Posts

GAMES

1. Former College Basketball Players Sue Fortnite Creators for Use of “Running Man” Dance
2. ESA Steps In With Amicus Brief In Support Of Activision Versus Humvee
3. Would freedom of speech beat loot box legislation? | Opinion: A look back at the Supreme Court’s 2011 ruling on video game violence suggests the First Amendment defense may not play out the same way a second time
4. German researchers propose treatment for gaming addiction: Clinical trial of 143 finds promising remission rate using cognitive behavioral therapy
5. Losing yourself in virtual worlds can have good as well as negative effects: Psychologist Pete Etchells chats with Ars about his first book, Lost in a Good Game.
6. Yogscast CEO Mark Turpin resigns following sexual harassment allegations: Turpin apologises for “error of judgement” as second sexual harassment case hits Yogscast in as many weeks
7. Ion Maiden becomes Ion Fury following Iron Maiden trademark lawsuit 
8. Battlegrounds has been banned in Jordan due to negative impact on players
9. Gears 5 to drop depictions of smoking after urging from Truth Initiative
10. The Coalition partners with Truth Initiative, cuts smoking from Gears 5: Rod Fergusson – “I’ve been against smoking from the beginning”
11. Why is there no smoking in Gears 5? It depends on who you ask: Either way, you won’t see cigars dangling from COG mouths any time soon.
12. Red Candle won’t be re-releasing Devotion (yet) following China controversy
13. Red Candle Games will not re-release Devotion “in the near term”: Developer apologizes again for artwork mocking Chinese president, but hopes to “rebuild trust”
14. Respawn will deal with Apex Legends cheaters by making them fight each other
15. Respawn working on matchmaking Apex Legends cheaters with other cheaters: Studio upping anti-cheat resources, working on spam and cheat detection using machine learning
16. Overwatch’s new cheat detection will end matches when cheats are used
17. Blizzard testing automatic shutdown for Overwatch matches where players are cheating: But game’s director Jeff Kaplan promises rule-abiding players will not be punished in any way
18. Ubisoft criticised for sourcing Watch Dogs Legion music through Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s HitRecord: Developers and composers decry use of audience compositions as ‘exploitative spec work’
19. Ubisoft Once Again Crowdsourcing Content For Video Game, Once Again Gets Unwarranted Backlash
20. Ubisoft defends Watch Dogs HitRecord partnership amid spec work criticism
21. Ubisoft puts kibosh on Assassin’s Creed XP-farming exploit
22. Ubisoft bans XP farming quests in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s story creator: Coincidently, publisher continues to sell permanent XP boosts as in-game purchases
23. Ubisoft: “Nobody has dared do anything with a granny before” – EMEA Director Alain Corre on Watch Dogs, Tom Clancy, and the dream of creating a game with one billion players
24. Odyssey and Siege push Ubisoft to a better-than-expected quarter
25. Ubisoft sees PC, digital sales share increase in Q1: Publisher continues anticipating quieter first half as it preps for big releases, UPlay+ later this year
26. Ubisoft’s Uplay+ subscription library launches this fall with 100+ games
27. How to spot an exploitative mobile game publishing deal — from a former publishing CEO
28. Blog: Charting the record $9.6B games investment over the past 18 months
29. ‘Reality-focused’ game dev Surrogate secures $2 million in funding
30. UK publisher Merge Games creates $4 million indie game fund
31. Kickstarter suspends funding campaign for online gameRAW over honesty concerns
32. Ratio of successful Kickstarter projects at highest since Double Fine Adventure: ICO Partners breaks down ongoing maturation of crowdfunding projects with H1 2019 update
33. Kickstarter suspends over ambitious MMO inspired by GTA Online: “We require projects to be honest and clearly presented, and this project failed to meet that standard,” says Kickstarter
34. Blog: Crowdfunding and video games – A 2019 mid-year update
35. Blog: Crowdfunding and tabletop games – A 2019 mid-year update
36. Minecraft Earth’s closed beta: This augmented reality needs more augmenting
37. Want to be more creative? Playing Minecraft can help, new study finds
38. Video Games can Increase Creativity, but with Caveats (Jorge Blanco-Herrera, Douglas Gentile & Jeffrey Rokkum)
39. Jo Twist: Games industry needs to “step up” to fight cultural bias – UKIE CEO warns critics and publishers to be careful with their language, says games are “an easy target because we’re new”
40. Under fire from game devs, G2A proposes new ‘Key Blocker’ tool
41. G2A proposes key-blocking tool: But controversial marketplace wants at least 100 developers to register interest before it begins development
42. How does the games industry get rid of G2A? Eliminate game keys altogether: The only way to stop key resellers is to stop selling keys, but will the industry take such a radical step?
43. Wube Software takes up G2A on offer to pay back ten times its chargeback fees: Studio has racked up $6,600 in chargebacks for Factorio, also encourages players to pirate rather than buy via G2A
44. GOG puts Heaven’s Vault up for sale after declining to sell the game at launch
45. Jason Kingsley: Epic is “paying through the nose” to build its store – Rebellion founders discuss change of heart on Epic Store exclusivity
46. Epic awards Blender Foundation $1.2m grant: Epic MegaGrants-fueled support to help bolster Blender creation suite
47. RetroArch will be Steam’s biggest emulation launch yet, coming July 30
48. Steam Labs is Valve’s new home for experimental Steam features
49. Controversial freelance firm Fiverr opens game services store
50. Fiverr adds dedicated gaming store: Freelancer hiring platform includes sections for development and streaming services
51. Stadia’s dev partners program has received more than 4,000 applications 
52. Google’s Dead Wrong If It Thinks Broadband Caps Won’t Hurt Game Streaming
53. PlayStation’s former portfolio strategy head is now tackling game licensing at Disney
54. Disney hires former PlayStation portfolio boss to head up games licensing: John Drake says it’s an “amazing time” to bring the worlds of Star Wars, Marvel and Fox to video games
55. Video: The importance of finding your platform champions
56. RuneScape dev Jagex says sale is possible, but not set in stone
57. Jagex denies reports it has been sold: Suggested sale by owner Fukong “remains one of various possible outcomes”
58. Smartphone maker Rokit launches $50 million game development fund
59. Smartphone maker ROKiT announces $50m indie dev fund: Selection committee of industry veterans established, up to $500,000 per project on offer
60. Tencent launches app for streaming PC games to smartphones: League of Legends only game currently available, but more expected soon
61. Twitch growth dips as Fortnite viewership continues to decline: Riot Games surpasses Epic Games as most-watched publisher in Q2 2019
62. Fortnite streaming hours drop for fourth straight quarter: Biggest battle royale games all show declines but Epic’s hit remains most watched title on streaming platforms
63. Epic awards $1.2 million to Blender Foundation through Epic MegaGrants program
64. Don’t Miss: 20 difficult games worth revisiting and learning from
65. League of Legends dominates South Korean PC cafés: Riot Games’ hit accounted for almost 40% of hours played last month as Path of Exile made a strong first impression
66. Riot extends deadline for removal of Echo Fox shareholder following racist remarks: Esports organisation was instructed to oust shareholder two months ago or face “formal action” from LCS
67. Esports Upstart 100 Thieves Names Retail Vet Doug Barber VP Of Brand And Apparel
68. Don’t Miss: Memoirs of a video producer who put Madden in Madden
69. Nearly three-fourths of gamers prefer Netflix-style subscription for cloud games: Broadband Genie: 86% say they expect cloud purchases of games to be cheaper than digital or physical copies
70. Nintendo deletes popular Mario Maker 2 level for unexplained reasons
71. Dr Mario World is the lowest grossing Nintendo mobile launch so far: But Sensor Tower says puzzle game is on par with latest Candy Crush release
72. Nintendo reaffirms its toy-maker identity | Opinion: Ventures into mobile games and streaming might have clouded Nintendo’s self-image — but the company is still first and foremost a toy-maker
73. Switch owners say Joy-Con controllers are prone to drifting after just months
74. Evidence points to another Switch hardware revision on the horizon
75. Nintendo releasing new Switch with longer battery life: Tweaked model of flagship console will last up to nine hours – two more than Switch Lite
76. The Switch may be getting a new processor and flash storage
77. New standard Switch model will improve battery life 40 to 80 percent
78. Nintendo is boosting Switch battery life through a slight hardware refresh
79. The industry is still “developing games in a bubble”: FlavourWorks’ Jack Attridge says Conan O’Brien’s Clueless Gamer videos are proof of how inaccessible games have become
80. “In the past, YouTubers were very problematic… Suddenly they became our allies”: How streaming can benefit storytellers, and the “serious problem with people not even finishing our games”
81. CAA Signs Comedic Gaming Collective ‘Neebs Gaming’ (Exclusive)
82. Control, alt, degree: Trinity Western to launch game development program this fall
83. Big PC sales continue to rock EMEAA charts: GTA V back in the lead alongside resurgence of Borderlands games
84. UK digital charts: Sales and anticipation lift Borderlands 2, Pre-sequel once more – Crash Team Racing holds on for one more week, before being dethroned by GTA V
85. Gearbox wants crossplay in Borderlands 3, but it won’t launch with it
86. UK Charts: Super Mario Maker 2 scores third consecutive No.1 – But Crash is snapping at Nintendo’s heels
87. German consumers spent €4.4bn on video games in 2018: Mobile and consoles have overtaken PC as nation’s most popular games platforms
88. MTG has invested $11m in games companies this year: H1 deals include Dorian, Tonk Tonk Games and Sviper
89. Merge Games announces $4m indie publishing and marketing fund: UK publisher looking for multi-platform titles to support as it celebrates 10th anniversary
90. Indie publisher Private Division splits from Swedish dev The Outsiders
91. Video: Living the freelancing dream while avoiding the nightmare
92. NetEase acquires minority stake in Behaviour Interactive: Partnership to help enhance Chinese game giant’s research and development efforts
93. LuckyHammers shuts down: 70 employees affected by closure of Montreal-based studio
94. Private Division has parted ways with Darkborn developer, The Outsiders: Publisher confirms split at end of last year, but financially supported dev for “several months” afterwards
95. NetEase nabs minority stake in Dead by Daylight dev Behaviour Interactive
96. Terraforming Mars dev LuckyHammers has closed down
97. Outsourcing studio Pole to Win expands with Montreal office
98. Surrogate raises $2m in seed round: Funding will go toward development of “Surrogate Reality” portfolio of games
99. Sports Direct now owns 84% of GAME: Shares in UK games retailer will be removed from London Stock Exchange by August 12
100. GameStop taps design firm R/GA to help keep its stores relevant
101. GameStop plans to renovate stores, pilot new store concepts: Troubled retailer hopes to draw customers back in with local esports competitions and retro-only branches
102. Pixion Games raises $2m toward mobile esports development: Seed funding to focus on core PvP experiences, expansion of “lunchtime esports”
103. Spiritfarer wants to talk to you about death: Thunder Lotus CEO William Dubé and creative director Nicolas Guérin on the game’s conception and the personal stories that built it
104. Lego Star Wars: Rise of TT Games: Game director James McLoughlin talks us through the evolution of the Lego games as the studio comes full circle with The Skywalker Saga
105. Boom-shaka-laka: Call of Duty’s new “Gunfight” mode is like NBA Jam with guns
106. The aggressive resource management of Doom Eternal
107. Blog: The secrets of dynamic difficulty adjustment
108. Blog: Finding the fun in monetizing Archero – Part 3
109. ‘Things will go wrong’: The challenge of Dauntless’ day-one crossplay
110. Don’t Miss: Designing Baba is You’s delightfully innovative rule-writing system
111. Designing experimental game Cultist Simulator for commercial success
112. Rumor: Apple Reportedly Suspends Work on Consumer AR Headset
113. Overcooked 2 named Game of the Year at Develop:Star Awards: Sumo Digital, Playground Games take home multiple prizes in inaugural event
114. Pokemon Detective Pikachu is the second highest grossing video game movie ever
115. Blog: How music enhances virtual presence – Part 1
116. Detective Pikachu becomes the highest-grossing video game movie: Film has brought in over $436m worldwide as five remaining territories push it over record set by Warcraft
117. The Man in the High Castle creator to produce TV series based on Warhammer 40,000: Games Workshop, Big Light Productions partner for live action series, entitled Eisenhorn
118. Atari 2600 rarity Extra Terrestrials goes on sale for $90,000
119. U.S. Patent No. 5,805,784: Computer story generation system and method using network of re-usable substories 
120. Fashion in games: Why it matters
121. Pakistani Minister Congratulates Pilot For Miraculous Save In Retweet Of GTA V Video

