Posts

GAMES

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

DIGITAL

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

CREATIVITY

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

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY 

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

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

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

Jon

GAMES

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

DIGITAL

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

CREATIVITY

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

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

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

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

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

Jon

GAMES

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

DIGITAL

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

CREATIVITY

1. Infowars’ Alex Jones ordered to undergo sworn deposition in case involving Sandy Hook parents
2. Gender-swapped and race-flipped remakes aren’t living up to their potential: Films like What Men Want and 2016’s Ghostbusters could be doing so much more with their rebooted premises
3. How Hollywood Lets Real Fascists Off The Hook: Far from helping us fight fascism, Nazis on film may do the opposite.
4. Obsolete Hot News Doctrine Back In The News As Bloomberg Is Sued For Reporting Too Quickly
5. Japanese brand Loft pulls down Valentines Day ad after sexism controversy
6. How TV Pirates Accidentally Pushed a 25-Year-Old Indie Song to the Top of the Charts in Japan
7. Reporter Maria Ressa Arrested Over Bogus Charges For Her Critical Reporting
8. Danish haunted-house studies seek to reveal the seductive appeal of horror
9. U.S. Music Modernization Act: Copyright law changes its tune 
10. A Storm Is Coming to the Global Music Industry – and More than $100 Billion Is at Stake: Up to half of Universal Music Group is for sale – and all indications are it’s going to bank an astronomical sum of money. This could spell amazing news for the other
11. Journalism Isn’t Dying. It’s Returning To Its Roots
12. Inside an indie: Making a film from scratch without a Hollywood budget
13. More on Models’ Lanham Act claims
14. Can you sell an Oscar?
15. Monster Energy Loses Appeal On Monsta Pizza Trademark Ruling
16. Owner Of Harry Caray’s Restaurants Finds You Can’t Just Trademark A Widely Used Hashtag

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. Flawed Arguments and Inappropriate Analogies: Why Netflix Taxes and Cancon Requirements Should be Rejected (Michael Geist)
2. Blacklock’s, Spam, CRTC, and ATIP
3. CRTC on OpenMedia’s Site Blocking Campaign: “Contributed to a Better Understanding of the Issues” (Michael Geist)
4. Selling 911 location data is illegal – US carriers reportedly did it anyway: AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint sale of GPS data called “unquestionably illegal.”
5. Wireless Carriers Busted Sharing User 911 Location Data
6. Texas lawmaker wants to ban mobile throttling in disaster areas
7. Study Details How Phone Companies Prey on Families of Inmates in Local Jails
8. Cable lobby asks for net neutrality law allowing paid prioritization
9. Zero Rating Actually Costs Broadband Customers More, EU Study Finds
10. SpaceX seeks FCC OK for 1 million satellite broadband Earth stations 
11. FEC Seeks Comment on Proposal for Change in TV Political Disclosures 
12. AT&T sued by Sprint, must defend decision to tell users that 4G is “5G E”
13. Sprint Sues AT&T Over Its Fake 5G, Says AT&T’s Tricking Consumers
14. A Deeper Look At Verizon’s Early 5G ‘Launch’ Finds It’s Barely Available
15. Charter raises sneaky “broadcast TV” fee for second time in four months
16. Lawsuit: Verizon tempted customers with free Amazon Echos, failed to deliver
17. Google Fiber’s biggest failure: ISP will turn service off in Louisville
18. Google Fiber Leaves Louisville As Alphabet Retreats From Telecom
19. SS7 Cellular Network Flaw Nobody Wants To Fix Now Being Exploited To Drain Bank Accounts

 SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. SB-327: Why Your Next Refrigerator Might Have a Password Longer than Your Email’s
2. Why Humanitarians Are Worried About Palantir’s New Partnership With the U.N.: The infamous data-analytics firm is now working with one of the planet’s largest aid organizations. What could go wrong?
3. “Catastrophic” hack on email provider destroys almost two decades of data
4. Indecent disclosure: Gay dating app left “private” images, data exposed to Web (Updated)
5. Cisco, like Apple and other tech giants, now wants new federal privacy law
6. Ex-director of FBI, CIA takes on a phone scammer – and wins: Scammer took hundreds of thousands of dollars from more than 30 victims.
7. MalwareTech loses bid to suppress damning statements made after days of partying
8. Australian Government Agencies Already Flexing Their New Encryption-Breaking Powers
9. NYPD Sends Letter To Google Demanding It Remove Cop Checkpoint Notifications From Google Maps
10. Minnesota Judges Spent Only Minutes Approving Warrants Sweeping Up Thousands Of Cellphone Users
11. German Data Protection Authority Says GDPR Requires Email To Use At Least Transport Layer Encryption

