News of the Week; June 19, 2019

DIGITAL

1. UK makes ‘first’ conviction over 3-D printed gun
2. Browsewrap Terms Enforced Due to Customer Knowledge of Existence of Terms 
3. New Zealand judge sends neo-Nazi to prison for sharing mosque shooting video: Sharing the video is illegal in NZ and “encourages mass murder,” judge says.
4. New Zealand Man Gets 21 Months In Prison For Sharing Footage Of The Christchurch Shooting
5. FBI Serves Incredibly Broad Warrant To 8chan, Demanding Info On All Users Who Responded To A Shooter’s Post
6. Supreme Court Signals Loud And Clear That Social Media Sites Are Not Public Forums That Have To Allow All Speech
7. 60% of British adults and 80% of young teenagers suffered harm online in the last 12 months – the UK debate about the need to regulate the internet continues apace 
8. Douez v Facebook gives existing class actions green light to grow under new opt-out rules 
9. Bodies In Seats: At Facebook’s worst-performing content moderation site in North America, one contractor has died, and others say they fear for their lives
10. Inside the German antitrust plan to destroy Facebook’s data monopoly: Quietly but effectively, the Bundeskartellamt is landing some serious blows against big tech
11. With cryptocurrency launch, Facebook sets its path toward becoming an independent nation
12. Facebook launches cryptocurrency with Visa, MasterCard, Uber, and others
13. Regulating UK digital services – the British government shares its thoughts 
14. The Online Harms White Paper: Who will regulate the internet, and how? 
15. The Online Harms White Paper: Is technology the answer? 
16. Russia warns of “cyberwar” following report the US attacked its power grid
17. Russia To Ban VPN Providers That Refuse To Aid Censorship
18. Congress, Regulators, and Justice Department Gear Up to Investigate “Big Tech,” But Focus and Scope Under Current Law Remains Unclear 
19. Investigating Big Tech! 
20. There Are Lots Of Ways To Punish Big Tech Companies, But Only A Few Will Actually Help Improve The Internet
21. Co-opting digital companies into tax law enforcement
22. Content Moderation Is Impossible: You Can’t Expect Moderators To Understand Satire Or Irony
23. Once More With Feeling: There Is No Legal Distinction Between A ‘Platform’ And A ‘Publisher’
24. Site-Blocking In Australia Expanded Again To Include 105 More Sites, Including A Search Engine
25. The Flipside To Figuring Out What Content Do You Block: Cloudflare’s Project Galileo Focuses On Who It Should Protect
26. Cloudflare aims to make HTTPS certificates safe from BGP hijacking attacks
27. Blockchain company and CEO to pay over $1M for misleading investors 
28. Facebook Just Blindfolded War Crimes Investigators | Opinion
29. Facebook backs social commerce startup Meesho in first India investment
30. Facebook confirms it will launch a cryptocurrency called Libra in 2020: The effort is supported by Mastercard and Visa, among dozens of other partners
31. Facebook announces Libra cryptocurrency: All you need to know: The use cases, technology and motive behind the new digital money
32. Facebook’s cryptocurrency to debut next week backed by Visa, Mastercard, Uber, and others: WSJ – An unveiling is expected next week, with a launch to follow in 2020
33. Report claims Spotify is backing Facebook’s new cryptocurrency
34. Locksmiths locked out of lawsuit against search engines 
35. J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot may sign an exclusive deal with AT&T’s WarnerMedia for $500 million: A massive deal for WarnerMedia heading into the streaming wars
36. The Tor Browser Afforded CDA Immunity for Dark Web Transactions 
37. Court Says Section 230 Shields Twitter From Revenge Porn Bro’s Stupid Lawsuit
38. Twitter Gets Another Significant Section 230 Win in Lawsuit by Suspended User–Murphy v. Twitter (Eric Goldman)
39. Congress Now Creating A Moral Panic Around Deepfakes In Order To Change CDA 230
40. How 13 Became the Internet’s Age of Adulthood: The inside story of COPPA, a law from the early days of e-commerce that is shaping a generation and creating a parental minefield
41. Anonymous Online Speech: Considerations for Victims and Speakers
42. Google CEO Apologizes To LGBTQ+ Staffers After YouTube Firestorm: “You Are A Source Of Pride For Us”
