox Interactive chooses development over stagnation with CEO switch
- Paradox: “We’ve released crappy games in the past… I don’t want to do that anymore”
- Dead Cells dev hopes to challenge exploitation with equal pay model
- Dead Cells dev Motion Twin touts equal pay system: All 11 employees at French studio have identical salary, same say in project direction
- Empires & Puzzles: Disrupting the biggest market with the smallest team – CEO Timo Soininen discusses the importance of mid-development marketing and defying the “so-called industry experts”
- Steam user count has decreased 17 percent since January
- Steam active users on unusual decline throughout 2018: Steep decrease after January surge may reflect popularity of PUBG, then Fortnite
- Steam game accused of covertly mining for cryptocurrency
- Lessons learned and questions raised in bringing a game from console to Steam
- Worldwide digital spending up 15% in June – Superdata: PUBG bolstered by Steam sale with second-best month of all time by unit sales
- PUBG Mobile’s revenue reaches $30 million: Users globally spending about $650k daily over the last month, nearly triple the amount for the previous month
- Valve adds pop-ups to Community Market warning of potential scams: Dialogue boxes warn users if they attempt to purchase items for a game they don’t own, or a new release
- Valve’s first new game in 5 years, Artifact, coming in November, starting at $20
- How League of Legends Went From Idea to Esport
- Why Competitive Gaming Is Starting To Look A Lot Like Professional Sports: Can an FPS compete with the NFL?
- How mobile can unlock esports for a casual audience: nWay CEO Taehoon Kim on the success of Power Rangers Legacy Wars and how it’s helping grow mobile esports
- Overwatch League franchise spots for next season could be worth up to $60m: London Spitfires crowned Season 1 champions as Activision Blizzard prepares to open up six new spots globally
- Making the piracy problem worse – 10 Years Ago This Month: Some publishers look at the recording industry’s disastrous reaction to file-sharing and basically copy it
- Pokémon Go brushes off competition from Jurassic World and The Walking Dead: Apptopia co-founder and COO Jonathan Kay explains why Pokémon Go thrives as its competitors flounder
- HTC Pushes Back On Reports of Declining Headset Sales
- HTC defends lack of data when disputing VR “tailspin”: Headset manufacturer claims its leading position shows health of market – despite failing to demonstrate with sales figures
- HTC, amidst a major revenue decline, brags about its VR revenue
- PlayStation VR co-creator Richard Marks has swapped Sony for Google
- Samsung Odyssey Drops to $400 and HP to $200 as Steep Discounts Continue for Windows VR Headsets
- New XRDC Innovation Report reveals Vive still devs’ top target as AR rises
- The GamesIndustry.biz Podcast: Artificial intelligence, with Chet Faliszek
- Elon Musk to video game devs: Help me put “super fun games” on Tesla screens
- Why did licensed games get better?
- Defy Media Sells Off Another Property — Its ‘Escapist Magazine’ Gaming News Site
- The Escapist relaunches with “no politics” pledge
- FoxNext to join Disney after $71.3 billion Fox deal approved by shareholders: 21st Century Fox games division one of the “key assets” acquired by Disney
- Disney’s purchase of Fox moves FoxNext into the House of Mouse
- iOS game collection aims to spotlight pre-mobile handheld games
- Blog: Meet The mobile puzzlers from a century ago
DIGITAL
- Facebook Loses $120 Billion in Market Value, as Stock Slides on Fears Growth Is Hitting a Wall
- YouTube comes down on Alex Jones for hate speech, child endangerment content
- Alex Jones hit with 30-day Facebook suspension for bullying and hate speech: Only Jones’ personal profile is affected, not his official channels, including InfoWars
- Facebook, Following YouTube’s Lead, Takes Action Against InfoWars And Alex Jones
- Alex Jones slammed with 30-day ban from Facebook for hateful videos [Update]
- Ted Cruz Bravely Defends Alex Jones Against Facebook’s Temporary Internet Jail
- Twitter Responds to Claims of ‘Shadow Banning’
- Insights: Twitter, Facebook Investors Find No Upside In Doing The Right Thing
- Facebook Just Shut Down Dozens of Fake Pages
- Facebook’s latest meddling disclosure: “We expected the organization to evolve”
- ‘We Are Not Bots’: Facebook Censors U.S. Activists After Falsely Claiming They ‘Unwittingly’ Planned Protest
- MPs slam Facebooks serious failings in report identifying the misuse of personal data as threatening our democracy.
- Facebook Settles with the Washington Attorney General Over Ad Targeting Practices
- Facebook’s “downvote” system begins rolling out wider in US—here’s how it works
- Facebook Starts Showing You How Much Time You Waste on Facebook
- Facebook And Instagram Add Tools To Help Users Not Get Addicted To Facebook And Instagram
- Cops Lose Qualified Immunity After Arresting Man For A Snarky Facebook Comment
- A Cautionary Tale of Sarcasm in Social Media–Ross v. City of Jackson
- Ignorant Hysteria Over 3D Printed Guns Leads To Courts Ignoring The First Amendment
- Universal Right Back At It Issuing A DMCA For A Reporter’s Video Of Prince Fans Singing ‘Purple Rain’
- Universal Retracts DMCA On Journalist Video Of Prince Fans Singing Purple Rain
- Website User Held to Arbitration Provision Despite Renewing Subscription in Wife’s Name
- Embedding preview images is not copyright infringement, says German court
- 3D-printed gun website yanks CAD files after federal judicial order
- You Can’t Legally 3D Print Guns Quite Yet
- The Battle Over 3D-Printed Guns Is Getting Serious
- 8 states take aim at 3D gun company, sue to get files off the Internet
- Is Code Free Speech?
- Inside the Unabomber’s angsty, odd and furious online revival: A TV drama has rekindled interest in anti-technology terrorist Ted Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber. Ironically enough, his followers now congregate online
- How they did it (and will likely try again): GRU hackers vs. US elections: Latest Mueller indictment offers excruciating details to confirm known election pwnage.
- On Conspiracy Theories and Election Hacking
- Why We’re Sharing 3 Million Russian Troll Tweets
- My short life as (the face of) a Russian disinformation troll
- Daily Beast: Russian hackers targeted Democrat facing tough 2018 election
- Russian Government Decides To Stamp Out ‘Fake News’ At Home, Presumably Leaving Export Operations Unaffected
- DOJ announces arrest of 3 men allegedly behind notorious FIN7 hacking group
- Report: Julian Assange’s Thin Ice at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London Could Be About to Break
- The age of cyberwar is here. We can’t keep citizens out of the debate
- Senator Mark Warner Lays Out Ideas For Regulating Internet Platforms
- Microsoft invests $500,000 in coding and tech training for students of colour: Firm’s support will open Seattle chapter for Black Girls Code and boost Technology Access Foundation’s STEM program
- Windows 10 will try not to reboot when you’re just grabbing a cup of coffee
- Twitter’s One Step Closer to Figuring Out Why It Sucks
- Twitter is funding college professors to audit its platform for toxicity
- On Amazon Prime Day warehouse workers around the world took action against the company. We hear about some of the organizing going on in fulfillment centers from Germany to New Jersey.
- Amazon’s Rekognition messes up, matches 28 lawmakers to mugshots
- Amazon’s Face Recognition Falsely Matched 28 Members of Congress With Mugshots
- Amazon Rekognition Falsely Matched 28 Members of Congress to Mugshots
- Amazon wrongly IDed 28 members of Congress, and they’re not happy about it
- Congress Members Want Answers After Amazon’s Facial Recognition Software Says 28 Of Them Are Criminals
- Congress Members Demand Answers From, Investigation Of Federal Facial Rec Tech Users
- Amazon: Cops should set confidence level on facial recognition to 99%
- The Value Of Public Shaming
- The future role of AI in fact checking
- Data’s day of reckoning: We can build a future we want to live in, or we can build a nightmare. The choice is up to us.
- Why Westerners Fear Robots And The Japanese Do Not
- The “Biometric Mirror” Judges You The Way We’ve Taught It To: With Bias
- Contractual considerations in Robotic Process Automation and Artificial Intelligence outsourcing
- AI Coaches Are Here To Unleash Your Inner LeBron
- Canadian Developments in AI and Technology: Ethical Considerations for Innovators
- Neural network implemented with light instead of electrons
- Regulation-bot: the rise of AI legislation
- The Rise of the Last-Mile Exchange: Keeping up with the growing volume of e-commerce will require delivery companies to disrupt their long-standing business model.
- Report: Google is preparing to cave to Chinese search censorship
- Google’s Censored Chinese Search Engine Shows It’s No Longer Afraid of U.S. Backlash
- Google Developing Censored Search Engine For China: Report
- Disappointing: Google Makes Plan To Return To China With Censored Search Engine
- Google Glass Is Back, And May Have Finally Found A Place It Belongs
- YouTube Will Bring Original Programming To Germany, Japan, Mexico, France, And India
- YouTube In Hot Water Again After Search Results For Tom Hanks Lead To Conspiracy Theories
- YouTube’s Second Demi Lovato Documentary Is In Production But On Hold After Apparent Overdose
- YouTube Premium’s Fall Slate To Feature Will Smith, Robert Downey Jr., Kirsten Dunst
- YouTube Music Is Seriously Bulking Up Its Senior Leadership On A Global Scale
- Indian PM Narendra Modi Surpasses One Million Subscribers, Will Soon Be Top World Leader On YouTube
- Jimmy Kimmel Enlists Goddaughter To Teach Him About YouTube Beauty Tutorials
- Casey Neistat Is “Just Getting Started” After Surpassing 10 Million Subscribers
- Casey Neistat Challenges Logan Paul In Testy Interview: “All That Really Matters Is What Transpired”
- Will Smith To Casey Neistat: “Let’s Get To Creatin’”
- Alisha Marie Returns From Two-Month Hiatus, Looks To Normalize Breaks For YouTube Stars
- Huda Kattan, Lele Pons Are Instagram’s Top-Paid Digital Influencers At $33,000 Per Post (Report)
- “Kidtech” Company Superawesome Launches Video Player For Family-Friendly Publishers
- CBS Announces Plans For 24/7 Streaming Local News Services, Launching First In New York
- Viacom confirms Awesomeness TV acquisition
- Viacom To Acquire Digital Media Company AwesomenessTV For Rumored Price “Below $300 Million”
- Viacom announces it’s buying Awesomeness: Viacom announced it’s buying Awesomeness for a price well under $300 million – Awesomeness was owned by NBCUniversal, Verizon, and Hearst.
- Jeffrey Katzenberg’s WndrCo Raises Additional $200 Million, For $1 Billion In Total Funding (Report)
- Spotify Hits 83 Million Premium Subs in Q2 as Net Loss Doubles: CEO Daniel Ek says direct-licensing deals with artists don’t make Spotify a record label
- Spotify is now streaming Archie motion comics
- Spotify Debuts ‘Archie’ Motion Comic Amid Pivot To Audio-Visual Content
- Penske Media Makes Strategic Investment in BuzzAngle Music: Key PMC brands, including Rolling Stone and Variety, will utilize the platform’s data, analysis and consumption charts.
- Snapchat To Act As Matchmaker For Creators And Advertisers Via ‘Storytellers’ Initiative
- NFL Renews Snapchat Deal for Two Years, Will Flood the Zone for Sunday Games
- Snapchat launches new Lenses that respond to your voice
- Snapchat’s Latest Lenses Are Speech-Activated With Words Like “Love” And “Wow”
- MoviePass Is Jacking Up Its Prices as It Tries to Survive
- MoviePass, AMC, and the Era of Cinema Subscriptions
- Mission: Impossible’s Box Office ‘Failure’ Shows Why We Need MoviePass
- The strange story of how MoviePass’ owner was created by an Indian company accused of massive fraud
- WhatsApp Rightly Refuses Indian Government’s Silly Demand To Break Encryption
- Loyalty vs. Freedom of Expression: Who Wins the Battle in the Social Media Ring
- OSC Cryptocurrency Survey Reveals Public’s Uncertainty About Blockchain Issues
- Cryptomining Malware Is Infecting Corporate Networks Worldwide
- Hackers find creative way to steal $7.7 million without being detected
- The Rise Of An “Assassination Marketplace” Shows The Dark Side of Decentralized Networks
- NFLPA Bets on Blockchain-Backed Social Streaming Platform SportsCastr
- California Federal Court Denies Preliminary Injunction In “Blockchain” Dispute
- Up to Two-Thirds of Bitcoin Transactions Have No Economic Value
- Inside Ecobee’s plans to outsmart Nest: The smart-thermostat maker wants to remodel our houses for the digital age — if Google’s Nest doesn’t squash it first.
- How Software Ate the Point of Sale: Or, why paying for stuff is so complicated now
- Services drove Apple’s best third quarter ever, but iPhone sales aren’t growing
- Growing Up Jobs: Steve Jobs and Chrisann Brennan were 23 when their daughter was born. Lisa Brennan-Jobs remembers the pride and pain of a childhood spent navigating the vastness between her struggling single mom and Apple’s mercurial founder.
- Happy Birthday To Us! Wired Turns 25
CREATIVITY
- Inequality in 1,100 Popular Films: Examining Portrayals of Gender, Race/Ethnicity, LGBT & Disability from 2007 to 2017 (Dr. Stacy L. Smith, Marc Choueiti, Dr. Katherine Pieper, Ariana Case, & Angel Choi)
- In the era of #MeToo, is it still OK to laugh at ‘Animal House’?
- Stephen Colbert swallows hard and addresses boss Les Moonves’ #MeToo mess
- Assaults in dressing rooms. Groping during lessons. Classical musicians reveal a profession rife with harassment.
- Down for what?: Every rapper wants a woman who will do anything, except be her own person.
- The Sex-Trafficking Case Testing the Limits of the First Amendment: How a couple of crusading journalists made a fortune selling adult escort ads and in the process became unlikely and widely reviled First Amendment advocates.
- Why Are We Still So Worried About Watching Porn?: Decades of fearmongering almost got porn addiction added to the International Classification of Diseases. Thankfully, the World Health Organization got it right.
- Staircases in Space: Why Are Places in Science Fiction Not Wheelchair-Accessible?
- “Known but not discussed”: Low-income people aren’t getting quality news and information. What can the industry do about it?
- How music has responded to a decade of economic inequality: Popular music has always delivered social critique. But it’s struggled to grapple with the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.
- The 200 Greatest Songs By 21st Century Women+
- Sony Finds Itself In Court After Bullying Film Studio Over Supposed ‘Slender Man’ Copyright Infringement
- Better by design: significant changes coming to Canada’s industrial design legislation
- Are headline and title writers getting too cocky about their IP rights?
- Fox Shareholders Have Agreed to the Disney Deal, and the X-Men Are Coming Back to Marvel
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- CRTC Truthiness: New Docs Reveal New Story About Bell Meetings with the Commission on Website Blocking
- Trump Throws His FCC Under The Bus For Pointing Out Sinclair May Have Lied During Its Merger Sales Pitch
- Ajit Pai Lies (Again) To Congress With Claim Net Neutrality Killed Broadband Investment
- FCC Chairman Will Not Recuse Himself From Investigation Into Former Client Securus Technologies
- Cord Cutting Accelerates Faster Than Expected, As Cable Still Refuses To Compete On Price
- The Fairfax and Nine merger is the disruption of digital media arriving to Australia in a big way
- NY threatens to kick Charter out of the state after broadband failures
- New York State Votes To Kick Charter Out Of The State For Poor Service, Failing To Meet Merger Conditions
- NY orders Charter out of state, says it must sell Time Warner Cable system
- Comcast installed Wi-Fi gear without approval—and this city is not happy
- Comcast, Charter dominate US; telcos “abandoned rural America,” report says
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- GDPR Compliance for Canadian Organizations
- How GDPR is affecting the kidtech biz: The EU’s new data protection and privacy regulations went into effect in May, but experts say the kids industry is not prepared for the potential fines.
- UK Tribunal Says GCHQ Engaged In Illegal Telco Collection Program For More Than A Decade
- Inspector General Says NSA Still Hasn’t Implemented Its Post-Snowden Internal Security Measures
- Court Rejects Evidence From Warrantless Search Of Phone Six Years After The Gov’t Seized It
- Cops Slowly Wise Up To The SIM Hijacking Trend Carriers Don’t Want To Seriously Address
- EU And Japan Agree To Free Data Flows, Just As Tottering Privacy Shield Framework Threatens Transatlantic Transfers
- Sir Cliff Richard v The BBC: Blurring the lines between libel and privacy law
- Freedom of expression: On a Cliff edge?
- Hold on to Your Coins! Understanding Sextortion Scam Emails and What You Should Do
- Click on this iOS phishing scam and you’ll be connected to “Apple Care”
- Password breach teaches Reddit that, yes, phone-based 2FA is that bad
- New Spectre attack enables secrets to be leaked over a network
- Shipping company’s networks in the Americas crippled by ransomware attack
- Bringing the Fourth Amendment into the Digital Age: Implications of Carpenter v. United States
- New Report Says The Feds’ Focus On Device Encryption Is Holding Local Law Enforcement Back
- Burglar wakes up couple to ask to use their Wi-Fi network
Jon
News of the Week; July 25, 2018
GAMES
- Two Researchers Challenged a Scientific Study About Violent Video Games – and Took a Hit for Being Right: How two researchers paid a price for challenging a retracted study about violent video games.
- Nintendo files lawsuit against two popular ROM websites
- Nintendo to ROM sites: Forget cease-and-desist, now we’re suing
- Nintendo files copyright infringement lawsuit against two console ROM websites: LoveROMs and LoveRETRO are “among the most open and notorious online hubs for pirated video games” says platform holder
- Roblox: “Our work on safety is never-ending” – Developer behind popular kids game responds to recent gang rape incident, reiterates that hacker behind it has been banned
- Roblox on track to pay in-game devs $70M in 2018, more than double 2017’s payout
- Blind Mind Studios releases source code for Star Ruler 2
- PUBG Corp apologizes, removes offensive Japanese mask from game
- PUBG developer apologies after controversial World War II references found in game: Purchasable mask and AI bot caused offence across Korea and China with allusions to Imperial Japan
- Video chat with PUBG creator: “We could put battle royale in everything”
- PUBG Mobile reaches $30M in revenue 4 months after launch
- How Landfall accidentally struck a vein with a joke battle royale game
- Valve bans over 90,000 Steam accounts in one week
- 90,000 Steam accounts banned in Valve’s biggest anti-cheat purge to date: Just under 30,000 cheaters dealt with on Wednesday, followed by a record-breaking 60,000 yesterday
- Psyonix shares Rocket League loot box drop rates ahead of progression overhaul
- Dota 2 loot boxes now reveal contents ahead of purchase for Dutch players
- Niantic introduces three-strike policy for cheaters inPokémon Go
- Niantic outlines Pokemon Go cheating policy: Developer offers clarity on three-strike disciplinary system as ban waves ramp up
- Guiding children towards healthy gaming: “We have amazing materials for parents, we need to shout about them much more,” says Andy Robertson
- For the record: Report on Saudi Arabia ban of 47 games inaccurate
- Rebuilding MidBoss – Interim CEO and creative director discuss trying to save the 2064: Read Only Memories studio after sexual harassment and employee mistreatment scandal
- Gaming’s toxic men, explained: Experts tackle the phenomenon of angry men, trolls, racists and misogynists who hover around the video game industry
- The GamesIndustry.biz Careers Survey 2018: Lower pay but less crunch
- Studio Pixel Punk: Getting diversity right means going beyond “good intentions”
- 2K’s light slate belies bigger ambitions: President David Ismailer discusses publisher’s plans to grow, how it evaluates development partners, and thoughts on esports betting
- International Olympic Committee hosts forum to discuss esports: Riots Games CEO hopes forum might lead to esports “being more legitimised the world over”
- Esports Could Enter The Olympics Fray By The 2024 Summer Games In Paris (Report)
- James Ohlen: Anthem failure won’t mean the end of BioWare – Long-serving designer also disputes “conspiracy theories” that EA is driving studio away from story-driven RPGs
- Bandai Namco: “We want 50% of our games to be new IP” – Digital and marketing VP Hervé Hoerdt details how the Japanese publisher plans to create new brands that yield movies, toys and more
- Bandai Namco Amusement Lab Inc. established for VR arcade development
- Bandai Namco establishes new development team for VR, AR, MR: Bandai Namco Amusement Lab Inc. will focus on XR experiences primarily for arcades
- This VR Horror Game Is Exactly as Scary as Your Body Can Handle
- The Magic Hustle: Magic Leap not so Magical – Silicon Valley Global News SVGN.io
- Unity: “Games wouldn’t see the light of day” without asset stores – Asset Store boss Peter O’Reilly on the misconception around “asset flips”, and why Unity won’t match the Unreal Marketplace’s 88/12 revenue split
- Minecraft most downloaded Switch game in Japan so far this year: Retail version beats out all other packaged software for 2018 after less than one month on store shelves
- Blog: Breath of the Wild and the Montessori method
- Octopath Traveler impresses in European charts
- Square Enix bets on game streaming with Blacknut partnership
- Square Enix partners with Blacknut for cloud gaming: Partnership will bring Lara Croft Go, Hitman Go, more to Blacknut-supported devices
- UK Charts: Crash Bandicoot holds No.1 as Xbox exclusives dominate Top Ten
- Microsoft’s streaming Xbox will split up games to keep latency low
- Forward-box: Xbox Adaptive Controller’s packaging is a good Microsoft move
- Designing accessible packaging for the Xbox One Adaptive Controller
- Candy Crush Saga revenue spikes 18% in Q2 to over $200m: King’s six-year-old game ranked No. 7 for global app spending and No. 6 for games
- Next Games looks to The Walking Dead for growth after €7m H1 loss
- Layoffs at OnRush developer after racer fails to gain traction
- Onrush struggles lead to Evolution layoffs: Driveclub director Paul Pustchynsky among those who have been made redundant as Codemasters “decapitates” studio
- Raiders of the Broken Planet going free-to-play less than a year after launch: MercurySteam’s online shooter also rebranding as Spacelords as of August 23rd, director says episodic model “didn’t work as planned”
- Apple promotes iPhone gaming performance with new ad
- Analyst: Fortnite now rakes in $2 million per day on iOS alone
- Fortnite daily mobile revenue reaches $2m: Launch of Season 5 sets new record of $3 million revenue in a single day
- Why the world loves “Fortnite” and I don’t
- Epic releases postmortem for Fortnite’s playground mode
- How Fortnite Captured Teens’ Hearts and Minds: The craze for the third-person shooter game has elements of Beatlemania, the opioid crisis, and eating Tide Pods.
- Video: The unconventional launch of Fortnite
- Report: Epic’s net worth could rise to $8B thanks toFortnite
- Breaking down Azeroth’s gates: Nostalgia is a powerful force for millions of former WoW players; but to convince them that they can re-engage without facing a time-sink, Blizzard needs to innovate once more
- In A New Game Available On YouTube, Video URLs Are Hidden Inside Puzzles
- YouTube Stars Kristopher London, Jesser Play ‘NBA 2k19’ With The Lakers, Get Scanned Into The Game
- Matthew Patrick Announces The Passing Of Game Theorists Editor Ronnie “Oni” Edwards
- Halo devs not working on battle royale mode for Infinite
- Rockfish: Live Steam broadcasting will change the game for indie marketing – Valve’s store page streaming beta helped Everspace to its highest ever single-day revenue, says CEO Michael Schade
- Blog: Being a solo indie in a post-Steam Greenlight world
- Oculus Go supporting otherwise faltering VR headset market: Q2 shipments show waning interest in VR as Pokemon Go continues to popularize AR
- No Man’s Sky Next update attracts over 40,000 players on Steam
- Bethesda unlikely to use external developers in future
- Bethesda’s growth makes it ‘less likely’ it’ll let external devs tackle its IP
- Google Play continues to widen global download gap with iOS: Android storefront saw over 20 billion app downloads in Q2, iOS downloads around 8 billion
- Microsoft ends fiscal year with $10 billion in games revenue, more Xbox Live users
- Microsoft annual gaming revenue tops $10 billion: Xbox maker’s full-year results show year-over-year growth in sales, Xbox Live active users
- Jurassic World Evolution hits one million sales
- Jurassic World Evolution has sold over 1 million copies
- Defiance 2050 developer Trion Worlds lays off 15 staff
- Trion Worlds eliminates 15 positions post-Defiance 2050 launch: MMO studio says round of layoffs necessary to enable continued development on upcoming projects
- UK tax breaks have helped finance 480 video games: In fact, more games have benefitted from tax relief than TV productions
- How piracy led to GOG encouraging DRM-free releases
- Muriel Tramis becomes second-ever game designer awarded the Legion of Honour
- Understanding the human cost of creating No Man’s Sky
- Writers discuss the evolving role narrative has in game development
- Former BioWare dev James Ohlen discusses creative freedom and burnout
- A quick word on which versions of Mega Man X Legacy Collection to get—or avoid
- The Game Outcomes Project: How teamwork, leadership and culture drive results
DIGITAL
- Microsoft exec: We stopped Russia from hacking 3 congressional campaigns
- Yes, Russians Hacked U.S. Electric Companies, Homeland Security Confirms
- Breaking With 30 Years Of Traditional Opacity, DOJ Releases FISA Warrant Applications For Surveillance Of Carter Page
- Wikileaks Refused To Publish Manafort Family Texts, So Someone Else Did
- Digital age reinforces the need for judiciary to act as a bulwark against tyranny
- The ‘Guerrilla’ Wikipedia Editors Who Combat Conspiracy Theories
- How Silicon Valley Turned Evil: What Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, and Elon Musk can learn from their predecessors – before they destroy the world.
- Is Any Press Really Good Press? California Supreme Court Rules on Fate of Defamatory Yelp Reviews
- Facebook stock dives nearly 20% on warning of slow revenue growth
- Facebook Just Learned The True Cost Of Fixing Its Problems
- Facebook Sets Up China Subsidiary to Build Local Innovation Hub
- After a single day, Facebook is pushed out of China again
- Facebook follows SpaceX and OneWeb into high-speed satellite broadband
- Senators Wyden & Rubio Ask Google And Amazon To Bring Back Domain Fronting
- Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Twitter partner for ambitious new data project: An open-source collaboration for ‘the future of portability’
- Study: Analysis of top Facebook pages covering American political news – Study of 463 leading Facebook pages shows that partisan pages have roughly equal engagement, but right-wing pages drastically outnumber left-wing pages
- Facebook bows to WA state pressure to remove “discriminatory” ad filters
- Facebook’s Fight Against Fake News Keeps Raising Questions
- Departing Facebook Security Officer’s Memo: “We Need To Be Willing To Pick Sides”: In a brutally honest note about his departure, Facebook’s Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos calls on his colleagues “to intentionally not collect data where possible”
- Listen To Stephen Fry Perfectly Analogize The Moral Panics Around Facebook To The Ones Over The Printing Press
- Should Your Family Be Able to Inherit Your Facebook Messages?
- Appeals Court Won’t Yet Review Awful District Court Decision That Says Embedding Could Be Infringement
- Does the Public Have a First Amendment Right to Post Comments on a Public Official’s Twitter Feed? First Amendment Challenges to Social Media Access in the 21st Century
- Twitter courted comedians, then the opposition: How jokes became ammo during the social media platform’s shift from distraction to political warzone
- Was It Ethical For Dropbox To Share Customer Data With Scientists?
- The Internet Apologizes …:Even those who designed our digital world are aghast at what they created. A breakdown of what went wrong – from the architects who built it.
- Cyberbullying
- Leaders Who Pledged Not To Build Autonomous Killing Machines Are Ignoring The Real Problem
- U.S. Department of Defense Established A Center To Better Integrate AI
- ‘The discourse is unhinged’: how the media gets AI alarmingly wrong
- We Need Transparency in Algorithms, But Too Much Can Backfire
- Google’s iron grip on Android: Controlling open source by any means necessary
- Advertiser’s Suit Against Google Loses for Third (and Final) Time–Abid v. Google
- Google Wants You to Use Physical Security Keys So Bad It’s Willing to Sell You One
- Google launches “Shielded VMs” to protect cloud servers from rootkits, data theft
- Big News: Big Internet Platforms Making It Easy To Move Your Data Somewhere Else
- Science Fiction Is Not Social Reality: The tech industry is inspired to create our world from linear, scripted science fiction stories.
- Delete your account: It’s a “great shame,” says Silicon Valley insider Jaron Lanier, that so much of big tech’s AI has been aimed at manipulating you.
- Brainwashing your wife to want sex? Here is adtech at its worst
- Resale Price Maintenance, Pricing Algorithms and Monitoring Software: a Recipe for Disaster
- DARPA Is Funding Research Into AI That Can Explain What It’s “Thinking”
- Robots And Racism (Bartneck, C., Yogeeswaran, K., Ser, Q. M., Woodward, G., Sparrow, R., Wang, S., & Eyssel, F.)
- Influence and responsibility: New Canadian influencer marketing guidelines emerge
- The Database: A Look At The Growing World Of Streaming And Over-The-Top Video
- Mozilla Exec Says YouTube Runs Five Times Slower Than Chrome On Firefox, Offers Solution
- YouTube Streams Over 180 Million Hours to TV Screens Every Day
- YouTube Deletes Videos Posted by Infowars, Suspends Alt-Right Channel From Live-Streaming
- YouTube Issues Another Strike Against InfoWars For Hate Speech, Child Endangerment
- Documentary Series ‘Best Shot,’ Co-Produced By Lebron James, Tips Off On NBA YouTube Channel
- YouTube Will Distribute Grants To Education-Focused Channels Via ‘YouTube Learning’ Fund
- YouTube shuts down FamilyOFive channel over ‘child endangerment’ concerns
- YouTube Finally Terminates Channels Belonging To Notorious ‘DaddyOFive’ Parents
- YouTube Blocks ‘FamilyOFive’ Account of Parents Convicted of Child Neglect
- Carrie Hope Fletcher Urges Boycott Of Fellow YouTuber Alex Day’s Upcoming Book
- Ahead Of Boxing Match, Deji Olatunji Says He’s Being Sued For Greg Paul Press Conference Assault
- Logan Paul And KSI Have Launched A Pay-Per-View YouTube Channel Dedicated To Their Upcoming Boxing Match
- YouTube Is Reportedly Combatting Instagram’s IGTV By Cutting Six-Figure Checks To Creators
- YouTube Experimenting With ‘Explore’ Tab To Expose Viewers To Broader Video Variety
- What would you do if your teenager became an overnight Instagram sensation?
- Mac ’n Cheese bubbles over in Instagram copyright dispute
- GoDaddy & Instagram Avoid Liability for Users’ Photos of Knockoff Goods–Franklin v. X Gear 101
- Insights: As Subscriptions Drain Wallets, Ad-Supported Online Services Find New Fans
- Netflix Launches Its First European Production Hub in Madrid
- Shonda Rhimes’ Eight-Show Netflix Slate Has A Some Romance, Some History, Some Intrigue
- Petition To Halt Release Of Netflix Series ‘Insatiable’ Garners 123,000 Signatures
- Netflix Will Enable Subscribers To Use Its Popular Characters As Their Profile Icons
- Sony Looking To Sell Stake In Crackle And Onboard Strategic Partner (Report)
- Musical.ly Reportedly Shut Down Live.ly Because Its Owner Didn’t Want A LiveMe Competitor
- How radio found new life on the internet and changed music discovery forever
- Twitch Launches Creator Camp Channel To Help Its Users Become Better Streamers
- Snapchat Opens A Private Marketplace For Brands To Buy Ads In Discover Shows
- Snapchat and Nielsen Partner to Integrate Offline Data For Audience Targeting
- Snapchat is shutting down Snapcash
- Snapchat starts to syndicate video shows on Discover
- Snapchat Is Launching A Show Where Parents Look At Their Kids’ Dating App Profiles
- Sony’s Monstrous New Smartphone Camera Sensor Could Make Us Care About Megapixels Again
- Research Confirms The Anecdotal Evidence: Internet Content Filters Are A Waste Of Money
- ‘Piracy Audiences Are Untapped Pools of Wealth’
- Chinese Citizens Are Using Blockchain to Warn Each Other of Unsafe Vaccines
- CSA reinforces position that securities laws apply to cryptocurrency offerings, confirms regulatory scrutiny for industry participants
- Hacker Exposes Security Vulnerability in Popular Cryptocurrency Site Etherscan
- The Role of IP in the Crypto Bubble
- Declining cryptocurrency prices are making graphics cards affordable again
- Behold This Disastrously Bad Op-Ed Calling for Amazon to Replace Libraries
- Amazon Studios’ Top Film Executive Is Departing Amid Strategic Shift
- Best Buy Should Be Dead, But It’s Thriving in the Age of Amazon: The big-box retailer doesn’t just want to sell you electronics. It wants its in-home consultants to be “personal chief technology officers.”
- Amazon’s Face Recognition Falsely Matched 28 Members of Congress With Mugshots
- Can We Make Non-Racist Face Recognition?
- For One Last Night, Make It a Blockbuster Night: Everything is 10 years behind in Alaska—including the way people see movies.But now, the late fees are finally coming due, and the end of the Blockbuster era is upon us.
- Click-wraps the way of the future ‒ but make sure they’re legal
- A new digital divide: Young people who can’t use keyboards
CREATIVITY
- The value of a copyrighted photograph is not necessarily in the eye of the beholder
- When Does “All” Mean All?
- Tesla clears the air with “farting unicorn” artist after copyright stink
- Au Revoir, Droit de Suite—9th Circuit Narrows California Resale Royalty Act to a Single Year’s Sales
- South Africa’s Proposed Fair Use Right In Copyright Bill Is Surprisingly Good — At The Moment
- False Advertising in a Movie Trailer?
- Who owns the Roger Federer RF monogram trade mark?
- Ecuador Will Imminently Withdraw Asylum for Julian Assange and Hand Him Over to the UK. What Comes Next?
- The View From Somewhere: The Press Needs To Be Anti-Partisan, Not Bi-Partisan
- Cambodian Government Latest To Stifle Press With ‘Fake News’ Legislation
- The Daily News Was Superman’s Paper – Tronc Fed It Kryptonite: The owners fired half the paper’s staff Monday in a savage move that not only guts the newspaper, but also drastically diminishes the reporting of New York City.
- Tronc Is Incompetent, but Gutting Newsrooms Is Just Normal Capitalism
- If You’re A Journalist Hiring Lawyers To Intimidate Publishers Into Killing Stories About Your Misdeeds, You’re A Hypocrite
- Disney confirms Guardians director fired over years-old tweets
- James Gunn Will No Longer Direct Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in the Wake of Appalling Tweets
- Hollywood’s Zero-Tolerance on Racism, Sexism Is the New Normal
- The US Army Gets Armistice With NHL Team Over ‘Golden Knights’ Trademark
- Four ways President Trump is changing prime time TV
- The Propaganda Films That Saved Walt Disney’s Cartoon Empire
- Marvel Offers Grief Counseling at Comic-Con for Fans Traumatized by the End of Infinity War
- Art technicians: The industry’s dirty secret, or all part of the process?
- The Standard Consent Agreement That Protects Sacha Baron Cohen
- The death of Don Draper: Advertising, once a creative industry, is now a data-driven business reliant on algorithms. The implications are deeply sinister – not only for the consumer but for democracy itself.
- How The Global Music Copyright Business Grew By $1.5bn In 2016 (And Why That’s Amazing News Today)
- Blurred Lines Between Inspiration and Infringement: Ninth Circuit Holds “Blurred Lines” Infringes Copyright
- You Don’t Need to Be a Musician to Get a Record Deal in 2018: Streaming has upturned music’s status quo – and labels are looking farther afield for truly fresh talent
- Trying to protect – and expand – Cuba’s undiscovered musical legacy
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- Court Rules Quebec Plan for Mandated ISP Blocking of Online Gambling Sites is Unconstitutional
- A $250,000 Reminder that “CASL” is Not Just an AntiSpam Law
- CRTC Issues Penalties to Middle Men Under CASL to Combat Malware Installation
- Audio Bulletin – CRTC Issues Penalties to Middle Men Under CASL to Combat Malware Installation
- How far will the FCC pursue Sinclair Broadcasting’s “misrepresentations” now that Trump has intervened?
- FCC votes against Sinclair/Tribune merger, likely dooming deal
- FCC Confirms Sinclair Misled Agency To Try And Get Its Megamerger Approved
- Trump tweets anger at FCC after Pai blocks Sinclair/Tribune merger
- Comcast Drops Its Bid to Buy Fox, Meaning There’s Nothing Stopping the Disney Deal Now
- Comcast admits defeat in bidding war for Fox, clearing path for Disney
- Ajit Pai gets message from his hometown ISP: Don’t hurt us small ISPs
- Viacom in Talks to Buy AwesomenessTV
- Viacom In Advanced Talks To Acquire AwesomenessTV (Report)
- Verizon Took A $658 Million Hit “Mainly Related To The Discontinuation” Of Go90
- FCC will now take your comments on whether to allow T-Mobile/Sprint merger
- Wireless Carriers Have A SIM Hijacking Problem They Don’t Want To Talk About
- Massachusetts Just The Latest State To Embrace Net Neutrality
- India Embraces Full Net Neutrality As The U.S. Runs The Opposite Direction
- NYC Will Stop Gouging Incarcerated New Yorkers For Calling Home
- Personal liability for directors over nuisance calls
- Sen. Ron Wyden On Breaking Up Facebook, Net Neutrality, And The Law That Built The Internet
- Survey: 5.4 Million Americans Will Cut The Cable TV Cord In 2018
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- Canadian Court Affirms Citizens Still Have An Expectation Of Privacy In Devices Being Repaired By Third Parties
- Toronto Approves Gunshot-Detecting Surveillance Tech Days After Mass Shooting: Rattled by a string of gun violence this year, Toronto just approved ShotSpotter, a US-based audio surveillance system that purports to detect the sound of gunshots.
- Public Facebook Profiles Not Equivalent to Public Information Under PIPEDA
- Texas Judges Continue To Turn Expungement Orders Into ‘Right To Be Forgotten’ Requests
- Snoopware installed by 11 million+ iOS, Android, Chrome, and Firefox users
- Decade-old Bluetooth flaw lets hackers steal data passing between devices
- Today’s the day that Chrome brands plain old HTTP “not secure”
- In the Internet of Things, Opportunities Abound for Class Action Litigation
- UK Court Rules a Suspect in a Criminal Investigation has Reasonable Expectation it will be Kept Private
- UK Judge Says Accurate Journalism Is An Invasion Of Privacy In Cliff Richard Case
- Congratulations and Celebrations to Sir Cliff Richards in High Court Privacy Success
- Sir Cliff Richard wins landmark privacy battle against the BBC
- Privacy Cliff’s courageous battle with the BBC brings the right outcome
- Federal Judge Blasts FBI, Agent For Breaking The Law When Seeking Stingray Warrants
- 24 people have now been sentenced in India-based phone-scam case
- This school scans classrooms every 30 seconds through facial recognition technology
- Uber, Lyft driver booted after newspaper reveals he was livestreaming passengers
- Venmo’s terrible idea
- British Airways asked customers to post personal information on Twitter ‘to comply with GDPR’
- Irish Lawmakers Realizing The GDPR’s Consent Requirements Seem A Bit Onerous, Want To ‘Infer’ Consent
- Demonstrating Compliance with both GDPR and CCPA
- Cybersecurity, Privacy and Data Protection Alert: California Consumer Privacy Act
- Once Again…California Sets the Tone for U.S. Data Privacy
- California Passes Groundbreaking Data Privacy Law with an Expansion of Consumers’ Privacy Rights
- A First (But Very Incomplete) Crack at Inventorying the California Consumer Privacy Act’s Problems
- The World Economy Runs on GPS. It Needs a Backup Plan: The small satellite network, which keeps global computer systems from freaking out, is shockingly vulnerable to all kinds of interference.
- Ars on your lunch break: The consequences of a government genetic database
Jon
News of the Week; July 18, 2018
GAMES
- Tencent awarded $2.9M in case against dev of allegedLeague of Legends clone
- Tencent awarded $2.89 million in lawsuit against Mobile Legends CEO: Riot Games parent company wins non-compete suit in China
- Capcom Wins Judgement to Uphold Patent in Lawsuit to Rescind Decision for its Patent #3295771
- Star Citizen backer loses court case for $4,500 refund: Arbitration clause in end-user license agreement protects developer RSI from refund claims in court
- Court denies Star Citizen backer’s $4,500 refund lawsuit
- EPIC Bravely Defeats 14 Year Old’s Mom In Court To Continue Lawsuit Against Her Son For Cheating In Fortnite
- Saudi Arabia appears to ban 47 video games after deaths of children
- Credit card thieves reportedly using Clash of Clans to launder money
- Coming soon? German courts ban vague release dates on pre-orders
- Germany bans vague pre-order release dates: Retailers no longer to pre-sell games that are “coming soon”, courts have ruled
- NetEase moves to dismiss PUBG Corp lawsuit: Knives Out developer calls complaint a “shameless attempt” to monopolize a genre
- As PUBG-like contenders emerge, Islands of Nyne might already have them beat: While we wait for Battlefield, Call of Duty, awesome sci-fi twist is already here.
- Nintendo lawsuit against Colopl won’t block developer’s Switch release: Platform holder says ongoing patent dispute and defendant’s games business are “completely separate matters”
- Tempest 4000 finally lives after delays, legal threats—but what’s up on PC?
- Social features have cut down on toxic behavior inOverwatch
- Toxicity in Overwatch down by over a quarter following new measures from Blizzard: Game director promises further improvement along with exploration and implementation of new systems
- Ubisoft is now insta-banning toxic Rainbow Six Siegeplayers
- Rainbow Six Siege instantly bans players for using slurs: Bans last nearly half an hour for the first offense, with possible permanent bans after the third
- Amazon may have allowed sales of pirated games: Retailer says “We strictly prohibit the sale of counterfeit products, and these games have been removed”
- Amazon claims to be spiking listings for pirated games
- The ArenaNet Catastrophe Has The Whole Game Industry Rethinking Harassment Policies
- Opinion: It’s past time to get serious about social media policies
- Over half of UK parents let kids play 18+ rated games
- How Bossa relied on players to help build its skyfaring MMO Worlds Adrift
- Jade Raymond on applying lessons from Assassin’s Creed to her new project at EA: The original game was designed as a “sandbox for creatives” with the intention to “hand off the keys to other professionals”
- Madden lead Carlos Guerrero dismissed from EA: Senior producer departs after only two months due to company policy violation
- Valve brings trading back to CS:GO in the Netherlands, though loot boxes remain blocked
- Valve locks Counter-Strike loot boxes for Dutch and Belgian players: Steam item trading returns, but CS:GO’s containers are now locked
- Valve is temporarily withholding adult games from Steam
- Valve temporarily halting new adult game releases on Steam: Company isn’t approving updates or new games until planned filter is in place
- Valve updates “Upcoming” tab on Steam to focus on user interests: Suggestions based on past purchases and pre-release interest will replace chronological listing
- Blog: The three ages of Steam distribution
- Actor Nathan Fillion Just Created A YouTube Fan Film Of Video Game ‘Uncharted’
- Uncharted fan film, starring Nathan Fillion, beats Sony to live-action punch
- Nathan Fillion Is Finally Playing Nathan Drake in This Uncharted Fan Film
- Nathan Fillion Made An Uncharted Fan-Film, And It’s Excellent
- Fallout 76 and the thrill of ‘stranger danger’: Bethesda’s Pete Hines discusses how the publisher’s previous RPGs have been cheating players – and how its next title resolves this
- Blizzard does away with World of Warcraft Battle Chest pricing
- Blizzard makes WoW base game and expansions free to subscribers: New subs now only have to pay an extra fee for the latest expansion, Battle For Azeroth
- Colonial Marines modder finds big AI fix by changing one letter of code
- A years-old, one-letter typo led to Aliens: Colonial Marines’ weird AI
- A One-Letter Typo is (in Part) the Reason Aliens: Colonial Marines Sucked
- Nintendo showcases DIY games made with Labo’s Toy-Con Garage
- Hands-on with Nintendo’s weirdest, and maybe rarest, classic console yet
- The Makers Of Nintendo’s Latest Hidden Gem Worry People Missed It
- Nintendo hid a load-your-own NES emulator inside a GameCube classic
- What’s behind Nintendo’s falling stock price?: Nintendo has lost almost a quarter of its valuation in recent months – but its strategy and line-up remains sound despite investor jitters
- Milan court applies Nintendo v Big Ben in fast fashion lawsuit against ZARA
- Modders revamp Super Mario Odyssey on hacked Switch hardware
- Japan is taking steps to legalize paid esports tournaments
- The Most Important Video Game on the Planet: How Fortnite became the Instagram of gaming.
- Fortnite has collected $1 billion from in-game purchases
- Fortnite has earned $1 billion from in-game purchases alone: Revenue has only continued to rise month by month since game’s battle royale debut
- ‘Fortnite’ Streamer Ninja Helped Florida’s GuardianCon Raise $2.7 Million For St. Jude
- Dan Bull’s Epic Collaboration Brings Together 100 Creators For ‘Fortnite’ Rap Battle
- Encouraging collaboration among players in Sea of Thieves
- Despite Its Best Efforts, NBA 2K League Can’t Beat The Real Thing
- App Store and Google Play spending hits $34.4B during first half of 2018
- Mobile game spending up 19 per cent in H1 2018 – Sensor Tower: Tencent’s Honor of Kings led mobile spending on Google Play and the App Store, PUBG Mobile led downloads
- Marvel Strike Force brings in over $25 million since launch: Turn-based mobile RPG accumulates 10 million installs over four months
- NetEase’s Identity V downloaded over 100 million times: Asymmetrical multiplayer horror game’s downloads doubled upon global release
- The Crew 2 activity “in line” with The Crew 1: Ubisoft sees open-world racing sequel following in the tracks of its predecessor, hoping continued support leads to continuous sales over coming years
- Back catalog games continue to drive growth for Ubisoft as Q1 sales hit $466M
- Ubisoft net bookings ahead of projections in Q1: Company reports $466 million in sales for the quarter, remains on track for full-year estimates
- Ubisoft Berlin granted $1.84M in subsidies from city senate for expansion
- Ubisoft Berlin approved for $1.85m subsidy from city government: Studio plans to use money to expand, creating around 150 new jobs
- Epic increases revenue split for Unreal Engine Marketplace sellers
- Epic Games adjusts Unreal Engine Marketplace share in favor of creators: Developer/store split changed to 88/12% from 70%/30%, applied retroactively
- Epic ups Unreal Marketplace creators’ pay well above industry standard
- Vampyr sells 450,000 copies in first month
- Hangar 13: Diversifying your team protects you from blind spots – The Mafia III developer on “walking a tightrope” with the game’s narrative and how the risks it took shaped the new Brighton studio
- Tropico publisher Kalypso acquires rights to Commandos series
- Tropico publisher acquires Commandos franchise among others – Kalypso Media: “We see it as our responsibility to want to revive and further develop these beloved games for the fans around the world”
- Pokemon Go developer Niantic acquires Seismic Games
- Niantic acquires VR and mobile developer Seismic Games
- VR rivals come together to develop a single-cable spec for VR headsets
- Facebook spends $88M on Oculus permits in Seattle to expand VR headquarters
- Facebook invested $88.3 million to expand its Redmond Oculus HQ this year: Company spent $106 million on construction and permits over the last three years
- Octi raises $7.5 million in seed funding: AR startup’s app can discern human movement in videos, outline people and add effects
- AppLovin’ takes $400 million investment: KKR & Co investment is based on a $2 billion valuation of the mobile marketing firm
- Video game Kickstarters have raised almost $10m so far in 2018: Total money pledged reaches three-year high, but number of campaigns drops to six-year low and success rate remains steady
- Blog: Crowdfunding and video games in 2018 – A mid-year update
- Earn while you play start-up Blast secures $12m seed funding: “If you can attach a positive outcome to something that people already do and love, like gaming, you can change lives”
- Klang Games raises $8.75m for AI-driven space colonization MMO: Spotify-backer firm Northzone leads Series A funding round
- “There will be more IPOs”: Rebuilding trust in the UK games industry
- “Real innovation is coming from emerging markets in many spaces – game development is one of them”
- Ovosonico: Games will be “like the Netflix button on your remote – that easy” – CEO Massimo Guarini on preparing for the horizontal expansion of the industry, and the Italian studio’s pivot into indie AAA
- Taking stock after five years of ID@Xbox: Chris Charla talks about the program’s biggest successes, pain points, and the conventional wisdom on when to announce and release independent games
- The Washington Post Is Now Streaming The News On Twitch
- The Twitch Streamers Who Spend Years Broadcasting To No One
- Top YouTube Gamer Jacksepticeye, Citing Mental Health, Is On A Break
- Don’t Miss: Fight or flight – Exploring the neuroscience of survival horror
- Video: How devs can apply the 5 domains of play to develop empathy
- Ninja Theory dominates the Develop Awards
- French game designer Muriel Tramis awarded Legion of Honor
- Challenging videogame music tropes: “Music doesn’t exist for a passive viewer… it’s the player’s emotional reality,” says composer James Hannigan
- The 20 JRPGs You Must Play
- Video Game Deep Cuts: Octopath’s DOS Demake
- Watch a Guy Build a Brand New, Completely Obsolete Gaming PC With 20-Year-Old Parts
DIGITAL
- 3D-printed gun lawsuit ends after 3+ years—in gun publisher’s favor
- “Content is fire, Social Media is gasoline” – Court of Appeal considers the challenges for interim injunctions in the digital age
- EU: Google illegally used Android to dominate search, must pay $5B fine
- EU Fines Google $5 Billion for Stifling Android’s Competition
- Here’s Why Google Just Got Hit With a Record $5 Billion Fine
- How Google’s Safe Browsing Helped Build A More Secure Web
- Some Thoughts On The EU’s Latest $5 Billion Google Antitrust Fine
- Businesses Cannot Contractually Ban “Abusive” Consumer Reviews
- Trolling the Internet for Photos Creates Copyright Headaches for Ad Agency (and the Advertiser)–Laspata v. Rimowa
- Executives From YouTube, Facebook, Twitter To Testify Before Congress Regarding Political Bias
- Shadow Politics: Meet The Digital Sleuth Exposing Fake News – Buried in media scholar Jonathan Albright’s research was proof of a massive political misinformation campaign. Now he’s taking on the the world’s biggest platforms before it’s too late.
