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Freedom of Thought outline, as promised…

By Jon Festinger on September 4, 2019

In class I said I would post my first outline for a text (and perhaps also a course) on Freedom of Thought in the Digital Age. Many of the issues outlined here will show up in various forms and guises as we explore the Video Game Law course. Should you wish to share any thoughts on the subject broadly or the specifics outlined or make any suggestions, I would be excited to receive them. Click on the image to see it all.

Jon

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Willy Duhen: Class 1 Guest

By Jon Festinger on September 4, 2019

A huge thanks to Dr. Willy Duhen of Activision for speaking to our first class of the year on the (dominant) international aspects of Video Game Law as practiced on a day to day basis.

Willy is currently Senior Manager, Legal – International with Activision Blizzard and is based in London, U.K. He is lawyer with over 10 years of experience both in-house and in government/academia working on a wide range of topics, including data protection and privacy, commercial, distribution, marketing, public policy and regulatory matters. Prior to his time at Activision Blizzard he was European Privacy Counsel – Legal for Electronic Arts. He has also been an Assistant Professor at the Aix-Marseille Law School in Paris and Aix-Marseille, France.

Jon

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A history of the course via podcast (if you’re interested)

By Jon Festinger on September 3, 2019

As I generally don’t spend more than a few minutes talking about where the course came from, and even less time talking about my background. If you find yourself at all curious about the origins of Video Game Law as both a book and course, you can find the story here (click on the image)…

Jon

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Welcome 12th Cohort of Video Game Law @Allard

By Jon Festinger on September 3, 2019

Looking forward to learning together starting tomorrow. Welcome. It should be an interesting semester as the video game world is wrestling with some important legal and ethical issues. From loot-boxes to antitrust to sexual assaults, the news is not all good and IMHO the signs of self-defeating immaturity are far too prevalent. If there is a core question to contemplate as we go forward it might be “What are the best choices the industry can make to “grow up” and not just “go corporate”? Don’t be surprised if the deeper question that emerges as we look seriously at the issues is “Will games be fun?” Don’t forget that there are alternatives to real fun that include compelled “fun” and even addiction.

When it comes to the future of games, we live in uncertain times.

Jon

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News of the Week; August 28, 2019

By Jon Festinger on August 31, 2019

GAMES

  1. Blizzard sues over “brazen” Warcraft clone: World of Warcraft maker taking InstantFuns to court due to Glorious Saga, saying the game’s content “is almost entirely copied”
  2. New allegations of sexual assault surface against established game devs
  3. Developers sound off after abuse accusations: People across the industry offer support to victims, perspective and calls to action for the rest of their peers
  4. Tetrageddon Games developer warns women about Skyrim composer: Nathalie Lawhead says Jeremy Soule raped them, took advantage of an industry newcomer’s situation
  5. More developers come forward with accounts of emotional abuse and sexual assault: Nathalie Lawhead’s account prompts Zoë Quinn, Adelaide Gardner, more to speak out about their experiences in the industry
  6. Night in the Woods devs cut ties with Alec Holowka after abuse allegations
  7. Riot Games settles gender-discrimination class action lawsuit 
  8. Riot Games reaches preliminary settlement in class action lawsuit over gender discrimination: “Gender discrimination (in pay or promotion), sexual harassment, and retaliation are not systemic issues at Riot”
  9. Ion Fury retains controversial in-game content after all: Facial cleanser name is in, slur is out, company still donating to Trevor Project and mandating sensitivity training
  10. Sony clamps down on Vita hacking: Despite console’s slow death, Sony moves to protect its interests in Japan with anti-hacking firmware update
  11. Mixer streamers can now earn cash for recommending Xbox Game Pass
  12. Six men arrested over alleged Counter-Strike match fixing: Australian police say offences could lead to up to ten years in prison
  13. Better with the cloud? Stadia gets the “fastest” Football Manager sims
  14. Another Bad PR Sign: Indie Developer Shuns Epic Store, Saying ‘My Word Means Something’
  15. Darq developer offers Epic revenue to charity if given non-exclusivity: Unfold Games offers to let the gaming community choose which organisation would receive donations
  16. Australian police make arrests as part of investigation into esports match fixing
  17. Twitch’s cuts of payments to esports teams is benefiting YouTube
  18. OG wins Dota 2’s International for second straight year: Valve’s premiere esports competitions sees back-to-back champs for the first time
  19. Benjamin ‘DrLupo’ Lupo Inks Multi-Year Equity Deal With Esports Conglomerate ReKTGlobal
  20. Ninja defamed?
  21. Accessibility Unlocked offers support to disabled developers in Australia and New Zealand: New group also wants to raise more awareness about accessibility issues for players
  22. Restoring trust in Star Wars Battlefront II: Design director Dennis Brännvall reflects on the fallout from the loot box controversy, and how DICE has won back the community
  23. DICE cancels new Battlefield V multiplayer mode to focus on eradicating bugs
  24. DICE cancels Battlefield V competitive mode to focus on bug fixes: Battlefield still bug crushing nine months after release
  25. Celebrity Entertainer Sues Over Video Game Avatar 
  26. The joyful representation of The Sims: EA Maxis senior producer Michael Duke on creating studio longevity, improving representation, and building a lasting franchise
  27. Modified DayZ receives MA15+ rating in Australia: Bohemia Interactive’s changes satisfy the Australian Classification Board
  28. Video Game Age Ratings in Online Retail: Legal Requirements for Merchants
  29. Emulator aims to keep Flash games alive and kicking after official support ends
  30. New publisher Modern Wolf commits to “ethical development practices”: UK-based indie publisher has a zero tolerance policy on crunch, will champion developers from underrepresented regions
  31. Nintendo continues marginal improvements to ethical mineral sourcing: Switch maker says it’s “putting smiles on the faces of our supply chain,” but efforts to ensure it isn’t funding human rights abuses far from complete
  32. Hands-on: The Switch Lite is a smaller, more comfortable handheld
  33. Nintendo removes credit card payment option from Wii U, 3DS eShop in EU and UK
  34. Nintendo Wii U, 3DS eShops to stop accepting credit cards in UK, EU: Credit card purchases can still be made through Nintendo accounts
  35. The future for platform holders is cooperation, not just competition | Opinion: Companies like Sony and Microsoft will always seek a competitive advantage, but the clear lines of the console wars are all but gone
  36. Microsoft’s Age of Empires studio will oversee the IP rather than develop games 
  37. Microsoft’s Age of Empires studio won’t be developing games: Shannon Loftis’ newly-created studio is focused on oversight of teams like Forgotten Empires, Relic
  38. Bungie – “We need to dispel the notion Activision was some prohibitive overlord”: Destiny 2 developer discusses whether the game’s big changes this year were related to splitting from its original publisher
  39. Google Play Store design refresh aims to boost game discoverability
  40. Game stores: you need more real-time charts!
  41. Play Ventures raises $40 million to fuel game-focused VC fund
  42. Playtika acquires Best Fiends developer-publisher Seriously
  43. Playtika acquires Best Fiends developer Seriously: Seriously’s “mobile first” entertainment strategy drove it to $69m revenue last year
  44. Grand Theft Auto V is back on top in the EMEAA charts: The drought of major new releases leaves the door open for Rockstar once again
  45. UK Charts: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe takes No. 1 (but it should be Minecraft, again) – For second week running, listing anomaly denies Minecraft top spot, despite being best-selling game for the week
  46. ISFE: EU games industry worth over €21bn – Consoles account for 47% of revenue in France, Germany, Spain, and UK
  47. MatPat’s Alternate Reality Game ‘The Theorist Gateway’ Has Amassed 400,000 Unique Players
  48. Scopely announces Barcelona and Dublin expansion: Just two years since opening Barcelona office, mobile dev plans to triple its presence in the city
  49. Razer and Tencent partner to further cloud gaming ambitions
  50. Tencent partners with Razer for cloud gaming hardware, overseas expansion: Collaboration aims to have gaming hardware compatible with Tencent Cloud launched by year’s end
  51. Play Ventures closes first funding round at $40m: Led by Rovio investment, VC fund raises $10m more than initial targets
  52. Hatch and Vodafone partner to bring 5G mobile game streaming to Germany
  53. Valve tweaks bug bounty program after ‘mistakenly’ turning away researchers
  54. Valve says turning away researcher reporting Steam vulnerability was a mistake
  55. Steam no longer allowing payments in Argentinian pesos: Storefront error cites “government laws,” but currency depreciation may be at the heart of payment block
  56. Ubisoft exec claims Valve needs to modify Steam’s ‘unrealistic’ business model
  57. Ubisoft exec criticises Steam’s “unrealistic” business model: “It doesn’t reflect where the world is today in terms of game distribution,” says VP of partnerships and revenue
  58. “I spent 300 days on the road last year meeting developers”: Meet Kowloon Nights, the games fund that wants its partners to leave it behind
  59. LCG Entertainment relaunches Telltale Games brand: New owners are “working very hard” to avoid mistakes of previous management
  60. Telltale Games, the studio behind The Walking Dead, has been reanimated
  61. Like a zombie, the Telltale brand is coming back from the dead
  62. Warner Bros. Interactive to Open San Diego Studio Focused on Mobile Games
  63. Warner Bros. forms new free-to-play mobile studio in San Diego
  64. Warner Bros opens new mobile studio in San Diego: Branch will be led by Boston studio boss Tom Casey and specialise in free-to-play games
  65. Using UI as a means to tell a story, convey emotion, and create personality
  66. Video: A soft skills survival guide for game developers
  67. Video: The three phases of designing Episode’s interactive fiction
  68. Video: Inside the transmedia storytelling of Final Fantasy XV
  69. Fumito Ueda on weaving empathy into victory in Shadow of the Colossus
  70. 20 years after Seaman, Saito reflects on creativity and making new, strange things
  71. World of Warcraft is hearthing back home again with Classic
  72. Ancestors – The Humankind Odyssey: Critical Consensus – Patrice Désilets’ Panache Digital leaves the critics intrigued and ultimately frustrated with a unique game that refuses to hold the player’s hand
  73. Don’t Miss: Taking the sting out of failure in Supergiant’sPyre
  74. Don’t Miss: The story behind Remedy’s viral dog mocap star
  75. Don’t Miss: How Remedy rewrote its engine tech to makeAlan Wake
  76. Don’t Miss: Creating the free-flowing text conversations inMr. Robot:1.51exfiltrati0n
  77. How we balanced our game for beginners and for pros
  78. Blending comedy with capitalism in The Outer Worlds: Obsidian’s senior designer Brian Heins also discusses why tougher moral choices are more interesting
  79. Bhad Bhabie Joyriding Game ‘Ride or Die!’ Geared Around Stealing Cars, Outrunning Cops
  80. Bhad Bhabie Pacts With BBTV Interactive On Mobile Car Game ‘Ride Or Die!’
  81. Blog: Creating Merchant of the Skies from announcement to Early Access launch
  82. Blog: A primer on sound design for video games
  83. Blog: Depiction of war in games – can you do better?
  84. Blog: Second looks at snowballing
  85. Creating a narrative focused mission design document: A Last of Us example
  86. ‘Why all of our games look like crap’: One dev’s lessons in art style
  87. Review: Control is Remedy’s best game yet—and a ray tracing masterpiece
  88. C’mon and SLAM: How Oculus tackled portable, 6DOF tracking for the Quest
  89. Oculus’ former head of mobile VR has left Facebook
  90. Oculus VR loses its head of mobile: Max Cohen left this month, after leading Gear VR, Oculus Go, and starting push toward Oculus Quest
  91. Indie Dev Experiment Brings Google Lens to VR, Showing Real-time Text Translation
  92. VRGO Mini is Small Form Factor VR Locomotion Peripheral, Kickstarter Now Live
  93. Telling Lies: Critical Consensus: Her Story creator Sam Barlow delivers critically acclaimed follow-up, but Telling Lies still lives in the shadow of its predecessor
  94. PlayStation Productions joins the Uncharted movie as another director exits
  95. PlayStation Productions is now working on the Uncharted movie: Sony’s new unit joins the producing team after film project loses yet another director
  96. Metro 2033 movie in the works: Gazprom Media producing a feature film based on the novel that spawned 4A Games’ post-apocalyptic shooter franchise
  97. Staffsource: Ars staffers reminisce on the games that made them gamers
  98. The ten best console racing games of all time
  99. Our favorite gaming studios, expos, museum exhibits—in a photo blowout
  100. First International Gaming Summit on Mental Health set for October
  101. Gamescom: Opening Night Live attracts 500,000 viewers – Another record-breaking year for Gamescom is topped off by newfound digital engagement of 100 million video views
  102. U.S. Patent no. 9,656,167: Pre-play and post-play video game character presentation and equipping 

DIGITAL

  1. Alphabet’s legal chief, David Drummond, comes under the spotlight following new allegations about his personal conduct
  2. My Time at Google and After
  3. Ex-Google Staffer Says After Split With Chief Legal Officer David Drummond: ‘Hell Does Not Begin To Capture My Life’
  4. Google defends tracking cookies—some experts aren’t buying it
  5. Google Play app with 100 million downloads executed secret payloads
  6. Former Google engineer Levandowski indicted for stealing trade secrets
  7. Top MPAA Lawyer, Mastermind Behind Its Plan To Attack The Internet, Arrested On Blackmail And Sexual Assault Charges
  8. Facebook likely knew about Cambridge Analytica much earlier than we thought
  9. Facebook bans ads from The Epoch Times after huge pro-Trump buy: By hiding its multimillion-dollar dark money ad spend, the organization bypassed Facebook’s political advertising transparency rules.
  10. Facebook’s Weird Pointless Auditless Audit Of Political Bias On Its Platform
  11. Russian Troll Farm Tries Again To Sue Facebook, Despite Having Its Original Complaint Dismissed On 230 Grounds
  12. Ninth Circuit Releases Another Important CDA Section 230 Opinion With Broad Application – Automated Content Recommendation and Notification Tools Do Not Make Social Site the Developer of User Posts 
  13. Gutting Section 230 Will Harm The Most Marginalized
  14. Decision to Dismiss Suit Seeking to Hold Facebook Liable for Hamas Attacks Affirmed by the Second Circuit
  15. Internet Presence Creates Exposure For Discrimination Claims Under California Law 
  16. California State Court Tosses Spam Suit
  17. Facebook tightens rules for U.S. political advertisers ahead of 2020 election
  18. Ninth Circuit Denies En Banc Re-Hearing of Facebook First Amendment Challenge—TCPA Constitutionality Fight Headed to the Supremes? 
  19. Guy Sues Facebook For Violating Basically All The Laws, For Shutting Down His Account And For Everything Else Bad Facebook Has Ever Done
  20. Tracking online hate groups reveals why they’re resilient to bans
  21. Australia plans to block sites hosting extremist content during attacks
  22. YouTube disables 210 accounts spreading misinformation about Hong Kong
  23. Google shutters more than 200 YouTube channels amid Hong Kong protests
  24. YouTube Disables 210 Channels For Spreading Misinformation About Hong Kong Protests
  25. YouTube is now labeling videos in Hong Kong uploaded by publishers with government or public funding
  26. Amid Objective Content Controversies, Susan Wojcicki Defends “Openness” Of YouTube Platform
  27. Google Agrees To Meet With The YouTubers Union, But Says It Won’t “Negotiate Their Demands”
  28. The YouTube Radicalization Pipeline Exists, And It’s Driving Users Toward Increasingly Alt-Right Content (Study)
  29. YouTube Expands New “Borderline Content”-Hunting Algorithm To The U.K.
  30. China (Yes, China) Complains About Attack On Its ‘Free Speech Rights’ After Twitter/Facebook Boot Propaganda Accounts
  31. Twitter Says No More Ads From State-Controlled News Media
  32. Book publishers sue Audible to stop new speech-to-text feature
  33. YouTube Updates Child Safety Policies To Remove Adult-Themed Videos Aimed At Kids
  34. YouTube flags robot battle videos as “animal fights”
  35. Probably Speech, Maybe Free: Toward a Probabilistic Understanding of Online Expression and Platform Governance – Applying a probablistic statistical framework to First Amendment questions (Mike Ananny)
  36. Macron claims deal to end digital service tax fight with the US
  37. Why Is MLB Claiming Revenue From Obviously Fair Use Videos On YouTube?
  38. PewDiePie reaches 100m subscribers: Long-running YouTuber is the first individual to achieve this milestone
  39. PewDiePie Hits 100 Million Subscribers, And Surprisingly, YouTube Pays Him Tribute
  40. YouTube Embraces PewDiePie After Two-Year Cold Shoulder, Congratulates Him On 100 Million Subs
  41. YouTuber Olly Thorn Raises $100,000+ By Livestreaming Shakespeare Readings 24/7 For 4 Days
  42. Netflix-like pirate sites offered more video than the real Netflix, feds say
  43. Netflix To Screen Scorsese’s $159 Million ‘The Irishman’ And 9 Other Films In Theaters This Fall
  44. Anti-vaxxer livestreamed alleged assault on pro-vaccine lawmaker
  45. James Charles Leaks Own Nude Photo Amid AT&T Hack Affecting Several Creators
  46. IP Legal Considerations for Live Streaming
  47. NY Times Goes Off On Amazon Because Some People Are Publishing Fake George Orwell Books
  48. Hundreds of “banned” goods still for sale on Amazon, report finds
  49. Amazon Prime Video Signs Distribution Deal With Altice Europe
  50. EU data economy: legal, ethical & social issues
  51. Agreement Amongst Competition Authorities of the G7 Countries on the Digital Economy
  52. California arms traffickers used Snapchat to market illegal weapons: Recent investigations show that in the Bay Area, social media is playing a significant role in firearms sales
  53. Snapchat Turns to Sneaker Culture in New ‘Kick Life’ Original Series: Dedicated to exploring what it truly means to be a sneakerhead.
  54. TikTok Reportedly Piloting New Ad Product, An Audience Network, In Asia
  55. What3words Is A Clever Way Of Communicating Position Very Simply, But Do We Really Want To Create A Monopoly For Location Look-ups?
  56. Apple’s $44 Billion Drop Shows Growing Cost of Reliance on China
  57. Maybe don’t keep your Apple Card in a leather wallet, Apple warns
  58. Spotify matches Apple Music’s 3-month trial
  59. Eminem’s music publisher claims Spotify owes millions in royalties for ‘Lose Yourself’ and other songs
  60. Audiomack Announces Official Partnership With Warner Music Group: The streaming service’s first deal with a major label will focus on identifying and elevating new talent
  61. Lululemon Launches ‘Sweatlife’ Podcast in Partnership With Makers
  62. FameBit Founders Raise $2.2 Million For Podcast Advertising Startup ‘Podcorn’
  63. NAD Gives Online Review Promotion a Negative Grade
  64. Bosch Pulls Social Media Post Over Charges of Sexism
  65. Companies Are Not Complying With the Safe Harbor Provision of the DMCA 
  66. Section 230 Protects HOA for Publishing Meeting Minutes–Eagle Ridge Townhouse Ass’n v. Snapp (Eric Goldman)
  67. Thinking About Restricting Online Reviews? FTC: Think Again
  68. Building Buzz: Facebook Dominates In Audience Views for Three Highly-Anticipated TV Shows Coming This Fall
  69. Why people keep falling for viral hoaxes
  70. Nashville Trump Supporter Fired Over Facebook Post Wins Trial
  71. Instagram, Facing Pressure From Facebook, Is Testing Back-To-Back Ads In Stories (Report)
  72. Facebook is developing a new standalone Snapchat-like messaging app called ‘Threads’
  73. Facebook Is Developing ‘Threads,’ An Instagram-Adjacent Messaging App That Automatically Shares Location, Battery Life Data (Report)
  74. What’s not to like about Instagram’s latest test? 
  75. Opinion: With This Statement, I Give Notice That Instagram Owns Your Soul – People posting a pseudo-legal declaration may believe they’re in a two-way dialogue with the company. The opposite is true.
  76. YouTube TV To Sell Add-Ons For AMC-Owned Acorn TV, Urban Movie Channel
  77. Beauty Giant Estée Lauder Now Allots 75% Of Its Digital Marketing Budget To Influencers
  78. ASA rules against BetIndex Ltd
  79. Vevo announces new ROUNDS urban series
  80. Alleged “snake oil” crypto company sues over boos at Black Hat
  81. Company Sues Blackhat Because People Mocked Their Sponsored Presentation And Called It Snake Oil
  82. Judge savages self-proclaimed bitcoin inventor Craig Wright
  83. FTC Permanently Bans Operators of Cryptocurrency MLM 
  84. 3 Key Takeaways: Emerging Issues & Trends: Blockchain for In-House Counsel
  85. The Circuitous International Travel of Your Data
  86. No longer up in the air? Cloud transaction regulations are released
  87. Bernie Su’s Livestreamed Interactive Sci-Fi Series ‘Artificial’ Brings Twitch Its First Emmy
  88. Protocols, Not Platforms: A Technological Approach to Free Speech
  89. The Barlowian Internet: The Faults Of The Internet Are Also Its Opportunity, But It’s Up To Us To Embrace Them

A.I.