43. YouTube weighs changes to how it handles children’s content
44. YouTube Considering Moving All Children’s Content To ‘Kids’ App As Sundar Pichai Becomes More Involved In Day-To-Day Decision-Making (Report)
45. Former Clevver Hosts Joslyn Davis And Lily Marston Launch Female-Centric YouTube Upstart
46. YouTuber Elijah Daniel Rents, Renames Michigan Town “Gay Hell” In Protest Of Trump
47. YouTube’s AR ads let you try on virtual makeup alongside beauty vloggers
48. Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 6/17/2019
49. YouTube’s Kirsten Dunst Series ‘On Becoming A God In Central Florida’ Moves To Showtime
50. YouTube Teams With Universal Music To Remaster Hundreds Of Iconic Music Videos
51. After Busy One-Month Hiatus, James Charles Makes Grand Return To YouTube
52. Kim Kardashian Deep Fake Video Removed By Copyright Claim
53. PewDiePie Mulls The Relative Decline Of His Channel, Says Taking A Break Could “Kill” It
54. Even Yoginis Must Comply with the Endorsement Guides
55. NAD Not Influenced by Verification Platform’s Claims 
56. Kayla Itsines, Jeffree Star, Eugene Lee Yang Named Most Influential Influencers (Study)
57. Writer-Director And Trans Activist Janet Mock Inks Multimillion-Dollar Netflix Deal
58. Netflix is going to get ads sooner or later, say executives from Hulu and NBC
59. Cinematographer-Influencer Hunter Moreno Launches Merch Line At Urban Outfitters
60. VidCon Will Venture To Mexico For First Latin American Convention In 2020
61. Vice Media Digital Makeover Triggers Traffic Slide: April free fall follows closure of partner-traffic program, but company attributes drop to temporary lull in content output
62. Vevo Ups Music Video Consumption 140%
63. Hannah Hart, Todrick Hall Among LGBTQ+ Celebs In Taylor Swift’s “You Need To Calm Down” Video
64. Spotify now allows advertisers to specifically target podcast listeners: The podcast ad targeting begins
65. Pandora now has its own ‘audio consultancy’ for advertisers
66. Lyrics Site Accuses Google of Lifting Its Content: Genius says it can prove lyrics from its site are appearing in Google search information panels—by examining the apostrophes
67. Dumbest ‘Gotcha’ Story Of The Week: Google, Genius And The Copying Of Licensed Lyrics
68. Genius hid a Morse code message in song lyrics to prove Google was copying them
69. Genius/Google Dispute Gets Even Dumber: Microsoft And Amazon Show Same ‘Coded’ Lyrics, But Genius Doesn’t Care
70. Google is ending the integration between Drive and Photos
71. Google’s ninth attempt at a messaging service will be based on RCS
72. Eugene Lee Yang’s Coming Out Video Has Raised $60,000 For The Trevor Project
73. Jaclyn Hill Refutes Accusations That Her New Brand Is Vending Moldy Lipsticks
74. Quibi Has Sold $100 Million In Upfront Ads To P&G, Pepsi, Walmart
75. Quibi Taps Tyra Banks For Docuseries Dissecting Global Beauty Standards
76. Snapchat Renews Two Originals From Vertical Networks, Overtime (Exclusive)
77. Distributor DistroKid steps up its fight against fake uploaders
78. Target’s same-day deliveries might break my Amazon Prime addiction
79. Shopify going head-to-head with Amazon, spending $1 billion on fulfilment network: Fulfilment network aims to provide two-day shipping within 99% of United States
80. Domino’s Petitions Supreme Court for Review of Unfavorable Website Accessibility Decision
81. DSM Directive Series #6: ‘hyperlinking’ in the press publishers’ right (Eleonora Rosati)
82. Polish Government’s Legal Challenge To EU Copyright Directive’s Article 13/17 Remains Shrouded In Mystery, But Details May Not Matter
83. Prenda Mastermind Gets 14 Years In Prison, Told To Pay Back Just $1.5 Million
84. Legal Aspects of Cloud Computing: Cloud Contracting
85. Illinois Regulates the Use of AI in Video Interviews 
86. Experts: Spy used AI-generated face to connect with targets
87. This Marketing Blog Does Not Exist: An AI Generated Marketing Blog by Fractl
88. The fourth Industrial revolution emerges from AI and the Internet of Things
89. We won’t be listening to music in a decade according to Vinod Khosla
90. AI Can Thrive in Open Societies: The belief that China’s surveillance gives it an advantage is misleading – and dangerous.
