DIGITAL
- Alphabet’s legal chief, David Drummond, comes under the spotlight following new allegations about his personal conduct
- My Time at Google and After
- Ex-Google Staffer Says After Split With Chief Legal Officer David Drummond: ‘Hell Does Not Begin To Capture My Life’
- Google defends tracking cookies—some experts aren’t buying it
- Google Play app with 100 million downloads executed secret payloads
- Former Google engineer Levandowski indicted for stealing trade secrets
- Top MPAA Lawyer, Mastermind Behind Its Plan To Attack The Internet, Arrested On Blackmail And Sexual Assault Charges
- Facebook likely knew about Cambridge Analytica much earlier than we thought
- Facebook bans ads from The Epoch Times after huge pro-Trump buy: By hiding its multimillion-dollar dark money ad spend, the organization bypassed Facebook’s political advertising transparency rules.
- Facebook’s Weird Pointless Auditless Audit Of Political Bias On Its Platform
- Russian Troll Farm Tries Again To Sue Facebook, Despite Having Its Original Complaint Dismissed On 230 Grounds
- Ninth Circuit Releases Another Important CDA Section 230 Opinion With Broad Application – Automated Content Recommendation and Notification Tools Do Not Make Social Site the Developer of User Posts
- Gutting Section 230 Will Harm The Most Marginalized
- Decision to Dismiss Suit Seeking to Hold Facebook Liable for Hamas Attacks Affirmed by the Second Circuit
- Internet Presence Creates Exposure For Discrimination Claims Under California Law
- California State Court Tosses Spam Suit
- Facebook tightens rules for U.S. political advertisers ahead of 2020 election
- Ninth Circuit Denies En Banc Re-Hearing of Facebook First Amendment Challenge—TCPA Constitutionality Fight Headed to the Supremes?
- Guy Sues Facebook For Violating Basically All The Laws, For Shutting Down His Account And For Everything Else Bad Facebook Has Ever Done
- Tracking online hate groups reveals why they’re resilient to bans
- Australia plans to block sites hosting extremist content during attacks
- YouTube disables 210 accounts spreading misinformation about Hong Kong
- Google shutters more than 200 YouTube channels amid Hong Kong protests
- YouTube Disables 210 Channels For Spreading Misinformation About Hong Kong Protests
- YouTube is now labeling videos in Hong Kong uploaded by publishers with government or public funding
- Amid Objective Content Controversies, Susan Wojcicki Defends “Openness” Of YouTube Platform
- Google Agrees To Meet With The YouTubers Union, But Says It Won’t “Negotiate Their Demands”
- The YouTube Radicalization Pipeline Exists, And It’s Driving Users Toward Increasingly Alt-Right Content (Study)
- YouTube Expands New “Borderline Content”-Hunting Algorithm To The U.K.
- China (Yes, China) Complains About Attack On Its ‘Free Speech Rights’ After Twitter/Facebook Boot Propaganda Accounts
- Twitter Says No More Ads From State-Controlled News Media
- Book publishers sue Audible to stop new speech-to-text feature
- YouTube Updates Child Safety Policies To Remove Adult-Themed Videos Aimed At Kids
- YouTube flags robot battle videos as “animal fights”
- Probably Speech, Maybe Free: Toward a Probabilistic Understanding of Online Expression and Platform Governance – Applying a probablistic statistical framework to First Amendment questions (Mike Ananny)
- Macron claims deal to end digital service tax fight with the US
- Why Is MLB Claiming Revenue From Obviously Fair Use Videos On YouTube?