- 12 Russian intel officers indicted for hacking the DNC and Clinton campaign
- Russia Indictment 2.0: What to Make of Mueller’s Hacking Indictment
- Indicting 12 Russian Hackers Could Be Mueller’s Biggest Move Yet
- Bitcoin, malware and ‘spearphishing’ helped Russian agents hack Democratic Party computers in 2016 election
- Cryptocurrency’s Criminal Revolution: The Unsavory Cast Of Bitcoin’s Biggest Beneficiaries
- Suspect behind bitcoin exchange that “catered to criminals” ordered to France
- The SIM Hijackers: Meet the hackers who flip seized Instagram handles and cryptocurrency in a shady, buzzing underground market for stolen accounts and usernames. Their victims’ weakness? Phone numbers.
- Apple Updates Crypto Currency Aspects of App Store Review Guidelines
- AI & Blockchain: An Introduction
- Coty gets green light for online platform ban
- Instagram Model Attacked By Shark While Attempting To Snap The Perfect Shot
- Study: Instagram leads as influencer marketing platform
- California Supreme Court Ruling Immunizes Yelp from Defamatory Content Removal
- ‘Smart’ TVs Remain The Poster Child For Dismal Privacy, Transparency & Security Standards
- States prevail over e-commerce companies in Battle for sales taxes
- Magic Leap Finally Demoed Its Headset And It Is… Disappointing
- Magic Leap’s Disappointing Demo Could Be A Death Knell For AR
- Much of the excitement and cool factor around Magic Leap is now gone
- The best augmented reality I saw this year was live theater funded by a liquor company: Whiskey-sponsored immersive theater. Snickers escape rooms. Immersive branding is just getting started.
- ‘Rick & Morty VR’, ‘Coco VR’, ‘Blade Runner 2049 VR’ & More Nominated for Emmys
- DOJ Tells Ron Wyden About The Times It Has Collected Journalists’ Communications; Leaves Some Facts Out
- Why the Craig behind Craigslist gave big bucks to a journalism program: His philanthropy funds veterans, women, voter protection and trustworthy journalism.
- Copyright As Censorship: FIFA’s Overaggressive Copyright Takedowns Target Fans Celebrating And Pussy Riot Protesting
- Trump revealed as Facebook’s biggest political advertiser
- Media – both on the left and right – are pressing Facebook to define what journalism is
- Notification: Facebook – you have a £500,000 fine from the Information Commissioner’s Office
- Why is InfoWars allowed on Facebook? Zuckerberg: Because it doesn’t cause “harm”
- Here’s What It Takes to Get Kicked off Facebook (Hint: It’s A Lot)
- Facebook says it will begin removing misinformation that leads to violence
- How We Can ‘Free’ Our Facebook Friends
- Inside Facebook, Twitter and Google’s AI battle over your social lives: From stamping out trolls to removing fake bot accounts, here’s how social networks are waging war using AI weapons.
- UK: ICO announces intention to fine Facebook £500,000 and publishes data analytics investigation update
- A FOSTA Of One’s Own: UK Parliament Members Looking To Punish Websites, Push Traffickers Underground
- Digital Ads Are Starting To Feel Psychic: Targeted advertising has become so uncanny, it feels like we’re being surveilled. Two artists want to hear these stories.
- How publishers and advertisers can balance privacy and monetization
- DeepMind Created a Test to Measure an AI’s Ability to Reason
- New Quantum Computer Milestone Would Make Richard Feynman Very Happy
- D-Wave’s quantum computer successfully models a quantum system
- The quantified heart: Artificial intelligence promises ever more control over the highs and lows of our emotions. Uneasy? Perhaps you should be
- A new hope: AI for news media
- Artificial Intelligence Is Automating Hollywood. Now, Art Can Thrive.
- Top AI Experts Vow They Won’t Help Create Lethal Autonomous Weapons
- Netflix Scores 112 Emmy Nominations, Beating Out HBO’s 108
- Netflix to Launch Comedy Radio Channel on SiriusXM
- For First Time In Two Years, Netflix Falls Short Of Quarterly Growth Expectations
- Investors are worried that Netflix is getting as big as it can get
- Netflix Can Either Become the Dominant Media Monopoly of the 21st Century or Go Bust
- Netflix Is King No More as Disney Retakes Media-Company Crown
- Netflix CEO Proclaims The Death Of Net Neutrality Is No Big Deal
- Will Smith Collects $20,000 In Two Days By Selling Merch On YouTube’s New Teespring Shelf
- Shawn Mendes To Kick Off Year-Long Partnership Between YouTube Music, Rolling Stone
- Guns N’ Roses’ “November Rain” Becomes Oldest Music Video To Reach One Billion YouTube Views
- Female Science-Focused YouTubers Face Inordinate Amount Of Criticism, Study Finds
- YouTube TV Gifts Subscribers Week Of Free Service To Apologize For World Cup Outage
- Progress Isn’t Linear: YouTube TV’s World Cup Flub Threatens Public’s Trust For Sports Streaming
- Tickets For The First-Ever VidCon London Are On Sale Now
- Talent Firm ‘Addition’ Signs Lifestyle Creators Aaryn Williams, Ally Chen, And Jennifer Zhang
- Racial Discrimination Complaint Against The Young Turks Leads To A Lawsuit
- Insights: Purging – It’s Not Just For Twitter Anymore (Or At Least It Shouldn’t Be)
- A Serial Twitter Follow/Unfollower Explains Himself: “I’m just trying to get eyes on me. It’s a big attention game online… the end goal for me is just be on as many screens as I can.”
- Unfollowing Everybody (Anil Dash)
- The 10 Most Difficult-To-Defend Online Fandoms
- Creators Are Making As Much As $50,000 With Music Video App Triller’s New Monetization Feature
- Kid-Friendly Network Pocket.watch Raises $15 Million Series B Round Led By Viacom
- Original Shows From DeStorm, Lil Tay Lead The Way As New SVOD Service Zeus Launches
- Do Subscription Models Work with Apps?: Thoughts on Setapp – subscription-based collection for Mac apps
- Reddit Reinvents The Chat Room With Community Chat
- Don’t Feed The Trolls, And Other Hideous Lies: The mantra about the best way to respond to online abuse has only made it worse
- The “Intellectual Dark Web” Is Nothing New
- PC market appears to have grown for the first time since 2012
- Microsoft finally gives Teams what it needs to take on Slack: A free version
- Early Amazon Prime Day Sales Were Up Over 50% Despite Website Crashes and Worker Strikes
- Uber faces new probe over alleged gender discrimination in hiring practices
- Elon Musk could face lawsuit for calling cave rescuer a “pedo guy”
- Antarctic Exploration Vessel Which Should Be Named Boaty McBoatface But Tragically Isn’t Launches
CREATIVITY
- All’s Fair in Whoville: Dr. Seuss Parody is Fair Use
- DeLorean Estate Alleges ‘Back to the Future’ Royalties Were Improperly Distributed
- Green v. Harbach
- The first rule of copyright reform: Don’t mess with free speech and net neutrality (Michael Geist)
- Guy In Charge Of Pushing Draconian EU Copyright Directive, Evasive About His Own Use Of Copyright Protected Images
- Did The Ninth Circuit’s “Blurred Lines” Ruling Just Quietly Move To Kill Off The So-Called Inverse Ratio Rule?
- Court Won’t Rehear Blurred Lines Case, Bad News For Music Creativity
- Is the press regulator subject to judicial review? – Coulter v Independent Press Standards Organisation CIC (IPSO)
- The MAGA Trolls Have Met Their Match In Sacha Baron Cohen And “Who Is America?”
- Congressman Introduces Legislation To Criminalize Protesting In A Mask
- When Black Performers Use Their ‘White Voice’
- Court to Kanye Plaintiff: Imma Let You Finish
- Kanye’s Tweet Could Be False Advertising, New York Court Rules
- Pussy Riot has a wake up call for America’s youth in the Trump era
- State Appeals Court Tosses Defamation Suit Against Lawyer Who Wrote About Teen Driver Who Injured His Client
- How A US Burger Chain Brought ‘Ruby Tuesday’ Full Circle Through Trademark Bullying
- Eighth Grade’s R rating deters actual 8th-graders from seeing it. What a shame.: The MPAA ratings system and its very specific hang-ups are keeping teens away from the movies they need most.
- Disruption, Consolidation, Uncertainty: Welcome to Hollywood’s Age of Anxiety
- Why Did American Music Festivals Almost Disappear in the 1970s and ’80s?
- There Is Now Just One Blockbuster Left in the US
- Alaska’s last two Blockbusters are shutting down, leaving one in US
- The Simpsons Wouldn’t Exist Without Yellow Submarine: How the Beatles classic changed the future of animation.
- Q2 2018 Quick Links, Part 5 (Potpourri) (Eric Goldman)
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- Canada: A $250,000 Reminder that “CASL” is Not Just an Anti-Spam Law
- AG’s False Advertising Suit Challenging Broadband Claims Not Preempted
- Bill to save net neutrality gets first Republican vote in US House
- The Cable TV & Broadband Sector Has A Nasty Billing Fraud Problem
- The FCC’s Sneaky Plan To Make It Easier To Ignore ISP Complaints
- Ajit Pai Pretends To Care About Identity Fraud That Plagued Net Neutrality Repeal
- Ajit Pai’s Cure For The ‘Digital Divide’ Looks Suspiciously Like A Giant Middle Finger
- Ajit Pai finalizes vote to limit FCC reviews of customer complaints
- Ajit Pai deals major setback to Sinclair/Tribune merger
- The FCC Mysteriously Retreats From Sinclair Cronyism, Potentially Dooming Controversial Merger
- FCC Seeks “Large Step” Toward Advancing Broadband Infrastructure Goals With Draft One-Touch Make-Ready Order
- Trump administration appeals court loss in AT&T/Time Warner case
- After AT&T Jacks Up Prices Post Merger, DOJ Decides To Appeal Court Loss
- Charter Spectrum’s New ‘Unlimited’ Wireless Service Bans HD Video Entirely
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- Supreme Court of Canada affirms privacy protections in tobacco health-data case
- B.C. wins SCC appeal on production of health-care databases in Big Tobacco case
- PIPEDA at 20: Time for PIPEDA 2.0 (Michael Geist)
- US v. Microsoft Litigation Update: Supreme Court Dismisses Case as Moot After Congress Amends Stored Communications Act
- Shocker: DOJ’s Computer Crimes And Intellectual Property Section Supports Security Researchers DMCA Exemptions
- Judge slams FBI for improper cellphone search, stingray use
- Oregon Supreme Court Sets Up New Limits For Digital Device Searches
- Florida Man Jailed for Failing to Unlock His Phone
- Guy Gets Tossed In Jail For Contempt Charges Because Cops Say They Need To Unlock His Phones To Get Evidence Of Drug Possession
- State Appeals Court Says Exigency Beats A Warrant Requirement If A Phone Has A Passcode
- Walmart Patents Tech for Eavesdropping on Workers
- Our Data, Ourselves: How to stop tech firms from monopolizing our personal information.
- Microsoft President Calls For Government Rules For Facial Recognition Technology
- How Facial Recognition Could Tear Us Apart: Will the new tech create a safer society – or a dystopian panopticon?
- Smart TVs are invading privacy and should be investigated, senators say
- ‘Smart’ TVs Remain The Poster Child For Dismal Privacy, Transparency & Security Standards
- Should we have any expectation of privacy in public spaces? (Andres Guadamuz)
- Obtained Documents Show The DEA Sold Compromised Phones To Suspected Drug Dealers
- Health Insurers Are Vacuuming Up Details About You – And It Could Raise Your Rates
- The most ambitious browser mitigation yet for Spectre attacks comes to Chrome
- California’s Data Privacy Law: What It Is and How to Comply (A Step-By-Step Guide)
- Can the Privacy Shield survive? What’s next for exports of personal data to the US?
- European Parliament Turns Up The Pressure On US-EU Privacy Shield Data Transfer Deal A Little More
Jon
News of the Week; July 11, 2018
GAMES
- Nintendo, Valve, Sony, and EA reported in Norway for breaching European consumer law – UPDATE: NCC reports Nintendo to German authorities after dropping other complaints
- We need parents on board if we want to protect their children: Following news of a sexual assault in Roblox and ‘addiction’ to Fortnite, parents want to cut kids off from these games – but that will only make the problem worse
- Video Game Deep Cuts: Livestreaming Your Fortnite Addiction
- The Truth About ‘Video Game Addiction’
- French gambling regulator concerned by loot boxes, but won’t take legal action
- How Journey eliminated online toxicity with a simple ping
- Fighting a toxic Steam community – and winning: Creative Assembly’s Grace Carroll said the “visible presence of moderation” was enough to turn around a toxic Steam forum in just a week
- Valve quickly shuts down developer method for estimating Steam sales: Steam API suddenly altered after The End Is Nigh co-dev uses achievements data as SteamSpy alternative
- Valve swiftly removes new method for estimating Steam sales
- Valve highlights the best selling and most played Steam games of 2018
- Valve leaks Steam game player counts; we have the numbers
- Team Fortress 2 leads as biggest player counts on Steam revealed
- Steam Spy and the need for numbers: For indie developers in need of metrics Steam Spy is imperfect, “but the other option is absolutely nothing”
- Launching a successful indie game in 2018: TheMoonlighter story
- Guild Wars 2 writers dismissed after Twitter spat with streamer
- ArenaNet cuts ties with Guild Wars 2 writers after Twitter spat: “Their attacks on the community were unacceptable,” says ArenaNet president
- ArenaNet sends all the wrong messages: Guild Wars 2 studio terminating employees after backlash discourages fan interaction, encourages player outrage
- ArenaNet “promised me that I wouldn’t have to check my identity at the door”: Fired writer says Guild Wars studio has damaged its reputation, but ArenaNet maintains that Jessica Price “attacked” community over a “perceived slight”
- ArenaNet firings inspire IGDA to remind devs: Ask about harassment protection
- IGDA asks studios to “clarify the guidelines and expectations around social media use”: ArenaNet firings show how “interacting with people as a game developer can jeopardize someone’s job and career”
- ArenaNet president: Fired devs ‘could have chosen not to engage’ on social media
- Women in Games launches strategy on improving gender diversity in esports: Encouraging women to participate in the industry is critical for the commercial success of the industry, says advocacy group
- Blizzard’s Pink Mercy event raised over $12 million for a breast cancer charity
- ESPN, Disney XD, and Blizzard pen deal to bring Overwatchmatches to primetime TV
- Blizzard and Disney partner to bring Overwatch League to ESPN, other networks: ESPN, Disney XD, ABC, related networks will broadcast the competition’s inaugural season
- Todd Howard: Games as a service ‘doesn’t mark the future’
- ESA president: Crunch “hasn’t been a significant issue” for ten years: Industry body’s leader Mike Gallagher also believes call for unions is “in its infancy”
- ESA: Strong wages and opportunities keep unionization from being a ‘significant issue’
- Disney’s ‘Moana’ production assets now available for the public
- RuneScape generates $800M in lifetime revenue during its 17 years online
- RuneScape has brought in over $800 million in lifetime revenue: After 17 years and three iterations, Jagex’s MMO has over 250 million player accounts and continues to grow
- Xbox: Accessible games can “mean the difference between existing and living” for disabled people – But platform holder’s Tara Voelker urges developers to add more accessibility options to their titles
- Monster Hunter World concerns trigger 13% drop for Capcom shares: US analyst predicts “significant risk of sales decline” as console version slows ahead of PC launch
- Supercell becomes first publisher to operate two multi-billion-dollar mobile games: Clash Royale breaks $2 billion lifetime revenue
- Durham College embraces eSports with construction of gaming arena
- ‘The Unspoken’ VR League eSports Final is Cancelled & Not Coming to Oculus Connect 5 After All
- Valve: Monthly Active VR Users on Steam Are Up 160% Year-over-year
- “There is no magic formula” for getting noticed on Steam
- Jurassic World already one of Steam’s 2018 top sellers: Frontier’s dino park management sim rubbing elbows with Grand Theft Auto 5, Far Cry 5 after less than a month on sale
- The Sims Mobile has amassed $15M in revenue in four months
- The Sims Mobile brings in over $15 million in four months: Popular life sim game was only EA’s eighth highest earning mobile game in June
- The Sims Mobile brings in over $15 million in four months: Popular life sim game was only EA’s eighth highest earning mobile game in June
- EA acquires Industrial Toys: Midnight Star development studio brings mobile expertise to EA Worldwide Studios
- id Software: Avoiding cannibalization in the post-apocalypse – Tim Willits on the role of Fallout 76 in Rage 2’s pre-E3 reveal, and why id no longer uses its tech to sell its games
- Nexon and EA cancel Asia-exclusive Titanfall Online
- Asia-focused Titanfall Online canceled: Nexon, EA, Respawn collaboration abandoned after over three years of development
- Electronic Arts snaps up Alex Seropian’s studio Industrial Toys
- THQ Nordic acquires German developer and publisher HandyGames
- Coming out from under Grand Theft Auto’s shadow: For years, Take-Two’s other games have lingered in the shadow of Rockstar’s series, but GTA V’s monumental status means it’s pointless to compare it to the upcoming Red Dead Redemption 2
- Todd Howard: Service-based Fallout 76 doesn’t mark the future direction of Bethesda – “Anyone who has ever said ‘this is the future and this part of gaming is dead’ has been proven wrong every single time”
- “Millions of people” are still playing Skyrim every month – Todd Howard on the many Skyrim ports: “If you want us to stop releasing it, stop buying it.”
- How do companies like Nintendo and CD Projekt Red approach crunch?
- ‘Gatcha’ is a good fit for Fire Emblem, but it isn’t Nintendo’s standard for mobile
- Many more indie games will be coming to Switch if Nintendo has its way
- Nintendo aiming for 20 to 30 Switch indie releases per week
- NPD: Nintendo Switch on track to be the best-selling console of Q4, and all of 2018 – Industry analyst predicts all three current generation consoles will sell at least 4m units total this year in the US
- Nintendo reportedly rolls out hardware patch following Switch exploit
- Nintendo reportedly rolling out new, more hack-resistant Switch hardware
- Ideally, Nintendo wants 20 to 30 new indies to hit the Switch per week
- GameStop says Nintendo Switch sales doubled following E3
- Pokemon Quest nabs 7.5M downloads across Switch and mobile
- Analyst: Two years in, Pokemon Go crosses $1.8B lifetime revenue
- Pokemon GO has brought in $1.8 billion since launch: Pokemon’s foray into augmented reality sees players spending $2 million per day
- Pokémon Quest downloads pass 7.5 million: Free-to-play mobile and Switch game gets off to a strong start
- Niantic’s Ingress to get Netflix animated series later this year: Series based on Pokémon Go forebear will be used to introduce upcoming sequel Ingress Prime
- The Binding of Isaac card game raises $1 million in a week on Kickstarter
- Games account for 94% of Google Play revenue in South Korea: Messaging and communication apps only bring in 2.2%, even less from social media and dating apps
- Newzoo: Taiwanese gamers expected to spend $1.3 billion in 2018 – With 14.5 million players, Taiwan is the world’s 15th largest gaming market
- Warner Bros. acquires mobile platform Plexchat to improve social features in its games
- Tencent to publish Game of Thrones mobile game in China: Yoozoo is developing Game of Thrones: Winter is Coming through a partnership with Warner Bros
- Tencent going global with WeGame digital marketplace as Steam targets China
- The negativity of Keita Takahashi: The developer behind Wattam and Katamari Damacy has spent his career trying to show the potential of games, but doesn’t think he’s been successful
- The European TV channel making documentaries with video games: Arte project manager Adrien Larouzée tells us why games are the perfect storytelling media to spread culture from the continent
- The video games of Ecuadorean fishing village Santa Marianita: We take another look at how people find ways to play games everywhere
- Shuhei Yoshida reflects on the PS2 launch: “We were awfully unprepared”: President of SIE Worldwide Studios discusses what went wrong and what went right for PlayStation over the years
- Levine on BioShock: ‘I don’t think I was conscious of how Jewish it was until afterwards’
- Meet the dev making his first DOS game — in 2018
- Time bandits: Check out the ’80s and ’90s titles still going strong
- The 80s and 90s PC games still unbelievably being updated today
- Blog: Retro games as a revivalist movement
DIGITAL
- NZ court rules Kim Dotcom can be extradited to US on copyright charges
- Kim Dotcom Loses Latest Round In Extradition Fight, Will Try To Appeal Again
- Technoleviathan: China, Silicon Valley, and the rise of the global surveillance state.
- Spy For Us – Or Never Speak To Your Family Again: China is using its huge digital surveillance system, and the threat of sending family members to reeducation camps, to pressure minorities to spy on their fellow exiles.
- China producing x86 chips nearly identical to AMD server processors
- iPhone crashing bug likely caused by code added to appease Chinese gov’t
- Uganda Bans VPNs To Prevent Users From Dodging Its Absurd New Social Media Tax
- A Numerical Exploration Of How The EU’s Article 13 Will Lead To Massive Censorship
- EU sends controversial internet copyright reforms back to the drawing board: It’s a strong rejection of the legislation in its current form, but not the end of the battle
- European Parliament rejects discussions on controversial copyright law
- EU Parliament Votes To Step Back From The Abyss On Copyright For Now
- EU copyright law sent back for a rethink
- Don’t Believe Those Who Wish To Diminish Digital Rights By Falsely Implying It’s All Big Tech Lobbying
- What can the Copyright Directive vote tell us about the state of digital rights? (Andres Guadamuz)
- Movie Industry Denies Lawsuit Strategy Despite Proliferation of Legal Actions and Settlement Demands Against Thousands of Canadians (Michael Geist)
- Lawyer loses appeal, fails to expand internet privileges
- Trump’s Supreme Court pick: ISPs have 1st Amendment right to block websites
- Online Review Website Cannot Be Forced To Remove Defamatory Posts
- Section 230 Immunity Protects Yelp from Injunction Order to Remove Defamatory Posts
- Section 230 Helps Facebook Defeat Pro Se Defamation Suit–Jefferson v. Facebook
- Amazon Again Avoids Liability for Defective Marketplace Item–Fox v. Amazon
- Over The Top Sports Streaming Comes To Europe With Amazon’s Deal With The Premier League
- Court Rejects Evidentiary and CFAA Vagueness Challenges to Conviction for Botnet Hacking Scheme
- Sales tax in the digital era : major impacts for retailers in the United States
- How Facebook’s Rise Fueled Chaos And Confusion In Myanmar: The social network exploded in Myanmar, allowing fake news and violence to consume a country emerging from military rule.
- Facebook Says It’s Sorry for Removing a Part of the Declaration of Independence That Includes a Racial Slur
- Facebook Runs Full-Page Ads in Indian Newspapers to Fight Fake News
- Blaming The Messenger (App): WhatsApp Takes The Blame In India Over Violence
- Fake News Is A Meaningless Term, And Our Obsession Over It Continues To Harm Actual News
- Fining Facebook: ICO issues £500,000 fine following data breach
- Facebook could face legal claims totalling ‘hundreds of millions of pounds’
- When a Facebook Like Lands You in Jail: NYPD’s Social Media Monitoring Raises Civil Liberties Issues
- Sex, Beer, And Coding: Inside Facebook’s Wild Early Days – When the young Mark Zuckerberg moved to Palo Alto in 2004, he and his buddies built a corporate proto-culture that continues to influence the company today.
- Cory Doctorow: Zuck’s Empire of Oily Rags
- Regulation coming for Facebook
- Facebook Watch May Pay Upwards Of $10 Million For Cristiano Ronaldo Reality Series
- Facebook will broadcast live Premier League games in Asia: The £200 million deal helps Facebook’s push into the world of sports.
- Facebook To Launch News Programming On July 16, Will Organize ‘Watch’ With New Categories
- Reddit CEO tells user, “we are not the thought police,” then suspends that user
- More Than Half of ICO-Funded Startups Fail Within 4 Months, Study Says
- Are the UK’s intellectual property laws ready for AI?
- Google Applies More Machine Learning To Increase The Reach Of Ads Across Its Properties
- “Google Was Not A Normal Place”: Brin, Page, And Mayer On The Accidental Birth Of The Company That Changed Everything
- Inside X, The Moonshot Factory Racing To Build The Next Google: Seven years after its secretive launch, X is starting to spawn mind-blowing companies – and show us what an ever expanding Google means for the world.
- Despite Chrome’s pending “mark of shame,” 3 major news sites aren’t HTTPS
- What Soda Taxes And Lead Paint Have To Do With Internet Regulation
- Malaysian Government Decides To Dump Its Terrible Anti-Fake News Law
- YouTube, Whose Users Promoted Fraudulent Cryptocurrency Bitconnect, Is Added As Defendant In Lawsuit
- After Losing NCAA Scholarship Due To YouTube Channel, Donald De La Haye Gets A Win In Court
- YouTube to fight fake news with links to real news and context
- YouTube Tweaks Site Design, Dedicates $25 Million to Combat “Fake News”
- YouTube Pledges $25 Million To News Organizations As It Continues Fight Against Fake News
- YouTube Launches Initiative to Fight Fake News, Pledges $25 Million to Support News Orgs
- YouTuber in row over copyright infringement of his own song
- YouTube Guitarist Claims He Got A Copyright Strike For Infringing Upon His Own Song
- YouTube Rolling Out ‘Copyright Match’ Tool To Creators With More Than 100,000 Subs
- YouTube to Launch Tool to Detect Re-Uploaded Videos Automatically: New Copyright Match tool initially will roll out to channels with more than 100,000 subscribers
- YouTube TV Outages Draw Ire From World Cup Viewers
- Two Co-Creators Of Travel YouTube Channel High On Life Die After Waterfall Accident
- Constitutional Challenge Against FOSTA Filed–Woodhull v. US
- More Police Admitting That FOSTA/SESTA Has Made It Much More Difficult To Catch Pimps And Traffickers
- Preparing for the Next Phase of Influencer Marketing – The CGI Influencer
- Jake Paul’s Team 10 Involved In Yet Another Lawsuit For Trashing Rental Property
- Logan Paul Is Filming A Documentary About “What Actually Happened” During Suicide Video Scandal
- Hank Green Apologizes To Tana Mongeau For VidCon Slight, But Calls TanaCon “Inexcusable And Terrifying”
- Twitter is Suspending More Than One Million Accounts Per Day in Latest Purge
- Twitter Users To Lose Tens Of Millions Of Followers After Company Excludes ‘Locked’ Accounts
- Twitter Sheds $3.1 Billion After Suspending Millions of Questionable Accounts
- These are the ‘invisible’ challenges that make it harder for Snapchat, Facebook and Twitter to grow
- Snap and Amazon Are Reportedly Working on a Visual Search Feature for Snapchat
- Tinder Users Can Now Upload Two-Second Looping Videos On Their Profiles
- Are You Ready for Even More Expensive Netflix Options?
- Netflix To Create A Digital Comedy Festival By Releasing 47 Specials At Once
- Netflix Is Shutting Down User Reviews This Summer
- Netflix is killing off user reviews
- European Networks Are Joining Forces to Take On Netflix and Amazon
- HBO must ‘change direction’ to flourish, says its new boss: User engagement must be increased to make HBO into a perennial product.
- AT&T Is Very Excited To Try And Ruin HBO
- Here are all of the future TV shows that Apple has signed deals for
- Feds arrest Apple employee for stealing self-driving project secrets
- Woman who once bought bitcoins for $300,000 cash in paper bags sent to prison
- ‘It’s not just video games’: Concordia partners with Ubisoft on VR: The initiative will focus on a set of technologies called extended reality, or XR.
- Ubisoft Opens XR:MTL An Innovation Factory Focused On XR Technologies At Concordia University – The Factory’s focus will be on developing applications that have market potential.
- 10 Projects That Have Us Excited About the Next Generation of VR & AR
- VR Treatment, Even Without a Therapist, Helps People Overcome Fear of Heights
- Driving Without a Smartphone: A new law in Georgia discourages drivers from even touching a screen. Whether or not it improves safety, it could help break people’s phone habits.
- How Music Fans Built The Internet
- What I’ve learned from nearly three years of enterprise Wi-Fi at home
- Strategies for the Shadows: Protecting your Company’s IP Rights on the Dark Web
- A Field Guide to “Social Engineering” Cyber Scams
- How will 3D-printing challenge IP rights?
- A Landmark Legal Shift Opens Pandora’s Box For DIY Guns: Cody Wilson makes digital files that let anyone 3-D print untraceable guns. The government tried to stop him. He sued—and won.
- Wait—the RateMyProfessors.com “hotness” chili was about attractiveness?
- Hulu Hit ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Bafflingly Launches Wine Line
- How Wattpad Is Rewriting the Rules of Hollywood
- What the Russian Revolution would have looked like on social media
- The AI revolution has spawned a new chips arms race
- Understanding Media and Information Quality in an Age of Artificial Intelligence, Automation, Algorithms and Machine Learning (Yochai Benkler, Robert Faris, Hal Roberts & Nikki Bourassa)
- Algorithms and Justice (Christopher Bavitz & Kira Hessekiel)
- Global Governance and Inclusion: Reframing the Global Debate Around AI (Ryan Budish, Urs Gasser & Amar Ashar)
- Designing frameworks that allow for Intentions, Commitments and Exuberance in AI (Bobi Rakaova)
- The Industrial Era Ended, and So Will the Digital Era
- Q2 2018 Quick Links, Part 4 (Social Media, Section 230, Defamation) (Eric Goldman)
- Q2 2018 Quick Links, Part 3 (Privacy, Advertising, E-Commerce) (Eric Goldman)
CREATIVITY
- Unpacking Canada’s IP Strategy: Countering IP Abuse, Addressing IP Administration and Removing IP Barriers to Innovation (Michael Geist)
- No, you can’t patent the ability to pause a lesson recording, EFF says
- Lombardo v. Dr. Seuss Enterprises L.P.
- Selling Items with Political Messages? What about “Impeach 45”?
- President Trump Sends North Korean Dictator a CD of Elton John’s ‘Rocket Man’ Because Our World is Just One Big Joke
- Girl Arrested in Iran for Posting Videos of Herself Dancing on Instagram
- How Warner Brothers Resisted a Hollywood Ban on Anti-Nazi Films in the 1930s and Warned Americans of the Dangers of Fascism
- Free Speech Doesn’t Protect Nazis. It Protects Us From Nazis
- Ninth Circuit Recently Slams PETA Over Monkey Selfie Lawsuit
- Post Office owes $3.5M for using wrong Statue of Liberty on a stamp
- Police Union Upset Not All Books Paint Cops As Heroes, Calls For Removal Of Titles From School’s Reading List
- You Can Only Listen To Jaden Smith’s New Album On Instagram
- Hobbyists Lose Fight to Escape the FAA’s Toy Drone Rules
- Why local US newspapers are sounding the alarm
- 54 newsrooms, 9 countries, and 9 core ideas: Here’s what two researchers found in a yearlong quest for journalism innovation: “Our angle on the current state of journalism is this: The crisis of journalism and legacy news media is structural.”
- Cortés-Ramos v. Martin-Morales
- What You Need to Know About Toronto’s New Arts and Culture Property Tax Subclass
- Keep on moving: the bizarre dance epidemic of summer 1518 – Five centuries ago, the world’s longest rave took place in Strasbourg – a ‘plague’ of dancing that was fatal for some. What caused it? Art, poetry and music of the time can provide some clues
- Creative types all go through hot streaks of superior production
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- Government Memo Suggests Netflix Outspends Canadian Private Broadcasters on Canadian English Scripted Programming (Michael Geist)
- The State of Canadian Wireless in One Chart: No One Has Carriers That Generate More Revenue With Less Usage (Michael Geist)
- Ajit Pai’s FCC Doesn’t Want to Hear Your Complaints Unless You Pay Them $225
- “This is bonkers”: FCC wants to stop reviewing most complaints about ISPs
- FCC stands by decision to raise broadband prices on American Indians
- FCC Refuses to Back Down From Plan to Strip Phone and Internet Subsidies for American Indians
- Ajit Pai finally gets around to fighting fraud in FCC comment system
- Second Circuit Follows D.C. Circuit’s Reasoning in Vacating FCC’s Interpretation of an Autodialer
- SCOTUS Nominee Kavanaugh Bought Verizon’s Silly Argument That Breaking Net Neutrality Is A 1st Amendment Right
- CRTC Issues $250,000 in Penalties for Malware Distribution
- CASL Enforcement Action – $250,000 in Penalties for Aiding the Distribution of Malvertising
- Net neutrality makes comeback in California; lawmakers agree to strict rules
- Yes, Privacy Is Important, But California’s New Privacy Bill Is An Unmitigated Disaster In The Making
- Ten Reasons Why California’s New Data Protection Law is Unworkable, Burdensome, and Possibly Unconstitutional
- DOJ’s Challenge to Vertical AT&T/Time Warner Merger Experiences Failure to Launch
- Magic Leap grabs investment from AT&T as it sets up US distribution deal
- Echoing Apple’s iPhone Launch, Magic Leap Taps AT&T for Exclusive US Distribution
- AT&T wants to overhaul HBO, says it isn’t profitable enough
- After Backlash To AT&T Chicanery, California Salvages Tough Net Neutrality Law
- Streaming Video Sees Wave Of Price Hikes In Apparent Bid To Mimic Cable & Embolden Piracy
- Two years after buying, Univision wants to sell its Gawker, Onion portfolios
- Charter launches mobile service, throttles all video to 480p
- US forces smartphone giant ZTE to fire its CEO and leadership team
- Comcast’s Wireless Service Will Charge You More To Stream HD Video
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- Court Compares Car Crash Data To CSLI, Cellphone Contents; Tells Cops Best Bet Is To Always Get A Warrant
- “Stylish” extension with 2M downloads banned for tracking every site visit
- Stolen certificates from D-Link used to sign password-stealing malware
- German Court Issues First GDPR Ruling
- CARU Protects Privacy for Child Karaoke Stars
- California Passes Consumer Privacy Act With “GDPR-Like” Provisions
- European Parliament Votes to Suspend EU-U.S. Privacy Shield
- Don’t Misrepresent Your U.S. – E.U. Privacy Shield Status: FTC Brings An Enforcement Action
- California Corporation Settles FTC Complaint Regarding U.S.-EU Privacy Shield Compliance Claim
- Police Chief Tries To Blame Newspaper Shooting On The Loss Of Social Media Monitoring Tool, But It Doesn’t Add Up
- For $80 Million, Yahoo! Settles Shareholder Class Action Claiming Stock Price Losses from Data Breaches
- What we buy can be used to predict our politics, race or education – sometimes with more than 90 percent accuracy
- DOD seeks classification “Clippy” to help classify data, control access
- Year-old router bug exploited to steal sensitive DOD drone, tank documents
- Tech-support scammers know EVERYTHING about my computer, Dell customer says
Jon
News of the Week; July 4, 2018
GAMES
- Bethesda Suing Warner Bros. For ‘Blatant Rip-Off’ Of Fallout Shelter
- Warner Bros. calls Bethesda lawsuit against Westworld game ‘baseless’
- Warner Bros is READY TO FIGHT over “Baseless Accusations”
- Warner Bros surprised by Bethesda’s “baseless accusation” in Westworld lawsuit: Publisher claims developer Behaviour Interactive has confirmed allegations are untrue
- Blog: The Westworld fallout – A discussion on work-for-hire
- In Contrast To PUBG’s Silliness, Bethesda’s Copyright Suit Against Warner Bros. Is All About Copyrightable Source Code
- We Hardly Knew Ye: PUBG Drops Lawsuit Against Epic Over Fortnite Similarities
- Ex-hatemonger confirms white supremacists recruit in Minecraft, Fortnite
- After initial refusal, We Happy Few granted R 18+ rating in Australia
- We Happy Few wins appeal for reclassification in Australia: After initial denial, game will see Australian release with a rating of R18+
- Roblox bans players who ‘gang raped’ a seven-year-old’s avatar: Developer stresses it has a “zero tolerance” policy for this behaviour as US mother complains about in-game assault
- Judge halves ZeniMax’s $500M Oculus payout, declines to block Rift sales
- Penalty in ZeniMax v. Oculus Reduced to $250M, Motion to Halt Headset Sales Rejected
- US Judge halves ZeniMax’s $500m win in Facebook Oculus legal battle: Also denies Bethesda parent’s request for sales ban on Rift headsets
- Bethesda implies Sony is preventing cross-play in Fallout 76
- Bethesda: “Sony is not as helpful as everyone would like” on cross-play – There will be no cross-play in Fallout 76, Todd Howard says – and Microsoft is not the problem
- EA Sports VP Daryl Holt on loot boxes: “Our model is sustainable” – Publisher’s sports division reacts to loot box controversy with disclosure of pack odds in FIFA Ultimate Team
- Amy Hennig, who was hired to make an EA Star Wars game, has left EA: Timeline of Hennig’s departure, full Star Wars game pivot is fleshed out in interview.
- French gambling regulator criticizes loot boxes, stops short of regulation: ARJEL refrains from fully defining loot boxes as gambling but will continue to investigate effect on consumers
- Leaks, riots, and monocles: How a $60 in-game item almost destroyed EVE Online
- International Olympic Committee to host esports forum: Representatives from the worlds of esports, gaming, and the Olympic movement will meet to discuss future collaboration
- Kotaku Compete shuts down: Esports coverage hub closes due to Univision budget cuts
- OpenAI teaching neural networks to compete with Dota 2 professionals: Team of five neural networks has already beaten multiple amateur human teams
- AI achieves “human-level performance” in Quake III Arena: Google’s DeepMind teaches AI to play competitively both with and against human players
- OpenAI to level up Dota 2 neural networks with live Twitch demo
- Twitch Prime’s “free game every day” for half of July adds up to a ton
- Forza Horizon 4’s stream-to-earn function is Microsoft’s latest attempt to push Mixer: Players will earn in-game currency purely by streaming their gameplay session to platform holder’s Twitch rival
- Microsoft is working on AI-driven, platform-level Xbox Live cheat detection
- Google reportedly planning streaming platform, gaming hardware: Rumored gaming initiatives could include developer partnerships or outright acquisitions
- Report: Google courting developers for coming game-streaming service – “Project Yeti” would also include game-focused hardware component.
- Blog: Changes to the Google Play Store are putting thousands of indie devs at risk
- Vlambeer’s Ismail sees promise in the hybrid of triple-A and indie dev
- Failbetter Games spearheads ‘Love Indies Week’ for elevating devs and communities
- 15 indie games highlighted in Smithsonian SAAM Arcade event
- Blog: 10 lessons from making 100 games in five years
- French startup Oh BiBi nets $21M to build out mobile shooter
- Fortnite mobile has half the downloads of PUBG, but five times the revenue: PUBG gains ground but can’t compete with Fortnite’s $92 million gross lifetime revenue
- Rash of Fortnite cheaters infected by malware that breaks HTTPS encryption
- Streaming platform devs take down Fortnite adware, chide Epic for not doing it itself
- Clash of Clans iOS players have spent over $4 billion: Popular mobile strategy game is the highest grossing iOS title over last nine years
- Our Uncertain Streaming Future: The idea of streaming games from the cloud was a hot topic again at E3 – but no matter how close to that ideal the tech is coming, the business case remains a mess
- 2K Games banks on Carnival Games to recreate Wii success on Switch: Multi-million selling mini-game franchise returns as efforts to attract a mainstream audience to Nintendo’s new console continue
- Super Mario Run surpasses $60m revenue after two years: Remains the lowest-earning Nintendo mobile game by a considerable margin
- Hollow Knight has sold over 250,000 copies on Switch
- Hollow Knight sold 250,000 in two weeks on Nintendo Switch: Lifetime sales of Team Cherry’s game now far exceed 750,000
- Switch version of Fox N Forests outsells PlayStation 4 by 4:1 – Director Rupert Ochsner – “[The] Switch is our best platform to date”
- Nintendo says the Switch is played as much docked as it is portably
- Nintendo: Docked and undocked play time for Switch is “about even” – Online telemetry data varies heavily by individual game and player, though.
- Switch pirates don’t want you to pirate their piracy-enabling firmware: But anti-piracy hackers are hacking the piracy hack for themselves.
- Reggie Fils-Aime: ‘Vibrant’ 3DS remains a key part of Nintendo armory
- Reggie Fils-Aimé: The 3DS “continues to be a vibrant system” – Handheld console “absolutely” remains a focus of Nintendo, serving as a “gateway” to the Switch
- Shuntaro Furukawa has been officially appointed Nintendo president
- New Intellivision console will have all new games, all exclusives, disc controller: Company president Tommy Tallarico says console will cost “way under $200,” but release date is still far off
- Take-Two: “We don’t believe in Red Dead Redemption 2 success until we deliver it” – CEO Strauss Zelnick discusses expectations for Rockstar’s next epic and the publisher’s muted E3 presence
- NeverEnding Story: Ubisoft keen to move away from ‘finite’ experiences
- Ubisoft VP says company moving away from “finite experiences”: For games like Assassin’s Creed, line between content updates and sequels grows “fuzzier and fuzzier”
- Frontier: “We want to become a third-party publisher” – CEO David Braben and CCO Jonny Watts on publishing, Tencent and the return of the British games industry
- Incoming Paradox CEO wants more acquisitions and mobile expansion
- Paradox turns its eye to M&A and mobile development: Incoming chief executive Ebba Ljungerud wants ten per cent of game sales to come form mobile by 2020
- Valve is working on its own ‘more accurate and more useful’ Steam Spy-like tools
- Valve working on “more accurate” replacement for Steam Spy’s sales data
- Steam Direct sees 180 game releases per week, over twice as many as Greenlight did
- Blog: The surprising effect of Steam Sales on non-discounted games
- Blog: Using achievement stats to estimate sales on Steam
- Amy Hennig: Atomised development, not crunch, will lead to games industry unions – The outspoken critic of crunch culture says it’s driven by passion, and it’s up the management to protect developers
- The GamesIndustry.biz Podcast: Fighting Ageism, with Kate Edwards – Ex-IGDA director discusses how the industry is neglecting experienced professionals and ignoring new perspectives
- Pokemon Quest nets $3M in revenue during first week on mobile
- Pokémon Quest generates $3m in first week on mobile: Becomes No. 1 most downloaded free game on Japanese App Store
- Niantic acquires machine learning company Matrix Mill
- Niantic acquires Matrix Mill: Pokemon Go creator picks up computer vision start-up building neural networks to infer 3D models of surroundings from cameras
- Niantic previews AR tech designed to create ‘meaningful’ interactions
- Niantic Offers Tantalizing Peek at Upcoming AR Tech, Announces New Platform for Third-party Devs
- ISS Astronaut Uses Oculus Rift in Experiment to Understand How Space Effects Hand-eye Coordination
- Snapchat Is Reportedly Planning to Follow WeChat by Launching an In-App Gaming Platform
- Snapchat reportedly launching a gaming platform: Photo messaging app may already have one game publisher on board
- Second Life creator’s VR platform High Fidelity secures $35M investment
- High Fidelity Raises $35M Series D Financing to Further Develop Social Platform & Blockchain Tech
- Jonathan Blow: “C++ is a weird mess” – The Witness developer on his new programming language that could increase productivity by 50 to 80 per cent
- Will Wright’s Proxi Art Challenge Winners
- Breadcrumbs Interactive embraced Slavic folklore to find Yaga’s unique voice: The Romanian studio drew from the country’s culture for its debut, and won the Nordic Discovery Contest in the process
- Summer Games Done Quick raises record-breaking $2.1M for charity
- For The First Time, The Video Game Speedrunners Of Summer Games Done Quick Raise Over $2 Million
- Summer Games Done Quick raises $2.1m for Doctors Without Borders: Week-long charity speedrunning marathon brings organisation’s cumulative fundraising to over $16 million
- Making the most of voice talent: Voice actors talk about the challenges of working in games and share tips for getting the best possible performances out of them
- E3 2018 has GameStop “looking forward to an incredible Q4”: Leading retailer shares pre-order reactions to the biggest announcements, and how publishers will benefit from a wider spread of releases
- Resident Evil 2 Remake wins Best of Show at the E3 2018 Game Critic Awards: BioWare and Insomniac receive two awards apiece for Anthem and Spider-Man
- Remake of Resident Evil 2 wins ‘Best of E3’ from Game Critics Awards
- Life is Strange: Before The Storm wins big at Games for Change Awards
- The best, craziest speedruns from this year’s Summer Games Done Quick
- Blog: A brief history of murder in Ultima Online
- 343 and Showtime team up to produce 10-episode Halo TV series
- Halo TV show going into production in early 2019: There were plans to make a Halo TV show as long ago as 2013.
- Halo TV series gets green light at Showtime: Cable network orders 10 episodes for series; Mind Games creator Kyle Killen named showrunner
- Immersion cited as top motivator for playing games
DIGITAL
- “Dancing Baby” lawsuit finally settles, baby is now a middle-school student: Universal says it now has a “fair and tempered process for… potential takedowns.”
- The Monkey Selfie Case Continues, But The Dancing Baby One Does Not
- California Court Not Yet Ready To Undermine The Entire Internet; Rules Yelp Can’t Be Forced To Delete A Review
- EFF Launches Lawsuit To Stop FOSTA/SESTA
- EFF sues to kill FOSTA, calling it “unconstitutional Internet censorship law”
- The “CREEPER Act” Would Be Yet Another Unconstitutional Law from Congress
- Facebook reveals it gave 61 companies access to widely blocked user data: Company tells Congress it provided Nike, Spotify, a dating app and other services with special rights to information
- Facebook Stock Drops on Report of Wider U.S. Probe of Cambridge Analytica Scandal
- How Facebook Punked and then Gut Punched the News Biz
- Facebook patent would turn your mic on to analyze how you watch ads: Application hints to proximity to a “broadcasting device” before your mic turns on.
- You Can Now See All The Ads Facebook Is Running Globally
- Facebook Creates a Process of Review for Previously-Banned Cryptocurrency Ads
- Facebook Will Once Again Allow Ads Promoting Cryptocurrencies
- Fig: Digital currency won’t be what makes blockchain go mainstream – Crowdfunding site’s head of blockchain strategy discusses the pitfalls and potential of decentralisation
- Digital token ruled a security under the Howey Test, for now
- Really dumb malware targets cryptocurrency fans using Macs
- The California Supreme Court Didn’t Ruin Section 230 (Today)–Hassell v. Bird (Eric Goldman)
- First Amendment Doesn’t Prevent Probationer Condition Restricting the Display of Illegal Activity on Social Media–In re Jawan S. (Eric Goldman)
- The Digest: Uganda Is Now Forcing Citizens to Pay a Tax to Use Social Media
- Copyright Industries Reveal Their Ultimate Goal: An Internet Where Everything Online Requires A License From Them
- Snapchat Partners With Kylie Jenner To Launch Ecommerce Capabilities For Influencers
- Snapchat Launches Augmented Reality Experiences in Disneyland, Universal Studios
- The Rise of CGI Influencers
- Instagram Stories Hits 400 Million Daily Users — More Than Twice As Many As Snapchat
- Instagram is reportedly testing a ‘questions’ feature for Stories
- Netflix Is No. 1 Choice for TV Viewing, Beating Broadcast, Cable and YouTube (Study)
- Sony tries to upload movie trailer to YouTube, posts entire movie instead
- Goofballs at Sony Accidentally Upload Entire Film to YouTube Instead of the Trailer
- Creators are making longer videos to cater to the YouTube algorithm
- Studio71 Brings YouTube Creators Into Podcasting World
- Michelle Phan’s Latest Startup Helps Creators Find Free Music For Their YouTube Videos
- YouTube Is Conducting ‘A Small Experiment’ With Auto-Generated Thumbnails, And Creators Aren’t Happy
- YouTube thumbnail experiment may impact millions of users, frustrating creators
- You Can Watch The Last 2018 World Cup Games On YouTube, Hulu, DirecTV
- YouTube Apologizes To LGBTQ+ Creators On Last Day Of Pride Month
- Google Is Investing in the Not-Quite-So-Smart Smartphone Market
- Defamation Update: Google under fire again
- Google researchers created an amazing scene-rendering AI: A neural network from Google’s DeepMind has impressive spatial reasoning skills.