91. Forget About Fake News, How About Fake People? California Starts Regulating Bots as of July 1, 2019
92. China‘s Social Credit System: Seeing Like an Authoritarian State (Cristie Ford)
93. Huawei bracing for a 40% to 60% drop in international smartphone shipments
94. Huawei export ban claims another victim: Huawei’s $2,600 foldable smartphone
95. Huawei Now Using Patent Claims To Demand $1 Billion From Verizon, As The US Tries To Chase Huawei Out Of The US Market
96. The north face’s wikipedia stunt goes south

COMMUNICATIONS

1.  Bell and Telus beef up data plans after Rogers sparks ‘unlimited’ price war
2. Message Received: Why Unlimited Wireless Plans Show Government’s Emphasis on New Competition is Being Heard (Michael Geist)
3. Shockingly, Cable TV and Broadband Customer Satisfaction Is Still The Worst In America
4. None Of The Claimed Benefits Of Killing Net Neutrality Ever Arrived
5. AT&T cuts another 1,800 jobs as it finishes fiber-Internet buildout
6. AT&T Lays Off Thousands After Nabbing Billions In Tax Breaks And Regulatory Favors
7. No state action in administering public-access cable channels
8. Supreme Court Holds that Private Entity Operating Public-Access Television Channel Is Not A Government Actor Subject to the First Amendment
9. US Attorneys and FCC Combine to Shut Down Pirate Radio Station
10. Starry aims to bring its $50, 200Mbps broadband to 25 more US states
11. FCC Pats Itself On The Back For ‘New’ Robocall Plan That Isn’t New, Has No Real Teeth
12. Ajit Pai says NOAA and NASA are wrong about 5G harming weather forecasts 
13. The 2.5 GHz Band: No Longer Just for Education 
14. Study finds that a GPS outage would cost $1 billion per day
15. Comcast Forgets To Delete Evidence It’s Using Evil Fansubs In Its Streaming Service
16. Cable companies can save money now that DOCSIS 3.1 upgrade is mostly done
17. TCPA Class Action Update: Dish Network on the Hook for $61 Million for Third-Party Agent’s TCPA Violation
18. TCPA Legislative Update: Senate Passes TRACED Act and Works on More Robocall Legislation
19. Preparing for the 2020 Elections – Our Updated Political Broadcasting Guide
20. Doing Business in Canada 2019: Information and Communications Technology

PRIVACY

1. Florida city pays $600,000 ransom to save computer records
2. Oracle issues emergency update to patch actively exploited WebLogic flaw
3. Apple Accused of Unlawfully Disclosing Users’ iTunes Data
4. Canada’s New Digital Charter and What this Means for PIPEDA
5. Combatting cyber threats: CSE releases new baseline cybersecurity controls
6. La Liga Fined 250K Euros For Using Mobile App To Try To Catch 3rd Party Pirates
7. Privacy Shield: If You Got It – Flaunt It; If Not – Don’t
8. Samsung’s security reminder makes the case for not owning a Samsung smart TV: Run a virus scan ‘every few weeks,’ it says
9. Samsung asks users to please virus-scan their TVs
10. We’re Apparently Scanning Our TVs For Viruses Now
11. For the industrial Internet of Things, defense in depth is a requirement
12. Radiohead Responds To Extortionate Hacker By Releasing Hacked Recordings For Charity
13. Hackers behind dangerous oil and gas intrusions are probing US power grids
14. Securing The Nation With Insecure Databases: CBP Vendor Hacked, Exposing Thousands Of License Plate, Car Passenger Photos
15. Privacy Matters: A Website Privacy Policy is Good Governance
16. Internet of Things – A Fast Forward to the Future 
17. Maine’s New Internet Privacy Law: What You Need to Know
18. Nevada Passes Online Consumer Privacy Legislation