DIGITAL

1. Facebook Embeds ‘Hidden Codes’ To Track Who Sees And Shares Your Photos
2. Facebook To Face Record $5 Billion FTC Settlement Related To Cambridge Analytica Scandal
3. Facebook’s FTC fine will be $5 billion—or one month’s worth of revenue: Fine will settle privacy investigation triggered by Cambridge Analytica scandal.
4. FTC Approves Record $5 Billion Settlement with Facebook 
5. FTC Approves $5 Billion Fine Against Facebook for Privacy Violations
6. The FTC And Facebook: Why The $5 Billion Fine Is Both Too Little And Too Much
7. Facebook denies allegations that you make friends on Facebook: Facebook responds with blanket denials to DC’s Cambridge Analytica suit.
8. Here’s What Facebook Says About Camera Privacy on Quest & Rift S
9. Germany Cashes Out, Hits Facebook With Fines For Failing To Comply With Its Ultra-Vague ‘Hate Speech’ Law
10. Laura Loomer Files Defamation Suit Against Facebook For Calling Her ‘Dangerous’ When Booting Her From The Platform
11. There’s a big problem with Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency
12. House Representatives Ask Facebook to Halt Moving Forward with its Cryptocurrency
13. Donald Trump blasts Facebook’s Libra, demands strict regulation
14. Donald Trump: Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies aren’t money – The US president said he’s not a fan of Facebook’s Libra, and demands digital coin companies seek a banking charter
15. Anti-money laundering rules for cryptocurrency dealers finalized by Canadian government
16. A Global Review of the Regulatory Considerations Relating to Crypto-Asset Trading Platforms 
17. By Clicking Continue…
18. Affirmed: President Trump Cannot Block Critics on Twitter
19. Second Circuit Affirms Judge Buchwald in Trump Twitter Case 
20. Second Circuit Holds That Blocking Users’ Access To Presidential Twitter Account Violates First Amendment 
21. Trump can’t block his critics from the @realDonaldTrump Twitter account, says the Second Circuit (and the First Amendment)
22. Right-wingers say Twitter’s “bias” against them should be illegal
23. Following Trump Ruling Against Twitter Blockade, AOC Sued For Her Blocks On Twitter
24. Comments on the Hikind v. Ocasio-Cortez Lawsuit Over AOC’s Twitter Blocks (Eric Goldman)
25. America’s Road to Reputational Ruin: The decline in U.S. soft power didn’t start with Trump, but he accelerated it this week with his racist tweets.
26. Twitter launches the ‘Hide Replies’ feature, in hopes of civilizing conversations
27. Twitter is changing Twitter.com to be more like mobile app
28. Microsoft warns 10,000 customers they’re targeted by nation-sponsored hackers: Hacking remains a tool of choice for influencing elections, company warns.
29. Ninth Circuit Upholds Arbitration Provision in Online Consumer Contract
30. Can an employer be vicariously liable for an employee’s racist Facebook post?
31. Censored Chinese search project is “terminated,” Google rep testifies
32. GOP Puts Google Search On Trial In DC
33. Why Is The Washington Post Publishing Blatantly False Propaganda About Section 230?
34. Former Content Moderator Explains How Josh Hawley’s Bill Would Grant Government Control Over Online Speech
35. 1H 2019 Quick Links, Part 4 (Section 230, Content Moderation) (Eric Goldman)
36. IBM’s Ridiculous Opportunism: Sells Out Section 230 To Sell More Filters
37. The Third Circuit Joins The Ninth In Excluding E-Commerce Platforms From Section 230’s Protection
38. Section 230 Is Not Exceptional, It Is Not Unique, It Is Not A Gift: It’s The Codification Of Common Law Liability Principles
39. Gab, Mastodon And The Challenges Of Content Moderation On A More Distributed Social Network
40. The Sixth Circuit Also Makes A Mess Of Section 230 And Good Internet Policy
41. Three Years Later: 1st Amendment Challenge Over DMCA’s Anti-Circumvention Provisions Can Move Forward
42. Large and Diverse Coalition Issues a Statement of Principles to Help Evaluate UGC Liability Reform Proposals (Eric Goldman)
43. ICO’s McDougall Warns Adtech Sector that Change Is Needed 
44. Senator Graham Spreads A Bunch Of Nonsense About ‘Protecting Digital Innocence’ Online
45. Netflix Removes Controversial Suicide Scene From ’13 Reasons Why,’ Citing Medical Experts
46. Netflix U.S. Subs Drop in Q2 After Price Hikes, Company Blames Global Forecast Miss on Content Slate
47. The Toxic Potential Of YouTube’s Feedback Loop
48. American kids would much rather be YouTubers than astronauts
49. YouTube stars wish YouTube had more competition from other platforms
50. Creators Say Competition Would Force YouTube To Be Better — But Right Now, There Are No Competitors
51. YouTube Megastar KondZilla, With 50 Million Subscribers, Drops Trailer For New Netflix Series
52. YouTuber Ray Diaz Arrested For Allegedly Assaulting His Underage Girlfriend
53. YouTube Finally Demands Specificity From Copyright Claimants
54. YouTube Begins Blocking Stream-Ripping Sites
55. At VidCon, YouTube Announces Addition Of Channel Membership Levels, ‘Super Stickers,’ More Merch Shelf Vendors
56. TikTok took over VidCon, and YouTube is next: YouTube offers what TikTok can’t – stability
57. YouTube is adding more ways for creators to make money: New merch, membership, and chat features
58. YouTube is launching educational playlists that won’t include algorithmic recommendations
59. The Dodo Launches Children’s-Focused YouTube Channel With 3 Original Series
60. Glad Challenges YouTube Vet Grace Helbig To Create An Instagram-Worthy Dish While Offroading
61. Creators Going Pro: For Musicmaking Duo NEFFEX, YouTube Opened All The Doors To A Full-Time Career
62. Kian And JC To Launch $25,000 ‘Big Brother’-Style Series With 13 YouTuber Contestants
63. Cracking The YouTube Algorithm In 2020
64. American kids would much rather be YouTubers than astronauts: Becoming an astronaut ranked last among five professions.
65. StyleHaul’s Former VP Of Accounting And Finance Indicted For Embezzling $22 Million
66. RTL Group Consolidates 3 European MCNs Under The Divimove Banner
67. BroadbandTV Corp. Partners with Snapchat to bring new Creator Shows to Life
68. These Brands Dominated Social Video Through The First Half of 2019 (Study)
69. James Charles, Emma Chamberlain Among 25 Most Influential People On The Internet, Per ‘Time’
70. Ryan Toys Review Scrubs Up With Colgate For Children’s Oral Care Collection
71. Joey Graceffa’s ‘Escape The Night’ Spawns Actual Escape Room In L.A. This August
72. You could be a celebrity without knowing it if you have 30,000 followers on social media 
73. New Study Points Out What A Boon Sports Streaming Piracy Could Be To Leagues
74. Netflix Hires BBC Studios’ Jackie Lee-Joe as Chief Marketing Officer
75. EFF Posts New White Paper On Stingray Device Capabilities
76. Doing the right thing: accessibility and OTT broadcasters 
77. Hulu To Get A Little More Delicious With 24 Shows From Tastemade
78. Disney Shutters FX Networks’ Nascent Streaming Service FX+ After Acquiring It In March
79. VidCon To Host Inaugural Asian Summit In Singapore, Will Return To London In February
80. FBE Launches Interactive Content Lab, Will Produce 12 TV Pilots Alongside Eko
81. Quibi Acquires Projects From ‘Glee’ Alum Darren Criss, WWE
82. NBC News to Produce Two Daily Shows for Jeffrey Katzenberg’s Quibi
83. Quibi Acquires First News Program In Reported 8-Figure Deal With NBC
84. Patreon Announces $60 Million Funding Round, With Participation From Creators Hannibal Buress, Serj Tankian
85. Microsoft Teams is now officially bigger than Slack
86. Microsoft opens first flagship store in Europe: Announcement of location on Oxford Circus comes alongside £1m grant to train young community members in digital skills
87. Gartner, IDC agree that PC sales are up—but they don’t agree what a PC is
88. EU Looking To Regulate Everything Online, And To Make Sites Proactively Remove Material
89. Amazon Teams With Colorado Police, US Postal Service On Sting That Catches Zero Package Thieves
90. 27 Top Twitch Streamers Host Amazon Prime Shopping Stream ‘Twitch Sells Out’
91. Amazon Music Unlimited is growing faster than Apple Music or Spotify, report says
92. Spotify Pacts With Disney to Launch Hub With Music From Movies, TV Shows
93. Spotify And Disney Partner To Bring Mouse House Magic With New ‘Disney Hub’ Playlists
94. International family law: is WhatsApp the future for serving court papers?
95. OurPact returns to App Store, reviving debates about Apple’s impartiality
96. Apple reportedly planning to fund creation of exclusive original podcasts
97. Apple is planning to buy up original podcasts with exclusivity in mind
98. Patchwork of digital taxes intensifies
99. US Trade Representative Initiates Section 301 Investigation of France’s Digital Services Tax
100. Lawmaking for the Internet of Things
101. The Failure Of Courts/Regulators To Understand The Difference Between Infrastructure Providers And Edge Providers Is Going To Be A Problem
102. WIPO Now Gets Into The Extrajudicial, Zero Due Process, Censorship Act Over Sites It Declares ‘Infringing’
103. Insights: As Our Cultural Lives Go Fully Digital, How Will We Signal What We Care About?
104. Tech journalism’s ‘on background’ scourge
105. Browse the Bookshelf of U.S. Case Law: Announcing the CAP Case Browser
106. Justice John Paul Stevens, dead at 99, promoted the Internet revolution

A.I.

1. Steam embraces machine learning with interactive recommendation tool
2. Steam launches Steam Labs to house feature experiments: First three test projects all involve new ways to discover games, including a machine learning recommendation feature
3. Steam uses machine learning for its new game recommendation engine
4. Devs express optimism, caution over Steam interactive recommender
5. Australian researchers just released the world’s first AI-developed vaccine and it could prevent another horror flu season
6. California’s BOT Disclosure Law, SB 1001, Now In Effect 
7. ‘Robot’ umpire calls first professional baseball game with one hitch and no controversy
8. Neuralink: Elon Musk’s Elusive Brain-Computer Firm Just Made a Big Reveal
9. Elon Musk’s Neuralink Takes Baby Steps to Wiring Brains to the Internet
10. Musk’s newest startup is venturing into a series of hard problems
11. Elon Musk announces another price hike for “full self-driving” package
12. Facebook and CMU’s ‘superhuman’ poker AI beats human pros: ‘It can bluff better than any human.’
13. Facebook AI Pluribus defeats top poker professionals in 6-player Texas Hold ’em
14. Ford-VW alliance means more EVs for Europe, joint Argo AI investment
15. Artificial intelligence (AI) designs metamaterials used in the invisibility cloak: The research team led by professor Rho of POSTECH developed a simultaneous inverse design of metamaterials via deep learning
16. MIT whiz kids got a robot to take on the viral #BottleCapChallenge
17. Atlantic League coach ejected for arguing over automated strike zone just one inning into robot umpire era
18. How GoldenEye 007 set a new standard for video game AI
19. How AI companies can avoid ethics washing
20. Blizzard unleashes Google’s DeepMind AI against European Starcraft II players: Experimental AlphaStar agent will play anonymously, but only against gamers who opt into test matches
21. Brains scale better than CPUs. So Intel is building brains

COMMUNICATIONS

1.  EFF Hits AT&T With Lawsuit Over Sale Of User Location Data
2. AT&T Breaks Another Merger Promise In Making ‘Friends’ Exclusive
3. AT&T Will Now Filter Robocall Spam, If You Pay Them Extra
4. ‘Smoking gun’: Huawei staff employment records link them to Chinese military agencies
5. The Drama Around Huawei: Can U.S. Companies Do Business with the Chinese Chipmaker?
6. Cheap as chips? Controversial judgment could have significant implications for the global wireless communications industry
7. HBO Communications Chief Quentin Schaffer to Exit After 39 Years
8. Google Joins Talks In Bid To Salvage T-Mobile Merger
9. Charter gets final approval to stay in NY despite breaking merger promise 
10. 5G’s Latest Problem: Summer Temps Are Causing 5G Phones To Overheat
11. The latest barrier to 5G speeds? The summer: Hands-on report says “persistent overheating” issues plague 5G hardware.
12. Last Woman Standing: Belittled by Viacom and CBS executives and insulted by her own father, Shari Redstone now sits atop a $30 billion media empire.
13. Fortune favours the bold broadcaster? 
14. The Impact of PDR Network LLC v. Carlton & Harris Chiropractic
15. Ajit Pai’s new gift to cable companies would kill local fees and rules
16. FCC Makes $100 Million Available for Telehealth Experiments
17. FCC Proposes a Three-Year Pilot Program to Fund “Connected Care” Telehealth Applications
18. FCC Set to Commercialize Educational Broadband Service Portion of 2.5 GHz Band to Enable 5G
19. FCC Considers Restrictions on Arrangements Between Building Owners and Broadband Providers
20. FCC gives ISPs another $563 million to build rural-broadband networks
21. West Virginia’s Biggest Telco Says Broadband Business ‘Unsustainable’ 
22. FCC Seeks Comment on Actions to Promote Broadband Deployment and Competition in Apartment and Office Buildings 
23. FCC Revises Broadcast Signal Carriage Election Notices for Cable, Satellite, and Other Multichannel Video Providers 
24. FCC Makes Significant Changes to Its Children’s Television (KidVid) Rules
25. Actions Taken at July Meeting – FCC Adopts Changes to Children’s Television Rules and to TV MVPD Carriage Election Notices Procedures  
26. FTC Announces Robocall Crackdown
27. FCC Chairman proposes rules addressing spoofed texts and international robocalls 
28. All Bark and No Bite? FCC Proposes Rule To Ban Spoofing of Text Messages and Foreign Robocalls 
29. FCC Holds Summit on Implementation of SHAKEN/STIR Call 
30. 2.5 GHz EBS Spectrum to Be Commercialized, Opened to TribalNations