- Google reveals how DeepMind AI learned to play Quake III Arena like a pro
- StyleHaul CEO Stephanie Horbaczewski Exits RTL-Owned Company: CFO Jeremiah Bates also leaving the fashion, beauty and lifestyle digital media company
- StyleHaul’s CEO Stephanie Horbaczewski And CFO Jeremiah Bates Have Left The Company
- Dwayne Johnson Teams With Fine Brothers Entertainment To Show Off His Action Movie Knowledge
- Social media follies: watch your step
- Philo, A Skinny Bundle For Non-Sports Viewers, Raises $40 Million From AMC, Discovery, Viacom
- A Twitter Leak Scuttled An NBA Draft Day Trade This Year
- Twitter gets a re-org and new product head
- Twitter Will Show Who Pays for Ads and How Much They Spend
- Amazon Needs More Delivery Companies and Wants You to Start Them
- Amazon Makes $1 Billion Splash in Health Care, Buying PillPack
- Amazon buying online pharmacy with nationwide reach; drug store stocks dive
- IPG Confirms $2.3 Billion Deal to Acquire Data Marketing Company Acxiom
- The New DC Universe Streaming Service Will Bundle Superhero Comics and TV Shows All in One Place
- Why Adult Content Creators Are Mad at Patreon
- How The Startup Mentality Failed Kids In San Francisco: Huge contributions from tech titans, a STEM-packed curriculum, gadgets everywhere: Willie Brown Middle School was supposed to set the bar. Then it opened.
- The Delicate Art Of Creating New Emoji
- Hey New York Times, Welcome to Writing About Pop Culture on the Internet
- It Just Wasn’t Meant to Be, Batman
- New York Times Writer Regrets Spoiling Batman’s Wedding in Headline
- A Vows Feature Spoiled a Comic Book Ending, and You Weren’t Happy
- Mandatory Internet filtering and The War on Memes (Andres Guadamuz)
- EU Copyright Proposal That Would Destroy Internet Memes Being Protested With Internet Memes
- EU Parliament’s Legislative Affairs Committee Is Now Misleading Members Of Parliament In Effort To Fundamentally Alter The Internet
- Would you pay $700, plus a monthly fee, for a digital license plate?
- “Inventor of email” appeals ruling that tossed his libel suit against Techdirt
- 1990, meet 2018: How far does 20MHz of Macintosh IIsi power go today?
CREATIVITY
- USPS Ordered to Pay $3.5 Million After Putting Artist’s Weird ‘Sexier’ Lady Liberty on Stamps
- Appeals Court Says You Can Copyright A Collection Of Facts… If You Leave Out A Few
- Owner of “Let’s Get It On” Copyright Sues Ed Sheeran for $100 Million
- DJ Khaled Files Suit to Protect Son’s Name
- Judge Dismisses Plagiarism Lawsuit Against The Girls Author Emma Cline
- Music Industry’s Nonsense ‘Myth Busting’ About EU’s Censorship Machines Is Basically Saying ‘Nuh-uh’ Repeatedly
- Latest Text Of EU Copyright Directive Shows It’s Even Worse Than Expected: Must Be Stopped
- NY Times, Winner Of A Key 1st Amendment Case, Suddenly Seems Upset That 1st Amendment Protects Conservatives Too
- Modernizing Canada’s Industrial Design Regime: Top 10 Changes
- Q2 2018 Quick Links, Part 1: Trademarks and Other IP (Eric Goldman)
- Q2 2018 Quick Links, Part 2: Copyright (Eric Goldman)
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- Comments about Indigenous Women Breached Broadcast Codes, Says Canadian Broadcast Standards Council
- Talk Show’s Sexual Discussions Not Too Explicit, Says Canadian Broadcast Standards Council
- The Consequences of High Wireless Costs: OECD Data Confirms Canadians Lag Behind in Data Usage (Michael Geist)
- Effort To Save Net Neutrality Via Congressional Review Act Appears Stuck In Neutral
- Verizon Finally Puts Its Sad, Unloved Streaming TV Service to Rest
- Verizon To Shut Down Mobile-Friendly Video Platform Go90
- Verizon is shutting down its original video app Go90: Go90 died so Oath can live
- How Verizon Could Fix Its Streaming Video Strategy After Shutting Down Go90
- Comcast starts throttling mobile video, will charge extra for HD streams
- Fresh Off Its Merger, AT&T Jacks Up Price Of Streaming Video Service
- AT&T Begins Testing Its Power In The Wake Of Merger Mania & The Death Of Net Neutrality
- AT&T’s low-cost TV streaming service WatchTV goes live
- AT&T promised lower prices after Time Warner merger—it’s raising them instead
- Internet TV packages are getting pricier — including AT&T’s
- How AT&T could use Time Warner shows and movies to compete with Disney and Netflix
- AT&T removed HBO from an unlimited data plan after buying Time Warner: AT&T alters unlimited plans and makes the cheapest one $5 more expensive.
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- Facebook patents ’emotion detecting’ selfie filters
- Facial recognition found Capital Gazette suspect among 10M photos
- Facial Recognition Company Says It Won’t Sell To Law Enforcement, Knowing It’ll Be Abused
- Judge slams Tacoma for not releasing stingray records
- NSA Extends Its Streak Of Surveillance Violations To Fourteen Years With Its Latest Announcement
- NSA: Sorry, Sorry, Trying to Delete
- California approves privacy rules opposed by ISPs and tech companies: Law will give people some control over collection and sale of private data.
- California Enacts Sweeping Consumer Privacy Law
- California Enacts Sweeping Privacy Law; Will Other States Follow?
- The Digest: California Cracks Down on the Companies Harvesting Your Data
- California Consumer Privacy Act Of 2018 – GDPR Lite?
- Over 60 Organizations Want Sanctions For EU Nations’ Failure To Repeal ‘Invalid’ Data Retention Laws
- A Bug in Samsung’s Default Texting App Is Sending Random Pics to Other People
- LTE wireless connections used by billions aren’t as secure as we thought
Jon
News of the Week; June 27, 2018
GAMES
- PUBG Corp. drops lawsuit against Fortnite creator Epic Games
- PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds dev drops lawsuit against Fortnite: No word on whether a settlement has been reached, but PUBG Crop has withdrawn from the legal battle
- Epic is suing former employee for leaking Fortnite spoilers
- Epic Games sues former QA contractor over Fortnite leak: Thomas Hannah admits breaching NDA but files defence against lawsuit as he claims leak was out of his control
- 69% of Fortnite players have bought in-game purchases, average spend is $85: But one in five spenders unaware that paying for items does not given them an advantage
- Players paying up to $450 for disc-based copies of Fortnite
- ‘Free’ Game Making $300 Million Per Month? But I Thought You Can’t Make Money On Free…
- Westworld bug outs stolen Fallout Shelter code, alleges Bethesda lawsuit
- Bethesda sues over Westworld mobile game: Publisher alleges that Fallout Shelter developer Behaviour Interactive re-used copyrighted code when it created “blatant rip-off” for Warner Bros.
- Star Control creators raising $2M to defend against Stardock lawsuit
- Star Control II developers crowdfund legal fight for IP control: Paul Reiche III, Fredrick Ford estimate $2m in legal costs in escalating disagreement with Stardock
- Donut County dev speaks out about F2P clone on App Store
- PayPal blocks school shooting simulator dev from making sales online: “We work to ensure that our services are not used to accept payments for activities that promote violence,” says payment platform
- Omega Labyrinth Z will no longer release in the West
- Australian classification board to reconsider We Happy Few ban: Appeal made for Compulsion Games’ upcoming title after incentivised drug use denied it a rating
- Which game companies could be using slave labor?: Conflict mineral disclosures show Sony is lax about where/how it gets its materials, while Apple sets the standard for maintaining an ethical supply chain
- Studios Remove ‘Spyware’ From Several Games As Gaming Public Revolts
- For EA and loot boxes, “Fair is the number one thing”: Chief design officer Patrick Söderlund discusses EA’s current thinking around monetization and its future ambitions for streaming
- “People make the mistake of saying, ‘This is what you really want'”: EA chief design officer Patrick Söderlund talks about bringing back Command & Conquer as a mobile game and what the publisher really gets out of EA Originals
- EA Sports creates 24 jobs with new division in Madrid
- WHO expert defends gaming disorder listing: “This moral panic lives its own life” – GamesIndustry.biz speaks with the World Health Organisation and its critics on the subject of gaming disorder
- Prickly denial is the wrong response to WHO’s “gaming disorder”: The proposed definition is careful and cautious; more research is needed and the industry should be cooperating, not stonewalling
- It’s time to stop running from gaming addiction: Talk to the hand.
- Overwatch hacker facing possible jail time for selling illegal programs
- Overwatch hacker jailed by South Korean court: 28-year-old man made $180,000 from illegal programme
- Blizzard applied for a patent on Overwatch’s Play of the Game highlight system
- Blizzard adds a positivity-driven ‘endorsements’ system to Overwatch
- Blizzard adds “endorsements” to encourage positive behavior in Overwatch: Reception of the new system so far is mixed; meanwhile, another Overwatch system may be patented
- Donut County developer speaks out on frustration of app store clones: Ben Esposito says learning of a F2P clone just before his game’s release “stings”
- Valve’s updated Knuckles VR controller brings pinpoint finger-tracking
- Microsoft scraps plans for VR support on Xbox
- Microsoft Affirms No Plans for VR on Xbox Consoles
- Microsoft And Nintendo Team Up To Troll Playstation In Ads For Not Giving Gamers What They Want
- Sony now looking at cross-platform play possibilities
- Xbox and Nintendo gang up on PlayStation in cross-platform row: Could console momentum switch because of an issue most gamers don’t really care about?
- Microsoft teases the first-ever “stream-to-win” option built into Xbox
- Microsoft switches to blockchain tech for publisher royalty calculation: Xbox publishers will now receive royalty statements faster and with less process effort from Microsoft
- Nintendo and Microsoft partner to bring cross-play of Minecraft on Switch
- Nintendo and Microsoft unite against Sony with Minecraft cross-platform play: “Better together” say newfound allies in the face on Sony’s cross-platform reluctance
- Sony exec “confident” PS4 cross-console play “solution” is coming
- Sony changes tone on PS4 cross-play with Xbox One, Switch: Shawn Layden says company is hearing the backlash, looking at possibilities and “confident we’ll get to a solution” to make everyone happy
- Game of Thrones: Conquest players find bot exploiting user data
- Report: Snap looking to launch a game platform for Snapchat
- Blog: Weird and not-so-weird concepts that could take the fighting genre forward
- ‘Emergent gameplay’: RPG devs mull what the future holds for big RPGs
- Streaming-only RPG looks to build on Twitch Plays Pokemon model
- Nintendo’s Fils-Aime commits to improving Switch storefront curation
- New security measure from Nintendo ‘perfectly prevents’ digital piracy on the Switch: Platform holder permanently bans consoles with pirated games following reveal of unpatchable hardware exploit
- Switch-hacking trolls reportedly loading pornographic profile pictures
- Pokémon Go hits largest playerbase since launch
- Pokemon Quest hits 2.5M Switch downloads ahead of mobile launch
- The Legend of Nintendo: With the Switch, the 130-year-old gaming giant has once again turned reports of its demise into Nintendo Mania.
- Nintendo stole the show during E3, at least as far as Twitter is concerned
- Nintendo attracts most attention on Twitter during E3: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was the most discussed game on the platform that week
- Mario Tennis Aces claims top spot in the UK retail chart: Switch exclusive is one of eight games in the top 40 on Nintendo’s platform
- Mario Tennis Aces review: Turning tennis into a fighting game
- Nintendo brings Labo support to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, with more games to come
- You can now play Mario Kart 8 with Labo’s cardboard motorbike controller
- Nintendo adds Mario Kart functionality to boost Labo sales: Platform holder also seeks ‘greatest Labo creations’ as part of summer campaign
- Lumines Remastered turns the Nintendo Switch into a full-body vibration party
- FIFA 18 remains No. 1 in Europe for third week running: World Cup fever keeps FIFA 18 on top both digitally and at retail
- Ubisoft CEO: Our goal is to provoke thought, not to make political statements
- Guillemot explains Ubisoft’s apolitical political games: CEO of publisher behind Far Cry 5 and The Division 2 says the games are impartial “to make people think”
- Metal Gear Rising no longer playable on Mac due to DRM
- How Hitman Sniper prepared Square Enix Montreal for the switch to freemium: Why one of the biggest success stories in premium mobile is dropping its entry fee – and “making the long-term commitment to not be evil”
- Newzoo: Mobile most popular platform, least popular to spend money on – 95% of surveyed gamers play on mobile, but the platform has a lower player-to-payer ratio than console or PC
- Madmind Studio cancels Agony Unrated: Developer “struggling with financial problems” reneges on promise of unrated re-release
- Trion Worlds acquires assets of defunct Marvel Heroes dev Gazillion
- Trion Worlds acquires Gazillion Entertainment assets: Rift developer hopes to expand MMO portfolio through acquisition, third-party relationships
- Google launches Indie Games Accelerator in Asia
- Four-month program builds on Launchpad: Accelerator, dozens of expert mentors already on board
- Sony stops launch of explicit anime dungeon crawler: Omega Labyrinth Z won’t launch on PS4 or Vita in the West
- Blog: An E3 2018 media coverage analysis
- Fortnite, Fallout 76, Cyberpunk 2077 lead E3 media coverage: Sony narrowly retakes leadership from Microsoft, EA dominates publishers
- Fortnite growth slows in May as Pokemon Go makes comeback: Superdata’s monthly digital games market report finds worldwide spending up 25% year-over-year to $9.1 billion thanks largely to mobile growth
- Fancensus: Fallout 76 most viewed game on YouTube of E3 2018 – Elder Scrolls VI enjoys Twitter attention; Kingdom Hearts III most often mentioned across media coverage
- NPD: Software sales slump in May offset by hardware and accessory spending – Accessory and game card spending at record high, growing 30 per cent year-on-year
- What Apptopia learned from four years of top grossing mobile games: Only six games have maintained an unbroken streak in the US App Store top 50 since 2014
- Avalanche Studios finds the line between AAA and independence: Following its acquisition by Nordisk Film and a fine showing at E3, the 15 year-old Swedish studio has an even brighter future ahead
- Dungeon Fighter Online gross lifetime revenue exceeds $10bn
- Friday the 13th developer scraps all future content plans
- Bluehole to acquire mobile dev Delusion Studio
- Bluehole to acquire Delusion Studio: PUBG owner picks up Korean developer behind Guardian Stone, Castle Burn
- Immortals acquire previously defunct Brazilian esports brand MIBR: Signs non-endemic sponsors Tinder and Betway as part of the deal
- UTA Launches Esports Division With 90 Creators Following Acquisitions Of Press X, Everyday Influencers
- Tencent: Chinese esports market expected to grow to $1.5 billion in 2020 – Country’s esports userbase projected to grow to 350 million, accounting for 59% of global esports users
- Worldwide esports to hit $2.17 billion by 2023 – Report: Research and Markets projects competitive gaming revenues to grow at 18% CAGR over next five years
- Twitch Beat Its All-Time Concurrent Viewer Record At E3 This Year
- E3 2018 audience breaks Twitch all-time concurrent viewer record: 2.9 million concurrent viewers watched Twitch on June 10, the day of Microsoft and Bethesda’s press events
- Inside Atari’s rise and fall
- Sensible Object: “Voice control will bring people closer together” – CEO Alex Fleetwood discusses how smart speakers will create entirely new types of games ahead of his “Develop Brighton” talk
DIGITAL
- Get ready for more sales taxes on online purchases
- The Supreme Court Makes A Federal Case Out Of South Dakota’s Inability To Collect Taxes From Its Residents And Thus A Big Mess
- Internet Retailers Subject to State, Local Sales/Use Taxes in Historic Supreme Court Decision
- Supreme Court’s Online Tax Decision Will Impact Cloud Computing and Software Industries
- Supreme Court Overturns Quill: Remote Sellers Will have to Collect More Taxes
- Supreme Court Overturns Quill, Holds States Can Tax Online Retailers Without Physical Presence
- Microsoft’s facial recognition service now less bad for nonwhites
- Judge deals blow to women suing Microsoft over gender discrimination
- People Set To Spend More Time Online Than Watching TV In 2019
- Internet Freedom Without Imperialism
- American media keeps falling for Russian trolls
- TrumpHotels.org Purchased by Pranksters to Promote America’s Concentration Camps
- Report: Trump officials planning escalation of US-China tech trade war
- China Censors John Oliver Because President Xi Looks A Bit Like Winnie The Pooh
- Watch the John Oliver segment that got Oliver’s name banned in China
- Apple just launched a ‘fact-based’ election feature in Apple News with coverage from Fox News and The Washington Post
- Apple launches service program to address MacBook keyboard woes
- Apple’s AirPower charging mat delayed until fall due to “technical hurdles”
- Samsung and Apple have had enough of the court battles, finally settle
- Amazon Needs to Stop Providing Facial Recognition Tech for the Government: The benefits do not outweigh its privacy risks and dangers
- Amazon Workers Demand Jeff Bezos Cancel Face Recognition Contracts With Law Enforcement
- Amazon staff to Bezos: Stop selling tech to law enforcement, Palantir
- Amazon Unveils Plans to Provide Blockchain-as-a-Service
- Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited, ‘book stuffing,’ and the darker side of being a digital content consumer
- I’m Starting to Have Serious Doubts About Amazon Prime
- Tech Employees Revolting Over Government Contracts Reminds Us That Government Needs Tech More than Tech Needs Government
- Artificial Consciousness: How To Give A Robot A Soul
- Morality in the Machines: Researchers at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society are collaborating with MIT scholars to study driverless cars, social media feeds, and criminal justice algorithms
- Silos, Centralization And Censorship: Losing The Promise Of The Internet
- Thermostats, Locks and Lights: Digital Tools of Domestic Abuse
- Domestic Abusers Are Increasingly Weaponizing Smart Home Tech
- Why the Future will Require Mesh Governance
- Why gesture-based interfaces haven’t lived up to the hype
- Google Gives Its Human-Like Phone Chatbot A Demo Redo
- Talking to Google Duplex: Google’s human-like phone AI feels revolutionary
- Yes, Google’s Phone-Calling AI Is Cool. But Why Does It Exist?
- Google Killing Off DoubleClick, AdWords Names in Rebranding of Ad Products
- YouTube Debuts Premieres To Let Creators Launch New Videos Within Live Streams
- YouTube launches paid subscription membership, merch shelves: More ways to get paid.
- YouTube introduces new monetization methods for its creators
- Top Influencers Post The Most, Get Watched Less Often On YouTube
- YouTube challenges Twitch by expanding $5 channel memberships: Platform rolls out service to wider group, adds built-in merchandising tools
- IFPI Nuking Twitch Streamers Accounts For Playing Background Music
- YouTube now lets you pay $4.99 per month to support your favorite creators
- ASMR Creators Rustle Up Some Revenue On YouTube And Beyond
- India Beyond Bollywood: How YouTube & Other Streaming Services Are Rewiring the Local Music Industry
- The UK’s Singles Chart Will Incorporate YouTube Streams For The First Time
- YouTube’s VidCon Keynote Is All About How It Can Help Creators Make (A Lot) More Money
- YouTube Orders George Clooney-Produced Dark Comedy Series Starring Kirsten Dunst
- VidCon Will Distribute $2,000 Grants To Emerging Creators Every Week For The Next Year
- After Thousands Of Unticketed Guests Show Up, Tana Mongeau’s TanaCon Is Cancelled
- Rapper Juice WRLD Apologizes to Twitch Streamers Banned for Playing His Music on Stream
- Mobcrush’s Mobcam Tool Lets Users Stream To Multiple Live Video Platforms At Once
- Activism & Doxing: Stephen Miller, ICE And How Internet Platforms Have No Good Options
- Twitter punishes users for doxing White House advisor Stephen Miller
- Australian Parliament Sends Ethics Committee After A Citizen For Mocking Gov’t Official On Twitter
- Twitter’s Creator Ads Are Working, Study Finds Users’ Purchase Intent Rises By 88%
- How Twitter Made The Tech World’s Most Unlikely Comeback
- Court Refuses to Dismiss Lawsuit Over Kanye’s Tweet
- Instagram Exec Says Monetization Will Arrive On Just-Launched IGTV Platform By Year’s End
- Instagram Rolls Out Video Chat, New Camera Effects And Topic Channels
- L.A. Mural Requires At Least 20,000 Followers To Take An Instagram Photo
- Instagram Users Spent 53 Minutes Per Day In The Android App This Month (Study)
- Instagram Is 100 Times More Valuable Than It Was When Facebook Bought It
- Facebook mistakenly leaked developer analytics reports to testers
- Facebook Updates Policy on Marketing Weapon Accessories
- Facebook Expanding Fact-Checking Project to Combat Fake News
- The Great Facebook Crash: The social giant is retreating from the news business. It’s been a painful transition for publications that had come to depend on it—including Slate.
- Facebook’s quest for fleet of solar-powered Internet drones grounded forever
- Wikipedia Makes The Case For Google & Facebook To Give Back To The Commons, Rather Than Just Take
- Snapchat To Place Renewed Emphasis On Creator Community, Unveils Second Series With Patrick Starrr
- Sony Shuts Down Crackle in Canada
- Sony’s Crackle Will Cease Service In Canada On June 28
- Insights: The Big Schmear – Soon Every Social Media Platform Will Look Like Every Other One
- Digital Media Company Whistle Sports Announces $28 Million Funding Round
- Here’s The Conspiracy Tearing Bitcoin Crypto Communities Apart
- Bit by Bitcoin mining
- Are Digital Asset Transactions Always Securities Offerings?
- A Summary of the SEC’s Speech on Cryptocurrencies
- How Pixar’s Open Sexism Ruined My Dream Job
- Disney Partners With Cisco for Its StudioLAB
- Intel CEO Brian Krzanich Quits After Investigation Into Total Boner Move
- Intel CEO Brian Krzanich resigns over workplace relationship
- Intel CEO resigns over breach of “non-fraternisation” policy: Brian Krzanich steps down after five years with tech giant
- Uber wins back its right to operate in London
- Police: Uber driver was streaming Hulu just before fatal self-driving car crash
- Hulu CEO Says Streaming Service Likely To Make “20 Or 25” Original Shows Next Year
- Is the “Netflix of podcasts” moment finally here?
- Academics Gathered To Share Emoji Research, And It Was…
- FTC Publishes Guidance on Online Giving Portals
- Slack Is Down and I’ve Never Felt Less Alive
- How Can We Make Technology Healthier for Humans?
CREATIVITY
- Judge won’t dismiss defamation case on anti-SLAPP grounds, citing hate speech: Hate speech ‘raises no subject matter that is related to the public interest,’ judge says
- Supposed ‘Free Speech’ Warrior Jordan Peterson Sues University Because Silly Professor Said Some Mean Things About Him
- Education Fair Dealing Update: All Eyes on York as Copibec and Université Laval Reach Tentative Settlement
- How One Man Is Using Hip-Hop to Diversify Architecture: Armed with a master’s degree in architecture, decades of hip-hop fandom and rapper teachers, Mike Ford is quickly getting kids into building
- Site Blocking, The Sequel: After Telling Courts They Can Issue De-Indexing or Blocking Orders, Movie Industry Calls for More in Copyright Act (Michael Geist)
- One step closer to approval of new controversial EU copyright law
- Copyright in the United States
- The marvellous world of superhero licensing
- Distilling the Essence of the Fair Use Defense
- Why a 40-year-old SCOTUS ruling against software patents still matters today
- 2018 World Cup: FIFA’s determined to keep ambush marketing on the bench
- Inclusion riders: Can they work in the Canadian music industry?
- The Fred Rogers We Know: With his unconventional take on children’s television, Mr. Rogers helped redefine the male role model.
- Lawsuit Argues Honking Your Car Horn Is Protected By The First Amendment
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- Net Neutrality and NAFTA: Canadian Government Says It Will Address U.S. Policy Should Harms Arise (Michael Geist)
- AT&T Successfully Derails California’s Tough New Net Neutrality Law
- California net neutrality bill gutted as lawmakers cave to AT&T lobbyists
- California’s Quest For Tough Net Neutrality Not Dead Yet
- Bill to save net neutrality is 46 votes short in US House
- AT&T buying company that delivers targeted ads based on your Web browsing
- New Report Details AT&T’s Role in NSA Spying Initiatives
- Meet the 8 spooky AT&T buildings that almost certainly also serve the NSA
- Investigation Shows AT&T Really Likes Being In The Surveillance Business
- AT&T Will Launch Skinny OTT TV Bundle, WatchTV, Next Week
- AT&T Employees Reportedly Encouraged to Use Unethical Sales Tactics to Drive Up DirecTV Now Subscriptions
- Judge In AT&T Merger Ruling Had Zero Understanding Of The Markets AT&T Now Dominates
- Charter’s gigabit cable with no data caps is ready for 27 million homes
- Considerations for media and telco vertical mergers in the rise of the digital media age
- Disney gets DOJ approval to buy Fox but must divest sports networks
- 21st Century Fox Accepts Amended Disney Offer
- Fox desperately trying to avoid selling to Comcast
- Two Titans’ Rocky Relationship Stands Between Comcast and Fox: Tensions between Comcast CEO Brian Roberts and 21st Century Fox’s Rupert Murdoch have complicated Comcast’s pursuit of the biggest media deal in years
- Ajit Pai Rushes To Weaken Media Ownership Cap To Aid Sinclair… While Under Investigation For Being Too Cozy With Sinclair
- Why Network Effects Matter Less Than They Used To
- Broadcasters Hope To Counter Ad Skipping By Replacing Ads With Short ‘Inspirational Videos’
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- Canada’s Access to Information Open Data Fail: Departments Months Behind Posting Summaries of Completed Requests (Michael Geist)
- Revealed: Canada uses massive US anti-terrorist database at borders
- The NSA’s Hidden Spy Hubs in Eight U.S. Cities
- Supreme Court Says Warrants Are Needed For Cell Site Location Info
- Supreme Court rules: Yes, gov’t needs warrant to get cellphone location data
- U.S. Supreme Court Holds that Historical Cell Site Location Data Is Subject to a Reasonable Expectation of Privacy
- Supreme Court surveillance opinion nudges us to think nationally, act locally
- Senator to FCC: How much do police stingrays drain a cell phone battery?
- Anthony Kennedy’s Retirement May Have Huge Consequences For Privacy
- Court Dismisses Privacy Claims Against Email Subscription Management Tool–Cooper v. UnrollMe
- Illinois Prosecutor Brings Felony Eavesdropping Charges Against 13-Year-Old Who Recorded His Conversation With School Administrators
- A Privacy Bomb Is About to Be Dropped on the California Economy and the Global Internet (Eric Goldman)
- In A Surprising Decision, European Court Of Human Rights Says Sweden’s Mass Surveillance Is Fine
- Social sharing and the US Video Privacy Protection Act: Perilous for online video content providers
- After subpoenaing Apple in trade secrets case, Tesla goes after Facebook
- Voluntary Compliance: The Business Case for Adopting the GDPR in the US
- Why personal agency matters more than personal data
Jon
News of the Week; June 20, 2018
GAMES
- A Claim of Epic Proportions: Epic Games Hits Back in Suit Against 14-Year-Old
- ‘Gaming Disorder’ officially listed in World Health Organization diagnostic doc
- WHO makes ‘gaming disorder’ diagnosis official: Final version of World Health Organization’s 11th International Compendium of Diseases includes gaming addiction for the first time
- Games industry trade bodies concerned by ‘gaming disorder’ classification
- Industry trade bodies from around the globe unite to condemn ‘gaming disorder’ decision: WHO classification will create moral panic, says international trade body coalition
- Ukie: WHO gaming disorder diagnosis is based on “highly contested evidence”
- Former Telltale CEO and co-founder Kevin Bruner is suing the studio
- Former Telltale CEO sues developer over alleged breach of contract: Kevin Bruner claims Telltale failed to fulfil its obligations to him after he stepped down in 2017
- HitRecord “has to draw a line somewhere” on payment for Beyond Good & Evil assets: Only work used in the game will be compensated, says founder Joseph Gordon-Levitt
- Reverse-engineered Diablo source code released on GitHub
- Blog: How much protection does Fair Use really offer?
- Nintendo boss says loot boxes have ‘gotten a bit of a bad rap’
- Nintendo: Loot boxes “have gotten a bit of a bad rap” – Reggie Fils-Aime says loot boxes “can be interesting” as long as players have other options
- Citing Dutch law, Valve drops trading CS:GO and Dota 2items in the Netherlands
- Valve disables CS:GO and DOTA 2 item trading in Netherlands after legal warning – “We still don’t understand or agree with the [Dutch Gaming Authority’s] legal conclusion,” says Valve
- Valve continues its fight against “fake games” on Steam: Games that haven’t reached Steam’s “confidence metric” will be restricted from user achievements and game counts
- Valve introduces limits for new games to prevent ‘fake’ ones from gaming Steam
- Review manipulators aren’t as sneaky as they think they are, warns Valve
- Following App Store rejection, Valve cuts game purchasing from iOS Steam Link app
- Valve continues work on rejected iOS Steam Link app: After initial rejection by Apple, TestFlight version of Steam companion app updates to curb ability to purchase new games
- Following GDPR, Steam now discloses a ton of collected account data to users
- Studios commit to removing Red Shell due to player complaints: Dead by Daylight, Elder Scrolls Online and other Steam games will remove alleged spyware that tracked advertisement efficacy
- The GamesIndustry.biz E3 Award Winners
- Editor roundtable: What did E3 2018 mean for game developers?
- E3 2018: Starting next-gen hype early is bad for business – Casual references toward next-gen consoles and games risks overshadowing the huge releases coming in 2018
- Analyst: 66% of console players still prefer physical games over digital
- E3 2018: Microsoft finally comes out of its “self-imposed damage control position” – Industry analysts on Sony’s muted E3 briefing, and why it’s too soon to know if Microsoft’s studio acquisitions will be proved “smart or dumb”
- E3 2018: Cyberpunk 2077 astounds, but so do the crowds – Dispatches from the show floor, where E3 continues to struggle with delivering a satisfying show for the public
- E3 attendance reaches highest point since 2005: 2018 event was “an enormous success” says organiser as nearly 70,000 people descend on LA Convention Centre
- The top ten games from E3 2018
- Stick or Twitch? How streaming is hurting single-player games
- Is single-player dead? Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick ‘doesn’t buy it’
- Netflix and Telltale partner on Minecraft TV show, Stranger Things game: Minecraft Story Mode will be an interactive five-episode series, but Netflix doesn’t have “any plans to get into gaming”
- Microsoft is making changes to its Xbox app to better reflect PC users
- Streaming could be key to Xbox reclaiming the lead from PlayStation
- PlayStation 4 sale transforms EMEA games charts: Vampyr debuts at No.2 as FIFA 18 holds top spot
- Sony revives greatest hits program for PS4 games as PlayStation Hits
- PlayStation briefing a response to “shallow” E3 press conferences: Sony Worldwide Studios’ Michael Denny addresses disappointment over this week’s more focused showcase
- Sony is locking Fortnite accounts to PS4, and players are mad
- Sony issues evasive response to Fortnite cross-platform controversy
- PlayStation 4 owners can’t access Fortnite accounts on Switch: Sony issues response, side-steps complaints around lack of cross-play and inability to access saved progress
- Fortnite racks up two million downloads on Switch in a single day: Despite releasing late last year, Fortnite has been featured prominently throughout E3 2018
- Fortnite revenue tops $100M on iOS after 90 days
- Rare official arcade versions of Donkey Kong, Sky Skipper headed to Switch
- Nintendo and Disney join forces for a Switch-themed game show
- Is Nintendo Switch in trouble?: After a slight E3 showcase, investors and analysts are concerned over Switch sales. But are they right?
- After a strong start, Nintendo wants Labo to reach a broader demographic
- Inside Nintendo’s “perfect” method for detecting online Switch piracy
- Following hardware exploit, Nintendo bans Switch consoles with pirated games
- Xbox and Nintendo speak out against Fortnite PS4 stalemate: Phil Spencer and Reggie Fils-Aime both want their customers to play with and across other consoles
- Dev taps blockchain tech to make Pokemon playable on Twitch — for a price
- Fortnite breaks record for concurrent Twitch viewers – Battle Royale smash hit outperforms previous record holder Counter-Strike: GO
- Fortnite hits $100m revenue in its first 90 days on iOS: Meanwhile, PUBG on iOS has grossed just $5.2 million in 60 days
- How useful errors and evolving player skills shape Fortnite’s UX
- PUBG dev says store-bought assets help teams ‘work smart’
- PUBG Corp. defends the use of asset stores as the only way to “work smart”: PUBG is no “asset flip”, says PUBG Corp., but store-bought assets are necessary when building maps
- Ubisoft won’t whitewash Ancient Greece with Assassin’s Creed Odyssey: “We really felt like it was a nice opportunity for us to have a deep dive into the culture of Greece,” says audio director Lydia Andre
- In Defense Of Ubisoft: Crowdsourcing Game Content Creation Is Actually Fun And Non-Exploitive
- Editor Roundtable: How does Ubisoft’s HitRecord partnership impact devs?
- THQ Nordic raises $168 million for future acquisitions
- THQ Nordic completes share issue worth $168m: Major acquisition plans afoot with flash sale of 7.7 million shares
- Keemstar, ItsAlexClark, Bart Baker Among YouTube Stars Featured In New Mobile Game
- BBTV Interactive Launches Squad Rivals
- HitRECord founder responds to backlash over crowdsourcing assets for Beyond Good and Evil 2
- Avalanche EP: livestreaming ‘can’t not’ influence game development now
- Naughty Dog’s Last Of Us games have sold over 17M copies in 5 years
- Unity moving entire infrastructure to Google Cloud for ‘connected games’
- Unity unveils new augmented reality extension MARS
- Sales from Fallout 76 ‘Country Roads’ cover will be donated to charity
- Critical Force nets $6.3m investment to scale esports operation: Business Finland backs mobile developer as flagship title hits 40 million downloads
- Blog: Are battle royale titles the next big esport?
- FIFA is a Better Esport Than Other Sports Simulation Games
- Sea of Thieves hit three month target in a single day
- Naughty Dog marks The Last of Us’ fifth birthday with 17m copies sold: Combined sales of The Last of Us and the Uncharted series are now pushing 60 million units
- Phones within phones: Simulating real apps to explore real issues: Lost Phone and Bury Me, My Love developers discuss the intimate impact of games that behave like mobile interfaces
- After Rumors Swirl, Nintendo Says Talks To Bring Video Services To Switch Are “Ongoing”
- Why Unravel Two is not on Nintendo Switch: Coldwood Interactive tells us how the console’s simpler hardware would have delayed the surprise launch by six months
- Does cyber insurance make us more (or less) secure?: Underwriting cyber risk remains more art than science, but in the absence of regulation, cyber insurance might still be the best hope for improving cybersecurity practices across the board – at least fo
- Unity and Google Cloud announce partnership to create multiplayer development suite: Alliance aims to create server hosting, matchmaking tools to ease multiplayer game development in Unity
- GameStop in buyout talks, reports Reuters
- Celebrating experience and tackling ageism: 50 Over 50 industry list revealed – List conceived to “counter the trend of glossing over ageism,” says Game Advocacy
- Educational app TinyTap raises $5M toward accessible learning
- How ARKit 2 works, and why Apple is so focused on AR
DIGITAL
- Where does the internet happen? The Supreme Court of Canada tackles the thorny issue of which law applies to defamation claims
- Libel Tourism and Forum Shopping: The Supreme Court of Canada Applies the Van Breda Test to an Internet Defamation Claim
- Biohacker Who Implanted Transit Chip in Hand Evades Fine
- Lessons From Making Internet Companies Liable For User’s Speech: You Get Less Speech, Less Security And Less Innovation
- Dear EU Parliament: Why Are You About To Allow US Internet Companies To Decide What EU Citizens Can Say Online?
- EU Parliamentary Committee Votes To Put American Internet Giants In Charge Of What Speech Is Allowed Online
- Jury awards Apple $533 million in damages
- Apple snags Oprah Winfrey in original content deal
- Oprah Winfrey, Apple Ink Multi-Year Development Deal
- Huge Apple Maps outage prevents all users from searching, getting directions
- Apple Pulls Plug On Phone-Cracking Tech Vendors, Will Prevent Data Transfer From Locked Phones
- A New Tech Manifesto: Six demands, from a citizen to Big Tech
- Microsoft Employees Up in Arms Over Cloud Contract With ICE
- Microsoft staff call on company to end ICE contract
- Microsoft condemns separation of families at US border
- Microsoft’s new diverse avatar editor represents more body types, disabilities
- It Turns out All Kinds of Tech Companies Are Working With ICE
- FBI recovers WhatsApp, Signal data stored on Michael Cohen’s BlackBerry
- The Making of an Online Moral Crisis: How the many-chambered heart of the internet turned the Trump administration’s family-separation policy into a different kind of scandal.
- Trump Stokes Outrage In Silicon Valley—But It’s Selective
- Senate rejects Trump’s plan to lift ZTE export ban
- Welcome To Blaine, The Town Amazon Prime Built
- How Alt-Right Twitter Tricks The Media Into Panicking: @thebradfordfile has been cited as evidence of the rise of the alt-right, but its popularity is faked through power-engagement groups and networks of sockpuppets.
- From billboards to Twitter, why the aesthetics of protest matters more today
- When Do the Perils of Programmatic Advertising Undermine Its Value?
- Data Nationalization in the Shadow of Social Credit Systems (Frank Pasquale)
- Inside The Crypto World’s Biggest Scandal: Arthur and Kathleen Breitman thought they held the secret to building a new decentralized utopia. On the way, they plunged into a new kind of hell. A crypto-tragedy in three acts.
- US ethics body tells government employees to declare crypto holdings
- What does a Bitcoin taste like?
- Europe advances copyright law that could filter the Internet
- Europe on the verge of voting nefarious digital publishing right (Andres Guadamuz)
- Norwegian Court Orders Website Of Public Domain Court Decisions Shut Down With No Due Process
- Critical Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights
- DOJ Lets Cops Know SESTA/FOSTA Is For Shutting Down Websites, Not Busting Sex Traffickers
- Catching Up on FOSTA Since Its Enactment (A Linkwrap) (Eric Goldman)
- Section 230 Can’t Save Snapchat From Lawsuit Involving Its ‘Speed Filter’
- The End of All That’s Good and Pure About the Internet
- Tanzania Forces ‘Unregistered Bloggers’ To Disappear Themselves
- Andy Serkis Thinks Performance Capture Will Just Be How All Actors Work in 100 Years
- The enabled landscape is the future of augmented reality
- Europe’s GDPR Is Killing Email Marketing, to the Disappointment of No One
- Think The GDPR Only Regulates Big Internet Companies? The EU Says It Regulates You Too.
- Google Maps removes Uber integration
- Google’s New Podcast App Could Turbocharge The Industry
- Boston Globe Posts Hilarious Fact-Challenged Interview About Regulating Google, Without Any Acknowledgement Of Errors
- Users Watch Over 180 Million Hours Of YouTube Content On TV Screens Daily
- French Political Party Voting For Mandatory Copyright Filters Is Furious That Its YouTube Channel Deleted By Filter
- YouTube Announces Creative Suite For Brands, Lets Them Live Experiment With Ads
- Head Of YouTube Music Has “Largest Marketing Plan In YouTube’s History” For The Service
- ‘Cobra Kai’ Producers Reveal How They Helped YouTube Create Its Very Own ‘House Of Cards’
- YouTube Announces Creative Suite For Brands, Lets Them Live Experiment With Ads
- YouTube Premium And YouTube Music Roll Out To 12 More Countries Including U.K., Canada
- Struggling Fitbit now has 5 ex-employees who face criminal charges
- With IGTV, Instagram Takes Aim At YouTube
- Instagram Launches Long-Form Video Service Called IGTV
- Instagram Announces IGTV, An Entertainment Hub With Hour-Long Videos And Content From Social Stars
- Facebook used less for news as youngsters turn to WhatsApp: Reuters Institute
- The “Facebook Nevers”
- What Facebook can learn from academia about protecting privacy
- Facebook Communications Head Elliot Schrage Is Leaving
- Facebook Expands Monetization With Branded Content Marketplace, More Ad Breaks
- Facebook Adds New Ways To Gamify Video, Will Incorporate Non-Episodic Clips Into ‘Watch’ Hub
- Facebook will air live PGA Tour coverage on its Watch tab
- Florida frat bros sued over Facebook revenge porn
- In nearly 500 pages of answers, Facebook stonewalls some senators’ questions
- Data Propria, run by Cambridge Analytica alumni, working on Trump 2020 campaign
- Man who allegedly gave Vault 7 cache to WikiLeaks busted by poor opsec
- As Market Cheers Spotify’s Direct Deals With Artists and Managers, Labels Mull Their Options
- Streaming Threatens to Dethrone Traditional TV for World Cup
- Streaming Services Jump Into the Unscripted Series Game
- Fullscreen Has Quietly Offered 360-Degree Talent Management For 2 Years — And Its Client Roster Is Growing Fast
- Jon Cozart, Marla Catherine, CJ Perry Sign With Management Firm Expand Entertainment
- Whistle Sports Signs Deal With NBA Comedian ‘Famous Los’ For Original Content, Events
- Influencers Must Disclose Who Is Influencing Them
- More Than 80 Creators, Including Casey Neistat And Miranda Sings, Confirmed For Tana Mongeau’s VidCon Alternative
- Insights: VidCon Navigates An Industry’s Stormy Season With New Owner, Influx Of Brands And Platforms
- What would it mean for AI to have a soul?
CREATIVITY
- Music Canada at the Copyright Review: “Illegal Content is Drifting Away” (Michael Geist)
- Canadian Music Industry Pitches ‘You Must Be A Pirate’ Tax On Smartphones
- Danish Anti-Piracy Lawyers Jailed For Real, Actual Stealing From Copyright Holders
- The Gawker Case Has Become More Interesting
- Dear Journalists: Stop being loudspeakers for liars
- Minnesota’s Vague Ban On ‘Political’ Wear At Polling Places Shut Down By The Supreme Court
- Broadway Producers Denied Motion to Set Aside Damages Verdict against Former Publicist
- Judge Cock(y)blocks Author Faleena Hopkins’ Demand Other Authors Stop Using The Word ‘Cocky’ In Their Titles
- Star Trek, Dr. Seuss Mash-Up, Continues to Make Law
- Seeing red – Louboutin’s trademark victory at the ECJ
- Oakley Denies Validity of Graffiti Copyright: Calling artist-duo’s works unoriginal and “generic.”
- Hold the presses: contempt of court
- Terry Gilliam Has Lost the Rights to The Man Who Killed Don Quixote
- European Citizens: You Stopped ACTA, But The New Copyright Directive Is Much, Much Worse: Speak Up
- UN Free Speech Expert: EU’s Copyright Directive Would Be An Attack On Free Speech, Violate Human Rights
- Following Allegations of Abuse, Chris Hardwick Has Been Pulled from AMC Programming and San Diego Comic-Con
- World Cup Advertising Fever – but don’t overstep the mark!
- Propaganda or news: Should media publish government’s child-detention photos?
- The MoviePass Effect Is Here to Stay – Even if MoviePass Isn’t
- How Swiss news publisher NZZ built a flexible paywall using machine learning
- Warner Bros. Turns Harry Potter Fan Events Into Events For The Franchise That Must Not Be Named
- Is an audio recording on magnetic tape a technological document?
- How John Mayer Helped Me Become a Better Therapist: Using song lyrics is a form of expressive arts therapy, which can help people tap into their emotions and invoke personal change.
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- The CRTC’s Vision of the Future
- Government of Canada Looks to Modernize Telecommunications and Broadcasting Legislation for the Digital Age
- CRTC Rebuked: Government Signals Frustration With the Commission Prioritizing Carriers Over Consumers (Michael Geist)
- How Did George Brown College Come to Support the FairPlay Site Blocking Plan? Docs Show Bell Lobbied the School’s President (Michael Geist)
- A CRTC focused on the public interest?
