DIGITAL
- Unenforceability in the U.S. a Non-Starter When Google Returns to the BC Supreme Court
- Google’s servers housed by a third-party ISP qualify as a regular and established place of business to establish proper venue in the Eastern District of Texas
- How 3-D Printing Exposes the Fallacy of Federal Gun Laws
- Twitter says InfoWars hasn’t ‘violated our rules.’ It looks like that’s not the case
- Twitter finally deletes some of Alex Jones, Infowars videos and tweets: Glad to have you on board, Twitter – signed, every other tech company.
- Twitter suspends Alex Jones for urging people to keep “battle rifles” ready [Update]
- Alex Jones claims he’s being silenced as bans push him to alternative platforms: Removals from Facebook, YouTube, Spotify and Apple haven’t slowed his posting, but the Infowars founder is appealing to the president
- InfoWars app will stay in the iOS App Store—here’s Apple’s reason why
- Alex Jones’ ‘Free Speech’ Shouldn’t Be Your Primary Concern
- Online activists hit hatemongers like Alex Jones where it hurts the most – in the wallet
- Vimeo Bans Alex Jones After Conspiracy Hawker Ramps Up Output There
- Platforms, Speech And Truth: Policy, Policing And Impossible Choices
- Platforms Are Not Publishers: The essential value of the internet is conversation, not content – and journalists need to embrace it.
- How social media took us from Tahrir Square to Donald Trump: To understand how digital technologies went from instruments for spreading democracy to weapons for attacking it, you have to look beyond the technologies themselves. (Zeynep Tufekci)
- How Turkey silences journalists online, one removal request at a time
- Should platforms be regulated? A new survey says yes.
- How WeChat Filters Images for One Billion Users
- New law bans US gov’t from buying tech from Chinese giants ZTE and Huawei
- Sneaky Website User Bound by Online Terms of Use Provision Despite Renewing Subscription in Spouse’s Name
- Now returning: NFL games, player protests, and presidential tweets
- Adidas will livestream high school football games on Twitter: A new series will broadcast eight weekly games from across the country through the season.
- Is A Twitter Account An Employer’s Trade Secret? Yes, Says Media Company
- Twitter Promptly Suspends Tesla Whistleblower Following Tweets About His Former Employer
- Ruby Rose Quits Twitter Following ‘Batwoman’ Backlash
- Microsoft Threatens to Stop Hosting Gab, the Worst Social Network, Over Anti-Semitic Threats of Violence
- Why Facebook is losing the war on hate speech in Myanmar: Reuters found more than 1,000 examples of posts and images attacking the Rohingya on Facebook. A secretive operation by the social media giant is failing to end the problem.
- The Vigilantes on Facebook Who Stream To Catch a Predator-Style Ambushes of Alleged Pedophiles
- Facebook will make accounts with a ‘large audience’ verify their location
- Facebook Bans ‘Promotion’ Of Kodi Boxes, Even If They’re Perfectly Legal
- The Story Behind The Story That Created A Political Nightmare For Facebook: In 2016, Gizmodo reported that Facebook workers “suppressed” conservative news. An editor has second thoughts.
- Facebook is hiring the team behind an interactive video company that dragged its feet in complying with data rules
- Facebook Beats Sony to Spanish Soccer Rights in India
- Accused Pirate Tries For Attorney’s Fees After Copyright Troll Attempts To Run Away From Discovery
- Topple Track Attacks EFF and Others With Outrageous DMCA Notices
- Drake Becomes First Musician To Hit 50 Billion Global Streams Across All Platforms
- Spotify Is Testing A Free Version Of Its Service Where Users Can Skip Ads
- Logan Paul Says He Wants To Challenge A UFC Fighter After His Much-Hyped Boxing Match With KSI
- KSI Releases Documentary ‘Can’t Lose’ Ahead Of Logan Paul Boxing Match-Up
- YouTube Paying Stars Hundreds Of Thousands Of Dollars To Promote New Features (Report)
- PBS Taps BroadbandTV to Manage User-Uploaded YouTube Videos
- BroadbandTV Announces New Partnership with PBS
- BroadbandTV Pacts With PBS To Help It Monetize User-Generated YouTube Uploads
- YouTube TV Adds 100th Service Location
- YouTube Star Jimmy Wong Cast In Disney’s Live-Action ‘Mulan’ Adaptation, Set For 2020
- YouTube Beauty Stars Alissa Ashley And Cloe Feldman Sign With Abrams Artists Agency
- YouTube Yanks Horror Film Ad For Violating Its ‘Shocking Content’ Policy
- It’s Still Shockingly Easy To Buy (And Sell) Fake YouTube Views
- The Flourishing Business of Fake YouTube Views: Plays can be bought for pennies and delivered in bulk, inflating videos’ popularity and making the social media giant vulnerable to manipulation.
