DIGITAL
- Blueprints For 3D Printed Guns Will Stay (Sort Of) Offline, Judge Rules
- Judge allows temporary ban on 3D-printed gun files to continue
- After court order, 3D-printed gun pioneer now sells pay-what-you-want CAD files
- Supreme Court rules ISPs entitled to recover costs of blocking websites selling counterfeit goods
- Important Appeals Court Ruling States Clearly That Merely Having An IP Address Is Insufficient For Infringement Claims
- Conservatives: Stop Crying Wolf On Tech Bias Or No One Will Ever Take You Seriously
- President Trump Accuses Google of Rigging Search Results Against Him, Calls It ‘Very Dangerous’
- Trump says he will “address” Google’s “suppressing” of conservative news [Updated]
- Google Shuts Down 39 YouTube Accounts Linked To Iranian “Influence Operation”
- Google Removes YouTube Channels and Web Accounts Tied to Iran
- Comments on Trump’s Empty Tweetstorm Threatening Social Media Providers (Eric Goldman)
- California Lawmakers Want a Study of Fake News (If Someone Else Pays for It) (Eric Goldman)
- How YouTube deals with inappropriate videos
- Significant Concerns About The New NAFTA Agreement’s Impact On Innovation And The Internet
- Five Years Later, Google Express Is No Closer to Beating Amazon
- What Amazon’s Latest Hire Says About Its Sports Broadcasting Ambitions
- Amazon may make a free, ad-supported streaming service for Fire TVs
- Amazon Pays Employees To Chirp Happily On Twitter About Wonderful Working Conditions
- Snapchat surges in popularity as people turn their backs on Facebook in the UK: Snapchat to overtake Facebook among young adults in UK by end of 2018 amid global trend for 20-somethings shunning Zuckerberg’s social network
- Facebook, Instagram to charge GST on ads by mid-2019
- Dubious Studies And Easy Headlines: No, A New Report Does Not Clearly Show Facebook Leads To Hate Crimes
- Facebook’s War on B.S. Is Not Going Well -We Talked to the Fact Checkers on the Front Lines
- Continuing charm offensive, Facebook creates tool to boost news publishers’ reach on the platform
- Facebook Bans Myanmar Leaders, Admits It Was ‘Too Slow’ to Stop Posts Promoting Genocide
- Facebook violates Apple’s data-gathering rules, pulls VPN from App Store
- Facebook Watch Rolls Out Internationally
- Alleged Facebook scammer arrested in Ecuador, will resist extradition
- Fugitive Fraudster Who Demanded Half Of Facebook Arrested After Three Years On The Run
- Facebook Watch Now Available Globally, Offering Expanded Creator Tools To More Countries
- A look inside Facebook’s efforts to expand Wi-Fi in developing countries
- Potential(ly) Reach(ing): Facebook Sued Over Inflated Audience Numbers
- Facebook’s ‘Privacy Protecting’ VPN Booted From Apple Store For Snooping Too Much
- Fake GNUs: Keep politics out of open source software licences (Andres Guadamuz)
- Danish ISPs Get Win That Could End Copyright Trolling In Denmark
- Maximum Mudslinging: How Powerful Lobby Groups Are Working to Sideline Civil Society Voices on Digital Policy (Michael Geist)
- How The EU May Be About To Kill The Public Domain: Copyright Filters Takedown Beethoven
- Honest Government Ads Takes On EU Parliament’s Plan To Censor The Internet With Article 13
- A Link Tax Won’t Bring Back Journalists; It Will Do Even More Harm To Them
- Apple confirms TV series order of Asimov’s Foundation
- Apple and Amazon Have the Most Annoying Ongoing Feud in Tech
- Insights: Amazon’s Brand Ambassadors Swear Everything’s A-OK
- Microsoft will soon automatically transcribe video files in OneDrive for Office 365 subscribers
- Running Windows 95 in an “app” is a dumb stunt that makes a good point: Software piracy remains an important part of preserving our digital heritage.
- Microsoft obliquely acknowledges Windows 0-day bug published on Twitter
- Mobile Devices and Driving in Ontario and Quebec
- Internet Content Moderation Isn’t Politically Biased, It’s Just Impossible To Do Well At Scale
- Forget About Social Media Content Moderation; Get Ready For Internet Infrastructure Content Moderation
- Can social media posts be tortious or criminal?