- Too punitive: Québec Court of Appeal cuts award of punitive damages down to size
- Court Rejects DOJ Challenge to AT&T/Time Warner Vertical Merger
- Federal Judge Approves AT&T-Time Warner Merger; Deal Closes
- AT&T Closes $85 Billion Time Warner Deal
- What to expect now that AT&T officially owns Time Warner
- Time Warner Is Getting A Rebrand To Avoid Confusion
- New York threatens to revoke Charter’s purchase of Time Warner Cable
- Wireless Carriers Hope You Won’t Notice Their Location Data Scandal Makes The Facebook, Cambridge Fracas Look Like Amateur Hour
- ISPs Lobbying California Lawmakers In Bid To Weaken State’s Looming Net Neutrality Law
- Ajit Pai Now Trying To Pretend That Everybody Supported Net Neutrality Repeal
- Charter Spectrum Claims The Death Of Net Neutrality Will Magically Provide Better, Faster Broadband
- How AT&T and Comcast are trying to kill California’s net neutrality bill
- Net Neutrality And The Broken Windows Fallacy
- AT&T, Time Warner, and the Need for Neutrality
- AT&T is already planning more acquisitions, days after buying Time Warner
- Following AT&T’s Lead, Comcast Makes A $65 Billion Bid For Fox
- Comcast Offers $65 Billion for Twenty-First Century Fox
- Disney Ups Fox Bid to $71.3 Billion, Outflanking Comcast
- Sorry, Comcast: Fox and Disney sign new merger deal, rejecting Comcast bid
- Disney’s Plan to Acquire Fox Is Back On, Thanks to a New $70 Billion Deal
- Net Neutrality And The Broken Windows Fallacy
- California Net Neutrality Bill Was ‘Hijacked,’ Lawmaker Says
- FCC Seeks Public Comment On Proposals To Streamline
- FAA v. FCC On Drone Enforcement
- FCC, Big Telcos Take Aim At Line Sharing Rules In Bid To Further Hamstring Broadband Competition
- Sprint, T-Mobile to FCC: Our Job Killing, Competition Eroding Megamerger Will Create Jobs & Competition
- Verizon’s New Phone Plan Proves It Has No Idea What ‘Unlimited’ Actually Means
- Verizon and AT&T will stop selling your phone’s location to data brokers
- South Carolina’s New State Telemarketing Law
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- Geolocation phone apps to track children come under scrutiny by the FTC
- China Is Rolling Out A Mandatory Program That Puts Tracking Chips In Every Car
- China-based hackers burrow inside satellite, defense, and telecoms firms
- China’s Latest Censorship Crackdown Target: Videos Of Women Rubbing, Kissing And Licking Binaural Microphones
- NY Senate Passes Bill That Would Make It A Crime To Publish Photos Of The Elderly Without Their Consent
- Decades-old PGP bug allowed hackers to spoof just about anyone’s signature
- EU Politicians Tell European Commission To Suspend Privacy Shield Data Transfer Framework
- Hackers who sabotaged the Olympic games return for more mischief
- Reminder: macOS still leaks secrets stored on encrypted drives
- Tesla sues employee alleged to have stolen gigabytes of data
Jon
News of the Week; June 13, 2018
GAMES
- Valve removes AIDS Simulator, other controversial games from Steam Store: Games taken down offer slight clarification on what company means by “straight up trolling”
- AIDS Simulator kicked off Steam as Valve grapples with “trolling” definition
- Valve clarifies what games count as ‘straight up trolling,’ sort of
- Op-ed: Valve takes a side by not “taking sides” in curation controversy
- Valve Decides To Get Out Of The Curation Business When It Comes To ‘Offensive’ Games
- Itch.io founder brands Valve’s open-door Steam policy ‘ridiculous’
- Valve’s new policy on Steam games splits opinions among devs
- By 2019, Steam will no longer run on Windows XP or Vista
- Valve launching Steam China with Perfect World: Partnership likely means leading PC marketplace will be free from the threat of long-rumoured government block
- Valve partners with Perfect World to bring Steam to China
- Battletech developer let go after sexual harassment allegations
- Cyberpunk dev: QA can absolutely help your team prevent offensive moments
- Harebrained Schemes parts ways with designer accused of sexual harassment: Battletech developer conducted internal investigation after multiple women came forward
- ‘This is not okay’: EA minces no words on backlash against women in Battlefield
- EA CEO’s damage control speech: “We want to be better”: Andrew Wilson stresses that publisher does not want to give paying players unfair advantages following last year’s loot box fiasco
- EA touts “profound impact” of streaming and subscription, announces Origin Access Premier: New PC service gives players instant access to Battlefield and FIFA 19 at launch, with publisher promising streaming option in future
- EA adds new releases to Origin Access via $100 Premier membership tier
- EA’s Impressive New PC Subscription Service Won’t Degrade Its Old One
- EA’s Patrick Soderlund talks Anthem, loot boxes, and women in Battlefield
- Anthem deep dive, Jedi: Fallen Order and EA Originals lead publisher’s E3 2018 showcase – Surprise launch of Unravel Two and tease for Respawn’s long-awaited Star Wars project break up usual round of sports titles
- FIFA 18 tops European charts with combined digital and retail sales: Results are in for Europe’s first sales charts to include digital data
- EA at E3: BioWare confirms Anthem in Feb 2019, Madden returns to PC
- We Are initiative hopes to connect and inspire women in games
- Game Advocacy introduces ’50 Over 50′ list to combat industry ageism
- ESA Foundation launches “We Are” diversity initiative: Red Bull Media House is partner on an initiative that will launch at E3 and continue into 2019
- Cool Event Alert: Loot Boxes: Video Game Gambling, Paying to Win, and the Question of Game Design, Talk by Drs. Mark R. Johnson and Tom Brock
- E3 Roundtable: Microsoft’s first-party intent, EA’s loot box lament – Microsoft’s flurry of studio acquisitions lit up E3’s opening weekend, Bethesda showed every ace in its hand, and EA promised to do better
- E3 Roundtable: PlayStation disappoints on a day short on surprises – Known quantities were front and centre at Sony and Ubisoft’s briefings, but Beyond Good & Evil 2 and Ghost of Tsushima still managed to delight
- E3 Roundtable: E3 2018 showed an industry on the brink of change – Games-as-a-service drained life out of the show floor, while the major publishers all gestured toward streaming and the next generation
- Ubisoft CEO: Cloud gaming will replace consoles after the next generation
- This app in Google Play wants to use phone mics to enforce copyrights
- Nintendo Direct shows off packed release schedule for 2018: Super Smash Bros. takes focus, but publisher offers up host of exclusive, third-party, and downloadable content
- Fortnite comes to Switch, though with slightly limited cross-platform play
- One day in, Fortnite attracts 2 million downloads on Switch
- Fortnite to launch for Nintendo Switch today: Epic’s battle royale shooter will be free to everyone, and is now on every major gaming platform
- PlayStation 4 owners can’t access Fortnite accounts on Switch
- Playing Fortnite on PS4 blocks players from logging in on Switch
- Fortnite uses the Switch hardware for voice chat, not the Switch mobile app
- Super Mario Party introduces a mode that links two Switch displays together
- Epic Games announces 2019 Fortnite World Cup as game reaches 125m players
- Ninja And Marshmello Win $1 Million For Charity At Fortnite’s First Celeb Pro-Am Tournament
- Fortnite has attracted 125M players in under a year
- Analyst report: Xbox One install base at 39M as of March 2018
- Xbox has everything to prove at E3: The E3 playing field has rarely been so uneven; Sony’s strong position means it needs to do very little, while Microsoft arrives in LA with a heavy weight of expectation
- Microsoft’s next-gen gaming plan: A new Xbox, and streaming for everyone else
- Microsoft “Andromeda” this year, new HoloLens in 2019, and the next Xbox in 2020
- Report: Microsoft to launch next Xbox console in 2020
- Microsoft teases Halo Infinite at E3 2018
- Halo Infinite, Gears trio and Cyberpunk 2077 lead Xbox’s E3 2018 line-up
- Microsoft pushes exclusives, premieres at pre-E3 press conference
- Microsoft adds five game studios to first-party stable
- Microsoft super-sizes first-party studio system: Xbox One maker acquires Ninja Theory, Playground Games, Compulsion Games, and Undead Labs, establishes new studio The Initiative
- Xbox’s evolving first-party strategy: Chief marketing officer Mike Nichols explains Microsoft’s “forward-leaning pivot” in how it has viewed its game studios this generation, and why it just added five more to the operation
- Ninja Theory bosses explain decision to join Microsoft Studios: “We want to take bigger creative risks, and create genre-defining games without constant threat of annihilation,” says creative lead Tameem Antoniades
- Ninja Theory joined Microsoft to ‘fly without the threat of falling down’
- Playground Games: “Our best is yet to come” thanks to Microsoft acquisition – Creative director Ralph Fulton believes transition from third-party to first-party studio can empower his team to do more
- Phil Spencer on Microsoft’s commitment to the traditional console experience: It’s important to support players of old games on new hardware, says Xbox head
- Xbox using machine learning to load Game Pass titles ‘twice as fast’
- Microsoft boosts Xbox Game Pass with better third-party support – Phoenix Point and Warhammer: Vermintide 2 will hit the service day-and-date, all games to launch “twice as fast” through machine learning
- Xbox Boasts Investment in Future Tech, But Still Silent on VR After Backpedaling
- PlayStation E3 Keynote Puts Blockbusters Center Stage, Relegating VR to the Sidelines
- Ethics Emerging: the Story of Privacy and Security Perceptions in Virtual Reality
- Even Assassin’s Creed is a live service now
- The Elder Scrolls VI, Starfield close out Bethesda E3 briefing: Doom and Wolfenstein sequels, Elder Scrolls: Blades for mobile, new VR efforts added to evening anchored by Fallout 76
- Bethesda at E3: Elder Scrolls VI, Starfield confirmed for “next generation”
- With Tencent’s help, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot opens new game studio
- Bad Robot, Tencent team up to open new dev studio: Bad Robot Games will create ‘large and indie-scale original games’ for PC, consoles, mobile; WBIE on board as minority investor
- Two weeks in, Detroit: Become Human surpasses 1M sold
- Detroit: Become Human hits one million sales faster than any Quantic Dream game – Co-CEO Guillaume de Fondaumière confirms Detroit reached the milestone after two weeks
- Quantic Dream patches over one of Detroit’s most emotional moments
- Devs say no Friday the 13th DLC due to copyright dispute
- Facebook Is Launching A Video Destination Dedicated To Its Gaming Content
- Facebook launches new program for gaming streamers just starting out
- No Fuchs Given: Christian Fuchs Starts First EPL Player-Backed Esports Team
- New Jersey bans esports betting with new, unclear legislation
- E-Sports: A football World Cup with 20 million participants
- EON Foundation raises $5 million for blockchain game publishing: Cherubic Ventures among the investors for startup with goal to be “the number one blockchain game publisher in the world”
- Trendy Entertainment eyeing blockchain-based rewards for Dungeon Defenders II
- Supercell invests $5M in Redemption Games, marking its first US investment
- Blog: Making video game worlds in Yellowknife
- Sunset for LawBreakers as shooter prepares to go offline after only a year
- LawBreakers shutting down in September following Boss Key closure
- VidCon Organizers Insist Event Won’t Differ For Attendees After Viacom Acquisition
- VidCon 2018 vs. VidCon 2010: How The Convention Has Evolved Over The Years
- Telltale is bringing Minecraft: Story Mode to Netflix
DIGITAL
- Mobile Viewing to Overtake TV Viewing by Next Year
- That Merkel Photo Is More Like a Meme Than a Renaissance Painting
- OFAC sanctions Russian entities and individuals for cyber activities connected to FSB
- Cambridge Analytica director ‘met Assange to discuss US election’: Brittany Kaiser also claims to have channeled payments and donations to WikiLeaks
- Apple bans developers from creating, selling user Contacts databases
- Facebook privacy goof makes posts by 14 million users readable to anyone
- Facebook let select companies have “special access” to user data, per report
- Facebook Answered Congress’s Questions About Data Privacy. Here Are 5 Surprising Ways They Track You
- Facebook Announces New Feature That Aggregates Old Memories
- Latest Privacy Fracas Drops Facebook In The Middle Of Anti-Huawei Hysteria
- Facebook may now ban bad businesses from advertising
- Insights: It’s Game On As Facebook Takes On Twitch And YouTube For Live-Streaming Primacy
- Mueller checks witnesses’ phones for secure messaging apps, per report
- How Pro-Eating Disorder Posts Evade Filters On Social Media
- UKSC judgment in Cartier – who pays for website blocking orders?
- Confirmed: ZTE to reopen after $1 billion fine, new leadership
- Republican senators move to block Trump’s deal to revive ZTE
- Top German Publisher Says: ‘You Wouldn’t Steal A Pound Of Butter… So We Need A Snippet Tax’
- Inventor says Google is patenting work he put in the public domain
- Hey Google: Stop Trying To Patent A Compression Technique An Inventor Released To The Public Domain
- Encyclopædia Britannica Wants To Fix False Google Results
- Google: JK, We’re Going To Keep Working With The Military After All
- New law forces Google to suspend political ads in Washington state
- YouTube Takes Down Anti-LGBTQ Ad After Multiple Creator Complaints
- YouTube Complicit In Copyright Infringement Of News Station’s Content
- Austrian court ruling could hold YouTube liable for copyright infringing content
- YouTube’s World Cup coverage includes near-live highlights in Spanish
- Reggaeton Singer Ozuna Is Most Viewed Artist On YouTube This Year
- During The Upcoming World Cup, YouTube Will Be Stocked With Highlights And Athlete Vlogs
- YouTube Stars Joe Sugg, Caspar Lee Form IMG-Backed Digital Talent Management Agency
- Ad Standards Introduces New Influencer Disclosure Guidelines
- Walking the Line with Influencers: How to Satisfy the FTC without Your Influencers Becoming Employees in California
- Appeals Court Curbs FTC’s Enforcement of Security Standards–LabMD v. FTC
- IoT Device Companies: The FTC is Monitoring Your COPPA Data Deletion Duties and More
- Yet Another Study Shows The Internet Of Things Is A Privacy And Security Dumpster Fire
- Circuit Court of Cook County Upholds City of Chicago’s Imposition of Amusement Tax on Internet-Based Streaming Services
- Unpublished Censorship Guidelines Lay Bare The Deepest Fears Of The Chinese Government
- Snapchat Wants To Help Popular Music Artists Make AR Lenses
- Instagram Rolls Out Ecommerce In Stories, As Snapchat Tests Shoppable Ads
- Snapchat’s Speed Filter Not Protected by Section 230–Maynard v. Snapchat (Eric Goldman)
- Reddit Announces Native Auto-Play Video Ads For Select Brands
- Amazon Prime Video Secures Premier League Streaming Rights
- Twitter is putting more live news events in your timeline and notifications
- Twitter Isn’t a Shopping Mall for First Amendment Purposes (Duh)–Johnson v. Twitter (Eric Goldman)
- Musical.ly To Fold Live Streaming Service Live.ly Into Its Primary App
- Canadian Music Industry Wants Government to Pay Copying Fee for Every Smartphone Sold in Canada (Michael Geist)
- Microsoft’s plan for GitHub: “Make GitHub better at being GitHub”
- Three Takes On Microsoft Acquiring Github
- IAB Says U.S. Podcast Ads Generated $314 Million Last Year, Pegs 2020 Tally At $659 Million
- The EU’s Copyright Proposal is Extremely Bad News for Everyone, Even (Especially!) Wikipedia
- EU Publishers Freak Out Now That People Are Realizing Just How Messed Up Their Link Tax Really Is
- EU Commission Violates GDPR; Claims That It’s Exempt From The Law For ‘Legal Reasons’
- EU Explores Making GDPR Apply To EU Government Bodies… But With Much Lower Fines
- UK Security Minister Says Only A Drivers Licence For The Internet Can Bring Back Online Civility
- America should borrow from Europe’s data-privacy law: The GDPR’s premise, that consumers should be in charge of their own personal data, is the right one
- GDPR’s Impact on the Use of Blockchain to Facilitate International Trade
- Blockchain: Game changer or game over?
- The rise of the “Crypto Czar,” the fall of a “blockchain evangelist,” and other crypto developments
- Bitcoin has lost more than half its value since last year’s all-time high
- Bitcoin Price Plunges After Hack of South Korean Exchange, Down 53 Percent Since December
- Bitcoin prices continue to fall as yet another exchange reports a breach
- Bitcoin’s 2017 Surge Was the Result of Manipulation, Experts Say
- Another SEC Enforcement Action against Allegedly Fraudulent ICO
- Recent Virtual Currency Actions by the CFTC and State Regulators
- Brain-Based Circuitry Just Made Artificial Intelligence A Whole Lot Faster
- AI is a very surprising tech, which makes its future hard to predict: Bruce Schneier
- This wild, AI-generated film is the next step in “whole-movie puppetry”: Results are admittedly limited due to a 48-hour crunch—but hint at a wild future.
- Artificial intelligence and human development
- People Are Paying Insane Amounts of Real Money for “Virtual Real Estate”
- Tech Addiction And The Paradox Of Apple’s ‘Screen Time’ Tools
- Apple No Longer Allows Crypto Mining On Its Devices. That’s Good For Users.
- Apple just banned cryptocurrency mining on iOS devices
- Apple clamps down on developers sharing data on users’ friends: “When someone shares your info as part of their address book, you have no say in it, and you have no knowledge of it,” says privacy expert
- For almost 11 years, hackers could easily bypass 3rd-party macOS signature checks
- Popular Spanish Soccer Mobile App Has Been Turning Users Into Piracy-Spotters Via Mobile Devices
- Ordering Food via Touchscreen Is so Fun You Spend More Money When You Do It
- White nationalists, Nazis find new space for racism
- Dark Web vendor “OxyMonster” turns out to be a Frenchman with luscious beard
- In a blow to e-voting critics, Brazil suspends use of all paper ballots
- How emoji can kill: As gangs move online, social media fuel violence
- Options for Reacting to Negative Online Comments, Reviews, and Defamation
- SCC Stays Internet Defamation Case, Urges Fairness and Efficiency
- Canada’s Supreme Court Is Preserving Every Website Mentioned In Its Rulings: The country’s top court is publicly archiving every single hyperlink in its decisions, so they aren’t lost.
CREATIVITY
- Trump Admits He Calls All Negative News ‘Fake’
- French President Pushing ‘Fake News’ Bill That Would Demand Decisions From Judges In 48 Hours
- Unsettling Comments from the Ontario Courts re the Settled Law of Trademarks and Parallel Importation (Howard Knopf)
- Off the Rails: How the Canadian Heritage Copyright Hearings Have Veered Badly Off-Track (Michael Geist)
- Ending The Memes: EU Copyright Directive Is No Laughing Matter
- Illegal memes? Weak Safe Harbor? Unpacking the proposed EU copyright overhaul
- CJEU rules that Louboutin red sole mark does NOT fall within absolute ground for refusal (Eleonora Rosati)
- Viacom Possesses Trademark Rights in ‘Krusty Krab’ Based on Its Central Role in the SpongeBob Universe – Viacom v. IJR
- Stephen Colbert Cut a Star Wars Trailer to Dunk on Kelly Marie Tran’s Harassers
- FBI Hoovered Up Two Years Of A Journalist’s Phone And Email Records To Hunt Down A Leaker
- Fahmy v. Jay-Z
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- Government of Canada launches review of Telecommunications and Broadcasting Acts
- Broadcasting And Telecommunications Legislative Review: Terms of Reference
- The CRTC’s fundamental mistake: It thinks it can regulate the internet (Michael Geist)
- The CRTC’s Fundamental Flaw: Broadcasting May Be the Internet, but the Internet is Not Broadcasting (Michael Geist)
- Canadian Government Responds to Parliamentary Committee’s Recommended Changes and Clarifications to Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL)
- Ajit Pai’s FCC lied about “DDoS” attack, ex-chair’s statement indicates
- Senators Wyden and Schatz Wants To Know Why The FCC Made Up A DDOS Attack
- Oddly The Trump FCC Doesn’t Much Want To Talk About Why It Made Up A DDOS Attack
- ‘Transparent’ FCC Doesn’t Want To Reveal Any Details About Ajit Pai’s Stupid Reese’s Mug
- Ajit Pai says you’re going to love the death of net neutrality
- What Ajit Pai Should Have Said About Killing Net Neutrality… And Why It Still Would Have Been Wrong
- Net neutrality will be repealed Monday unless Congress takes action
- Net Neutrality Rules Die Today, But The Backlash Is Just Getting Started
- First state net neutrality law took effect today, countering FCC repeal
- AT&T Defeats DOJ In Merger Fight, Opening The Door To Some Major Competitive Headaches
- Trump administration fails to block AT&T/Time Warner merger
- AT&T Cleared to Buy Time Warner in Blow to Trump Administration
- AT&T wins: Judge clears $85 billion bid for Time Warner with no conditions
- AT&T imposes another $5 price hike on grandfathered unlimited data plans
- AT&T/Time Warner Merger Could Create Giant Player for Sports Rights
- Comcast, AT&T, Verizon say they have no paid prioritization plans
- Comcast offers $65 billion for Fox, says government won’t stop merger
- Comcast disabled throttling system, proving data cap is just a money grab
- FTC Files Lawsuit for Widespread Telemarketing Law Violations
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- NY Times reporter’s email records seized by Justice Dept. in leak case
- China Hacked a Navy Contractor and Stole 600GB of Data
- A Chip in the Windshield: China’s Surveillance State Will Soon Track Cars
- Global Russian-Linked Router Malware Even Worse Than Originally Stated
- Backdoored images downloaded 5 million times finally removed from Docker Hub
- Court Says German Intelligence Agency Can Continued To Deploy Its Dragnet On World’s Largest Internet Hub
- New Data Breach Notification Laws Spring 2018: What You Need to Know
- Stymied by browsers, attackers embed Flash 0-day inside MS Office document
- Security Companies Want To Use Facial Recognition To Stop School Shootings
- It’s Now Scary to Be A White Hat Hacker Thanks to the US Government
- How did hacker Adrian Lamo die? Medical examiner couldn’t figure it out
- Vermont Takes Aim at Data Brokers
Jon
News of the Week; June 6, 2018
GAMES
- PUBG vs Fortnite: Let the market decide – A court case in South Korea revives the old question of whether a game concept deserves legal protection – but ‘clone wars’ should be settled in the market, not the courtroom
- PUBG Corp. Sues Epic Games In S. Korea Over Gameplay Similarities That Probably Aren’t Copyrightable
- Winner winner copycat dinner – IP protection of battle royale game mechanics
- Flight-sim maker threatens legal action over Reddit posts discussing DRM
- Panic at 30,000 virtual feet: Controversial flight sim aircraft maker threatens reddit mods with libel legal action, mods hit back.
- An open letter to Flight Sim Labs
- FlightSimLabs Installs More Questionable Stuff On Users’ Machines, Then Threatens Reddit
- UK ad regulator hits out at gambling site for game ads of ‘particular appeal to children’
- Popular Twitch Streamer Makes An Example Of Her Harassers
- Bury Me, My Love and MyoBeatz among 2018 Games for Change Awards nominees
- Twitch To Promote LGBTQ+ Streamers, Launch Rainbow Emotes In Honor Of Pride Month
- We’re experimenting with Twitch content to catch up on zillions of video games
- Twitch promotes Pride Month, raises money for Human Rights Campaign: Throughout June, Twitch will spotlight LGBTQ+ creators and celebrate diversity across its platform
- One-third of UK women gamers report abuse or discrimination from male gamers: Bryter survey shows many women avoid online play or identification as gamers due to fear of abuse
- Video: A postmortem look at Rocket League’s language ban system
- Ex-Microsoft exec J Allard speaks to the game industry’s inherent burnout problem
- Microsoft Studios head: ‘It’s really important to think about the longevity of a game’
- Using AI to take the “emotional work” out of community management – Spirit AI’s Dr Mitu Khandaker: “We are trying to make the lives of community managers and moderators easier”
- Fear the reaper: Activision sunsetting Guitar Hero TV later this year
- Guitar Hero Live goes offline in December, making 92% of songs unplayable
- New iOS App Store guidelines ok timed demos but put the kibosh on the Steam Link App
- Steam updates game-content guidelines, will include “something that you hate”
- Steam “might have killed our business”: Developers behind mature visual novels describe the “chilling effect” of ad hoc game removals and Valve’s radio silence
- Valve: We shouldn’t be choosing what you’re allowed to create or play
- Australian gamers could face throttled data usage
- Asus’ insane gaming phone has 3 USB ports, clip-on cooling fan
- Indiegogo working with debt collectors to refund Sinclair ZX Vega+ backers
- Indiegogo confirms debt collectors will recoup crowdfunding money for ZX Spectrum Vega+: Crowdfunding platform says Retro Computers Ltd failed to meet requirements for mid-June extension
- Free-to-play Pokemon Quest passes 1M downloads on Switch
- Fortnite among the Switch ports reportedly coming to E3
- GameStop’s Q1 earnings can’t match last year’s Switch-driven highs
- 56% of Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon’s 100k week-one sales were on Switch
- Square Enix now has a dev group devoted to making Switch games
- Citing the declining premium mobile market, Square Enix backs away from Go series
- Square Enix Montreal abandons Go series, will continue work on mobile: Studio head cites rising quality of free mobile games, shrinking audience for pay-up-front titles
- Nier: Automata has shipped 3M copies worldwide
- Why Codemasters is finally ready to float: Ten years on from its aborted IPO, the UK racing specialist discusses how games-as-a-service and the push to mobile will secure its future
- Onrush: The shooter-inspired racer that saved the Evolution team – Two years on from Sony’s shock decision to close the Driveclub developer, the team is back with a title that aims to reinvent the genre
- A host of new security enhancements is coming to iOS and macOS
- App Store devs have made $100B in revenue since store launched
- iOS developers have made $100 billion since App Store launched: 20 million companies now registered as developers for Apple’s mobile platform
- Games account for 75% of App Store spending: 66 per cent of iOS games spending comes from APAC territories alone
- Analyst: 77% of the 4.5M apps on iOS are games, down from past years
- Porting iOS games to MacOS should be easier next year, says Apple
- Developers can now offer free trials on the App Store
- New App Store Review Guidelines also clarify rules around multi-platform apps like Steam Link
- Blog: The perks of soft-launching your game on Itch.io before Steam
- Why Platinum Games may never work with a publisher again: Co-founders Hideki Kamiya and Atsushi Inaba discuss the acclaimed studio’s self-funded future and determination to own its IP
- Jack Tretton’s indie investment fund will target UE4 projects: Interactive Gaming Ventures will make up to 21 investments in projects using Epic’s engine
- Bungie nets $100M+ from China’s NetEase, aims to create ‘new worlds’
- Bungie gets more than $100 million investment from NetEase: As Destiny studio sells minority stake, CEO Pete Parsons discusses the incubation process for its next new world and the possibility of self-publishing
- The Elder Scrolls: Legends development switched to Sparkypants Studios – Transition away from Dire Wolf Studios will include new client, UI, and visuals, same game design
- Paradox Interactive to acquire Battletech dev Harebrained Schemes
- Paradox: “If a game can’t be played for 500 hours we probably shouldn’t be publishing it” – Paradox Interactive’s management team on moving beyond “premium plus DLC” to a more flexible future
- How Minit’s team found creativity through limitations: The indie title’s four developers discovered freedom within its restrictions, and made a game “without stressing the hell out”
- World Cup fever propels FIFA 18 back to No.1 in UK charts – But Detroit: Become Human, Far Cry 5 and God of War still manage to fend off retro-centric new releases
- Battlefront II developer EA Motive expands with Vancouver opening
- Evolve’s dedicated servers are being switched off in September
- Evolve servers to shut down in September: Publisher 2K confirms end for AAA game turned free-to-play
- Don’t Miss: Looking back at how Evolve was retrofitted for accessibility
- Activision ending Guitar Hero TV in December: iOS version already removed from the App Store
- Bethesda stream for new Fallout game pulls 2m unique viewers: “We have had over two million unique visitors to this stream to watch, I don’t know what, nothing,” said Bethesda Game Studios’ Todd Howard
- The Elder Scrolls: Legends is swapping devs one year after launch
- Fig nabs blockchain outfit Ownage to help create new digital publishing platform
- Fig acquires blockchain startup Ownage Ltd: UK company will help build the “Shard” decentralized publishing platform
- Indiegogo extends deadline for ZX Spectrum Vega+ as June shipping date announced: Retro Computers Ltd “still determined to deliver the Vega+” despite ongoing dispute with former project leads
- Intellivision returns with new console, president: Tommy Tallarico and veteran team plan ’80s revival as Intellivision Entertainment
- VR title Beat Saber hits 100,000 sales in a month – Update: Hyperbolic Magnetism’s rhythm game nears estimated $2 million in first month revenue
- New XRDC Healthcare Report offers insight into how AR/VR/MR is shaping medicine
- Arc System Works introduces ‘non-negotiable’ streaming guidelines: Developer threatens breaches with potential channel strike or account suspension
- Riot Games donating 100% of ‘Dark Star Cho’Gath’ skin sales to charity
- Riot Games donating all proceeds from limited edition skin to charity: Skin designed with League of Legends fan through The Make-A-Wish Foundation
- Activision Blizzard sells out Barclays Center for esports championship
- Overwatch League™ Grand Finals Sells Out Barclays Center: Fans purchased more than 20,000 tickets to the esports championship in Brooklyn, New York – The largest esports event ever slated at Barclays Center sold out within two weeks of its public on-sale
- High school esports firm PlayVS raises $15 million
- Arena of Valor tournament will mark Tencent’s E3 debut: Partnership with ESL will see playoffs hosted in Los Angeles ahead of next month’s $550,000 World Cup
- Ubisoft tests limited revenue sharing for Rainbow Six Pro League: Pilot program to see 11 teams take portion of in-game item sales for one year before revenue sharing introduced for entire league
- Ubisoft CEO: ‘There will be one more console generation … after that, we will be streaming’
- Deep UX: The last “Here Be Dragons” area of modern game development – IT Territory’s Alexsandr Enin on embracing negative, emotional feedback to boost HAWK’s already high retention
- Americans largely won’t pay to win a video game – but Chinese gamers will
- One man is auctioning off 40 years of gaming history today
- Blog: The evolution of boss design in video games
- The original Doom, one of 64 Objects that shaped video game history
- Rare Japanese games rediscovered after 67GB folder leaks online
- Early Pokemon Gold and Silver demo uncovers scrapped content
- The great video game exodus
- Ted Dabney, a Founder of Atari and a Creator of Pong, Dies at 81
DIGITAL
- Canada Introduces New Influencer Disclosure Guidelines
- Russian State TV Photoshops an Awkward Smile on Kim Jong Un’s Face
- VPNFilter malware infecting 500,000 devices is worse than we thought: Malware tied to Russia can attack connected computers and downgrade HTTPS.
- Former Cambridge Analytica CEO Faces His Ghosts In Parliament
- Craigslist Sex Sting Prosecution Rejected as “Outrageous Misconduct”–Washington v. Solomon (Eric Goldman)
- Egyptian Gov’t Arrests Journalist Who Exposed Brutality; Will Use Social Media Suspensions As Evidence Against Him
- Has Facebook Merely Been Exploited By Our Enemies? Or Is Facebook Itself The Real Enemy?
- YouTube is the preferred platform of today’s teens: And Facebook continues to fall, according to Pew Research Center
- Facebook Accused of Giving Users’ Personal Data To Every Major Device Maker
- Insights: Has Facebook Already Lost The Next Generation Of Users?
- Judge OKs Class Action Status For Illinoisans Claiming Facebook Violated State Privacy Law
- Facebook will remove the Trending topics section next week
- Following Licensing Pacts, Facebook Will Let Users Add Music To Their Personal Videos
- Man posts morel mushrooms on Facebook, gets a visit from the cops
- State Court Says Cop Posing As A Facebook Friend To Snag Criminal Evidence Isn’t A 4th Amendment Violation
- Chrome and Firefox leaks let sites steal visitors’ Facebook names, profile pics
- Not Fake News: Facebook Watch Funds Shows From CNN, Fox News, ABC News
- Uganda Is Taxing WhatsApp and Facebook, Because Users “Gossip”
- Social Media as a Weapon to Harass Women Academics
- Language-Policing AI Will Suggest A Polite Alternative to Online Hate Speech
- School Can’t Take A Joke; Turns Student Over To Cops For Listing The School For Sale On Craigslist
- Telegram CEO: Apple has “prevented” app updates globally since April
- Apple’s Plans To Bring Artificial Intelligence To Your Phone
- You Can’t Make This Stuff Up: Amazon Warehouse Robots Slipped On Popcorn Butter
- Amazon is reportedly upping its investment in India by $2 billion
- Amazon Disconnects From Australia After Government Hits It With 10% Tax On All Imported Items
- Amazon scores Premier League TV rights to stream 20 games next season: Amazon secures all the Boxing Day games in the UK
- The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same: Teens Still Love YouTube, Snapchat
- Lenovo’s all-screen smartphone was all talk
- As Pride Month Begins, YouTube Faces Criticism For Allegedly Demonetizing The World “Transgender”
- YouTube Draws More Flak From Queer Creators As Anti-LGBTQ+ Ads Appear On Videos
- ‘The Washington Post’ Launches Second-Ever YouTube Channel, A Science Brand For Kids
- YouTube Co-Founder Who Posted The Site’s First Video May Return With More
- Lawsuit Over Cancer-Curing Honey Ads Still Sucks–Abid v. Google (Eric Goldman)
- Washington State Is Suing Facebook And Google For Violating Election Advertisement Laws
- Google reportedly won’t renew controversial drone imaging program
- Google Ditches Department of Defense, Updates Its Code of Ethics
- Google To Publish Artificial Intelligence Ethical Guidelines
- Google Announces Programmatic Buys of Audio Ads – Looking at Legal Issues with Programmatic Sales
- Type ‘the1975..com’ Into Your Google App to See a Weird Bug in Action
- 9-Year-Old Trash-Talker Lil Tay Has Wiped Her Instagram And YouTube Accounts
- Instagram might soon let you post videos up to an hour long: A ‘new feature’ would allow for much longer vertical videos
- Instagram Eyeing Push Into Long-Form Vertical Video With 1-Hour Clip Limits
- Patreon To Launch Merch Service For Creators Following Acquisition Of Ecommerce Startup ‘Kit’
- Cheddar Forms Third News Brand, ‘CheddarU’, For Distribution Across College Campuses
- Why Music Video Hosting Service Vevo Is Joining Mediaocean’s Spectra Platform
- Microsoft killing off the Groove Music apps for iOS and Android
- Microsoft snaps up GitHub for $7.5 billion
- Microsoft has acquired GitHub for $7.5B
- Microsoft acquires GitHub for $7.5 billion: Windows and Xbox maker says software development platform will continue to operate independently and support any OS, cloud, or device
- Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says $7.5 billion GitHub deal shows, ‘We are all in on open source’
- Everyone complaining about Microsoft buying GitHub needs to offer a better solution
- We know you hate the Internet of Things, but it’s saving megafauna from poachers
- Hulu’s Live TV Offering Reaches 800K Subs in First Year
- Hulu CEO Says His Company’s Live TV Service Has 800,000 Subscribers One Year After Launch
- Hulu Loses Chief Content Officer, SVPs Of Partnerships And Experience Amid Sweeping Reorganization
- Hulu in Major Exec Shakeup: Content Chief Joel Stillerman, Two SVPs Are Out – Under reorg, Tim Connolly and Ben Smith will depart; company hires new CTO and first chief data officer
- Netflix is becoming a global media phenomenon, says analyst: Mark Mahaney, RBC Capital Markets lead internet analyst, explains his latest research note on Netflix highlighting the streaming giant’s international business.
- Netflix and Governance Transparency
- Harnessing Change: The Future of Programming Distribution in Canada (CRTC)
- A Hacker Hijacked the Buffalo Wild Wings Twitter Account and Revealed Its ‘Secret Recipe’
- TWiT’s Trademark Lawsuit Against Twitter Sent Back to the Drawing Board
- Twitter Reorgs Content-Partnerships Group, Folds Live-Video Team Into Regional Structure
- Twitter’s Top Live Video Exec Exits Amid Organizational Restructuring
- Court Not At All Impressed By Chuck Johnson’s Silly Lawsuit Against Twitter, Plans To Grant Anti-SLAPP Win To Twitter
- Cops Perform Guns-Drawn Raid Of Chelsea Manning’s Home Because Someone Reported Her Suicidal Tweets
- Can You Fire Someone For Racist Tweets?
- AI Can Now Manipulate People’s Movements In Fake Videos
- MIT scientists created a “psychopath” AI by feeding it violent content from Reddit
- There’s Now A Religion Based On the Blockchain. Yes, Really.
- Understanding the Effect of Wyoming’s Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Legislation
- Gumi launches $30 million cryptocurrency investment fund: Gumi Cryptos aims to help organizations struggling to connect with Japanese markets
- Hackers Commandeered 3 Cryptocurrency Networks, Stole Millions
- WME Secures New Branded Content Opportunities By Investing In Marketing Platform Influential
- After Arduous Fundraising Process, Crowdfunding Platform Seed & Spark Lands $2 Million Seed Round
- Software and stealth: how carmakers hike spare parts prices
- More Bad News for Uber’s Contract Formation–Ramos v. Uber
- After dispute on freeway, Uber driver shot his passenger, who died soon after
- San Francisco to Uber, Lyft: If your drivers aren’t employees, prove it
- Report: Turkish President Erdogan Claims Uber’s Turkey Business Is ‘Over’
- As Uber and Tesla struggle with driverless cars, Waymo moves forward
- Waymo announces 7 million miles of testing, putting it far ahead of rivals
- Contract Law or Copyright Law – What’s the Confusion?
- Uncle Sam wants you to join the United States Digital Service
- FOSTA Supporters Come Out Swinging Against Critics
- Highlights From Former Rep. Chris Cox’s Amicus Brief Explaining The History And Policy Behind Section 230
- From Westworld to Best World for the Internet of Things (Jonathan Zittrain)
- Censorship in the Age of Large Cloud Providers (Bruce Schneier)
CREATIVITY
- Court Allows “Battery by GIF” Claim to Proceed – Eichenwald v. Rivello
- Star Wars And The Battle Of The Ever-More-Toxic Fan Culture
- Is the NFL’s anthem policy constitutional? Not in some states, law prof argues
- Annual Also-Ran Buffalo Bills File Trademark For “Respect The Process”
- S Is For Streisand: Sesame Street Decides To Offer Free Promotion To R-Rated Muppet Satire By Filing Trademark Claim
- San Diego Comic-Con Petitions Judge To Have Salt Lake Comic Con Pay Its Attorney’s Fees, Bar It From Calling Itself A ‘Comic Convention’
- Naruto the Macaque’s 3 year legal journey has come to an end in a San Francisco Court of Appeals
- Ninth Circuit to PETA: Stop Monkeying Around with Copyright Claims
- Media pirates walk the plank: extraordinary remedies against copyright infringers in Canada
- Fast fashion and IP regulation: will fast fashion kill the golden goose?
- Study Shows That Wartime Program To Abolish Copyright On German Science Books Brought Significant Benefits To US
- The case for quarantining extremist ideas: When confronted with white supremacists, newspaper editors should consider ‘strategic silence’
- Why the Government’s Copyright Board Plans Threaten to Spark Another Lobbying Battle (Michael Geist)
- Recording Industry Hypocrisy On Full Display In Continuing To Push The CLASSICS Act That Expands Copyright
- EU Parliament Members Play Hardball On Terrible Copyright Policies, Article Highlighting Sketchy Tactics Magically Disappears
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- The Future of Programming Distribution in Canada: CRTC Reports On CanCon in the Digital World
- Harnessing Change: The Future of Programming Distribution in Canada (CRTC)
- Regulate Everything: The CRTC Goes All-In on Internet Taxation and Regulation (Michael Geist)
- Math Not Magic: If Melanie Joly Mandates Internet Taxes, Consumers Will Foot the Bill (Michael Geist)
- The 1980s CRTC: The Commission Turns Back the Clock with Old-Style Regulation and Privileged Insider Access (Michael Geist)
- Government’s Telecom/Broadcast Review Sets Up Internet Taxes and Regulation As a 2019 Election Issue (Michael Geist)
- Court Of Appeal Affirms Punitive Damages Must Be Proportionate To Gravity Of Breach: Vidéotron v Girard, 2018 QCCA 767
- CASL Compliance Becomes More Complex
- Chicago streaming video tax does not violate federal and state law
- E-Mails Show FCC Made Up DDOS Attack To Downplay The ‘John Oliver Effect’
- FCC accused of “spreading lies” about DDoS hitting comment system
- Trump grants Democrats’ request for a new FCC commissioner
- California Senate Approves Bill to Restore Net Neutrality Rules Repealed by FCC
- California’s Tough New Net Neutrality Law Takes Another Step Forward
- FCC Claims Perfectly-Timed Regulatory Handout To Sinclair Is Just Quirky Happenstance
- FCC Wants Ebay, Amazon To Crack Down On Kodi-Based Pirate TV Boxes
- Sprint says merger with “fiercest rival” will “create robust competition”
- Trump administration could block T-Mobile/Sprint merger, AT&T CEO says
- AT&T wants to settle with FTC to avoid unlimited data throttling lawsuit
- AT&T Ends Quest To Erode FTC Authority Over Broadband Providers
- Comcast drops bid for “gigabit” tax cut that was created for Google Fiber
- Google Fiber Broadband Hype Replaced By Delays And Frustration
- Thanks To No Competition, Broadband Satisfaction Scores Plummet
- Fox News Shows Eagles Players Praying, Falsely Implies They Were Protesting During Anthem
- Sheriffs Are Raking In Millions In Prison Phone Fees And Some Really Don’t Want To Talk About It
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- Glassdoor ordered to turn over user information
- Settlement Of Alleged CASL Violation – Text Messages Sent Without Consent Or Prescribed Information
- Mobile Phone Maker Reaches Settlement with FTC Over Deceptive Privacy and Data Security Claims
- FTC Reminder: Websites and Online Services Subject to COPPA Must Honor Data Deletion Requirements
- Paul Manafort Learns That Encrypting Messages Doesn’t Matter If the Feds Have a Warrant to Search Your iCloud Account
- In seconds, we faked our way into a political campaign, got unsecured voter data
- With possible summit approaching, North Korean espionage hacks continue
- DHS found evidence of cell phone spying near White House
- Three months later, a mass exploit of powerful Web servers continues
- Appeals Court Rolls Its Eyes At Goverment’s Attempt To Dodge FOIA Litigation By Pretending It Didn’t Know Who Was Seeking Documents
- This Filter Makes Your Photos Indecipherable to Facial Recognition Software
- Governor’s office is “stonewalling” lawsuit over Confide use, lawyer tells judge
- Another Report Highlights How Wireless SS7 Flaw Is Putting Everyone’s Privacy At Risk
- 11th Circuit Says No Reasonable Suspicion Needed For Invasive Device Searches At The Border
- 30,000 Cameras Can’t Be Wrong: Chicago Banks On Surveillance To Solve Violence Problem
- Data protection laws are shining a needed light on a secretive industry: Regardless of where we live, we all benefit from data protection laws – companies must us show how they profit off our information (Bruce Schneier)
- ICANN’s Pre-emptive Attack On The GDPR Thrown Out By Court In Germany
- Websites in the US are definitely “turning off” Europe
- 92 million MyHeritage users had their data quietly swiped
Jon
News of the Week; May 30, 2018
GAMES
- PUBG Corp files copyright lawsuit against Epic Games: Korean developer began proceedings in January, alleging Fortnite plagiarises PUBG
- PUBG Corp. files copyright infringement lawsuit against Fortnite dev Epic Games
- Fortnite sold 5 million battle passes on the first day of Season 3: Analyst Michael Pachter relates success, predicts more games moving to cosmetics as a result
- Fortnite, God of War break monthly revenue records – Superdata: Epic’s battle royale makes $296 million in April; God of War becomes fastest-selling PS4-exclusive
- Interactive Gaming Ventures and Epic Games team up to fund UE4 indies
- Gamers involved in December’s “swatting” death just got indicted
- Charity calls on Valve to remove ‘school shooting simulator’ from Steam store: Game described as “horrendous” by Infer Trust
- Valve removes mass shooting game and its ‘troll’ dev from Steam
- School Shooting Game Angers Steam Users, Developer ‘Likely’ Changing It
- Valve removes school shooting game, along with developer’s entire catalogue: Creator of Active Shooter identified as previously banned ‘troll’ developer Ata Berdiyev
- Opinion: So, you want to talk about porn on Steam
- Valve’s Steam Link app blocked by Apple due to ‘business conflicts’
- Apple has rejected iOS version of Steam Link app, Valve says
- Steam Link app rejected by Apple: Valve’s appeal has been denied; Android version already in beta
- Syrian refugee games developer denied UK visa ahead of awards ceremony: Path Out co-creator Abdullah Karam feels “sad and mistreated” as his misses out on Indie Prize ceremony
- Honesty contributed to Subsurface Circular’s 2 percent refund rate
- US has the largest gender pay gap for video game streamers: Half of US women streamers go unpaid despite country’s higher-than-average spending on influencer support
- DICE GM pushes back against Battlefield V anger: “Player choice and female playable characters are here to stay,” says Oskar Gabrielson after complaints over game’s inclusion of women
- Battlefield V ditches season pass and loot boxes, takes on Red Dead Redemption 2: Electronic Arts plans to monetise upcoming blockbuster shooter with live service and cosmetics after its arrives on October 19th
- Battlefield V Shows How The Video Game Industry Is Turning On Loot Boxes
- Trade group prez: Loot box regulation “challenges our freedom to innovate”
- ESA: We can’t go to the “lowest common denominator of government” on loot boxes – Mike Gallagher warns against “over-reactions” to loot boxes influencing the industry
- Op-ed: Game companies need to cut the crap – loot boxes are obviously gambling – Much as game companies try to deny it, the truth is plain to see.
- Sony’s PlayStation 5 hints confirm an eight-year PS4 lifespan: Rejecting hardware updates in favour of a full generational refresh, Sony implies a PS4 successor will come in 2021 – but how big a leap can that offer?
- Hacker gets Super NES games running on unmodified NES
- Nintendo offers dockless Switch in Japan: The reduced-price ‘2nd Unit Set’ is being marketed to households that already own a Switch
- Nintendo starts selling cheaper, dock-free Switch, but only in Japan
- The first Pokemon RPG on the Switch takes cues from Niantic’s Pokemon Go
- Pokémon’s first Switch game launches in November, connects to Pokémon Go
- Game Freak & Nintendo debut a phone-friendly Pokemongame on the Switch
- Pokémon’s new evolution was inevitable: With two generations of fans, The Pokémon Company has made some big changes
- Pokémon profits down nearly 50% in company’s second most profitable year: Pokémon Go, Sun, and Moon accounted for the 2016 spike and subsequent fall-off
- Pokemon Company annual profits drop to a mere $80.8 million
- Zynga acquires mobile game dev Gram Games for $250 million
- Zynga splashes $250 million on Gram Games acquisition: But Frank Gibeau tells GamesIndustry.biz recovering firm is “not on a buying spree”, pips Merge Dragons as new “forever franchise”
- Hacker gets Super NES games running on unmodified NES
- The NES Classic Is Back – Here’s How To Make Sure You Get One
- Detroit Become Human: Critical Consensus –
- Quantic Dream has sued journalists for negative coverage, but judging from the reviews for the studio’s Detroit Become Human, the media isn’t holding it against the studio.
- Detroit: Become Human review: Robotic in all of the wrong ways
- ‘Detroit: Become Human’ dehumanizes everything it touches
- Wolfenstein 2 accounted for speedrunners in its design
- H1Z1 gains early F2P traction on PlayStation 4
- Caffeine rolls out stream monetization program, complete with payouts for devs
- Mixer rolls out MixPlay, a tool for creating interactive stream overlays
- US has the largest gender pay gap for video game streamers: Half of US women streamers go unpaid despite country’s higher-than-average spending on influencer support
- Battle royale players are among the most engaged gamers, report finds – Newzoo: 88 per cent of battle royale players spend money in-game, compared to 75 per cent of traditional competitive game players
- Kids On YouTube Keep Making Videos About Scamming Fortnite V-Bucks From Their Parents
- ESPN+ to Live-Stream ‘League of Legends’ Esports Events Under New, Non-Exclusive Pact
- Minecraft reaches 100 million downloads in China: Approaching 250 million downloads worldwide
- How premium PC games continue to rise, surprise in China
- Media Molecule: Avoiding the “soul tax” of making games – At the Nordic Game Conference, Siobhan Reddy offered advice on protecting people and culture against the pressures of development
- Echo and Little Nightmares clean up at 2018 Nordic Game Awards: Ultra Ultra’s sci-fi adventure wins three categories, including Game of the Year, while Tarsier Studios’ dark title takes two
- Former Dragon Age director reflects on the ups and downs of development
- Mobile dev Voodoo secures an estimated $200M investment from Goldman Sachs
- YoYo Games opens publishing division to elevate GameMaker Studio 2 projects
- Wargaming reportedly closes Seattle studio: Formerly Gas Powered Games, the studio employed around 150 people
- Just Cause dev Avalanche Studios acquired by Nordisk Film
- UK indie chain Games Centre enters liquidation: Another games retailer disappears from the High Street
- After 3+ decades as a private firm, UK dev Codemasters is going public
- Codemasters valued at £280m as it prepares to go public: Developer expected to raise £15 million for expansion into mobile
- Voodoo secures $200m Goldman Sachs investment: French mobile developer looks to double its staff by year’s end
- Andrew Maximov: “Technology is actually going to make us better artists” – Industry veterans say artificial intelligence will enable artists, not replace them
- Video: How inequality (both real and virtual) shapes player behavior
- Carmack: New 5K × 5K Mobile VR Playback Tech Will ‘set the bar for VR video quality’
- Qualcomm launches a new chip specifically for standalone AR and VR devices
- Revenue expected to double this year for augmented and mixed reality: Virtual reality revenue will fall behind AR/MR by 2021, says SuperData
- HTC Announces Strategic Partnerships With MLB & McLaren Formula One Team
- How the BattleTech devs built an engrossing tactics game on a budget
- Video: What game designers really want out of AI
- Researchers teach AI to play ‘hard’ games by showing it YouTube videos
- Video: Unproven game AI techniques that might just work
- Nintendo, Microsoft and EA Veterans Join to Create the Future of Blockchain Gaming
- Players get credit for evolution–and stagnation–of gaming narrative: What Remains of Edith Finch developer Ian Dallas says the market is pushing the medium forward in some ways, tying its hands in others
- Insights: We Have Influencers And Games, But Why Not More Games From Influencers?
- What does GDPR mean for PR?: Leading UK games agencies tell us how new privacy regulations are refining their processes and better relationships with press
- GDPR changes prompt Torn Banner Studios to shut downMirage: Arcane Warfare
- A Critical Analysis of Kinect Star Wars’ “I’m Han Solo” Song, the Definitive Text on the Character
DIGITAL
- Google Fails To Amend Canadian De-Indexing Injunction Despite California Court Order: Equustek Solutions Inc. v. Jack, 2018 BCSC 610
- Court Says It’s Unconstitutional For Trump To Block People On Twitter, But Doesn’t Actually Order Him To Stop
- U.S. District Court Rules President Trump Can’t Block Critical Followers
- President Trump Violated the First Amendment by Blocking Users @realdonaldtrump
- Six or Seven Things Social Media Can Do For Democracy
- Nurse Disciplined for Unprofessional Posts on Social Media Loses Appeal
- Cloud-based quantum computer takes on deuteron and wins
- Should Bots Have a Right to Free Speech? This Non-Profit Thinks So.
- Personalized, Brainwave-Guided Movies Are Cool, As Long As You’re The One Steering
- DHS Fusion Center Gets Request For Documents On Extremists, Decides To Hand Over Mind Control Docs Instead
- NHL Aims to Debut ‘Smart Puck’ Tech in 2019
- Alibaba’s Youku to Stream World Cup Soccer in China
- YouTube Confirms Test Of Subscriptions Feed Driven By Algorithm And Not Chronology, Angering Creators
- YouTube Premium To Launch Travel Soccer Series With Trickster Duo F2 Freestylers
- YouTube’s Live Stream Of The Recent Royal Wedding Drew 11.2 Million Total Viewers
- Spanish YouTube Star El Rubius Says He Has “Hit A Wall,” Announces Break From YouTube
- YouTube Has Deleted 30 ‘Drill’ Music Videos For Fueling Gang Violence In The U.K.
- Egyptian Government Set To Ban YouTube For One Month Six Years After Release Of Anti-Muslim Video
- YouTube Music will replace Google Play Music but won’t kill user uploads
- Two 18-Year-Olds Arrested In Paris For VEVO Hacks Of Top YouTube Videos Like “Despacito”
- Vevo Is Killing Off Its Mobile Apps, Website to Refocus on YouTube
- Vevo To Shut Down Website, Apps In Order To “Remain Focused On Engaging The Biggest Audiences”
- Vevo Flop Shows, Once Again, How Badly The Record Labels Underestimate Technology
- Insights: Between ‘Solo’ Misfire And Comcast Pitch, Is Disney’s Streaming Strategy Still A Winner?