- Susan Sarandon-Starrer ‘Viper Club’ Is YouTube’s First Film To Get A Theatrical Release
- SAG-AFTRA National Director Wants To Protect Online Creators, Says Industry Is “Very Unfair And Unbalanced”
- Posting on Social Media? What #paid influencers need to know
- Ad Standards: Influencer Marketing Steering Committee Disclosure Guidelines
- #Infringement – How social media dealt a blow to Nike’s latest marketing campaign
- Lele Pons Signs With Universal Music Group’s 10:22 pm Label
- PopSugar Earns the Ire of Two New Fashionistas
- NBCUniversal To Release Streaming Service ‘Watch Back,’ Which Rewards Viewers For Engaging
- ‘Star Wars’ Series For Disney’s Upcoming Streaming Platform To Cost A Reported $100 Million
- The Roku Channel is now available on the Web without a Roku device
- Ninja Says He Won’t Stream With Other Women In Order To Preserve His Marriage
- Lele Pons Inks Record Deal With Universal Music Group Imprint ‘10:22 pm’
- What Am I Worth to Advertisers? My Obsessive Quest to Put a Price on My Attention
- Honey Badger Don’t Care, but the Lanham Act Might
- Interacting With This Therapy Bot Can Help Children With Autism Perfect Their Social Skills
- Watch A Sporty AI Teach Itself To Dribble Better Than You
- AI Can Make Sure Cancer Patients Get Just Enough (but Not Too Much) Treatment
- AI Is Shining a Spotlight on Women Scientists That Were Previously Overlooked
- Helping Global Policymakers Navigate AI’s Challenges and Opportunities
- Sophia the Robot – her charm and her challenges
- Alexa and Cortana integration starts rolling out today
- I Tried Apple’s Screen Time Tool. The Results Were Not Heartening.
- Maybe MoviePass Shouldn’t Compare Itself To Uber
- It’s Time to Let MoviePass Die
- Scientists Knew Blue Light From Screens Contributed to Blindness. Now They Know Why.
- The Uncertain Future of Screens and Humans
- The California Consumer Privacy Act Should Be Condemned, Not Celebrated
- An Update on the Constitutional Court Challenge to FOSTA–Woodhull Freedom v. US
- Prisons Switch Device Providers; Render $11.3 Million Of Inmate-Purchased Music Worthless
- General Magic—how tech superfriends assembled, dreamt up smartphones, and failed
CREATIVITY
- One-Sided Story: Lobbyist Data Shows Music, Movie and Publisher Groups Account For 80 Per cent of Registered Copyright Meetings in Canada Since 2015 Election
- Disney Takes Stand Against “Overzealous Copyright Holders”
- Irony Alert: Disney (Yes, DISNEY!) Whines About ‘Overzealous Copyright Holders’
- Disney Gets Early Loss In Trademark, Copyright Suit Against Unlicensed Birthday Party Characters
- Two skyline photo cases, two different results
- Ferrari Crashes Head-On Into Infringement Suit
- Aloha Poke Co. Rewarded For Trademark Bullying With Protests Outside Its Headquarters In Chicago
- Bruce Lee’s Estate Gets Stiff Roundhouse Kick After Trying To Block Theater Company’s Trademark
- The free speech panic: how the right concocted a crisis: Snowflake students have become the target of a new rightwing crusade. But exaggerated claims of censorship reveal a deeper anxiety at the core of modern conservatism
- Blame Rupert Murdoch for Trump Calling Journalists ‘Enemies of the People’: Fox News made the president, and there is no doubt about the man who made Fox News what it is.