PRIVACY

1. British Airways and Marriott Face Record-Breaking GDPR Fines
2. British Airways faces record-breaking GDPR fine after data breach: The ICO wants to fine the airline £183 million
3. GDPR Shows its Teeth – UK Pursuing Record Fines for Data Breaches, Emphasizes Accountability 
4. A Fine Mess: the U.K. Information Commissioner’s Office’s proposed GDPR fines
5. Russian Spy Discovers The Hard Way How Much His Smartphone’s Metadata Reveals About His Activities
6. How U.S. Tech Giants Are Helping To Build China’s Surveillance State
7. DEA tracked every opioid pill sold in the US. The data is out – and it’s horrific: Just three drug makers and six distributors were behind the flood.
8. Office 365 declared illegal in German schools due to privacy risks
9. German state bans Office 365 in schools, citing privacy concerns: Schools in Hesse will have to rely on non-cloud software
10. Revealed: This Is Palantir’s Top-Secret User Manual for Cops – Palantir user manual gives unprecedented insight into how the company logs and tracks individuals.
11. Former Content Moderator Explains How Josh Hawley’s Bill Would Grant Government Control Over Online Speech
12. Google workers listen to your “OK Google” queries—one of them leaked recordings
13. Can I buy a phone that doesn’t use anything from Google or Apple?: Steve does not like firms slurping up his data, so wants a device that respects his privacy
14. Eavesdropping flaw prompts Apple to suspend Walkie-Talkie app
15. Wiretap Report Says Courts Are Seeing Fewer Wiretap Requests, Fewer Convictions Linked To Wiretaps
16. Collecting employee data: Privacy and data protection concerns are gaining increasing prominence in the workplace
17. NAD Recommends Baby Monitor Improve Disclosure of Information Gathering
18. New UK ICO guidance on cookies and similar technologies 
19. Here’s How To Harness Facebook’s New Privacy Updates To (Sort Of) Control Who Has Your Personal Data
20. CCPA Privacy FAQs: If I post a “do not sell my personal information” link on my website, and opt those consumers that select it from receiving behavioral advertising cookies, have I complied with the CCPA?
21. Reducing the risk of ransomware attacks
22. Privacy concerns over viral photo apps are totally valid. But they’re also often overblown.: The panic about FaceApp’s old-person filter isn’t wrong, exactly. It’s just tinged with xenophobia and devoid of context.
23. A Recap of the Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Amending the California Consumer Privacy Act
24. No Shirt, No Shoes, No Facescan, No Service: Welcome To 21st Century Convenience Store Shopping

CREATIVITY

1. In Canada and elsewhere, freedom of speech is on the endangered list
2. Cameras should be welcomed in Canadian courtrooms: Forstner
3. Canada’s election advertising rules have changed – here’s what you need to know
4. Judge Castel: Plaintiffs Fail to State Claim Against Ja Rule for Fyre Festival 
5. Claims of False Advertising and Unfair Competition Are Not Disparagement or Defamation 
6. Danish court orders car dealer to compensate Chinese artist Ai Weiwei
7. Rights in sports data
8. NY AG settlement resolves deceptive practices action with ticket resale companies 
9. SPLC Asks Court To Toss Proud Boy Founder’s Defamation Lawsuit By Asking ‘Where’s The Lie?’
10. Congress Moving Forward With Copyright-For-Censorship ‘Small Claims’ Act
11. WIPO copyright treaty to be adopted in Uzbekistan
12. Branding and marketing clearance is the new punk rock
13. Alitalia Pulls Commercial Featuring Actor in Blackface
14. TD Bank N.A. v. Hill
15. Tackling the registration of copycat company names and domain names
16. California Student-Athletes Would Like to Remind You, “It’s My Name, Don’t You Forget!”
17. The helicopter team that films the Tour de France is one of a kind
18. Sound, Noise, Distinguish? The relationship between sound and intellectual property law (Shane Burke)
19. 1H 2019 Quick Links, Part 5 (Censorship, Defamation) (Eric Goldman)

Jon

GAMES

1. Bots and Cheaters Lose as League of Legends is awarded a $10 Million Payout 
2. Esports contract dispute: Seeking to set an industry standard
3. Industry tells UK lawmakers it wants more research into gaming disorder: Commons committee not left reassured following latest immersive and addictive technologies inquiry hearing
4. Adolescents and loot boxes: links with problem gambling and motivations for purchase (David Zendle, Rachel Meyer & Harriet Over)
5. Digital Minister Margot James defends loot boxes: But MP calls for more research into link between gaming and gambling, and says firms with aggressive monetisation should be “brought into line”
6. Man sentenced to 2 years in prison for 2013 DDoS attack against Daybreak
7. Man behind Daybreak Games DDoS sentenced to two years in prison: Series of attacks against formerly-Sony Online Entertainment, Battle.net, Dota 2, others also asked to pay $95,000 in damages
8. “The games industry has some maturation to do in understanding data protection law”: Information Commissioner tells Parliament it will audit publishers and developers as it works on Age Appropriate Design Code
9. Chinese government revokes business license of Devotionpublisher Indievent
10. Chinese government reportedly revokes Indievent’s business license: Devotion publisher previously cut ties with developer Red Candle Games following discovery of in-game art mocking Chinese president
11. DrDisrespect returns to Twitch after ban over E3 livestream: Guy Beahm was widely criticised for streaming from a public bathroom during E3 2019
12. Guy “Dr Disrespect” Beahm offers statement after E3 bathroom filming fiasco: Beahm says “laws/repercussions of filming in the bathroom” simply didn’t occur to him
13. Dr DisRespect Apologizes For Public Bathroom Stream, Teases Twitch Return Next Week
14. Mordhau developer denies plans for gender/diversity toggle after describing plans for said toggle
15. Mordhau developer denies it was planning a “toggle” for diversity [Updated]
16. Wolfenstein: Youngblood will not be altered for German release – International version of the game will be available in Germany, complete with Nazi imagery
17. Indie Developers Change Game Name Over Bethesda Trademark Dispute 
18. Epic pledges to cover refund costs for crowdfunded Epic Games Store exclusives
19. The Gaming Platform Wars Are Beginning To Screw Up Crowdfunding Games
20. The Game Outcomes Project isn’t returning for its 2018-19 edition
21. Don’t Miss: The Game Outcomes Project: Learning how teams succeed and fail
22. Super Mario Maker 2: Critical Consensus – A complete and well-rounded experience universally praised by critics
23. Nintendo Does The Nintendo: ‘Mario Royale’ Fan Game Becomes ‘DMCA Royale’… And Is Now Dead
24. Dear Nintendo: Here Are Some Ways You Could Be A Little More Cool, Man
25. Miyamoto: Costs and dwindling appeal make new adventure games a hard sell
26. Steam works wonders for the retail PC market – 10 Years Ago This Month: Valve buddies up with GameStop, BioWare talks industry maturity, and the expensive peripheral trend cools off
27. Indie developers suggest Steam Summer Sale confusion is hurting their games: Misreading of “Grand Prix” promotion seems to be causing spike in wishlist removals.
28. Paradox exec: Steam’s 30% fee is “outrageous”
29. Devs hit by Steam promo confusion as games are pulled from Wishlists 10
30. Valve clarifies Steam Sale event after devs chart declining wishlists
31. Epic Games will foot refund bill for Shenmue III, future crowdfunded exclusives
32. Shenmue 3 dev to offer backer refunds over Epic Games Store exclusivity
33. Angry Shenmue III backers can get refunds after Epic Game Store move
34. Shenmue 3 PC backers will get refunds over Epic exclusivity: Ys Net and Deep Silver will reimburse backers who expected a Steam key for the game
35. Video: Darkest Dungeon’s ‘camp counselor’ approach to community management
36. Maybe Epic’s Claims For Exclusivity Strategy To Benefit The Gaming Industry Isn’t Entirely Crazy
37. Developers call for players to pirate their games rather than buy from G2A: Studio and publisher behind Descenders decry controversial retailer’s sponsored ads, Rami Ismail backs them up
38. Editor Roundtable: What’s up with game subscription services?
39. EA: “I struggle with the perception that we’re just a bunch of bad guys” – Behind the big blockbusters, EA is offering very friendly deals for indie developers — EVP Matt Bilbey tells us why
40. Antonick v. Electronic Arts, Inc. 
41. EVE players are plotting revenge after alien invasion mostly just annoyed everyone: Though initially terrifying, the Drifter Invasion of EVE Online quickly became tedious and boring.
42. Street Fighter characters to be used in Osaka police recruitment ads: Capcom consents to have iconic characters used to recruit “cyber-crime” investigators
43. Google Stadia exec isn’t worried about data caps—but he probably should be
44. Stadia purchases and saves will remain accessible, even if a publisher pulls support
45. Stadia head: Devs, publishers, and players aren’t ready for a subscription-only platform 
46. PlayStation Vue applies a $5-a-month increase to all live TV plans
47. Sony considers turning to studio acquisitions as competition rises
48. Jim Ryan says Sony is looking at studio acquisitions: “Companies new to the games industry looking at the market with hope is something we definitely welcome”
49. Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo Say Trump Tariffs Will Make Game Consoles Hugely More Expensive
50. Gumi lays off 32 with closure of Gumi Europe
51. Free-to-play studio Redhill Games secures $11.4 million investment
52. Square Enix: “We always look out for new IP” – President Yosuke Matsuda on Avengers, Final Fantasy VII, game streaming and its commitment to new projects
53. This GTA 6 ‘leak’ is detailed, but almost certainly fake
54. Farming Simulator 19 sold over two million copies
55. Focus Home reports record year as Farming Simulator 19passes 2 million sold
56. Age of Empires series still attracts more than a million players each month: “And the numbers keep going up,” almost 15 years after the last full game
57. Call of Duty League adds LA, Minnesota slots: LA’s Immortals Gaming Club to compete under OpTic Gaming brand
58. Riot Games teams up with Nielsen to measure brand exposure for esports sponsors: “We have the opportunity to help monetise Riot Games’ platform and validate this growing market”
59. YouTube Millionaires: ‘QJB,’ One Of YouTube’s Longest-Running Gaming Channels, Says Staying Consistent Is The Key To Keeping Fans
60. Nexon becomes majority owner of fledgling Swedish studio Embark
61. Age of Empires series brings in over 1 million players each month
62. Weather Factory on the advantages of being “weird and divisive”: Co-founder Lottie Bevan talks about scrapping the studio’s plans based on a single tweet, and how open development keeps experimental games on track
63. Remedy obtains publishing rights to Alan Wake: Remedy talks up possibility of multiplatform release for the cult Xbox 360 favourite
64. Report: Microsoft still planning a low-cost, streaming-focused Xbox
65. Remedy has acquired the publishing rights to Alan Wakefrom Microsoft
66. Village Roadshow has acquired the television and film rights to Myst
67. id Software’s origin story set to become USA Network TV series
68. Guidemaster: Is Valve Index the best virtual reality system to buy in 2019?
69. Valve is exploring ‘several ways’ of doing untethered Index VR
70. Valve is already exploring “untethered” Index VR hardware: Gabe Newell placed new headset alongside Half-Life and Steam as a “milestone” for the company
71. Valve to release Index 3D models to aid VR headset and controller mods
72. Valve Index makes VR prettier, but it’s the controllers that steal the show
73. Valve releases CAD files for Index headset: Modeling, design files aim to encourage mod-ability, including “frunk” accessories
74. Digital Minister wants UK Games Fund to continue: James declares £5m financing initiative a success but extension depends on next government spending review
75. South East, London, North West, and Scotland are largest UK dev centres, TIGA reveals: Over half of UK industry based outside London and South East
76. Series: Your Story Universe developer Endless Entertainment lays off 7 staff
77. Entrepreneurs educate by gamifying the law
78. U.S. Patent No. 4,738,451: Multi-player, multi-character cooperative play video game with independent player entry and departure 
79. Why Clint Hocking wanted every NPC in Watch Dogs: Legion to be playable
80. Tilting Point promises more than $20 million for UA costs in CookApps publishing deal
81. Artifact’s pricing and value didn’t quite line up, says consulting designer
82. Zachtronics games are now free for public schools and educational nonprofits
83. The complicated process of porting Graveyard Keeper to consoles and mobile
84. Blog: Charting the pacing of Uncharted 2 – Part 2
85. Blog: Historians discuss Total War: Three Kingdoms
86. Blog: How game developers can get the most out of Discord
87. Blog: MVP like Nintendo in 1980
88. Summer Games Done Quick closes 2019 event with $3 million raised for MSF