- PewDiePie reaches 100m subscribers: Long-running YouTuber is the first individual to achieve this milestone
- PewDiePie Hits 100 Million Subscribers, And Surprisingly, YouTube Pays Him Tribute
- YouTube Embraces PewDiePie After Two-Year Cold Shoulder, Congratulates Him On 100 Million Subs
- YouTuber Olly Thorn Raises $100,000+ By Livestreaming Shakespeare Readings 24/7 For 4 Days
- Netflix-like pirate sites offered more video than the real Netflix, feds say
- Netflix To Screen Scorsese’s $159 Million ‘The Irishman’ And 9 Other Films In Theaters This Fall
- Anti-vaxxer livestreamed alleged assault on pro-vaccine lawmaker
- James Charles Leaks Own Nude Photo Amid AT&T Hack Affecting Several Creators
- IP Legal Considerations for Live Streaming
- NY Times Goes Off On Amazon Because Some People Are Publishing Fake George Orwell Books
- Hundreds of “banned” goods still for sale on Amazon, report finds
- Amazon Prime Video Signs Distribution Deal With Altice Europe
- EU data economy: legal, ethical & social issues
- Agreement Amongst Competition Authorities of the G7 Countries on the Digital Economy
- California arms traffickers used Snapchat to market illegal weapons: Recent investigations show that in the Bay Area, social media is playing a significant role in firearms sales
- Snapchat Turns to Sneaker Culture in New ‘Kick Life’ Original Series: Dedicated to exploring what it truly means to be a sneakerhead.
- TikTok Reportedly Piloting New Ad Product, An Audience Network, In Asia
- What3words Is A Clever Way Of Communicating Position Very Simply, But Do We Really Want To Create A Monopoly For Location Look-ups?
- Apple’s $44 Billion Drop Shows Growing Cost of Reliance on China
- Maybe don’t keep your Apple Card in a leather wallet, Apple warns
- Spotify matches Apple Music’s 3-month trial
- Eminem’s music publisher claims Spotify owes millions in royalties for ‘Lose Yourself’ and other songs
- Audiomack Announces Official Partnership With Warner Music Group: The streaming service’s first deal with a major label will focus on identifying and elevating new talent
- Lululemon Launches ‘Sweatlife’ Podcast in Partnership With Makers
- FameBit Founders Raise $2.2 Million For Podcast Advertising Startup ‘Podcorn’
- NAD Gives Online Review Promotion a Negative Grade
- Bosch Pulls Social Media Post Over Charges of Sexism
- Companies Are Not Complying With the Safe Harbor Provision of the DMCA
- Section 230 Protects HOA for Publishing Meeting Minutes–Eagle Ridge Townhouse Ass’n v. Snapp (Eric Goldman)
- Thinking About Restricting Online Reviews? FTC: Think Again
- Building Buzz: Facebook Dominates In Audience Views for Three Highly-Anticipated TV Shows Coming This Fall
- Why people keep falling for viral hoaxes
- Nashville Trump Supporter Fired Over Facebook Post Wins Trial
- Instagram, Facing Pressure From Facebook, Is Testing Back-To-Back Ads In Stories (Report)
- Facebook is developing a new standalone Snapchat-like messaging app called ‘Threads’
- Facebook Is Developing ‘Threads,’ An Instagram-Adjacent Messaging App That Automatically Shares Location, Battery Life Data (Report)
- What’s not to like about Instagram’s latest test?
- Opinion: With This Statement, I Give Notice That Instagram Owns Your Soul – People posting a pseudo-legal declaration may believe they’re in a two-way dialogue with the company. The opposite is true.
- YouTube TV To Sell Add-Ons For AMC-Owned Acorn TV, Urban Movie Channel
- Beauty Giant Estée Lauder Now Allots 75% Of Its Digital Marketing Budget To Influencers
- ASA rules against BetIndex Ltd
- Vevo announces new ROUNDS urban series
- Alleged “snake oil” crypto company sues over boos at Black Hat
- Company Sues Blackhat Because People Mocked Their Sponsored Presentation And Called It Snake Oil
- Judge savages self-proclaimed bitcoin inventor Craig Wright
- FTC Permanently Bans Operators of Cryptocurrency MLM
- 3 Key Takeaways: Emerging Issues & Trends: Blockchain for In-House Counsel
- The Circuitous International Travel of Your Data
- No longer up in the air? Cloud transaction regulations are released
- Bernie Su’s Livestreamed Interactive Sci-Fi Series ‘Artificial’ Brings Twitch Its First Emmy
- Protocols, Not Platforms: A Technological Approach to Free Speech
- The Barlowian Internet: The Faults Of The Internet Are Also Its Opportunity, But It’s Up To Us To Embrace Them
A.I.
