News of the Week; May 1, 2019

DIGITAL

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

COMMUNICATIONS

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

PRIVACY

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

CREATIVITY

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

GAMES

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

Jon