  1. Singularity: how governments can halt the rise of unfriendly, unstoppable super-AI
  2. Do Citizens Have A Right To See The Algorithms Used By Publicly-Funded Software?
  3. Why We Should Teach Kids to Call the Robot ‘It’: As a new generation grows up surrounded by artificial intelligence, researchers find education as early as preschool can help avoid confusion about robots’ role
  4. Music to regulators’ ears? Antitrust, RPM, and AI
  5. Robotic thread is designed to slip through the brain’s blood vessels: Magnetically controlled device could deliver clot-reducing therapies in response to stroke or other brain blockages.
  6. 2019: A Bot Odyssey 
  7. The rise of CGI influencers: getting real about the virtual within the fashion industry
  8. In Memoriam: My Dear Friend and Colleague Ian Kerr (Michael Geist)

COMMUNICATIONS

  1. The Cultural Lobby Demands for Internet Taxes and Fees: The Forgotten Piece in Canada’s Lower Wireless and Internet Cost Puzzle (Michael Geist)
  2. DOJ’s plan to make Dish the fourth major carrier has a fatal flaw
  3. The FCC has no idea how many people don’t have broadband access
  4. Insights: You Can’t Always Get The Bandwidth You Want, But You’re Probably Getting The Bandwidth You Need
  5. FCC Does Something Right: Proposes Making Suicide Prevention Hotline A Three Digit Number
  6. NY Investigates Frontier Communications As US Telcos Slowly Implode
  7. When a Broadcast Advertiser Becomes A Political Candidate, What is a Station to Do? 
  8. FCC Seeks Comment on Verizon Petition for Declaratory Ruling on County’s Recurring Fees for Small Wireless Facilities in Public-Rights-of-Way
  9. Cable industry fights plan to require robocall-detection technology
  10. Anti-Robocalling Principles Established by State Attorneys General
  11. Anti-Robocall Principles Agreed to by Carriers and State AGs 
  12. State attorneys general and carriers announce collaboration to stem illegal robocalls 
  13. State attorneys general work with telecom giants to address robocalls
  14. US phone carriers make empty, unenforceable promises to fight robocalls
  15. FCC Charges Stations With Unlawful Use of Emergency Alerts in Promos and Programming
  16. New UK Regime for Telecoms Contract Changes and What To Expect in Ireland 

PRIVACY

  1. Limitation Period for Damages Claims under Personal Information Protection Act (Alberta)
  2. Millions Of Biometric Records Collected By Companies And Governments Left Exposed On The Web
  3. How insurance companies are fueling a rise in ransomware attacks
  4. Ninth Circuit Says Warrantless Device Searches At The Border Must Be Limited To Searches For Contraband
  5. Ring has more than 400 police “partnerships,” company finally says
  6. Unrollme Inc. Settles with FTC Over Allegedly Deceptive Email Practices 
  7. FTC Unrolls Settlement Over Privacy Violations
  8. Rogue ‘Smart’ Ovens Again Highlight How Dumb Tech Is Often The Smarter Choice
  9. Cuckoo for Cookies 
  10. Interlopers in Things? IoT devices may be used as backdoors to your network
  11. CCPA Privacy FAQs: If a business receives a data subject access request, does it have to provide the specific pieces of personal information that it collected about the consumer?
  12. Mitigating Franchisor Exposures for Systemwide GDPR Compliance through Cyber Insurance
  13. The Myth of Consumer Security (Bruce Schneier)

CREATIVITY

  1. Jeffrey Epstein Used a Bullet and a Dead Cat to Intimidate Vanity Fair Editor Graydon Carter: Report
  2. Why ‘Vanity Fair’ Story Left Out Abuse Allegations Against Epstein
  3. State Rep Tries To Bring Criminal Harassment Charges Against Journalists For Being Journalists
  4. Missouri Attorney General Claims The First Amendment Allows Him To Withhold Public Records
  5. SLAPP Threats Don’t Even Need To Become Lawsuits To Be Effective: Cop Gets Columnist Fired For Pointing To Picture Of Him With Racists
  6. New Government Documents Reveal That Backpage Was Actively Helping Law Enforcement Track Down Traffickers
  7. Court Rejects Plaintiff’s Attempt To Seal His Entire Lawsuit Against A Website That Publishes Court Documents
  8. District Court: No negligent misrepresentation claims in smart TV privacy suit 
  9. Don’t Let The Bret Stephens Bite: NY Times’ Hypocritical ‘Free Speech’ Columnist Flips Out After Being Called A Bedbug
  10. Rutgers Forces LA High School To Change Logos Due To Its ‘R’ Trademark
  11. The Man With the Tiger (and Snake) Tattoo Redux
  12. Canadian Brewery Changes Name Of Brew Due To Peanut Butter Company Bully That Doesn’t Ship In Canada
  13. The Patent And Trademark Office Is Apparently Branching Out Into The Immigration Enforcement Business
  14. Never again advertising with women who do not know how to park cars and men who are incapable of raising children?
  15. 4 lessons from the ASA’s first bans on sexist ads 
  16. The Estate of Stanley Kauffmann v. Rochester Institute of Technology
  17. New York State Bans Floating Digital and Flashing Billboards
  18. Planning to Use Digitally Altered Photos of Your Competitor’s Product in Your Advertising?

Jon

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News of the Week; August 21, 2019

By Jon Festinger on August 26, 2019

GAMES

  1. Why It’s So Hard to Stop Marketing Guns in Video Games: Video games don’t cause mass shootings, but they do serve as insidious advertisements for weapons.
  2. YouTube sues alleged copyright troll over extortion of multiple YouTubers: Chris Brady seemed to target the Minecraft community, according to the suit
  3. YouTube Sues User Who Allegedly Tried To Extort ‘Minecraft’ Creators By Filing Fraudulent Copyright Claims
  4. After canceling one upgrade, Minecraft gets another—and it’s Nvidia RTX exclusive
  5. Blizzard v Bossland Saga: a UK post-credits scene on account of profits
  6. DayZ has ban lifted in Australia following modification
  7. Ion Fury developers apologize for sexist, ableist, homophobic, transphobic remarks: Voidpoint pledges zero-tolerance policy, sensitivity training, game patch, and donation to The Trevor Project
  8. Ubisoft Entertainment, S.A. et al v. Yousician Oy
  9. PewDiePie Enters Nth Evolution Of His YouTube Channel, “Just Wants To Play ‘Minecraft’”
  10. Survey highlights culture of overwork and toxicity in UK games industry: Entertainment union boss describes results as “damning indictment” of industry’s problems
  11. Denuvo 6.0 has been cracked
  12. Denuvo launches new mobile game security solution to help devs prevent tampering
  13. Denuvo launches new mobile game security solution: Mobile Game Protection prevents debugging, reverse engineering, and changing the game
  14. Google Stadia exclusives push potential players to data centers
  15. Cyberpunk 2077, more games coming to Google Stadia: Stadia Connect reveals more titles for Google’s upcoming cloud streaming service
  16. Cyberpunk 2077, exclusive Orcs Must Die 3, and many more now headed to Stadia
  17. Robot Entertainment CEO: Orcs Must Die 3 “would not be possible without Google” – Patrick Hudson explains the decision to make the latest Orcs Must Die entry a Stadia-exclusive
  18. 85 Google Play apps with 8 million downloads forced fullscreen ads on users
  19. Google Play Store’s blindingly white redesign starts rolling out
  20. Apple delays new rules around data tracking in kids’ games: “We aren’t backing off on this important issue, but we are working to help developers get there”
  21. Report: Apple Arcade monthly subscription will cost $4.99
  22. Report: Apple Arcade will cost just $4.99 a month
  23. UK Charts: Crash Team Racing still No.1 (but it should be Minecraft) – Best-selling sandbox game just about outsold remastered racer, but listings quirk puts it lower in the Top 10
  24. Mojang ends development on Minecraft’s Super Duper Graphics Pack: Microsoft working with Nvidia to bring ray-tracing to Minecraft on PC
  25. Nvidia’s gaming business sees growth thanks to graphics demands
  26. Loot Crate files for bankruptcy, lays off over 50: Employees report no notice or severance despite promises that “operations will continue as usual”
  27. How Ark: Survival Evolved “fell into sustainable revenue” without skins or loot boxes
  28. Gears 5 “ahead of the industry” on monetising without loot boxes: Multiplayer design director Ryan Cleven says The Coalition has been working on “player-friendly” purchase systems since Gears of War 4
  29. Respawn devs roped into Reddit feud with fans over Apex Legends loot box furore: Respawn apologizes for comments made by developers toward players in response to loot box anger
  30. Respawn at the Apex of community dysfunction | Opinion: Fans and developers say they want an open, transparent relationship with each other, but their actions suggest anything but
  31. Embrace Fans: How One Mystery Modder Has Kept System Shock 2 Playable
  32. Section 230 Doesn’t Protect Print-on-Demand Vendor–Atari v. Sunfrog (Eric Goldman)
  33. Supreme Court Asked to consider section 230
  34. Herrick v. Grindr: Why Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act Must be Fixed
  35. Nintendo clamps down on YouTube game music channels: One channel received over 140 copyright claims against their videos
  36. Nintendo Hates You: Company DMCAs Over 100 Videos Celebrating Nintendo Game Music
  37. NPD: Nintendo sweeps July, though Madden takes the crown – “Fire Emblem Three Houses” saw the largest launch of a Fire Emblem game in US history
  38. Turning the Nintendo Switch into Android’s best gaming hardware
  39. Report: Nintendo continues its 2019 domination in hardware and software
  40. Guidemaster: The best Nintendo Switch accessories you can buy in 2019
  41. Microsoft contractors listened to user audio from Xbox consoles: Both deliberate and accidental Cortana, Kinect commands were recorded and heard, most reportedly from children
  42. Xbox Game Studios-published Ori and the Blind Forestheaded to Switch
  43. Xbox expands Nintendo Switch support with Ori and the Blind Forest
  44. Xbox open to some first-party games appearing on other consoles
  45. Microsoft has “no plans” to release more Xbox exclusives on PS4 or Nintendo Switch: Company says the focus is on its own platforms
  46. Don’t Miss: A look back at the development of Ori and the Blind Forest
  47. Don’t Miss: Surrendering control and trusting in players with Her Story
  48. Mojang partners with Nvidia to bring real-time ray tracing to Minecraft
  49. Kerbal Space Program 2 will take flight in 2020—here’s the first trailer
  50. You’re Not Helping: ESPN Delays ‘Apex Legends’ Broadcast After 2 Mass Shootings
  51. Echo Fox terminates its League of Legends players’ contracts
  52. Echo Fox lays off League of Legends players as franchise slot sale moves forward: Riot Games taking applications for new partner in league slot following dispute between Echo Fox founder and shareholder
  53. ELeague to broadcast Nintendo 2019 World Championships on CBS: Three-episode series to air summer competitions in Splatoon 2, Super Mario Maker 2, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
  54. Gfinity Esports Australia shutting down this November: Esports tournament organiser ceasing operations after two years
  55. Rapper Offset Tenders Investment In Leading Esports Collective FaZe Clan
  56. The onslaught of regulation against games and esports | Opinion: Legal experts at Reed Smith reflect on the scrutiny the industry is under, and how the European Esports Federation might offer hope
  57. Underneath The International’s $33m prize pool, a flawed system in continuous need of repair
  58. Making money out of E-Sports Opportunities
  59. YouTube Millionaires: The Leaderboard Is Building An Inclusive Destination For Gamers Of All Sorts
  60. Sony open to PC versions of PlayStation exclusives
  61. Sony-owned studios may lean into a wider, non-PlayStation install base in the future
  62. Sweating the details of diversity in Marvel’s Spider-Man
  63. Sony announces it’s buying Spider-Man developer Insomniac Games
  64. Spider-Man developer Insomniac acquired, joins Sony Worldwide Studios
  65. Sony acquires Insomniac Games: Insomniac’s Spider-Man, a PS4-exclusive, has now sold over 13m copies
  66. Sony Acquires Insomniac Games, Delivering a Strategic Blow to Oculus Studios in the Process
  67. Insomniac Games acquired by Sony, calls out “a special relationship”
  68. ‘No Man’s Sky’ VR Review – A Wonderful, Deeply Flawed Space Odyssey
  69. Guidemaster: 2019’s best VR is a battle between Oculus Quest, everyone else
  70. Phoenix Labs acquires Bot School Inc: Dauntless developer invests further in cross-platform efforts
  71. Phoenix Labs acquires Bot School Inc to further Dauntlesscross-play efforts
  72. Epic apologises following release of re-skinned cosmetic item: Players refunded after complaints that new battle pet is nearly indistinguishable from previously released one
  73. Epic Games opens new Cologne studio with Factor 5 founders  
  74. Epic Games rolls out new store features as Cologne studio opens doors
  75. Epic Games and Factor 5 founders opens new studio in Cologne: Unreal firm’s third German branch will focus on interactive media and streaming technology
  76. Despite complaints, Epic stands behind Fortnite’s “anyone can win” mechs
  77. Epic Games Store rolls out more cloud save support, flashier store pages
  78. Unfold Games, studio behind DARQ, turns down Epic Games Store exclusivity deal
  79. DARQ dev highlights “double standard” of Epic Game Store: Unfold Games explains decision to turn down exclusivity deal
  80. Why one PC developer turned down the security of Epic’s exclusivity offer
  81. ReadySet Heroes is the first Sony-published game to debut on Epic’s Games Store
  82. Cracks Showing In Epic Store’s PR War As Developers Have To Plead With Public To Not Harass Them
  83. Sony publishes ReadySet Heroes on Epic Games Store: Robot Entertainment’s action-adventure title is the first Sony-published title on the storefront
  84. Steam’s ‘Follower’ counts: A discoverability gem hidden in plain sight
  85. Steam is heading to China as a separate marketplace
  86. Government regulation means Steam China will be a curated platform
  87. My.Games is launching its own PC video game storefront
  88. Klang Games raises over $22m in Series B funding for persistent MMO Seed
  89. Starbreeze posts $6.6 million loss amid ongoing reconstruction 
  90. Starbreeze attempts to stop Q2 FY19 bleeding with one-time revenue injections
  91. Ubisoft on politics in games: “We know we’re not taking it far enough” – Editorial VP Tommy François says he wants future games to better represent multiple viewpoints on the world
  92. Stop asking “is it political?” It always is | Opinion: Asking developers if their games are “political” has become an exercise in avoiding outrage; there are better ways to explore this complex, important question
  93. Bungie says current Destiny 2 development is “unsustainable”
  94. Activision Blizzard appoints its first-ever corporate-wide CMO
  95. GOG has fulfilled two million Community Wishlist requests: Digital distributor celebrates milestone, ten years after launching programme
  96. Fire Emblem Three Houses sold an estimated 800k digital units in July – SuperData: GTA Online Diamond Casino update brings in $69m across console and PC, PUBG sells another 1m units on PC
  97. Microsoft has no plans to bring Xbox first-party exclusives to other consoles
  98. Report: Microsoft used human contractors to listen in on Xbox-recorded audio
  99. PUBG is rolling out console crossplay to Xbox One and PS4 this year
  100. DuckTales makes a staggering last-minute comeback in EMEAA charts: Disney platformer rockets to No.3 before being delisted from stores 
  101. Report: Mortal Kombat 11 leads the way in second-quarter video game engagement
  102. Ubisoft rebrands its German studios: Blue Byte studios to become Ubisoft Düsseldorf and Ubisoft Mainz
  103. Lockwood Publishing closes funding round led by Novator, CCP Games CEO: Unity Technologies founder David Helgasson also participates, appointed chairman of the board
  104. Unity launches two new classroom tools to help teach programming  
  105. THQ Nordic AB board proposes name change to Embracer Group: Proposal would separate holding company’s nomenclature from that of subsidiary publisher
  106. My.Games to launch new PC gaming storefront: Mail.ru gaming division to distribute free-to-play and premium PC titles and other services starting late this year
  107. What we can learn from… Warframe: From a slow start, Digital Extremes built a service game to rival Destiny, defying every convention along the way
  108. U.S. retailers and consumers get stay of execution on Trump’s China tariffs
  109. Metaari: US surpasses China as top-buying country for game-based learning – Industry revenue is expected to rise to over $24 billion by 2024
  110. Valve to keep original Steam up in China: Company plans to have its global storefront freely available in the country even after the launch of the official Steam China storefront
  111. Superhot Team aims to support ‘weird but smart’ devs with new indie fund
  112. Superhot launches indie development fund: Director of special projects Callum Underwood details how the studio is giving back to the indie community with Superhot Presents
  113. Wikia’s Fandom is getting into the game publishing business
  114. Pre-tax earnings more than double at Stillfront Group in Q2: Group posts $49.9 million revenue and $15.9 million earnings
  115. Bloodborne and Mass Effect 3 composer forms new audio production company  
  116. Bloodborne composer co-founds new audio production company: The Audio Hive roster includes veterans from The Witcher 3, God of War, and Red Dead Redemption II
  117. Halo Infinite and Halo 5: Guardians creative director has left 343 Industries
  118. Defining ‘hyper-casual’ as a genre and exploring its long-term viability
  119. Blog: Creating a questlog people actually read in Pathologic 2
  120. Blog: How I translated Ancient Greek punishment games into Bitsy 
  121. Blog: Implementing data structures – Part 2
  122. Don’t Miss: A deep dive into the ‘old school’ save system ofAlien: Isolation
  123. Video: Inside the flexible music system of Plants vs. Zombies Heroes
  124. Don’t Miss: Designing Spider-Man 2’s classic web-swinging mechanic
  125. Designing communities for kindness
  126. Video: Designing multiplayer ranking systems like Elo and TrueSkill
  127. Video: Great game audio choreography for battle design
  128. Video: Designing for color blindness in games
  129. Video: Think you’re ready to pitch a publisher? You’re not, and here’s why
  130. Borderlands 3’s secret weapon is in the writers’ room: At Devcom, Gearbox Software’s Randy Varnell detailed the creation of a “narrative department” to meet the challenge of Borderlands 3
  131. Remastering Yakuza for the modern world: Series producer Daisuke Sato discusses how and why the newly announced remasters have been changed in various ways
  132. How positive relationships and slow, steady progress keep Raconteur Games smiling
  133. Engaging level design for combat
  134. Growing into Growtopia: Ubisoft Abu Dhabi head Yannick Theler talks about building a new studio in a non-traditional development scene
  135. From concept to doubt to reevaluation: Designing Creature in the Well
  136. GameStop lays off 120+ people, including some Game Informer staff
  137. GameStop lays off 120 corporate staffers as stock continues to tumble
  138. GameStop suffers another round of layoffs, Game Informer editors affected
  139. Game Informer lays off ‘many’ staff: Now-former employees break the news about cuts at GameStop-owned magazine
  140. What will be the biggest video games of Christmas 2019?: In the absence of Battlefield and Assassin’s Creed, there’s a big opportunity for alternative franchises to break through this Q4
  141. Sony, Ubisoft receive multiple honors in Gamescom Awards 2019
  142. U.S. Patent No. 7,717,789: Game program, game device, and game method 
  143. Guidemaster: Navigating the hazy world of gaming laptops in 2019
  144. Remembering the best shareware-era DOS games that time forgot
  145. Ars Technica’s favorite video games from our first 10 years, 1998-2008