DIGITAL

1. Twitter Will Now Hide, Suppress Spread Of Government Officials’ Tweets That Violate Its Guidelines
2. Twitter clarifies special rules for tweets by world leaders like Trump
3. Boris Johnson, UK’s Answer To Trump, Offers A Masterclass In How To Use The Dead Cat Strategy Combined With A Google Bomb
4. Chinese Border Agents Now Installing Malware On Foreigners’ Cellphones
5. Deceptive marketing in the spotlight: Ticketmaster to pay Competition Bureau penalty of $4.5 million
6. Retailers all but beg FTC to take action against Google, Amazon
7. D-Link agrees to new security monitoring to settle FTC charges
8. Amazon confirms it keeps your Alexa recordings basically forever
9. Amazon can be held liable for defective third-party products on its platform, court rules: A potentially damaging precedent for the company
10. Amazon Might Be Liable for Defective Marketplace Items (But Only When It Tries to Warn Consumers)–Fox v. Amazon (Eric Goldman)
11. Taylor Swift To Headline Amazon’s Prime Day Concert Livestream
12. It’s not that we’ve failed to rein in Facebook and Google. We’ve not even tried: The tech giants use our data not only to predict our behaviour but to change it. But we can resist this attack on democracy (Shoshana Zuboff)
13. Researchers crack open Facebook campaign that pushed malware for years: Facebook removes pages following discovery of a campaign that hid in plain sight.
14. Facebook Defeats Alabama Injunction for Lack of Jurisdiction–Facebook v. KGS (Eric Goldman)
15. Ninth Circuit Rejects Facial Recognition Claim Against Facebook 
16. Facebook To Start Handing User Info To French Government So It Can Start Punishing People For Being Stupid
17. Facebook’s new terms of service explains how ads get targeted: There are also new details on user rights to uploaded content and when you can appeal a ban
18. As Facebook cracks down on hate speech, it’s also re-evaluating another policy: Nipples
19. Libra: A centralised wolf in decentralised sheep’s clothes
20. Facebook gets more official pushback on Libra
21. BuzzFeed’s ‘Good Advice Cupcake Show’ To Be Facebook Watch’s First Animated Series
22. Senator Lindsey Graham To Host Special ‘But Think Of The Children Online!’ Moral Panic Hearing
23. We Should Probably Stop Blaming Technology For The Failings Of Human Beings
24. Google announces new subsea cable ‘Equiano’, connecting Africa and Europe
25. Gmail’s API lockdown will kill some third-party app access, starting July 15
26. The End Of The Open Internet: Cory Doctorow’s Op-Ed From The Future
27. CNIL Publishes Action Plan Regarding Online Targeted Advertising 
28. Bringing competition to the digital age: Commissioner Matthew Boswell intends that the Competition Bureau be a leading enforcement agency in the digital economy
29. Is ‘This Time Different’ Concerning Big Internet Dominance?
30. State Judge Prefers Prior Restraint To The First Amendment, Orders Blogger To Delete Supposedly Defamatory Posts
31. Crazy Copyright Suit Over Gigi Hadid Posting A Photo Of Herself To Instagram Shows Absurdity Inherent In Photo Copyrights
32. Gigi Hadid “Obliterates” copyrights with fair-use bazooka
33. “But It’s on the Internet!” You Still Need a License to Use that Photo! 
34. Are GIFs Subject to Copyright?
35. Trump Thinks That The Government Can And Should Sue Internet Companies Because He Doesn’t Like The People Who Work There
36. Inside Story On The War On Backpage Raises All Sorts Of Legal Questions
37. California’s Bot Transparency Law Goes into Effect on July 1, 2019 
38. Will California’s New Bot Law Strengthen Democracy?
39. California Court Finds Section 230 Protects Decision to Suspend and Ban Twitter Account 
40. Section 230 Protects Snapchat from Liability for Cyberbullying–Grossman v. Rockaway Township (Eric Goldman)
41. WSJ Op Ed Warns: Killing Section 230, Kills The Internet
42. Yes, The EU Copyright Directive Does Have A Few Good Ideas — But They Need To Be Implemented Properly
43. Latest Linkwrap on FOSTA’s Aftermath (Eric Goldman)
44. Reddit ‘Quarantines’ Pro-Trump Subreddit Over Anti-Police Threats: Users allegedly threatened law enforcement ordered to find Republican senators
45. The Trump Campaign Spent Hundreds Of Thousands To Take Over YouTube’s Masthead
46. YouTube promises users more control over recommendations
47. YouTube Vet Philip DeFranco Hits Play On ‘Rogue Rocket’ Channel With New Correspondents, Deeper Dives
48. 30,000 followers makes you an Internet “celebrity,” says UK ad regulator
49. The Internet broke today: Facebook, Verizon, and more see major outages
50. FTC, FDA Caution E-Cig Companies About Influencer Marketing
51. FTC Continues Enforcement of Unfair and Deceptive Online Activities
52. FTC Announces First Actions Enforcing The Consumer Review Fairness Act 
53. Netflix Pledges to Cut Back Smoking Depictions in Original Productions After Group Blasts ‘Stranger Things’
54. Gabby Douglas, Dashawn Jordan, Giannis Antetokounmpo To Attend VidCon As Part Of First Nike Sponsorship
55. Jony Ive will depart Apple to start his own company
56. Apple Design Guru Jony Ive to Depart to Form Independent Firm
57. iPhone and iPad designer Jony Ive is leaving Apple after 27 years
58. Report describing Jony Ive’s Apple exit gains a sharp response from Tim Cook
59. Apple Music Tops 60 Million Subscribers, Including Users on Free Trials
60. Samsung CEO calls Galaxy Fold launch failure “embarrassing”
61. Russell Simmons’ All Def Digital Is Shutting Down, According To Sources 
62. Spotify Shuts Down Ability for Independent Artists to Upload Music Directly
63. Spotify Signs Deal To Get Footloose With Kevin Bacon In Upcoming Comedy Podcast
64. Tidal Launches Enhanced Credits Feature
65. Instagram Will Integrate Ads Into ‘Explore’ Tab Over Coming Months
66. The Streaming TV Sector Still Doesn’t Realize Exclusives Will Drive Users Back To Piracy
67. Quibi Snags ‘Hunger Games’ Alum Liam Hemsworth For Thriller Amid $1 Billion Content Push
68. Patenting Trends in Blockchain Innovations
69. You too could now 3D print a Lamborghini Aventador at home: If you had some impressive STEAM physics, engineering and manufacturing skills, that is
70. ICANN eliminates .org domain price caps despite lopsided opposition
71. eSignature and ePayment News and Trends
72. Tech competence should be required
73. Batten Down the Hatches: Digital Tax Nor’easter Coming This Fall 
74. Microsoft is teasing Windows 1.0 and other 1980s software
75. You Don’t Own What You’ve Bought: Microsoft’s Books ‘Will Stop Working’

A.I.

1. When it comes to AI regulation, Canada can do better: Countries are considering the guiding philosophies
2. Are You Talking To A Bot? – New CA Law Makes Disclosure the Best Option 
3. Is There Anybody Behind That Bot? 
4. Schools Are Using ‘Aggression Detecting’ Mics That Are Set Off By Coughing, Slamming Locker Doors To Head Off The Next School Shooting
5. The first AI capable of simulating the universe works so well it’s scary
6. FaceTime feature in iOS 13 feigns eye contact during video calls
7. Mini neural networks mimic the human cerebrum
8. I Welcomed Our New Robot Overlords At Amazon’s First AI Conference
9. Signs from above: Drone with projector successfully trolls car AI
10. AI Isn’t Making The Criminal Justice System Any Smarter
11. Endless AI-generated spam risks clogging up Google’s search results: A ‘tsunami’ of cheap AI content could cause problems for search engines
12. The future of AI research is in Africa: In the last few years, the machine-learning community has blossomed, applying the technology to challenges like food security and health care.
13. The hidden labor supporting algorithms: “Ghost Work” reveals labor structures masked by technology
14. Blog: Creating the the AI of Sea of Thieves – Part 4

COMMUNICATIONS

1. What is the Point of the Broadcast and Telecom Legislative Review if the Government Has Already Decided What It Intends To Do? (Michael Geist)
2. Canadian CEO Penalized for His Company’s CASL Breaches
3. Sinclair Faces Expanded Probe For Shady Behavior During Tribune Merger
4. Supreme Court Declines to Decide whether FCC Orders Bind District Courts
5. House votes to block Ajit Pai’s plan to kill San Francisco broadband law
6. Former Head Of Ajit Pai’s Broadband Advisory Council Is Headed To Prison For Fraud
7. Pai’s FCC Crushes Rules That Brought More Broadband Competition To San Francisco
8. T-Mobile enemy Dish could help save the T-Mobile/Sprint merger: Dish could resell T-Mobile/Sprint network access in deal to save merger.
9. Frontier customer bought his own router—but has to pay $10 rental fee anyway
10. NASA, NOAA, and the Navy Tell The FCC Its 5G Plan Will Harm Weather Forecasting 
11. The Press Needs An Intervention When It Comes To Over-Hyping 5G

PRIVACY

1. Now TikTok is facing a UK investigation over children’s data
2. SCHREMS 2.0 – the demise of Standard Contractual Clauses and Privacy Shield? 
3. Superhuman says it will disable email read receipts by default after privacy controversy: Pixel tracking is still an option, but it’ll be limited
4. Taser maker says it won’t use facial recognition in bodycams
5. Axon Ethics Board Pulls Plug On Facial Recognition Tech Being Added To Its Body Cameras
6. Deepfake revenge porn distribution now a crime in Virginia
7. Deepfakes and Other Disinformation Pose Growing Business Threats, Say WilmerHale Lawyers
8. Author pulls software that used deep learning to virtually undress women
9. Somerville, Massachusetts Becomes The Second US City To Ban Facial Recognition Tech
10. These are a few of our favorite IoT: NIST finalizes Internet of Things cyber guidance
11. Watching Me, Watching You – IoT Camera Hacks Surge
12. Another Report Shows The GDPR Benefited Google And Facebook, And Hurt Everyone Else
13. New York Data Privacy Law
14. New York Senate Considers Sweeping New Privacy Bill That Would Create a Fiduciary Duty to Consumers 
15. Maine Enacts Broadband Privacy Law
16. Hackers Have Been Stealing User Data From Global Cell Networks Since 2012
17. Benefit of the but-for bargain: Assessing economic tools for data privacy litigation
18. Ryuk, Ryuk, Ryuk: Georgia’s courts hit by ransomware
19. Georgia courts (mostly) shrug off ransomware attack
20. Florida LAN: Someone clicks link, again, giving Key Biscayne ransomware
21. New ransomware infections are the worst drive-by attacks in recent memory
22. “We need to up our game”—DHS cybersecurity director on Iran and ransomware
23. Documents Show The NSA’s Abuse Of Its Phone Records Collection Continued Right Up Until Its Decision To Pull The Plug
24. Department of State Requests Social Media Profile Identifiers
25. Smile, Your City Is Watching You: Local governments must protect your privacy as they turn to “smart city” technology.
26. Here We Go Again: Trump Administration Considers Outlawing Encryption
27. Standard Contractual Clauses and EU-US Privacy Shield – Under scrutiny
28. Cookie consent – What “good” compliance looks like according to the ICO

CREATIVITY

1. SCOTUS: Lanham Act’s Ban on Registration of “Immoral or Scandalous” Marks Unconstitutional
2. Why the U.S. Supreme Court’s Decision to Allow Federal Registration of FUCT Impacts Every Day Businesses
3. UMG Tries To Block O-Town’s Trademark Application Over Its Motown Record Label
4. Gibson Guitar Declares Shift In IP Enforcement After Most Recent Public Backlash
5. NBC and Carrie Underwood Face Lawsuit Over NFL Sunday Night Football Theme Song
6. Banning harmful gender stereotypes in advertising – what you should know
7. Brazilian court bans subway performers 
8. College Forgets How The First Amendment Works; Targets Its Own Student Newspaper With A Public Records Request
9. The Root weeds out ebony’s Lanham Suit
10. Zion Williamson’s Legal Battle with His Former Marketing Agency
11. Andy Warhol’s “Prince Series” Ruled Fair Use
12. Second Circuit Holds New York’s Met Museum Can Keep Picasso’s The Actor
13. Who Owns the Law? Supreme Court to Decide if State Governments Can Copyright Legal Texts
14. U.S. Supreme Court to Review Copyrightability of Privately-Produced Annotated State Statutory Compilations 
15. Inaccurate Copyright Application, Without a Plausible Excuse from the Copyright Owner, Leads to Invalidation of Registration
16. Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreements and the Harmonisation of Copyright Law at International Level: Lessons to be Learned from the TTIP (Christophe Geiger)
17. 1H 2019 Quick Links, Part 1 (Copyright & More) (Eric Goldman)