- Singularity: how governments can halt the rise of unfriendly, unstoppable super-AI
- Do Citizens Have A Right To See The Algorithms Used By Publicly-Funded Software?
- Why We Should Teach Kids to Call the Robot ‘It’: As a new generation grows up surrounded by artificial intelligence, researchers find education as early as preschool can help avoid confusion about robots’ role
- Music to regulators’ ears? Antitrust, RPM, and AI
- Robotic thread is designed to slip through the brain’s blood vessels: Magnetically controlled device could deliver clot-reducing therapies in response to stroke or other brain blockages.
- 2019: A Bot Odyssey
- The rise of CGI influencers: getting real about the virtual within the fashion industry
- In Memoriam: My Dear Friend and Colleague Ian Kerr (Michael Geist)
COMMUNICATIONS
- The Cultural Lobby Demands for Internet Taxes and Fees: The Forgotten Piece in Canada’s Lower Wireless and Internet Cost Puzzle (Michael Geist)
- DOJ’s plan to make Dish the fourth major carrier has a fatal flaw
- The FCC has no idea how many people don’t have broadband access
- Insights: You Can’t Always Get The Bandwidth You Want, But You’re Probably Getting The Bandwidth You Need
- FCC Does Something Right: Proposes Making Suicide Prevention Hotline A Three Digit Number
- NY Investigates Frontier Communications As US Telcos Slowly Implode
- When a Broadcast Advertiser Becomes A Political Candidate, What is a Station to Do?
- FCC Seeks Comment on Verizon Petition for Declaratory Ruling on County’s Recurring Fees for Small Wireless Facilities in Public-Rights-of-Way
- Cable industry fights plan to require robocall-detection technology
- Anti-Robocalling Principles Established by State Attorneys General
- Anti-Robocall Principles Agreed to by Carriers and State AGs
- State attorneys general and carriers announce collaboration to stem illegal robocalls
- State attorneys general work with telecom giants to address robocalls
- US phone carriers make empty, unenforceable promises to fight robocalls
- FCC Charges Stations With Unlawful Use of Emergency Alerts in Promos and Programming
- New UK Regime for Telecoms Contract Changes and What To Expect in Ireland
PRIVACY
- Limitation Period for Damages Claims under Personal Information Protection Act (Alberta)
- Millions Of Biometric Records Collected By Companies And Governments Left Exposed On The Web
- How insurance companies are fueling a rise in ransomware attacks
- Ninth Circuit Says Warrantless Device Searches At The Border Must Be Limited To Searches For Contraband
- Ring has more than 400 police “partnerships,” company finally says
- Unrollme Inc. Settles with FTC Over Allegedly Deceptive Email Practices
- FTC Unrolls Settlement Over Privacy Violations
- Rogue ‘Smart’ Ovens Again Highlight How Dumb Tech Is Often The Smarter Choice
- Cuckoo for Cookies
- Interlopers in Things? IoT devices may be used as backdoors to your network
- CCPA Privacy FAQs: If a business receives a data subject access request, does it have to provide the specific pieces of personal information that it collected about the consumer?