DIGITAL

  1. Latest ‘Google Whistleblower’ To Prove Anti-Conservative Bias Doesn’t Prove Anything And Appears To Be Bigoted Conspiracy Theorist
  2. Facebook audit of alleged anti-conservative bias fails to pinpoint any
  3. Facebook, Twitter accuse China of spreading Hong Kong disinformation
  4. Facebook and Twitter uncover Chinese trolls spreading doubts about Hong Kong protests: Close to 1,000 accounts were found on Twitter alone
  5. Twitter and Facebook say China-linked accounts sought to fuel political discord in Hong Kong: Twitter said it  pulled down 936 troll accounts, many of which pushed conspiracy theories about the protest groups.
  6. Twitter and Facebook take first actions against China for using fake accounts to sow discord in Hong Kong: Social media giants taking action against a ‘significant state-backed information operation’ related to the protests
  7. Twitter, Facebook Turn Off Hundreds of Accounts Linked to Chinese Disinformation about Hong Kong Protests: In press releases, the companies say they have shut down Bejing-controlled activity.
  8. Twitter And Facebook Removing Chinese Disinfo Campaigns Shows That, Contrary To Popular Opinion, They Do Moderate Against Disinfo
  9. Google, Apple, and Mozilla block Kazakhstan government’s browser spying
  10. States reportedly plan monopoly investigation of Google, Facebook, Amazon
  11. WSJ Rightly Attacks Senator Josh Hawley’s ‘Nannyish’ Laws Regarding The Internet
  12. Another Politician Unconstitutionally Censored Constituents on Twitter–Campbell v. Reisch (Eric Goldman)
  13. How Beijing wages its media assault on the credibility of the Hong Kong protesters
  14. Hong Kong Protestors Call for Disney Boycott After ‘Mulan’ Star Voices Support for Police Crackdown
  15. Hong Kong Protestors Call for ‘Mulan’ Boycott After Star Shares Support for Police Crackdown
  16. Pushing For Facebook, YouTube And Twitter To Ban Hate Speech Won’t Stop It From Migrating Elsewhere
  17. Is There A Conspiracy Among Legacy Media Companies To Push A False Narrative About Big Tech?
  18. 8 Ways to Stay Ahead of Influence Operations: With election meddling inevitable in 2020, the United States needs a powerful kill chain.
  19. Websites that peddle disinformation make millions of dollars in ads, new study finds
  20. Cutting the Funding of Disinformation: The Ad-Tech Solution
  21. It’s On: Details Emerge Of Polish Government’s Formal Request For Top EU Court To Throw Out Upload Filters
  22. Misinformation Has Created a New World Disorder: Our willingness to share content without thinking is exploited to spread disinformation
  23. Mainland Chinese netizens face ‘pink terror’ of patriotic trolls amid Hong Kong protests
  24. ‘Humiliating’: Chinese nationalist trolls target critics in Australia
  25. Anonymous “Anonymous Cowards” are, for now, not welcome on Slashdot
  26. Altruism Still Fuels the Web. Businesses Love to Exploit It: How open source projects reveal technology’s free rider problem. (Zeynep Tufekci)
  27. Global regulation threatens to take a bite out of the FAANGs
  28. Facebook Fined Again: Real Hypothetical Risks
  29. In New Facebook Effort, Humans Will Help Curate Your News Stories
  30. Facebook Is Rolling out a Tool to Limit Data Gathering
  31. YouTube Sues Guy Who Tried To Extort People Through Bogus DMCA Takedowns
  32. Man sued for using bogus YouTube takedowns to get address for swatting: YouTube sues man for multiple egregious abuses of the DMCA takedown process.
  33. LGBTQ creators accuse YouTube of discrimination in class-action lawsuit alleging it unfairly restricts and demonetizes queer content
  34. Lawyers Who Sued YouTube For Anti-Conservative Bias Are Suing YouTube Again… For Anti-LGBTQ Bias
  35. LGBTQ+ YouTubers Allege that YouTube Engages in Discriminatory Practices
  36. Lilly Singh Talks Late-Night Production, Says Her YouTube Uploading Schedule “Won’t Be So Rigorous”
  37. ‘Spill’ Is A Drama YouTuber Who’s Gotten Nearly 1 Billion Views In 11 Months. But She Might Not Be A Real Person.
  38. YouTube Testing Mega-Sized Thumbnails On Desktop Homepage, Much To Some Users’ Chagrin
  39. YouTube Will Prevent Manual Copyright Claimants From Monetizing Creators’ Videos With “Short Or Unintentional” Uses Of Music
  40. YouTube Is Finalizing Plans To Remove Targeted Advertising From Videos Aimed At Kids (Report)
  41. YouTube will reportedly halt targeted ads for videos that appeal to kids: But how do you decide when a video is targeted at kids?
  42. YouTube Originals become ad-supported and free after September 24th
  43. YouTube’s Original Programming To Become Free For All Users On Sept. 24
  44. The Streamy Awards Pact With YouTube For Exclusive Distribution Deal, Announce Dec. 13 Showdate
  45. YouTube Is Hiring Partner Managers To Work With Conservative And Liberal News Creators
  46. YouTube No Longer Commissioning Scripted Originals In EMEA, Orders 3 Education-Focused Projects
  47. YouTube Is Axing Its Two-Year-Old Direct Messaging Feature In September
  48. YouTube Links Up With Taylor Swift For Live Event Ahead Of ‘Lover’ Album Release
  49. Google Testing Monetization Tool That Would Enable YouTubers To Host Virtual Events With Fans
  50. The death of “Works with Nest” begins now with Google account migrations
  51. The Meme Generation: Social Media Platforms Address Content Curation 
  52. NBC Gives Lilly Singh A Superpowered Welcome With Hourlong Primetime Special
  53. Asian Streamer Viu Adds Wattpad Development Deal
  54. Whitney Cummings did a brave thing
  55. Using #BrandAmbassador As Your Influencer Disclosure?
  56. Premier League Social Video Standings Look A Lot Like Typical Season’s Table
  57. Disney+, ESPN+ Subscribers Might Face Crackdowns On Password Sharing After Disney/Charter Deal
  58. Disney fights streaming account sharing with help from cable industry
  59. Disney+ is set to launch on all the major streaming platforms except Amazon
  60. Disney+ To Launch In 5 Countries On Apple, Google, Roku, Microsoft, And Sony Devices
  61. Apple TV+ will launch in November for $9.99, facing off against Disney+ at $6.99
  62. Apple sues company that sells “perfect replicas” of iOS without a license
  63. Apple Card is now available to all US iPhone owners, adds new cash-back rewards
  64. Apple delays new rules for kid-focused apps to give devs more room to comply
  65. Insights: ViacomCBS, Tumblr, And Houseparty – The Companies We Keep, And Those We Can’t
  66. Twitter tests hiding direct messages it thinks are abusive: ‘Unwanted messages aren’t fun’
  67. Comments on Rep. Gosar’s “Stop the Censorship Act,” Another “Conservative” Attack on Section 230 (Eric Goldman)
  68. A Significant Section 230 Defense Win in the Ninth Circuit–Dyroff v. Ultimate Software (Eric Goldman)
  69. Beto O’Rourke Joins The Silly Parade Of Confused Politicians Looking To Destroy Section 230
  70. Companies Are Not Complying With the Safe Harbor Provision of the DMCA 
  71. Domain Name Registrar Isn’t Liable for Counterfeit Goods–InvenTel v. GoDaddy (Eric Goldman)
  72. FTC Settles Email Lawsuit with Unrollme 
  73. Instagram to let US users report false content: Facebook-owned company seeking to stem spread of misinformation by removing dubious posts from searches
  74. What’s not to like about Instagram’s latest test?
  75. Former Texas Governor Rick Perry fell for an old-school Instagram hoax
  76. Reddit Piloting New ‘RPAN’ Livestreaming Feature Over The Next Five Days
  77. Oh, (No) Snap! CARU Praises Snapchat for Safeguarding the Underaged
  78. Moviepass Changed User Passwords So They Couldn’t Use The Flopping Service
  79. Senators Ask for Answers About the Meaning of “Amazon’s Choice”
  80. Amazon outstrips Netflix on content marketing spend
  81. What does Amazon’s “Top Brand” badge actually mean?
  82. For Barstool Sports, Podcasts Are Now Around One-Third of Revenue
  83. Spotify Is Developing A Stories Feature For Its Playlists
  84. Spotify to Test a More Expensive Version of Its Popular Music Service
  85. Ryan ToysReview, Pocket.watch To Premiere Five Specials On Roku’s Just-Launched ‘Kids & Family’ Channel
  86. Kenyan Government Risks Squandering The Long-Term Potential Of Mobile Transactions In The Hope Of A Little Extra Tax Revenue
  87. Résumés Are Starting to Look Like Instagram – and Sometimes Even Tinder: Employers see surge in Gen Z CVs containing photos and illustrations; ‘there’s a freaking bitmoji’
  88. Facebook’s Libra Currency Gets European Union Antitrust Scrutiny
  89. Law firm BakerHostetler develops blockchain-based smart legal contracts for the freight market
  90. The Past and Future of The Internet: A Symposium for John Perry Barlow (Duke Law & Technology Review)

A.I.

  1. International AI ethics panel must be independent: France and Canada are establishing an international committee to advise on the ethics of artificial intelligence. The group should be supported and shielded from undue influence.
  2. Regulating unreality | The legal implications of “deepfakes”
  3. There Is No Tech Solution to Deepfakes: Funding technological solutions to algorithmically-generated fake videos only puts a bandage on the deeper issues of consent and media literacy.
  4. Update: The Illinois Artificial Intelligence Video Interview Act 
  5. A Looming AI War: Transparency v. IP Rights
  6. Don’t Miss: How enemy AI works in Dicey Dungeons
  7. Music to regulators’ ears? Antitrust, RPM, and AI
  8. AI – top tips for the board 
  9. YouTube Reportedly Deleting Battlebot Videos Citing Animal Fighting Ban
  10. AI reads books out loud in authors’ voices

COMMUNICATIONS

  1. Telus customers’ blood boiling after two days of email outage
  2. 4-day Telus email outage caused by mishap during repair of data storage service
  3. Telus offers bill credits as email disruption hits 5th day
  4. CRTC sets final wholesale rates for access to high-speed broadband networks
  5. Bell scales back rural internet plans after CRTC decision on rates: Bell will nix 200,000 customers from expansion, Rogers says it is reviewing options 
  6. FCC Chairman Pai Formally Recommends Approval of Sprint/T-Mobile Merger and Associated Dish Requests
  7. FCC Forgets About, Then Dismisses, Complaint Detailing Verizon’s Long History Of Net Neutrality Violations
  8. FCC Expands Anti-Spoofing Prohibitions to Foreign-Originated Calls, Text-Messaging Services 
  9. How malformed packets caused CenturyLink’s 37-hour, nationwide outage
  10. Huawei Busted Helping African Governments Spy On The Press, Political Opponents
  11. Huawei’s futuristic foldable smartphone gets delayed for a second time
  12. Report: US expected to give Huawei another 90-day export license
  13. Report: United States will give Huawei another 90-day export license
  14. AT&T brings cable TV prices to online streaming with $135 monthly plan
  15. Useless dads and passive women – first ads banned under the ASA’s gender stereotyping rules
  16. A new regime for English media and communications cases

PRIVACY

  1. Privacy Rights in the Internet Age and the New Tort of Public Disclosure of Private Facts
  2. Attorney General William Barr Declares War On The General Public
  3. As The NSA Declares Phone Record Program Dead, Trump Administration Asks For A Permanent Reauthorization
  4. Ring asks police not to tell public how its law enforcement backend works
  5. California Police Officers Are Handing Out Free Doorbell Cameras In Exchange For Testimony In Court
  6. Gizmodo Media’s Clueless New Owners Tell Reporters They Can’t Use Encrypted Email Any More
  7. Ransomware strike takes down 23 Texas local government agencies
  8. While one Texas county shook off ransomware, small cities took full punch
  9. The year-long rash of supply chain attacks against open source is getting worse
  10. Microsoft bucks trend, maintains contractor reviews of voice recording
  11. Badge life: The story behind DEFCON’s hackable crystal electronic badge
  12. Kaspersky AV injected unique ID that allowed sites to track users, even in incognito mode
  13. New Attack exploiting serious Bluetooth weakness can intercept sensitive data
  14. The GDPR Is A Wide Open Vulnerability For Identity Fraud And Scams
  15. Concealed Registration Data Under the GDPR Complicates UDRP Complaints
  16. Can a company decide whether to deidentify information or delete information if it receives a ‘right to be forgotten’ request?
  17. Ninth Circuit Rejects Facebook’s Article III Argument; Biometric Lawsuit Will Proceed
  18. Facebook pivots privacy failings into pop-up cafes: The company cares about your privacy. Honestly.
  19. Ninth Circuit Affirms Ruling that Plaintiffs Have Article III Standing in Illinois Biometric Privacy Class Action
  20. Cybersecurity and the Internet of Things – is it Time to Regulate?
  21. NIST Unveils IoT Baseline of Core Cybersecurity Features for Comment 
  22. A cyberattack could wreak destruction comparable to a nuclear weapon
  23. Still much to be determined on insurance coverage after cyberattacks: Case law on coverage after social engineering fraud is sparse
  24. FCA introduces 18-month grace period for two-factor authentication for online transactions 
  25. Security Researchers Find Several Bugs in Nest Security Cameras

CREATIVITY

  1. Copyright law: set for an overhaul? – A look at the key recommendations of two recent House of Commons reports concerning Canadian copyright law
  2. SCOTUS: Full Costs in Copyright Cases Limited by General Costs Statute
  3. DOJ/Copyright Office File An Amicus Brief In Support Of Led Zeppellin
  4. Spider-Man is out of the MCU thanks to Sony/Disney standoff
  5. THE Ohio State University Applies For THE Stupidest Trademark In THE World
  6. NC Appeals Court Withdraws Its Horrendous, Free Speech-Damaging Opinion On Retaliatory Arrests
  7. Loss for Sheriff Joe Arpaio
  8. They called you a troll, deal with it—court slaps down libel lawsuit
  9. New Hampshire Supreme Court: Of Course It’s Not Defamatory To Call A Patent Troll A Patent Troll
  10. White House Suspends Another Reporter’s Press Pass, Once Again, Raising 1st Amendment Concerns
  11. Missguided Missed Deadline in Kardashian Suit
  12. Bronze, Shape, Glow: A copyright tale destined for Broadway
  13. Artist Sues Singer for Shooting then Selling Artwork
  14. National Gallery discovers hidden secrets in Leonardo painting 
  15. NDA and IP deals
  16. The Matrix 4 is officially happening with Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss

Jon

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News of the Week; August 14, 2019

By Jon Festinger on August 18, 2019

GAMES

  1. Ubisoft loses Rocksmith patent suit: Judge dismisses publisher’s claim against music tutorial software maker Yousician with prejudice
  2. Twitter Data Shows Major Increase in Gaming Engagement on Platform 
  3. US tariffs on video game consoles imported from China delayed to December
  4. US delays tariff on game consoles: Trump says extra tax on some electronic products made in China won’t go into effect until December 15 to lessen impact on holiday shopping
  5. Game revenues rise as Tencent enjoys end of China’s approvals freeze: Chinese publisher released ten mobile games in Q2 2019, compared to just one last year
  6. Tencent doubling down on season passes as mobile titles drive revenue
  7. Trump’s video game scapegoating feels downright nostalgic | Opinion: In an era when the industry’s real problems are internal and divisive, a flashback to being united against an external foe feels deceptively good
  8. Walmart pulls video game ads — but not guns — after El Paso shooting
  9. Walmart tells staff to pull violent game ads and demos, but guns still for sale
  10. Walmart Reportedly Removing Violent Game Ads, Will Still Sell Guns: Despite the lack of evidence video games cause violence.
  11. Walmart, ESPN pull violent game marketing following shootings
  12. Walmart taking down violent video game demos, displays: Signs, displays containing “violent images or aggressive behavior” removed in wake of shootings; retailer still sells guns
  13. ESPN, ABC delay Apex Legends tournament broadcast in wake of shootings
  14. ESPN, ABC pull Apex Legends tournament show in wake of mass shootings: Broadcasters say decision was made “out of respect for the victims”
  15. You’re Not Helping: ESPN Delays ‘Apex Legends’ Broadcast After 2 Mass Shootings
  16. Strauss Zelnick says if violent games caused gun violence, he wouldn’t sell them – Take-Two CEO: “I wouldn’t choose to market substances that would cause people to get sick”
  17. G2A responds to Unknown Worlds’ accusations, calling them slander
  18. G2A fudges own history in response to developer complaint: Developer retracts accusations against marketplace, but remains frustrated with key reseller
  19. Subnautica dev demands G2A pay $300,000 to cover lost chargebacks: Studio calls for controversial marketplace to honour its offer of 10x compensation
  20. Twitch links to ‘porn account’, other Fortnite streamers via Ninja’s abandoned channel
  21. Twitch backtracks after accidentally showing porn on Ninja’s old page
  22. Twitch CEO apologizes after lengthy porn stream promoted on Ninja’s old page
  23. Twitch CEO Apologizes To Ninja After His Defunct Account Was Used To Promote A Porn Stream
  24. Ninja’s New Cross-Platform Video Strategy Since Leaving Twitch For Mixer
  25. Insights: With Ninja’s Nifty Mixer Move, Live Streaming Leaps To Its Next Era
  26. Newzoo: Fans watched 81.8m hours of the Fortnite World Cup across Twitch, YouTube – Official YouTube channel beat out official Twitch channel for viewership hours during finals
  27. $3 million Fortnite winner—and his parents—become latest swatting targets
  28. UTA Signs 21-Year-Old Twitch Newcomer BrookeAB
  29. eFootball transfers: Juve and Man U snub FIFA to sign for PES 
  30. UMG Media to acquire esports event company, Activate Entertainment
  31. Statespace raises $2.5 million for esports training platform: Seed round was led by First Mark Capital, with participation from Expa, Lux Capital and WndrCo
  32. Industry veterans launch payment platform for esport tournament winnings: “We want to help publishers…be more efficient by removing their hands-on time expediting the payments,” says Prize Payments CEO
  33. Riot’s League Championship Series announces partnership with Honda
  34. Epic is being sued over a security issue that left Fortniteplayer data exposed
  35. Epic Games hit with class action suit over Fortnite security breach
  36. Australian ratings board working to completely ban DayZfor promoting cannabis
  37. DayZ refused classification in Australia after Five Star Games submission: Five Star Games has confirmed it was denied classification for DayZ’s retail release in Australia — the game is still available digitally
  38. Bohemia Interactive will modify all versions of DayZ to avoid Australia ban
  39. DayZ will be modified worldwide to lift Australian ban: Bohemia Interactive confirms it will be tweaking zombie hit to avoid isolating Australian players
  40. FTC Gathers Video Game Industry to Talk Loot Boxes 
  41. Loot boxes a matter of “life or death,” says researcher: Academics discuss their studies and concerns surrounding game monetization at FTC workshop
  42. Epic Games commits to loot box transparency across portfolio: THQ Nordic also weighs in on ESA pledges: “We do not plan to implement casino-styled mechanics in our games”
  43. Animoca Brands acquires digital collectibles marketplace Quidd for $5 million
  44. Loots details new live streaming platform for the “TikTok generation”: Monetisation firm says its Twitch rival will open up new commercial opportunities for younger streamers
  45. Valve turns to hands-on moderation to solve Steam Workshop woes
  46. Devs are now required to contact Valve for release date changes on Steam
  47. Valve addresses release date exploit for Steam’s Popular Upcoming List
  48. Valve now requires moderator approval for some Steam Workshop submissions
  49. THQ Nordic confirms new Saints Row title after strong Q1: The publisher also said that development of Dead Island 2 is now being led by Dambuster Studios
  50. THQ Nordic acquires Darksiders dev Gunfire and racing studio Milestone
  51. THQ Nordic buys Milestone Interactive for €44.9m in cash: Acquisition of Italian racing studio could almost double in value based on earnouts
  52. THQ Nordic acquires Darksiders developer Gunfire Games: Value of the deal for Gunfire’s 63 staff and IP catalogue was not disclosed
  53. THQ Nordic strengthens portfolio with Goodbye Kansas Game Invest acquisition: Goodbye Kansas Game Invest has five investments in early stage games companies, deal includes royalty rights to Biomutant
  54. Managing the evolving state of Destiny 2: ‘the game cannot grow infinitely forever’
  55. Bungie: Working on Destiny 2 “starting to wear people down” – Working practices for Annual Pass will be changed in third year to break out of “unsustainable development cycle”
  56. Report: Riot Games workforce divided on diversity and inclusion push
  57. One year later, Riot leadership, employees, say things are improving: Chief diversity officer Angela Roseboro reflects on a year of change as current and recent employees confirm efforts
  58. Ustwo: Giving creativity the attention it deserves – Ustwo Games’ CCO and CEO discuss how to not lose creative people to business meetings
  59. 2K confirms sending private investigators to Borderlands streamer’s house: A rep said the company has been investigating SupMatto for nearly a year.
  60. Take-Two investigating streamer over Borderlands 3 leaks: Publisher says Twitch and YouTube user SupMatto has “a history of profiting from infringing our copyright”
  61. Kawhi Leonard dunking on the Raptors was the only screen time they got in new NBA 2K trailer
  62. Sharkmob on balancing social responsibility against revenue: “It’s not only about taking social responsibility, it’s also about the team being proud of what they make,” says CEO
  63. Infinity Ward says Modern Warfare isn’t political, debates how it ever could be: Game’s directors stress that upcoming Call of Duty reboot focuses on “thematic things” not current politics
  64. Activision Blizzard’s Q2 net revenue falls year-over-year to $1.4 billion
  65. Activision Blizzard sees sagging sales, profit, engagement
  66. Key metrics dip for publisher in second quarter as it prioritizes investments it expects to pay off in back half of the year
  67. Activision Blizzard’s net-revenue down year-over-year in Q2 2019
  68. Imperator: Rome plus multiple game expansions lift Paradox’s Q2 – Swedish publisher posts record Q2 revenues as long-term investments begin to pay off
  69. Swedish studio Isbit Games shuts down after running out of funds
  70. Isbit Games shut down: Former CEO Ben Cousins confirms Zlatan Legends studio closed its doors in June after running out of money
  71. Fig to pay Wasteland 3, Psychonauts 2 investors lump sum following Microsoft purchase
  72. Xbox head: Cloud gaming is inevitable but ‘years and years’ away from mainstream
  73. Multi-platform games from Xbox-owned studios must ‘make sense for the franchise’
  74. Xbox considers multi-platform options for some first-party studios
  75. Microsoft: Cloud gaming is “inevitable” but “years” from mainstream
  76. Mojang cancels Minecraft’s big graphics overhaul after performance struggles
  77. Mojang ends development on Minecraft’s Super Duper Graphics Pack: Feature announced at E3 2017 “proved too technically demanding to implement as planned”
  78. After two years of delays, Minecraft’s visual upgrade has been canceled
  79. Singularity 6 secures $16.5 million to fund tech and game development
  80. Square Enix shutting down Star Ocean: Anamnesis in the West after little over a year
  81. Report: Parent company of publisher Annapurna Interactive is exploring bankruptcy 
  82. Singularity 6 lands $16.5m investment: Former Riot devs’ social simulation studio scores Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz
  83. Industry veterans launch hyper casual development outfit JaffaJam: New Zealand-based studio looks to “perfect the way free-to-play games are made and monetised”
  84. Madden 20 just about squeezes into EMEAA Charts’ Top 10: Yes, Grand Theft Auto V is still No.1
  85. EA SPORTS Madden NFL 20 Scores Early With Biggest Ever Digital Launch in Its First Week on Sale
  86. FIFA 19 and New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe are best-selling games in Europe this year: Physical sales data paints uniform picture of European consumers
  87. UK spent £1.6bn on video games in the first half of 2019
  88. NetEase revenue and profit up in Q2 following strong international performance: “We will continue exploring overseas market opportunities and growing our games business on a global scale,” says CEO
  89. Nexon profits tumble in Q2 despite rising revenues: FIFA Online 4 drove Korean market, but China was the publisher’s single biggest region
  90. Spilt Milk Studios cancels upcoming sci-fi MMO, Lazarus
  91. The Final Fantasy XIV team is reworking base game content to be ‘more compact’
  92. What Sharp’s IGZO display technology will mean for the Nintendo Switch
  93. Dr. Mario World continues to lag after first month: Mobile puzzler falls well-below bar set by previous Nintendo titles
  94. “Blast processing” in 2019: How an SNES emulator solved overclocking
  95. Discord is launching in-server streaming later this month with new ‘Go Live’ feature
  96. No More Robots: “I’m just doing D&D, but in a Discord server” – Mike Rose on the marketing tactics that drove the small publisher to $3m revenue, and why Xbox Game Pass is good for sales (for now)
  97. Growing the industry with evening-sized games: Former Chinese Room lead Andrew Crawshaw on his romantic metal-detecting adventure that explores how people define success
  98. Sean Murray calls No Man’s Sky Beyond the game’s “2.0” version—we believe it
  99. Virtual reality streaming company Vreal has closed its doors
  100. VR streaming platform Vreal shuts down and lays off staff: “We were definitely ahead of our time,” says virtual reality startup
  101. Video: Designing great room-scale VR interactions theVacation Simulator way
  102. Oculus co-founder Nate Mitchell departs Facebook
  103. Nate Mitchell leaves Oculus: Mitchell becomes the last of the VR outfit’s original co-founders to leave Facebook
  104. Blow out your knee? Hope your surgeon’s got a VR headset
  105. UCLA Surgical Training Study Shows VR Beats Traditional Training by 130%
  106. British Airways testing VR headsets for first-class passengers this year
  107. XRDC Innovation Report reveals games remain the top focus for AR/VR/MR devs
  108. Unity brings Create with Code, Unity Teach programs out of beta: Educational initiatives enter classrooms to teach coding, offer sharing platform for educators
  109. Discoverability: A ‘hot or not?’ genre guide
  110. Video: A decade of improving the approachability of fighting games
  111. Blog: Understanding the reality of game development
  112. Blog: Avoiding helplessness – The worst feeling in games
  113. Blog: The big game branding 101
  114. Blog: Lessons learned from the development of Vicious Circle
  115. Blog: 7 must-read books for game designers
  116. Blog: Ancient Greek punishments as hypertexts
  117. Blog: How music enhances virtual presence – Part 2
  118. Blog: How to make a casual mobile game
  119. Watch Age of Wonders: Planetfall’s lead dev discuss updating the series for a new age
  120. Like a boss: The secrets behind great boss design
  121. How moving from 2D to 3D shaped the design of Risk of Rain 2
  122. Creature in the Well’s limiting, limitless unknown: Flight School Studios creative director Adam Volker shares how a two-person team turned constraints into creativity
  123. How Astroneer creates an enjoyably unsafe space – Why I Love: Student game developer Aden Webb explores the mood-building design decisions of System Era’s survival sandbox
  124. Don’t Miss: How data miners shed light on P.T.’s ghost story
  125. Don’t Miss: Training players right, so they don’t hate learning to play
  126. Don’t Miss: Exploring the secret depths of Bubble Bobble’s design
  127. After 24 years at id, Tim Willits is now Saber Interactive’s chief creative officer
  128. The hottest new board games from Gen Con 2019
  129. Are We Living in a Computer Simulation? Let’s Not Find Out: Experimental findings will be either boring or extremely dangerous.
  130. U.S. Patent No. 9,259,652: Time-shifted multiplayer game 
  131. U.S. Patent No. 9,616,329: Adaptive learning system for video game enhancement 