19. Conduct business in Nevada? If so, be aware that a new Nevada law gives consumers the right to opt-out of the sale of their personal information
20. Recent Developments in Consumer Privacy Legislation and Cybersecurity Practices
21. Data protection in investigations
22. Doing Business in Canada 2019: Privacy and Anti-Spam Laws

CREATIVITY

1. The LawBytes Podcast, Episode 16: The Copyright Review Report – Carys Craig on the Roadmap for the Future of Canadian Copyright Law (Michael Geist)
2. Appeals Court To Rehear Case On ‘Stairway To Heaven’ Copyright Infringement Questions
3. Pepe The Frog Creator, Infowars Both Claim Victory After $15k Copyright Settlement
4. Wedding photographers and copyright – what’s your position?
5. Retailers: beware the ban on gender stereotyping 
6. No pictures, please: Scotland v England as a forum for defamation cases
7. ‘Star Trek’ Logo Spotted on Mars
8. Copyright First Sale Doctrine & Patent Exhaustion Prevent Equitable Estoppel Defenses
9. Canada’s trademark changes mean higher fees, more complexities in filing: Amendments are intended to modernize Canada’s intellectual property framework
10. Adidas loses EU bid to extend three-stripe trademark
11. Adidas loses three-stripe trademark battle in European court: Logo first registered on a football boot in 1949 was not ‘distinctive’ enough, says court
12. adidas AG & Marques v. EUIPO (Judgment Of The General Court, 19 June 2019)
13. Domain Name Law

GAMES

1. The creator of ‘Pokémon Go’ is suing an ‘association of hackers’ that it says helps players cheat at its games
2. Niantic is suing Global++ over modified Pokemon Go,Ingress apps
3. Niantic files lawsuit against “hacker” group: Global ++ has allegedly created derivative apps based on Ingress, Pokémon Go and Harry Potter Wizards Unite
4. From Pokémon to Harry Potter: Niantic’s hopes for Wizards Unite
5. Niantic has acquired Beasts of Balance developer Sensible Object
6. Twitch Sues Troll Streamers Over Violent Videos, Pornography
7. Twitch sues users who posted porn, racism, and more to Artifact stream page
8. Twitch Suing 100 Users Who Spammed ‘Artifact’ Game Category With Pornographic And Violent Content
9. Twitch sues unknown parties over flood of explicit videos on Artifact streams
10. EA praises its own ‘ethical, fun, and enjoyable’ loot box use in FIFA
11. CARU Takes Action Against Two Mobile Apps 
12. State of California investigates Riot for systematic gender discrimination
13. Riot Games accused of non-compliance with gender discrimination investigation: State of California turns to the courts for help, but Riot insists it has cooperated since the beginning
14. Women accounted for 21% of E3 stage presenters, just 5% of game protagonists: But annual Feminist Frequency gender breakdown shows number of games with multiple choice is at a five-year high
15. Devs deserve the benefits of a union, says US presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders
16. Bernie Sanders endorses game industry unionisation: Presidential candidate says game workers “deserve to collectively bargain”
17. Only 17% of E3 games are non-violent: GamesIndustry.biz study found major publishers are behind less than half of all combat-free titles in Los Angeles
18. Mobile games are losing to video in the battle for users’ time: Games still earn the majority of revenue, but App Annie report shows video apps streaking ahead in terms of hours spent
19. NPD: May 2019 was the worst May for new releases since 1998 – Mortal Kombat 11 overtakes Kingdom Hearts III as best-selling software title year-to-date; hardware and software sales see overall declines