- Barack Obama Reveals General Content Plans For New Netflix Deal
- Netflix stocks hit record high making it more valuable than Disney – but only for a few hours: The streaming giant also surpassed estimations on subscriber growth, with a total of 125 million worldwide
- Hulu Orders BuzzFeed-Produced Documentary About R. Kelly’s Alleged History Of Sexual Abuse
- Facebook Tools Are Used to Screen Out Older Job Seekers, Lawsuit Claims
- Facebook Will Label Political Ads, Reveal Who Paid For Them, And Show Who They Targeted
- Wherein Facebook Messes Up Elections By Trying Not To Mess Up Elections
- ‘FacePause’ Desktop Extension Automatically Halts YouTube Videos Upon An Averted Gaze
- Facebook Funds Comedy Series From Sarah Silverman and Group Nine’s JASH
- Your Worst Alexa Nightmares Are Coming True
- Amazon confirms that Echo device secretly shared user’s private audio
- Amazon Alexa Instantaneously Justifies Years Of Surveillance Paranoia
- Don’t Freak Out About That Amazon Alexa Eavesdropping Situation
- Google Just Turned a Huge Corner in the Smart Speaker Game
- Google zooms by Amazon in smart speaker shipments, report says
- Yelp’s Newest Campaign: Asking Google To Do The Right Thing
- Court docs show Apple knew about the bendiness of the iPhone 6, 6 Plus
- 187 Things The Blockchain Is Supposed To Fix
- A Scottish Clinic Will Now Treat “Cryptocurrency Addiction”
- The DoJ is reportedly probing the murky world of bitcoin trading
- Sanctions: Iran, Russia, OFAC and cryptocurrencies
- Russian unit, GRU officer linked to 2014 shoot-down of airliner over Ukraine
- Uber’s Self-Driving Car Saw The Woman It Killed, Report Says
- NTSB: Uber’s sensors worked; its software utterly failed in fatal crash
- Tesla Agrees to Settle Class Action Suit Over ‘Essentially Unusable’ Autopilot Feature
- Snapchat Launches ‘Yellow’, A $1.5 Million Accelerator Program For Mobile Content Creators
- Forget The GDPR, The EU’s New Copyright Proposal Will Be A Complete And Utter Disaster For The Internet
- The Demise Of Copyright Toleration
- Why Is This Happening? The internet is terrible now, and Tim Wu knows why: Chris Hayes asks professor Tim Wu what created the conditions for the current angst surrounding our online experience.
- The Collapse of UN Talks on the Application of International Law in Cyberspace: Why It Matters to U.S. Businesses
CREATIVITY
- Harmonizing Tariff Regimes and Statutory Minimum Damages: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing? (Howard Knopf)
- Batiste v. Lewis
- Cabell v. Zorro Productions, Inc.
- Monkey-Selfie Case Returns – To Court & (Maybe) a Theater Near You
- The Monkey Selfie Lawsuit Will Never, Ever Die: Appeals Court Judge Wants A Do Over
- Use of “sound-alike” music in advertising ‒ key legal issues
- Who owns an idea?: It’s a question the law can struggle to answer, particularly when it comes to fiction
- Canadian Copyright, Fair Dealing and Education, Part Three: Exploring the Impact of Site Licensing at Canadian Universities (Michael Geist)
- Canadian Copyright, Fair Dealing and Education, Part Four: Fixing Fair Dealing for the Digital Age (Michael Geist)
- Woof: The Prosecco People Successfully Oppose A Pet-Treat Company’s ‘Pawsecco’ Trademark Application
- On Graffiti, Public Art and Snoopy
- Copyright Term: When Does a Work Enter the Public Domain?
- Amanda Palmer: Hands Up! I Have a Picture of a Toddler, and I’m not Afraid to Use it
- The right of communication to the public … in a chart (Eleonora Rosati)
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- A Matter of Trust: What Is Happening at the CRTC? (Michael Geist)
- Who Needs an iPhone Tax: Canadian Music Industry Instead Calls for $40 Million Annual Handout (Michael Geist)
- Wireless Carrier Abuse Of Location Data Makes The Facebook, Cambridge Scandal Look Like Amateur Hour
- ESPN Analysts Routinely Told Execs Not To Worry About Cord Cutting
- No, Counting The Number Of Patent Infringement Lawsuits Is Not A Good Way To Quantify A Company’s IP Ethics
- No, The FTC Is Not Going To Do A Good Job Policing Net Neutrality
- Trump hits campaign trail to endorse key foe of net neutrality rules
- Shockingly, Streaming Providers Are Dominating Cable At Customer Satisfaction
- Comcast may soon control what you pay to watch your favorite sports teams
- Comcast Exposes Customer WiFi SSIDs and Passwords For Customers Paying To Rent A Comcast Router
- California Senate defies AT&T, votes for strict net neutrality rules
- FCC Republican asks Amazon and eBay to boost crackdown on pirate TV boxes
- Charter Claims NY Lawsuit Over Crappy Broadband Speeds Just An Evil, Netflix ‘Cabal’
- Submission of Civil Society Coalition at WIPO SCCR 36 on Broadcasters’ Rights Treaty
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- Guidance on Consent and Inappropriate Data Practices issued by Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
- Open Letter To Francisco Partners: Request For Follow Up On Apparent Misuse Of Sandvine Technology And Sale Of NSO Group To Verint Systems (Citizen Lab)
- U.S. Supreme Court Dismisses U.S. v. Microsoft as Moot After CLOUD Act Signed Into Law: Court Declares That There is No Longer a Live Controversy Over a Warrant Requiring Microsoft to Disclose Customer Data Stored Overseas
- DOJ, FBI Issuing Corrections To Statements, Testimony Containing Bogus Uncracked Device Numbers
- Apple’s Latest Transparency Report Shows Gov’t Still Not All That Interested In Seeking Warrants
- A trip to the ER with your phone may mean injury lawyer ads for weeks
- Yahoo hacker whose work compromised 500M accounts sentenced to 5 years
- SS7 routing-protocol breach of US cellular carrier exposed customer data
- Amazon confirms that Echo device secretly shared user’s private audio
- FBI tells router users to reboot now to kill malware infecting 500k devices
- Report On Milwaukee PD Body Cams Show Fewer Complaints, Fewer Stops, But No Reduction In Use Of Force
- ICE Trying To Deport Journalist For Reporting On Abusive ICE Behavior
- Europe’s New Data Protections Will Affect You Too. Here’s How.
- Dozens of American News Sites Blocked in Europe as GDPR Goes Into Effect Today
- The GDPR: Ghastly, Dumb, Paralyzing Regulation It’s Hard To Celebrate
- EU Parliament’s Own Website Violates The GDPR
- GDPR jokes to help ease the pain
- Two States Are Trying To Give People Control Over Their Online Data
Jon
News of the Week; May 23, 2018
GAMES
- Judge Rules Copyright Lawsuit Over Tattoo Use in Video Game Can Proceed: What Might This Mean for the Video Game Industry and Virtual Sports Betting?
- Opinion: Illuminating the shadowy group celebrating Valve’s latest censorship drive
- Valve threatens to pull games now deemed ‘sexually explicit’ from Steam
- Valve advises sexualized anime-themed titles to censor content or be removed from Steam: HuniePop, Mutiny!!, Tropical Liquor and more received warnings today for “pornographic content”
- Steam games warned for “pornographic content” have warnings dismissed, subject to re-review
- Crunch can put devs at odds with their own mental health, warns Blizzard dev
- With Steam Link app, your smartphone can be an imperfect gaming monitor
- We Happy Few refused classification by Australian ratings board
- We Happy Few denied classification in Australia
- ADL partners with Global Game Jam, NYU’s Game Center to reduce hate in games
- UK government takes aim at online games in Internet Safety Strategy response
- Lack of oversight led to use of Overwatch art in Paladins Strike ad, says dev
- Overwatch art used in Paladins Strike ad due to “not much oversight”
- Overwatch to get Lego sets and Nerf merch: Activision Blizzard Consumer Products Group reveals new projects as it pursues more partners at Licensing Expo
- Chinese Overwatch League team practices for twelve hours, six days a week: Team with the “most intensive training scheme” in the league has so far not won a single game
- ‘We can launch games whenever we’re ready and whenever we want,’ says Guillemot
- Less AAA competition makes delays easier – Ubisoft: CEO Yves Guillemot says “we can launch games whenever we are ready,” with digital content, live services, new markets offsetting any loss in revenue from smaller slate
- Far Cry 5 and Assassin’s Creed Origins lead to record profit and sales for Ubisoft
- Capcom bringing Resident Evil 7 to Switch with experimental pricing
- Capcom experiements with streaming and new pricing in Resident Evil 7 for Switch: Cloud version of acclaimed horror title will be streamed via wifi, costs just £13 / $18 for six-month ‘play ticket’
- Capcom requires high-speed streaming to play Resident Evil 7 on Switch
- Owlboy turned profit on Nintendo Switch within 24 hours of release: Switch success “bodes really well for funding our future projects” says D-Pad CEO Jo-Remi Madsen
- Nintendo is selling a dock-free ‘Second Set’ Switch bundle in Japan
- Hearts of Iron IV sells one million copies
- GTA V has sold over 95 million copies worldwide
- Gameloft revenues fell 13% in Q1
- Ubisoft posts record sales, delays Skull & Bones: Original IP pushed to next fiscal year as publisher sees pace of digital shift picking up, eyes expansion in PC, mobile, and China
- iOS gamers are more loyal than Android, suggests Priori Data
- Rovio sees profits rise amid strong revenues from Angry Birds 2
- Rovio doubles down on Angry Birds with new content roadmap: Multimedia strategy includes stage shows, location-based events, and long form animated series
- Paradox Q1 profits up 270% – despite only one new game release: Outgoing CEO Fred Wester says quarter shows the value of retaining loyal players with expansions and more
- Paradox: “People were coming to us in droves asking if we could make board games” – And the Swedish publisher is now licensing its biggest IPs to do just that
- Less management, more success: Inside Supercell’s ‘upside-down’ organization
- Tencent acquires majority stake in Path of Exile dev Grinding Gear
- EA acquires talent, tech from GameFly’s cloud gaming service
- EA acquires GameFly subsidiary for cloud gaming: Israel-based team and technology will expand EA’s ability to offer its games across multiple devices
- FIFA and Call of Duty driving viewer growth in console esports: 20 million hours of console events watched in 2018 so far, but still only a fraction of esports’ overall viewership
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 won’t have a single-player campaign but will offer battle royale
- Black Ops 4 ditches single-player campaign, adds battle royale mode
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 ditches Steam in favor of Battle.net
- Analysis: Player interest in Call of Duty’s campaigns is cratering
- Gamelynx raises $1.2 million to develop esports games on mobile
- Gamelynx raises $1.2 million for mobile esports development: Investors include Riot Games, Y Combinator, and Skycatcher Fund
- NBA 2K League announces State Farm sponsorship
- Microsoft partnership brings video game event to Special Olympics USA Games
- One hundred meeeeellion dollars: Epic dumps serious cash into Fortnite esports
- Epic Games to provide $100 million prize pool for Fortnite esports this year
- Epic Games puts up $100M for Fortnite esports prize pool
- Fortnite Developer’s $100,000,000 Prize Pool Is Great News For Streamers
- ‘Fortnite’-Branded Products In The Works Following Pact Between Epic Games, IMG
- Battlegrounds mobile attracting over 10 million daily active users
- Oculus & ESL Partner on eSports VR League with $220,000 in Prizes, Including ‘Echo Combat’
- HTC Says Watching ‘Ready Player One’ Boosts VR Purchase Intent in China
- Oculus adds DLC support for mobile VR apps: Beta test opens up a new revenue stream, with Rift DLC support still to come
- Crowdfunded 3D Headphone Startup OSSIC is Shutting Down, 99% of Orders Go Undelivered
- Microsoft launches Xbox Adaptive Controller to make games more accessible
- Microsoft’s next Halo game is an arcade cabinet
- Minecraft surpasses 100M users in China on PC and mobile
- Eurogamer scoops multiple awards at first-ever Games Media Brit List
- ESRB points devs toward IARC ratings as it looks to phase out short-form option
- ESRB dropping short form ratings for digital games in June: Developers will still be able to get rated at no cost via IARC
- God of War helps PlayStation smash records in April NPD stats: Kratos’ return was best ever launch for a PlayStation exclusive, PS4 game sales reaches new high for the month
- Sony: PlayStation 4 is entering ‘final phase’ of its lifecycle
- Sony prepares for the “final phase” of PlayStation 4’s life-cycle
- Sony: Next PlayStation is at least three years off
- Sony: The next PlayStation is another three years away
- Reassessing the legacy of PlayStation Vita: As software production ends, it’s a good moment to reassess Sony’s handheld – its commercial failure looms large, but its innovations remain hugely influential
- PlayStation Vita game production will continue in Japan: Sony confirms physical games will still be released in home market beyond March 2019
- Sony: PS4 Enters “final phase of life cycle,” Next PlayStation to Come in 3 Years
- Sony takes a page from Microsoft by licensing customizable PS4 gamepad
- The future of PlayStation may be portable, says Sony exec
- Portable gaming shouldn’t be separate from consoles – PlayStation head: Newly appointed John Kodera says company is considering portable gaming options, signalling a change from previous management’s thinking
- Jagex shutting down RuneScape Classic after 17 years
- Jagex shutting down RuneScape Classic: Problems with community safety, botting, and bugs led to the decision to shut down the 17-year-old game
- Wargaming Seattle is shutting down
- Cultural approaches to horror game design
DIGITAL
- Media can’t be an arm of the police, Vice lawyer tells Supreme Court hearing: Reporter Ben Makuch challenging ruling he must hand over info on terrorists to RCMP
- Trump’s Twitter blocking violates First Amendment, court rules: The “interactive space” around Trump tweets is a public forum, judge rules.
- Trump feels presidential smartphone security is “too inconvenient”
- President Trump Thinks Basic Phone Security Is Simply Too Inconvenient
- New Malaysian Prime Minister Who Promised To Kill ‘Fake News’ Law Decides It Might Be Useful Now That He’s In Power
- Turkish President Visits UK To Remind Everyone He Still Wants To Punish Critical Speech
- FBI seizes domain Russia allegedly used to infect 500,000 consumer routers
- Hackers infect 500,000 consumer routers all over the world with malware: VPNFilter can survive reboots and contains destructive “kill” function.
- All of Mugshots.com’s alleged co-owners arrested on extortion charges: Mugshots.com is a “business permeated with fraud,” California AG says.
- Mugshots.com Operators Arrested For Letting Money Influence Editorial Decisions
- North Korea-tied hackers used Google Play and Facebook to infect defectors
- Cambridge Analytica files for bankruptcy amidst “siege” of negative attention
- What Happened To Facebook’s Grand Plan To Wire The World?: Five years ago Mark Zuckerberg debuted a bold, humanitarian vision of global internet. It didn’t go as planned – forcing Facebook to reckon with the limits of its own ambition.
- Mark Zuckerberg Played Parliament for Fools and They’re Pissed
- Facebook Is Testing Its Own Influencer Marketing Platform
- Facebook Moderation Ramps Up In Germany And Everything Keeps Getting Worse For Its Users
- Instagram Finally Rolls Out ‘Mute’ Button, 3 Years After Twitter Unveiled Feature
- There Is No Magic Bullet For Moderating A Social Media Platform
- Fed Up With Apple’s Policies, App Developers Form A ‘Union’
- Small group of iOS devs form “The Developers Union” to request App Store changes: There’s little in the way of organization, but some notable names are attached.
- Apple cracks down on CallKit-enabled apps in China’s App Store
- Apple, VW sign driverless car deal for Apple campus shuttles, NY Times sources say
- An Overview of Political Advertising Policies for Google, Twitter, and Snapchat
- Snapchat’s Parent Launches ‘Yellow’ Incubator Program for Mobile-Content Creators
- How Google-happy jurors are derailing Ontario trials
- Does Google’s Duplex violate two-party consent laws?
- Google Removes ‘Don’t Be Evil’ Clause From Its Code of Conduct
- Pretty Much All Tech Demos Are Fake as Hell
- Morgan Stanley Pegs YouTube’s Valuation At $160 Billion, Above Disney, Comcast, And Netflix
- Netflix and other online video are killing cable in customer satisfaction
- YouTube Red Renamed ‘YouTube Premium’, Price Upped From $10 To $12 Monthly
- New YouTube Music Premium costs $9.99 monthly, add $2 to get all Red perks
- Google announces YouTube Music and YouTube Premium: Goodbye, YouTube Red; hello, new premium services
- The Long, Checkered History Of YouTube’s Attempt To Launch A Music Service
- YouTube TV Channels For The Young Turks, Tastemade Now Live With 9 New Shows
- Rising NBA Star Jayson Tatum Learned Some Of His Best Moves From YouTube
- Lilly Singh Launches Inaugural Campaign As UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador To End Child Violence
- 89 Years After Popeye’s Introduction, The Sailor Man Is Coming To YouTube
- Twitch’s Longest TV Marathon So Far Will Include More Than 500 Episodes Of ‘Doctor Who’
- In New Video, Elle Mills Talks Mental Health, A Break From Social Media, And Being “Burnt Out At 19”
- Here’s How You Can Turn On The New YouTube Feature That Reminds You To Take A Break
- Magazine publishers with video ambitions see YouTube as safer bet than Facebook
- New Version Of YouTube Music Ready To Launch, Will Feature Smart Recommendations, Context-Based Search
- Barack And Michelle Obama Ink Multi-Year Content Partnership With Netflix
- How The Record Labels Screwed Up The Music Industry, And The Tech Industry Saved Them
- How The Recording Industry Hid Its Latest Attempt To Expand Copyright
- Minimize harmfulness of bots but don’t ban them
- Cross-sector code of conduct for AI – a solution with substance?
- New Requirements for Legal Analytics & Artificial Intelligence Under the GDPR
- Many Of Those Desperate GDPR Emails You’ve Been Getting Are Violating A Different EU Regulation
- Buyer Beware: Hundreds of Bitcoin Wannabes Show Hallmarks of Fraud – A Wall Street Journal analysis of 1,450 cryptocurrency offerings reveals rampant plagiarism, identity theft and promises of improbable returns
- Bitcoin Is Going To Use As Much Electricity As Austria By The Year’s End
- New study quantifies bitcoin’s ludicrous energy consumption
- “We have built the world that they told us existed”: Did the rise of young, white “Internet reporting” bolster the alt-right?
- Who Is Arthur Chu?: When Jeopardy ended, the real puzzles of online life began – Airing on PBS, new doc explores ups and downs of growing up – and growing in stature – online.
- The Balkanization Of The Internet (Andres Guadamuz)
CREATIVITY
- District Court in California recognizes plausible trademark rights over fictional Star Wars board game
- Congress’ Latest Move To Extend Copyright Protection Is Misguided (Lawrence Lessig)
- Who Needs a Copyright Small Claims Court? Evidence from the U.K.’s IP Enterprise Court
- Copyright fair use – “transformative” revisited: has the Second Circuit gone too far?
- Copyright Being Used To Prevent Actress From Showing Her Own Demo Reel
- Copyright Once Again Hiding Important Cultural Artifacts
- HBO Wins Stupid Copyright, Trademark Lawsuit Brought By Graffiti Artist Over 2 Seconds Of Background Scenery
- EPA boots reporters from meeting on chemicals called a PR disaster
- EPA’s War On Journalists Is Not A Good Look
- Fox News Staffers Reportedly Freaking Out Over New Workplace Rules
- And then, they took her cellphone
- This Video Explores the Experimental History of Scifi Book Covers
- Canadian Copyright, Fair Dealing and Education, Part Two: The Declining Value of the Access Copyright Licence (Michael Geist)
- Canadian Copyright, Fair Dealing and Education, Part One: Making Sense of the Spending (Michael Geist)
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- Judge For Yourself: Bell Says It Didn’t Meet CRTC to Review the FairPlay Application, But Here’s the Slide Presentation (Michael Geist)
- Rupert Murdoch Believes In The Free Market… Until His Company Is Struggling: Then He Wants To Regulate Competitors
- Disney’s Plans to Buy Fox Just Hit a Major Snag and Its Name Is Comcast
- Comcast confirms plan to buy 21st Century Fox and control of Hulu
- Comcast bug made it shockingly easy to steal customers’ Wi-Fi passwords
- Comcast Found To Be Charging $90 Installation Fees At Homes Where Comcast Is Already In Use
- TV regulation in a digital age
- Senators Demand FCC Answer for Fake Comments After Realizing Their Identities Were Stolen
- Senators Ask FCC Why It Did Nothing To Stop Their Names From Being Fraudulently Used During Net Neutrality Repeal
- FCC is hurting consumers to help corporations, Mignon Clyburn says on exit
- Net Neutrality Is Just A Gateway To The Real Issue: Internet Freedom (Susan Crawford)
- Charter Uses Net Neutrality Repeal To Claim States Can’t Hold It Accountable For Shoddy Service, Failed Promises
- ISPs and Ajit Pai are really sad about Senate’s vote for net neutrality
- A preview of the FTC’s role in monitoring broadband markets following the FCC’s adoption of the Restoring Internet Freedom Order
- FTC Commissioner calls for stricter penalties and structural remedies against recidivist companies that violate consent orders
- T-Mobile should stop claiming it has “Best Unlimited Network,” ad group says
- Supreme Court Strikes Down Law against Sports Betting – But Broadcasters Need to Proceed with Caution
- Website leaked real-time location of most US cell phones to almost anyone
- Nearly Everyone In The U.S. And Canada Just Had Their Private Cell Phone Location Data Exposed
- FCC investigates site that let most US mobile phones’ location be exposed
- Verizon Begins ‘Testing’ DSL Usage Caps It Refuses To Call Usage Caps
- The ‘Race To 5G’ Is Largely Just Marketing Nonsense
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- ICE Abandons Efforts for Social Media Vetting Algorithm
- ICE Drops Extreme Vetting Software Plan After Discovering No One Could Possibly Deliver What It Wants
- Judge Allows Fourth Amendment Challenge Of Warrantless Device Searches At The Border To Continue
- Michigan Takes On The NSA With New Law, But Probably Won’t Have Much Of An Impact
- Senators to DOJ: Reveal your secret paragraph-long explanation of stingrays
- Not Paying Attention in Class?: China’s “Smart Eye” Will Snitch on You
- Illinois Users’ Face-Scanning Privacy Lawsuit Against Facebook Headed to Trial
- Police Surveillance Is Getting a Helping Hand from…Amazon!
- ACLU Obtains Documents Showing Amazon Is Handing Out Cheap Facial Recognition Tech To Law Enforcement
- Police use of Amazon’s face-recognition service draws privacy warnings
- Report Confirms Deep Flaws Of Automated Facial Recognition Software In The UK, Warns Its Use In The US Is Spreading
- FBI exaggerated the number of phones it can’t unlock by up to 550 percent
- FBI Admits It’s Been Using A Highly-Inflated Number Of Locked Devices To Push Its ‘Going Dark’ Narrative
- EFF Asks FBI, DOJ To Turn Over Details On Thousands Of Locked Phones The FBI Seems Uninterested In Cracking
- Blunder burns unicorn attack that exploited Windows and Reader
- Warning: the Federal Trade Commission will prosecute companies over consumer data breaches – its recommendations should be heeded
- As the Web moves toward HTTPS by default, Chrome will remove “secure” indicator
Jon
News of the Week; May 16, 2018
GAMES
- Belgian Gaming Commission recommends criminal prosecution over illegal loot boxes: Commission lays groundwork for prosecution as Belgian justice minister meets with stakeholders to find an alternative
- Twitch files counter-complaint against banned CS:GOstreamer
- Twitch counter-sues streamer banned for gambling, inappropriate conduct: James Varga, aka “Phantoml0rd”, sued Twitch over the ban last month
- ‘Saturday Night Live’ 48-Hour Marathon to Stream on Twitch
- Twitch To Stream 48-Hour-Long ‘Saturday Night Live’ Marathon Ahead Of Sketch Show’s Season Finale
- Supreme Court lifts ban on (e)sports gambling, allowing state-by-state legalization
- Supreme Court lifts ban on sports gambling, including esports: DraftKings to implement sports, esports betting on its fantasy sports platform
- Supreme Court Ruling Opens Door for Legalized Sports Betting
- Take-Two CEO: Legal (e)sports gambling ‘meaningfully positive’ for games
- Satirical game used to push back against German ban on Nazi symbols
- Unprecedented move by German prosecutors over Nazi imagery in satirical game: Game serves “both the arts and civic enlightenment” says PPO
- Kingsleys unleash ire of independent author community with Rebellion trademark: But CEO Jason Kingsley assures that ‘Rebellion’ will only be used for relevant services, is investigating ‘overreaching’ application
- Video: A lawyer’s guide to practical IP law for indies
- Hackers find PSP emulator in PS4 remaster of PaRappa the Rapper: PlayStation 4 version of cult classic rhythm game just an emulation of the 2007 PSP re-release
- Pay-To-Flay: Examining microtransactions inMortal Kombat X
- Making microtransactions work for players in Guild Wars 2
- Gran Turismo franchise has sold 80M units in two decades
- Gran Turismo franchise tops 80 million sold: Polyphony Digital racing sim series reaches mark a little over 20 years after initial debut
- Sony and Nintendo update warranty policies in response to FTC warning: Both companies’ customers now have more freedom to use third party products and services
- Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft update warranty policies in response to FTC warning: Customers now have more freedom to use third party products and services
- Nintendo shuts down debut mobile app Miitomo
- Nintendo still won’t commit to online services: “Netflix for retro games” would be a huge selling point for the Switch – but Nintendo’s reticence to commit to online services will stop it happening
- Nintendo’s $20 charging stand fixes one of the Switch’s biggest problems
- Nintendo Labo tests, part one: Robot Kit’s cardboard stomps are fun but shallow
- A year ago, the NES Classic flew off the shelves—now it’s coming back
- LawBreakers dev Boss Key Productions shuts down
- Pokemon Go dev Niantic wants to build AR maps with data from players
- Clearing up misconceptions around motion sickness in VR
- Microsoft enables digital game and DLC gifting on PC: This follows the addition of Xbox One digital game, DLC, and subscription gifting last year
- Xbox One may be indies’ least popular platform, survey suggests: Indies love the Switch, but PC wins out for accessibility despite marketplace overcrowding
- Leaked photo shows new, accessible Xbox One controller
- In the lab with Xbox’s new Adaptive Controller, which may change gaming forever
- How the DualShock 4’s share button came to be
- Sony winding down production of physical PlayStation Vita titles
- Sony announces end of Vita GameCard production: Production of physical Vita games will cease by end of March 2019
- ModDB parent launches cross-platform API mod.io:v New tech makes it easier for developers to add modding tools to their games
- Mobile games continue to drive rising online game revenue for Tencent
- Konami breaks profit records thanks to domestic mobile market
- Konami shows record operating profits: Fourth straight year of bottom line growth helps publisher surpass previous 2012 high point; no word on Metal Gear Survive performance
- Packaged software driving profits in Sega’s games division
- Sega’s game profits rose 30% last year: Japanese publisher delivered increased operating profit despite launching fewer games than expected
- Japanese devs reflect on the recent renaissance of Japanese games
- Take-Two’s fortunes on the rise ahead of Red Dead Redemption 2 debut
- Devs share the most memorable things they’ve had to cut from games
- Bigben Interactive acquires Styx developer Cyanide for $24M
- Bigben acquires Cyanide for €20 million: WRC publisher broadens development focus with Styx: Shards of Darkness creator
- Campo Santo retains freedom, flexibility under Valve
- Development on In the Valley of Gods will continue as before, but with more support
- Valve debuts public bug bounty board in an effort to improve security
- Steam services expand to mobile with new apps: Steam Link and Steam Video will launch in the coming months
- Polish studio Acram Digital banned from Steam for review tampering
- Steam Yanks Another Developer’s Games Over Fake Reviews Posted By Employee
- Acram Digital games removed from Steam after rogue staffer manipulates reviews: “This is my individual, bad behaviour, not the team, so I would like to blame me, not the devs,” says Grzegorz Kubas
- From zero to 15 million: The story of Outlast – Red Barrels’ Philippe Morin on turning a $1.4 million budget into a $64 million franchise with 15 million sales
- Mod.io API aims to help developers create mod-friendly games
- Balancing Hearthstone: Metrics help the team understand what’s happening, but designer Dean Ayala says most changes in the Blizzard card game are made due to player perception
- Universal “committed to games”, disputes free labour concerns over IP contest: Hollywood firm determined to build final product from Unity-partnered competition, stresses unsuccessful entrants retain rights to ideas
- Daybreak insists it has no connection to parent company: H1Z1 developer now says it was never owned by Columbus Nova after investment firm’s owner sees assets frozen by US government, claims it has no impact on its business
- Eidos Montreal: “We have to try new models for single-player games” – Shadow of the Tomb Raider dev on making $135 million narrative projects work
- Discord now boasts 130M users, 85M more than one year ago
- Discord triples users to 130 million in one year: The gaming chat platform just closed a $50 million round, which valued the company at $1.65 billion
- Nexon doubles revenue in US following Pixelberry acquisition
- Nexon more than doubled profits in Q1: Pixelberry acquisition boosted North American revenue, but Korea remains Nexon’s source of strength
- BioShock Remastered studio lays off 10% of workforce after project cancellation: Blind Squirrel Games confirms 13 redundancies, affected staff seeking help via Twitter hashtag
- Kongregate looking to court indie devs with new Canada office
- Kongregate opens Montreal office: Digital publisher’s first Canadian branch looks to capitalize on the local indie development scene
- “The era of ‘break-out indie success’ is long dead”: Indie developers share their thoughts on the greatest challenges facing the industry in 2018
- Looking back on our first year as an indie studio
- Runescape creator Jagex raises $300K for mental health charities
- Little Orbit acquires GamersFirst online game portal andAPB Reloaded
- Online retailer Gameseek goes into liquidation: UK company left many orders unfulfilled when it hit the wall
- GameStop boosted by billionaire hedge fund: Bridgewater Associates ups stake in troubled games retailer, plus new investment from quant firm Renaissance
- Niantic to build a 3D augmented reality world map with Pokémon Go data: “We want players to build out the game board they want to play on,” says CEO
- Nvidia posts record Q1 revenues as profits soar by 145%: Meanwhile, GPU prices “beginning to normalise” following cyrptocurrency surge
- THQ Nordic saw more sales in 3 months than all of 2017, thanks to Koch Media
- THQ Nordic posts 673% revenue increase following acquisition of Koch Media: Excluding Koch Media revenue, THQ Nordic still up 64 per cent
- NCSoft profits up by 585% to $110m in Q1 2018: Mobile revenue spikes by 1,028 per cent amid mixed overall games performance
- German mobile game revenue growth surpasses whole market growth in 2017: Mobile sales rose 21% year over year, while the country’s overall market revenue rose 15%
- Appealing to the West by focusing on the East: Spike Chunsoft CEO Mitsutoshi Sakurai says there’s a growing global audience for the “very Japanese” games his company publishes
- Cliff Bleszinski’s Boss Key Productions shuts down after three years
- Saying Goodbye To The Fan Game That Recreated A Decade-Old Classic
- Researchers teach AI the art of ‘interesting’ level design
- The Race To Stop The Best Mario Kart 64 Player From Securing Every World Record
- Sonic the Hedgehog devs explain how competing with Mario influenced development
- How Fortnite, A ‘Gamer’s Game,’ Took Over The World
- Fortnite mobile has earned $50M in under two months
- How Epic’s Fortnite rose from the ashes of Paragon’s failure
- An analysis of building in Fortnite
- Silverman: Is Fortnite habit the cause of David Price’s injury?
- Red Sox starter David Price denies carpal tunnel related to gaming, but plans to scale back
- Blog: How does multiplayer impact replayability?
- Madden NFL could go in “new direction” following departure of creative director: Former Overwatch producer Carlos Guerrero takes over series following Rex Dickson’s depature
- How EA Sports games are designed for blind players
- Nordisk Film continues investment spree with $18M Star Stable deal
- Google Chrome no longer breaks Web games, but the fix won’t last
- Chrome temporarily rolls back audio-muting update so devs can prep for the change
- How we increased our review score from mid 60’s to 80
- The risky business of creating an introspective blockbuster
- Blog: The myth of the hero’s journey
- Opinion: Neo Cab and the effort to make an empathetic game about gamification
- John Carmack recalls “frustrating” arguments with Apple’s Steve Jobs
- 100,000 Video Game Players Helped Scientists Prove Einstein Wrong
DIGITAL
- It’s Over: The Podcast Patent Troll’s Patent is Officially And Completely Dead
- Supreme Court declines to hear “podcasting patent” case, handing win to EFF
- Here are the Russian-made Facebook ads that tried to shake American politics
- 7 Takeaways from the Latest Batch of Russian-Bought Facebook Ads: House Democrats released over 3,000 Facebook and Instagram ads purchased by the Kremlin-linked Internet Research Agency. Here’s what we learned.
- It’s Begun: Facebook Just Banned 200 Apps For Abusing User Data
- Facebook suspends ~200 suspicious apps out of “thousands” reviewed so far
- How Facebook Can Better Fight Fake News: Make Money Off the People Who Promote It
- California Gov’t Thinks It Might Be Able To Regulate Fake News Sometime Before 2020
- How Facebook Binds – And Shatters – Communities
- Facebook Watch To Spend Up To $10 Million Per Series Amid News Programming Push (Report)
- New Commissioner Says FTC Should Get Tough on Companies Like Facebook and Google: Citing lax treatment of corporate malefactors, Rohit Chopra calls for the FTC to impose more significant penalties when companies violate its orders.
- Could Cambridge Analytica happen again?
- Iran’s President Comes Out Against His Country’s Ban On Telegram
- Spotify’s Ban on Hateful Content and Conduct Is ‘Too Subjective’ and ‘Dangerous,’ Experts Say
- Merlin Sells All of Its Spotify Shares for an Estimated $125 Million-Plus
- Apple Music Passes 50 Million Subscribers, Including Free Trials
- Online Ad Targeting Does Work – As Long As It’s Not Creepy
- Minnesota Judges Refuse To Unmask Defendants For Copyright Troll Strike 3
- Danish ISPs That Teamed Up To Beat Back Copyright Trolls Get Huge Legal Win
- Japan’s Largest Cable Provider Pacts With Fullscreen To Launch Local Digital Network
- The revamped Google News app is now available on iPhones and iPads
- Area Man, Obscure Sidekick Asked to Leave Google Fiber’s Austin Office by the Police
- Google Employees Resign in Protest Against Pentagon Contract
- A dozen Google employees quit over military drone project
- Could Google’s creepy new AI push us to a tipping point?
- Brave new world: some legal considerations in using AI and IoT Systems
- Robots Behaving Badly: Legal Responsibility In The Age Of Artificial Intelligence (Andres Guadamuz)
- Robot U: The First American A.I. Undergrad Program is Here, and Already Incredibly Elite
- Can This AI-Powered Baby Translator Help Diagnose Autism?
- Stop Using Discriminatory AI, Human Rights Groups Say
- All the Rage in Sweden: Embedding Microchips Under Your Skin
- The Next Blockchain Revolution? Crypto-Powered Beer Vending Machines
- When The Blockchain Skeptic Walked Into The Lions’ Den
- Blockchain Reaction
- Blockchain as a Content Distribution Technology: Copyright Issues Abound
- Could Blockchain Disrupt How We Protect Our Intellectual Property?
- FedEx Wants To Track Packages On The Blockchain, So You’ll Know Exactly Who Dropped Your Stuff
- Can you trust blockchain?
- AI trained to navigate develops brain-like location tracking
- Tech Firms Move To Put Ethical Guard Rails Around AI
- What do AI and blockchain mean for the rule of law?
- Bing Prohibits Cryptocurrency Advertising
- Cryptocurrency has been great for GPU makers—that might change soon
- Report: Bitcoin money laundering suspect spared from prison poison plot
- Man who claims he created bitcoin committed perjury, lawsuit says
- Goldman Sachs Just Launched A New Cryptocurrency
- Crypto Is “Taking us Back to the 1830s?” Here’s What That Fed Branch President Means.
- Apple Slapped With Class Action Lawsuit Over Faulty MacBook Pro Keyboards
- Amazon Prime members to get new discounts at Whole Foods
- Twitter will hide more bad tweets in conversations and searches: Another move to reduce abuse
- Klout is out—social media mojo-ranking service to shutter
- Who Pays The Most, And Least, In Silicon Valley?
- YouTube Defeats Another Remove-and-Relocate Lawsuit–Song Fi v. Google
- Cambodian YouTubers In Legal Jeopardy For Skinning, Eating Endangered Animals On Film
- Cisco Announces YouTube Ad Boycott, Citing Fear Of A “Brand-Tarnishing Experience”
- YouTube Adding Songwriter, Label, And Publisher Credits To All Official And User-Generated Music Videos
- Incognito Mode May Soon Bring More Privacy To Users Of YouTube’s Mobile App
- YouTube Launches Upgraded Charts
- Ahead Of Royal Wedding, Meghan Markle Videos Have Received 94 Million Views On YouTube In 2018
- Jeffrey Katzenberg Raises $800 Million To Develop YouTube-Length Shows On Netflix-Sized Budgets
- As Her Channel Turns 10, Alisha Marie Announces Brief Break Due To Creative Burnout
- YouTube’s new ‘take a break’ notifications are part of Google’s focus on your digital well-being: If YouTube eats up too much of your time, perhaps the notifications will be helpful
- Robert Downey Jr. To Bring Series About Artificial Intelligence To YouTube Red
- Can we stop technology from amplifying society’s inequalities? Perhaps, if we act now.
- ‘Cobra Kai’: YouTube Red’s ‘Karate Kid’ Sequel Outperforms Netflix, Hulu Shows
- Netflix To Allocate 85% Of Upcoming Content Spend On Original Series And Films
- Formula 1 finally launched its livestream—and it was a total mess
- Materially and Substantively Modifying Online Articles Restarts the Clock in NJ Defamation Claims
- What does GDPR mean for journalists?: From 25 May 2018, General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, will be enforced by regulators across Europe.
- GDPR will pop the adtech bubble
- Companies Respond To The GDPR By Blocking All EU Users
- Bittersweet DMCA Safe Harbor Defense Win in Ninth Circuit–Ventura v. Motherless
- Venture Beat Reporter Abuses DMCA To Silence A Critic
- As Intermediary Liability Is Under Attack, Stanford Releases Updated Tool To Document The State Of Play Globally
- A DMCA Section 512(f) Case Survives Dismissal–ISE v. Longarzo
- Jails are replacing visits with video calls—inmates and families hate it
- The True History Of ‘Yanny’ And ‘Laurel’
- The Fundamental Nihilism Of Yanny vs. Laurel
CREATIVITY
- The Man with the Tiger Tattoo
- The Ninth Circuit STILL Thinks Keyword Metatags Matter in 2018–Adidas v. Skechers
- When Plaid Goes Bad – Burberry Files Infringement Suit Against Target Over Burberry’s Iconic Plaid Design
- What Artists Can Teach Us About Making Technology More Human
- Gynecologist Dr. Drai can use name, even if Dr. Dre doesn’t like it, judge says
- Rap or Pap? Dr. Dre Loses Trademark Battle With Dr. Drai, A Gynecologist
- For the Love of God, Stop Asking the Black PantherCast to Do the ‘Wakanda Forever’ Salute
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- Fair Play for FairPlay?: Bell Presented Its Site Blocking Plan to the CRTC Months Before It Became Public (Michael Geist)
- House of Commons Ethics Committee Recommends Rejecting Bell Coalition Website Blocking Plan (Michael Geist)
- Not So Fast: Digging into MEI’s Report on the State of Canadian Wireless Services (Michael Geist)
- AT&T Continues Fight To Gut FTC Authority Over Broadband Monopolies
- AT&T says hiring Trump lawyer was “big mistake,” forces top lobbyist out
- AT&T Chief Says It Made a ‘Big Mistake’ Hiring Michael Cohen
- Democrats demand answers on AT&T’s $600,000 payment to Trump’s lawyer
- AT&T Cans Exec Over Cohen Payment Kerfuffle, Pretends This Kind Of Influence Peddling Isn’t Perfectly Routine
- Trump vows to reopen smartphone giant ZTE to save Chinese jobs
- Trump eliminates national cyber-coordinator job, gives Bolton keys to the cybers
- Senate Votes To Save Net Neutrality, But Hurdles Remain
- Senate Approves First Step In Uphill Effort To Restore Net Neutrality
- Senate votes to overturn Ajit Pai’s net neutrality repeal
- Net neutrality to die on June 11, as Ajit Pai blasts “special interests”
- Senate Will Vote Wednesday To Try And Save Net Neutrality
- Defying Republicans, Senate Democrats schedule vote to save net neutrality
- This Is Ajit Pai, Nemesis Of Net Neutrality
- US Senate forces vote to restore net neutrality: If it passes, the vote goes to the House of Representatives, followed by the President’s desk
- Net neutrality officially ends June 11: Challenges to the change are unlikely to take forceful effect in time, though reversal remains possible
- FCC Boss Celebrates As Net Neutrality Gets An End Date: June 11
- Here’s the Name of Every Senator Who Voted Against Net Neutrality—and When to Vote Them Out
- Comcast charges $90 install fee at homes that already have Comcast installed
- Comcast Still Makes A Killing, Even When You Cut The Cord
- T-Mobile Hires Ex-FCC Commissioner To Claim Its Competition-Killing Merger Will Be Really Great For…Farmers
- Settlement of Alleged CASL Violations – Messages Sent without Compliant Unsubscribe Mechanism
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- Shining A Light On The Encryption Debate: A Canadian Field Guide
- Ad Software Dev Doesn’t Like Being Called Out For Privacy Violations ; Sends Threatening Letter To Researchers Who Exposed It
- Email No Longer a Secure Method of Communication After Critical Flaw Discovered in PGP
- Critical PGP and S/MIME bugs can reveal encrypted emails – uninstall now
- It has been a bad week for encrypted messaging and it’s only Wednesday
- Encrypted Email Has A Major, Divisive Flaw
- Ex-CIA employee ID’d but not charged in Vault 7 leak of hacking tools
- Georgia Governor Vetoes Terrible Cybersecurity Law That Would Have Criminalized Security Research
- “Like stealing candy from a baby,” arrested teen says of his phishing efforts
- The LAPD’s Terrifying Palantir-Powered Policing Algorithm Was Just Uncovered and Yes It’s Basically ‘Minority Report’
- How a “location API” allows cops to figure out where we all are in real time
- Company used by police, prisons to find any mobile device breached (again)
- Prison Phone Monopoly Securus Under Fire Again, This Time For Doling Out Everybody’s Private Phone Location Data
- Forget scanning license plates; cops will soon ID you via your roof rack
- Malicious Chrome extensions infect 100,000-plus users, again
- Inside The Takedown Of A Notorious Malware Clearinghouse
Jon
News of the Week; May 9, 2018
GAMES
- Gamevice v Nintendo – Let’s try this again, at the ITC: Certain Portable Gaming Console Systems with Attachable Handheld Controllers and Components Thereof – International Trade Commission, Inv. No. 337-TA-1111 -and- Gamevice, Inc. v. Nintendo Co., Ltd.
- NBA 2K Tattoo Copyright Dispute Blocked
- Man sentenced to prison over 2010 World of Warcraft DDoS attack
- Don’t Miss: How a band of modders restored Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II
- Free-to-play game Loadout ending service in wake of GDPR regulation
- GDPR spells closure for free-to-play shooter Loadout: Developer says new regulations are a “major burden” for small studios doing business in EU
- Gaming Industry And Game Consumers On A Collision Course Over Loot Boxes
- EA will continue to use loot boxes that are ‘transparent, fun, and fair’
- EA adamant loot boxes aren’t gambling: Publisher pushes back after Belgian Gaming Commission finds fault with FIFA 18, talks game-streaming plans and Fortnite/PUBG phenomenon
- EA experiences growth in revenue from digital downloads and live services
- EA celebrates a record year, forecasts another: Full game downloads and physical game sales drop as booming live services now make up 40% of publisher’s income
- EA: ‘Innovators’ like Fortnite can benefit the entire games industry
- Madden NFL creative director Rex Dickson departs EA
- Madden NFL could go in “new direction” following departure of creative director: Rex Dickson leaves EA after 12 years with publisher
- Vulcan debuts new Holodome shared immersive reality platform
- Analyst: Mobile to make up over half of worldwide game revenue in 2018
- An in-depth breakdown of how mobile game media coverage fared in 2016
- New Nintendo president targets ¥100bn mobile business: Incoming chief Shuntaro Furukawa believes a Pokémon Go-style hit will transform the platform holder’s fortunes on smart devices
- Mobile Now Makes Up Majority Of Gaming Sales And Nintendo’s New President Wants To Get The Company On Board
- Switch online service will introduce cloud saves and NES multiplayer
- Nintendo courts families with Switch Online service: Eight-person membership available, alongside cloud saves and free NES games
- Nintendo says Switch won’t get Virtual Console classic game downloads
- Virtual Console Is Not Coming To Switch, Nintendo Says
- Nintendo drops Virtual Console model in favor of subscriptions: Focus turns to the Nintendo Switch Online service for future monetization of classic games
- Nintendo introduces Switch cloud saves as part of paid online subscription
- Nintendo starts moving to a Wii-like “non-gamer” strategy for the Switch
- Push the button: Steam now supports the Switch Pro Controller
- Hackers find “official,” usable PSP emulator hidden in PS4’s PaRappa
- PS4 expands its sales lead, now 71% of “two-console” market with Xbox One
- Future Minecraft updates won’t come to last-gen consoles
- Top 25 companies made up 77% of global games market in 2017 – Newzoo: Market intelligence firm points to industry consolidation as largest companies solidify positions
- Supercell: Meet the industry’s “least powerful CEO”: Ilkka Paananen on the value of leaving power in the hands of developers, and Supercell’s ambition to create a “truly global” mobile hit
- Google Play Instant leaves closed beta, now open to all developers
- Report: Google has quietly opened a new game studio called Arcade
- Google confirms new social gaming startup: Arcade is an “experiment” that will reportedly release its first game this summer
- Chrome update auto-mutes audio on many web-based games
- Google breaks HTML5 games with latest Chrome update: Efforts to mute autoplay video ads have unexpectedly affected browser-based web games
- Google slams “for-profit bail-bond providers,” won’t let them advertise
- God of War sold 3.1M copies in three days
- God of War tops 3.1 million sold in three days: Sony says PS4-exclusive game is the fastest-selling first-party game on the system to date
- Sony updates warranty terms following FTC warning
- FTC Calls Out Nintendo, Microsoft, And Sony For Their Illegal ‘Warranty Void If Removed’ Stickers
- Capcom sees improved profits from sales of Monster Hunter: World
- Monster Hunter: World drives Capcom’s most profitable year ever – Fantasy action game has now sold 7.9 million units, offsetting “worsened conditions” in amusement market
- Xbox One sales up by 15% for 2018: Record-setting start to the year for platform holder
- The Kinect lives on through Microsoft’s new project for Azure
- Twitch tries ‘Bounty Board’ approach to setting streamers up for sponsored streams
- Zynga posts $5.6m profit last quarter after predicting $9.5m loss: Meanwhile, company founder Mark Pincus reduces personal voting power from 70 per cent to ten per cent
- The Curious Case Of The Fortnite Cheater: Is it illegal to cheat in a video game?
- Fortnite pulls in fives times more revenue than PUBG on iOS: First week of monetisation for PUBG Mobile sees combined platform revenue reach only one third of Epic Games’ offering
- Why do mobile games get a ‘free’ pass?: The mainstream media launches attacks on Fortnite’s business model, but ignores more egregious behaviour in mobile – does this reflect a bias?