DIGITAL

  1. White House proposal would have FCC and FTC police alleged social media censorship
  2. White House Once Again Circulating A Draft Executive Order On Social Media Bias
  3. Be Careful What You Wish For In Asking Silicon Valley To Police Speech Online
  4. Four Democratic Candidates Call on Walmart to Stop Selling Guns
  5. TikTok is fuelling India’s deadly hate speech epidemic: In small-town India, TikTok videos are a new hate speech minefield. Thousands of videos are being removed as users exploit the wild growth of the social network
  6. New Report Further Clarifies Foxconn’s Wisconsin Deal Was An Unsustainable Joke
  7. Fox News Commentator Calls For A ‘Backlash’ Against Big Tech… Because Wikileaks Released His Phone Number
  8. UK Moves To Give Regulators Power To Fine Internet Companies 5% Of Revenue If They Can’t Wave A Magic Wand And Make Bad Content Disappear
  9. If You Lament The State Of Politics Today, Lament The Loss Of Aereo
  10. Republicans suspend Twitter ad spending after boneheaded video takedown
  11. Twitter backs down, allows McConnell to post video of protestor threats
  12. What’s in a Tweet? Employer does not have to pay Settlement Funds After Grievor takes to Twitter
  13. Twitter’s latest test lets users subscribe to a tweet’s replies
  14. Has Twitter Declared You Dead?
  15. Giant Copyright Troll, Malibu Media, Sued By Investors
  16. Elsevier Says It’s Infringing To Link To Sci-Hub; Hypocrite Elsevier Links To Sci-Hub All The Time
  17. Elsevier Tries To Lie About University Of California’s Contract Negotiation; UC Shows Its Receipts
  18. Top University Of California Scientists Tell Elsevier They’ll No Longer Work On Elsevier Journals
  19. Amazon workers in Minnesota walk off the job over parking issues
  20. Schoolchildren in China work overnight to produce Amazon Alexa devices: Leaked documents show children as young as 16 recruited by Amazon supplier Foxconn work gruelling and illegal hours
  21. Senators demand Amazon explain how junk winds up in “Choice” listings
  22. Amazon says its facial recognition can now identify fear
  23. Amazon unveils first batch of casting for The Wheel of Timeadaptation
  24. ESRP Rebukes Yoga Company for Stretching the Truth About Influencers
  25. Russian State Watchdog Tells YouTube To Stop Sending Push Notifications About Mass Protests
  26. New Study Demonstrates YouTube’s Role In Far-Right Radicalization, Spread Of Conspiracies In Brazil
  27. ‘We can’t reach the women who need us’: the LGBT YouTubers suing the tech giant for discrimination
  28. YouTube should stop recommending garbage videos to users
  29. Ex-Googler Recently Held Up As A ‘Whistleblower’ And ‘Proof’ Of Anti-Conservative Bias At Google, Actually Supported Richard Spencer, Racist Skinheads
  30. Dennis Prager Peddles Complete Nonsense About ‘Google Censorship’ In The WSJ
  31. LGBTQ YouTubers Hit Google With Lawsuit For Alleged Discrimination: Eight video creators say that have been unfairly targeted and demonetized by YouTube.
  32. LGBTQ YouTubers are suing YouTube over alleged discrimination: Including suppressing video recommendations and demonetization
  33. YouTube Unequally Applies Policies, Giving Favor To Creators Who Bring In Big View Counts, Content Moderators Say
  34. YouTube lets biggest stars off the hook for breaking rules, moderators say
  35. YouTube Testing Program That Lets Certain Demonetized Channels File Immediate Appeals Via YouTube Videos
  36. LAPD Investigating YouTuber Brooke Houts For Hitting Her Dog On Camera
  37. In Wake Of Brooke Houts Incident, PETA Asks Platforms To Enact Zero-Tolerance Animal Abuse Policy
  38. YouTube Rolls Out ‘Super Chat’ Feature To 19 Additional Countries
  39. Tech firms face fines for harmful videos from regulator Ofcom
  40. Half Of Teens Turn To YouTube For News, Preferring Influencers Over Traditional News Organizations (Study)
  41. YouTube Debuts First Shoppable AR Ad With Beauty Vlogger Roxette Arisa And MAC Cosmetics
  42. YouTube tests letting ad bans be appealed by filming a YouTube video: Making it easier for creators to earn money
  43. New Jersey Attorney Ethics Opinion Blesses Competitive Keyword Advertising (…or Does It?) (Eric Goldman)
  44. Apple locks new iPhone batteries to prevent third-party repair, report says
  45. The Apple Card is launching soon – here’s how to apply for one directly from your iPhone
  46. Goldman Sachs, bank of the rich and powerful, is dipping into subprime lending with Apple Card
  47. Apple’s new credit card comes with forced arbitration—here’s how to opt out
  48. Apple Music For Artists Launches, Rivalling Spotify’s Analytics Tools
  49. Apple TV+ Gives First Glimpse At Billion-Dollar Originals Slate With ‘Morning Show’ Teaser, Starring Jennifer Aniston
  50. FAA Bans Recalled MacBook Pros From Flights
  51. FAA tells airlines MacBook Pros with defective batteries can’t fly
  52. Microsoft cuts Office 2019 one-time licenses through Home Use Program
  53. Spotify’s pitch to podcasters: valuable listener data: Spotify for Podcasters comes out of beta today
  54. Facebook Shielded by CDA Immunity against Federal Claims for Allowing Use of Its Platform by Terrorists 
  55. Biometric Class Action Against Facebook Greenlit by Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
  56. Finding Article III Standing, Ninth Circuit Declines to Do an About-Face in Illinois Biometric Privacy Class Action against Facebook 
  57. Ninth Circuit finds Article III standing in case alleging Facebook violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act
  58. Ninth Circuit Allows Class Action Challenging Facebook’s Facial Recognition Technology Under Illinois BIPA
  59. Senate Members Ask DOJ to Take Action as Number of Website Accessibility Lawsuits Continues to Rise
  60. Facebook Tests Selling Subscriptions To Tastemade Plus, CollegeHumor’s Dropout, BritBox
  61. In strategy shift, Facebook seeks to pay millions to license news
  62. Facebook wants to be relevant in news again, and it’s willing to pay millions to bring back publishers: The company is building a new news effort
  63. Instagram Is Rolling Out The Ability To Natively Pre-Schedule Grid Posts, IGTV Videos
  64. Snapchat to Raise $1 Billion to Further Build Content, Gaming, and AR
  65. Snapchat Decides to Raise $1bn for Filters, Content, Acquisitions: The company owes its financial escalation to some of its AR lenses like the baby lens and gender-change filters which had gone viral.
  66. Snap announces Spectacles 3 with an updated design and a second HD camera: They’re $380 and go on sale in November
  67. Snap Unveils Third Generation Of $380 Spectacles, With Two Cameras To Create AR Effects
  68. Revealed: how Monsanto’s ‘intelligence center’ targeted journalists and activists – Internal documents show how the company worked to discredit critics and investigated singer Neil Young
  69. Google Maps AR Navigation comes to iPhones and Android devices
  70. Owners of defective 2016 Google Pixels can now claim up to $500
  71. Google is giving students three months of YouTube Premium for free: Or YouTube Music Premium, which is a less good deal
  72. Students Can Now Snag Three Free Months Of YouTube Premium And YouTube Music
  73. YouTube Rolls Out ‘Super Chat’ Feature To 19 Additional Countries
  74. Google, Cookies, and Cy-Pres-Only Settlements 
  75. Now you can use Android phones, rather than passwords, to log in to Google*
  76. Vice Appoints Former Munchies Exec Cliff Gulibert To Oversee All Digital Video Production
  77. Liza Koshy Gets Glam As Beauty Brand C’est Moi’s Very First Ambassador
  78. U.K. Vlogger Marina Joyce Found Safe By Police After Going Missing For 10 Days
  79. U.S. Navy Taps Kevin ‘VSauce2’ Lieber, Jake Koehler, William Osman For Inaugural Influencer Campaign
  80. Social Good Creators: Ashley Villa Is Changing The World For Female Entrepreneurs
  81. Did a trainee social worker’s offensive social media postings render him unfit to practice?
  82. Police say there is no danger after Twitch HQ threatened
  83. Twitch launches beta for all-in-one streaming app Twitch Studio
  84. Twitch has released its own broadcasting software: This is the company’s first broadcast offering
  85. Netflix Signs Reported $300 Million Overall Film, TV Deal With ‘Game Of Thrones’ Creators
  86. Game of Thrones creators sign $200 million Netflix deal to make exclusive shows and films: They’re also still helming Star Wars films for Disney
  87. HBO Max Adds Millennial Comedy to Lineup of Originals
  88. HBO Orders Female-Led Skateboarding Comedy From Crystal Moselle, Lesley Arfin
  89. HBO Is About to Spend $1.5 Billion on…Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men?: Fledgling streamer casting a wide sitcom net—but will this leave it unable to secure another big hit, as Seinfeld invites a bidding war?
  90. Blogger says she got an injunction for a post published five days earlier
  91. Uber’s no-good, terrible-rotten bad Q2 loses more than $5 billion
  92. Uber, losing billions, freezes engineering hires
  93. At Defense Distributed, few glimpses of life after Cody Wilson: Court cases and social media spats continue over 3D-printed guns.
  94. What a future without social media ‘likes’ could mean for the industry
  95. The Hidden Risks Associated with Social Media Background Checks 
  96. Companies Are Not Complying With the Safe Harbor Provision of the DMCA 
  97. Regulation of Digital Platforms in Australia and UK
  98. The Endless, Invisible Persuasion Tactics of the Internet: Online shopping turns your brain against you, but you can fight back.
  99. UK consumers switch to online streaming en masse
  100. Cody Wilson pleads guilty to lesser charge, will register as sex offender
  101. NY Times Publishes A Second, Blatantly Incorrect, Trashing Of Section 230, A Day After Its First Incorrect Article
  102. Cyber restraints of trade in the new era of digital markets 
  103. To Cajole to Threaten: How Best to Curb Online Counterfeiting 
  104. Transferring or cancelling a domain in USA
  105. EU Court Determines Responsibility for Social Plug-ins on Website
  106. Embedded EthiCS: Integrating Ethics Across CS Education
  107. The guy behind the ‘Storm Area 51’ Facebook event is hosting an alien-themed festival
  108. Geeky license plate earns hacker $12,000 in parking tickets

A.I.

  1. AI researchers have a plan to pay patients for data
  2. Artificial Intelligence and Bias: Social Impacts of a Technical Solution
  3. Why AI needs more social workers, with Columbia University’s Desmond Patton
  4. Video: Using AI to build a better future for game art production
  5. All watched over by machines of loving grace: A critical look at smart contracts (Andres Guadamuz)
  6. Putin’s robo-nauts prepare for lift-off: Russia’s space agency releases eerie footage of human-like android Fedor as he gets ready to join the International Space Station crew next week
  7. A Tesla owner implanted the RFID chip from her Model 3’s keycard into her arm: Keyless entry
  8. Elon Musk’s Neuralink: Both an evolution and a plan for radical change
  9. Law in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
  10. Intellectual Property and Artificial Intelligence in the UK
  11. Breaking down the rich and complex AI of Hitman

COMMUNICATIONS

  1. CRTC Establishes New Internet Code For Consumers
  2. CRTC’s latest report shows price decline in communications services
  3. CBC News: High cost of internet access leaving low-income families behind, report finds
  4. Competition Bureau Study on the Broadband Industry Paints a “Largely Positive Picture”
  5. It’s Back: The Netflix Tax Debate Returns for the 2019 Election (Michael Geist)
  6. Postmedia Announces Refinancing Transaction
  7. AT&T Employees Took Bribes To Plant Malware On Company’s Network
  8. CBS and Viacom merger: ‘It’s not a surprise, but it is a big deal’
  9. Courts Again Shoot Down FCC For Ignoring The Law, Making Up Stuff
  10. Ajit Pai loses another court case as judges overturn 5G deregulation 
  11. FCC Opens the 2.5 GHz Band for 5G Wireless Services
  12. Trump admin reportedly drafting order to counter social media “bias”: The proposal would reportedly put the onus of content regulation on the FCC.
  13. Texas AG Joins Lawsuit Against T-Mobile, Showing Bipartisan Opposition To Mindless M&As
  14. Frontier network outages get worse in NY, triggering state investigation
  15. Verizon: 5G speeds on low-spectrum bands will be more like “good 4G”
  16. Verizon demands $880 from rural library for just 0.44GB of roaming data
  17. Comcast Wireless Joins Verizon In Charging You More For HD Video
  18. Verizon selling Tumblr to WordPress.com owner, but porn ban won’t go away
  19. Verizon Selling Tumblr to Company That Owns WordPress
  20. With Tumblr Sale, Verizon Continues To Stumble In Bungled Pivot Away From Telecom
  21. Verizon sues city to avoid paying 5G fees, says the FCC has its back 
  22. Utility Provider Settles Call Recording Lawsuit for $3.7 Million 
  23. Trump Administration Issues Interim Rule Banning Agencies’ Procurement of Telecom Equipment and Services from Huawei, ZTE and Other Designated Chinese Companies 
  24. Federal Government Further Banned from Using Huawei 
  25. Huawei announces its first operating system, HarmonyOS 
  26. Ofcom Consultation on the protection of TV and radio programme participants

PRIVACY

  1. Class Action Lawsuit Hopes To Hold GitHub Responsible For Hosting Data From Capital One Breach
  2. Whitney Cummings shares NSFW pic on Twitter after ‘foolish dorks’ attempt to extort her
  3. Airline tracks Twitter user’s real-world ID, publishes her flight number: Southwest Airlines finally relents, after first insisting flight numbers aren’t PII.
  4. Ring Is Teaching Cops How To Obtain Doorbell Camera Footage Without A Warrant
  5. California Judges Nuke Two More SFPD Warrants Used To Search A Journalist’s Home And Office
  6. Unsealed Warrants Show SFPD Officer Told Judges He Was Targeting A Journalist, But Judges Approved Them Anyway
  7. Personal Email Management Service Settles FTC Charges over Allegedly Deceptive Statements to Consumers over Its Access and Use of Subscribers’ Email Accounts 
  8. Makers of Head Impact Sensors Avoid FTC Enforcement Headache
  9. Warren: FTC’s $125 cash option in Equifax settlement “misled” customers
  10. I Tried Hiding From Silicon Valley in a Pile of Privacy Gadgets: Avoiding digital snoops takes more than throwing money at the problem, but that part can be really fun.
  11. Google “Street View” Wiretap Allegations Settled for a “Modest” $13 Million 
  12. Microsoft contractors hear phone sex and more while reviewing Cortana, Skype audio
  13. They Grow Up So Fast These Days: Facial Recognition Tech Edition
  14. Consumer Reports Finds Numerous Home Routers Lack Even Basic Security Protections
  15. Found: World-readable database used to secure buildings around the globe
  16. These companies claim to provide “fair-trade” data work. Do they?: Companies like CloudFactory, iMerit, and Samasource promise data sets provided by workers who are well paid and cared for. It’s not an easy business.
  17. You’ve Been Hacked: Board Cybersecurity Liability and Risk Management
  18. Woman accused of Capital One hack had stolen data from 30 companies, authorities say
  19. Hack in the box: Hacking into companies with “warshipping”
  20. Will technology return shame to our society?
  21. Enforcement under the GDPR – the new paradigm
  22. Indian Counseling Company Files Criminal Complaint Against Blogger Who Informed It About A Sensitive Data Leak
  23. Hacker site’s incriminating database published online by rival group

CREATIVITY

  1. A long and winding road: Canada nears the end of an ambitious project to modernize patent, trademark and industrial design laws
  2. Blacklock’s Tendentious and Tenacious Litany of Litigation – the Latest (Lack of) Developments (Howard Knopf)
  3. Judge Dismisses Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Defamation Lawsuit Against The New York Times
  4. Combating Hate Speech Through Counterspeech
  5. Universal pulls The Huntafter most recent deadly mass shootings [Updated]
  6. Appeals Court Says Banana Costume Is Infringing
  7. City of Phanatic Love: Phillies Face Lawsuit Over Beloved Mascot
  8. Chequered flag to Ferrari: Competitors back to the drawing boards after Ferrari copyright ruling 
  9. Reaping What They Sowed: Recording Industry Now Quite Upset About Copyright Run Amok
  10. DC Opposes Trademark Application For ‘Algorithmic Justice League’ For Some Reason
  11. Brewery In Wales Changes Name Of 2 Beers After Fight With Hugo Boss
  12. North Carolina Court Says Retaliatory Arrests Over Protected Speech Are Cool And Legal
  13. NAAG Asks VOD Providers to Shield Kids From Tobacco Imagery
  14. Oops: Japan Anti-Piracy Proposals Probably Violate Its Constitution
  15. Keep Shining Upon Us, Our Guiding Star – Prof. (Dr.) Shamnad Basheer (1976 – 2019)
  16. IP rights in art in United Kingdom – England & Wales (England & Wales)
  17. IP Top 10 July: Copyright Infringement is a… Dark Horse

Jon

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News of the Week; August 7, 2019