20. Tfue’s Lawyer Reveals Shocking New Info on FaZe Clan Lawsuit
21. Did FaZe Clan break any laws with the H1ghsky1 signing?
22. ZeniMax shuts down fan remake of Doom: Modder pulls the project after legal warning, is forbidden to infringe on Bethesda trademarks again
23. Sweeney: Sony enabling cross-play was “one of the greatest moments in Epic’s history” – Meanwhile, Epic founder dismisses the notion of Fortnite addiction
24. Steam Remote Play now supports game streaming across different networks
25. Steam update changes In-Home Streaming to Remote Play: Games from your Steam client can now be streamed to PCs and devices across different networks
26. Alpha Protocol delisted from Steam due to publishing rights expiration
27. Twitter data shows Nintendo as the winner of E3 2019: Nintendo Direct E3 generated more Twitter activity than Keanu Reeves
28. Avengers, Nintendo Owned The E3 Video Conversation
29. Don’t Miss: Captain Toad and the core of Nintendo game design
30. Xbox and Cyberpunk 2077 won the battle for media coverage at E3 2019: ICO Partners’ annual report indicates strong coverage for the absent Sony, and finds Square Enix was the most talked about publisher
31. Cyberpunk designer says CDPR is working on transgender character options
32. Cyberpunk 2077, Final Fantasy VII Remake lead online pre-orders post-E3: Amazon and GameStop data show Collectors, Ultimate Editions top gift card sales following press events
33. From The Witcher 3 to Cyberpunk: The evolution of CD Projekt’s quest design
34. Next-gen expectations overshadowed E3 | Opinion: Rather than being a final hurrah for the current generation, E3 highlighted expectations that most upcoming titles will bridge next year’s hardware transition
35. Opinion: Cloud gaming for both Microsoft and Google remains a horseless carriage
36. 83% of gamers potentially interested in streaming services: But 20% of people surveyed have broadband that would struggle to meet Stadia’s minimum requirements
37. Google Stadia Is About To Show Everyone Why Broadband Usage Caps Are B.S.
38. Stadia’s E3 Doom Eternal demo made me a cloud gaming believer
39. Nintendo is ‘evaluating’ game streaming technology
40. Nintendo “evaluating” streaming, but focused on physical and downloads: Don’t expect Switch to have its own Stadia-style service any time soon
41. Nintendo pledges continued support for the 3DS: “We believe it’s a great entry point for young gamers,” says NOA president Doug Bowser
42. NPD: Nintendo likely to end the year as best-selling publisher – With no looming major end-of-year releases, Call of Duty, NBA 2K, and Madden predicted to top 2019 software charts
43. Minecraft: Story Mode relisted on Xbox 360, but for $100 to deter new buyers
44. Minecraft Story Mode for Xbox 360 gets massive price hike: Episodes temporarily selling for $99.99 each to give existing owners a window to download the game while discouraging new sales
45. Square Enix working to preserve and release entire game library
46. Square Enix is considering its own subscription service
47. Square Enix subscription service would focus on classic titles
48. Square Enix eyes its own subscription service: Company currently understanding the model via working with Xbox Game Pass
49. How is Game Pass adding so many indie titles at launch?: ID@Xbox director Chris Charla talks about independent developers’ concerns around subscription plans and streaming services
50. Video: How the ‘indiepocalypse’ changed the shape of indie success
51. Keanu Reeves: “Games don’t need legitimising” – Cyberpunk star praises the impact of games on performance capture, dismisses the notion that they need celebrity endorsement
52. Playtonic: “We are never using the term spiritual successor again” – The Yooka-Laylee studio on avoiding the comparisons to Donkey Kong Country
53. Forza Horizon 4 reaches 10m players: Best-selling game in Playground’s racing series achieves milestone eight months after launch
54. Sea of Thieves reaches 8.4m lifetime players: Since its anniversary update in late April, Rare’s pirate adventure has seen 2m users