- Mitigating Franchisor Exposures for Systemwide GDPR Compliance through Cyber Insurance
- The Myth of Consumer Security (Bruce Schneier)
CREATIVITY
- Jeffrey Epstein Used a Bullet and a Dead Cat to Intimidate Vanity Fair Editor Graydon Carter: Report
- Why ‘Vanity Fair’ Story Left Out Abuse Allegations Against Epstein
- State Rep Tries To Bring Criminal Harassment Charges Against Journalists For Being Journalists
- Missouri Attorney General Claims The First Amendment Allows Him To Withhold Public Records
- SLAPP Threats Don’t Even Need To Become Lawsuits To Be Effective: Cop Gets Columnist Fired For Pointing To Picture Of Him With Racists
- New Government Documents Reveal That Backpage Was Actively Helping Law Enforcement Track Down Traffickers
- Court Rejects Plaintiff’s Attempt To Seal His Entire Lawsuit Against A Website That Publishes Court Documents
- District Court: No negligent misrepresentation claims in smart TV privacy suit
- Don’t Let The Bret Stephens Bite: NY Times’ Hypocritical ‘Free Speech’ Columnist Flips Out After Being Called A Bedbug
- Rutgers Forces LA High School To Change Logos Due To Its ‘R’ Trademark
- The Man With the Tiger (and Snake) Tattoo Redux
- Canadian Brewery Changes Name Of Brew Due To Peanut Butter Company Bully That Doesn’t Ship In Canada
- The Patent And Trademark Office Is Apparently Branching Out Into The Immigration Enforcement Business
- Never again advertising with women who do not know how to park cars and men who are incapable of raising children?
- 4 lessons from the ASA’s first bans on sexist ads
- The Estate of Stanley Kauffmann v. Rochester Institute of Technology
- New York State Bans Floating Digital and Flashing Billboards
- Planning to Use Digitally Altered Photos of Your Competitor’s Product in Your Advertising?
GAMES
- Blizzard sues over “brazen” Warcraft clone: World of Warcraft maker taking InstantFuns to court due to Glorious Saga, saying the game’s content “is almost entirely copied”
- New allegations of sexual assault surface against established game devs
- Developers sound off after abuse accusations: People across the industry offer support to victims, perspective and calls to action for the rest of their peers
- Tetrageddon Games developer warns women about Skyrim composer: Nathalie Lawhead says Jeremy Soule raped them, took advantage of an industry newcomer’s situation
- More developers come forward with accounts of emotional abuse and sexual assault: Nathalie Lawhead’s account prompts Zoë Quinn, Adelaide Gardner, more to speak out about their experiences in the industry
- Night in the Woods devs cut ties with Alec Holowka after abuse allegations
- Riot Games settles gender-discrimination class action lawsuit
- Riot Games reaches preliminary settlement in class action lawsuit over gender discrimination: “Gender discrimination (in pay or promotion), sexual harassment, and retaliation are not systemic issues at Riot”
- Ion Fury retains controversial in-game content after all: Facial cleanser name is in, slur is out, company still donating to Trevor Project and mandating sensitivity training
- Sony clamps down on Vita hacking: Despite console’s slow death, Sony moves to protect its interests in Japan with anti-hacking firmware update
- Mixer streamers can now earn cash for recommending Xbox Game Pass
- Six men arrested over alleged Counter-Strike match fixing: Australian police say offences could lead to up to ten years in prison
- Better with the cloud? Stadia gets the “fastest” Football Manager sims
- Another Bad PR Sign: Indie Developer Shuns Epic Store, Saying ‘My Word Means Something’
- Darq developer offers Epic revenue to charity if given non-exclusivity: Unfold Games offers to let the gaming community choose which organisation would receive donations
- Australian police make arrests as part of investigation into esports match fixing
- Twitch’s cuts of payments to esports teams is benefiting YouTube
- OG wins Dota 2’s International for second straight year: Valve’s premiere esports competitions sees back-to-back champs for the first time
- Benjamin ‘DrLupo’ Lupo Inks Multi-Year Equity Deal With Esports Conglomerate ReKTGlobal
- Ninja defamed?