- Activision Blizzard sees new Q1 records, though share prices still falter
- Activision shows PC some love, plans “significant” resources for Call of Duty
- Activision is feeling the heat from battle royale titles
- Activision Blizzard jumping on battle royale bandwagon: Executives say Fortnite and PUBG have expanded the industry; publisher is “very quick to figure out how to capture inspiration from innovation”
- Battlegrounds item trading shut down due to marketplace abuse
- Fortnite Is Getting An Avengers: Infinity War Crossover
- “The reason we’re killing ourselves isn’t because we love what we’re doing”: Night in the Woods’ Scott Benson and Bethany Hockenberry discuss unionizing in games and what to do about indie devs crunching themselves
- Why the Campo Santo team hung up their indie spurs and joined Valve
- Tequila Works’ Raul Rubio on the dangers of building on stereotypes: “If you look at games made in Spain, you will notice a shocking lack of bullfighters”
- DDoS attack against Blizzard lands Romanian man in US federal prison: Calin Mateias extradited to face charges over 2010 cyber attack
- Pink Mercy skin comes to Overwatch, all proceeds go to charity
- Blizzard to donate more than $250,000 to Breast Cancer Research Foundation: Overwatch’s Pink Mercy charity skin will drive fundraising, alongside livestreams and more merchandise
- ‘Overwatch’ Esports League Launches Social VR Experiences With Sansar
- UK Charts: God of War beats Donkey Kong to No.1: Nintendo Labo slips down the charts in a quiet week for games retail
- Chinese games market expected to reach $42bn revenue by 2022: Increase in number of female users puts China on path to 720 million gamers
- Activision Blizzard posts record Q1 – Call of Duty: WWII helps drive Activision business even as engagement metrics drop for King and Blizzard
- Activision share price wounded following “extraordinary error” by Dow Jones: Confusion overshadowed record Q1 revenue for publisher; stock value down 2.3 per cent by market close
- PUBG most downloaded mobile game last quarter, but revenue flags: Sensor Tower Data Digest: Mobile game downloads up to 2.4 billion on iOS and 7.23 billion on Android
- Google’s ARCore 1.2 enables multiplayer AR across Android and iOS
- Ninja Hits 10 Million YouTube Subscribers, Gaining 3 Million Subs Over The Past Month
- Hi-Rez Studios announces new esports production company: Studio co-founder and COO to head up Skillshot Media as president
- Digi-Capital: Combined Asian markets could deliver over half of AR/VR revenue by 2022: “Western companies might need to adopt a ‘we try harder’ approach to compete at the same level,” says investment bank
- Oculus Go to ship 1.8 million this year – Superdata: Market intelligence firm expects new stand-alone offering to lead all premium headsets in shipments this year, downgrades overall VR projections
- Oculus: “We don’t want exclusivity. We want VR to thrive” – At Reboot Develop, Oculus’ Matt Conte urged developers to make the most of a small market by shipping on every VR platform possible
- Facebook changes an Oculus division’s name, invents term “Facebook Reality”
- ‘I AM A MAN’ Puts You At The Heart Of The Civil Rights Struggle, Now Available On Rift
- Square Enix reports decreased sales, increased profits: Dragon Quest XI publisher only takes a 2.5% hit to revenues despite 32% dip in software unit sales
- Rising revenues in US and Europe drive profits for Bandai Namco
- Bandai Namco sees game sales up 14%: Company’s full-year results show strong gains in revenues, units sold over previous year
- Inside Bandai Namco’s Innovation Department: Why the Pac-Man publisher is turning to Alexa and other emerging technologies
- Tencent partners with UK government’s cultural and creative industries
- Harmonix denies association with Columbus Nova
- Steam reviews study suggests ‘bad design,’ not bugs, irks players most
- Players less concerned by bugs than bad game design, study finds: Study of over 10 million Steam user reviews unearths valuable data for developers
- New Steam Link app allows players to stream Steam games to mobile
- Valve will soon let you stream Steam games to phones and tablets
- Using Steam reviews to estimate sales: A game dev guide
- Early Access effort Conan Exiles surpassed 1M sales ahead of launch
- Analyzing the financial impact of 2 years spent on Early Access
- Blog: A marketing perspective on trademarking
- Game streaming service Utomik has officially launched
- Jagex shutting down online game portal FunOrb after ten years: Advancements in technology have made it “increasingly difficult to access and play the games”
- Artificial Intelligence Is Making Video Game Levels So Good That Even Other AI Thinks They’re Man-Made
- Why pseudo-localization is essential
- In blocking autoplay videos, Chrome is breaking many Web-based games
- Attentat 1942 wins a top honor at A MAZE Berlin, remains banned in Germany
- Episode, Old Man’s Journey, and Empires & Puzzles win at 2018 Google Play Awards
- Empires and Puzzles wins Best Breakthrough Hit at Google Play Awards: Best Android apps and games announced at award ceremony ahead of Google I/O 2018
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider and the risk of making an introspective AAA game
- Spacewar!, Tomb Raider, and others join World Video Game Hall of Fame
- Devs share personal touches they’ve hidden in games
- Republican politician and lobbyist runs for election in EVE Online: “Maybe 20 years ago this would be weird, but given how mainstream gaming has become…how can anyone say ‘You’re throwing your life away playing these games?'”
- Blog: 10 negotiation tips from a video game lawyer (Pete Lewin)
DIGITAL
- New Québec “Netflix / Amazon Tax” Will Affect Non-Canadian Businesses
- Report: Chinese government is behind a decade of hacks on software companies
- As Iran Joins Russia’s Block On Telegram, The Echoes Of The Arab Spring Begin To Sound
- House Democrats Release 3,500 Russia-Linked Facebook Ads
- Facebook security analyst is fired for using private data to stalk women
- Facebook’s New Focus On ‘Community’ Might Actually Depress You
- German Politician Decries Censorship, Follows It Up By Suing Facebook To Have A Critical Comment Deleted
- Irish Judge Slaps Down Facebook’s Attempt To Halt EU’s Top Court Examining The Legality Of Sending Personal Data To US
- UN Celebrates World Press Freedom Day By Suppressing Presentation Of Turkey Suppressing Press
- Artificial intelligence will sharpen the East-West divide
- Four days at the wild, AI-filled Collision Conference—before it bails for Canada
- DeepMind has trained an AI to unlock the mysteries of your brain: While it seems like second nature, what goes on in your brain when you navigate between two places is surprisingly complex.
- Ars ex machina: artificial intelligence, the artist
- Microsoft continues its quest to bring machine learning to every application
- With Timeline and Your Phone, Microsoft makes a PC the phone’s second screen
- Sorry Elon Musk, there’s no clear evidence Autopilot saves lives
- Elon Musk hung up on NTSB chief during call about Tesla crash probe
- Report: Software bug led to death in Uber’s self-driving crash
- Ai Isn’t A Crystal Ball, But It Might Be A Mirror
- Everyone Is Flipping Out About Google’s AI Assistant That Just Booked A Haircut On The Phone
- How Google’s Eerie Robot Phone Calls Hint At Ai’s Future
- Google’s ML Kit offers easy machine learning APIs for Android and iOS
- The Price Of Google’s New Conveniences? Your Data
- Android Things 1.0 launches, Google promises 3 years of updates for every device
- Google And The Rise Of ‘Digital Well-Being’
- The Research Behind Google’s New Tools For Digital Well-Being
- Google News gets Material Design look, better personalization with AI
- Google releases open source framework for building “enclaved” apps for cloud
- Google Maps unveils its first-ever augmented reality interface
- Microsoft Charts Its Own Path On Artificial Intelligence
- Apple reportedly removing apps that share location data with third parties
- Signal’s “disappearing messages” live on in macOS notifications
- Want To Prove Your Business Is Fair? Audit Your Algorithm
- Section 230 Doesn’t Provide a Basis To Remove Cases to Federal Court–A.R.K. v. Grindr
- Airbnb, Homeaway, And The Importance Of Holding The Line On Section 230
- Another Convicted Fraudster Attempts To Manage His Reputation With Bogus DMCA Takedown Notices
- GoDaddy has shut down Richard Spencer’s white supremacist site
- Nigerian Email Scammers Are More Effective Than Ever
- Reserve Bank of India reins in cryptocurrency
- Hundreds of big-name sites hacked, converted into drive-by currency miners
- YouTubers Are Mad Again After YouTube Deletes Videos With Paid Promos for Academic Cheating
- Over a 5th of the world’s population is logging in to YouTube—despite scandals
- More Than 250 Creators Get Into Hot Water For Promoting Academic Essay-Writing Service EduBirdie
- YouTube Removes Hundreds Of Videos To Quash Advertisements From “Academic Aid” EduBirdie
- YouTube Announces New Ad-Supported Originals From Stars Like Will Smith, Priyanka Chopra
- YouTube TV Enters Streaming Pact With Third Major League Soccer Club
- Amid Growth To 1.8 Billion Logged-In Users, YouTube CEO Vows To Remain “On The Right Side Of History”
- Google News And New VR180 Camera App To Add YouTube Integrations
- Google News to be revamped, incorporate YouTube videos and magazines
- YouTube investing $5 million on 47 creators trying to make platform more positive: Creators for Change program looks to tell stories about important topics
- YouTube and Vevo have struck a new ad deal
- Did YouTube Phenomenon Poppy Steal Her Style From Another Star?
- Philip DeFranco Launches Interactive Website And App Dubbed ‘DeFranco Now’ In Partnership With Snakt
- Lele Pons Drops Debut Music Video, Clocking 10 Million Views In 4 Days
- Patreon Has Paid Out $350 Million To Creators Since Its Founding 5 Years Ago
- Racing needs new fans—and paywalls and geoblocking aren’t helping
- The Media’s Paywall Obsession Will End In Disaster For Most
- Snapchat, Despite Redesign Woes, Keeps Adding Media Partners – Including Disney’s ‘Star Wars’
- Spotify Ends First Quarter as a Public Company With 75 Million Paying Subscribers
- Instragram, In Continued Quest For Social Video Domination, Will Launch Video Chat
- Digital Media Company Popsugar Lays Off 19 Amid Financial Struggles
- Hulu Hits 20 Million Subscribers, Picks Up ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ For Third Season
- Hulu will soon offer offline viewing and episode downloads
- Following Facebook, Verizon Quietly Backs Off Opposition To Modest California Privacy Rules
- Facebook Canada’s Hard Questions Series Turns to Privacy (Michael Geist)
- $2-Billion Class Action Commenced Against Facebook
- An Overview of Facebook’s Election-Related Disclosure Program for Advertisers
- Facebook to release “clear history” tool
- Facebook Dating Looks A Whole Lot Like Hinge
- Why Facebook Won’t Put Ads on Its Dating App
- Facebook Adds New Live Stream Tools, One Like Twitch Co-Streams
- What’s The Deal With Facebook And The Blockchain?
- Facebook Wants To Explore Blockchain Technology. Here’s What They Might Be Up To.
- The Second Coming Of Vine Is On Indefinite Hold
- V2, The Planned Successor To Vine, Postponed Indefinitely Due To “Financial Hurdles”
- How Collab Built A Digital Talent Network And Rights Management Powerhouse Six Seconds At A Time
- ESPN To Launch Daily Edition Of ‘SportsCenter’ On Redesigned Mobile App
- Conan O’Brien’s TBS Show Trimmed To 30-Minute Episodes Amid Digital Pivot
- What Ecologists Can Learn From Memes
- CLOUD Act – clever acronym or real certainty for Cloud Service providers?
- A short primer on applicable US eSignature laws
- EU Commission Asks Public To Weigh In On Survey About Just How Much They Want The Internet To Be Censored
- The Sinar Project shines light on Malaysian Internet Censorship
- The First Amendment in the Second Gilded Age – The 2018 Mitchell Lecture (Jack Balkin)
CREATIVITY
- The fake news Russians hear at home
- Then they came for Peppa Pig
- Malaysian ‘Fake News’ Law Claims Its First Victim
- Maybe InfoWars defense will be – “Hey nobody believe us anyway”
- First Amendment Doesn’t Protect Encouraging Readers to Make Anti-Semitic Attacks–Gersh v. Daily Stormer
- Monkey See, Monkey Do: Ninth Circuit Declines to Go Bananas over “Monkey Selfie” Copyrights
- ‘Monkey Selfie’ Film in the Works at Conde Nast
- Olivia de Havilland Looks to Revive ‘Feud’ Defamation Suit
- Duke Administrator Gets Baristas Fired For Listening To Rap Music
- Dispute over rap song leads to protest at Duke and apology from coffee shop owner
- Nike, Great Protectors Of IP, Found To Be Infringing On Copyright And Refusing To Pay After Software Audit
- Raging Bull and Fearless Girl – moral rights in copyright
- New Report Shines Much-Needed Light On Shadow Libraries Around The World
- Romance Novelist Secures Trademark For Word ‘Cocky,’ Begins Beating Other Novelists Over The Head With It
- Springer Nature Opens Up on Educational Publishing: “E-Piracy” Sites Do Not Replace Traditional Subscription Services, Business Risks Primarily Stem from Marketplace Changes (Michael Geist)
- Canadian Publisher on the Term of Copyright: Life Plus 50 Years is “Already Too Long” (Michael Geist)
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- World’s Worst Wireless Pricing?: Report Finds Canadian Wireless Broadband Pricing Offers Least Bang for the Buck in Developed World (Michael Geist)
- Why one man’s victory against Bell won’t resolve telecom’s customer-service problems
- Bell Backroom Pressure: Internal Documents Reveal How a Brock University Executive Came to Provide Support for Website Blocking (Michael Geist)
- Text “Y” to confirm your subscription! Companies agree to $100,000 payment for alleged CASL violations
- AT&T Stumbles As It Tries To Explain Why It Paid $200K To Cohen’s Shady Shell Company
- AT&T’s Estimated Payment to Trump’s Lawyer Rises to $600,000 as Investigations Ramp Up
- AT&T explains why it blocked Cloudflare DNS: It was just an accident
- AT&T/Verizon lobby asks FCC to help raise prices on smaller ISPs
- AT&T will ask Supreme Court to cripple the FTC’s authority over broadband
- The Sprint And T-Mobile Merger Will Test The Department Of Justice’s Mettle
- Sprint announces highest profit ever after saying it needs T-Mobile merger
- T-Mobile pays ex-FCC commissioner to lobby for Sprint merger
- T-Mobile CEO Hallucinates Competitors In Bid To Sell Competition-Killing Sprint Merger
- Comcast preparing hostile bid for Fox properties—and control of Hulu
- Your Favorite Websites Are Rallying In A Last-Ditch Effort To Save Net Neutrality
- Senate will vote to kill or keep net neutrality rules by June 12
- Facebook Quietly Backs Away From Its Net Neutrality Killing ‘Free Basics’ Program Overseas
- Cord Cutting Is The Obvious Result Of A 70% Spike In Cable TV Prices Since 2000
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- Once more unto the breach: Canada’s PIPEDA breach notification and reporting regulations in force November 1, 2018
- Police Drop Charges Filed Against 19-Year-Old Who Downloaded Public Documents From Gov’t FOI Portal
- Oakland passes “strongest” surveillance oversight law in US: “They are even being exploited by the federal government to fuel mass deportations.”
- Oakland Residents Now Protected By The ‘Strongest’ Surveillance Oversight Law ‘In The Country’
- Georgia governor vetoes cyber bill that would criminalize “unauthorized access”
- Facial Recognition Tech Is Creepy When It Works – And Creepier When It Doesn’t
- UK police say 92% false positive facial recognition is no big deal
- Not Ready For Prime Time: UK Law Enforcement Facial Recognition Software Producing Tons Of False Positives
- Privacy Group Files Legal Complaint Over UK Law Enforcement’s Warrantless Phone Searches
- You Can’t Opt Out Of Sharing Your Data, Even If You Didn’t Opt In
- Equifax breach exposed millions of driver’s licenses, phone numbers, emails
- FTC settles with cellphone manufacturer over data security issues
- We Don’t Need a National Data Center of the Poor: The many, many ways the food-stamp database proposed by House Republicans could go wrong.
- Change Your Twitter Password Right Now
- Twitter alerts users: Please change your passwords, we’ve seen them
- Yahoo Fined $35 Million for Failing to Report Data Breach
- Welsh Police Used Face Scanning Software That Incorrectly Flagged Thousands
- Virginia Supreme Court Says License Plate Readers Collect Personal Data; Suggests Use Violates State Law
- Smart Doorbells That Call The Police Are Going to Endanger Some Innocent People
Jon
News of the Week; May 2, 2018
GAMES
- Chinese police arrest 15 ‘major’ Battlegrounds cheat suspects
- Daybreak Games denies reported links to sanctioned Russian oligarch
- Epic Games continues pursuing lawsuit against 14-year-old Fortnite player: Parent’s move to dismiss the case met with resistance from Fortnite developer
- Epic Decides To Double Down On Copyright For Cheating Lawsuit Against 14 Year Old By Taking On Mom
- Fortnite earned $223 million in March – Superdata: Research firm calls Epic Games survival shooter “the largest free-to-play console game of all time” in revenue generated and monthly users
- Mobile gaming cements its dominance, takes majority of worldwide sales
- Nintendo reports jump in profits as Switch tops 15M sales
- Lifetime Switch sales have surpassed 17M units
- Switch is selling well, but Nintendo thinks it can sell even better
- Nintendo hasn’t achieved ‘satisfactory profit’ on mobile
- Nintendo credits its mobile push for rise in Switch sales in Asia, Middle East
- Nintendo’s new president wants to turn mobile into $900M business
- With new leadership incoming, Nintendo aims to keep collaboration front and center
- As Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze comes to Switch, it disappears from Wii U eShop
- Nintendo under investigation for patent infringement over Switch design
- Nintendo Switch targeted by Gamevice patent lawsuit (again): Wikipad manufacturer attempting to block console sales in the US over detachable controller dispute
- U.S. agency to probe Nintendo systems after rival’s complaint
- US will consider blocking imports of Nintendo Switch: The International Trade Commission is investigating Nintendo.
- Nintendo Switch drives staggering 500 percent profit jump
- Nintendo profits spike as Switch approaches 18m sales: Mario Odyssey breaks 10m sales barrier
- Nintendo still has plans for the 3DS through ‘2019 and beyond’
- Nintendo bringing new IP exclusively to mobile: Platform holder acquires five per cent stake in development partner Cygames
- Nintendo yet to achieve “satisfactory” profit on mobile says company president: Games continue to perform well, but still fall below Nintendo’s expectations
- Nintendo partners with Japanese dev Cygames on new mobile title
- Breath of the Wild is now the best-selling Zelda game to date
- Nintendo shifting away from individual leadership: Incoming president Shuntaro Furukawa to continue a trend moving away from the style of long-time leader Hiroshi Yamauchi
- Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft among those warned by FTC – Report: Federal Trade Commission gave console makers, HTC, ASUS, and Hyundai 30 days to correct illegal warranty practices
- Norwegian customer watchdog calls out Nintendo, Sony, EA and Valve
- Nintendo, Valve, Sony, and EA reported in Norway for breaching European consumer law: Digital games “do not exist in a lawless vacuum” says Norwegian Consumer Council director of digital services
- PS4 software fueling growth at Sony as hardware stalls
- With the PlayStation 4 at 73M sold, Sony braces for sales to slow
- Sony brings PS2 titles to PS Now streaming service
- PUBG Corp. says 15 hackers arrested, fined $5.1 million: Some PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds cheat programs were said to contain viruses to scan users’ PCs, steal information
- Lohan Loses (Yet Another) Publicity Rights Suit
- Self-regulate loot box mechanisms – while you still can: As European states begin ruling against loot boxes, this is the industry’s last chance to prove it can be trusted to regulate itself
- Self-regulating loot boxes is harder than it sounds: Supposing publishers even want to rein in the monetization scheme driving their bottom lines, how are they supposed to go about doing that?
- USA: New Loot Box Bill Introduced…Again
- Loot Box Saga Continues
- Despite backlash, loot boxes could be essential to gaming’s future: Analysis sees loot box spending ballooning 62 percent, to $47 billion, by 2022.
- Loot boxes expected to drive games market to $160 billion by 2022: Juniper Research also predicts Switch-driven console revival, with revenues to reach $33.2 in four years
- Tencent to publish Freejam’s Robocraft in China: Deal announced one week after UK studio pledged to remove all loot boxes from the game
- WarpPortal blocks access to game catalogue in Europe: Ragnarok Online and more will be restricted from May 25 – the date that GDPR takes effect
- Blizzard now selling community-made maps for StarCraft II: Revenue spilt “favours content creators” says StarCraft II production director
- Global games market to hit $137.9 billion this year – Newzoo: Market intelligence firm expects industry revenues to be just over 50% mobile, 25% console, 24% PC
- What separates China and the West in mobile?: GameRefinery compares the traits of the top 100 grossing mobile games in China and America, including one feature found in 29% of top Chinese games completely absent in the US
- PlayStation 4 sales pass 75m in another strong year for Sony: Software sales and PS Plus subs were both up, but Sony is preparing for hardware decline in the coming year
- Xbox earnings on the rise thanks to third-party games and services
- Third-party sales boosted Microsoft Gaming revenue in Q3: Gaming revenue was up 18%, Xbox Live users up 13% to 59 million
- Starting in June, Xbox live rewards will transition to Microsoft rewards
- Microsoft shuts down popular Halo mod ElDewrito: Streamers attract tech giant’s ire as multiple DMCA takedowns issued
- Bungie will finally release Destiny companion album Music of the Spheres
- “If anybody is going to pick a fight with Steam or create an alternative, the time is now”: At Reboot Develop, Rami Ismail and Robin Hunicke argued that existing digital platforms are not doing enough to represent the diversity and artistry of developers
- SteamSpy creator develops new algorithm to keep service alive: “It’s still possible that Valve will make another move to shutdown the service, but until that happens, SteamSpy will continue to operate,” says Galyonkin
- Steam Spy isn’t dead, but it’s not back at 100% yet either
- An era of “triple-I” development is almost here: Ninja Theory, Frostkeep Studios and Private Division discuss a coming wave of games that combine indie creativity with triple-A production values
- Frostpunk has surpassed 250K sales in 66 hours
- PC Building Simulator sells 100,000 copies in a month: The Irregular Corporation’s latest release had a strong opening month in Early Access
- Sumo Digital transformed £52.2m debt into £12.4m cash balance in 2017: Crackdown 3 developer buoyant in first financial results following last year’s IPO
- Techland picks up Call of Juarez publishing rights from Ubisoft
- Call of Juarez publishing rights return to Techland following Ubisoft partnership – Critically acclaimed Call of Juarez: Gunslinger reappears on Steam after being delisted last month
- How to stop big publishers breaking your business: During this year’s Reboot Develop, Ninja Theory’s Nina Kristensen detailed the rights studios should fight for
- The anti-Brexit game turning controversy into opportunity
- Snapchat launches “Snappables” series of AR games: Snap Inc commits to releasing new mini-games on a weekly basis
- FC Bayern Munich Joins Esports World With NBA 2K Team
- The Highs And Lows From Day One Of The NBA 2K League
- Your One-Stop Interactive Guide To The NBA 2K League
- How Esports Leagues Model Traditional Sports To Build Stability, Thwart Competition
- The Growth Of Esports Minor Leagues
- Imagine Dragons invest in esports agency RektGlobal and Team Rogue: Members from award-winning band joined by music producer Steve Aoki in ownership of esports team
- Don’t Miss: How Blizzard designed StarCraft II with esports in mind
- The Doomy Gloomy Revival Of Old-School First-Person Shooters
- Super Monday Night Combat shutting down due to new data protection regs
- GDPR prompts Super Monday Night Combat shutdown: Developer Uber Entertainment says cost of rewriting back-end too high to warrant compliance
- Implementing The Eu General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): An Overview For Digital Entertainment Businesses
- The ESA hits a low point – 10 Years Ago This Month: Self-regulation helps fend off threatened legislation, but mismanagement of E3 has members jumping ship
- In-app purchases now available on Facebook’s instant games platform
- Facebook rolls out in-app purchases to Instant Games platform: IAP currently available on Android and Facebook.com
- Facebook Needs To Stop Bad VR Apps Before They Start
- Oculus Reveals 140 Degree VR Headset Prototype with Varifocal Displays
- Oculus Go standalone headset launches at $199: Oculus VR promises “the best optics of any VR system we’ve built” from new standalone hardware
- Analyst: How education, age, and even degree levels can affect video game spending
- The Heartbeat Symposium: Exploring love, sex, and intimacy in games
- Life in (virtual) pit lane: The war stories of video game car design
- Blog: Developing games in non-developed territories – Part 1
- Flashpoint is archiving Flash games before they disappear forever
- Blog: Looking back at the trailblazing Atari RPG,Dragonstomper
- Blog: Why Atari’s infamous E.T. tie-in isn’t half bad
DIGITAL
- Equustek again: BC Supreme Court upholds injuction despite US refusal to enforce
- Google worldwide injunction will not change
- Foreign Broadcaster Infringed US Copyright Through Online Streaming
- Man Fined $60,000 For Streaming Live Sports Illegally
- Another Court Says Competitive Keyword Advertising Doesn’t Cause Confusion
- Iranian activist awarded defamation damages after anonymous web harassment
- Iran blocks Telegram, pushes replacement with “Death to America” emoji
- FOSTA/SESTA Was Passed Based On Made Up Stats About Sex Trafficking
- Germany’s Supreme Court Confirms That Adblocking Is Legal, In Sixth Consecutive Defeat For Publishers
- Firefox will show sponsored content that’s personalized but private: Sponsored content will use technology from Pocket, which Mozilla acquired last year.
- Pornography Dispute Sheds Light on DMCA Safe Harbor Defense
- Recapping a Year’s Worth of Section 230 Cases That Got Stuck in My Blogging Queue
- Federal Circuit overturns fair use ruling in Oracle v Google
- Insights: Alert Google’s Use of Oracle’s APIs Not Fair Use Under U.S. Copyright Law
- FTC Obtains Court Order Banning Marketer from Negative-Option Sales
- France seizes France.com from man who’s had it since ‘94, so he sues
- Facebook begins asking if every post you see is hate speech
- Mark Zuckerberg Says It Will Take 3 Years To Fix Facebook
- Mark Zuckerberg announces Facebook Dating
- After data “clash” report, WhatsApp founder says he’s leaving Facebook
- Hollywood Front Groups Decide To Kick Facebook While It’s Down, Advocate For More Internet Regulations
- Facebook building a “simple way to clear your cookies and history”
- Cambridge Analytica shuts down after Facebook user data scandal
- Cambridge Analytica shutting down, says it’s been ‘vilified’ in Facebook scandal: Investigations continue into firm at centre of Facebook privacy scandal
- Facebook Launches A New Ad Campaign With An Old Message
- Facebook’s New ‘Dating’ Feature Could Crush Apps Like Tinder
- Private Facebook Posts Could Be Fair Game For Discovery
- Facebook And Google Finally Take First Steps On Road To Transparency About Content Moderation
- Facebook Ranking News Sources By Trust Is A Bad Idea… But No One At Facebook Will Read Our Untrustworthy Analysis
- Health Secretary calls for social media giants to stop “turning a blind eye”
- New York Enhances Disclosure of Online Political Ads and Requires Online Platforms to Create Archives
- CGI ‘Influencers’ Like Lil Miquela Are About To Flood Your Feeds
- Could Artificial Intelligence Predict The Next Avengers: Infinity War?
- Discrimination through artificial intelligence banned
- USPTO Suggests That AI Algorithms Are Patentable, Leading To A Whole Host Of IP And Ethics Questions
- Don’t Be Surprised if the iPhone X Goes Away
- Apple exits Wi-Fi game, AirPort routers discontinued after stock sells out
- Why Snap Needs Its Spectacles
- Snap Launches Second Edition Of Spectacles With New Colors, Water-Resistance, Quicker App Transfer
- Snapchat To Follow YouTube With Unskippable, Six-Second Ads
- YouTube May Bring An Abbreviated Version Of Its Content ID Copyright Tool To The Masses
- YouTube Is Becoming One Of Fox News’ Favorite Talking Points
- Logan Paul Ceases Daily Vlog To “Exercise His Creativity In Different Ways”
- YouTube Invites Advertisers To Target TV Viewers, Will Add YouTube TV To Google Preferred Lineup
- YouTube Exec Says Three-Month-Old Brand Safety Measures Have Been “99% Effective”
- Pandora Learns The Cost Of Ads, And Of Subscriptions
- Twitter is promoting more news links in your timeline
- Twitter’s Niche Moves Into Non-Branded Content With Josh Peck, Miel Bredouw, More
- Twitter To Double Video Output In 2018, Including Pacts With NBCUniversal, Disney, Viacom
- Actress-Influencer Bella Thorne Gets $65,000 Per Instagram Post, Says Social Media Paid For Her House
- Comedy Central’s New Web Series Is “A ‘Daily Show’ For The Internet”
- Amazon blocks domain fronting, threatens to shut down Signal’s account
- After Strong First Quarter, Amazon Raises Price Of Prime By $20 Per Year
- Amazon will raise the price of Prime by $20 in a few weeks
- Amazon to open new Vancouver office, create 3,000 jobs
- NFL Renews Thursday Night Football Streaming On Amazon Prime Video
- 11 NFL Games Will Stream Live On Twitch This Fall
- Hulu passes 20 million US subscribers, says offline downloads are coming
- Conde Nast Entertainment Is Launching Individual OTT Channels For Brands Like Wired
- Creators For Good: Ricky Dillon Asks Teens To #BeMore In Building A Kind, Inclusive World
- Companies Are Cashing In On Reality TV For Tots
- A Short History Of Blaming ‘Hackers’ For Pretty Much Everything
- New court ruling could force Uber, Lyft to convert drivers to employees: California Supreme Court: It’ll be tougher for firms to not have bona fide employees.
- Disney’s New Food Video Brand Partners With The Tastemade Network To Get Cooking
- How Microsoft Convinced Clueless Judges To Send A Man To Jail For Copying Software It Gives Out For Free
- Why the man who tried to sell Windows recovery discs will go to prison: Eric Lundgren paid a company in China to print thousands of Dell-branded recovery CDs.
- Microsoft Defends Putting A Computer Recycler In Jail With Misleading Statement
- iTunes is finally in the Microsoft Store
- Even Windows revenue is up in Microsoft’s $26.8 billion 3Q18
- IPO’s consultation on domestic enforcement of the EU Portability Regulation
- Understanding the Regulatory Concerns of Cryptocurrency Exchange Registration
- Is Bitcoin a Security? Definitely Maybe
- Section 17(b) of the Securities Act in Crowdfunding and Token Sales
- I Spent a Weekend With Cyborgs, and Now I Have an RFID Implant I Have No Idea What to Do With
- Canadian Government Provides Details of First Ever National IP Strategy
- Canadian Government’s IP Strategy Seeks to Boost Innovation, Increase IP Literacy, and Rein-in Patent Trolls
- Supreme Court Says Of Course The Patent Office Can Admit It Made A Mistake And Dump Bad Patents
- Swedish Pirate Party Declares War On Copyright Trolls
- Emojis in the Workplace – A Cautionary Tale
- Declining Majority Of Online Adults Say The Internet Has Been Good For Society
- A Magna Carta for the digital age
- Thousands Of Academics Pledge To Boycott Springer’s New Machine Learning Title In Support Of Long-Established Open Access Journal
CREATIVITY
- House of Representatives Passes Music Modernization Act – Looking for Clarity on Mechanical Royalties, Pre-1972 Sound Recordings and Other Music Rights Issues
- House Unanimously Passes Music Modernization Act – Paves the Way for Major Updates to Digital Music Royalty Ecosystem
- SCOTUS Released Same-Day Oral Argument Audio. Guess What Happened Next?: There is no reason not to release same-day audio for all oral arguments at the Supreme Court.
- Blurred Lines Songwriters Have Got to Give It Up for the Gaye Family
- Fox News v. TVEyes Shows Fair-Use Defense Remains Risky Business
- Copyright Is No Monkey Business, Rules the Ninth Circuit
- Monkeys Lack Standing to Sue for Copyright Infringement
- Nicassio v. Viacom International, Inc.
- Gayle v. Home Box Office, Inc.
- Westworld Has to Acknowledge the Racist Appeal of Shōgun World
- The New York Times Is Turning Its Hit Podcast, ‘The Daily’, Into A TV Show
- Tackling IP Misuse: Canada Takes the Lead in Combating the Dark Side of Intellectual Property Protection (Michael Geist)
- Canadian Music Industry Seeks New Fees, Content Blocking, and Right to Renegotiate Deals Despite Generating Record Digital Revenues (Michael Geist)
- Theater Accidentally Plays Horror Movie Trailer Before Peter Rabbit, Families Run Out Screaming
- Kardashian Gets Political to Highlight Lack of Regulations over Cosmetics Industry
- Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah embroiled in ‘serious issue’ over Egypt image rights
- Lessons From Picasso’s Copyrights: Pleading, Proving and Arguing Foreign Law in U.S. Courts
- The Royal Wedding: What’s the IP etiquette?
- Tackling IP Misuse: Canada Takes the Lead in Combating the Dark Side of Intellectual Property Protection (Michael Geist)
- Canadian Music Industry Seeks New Fees, Content Blocking, and Right to Renegotiate Deals Despite Generating Record Digital Revenues (Michael Geist)
- Less Than 1%: Canadian Publisher Data Points to Tiny Impact of Access Copyright Royalty Decline (Michael Geist)
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- Customer takes Bell to court and wins, as judge agrees telecom giant can’t promise a price, then change it: Contract law expert says Ontario case could be grounds for class-action lawsuit
- FCC Republican gets official warning after pushing for Trump’s re-election: O’Rielly broke government ethics law; could be punished if he does it again.
- Small ISPs Like Sonic Join The Legal Battle To Preserve Net Neutrality
- Marsha Blackburn Wants ISPs To Sell ‘Fast Lanes’ Like ‘TSA Pre-Check’
- AT&T’s least favorite net neutrality bill takes another step forward: California’s tough net neutrality bill clears second Senate committee in a week.
- California net neutrality bill that AT&T hates is coming to New York, too: Bill is moving through Calif. Senate and will be submitted in NY legislature.
- The Sprint/T-Mobile Merger Is Huge – But A Lot Of Questions Remain
- Sprint, T-Mobile Try To Sell The Public On A Job-Killing, Competition Eroding Megamerger
- T-Mobile and Sprint don’t need to merge for 5G – they said so two months ago: AT&T made the same claims – about 4G – when it tried to buy T-Mobile in 2011.
- While Facebook Gets All The Hate, Verizon Continues To Show It’s No Better, And Potentially Much Worse For Privacy
- Verizon Signs Deal to Place the Saddest, Most Pathetic Bloatware on Samsung Devices
- Some Comcast Customers Won’t Get The Latest Broadband Upgrades Without Buying Cable TV
- FCC Approves 100% Mexican Ownership of Radio Stations in California and Arizona – Further Showing Foreign Ownership Limitations Less Significant in Today’s Broadcast World
- At Least One Japanese ISP Gets A Jump Start On The Government’s Unconstitutional Site-Blocking Plans
- Japanese Lawyer Sues NTT For Voluntarily Blocking ‘Pirate Sites’
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- High Court Says UK Government Can No Longer Collect Internet Data In Bulk
- Another Federal Court Says Compelled Decryption Doesn’t Raise Fifth Amendment Issues
- Phone maker settles charges it let partner collect customers’ text messages
- Are Google And Facebook Undermining Europe’s Privacy Rules?
- International Standards Body Rejects Weakened IOT Encryption Methods Pushed By The NSA
- Cops Follow Up Officer-Involved Shooting By Heading To Funeral Home To Apply Dead Man’s Fingers To His Locked Phone
- Device Detects Drug Use Through Fingerprints, Raising A Host Of Constitutional Questions
- Alabama Rolls with Tide as Last State to Adopt Breach Notification Law
- EU Government Looking To Expand, Standardize Whistleblower Protections
- As two Koreas shake hands, Hidden Cobra hackers wage espionage campaign
Jon
News of the Week; April 25, 2018
GAMES
- Loot boxes in leading games violate Dutch gambling legislation: Developers have eight weeks to change their loot box mechanics or face prohibition
- Netherlands pushes for EU-wide loot box legislation: Loot box ruling from Dutch government body could set precedent in Europe against certain iterations of the mechanic
- Loot boxes with real-world value deemed unlawful in The Netherlands
- Four publishers must change in-game loot boxes to avoid Dutch gambling laws: Study determines randomized items that have a “market value” violate the law.
- Belgian Gaming Commission declares loot boxes illegal
- Video game loot boxes are now considered criminal gambling in Belgium: FIFA, Overwatch, Counter-Strike: GO could face fines and prison penalties.
- EA, Activision Blizzard, and Valve found in breach of Belgian gambling laws: Loot boxes in FIFA 18, Overwatch, and CS:GO violate gambling legislation, says Belgian Gaming Commission
- Tattoo artist takes aim at WWE and video game maker
- Tattoo artist sues WWE in Southern Illinois, says her designs were copied in video games
- Terminal Reality is suing Microsoft over shadow and lighting patents
- Microsoft accused of ‘egregious and wilful’ patent infringement: Terminal Reality and Infernal Technologies file lawsuit against tech giant for infringing patent with multiple games
- A fan-made Halo PC patch meets Microsoft’s legal muscle – and apparently survives: Lawyers arrive after Halo Online “ElDewrito” patch explodes – but no C&D yet.
- 343 clarifies Halo modding policy as fan-led Halo Onlinerevival gets the axe
- Blizzard brings paid mods to StarCraft II with ‘Premium Arcade’ initiative
- The Gaming Industry is Susceptible to ADA Website Accessibility Lawsuits
- Ragnarok Online shutting down European servers after 14 years
- GOG is getting more Steam-like with addition of new social features
- Australian High Court orders Valve to pay $2.4M fine over misleading refund policy
- Valve fined $3m over breach in Australian law with misleading Steam refund policy: Steam operator’s appeal denied by High Court of Australia
- Valve acquires Firewatch creator Campo Santo
- Valve acquires Firewatch developer Campo Santo: Yet another sign Valve might be interested in making new games again.
- Detroit developer sues French press over “toxic culture” reports: Developer goes to court to fight what it calls a “smear campaign.”
- Quantic Dream takes legal action against French media for negative press
- Quantic Dream sues press over reports of toxic workplace – Report: Detroit Become Human studio takes legal action against two of the three outlets who unearthed allegations of harassment and discrimination
- Maxis renames The Sims 4’s in-game ‘insane’ trait to ‘erratic’
- EA Maxis renames The Sims’ “insane” character trait: Switch to “erratic” is a reflection of how “language evolves”, EA says
- Studio apologizes for delay by pledging 90+-hour work weeks: NeoCoreGames says it was joking when it promised crunch as atonement for pushing full launch of Early Access game Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor – Martyr back three weeks
- The Red Flag of Passion: How a seemingly harmless word is used to put a happy face on some of the industry’s biggest problems
- Fortnite breaks $25 million in first month on mobile: Revenue could pass $500 million this year, Sensor Tower suggests
- Fortnite streamer peaks at 667,000 concurrent viewers, breaking own record: Las Vegas Esports Arena inaugural event becomes record-breaking Twitch stream
- Thanks to a cosmetic change, Epic accidentally rebalancedFortnite’s shotguns
- Tencent investing $15M to help establish Fortnite in China
- Tencent will invest $15 million in Fortnite’s rollout in China: Seeding an esports community for Epic’s game will be a focus of the investment
- As PUBG-like contenders emerge, Islands of Nyne might already have them beat: Rumors swirl around Battlefield, Call of Duty, but awesome sci-fi twist is already here.
- First major PUBG tournament launches this summer with $2m prize pool on the line: PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Global Invitational set to take place this year in Berlin, Germany
- Twitch starts beta for new monetisation system: Viewers can now spend virtual currency in Extensions, with revenue divided between streamer and developer
- Twitch Has Expanded Monetization To 220,000 Affiliates 1 Year After Program’s Launch
- TheWaveVR secures $6M for its social VR platform
- CCP chief: EVE dev’s move to leave VR due to risk, not loss of faith
- Oculus overhauls privacy policy and terms of service
- UK God of War launch is the biggest in the series history: Same for the new Yakuza, too
- God of War Director’s Review Reaction Is A Reminder That Games Are Made By Humans
- Sony’s studios continue their winning streak: The success of the PS4’s excellent first-party experiences belie the commercial challenges single-player titles still face
- The infamous FMV game Night Trap is headed to the Nintendo Switch after all
- Nintendo Switch hardware exploits cannot be patched out
- The “unpatchable” exploit that makes every current Nintendo Switch hackable: Newly published Tegra bootROM exploit could be a big headache for Nintendo and others.
- Behind the scenes with the hackers who unlocked the Nintendo Switch: “The best way to get a chip security audited is to put it in a game console”
- Nintendo Labo belongs in the classroom
- Review: Nintendo Labo (Variety And Robot Kits – Nintendo’s big gamble on cardboard and imagination pays off.
- How to make your old Game Boy as good as (or better than) new: Why wait for a “Game Boy Classic” when you can fix up your old stuff instead?
- How Squidlit’s devs authentically recreated a Game Boy game in 2018
- Sonic Mania surpasses 1M sold worldwide
- Capcom scrapping Puzzle Fighter to focus on Dead Rising
- Italian games market hits $1.8 billion in 2017: The latest wave of GSD data is released for Europe
- Steam sales, store pages and the art of selling games: At Reboot Develop, Rockfish, Vlambeer and 11 bit take very different views on the value of cutting prices
- Kartridge announces new dev-friendly revenue terms
- Kartridge offers developers 100% of revenue up to $10,000: Exclusive games will also get 90% up to $40k, in new terms aimed at “smaller developers”
- How indie publishers stand out – and why they need your game to help them: Speaking at Reboot Develop, Devolver Digital, Paradox Interactive and Raw Fury reflect on their role in a game’s success and offer advice on pitching to them
- “We just want to keep the IP” – Why Swery is banking on crowd-funding: The Good Life approaches its last stretch on Kickstarter
- How Space Ape eschewed convention to make its most profitable game – Simon Hade and Nicolas Boulay discuss growing Fastlane: Road to Revenge from $5,000 ad revenue a day to $45,000 in four months
- Ubisoft launches second season of start-up incubator program: “Ubisoft is proud of its roots and has not forgotten that its very own adventure began as a start-up,” says program sponsor
- Darwin Project goes free-to-play after six weeks in Early Access: Scavengers Studio cites players’ “difficulty finding matches” as motivation for the change
- Crossfire developer Smilegate closes Berlin studio
- Smilegate to close Berlin office just over a year after it opened: Crossfire developer shuts down European base as part of new business strategy
- “What’s your plan to not destroy yourself as you’re stepping into this career path?”: At Reboot Develop, Devolver and Good Shepherd co-founder Mike Wilson discussed the need for unions, mental burnout, and dealing with online toxicity
- Better than reality: New emulation tech lags less than original consoles: “LAGFIX” fast-forwards through “hidden” frames for near-instant response times.
- The Sentinel stands alone: Why I Love: Quantum Soup’s Chris Payne remembers Geoff Crammond’s purely innovative, rarely imitated classic
- Rovio and Sony confirm a new Angry Birds movie for 2019: The first film earned $352 million since it opened two years ago
- Wolfenstein II has five nominations at the Nordic Game Awards 2018: But Ultra Ultra’s Echo leads the pack with six, Tarsier Studios’ Little Nightmares and Image & Form’s SteamWorld Dig 2 close behind
- Three years out, Final Fantasy VII remake still seems a long way off: Despite 2015 announcement, ambitious overhaul effort appears to be in early stages.
- Death Road to Canada devs delay release out of respect for recent tragedy
- Reboot Develop expands with Canada conference in 2019: Spring conference will remain in Dubrovnik alongside new student event, Canadian debut to be held in autumn next year
- Social media ‘fair game’ in admissions process: But survey finds less than a third of colleges actually look at social media profiles when making admissions decisions
- GDPR: Frequently Asked Questions – In the final part of their GDPR guide, Purewal & Partners’ Jas Purewal and Peter Lewin tackle the industry’s most common concerns
- Blog: How the Rubik’s Cube inspired a laid-back Atari puzzler
- Video: We force kids to confront ’80s technology – Youngsters struggled to understand why the TV must be on channel 3 to play games.
DIGITAL
- Google Fails to Amend Canadian De-indexing Injunction Despite California Court Order
- B.C. Court Leaves Google Global Takedown Order Intact Pending Full Trial (Michael Geist)
- U.S. Falls To 45th On Press Freedom Index, Trump Labeled ‘Media-Bashing Enthusiast’
- Michael Cohen Drops Ridiculous Lawsuit Against Buzzfeed After Buzzfeed Sought Stormy Daniels’ Details
- It’s Spreading: Lindsey Graham Now Insisting ‘Fairness Doctrine’ Applies To The Internet
- WikiLeaks, Russia, Trump Jr. named in new DNC hacking lawsuit: “It’s more than a shot over the bow, it’s a shot into the hull of the ship.”
- Trump’s cell phone use is security “nightmare” waiting to happen, lawmakers say – New letter: “Does the President use encryption when he makes phone calls…?”
- Verizon says Yahoo users must waive class-action rights – or stop using Yahoo: Yahoo, facing data breach lawsuits, starts enforcing mandatory arbitration.
- Google disables “domain fronting” capability used to evade censors: A “long-planned” change happens to coincide with a new wave of state censorship in Russia.
- Judge Agrees: Perfectly Fine For Google To Deny Ad Placement For ‘Honey Cures Cancer’ Claims
- Russia and China take Big Brother to absurd new levels
- Internet Watch Foundation publishes its Annual Report
- LA councilman asks city attorney to “review possible legal action” against Waze: “They say the crises of congestion they cause is the price for innovation.”
- Are our smart devices starting to outsmart us?
- The next big battle over internet freedom is here: Congress just passed a law to combat sex trafficking. Now the future of the free internet is in danger.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: The Risk of Ceding Online Content Monitoring to Internet Giants (Michael Geist)
- Sweeping the Internet for Netsweeper
- Calling Facebook A Utility Would Only Make Things Worse
- What’s Not Included In Facebook’s ‘Download Your Data’
- How academic at centre of Facebook scandal tried – and failed – to spin personal data into gold: The story of Aleksandr Kogan’s business ventures reveals a world where companies traded in the currency of personal information
- Man behind Cambridge Analytica’s Facebook data mining says he’s sorry: Aleksandr Kogan, if he’d known survey would upset many: “I would’ve never done it.”
- The Security Risks Of Logging In With Facebook
- Delete Your Account: On the Theory of Platform Capitalism
- Minds Is The Anti-Facebook That Pays You For Your Time
- Here’s What Facebook Won’t Let You Post
- For the first time, Facebook clearly tells its users what’s allowed: Social network not saying why it took 14 years to release this document.
- Facebook removes 1.5 billion users from protection of EU privacy law: In anticipation of the EU’s new GDPR rule, Facebook limits its legal umbrella.
- Facebook Publishes Internal Content Moderation Guidelines For The First Time
- Imposing Regulations on Online Technology Giants
- Meet the Professor Who’s Warning the World About Facebook and Google
- FOSTA/SESTA Passed Thanks To Facebook’s Vocal Support; New Article Suggests Facebook Is Violating FOSTA/SESTA
- Sex Workers Set Up Their Own Social Network In Response To FOSTA/SESTA; And Now It’s Been Shut Down Due To FOSTA/SESTA
- Authorities May Charge Pennsylvania Juvenile Who Threatened Second YouTube Shooting
- Exclusive: YouTube ran ads from hundreds of brands on extremist channels
- 300 Companies Ran Ads On YouTube Channels Promoting Nazism, Pedophilia, Conspiracies (Report)
- YouTube CEO To Discuss Brand Safety On Conference Call With 30 Top Advertisers (Report)
- YouTuber Convicted Of Hate Crime For Teaching Nazi Salute To Dog Raises £118,366 For Legal Appeal
- YouTube Deleted 8.3 Million Objectionable Videos Last Quarter, Thanks Mostly To Machines
- ‘Deadpool’ Writers To Serve As Executive Producers For Upcoming YouTube Red Series
- New Footage Of Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” Receives One Million Views In First Day On YouTube
- YouTube Gives Creators With At Least One Million Subscribers A Space On The Trending Tab
- YouTube Kids Amplifies Parental Controls, Including Ability To Whitelist All Videos, Channels
- P&G Resumes YouTube Spend After 13-Month Boycott — As New Ad Controversy Looms
- Proposed US Consumer Internet Privacy Legislation Threatens Digital Advertising
- Texas Revenge Porn Laws Loses Battle With First Amendment
- Cheddar Joins Hulu’s Live TV Lineup 1 Day After Being Added To YouTube TV
- The Roku Channel gets live news thanks to ABC, Cheddar, and other partners: But it won’t replace all live news broadcasts.
- Flipboard’s Answer To Fake News: More Human Curation
- We’re underestimating the mind-warping potential of fake video: Doctored photos can easily create false memories. What happens when there’s fake video?
- Fullscreen, Concerned About Inappropriate Content, Cuts About 160 Partners From Its Network
- DJ Khaled Alcohol Endorsements Exposed, Says TINA
- Citing Tepid Crowdfunding Results, Neill Blomkamp Cancels Plans To Adapt Digital Short Into Feature
- Snapchat’s Stock Tumbles As Company Confirms It’s Testing Yet Another Redesign
- Hollywood is Wrong: Netflix is the Future of Film
- Netflix Is Launching A Podcast That Breaks Down Its Original Documentary Shows And Films
- BuzzFeed Pacts With Netflix For Short-Form Docuseries About Its Journalists
- Netflix Again Raising $1.5 Billion In Debt Financing Amid Aggressive Content Push
- Netflix, Amazon, and major studios try to shut down $20-per-month TV service: It’s the third lawsuit against TV box makers filed by Netflix and film studios.
- Jeff Bezos Says Video Has Helped Drive 100 Million Amazon Prime Members
- It’s Thanks To The Pirate Community That Amazon’s Attempt To Degrade Its Streaming Service Is Now Public
- Amazon Key expands to deliver packages inside your car: Another option for those skeptical about in-home deliveries.
- Amazon made an Echo Dot for kids, and it costs $30 more than the original: New parental controls and FreeTime Unlimited subscription coming soon, too.
- Twitter’s Bet on Video Is Starting to Pay Off: The company is doing as good a job as anyone figuring out live streaming, a medium that has been slow to take off in the U.S
- In Earnings Report, Twitter Says Video Ads Now Make Up More Than Half Of Its Ad Revenue
- State Appeals Court Upholds Criminal Conviction For Twitter Harassment Targeting An Autistic Student
- How Twitter Suspended The Account Of One Of Our Commenters… For Offending Himself?