- Dinesh D’Souza and the Decline of Conservatism
- Ivanka Trump apparently really hated that SNL “Complicit” ad
- School Board Demands Journalists Be Punished For Reporting On The School Board’s Redaction Failure
- Broward County School Board Gets Hit With Anti-SLAPP Suit After Trying To Punish Paper For Exposing Its Redaction Failure
- Copyright in Cream Cheese
- Hall v. Author Solutions LLC
- Disney Enterprises, Inc. v. Characters for Hire, LLC
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- When Did Ajit Pai Know?
- On Thursday, Ajit Pai Has To Explain Why His FCC Made Up A DDOS Attack And Lied To Congress
- Ajit Pai grilled by lawmakers on why FCC spread “myth” of DDoS attack
- Ajit Pai Does Something Right, Will Reform Stupid Utility Pole Rules To Speed Up Fiber Deployment
- Ajit Pai loses in court—FCC can’t kill broadband subsidy in Tribal areas
- Court Rejects Ajit Pai’s Bid To Reduce Broadband Subsidies For Tribal Areas
- Oh Look, Yet More Efforts To Strangle Broadband Competition
- The Sinclair/Tribune Merger Is Dead
- Tribune calls off merger, blasts Sinclair for circumventing FCC rules
- Tribune Kills Merger, Sues Sinclair For Its ‘Unnecessarily Aggressive’ Merger Sales Pitch
- FCC says court made error in approval of AT&T/Time Warner merger
- Third Comcast Website Flaw Exposes User Data In As Many Months
- Telus vs. Telus: Who Do You Believe on Wireless Competition in Canada?
- Speedier broadband standards? Pai’s FCC says 25Mbps is fast enough
- A Community-Run ISP Is the Highest Rated Broadband Company in America: A Consumer Reports survey of 176,000 Americans finds that small, locally owned ISPs are routinely ranked higher than big telecom companies.
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- We’re Bad At Regulating Privacy, Because We Don’t Understand Privacy
- Brief To FISA Court Says The Presumption Of Openness Should Apply There, Too
- Judge Bypasses The First Amendment, Conjures Up A Right To Be Forgotten For The Complainant
- AP Exclusive: Google tracks your movements, like it or not
- Google May Still Be Tracking You, Even If You Opted Out
- In-vehicle wireless devices are endangering emergency first responders
- Australian gov’t wants to force tech firms to weaken crypto
- Australian law could force tech firms to hand over customer data: Companies like Facebook, Apple and Google could face a $7.3 million fine if they don’t.
- Australian Gov’t Floats New Batch Of Compelled Access Legislation With An Eye On Encryption
- Malware has no trouble hiding and bypassing macOS user warnings
- A New Pacemaker Hack Puts Malware Directly On The Device
- Hack causes pacemakers to deliver life-threatening shocks
- In-the-wild router exploit sends unwitting users to fake banking site
- Hackers Find Earth’s Satellite Communication Systems Aren’t All That Secure
- Hackers Reportedly Breach PGA Servers, Demand Bitcoin Ransom
- Bitcoin and ether are both down more than two-thirds from their peaks
- Hacking A Brand New Mac Remotely, Right Out Of The Box
- Pre-Teen Hackers Prove It: The U.S. Election System Simply Isn’t Secure Enough
- Facial Recognition Tool That Tracks People Across Social Media Now Available to Hackers
- Windows 10 to get disposable sandboxes for dodgy apps
- Caesars Palace not-so-Praetorian guards intimidate DEF CON goers with searches [Updated]
GAMES
- Bethesda defends legal action against man selling pre-owned copy of Evil Within 2: Publisher says sale of sealed and unopened games still constitutes unauthorised reselling if listed as new
- Bethesda hits Amazon seller with legal threat over reselling pre-owned game as ‘new’
- Bethesda reluctant to bring Elder Scrolls: Legends to systems that don’t offer cross-play
- Bethesda pressures Sony with “non-negotiable” cross-platform demand [Updated]
- Lawsuit threat shuts down ROM downloads on major emulation site
- Devs corroborate claims of sexist culture as Riot looks for way forward
- Ex-Naughty Dog dev explores the perks of a studio devoid of ‘dedicated management’
- Former IGN Reviewer Responds To Plagiarism Allegations: ‘Not At All Intentional’
- IGN Pulls Ex-Editor’s Posts After Dozens More Plagiarism Accusations Surface
- IGN pulls all of writer’s work after plagiarism scandal: Further evidence of former employee’s wrong-doing prompts gaming site to scrub him from the archives