By Jon Festinger on August 11, 2019

GAMES

  1. Parties agree to settle in Damion Perrine v. Sega of America 
  2. TaxWatch: Activision Blizzard has dodged taxes on billions – UK think tank details how Call of Duty company’s corporate structure, IP royalty scheme minimizes money owed
  3. Republican politicians say videogames partly to blame for mass shootings: GOP House minority leader Kevin McCarthy says videogames ‘dehumanize individuals’.
  4. Another mass shooting, another wave of politicians pointing at video games
  5. In Wake Of Mass Shootings, Top Trade Org Refutes Trump’s Claim That Gaming Is To Blame
  6. ESA defends against Trump’s proposed video game crackdown: Meanwhile, publisher share prices fall in wake of US president’s address
  7. IGDA, IGDAF issue statement on weekend shootings in the US: Advocacy organizations defend industry following President Trump’s accusations against “gruesome and grisly video games”
  8. Biden says violent games are “not healthy” but not the cause of “carnage”
  9. DayZ has been refused classification by the Australian ratings board
  10. Psyonix is removing paid, randomized loot boxes fromRocket League this year
  11. After Epic purchase, Psyonix removes random loot boxes from Rocket League: Move follows similar removal in Epic’s Fortnite: Save the World.
  12. What did the FTC hear in its loot box workshop?: ESA defends virtual currency and dynamic drop rates as concerns are raised about consumer protection and similarities to gambling
  13. Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo team up to force loot box odds disclosures: Major publishers will also increase transparency in 2020 as FTC looks at loot boxes.
  14. Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony to launch platform-wide rules on loot box disclosures
  15. Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony to require loot box odds disclosure: Activision Blizzard, Bethesda, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Wizards of the Coast, and other publishers will also comply
  16. Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft to require loot box odds disclosure: ESA says platform holders will roll out new policy that would apply to new games and updates that add loot box features
  17. Consumer advocates to ESRB, FTC: Loot box odds disclosure is not enough – Consumer Reports’ Anna Laitin – “A kid is not going to make a better decision with odds disclosure”
  18. Blog: The glorious, profitable, inescapable art of addiction
  19. The flawed Kinder Egg defence: The University of Adelaide’s Dr Daniel King on what his “Unfair Play” academic study reveals about the industry’s monetisation practices
  20. Psyonix removes paid, randomized crates from Rocket League: Replacement system will show exact items being purchased, similar to Fortnite
  21. 18% of all physical ESRB-rated games have received an ‘in-game purchases’ label
  22. FaZe Clan Countersues Tfue, Claims He Cost The Company “Many Millions” In Lost Income
  23. FaZe Clan Claims ‘Fortnite’ Star Tfue Is Using Its Secrets to Launch a Competitor
  24. Faze Clan countersues its Fortnite pro Tfue: Team responds to claims of illegal contract by saying player violated confidentiality and non-disparagement clauses
  25. Super Mario Mischief 
  26. Ion Maiden — new video game alleged to infringe heavy metal band’s trade mark
  27. An in-game casino gave GTA Online its biggest player surge since launch  
  28. Fig to pay lump sum to Wasteland 3 investors as Microsoft buys publishing rights
  29. Wasteland 3 investors will receive lump payout following studio acquisition: Microsoft’s acquisition of inXile will get Fig investors higher-than-promised dividend rate
  30. Fig plans payouts for Psychonauts 2 investors after Double Fine joins Microsoft
  31. Microsoft’s Double Fine acquisition results in early Psychonauts 2 investor payout: Rate is higher than original promise, but eliminates chance to earn more on greater success
  32. E3 data breach that exposed 2,000 journalists’ private data puts ESA in legal crosshairs
  33. E3 accidentally leaks personal details of journalists, YouTubers and analysts: Over 2,000 names on the list
  34. ESA has previously leaked media’s personal details for E3: Files have now been taken down from web archive, ESA “still investigating the matter”
  35. ESA also leaked E3 2018’s media attendee list: Data has now been removed but was still live earlier this year, despite show organisers being alerted last September
  36. UK’s Video Games Tax Relief has paid out £324m in five years: Over 1,000 claims have been made by developers and publishers since incentive launched in 2014
  37. German games market’s headcount declines, but small companies on the rise: More than 11,000 people and 600 companies in Germany develop and distribute games
  38. What to do when Bolivia hates you: Lewis Manalo used his life experiences to write on Ghost Recon – Wildlands, and was met with the wrath of both the critics and the entire country of Bolivia
  39. Real people starring in porn games is a surreal new frontier: We talked to model and YouTuber LetyDoesStuff about starring in the sex game House Party.
  40. It’s A New Dawn For ‘Minecraft’ Content On YouTube. Here’s What Sparked The Renaissance.
  41. Ninja, one of Twitch’s top streamers, has left the platform for Mixer
  42. Ninja ditches Twitch for exclusive streaming deal with Mixer
  43. Ninja Ditches Twitch, Will Exclusively Stream On Microsoft’s Mixer
  44. Ninja’ed: Microsoft swipes top game-streamer from Amazon’s Twitch
  45. Ninja departure is “unlikely to diminish” Twitch: But it marks a “turning point” for Mixer, says analyst
  46. Ninja off to strong start on Mixer: Racks up one million free subscriptions since announcing deal last week
  47. Ninja Nabs 350,000 Mixer Followers Overnight, Catapults App To Top Of Charts
  48. Ninja Accumulates 1 Million Mixer Subscribers In 6 Days, Thanks In Part To Free Offer
  49. Mixer criticised for “breast-focused” streamer clothing guidelines: Twitch partner says rules deem female body “inherently inappropriate”, Microsoft will “evaluate if changes are needed”
  50. Blog: 7 questions to answer before marketing on Twitch
  51. Ooblets devs reveal threats of violence and racist abuse following Epic Store announcement: Despite the appalling backlash, the developers say that going with the Epic Games Store was the right call.
  52. Ooblets dev received thousands of “hateful, threatening messages” over Epic exclusivity: Glumberland on being the target of online hate: “I had no idea it was this bad”
  53. Ooblets devs break down their Epic Games Store exclusivity decision
  54. Regarding what’s been happening
  55. Ooblets dev stands by comments about toxic, entitled gamers: Wave of anti-Semitic, homophobic, racist abuse over Epic Games store exclusivity fails to convince Glumberland dev to recant statements
  56. Epic Games denounces “disturbing trend” of harassment toward its partners: Following Ooblets exclusivity deal, Epic professes commitment to supporting its partners
  57. Epic exclusivity deal covered Ooblets’ sales forecast across all stores: Glumberland offers insight into how important exclusivity can be for a smaller team
  58. Don’t Miss: Building an audience early with visuals-first development in Ooblets
  59. Steam’s Interactive Recommender landed 10,000 new games on wishlists
  60. Severe local 0-Day escalation exploit found in Steam Client Services
  61. Dapper Labs Partners With NBA To Launch Digital Collectibles Game
  62. Revenue and bookings up at Zynga, despite slowing active users on mobile
  63. After Japanese, Korean success, Zynga turns to China: COO Matt Bromberg: “We’re trying to take a measured approach”
  64. Russian dev My.Games and Chinese publisher iDreamSky partner for global expansion
  65. Creative Assembly and NetEase partner up to bring Total War to China
  66. Koch Media opens Polish publishing office to boost presence in Europe
  67. Ubisoft acquires mobile publisher Green Panda Games: 70% stake in Paris-based studio could raise to 100% over four years
  68. Borderlands 2 has sold 22 million units to date: Franchise overall has reached 48 million units, buoyed by lead-in to Borderlands 3 launch
  69. Final Fantasy and Romancing SaGa boost sales at Square Enix despite profit downturn
  70. Square Enix kicks off financial year with Q1 sales of $501m: Sales up 19%, income rises 86% – driven in part by Final Fantasy XIV and remasters
  71. UK Charts: Fire Emblem Three Houses scores second week at No.1: Madden arrives at No.5
  72. Modern Pick Entertainment to acquire “substantial” stake in Slightly Mad Studios: European publisher says dev “fits perfectly” with non-violent esports mission
  73. Obsidian “is not a crunch studio”: “We’d rather cut something than try and get people to not have a life outside the industry”
  74. Glu Mobile sees record quarterly bookings in Q2 2019: Mobile publisher lowers full-year guidance to “reflect the timing of new launches”
  75. At Schell Games, culture is the antidote to crunch and conflict: CEO Jesse Schell and four of the studio’s original executives discuss the importance of stability, team-building, and open communication
  76. Yuke’s splits from WWE 2K franchise: Japanese studio will continue to support the game engine, but isn’t directly involved in WWE games for the first time in two decades
  77. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick ‘feels good’ about Google Stadia’s release
  78. Strauss Zelnick: Take-Two is “open-minded” on streaming, subscriptions – Despite caution on subscriptions, CEO says the company will “be where the consumer is”
  79. Digital net revenue up to $427.8 million for the quarter at Take-Two Interactive
  80. Take-Two Interactive ups full-year guidance following strong recurrent returns: Red Dead Redemption 2 has sold 25m units; NBA 2K19 has sold nearly 12m; Civilization VI over 5.5m
  81. Automaton Games enters administration: Improbable offers to match former employees with open positions at SpatialOS developer
  82. Studio71 Launches ‘The Binding Of Isaac’ Card Game At Target: Studio71 launches strategy card game based on indie video game.
  83. Blog: Preparing for the changes to Google Play’s ratings system
  84. Google is developing a game and app subscription service called Play Pass
  85. Tencent launches its cloud services on WeGame in China:
  86. Moonlight Blade, Chinese Parents, Blood of Steel, others can be played instantly on the service without download
  87. Tencent aiding with localization, online services for the Switch’s move into China
  88. Temporary Pokémon Center coming to London: Pop-up store opening at Westfield to coincide with Sword and Shield launch
  89. Nintendo and Tencent working to localize Switch games for China: No Switch software has been approved by Chinese government so far, four games shown at ChinaJoy 2019
  90. Blog: How I got my Nintendo Switch port to run at 60fps
  91. Here’s why Nintendo Switch consoles keep frying
  92. $13,000 NES cartridge found at the bottom of a Safeway sack
  93. New ‘Game Trials’ program will let Switch Online members try games for free
  94. Why is Electronic Arts almost completely ignoring the Switch?
  95. EA CEO: The Switch isn’t players’ first choice for multi-platform EA games
  96. EA: Our players often choose other platforms over Nintendo Switch – EA explains absence of games like The Sims 4 on Switch, points to $300m-plus bookings forecast for The Sims 4
  97. EA: Subscriptions combined with cloud services will “lower the barriers” to gaming – CEO Andrew Wilson suggests cloud services paired with subscriptions would cause “shift” in gaming
  98. Roblox has surpassed 100 million monthly active users
  99. Pokémon GO reaches over one billion downloads worldwide: Niantic’s location-based Pokémon catching adventure achieves milestone just over three years after launch
  100. Console Wars—a book about the Genesis and SNES—will become a TV show
  101. DuckTales: Remastered is being pulled from digital stores on August 8
  102. Enduring popularity of key franchises helps boost sales and profits at Capcom
  103. Capcom profits up 50.8% thanks to “highly profitable” digital downloads: Japanese publisher increases focus on esports as it restructures unprofitable arcade business
  104. “NBA Last 90” Foreshadows the Potentially Lucrative Intersection of eSports and Sports Betting
  105. Chinese publisher NetEase is building a $725 million esports park in Shanghai
  106. NetEase reveals plans for $700m esports stadium in Shanghai: Stadium to feature game development, team building, and training facilities
  107. EVO in trouble with Bandai Namco, Konami and Solid Snake actor David Hayter: Tekken tournament organisers used iconic character in promo video without permission from any of the above
  108. Nexon to acquire Swedish game developer Embark Studios
  109. Nexon to fully acquire stock in Embark Studios: Nexon’s Western development strategy will now be “driven” by Embark founder Patrick Söderlund
  110. Layoffs at Nexon America as two California-based offices are closed
  111. Nexon closes second US office in a month: LA-based Division Partners precedes the closure of Nexon M later this month
  112. Slitherine acquires Master of Magic publishing rights from Atari
  113. Slitherine acquires Master of Magic franchise: Strategy game developer hints at publishing sequel to 1994 MS-DOS title
  114. Flurry of New Apple ‘AR/VR’ Job Listings Point to New Products on the Horizon
  115. Iconic VR Film ‘The Matrix’ to Return to Select Theaters for 20th Anniversary
  116. XRDC: 59% of AR/VR developers are working on games – Oculus Rift surpassed HTC Vive this year as the top AR/VR/MR development platform
  117. Valve Cancels VirtualLink Adapter Accessory for Index, Cites Technical Issues & Laptop Adoption
  118. Valve clamping down on abuse of Steam’s Popular Upcoming list: Developers reportedly now need Valve’s approval before changing release date
  119. Oculus Rift surpasses HTC Vive as VR devs’ top platform in new XRDC Innovation Report!
  120. Here’s What Facebook Says About Camera Privacy on Quest & Rift S
  121. Video: Reinventing a platformer for VR the Astro Bot way
  122. Over 50 ‘field leaders’ laid off at GameStop due to ongoing cost-cutting
  123. Why the gaming world will be worse once GameStop is gone
  124. Video: A postmortem of indie kingdom-builder Kingdoms and Castles
  125. Video: Delivering data-driven dynamic gameplay effects inFor Honor  
  126. Video: What an art-house indie learned from a year of working in F2P
  127. Video: How Slay the Spire achieved success through marketability
  128. Dangen Entertainment: What it really costs to run an indie publishing label – With the right focus and the right relationships, the Osaka-based publisher can find success with 10,000 units sold
  129. Genetics-themed survival game Niche is heading to schools for free
  130. Immortalising your grandmother in a WWII game: Bob De Schutter talks us through the inspiration and incredible true stories behind his PC title Brukel
  131. Don’t Miss: Building the monstrous transforming puzzle heads of GNOG
  132. Don’t Miss: Deconstructing the development and design ofGravity Ghost
  133. Don’t Miss: The Chinese Room’s Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs postmortem
  134. Don’t Miss: Deconstructing the art design of Journey
  135. This War of Mine: Five years later – Publishing director Paweł Feldman on how 11 bit Studios managed the game’s life-cycle and ensured steady sales
  136. Niche developer offers game to schools for free: Stray Fawn Studio encourages teachers to get in touch for free classroom codes
  137. How Diablo meets Left 4 Dead in co-op action RPGKillsquad
  138. Metal Wolf Chaos XD: A weirdly timed return to 2004’s robo-blasting innocence
  139. The design and iteration of tactical deck-building gameNowhere Prophet
  140. Giving players the ability to bump off any NPC in The Outer Worlds was ‘insanely hard’
  141. Making family matter in Children of Morta
  142. The three eras of game discoverability
  143. nWay introduces blockchain solution to its development platform: Power Rangers: Legacy Wars developer adds support for unified marketplace across all nWayPlay games
  144. Video Gaming / E-Gaming Law Update
  145. U.S. Patent No. 5,885,156: Video game apparatus, method of controlling the growth of play character in video game, and video game medium therefor 
  146. Halo TV series pushed to 2021: Production on Showtime adaptation begins later this year with Natascha McElhone and Bokeem Woodbine among announced cast

DIGITAL

  1. European Court Of Justice Rules On Three Big Copyright Cases
  2. Have You Heard? If You Spread ‘Hurtful’ Rumors In China, You’ll Be Thrown Off The Internet For Years
  3. The ‘cesspool of hate’ message board 8chan was taken offline after being linked to 3 mass shootings this year
  4. Online providers knock 8chan offline after mass shooting
  5. 8chan resurfaces, along with The Daily Stormer and another Nazi site
  6. The Lawless Way to Disable 8chan: The decision to disable an infamous message board fell to Matthew Prince, an internet executive who is deeply uncomfortable with his own power.
  7. Trump Calls On Social Media Companies To Become Pre-Crime Agents
  8. From Trump to Fox News to 8chan – the web of white supremacist rhetoric is wide: Trump is a politician perfectly fitted for an ecosystem that amplifies extreme emotion and allows the loud to drown out the calm
  9. ‘Free Speech Defender’ Devin Nunes Sues More Critics, Promises More Such Lawsuits Are Coming
  10. Microsoft catches Russian state hackers using IoT devices to breach networks
  11. Image, ownership and an app made in St Petersburg
  12. Four questions about online hate speech
  13. Why Is Our First Reaction To Mass Shootings To Talk About Censorship?
  14. Using Restorative Justice To Deal With Internet Trolls And Jackasses
  15. Twitter users are escaping online hate by switching profiles to Germany, where Nazism is illegal
  16. Twitter to Remove Third-Party Data From Ad-Buying System: The change follows a similar move by Facebook and comes as privacy concerns grow
  17. Judge Not Impressed With DOJ’s Attempt To Claim Presidential Tweets And Orders Don’t Mean Anything
  18. iOS 13 privacy feature will force total overhaul for Facebook apps
  19. UK Lobbyist’s Long-Running Astroturf Efforts Shows Facebook Will Never Be Able To Stop Fake News, Ban All Conservatives
  20. Enough With The Myth That Big Tech Is ‘Censoring’ Conservatives AND That The Law Requires Them To Be Neutral
  21. New legislation is putting social networks in the crosshairs: Republicans and Democrats have ideas for regulating big tech platforms – and their bills are now moving through Congress
  22. A new bill aims to protect US voters from the next Cambridge Analytica
  23. FBI says “extremists” motivated by Pizzagate, QAnon are threats
  24. Cloudflare has had enough, cutting off 8chan
  25. Dumped by Cloudflare, 8chan gets back online—then gets kicked off again
  26. 8chan is all the way down—“It’s DNS. It’s always DNS.”
  27. Competition law scrutiny on tech giants spills over to the other side of the Atlantic (and the rest of the globe?)
  28. Once More With Feeling: Nearly All General Interest News Paywalls Will Fail
  29. UK’s Online Harms Regime Must be “Proportionate”, According to the ICO and Ofcom 
  30. North Korea took $2 billion in cyberattacks to fund weapons program: U.N. report
  31. What Happens When The US Government Tries To Take On The Open Source Community?
  32. Philippines Lawmaker Introduces ‘Fake News’ Bill That Would Allow The National Police To Literally Police Speech
  33. Finland is winning the war on fake news. What it’s learned may be crucial to Western democracy
  34. Apple and Google temporarily stop listening to Siri and OK Google queries
  35. Apple suspends Siri response grading in response to privacy concerns
  36. Apple’s AirDrop and password sharing features can leak iPhone numbers
  37. Apple hones its focus on services with new TV deals for AirPlay 2, HomeKit
  38. The FTC is looking into the Amazon and Apple deal that crushed small resellers: Experts say the deal raises serious antitrust concerns
  39. Apple’s innovative virtual credit card is now available—but only to some people
  40. Apple isn’t the most cash-rich company in the world anymore, but it doesn’t matter
  41. FedEx Ends Ground-Delivery Deal With Amazon
  42. FedEx leaves Amazon on the doorstep as the store becomes a competitor
  43. Another Day, Another Company Leaving Sensitive User Data Exposed Publicly On The Amazon Cloud
  44. Google has a problem with pregnant workers, employee memo alleges
  45. Google will charge search providers to be the Android default in Europe: The top-three bidders will join Google on the choice screen
  46. Google Is Testing a $4.99 App Subscription Bundle
  47. Google launches new shopping service in the US
  48. Google publishes sustainability plan for hardware, but its impact is uncertain
  49. Big Four Broadcasters Sue Streaming Video Provider Locast, Claim It’s ‘Aereo 2.0’
  50. Bumble stumbles: State policy interests override dating app’s contractual forum 
  51. Domino’s takes its case for non-accessible design to the Supreme Court: The ADA is almost 30 years old, but the company says websites don’t count.
  52. Facebook penalised $US5 billion by the FTC – A digital privacy reckoning
  53. Facebook open-sources algorithms for detecting child exploitation and terrorism imagery: Crowdsourcing a better solution to disturbing photos and videos
  54. No Immunity For Cops Who Arrested A Man For Creating A Facebook Page Mocking The Police Department
  55. What Facebook’s New Policy Means for Alcohol, Tobacco, and E-Cigarette Content and Sales
  56. Facebook’s settlements with the Federal Government—Key takeaways for all companies to consider
  57. Facebook just fine following eye-watering privacy penalty?
  58. Facebook briefly removes Area 51 event ‘by accident’
  59. Area 51 raid event ‘to see them aliens’ removed by Facebook: The event creator is planning a real-life festival to replace the tongue-in-cheek Area 51 raid.
  60. Tastemade Taps Ian Hecox, Meghan Rienks, Arden Rose For Facebook Watch Slate
  61. Facebook Wants to Integrate Instagram Direct Messages With Messenger
  62. What’s FaceApp and Facebook Got to Do with Competition Compliance in Canada?
  63. The Tax Man Taps the Brakes on Digital Currency Expansion
  64. Anime gets its #MeToo moment in clash between Dallas-area voice actors
  65. Netflix Is Asking Android Users For Permission To Track Their Physical Movements
  66. Utah Tax Commission Doesn’t Want a Piece of Your Video Streaming 
  67. The Streaming Video-on-Demand War Is Going to Get Bloody: Media behemoths want to conquer a realm now dominated by the likes of Netflix.
  68. The Worst May Be Yet to Come for Netflix: There’s a long road ahead for the streaming giant as new competitors, including your phone company, step up
  69. Disney’s new streaming bundle priced to compete with “standard” Netflix plan
  70. Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu will be bundled for $12.99. Netflix should be worried.: Disney is aggressively crafting the service to be an end-all, be-all for streaming subscribers.
  71. Insights: How Netflix Is Building Its Global Reach One Acquisition At A Time
  72. HBO Launches ‘Recommended by Humans’ Streaming Site in Dig at Netflix
  73. HBO Max secures exclusive US streaming rights for Doctor Who, other BBC series
  74. Malaysia Looks To Prosecute Homeowners Where Accused Streaming Piracy Occurs
  75. YouTube is the world’s top-grossing video app with $138M in user spending
  76. YouTube’s recent algorithm change explains why your feed is full of children’s videos: Including nursery rhymes and cartoons
  77. YouTube Tweaked Its Algorithm To Promote “Quality Family Content.” That Change Decimated Kid-Friendly Creators’ View Counts.
  78. Gizmodo: Why Can’t YouTube Do ‘Good’ Content Moderation? Answer: Because It’s Impossible
  79. YouTubers ‘The Ingham Family’ Are Selling $340 Dolls Of Their Newborn Son
  80. Michelle Obama To Launch College Advice Series On ‘YouTube Learning’ Hub
  81. Susan Wojcicki Discusses New Creator-On-Creator Harassment Policy In Sitdown With Alfie Deyes
  82. Claim Over Takedown Notice Triggers Anti-SLAPP Law & a Fee Shift–Complex v. X17 (Eric Goldman)
  83. Some Much-Needed Pushback on the Anti-Section 230 Craziness (Linkwrap) (Eric Goldman)
  84. Correcting the Record on Section 230’s Legislative History
  85. NY Times Joins Lots Of Other Media Sites In Totally And Completely Misrepresenting Section 230
  86. The scary trend of internet shutdowns
  87. Wake-up call: ways of working with influencers
  88. When Influencers Fail to Influence 
  89. By Winning Motion to Dismiss, Supermodel Loses Chance to Clarify Whether She Can Lawfully Post Photos of Herself to Social Media 
  90. Are you an influencer? Then you may well need to be a follower …
  91. Actor Wil Wheaton Sues Geek & Sundry For Shorting Him On Web Series Payment
  92. Bernie, Biden, And Warren Get Post-Democratic Debate Social Video Bump
  93. Snapchat Parent Company to Raise $1 Billion in Debt Financing, Citing Potential Acquisitions
  94. Snapchat To Raise $1 Billion In Debt Financing, In Part To Fund Acquisitions
  95. Snapchat Launches New, Streamlined Ad Creation Process
  96. Snapchat Launches Latest Batch Of ‘Creator Shows’ With The Kaplan Twins, Matt Steffanina, Teala Dunn
  97. Snapchat Takes Implicit Dig At Instagram In New Ad Campaign — On Instagram
  98. Following Platform-Wide Purge, Instagram Hires First Exec To Interface With Meme Accounts
  99. Tencent in Talks to Buy 10% of Universal Music Group
  100. Warner Posts Solid Third Quarter Results, Digital Revenue up 12.5%
  101. New EU and UK guidance on online terms and conditions and privacy policies
  102. Electronic credit contracts and signatures under Quebec Consumer Law
  103. Rocky Mountain States Make Headway in Blockchain-Related Legislation
  104. Building better legal blockchains: More law firms are testing the use of blockchain technology in their legal business, as organizations grapple with standards
  105. I tried to pay with bitcoin at a Mexico City bar—it didn’t go well
  106. Crypto Exchange and Payment Solutions Expand, New UK Guidance Issued, US Enforcement Actions Continue 
  107. Online Platforms: “Walking” the line between legal and financial services compliance
  108. Paddling to surfing: the rise of Online Dispute Resolution
  109. Work Ruined Email: It’s not too late to fix it.
  110. MSDN Magazine will publish its last issue, ending a Microsoft developer era
  111. Now even funerals are livestreamed—and families are grateful
  112. Don’t Let This Get Lost In The Shuffle: The Data Transfer Project Is Expanding, And Could Help Create Real Competition Online
  113. Don’t worry – It’s publicly available on the internet!: Due diligence considerations with respect to licensing data and acquiring data-dependent businesses.
  114. From Apps On Your Phone To Satellites In The Sky, A New Program Looks Into The Ethics Of Mapping

A.I.