- Vevo Announces Layoffs After The Departure Of Its CTO
- Backlash prompts Eventbrite to drop demand to crash events, record them: “We’ve heard some concerns from our customers,” company says, over perpetual copyright grab.
- Ben Makuch of Vice takes on police in Supreme Court: The refusal of a journalist to hand over communications with a terror suspect has raised fundamental questions about press freedoms and national security.
- Vice Media Launches Local Operations in India
- Spotify Just Gave You a Pretty Good Reason Not to Pay for Spotify
- Spotify Exec Jabs YouTube Amid Launch Of Redesigned App With More Free Feature
- Spotify Bolsters Free Service In Defense Against Apple Music
- Tim Cook on merging macOS and iOS: “I don’t think that’s what users want”: Apple’s CEO appeared to debunk speculation that the company seeks a unified OS.
- Apple offers free battery replacements for select MacBook Pro models: Only some newer 13-inch MacBook Pros without Touch Bars have been affected.
- Apple Sued An Independent Norwegian Repair Shop In Bid To Monopolize Repair — And Lost
- ABKCO Music, Inc. v. William Sagan
- The ‘Terms and Conditions’ Reckoning Is Coming: Everyone from Uber to PayPal is facing a backlash against their impenetrable legalese.
- Robot Showboat: Now Even Our Celeb Feuds Are Automated
- Your Next Job Interview Could Be with a Racist Bot: Companies are using AI-powered cameras and chatbots to screen applicants. And that could unintentionally make employers even more discriminatory than before.
- Some Startups Use Fake Data To Train AI
- Ready Lawyer One: Virtual Reality Is Coming To Courtrooms
- Augmented Reality Is Transforming Museums
- Coinbase Reportedly Shuts Down Wikileaks Store, Assange Calls for Boycott in Response
- Silicon Valley’s Latest Revolution: Cutting Out Wall Street
- The Selfie As We Know It Is Dead
- Why So Many People Make Their Password ‘Dragon’
- Reinventing the Internet via blockchain
- New hacks siphon private cryptocurrency keys from airgapped wallets: Beware of smartphones and cameras around wallets storing your digital coin.
- Icelandic bitcoin heist suspect arrested in Amsterdam after leaving prison
- “Secondary Sales” of Private Securities (And Tokens) in Crowdfunding
- Suspicious event hijacks Amazon traffic for 2 hours, steals cryptocurrency: Almost 1,300 addresses for Amazon Route 53 rerouted for two hours.
- ‘We’ve Lost 10 Years of Innovation. This Decade Has Been Boring for the Web.’: A conversation with Ethan Zuckerman, media scholar and inventor of the pop-up ad, on the original sin of advertising and the web’s lost decade.
- Want To Blog In Tanzania, Or Read Social Media In Uganda? Pay The Government, Please
CREATIVITY
- 9th Circuit rules that Naruto has no standing under US Copyright Act
- Naruto v. Slater
- Monkey has no standing to assert copyright infringement in selfie case, 9th Circuit rules
- Monkey-selfie lawsuit finally ends: Court affirms adorable macaque can’t sue: PETA claimed to be a friend to Naruto but “failed” at doing so, 9th Circuit finds.
- We Interrupt The News Again With Hopefully The Last Update From The Monkey Selfie Case
- Grumpy Cat Limited v. Grenade Beverage LLC, et al.
- U.S. Court of Appeals Finds That the Lines Remain Blurred
- Music publishers score major victory in closely watched copyright case
- Kimberley v. Penguin Random House
- Silberstein v. Fox Entertainment Group, Inc.
- Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC v. Ren Ventures Ltd
- Fearless Girl to be moved due to … viability concerns
- Astronaut’s Right-of-Publicity Case Won’t Timeout
- LeBron James hit with trademark suit over his barbershop-based web series
- When Your Trademark Is A False Advertisement
- Supreme Court upholds patent review process, dealing trolls a blow: A key part of the 2011 America Invents Act is constitutional, high court rules.
- Brexit and copyright law: will the English courts revert to the ‘old’ test for originality?
- The CASE Act – A Noble but Toothless Gesture Toward Fair Copyright Enforcement
- Of Course The RIAA Would Find A Way To Screw Over The Public In ‘Modernizing’ Copyright
- Publisher Helps To Keep Sci-Hub In The Public Eye By Trying To Bully It Into Submission Using Ineffectual Legal Remedies
- This band is storing their best-selling album in DNA
- Following Questionable Election, Honduran Government Debuts New Censorship Law
- Hate Speech Laws In India
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- F-Word in Live Sports Broadcasts Should be Avoided, Says Canadian Broadcast Standards Council
- Discussion about Sex Shops Was Acceptable Before 9:00 pm, Says Canadian Broadcast Standards Council
- Wait for it: Government to clarify anti-spam law – eventually
- Government Response to CASL Report Released
- Government Response Suggests No Appetite for Canadian Anti-Spam Law Reform (Michael Geist)
- Another Survey Shows Massive Bipartisan Opposition To Net Neutrality Repeal
- Ajit Pai hasn’t finalized net neutrality repeal – here’s a theory on why: Pai’s delayed repeal could let Congress pass weaker law while ISPs behave.
- No, Net Neutrality Isn’t Officially Dead (Yet), And The FCC Is Stalling For A Reason
- AT&T, Verizon face DOJ investigation for allegedly trying to lock eSIMs: Carriers reportedly sought ability to lock eSIMs to networks; Apple complained.
- DOJ Investigating AT&T, Verizon for Making It Harder To Switch Wireless Carriers
- NYC blasts broadband competition shortage as it pursues suit against Verizon: Two-thirds of NYC homes have only one or two broadband options, city report says.
- ISPs should charge for fast lanes – just like TSA Precheck, GOP lawmaker says: GOP’s Marsha Blackburn wants Internet service to be just like airport security.
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- Australian Gov’t Scooped Up Tons Of Cell Site Location Data To Track Citizens’ Movements
- High Court establishes ‘right to be forgotten’ in English law
- Company obtains cyber injunction under the protection of anonymity
- SEC issues $35 million fine over Yahoo failing to disclose data breach
- Supreme Court Dismisses Microsoft Appeal as Moot After Passage of the CLOUD Act
- Framed For Murder By His Own DNA
- Florida Police Allegedly Crash Funeral Home to Unlock Phone With Slain Man’s Fingerprints
- Hackers Designed a ‘Master Key’ to Unlock Millions of Hotel Room Doors
- When you go to a security conference, and its mobile app leaks your data: RSA Conference attendee contact data extracted using hard-coded API data.
- Cracking The Crypto War: Ray Ozzie thinks he has an approach for accessing encrypted devices that attains the impossible: It satisfies both law enforcement and privacy purists.
- Jaywalking in China Can Get You Hit with a Stream of Water
- Atlanta Spent $2.6m To Recover From A $52,000 Ransomware Scare
- Batten down the hatches: The GDPR wind is about to blow
Jon
News of the Week; April 18, 2018
GAMES
- Cop won’t be charged in “swatting” death of Kansas man: Victim’s family is “devastated” by the decision, their lawyer says.
- Blog: A legal analysis of the NetEase vs. PUBG lawsuit
- In-Game Currency Triggers State Gambling Laws, Rendering Mobile Game “Illegal Gambling”
- Patrick Soderlund: EA “can’t afford” another loot box controversy with Anthem – Newly promoted chief design officer promises publisher has learned from mistakes with Star Wars debacle
- Loot boxes, skins gambling to hit $50 billion by 2022: Juniper Research “strongly recommends regulation for skin trading and gambling” in report covering growth of practices
- Microsoft & other game companies win out in camera patent lawsuit
- Patent lawsuit against Microsoft, EA, and Nintendo quashed at appeal: Federal court finds patent holder’s argument “unconvincing”
- FTC warns that, yes, those warranty-voiding stickers on consoles are illegal
- FTC warns about illegal warranties, likely including Nintendo and Sony: Federal Trade Commission states that companies are not allowed to force users to use specific service providers
- Sophisticated APT surveillance malware comes to Google Play: Attackers pushing mobile surveillance-ware are stepping up their game.
- Google Play under investigation by South Korea’s FTC over market abuse
- Google Play faces allegations of market abuse in South Korea: South Korean FTC begins survey of mobile companies to uncover alleged abuses
- Female game devs in South Korea are being harassed for feminist beliefs
- Cliff Bleszinski accuses Epic Games of stealing staff: Boss Key co-founder believes there is plenty of room in Battle Royale genre as Radical Heights gains momentum
- SteamSpy creator warns PC market is once again open to abuse: “Imagine signing a basketball player without knowing his past performance,” posits Sergey Galyonkin
- Valve’s SteamSpy snub will only hurt smaller developers: And thus begins a rant about digital data
- Valve’s move against SteamSpy isn’t such a big deal, says No More Robots founder – Mike Rose: “There’s no doubt people right now are making games because they thought SteamSpy told them to”
- Eugen Systems developers call an end to strike: “We have stopped striking… after more than a month a half, to conserve our resources for the future”
- How Dlala survived the loss of a $3m Disney deal: CEO AJ Grand-Scrutton shares the cautionary tale of a studio whose life-changing game was scrapped without warning
- Hollywood Should Make Movies That Grapple with Gamergate
- Cheater! Billy Mitchell stripped of scores, banned from premiere scoreboard: Full investigation shows King of Kong star used emulators, not real hardware.
- Billy Mitchell says he’s “not going to stop now” after scoreboard ban: Disgraced score-chaser promises witnesses, documents will redeem his name.
- Devs can now pitch crowdfunded games based on D&D co-creator’s unpublished work
- Estate of Dungeons & Dragons creator teams with crowdfunding/investment site for video game project
- The accidental relevance of Wolfenstein: The New Colossus – MachineGames creative director Jens Matthies on when he realized his Nazi-killing game was going to be politically topical, and dealing honestly with Nazi ideology
- God of War (2018): How to reinvent a beloved series without ruining what works – Kratos’ son avoids Scrappy-Doo syndrome amid more strategic melee brawling.
- Reversing the sunk cost fallacy: Devs recount what shouldn’t have been cut
- Win Mazda’s new iRacing challenge to get a test in an MX-5 race car: The winners of online and at-track rounds will compete at Daytona in 2019 for the test.
- Spending On Games Up By 13% Among US Iphone Users: Games Account For Largest Share Of Apps Installed On Average User’s Device
- Iron Harvest most successful video game Kickstarter in nearly a year: King Art Games’ crowdfunded project the first to break $1 million in 2018
- Do gamers really care about cross-platform play?: GameTrack survey of European gamers shows indifference to the trend, and a lack of influence on purchasing decisions
- With 2 million units sold, Shovel Knight generated the most income from Switch sales
- Shovel Knight earns more revenue from Switch sales than any other platform: Yacht Club Games’ signature title sells faster on Switch than any other console
- Nintendo seeking startups to improve Switch hardware: Platform holder teams up with Scrum Ventures to source new add-ons and technology for hybrid console
- Nintendo soliciting pitches from startups for innovative Switch tools and tech
- Nintendo seeking startups to improve Switch hardware: Platform holder teams up with Scrum Ventures to source new add-ons and technology for hybrid console
- Sega entering micro-console biz with Mega Drive Mini
- Sega reveals Mega Drive Mini: Publisher’s entry into the mini console market begins with Japan-only release
- Ex-PlayStation boss points to streaming as gaming’s next “inflection point”: Andrew House also sees emerging markets keeping physical media alive and console life-cycles long
- EA shakes up executive team to ‘sharpen focus’ on creative core
- Firing the middlemen: How blockchain can reshape digital distribution – Korrobox CEO Benjamin Huang discusses how the platform intends to eliminate costs of payment handling and fraud
- Pro Evolution Soccer loses UEFA Champions League license: Konami ends its partnership with European tournament after a decade
- Yoko Taro: We don’t need to think globally to sell globally – Nier Automata director and PlatinumGames lead designer Takahisa Taura discuss developing for Western tastes, 3D action games, and the dilemma of multiple endings
- Dwarf Fortress is giving its dwarves the ability to form (and dwell on) memories
- Hellblade wins big at 2018 BAFTAs as Edith Finch takes top honor
- What Remains of Edith Finch beats out AAA giants to win the BAFTA for Best Game
- A Way Out has sold over 1 million copies in two weeks
- A Way Out sells 1 million in two weeks: Hazelight Studios’ EA Originals co-op prison break game wastes no time hitting milestone
- Rainbow Six Siege has pulled in 30 million players
- Rainbow Six Siege reaches 30 million registered players: Ubisoft’s multiplayer shooter goes from strength to strength
- Life is Strange dev Dontnod headed toward an IPO
- Terraria spin-off canned after three years in development
- Counter-Strike pro player suspended over racist comment: Remarks “went beyond something being a genuine joke” says Faceit Pro League rep
- Naomi Kyle Joins WatchMojo’s Gaming Channel With New Let’s Play Series
- Twitch takes 82% of viewership hours for the top streaming titles in Q1: Esports content generated 11 per cent of all viewership hours across Twitch and YouTube
- Twitch reportedly affected by IP address bans in Russia
- Twitch Revamps Channel Analytics Dashboard As Part Of Yearlong Effort
- Twitch signs multi-year deal with NBA 2K League: First media rights deal for the NBA and Take-Two’s esports endeavor will see up to 199 games aired live on streaming site
- Battle Royale threatens a repeat of the MOBA bloodbath: With around a dozen Battle Royale titles set for release by the end of this year, developers need to be realistic about their chances of wresting market share from PUBG and Fortnite
- Blog: Why Fortnite will fall, but battle royale will rise on mobile
- Fortnite studio called out by Gears of Wardirector over hiring practices: Asks Epic to “please stop trying to hire away my team” – after major December defection.
- Fortnite mobile nabbed $25M in revenue during its first month
- Activision Blizzard enlists Nielsen for esports valuation: Tracking firm to assess value of sponsorship packages to see if brands are getting their money’s worth
- Unikrn sets up cryptocurrency esports betting platform with acquisition of ChallengeMe.gg: “This is a big deal for me, for Unikrn and, honestly, for the entire gaming ecosystem,” says Unikrn CEO
- Augmented and virtual reality consumer content market hits $3.2bn: Virtual reality install base expected to reach 75.7 million by 2021
- How psychological experiments influenced the design of Vault 11 in Fallout: New Vegas
- Blog: Understanding the role of music in VR
- The Young And The Reckless: A gang of teen hackers snatched the keys to Microsoft’s videogame empire. Then they went too far.
- V&A Museum: Video games are approaching a cultural tipping point – Curator Marie Foulston discusses how the industry can help a wider range of people understand our full impact and potential, and get them to look beyond the blockbusters
- A (slightly) different way to think about games and art
- Communications Accessibility In Games: What Game Developers Need To Know
- Crazy racing mash-up: Gamer vs driver in real cars, but with video-game views – Identical Ford Mustangs with the windows blacked out and an external camera to see.
- Video: How the classic arcade game NBA Jam was designed
- How Xbox got its start — and its name
- Exploring the rise and eventual fall of Xbox’s early teenage hacker
DIGITAL
- Teen charged in Nova Scotia government breach says he had ‘no malicious intent’: 19-year-old says he believed documents were ‘free to just download’ from province’s FOIPOP web portal
- Digital Disruption: How Should Canadian Regulators Respond?
- 19-Year-Old Canadian Facing Criminal Charges For Downloading Publicly-Accessible Documents
- Facebook must face class action over facial recognition, judge rules
- Judge Clears Way for Major Class Action Suit Against Facebook Over Face Recognition
- Facebook’s Potential $70 billion Legal Challenge
- Facebook Is Steering Users Away From Privacy Protections
- Facebook Stops Funding Opposition to California Privacy Focused Ballot Act
- Why dictators love Facebook
- Congress Never Wanted to Regulate Facebook. Until Now
- Facebook data transfers to be examined by EU court, Irish judge rules – Activist: “US law requires Facebook to help the NSA…and EU law prohibits just that.”
- After Cambridge Analytica, Privacy Experts Get to Say ‘I Told You So’
- This plan would regulate Facebook without going through Congress: How to rein in data collection without going through Congress
- Zuckerberg’s New Hate Speech Plan: Out With the Court and In With the Code
- As Zuckerberg Smiles To Congress, Facebook Fights State Privacy Laws
- Tens of thousands of Facebook accounts compromised in days by malware: Professionally developed trojan posing as a stress reliever infects 40,000 PCs.
- “Not too fond of Facebook”: A dating app removes its linked-profile requirement – Could be the first of many apps to dump FB requirements in wake of recent disclosures.
- The problems with Facebook are inherent in its design, but that can change
- Inverting The Expected Order Of Things, German Court Orders Facebook To Reinstate ‘Offensive’ Content
- Is Facebook a Community? Digital Experts Weigh In
- What Comes After The Social Media Empires: “Maybe we’ve reached the point where it’s not even possible to have Facebook in common.”
- ‘One Has This Feeling of Having Contributed to Something That’s Gone Very Wrong’: A conversation with VR pioneer Jaron Lanier on Silicon Valley’s politics, being quoted by Mark Zuckerberg, and what went wrong with the internet.
- This isn’t the first time a tech boom has interfered with democracy
- Watch Obama, Voiced By Jordan Peele, Warn Against Fake News In BuzzFeed Video
- Singaporean Government Creates Fake News To Push Fake News Legislation
- Stealing Your Online Face – Online Truth Suffers Another Blow
- Actually, Social Media Isn’t An Echo Chamber
- At-Home Dental Appliance Company Sues Website For Having Opinions About Its Products
- Despite Repeated Evidence That It’s Unnecessary And Damaging, Trump Signs SESTA/FOSTA
- Amended Complaint Filed Against Backpage… Now With SESTA/FOSTA
- Backpage CEO pleads guilty to conspiracy, money laundering: Carl Ferrer agreed to end Backpage and help prosecution of his former co-workers.
- Apple may debut its own news subscription service within the next year: An upgraded Apple News app could be home to the company’s trusted news sources.
- Apple’s Infringement In $502M Security IP Row Willful: Jury
- Apple memo warning employees about leaking gets leaked: Apple warns leakers that “they’re getting caught faster than ever.”
- Apple’s Internal Memo Warning Employees Not To Leak To The Press Leaks To The Press
- Apple plans to kill 32-bit app support on MacOS in the near future
- U.S. iPhone users spent an average of $58 on apps and IAPs in 2017
- The Wired Guide To Internet Addiction: Everything you ever wanted to know about screen time, likes, and pull-to-refresh.
- Congress Enacts Law Creating a Sex Trafficking Exception From the Immunity Provided by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act
- Ted Cruz Demands A Return Of The Fairness Doctrine, Which He Has Mocked In The Past, Due To Misunderstanding CDA 230
- Scott Pruitt has “at least four” official email addresses, senators say: According to The Washington Post, one of them is sooners7@epa.gov.
- Court upholds clickwrap agreement, reiterating that general principles of contract apply
- How Android Phones Hide Missed Security Updates From You
- LA Official Is Starting to Get Fed Up With Waze’s Habit of Directing Drivers Down a Death Slalom
- A crummy drop-down menu appeared to kill dozens of mothers in Texas: This doesn’t mean maternal mortality in Texas or the US is OK. It’s still horrific.
- Artificial intelligence and copyright
- Algorithmic Accountability: A Primer
- A.I. Engineers Must Open Their Designs To Democratic Control: When it comes to A.I., we need to keep humans in the loop.
- AI Tool Helps Law Enforcement Find Victims of Human Trafficking
- Lawmakers Want You to Be Able to Sue Robots
- IKEA Furniture Tests Your Relationship, Also Robots
- A Robot Does The Impossible: Assembling An Ikea Chair Without Having A Meltdown
- Google works out a fascinating, slightly scary way for AI to isolate voices in a crowd: Google researchers try to replicate the “cocktail party effect” for computers.
- Beyoncé Leads YouTube To Record-Setting 41 Million Viewers On Coachella Streams
- Barcelona-Based YouTuber Faces Prison For Pranking Homeless Man With Doctored Oreos
- Lawsuit Alleges That YouTube Star Poppy’s Shtick Was Stolen From Another Creator
- Stupid Copyright: MLB Shuts Down Twitter Account Of Guy Who Shared Cool MLB Gifs
- YouTube tackling creator monetisation issues new pilot scheme: Self certification “will make the monetisation process much smoother with fewer false positive demonetisations,” says YouTube CEO
- YouTube demonetized my tuba videos (also, I make tuba videos): YouTube can’t decide if I can make money off my 10-year-old Legend of Zelda video or not.
- Ex-YouTube Engineer Builds Site To Figure Out What Content The Video Site’s Algorithm Recommends
- Citing Viewership Suppression, Philip DeFranco Again Says New Shows Won’t Be Distributed YouTube-First
- YouTube’s Restrictions On Firearms Content Has Led A Gun Manufacturer To Sue A Creator
- YouTube TV Adds Cheddar, Cheddar Big News To Lineup, Marking First Digital-Native Channels
- YouTube TV brings two Cheddar digital-only shows to its lineup: The financial media company will offer its finance and general news channels to YouTube’s live TV service.
- Google Staffer’s Scrappy Design Becomes Healing Symbol After YouTube Shooting
- Google refuses to fix Waze so it won’t route people on 32%-grade road
- Hulu Keeps Pace With YouTube TV By Sponsoring NBA Playoffs
- Sports Illustrated Launches SVOD Service On Roku, iOS, Android, And The Web
- Formula 1’s streaming service goes live with the Spanish GP in May: You’ll need a browser to watch it at first, but mobile and TV apps are coming
- Sports-Centric Skinny Bundle FuboTV Raises $75 Million From Fox, AMC, Sky
- The Digital Afterlife is Open for Business. But It Needs Rules.
- Beautycon Launches Content Pact With BET Ahead Of Sold-Out New York Event
- FouseyTube To Enter Rehab For Addiction, Depression, And Bipolar Disorder
- Ja Rule’s catastrophic Fyre Festival gets a documentary series on Hulu
- Hulu Nabs Docuseries About The Infamous Fyre Festival Scam
- 80% Of Netflix Viewership Comes From Licensed Content, Not Originals (Study)
- Despite October 2017 Price Hike, Netflix Added 7.4 Million New Customers In Q1 2018
- Netflix Bows Out Of Cannes After Festival Tells Streaming Services To Get Off Its Lawn
- Netflix Sees Itself As The Anti-Apple
- Comcast To Sell Netflix Subscriptions In False Belief This Will Slow Cord Cutting
- Amazon and Best Buy team up to sell TVs, but it’s a risky move for Best Buy: Best Buy will carry TVs with Amazon software and will sell TVs on Amazon.com.
- House of Lords issues report on digital advertising market
- $2 Million Allegedly Stolen From Cryptocurrency Vlogger in the Middle of His Livestream
- Bitcoin heist suspect reportedly walked out of low-security prison, onto flight: Sindri Thor Stefansson had been arrested over theft of 600 bitcoin-mining computers.
- New York’s Attorney General Begins Inquiry Into Cryptocurrency Practices
- New York Attorney General Launches Inquiry into Cryptocurrency Exchanges
- Microsoft’s bid to secure the Internet of Things: Custom Linux, custom chips, Azure – This is Redmond’s first-ever Linux distribution.
- Microsoft claims to make Chrome safer with new extension: A purported Edge advantage is now available in Chrome.
- Welcome To The Wikipedia For Terms Of Service Agreements
- Online-Transactions can trigger Specific Jurisdiction of U.S. Courts
- Canada’s Tough Anti-Piracy Copyright Law: Federal Court Awards Millions in Damages Against Unauthorized Streaming Site (Michael Geist)
- Digital Trends and Initiatives in Education: The Study the Association of Canadian Publishers Tried To Bury (Michael Geist)
CREATIVITY
- The monkey selfie lawsuit lives: PETA and the photographer settled last year, but the Ninth Circuit will be issuing a ruling anyway
- Citing monkey business, court refuses to toss simian selfie lawsuit
- We Interrupt Today’s News With An Update From The Monkey Selfie Case
- Oracle wins in US copyright case: consequences for EU software market?
- Plaintiff Torpedoed with Attorneys’ Fees for “Objectively Unreasonable” Copyright Claim
- Broadway Producers Offer to Perform “To Kill a Mockingbird” in Court to Prove Faithfulness to Novel
- Barreau du Québec files bombshell motion: A motion filed by the Barreau du Québec and the Montreal Bar, argues that all of the province’s laws are illegal because they were drafted and adopted in French only.
- “Weight Loss” vs. “Weight Management”: Vitamin Shoppe Sidesteps False Advertising Suit
- From East Coast to West Coast: Actresses Lose Right of Publicity Cases as Courts Rule in Favor of the First Amendment Rights of Content Creators
- Three Parents of Sandy Hook Victims File Defamation Lawsuits Against InfoWars’ Alex Jones
- Sean Hannity was very concerned about conflicts of interest — until he had one
- Sean Hannity’s Ties to Two More Trump-Connected Lawyers: The Fox News host denies that Michael Cohen was ever his lawyer—but Hannity was represented by a pair of legal advisers who also have close links to the president.
- Time for Fox News to investigate Sean Hannity
- “You Only Hire Cohen For One Reason”: Inside Fox News, Sean Hannity’s Michael Cohen Disclosure Stokes A Crisis As Murdoch Wavers On Trump – The revelation that Trump’s lawyer offered legal advice to Fox News’s biggest name was shocking
- Fox News ‘surprised’ by Hannity’s relationship with Cohen, but stands by him
- Levi’s Has Filed Trademark Suits Against Just About Everyone
- NCAA In Tune with Dancing With the Stars
- Putting It In Writing: The Return Of The Morality Clause In The Age Of #MeToo And Time’s Up (Part I)
- Putting It In Writing: The Return of The Morality Clause In The Age of #MeToo and Time’s Up (Part II)
- New Hampshire Court: First Amendment Says You Can Call A Patent Troll A Patent Troll
- The Scientific Importance of Free Speech
- Against Copyright Balance: Canadian Heritage Officials Say It’s Time “To Move Beyond the Notion of Balance” (Michael Geist)
- Canadian Music Industry Confirms Once More That For Copyright Companies, Enough Is Never Enough
- The Music Industry Now Wants To Creep Past Site-Blocking Into App-Blocking
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- Former FCC Broadband Advisory Panel Chair Arrested For Fraud
- Ajit Pai’s ex-broadband advisor arrested on charge of forging fiber contracts: Ex-CEO and committee chair accused of defrauding investors with fake contracts.
- Broadband adviser picked by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai arrested on fraud charges: Elizabeth Pierce allegedly tricked investors into pouring $250 million into a fiber optic scheme by forging revenue agreements
- Ajit Pai refuses Democrats’ request to revoke Sinclair broadcast licenses: Pai springs into action – and much faster than when Trump wanted to punish NBC.
- Bad news for AT&T and Comcast: Calif. Senate panel OKs net neutrality bill – AT&T, cable lobbyists can’t convince Calif. senators to scrap net neutrality.
- AT&T and cable lobby are terrified of a California net neutrality bill: ISPs hate California bill even more than the FCC rules they helped kill.
- T-Mobile deceived customers with “false ring tones” on failed phone calls: FCC fines T-Mobile $40M for rural call failures but requires no refunds.
- FCC to Look at the KidVid Rules in a Formal Proceeding Soon
- ACLU: If Americans Want Privacy & Net Neutrality, They Should Build Their Own Broadband Networks
- The FCC’s ‘Broadband Advisory Council’ Keeps Losing Members Due To Cronyism
- Commissioner Clyburn to Leave the FCC
- The FCC loses a fierce consumer advocate as Mignon Clyburn resigns: Clyburn, the “conscience” of FCC, advocated for net neutrality
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- Bad News For ‘Privacy Shield’: As Expected, EU’s Top Court Will Examine Legality Of Sending Personal Data To US
- California Bill Could Introduce A Constitutionally Questionable ‘Right To Be Forgotten’ In The US
- Court Orders Google to Remove Results for Man’s Criminal Record Under “Right to be Forgotten”
- Google attempted end run around Canadian courts fails, rules BC Judge in Equustek case
- UK High Court Hands Win To Claimant In Right To Be Forgotten Case
- If Trump Is So Worried About Protecting Attorney-Client Privilege, He Should End The NSA’s Bulk Surveillance (And CPB Device Seizures)
- How Government Pressure Has Turned Transparency Reports From Free Speech Celebrations To Censorship Celebrations
- Gmail.com redesign includes self-destructing emails: Set expiration dates and password requirements on your sensitive emails.
- In Trying To Ban Telegram, Russia Breaks The Internet
- “Privacy is not for sale,” Telegram founder says after being banned in Russia: Russian authorities are demanding a universal key. Telegram says it doesn’t exist.
- In effort to shut down Telegram, Russia blocks Amazon, Google network addresses: Russian censors up ante in effort to block secure chat by political opposition.
- Russian hackers mass-exploit routers in homes, govs, and infrastructure: The hacks steal passwords and clear the way for future attacks, officials warn.
- Inside the Decade-Long Russian Campaign to Infiltrate the NRA and Help Elect Trump: Femme fatales, lavish Moscow parties and dark money – how Russia worked the National Rifle Association
- Open Letter On Ending Attacks On Security Research
- Apps Are Illegally Stealing Children’s Privacy Data
- FTC tightens reins around Uber following 2016 breach: Ride-hailing service waited a year to disclose hack that stole data of 25 million.
- App Permissions Don’t Tell Us Nearly Enough About Our Apps
- A Casino Was Hacked Thanks To The Internet Of Broken Things & A Fish Tank Thermometer
- Cloudflare’s Plan To Protect The Whole Internet Comes Into Focus
- What does GDPR do?: Purewal & Partners’ Jas Purewal and Peter Lewin provide an overview of the imminent EU data protection regulation
- What does GDPR mean for digital entertainment businesses?: In the second part of their GDPR guide, Purewal & Partners’ Jas Purewal and Peter Lewin offer advice and ten key tips for games companies
- When Can Law Enforcement Look at Your Devices? A Definitive List
- Inside The Unnerving Supply Chain Attack That Corrupted CCleaner
- Facebook exits anti-privacy alliance it formed with Comcast and Google: Facebook gave $200K but will stop fighting CA law to restrict sale of user data.
- Public Attention Forces Facebook To Retreat From Anti-Privacy Alliance With ISPs In California
Jon
News of the Week; April 11, 2018
GAMES
- GTA V producer hits speed bump in $150M lawsuit against Rockstar
- Former GTA producer suffers setback in $150m lawsuit against Take Two: Court finds profit sharing agreement unambiguous, but Benzies could still be compensated
- GTA V is the most profitable entertainment product of all time: 90 million sales and $6 billion in revenue means nothing comes close to Rockstar’s biggest hit
- Court Dismisses Lohan’s Invasion of Privacy Suit
- Grand Theft Auto 5 Has Many Different Characters, But Lindsay Lohan Is Not One of Them
- Appeals Court Rules That GTA5 Didn’t Infringe On Lindsay Lohan’s Likeness Rights
- Lawsuit Filed Against PUBG Mobile Clones
- PUBG Corp takes NetEase to court over alleged mobilePUBG copycats
- PUBG creators finally decide a copycat game has gone too far, file suit: What gets PUBG lawyers’ attention? A 25-strong list that includes chicken dinners.
- PUBG Corp. files lawsuit against NetEase for alleged copyright infringement: Look and feel of both mobile games “closely mimic” PUBG, says developer
- CliffyB’s Radical Heights is a new low for cashing in on the PUBG craze: What happens when a game studio is late to a hot trend twice in a row?
- Microsoft & other game companies win out in camera patent lawsuit
- Ubisoft to prioritize ‘toxicity management’ in Rainbow Six: Siege
- Ubisoft cracking down on hate speech, team-killing in Rainbow Six: Siege – “Egregious offenders” can now earn a permanent ban “without warning.”
- “You’re a__ is about to get swatted,” swatting suspect tweets from jail: A software glitch in a Kansas jail temporarily gave the suspect Internet access.
- Pokémon Go Producers Attacked by Strange Plaintiff-Beasts
- Korean companies fined $950K for deceptive loot box practices
- Nexon and Netmarble fined for loot box practices: Korean FTC hands out almost $1 million in fines, the majority to Nexon
- Korean FTC Issues Fines Over Loot Box Advertising
- FTC: Warranty-voiding language like Nintendo’s and Sony’s is illegal – FTC warns companies to stop voiding warranties for unauthorized repairs.
- Online gaming could be stalled by net neutrality repeal, ESA tells court: Entertainment Software Association fights FCC’s net neutrality repeal in court.
- The Video Game Industry Joins The Lawsuit To Save Net Neutrality
- Public UK wage database showcases game industry’s gender pay gap
- Exploring the pay gap: What does the data really say about the industry’s gender imbalance? – Full analysis reveals important questions about female representation across all industry levels
- Gender pay gaps: Here’s how we fix them – Amiqus’ Liz Prince believes this week’s revelations should compel the industry to address how it recruits, retains and promotes women
- Indie collective Juegos Rancheros dismisses co-founder Boyer
- Brandon Boyer dismissed from Juegos Rancheros: Austin indie game organization removes co-founder and former IGF chair from board of directors over conduct concerns
- Blog: Recapping the IGDA’s localization roundtable from GDC
- Altered Ventures launches $36M fund to help devs succeed in emerging markets
- How long should game devs spend working on just one game?
- BossKey backing away from active LawBreakers development
- Lawbreakers “failed to find an audience,” dev officially admits FPS defeat: Implies that game won’t receive an end-of-life transition to free-to-play, either.
- Ubisoft opens Winnipeg studio to develop world building tech
- Ubisoft opening Winnipeg studio: Far Cry 5 producer Darryl Long named managing director of new co-development studio focused on tools and tech for publisher’s AAA open-world brands
- Nightdive shares source code for System Shock on Mac
- Far Cry 5 has more than doubled Far Cry 4’s first week sales
- Insights: Fortnite’s Pop Culture Breakthrough May Last More Than Two Weeks
- Fortnite mobile revenue tops $15M after less than a month
- Fortnite mobile daily revenue peaks at $1.8m since lifting invite-only requirement: Total revenue surpasses $15 million in less than a month
- Resident Evil 7 has surpassed 5.1M sales worldwide
- With 2 million units sold, Shovel Knight generated the most income from Switch sales
- Nintendo warns against using substandard Switch charging cables
- Overwatch League team drops player: Boston Rising terminates contract of Jonathan “DreamKazper” Sanchez after allegation of sexual communications with a minor
- What Is The Copyright Status In eSports Casts?
- Esports and gambling
- Blizzard looking to grow Overwatch League with All-Access Pass
- Video Game Deep Cuts: A WiLD eSports Mario Approaches
- NBA’s Adam Silver Welcomes ‘New Generation Of Athletes’ With NBA 2K League
- Video games can create beneficial social connections and take on real issues
- Wadjet Eye: Streamers “pushed me to make the game that I’ve always wanted to play” – With Unavowed, founder Dave Gilbert aimed to make a point and click adventure game that can’t be spoiled by YouTube videos
- I got occupational burnout – and you might, too: Will Luton on a “scarily ubiquitous” problem in the games industry, but one that can be identified and prevented
- ‘VRChat’ is the Closest VR Experience Available Today to ‘Ready Player One’s’ OASIS
- Group Behind JPEG Unveils New ‘visually lossless’ Compression Standard for VR/AR and More
- Leap Motion reveals open-source North Star AR headset
- Trade marks: How much do you really need to protect?: As the Star Control legal battle extends to alien race names, Harbottle & Lewis’ Kostya Lobov offers advice on striking a balance
- “Most developers think of funding as fixing their problem”: But VC investors care about opportunities and not problems, says Jason Della Rocca, and this year’s Nordic Game Conference will feature an event to show the difference
- Steam privacy tweaks spell the end for services like Steam Spy
- Steam Spy announces it’s shutting down, blames Valve’s new privacy settings: Sales-estimate service, born from an Ars data project, says goodbye to its best source.
- SteamSpy shutting down after Steam privacy update: Switch to default hidden game libraries cuts off primary source of tracker’s data
- Blog: Early Access without Steam? Let’s break down the numbers
- Blog: A history of game analytics platforms
- iOS App Store shrinks as number of new apps falls for first time ever
- Razer sets up shop as a PC game retailer
- Myst creators launch Kickstarter to bring every game in the series to Windows 10: Most of the games are already available, but there are some collector’s items.
- The ESA has joined the fight to save net neutrality
- ESA joins battle for net neutrality: E3 organiser and games lobbying group files to participate in lawsuit against Federal Communications Commission
- Humble is selling a huge gaming history ebook collection for $15: MIT Press combines 18 of its incredibly wonky game design studies books for cheap.
- How game writers craft meaningful romances in games
- Blog: The importance of knowing your inheritance, as a game dev
- V&A Museum to highlight game design innovations in coming exhibit
- Video Games: Design/Play/Disrupt arrives at Victoria and Albert Museum this autumn: “Exhibition will provide a compelling insight into one of the most important design disciplines of our time,” says V&A director
- Take a gander at how the very first arcade video games were advertised
DIGITAL
- Was Facebook’s Work With the Trump Campaign Illegal?
- The Questions Zuckerberg Should Have Answered About Russia
- Facebook admits Zuckerberg wiped his old messages – which you can’t do: Ordinary Facebook users can’t delete their messages from recipients’ inboxes.
- Facebook Admits Mark Zuckerberg and Top Execs Have Deleted Their Sent Messages Remotely
- Hours after Zuck deletion scandal, Facebook announces new unsend feature: How stupid does Facebook think we are?
- Facebook sent a doctor on a secret mission to ask hospitals to share patient data
- Facebook can’t catch a break: Medical data-sharing plan halted
- Watch Zuckerberg Struggle to Answer Sharp, Uncomfortable Questions About Peter Thiel’s Creepy Company
- A Hard Transparency Choice: What is WikiLeaks?
- Zuckerberg: Failing to identify Russian misinformation one of his ‘greatest regrets’: Mark Zuckerberg called Facebook’s failure to identify the influence of Russian information operations on the 2016 U.S. election one of his “greatest regrets.”
- Data firm that worked on Brexit suspended by Facebook: But the company says all allegations are untrue.
- “Facebook Doesn’t Sell Your Data. It Sells You”: Zeynep Tufekci on How Company’s Profit Really Works
- Steve Wozniak drops Facebook: “The profits are all based on the user’s info” – Apple cofounder – “Apple makes its money off of good products, not off of you.”
- Zuckerberg: regulation of social media firms is ‘inevitable’
- As Zuck testifies to Senate, Democrats propose tough opt-in privacy law: Democrats propose opt-in privacy rules for Facebook, Google, and other websites.
- Facebook urged to make GDPR its “baseline standard” globally
- Mark Zuckerberg Answers To Congress For Facebook’s Troubles
- CEO Zuckerberg apologizes for Facebook’s privacy failures
- It’s not just America: Zuckerberg has to answer for Facebook’s actions around the world
- Why Zuckerberg’s 14-Year Apology Tour Hasn’t Fixed Facebook
- What were the failures of Mark Zuckerberg pre-Facebook?
- 1 million UK Facebook users could have compensation claims for misuse of their personal information
- From Mark Zuckerberg to Harvey Weinstein, founder CEOs can become too big to fail
- Facebook isn’t too big to fail
- Mark Zuckerberg’s Testimony Birthed An Oddly Promising Memepocalypse
- Congress Is Unearthing Facebook’s Terrible Power
- Facebook And The Price Of Tech Utopia
- Facebook Imposes New Restrictions On Ads And Popular Pages
- Facebook: If you want to buy a political ad, you now have to be “authorized” – “We know we were slow to pick-up foreign interference in the 2016 US elections.”
- Facebook’s surveillance is nothing compared with Comcast, AT&T and Verizon: Comcast, AT&T and Verizon pose a greater surveillance risk than Facebook – but their surveillance is much harder to avoid
- MIT Civic Media Director: Facebook’s Apologies Are ‘Long Overdue’
- Mark Zuckerberg’s Privacy Shell Game
- Facebook CEO puts on suit and a smile to try to seduce, assuage senators – Sen. Blumenthal (D-CT): “Your business model is to maximize profit over privacy.”
- Cambridge Analytica Could Have Also Accessed Private Facebook Messages
- How To Check If Cambridge Analytica Could Access Your Facebook Data
- How to Find Out If Your Facebook Data Was Stolen by Cambridge Analytica
- Data Lords: The Real Story of Big Data, Facebook and the Future of News
- Broadband Industry Aims To Use Facebook Fracas To Saddle Silicon Valley With Crappy New Laws
- Yep, Russian trolls hit Reddit, too—on /r/funny and elsewhere – CEO: “We still have a lot of room to improve, and we intend to remain vigilant.”
- Here’s why tech companies abuse our data: because we let them (Brett Frischmann)
- The Rise Of Platform Authoritarianism
- Court Shuts Down Yet Another Lawsuit Against Social Media Companies Over Terrorist Attacks
- Cali Lawmakers Pushing For 72-Hour Bot Removal Requirements For Social Media Companies
- Court Says Kentucky Governor Free To Block Critics Using Official Social Media Accounts
- FOSTA Signed into Law, Amends CDA Section 230 to Allow Enforcement against Online Providers for Knowingly Facilitating Sex Trafficking
- Trump signs bill to shut down websites that facilitate prostitution: FOSTA becomes law—sex work forums were already shutting down to prepare.
- Ted Cruz Gets Section 230 All Wrong, While Zuck Claims He’s Not Familiar With It
- Backpage domains seized by feds, co-founder’s Arizona home raided: Notorious site had used Section 230 as a shield against state prosecution.
- Backpage execs indicted on federal prostitution, money laundering charges – AG: “Backpage.com existed as the dominant marketplace for illicit commercial sex.”
- DOJ Seizes And Shuts Down Backpage.com (Before SESTA Has Even Been Signed)
- “Erotic Review” blocks US Internet users to prepare for government crackdown: Sex work review site censors itself in US before SESTA is signed into law.
- Politicians Who Said SESTA Was Needed To Takedown Backpage Claim Victory Over Backpage Takedown… Without SESTA
- Federal Backpage Indictment Shows SESTA Unnecessary, Contains Zero Sex Trafficking Charges
- Japanese Government Seeks To Circumvent Its Own Constitution To Censor ‘Pirate’ Sites
- Studio71 Launches Brand Safety Tool To Help Its Partners Advertise Securely
- Right to be forgotten and online information removal under debate: Privacy commissioner may face challenges with the law
- Canadian Government Leaning Towards A Right To Be Forgotten It Can Enforce Anywhere In The World
- Vimeo Copyright Infringement Case Still Going Nearly A Decade Later, With Another Partial Win For Vimeo
- Latest EU Copyright Plan Would Ban Copyright Holders From Using Creative Commons
- Apple Must Pay $502.6 Million to VirnetX, Federal Jury Rules
- Apple ordered to pay $502.6M to VirnetX after jury finds patent infringement: Suing over patents hasn’t paid off: VirnetX lost over $75M from 2015 through 2017.
- Patent Troll Sues Spotify, SoundCloud And Deezer Over Patent On A ‘Music Organizer And Entertainment Center’
- Apple has begun notifying macOS users of coming 32-bit app incompatibility: Warnings have started, but 32-bit support will likely continue for many months.
- Amazon customers take to social media after mysterious account closures
- Most Links To Popular Sites On Twitter Come From Bots
- Instagram Testing ‘Nametags’ Feature That’s Essentially A Snapcodes Clone
- One Woman Got Facebook To Police Opioid Sales On Instagram
- ‘Mister Rogers’ Fan Film Battles Copyright Claim On YouTube
- After “Horrific Act Of Violence,” YouTube Will Tighten Security “At All Of Our Offices Worldwide”
- Google Staffer Launches $24,000 GoFundMe Campaign For YouTube Shooting Hero
- Groups Allege YouTube Is Violating Law That Protects Kids
- Advocacy Groups, Citing Children’s Privacy Laws, Ask FTC To Investigate YouTube
- Unite the Right? How YouTube’s Recommendation Algorithm Connects The U.S. Far-Right
- YouTube TV To Launch Linear Channels With Cheddar, Tastemade, The Young Turks
- Philip DeFranco Answers Sean Evans’ Burning Questions About YouTube On ‘Hot Ones’
- ‘Study With Me’ YouTube Videos Are Finding Massive Audiences In Japan
- YouTube To Stream Coachella For Eighth Year, Including Headliner Beyoncé
- YouTube Kids Is Going To Release A Whitelisted, Non-Algorithmic Version Of Its App: YouTube will approve all channels allowed to post, a source told BuzzFeed News, giving parents a firewall against an algorithm that’s often proved lacking.
- Google Turns To Users To Improve Its AI Chops Outside The US
- Again, Algorithms Suck At Determining ‘Bad’ Content, Often To Hilarious Degrees
- BroadbandTV Unveils ‘VISO’ Platform To Help Creators Collaborate, Optimize Uploads, More
- Netflix Reportedly Threatens Cannes Boycott After Its Films Are Banned From Competition
- The Military Wants to Make AI That Mimics the Human Brain. Experts Know There’s a Better Way.
- A Brain-Boosting Prosthesis Moves From Rats To Humans
- A New AI “Journalist” Is Rewriting the News to Remove Bias
- A lawyer’s guide to artificial intelligence
- China Now Has the Most Valuable AI Startup in the World
- Artificial Intelligence, Fair Use, and Using AI to Create New Works
- President Trump Announces Trade Actions Targeting Chinese Tech and Intellectual Property Policies
- Mozilla Diagnoses The Health Of The Global Internet
- The Internet has serious health problems, Mozilla Foundation report finds: Consolidation of control, “fake news,” IoT security weakness are symptoms of larger problems.
- More Governments Granting Themselves Extra Censorship Powers With ‘Fake News’ Laws
- Indian Government Enacts, Abandons ‘Fake News’ Law In Less Than 24 Hours
- Mt. Gox ex-CEO, who may profit from site’s fall, says he “doesn’t want this”
- Beijing Higher Court Affirms Grant of Injunction in IWNComm v. Sony
- The Never-Ending Self-Driving Car Project
- China Now Has the Most Valuable AI Startup in the World
- 10 Hidden URLs to Help You Rule the Web
- Quebec Digital Sales Tax Plan Shows It Is Easier Said Than Done (Michael Geist)
CREATIVITY
- Public policy and offensive trademarks
- Strong Shield Law Protections for Journalists in California and Across the Country
- RIAA Gets To Move Forward In Case That Tries To Force ISPs To Help Copyright Trolls
- MPAA Report Shows How The Internet Is Saving The Film Industry, Not Destroying It
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- Canadian Internet Providers Warn of Site Blocking Consequences: Threat to Affordable Internet Access and Market Competition (Michael Geist)
- CRTC Website Blocking Submissions Confirm Over-Blocking Risks: “Every Blocking Technique Suffers from Over-blocking and Under-blocking” (Michael Geist)
- Broken Record: Why the Music Industry’s Secret Plan for iPhone Taxes, Internet Tracking and Content Blocking is Off-Key (Michael Geist)
- The Competition-Killing Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Nobody Asked For Is Back On The Menu
- Oregon finalizes net neutrality law despite likelihood that ISPs will sue: Oregon governor signs net neutrality bill today.
- Oregon passes its own net neutrality laws, but not for home users: “The internet has democratised knowledge and is an invaluable tool. It’s so important that it remains open and accessible”
- Massachusetts Legislature Issues Net Neutrality Report, Recommends Legislation
- More Colorado Towns Vote Down A Comcast State Law Hamstringing Broadband Competition
- Ex-Obama FTC Boss Now Lobbying For Comcast, Trying To Prevent States From Protecting Consumers
- Ajit Pai’s “Harlem Shake” video preparations must remain secret, FCC says: It’s the second time FCC refused to release emails about an Ajit Pai comedy skit.
- FCC Withholds Ajit Pai’s Emails Regarding The Infamous ‘Harlem Shake’ Video
- FCC Commissioner Says Her Agency Is Now Just A Giant Rubber Stamp For Sinclair Broadcasting
- Trump and the idiot box: White House aides will try to get guests to make their points on Fox News shows because President Trump “will listen more when it is on TV.”
- The crisis in journalism that’s helping Trump: Did the collapse of local journalism help give us Donald Trump?
- When You Merge The Message With The Medium, You Make A Messium
- What’s Next for the FCC’s Radio Ownership Rules? – Do Changes in the Audio Marketplace Justify Changes in Ownership Limits?
- AT&T’s 5G trials produce gigabit speeds and 9ms latency: AT&T boasts about millimeter-wave 5G as it prepares for late 2018 launch.
- CenturyLink Tries To Dodge Broadband Billing Lawsuit By Claiming It Technically Has No Subscribers
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- The NYPD Wants Everyone’s Licenses for Facial Recognition. How Concerned Should You Be?
- DHS defends media-monitoring database, calls critics “conspiracy theorists”: Says only wearers of “tinfoil hats” have issues with “standard practice monitoring.”
- Thousands of hacked websites are infecting visitors with malware: Unusually advanced campaign infects people visiting a variety of poorly secured sites.