Jon

GAMES

1. Rovio files trademark lawsuit against hot chicken restaurant ‘Angry Birdz’
2. Rovio sues California chicken restaurant over Angry Birds trademark: Finnish developer alleges Angry Birdz Nashville Hot Chicken violating trademark on both name and logo
3. Law against account boosting goes into effect in South Korea
4. Cease-and-desist transforms Mario Royale into DMCA Royale
5. Don’t Miss: Dissecting the revolutionary game design ofSuper Mario Kart
6. Super Mario Maker 2 review: A great sequel, playable on a better console
7. Epic and EA execs squirm under scrutiny from British MPs: Testimonies arouse suspicion and dismay from members of immersive and addictive technology inquiry
8. British technology inquiry chair says industry is only “paying lip service” to gaming addiction: King Digital, UKIE, TIGA, others struggle to convince MPs that games industry is taking issues like loot boxes seriously
9. At U.K. Parliament Hearing, Electronic Arts Says Its Loot Boxes Aren’t Loot Boxes
10. EA: Loot boxes actually “surprise mechanics” that are “ethical and fun” – Gaming reps at UK parliamentary panel also answer charges of addictive game design.
11. Gimme the loot – United States proposes ban on loot boxes
12. Anthem’s rocky launch hasn’t dissuaded EA, says CEO
13. EA sees Bioware’s Anthem on “seven to ten year cycle”: CEO Andrew Wilson admits the publisher “might not invest further” if players were not compelled by the experience
14. Jedi: Fallen Order hands-on: Finally, a solid EA Star Wars game⁠—is that enough?
15. Patrick Söderlund’s $20m retention bonus didn’t leave EA with him: Stock grant reportedly returned to company pool used for initiatives including new hires
16. Security firms demonstrate subdomain hijack exploit vs. EA/Origin
17. Twitch takes action against trolls amid artifact’s downfall 
18. Twitch introduces Subscriber Streams: New feature allows Partners and Affiliates to set some streams as only for paid channel subscribers
19. YouTuber JacksFilms Accuses ‘Fortnite’ Of Stealing, Selling His Deep Dab
20. Desmond ‘Etika’ Amofah found dead at 29: Nintendo-focused YouTuber had been missing since last week after video threatening self-harm
21. YouTuber And Twitch Streamer Desmond ‘Etika’ Amofah Found Dead At Age 29
22. Razer cuts ties with streamer following Twitter remarks about men: Brazilian streamer removed from company’s influencer program after tweeting that “men are trash”
23. Popular Gamers Mini Ladd And BigJigglyPanda To Embark On 27-City ‘Demonetized’ Tour
24. Saving Fallout 76: Bethesda’s Pete Hines on using the lessons from The Elder Scrolls Online to fix a rare misstep for Bethesda Game Studios
25. The U.S. Government has blocked League of Legends in Iran and Syria
26. League of Legends reportedly blocked in Iran: Riot Games’ message to Iranian users attributed block to “US laws and regulations
27. Just 15% of European gamers are interested in Google Stadia and xCloud: According to the latest survey results from GameTrack for UK, France, Spain and Germany
28. Teamfight Tactics is a super fun Auto Chess variant, despite frustrating RNG: League of Legends’ take on the mod is a winner.
29. Square Enix “Ethics Department” advised changes on Final Fantasy VII character: Alterations to Tifa’s character model centred around wardrobe, not breast size, and were guided by internal ethics group
30. Square Enix partners with Gary Sinise Foundation to raise cash for first responders
31. Project Babel dev Colopl says employees inflated sales to boost app rankings
32. CD Projekt Red: “Everyone is feeling the pressure on Cyberpunk 2077” – But the studio’s new crunch stance has been a boost to staff morale, says quest director
33. QA bears the brunt of Treyarch’s crunch and culture issues, say staff
34. Stories of crunch, neglect for QA at Treyarch: Call of Duty Black Ops 4 employees and contractors describe unfair treatment, disregard for contractor work force
35. Bungie pushes back Destiny 2 fix to maintain dev work-life balance
36. Bungie delays Destiny 2 patch to avoid crunch: Community asked to wait in the name of “preserving work-life balance”
37. The GamesIndustry.biz Podcast: Why do we need unions?
38. The subtle art of crisis management: From epic crunch to 8chan AMAs, the games industry is never far from a scandal — but PR professionals face many challenges when reacting to calamity
39. Console makers seek to avoid 25% price bump driven by Trump’s trade war
40. Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony pen letter against Trump’s game console tariff
41. Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo: 25% tariff on consoles would cause “disproportionate harm”: Letter from leading hardware manufacturers says tariff on hardware made in China would hurt economy, jobs, innovation
42. “Iwata Asks” developer interviews will become a book: Earthbound creator’s company to publish collection of discussions between late Nintendo president and developers
43. Nintendo chooses Israel for its second official store: First new outlet in 14 years now open, Tokyo stored planned for later this year
44. Tel Aviv is now home to Nintendo’s second official store
45. Sega sees streaming’s potential to reach new audiences
46. How id built Wolfenstein 3D using Commander Keen tech
47. Ninja To Release How-To Gaming Guide, Graphic Novel As Part Of Three-Book Deal
48. Alpha Protocol removed from Steam as music rights expire: Sega says it still owns the IP, but nine-year-old game contains songs that would need re-licensing
49. Steam now has an official LGBTQ+ tag, hub page: Category appears following Nepenthe developer’s request on Steam forums
50. Steam and Ubuntu clash over 32-bit libs
51. Steam ending support for Ubuntu over 32-bit compatibility
52. Don’t Miss: 20 essential real-world games to study (and play!)
53. Subscription services unlikely to replace traditional game sales, says WBIE
54. Microsoft’s Strategy to Become the ‘Netflix for Games’
55. Report: The rumored second next-gen Xbox model likely won’t see the light of day
56. Microsoft reportedly cuts internal content teams at Inside Xbox and Mixer: Change in strategy prompts layoffs and potential contract cancellation as company’s fiscal year nears end
57. Report: Microsoft has laid off content creation staff at Mixer and Inside Xbox
58. Minecraft: Education Edition is getting an Immersive Reader and new educator resources
59. Commodore 64 gets retro re-release: Full-sized version of the 80’s gaming goliath set to launch December 5
60. Charity livestream raises $3.7m for children’s hospital: Fortnite streamer Dr.Lupo breaks records, raising $1 million in four hours
61. Bungie raises over $400,000 for children’s hospital during charity livestream
62. Bungie raises over $400k for St Jude Children’s Research Hospital: Developer’s block on Guardian Con Charity Marathon Stream was largest block in event’s history
63. Humble has raised $150M for charity through bundles and storefront
64. Ubisoft: Watch Dogs Legion will encourage players “to think differently” – But the E3 hit will still allow players to “make their own minds up” about depiction of surveillance state Britain
65. Ubisoft sees high acceptance for opt-out subtitles: Even in games that ship with subtitles off by default, publisher sees more than half of players turn them on
66. Crystal Dynamics: The Avengers is the biggest thing we’ve ever done – The Square Enix studio on its transformation beyond Tomb Raider
67. F1 2019 simulates the highs and lows of motorsport, on and off the track
68. Square Enix launches charity fundraising campaign for first responders: Publisher will match donations made to Gary Sinise Foundation up to $50,000
69. Sean Murray on No Man’s Sky: “I thought we were making a niche game” – Hello Games’ founder on the difficulties of transforming a live game, and pushing past a divisive launch
70. Cory Barlog: “We’re now able to give actors meaty performances, as opposed to just doing voice” – God of War’s director expects more actors like Keanu Reeves to star in games
71. Building interesting emergence in Dying Light 2
72. Sea of Thieves is the game it is today because of Game Pass, says Xbox head
73. Blog: Creating the the AI of Sea of Thieves – Part 3
74. Blog: Consoles are resilient for now, but cloud gaming poses new challenges
75. Blog: On narrative from a cognitive perspective – Part 4
76. Blog: An archaeologist considers Heaven’s Vault  
77. Blog: Creating natural looking geometry in Unexplored 2: The Wayfarer’s Legacy
78. Blog: The love-hate relationship between marketeers and social media
79. Blog: Localizing your game without making it suck
80. Video: Learning from the doomed launch of Brigador
81. Video: Rapid-fire animation insights from the GDC 2019 Animation Microtalks 
82. Keeping up with the surprise success of Mordhau
83. Cultist Simulator mobile: The all-singing, all-dancing data dump
84. Amazon’s struggle is a reminder that content is still king | Opinion: Every tech giant wants a slice of the games business, but the difficulty of creating great games and valuable IP hasn’t changed
85. GAME recommends shareholders accept Sports Direct offer: Company says 30 pence per share is a fair value considering industry challenges
86. Valve launches first mobile game: Dota Underlords is company’s take on Dota Auto Chess, will also be available on PC, Mac, and Linux
87. Dota Underlords has topped 170,000 concurrent users in 24 hours
88. World War Z has topped 700,000 sales on the Epic Games Store
89. Tim Sweeney: Epic Games Store exclusives will help devs everywhere earn more
90. Tim Sweeney: “Unpopular” Epic Game Store exclusives are working – Epic CEO argues that the divisive strategy will benefit gamers in the long term
91. Harry Potter: Wizards Unite generated $1.7m less than Pokémon Go on day one – Sensor Tower data shows more than 400,000 installs, $300,000 in revenue across the US and UK, but launch is flagging behind Niantic’s best
92. Forge of Empires reaches €500m in lifetime revenue: InnoGames’ strategy title brought in over €250m in the last two years
93. This brilliant GTA 5 zombie RP mod is a DayZ-esque nightmare: RottenV adds purpose and structure to GTA 5’s often unpredictable roleplay scene.
94. It’s possible to build a Turing machine within Magic: The Gathering
95. Azerion has purchased Spil Games’ mobile game division
96. Spil Games sells mobile division to Azerion: Founders remain owners of Spil’s web portals, will work in partnership with Azerion
97. Esports Star Tfue Sues To Void His Contract With FaZe Clan 
98. Lessons from the Lawsuit That Could Shake Up the Esports Industry
99. Global esports director Kim Phan departs Blizzard
100. Blizzard loses global esports director Kim Phan: Phan is the second high ranking departure from Blizzard’s esports department in recent weeks
101. Trust Esport invests €1.5m in smartVR: French investment fund supports development of VR arcades and related esports services
102. Valve launches VR Portal spinoff Aperture Hand Lab
103. Magic Leap suing ex-employee for stealing tech to make his own XR headset: Florida start-up claims former engineer’s Nreal Light headset bears a “striking similarity” to confidential company tech
104. Seven years on from Oculus Rift’s launch, how far have we come? | Opinion: Game Dragons’ Andrew Oliver ponders the current state of virtual reality, and how it might benefit from 5G and streaming
105. Superdata: PUBG sells 4.7m digital units year-to-date – Fortnite still leader in digital earnings on console last month, though revenue remains down YOY
106. Insights: Never Mind Peak TV, Are We Headed To Peak Game Service?
107. Making the most of a digital office space: Sonderlust’s Lyndsey Gallant explains how the remote working studio’s all-day video conferences have helped the team
108. Time to Chain Up: Is Blockchain About to Change the Gaming Industry?
109. 28 years later, a no-disc version of the Sega CD finally exists—and it works
110. 22 of the worst PC games of all time
111. Myst to be adapted for TV and film: Village Roadshow Entertainment acquires rights to game’s mythology for “multiplatform universe”
112. Fed. Cir. Spots Weak Claim Construction Arguments
113. A Single Prior Art Reference Can Render a Patent Obvious
114. Game and Tech. Co. v. Activision Blizzard  (U.S.C.A. Fed. Circuit, June 21, 2019)