- Brand Partners Sever Ties With Laura Lee Following Racist Tweet Scandal
- The Scandal Enmeshing YouTube’s Beauty Community Has Hit Manny MUA With Loss Of 250,000 Subscribers
- Popular YouTuber Kills Self, Two Others In Fiery Crash
- KSI v Logan Paul: YouTube boxing fight ends in a draw
- KSI vs. Logan Paul “YouTube World Championship” Boxing Match Ends In A Draw As 784K Watch On YouTube (And A Million More Illegally)
- KSI vs Logan Paul: Who’s Got The Edge Going Into What Will Be One Of The Biggest YouTube Events Of All Time
- KSI Wants To Push Logan Paul Rematch From February To May, Envisions Setting Outside U.S.
- YouTube Stars Go Head-to-Head in Pay-Per-View Boxing Match: Two of YouTube’s biggest names opt for ticket sales over ads; Celebrities on platform are seeking new ways to make money
- Jake Paul Defeats Deji In YouTube Boxing Event, Launches Merch Line RNBO To 800,000+ Live Viewers
- No one should be surprised that pirates hijacked the Logan Paul/KSI boxing match on Twitch
- How Much Did Logan Paul And KSI Make From Their ‘YouTube World Boxing Championship’? A Lot.
- As Popularity Of Avatar YouTubers Grows In Japan, One Prefecture Gets Its Own Official ‘VTuber’
- YouTube Rolls Out New Dashboard To Tell Users Exactly How Much Time They Spend Watching Content
- Shots Studios Unveils YouTube Channel Solely Dedicated To Vertical Videos
- YouTube Rolling Out Non-Skippable Ads To All Creators Within Its Partner Program
- YouTube Starts Telling You How Much Time You’re Wasting on YouTube
- BTS Surpasses Taylor Swift To Nab Biggest 24-Hour YouTube Video Debut Of All Time
- YouTube Beauty Mogul Jeffree Star Breezes Past 10 Million Subscribers In Roughly 3 Years
- Legal concerns emerging from influencer marketing – #Sponsored
- Here’s 23,000 Ways That Branded Content Is a S**t Show
- Family Vloggers Cole And Savannah LaBrant Accused Of Staging Wildfire Evacuation For Views
- Beer Company BrewDog Debuts Streaming-Video Service in Latest Niche SVOD Move
- The Young Turks Network Lays Off Staff, Retires Entertainment Shows
- BuzzFeed News Is Asking Readers For Donations — But Has No Immediate Paywall Plans
- BuzzFeed Zeroes in on Television With Premiere of Netflix Series and Launch of Twitter-Based TV-Review Show
- Once powerful, portals fade as video-syndication revenue sources
- Netflix’s Latest Price Hike May Have Scared Away Low-Income Consumers
- Netflix Is Testing A New Payment Method That Will Cut Apple Out Of The Process
- Netflix has a great opportunity in India, says SunTrust
- Technology Is Transforming TV – 3 Things Your Business Can Learn From Netflix
- Disney Enterprises, Inc. v. VidAngel, Inc.
- Get Your MoviePass Refund Now Before the Company’s Out of Money
- Andy Signore Is Suing Defy Media For Firing Him, Says Company Fostered “Culture Of Profanity And Obscenity”
- A Harm-Reduction Framework for Algorithmic Fairness (Micah Altman, Alexandra Wood, & Effy Vayena)
- Today In Useless Surveys: Some People Want Internet Companies To Stop Filtering News And Some Don’t.
- SEC Denies Nine More Bitcoin ETF Applications
- 4 Key Takeaways from FinCEN Director’s Speech on Cryptocurrency
- Venezuela’s Oil-Backed Cryptocurrency Is Giving Blockchain A Bad Name
- China Is Serious About Cracking Down on Cryptocurrency
- $224 million sought in lawsuit against AT&T over cryptocurrency theft
- Copyright and the blockchain
- Should Evil AI Research Be Published? Five Experts Weigh In.
- Advanced Artificial Intelligence Could Run The World Better Than Humans Ever Could
- If We Ever Want Artificial General Intelligence, Governments Need To Invest In It
- Industry 4.0 and the regulation of artificial intelligence
- It’s Really Easy for Hackers to Take Control of Robots
- Self-driving cars will destroy a lot of jobs—they’ll also create a lot
- Elon Musk Claims a Tesla Semi Prototype Drove “Across the Country Alone”
- Analysis: Why Elon Musk abandoned his plan to take Tesla private
- Milan court issues dynamic blocking injunction against Italian ISPs
- The World’s First Digital Teacher Just Debuted in New Zealand
CREATIVITY
- Billionaire Steve Wynn, Who Once Tried To Kill Nevada’s Anti-SLAPP Law, Loses Defamation Case Under That Law
- More On Mass Copyright Litigation in Canada – Part I (Howard Knopf)
- Advantages Making the Federal Court of Canada an Increasingly Desirable Forum for Intellectual Property Disputes
- Top Five Reasons Why IT Companies are Coming to Canada
- Court of Appeals Finds That Digital Remasters of Pre-1972 Sound Recordings Likely Do Not Result in New Copyrighted Work That Would Bring These Songs under Federal Law – Reversing District Court Decision
- US Trade Rep Appears To Misreport Its Own Trade Agreement To Include Copyright Extension
- Gray v. Perry
- Can You Enhance That?: Copyright in Facts and Retouched Images
- Recognizing It Had No Chance, Cox Settles BMG Copyright Trolling Case
- Copyright or copyleft?