  1. California now has a new Bot disclosure law – will other states follow suit? 
  2. Roll over, Beethoven: Decoding the maestro’s musical style with statistics
  3. People don’t want to see workers replaced by a robot—themselves excepted
  4. Everyone Hates Customer Service. This Is Why.: Technology lets companies see how badly they can treat consumers, right up until the moment they bolt
  5. ‘We cannot have technology and sales take over safety’: Tesla is being sued again for a deadly Autopilot crash
  6. Feds told Tesla to stop making “misleading statements” on Model 3 safety
  7. Whitney Cummings—and her sex robot—take on modern womanhood
  8. Robotic tails for humans are here
  9. The Next Frontier: A.I. and the Efficiently Resourced Legal Department
  10. Computer Science Could Learn A Lot From Library And Information Science
  11. Artificial Intelligence: What we have seen so far in 2019 and what is to come… 
  12. We Took a Ride on NYC’s First Self-Driving Shuttle
  13. Are Your AI Selection Tools Validated? OFCCP Provides Guidance for Validation of AI-Based Algorithms 

COMMUNICATIONS

  1. CRTC tells wireless companies to stop offering 3-year contracts again
  2. CRTC ups the CASL liability ante for directors and officers
  3. Cable Programming Blackouts Continue To Rise As Cord-Cutting Continues
  4. FCC finally orders ISPs to say exactly where they offer broadband
  5. ISP Frontier is failing so badly it won’t take questions from investors
  6. Pai’s FCC orders cities and towns to stop regulating cable broadband
  7. FCC Seeks to Close the Digital Divide with Its Proposed $20.4 Billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund
  8. Virgil Quick Come See: FCC Drives Down Local Government Regulation of Cable Operators 
  9. FCC Adopts Rules Banning Spoofing of Texts and Foreign Calls
  10. FCC adopts rules to ban malicious spoofing of texts and international calls 
  11. FCC Releases Order Removing Unbundling, Resale Requirements for Price Cap ILECs
  12. FCC finally gets around to denying net neutrality complaint against Verizon
  13. The FCC Finally Starts Taking America’s Broadband Maps More Seriously
  14. Verizon’s New ‘Unlimited’ Data Plans Still Have Very Real, Problematic Limits
  15. AT&T Scores $1 Billion Contract To Rebuild DOJ Systems
  16. AT&T workers took $1 million in bribes to unlock 2 million phones, DOJ says
  17. AT&T Hopes A Confusing Rebranding Will Help Its Muddled Video Plans Make Sense
  18. Comcast’s “unlimited” mobile plan now costs $20 extra for HD video
  19. FCC adopts rules addressing spoofed texts and international robocalls 
  20. After Missing Cord Cutting Trend, Nielsen Falls Apart

PRIVACY

  1. Oversight Report Shows The NSA Did Not Delete All The Inadvertently-Collected Phone Records It Claimed It Had Deleted
  2. Cisco pays $8.6 million for selling surveillance system it knew was vulnerable
  3. Cisco Shells Out $8.6 Million For Selling The Government Easily Hackable Tech
  4. Amazon Has Already Roped 200 Police Departments Into Its Ring Doorbell Surveillance/Promotional Scheme
  5. Police can get your Ring doorbell footage without a warrant, report says
  6. Louisiana Governor Declares Statewide Emergency After Cyber-Attacks Against School Systems 
  7. The FTC’s Settlement With Equifax Is Such A Joke, The FTC Is Now Begging You Not To Ask For A Cash Settlement
  8. Class Action Against Yahoo!: A Data Breach is Not Always Evidence of Compensable Loss
  9. Ransomware, “wiper” malware attacks have more than doubled, IBM team says
  10. Microsoft Nabs Russian Hackers Exploiting Flimsy IOT Security
  11. Skype, Slack, other Electron-based apps can be easily backdoored
  12. Hong Kong protesters are using lasers to distract and confuse
  13. Pentagon testing mass surveillance balloons across the US
  14. Brace for controversy: Edward Snowden has written a memoir
  15. Barr says the US needs encryption backdoors to prevent “going dark.” Um, what?: “The FBI says they’re ‘going dark.’ Well yeah, because they’ve been staring at the sun.”
  16. WIPO Says Websites In Its Pirate Database Don’t Deserve Due Process Because ‘They Know What They’re Doing’
  17. New advanced malware, possibly nation sponsored, is targeting US utilities
  18. Google starts selling its Titan security key in Canada, Japan, the UK, and France: The rest of the world may follow
  19. Hush — They’re Listening to Us 
  20. Facial Recognition Is Suddenly Everywhere. Should You Worry?
  21. GDPR Privacy FAQs: Do cookie banners that disclose the use of analytics or behavioral advertising cookies, and state that continued use of a website is deemed acceptance of those cookies, satisfy European privacy laws?
  22. Privacy and Cybersecurity State Law Tracker: Maine Consumer Privacy Law 
  23. What all the stuff in email headers means—and how to sniff out spoofing

CREATIVITY

  1. Jury awards Joyful Noise $2.8M in copyright infringement damages for Katy Perry’s Dark Horse
  2. Who Wrote ‘Stairway to Heaven’? Music Industry Braces for Copyright Suits: A $2.8 million judgment against Katy Perry has record business worried about an onslaught of infringement cases
  3. Bat Out of Court: Meat Loaf Settles Copyright Lawsuit Over “I’d Do Anything For Love”
  4. A Decision of Interest to the Entertainment Industry: Is an event organizer responsible for an artist’s late appearance? Court dismisses class action  regarding Travis Scott’s late appearance at Osheaga Festival.
  5. IP monitor – Confusion: more than just the sum of its parts
  6. Canadian Copyright Mass Litigation – Reasonable Reimbursement for Norwich Order Compliance
  7. Sex tech companies protest for the right to advertise—online or in the subway
  8. A History Of Women In Quentin Tarantino Movies: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood has reignited discussion about how Tarantino depicts women.
  9. SLAPP Suit In Virginia Tries To Silence Historian Highlighting Ancestry Of Guy Suing To Keep Confederate Statues In Charlottesville
  10. Yes, That Banana Costume Is Copyrightable
  11. Court of a-peel: nasty split over banana costume leads to legal monkey business – Judge found a full-body banana costume sold by Arizona company may be too similar to one originally sold by a New Jersey costumer
  12. Copyright Protection for Banana Costumes Is, Uh, Bananas–Silvertop v. Kangaroo (Eric Goldman)
  13. Another Competitive Keyword Advertising Lawsuit Fails–Dr. Greenberg v. Perfect Body Image (Eric Goldman)
  14. Scotch Jedi: American Whiskey Isn’t Going Down Smooth
  15. 100% Natural Case 100% Dismissed: You Can’t Have a False Advertising Case Without Advertising
  16. Competition law considerations for licensing agreements in Canada
  17. 10 most urgent press freedom cases in August: One Free Press Coalition
  18. Brexit and… copyright – an update

Jon

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News of the Week; July 31, 2019

By Jon Festinger on August 5, 2019

GAMES

  1. British Gambling Commission: Industry should be “proactively dealing” with skin betting – Loot boxes still aren’t gambling but concerns raised over similarities and companies that fail to police secondary markets
  2. Addicted to Loot: Recent developments in gaming addiction and gambling concerns in the UK
  3. SEC Issues No-Action Letter for Gaming Tokens 
  4. GTA dev Rockstar Games under fire from UK tax watchdog
  5. Rockstar hasn’t paid UK corporation tax in ten years, claims investigative think tank: Grand Theft Auto V developer also issued claims worth over £42 million in Video Game Tax Relief
  6. No Shellebration for Turtle Rock Studios 
  7. Heroes Charge into Copyright Battle 
  8. “It ain’t over till the Old Lady sings” – Konami, Juventus and the licensing of IP for use in sports video game content
  9. CD Projekt Red promises “no disrespect” in religious-themed Cyberpunk 2077 quests: Polish studio “doesn’t want to avoid religion as a topic” but acknowledges player choices could cause controversy
  10. Doomed: Bethesda’s Classic Doom Re-Releases Are Fixed, But Demonstrate Again That We Don’t Own What We Buy
  11. Classic Doom games vanish, reappear on Xbox One with features missing
  12. Bethesda removing mandatory login from Doom re-releases after fan backlash
  13. Bethesda says online requirement for Doom re-releases was a mistake
  14. Joke game removed from Steam after offering bribes to customers: Cyerprank 2069 offers collectors edition of Cyberpunk 2077 for “funniest review”
  15. A bug has tanked Team Fortress 2’s Steam Marketplace economy  
  16. Creators Going Pro: YouTube Gets Viewers Into The Mind Of Gamer Rez And His ‘Fortnite’-Loving Family
  17. PUBG Corp says it has buried the hatchet with Fortnite dev Epic Games
  18. PUBG. Corp says Epic is “one of our best partners” despite previous lawsuit attempt: Studio director Brian Corrigan dismisses notion of animosity between two companies
  19. The Epic Games Store has started rolling out cloud saves
  20. Epic Game store adds cloud saves: Feature active for a handful of titles, storefront says more work needed before it can be adopted on a larger scale
  21. Understanding the success of Fortnite: A UX and psychology perspective
  22. On YouTube’s Biggest Channels, Videos With Keywords Like ‘Fortnite,’ ‘ASMR’ and ‘Insane’ Get Higher Views
  23. Immortals Gaming Club reportedly selling Houston Outlaws for $40m: Deal expected to close in August to keep Immortals from owning two Overwatch League teams at once
  24. Strafe raises $3m for esports hub app: Seed round led by Bitkraft Esports Ventures
  25. Bulkhead Interactive announced $650,000 investment into esports: Battalion 1944 dev expands esports offering and suggests more future investment
  26. Winner of the Fortnite World Cup took home $3m: Kyle Giersdorf, 16, won the solo competition, winners of the duos tournament received 1.5m each
  27. The Fortnite World Cup | A Record-Setting Tournament
  28. The ‘Fortnite’ World Cup Finals Drew More Than 2 Million Concurrent Viewers
  29. FaZe Clan Brings In First Female Member, 13-Year-Old Deaf ‘Fortnite’ Pro Ewok
  30. Ninja is writing a book that will teach you to become an ‘unstoppable’ gamer: He’s also co-writing a graphic novel that will showcase his ‘unmatched wits and skill.’
  31. Rocket League gets license approval in China: Tencent partnership leads to free-to-play release of Psyonix’s car soccer hit
  32. Qualcomm and Tencent team up for future mobile game devices and content 
  33. Whoever wins the console wars of tomorrow, Microsoft will profit | Opinion: Satya Nadella sees a future where every game “platform” will ultimately run on Azure’s infrastructure
  34. Microsoft CEO: Partnership with Sony was driven by the PlayStation maker
  35. Microsoft: Cloud partnership “all driven by Sony”: The deal means Microsoft is “dependent” on Sony’s success, according to CEO Satya Nadella
  36. The PlayStation 4 has shipped 100 million units faster than any other console
  37. Putting the PS4’s 100 million sales in context: 67 months to hit 9 figures is the fastest-ever pace for a home console.
  38. PlayStation 4 software revenue dips as hardware shipments hit major milestone
  39. US tariffs on Chinese goods could raise PlayStation console prices, warns Sony  
  40. Facebook migrating Instant Games away from Messenger
  41. Facebook Instant Games moves off Messenger: New game reviews re-opening after three-month hiatus
  42. Zynga sees best mobile bookings and revenue in company history for Q2: Mobile publisher raises year-long guidance following record performances from Empires & Puzzles, Merge Dragons! and mobile Words With Friends
  43. Pokemon Go surpasses 1 billion downloads worldwide
  44. Slitherine enters contract with Dstl to develop games for UK military: Wargaming developer to create dedicated versions of Command Modern Air/Naval Operations, Flashpoint Campaigns
  45. Tilting Point invests $30 million in Mino as Cat Gamelaunches worldwide
  46. Tilting Point invests $30m into Mino Games’ Cat Game: This marks the publisher’s largest user acquisition investment so far
  47. Mail.Ru’s My.Games grows revenues to $116.9 million in Q2: But suffers $10 million impairment charge as Obsidian co-developed MMO Skyforge falters
  48. Focus Home Interactive’s Q1 revenue up 49% YOY: World War Z accounted for nearly half of the publisher’s sales last quarter
  49. Star Trek Fleet Command surpasses $100m in lifetime revenue: Mobile game is publisher Scopely’s fastest-growing mobile title
  50. No More Robots reaches $3m in lifetime revenue: Manchester-based publisher reaches milestone one week after launch of Nowhere Prophet
  51. Bigben Interactive acquires French development studio Spiders
  52. Automation enters administration and cancels Mavericks: Proving Grounds
  53. Kickstarter veterans on how to run a successful crowdfunding campaign: YoYo Games’ Ross Manthorp explains seven key crowdfunding lessons from GameMaker Studio 2 developers
  54. EA expects The Sims 4 to deliver net bookings on par withApex Legends
  55. Live services brought EA $2.5 billion in net bookings in the last 12 months
  56. Nearly half of EA’s unit sales are now digital: Publisher’s quiet first quarter headlined by growing digital dominance
  57. Switch driving sales at Nintendo as ‘foreign exchange losses’ cut profits
  58. Nintendo recasts Fire Emblem: Three Houses voice actor after abuse confessions
  59. Fire Emblem beats Wolfenstein to the top of the UK charts: Nintendo published four of the top ten games in the UK last week
  60. Nintendo’s 3DS plans remain unchanged as unit and software sales slow
  61. Both digital and packaged game sales on the rise at Sega Sammy
  62. Wolfenstein: Youngblood Review: A co-op spin-off does Wolfenstein better and worse than ever.
  63. Fire Emblem Three Houses: Critical Consensus: Critics heap near unanimous praise for the strategy RPG’s return to console
  64. Grand Theft Auto V leads a static top three in the EMEAA charts: Team Ninja’s Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 was the only new entry in the combined physical and digital chart
  65. Dragalia Lost becomes second highest-grossing Nintendo mobile game: Game still sits well behind Fire Emblem Heroes, but continues trend of high spend per install
  66. Amazon is ending Prime Video support on the Wii U
  67. Amazon reportedly ends Prime Video on Wii U, launches it for VR: Company offering a $25 credit toward Fire TV services for Wii U Prime users
  68. Bandai Namco opening Barcelona mobile studio: Bandai Namco Mobile will focus on creating and marketing games outside the Asian market
  69. The irony of Oddworld: Lorne Lanning on crunching to make games about the exploitation of workers
  70. There is no typical Curve game: Publishing director Simon Byron explains how the indie publisher tries to keep surprising and introduces new signing Autonauts
  71. Creating terrifying, memorable 2D monsters
  72. Video: A game programmer’s guide to the dark secrets of RNG
  73. Watch two of Elsinore’s devs discuss the tragic Shakespeare simulator
  74. Don’t Miss: Balancing the old with the new in Monster Prom’s fandom-friendly DLC
  75. Unity valuation hits $6 billion following latest investment deal
  76. Latest Unity investment values company at $6 billion: Tender offer of $525 million more than doubles valuation for game dev engine outfit
  77. Video: Niantic founder examines the state & future of AR games
  78. Schell Games receives $900,000 for HistoryMaker VR from government grant 
  79. US Department of Education awards $900k to Schell Games for VR education: Grant from Small Business Innovation Research program will assist with development of HistoryMakerVR
  80. HP Reverb Still ‘Sold Out’ as Reports of Display Issues Continue
  81. Zuckerberg to Shareholders: ‘Quest is selling as fast as we can make them’
  82. Cloudhead Games’ VR sleight of hand: Designer Antony Stevens and senior programmer Cameron Oltman talk Aperture Hand Labs, and where hand tech is headed now
  83. Devcom set to thrive in close alliance with Gamescom: Nico Balletta on what being backed by the organiser of Gamescom means for the future of Devcom
  84. Creating a vegetation system that reacts to the environment
  85. Learn, reset, repeat: The intricacy of time loop games
  86. Improving the depiction of mental illness in Vampire: The Masquerade
  87. Don’t Miss: How devs deal with making enemies that feel ‘okay’ to kill
  88. Don’t Miss: The Blue Shell and its discontents (Ian Bogost)
  89. Making the bizarre, hilarious world of Trover Saves the Universe
  90. Q&A: Behind the new open-ended design of Wolfenstein: Youngblood
  91. Video: How 20XX survived and thrived in Early Access
  92. Making the most interesting licensed games through self-sabotage: John Wick Hex director and writer Mike Bithell shares his strategy for finding good partners to make interesting licensed projects
  93. EarthNight’s quest for epic yet accessible: Cleaversoft’s Rich Siegel on why he made it less punishing for novices late in the process
  94. Blog: Considerations when writing music for games
  95. Couples that play Mario Kart together stay together: A survey finds playing Mario Kart keeps the romance alive. And Call of Duty and Skyrim aren’t bad for love either.
  96. U.S. Patent No. 9,061,205: Music video game with user directed sound generation 