- Accessibility Unlocked offers support to disabled developers in Australia and New Zealand: New group also wants to raise more awareness about accessibility issues for players
- Restoring trust in Star Wars Battlefront II: Design director Dennis Brännvall reflects on the fallout from the loot box controversy, and how DICE has won back the community
- DICE cancels new Battlefield V multiplayer mode to focus on eradicating bugs
- DICE cancels Battlefield V competitive mode to focus on bug fixes: Battlefield still bug crushing nine months after release
- Celebrity Entertainer Sues Over Video Game Avatar
- The joyful representation of The Sims: EA Maxis senior producer Michael Duke on creating studio longevity, improving representation, and building a lasting franchise
- Modified DayZ receives MA15+ rating in Australia: Bohemia Interactive’s changes satisfy the Australian Classification Board
- Video Game Age Ratings in Online Retail: Legal Requirements for Merchants
- Emulator aims to keep Flash games alive and kicking after official support ends
- New publisher Modern Wolf commits to “ethical development practices”: UK-based indie publisher has a zero tolerance policy on crunch, will champion developers from underrepresented regions
- Nintendo continues marginal improvements to ethical mineral sourcing: Switch maker says it’s “putting smiles on the faces of our supply chain,” but efforts to ensure it isn’t funding human rights abuses far from complete
- Hands-on: The Switch Lite is a smaller, more comfortable handheld
- Nintendo removes credit card payment option from Wii U, 3DS eShop in EU and UK
- Nintendo Wii U, 3DS eShops to stop accepting credit cards in UK, EU: Credit card purchases can still be made through Nintendo accounts
- The future for platform holders is cooperation, not just competition | Opinion: Companies like Sony and Microsoft will always seek a competitive advantage, but the clear lines of the console wars are all but gone
- Microsoft’s Age of Empires studio will oversee the IP rather than develop games
- Microsoft’s Age of Empires studio won’t be developing games: Shannon Loftis’ newly-created studio is focused on oversight of teams like Forgotten Empires, Relic
- Bungie – “We need to dispel the notion Activision was some prohibitive overlord”: Destiny 2 developer discusses whether the game’s big changes this year were related to splitting from its original publisher
- Google Play Store design refresh aims to boost game discoverability
- Game stores: you need more real-time charts!
- Play Ventures raises $40 million to fuel game-focused VC fund
- Playtika acquires Best Fiends developer-publisher Seriously
- Playtika acquires Best Fiends developer Seriously: Seriously’s “mobile first” entertainment strategy drove it to $69m revenue last year
- Grand Theft Auto V is back on top in the EMEAA charts: The drought of major new releases leaves the door open for Rockstar once again
- UK Charts: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe takes No. 1 (but it should be Minecraft, again) – For second week running, listing anomaly denies Minecraft top spot, despite being best-selling game for the week
- ISFE: EU games industry worth over €21bn – Consoles account for 47% of revenue in France, Germany, Spain, and UK
- MatPat’s Alternate Reality Game ‘The Theorist Gateway’ Has Amassed 400,000 Unique Players
- Scopely announces Barcelona and Dublin expansion: Just two years since opening Barcelona office, mobile dev plans to triple its presence in the city
- Razer and Tencent partner to further cloud gaming ambitions
- Tencent partners with Razer for cloud gaming hardware, overseas expansion: Collaboration aims to have gaming hardware compatible with Tencent Cloud launched by year’s end
- Play Ventures closes first funding round at $40m: Led by Rovio investment, VC fund raises $10m more than initial targets
- Hatch and Vodafone partner to bring 5G mobile game streaming to Germany
- Valve tweaks bug bounty program after ‘mistakenly’ turning away researchers
- Valve says turning away researcher reporting Steam vulnerability was a mistake
- Steam no longer allowing payments in Argentinian pesos: Storefront error cites “government laws,” but currency depreciation may be at the heart of payment block