Jon

GAMES

1. EA backs down over loot boxes in Belgium: “While we are taking this action, we do not agree with Belgian authorities’ interpretation of the law,” says publisher
2. EA amends FIFA loot boxes in Belgium after regulators increase pressure
3. EA gives in to Belgian regulators, stops selling FIFA loot boxes
4. Anthem gameplay premiere: Pretty jetpack combat, too much Bio-wear and tear
5. EA BioWare refutes lack of planning for troubled Anthem demo: BioWare defends against accusation of “under-planned” VIP weekend, highlights “Fortnite-type” numbers on Twitch
6. Sensor Tower: EA Sports free-to-play mobile games generate $1bn lifetime revenue – US consumers account for 62% of revenue, with Madden NFL grossing $490 million to date
7. Loot Unboxing (Fortnite)
8. Fortnite puts an end to random loot box purchases
9. DOJ Reverses Wire Act Opinion as It Applies to Non-Sports Gambling
10. Gaming mirrors Facebook’s crisis of credibility: On addiction and loot boxes, the industry’s lack of transparency will prevent it from getting the benefit of the doubt
11. Facebook shot down safeguards to keep kids from overspending in Facebook Games
12. Facebook ignored solution to children overspending in games: Unsealed documents reveal social network instead wanted to “maximise revenues”
13. Senators ask Facebook why it tricked kids into spending parents’ money
14. Facebook just hired a handful of its toughest privacy critics
15. Disney Goes All Disney On The Kingdom Hearts 3 Title Screen Over Streaming
16. A modder has spent three years recreating The Legend of Zelda in Doom
17. Model accuses Tencent of using her likeness without permission in Ring of Elysium: “I feel like, in a way, people have been deceived, and that’s really, really not okay,” says Mei Yan
18. Tencent uses model’s likeness for Ring of Elysium without permission 
19. 95 more games approved in China, including some from Tencent and NetEase
20. China finally greenlights new Tencent, NetEase games – but Fortnite and PUBG still left waiting: Nation’s leading publishers included in latest batch of approvals
21. NetEase to introduce mobile game curfew in China
22. NetEase to impose restrictions on young gamers in China: Anti-addiction measures include an 11-hour curfew and a limit of one hour a weekday for people age 12 and under
23. NetEase acquires minority stake in Quantic Dream
24. NetEase grabs stake in Quantic Dream as studio prepares for multi-platform future
25. February marks the final round of PlayStation Plus games for Vita and PS3
26. Detroit maker Quantic Dream looks beyond PlayStation
27. Beyond PlayStation 5: Quantic Dream’s next-gen, multi-platform vision – NetEase investment will allow Detroit: Become Human studio to target new fans in China and “compete with the best AAA studios”
28. Star Control: Origins restored to GOG after DMCA block – Publisher thanks Valve and GOG for their “timely review of the situation”
29. Developer DMCAs Steam For Hosting Its Own Game To Wrest Control Back From Rogue Publisher
30. Blog: Why did we DMCA our own game a few weeks after launch?
31. Halo and Call of Duty co-developer Certain Affinity expanding into Canada
32. Certain Affinity sets up Toronto studio: Trump’s America, non-stop flights, and distressed students helped decide where the Halo co-developer opened its new office.
33. A ‘major reorganization’ could see RuneScape dev Jagex put up for sale
34. Jagex up for sale as Chinese owner seeks to restructure: Fukong Interactive announces intention to seek buyer for all or part of its stake in the Runescape developer
35. Game on in trademark dispute
36. Westworld Mobile shutting down following lawsuit settlement: Behaviour Interactive says removal from App Store and Google Play was not connected to “amicable resolution” of copyright dispute
37. PUBG esports introducing profit-sharing for its teams
38. How FIA Esports interest could change motorsport: The FIA’s desire to follow Formula 1 and the World Rally Championship into Esports is not an attempt to jump on the bandwagon – instead it could inform the future of motorsport
39. Why a Farming Simulator esports league isn’t as ridiculous as it sounds: Giants Software CEO Christian Ammann on the world of competitive farming
40. FanAI acquires esports data firm Waypoint Media: Sports monetisation platform unites with technology and data specialist
41. Playtika opens $6m R&D centre in Bucharest: New Romanian outfit will provide QA and testing for mobile company’s games
42. Epic acquires SkookumScript creator Agog Labs
43. Deep Silver pulls Metro Exodus from Steam in favor of Epic Store
44. Epic Games Store snags Metro Exodus away from Steam [Updated]
45. Deep Silver owner THQ Nordic distances itself from Metro Exodus exclusivity deal
46. So you want to compete with Steam: Epic, Discord, Kartridge, and RobotCache
47. THQ Nordic CEO ‘fully supports’ Metro Exodus exclusivity deal
48. THQ Nordic “fully supports” Metro Exodus exclusivity: Parent company clarifies comment distancing itself from decision to pull PC version from Steam in favor of Epic Games store, says it will change name to avoid future confusion
49. Should PC games cost less on Epic’s Games Store?
50. Report: Apple is eyeing its own game subscription service  
51. Apple hopes to offer a Netflix-like subscription service for games, report claims
52. Ubisoft will modify Assassin’s Creed Odyssey DLC following feedback
53. Ubisoft will change divisive Assassin’s Creed Odyssey DLC: Enforced heterosexual relationship in Shadow Heritage DLC will be altered by an upcoming patch
54. Opinion: The latest Assassin’s Creed Odyssey controversy was easily avoidable 3
55. Nintendo restarting Metroid Prime 4 development with series originator Retro Studios
56. Metroid Prime 4 Development Restarting With Retro Studios
57. Nintendo throws out Metroid Prime 4 work, restarts with Retro Studios
58. Development restarts on Metroid Prime 4, Retro Studios back in the fold: Nintendo says it was not satisfied with the quality, warns of “extensive” delay
59. Nintendo’s Honesty Around Metroid Prime 4 Sets An Important Standard: Nintendo has set a good precedent for publisher transparency moving forward.
60. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe tops EMEAA charts: Just Cause 3, Mortal Combat XL, and Need for Speed –  Payback pushed into top ten thanks to digital discounts
61. Nintendo isn’t considering a Switch price cut or successor quite yet
62. Nintendo president: No price cut needed to meet Switch sales goal: Shuntaro Furukawa says the platfrom holder is “not considering” a discount – or even new hardware – at this time 
63. 12 years in, Nintendo is closing down the Wii Shop Channel 
64. GDC State of the Industry: Nearly half of devs say they’re most interested in the Switch
65. Nintendo’s former ‘indie advocate’ Damon Baker joins up with Xbox
66. Games and services fuel rising Xbox earnings as console sales falter
67. NPD crowns Call of Duty the top-selling console game franchise in U.S. for 10th year in a row
68. Resident Evil 2 remake has shipped 3 million copies in four days
69. Capcom shipped 3 million units of Resident Evil 2: Sales expectations are in line with Resident Evil 7, which has now sold 6 million units
70. Blog: $5.7 billion games investment in 2018 doubles previous record  
71. Breaking down nearly 50 years of video game revenue
72. Games investments raised $5.7 billion in 2018: Amount of fundraising was more than double that of 2017, led by Epic Games’ $1.25 billion round
73. GameStop is looking at other options after plans to sell the company fall through
74. Game retailer GameStop says it can’t sell itself, sees stock dive 27%
75. GameStop gives up on selling the company: Stock tumbles 25% as retailer terminates search due to lack of acceptable financing terms for potential buyers 
76. Meet The Fan Who Can Beat Mario Games Without Moving Right
77. DICE throws future of Battlefield custom rental servers into doubt
78. Report: Netflix will continue streak of video game series with Resident Evil
79. Resident Evil 2 debuts at No.1 in UK charts (again): Strong first week for remake, more than 20 years since the original
80. Just 6% of devs say Steam earns its 30% cut – Survey: GDC poll shows which storefronts developers are depending on and which platforms they’re working on
81. GDC 2019 State of the Industry: Nearly 50% of devs support unionization
82. Only 16% of devs anti-union – Survey: GDC Survey finds 47% of respondents think the industry should unionize, another 26% say maybe 
83. The crazy and costly world of First 4 Figures: How one Facebook group is transforming the fortunes of the company making $600 video game statues 
84. Fable Studio Pivoting to “Virtual Beings,” Building Stories Around Persistent AI-powered Characters
85. An AI crushed two human pros at StarCraft—but it wasn’t a fair fight
86. DeepMind AI faces off against (and defeats) StarCraft IIpro players
87. Introducing Gamedev.world, the first global game developer conference: Rami Ismail talks us through his ambitious plans for a free online conference translated into eight languages
88. In response to visa woes, indie game devs create their own virtual gaming expo 
89. Fellow Traveller: “Indie publishers need to stand for something” – Chris Wright on recovering from the collapse of the Australian games industry to found an indie publisher with a distinct voice 
90. Unity targets kids, educators with Unity Playground: New tool offers introduction to creating 2D games, simplified version of Unity interface
91. Unity acquires voice and text-based chat tools maker Vivox 
92. Unity acquires Vivox: Engine maker picks up voice-and-text service, well have it continue operating independently 
93. Sea of Thieves experiencing second wind thanks to Twitch
94. Talking up the positives about gaming | Opinion: Hbomberguy’s wonderful charity Twitch marathon has made headlines — let’s boost these stories, instead of letting trolls and misanthropes define our medium 
95. Twitch no longer advertising big streamer events on smaller channels
96. Blog: Making game music with external collaborators
97. Blog: Game accessibility quotes of 2018
98. How do you rejuvenate the skateboarding genre? Put a bird on it!
99. GLAAD Media Awards list nominees for video games with outstanding LGBTQ themes
100. GLAAD announces nominees for first ever Outstanding Video Game category: Assassins Creed, Guild Wars, The Elder Scrolls Online, Pillars of Eternity, and The Sims Mobile all up for award from LGBTQ advocacy group
101. Unearthing the Pokemon-inspired Diablo game that never was  
102. Magic Leap’s AI ‘Mica’ Won’t Turn Off Your Lights, Play Your Music, or Give Directions
103. VR Cameras Now on International Space Station to Capture Space Walks & Missions
104. VR’s Most Bizarre Game ‘Mosh Pit Simulator’ to Launch into Early Access Tomorrow
105. See what ray tracing can do to a game like Quake 2  