DIGITAL

  1. Sites could be liable for helping Facebook secretly track your web browsing, says EU court
  2. Court of Justice of the European Union Press Release No 99/19 Luxembourg, 29 July 2019 Judgment in Case C-40/17 Fashion ID GmbH & Co. KG v Verbraucherzentrale NRW eV
  3. Russian Interference and Data Privacy: Facebook Stockholders Demand Section 220 Inspection to Investigate Wrongdoing of Board and Senior Management
  4. The FTC is investigating Facebook. Again
  5. FTC Announces Record-Breaking Facebook Settlement
  6. FTC unfriends Facebook
  7. FTC Sues Cambridge Analytica for Deceptive Practices 
  8. Facebook Enters into Data Privacy Violation Settlement Agreement 
  9. FTC Hits Facebook With an Unprecedented Fine for Privacy Violations and a Rigorous Order on Privacy Governance
  10. Business Takeaways from the FTC $5 Billion Settlement with Facebook
  11. What’s Next After Facebook’s Record $5 Billion Fine and Cambridge Analytica? 
  12. Cambridge Analytica made “ethical mistakes” because it was too focused on regulation, former COO says: “…we forgot to pause and think about, ethically, what was going on.”
  13. The Great Hack Wasn’t A Hack And Big Tech’s Problems Aren’t Really About Big Tech
  14. FTC Hands Down 5 Billion Dollar Penalty To Facebook
  15. Facebook Just Paid a $5 Billion Fine for Privacy Breaches. Now it Wants Access to Your Brain.
  16. Please break up Facebook, cofounder asks regulators: They say that breaking up is hard to do, but Hughes really wants to try.
  17. Facebook to Settle with SEC for $100 Million 
  18. Privacy group asks court to reconsider FTC’s $5 billion Facebook deal: The settlement does nothing to address the underlying issues, EPIC says.
  19. What Facebook’s next 20 years will look like: is this the future of US privacy? 
  20. Facebook is Making Progress on Its Mind Reading Headset: Facebook really wants to get inside your head.
  21. Facebook is funding brain experiments to create a device that reads your mind: Big tech firms are trying to read people’s thoughts, and no one’s ready for the consequences.
  22. NY Times Calls Out Politicians For Lying About Section 230
  23. Congressman Who Was Sued For Blocking Constituents On Social Media Now Also Wants To Undermine Section 230
  24. Second Circuit Issues Powerful Section 230 Win to Facebook in “Material Support for Terrorists” Case–Force v. Facebook (Eric Goldman)
  25. Facebook Defeats Pro Se Consumer Privacy Suit–Hassan v. Facebook (Eric Goldman)
  26. Facebook reached out to Netflix, Disney on new TV device, report says: The device will reportedly use the same tech as Facebook Portal.
  27. Facebook Wants Disney, Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and HBO’s Streaming Services On Its Upcoming Connected TV Device (Report)
  28. GitHub access restricted in Iran, Syria, and Crimea due to sanctions
  29. Disney to Integrate Hulu Scripted Originals Team Under Dana Walden
  30. Facebook announces Libra cryptocurrency – Congress responds
  31. Regulators Dislike Facebook’s Entry into Cryptocurrency Market, Calling “Libra” an AML Threat
  32. Facebook’s Libra Prompts Federal Draft Legislation 
  33. Facebook And Instagram Ban User Posts Selling Alcohol And Tobacco
  34. Teenage Instagram Users Are Exposing Their Personal Information To Access The Platform’s Business Analytics (Report)
  35. Instagram Permanently Suspends Roughly 30 Meme Accounts With Millions Of Followers
  36. Why Conservatives Allege Big Tech Is Muzzling Them: Google and Facebook aren’t infringing on the right’s freedom of expression, but insisting otherwise is politically convenient.
  37. The future of the decentralized web
  38. International Law and Cyber Activity: Why are a set of governing norms needed?
  39. Full Social Media Disclosure Now Required for U.S. Visas
  40. CJEU rules that unauthorized (non-trasformative) sampling can infringe a phonogram producer’s rights and German free use is against EU law (Eleonora Rosati)
  41. Chinese vlogger who used filter to look younger caught in live-stream glitch
  42. Presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard sues Google for ad censorship
  43. Presidential Candidate Tulsi Gabbard Sues Google, Using All The Same Debunked Legal Theories Others Have Tried
  44. People forged judges’ signatures to trick Google into changing results
  45. Why Is Trump Seeing Red Over France’s ‘Google Tax’?: French unilateral efforts to fix loopholes in global tax rules are adding fuel to the trans-Atlantic trade spat.
  46. Chrome continues to wind down Flash support with latest browser update
  47. Missouri Senator Proposes Bill Banning YouTube’s Autoplay, Facebook And Twitter’s Infinite Scroll
  48. Proposed US law would ban infinite scroll, autoplaying video: The features drive addiction by exploiting our brains, Sen. Josh Hawley says.
  49. Josh Hawley Wants To Appoint Himself Product Manager For The Internet
  50. Can YouTubers really unionize?: Yes, and no. They at least have the support of a really big one.
  51. Popular Stream-Ripping Site Declines To Play Whac-A-Mole With YouTube
  52. YouTube videos with kids get three times as many views as videos without kids: A new study has found
  53. YouTube Videos Featuring Young Children Get Triple The Views Of Videos That Don’t (Study)
  54. A Week in the Life of Popular YouTube Channels: Analysis of videos posted finds that children’s content – as well as content featuring children – received more views than other videos
  55. YouTube video takedowns of harmful content haven’t hurt revenue: Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat says the company’s doing just fine.
  56. YouTube’s New Feature Requires Creators To Self-Rate How Ad-Appropriate Their Videos Are
  57. YouTube Stays Uncharacteristically Silent On New 24-Hour Music Video Viewership Record
  58. YouTube Creator Group Teams With Europe’s Largest Trade Union To Launch ‘FairTube’ Initiative
  59. All Def Digital Has Reportedly Filed For An ‘ABC’ — An Alternative Procedure To Bankruptcy
  60. Bustle Digital Shelves Gawker Relaunch, Lays Off Site’s Staff
  61. Apparently, More Than 64,000 People Paid $50 To Watch Jake Paul And Tana Mongeau Get Married
  62. Consumers Can’t Understand the Online Contracts They “Agree” To. Now What?
  63. After SEC Approval, YouNow Integrates ‘Props’ Crypto Tokens Into Livestreaming Ecosystem
  64. Iran’s Government Gives the Official Nod to Crypto Mining
  65. Cryptocurrencies: practical considerations in insolvencies 
  66. NBCUniversal Streaming Service To Launch In April 2020, Will Feature ‘The Office’ And Original Content From Sky Studios
  67. NBC Pacts With Twitter For Exclusive 2020 Tokyo Olympics Live Programming
  68. Lilly Singh’s NBC Talk Show To Bow Sept. 16, Names Comedy Vet John Irwin Showrunner
  69. Vice Media In Talks To Acquire Refinery29
  70. NBA Renews China Digital Deal With Tencent
  71. Music crowdfunding website PledgeMusic goes offline amidst bankruptcy proceedings: The company shut down operations earlier this year after not delivering funds to 
  72. Why A ‘Clever Hack’ Against Nazis Shows How Upload Filters Have Made Copyright Law Even More Broken
  73. Everything Cops Say About Amazon’s Ring Is Scripted or Approved by Ring
  74. Amazon writes scripts for cops to sling Ring home cameras, report says
  75. Amazon’s Free Doorbell Cameras Only Cost Law Enforcement Agencies Their Dignity And Autonomy
  76. New Campaign Demands End to Amazon’s Partnerships with Police: People can sign a petition urging their local government to forbid police partnerships with surveillance companies like Amazon’s Ring.
  77. Could Oberdorf Open the Door to Infringement Liability for Amazon 
  78. Wisconsin Court Holds Amazon Can Be Strictly Liable for Marketplace Items–State Farm v. Amazon (Eric Goldman)
  79. The L.A. Times’ disappointing digital numbers show the game’s not just about drawing in subscribers – it’s about keeping them
  80. HBO, The Walking Dead, And Star Trek Grab Comic-Con Spotlight On Social Video
  81. Virtually every Apple business grew in every region this quarter—except the iPhone
  82. Apple acquires Intel’s 5G smartphone modem business for $1 billion
  83. Apple acquires the bulk of Intel’s smartphone modem business for $1 billion
  84. Insights: Netflix Tumbles But Who Can Take Advantage?
  85. Netflix is not a tech company
  86. Netflix Is Asking Android Users For Permission To Track Their Physical Movements
  87. WarnerMedia greenlights a retelling of The Odyssey for HBO Max: Based on Madeline Miller’s take on the original epic poem
  88. Snapchat launches ‘instant’ tool for creating vertical ads
  89. The ugly side of Snapchat and Instagram filters
  90. PinkNews has tripled revenue over the last year, driven by Snapchat
  91. Duolingo partnered with Twitch to help you learn languages better: Now you have no excuse to avoid the owl
  92. Casey Neistat’s 368 Hits Stride With Brand Collabs, Including Ongoing Pact With Adobe
  93. Nerdy Craigslist founder wants to change the world — starting with your news: Craig Newmark is a self-proclaimed nerd and reformed jerk. Now he’s putting money behind his politics.
  94. Bytedance Confirms It’s Developing A Smartphone, But Says That’s Not Because Of TikTok
  95. Sony Music Revenue Up 11%, Streaming Soars 27% in First Quarter
  96. Spotify’s Q2 2019: 108m subscribers, €1.67bn revenues, and a €76m net loss
  97. Thinking about our digital afterlives
  98. The Death Of Ownership: Educational Publishing Giant Pearson To Do Away With Print Textbooks (That Can Be Resold)
  99. Trump threatens retaliation against France over digital service tax
  100. The Superiority of the Digital Service Tax over Significant Digital Presence Proposals (Wei Cui)
  101. Redbox Automated Retail, LLC v. Disney Enterprises, Inc.
  102. Cyber laundering: What are some key challenges in detection and regulation?
  103. Now Even Funerals Are Livestreamed—And Families Are Grateful
  104. Chinese vertical dramas made for phone viewing show the future of mobile video

A.I.

  1. No authors at all, or too many to count? – AI and IP
  2. DeepMind AI predicts acute loss of kidney function two days in advance, study shows
  3. AI’s current hype and hysteria could set the technology back by decades
  4. 6 ways AI is making an impact on video games: AI has changed the way video games work, and it’s slated to change that even more. NPCs beware.
  5. Video: A dev’s guide to testing game AI
  6. One chip to rule them all: It natively runs all types of AI software
  7. It’s Sentient: Meet the classified artificial brain being developed by US intelligence programs

COMMUNICATIONS  

  1.  Telecom Regulatory Policy CRTC 2019-269: The Internet Code
  2. CRTC’s new Internet Code of Conduct falls short of expectations
  3. Soon you’ll be able to watch PBS on YouTube
  4. DOJ Approves T-Mobile/Sprint Merger Based on Third-Party Divestiture Agreement Involving Dish Network 
  5. DOJ Prepares To Sign Off On An Elaborate T-Mobile Merger Plan That Isn’t Likely To Work
  6. It’s official: US government approves T-Mobile/Sprint merger
  7. The DOJ’s Plan To ‘Fix’ The T-Mobile Merger Isn’t Going To Work
  8. AT&T loses nearly 1 million TV customers after raising DirecTV prices
  9. AT&T Loses 1 Million Video Users After Spending Billions On Mergers To Dominate Video
  10. AT&T kills DirecTV Now brand name as TV subscribers leave in droves
  11. TV networks sue nonprofit to kill free TV service: Locast, an AT&T-funded nonprofit, retransmits local TV over the Internet. 
  12. Court Will Decide If AT&T Is Liable For Cryptocurrency Theft Caused By Shoddy Security
  13. Inside CEO John Stankey’s ‘Action-Oriented’ Approach to Reposition WarnerMedia
  14. To protect its satellites, France outlines ambitious space-weapons program
  15. Looking at Equal Opportunities – When Does the Appearance of a Political Candidate on a Broadcast Program Trigger Equal Time Obligations? 
  16. Advertising is a cancer on society
  17. Proposed Broadcast Industry Equal Employment Opportunity Reforms Receive Significant Media Attention
  18. Cord Cutting Is Setting Records In 2019

PRIVACY

  1. FaceApp, the Methuselahn faced Cloud of privacy concerns
  2. Terms of Use: Disarming Ourselves, Arming Russia and China 
  3. Hackers Seize Control Of Bulgarian Tax Agency, Sprinkler System
  4. Siri records fights, doctor’s appointments, and sex (and contractors hear it)
  5. Apple contractors ‘regularly hear confidential details’ on Siri recordings: Workers hear drug deals, medical details and people having sex, says whistleblower
  6. Privacy Tip #200 – Iranian Backed Hacking Group Using LinkedIn To Deliver Malicious Documents 
  7. Hacker ID’d as former Amazon employee steals data of 106 million people from Capital One
  8. Capital One Gets In On The Data Breach Action, Coughs Up Info On 100 Million Customers To A Single Hacker
  9. San Mateo Dumps Red Light Camera Program After A Decade Of Continuous Failure
  10. ICO Issues First Intentions to Fine Under the GDPR 
  11. UK – New ICO guidance on the use of cookies and similar technologies
  12. An Increasing Regulatory Focus on Cookies: Time to Review Your Compliance?
  13. Capital One Data Breach Compromises Data of Over 100 Million
  14. Post GDPR world – cross-border data privacy best line of defence
  15. Cookie consent: update one year post-GDPR
  16. William Barr Turns Up The Heat On The DOJ’s Anti-Encryption Rhetoric
  17. Unsealed Warrant Shows SFPD Officer Misled Court About Journalist’s Occupation
  18. You can go claim at least $125 from the Equifax settlement right now
  19. You’re probably not going to get your $125 from the Equifax settlement: Equifax has somehow found a way to make the settlement even more disappointing.
  20. City Of Orlando Kicks Amazon’s Facial Recognition Tech To The Curb
  21. NYPD Screws Up Again; Hands Out Even More ‘Secret’ Facial Recognition Docs To Researchers
  22. Louisiana declares state of emergency in response to ransomware attack
  23. The Newest Growth Market For License Plate Readers Is Those A——s Running The Local Homeowners Association
  24. Once More With Feeling: ‘Anonymized’ Data Is Not Really Anonymous
  25. Privacy Perils: Bluetooth Blues
  26. Who have you been giving your name and number to? A cautionary tale
  27. WannaCry slayer, malware author Marcus Hutchins sentenced to time served
  28. 200 million devices—some mission-critical—vulnerable to remote takeover
  29. Cybersecurity officials warn state and local agencies (again) to fend off ransomware
  30. FTC Seeks Comments on COPPA
  31. FTC Announces COPPA Rule Review
  32. FTC Seeks Comments on Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Rule 
  33. Preparing for the inevitable hack: Experts in cybersecurity say businesses that handle personal information need to know that protecting themselves from liability is not a matter of if a data breach occurs but when.
  34. Op-Ed: How data privacy laws could make the criminal justice system even more unfair
  35. The CPSC Releases Framework of Safety for the Internet of Things 
  36. Interaction Between Privacy and Competition Law in a Digital Economy
  37. Intellectual Property and Technology News (North America), Q2 2019: The government in your cloud
  38. Data Protection update – July 2019

CREATIVITY

  1. Watch Hong Kong demonstrators pack airport, sing protest song from ‘Les Misérables’: The tune has become a universal anthem of protesters, “Do you hear the people sing? Singing a song of angry men?”
  2. Attacks on the media in Hong Kong threaten democracy
  3. Covington teen’s $250M suit against the Washington Post dismissed
  4. As Expected: Covington HS Teen’s Lawsuit Against The Washington Post Is Dismissed
  5. Covington student’s defamation case against Washington Post is dismissed
  6. Judge dismisses suit against Washington Post filed by teen who faced-off with Native American activist in DC
  7. Defamation Lawsuit Against The Washington Post Has Been Dismissed: Teen claimed he was misrepresented, but a judge ruled that was not supported “by the plain language in the article.”
  8. $250 Million Lawsuit Against The Washington Post Dismissed: Federal judge dismissed suit of student Nick Sandmann after the Post wrote about his confrontation with a Native American activist earlier this year.
  9. Court Dismisses Democrats’ Nutty Lawsuit Against Russia, Wikileaks And Trump Associates
  10. CJEU rules that freedom of information and of the press cannot justify a derogation from the rights of copyright holders beyond allowed exceptions and limitations (Eleonora Rosati)
  11. CJEU rules that use of a protected work for the purpose of reporting current events does not, in principle, require authorization (Eleonora Rosati)
  12. Aussie court finds media outlets liable: Winkler
  13. Iron Man’s Iron Defense 
  14. Katy Perry loses ‘Dark Horse’ Trial:…Jury Says It’s A Rip-Off
  15. Katy Perry Flame’d: Dark Horse infringes Joyful Noise Copyright
  16. Andy Warhol Foundation Wins Copyright Lawsuit Over Prince Portrait & More Art World Headlines
  17. Horizon Comics Productions, Inc. v. Marvel Entertainment, LLC.
  18. Copyright Troll Richard Liebowitz May Have Cost His Client A Ton Of Money, And Set An Expensive Precedent For Copyright Trolls
  19. Rock Stars Form Lobbying Group to Counter Tech Giants’ Power
  20. Liverpool FC Also Apparently Attempted To Trademark Widely Used Chant By Football Fans
  21. Fans, Indie Soccer Clubs Slam Liverpool FC For Trying To Trademark ‘Liverpool’
  22. The World’s Most Ridiculous Trademark Dispute Is Now Over: Yosemite Gets Its Names Back
  23. Canadian Competition Bureau updates Intellectual Property Enforcement Guidelines
  24. Kawhi Leonard v. Nike, Inc.: Copy, derivative work or distinct work?
  25. Copyright Infringement Claims Against Just Fresh Restaurant Prove Stale
  26. Intellectual Property Protection for Recipes
  27. K-Pop’s Big China Problem: Chinese stars are spinning off in their own orbit as politics gets in the way of profit.
  28. UFC Broadcast Partner Goes Pay-Per-View And Pushes Fans To Piracy
  29. Sweden vs. ASAP Rocky: The rapper has unwittingly stumbled into a bitter debate over race, crime, immigration, and the future of the country’s famed welfare state.
  30. IP rights in art in USA – New York (New York)
  31. Intellectual Property and Technology News (North America), Q2 2019: Supreme Court Corner Cases we are following
  32. Woman dies in Alaska trying to reach famed bus from book

Jon

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News of the Week; July 24, 2019

By Jon Festinger on July 28, 2019

GAMES

  1. Court Tosses Lawsuit Claiming Muting A Runescape Character Violates The First Amendment
  2. Nintendo facing class action suit over drifting Switch controllers
  3. Nintendo faces class action lawsuit over Joy-Con drifting defect: US law firm calls on Switch owners to join suit as plaintiff Ryan Davis seeks monetary relief
  4. Nintendo is reportedly offering free repairs for Joy-Con controllers: An internal memo advises support staff that no proof of purchase or confirmation of warranty is required
  5. Report: Nintendo offering free Joy-Con repairs after drifting controversy
  6. Report: Nintendo quietly owns up to “Joy-Con drift,” will repair for free
  7. Miyamoto remembers the late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata in new book
  8. Is Playing a Video Game on YouTube a Public Performance? 
  9. FIFA’s loot boxes don’t count as gambling, says UK Gambling Commission
  10. FIFA packs and loot boxes ‘not gambling’ in UK
  11. Grand Theft Auto Online’s new casino is limited by gambling laws in some countries
  12. Grand Theft Auto V update adds a casino that can be played with real money: Real money can be spent on chips, though it cannot be cashed back out into actual money
  13. UKIE’s Jo Twist is right: the words we use matter | Opinion – If we casually use terms like “addictive” it robs us of the ability to have a proper discussion when games do cross a line
  14. Supercell discontinues games in Vietnam due to ‘regulatory issues’
  15. Supercell pulls games out of Vietnam, citing “regulatory issues”: 142 other mobile games removed by government agency in legal crackdown
  16. A look at The Sims 1 design docs, and a dev’s argument for including same-sex romance
  17. Girls’ Game Lab launches to host game development workshops for young girls
  18. “If she can do it, I can too”: The message behind Girls’ Game Lab – New not-for-profit team setting up coding workshops for young girls, first one to be held at Playground next month
  19. “Employee health, employee happiness, and then the game — in that order”: Michael Paixao on winning a legal battle against former employer ZeniMax Media to create a better work culture with Bad Yolk
  20. Ex-MachineGames devs target healthy work-life balance with new studio: Bad Yolk already has a team of ten AAA veterans, with experience on Gears of War, The Darkness and The Division
  21. GOG reverses decision to reject Heaven’s Vault: Inkle’s adventure game will be added to the storefront despite GOG’s initial refusal
  22. Harry Potter: Wizards Unite’s first month revenue lags far behind Pokémon Go – Sensor Tower data shows Niantic’s new game firmly in Pokémon Go’s shadow
  23. After 28 years, cofounder Frank Pearce is leaving Blizzard
  24. Blizzard’s bad-news year continues with another co-founder’s departure
  25. Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce ends 28-year career at company: “The time has come for me to step away from Blizzard and pass the torch to the next generation of leaders,” says Pearce
  26. Gearbox commits to cross-play for Borderlands 3: The feature will not be available immediately, but Randy Pitchford promises support “as soon as practicable after launch”
  27. Don’t Miss: Crafting the oppressive soundscape ofWolfenstein II: The New Colossus
  28. Don’t Miss: The challenges and rewards of designing local multiplayer games
  29. Don’t Miss: The art of the tutorial
  30. Deep Dive: Burdening players with the power of the system in Legal Dungeon
  31. Disney and Glu aim to target nostalgia without exploiting it: Both companies address the scrutiny around free-to-play ahead of the launch of Disney Sorcerer’s Arena
  32. Tencent and The Pokemon Company are making games together
  33. The Pokémon Company teams up with Tencent to create more Pokémon games: Tencent’s TiMi Studio Group will lead development on multiple unknown new titles
  34. Tencent makes ‘substantial investment’ in retro streaming service Antstream
  35. DouYu goes public with $775m Nasdaq IPO: Tencent-backed Chinese streaming platform is valued at more than $3.7 billion
  36. Nintendo, Tencent set a date to discuss Switch launch in China
  37. Tencent and Nintendo to host Switch press conference in China on August 2: Shanghai event is the first official update since Tencent was cleared to distribute the console in China
  38. NPD: Super Mario Maker 2 warps to the top of June US sales – Nintendo Switch continues its reign as best-selling hardware platform for 2019
  39. Bandai Namco combines physical toys and mobile games with Tori: New platform will be an “ecosystem” of toys and software, designed with input from “experts in children’s learning and development”
  40. Sega ends publishing partnership with narrative studio Interior Night
  41. Sega drops publishing deal with Interior Night: But studio says parting was amicable and a new partnership will be announced soon
  42. Microsoft sees dip in quarterly Xbox revenue as hardware sales slow
  43. Microsoft hardware revenue dips 48% YOY for fourth quarter: Xbox Live reaches 65 million MAUs as subscriptions offset hardware and software declines
  44. Microsoft is ‘well positioned’ to succeed in larger game market, claims CEO
  45. Satya Nadella: Microsoft is “well positioned” to expand beyond traditional gaming: CEO says investments in cloud technology will benefit Xbox as well as company’s other divisions
  46. The Mirage of Cloud Gaming (And How to Reach the Oasis)
  47. Google tries to reassure gamers it’s behind Stadia for the long haul
  48. Stadia director of product: “Eventually all games will be in the cloud and we’ll feel great” – Andrey Doronichev responds to concerns about service discontinuation, ISPs, features in Reddit AMA
  49. Tools to manage Stadia’s data usage are in the works, says Google
  50. Ubisoft says porting games to Stadia hasn’t been a costly affair  
  51. Ubisoft pledges support to open source 3D creation tool Blender
  52. Doppio raises $1.1 million from Google and Amazon for voice-controlled games
  53. Google, Amazon invests in voice-controlled games studio Doppio: Portuguese developer secures €1m in seed funding
  54. PC overtakes PlayStation 4 as Ubisoft’s most lucrative platform this quarter
  55. Zynga is growing its presence in India with a studio expansion 
  56. Grand Theft Auto V returns to top spot in EMEAA charts: Super Mario Maker 2 is best-selling physical game for the week
  57. SuperData: Crash Team Racing sold over 550k units digitally in June – Overwatch surpasses $1b in in-game spending, Rainbow Six Siege revenue up to $36.8m last month
  58. UK Charts: Crash Team Racing returns to No.1 as Amazon Prime Day boosts market – Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 debuts at No.2
  59. Tekken 7 has crossed 4 million sales worldwide
  60. id Software studio director Tim Willits is stepping down after 24 years
  61. Kongregate acquires mobile and browser game Bit Heroes
  62. Kongregate acquires Bit Heroes from Juppiomenz: Publisher plans to turn mobile, web-based RPG into larger franchise
  63. Bigben acquires Spiders: French studio is the latest in a series of acquisitions bolstering Bigben Interactive’s internal development prospects
  64. NetEase opens R&D studio in Montreal
  65. NetEase launches Montreal studio: Creation of new R&D-focused development location follows last week’s R&D-minded investment in Montreal’s Behaviour Interactive
  66. Rooster Teeth To Drop First Original IP Game In August, Unveils ‘Shark Week’ Collab
  67. Techland: “It’s still not a corporate studio. We still get crazy sometimes” – The Dying Light 2 developer on the rise of the Polish industry, and growing from 200 staff to 300 in just a few years
  68. Indies on Steam are betting on discoverability: After a year of missteps by Valve, indie devs are cautious about Steam Labs and their future visibility on Steam
  69. From platform holder to indie investor: Former PlayStation boss Jack Tretton talks about backing indies like Blue Isle’s Citadel: Forged With Fire
  70. 5 tips for surviving and thriving in game design 
  71. Inside Steam Diving Bell, a tool for ‘Wikipedia binging’ Steam games
  72. Game Seer Venture Partners launches with €10m fund: Company will invest up to €1.5 million in PC and console games, doesn’t require long-term plans
  73. Don’t Miss: Making Insomniac’s Spider-Man do what a spider can
  74. Don’t Miss: Deconstructing the success of The Witcher 3’s open world
  75. Drawkanoid: Launching an indie game in a market where “everything changes”: Nordic Game Discovery Contest winner discusses game launches and monetisation in an ever-changing ecosystem
  76. Australian studio Defiant Development is ceasing development of new titles
  77. Defiant Development to close after nine years: Pioneering Australian studio was “not able to change quickly enough” to adapt to the changing industry
  78. “If you’re trying to make the game of the film, you’re onto a loser”: Outright Games’ Nick Button-Brown explains how the publisher is trying to break the stigma around licensed kids games
  79. Blog: Turning my grandmother’s childhood memories into a game
  80. Blog: A NASA historian considers Kerbal Space Program
  81. Blog: Designing sounds and music for a casual mobile game
  82. Blog: The one metric you SHOULD care about when launching your game
  83. Video: Letting Go – The Florence postmortem
  84. Video: An actor’s advice on getting great mocap performances in games
  85. Video: Tips for programmers in the game industry
  86. Video: What makes for successful, memorable game trailers
  87. Watch a design breakdown of digital card game adventureNowhere Prophet
  88. Kind Words: A game of lo-fi beats, letters to strangers, and feeling less alone – Popcannibal’s Ziba Scott on designing and moderating a game exclusively about being kind to other people
  89. Brendan Greene: “It’s crazy, the hate I receive. I just have to ignore it”: At Gamelab 2019, Vlambeer’s Rami Ismail talked to PUBG’s creator about the darker side of making a global phenomenon
  90. ‘Fortnite’ Partners With YouTube To Give Players Exclusive Loot When They Watch Live Streams
  91. The free-to-Play cookbook: Secrets to player engagement – deltaDNA reveals the top tips on monetizing your mobile game
  92. NSE and Intel partner for second season of the British University Esports Championship: Long-term strategic partnership committed to investing in grassroots esports
  93. Gaming and esports revenues on the rise for MTG: InnoGames’ Forge of Empires was at the heart of the Swedish firm’s growth in the second quarter
  94. Echo Fox proposes sale of slot in League of Legends Championship Series: Riot must still review the sale, rumoured to a $30.25 million sale to Kroenke Sports & Entertainment
  95. Tencent to stream NBA 2K League in China: Selected playoff matches and every game of the finals to be made available through Tencent Sports, Tencent Video, and Tencent News
  96. Geoff “iNcontroL” Robinson dies at 33: Esports broadcaster, streamer, former StarCraft II pro suffered a sudden illness
  97. Fight for money and fame in Fortnite and Apex Legends this weekend
  98. Football Manager 19 surpasses 2m copies sold across all platforms: It’s the first annual Football Manager game to reach this milestone
  99. How Satisfactory’s network optimizations keep multiplayer factories humming along
  100. Oculus Go emulation coming to the Quest later this year 
  101. Oculus Quest teardown shows how the standalone VR headset was built
  102. Digital Catapult launches AR and VR accelerator programme for UK startups: Early-stage companies to receive mentorship and access to investors
  103. I Spent a Full Day Working in the Magic Leap One & Discovered the AR Office of the Future
  104. Blockchain Gaming: Buzzwords, bulls and bears 
  105. Netflix’s ‘The Witcher’ Looks Absolutely Fantastic – ‘Game Of Thrones’ Fans Take Note