- Germany relaxes regulations on Nazi imagery in video games
- Germany relaxes stance on Nazi symbols in video games: Like films, games featuring “unconstitutional” symbols can now be submitted for age-rating in Germany
- “Flooding the market with Nazi symbols is not something we want”: Game MD Felix Falk on the long struggle to allow games tackling Nazism and its imagery to be rated in Germany, and the responsibility of being part of “the social discourse”
- Germany says games with Nazi symbols can get “artistic” exception to ban
- Video Games In Germany Can Now Maybe Kinda Sometimes Have Swastikas
- “Games need to take more responsibility”: Nick Button-Brown talks about making kids games when 11-year-olds are playing Grand Theft Auto, and how the industry needs to embrace its social responsibility
- Ready at Dawn shuts down Deformers servers
- Growth of Chinese market slows to a crawl amid halt on government-issued licences: Market growth down to five per cent for first half of 2018, compared to nearly 30 per cent the year prior
- New initiative aiming to boost diversity among games industry speakers
- Over a year later, South Korean devs still aren’t allowed to publish games in China
- Korean devs have been unable to publish in China since March 2017: Meanwhile, Chinese developers continue to push aggressively into Korea
- China has quietly stopped approving new games for release
- Monster Hunter: World pulled from sale in China – WeGame cites “large number of complaints” though FT report suggests “bureaucratic infighting”
- Tencent has pulled Monster Hunter: World from sale in China
- Monster Hunter World PC release pulls in record number of concurrent Steam users
- Monster Hunter: World debuts on PC, becomes Steam’s biggest new launch of 2018
- Mobile-focused Tencent is reportedly on the outs with Riot
- Tencent reports decrease in PC and mobile revenue despite rising DAUs
- Discord turns retailer with beta launch of game storefront
- Publishing platforms need policies around not-for-profit game devs
- Games4EU launches, highlights Brexit’s negative impact on UK games industry
- Anti-Brexit group Games4EU launches campaign: Grassroots movements aims to demonstrate the damage leaving the European Union will do to the UK games industry
- Culture clash: Why Arena of Valor is struggling in America – Mintegral’s Jeff Sue sees the Western version of Tencent’s Honor of Kings as a game “lost in translation”
- Tencent’s mobile games revenues drop, but daily users are on the rise
- Fortnite Didn’t Do Anything New. That’s Why It Will Shape The Future Of Gaming.
- Fortnite devs working to segregate keyboard/mouse players
- Proposed Fortnite changes aim to group mouse-and-keyboard players together
- Google Play warns searchers that Fortnite “is not available”
- Google Play searches now warn that Fortnite isn’t hosted in the store
- Fortnite on Android gets off to a bumpy, Samsung-only start, lags behind PUBG
- Jagex launches publishing arm: “We’ve already seen 100 games”: Jagex Partners will focus on ‘a handful’ of live games to begin with
- RuneScape dev forms Jagex Partners to take on publishing live games
- EA’s chief design officer Patrick Soderlund is stepping down
- Patrick Söderlund leaves Electronic Arts after 12 years: Publisher reshuffling teams as long-serving exec makes surprise departure
- Madden NFL franchise reaches 130m lifetime sales: EA reports “strong opening weekend” for Madden 19
- Pete Hines says cross-platform play a necessity for The Elder Scrolls: Legends: Bethesda VP calls feature “essentially non-negotiable” in bringing the game to new platforms
- ZeniMax-owned Escalation Studios is now Bethesda Game Studios Dallas
- Fallout 76 avoiding Steam so Bethesda can form ‘direct relationships’ with players
- Jam City’s Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery clears $50 million in revenue
- Sensor Tower: Harry Potter Hogwarts Mystery revenue surpasses $55m – First-time downloads continue to rise noticeably through July
- Phoenix Point crowdfunding breaks $2 million – here’s how it was done: Snapshot Games explains how $250,000 on advertising drove almost $1.2 million in revenue