DIGITAL

1. Fake news on Twitter during the 2016 U.S. presidential election (Nir Grinberg, Kenneth Joseph, Lisa Friedland, Briony Swire-Thompson, David Lazer)
2. Older, right-leaning Twitter users spread the most fake news in 2016, study finds
3. Emma Best’s New Transparency Project Targets Russian Leaks She Says Wikileaks Refuses To Touch
4. Chinese Court Creates App To Alert Citizens Of Deadbeat Debtors In Their Area
5. Cameroon Military Arresting, Trying, And Jailing Journalists On ‘Fake News’ Charges
6. U.S. Charges Huawei with Theft of Trade Secrets; Risks for Carriers Using Huawei Equipment Increase 
7. US indicts Huawei for stealing T-Mobile robot arm, selling US tech to Iran
8. Bell and Telus have been using Huawei equipment to deploy fibre-optic networks for years
9. Facebook pays teens to install VPN that spies on them
10. Facebook pays teens to install an app that could collect all kinds of data
11. Facebook Got Busted Paying Teenagers $20 A Month For Private Data
12. Why Facebook’s Banned ‘Research’ App Was So Invasive
13. Facebook Let Kids Rack Up Charges on Parents’ Credit Cards and Did Nothing to Stop It 
14. Facebook Hires Up Three Of Its Biggest Privacy Critics
15. The rise of the Facebook divorce
16. I Cut Facebook Out of My Life. Surprisingly, I Missed It
17. Tuning out: What happens when you drop Facebook? 
18. Facebook’s Privacy Problems Are Piling Up Too Quickly To Chronicle
19. Apple revokes Facebook’s developer certificate over data-snooping app—Google could be next
20. Mark Zuckerberg, Let Me Fix That Op-Ed You Wrote: I can tell the people what it is you’re really trying to say.
21. State-aligned trolling in Iran and the double-edged affordances of Instagram
22. Inside The UAE’s Secret Hacking Team of American Mercenaries: Ex-NSA operatives reveal how they helped spy on targets for the Arab monarchy – dissidents, rival leaders and journalists
23. Brands Crack Down On Instagram’s Content Moderation After Ads Run Alongside Posts About Self-Harm, Suicide 
24. John Mayer’s Instagram Talk Show Returns
25. Notice of Terms via Buried Link within a Post-Sale Email Unenforceable 
26. The Copyright “Meme” Game: Can an Internet Meme Containing a Copyrighted Work Be Considered Infringing? 
27. Vine Successor ‘Byte’ Won’t Showcase Follower Counts On Users’ Profiles, Founder Says
28. The Egg Is Now Trying to Sell Us Hulu
29. Netflix, Amazon, and Hollywood studios shut down maker of “free TV” box 
30. CE Family Announces YouTube Hiatus, Comeback Docuseries In Wake Of Phallic Lollipop Incident
31. In Bizarre Tweet, Pope Francis Calls Virgin Mary “The First Influencer”
32. As U.K. cracks down on social media endorsements, where does Canada stand? 
33. The CMA clamps down on social media endorsements 
34. Facebook to integrate WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger
35. Can the internet be made safe for children? (Andres Guadamuz)
36. Fighting misinformation on social media using crowdsourced judgments of news source quality
37. A Nesting Doll Of Stupidity: Rudy Giuliani’s Twitter Typo Leads To Bogus Trademark Threat Letter
38. The Roger Stone indictment shows a conspiratorial comedy of Opsec errors
39. Arizona The Latest To Explore Dumb Porn Filter Law, This Time To Help Fund Trump’s Fence
40. Apple News is officially launching in Canada next week
41. Apple News Launches in Canada with iOS 12.2 Beta, Supports English and French
42. Apple says iPhones were down 15% last quarter, but everything else was up 19%
43. Apple Expects to Benefit From Climate Change: The company says that severe weather will increase “customer loyalty or brand value.”
44. Apple cuts 200 people from its autonomous vehicle team
45. Apple Is Blowing It
46. Apple Will Finally Launch Its Streaming Service In April (Report)
47. Aetna makes an Apple Watch app—promises not to use activity data against you
48. Samsung Pursued by Pixel Plaintiffs
49. Microsoft Office is now available in the Mac App Store
50. Amazon plans to launch a new Middle East marketplace, two years after buying Souq for $580 million 
51. Sundance: Amazon Scores Comedy ‘Brittany Runs a Marathon’ for $14 Million
52. Tubular Labs, VICE, BuzzFeed, and Group Nine Media Launch Global Video Measurement Alliance
53. BuzzFeed To Cut 15% Of Workforce As It Wrestles With Profitability
54. BuzzFeed Layoffs Gut National News Desk, National Security Team
55. Human Rights Groups Plead With The EU Not To Pass Its Awful ‘Terrorist Content’ Regulation
56. Author Ken MacLeod: Please Don’t Pass The EU Copyright Directive In My Name
57. Google doesn’t want employees to use work email to organize, per report
58. Google Threatens To Shut Down Google News In Europe Over Article 11 As Publishers Whine About ‘Publicity Stunt’
59. Google Asks Supreme Court To Overturn Crazy Ruling About Copyright In APIs
60. I Cut Google Out Of My Life. It Screwed Up Everything
61. Google Fiber outage leaves KC customers offline two weeks after storm
62. Crashing the Internet: Cars, CarGurus and Copyright in the Digital Age
63. Independent Musician Explains Why Article 13 Will Be An Utter Disaster For Independent Artists
64. Study Shows Piracy Can Sometimes Be Beneficial To Markets & Consumers Alike
65. Who Benefited from FOSTA? (Spoiler: Probably No One) (Eric Goldman)
66. RackaRacka Claims YouTube Is Breaking Its Own Content Policies And Community Guidelines With New Original ‘Wayne’
67. YouTube Is Going to Bury ‘Borderline’ Content. It Won’t Tell Us What That Means
68. Matthew Patrick Claims Defy Media Stole $1.7 Million In YouTube AdSense From 50 Channels
69. These YouTubers are owed $1.7 million, and they’re probably never going to get it: Ally Bank responds to concerns from creators
70. YouTube says it will recommend fewer videos about conspiracy theories: Taking steps to reduce the spread of misinformation
71. YouTube’s Latest Attempt To Cut Off Conspiracy Content Is A New Algorithm
72. YouTube Suspends Advertising on Tommy Robinson’s Channel
73. Scammers On YouTube Impersonate Philip DeFranco, Jeffree Star, Send Fake Private Messages To Subscribers
74. YouTube is working to prevent impersonation after top creators hit by major scam: Philip DeFranco, James Charles, and others affected
75. Amanda Steele Becomes Latest YouTube Star To Launch Her Own Fashion Label
76. YouTube Vets Shane Dawson, KSI Both Surpass 20 Million Subscribers 
77. Guy Who Forged A Court Order To Delist Content Issues More Bogus Takedown Notices To Remove Posts Discussing His Forgery
78. Study Again Finds That Most VPNs Are Shady As Hell
79. ‘Baby Shark’ Videos Have Amassed 5 Billion Views, Becoming No. 1 Education Trend In YouTube History
80. Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 1/27/2019
81. Android TV Is Good Now
82. Roku Adds First Paid Channels, Including Starz, Showtime, Tastemade 
83. Fyre Festival Documentaries Dissect Attendees’ – And Your – Fomo
84. Dumpster Fyre of Advertising Issues 
85. Diary Of A Web Series: Crowdfunding — Expectations vs. Reality
86. Spotify data shows how music preferences change with latitude: The farther from the equator, the greater the seasonal swings.
87. Foreign Stream-Ripping Site Wins Against Music Labels Based On Jurisdiction 
88. The Dolan Twins Forced To Ask Fans Not To Attend Their Late Father’s Funeral
89. Social-media influencers are pretty; their meltdowns are anything but
90. Alisha Marie And Remi Cruz To Take Their Popular Podcast On Tour
91. Snapchat Solicits Bhad Bhabie To Garner Buzz For Original Content Slate
92. Snapchat Considering Longer Lifetime For Users’ Public Content (Report)
93. Verizon Lays Off 800 Employees Within ‘Media Group’, Comprising Yahoo, Tumblr, More
94. Verizon cuts 7 percent of staff in failing Yahoo/AOL division
95. Judge rejects proposed settlement to Yahoo data breach lawsuit
96. WarnerMedia shuts investment arm that backed Mic, Mashable and other digital media startups
97. Lawyer Steps Up To File Doomed Lawsuits On Behalf Of Catholic School Teens Called Racists On Social Media
98. Yes, “algorithms” can be biased. Here’s why
99. Compassion through Computation: Fighting Algorithmic Bias
100. On Human Predictions with Explanations and Predictions of Machine Learning Models: A Case Study on Deception Detection (Vivian Lai, Chenhao Tan)
101. We analyzed 16,625 papers to figure out where AI is headed next: Our study of 25 years of artificial-intelligence research suggests the era of deep learning may come to an end.
102. “Disruptive” Bezos healthcare venture accused of copying competitor
103. Robots Will Take Jobs From Men, The Young, And Minorities
104. This Automation Platform Helped Eliminate 40,000 Jobs, and Now It’s Available to Companies Everywhere
105. A New Algorithm Trains AI to Erase its Biases: It’s like sensitivity training for algorithms.
106. Deep Fakes: Let’s Not Go Off The Deep End
107. Nvidia and AMD’s Nerdiest Fight Is the One That Matters Most
108. Nvidia CEO warns of “extraordinary, unusually turbulent, disappointing” Q4
109. Nvidia shares tank 15% following Q4 revenue adjustment
110. Nvidia trims quarterly revenue forecast as its RTX cards undersell
111. Why Choosing Between Windows and macOS Still Matters
112. Modern slavery in the tech sector: Ethical supply chains
113. Undersea cable damage wipes out most Internet access in Tonga islands
114. Open innovation: A shift to new intellectual property models?
115. Fair Use in Flux: Second Circuit TVEyes Ruling May Have a Lasting Effect on Fair Use Analysis 
116. Another Nail In The Coffin For Fair Use: TVEyes Agrees Not To Carry Fox News
117. Neuroscientists Translate Brain Waves Into Recognizable Speech
118. Listen To A Gadget That Translates Thoughts Into Speech 
119. Columbia Engineers Translate Brain Signals Directly into Speech: Advance marks critical step toward brain-computer interfaces that hold immense promise for those with limited or no ability to speak.
120. Towards reconstructing intelligible speech from the human auditory cortex
121. Update Regarding Website Compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act: Robles v. Domino’s Pizza, LLC
122. Ninth Circuit reversal delivers blow to defense of website accessibility class actions 
123. Tolerating Piracy Can Benefit Consumers, Creators and Retailers, Research Finds