DIGITAL

  1. FTC fines Facebook $5 billion, imposes new privacy oversight
  2. Facebook Agrees to New FTC Privacy Oversight, Will Pay $5 Billion Fine Under 20-Year Settlement
  3. FTC’s Privacy Settlement With Facebook Gets Pretty Much Everything Backwards; Probably Helps Facebook
  4. Facebook Knows More About You Than The CIA
  5. Facebook: Hypothetical Risk Factors are Insufficient Disclosure When the Risk has Occurred 
  6. Still available via Google Analytics: Data slurped from 4 million browsers
  7. Google Finally Settles Lawsuit Over Decade-Old WiFi Snooping Accusations
  8. Justice Department launches antitrust probe into big tech
  9. Antitrust as a Tool to Regulate the FANG Companies: Differing Approaches in the United States and in Europe
  10. It’s Time to Reboot the Startup Economy: The new laws and antitrust actions that would resurrect American innovation (Tim Wu)
  11. As Russian “FaceApp” gobbles up user photos, Schumer asks FBI to investigate
  12. Advanced mobile surveillanceware, made in Russia, found in the wild
  13. Section 230 Works: Russian Trolls Don’t Get To Sue Facebook For Being Kicked Off Facebook
  14. Russia F’d With American Democracy, But It Can’t F— With Section 230 – Federal Agency of News v. Facebook (Eric Goldman)
  15. “We’re not ready” for foreign election interference in 2020, says Rep. Adam Schiff: Democrat has warned Facebook, Twitter, and Google to be on notice for deepfakes and other dirty tricks.
  16. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg Says $5 Billion FTC Settlement Terms “Go Beyond Anything Required Under U.S. Law”
  17. Breaking: US to ban Facebook Cryptocurrency
  18. Crypto and Blockchain Markets Signal Growth Amid Regulator Skepticism, Hacks and Sanctions Warnings 
  19. Judge allows suit against AT&T after $24 million cryptocurrency theft
  20. Google’s Project Dragonfly ‘terminated’ in China: Google’s controversial plan to launch a censored search engine in China has been “terminated”, a company executive has said.
  21. Google pays $11 million to settle 227 age discrimination claims
  22. For All Of Trump’s Complaints About Social Media ‘Censorship’, The White House Itself Moderates Content Similarly To Social Media Sites
  23. Trump’s Tweets: A Warning That Public Officials’ Personal Social Media Posts Might Actually Be The Government’s
  24. Police Union Responds To Outing Of Officers’ Bigoted Social Media Posts By Offering To Erase Officers’ Online Presences
  25. The Man Who Built The Retweet: “We Handed A Loaded Weapon To 4-Year-Olds” – The button that ruined the internet – and how to fix it.
  26. Leave.EU may keep name after no-deal Brexit if ownership handed to EU citizen: UK-based owners of .eu domains could use transfer loophole to keep name
  27. Brexit funder Arron Banks threatens Netflix over Great Hack documentary: Legal threat comes as campaigners warn UK government that courts are being used to intimidate journalists
  28. Netflix Hit With Class Action Shareholder Lawsuit Following Dismal Q2 Earnings
  29. Copyright Infringement Confirmed, but No Damages for “Cordoba” Photographer
  30. Court Holds that Arbitration Clause in “Hybridwrap” Terms Is Unenforceable 
  31. Lessons from Bumble’s Choice of Law Clause–King v. Bumble
  32. Instagram Hides Likes And Video Views In More Countries To Cut Down On “Pressure” Users Face, While TikTok Tests Adding Another Public Metric
  33. Why hiding likes won’t make Instagram a happier place to be: Mark Zuckerberg’s app is making likes invisible in a new trial. The aim is to “reduce pressure” on users, but it’s not clear how (or if) this will work
  34. Judge Tosses Crazy Copyright Lawsuit Over Gigi Hadid Photo
  35. Dear AHL: Get Your App S— Together Because You’re Freaking Us Out
  36. Another Blocked Facebook User Loses in Court–Dipp-Paz v. Facebook
  37. The Fall Of Mic Was A Warning: “I don’t need a pair of Nikes. I need a 401(k)” — and other lessons from the death of a venture-backed, Facebook-dependent, millennial-focused news site.
  38. Web Search Data Indicates Soaring Interest for Facebook Libra in China
  39. Facebook is backpedaling from its ambitious vision for Libra
  40. Facebook Watch Scares Up 5-Series Content Slate From Horror Hub Crypt TV
  41. Facebook is both killing and funding local journalism
  42. Snap Stock Skyrockets as Company Adds 13 Million Daily Active Users in Q2
  43. Netflix Takes Aim at Facebook With ‘The Great Hack’: A new documentary out July 24, explores Facebook’s role in helping get Trump elected and pushing Brexit – among other things.
  44. Netflix Sees First Subscriber Losses Ever
  45. Netflix lost US subscribers in Q2 over price hikes; how can it win them back?
  46. Netflix’s Original Content Strategy Is Failing
  47. Netflix Hit With Class Action Shareholder Lawsuit Following Dismal Q2 Earnings
  48. Adware Is The Malware You Should Actually Worry About
  49. Which Sports Brands Have Been Viewed The Most In 2019 So Far?
  50. Social Media Platforms Under Attack in the Senate
  51. Influencer and Content Marketing: IP, Privacy and Compliance Issues
  52. KLM and Its Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day on Social Media
  53. 51% Of Gen Z, Millennials Daydream About Life Without Social Media, Fullscreen Study Finds
  54. FTC Seeks Public Comments to Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule 
  55. HQ Trivia Turns Down New Funding Amid Layoffs, Internal Petition To Oust CEO 
  56. Andy Signore Acknowledges “Appalling” Behavior, But Fiercely Refutes Allegations Of Sexual Assault
  57. Stream-Ripping Sites And YouTube Now Engaged In Whac-A-Mole
  58. YouTube, FTC reach settlement over child privacy
  59. FTC’s YouTube Privacy Settlement Pisses Everyone Off; Perhaps We’re Doing Privacy Wrong
  60. YouTube shifts the burden: requires manual copyright claimants to timestamp the allegedly infringing material; simplifies the rectification process
  61. YouTube’s Autocomplete Feature Has a Huge Spoiler Problem: If you type “Iron Man” into YouTube, the top suggestion is a major “Avengers: Endgame” spoiler. And that’s just the tip of the spoilerberg.
  62. Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody video hits 1 billion views on YouTube: It’s the first pre-1990s video to reach that milestone.
  63. Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” Becomes Oldest Music Video In YouTube History To Hit 1 Billion Views
  64. Creators Going Pro: Married YouTubers ‘Rose & Rosie’ Have Made A Career Of Candid, Clever Content About Their Life Together
  65. YouTube Will Exclusively Livestream Fuji Rock, Japan’s Largest Outdoor Music Festival
  66. MLB to livestream 13 games exclusively on YouTube in Canada
  67. Odell Beckham Jr. Launching Production Company, YouTube Channel With Wheelhouse 
  68. Odell Beckham Jr. Forms Content Company To Launch His Own YouTube Channel
  69. Logan Paul Reveals Income Woes, Hypes His Upcoming YouTuber vs. YouTuber Event ‘The Challenger Games’
  70. Zefr Sells YouTube Management Businesses RightsID And ChannelID To Vobile Group For $90 Million
  71. Zefr Sells Its Copyright-Flagging and YouTube Channel-Management Businesses to Vobile for $90 Million
  72. YouTube Music Now Lets Users Switch Seamlessly Between A Song And Its Music Video
  73. Apple Music Launches ‘Rap Life’ Playlist: The rebrand replaces “A-List: Hip-Hop.”
  74. Apple closes in on $1 billion deal to buy Intel’s modem business: report
  75. Dropbox irks Mac users with annoying Dock icon, offers clueless support
  76. Very Confused Judge Allows Bizarre Copyright Lawsuit Against Cloudflare To Continue
  77. The CASE Act: The Road To Copyright Trolling Is Paved With Good Intentions
  78. The Amazon dilemma: how a tech powerhouse that fulfills our every consumer need still lets us down – Despite criticism, Amazon refuses to acknowledge unintended consequences of its rise
  79. Amazon warns customers: Those supplements might be fake
  80. Hulu’s Longtime CFO Elaine Paul Joins Amazon Studios In Same Role
  81. Hulu Launches Collection Of Space-Themed Content From NASA, Including 24-Hour NASA TV Feed
  82. Microsoft closes fiscal 2019 with revenue spikes driven by cloud services
  83. Microsoft has a wild hologram that translates HoloLens keynotes into Japanese: Azure and HoloLens combine for a hint at the future
  84. Can Disney’s Circle really deliver a porn-free Internet?
  85. BuzzFeed To Host ‘Internet Live’ Variety Show With Lil Nas X, JoJo Siwa, Jason Nash
  86. Fanjoy To Host Creator Pop-Up Series At Los Angeles Mall This Summer, Starting With Sam And Colby
  87. Creators For Social Good: Jackie Aina Is Pushing The Beauty World To Be Better For People Of Color, One Video At A Time
  88. Dude Perfect’s 2016 Collab With Serena Williams Sees Viral Resurgence After Polarizing Survey
  89. Shane Dawson’s Surprise Eugenia Cooney Doc Nabs 21 Million Views In 3 Days
  90. WarnerMedia’s HBO Max Unveils Content Team
  91. Vice Media, Mailchimp Partner on Original Docuseries ‘Second Act’
  92. iHeartMedia Stock Drops in NASDAQ Debut
  93. Why The Appearance Of A One Terabyte microSD Card Means The War On Unauthorized Music Downloads Is (Almost) Over
  94. Love letter to my iPod Classic
  95. Open Source Is Becoming a ‘Best Practice’ 
  96. Why Carl Malamud’s Latest Brilliant Project, To Mine The World’s Research Papers, Is Based In India
  97. Texas Rule on “Gig Workers” Takes Effect
  98. Second Circuit Upholds Ban on In-Uber Advertising
  99. How Humans Will Bring the Internet to Space: In the future, orbiters, rovers, deep space probes, and even human space habitats will be nodes on the internet of things.
  100. John McAfee believed to have been detained, campaign manager says: Data secreted across the world will be released if McAfee stays missing, his Twitter account says.
  101. After outcry, DoorDash promises workers will get 100% of tips
  102. Tech Tax – Times Are A Changing? 

A.I.

  1. Ticketmaster Reaches Settlement with Ticket Broker over Unauthorized Use of Automated Bots 
  2. China’s deepfake celebrity porn culture stirs debate about artificial intelligence use
  3. Jazz Generated By A Neural Network Is Absolutely Terrifying
  4. Microsoft invests $1 billion in OpenAI
  5. Microsoft invests $1 billion in OpenAI: Group commits to using Azure as exclusive cloud provider in its pursuit of artificial general intelligence
  6. Elon Musk Details ‘Neuralink’ Brain Interface Tech, Oculus CTO Calls It “very bold work”
  7. Pedestrian collision puts Vienna’s driverless bus trial on hold: The city has paused Navya’s trail pending a full investigation
  8. The Algorithmic Colonization of Africa: Startups are importing and imposing AI systems founded on individualistic and capitalist drives
  9. AI and IoT Legislative Update: Second Quarter 2019
  10. The Human Brain Project Hasn’t Lived Up to Its Promise: Ten years ago, a neuroscientist said that within a decade he could simulate a human brain. Spoiler – It didn’t happen.
  11. An introduction to Artificial Intelligence for in-house lawyers in the Retail and Consumer sector
  12. Mayer Brown’s Tech Talks: Smart Licensing of AI
  13. Shall we play a game? Reinforcement learning and the AI training data challenge 

COMMUNICATIONS

  1. DOJ to approve T-Mobile/Sprint merger despite 13 states trying to block it
  2. Telecom Union Got Hoodwinked Into Supporting AT&T’s Shitty Merger
  3. Verizon wants you to pay $650 plus $85 a month for a 5G hotspot
  4. Claims Of 5G Health Risks Are Frequently Based On A Single, 20 Year Old Flawed Graph
  5. Who is leading the 5G patent race? July 2019 update 
  6. Early 5G Plans Show Cell Carriers Haven’t Learned Much About Misleading ‘Unlimited’ Plans
  7. TV blackouts hit record high as customers get screwed by industry squabbles
  8. FCC Aims to Make Broadband Deployment Data More Precise
  9. FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, Better Broadband Mapping – Two More Reverse Auctions 
  10. Latest Huawei ‘Smoking Gun’ Still Doesn’t Prove Global Blackball Effort’s Primary Justification

PRIVACY

  1. Steve Bannon The Latest To Abuse Consumer Location Data
  2. Instead Of Parents Spying On Their Kids Online, Why Not Teach Them How To Be Good Digital Citizens
  3. Judge Unseals, Tosses Warrant Used By The San Francisco PD To Obtain A Journalist’s Phone Records
  4. I found your data. It’s for sale.: As many as 4 million people have Web browser extensions that sell their every click. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
  5. My browser, the spy: How extensions slurped up browsing histories from 4M users
  6. Dropbox silently installs new file manager app on users’ systems [Updated]
  7. More on DataSpii: How extensions hide their data grabs—and how they’re discovered
  8. How private is your browser’s Private mode? Research into porn suggests “not very”
  9. DNA Information of Thousands of Individuals Exposed Online for Years 
  10. Tech firms “can and must” put backdoors in encryption, AG Barr says
  11. Oversight Report: World’s Most Powerful Spy Agency Is An Insecure Mess That Can’t Keep Tabs On Its Own Employees
  12. Inadequate Cybersecurity and Data Privacy Due Diligence Alleged in Starwood Deal as UK ICO Fines Marriott $125M for GDPR Violations 
  13. Chances of destructive BlueKeep exploit rise with new explainer posted online
  14. U.S. Supreme Court Broadens FOIA Exemption 4 for ‘Confidential’ Materials
  15. How to make your creative business GDPR compliant
  16. GDPR Privacy FAQs: What are the different types of cookie banners?
  17. GDPR Privacy FAQs: Do European privacy laws require a cookie banner when a company uses first-party session cookies?
  18. FTC reportedly approves $5 billion privacy settlement with social media company
  19. FTC Requests Public Comments on COPPA Rule
  20. FTC Asks if COPPA Rule Amendments Warrant Further Changes
  21. Equifax to pay $575M for data breach, promises to protect data next time
  22. What You Should Know About the Equifax Data Breach Settlement
  23. Public Records Request Nets User’s Manual For Palantir’s Souped-Up Surveillance Software
  24. Privacy Tip #199 – Guard Your Cryptowallet: Cryptoheist in Japan Drains $32 million from Exchange 
  25. London Metropolitan Police’s Facial Recognition System Is Now Only Misidentifying People 81% Of The Time
  26. FBI, ICE Are Running Facial Recognition Searches Against State Drivers’ Databases
  27. Oakland, California On Its Way To Becoming The Third US City To Ban Facial Recognition Tech
  28. Facial recognition banned in another city: Oakland, California, has followed San Francisco as the second Bay Area city to vote down the use of the technology.
  29. UK Parliamentary Committee Calls For The End Of Facial Recognition Tech By The UK Government
  30. CCTV cameras don’t deter crime, so why does Ottawa want them?
  31. Chrome 76 prevents NYT and other news sites from detecting Incognito Mode
  32. Nigerian scammers slide into DMs, so Ars trolls them: Romance scams persist, somehow, by preying on the gullible; Twitter is fertile ground.
  33. Phishing for victims: Cybercriminals can use complex technology but rely on old-fashioned human error to succeed
  34. An Old Hack Comes Back to Haunt (Newly-Public) Slack 
  35. Recent FinCEN Advisory Details Dramatic Increase in Frequency and Severity of Business Email Compromise Fraud Schemes 
  36. One of These Things Is Not Like The Other: Emails Are Not Subject To The TCPA, Even If You Get Them On Your Smartphone. 
  37. 8th Circuit affirms reduction in TCPA statutory damages from $1.6 billion to $32 million 
  38. GandCrab Ransomware Backers Working on New Ransomware REvil 
  39. Researchers Build App That Kills To Highlight Insulin Pump Exploit
  40. CCPA Creates Possible Dilemmas for Companies Sending Text Messages. Is Your Business Ready?
  41. Global Data & Privacy Update – June 2019
  42. 1H 2019 Quick Links, Part 6 (Privacy, E-Commerce, & More) (Eric Goldman)

CREATIVITY

  1. New York Court Finds Warhol Series to be Fair Use of Prince Photograph 
  2. Sony Music brings recordings and publishing under one roof
  3. Dean Guitar Counter-Sues Against Gibson Guitars, Attempts To Invalidate Several Trademarks
  4. Gibson Guitar Formalizes Its Hands-Off IP Enforcement Approach With Authorized Partnership Program
  5. The U.S. Trademark Office Adopts New Rule Requiring Appointment of U.S. Counsel to Represent a Non-US Domiciliary in Trademark Matters 
  6. Filipina Girl From New Zealand Takes Her Slime Show International After Fending Off Nickelodeon Lawsuit
  7. Logical? Logos do not necessarily enjoy copyright protection
  8. Harmful Gender Stereotypes Banned in UK Advertising: An Update 
  9. Nike Strikes Back Against Kawhi Leonard Over Logo Lawsuit
  10. Unlicensed “health coach” claims health advice is free speech—court disagrees
  11. Olympics Games organisers issue strict guidelines for Tokyo 2020
  12. Court Determines That This Duck Doesn’t Look Enough Like Another Duck To Be Infringing
  13. You can’t copyright a cocktail, so what’s a creative bartender to do?
  14. The art of Hong Kong protests
  15. Tales of the ‘Basterds’: The story of Quentin Tarantino’s World War II revenge fantasy ‘Inglourious Basterds’ as seen through the eyes of the ragtag crew he created to take down the Nazis

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