- Who should bear the cost of blocking orders for IP infringement?
- Trump’s Anti-press Rhetoric Is Dangerous, But His Actions Are Worse
- FBI refutes Trump claim that Clinton’s private email server was hacked by China
- The Oft-Forgotten Architecture of Pop Culture Franchises
- Look Before You Leap – “Weinstein Reps” in Corporate Transactions
- Nickelodeon Is Opposing A 12 Year Old New Zealand Girl’s ‘Slime’ Trademark For Some Reason
- Supreme Court Asked To Correct Appeals Court (Again) And Explain That Patentable Ideas Need To Be New
- The Story of the American Inventor Denied a Patent Because He Was a Slave
- Is the U.S. Fair Use Doctrine Compatible with Berne and TRIPS Obligations? (Pamela Samuelson & Kathryn Hashimoto)
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- FCC Approves Another Radio Station Acquisition by a Company that is 100% Foreign-Owned
- FCC can define markets with only one ISP as “competitive,” court rules
- Standard of Review: The Beginning of the End or the End of the Beginning?
- Net Neutrality Advocates, State Governments Argue Against Internet Freedom Order in D.C. Circuit Briefs
- California’s strict net neutrality bill is close to final passage
- Robocalls tell seniors net neutrality raises phone bills by $30: Robocalls spread misinformation to seniors as California votes on net neutrality.
- Big Telecom Resorts To Lying To Senior Citizens To Scuttle Net Neutrality In California
- Just Because The Internet Didn’t Implode The Day After Repeal Doesn’t Mean Killing Net Neutrality Was A Good Idea
- Comcast/Charter lobby asks FTC to preempt state broadband regulations
- Charter Spectrum Security Flaw Exposes Private Data Of Millions Of Subscribers
- FTC Hits Road Block in DIRECTV Advertising Case Seeking $3.95 Billion Remedy
- Verizon stops throttling more firefighters, plans unlimited data “with no caps”
- Verizon tries to douse criticism, touts “priority access” for first responders
- Verizon throttling could trigger FTC investigation of deceptive practices
- Don’t Hold Your Breath Waiting For The FCC, FTC To Punish Verizon For Screwing Firefighters
- Another Prison Phone Service Caught Recording Privileged Conversations And Passing Them On To Law Enforcement
- T-Mobile Begs Small Wireless Carriers To Support Its Awful Merger. The Problem: They Hate It Too
- RTL Group Sees Record Revenue for First Half of 2018: Results Fuelled by Strong Q2 Performance of FremantleMedia
- A New Book Details the Damage Done by the Right-Wing Media in 2016
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- Snoops on a Plane: Looking for Privacy in all the Wrong (Public) Places
- NSA leaker who mailed doc outlining Russian hacking gets 5 years in prison
- Reality Winner Will Spend Five Years In Jail For Leaking Info Government Officials Released Publicly
- Chinese Surveillance State Is Basically The US Surveillance Apparatus Minus The Constitutional Rights
- Woman: My iPhone was seized at border, then imaged—feds must now delete data
- American Muslim Challenges Warrantless Border Device Search From An Unexpected Legal Angle
- Indiana Appeals Court Says Forcing Someone To Unlock Their Phone Violates The 5th Amendment
- Prosecutor: Suspect must give up his phone’s passcode in fatal hazing case
- UK cops used facial recognition at show, found someone with outstanding warrant: During May 2018 event, South Wales Police false-positive rate went from 92% to 0.02%.
- Appeals Court: City-Owned Utility Pulling Electric Use Info Every 15 Minutes Is A Search
- Privacy shield team issues guidance
- Corporate Cybersecurity Is Becoming Geopolitical. Are U.S. Tech Companies Ready?