CREATIVITY

1. Olivia de Havilland’s Right-to-Publicity Suit Is Gone With the Wind
2. Michael Jackson Documentary Leaving Neverland Is ‘Shocking, Sad, Disturbing, Devastating’ 
3. Well, this is brutal: Father of a murdered child has his own Parkland-based “stand-up set” for Louis CK
4. NY Governor Offers Journalists A Gift No Journalist Would Be Interested In Receiving
5. Trademark’s reputation must be based on Canadian not foreign use, says FCA
6. Copyright Office identifies visual arts copyright problems, solutions 
7. One bad lawyer: Kurt Dahl is a lawyer by day, rock star by night and an advocate for artists throughout
8. Humorless Pittsburgh News Station Fires Employee For Graphic Calling Tom Brady A “Known Cheater”
9. As Super Bowl Approaches, Advertisers Should Be Aware of The NFL’s Efforts to Protect Its Golden Goose – 2019 Update on Super Bowl Advertising and Promotions 
10. Kimberly-Clark Unable to Flush Wet Wipes Case 
11. Step inside NYC’s competitive slotcar racing scene

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. Canadians Pay The Highest Rates For Wireless Data, And The US Is About To Follow Suit
2. ACTRA Wants Government To Penalize Search Engines that Refuse to Promote Canadian Content in Search Results (Michael Geist)
3. Building a Digital Wall: What Lies Behind The Emerging Battle Over New Taxes to Support Canadian Content (Michael Geist)
4. Netflix: competition, not regulation, is the way to stimulate Canadian content
5. “Immediate War Footing”: Phil Lind Recounts the Big Three Battle Against Wireless Competition in Canada  (Michael Geist)
6. Bell Urged Canadian Government To Ban Some VPN Services in NAFTA Submission (Michael Geist)
7. Comcast Network Investment Drops Despite Repeated Claims Killing Net Neutrality Would Trigger Investment Wave 
8. Ajit Pai and Republicans in Congress Helped Enable ‘Bounty Hunters’ to Track Your Phone
9. These Wireless Location Data Scandals Are Going To Be A Very Big Problem For Ajit Pai
10. Verizon caves, won’t charge “spam” fee for texts from teachers to students
11. T-Mobile/Sprint merger turns two disruptors into one “mega company,” Dems warn
12. Anna Eshoo, Other Lawmakers Offer Gushing, Facts-Optional Support For T-Mobile Sprint Merger
13. Robocalls Really Were Worse Than Ever Last Year, Report Finds
14. Dozens Of Privacy Experts Tell The California Legislature That Its New Privacy Law Is Badly Undercooked
15. California and European Privacy FAQs: Can a business share its marketing list with social media platforms in order to target advertising messages to specific social media users?

 SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. FamilyTreeDNA Hands the FBI Access to Its Database
2. Secret UAE Spy Team Used “Cyber Super-Weapon” To Hack Any iPhone
3. FBI, Air Force investigators mapped North Korean botnet to aid shutdown
4. Northern District of Georgia Rules in Equifax Data Breach Cases 
5. Apple Disables Group Facetime to Prevent Remote Spying
6. Bizarre Apple Bug Let Facetime Callers Spy On Each Other
7. Disable FaceTime Right Now [Updated] 
8. What’s the Latest on Apple’s Catastrophic FaceTime Bug?
9. More Than Two Years After It Took Them, The FBI Still Won’t Return Family Videos Seized During A Raid Of A Security Researcher’s Home 
10. Google Defeats Alleged BIPA Violations for Retention and Collection of Face-geometry Scans via Google Photos 
11. San Francisco lawmaker: Our cops should be banned from using facial recognition
12. French Defense Secretary Says Country Is Willing To Fire First In Cyber Wars
13. Amazon and Chase Will Not Give Me a Straight Answer About What They Do With My Credit Card Data
14. The FBI Says It Can Neither Confirm Or Deny Social Media Monitoring Programs It Publicly Secured Contracts For
15. Malvertisers target Mac users with steganographic code stashed in images
16. Hackers Are Passing Around A Megaleak Of 2.2 Billion Records
17. DHS: Multiple US gov domains hit in serious DNS hijacking wave
18. Internet watchdog Citizen Lab targeted in comically inept undercover sting
19. Privacy In The Iot Age
20. The Top 10 Privacy Changes in 2018 and What’s on the Horizon for 2019 
21. One Incident, Potentially Multiple Breach Reporting Requirements – OSFI Introduces Cyber Breach Notification Guidelines for Financial Institutions