DIGITAL

1. Once Again: It’s Not Clear The Internet Needs Creepy Targeted Ads
2. Facebook usage falling after privacy scandals, data suggests: Actions such as shares and likes down nearly 20%, though user numbers still growing
3. Facebook adds new limits to address the spread of hate speech in Sri Lanka and Myanmar
4. Facebook to identify French hate speech suspects
5. Exclusive: In a world first, Facebook to give data on hate speech suspects to French courts
6. Australia Says Media Companies Can Be Sued Over User Comments On Facebook
7. Court Declines to Dismiss Data Breach Claims Against Facebook Based on Access Token Incident–Bass v. Facebook
8. Your Periodic Reminder That Facebook Isn’t a State Actor–Williby v. Zuckerberg
9. If Facebook or Google create their own currency, they can control our lives
10. Facebook Rolls Out Political Advertising Tools Globally
11. After Months of Rumors, Facebook Officially Announces New Libra Cryptocurrency
12. Facebook’s New Currency Has Big Claims and Bad Ideas: Libra is an ideological project, not a practical one.
13. Why Facebook’s Libra Cryptocurrency Is Both More Interesting Than Expected And Less Interesting Than I Hoped
14. Quadriga Founder Spent Client Money, Bankruptcy Monitor Says: Ernst & Young says Gerald Cotten, late founder of defunct Canadian cryptocurrency exchange, funneled client money into fraudulent accounts
15. New crypto-currency rules come as enforcement ramps up
16. Instagram will start putting ads within the Explore page: Ads everywhere
17. Facebook makes another push to shape and define its own oversight
18. District Court Finds Use of Third-Party Hashtags Created Implied Association 
19. Fake news game confers psychological resistance against online misinformation
20. Sudan court orders company to end military-ordered internet blackout: lawyer
21. Indian Gov’t Uses National Security Law, Bad Information To Block Twitter Accounts All Over The World
22. Russian Government Demands All Foreign Press Outlets Register For The Privilege Of Delivering News To Russia
23. FedEx sues US government over export controls after Huawei problems 
24. After Decades Of Demanding China ‘Respect’ US Patent Law, Senator Rubio Pushes Law That Says US Can Ignore Huawei Enforcing Patents
25. If China Is A Glimpse Of Our Future Surveillance Nightmare, Maybe Hong Kong Shows How To Fight It
26. Trump Ponders Banning All Chinese-Made Gear From US 5G Networks
27. The LawBytes Podcast, Episode 17: What To Do About Huawei? – Christopher Parsons Unpacks One of Canada’s Most Challenging Policy Issues (Michael Geist)
28. YouTube Reportedly In Late Stages Of Federal Investigation For Violating Children’s Privacy Laws
29. YouTube reportedly under investigation over alleged child protection breaches: “An FTC investigation into YouTube’s treatment of children online is long overdue,” says US lawmaker
30. YouTube spreads ‘misleading information’ about experimental stem cell treatments: Health Canada has warned unlicensed clinics are offering unauthorized cell therapies and making unproven, outsized claims
31. LGBTQ+ YouTube Employees Could Face Consequences If They Protest Steven Crowder Decision At Pride (Report)
32. Meghan Trainor To Headline VidCon Kickoff Concert ‘YouTube Onstage’ 
33. In The Ever More Crowded Streaming Space, YouTube Is “Zigging Where Other People Are Zagging,” Susanne Daniels Says
34. YouTube Rolls Out 3 Tools To Give Viewers More Control Over Suggested Videos
35. YouTube Music Can Now Auto-Save 500 Suggested Songs For Offline Consumption
36. Top 50 Most Viewed U.S. YouTube Channels • Week Of 6/23/2019
37. Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 6/23/2019
38. Google CEO Admits That It’s Impossible To Moderate YouTube Perfectly; CNBC Blasts Him
39. YouTube Confirms Test Of Feature That Hides Comments By Default On Android App
40. Google Hardware quits the tablet business, again
41. Google is killing YouTube’s “Hangouts on Air” this year
42. Kingsley Returns To YouTube After Yearlong Absence, Says #YouTubeBlack “Changed My Life”
43. Firefighters Used YouTube Videos To Rescue Ducklings Trapped In Storm Drain
44. ‘Siphoning off the crap’: Agencies prioritize buying premium content directly on YouTube
45. Yoga Influencers’ Disclosures Show Limits of Flexibility 
46. Andy Signore Settles Lawsuit Against Defy Media, Is “Looking Forward To Exposing The Truth”
47. Cameo raises $50m for its celebrity-shoutouts app
48. Cameo Raises $50 Million In Series B, Has Hosted 275,000 Video Shoutouts In 2 Years
49. BBTV Signs Kwebbelkop, Family Fun Pack, And Athletes Anthony Adams And Tristan Jass
50. UK May Have Finally Ditched Its Absurd Porn Filter Plan
51. Before Demanding Internet Companies ‘Hire More Moderators,’ Perhaps We Should Look At How Awful The Job Is
52. Review: Google Chrome has become surveillance software. It’s time to switch. – Our latest privacy experiment found Chrome ushered more than 11,000 tracker cookies into our browser – in a single week.
53. Insights: The Young Turks Will Intertwine Their Values With Their Ad Dollars, But Can Other Media Sites Afford To Follow?
54. After Teaming With Emma Chamberlain, Louis Vuitton Invites The Dolan Twins To Paris Fashion Week
55. With new leadership, Snapchat makes friends among marketers and publishers in Cannes
56. Sorry, ads are coming to TikTok
57. Vice Media to shut down operations in Montreal
58. Wattpad strikes Mediaset agreement
59. BET’s Upcoming Streaming Service To Be Joint Venture With Tyler Perry
60. Netflix Is Testing A Pop-Out Player On Desktops So You Can Multitask While You Watch
61. The Obamas’ First Netflix Feature, ‘American Factory,’ Is Headed To Theaters
62. Implications from New Hampshire Lottery Commission v. Barr
63. Hulu Is Already The SVOD Growth Story of 2019
64. Disney Is Saying All the Right Things About the Hulu-Disney+ Relationship: The company will work to keep its divided streaming offerings on the same page.
65. Disney Pushing To “Significantly” Expand Hulu’s Original Programming, Says CEO Randy Freer
66. The New Takedown Obligations in the EU for Online Content-Sharing Service Providers
67. EU Intellectual Property Office Produces Dumbest Propaganda Film Ever, Pretending Without IP There Is No Creativity
68. The Paywall Conundrum: Even Those Who Like Paying For News Don’t Pay For Much News
69. The Raspberry Pi 4 launch site runs on a Pi 4 cluster
70. Proposed Law Would Force Big Tech to Reveal Value of Consumer Data
71. Explainer: How Letting Platforms Decide What Content To Facilitate Is What Makes Section 230 Work
72. Legislators Propose Narrowing § 230’s Protections 
73. Supposedly Disadvantaged Conservatives Not Exactly Rushing To Support Josh Hawley’s Anti-Section 230 Bill
74. Self-Made Millionaire Loses Lawsuit Over Facebook’s Removal Of Videos Of People Urinating
75. The Plaintiff Is Probably Pissed About Section 230–Fyk v. Facebook (Eric Goldman)
76. Don’t Shoot The Message Board: A Data Driven Look At The Impact Of Section 230 On Innovation And The Economy
77. Locksmiths Locked Out: Court Affirms Immunity for Use of Tools That Portray Third-Party Content Pictorially or as an Aggregate Metric 
78. Concerns about misinformation could lead to limits on key media freedoms 
79. Guy Pushing Hawley’s ‘Viewpoint Neutrality’ Concept In The Media Used To Write For White Supremacist Site
80. States Limit Employer Access to Employee Social Media and Other Internet Accounts
81. Amazon takes on TCL’s Roku TV with low-cost HDR Fire TV
82. Amazon patents ‘surveillance as a service’ tech for its delivery drones: Including technology that cuts out footage of your neighbors house
83. Amazon got clearance to build drones that can carry out surveillance on customers’ homes between deliveries
84. Nicosia v. Amazon (U.S. District Ct., Eastern District of New York, Memorandum & Order June 14, 2019)
85. Hackers, farmers, and doctors unite! Support for Right to Repair laws slowly grows
86. Bill Gates calls failure to fight Android his “greatest mistake”
87. Researchers develop ‘vaccine’ against attacks on machine learning
88. Ontario Human Rights Commission looking at AI impact on racial profiling: OHRC to create policy guidance on artificial intelligence in policing
89. Who’s that bot? California requires clear disclosure starting 7/1/2019
90. McCormick’s concept grill plays music based on what you’re cooking: The SUMR HITS 5000 has a built-in DJ to (kind of) spice up your BBQs.
91. How Machine Learning Turned Major Lazer’s ‘Make It Hot’ Into Vertical Video
92. The trick to saving human factory jobs might be teaming up with the machines
93. Queen’s Law partners with European business school for AI project: Collaboration could lead to breakthrough in IP law on both sides of the Atlantic
94. Artificial Intelligence and Copyright Protection
95. Report from AI Decoding IP: Day 1
96. The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence
97. Is Artificial Intelligence Set to Transform Private Equity Dealmaking? 
98. Oxford Business Blog highlights Prof. Dignam’s work on AI
99. Artificial Intelligence: The Very Human Dangers of Dysfunctional Design and Autocratic Corporate Governance (Alan Dignam)
100. The company that owns TikTok now has one billion users and many are outside China
101. German regulator says it discovered new illegal software on Daimler diesels
102. A History of IP in 50 Objects: Internet (Jonathan Zittrain)
103. A paper towel dispenser with an end-user license agreement is a special kind of hell
104. Modern Courts and the Need for Judicial Technological Competence
105. Major League Baseball’s Obsession With Cashing In On Everything Has Harmed The Game’s Popularity Online

COMMUNICATIONS

1. A Spectrum of Opportunities and Challenges: Canada’s 5G Future
2. Ex-chair of FCC broadband committee gets five years in prison for fraud
3. Robocalls Swamp Hospitals As The Trump FCC Pretends To Fix The Problem
4. FCC Tees Up Mid- and High-Band Spectrum Auctions to Support 5G at July Open Meeting 
5. FCC Releases Draft Order on Changes to Children’s Television Rules – Action Expected July 10
6. Ajit Pai tries to kill San Francisco’s attempt to spur broadband competition
7. FCC battles meteorologists again over plan to help wireless industry
8. FCC lets Verizon lock cell phones to network for 60 days after activation
9. Verizon Now Pretending That 5G Will Help Cure Cancer
10. AT&T sued over hidden fee that raises mobile prices above advertised rate
11. AT&T Ratchets Up The Content Wars
12. States Flex Their Muscles and Antitrust Skills to Block Sprint/T-Mobile Merger 
13. Dish To Buy Parts of T-Mobile To Save Sprint Merger, But It’s Not Likely To Help
14. No, Your Kid Isn’t Growing Horns Because Of Cellphone Use
15. Another EEO Audit Released – Looking at the FCC’s Current EEO Obligations
16. House subcommittee approves bipartisan robocall bill 
17. Deference to Agency Jurisdiction Still Unanswered: SCOTUS Fails to Resolve Whether an FCC Order Interpreting the TCPA is Binding on Federal District Courts
18. Private Publishers Aren’t State Actors–Manhattan Community Access v. Halleck

PRIVACY

1. Why data ownership is the wrong approach to protecting privacy (Cameron Kerry & John Morris)
2. “Gonna stand my ground; And I won’t back down”¹ – The OPC charges forward with its controversial consultation on transborder dataflows/transfers for processing
3. Nation-sponsored hackers likely carried out hostile takeover of rival group’s servers: Like an episode of Spy vs. Spy, Russian-speaking Turla appears to hijack OilRig’s network.
4. As The DOJ Continues To Complain About Encryption, Cellebrite (Again) Announces It Can Crack Any IPhone
5. Australian Home Affairs Minister Says Government Still Considering Spying On Its Own Citizens
6. DHS cyber director warns of surge in Iranian “wiper” hack attacks
7. Iranian state hackers reload their domains, release off-the-shelf RAT malware
8. A rogue Raspberry Pi helped hackers access NASA JPL systems
9. Potent Firefox 0-day used to install undetected backdoors on Macs: So far, attacks are known only to target Mac users involved in cryptocurrency.
10. A tale of two cities: Why ransomware will just get worse
11. Can’t Have Copyright Enforcement Without Destroying Privacy Protections
12. Canadian global leadership on data protection
13. Data compliance goes global: Vivek Narayanadas, in-house counsel for Shopify, has his hands full navigating privacy and data protection laws around the world.
14. Privacy FAQs: If a company receives a right to be forgotten request, is it required to delete records that show whether an individual opted-in or opted-out from marketing?
15. Privacy Report: Three Dating Apps Removed from App Store After Potential COPPA Violations
16. Maine and Nevada’s New Data Privacy Laws and the California Consumer Privacy Act Compared
17. Want Companies to Comply with the CCPA? Delay Its Effective Date
18. State Privacy Laws Continue to Proliferate
19. Sshh: Alexa can hear you
20. Top 5 ways GDPR impacted digital banking in its first year
21. Interior Department Putting Even More Effort Into Dodging FOIA Request

CREATIVITY

1. The Copyright Board Game (Howard Knopf)
2. Unbalanced Witness List: Why the Copyright Review Was Right To Ignore the Canadian Heritage Committee Study, Part Three (Michael Geist)
3. Limited Views: Why the Copyright Review Was Right To Ignore the Canadian Heritage Committee Study, Part Two (Michael Geist)
4. Ignoring the Evidence: Why the Copyright Review Was Right To Ignore the Canadian Heritage Committee Study, Part Four (Michael Geist)
5. Better Data, Better Results: Comparing the Gap Between the Copyright Review and Heritage Study on the Music Industry’s Policy Proposals (Michael Geist)
6. Universal Music Cashed In On Insurance After It Let Thousands Of Master Recordings Burn… And Didn’t Give Any To Artists
7. Just Don’t Infringe Copyright, Kawhi Leonard Tells Nike
8. Kawhi Leonard v. Nike Inc.: How copyrights can trump trademarks? 
9. Raptors Win but Trademark still under Claw 
10. Stephen Curry’s “Holey Moley” Faces Trademark Complaint in California Court
11. Appellate Court leaves open question of good faith in copyright litigation 
12. Supreme Court to Decide Whether States Can Copyright Annotated State Law
13. Supreme Court To Review Whether Or Not You Can Copyright State Laws
14. Supreme Court to Rule on Whether Sovereign Immunity Protects States from Copyright Infringement Claims
15. Have We Learned Anything from Pepe the Frog About Copyright Law?
16. US Supreme Court Strikes Down Ban of ‘Scandalous’ Trademarks
17. Supreme Court Now Says That The Trademark Office Can’t Reject ‘Immoral Or Scandalous’ Trademarks
18. SCOTUS: Ban on “FUCT” trademark registration violates First Amendment
19. F-*-C-T- U.S. Supreme Court strikes down ban on registration of immoral or scandalous marks 
20. Supreme Court Says “Scandalous” Trademarks May be Registered
21. Caterpillar Now Going After All The Cats For Trademark Cancellations
22. Surge in Defamation Claims: What is Causing the Increase?
23. French Museum filled with fakes still questioning how it happened a year on 