- Researchers find way to spy on remote screens—through the webcam mic
- Ron Wyden Wants The DOJ To Provide Answers On Stingray Devices’ Disruption Of Emergency Call Service
- A Tech Company Wants to Implant GPS Trackers in Dementia Patients
- Warning Kids About Digital Privacy Doesn’t Work. Here’s What Does.
- Bridging The Gap Between Computer Science and Legal Approaches To Privacy (Kobbi Nissim, Aaron Bembenek, Alexandra Wood, Mark Bun, Marco Gaboardi, Urs Gasser, David R. O’Brien, Thomas Steinke, & Salil Vadhan)
GAMES
- Shooter opens fire at Jacksonville Madden tournament
- Mass Shooting At Madden Tournament In Florida
- Competitive Gamers Eli Clayton And Taylor Robertson Killed In Jacksonville Shooting
- Victims of Jacksonville shooting were members of competitive Madden community: Elijah ‘TrueBoy’ Clayton and Taylor ‘SpotMePlzz’ Robertson were killed at a Madden Championship Series tournament last weekend
- EA cancels remaining Madden qualifiers in wake of shooting
- EA cancels Madden competitions after shooting: CEO Andrew Wilson honors slain players, cancels three remaining qualifiers for Madden Classic competitions
- Flordia AG Somehow Pivots To The Danger Of Video Games After The Latest Florida Shooting
- PAX organizers issue official statement after shooting at Madden Championship Series event: “We have in place extensive proactive measures” to ensure safety at PAX West, future events
- Riot Games outlines plan for culture change in wake of workplace sexism allegations: Company promises action steps such as third-party evaluations, anonymous hotline, reevaluation of recruiting practices, and new HR hires
- Battle Chef Brigade dev warns against putting work first
- Weather Factory launches Coven Club to help connect women in games
- Nintendo files takedown notice against Pokemon fan game creation tool
- Nintendo shuts down tool used to build Pokémon fan games
- Nintendo orders takedown of fan game maker Pokémon Essentials: Decade-old asset kit for RPG Maker pulled, along with wiki on how to develop with it
- Ever wanted to see “beyond” the NES game screen? With WideNES, you can
- Artists Heading to Dungeons & Dragons Session Say ICE Detained Them, Would Not Allow Them Entry to U.S.
- 2K Games alters NBA 2K MyTeam mode to comply with Belgian loot box laws: Publisher also removes premium currency card packs from Dutch version, “disagrees with this position” in both nations
- Blizzard removes paid loot boxes and loot chests for players in Belgium
- Blizzard locks sale of real money loot boxes in Belgium: Overwatch and Heroes of the Storm join growing list of games forced to halt sale of loot boxes by Belgian authorities
- Denuvo Announces Plan To Fail To Combat Online Game Cheaters After Failing To Stop Piracy With Its DRM
- Denuvo: “There is no uncrackable game. What we do is protect the initial sales” – Anti-tamper tech is far from iron-clad, but pirates are only willing to wait so long for a cracked game
- Denuvo rolling out anti-cheat software: DRM firm plans to prevent players unbalancing multiplayer games and bypassing microtransactions
- GameStop shares plummet as buyout deal fails to materialise: With no sign of retailer’s troubles abating, shares fall 9.9 per cent
- Post Valve’s ‘Hands Off’ Games Curation Announcement, Everything Is A Mess
- Report: Analyzing player preferences from the US games market
- Superdata: No Man’s Sky flies once more as Fortnite begins to flag – July digital games market report shows Epic’s battle royale nonetheless continues to drive growth
- Fortnite dev Epic offers in-game reward for players that turn on 2FA
- Google spots security vulnerability in Epic-hosted FortniteAndroid installer
- Google discloses vulnerability in Fortnite launcher that allowed possible malware installation: Epic Games has since fixed the exploit, but CEO Tim Sweeney calls Google disclosure “irresponsible”
- Fortnite’s Android vulnerability leads to Google/Epic Games spat
- Daybreak Games closing down Just Survive servers in October
- Publisher 505 Games takes over support of Roll7’s Laser League
- NPD: $19.5bn spent on video games in US during first half of 2018 – Hardware spending reaches seven-year high, with Xbox One and SNES Classic cited as highlights
- NPD: Fortnite, PUBG help push U.S. game spending up 40%
- UK Charts: F1 2018, Shenmue depose Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy – Activision Blizzard’s nostalgic platformer finally drops to No.3 after eight weeks in the top spot
- Tomb Raider overshadows EMEAA game charts: Upcoming release bolsters Rise of the Tomb Raider, Tomb Raider into top ten
- NPD: Octopath Traveler leads continued Switch success in July – Nintendo published half of July’s top 10 best selling software titles