Jon

GAMES

1. Red Dead Redemption 2’s Pinkerton agents are at the center of a lawsuit
2. The Pinkertons Are Still Around, Suing Over Red Dead Redemption 2
3. Rockstar threatened with legal action over Red Dead 2’s Pinkerton agents: Take-Two and Rockstar say use of Pinkerton and trademarks is protected under the First Amendment
4. Infamous Pinkerton Detectives Claim Red Dead Redemption’s Use Of Historically Accurate Pinkertons Is Trademark Infringement
5. Red Dead 2 sparks legal tussle between Take-Two and the real-world Pinkertons
6. Gearbox CEO accused by former studio lawyer of taking $12M bonus
7. Former Gearbox lawyer reportedly filed discrimination claim ahead of November lawsuit: 10 days before Gearbox sued Wade Callender, he filed a discrimination claim against CEO Randy Pitchford alleging religious harassment
8. Randy Pitchford and ex-Gearbox lawyer engaged in ugly legal fight over alleged $12 million ‘secret bonus,’ unpaid loans, camgirl porn: Pitchford and former Gearbox general counsel Wade Callendar have filed lawsuits accusing each other
9. Amidst legal battle, Gearbox CEO says he left USB stick of porn at Medieval Times: Alleges Pitchford received $12M bonus, hid from Gearbox staffers, siphoned elsewhere.
10. Gearbox CEO allegedly mocked ex-lawyer’s Christianity with slurs, “ridiculing” gifts
11. Forza Horizon 4 patches out Floss and Carlton dance emotes
12. Forza Horizon 4 removes dance moves following Fortnite lawsuits: The Carlton and the Floss removed from game as creators pursue Epic Games for damages
13. Microsoft removes Forza dances amid Fortnite lawsuits
14. ‘Fresh Prince’ actor, rapper and dancer sue makers of video game over popular dance moves
15. Fortnite dance lawsuits continue with “Orange Justice”: Mother of Orange Shirt Kid sues Epic Games for copyright infringement following campaign that saw dance included in-game
16. Epic fixes Fortnite security flaw which left all 200M+ players vulnerable
17. Settlement reached in long-running 38 Studios lawsuit 
18. Riot Games updates company values following “bro culture” toxicity claims: Developer says new values are a “guide for who we want to be”
19. Law firm investigating Activision-Blizzard on behalf of investors: Pomerantz LLP looking into claims that company leadership engaged in securities fraud, other unlawful practice
20. Bungie takes Destiny 2 publishing rights back from Activision
21. Bungie Splits With Activision, Maintains Destiny Rights
22. Bungie breaks from Activision to publish Destiny on its own: Activision to “increase focus on own IP projects” as Bungie transitions to self-publishing
23. Bungie splits with Activision, keeps control of Destiny
24. Activision will cut ties with Bungie, give up publishing control of Destiny
25. The Game Industry Reacts To The Bungie-Activision Breakup: General consensus: people are happy for Bungie. 
26. Destiny: We React to the Activision Bungie Split
27. Destiny 2’s Impossible Puzzle Might Have Been Broken All Along
28. Take-Two and NBA extend partnership in $1.1bn deal: Multi-year licensing agreement enables 2K to continue making its best-selling basketball game
29. Rocket League finally gets cross-platform play on PS4: The popular Psyonix title is the latest to benefit from Sony’s cross-platform u-turn
30. Rocket League now allows cross-play for all platforms, including PS4
31. Pioneer, Ubisoft’s sci-fi game teased in Watch Dogs 2, reportedly cancelled 
32. Call of Duty has made more money than the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Star Wars: Activision release about presidential appointments reveals best-selling shooter franchise trumps box office takings of Hollywood hits
33. EA Cancels Open-World Star Wars Game [UPDATE] 
34. EA has reportedly canceled Vancouver studio’s Star Wars title: Unseen project was supposedly an open-world reset of closed Visceral Games’ Star Wars title
35. Report: EA’s beleaguered open-world Star Wars game is no more [Updated]
36. Update: EA Responds To Reports Of Alleged Star Wars Game Cancellation
37. EA Vancouver’s open-world Star Wars game has been canceled  
38. Chinese government approves another 84 games for release: Total since end of the approval freeze is now 164 games, but Tencent and NetEase are still absent
39. Tencent picks up 36% ownership of Warhammer: Vermintide 2 dev Fatshark  
40. Blizzard and NetEase extend China publishing deal until 2023
41. Blizzard states importance of ‘inclusive’ workplace after discrimination allegations
42. Meet MASHBot, the touchscreen-tapping, Nintendo DS-playing robot
43. Nintendo of Europe issues formal warning to Russia boss after investigation: But platform holder says accusations of harassment by general manager Yasha Haddaji remain unsubstantiated
44. Hackers find Super NES games mentioned in Switch’s emulated NES files
45. Travis Strikes Again review: Switch may already have its weirdest game of 2019
46. ESA and World Health Organization discuss ‘gaming disorder’ classification  
47. World Health Organization and ESA meet to discuss gaming disorder diagnosis: UKIE and ISFE also urged WHO to “reconsider the mounting evidence” during formal dialogue last month
48. PEGI announces new content descriptor for in-game purchases on physical products: An “important first step” to helping making parents make informed purchasing decisions, says PEGI managing director
49. Roblox launches Digital Civility Initiative: Online safety and education will be the focus of the program, led by new hire Laura Higgins
50. Unity changes terms of service to block SpatialOS projects
51. Improbable calls for Unity to clarify TOS in wake of SpatialOS dev concerns
52. GDC 2019 will host a Classic Game Postmortem ofPaperboy!
53. Unity updates terms of service (again) in response to Improbable dispute
54. SpatialOS games under threat as Unity revokes Improbable’s license – Update: Spilt Milk Studios brings Lazarus back at least temporarily, while Bossa’s Worlds Adrift is “operating as normal”
55. Changes to Unity terms of service are “insanity” says Improbable CEO: Devs share concerns with GamesIndustry.biz about how changes could spell the end for their in-development projects
56. Cloud gaming firm: Unity must clarify its terms, reinstate our license 
57. Unity explains Improbable license revocation, says SpatialOS creator’s claims “incorrect”: SpatialOS devs are safe, Improbable calls for “code of conduct” in development ecosystem
58. Unity clarifies ToS changes, welcomes back “unsupported” SpatialOS
59. Video: How Life is Strange brought a new era for narrative games
60. Epic, Improbable start fund to lure devs away from Unity amid engine kerfuffle
61. Epic, Improbable team up for $25 million fund to bring SpatialOS developers to “more open engines”: Saga of Unity, Improbable, and SpatialOS continues as Epic opens door to developers “left in limbo” by terms of service changes
62. Unity changes course following dispute with Improbable: John Riccitiello and Joachim Ante to host Reddit AMA today 
63. Epic Games store planned for launch on Android this year: Company looks toward iOS launch also, despite “apparent conflict” with Apple policy
64. Epic Games Store alters refund policy to match Steam
65. Epic Games Store now offers a refund policy similar to Steam’s: Within a Fortnite of purchase.
66. Sergey Galyonkin clarifies how the Epic Games Store targets influencers
67. Sergey Galyonkin: Epic Games store courting a younger, Steam-less audience – Epic Games’ director of publishing strategy offers glimpse of what the storefront plans to offer both consumers and influencers in the coming months and year
68. Sergey Galyonkin clarifies how the Epic Games Store targets influencers
69. Verizon is testing its own cloud-based game streaming service
70. Valve wants to overhaul discoverability on Steam with machine learning this year
71. Valve working on new algorithmic recommendation tools for Steam, curating features: Other 2019 plans include PC Cafe Program, Trusted Matchmaking across all games, and Steam China
72. Video: How reward systems can guide player experience inWorld of Warcraft
73. ‘We have a big hit because we have a healthy work/life balance’, says Slime Rancher director
74. Dusk sells 69,420 copies a month after launch
75. Jurassic World Evolution and Planet Coaster have crossed 2 million sales
76. There are now over 30,000 games on Steam
77. NPD: US, Canada saw more mobile gamers in 2018 – Number of mobile gamers increased 5% year-over-year; Android remains most popular smartphone option
78. Tabletop games continue to succeed on Kickstarter as video games fall behind
79. Analyst: 2018 was an unimpressive (but stable) year for video game crowdfunding
80. Ico Partners: Video games see fewer crowdfunded projects, steady amount funded in 2018 – Trends indicates Kickstarter is stabilizing, with a higher percentage of quality projects as platform matures 
81. Report: Amazon is developing its own game streaming service
82. Amazon reportedly developing its own game streaming service: Company already in talks with publishers, but service wouldn’t be ready until 2020 at the earliest
83. Amazon may be going after cloud gaming, but Microsoft has a big head start
84. Gamestop Buyout Expected To Be Finalized Next Month
85. From forum post to feature update: Supercell’s community connection: How the Brawl Stars studio hopes to continue its “two-way street” partnership with content creators and game communities 
86. IGDC: Solving the monetisation problem in India – The Indian market is brimming with potential, but it’s far from straightforward
87. Fallout 76 players find human NPC and unreleased items in secret ‘dev room’: Like Fallout 4, Fallout 76 has a room containing every item in the game – and some players have apparently found a way inside.
88. Fortnite tops SuperData’s 2018 chart with $2.4 billion digital revenue: Epic’s game toppled Honor of Kings in the free-to-play chart, PUBG was the highest earning premium title
89. Streamlabs: Twitch growth slows as streamers turn to YouTube and Facebook – Meanwhile, Fortnite sees first decline in hours streamed since launching battle royale mode 
90. Niantic closes funding round with $245 million raised  
91. Niantic raises $245 million in Series C funding: Funding round led by IVP brings company valuation to nearly $4 billion
92. Hitman developer IO Interactive has opened a new studio in Malmo
93. IO Interactive opens new studio in Malmö: Second studio will support Hitman series and enables IOI to develop “new universes, new franchises”
94. Examining the relationship between a studio’s survival and success
95. Weavr Consortium receives £4m grant to develop esports viewing tech: UK government’s Industry Strategy Challenge Fund selects esports group for two-year Sports and Entertainment grant
96. ESForce sells majority stake in SK Gaming: Esports holdings company to sell 67% share to Daimler AG, FC Koeln 
97. THQ Nordic has acquired the rights to Outcast
98. Founded by CERN Engineers, CREAL3D’s Light-field Display is the Real Deal 
99. MetaAR Shuts Down Amidst Patent Infringement Lawsuit & Asset Liquidation
100. Sony Shows More ‘Ace Combat 7’ VR Gameplay Ahead of Jan. 18 Launch
101. Jam City secures $145 million to support global growth and acquisition plans  
102. Jam City announces $145m in strategic finance just weeks after layoffs: Investment comes on the heels of a “large numbers” of redundancies and a multi-year development deal with Disney
103. What’s the one game you think people pretend to like the most?
104. The UK Games Industry in 2018: Winners and Losers – Nintendo and Sony shine as EA falters
105. UK industry braces for no-deal Brexit: How developers, publishers and more are preparing for the worst following next week’s vote
106. Games4EU outlines the good and (mostly) bad of potential Brexit deal
107. From Uncharted to Obra Dinn: Lucas Pope dishes on his illustrious game-dev career
108. Success and sustainability at Supercell DLC: The Finnish studio’s developers discuss how they keep games thriving for years, and CEO Ilkka Paananen shares his philosophy on crunch
109. Was classic JRPG grind that bad?: An in-depth analysis
110. God of War nominated for 12 awards at 2019 DICE Awards
111. God of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man lead nominations for 22nd annual DICE Awards: Red Dead Redemption 2, Return of the Obra Dinn also see numerous mentions
112. These were the most downloaded games on the PlayStation Store in 2018
113. Writers Guild crowns Reigns: Her Majesty for best writing in a video game
114. Awesome Games Done Quick 2019 raises $2.39M for Prevent Cancer Foundation