- Ubisoft exec claims Valve needs to modify Steam’s ‘unrealistic’ business model
- Ubisoft exec criticises Steam’s “unrealistic” business model: “It doesn’t reflect where the world is today in terms of game distribution,” says VP of partnerships and revenue
- “I spent 300 days on the road last year meeting developers”: Meet Kowloon Nights, the games fund that wants its partners to leave it behind
- LCG Entertainment relaunches Telltale Games brand: New owners are “working very hard” to avoid mistakes of previous management
- Telltale Games, the studio behind The Walking Dead, has been reanimated
- Like a zombie, the Telltale brand is coming back from the dead
- Warner Bros. Interactive to Open San Diego Studio Focused on Mobile Games
- Warner Bros. forms new free-to-play mobile studio in San Diego
- Warner Bros opens new mobile studio in San Diego: Branch will be led by Boston studio boss Tom Casey and specialise in free-to-play games
- Using UI as a means to tell a story, convey emotion, and create personality
- Video: A soft skills survival guide for game developers
- Video: The three phases of designing Episode’s interactive fiction
- Video: Inside the transmedia storytelling of Final Fantasy XV
- Fumito Ueda on weaving empathy into victory in Shadow of the Colossus
- 20 years after Seaman, Saito reflects on creativity and making new, strange things
- World of Warcraft is hearthing back home again with Classic
- Ancestors – The Humankind Odyssey: Critical Consensus – Patrice Désilets’ Panache Digital leaves the critics intrigued and ultimately frustrated with a unique game that refuses to hold the player’s hand
- Don’t Miss: Taking the sting out of failure in Supergiant’sPyre
- Don’t Miss: The story behind Remedy’s viral dog mocap star
- Don’t Miss: How Remedy rewrote its engine tech to makeAlan Wake
- Don’t Miss: Creating the free-flowing text conversations inMr. Robot:1.51exfiltrati0n
- How we balanced our game for beginners and for pros
- Blending comedy with capitalism in The Outer Worlds: Obsidian’s senior designer Brian Heins also discusses why tougher moral choices are more interesting
- Bhad Bhabie Joyriding Game ‘Ride or Die!’ Geared Around Stealing Cars, Outrunning Cops
- Bhad Bhabie Pacts With BBTV Interactive On Mobile Car Game ‘Ride Or Die!’
- Blog: Creating Merchant of the Skies from announcement to Early Access launch
- Blog: A primer on sound design for video games
- Blog: Depiction of war in games – can you do better?
- Blog: Second looks at snowballing
- Creating a narrative focused mission design document: A Last of Us example
- ‘Why all of our games look like crap’: One dev’s lessons in art style
- Review: Control is Remedy’s best game yet—and a ray tracing masterpiece
- C’mon and SLAM: How Oculus tackled portable, 6DOF tracking for the Quest
- Oculus’ former head of mobile VR has left Facebook
- Oculus VR loses its head of mobile: Max Cohen left this month, after leading Gear VR, Oculus Go, and starting push toward Oculus Quest
- Indie Dev Experiment Brings Google Lens to VR, Showing Real-time Text Translation
- VRGO Mini is Small Form Factor VR Locomotion Peripheral, Kickstarter Now Live
- Telling Lies: Critical Consensus: Her Story creator Sam Barlow delivers critically acclaimed follow-up, but Telling Lies still lives in the shadow of its predecessor
- PlayStation Productions joins the Uncharted movie as another director exits
- PlayStation Productions is now working on the Uncharted movie: Sony’s new unit joins the producing team after film project loses yet another director
- Metro 2033 movie in the works: Gazprom Media producing a feature film based on the novel that spawned 4A Games’ post-apocalyptic shooter franchise
- Staffsource: Ars staffers reminisce on the games that made them gamers
- The ten best console racing games of all time
- Our favorite gaming studios, expos, museum exhibits—in a photo blowout
- First International Gaming Summit on Mental Health set for October
- Gamescom: Opening Night Live attracts 500,000 viewers – Another record-breaking year for Gamescom is topped off by newfound digital engagement of 100 million video views
- U.S. Patent no. 9,656,167: Pre-play and post-play video game character presentation and equipping
Jon