- Examining why Switch games cost more than their PC counterparts
- Switch checks off its indie-game wishlist with Into the Breach, Towerfall
- Nintendo rolls out indie-focused Switch news channel
- The 10 secrets to indie game success (and why they do not exist)
- Game Marketing 101: How to make games and stay afloat
- Microsoft reportedly bundling console, Gold and Game Pass into Xbox All Access service
- Microsoft is about to announce Xbox All Access subscription
- Report: New Microsoft subscription service will include an Xbox One, Xbox Live, and Game Pass
- Report: “Xbox All Access” to offer free hardware with two-year agreement
- “Xbox All Access” offers free hardware up front with two-year subscription
- Xbox All Access bundles a console, Live, and Game Pass for 24 monthly payments
- Microsoft announces Xbox All Access: 24-month payment program gets users an Xbox One, Xbox Live, and Game Pass sans up-front payment
- “We don’t see a future where subscriptions are dominant” – Microsoft: Xbox Game Pass heads say player feedback shows they prefer a service with a smaller number of quality titles to one with thousands of games
- Why Xbox bought Ninja Theory: Microsoft explains why mid-sized studios are important to its Game Pass subscription service
- Playstation Vue expands its lineup with 200 more local channels
- Review: Yakuza Kiwami 2 gets cleaned up for PS4
- Blog: Where’s my money, dude? What Steam is silent about
- Dota 2 International 2019 moves to Shanghai: First time the championship has been held outside of North America since the 2011 debut
- Pro Gamers Fend Off Elon Musk-Backed AI Bots – For Now
- Twitter Sets Pact With Overwatch League for Highlights, Weekly Show: Deal for esports content runs through end of 2019
- Riot Games details steps forward after workplace toxicity allegations
- Riot Games ‘a long way’ from breaking even in esports
- Riot Games “a long way from breaking even” on esports investment: Head of global esports events explains company’s decision to cut costs, focus investments over next three years
- Newzoo: Mobile esports seeing windows of opportunity open – Better hardware, Eastern popularity are driving slow but steady growth of large-scale, competitive play
- It’s Time for an ‘Overwatch’ Battle Pass
- Miyamoto: Game devs must avoid becoming reliant on free-to-play
- iFixit dissects the $2,299 Magic Leap One so you don’t have to: Glue barriers, fragile components drop mixed-reality set’s “repairability score.”
- Twitch Embraces Nostalgia Again With Pokemon TV And Movie Marathons
- Creators Going Pro: How Logdotzip Turned A Passion For Gaming At 14 Into A 10-Person Business A Decade Later
- GoldenEye 007 gets quite the 21st-birthday present: An oral history
- Riot using League of Legends to drive blood donations in the Netherlands
- Riot Games partners with blood bank to promote donation in the Netherlands: League of Legends players who donate blood through Sanquin will receive an in-game skin
- Why From Software chose Activision to publish Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice – “When From Software knocks on your door and says ‘hey, we wanna make a game,’ you have only one answer right?”
- How World of Warcraft helped Epidemiologists create better disease models
- Battle for Azeroth is the fastest-selling World of Warcraft expansion: Day-one global sales surpass 3.4 million
- Battle for Azeroth beats out past World of Warcraftexpansions in day-one sales
- World of Warcraft devs explore the history of the long-running MMO
- Reinventing God of War was a battle against doubt
- Assassin’s Creed’s gap year could start a trend
- Whoa, There’s Gonna Be A Streets Of Rage 4
- Taking on Madden as an option instead of a Hail Mary: Solo developer David Winter is building a business with simulation football games catering to audiences unserved by EA’s juggernaut
- Why Velocity Supernova needs a publisher – but is struggling to find one: FuturLab’s James Marsden delves deeper into the difficulties getting a Velocity 2X sequel signed, despite an audience of millions
- Oculus Founder Serves up Scathing Review of Magic Leap One, Calling It A “Tragic Heap”
- Hands-on: Upcoming VR Shooter ‘Telefrag’ Boasts Impossible, Escher-style Arenas
- Orpheus to bring suite of “self-care entertainment” games to VR: New publishing venture focused on games with positive impact on player well-being
- Gamescom sets another record for attendance: But with 370,000 visitors, venue management admit to congestion issues
- Gamescom 18 boasts 15,000 jump in attendees at record 370,000
- Portal was a classic from out of nowhere – Why I Love: YoYo Games’ Russell Kay remembers how The Orange Box toss-in stole the whole Half-Life show
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