DIGITAL

1. Appeals Court: First Amendment Violation To Ban Members Of The Public From Gov’t Officials’ Facebook Pages
2. Facebook page is a government forum
3. Blocking Constituents from Facebook Page Violates First Amendment–Davison v. Randall 
4. Pakistan Demands Google Take Down Petition For Academic Freedom… Saying It Represents Hate Speech
5. Apple loses patent case appeal, owes VirnetX $440M in FaceTime dispute 
6. The Duty to Read the Unreadable (Uri Benoliel & Shmuel Becher)
7. Twitter’s TOS Upheld Despite Unilateral Amendment Clause – Brittain v. Twitter
8. Court To Revenge Porn Bro Suing Twitter: You Agreed To Twitter Picking The Courtroom Every Time You Created A New Alt Account
9. “This isn’t like shipping wine”—Defense Distributed v. Grewalhas its day in court
10. Amazon Dash Buttons Ruled Illegal In Germany For… Making It Too Easy To Buy Stuff 
11. Here’s How Much Money Creators Can Make Via Amazon’s Influencer Program (Report)
12. President Trump Mocks Amazon’s ‘Jeff Bozo’ During Unhinged Twitter Rant
13. Microsoft signs a huge deal with Walgreens, as Amazon’s growing interest in health care looms large
14. Microsoft’s fonts catch out another fraudster—this time in Canada
15. How Tracking And Selling Our Data Became A Business Model
16. Night Club Accused of TCPA Text Messaging Violations
17. 3rd Circuit: Enrollment packet e-signature requires student to arbitrate claims 
18. EU Parliament Puts Out Utter Nonsense Defending Copyright Directive
19. Hollywood Asks EU To Drop Article 13 Entirely, Because It Might Possibly Have A Tiny Compromise For The Internet
20. Google Shows What Google News Looks Like If Article 11 Passes In The EU Copyright Directive
21. EU Court Adviser Says Google Shouldn’t Have To Enforce A French RTBF Request Anywhere But In Europe
22. Google kills the Chromecast Audio
23. Alphabet board sued over massive payout to Android creator, among others
24. Music Groups Waste No Time Using Australia’s New Copyright Law To Shut Down Stream Ripping Sites
25. Federal Appellate Courts Ring In the New Year by Taking Up Website and Mobile Application Accessibility  
26. Carriers Swore They’d Stop Selling Location Data. Will They Ever?
27. LinkedIn Is Helping The Chinese Government Silence Critics
28. Internet Censorship and the Intraregional Geopolitical Conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa (Helmi Noman)
29. Kylie Jenner Dethroned By An Egg For Most-Liked Instagram Post Of All Time
30. Instagram’s Most-Liked Egg Now Trying To Be Twitter’s Most-Retweeted Egg
31. Report: DOJ pursuing criminal charges against Huawei for theft of tech
32. Huawei employee arrested, accused of “high-level espionage” for China: Polish authorities arrest a Huawei employee and former government security expert.
33. Chinese Police Now Performing Door-To-Door Twitter Censorship
34. Roku Reverses Course, Bans Alex Jones Channel After Outcry 
35. Suppressing Customer Reviews Leads to $25 Million Judgment
36. Few people shared fake news in 2016 election, but seniors shared the most
37. And Now Professional Sports Teams Are Cutting The Cable Cord, Too
38. Netflix sued for trademark infringement by ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ publishers  
39. Netflix’s ‘Black Mirror: Bandersnatch’ Leads to “Choose Your Own Adventure” Trademark Lawsuit 
40. Netflix Is About to Cost You More Money
41. Netflix Announces Biggest Subscription Price Hike To Date
42. Millions of customers will now pay more for Netflix—here’s how much
43. Netflix reveals Space Force comedy series before Trump gets real thing approved
44. Hulu Stealth Drops Fyre Fest Documentary Featuring Interview With Founder Billy McFarland 
45. Gillette’s New Ad Addressing Toxic Masculinity Met With 400,000 Dislikes, Vitriol From YouTube Users
46. Massively-Viewed K-Pop Videos Temporarily Pulled From YouTube After False Copyright Claims
47. Top 50 Most Viewed US YouTube Channels • Week Of 1/13/2019
48. YouTube will “ramp up” enforcement of its policies against dangerous challenges and pranks
49. YouTube updates policies to explicitly ban dangerous pranks, challenges
50. YouTube Bans Stunts Like Particularly Risky ‘Bird Box,’ Tide Pod Challenges In Updated Guidelines
51. Jake Paul’s ‘Bird Box Challenge’ Video Yanked From YouTube Following Backlash
52. Logan Paul Half-Apologizes For Saying He Wanted To Try Being Gay For 1 Month
53. The First Dumb Meme Accident of 2019 Is Here
54. “Ghost guns,” underage sex, and the First Amendment: Defense Distributed’s legal saga: Legal turmoil for company rolls on as Cody Wilson faces felony charges for sex with a minor. 
55. Family-Friendly YouTube Stars ‘ACE Family’ Under Fire After Father Shown Buying Child A Phallic Lollipop
56. YouTube Clarifies Policies On How Profanity Impacts Monetization
57. YouTube Allows Disney Nerds to Relive Extinct Theme Park Attractions
58. YouTube Boomers Show #Vanlife Isn’t Just For Millennials 
59. “Baby Shark” Enters Billboard Hot 100 Largely Thanks To Viral YouTube Views
60. YouTube Axes Ability To Automatically Share Video Uploads, ‘Likes’ On Twitter
61. YouTube Piloting Blue Tags Under Videos That Help Filter Recommendations
62. YouTube Officially Rolls Out Swipe-To-Advance Navigation On iOS App
63. NBCUniversal set to launch standalone streaming service in 2020
64. NBCUniversal Announces Streaming Service To Launch 2020, Puts Exec Bonnie Hammer In Charge Of Development
65. NBCU Crafts Bluprint For A New Kind Of Influencer
66. Social Influencers are not immune from advertising codes and laws – Ads must be identified as Ads
67. Twitch Suspends Smash Bros. Streamer For Drunkenly Passing Out On Camera
68. Nike To Unveil Latest Shoe Launch On Twitch
69. CAA Signs Twitch Streamer Dr DisRespect As It Builds Out Gaming Roster
70. Studio71 launches talent management company
71. Machinima Creators Just Got A Letter Telling Them That They’re Now Part Of Fullscreen
72. ‘DaddyOFive’ Parents’ Sentences Reduced Despite Allegations They Broke Court Order, Continued To Vlog Children
73. Bird Scooter tried to censor my Boing Boing post with a legal threat that’s so stupid, it’s a whole new kind of wrong
74. Bird tries to forcibly remove Boing Boing’s story detailing how to hack and keep its scooters
75. Bird Issues ‘Chilling’ Legal Threat After Boing Boing Publishes Blog on E-Scooter Hack
76. Scooter Company Bird Sends Absolutely B.S. Copyright Threat Letter To Cory Doctorow For Reporting On Modifying Scooters 
77. EFF flips Bird the bird, says Boing Boing post doesn’t violate copyright law – EFF: Bird’s legal demand to take down recent Cory Doctorow post is “meritless.” 
78. Scooter startup Bird tried to silence a journalist. It did not go well.
79. Bird to Boing Boing: We’re sorry about sending you a legal-demand letter 
80. The Internet is Facing a Catastrophe For Free Expression and Competition
81. Hulu Is Rolling Out Performance-Based Measurement for Brands: The streaming service is working with ‘several’ partners on the offering
82. UX rant: The nightmare horrorshow that is the Apple TV remote
83. Vietnamese Government Whines Facebook Isn’t Helping It Censor Critics Quickly Enough
84. Facebook-executive swatting sends significant police response to his home
85. Facebook brings stricter ads rules to countries with big 2019 votes 
86. Barstool Sports Shuts Down Comment Section, Silencing Its Most Loyal Racists
87. The best PCs, gadgets, and future tech of CES 2019
88. Man says CES lidar’s laser was so powerful it wrecked his $1,998 camera
89. Remember when Bill Gates challenged Slash to Guitar Hero? 13 years of Ars at CES
90. This Sad Booth Is a Metaphor for CES This Year
91. The Totally Unofficial CES 2019 Meta Awards
92. IBM’s New AI System Can Compose Logical Arguments: Next thing we know, it’ll be arguing in the comment section. 
93. AI can diagnose some genetic disorders using photos of faces 
94. Artificial Intelligence, collaboration with online platforms and tackling the ‘Wild West’: How the ASA plans to make its impact online over the next 5 years  
95. Litigating intellectual property issues: The impact of AI and machine learning
96. New Robot Dogs Can Deliver Your Lunch Right to Your Desk
97. Blythe Masters and the End of a Blockchain Era
98. Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Real Implications of Blockchain in the Legal Industry (Justin Evans)
99. Okay, This Argument for 8K TVs Is Kinda Convincing 
100. Etch a Sketch lives on in browser-based Chrome Labs project
101. 2H 2018 Quick Links, Part 6 (IP, E-Commerce, Censorship, & More) (Eric Goldman)