Jon

GAMES

1. Report: Global gaming software spend hits $132bn
2. Lawsuit alleges Unity CEO sexually harassed former VP
3. Unity faces lawsuit as John Riccitiello accused of sexual harassment: Former VP of recruitment claims CEO made several advances before she was unfairly dismissed
4. Unity faces lawsuit as John Riccitiello accused of sexual harassment
5. Star Control creators no longer opposing Stardock’s Star Control trademark
6. Stardock and Star Control creators settle lawsuits—with mead and honey: A surprising – and surprisingly amicable – conclusion to the multi-year legal saga.
7. Star Control creators settle legal battle with Stardock:
8. Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III say dispute was settled “amicably and in a way where the fans are the biggest winners”
9. Blog: What can devs learn from the Ion Maiden trademark lawsuit?
10. Activision Shouts ‘First Amendment’ Over Humvee’s Trademark Lawsuit For Call Of Duty Depictions
11. Report: Tariffs prompt Nintendo to move some Switch production out of China
12. New Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser speaks against crunch
13. Nintendo is working on a direct Breath of the Wild sequel
14. Breath of the Wild sequel partially inspired by Red Dead Redemption 2
15. Don’t Miss: Designing Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s unconventional mechanics
16. Nintendo’s E3 Direct had nothing new for the 3DS
17. Inside the work to get Doom on the Super Nintendo
18. Streamer Dr Disrespect has E3 badge revoked after filming in public bathroom: Twitch channel also taken down after multiple “IRL” livestreams that included bystanders using restrooms
19. Ubisoft: Watch Dogs Legion “has a message for sure”: Creative director Clint Hocking says the new game is about “fighting back against things that are obviously wrong”
20. Ubisoft says avoiding messages is part of making “more mature games”: VP of editorial Tommy Francois talks about publisher’s stance on politics in games, says “Nothing is simple in life”
21. New Ubisoft tool lets Assassin’s Creed Odyssey players create custom quests
22. Ubisoft’s new Uplay+ subscription launches for PC this year, Stadia in 2020
23. Ubisoft fills E3 hour with Tom Clancy games and Watch Dogs Legion gameplay: Publisher also announces multiple new IP and a new subscription service, UPlay+
24. Ubisoft enters subscription battleground with Uplay Plus: PC and Google Stadia service to include over 100 Ubisoft PC games
25. Google Stadia will let publishers offer their own subscription plans
26. Anita Sarkeesian: “No more excuses for the lack of women at E3” – The Feminist Frequency founder on the need for better representation, both with games characters and on-stage presenters
27. Pole to Win CEO: Building a team that will retire with you: Deborah Kirkham on the importance of company culture, and how she landed her current executive role by asking for it
28. Epic collaborates with dance creator on Fortnite emote: Developer changes tact after series of lawsuits over alleged copyright infringement dominate headlines
29. ‘Fortnite’ Still Leads Views For Gaming Titles On Social Video. By A Lot.
30. Game over for loot boxes in new proposed legislation
31. After 8Chan-gate, THQN unveils stirring anti-Nazi game set in 1930s Germany
32. Xseed Games’ controversial credits policy only names current staff members: Publisher says it “appreciates the hard work of everyone who contributes” but removes them from game credits if they leave
33. Are we witnessing the end of the console wars? | Opinion: Sony and Microsoft’s controllers appearing onstage at an Apple keynote speaks to a new landscape where former rivals are working together
34. Sony trialing new PlayStation voice chat transcription feature
35. Sony chief: ‘There’s no scenario where the PlayStation and Xbox platforms combine’
36. Sony: There is “no scenario where the PlayStation and Xbox platforms combine” – PlayStation’s Jim Ryan insists that Sony’s new partnership with Microsoft will only go so far
37. Xbox One successor Project Scarlett slated for Holiday 2020
38. Microsoft reveals first details on “Project Scarlett” game console for 2020
39. Microsoft’s next-gen Project Scarlett console will still have a disc drive
40. Microsoft working to get “every single Xbox One game” working on Scarlett
41. Microsoft ending Xbox One backwards compatibility efforts to focus on next-gen
42. Microsoft will launch new Xbox console next year: Halo Infinite will be a launch title for the new hardware, codenamed Project Scarlett
43. Phil Spencer on Project Scarlett: “We want to be compatible across all generations” – Xbox head nods toward backward compatibility on next-gen console with emphasis on Xbox Live
44. Microsoft ends Xbox One backwards compatibility efforts to focus on Project Scarlett: Reveals final titles to be added as it aims to make four generations of games work with next console
45. Xbox at E3: Halo Infinite leads massive first-party deluge of Xbox, PC games – Microsoft moves on Sony’s E3 absence with a smorgasbord of Xbox Game Studios fare.
46. Phil Spencer: “It would be nice to buy a Japanese studio” – The head of Xbox on Game Pass, the impact of streaming, and why he’s not afraid of Google
47. Microsoft revamping Xbox Live gamertags so users can share the same name
48. “There is no downside to Game Pass,” says Playground Games: Forza Horizon studio tells us how the Xbox subscription service has taken its series to even greater heights
49. Microsoft announces PC Game Pass pricing, adds to Ultimate bundle
50. UPlay+ subscription lets you play every Ubisoft game on PC and Stadia: $14.99/month service includes all DLC, “earliest access” to new Ubisoft titles.
51. Project Xcloud demo of Halo 5 nearly indistinguishable from local play
52. Xbox’s Phil Spencer: Our next console will have a disc drive – Microsoft gaming boss says that millions of people still love physical
53. Xbox adding Remote Play-style console streaming, xCloud preview launches this October – Platform holder’s streaming strategy will centre around two pillars: Project xCloud and user’s own consoles
54. Xbox head: xCloud aims to complement video game hardware, not replace it
55. Microsoft xCloud console streaming service goes live in October
56. Microsoft acquires Double Fine Productions
57. Microsoft picks up Psychonauts 2 publishing rights from Starbreeze
58. Double Fine Productions is Microsoft’s latest Xbox acquisition: Crowdfunders will still get Psychonauts 2 on their chosen platform.
59. Microsoft buys Double Fine Productions: Xbox paid Starbreeze $13.2 million for publishing rights to Psychonauts 2
60. Ooblets to self-publish after Double Fine joins Microsoft
61. Struggling Starbreeze granted extended reconstruction period until September
62. Double Fine: Xbox deal won’t change multi-platform Psychonauts 2 release – Tim Schafer describes relief at no longer having to pitch ideas “to every publisher that exists”
63. Double Fine confirms no layoffs to publishing team after Xbox acquisition: Plans for Double Fine Presents are still “evolving,” but it is committed to spotlighting original developers
64. Microsoft has quietly established a new Age of Empiresstudio
65. Microsoft forms dedicated Age of Empires studio
66. Xbox now has 15 standalone studios follow past year’s high-profile acquisitions
67. Microsoft confirms no Forza Motorsport 8 in 2019: Next entry in the series is “in concept” as Turn 10 Studios focuses on building community
68. Google Stadia’s paid subscription service launches in November: Stadia Pro to cost $9.99/month for 4K streaming, occasional free games; free version ‘Stadia Base’ coming next year
69. Google Stadia requires $130 upfront, $10 per month at November launch
70. Stadia ‘Founder’s Edition’ launches in November, base version in 2020
71. Despite “revolutionary” promises, Stadia’s biz model is pure establishment
72. “Big exclusive games win the day, and Stadia does not have any”: Industry analysts are questioning the value that Google Stadia will offer to its paying subscribers
73. YouTube can’t be trusted with Google Stadia | Opinion: Years of lax content policy has permitted bigotry, hate groups, and harassment to flourish on YouTube. Now Google wants to use it to sell games directly
74. Publishers can put their own separate subscriptions on Google Stadia – Phil Harrison: Publishers with “bigger catalogs and more significant lineups” could put other subscriptions on top of Stadia Pro
75. Google Stadia in 4K might push you past your home-Internet data cap
76. Larian Studios will not “participate in the exclusivity game” with Baldur’s Gate III: The long awaited RPG sequel will not be exclusive to Google Stadia or any other platform
77. Divinity: Original Sin developer Larian Studios is behindBaldur’s Gate 3
78. Baldur’s Gate III is finally official, coming to PC and Stadia
79. Atari’s throwback Atari VCS console up for pre-order, starting at $250
80. Hatch partners with Samsung to bring 5G game streaming to the U.S.
81. EA signs fresh indie publishing deals with Zoink, Glowmade and Hazelight: Meanwhile, more studios join EA’s Origin Access subscription service
82. UK Charts: Sony’s Days of Play campaign puts FIFA 19 back at No.1 – PlayStation exclusives account for almost half the top ten best-selling games of the week
83. Konami announces plug-and-play TurboGrafx-16 Mini
84. Super Mario Maker 2’s online mode will get a “friends” patch after launch [Updated]
85. Fallout 76 updates promise turnaround after “well-deserved criticism”: Battle royale mode, human NPCs, and free trial among coming changes.
86. Bethesda unveils Orion to offer engine-level enhancements for streaming games
87. Bethesda unveils Orion game streaming tech: Robert Duffy and James Altman discuss the details of the company’s new engine optimization SDK that works with any streaming service
88. Bethesda says its Orion tech can make all cloud gaming better, faster
89. Bethesda’s E3 revealed new IP from Tango Gameworks, Arkane Lyon
90. The Elder Scrolls Online has reached 13.5m players: Zenimax’s MMORPG has gained 2.5m new players in the last year
91. Destiny goes free-to-play as Destiny 2: New Light
92. Destiny 2 will become free-to-play later this year, cross-platform [Updated]
93. FFVII and Avengers bookend Square Enix’s hour of announcements, commercials: Multiple retro remasters also announced, and a new title from Square Enix Collective
94. Bungie to launch free-to-play Destiny 2 in September –
95. Destiny 2: New Light will launch on the same day as transition to Steam, the “new home for the Destiny PC community”
96. Shenmue 3 is an Epic Games Store exclusive on PC
97. Shenmue III is an Epic Games store exclusive on PC: It appears Ys Net will not be issuing refunds for those upset at the game’s removal from Steam
98. Steam developers can start uploading assets for new library layout
99. Epic Games Store exclusive Satisfactory has topped 500,000 sales
100. Epic Games store offering a free game every week for 2019: Storefront to continue Epic Mega Sale offer for the rest of the year
101. Epic launches its overhauled Unreal Online Learning portal
102. Epic Games has acquired group video chat platform Houseparty
103. Playground Games: “Crunch has no place in modern development” – The Forza Horizon developer on its new studio, and the transition to running a game as a live service
104. Report: Blizzard began making, then canceled, a StarCraftfirst-person shooter
105. Report: Blizzard cancels StarCraft spinoff to double down on new Diablo, Overwatch games
106. Blizzard reportedly cancels StarCraft FPS to focus on Overwatch, Diablo: No layoffs from StarCraft project or other cancelled mobile game, resources allocated to upcoming major IP sequels
107. Naughty Dog is shutting down PS3 servers for Uncharted 2,3, and The Last of Us
108. Minecraft Dungeons hands-on: A shameless Diablo clone—and better for it
109. Blog: Admiring the design in hyper-casual games
110. Video: Efficient texture streaming in Titanfall 2
111. Video: Inside the theme-oriented design of Phantom Doctrine
112. Video: How cheating and making player life easier helpedDead Cells shine
113. Video: Why fashion in (most) games sucks, and why you should care
114. Don’t Miss: A look at the data-driven AI framework behindDestroy All Humans 2
115. Don’t Miss: How bad crediting hurts the game industry and muddles history
116. Opinion: Observation’s AI is a brilliant narrative device
117. What Massive has learned making live content for The Division 2
118. Next Games is making a location-based Stranger Things mobile game
119. Zynga launches Snap Games-exclusive battle royale game
120. Zynga proposes $600m convertible note sale: If successful, it would add to the $600m raised from the sale of its San Francisco headquarters
121. Novaquark secures $11.2 million in funding to continueDual Universe development
122. Novaquark raises additional $11.2 million for Dual Universe: Including Kickstarter funds, the French developer has brought in $22.6 million toward the game
123. Rec Room dev Against Gravity secures $24 million in funding
124. Tencent sells a quarter of its Glu Mobile shares for $56 million
125. Tencent sells a quarter of its stake in Glu Mobile: Online giant still owns nearly 15% of mobile publisher after unloading about 5% for more than $56 million
126. Intellivision opening European office: Hires Computec CEO ahead of new Amico console launch in 2020
127. SuperData: US millennials spend $112 a month on gaming – Report finds 71% of millennial gamers watch gaming video content online
128. AAA game downloads on the brink of overtaking physical in Europe: Exclusive figures reveal rapid digitisation as consumers drop physical in favour or digital
129. Sports Direct offers to buy UK retailer Game Digital for $66 million
130. Can Sports Direct halt the gradual demise of GAME?: Expect more store closures, but hopefully a future for the specialist UK retailer
131. Immortals Gaming Club acquires Infinite Esports & Entertainment: Deal brings OpTic Gaming and Houston Outlaws under same umbrella as MIBR and the LA Valiant
132. Esports Global Fund launches next month backed by British Esports Association: Esports and gaming investment venture secures €30m in total investment with goal of €100m in three years
133. Esports: an untapped market for both brands and law firms
134. ReKTGlobal acquires Greenlit Content: Esports company takes on portfolio including GameDaily.biz, Prima Games, and Shacknews
135. FaZe Clan’s Youngest Member, 12-Year-Old H1ghSky1, Gets Twitch Account Deactivated After Lying About His Age
136. Imagine Dragons Become First Major-Label Band With a ‘Beat Saber’ Music Pack
137. VR app Virtual Desktop dropping VR streaming feature at Oculus’ behest
138. Oculus is Forcing the Removal of SteamVR Streaming from Quest App, Dev Says
139. Facebook: $5m in Oculus Quest software sold since launch: VP of AR and VR Andrew Bosworth indicates size of the software market in Oculus Quest’s first two weeks
140. Analysis: Monthly-connected VR Headsets on Steam Pass 1 Million Milestone – Monthly-connected headsets on Steam are up 80% year-over-year
141. Sony sets December 2020 release date for Uncharted movie: Spider-Man’s Tom Holland will play Nathan Drake in the long in development adaptation
142. EverQuest’s long, strange 20-year trip still has no end in sight
143. Vanessa Gill and Damon Packwood named Global Gaming Citizens