- Another Company Blows Off Breach Notification For Months, Lies About Affected Customers When It’s Exposed
- DC’s Stingray Mess Won’t Get Cleaned Up
- DHS Says Rogue Stingrays Are In Use In Washington, DC; Also Says It Hasn’t Done Anything About It
- How to keep your ISP’s nose out of your browser history with encrypted DNS: Using Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1, other DNS services still require some command-line know-how.
- Cyberinsurance Tackles The Wildly Unpredictable World Of Hacks
- Striking the Balance: Privacy and Freedom of Expression in the Digital Age (Michael Geist)
- Data Rules in Modern Trade Agreements: Toward Reconciling an Open Internet with Privacy and Security Safeguards (Michael Geist)
- Practical passwordless authentication comes a step closer with WebAuthn: Microsoft, Mozilla, and Google are all implementing the new standard.
Jon
News of the Week; April 4, 2018
GAMES
- Lindsay Lohan loses Grand Theft Auto V lawsuit on appeal: It’s game over for the actress, as an appeals court finds a game character Lohan called her “unequivocal” likeness is rather a “generic … twentysomething woman.”
- Lindsay Lohan’s GTA 5 Lawsuit Rejected Again: “We conclude…that the subject images are not recognizable as plaintiff.”
- Court rejects Lindsay Lohan’s appeal in GTA V likeness lawsuit
- Loot box latest: Big Fish Casino decision reversed by US Court
- Big Fish Casino constitutes illegal gambling under Washington law
- Monolith removes loot boxes from Middle-earth: Shadow of War – Mechanic “risked undermining the heart of our game,” says developer
- Developer removes randomized loot boxes from Middle-Earth: Shadow of War – Monolith says paid market “compromises” the game “even if you don’t buy anything.”
- Shadow of War is being completely stripped of microtransactions
- Social Casino Game Found to Be Illegal Gambling
- Judge Refuses to Dismiss Copyright Lawsuit Over LeBron James Tattoo in ‘NBA 2K’: Take-Two attempted to argue that its use of LeBron James’ tattoo was de minimis or fair use.
- Judge Swain: Discovery Necessary to Determine “Fair Use” of NBA Tattoos in Video Game
- Take-Two Fails To Get NBA2K Tattoo Copyright Lawsuit Dismissed
- Niantic settles Pokemon Go class action lawsuit for $1.5M
- Niantic pays $1.6 million settlement over failed Pokemon Go event: Attendees can get reimbursed for incurred travel expenses.
- Niantic settling Pokemon Go Fest lawsuit for $1.6 million – Report: Resolution will see developer reimburse travel costs for attendees of last year’s disastrous Chicago event
- “Patent troll” doubles down, now accuses Clicker Heroes maker of libel – Lawyer for Playsaurus: “Stop sending baseless letters with draconian demands.”
- IGF Award-winning Baba Is You cloned before it was even released
- Eugen Systems devs hit out at management after six weeks on strike
- Eugen Systems striking devs going to labour court: Employees initiating proceedings against Steel Division – Normandy 44 studio after six weeks with no progress in negotiations
- Ageism: The issue never gets old – Veteran game developers share thoughts on how big a problem age discrimination actually is, and how to get around it
- 69% of large UK games firms have bigger gender pay gap than national average: King and Rockstar added to database, based on businesses with 250 or more employees
- Ubisoft’s plans to tackle toxicity in Rainbow Six: Siege – Permanent bans, mute text chat, chat filtering and team kill detection all in the works
- To prevent toxicity, design games with community management in mind
- Blog: It’s not me. It’s you – surviving a toxic workplace
- Blizzard experiments with machine learning to fight Overwatch toxicity
- Blog: Working on controversial shooter Six Days in Fallujah
- China’s Tencent Proves You Can Make A Decent Profit From Online Publishing — If You Have A Platform With A Billion Users
- Twitch Streamer Ninja Draws Backlash For Using N-Word During ‘Fortnite’ Stream
- Citing “Adjustments,” Twitch Lays Off Approximately 25 Employees
- Twitch undergoes layoffs: Streaming site confirms “team adjustments in some departments,” plans to increase headcount by 30% this year
- Research reveals most popular esports on Twitch: Nearly three times as many MOBA streamers than any other genre
- Superdata: Fortnite has more monthly active users than GTA Online – Battle Royale game earned more additional content revenue than any other console title in February – except Call of Duty
- Fortnite is taking over the sports world
- World’s largest esports organisations sign up for Clash Royale League: 36 teams from North America, Europe, Asia, and Latin America to compete in $1 million World Final
- Gearing up for e-sport: Seizing opportunities and tackling legal issues
- Competitive sniping game SpyPartyfinally hitting Steam after eight years: Could an indie game about psychological stare-downs truly emerge as an esports star?
- It’s more than luck: what devs should keep in mind when creating an ‘indie hit’
- Blog: Some notes on indie publishing
- The Rise Of Vsports: A New Category Of Sport Powered By Video Technology
- A look at EA Sports’ push for more accessible sports games
- Premium mobile game Hitman Sniper passes 10M players
- Hitman Sniper passes 10m players: Mobile spin-off likely the best-selling entry in the series to date
- The Nintendo Switch has surpassed 4M sales in Japan
- Nintendo Switch reaches four million sold in Japan – report: Famitsu numbers put Nintendo’s console two weeks behind the Wii in hitting the milestone
- Ni No Kuni developer Level-5 bringing all future main titles to Switch
- Blog: How Breath of the Wild brings maturity to Nintendo’s game design
- Ubisoft Extends IBM Watson Support for ‘Bridge Crew’ Through 2018
- Far Cry 5 UK launch is the biggest in Far Cry history: Strong Easter sales all round for the boxed games market as Ubisoft ends March on a high
- Anime Streaming Service Crunchyroll Releases Its First Game
- Amazon officially benches Breakaway: Fantasy sports game no longer in active development as team focuses on other projects
- Apple’s clones crackdown leads to App Store shrinking: Number of new iOS releases drops for the first time since marketplace launched in 2008
- Steam Spy: $20 games took biggest share of Steam’s total revenue in 2017 – Sergey Galyonkin questions the power of $10 “sweet spot” for Steam prices
- Valve: ‘Steam Machines aren’t exactly flying off shelves’
- Valve says it’s “still working hard” on Linux gaming: SteamOS maker admits that “Steam machines aren’t exactly flying off the shelves.”
- Valve hasn’t given up on Steam Machines: Company admits sales are slow, but says ‘store delisting’ is nothing more than routine cleanup
- Valve quietly dials back Steam Machine presence on Steam
- SteamSpy: $20 and $60 were the top-earning Steam game prices last year
- Surviving a decade in indie dev: What’s kept Mommy’s Best Games going for 11 years? Nathan Fouts details 21 things that helped the Pig Eat Ball outfit get by, and might help others as well
- Why is early stage funding tough to find for game start-ups?: Makers Fund founding partner Jay Chi wants to solve a shortage of Series A support in the market; portfolio includes Bossa, Typhoon, Tiny Build, Superdata, and more
- “I’m not sure that games like this one can continue to be made…”: Where the Water Tastes Like Wine developer Johnnemann Nordhagen reflects on his game’s surprising commercial struggles
- Asymmetric smashed West of Loathing sales target by halving launch price: Original $20 price tag would have discouraged impulse buys, says founder Zack Johnson
- Indie comics platform Tapas Media embarks on major games push: Digital publisher keen to share its IP and fictional universes with developers across all platforms.
- Assassin’s Creed’s New Discovery Mode Is What Museums Will Look Like In The Future
- Everything you missed from GDC 2018: #1ReasonToBe, artificial intelligence, and the latest from Unreal and Unity were the hot topics in San Francisco this year
- Despite faltering profits, hardware and software sales rise at GameStop
- GameStop annual income down by $300m due to fourth quarter “asset impairment”: Sales up 7.2 per cent to $9.2 billion with net income of $34.7 million
- 10 Years Ago This Month: A swath of studio closures suggests how significantly the HD era upended the status quo
- Record-breaking VR/AR start-ups raised over $3.6bn in last 12 months: Video games one of only two sectors to secure more than 10% of investment deals
- Virtual reality could encourage pro-social behaviour and empathy in children: Parents aren’t convinced however, and just 38 per cent agree
- HTC launching $1,100 starter kit to trim $150 off Vive Pro buy-in
- New Vive Pro bundle cuts headset price by $100: HTC marks VR device’s second anniversary with new offer to clarify upgrade confusion
- HTC Vive Pro review: Eye-popping VR, with a price that’s a little too real: Is a $799 upgrade price (or $1,099 brand-new) justified for this jump in quality?
- Blockchain is games’ new tech obsession: Early tech adoption is part of the essence of the games industry – but proposals to integrate blockchain into companies’ businesses, not just their games, should give us pause
- GDPR-K: How the kids data privacy law affects games publishers everywhere – SuperAwesome MD Max Bleyleben explains why it’s not enough to look for GDPR compliance – in the kids’ space, you also need GDPR-K compliance
- PC Building Simulator is (most of) the fun of building a PC—without pricey GPUs: It’s not very challenging, but it nails the basics of building gaming PCs.
- Experimental Controllers Could Change Gaming For Good
- Warner Bros. steps up as Hitman publisher
- Don’t Miss: How Slime Rancher succeeds through emergent storytelling
- An actual gaming Easter egg was unlocked on an Atari Jaguar cartridge today: Modern-day publisher AtariAge confirmed secret has been hidden on carts for a year.
- More than ‘Orcs in Space’: Devs measure the enduring influence of StarCraft
- Ready Player One’s film adaptation isn’t even good enough as a kids movie: Everything here – character development, CGI, geek-cred references – disappoints.
- Ready Player One Is A Virtually Empty Good Time
- Blog: A postmortem on my game design degree
DIGITAL
- Trump admin wants to track 14 million US visitors’ social media history
- Republican governor forced to stop blocking Facebook users who criticize him: Maryland gov. settled free speech lawsuit – Trump is still fighting a similar suit.
- US Might Start A Nuclear War… Because Iranians Wanted Access To Academic Papers Locked Behind A Paywall?
- Facebook: It wasn’t 50M hit by Cambridge Analytica breach, but rather 87M – Also, Facebook will now delete all call and SMS logs older than one year.
- Facebook Exposed 87 Million Users To Cambridge Analytica
- Facebook executive defends memo saying connecting people online is good even if ‘someone dies in a terrorist attack’
- Facebook Executive Defends Leaked Memo saying Growth Is Good Even If ‘Domeone Dies In A Terror Attack’
- Influencers are getting long-term contracts that treat them more like traditional talent: In a 2016 memo, Facebook executive Andrew Bosworth wrote “Maybe it costs a life by exposing someone to bullies.” Thursday, he renounced the statements.
- With GDPR Decision, Zuckerberg Proves Yet Again He Has Learned Absolutely Nothing From the Cambridge Analytica Scandal
- The Case For A Zuck-Free Facebook
- Mark Zuckerberg will testify before Congress next week: Members of Congress want answers about the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
- Tim Cook Says Apple Would Never Have a Scandal Like Cambridge Analytica
- A Short History Of Facebook’s Privacy Gaffes
- Don’t Just Delete Facebook — Delete Well
- Report: Facebook Staff Suddenly Concerned About Privacy, Specifically Theirs
- CEO says Facebook will impose new EU privacy rules “everywhere”: “We have to ensure that everyone in our ecosystem protects people’s information.”
- Mark Zuckerberg Hints Most Facebook Users Won’t Benefit From New Privacy Rules
- Computer science faces an ethics crisis. The Cambridge Analytica scandal proves it.
- Cambridge Analytica’s processing of Facebook’s users’ data for predictive psychological profiling and voter micro targeting: The 2018 ICO investigation against Cambridge Analytica’s practices on Facebookc – An international wake-up call
- How Cambridge Analytica’s Facebook targeting model really worked
- Facebook and Cambridge Analytica (Bruce Schneier)
- Facebook’s New Data-Sharing Policies Are Crashing Tinder
- Can Social Media Be Saved?
- It Took All Of Three Hours To Code A Plugin That Makes News Comments More Civil
- Four problems for news and democracy: Here are some “buckets” for making sense of why: addiction, economics, bad actors and known bugs (Ethan Zuckerman)
- Oracle America, Inc. v. Google LLC
- Court Shows SESTA Is Not Needed: Says Backpage Can Lose Its CDA 230 Protections If It Helped Create Illegal Content
- Yet Another Court Says Victims Don’t Need SESTA/FOSTA To Go After Backpage
- Sex Workers Fighting Back Against SESTA/FOSTA With Their Own Social Network… And Plan To Expose Politicians
- Yet Another Case Highlights Yet Another Constitutional Infirmity With The DMCA
- Judge Blocks Iowa Town From Shutting Down Or Suing Resident Over His Critical Website
- Court Says PACER System Is Illegally Using Fees
- Lawyer Behind Failing Sham To Protect Sketchy Patents Sends Bogus Copyright Cease & Desist To Blogger
- Conservative Wingnuts Celebrate Easter by Complaining About Google Doodles, Like Jesus Would
- Google employees revolt, say company should shut down military drone project: Project applying Google’s image recognition to military drone footage causes uproar.
- Court Tosses Dennis Prager’s Silly Lawsuit Against YouTube, Refuses His Request For Preliminary Injunction
- Michigan State University Reportedly Spent $500k To Monitor The Social Media Accounts Of Larry Nassar’s Accusers And Journalists
- YouTube Shooting Spree Injures 4, Kills 1
- Police confirm one dead, three wounded after shooting at YouTube HQ
- 4 Wounded, Suspect Dead Following Shooting At YouTube’s San Bruno Headquarters
- YouTube Shooter Nasim Aghdam Complained The Company Ruined Her Life
- Police Say YouTube Policies Motivated Shooter
- YouTube shooter IDed as woman angry at site’s “age-restricted” policies
- Tragic YouTube shooting casts new light on creators’ “adpocalypse” complaints: Alleged shooter left a video behind with complaints about revenue. What’s going on?
- What We Know About YouTube Shooter Nasim Aghdam
- Livid over site’s policies, YouTube shooter trained for attack, shot randomly
- As YouTube Cracks Down On Firearm Videos, Niche Video Platforms Look To Seize An Opportunity
- Film Critic Chris Stuckmann Calls Out Universal For Abusing YouTube’s Copyright-Claiming System
- Jake Paul Planning Talk Show For YouTube Red
- Influencers are getting long-term contracts that treat them more like traditional talent
- Luis Fonsi And Daddy Yankee’s “Despacito” Is The First YouTube Video To Receive Five Billion Views
- Fullscreen Acquires Influencer-Marketing Firm Reelio
- DramaFever Names Rena Liu GM, Acquires Select ‘Bachelorette’ Streaming Rights
- Quixotic Approaches To Circumventing Censorship, Using Books And Music
- The Inside Story Of Reddit’s Redesign: Goodbye, dystopian Craigslist. There’s a new Reddit, and it’s all grown up.
- Snapchat Lays Off Roughly 100 Staffers For The Second Time This Month
- Snapchat Tries Explaining Itself To The Masses In First TV Commercial
- Snapchat Expands Video Chats To Include 16 People At Once
- Spotify And The Triumph Of The Subscription Model
- Disney To Launch $5 Monthly ESPN+ Streaming Service On April 12
- ESPN To Combat Cord-Cutting By Putting Once Kinda Free Content Behind A New Paywall
- Twitter to live stream weekly MLB games in renewed deal
- Twitter To Air Weekly MLB Games In Renewed Streaming Pact
- NBA To Experiment With Cheap 4th Quarter Only Streaming Options
- Uber Settles with Family of AV Crash Victim
- Amazon Lost $53 Billion in One Day Because Trump Has Opinions
- Here’s how President Trump could go after Amazon
- Photographing A Robot Isn’t Just Point And Shoot
- Russia Debuts Postal Drone, Which Immediately Crashes Into Wall
- Emmanuel Macron Talks To Wired About France’s AI Strategy
- Not Everything Needs Copyright: Lawyers Flip Out That Photos Taken By AI May Be Public Domain
- Artificial Intelligence Rules More of Your Life. Who Rules AI?: Tech companies are working on standards for the field, though critics see their efforts as attempts to stave off government oversight
- AI Engineers Must Open Their Designs To Democratic Control
- Mini Brains Just Got Creepier – They’re Growing Their Own Veins
- A Cruise self-driving car got a traffic ticket – GM says it did nothing wrong: Cruise says its car never came within 10 feet of a pedestrian.
- Uber settles with family of woman killed by self-driving car, avoids lawsuit: Uber and family settle out of court after self-driving car hit pedestrian.
- Tesla says Autopilot was active during fatal crash in Mountain View: Tesla argues the data still show Autopilot makes its cars safer.
- What Can The Law Do About `Deepfake’?
- How Grubhub Analyzed 4,000 Dishes To Predict Your Next Order
- Elon Musk’s April Fools’ Prank Totally Backfired
- JFK And The Right Of Publicity
- When You Can Make ‘JFK’ Say Anything, What’s Stopping Him From Selling Doritos?
- FTC Targets Cryptocurrency Pyramid Schemes
- Google Bans All Cryptomining Extensions From The Chrome Store
- Google bans cryptomining Chrome extensions because they refuse to play by the rules: Google continues to try to keep its browser running smoothly in spite of others’ efforts.
- Banning cryptocurrency ads is “short-sighted”
- Cryptocurrency Pays Price for Alleged Harm With Ad Ban
- Two founders of cryptocurrency offering arrested, charged with fraud – Centra Tech’s lawyer said last year: “It’s certainly not a scam.”
- Blockchain caught in regulatory crossfire: Without clearly defined regulations for products based on blockchain technology, the future of this industry remains uncertain
- Ethical Obligations and Blogging: ABA Opinion Serves as Reminder
- The Condom Snorting Challenge Is Tide Pods’ Final Revenge
- Witches, Frog-Gods, And The Deepening Schism Of Internet Religions
- Reporting Sexual Harassment In The Digital Age
- Apple Music update fills the void left by MTV with exclusive music videos
- Insights: Apple Just Launched Its MTV, So When Will It Launch Its Netflix?
- RIAA Reports Music Industry Is Making All The Money Just As New Study Says Piracy Has Never Been More Widespread
- Hated Science Publisher Elsevier To Help EU Monitor Open Science – Including Open Access
- The Wired Guide To Memes: Everything you ever wanted to know about Nyan Cat, Doge, and the art of the Rickroll.
- Canadian Internet Law Update – 2017
CREATIVITY
- Details announced for statutory review of Canada’s Copyright Act. Phased review projected to be completed in 2019.
- Canadian Copyright Law Review Takes Shape: Report Not Expected Until 2019 (Michael Geist)
- Storytellers and Artists May Continue To Rejoice – Feud: Bette and Joan Is Fully Protected By The First Amendment
- Malaysian Government Pushes ‘Fake News’ Bill Aimed At Curb-Stomping Reporting About Its Corruption
- Court Says Scraping Websites And Creating Fake Profiles Can Be Protected By The First Amendment
- School Sells Out Students’ First Amendment Rights, Apologizes And Deletes Article Containing Controversial Images
- Judge Tosses Charges Against Journalist Who Published Docs Leaked To Her By A Police Officer
- Report Alleges Ren & Stimpy Creator John Kricfalusi Took Advantage of Underage Girls Interested in Animation
- Me Too Is Changing Even The Smarmiest Advertisers
- Report: Dumb Beer Ad Phrase Banned From The Masters
- How Do You Know You Are Reading This?
- Levi v. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.
- De Becdelievre v. Anastasia Musical LLC
- Despite Podcast’s Popularity, “SERIAL” Trademark Registration Denied as Generic
- University Of Illinois Attempts To Trademark Bully An Alumnus After Failing To Stop His Trademark Registration
- Copyright – 2017 Year in Review
- Black Panther Has Beaten Titanic to Become the Third Highest Grossing US Theatrical Release of All Time
- 2001: A Space Odyssey predicted The Future – 50 Years Ago
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- UN Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression: Website Blocking Plan “Raises Serious Inconsistencies” With Canada’s Human Rights Obligations (Michael Geist)
- Conservative MP on Bell Site Blocking Plan: “Canadians Should be Concerned” (Michael Geist)
- Telus’ Website Blocking Submission: No Copyright Expertise Needed and No Net Neutrality Violation if Everyone is Doing It (Michael Geist)
- My CRTC Submission on the Bell Coalition Site Blocking Plan: Why it is Disproportionate, Harmful, and Inconsistent With Global Standards (Michael Geist)
- Aussie Rightsholders Look To Feature Creep Site-Blocking To Search-Blocking, Because Of Course They Are
- Canadian Ownership Rules in Telecom and Broadcasting
- Supreme Court to Hear Appeal on Interaction between Arbitration Clauses and Class Proceedings: TELUS Communications Inc. v. Avraham Wellman
- Sinclair forced TV anchors to criticize “fake” news – and Trump loved it: Sinclair echoes Trump’s “fake news” claims while seeking US approval of a merger.
- Ex-Fox News contributor: I was silenced on Russia because I didn’t back Trump
- Ex-Fox News contributor says he was kept off air because he wouldn’t ‘unswervingly support President Trump‘
- I was not allowed to be the voice of sanity on Russia at Fox News. I had to quit
- One of Rachael Ray’s Companies Has Pulled Its Ads From Laura Ingraham’s Show
- A day after Laura Ingraham faced boycotts over taunting a Parkland survivor, she’s apologizing
- Advertisers Continue Exodus After Parkland Survivor Rejects Laura Ingraham Apology: “#ShutUpAndBeObjective”
- Laura Ingraham’s advertisers aren’t buying her apology, either
- Fox News Host Laura Ingraham Is Going on ‘Vacation’ As Advertisers Bail
- How America’s Largest Local TV Owner Turned Its News Anchors Into Soldiers In Trump’s War On The Media
- This San Diego Radio Station Has Existed For A Month And Is Already A Disaster
- Federal Court Curbs FCC Robocall Restrictions
- FCC Continues War on Pirate Radio – Seizes Equipment of Boston Stations While New Legislative Tools May Be on the Way
- Ajit Pai faces heat over proposal to take away poor people’s broadband plans: Pai offered no evidence that plan will boost network investment, Democrats say.
- FCC Boss Under Fire For Facts-Optional Attack On Low-Income Broadband Programs
- Super-Local Broadband May Be The Best Way to Preserve Net Neutrality
- Telecom Lobbyists: We’ll Fight State Efforts To Protect Net Neutrality For A ‘United And Connected Future’
- Comcast supports ban on paid prioritization – with an exception: Instead of total ban, Comcast wants exception for specialized services.
- Comcast’s Top Lobbyist Is Pushing A Net Neutrality ‘Compromise’ That Isn’t
- FCC approves SpaceX plan to launch 4,425 broadband satellites
- Charter fails to prove that its employees purposely caused cable outages: Charter lawsuit against union dismissed by judge as strike enters second year.
- CenturyLink fights billing-fraud lawsuit by claiming that it has no customers: CenturyLink operates via subsidiaries that enforce mandatory arbitration clauses.
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- Yahoo! Cyber breach settlement gives shareholders cause for cheer
- DOJ Asks Supreme Court To Dump Microsoft Case, Let It Use New CLOUD Act To Demand Overseas Data
- If You Jaywalk in China, Facial Recognition Means You’ll Walk Away With A Fine
- Grindr won’t share users’ HIV status with app contractors after outcry
- It’s Grindr’s Turn In The Barrel As America Finally Decides To Care About Consumer Privacy
- Truckers Take On Trump Over Electronic Surveillance Rules
- Appeals Court Has No Problem With Cops Using E911 Services To Perform Warrantless, Real-Time Tracking
- Feds: There are hostile stingrays in DC, but we don’t know how to find them – There’s also “anomalous activity” – probably stingrays – in other US cities, too.
- Want to hack a voting machine? Hack the voting machine vendor first: How password reuse and third-party breaches leave voting machine vendors vulnerable to attack.
- The Billion-Dollar Hacking Group Behind A String Of Big Breaches
- Beware The Academic Vanity Honeypot: How a hacker weaponized flattery and took over my Twitter account.
- What Happens When You Track Your Boyfriend On Strava
- Hacking your brain(scan): security bugs in EEG software open hospitals to attack – Cisco Talos reveals “multiple vulnerabilities” in hardware common at hospitals.
- Finally extradited from Europe, suspected LinkedIn hacker faces US charges
- Coming Soon (or at least by November): Government Sets a Date for Data Breach Disclosure Rules To Take Effect (Michael Geist)
- Practical Approaches to Big Data Privacy Over Time (Micah Altman, Alexandra Wood, David R. O’Brien and Urs Gasser)
Jon
News of the Week; March 28, 2018
GAMES
- Star Control legal battle intensifies as alleged settlement offer surfaces: Stardock’s “unfathomable” demands reportedly include surrender of IP rights, a public apology, $225,000 and a five-year development ban
- Stardock responds to Star Control designers’ settlement offer claims: Developer’s VP shares original proposal, clarifies company’s position on Star Control IP rights
- Rare cancels planned Sea of Thieves“death cost” after player complaints: “Thanks for the feedback here. We’re listening,” says developer.
- Microsoft says Sea of Thieves sold well, even without counting Game Pass copies
- Gran Turismo Sport ad misrepresented offline content, rules UK ad authority
- ASA upholds complaint levelled against Sony over misleading Gran Turismo ad: Sony reprimanded for failing to specify that the “majority” of the game was unavailable without an internet connection
- Sony cuts price of PlayStation VR Camera bundle by $100
- PlayStation VR receives $100 price cut: Sony’s headset now cheapest on the market
- PlayStation VR now costs $100 less: $650 now gets you “all in” for VR with console, headset, controllers, and game.
- Oculus Go world premiere: Acceptable compromises, amazing quality for $199: A legitimate 3D VR device, so long as you accept its tracking limitations.
- New Vive Pro owners will pay $1,250, including needed accessories: Online “Starter Kit” bundle saves just $80 over a la carte pricing.
- Square Enix kills unsanctioned Tomb Raider remakes: “Our recent research, studies and reviews on Tomb Raider 3 were unwelcome,” says developer Realtech VR
- Everything a VR studio had to do to port to the Mac: Apple talks a lot about AR, but how does the Mac fare for VR? We asked Survios devs.
- #1ReasonToBe: “Listen to the people you do not hear, because they’re not allowed to speak” – Rami Ismail’s GDC panel explored development in Madagascar, the Philippines, Colombia and beyond
- #ThirdWorldProblems: How to not get a visa for GDC – Gwen Foster, one of the #1ReasonToBe speakers denied a visa, on being treated with “diplomatic hostility” in a global industry
- GDC 2018 breaks attendance record: 28,000 industry professionals attended last week’s show in San Francisco; dates announced for 2019 GDC and VRDC
- Splatoon creator: “Fan art and live events are part of the world of the game” – How Nintendo’s most recent super franchise was born
- Here’s how Nintendo chooses its indie partners on Switch
- Nintendo’s advice for indies trying to get games on Switch: Platform holder’s warns that Switch will remain a “closed dev environment” for now
- The Nintendo King And The Midlife Crisis
- Josef Fares hopes A Way Out inspires more risks in AAA games: The director also discusses his relationship with EA, and ambitions to follow in the footsteps of Naughty Dog
- Google Play announces Change the Game Design Challenge: $10,000 college scholarship up for grabs in design contest
- EA has taught an AI how to play Battlefield 1 multiplayer
- EA’s SEED builds AI capable of teaching itself to play Battlefield I: “As deep learning technology matures, I expect self-learning agents to be part of the games themselves, as truly intelligent NPCs,” says SEED technical director
- Blog: Are hybrid AIs the answer to better video game AI?
- Casey Neistat: Twitch’s Monetization Model Feels “So Much More Fair” Than YouTube’s
- Sea of Thieves attracts two million players in first week: Rare’s shared world pirate adventure also drives streaming and Xbox Live friendship figures
- Xbox, Twitch, Blizzard, Riot and more form Fair Play Alliance to combat toxic players: “We envision a world where games are free of harassment, discrimination and abuse”
- Culturalisation, and why Microsoft rewrote history for Korea: Geogrify’s Kate Edwards discusses how to tailor your game for global appeal – and what to do if you inadvertently cause offence
- Microsoft tweaks Code of Conduct for Xbox and other platforms
- Microsoft takes a stand against “offensive language” on Xbox Services: Amended Services Agreement will use suspensions and bans to fight toxic behaviour
- Analysis: A closer look at MidBoss’ chaotic, hostile work environment
- MidBoss CEO accused of exploitative practices, sexual harassment: “I’ve made some major mistakes,” says Matt Conn of 2064: Read Only Memories studio and GaymerX organizer
- Elements of games industry “fundamentally broken” says IGDA president: Round table discussion on unions highlights employee grievances
- Game developers push for unionization amid insecure positions, excessive OT: “Game Workers Unite” push leads to some contentious discussions.
- IGDA head on the problems with unions: Jen MacLean discusses challenges she sees to organized labor in games, attributes horror stories like 38 Studios to human nature and “wishful thinking”
- Developers need a better advocate: The IGDA is supposed to be looking out for developers’ interests, but it doesn’t have the resources or the leverage to do it effectively
- Rovio proposes pay cuts for chairman and owner amid financial worries: Investor disappointing and sub-par game performances spell salary shake-up at Angry Birds firm
- GAME revenue up but profits tumble
- WholesGame launches wholesaler price comparison site: The Wholesale Video Games Marketplace is among the first of its kind for buyers and sellers of wholesale games
- Breath of the Wild takes top prize at the 2018 Game Developers Choice Awards!
- Zelda: Breath of the Wild triumphs at Game Developers Choice Awards – Multiple wins also secured by Gorogoa and Cuphead at San Francisco ceremony
- DDR, Half-Life, and Minecraft among 2018 World Video Game Hall of Fame nominees
- SteamSpy creator says 2017 was Valve’s most profitable year yet
- SteamSpy: The top 100 games on Steam accounted for 50% of sales revenue last year – Valves generates record-breaking $4.3bn in 2017
- Valve to open source networking tool for devs, Steam not required
- Live-action Street Fighter TV series in the works following Capcom and eOne deal: Team behind web series Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist brought on board to executive produce
- Why Fortnite Is Not An Esport Despite The Drake/Ninja Publicity
- Fortnite dominates both Twitch and YouTube, according to latest figures: Epic Games’ battle royale generates $5.3m in first ten days on iOS
- 100-player Fortnite livestream held on YouTube hit 1M views
- 1.1 Million YouTube Viewers Tune Into ‘Fortnite’ Live Stream Led By Spanish Gamer El Rubius
- For Ubisoft it’s goodbye Vivendi, hello Tencent: China’s largest technology company, Tencent, is taking on 5% of Ubisoft – continuing its progress into becoming by far the largest game company most gamers have never heard of
- Tencent pleased with ‘strong growth’ of mobile and PC games
- Ubisoft Pulls Plug on IBM Watson Integration in ‘Star Trek: Bridge Crew’
- Ubisoft opens two new studios in India and Ukraine
- Ubisoft opens new studios in India and Ukraine: New development units in Mumbai and Odesa
- Creative Director on Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon Dean Evans leaves Ubisoft
- Eye Tracking Is Coming To VR Sooner Than You Think. What Now?
- Oculus Affirms Commitment to Rift, Believes PC Will Lead the VR Industry for the Next Decade
- Snap Inc acquires British VR and software startup PlayCanvas: Snapchat capitalises on success of its AR platform as move toward VR looks likely
- What A Real Wedding In A Virtual Space Says About The Future: They met in VR. They fell in love in VR. They tied the knot in VR. Here’s a glimpse into the future of relationships.
- The decade-long journey of a single mother into the games industry – Kick Alley Soccer: The augmented reality app that was ten years too early
- PlayFusion partnership brings augmented reality capabilities to CryEngine: Enhanced Reality Engine is industry’s “most feature-rich and performant AR technology,” says Crytek CEO
- Crytek partners with PlayFusion to bring mixed reality tools to CryEngine
- Games industry to benefit from UK government’s £150m Creative Industires deal: £33m promised for the funding of immersive tech such as VR, £1.5m added to UK Games Fund
- Games London initiative nets $1.7M investment from London mayor
- Sadiq Khan aims to attract £30m for developers with new Games London investment: City mayor pledges £1.2m for London Games Festival organisers, ensuring three more years of events
- Tomorrow’s best video games may be private, offline experiences: Ars Live in conversation with award-winning game designer Tracy Fullerton.
- The making of Dark Castle: An excerpt from The Secret History of Mac Gaming
- The Mac gaming console that time forgot: From the new book, The Secret History of Mac Gaming, remember Project Pippin?
- NBA Jam, Sonic 1, Ultima Online remembered with rare stories, concept art
- “Don’t get cocky”: The story of Ratchet and Clank’s 15-year survival – Adapt or Die and staying true to your heritage is a difficult balance to strike, says Insomniac
- Unity releases engine and editor source code through GitHub
- Blog: Defining accessibility in game design
- Google Play partners with Girls Make Games for design competition
- Google offers 15,000 online scholarships to new and seasoned African devs
- How (and why) you should better represent Muslims in your games
- LGBTQ devs & players speak up about the need for authentic queer culture in games
- Devs should make it easier to play shooters without firing guns
- Laralyn McWilliams on rediscovering creativity following trauma
- Blog: Conveying the nuances of disorders like Tourette’s through game design
- How the creator of SimCity helped save Psychonauts: In a heartfelt speech, Tim Schafer recalls Will Wright’s crucial generosity.
DIGITAL
- Appeals court revives Oracle’s billion-dollar copyright claim against Google
- The Case That Never Ends: Oracle Wins Latest Round vs. Google
- Oracle America Inc. V Google LLC
- Insanity Wins As Appeals Court Overturns Google’s Fair Use Victory For Java APIs
- The Federal Circuit’s Judicial Hypocrisy In Overturning Jury Concerning Java API Fair Use Question
- 9th Circuit Appeals Court Recognizes That DMCA Repeat Infringer Policies Must Be Flexible
- Founder Of Fan-Subtitle Site ‘Undertexter’ Loses Copyright Infringement Appeal
- DOJ Indicts 9 Iranians For Brazen Cyberattacks Against 144 US Universities
- Nine Iranians indicted by US for hacking to steal research data: “Password spraying” attack gave Mabna group access to 32TB of diverse research data.
- Security Researcher At The Center Of Emoji-Gate Heading Home After Feds Drop Five Felony Charges
- Best Buy walks away from Huawei, leaving it with zero US retail partners: Spying concerns have now totally shut down Huawei’s retail presence.
- Tumblr Finally Breaks Its Silence On Russian Propaganda
- Tumblr finally names the 84 accounts it says were Russian trolls: Tumblr says it “helped indict 13 people who worked for” Internet Research Agency.
- DNC “lone hacker” Guccifer 2.0 pegged as Russian spy after opsec fail: “Hacktivist” logged into a social media account from an IP address at GRU HQ in Moscow.
- How the U.S. Can Play Cyber-Offense: Deterrence Isn’t Enough
- Judge Dismisses Conservative Organization PragerU’s Censorship Case Against YouTube
- The NRA Quadrupled Its Digital Ad Budget After Parkland Killings, Flooding Facebook and YouTube
- YouTube expands firearms restrictions, more gun videos to be banned: Some gun-related channels are already feeling the heat.
- Only 10% Of Affiliate Links On YouTube Are Being Disclosed, Princeton Study Finds
- What lies beneath: The things Facebook knows go beyond user data – Op-ed – With Facebook, you’re not the customer. You’re the product.
- Facebook cracks down on “platform abuse” following Cambridge Analytica debacle: Social media giant announces five key implementations
- Cambridge Analytica’s London offices raided by British investigators
- Forget Cambridge Analytica. What about Facebook’s role in ethnic strife and genocide?
- Cambridge Analytica breach results in lawsuits filed by angry Facebook users: “Facebook lies within the penumbra of blame,” Maryland woman claims.
- Facebook accused of massive fraud in new lawsuit filed by Cook County – Lawyer: “Facebook… is the largest data mining operation in existence.”
- Deleting Facebook? Here Are The Best Alternatives For What You’ll Miss
- Tesla and SpaceX just scrubbed their Facebook pages: In a Twitter exchange, Musk says Tesla’s Facebook page “looked lame anyway.”
- What To Look For In Your Facebook Data – And How To Find It
- Facebook, Cambridge Analytica, Dr. Kogan and my data protection analysis
- The Cambridge Analytica Data Apocalypse Was Predicted In 2007
- Facebook scraped call, text message data for years from Android phones: Maybe check your data archive to see if Facebook’s algorithms know who you called.
- Facebook Logs Text, Call Histories for Some Android Users: Company says it never sells the data nor does it see the content of the messages or calls
- Mark Zuckerberg Finally Speaks About Cambridge Analytica; It Won’t Be Enough
- Tim Cook Takes His Turn to Dunk on Facebook, Backing Data Privacy Regulations
- Tim Cook is throwing lots of shade — first at Amazon, then at Mark Zuckerberg
- Tim Cook says Apple’s customers are not its product, unlike Facebook: “The truth is, we could make a ton of money if we monetized our customer.”
- Mark Zuckerberg requested to testify to Congress about Facebook/Cambridge Analytica Privacy
- What Congress Should Ask Mark Zuckerberg: They’re going to need a long session.
- Hey Mark Zuckerberg: Don’t Lock Down Everyone’s Data, Open It Up To Services That Give Your Users More Control Over Their Data
- It’s Official: The FTC Is Investigating Facebook
- The Facebook Privacy Setting That Doesn’t Do Anything At All
- Wherein Facebook Loses Recess For Everyone
- Facebook Working With Comcast To Scuttle California Broadband Privacy Protections
- Facebook will (soon) yank third-party ad data in the name of privacy: “We want to let advertisers know that we will be shutting down Partner Categories.”
- Insights: Zayonara, Zuck! It’s Time For A New Facebook CEO
- Facebook is limiting developers’ access to account data – here’s how that will impact them
- Was Facebook wrong? Or the university that let our data go?
- Cambridge Analytica academic’s work upset university colleagues: Emails reveal rows over Aleksandr Kogan’s ‘get rich quick scheme’ with Facebook data
- Schiff invites professor accused of harvesting Facebook data to testify
- Information commissioners are seen searching Cambridge Analytica’s London offices as it is revealed Facebook gave information about 57 billion friendship connections to academic in privacy scandal: Dr. Aleksandr Kogan was given data on 57bn Facebook friendships worldwide
- Facebook co-authored report with Dr Kogan hailed by Cambridge University
- University says it has ‘no connection’ with Cambridge Analytica as lecturer caught up in data scandal
- Facebook’s New Data Restrictions Will Handcuff Even Honest Researchers
- Start treating private personal data on Facebook like medical data: It’s just as sensitive to nefarious manipulation
- Facebook reportedly delaying smart speaker launch in wake of data outrage: Now might not be the best time for an always-listening Facebook device.
- This Is So Much Bigger Than Facebook (Ethan Zuckerman)
- Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica problems are nothing compared to what’s coming for all of online publishing (Doc Searl)
- It’s not just Facebook. Thousands of companies are spying on you (Bruce Schneier)
- Facebook Did Not Kill Privacy, It Was Already Dead (Andres Guadamuz)
- Twitter Nukes American Attorney’s Tweet About Unflattering Depiction Of Turkish President
- The Next Cold War Is Here, And It’s All About Data
- What Are ‘Data Brokers,’ and Why Are They Scooping Up Information About You?: These sites you haven’t heard of are sharing boatloads of data about you.
- Court of Appeal considers when material posted on Facebook is published for the purposes of defamation
- Court approves website seizure and Anton Piller order against online copyright piracy platform
- Bill Expands Corporate Liability for Human Trafficking to Social Media Companies
- Personalisation in retail: what are the key legal issues?
- SESTA’s First Victim: Craigslist Shuts Down Personals Section
- Craigslist Is Shutting Down Its Personals Section
- Craigslist missed connections: The consummate Internet casualty?
- Craigslist personals, some subreddits disappear after FOSTA passage – EFF: “Online platforms will have little choice but to become much more restrictive.”
- Tweet tweet! Not so fast! Copyright Issues Ahead!
- Apple Streaming Service To Launch As Early As March 2019
- Apple may surpass $1B content budget, new shows could debut in March 2019: Around the same time that Disney plans to reveal its own streaming service.
- Apple makes iOS more school-friendly with ClassKit educational framework: New tools give teachers, students, and administrators more power in the classroom.
- Apple targets education with new iPad hardware: New iPad and Apple Pencil will be cheaper for schools, and allow teachers to use app market for education
- Analysis: New iPads will help Apple in education but probably not enough – Apple painted a beautiful picture of tech and school today in Chicago.
- How Apple Lost Its Place In The Classroom
- A critical analysis of the latest cellphone safety scare: In which we describe how we decided not to cover the newest cellphone-cancer study.
- Deep learning: Why it’s time for AI to get philosophical – For years, science fiction writers have spelled out the technological marvels and doomsday scenarios that might result from artificial intelligence. Now that it’s a part of our lives.
- Once Again, Algorithms Can’t Tell The Difference Between ‘Bad Stuff’ And ‘Reporting About Bad Stuff’
- A Window Into How YouTube Trains AI To Moderate Videos
- Workers Enlisted By YouTube For AI-Training Efforts Make 10 Cents A Task To Analyze Videos
- You won’t own copyright in photos taken with Google’s new camera
- YouTube Becomes Top-Grossing iPhone App For First Time On Strength Of YouTube Red, Super Chat
- YouTube TV Becomes Presenting Sponsor Of NBA Finals
- YouTube TV Will Be The Presenting Sponsor Of This Year’s NBA Finals
- Formula 1 starts this weekend, so where’s that new streaming service?: It apparently needs more “stress tests,” with no fixed date for a launch.
- YouTube Says It Now Reaches 80% Of All Internet Users In India
- YouTube Boxing King KSI: Unfortunately, Drama Is Always Going To Be An Eye-Catcher
- Some Creators Are Mad At YouTube Over Live Streaming Notifications
- No, YouTube’s “trolls” won’t destroy Wikipedia
- Italian Court Rules The Wikimedia Foundation Is Just A Hosting Provider For Wikipedia’s Volunteer-Written Articles
- Google starts blocking “uncertified” Android devices from logging in: Custom ROM users get a way out, but noobs with pirated apps will be out of luck.
- Google throws publishers a bone with News Initiative
- 38% Of Gen Z And Millennials Trust Digital Influencers, Says Fullscreen Study
- The Rise In Streaming Video Exclusives Could Annoy Consumers, Driving Them Back To Piracy
- You Can Pay To Watch Single Games On New Bleacher Report Streaming Service
- Endeavor Buys NeuLion In $250 Million Cash Deal
- Police chief said Uber victim “came from the shadows” – don’t believe it: YouTube videos give a different impression of the site of a deadly Uber crash.
- Uber’s Video Shows The Arizona Crash Victim Probably Didn’t Cause Crash, Human Behind The Wheel Not Paying Attention
- Arizona Bans Ub’s Autonomous Vehicles Following Pedestrian Death
- Arizona Bans Self-Driving Car Tests; Still Ignores How Many Pedestrians Get Killed
- Uber, losing $1 billion a quarter, sells its Southeast Asian business: The deal could help Uber slow 2017’s $1 billion-per-quarter burn rate.
- Uber stops AV testing “indefinitely” in California, Pennsylvania, and Toronto: Uber must provide new analysis in wake of Arizona crash if it seeks to renew.
- Why it’s time for Uber to get out of the self-driving car business: Uber’s self-driving car project would be stronger outside Uber.
- Tesla stock falls 12% on crash investigation, debt downgrade: It’s unknown if Tesla’s Autopilot was engaged at the time of the crash.
- Chrissy Teigen Becomes Third Major Celeb To Proclaim Snapchat Defection
- NBA tests micropayments livestreaming offering
- NBA Commissioner Adam Silver Details Plan To Sell Short Game Segments
- Cybersecurity Uncertainty for Cryptocurrencies
- The Dark Web’s Favorite Currency Is Less Untraceable Than It Seems
- Cannes Film Festival Shuts Netflix And Other Streamers Out Of Palme D’Or Competition
- Cannes Bans Netflix Films From Competition Because The Internet Is Bad (Or Something)
- What Oversharing On Social Media Taught Me About Parenting
- Transparency: What’s Gone Wrong with Social Media and What Can We Do About It?
- What Are Screens Doing To Our Eyes—And Our Ability To See?: Our eyes are hardening; we can barely see our phones anymore. We must learn to look at the wider world.
CREATIVITY
- Federal Court of Appeal Rejects Access Copyright Bid to Overturn Board Ruling on Insubstantial Copying, Fair Dealing (Michael Geist)
- ‘Blurred Lines’ Verdict Upheld by Appeals Court
- The ‘Blurred Lines’ Appeal Failed — Now What?
- ‘Blurred Lines’ copyright ruling is a ‘devastating blow’ and sets dangerous precedent for musicians, judge warns: Judge Jacqueline Nguyen said ‘Blurred Lines’ and Marvin Gaye’s song ‘Got To Give It Up’ ‘differed in melody, harmony and rhythm’
- Blurred Lines Between Inspiration and Infringement: Ninth Circuit Holds “Blurred Lines” Infringes Copyright
- Bob Murray Sends Judge Whiny Letter Saying That Losing Case To John Oliver Is Making People Say Mean Things To Him
- Tenth Circuit Issues A Troubling Ruling Limiting New Mexico’s Anti-SLAPP Statute In Federal Court
- TVEyes Television Watch Service Not Protected by Fair Use
- Eyeing the Line for Fair Use
- Ninth Circuit Reviews Copyright Infringement Suit Over ‘Jumpman’ Logo
- Jumpman Logo Ruling Is a Slam Dunk for Nike
- Tinder takes a swipe at Bumble with IP action
- Subject Of Unflattering News Story Gets Journalist Arrested For Criminal Harassment
- Spanish Hate/Anti-Terrorism Speech Laws Doing Little But Locking Up Comedians, Artists, And Dissidents
- UN Advisor Tells Italy To Drop Its Terrible ‘Fake News’ Law Before It Does Any Real Damage
- Trump’s Lawyer’s Lawyer Threatens Defamation Over Claims Stormy Daniels Did Not Make
- Brexit & IP: Finally, some real news…
- This Disney/Pixar Bracket Is Tearing the Internet Apart, So Tear It Some More and Show Us Yours
- What The World Would Look Like Scrubbed Free Of Advertising
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- Coalition Featuring Google, Amazon, GoDaddy and CogecoPeer1 Warn Against Canadian Site Blocking Plan: Lost Jobs, Stifled Innovation (Michael Geist)
- Outlier, Part 2: What is the CBC Doing Supporting Website Blocking? (Michael Geist)
- For Ottawa, CRTC decision marks another failed effort at fixing wireless affordability (Michael Geist)
- Back to Bains: Why the CRTC Has Left Fixing Canada’s Wireless Woes to the Government (Michael Geist)
- Religious Terms Used as Expletives Not in Violation of Broadcast Code, Says Canadian Broadcast Standards Council
- Cable Companies Warn In Court That AT&T Time Warner Merger Will Be Absolutely Terrible For Competition And Consumers
- AT&T/Verizon lobbyists to “aggressively” sue states that enact net neutrality: ISPs will sue to block net neutrality laws until they get one they like.
- Senators Say The FCC’s Broadband Maps are a Bad Joke
- FCC Adopts Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Looking to Simplify Sale of Satellite TV Stations
- FCC says it will block Chinese technology to protect national security: Huawei and ZTE gear would be banned in FCC-funded broadband projects.
- The FCC’s Evidence-Optional Blacklist Of Huawei Is About Protectionism, Not National Security
- With April Fools’ Day Coming Up, Plan Your On-Air Pranks with Care – Remember the FCC Hoax Rule
- Consolidated Net Neutrality Appeal Transferred to D.C. Circuit
- The Fall Of The TV Family In Trump’s America
- Propaganda reigns in the ‘ethical wasteland’ of mass media: Recently, I left Fox News, where I’d been at home for a decade, because I believed that its prime-time line-up had become a propaganda arm for a wanton president. – But my despair over Fox does n
- Analog Regulators Can’t Keep Up With the Digital Age
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- Kim Dotcom Wins Human Rights Tribunal Case Over Kiwi Government Withholding Info
- Second Circuit rejects fair-use defence for online service allowing users to watch Fox News content
- FBI didn’t fully know its own capabilities during showdown with Apple: FBI Office of the Inspector General offers critique of how agency handled 2016 case.
- FBI Officials Were Angry That An iPhone Hack Blocked Them From Getting Court To Force Apple To Break Encryption
- DOJ Back To Pushing For Legislation Targeting Encryption
- Feds pushing new plan for encrypted mobile device unlocks via court order: “Weakening security makes no sense,” top Apple VP tells Ars.
- Remember the Right to Be Forgotten? Google Does
- What US-Based Companies Need to Know About the GDPR, and Why Now?
- Thousands of servers found leaking 750MB worth of passwords and keys
- Atlanta city government systems down due to ransomware attack
- CIA releases rules and materials for its training board games
- CIA’s in-house board games can now be yours thanks to FOIA request: After SXSW 2017 reveal, CIA releases buckets of marked-up board game design notes.
Jon