CREATIVITY

1. Jury Orders Mongols Biker Club to Forfeit Its Logo, the ‘Holy of Holies’
2. The Rock says that “generation snowflake” interview was “100 percent fabricated,” totally fake
3. UQAM co-op excludes white comedian from shows because of his dreadlocks: Zach Poitras was barred from performing at the Snowflake Comedy Club and the Soirée d’humour engagée.
4. Must Universities Shut Down Constitutionally Protected Speech Forums That Also Enable Student Harassment? (Eric Goldman)
5. Federal Court Says Iowa’s Ag Gag Law Is Unconstitutional
6. Turkish Court Jails Journalist For Telling The Truth About A Politician’s Offshore Tax Shelter
7. Immoral and Scandalous Trademarks: If They Can Be Registered, What Does It Mean For Other Prohibitions on Registration?
8. Software patents poised to make a comeback under new patent office rules
9. ASA ruling on Coral national press ad
10. ASA announces that from June harmful gender stereotyping in adverts will be banned
11. Aloha, Copyright Infringement
12. The Crown Jewels: How to Protect Your Jewelry Designs

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1.  Why So Secret?: Government’s Communications Law Panel Plans to Keep Public Submissions Under Wraps for Months (Michael Geist)
2. All About the Internet: My Submission to the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review Panel on the Future of Canadian Communications Law (Michael Geist)
3. Ajit Pai gives carriers free pass on privacy violations during FCC shutdown
4. Ajit Pai Refuses To Brief Congress On What He Plans To Do About Wireless Location Data Scandals
5. T-Mobile CEO, execs stay at Trump hotel while lobbying Trump administration
6. AT&T’s Planning Yet More Layoffs Despite Tens Of Billions In Tax Breaks And Government Favors
7. AT&T defends misleading “5G” network icons on 4G phones
8. AT&T Execs Think It’s Really Funny They Misled Consumers About 5G Availability
9. Verizon Promises Not To Over-Hype 5G, Immediately Proceeds To Over-Hype 5G
10. Verizon charges new “spam” fee for texts sent from teachers to students
11. Frontier Hammered By Minnesota AG For Its Refusal To Repair Its Broadband Network
12. FCC asks court for delay in case that could restore net neutrality rules

 SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Vizio Admits Modern TV Sets Are Cheaper Because They’re Spying On You
2. Employee Falls for Fake Job Interview Over Skype, Gives North Korean Hackers Access to Chile’s ATM Network: Report
3. Feds forcing mass fingerprint unlocks is an “abuse of power,” judge rules
4. Federal Judge Says Compelling People To Unlock Phones With Their Fingerprints/Faces Violates The 5th Amendment
5. Five Companies Settle Privacy Case With NY AG Over Apps 
6. Nine defendants charged in SEC hacking scheme that netted $4.1 million
7. California Regulates Internet of Things
8. An Ounce of Prevention: Responding to California’s New Privacy Law
9. Government Shutdown Means Government Website Security Certs Aren’t Being Renewed
10. FBI Officially Has A Leak Investigation Unit
11. DOJ Indictment Alleges Theft of Hundreds of Gigabytes of Corporate and Government Data in Attacks Targeting Managed Service Providers
12. Directors and Officers Settle Over Yahoo Hack: A New Chapter in Derivative Litigation? 
13. Hack Brief: An Astonishing 773 Million Records Exposed In Monster Breach
14. Google Play starts manually whitelisting SMS and phone apps
15. Artificial Intelligence vs. the Hackers: Machine-learning algorithms watch hackers’ behavior and adapt to their evolving tactics.
16. The U.S. Government Has Amassed Terabytes of Internal WikiLeaks Data
17. New ransomware rakes in $4 million by adopting a “big game hunting” strategy
18. A DNS hijacking wave is targeting companies at an almost unprecedented scale
19. 2019: The Push For Bad Faith, Loophole-Filled Privacy Legislation Begins
20. 2H 2018 Quick Links, Part 5 (Privacy, Advertising, Consumer Reviews) (Eric Goldman)

Jon