DIGITAL

1. Huawei’s PR Campaign Comes Straight From the Party’s Playbook: The trade war is showing how deep Beijing’s global influence runs.
2. Canada’s economic future could be ‘difficult’ if it fails to ban Huawei: expert
3. Report: Google argues the Huawei ban would hurt its Android monopoly
4. Huawei’s export ban is wider in scope than most people imagine
5. Huawei cancels MateBook laptop launch because of US export ban
6. New York AG Declares War on Fake Followers, Likes, and Online Deception 
7. The Catch-22 that broke the Internet
8. BGP event sends European mobile traffic through China Telecom for 2 hours
9. Facebook’s Triple Woes Over Cambridge Analytica Data Harvesting Scandal
10. Facebook is stopping Huawei from pre-installing its apps: From bad to worse for Huawei
11. Will this deepfake of a power-hungry Zuckerberg make Facebook rethink fake news?
12. Facebook’s AI system can speak with Bill Gates’s voice
13. Facebook launches searchable database, identity verification for political ads ahead of federal election
14. Facebook Watch grows to more than 720 million monthly users Users are also spending more time in the social network’s video hub.
15. Facebook, ProSiebenSat.1 Sign First Content Pact for Watch Platform in Europe
16. Facebook bans health and conspiracy site Natural News
17. Facebook Tested With Deepfake Of Mark Zuckerberg: Company Leaves It Up
18. Facebook lets deepfake Zuckerberg video stay on Instagram
19. Delaware Court Of Chancery Grants Books And Records Request Arising From Caremark Claims Related To Facebook User Privacy 
20. District of Columbia v. Facebook: General Consumer Protection Statute can serve as vehicle for state attorney general seeking redress for data privacy violations
21. Researchers discover “Fishwrap” influence campaign recycling old terror news
22. Facebook’s Radical Bitcoin-Beating Cryptocurrency Plans Revealed
23. Draft law proposes 10-year jail term for dealing in cryptocurrency: Besides making it completely illegal, the bill makes holding of cryptos a non-bailable offence.
24. Blockchain Remittance Platform ZED Network Receives First Prospectus Exemption for Distributing Crypto Tokens 
25. New SEC lawsuit could decide the fate of dozens of blockchain projects: The SEC says Kik’s initial coin offering was an unregistered sale of securities.
26. UBC launches Canada’s first graduate blockchain training path
27. Tinder and the Russian Intelligence Services: It’s a Match! – Will Facebook and Twitter be next?
28. FTC: Consumer Gag Clauses a No-Go 
29. Senator Blumenthal Calls for FTC Investigation of Detox Teas Promoted on Social Media
30. Lawyers post social media videos on legal aid cuts: Videos target provincial budget, #GotBeerNeedJustice hashtag used
31. Another One Bytes the Dust: Court Dismisses Flash Drive False Advertising Suit Based On Back-Of-Package Clarifying Disclosures
32. Republicans Blame CDA 230 For Letting Platforms Censor Too Much; Democrats Blame CDA 230 For Platforms Not Censoring Enough
33. Appeals Court Issues Strong CDA 230 Ruling, But It Will Be Misleadingly Quoted By Those Misrepresenting CDA 230
34. DC Circuit Holds that Section 230 Protects Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo! Against Locksmiths’ Claims but Warns that Immunity Is Not ‘Limitless’
35. D.C. Circuit Issues Sweeping Pro-Section 230 Opinion–Marshall’s Locksmith v. Google (Eric Goldman)
36. Once Again, Section 230 Protects Twitter’s Account Suspension Decisions–Brittain v. Twitter (Eric Goldman)
37. Historical Documentation Of Key Section 230 Cases
38. Contract Breach Claims Against Google Survive First Amendment Defense–Dreamstime v. Google (Eric Goldman)
39. Google CEO Sundar Pichai says tackling hate speech on YouTube is hard: YouTube is under fire for hosting channels and videos that foster hate speech and fake news.
40. Susan Wojcicki Apologizes For Hurting LGBTQ Community, But Defends Decision To Let Steven Crowder Videos Stand
41. The Impossibility Of Content Moderation Plays Out, Once Again, On YouTube
42. Looking for the elusive Goldilocks standard of online content moderation (Andres Guadamuz)
43. The Impossibility Of Content Moderation: YouTube’s New Ban On Nazis Hits Reporter Who Documents Extremism, Professor Teaching About Hitler
44. Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 6/9/2019
45. Creators Can’t Always Take Risks With Their Content. That’s Why YouTuber Community Standard Built Nebula — A Platform For Its Creators To Experiment.
46. Activists Lobby For Google’s Removal From San Francisco Pride Festivities At Board Meeting
47. This week’s dead Google product is Google Trips, may it rest in peace
48. NY Times Publishes Laughable Propaganda To Argue Google Owes Newspapers Like Itself Free Money
49. As Google Ponders Making Ad Blockers Less Useful, Mozilla Ramps Up Tracker Blocking
50. Too much sweetener in your grande: ariana grande follows a long line of celebrities being sued for copyright infringement
51. YouTube Creators Who Document Extremism Caught In Crossfire Of Site’s Evolving Policies
52. YouTube’s anti-extremism crackdown targets journalist who documents extremism
53. Bowing to pressure, YouTube will reconsider its harassment policies: ‘One particular challenge we face more and more these days is creator-on-creator harassment.’
54. YouTube Adds Notification Settings For Users, Metrics For Creators To Clarify When Subscribers Are Alerted
55. Livestreamers Are Changing The World With Their Generosity — And Last Month They Raised A Record $2.1 Million For St. Jude
56. Emma Chamberlain Says She Spends Up To 30 Hours Editing Each Of Her Weekly Vlogs
57. Fullscreen Signs 9 Creators, Including MindOfRez, Lexy Panterra, And Kellie Sweet
58. Sway Calloway, Omarion, and MindofRez Sign With Fullscreen
59. Influencer Marketing Platform CreatorIQ Raises $12 Million At $40 To $50 Million Valuation
60. Canadian Digital Network BroadbandTV Surpasses 575 Million Monthly Viewers
61. Vancouver-based BroadbandTV’s videos clock over 46.9 billion minutes of watch-time every month
62. BroadbandTV Corp. is Now Viewed by More Than 575 Million Unique Viewers Each Month and Achieves 46.9 Billion Minutes of Watchtime
63. Snapchat Testing In-App Shops For Top Influencers Like The Kardashians, Bhad Bhabie, Spencer Pratt
64. Snapchat is experimenting with an events feature of its own: Time for Snapchat to start copying Facebook?
65. Student Uses Snapchat’s ‘Gender Switch’ Filter to Nab Cop Allegedly Looking to Hook Up With Teen Girl: Police
66. Lionsgate Pacts With Hulu, FX for Two-Year Output Deal
67. Insights: Quibbling About Quibi – Too Big To Fail Or Too Expensive To Succeed?
68. Quibi’s Steven Spielberg Horror Series Can Only Be Watched When It’s Dark Outside
69. Having an ethical framework is the best way to mitigate risks in autonomous technology
70. Devs hit Apple with class action lawsuit: Tech giant accused of anti-competitive practices and “profit killing” commissions
71. Apple wants to acquire Intel’s 5G business to build its own modems, sources claim
72. Michigan Senator Proposes Bill That Would Force YouTube To Stop Recommending Videos Featuring Kids
73. Public Metrics Were Never Designed To Be As Important As They Are
74. Jeffrey Katzenberg’s Quibi To Revive Iconic MTV Series ‘Singled Out’ And ‘Punk’d’
75. The Obamas Ink Exclusive Deal With Spotify For Original Podcast Slate
76. Barack and Michelle Obama Sign Spotify Deal to Produce Exclusive Podcasts
77. Spotify’s ‘Sound Up’ Boot Camp Returns To Support Women Of Color In Podcasting
78. Instagram one-ups TikTok with karaoke lyrics
79. Instagram Adds New Custom Gender Options For User Profiles In Honor Of Pride
80. Vox Media staff stages one-day walkout over union contract
81. Amazon, reeling from recent regulatory hurdles, pumps $404M into its India business
82. Amazon Scores U.K. Rights to Women’s Tennis
83. HBO Cancels ‘Vice News Tonight’, As Vice’s News EVP Josh Tyrangiel Departs Company
84. Mailchimp Created an In-House Entertainment Studio That’s Working With WME, Vice and Others
85. Mailchimp Is Making Original Content Now, Because Why Not?
86. Netflix’s ‘Love, Death & Robots’ Gets Second Season Helmed By Jennifer Yuh Nelson
87. Introducing the Principled Artificial Intelligence Project
88. The Other Half of the Truth: Staying human in an algorithmic world
89. Artificial intelligence: Is your data well protected across borders?
90. Artificial intelligence: Is your data well protected across borders?
91. When Employees Are Using Software That IT Hasn’t Approved

COMMUNICATIONS

1. Rogers Calls for Expansion of Media Bailout to Cover Broadcast Organizations…and Thinks Netflix Should Pay For It (Michael Geist)
2. Netflix, Indigenous cultural groups partnering to develop talent in Canada
3. Super-Secret Submissions: Corus and SaskTel Block Disclosure of Their BTLR Submissions Claiming Prejudice to Their Competitive Position (Michael Geist)
4. Comcast broke law 445,000 times in scheme to inflate bills, judge finds
5. Comcast’s fight against racial-bias lawsuit is taken up by Supreme Court: Comcast seeks dismissal of suit claiming refusal to carry TV channels was racist. 
6. Comcast Gets $9 Million Fine For Tricking Customers With ‘Worthless’ Protection Plans
7. Here’s Why Net Neutrality Still Matters One Year After Repeal
8. T-Mobile/Sprint merger faces big test as nine states sue to block it
9. 10 State AGs Join Forces, Will Sue To Stop T-Mobile Sprint Merger
10. FCC Rules to Permit Default Robocall Blocking by Telephone Companies
11. FCC “Passes the Baton” on Stopping Robocalls to Carriers: Final Declaratory Ruling on Default Call Blocking Adopted – Caller Redress Mechanism Part of the Final Ruling 
12. FCC Announces Results of 5G Millimeter Wave Auctions; AT&T, Verizon Rank at Top of Winner List
13. Spam robocalls are a growing problem, but now carriers are allowed to automatically block them: Big questions about how well the technology will work and who will end up paying are still on the table.
14. Phone companies can block robocalls by default starting today, FCC says
15. Microsoft Again Slams America’s Shaky Broadband Maps
16. Small Idaho City Shows The Benefits Of Open Access Broadband Networks
17. If You Think The Reason Internet Companies Snarf Up Your Data Is Because Their Services Are Free, Allow Me To Introduce You To The Telcos

PRIVACY

1. Get All of Your Bots in a Row: 2018 California Bot Disclosure Law Comes Online Soon 
2. Spanish soccer league’s app caught eavesdropping on users in anti-piracy push
3. We Read 150 Privacy Policies. They Were an Incomprehensible Disaster.
4. Majority of poll respondents express support for extending privacy laws to political parties
5. AG William Barr Doesn’t Want The Government Spying On The President But Thinks It’s OK If It Spies On Everyone Else
6. Released Warrant Shows SFPD Started Monitoring Journalist’s Phone Weeks Before Officers Raided His Home
7. Australian Federal Police Raid Even More Journalists Over Leaked Documents
8. From face to DNA: New method aims to improve match between DNA sample and face database
9. Oversight Says FBI’s Facial Recognition System Has Gotten Bigger, But Not Better
10. Whining About Big Tech Doesn’t Protect Journalism
11. Amazon, Law Enforcement Joining Forces To Turn Your Front Door Into An Integral Part Of The Surveillance State
12. Google confirms that advanced backdoor came preinstalled on Android devices
13. China Based Company is Believed to be Behind HiddenWasp Malware 
14. Is the GDPR fulfilling its real purposes in the age of fake news?
15. Does Privacy Shield Provide Adequate Protections?
16. The Future Of School Safety Includes Round-The-Clock Surveillance Of Students
17. The clever cryptography behind Apple’s “Find My” feature
18. Client Alert: Privacy law update: Nevada and Maine Pass Laws Restricting the Sale of Personal Information
19. Maine Passes Broadband Privacy Bill 
20. Maine Enacts Nation’s Strictest Data Privacy Restrictions on Internet Service Providers
21. New York State’s Privacy Law Would Be Among The Toughest In The US
22. Nevada’s New Privacy Law Has Data Sale Opt-Out Rights
23. Oregon Latest State to Require Reasonable Security for IoT Devices
24. More States Move to Restrict Companies’ Use or Sale of Personal Information
25. The International Encryption Debate: Privacy Versus Big Brother

CREATIVITY

1. Pepe the Frog’s Creator Obtains Monetary Settlement from Infowars
2. U.S. – District Court reversed: No fair use defense for Adams Morgan neighborhood photo 
3. Artist takes on Frida Kahlo Corporation in copyright spat 
4. Rolling Over: Bitter Sweet Symphony copyright dispute between Jagger, Richards and Ashcroft finally resolved 
5. Copyright Office Urges Federal Publicity Rights for Moral Rights Protection
6. The end of political cartoons at The New York Times
7. New Canadian Report Offers Balanced Recommendations for Progressive Copyright Reform
8. Radiohead Dropped 18 Hours Of Unreleased Music To Screw Pirates
9. Radiohead release hours of hacked MiniDiscs to benefit Extinction Rebellion: Climate activists thank the band for ‘unprecedented support’
10. The U.S. entertainment industry should know about the astounding contractual protections the EU just guaranteed for authors and performers.
11. Kawhi Leonard Accuses Nike Of Trying To Steal His Logo Via Trademark
12. The King of the North v. Nike: A Clash Over Valuable IP Rights
13. Tom Brady Attempts To Trademark The Nickname He Doesn’t Even Want, That’s Already Used By A Famous NY Met With Dementia
14. [Statute of] Queen Anne’s Revenge? Supreme Court Grants Certiorari in Allen v. Cooper
15. The LawBytes Podcast, Episode 15: Cows, Cars, and Copyright – A Conversation With Myra Tawfik on the IP Concerns With Implementing the USMCA (Michael Geist)
16. Canadian Copyright Mid-Year Update – Looking Back Through 2018 and Ahead In 2019

Jon