- DLC: Can games change people’s minds? – Developers behind Wolfenstein The New Colossus, Night in the Woods, and Katamary Damacy share whether their message-laden games impacted the audience
- PlayStation consoles surpass 500 million sold worldwide: And Sony is celebrating with a fancy PS4
- Ubisoft quietly ends development on planned Steep Switch release
- Steep canceled on Nintendo Switch: Ubisoft to focus on “new live content and challenges” for current platforms
- Diablo III’s Switch version leaked ahead of official unveil, coming “2018” [Updated]
- Nintendo narrows down Switch Online launch to the ‘second half of September’
- Nintendo Switch Online coming in “the second half” of September: The Switch’s delayed online service gets its most specific launch window to date
- Nintendo Switch ‘Test VR Mode’ Reportedly Uncovered by Modders
- Nintendo has sold over 700 million total hardware units: Switch sales inch closer to 20 million, 3DS nears 73 million units
- Nintendo Using Copyright To Erase Video Game History
- GameMaker Studio 2 now offers Switch support in open beta
- One month in, Pokemon Quest has brought in over $8 million on mobile
- Cuphead sells over 3M copies nearly a year after launch
- Paradox Interactive’s record Q2 revenues marred by declining profits: Royalty payments to third-party devs and two cancelled projects dragged on the Swedish publisher’s bottom line
- Midnight Hub shuts down: Swedish studio calls it quits after Lake Ridden sees sluggish sales despite “the best launch imaginable”
- Sekai Project hit by significant layoffs: CEO confirms “many” of its staff have been let go, employee reports suggest entire LA office has been closed
- Sumo: “Constraining Eve Valkyrie devs to VR would be the wrong thing to do”
- Magic Leap One Hands-on Suggests a Headset That’s a Lot Like HoloLens
- Valve seems to be working on tools to get Windows games running on Linux
- Valve tells Dota 2 teams not to take on gambling sponsors: Professional teams competing in The International 2018 advised to end existing long-term contracts
- Inaugural Overwatch League final pulls in nearly 11m viewers: OWL final sets precedent as first live esports event to be aired on prime time ESPN
- Overwatch League reportedly adding Toronto team for $35 million: Splyce to partner with OverActive Media, Pittsburgh Penguins investor
- The Strong museum’s eGameRevolution exhibit now features a Wargaming collection
- Twitch Unveils “Several Big Discovery Changes,” Nixes Playlist-Like ‘Communities’ Feature
- Twitch Is Approaching Top YouTube Stars With Exclusive Livestreaming Deals Potentially Worth Millions (Report)
- How IGN is using Fortnite and Marvel to grow on Snapchat Discover
- GOG: Streaming is another layer of DRM – Head of global communication Lukasz Kukawski says streaming won’t take over game distribution, talks about storefront’s approach to discoverability and audience expansion
- Whole new worlds: Improbable’s tech lets smaller studios think big – With Mavericks and Seed, Automaton and Klang Games are using SpatialOS to redefine what it means to be massively multiplayer
- This isn’t a game: We try out a professional driver-in-the-loop simulator
- After 14 years, the biggest obstacle for World of Warcraft is time, not technology: Blizzard technical director Patrick Dawson on overcoming the challenges of continued development on an ageing MMO
- Rockstar reveals first Red Dead Redemption 2 gameplay details
- Publisher Tilting Point sets up Barcelona studio to support live mobile games
- Tilting Point opens new Barcelona studio: Mobile firm’s new outfit will focus on publishing, art and user acquisition
- Crystal Dynamics opening Washington studio: Bellevue-based Crystal Northwest formed with Wargaming Seattle veterans, set to work on tech development for upcoming Avengers game
- Epic Games launches new learning platform providing free video tutorials
- Unreal Engine Online Learning becomes new, free hub for learning Unreal: Epic Games launches platform to help train developers of all skill levels in its engine
- Slow online checkouts drive over a quarter of gamers to abandon their orders: Developers may be willing to sacrifice sales revenue for the reliability of subscription services, says SuperData
- How Neopets has influenced a generation of game developers
Jon