55. The Witcher 3 has passed 20m lifetime sales: CD Projekt Red’s celebrated game has contributed more than half of the series’ 40m sales
56. Zynga-owned Empires & Puzzles has surpassed 34 million downloads
57. Fallout Shelter reaches $100m lifetime revenue: US accounts for roughly 60% of global revenue, followed by UK at 9%
58. Fallout Shelter is coming to Tesla cars: Mobile management sim to join Cuphead, Atari classics on electric cars
59. Final Fantasy VII Remakehands-on: Already feels like the one for jaded JRPG fans
60. Live, die, repeat: How Outer Wilds piques curiosity in an ambivalent solar system
61. Atari’s new VCS isn’t a console, but it isn’t quite a computer either
62. EA pledges new reporting tools, periodic Community Reports to combat toxicity
63. EA holds Building Healthy Communities Summit, pledges to fight toxicity: Publisher looking at new tools and features to improve community management and reporting in its games
64. PUBG Mobile daily users pass 50m, downloads pass 400m: Figures have more than doubled in seven months — even without a Chinese release
65. Niko Partners: Game for Peace expected to bring in nearly $1b by year’s end – PUBG Mobile clone anticipated to be one of Tencent’s biggest games; meanwhile, PUBG Mobile has brought in $400m overseas
66. Konami rebrands PES as eFootball PES: New name for long-running sports series designed to underline the company’s commitment to esports
67. Twitch acquires Bebo to bolster esports offerings
68. Twitch acquires Bebo to bolster esports push: Deal for amateur esports brand is worth a reported $25 million
69. Twitch Launches Teespring Integration, Enabling Creators To Sell Subscriber-Only Merch
70. Amazon Game Studios lays off ‘dozens’ of staff
71. Amazon laid off ‘dozens’ of game developers amid reorganization: The company has reportedly canceled several unannounced games as well
72. Amazon Game Studios lays off “dozens”: Multiple unannounced projects cancelled; employees given 60 days to find new internal positions
73. D3T details first ever Wellbeing Week: Studio’s new initiative will cover physical, emotional and financial health across five days of activities
74. Stardock reveals Cider Cloud engine – CEO Brad Wardell: “Our goal is to be able to design games that just aren’t possible today”
75. How Media Molecule designed a fun and robust toolset forDreams
76. In-depth: A tool for game accessibility and depth analysis
77. Blog: A tool for game accessibility and depth analysis – Part 2
78. Blog: A tool for game accessibility and depth analysis – Part 3
79. Blog: So you want to have a kick-ass Steam page?
80. Blog: Design insights we learned at Dreamhack Dallas 20192
81. Blog: The importance of definitions in game design 
82. Blog: Tips and tricks for managing open game development
83. Blog: Creating the the AI of Sea of Thieves – Part 2
84. Blog: Four decades of advergames
85. Blog: Watch the first Library of Congress lecture given by a game composer
86. Don’t Miss: Rethinking the RPG to make it fun to be the bad guy in Tyranny
87. Video: 9 takeaways of Duelyst’s journey from tabletop to digital game
88. Designing Monster Hunter: World around the conflict of empathy and violence
89. Q&A: Writing new characters, new worlds in Obsidian’s The Outer Worlds
90. Brenda and John Romero’s Empire of Sin is an emergent narrative gangster flick
91. Elite Dangerous dev Frontier signs first third-party publishing deal
92. How do you improve a great racing game? Just add Lego bricks
93. The Oculus Quest saw $5 million in content sales in first two weeks
94. Oculus: Quest’s potential to make VR a ‘viable medium’ means store curation is a must
95. Against Gravity raises $24m for VR development: Rec Room studio continues working on ways to connect users in shared VR spaces
96. Former Magic Leap employee accused of stealing tech to launch own AR glasses
97. GameStop closing down ThinkGeek’s standalone online store
98. ThinkGeek closes site, moves in with GameStop: Over 40 US physical locations to remain open, online sales to close July 2
99. Elon Musk: ‘The Simulation, The Simulation, The Simulation’: “We could be somebody’s video game right now. Whose avatar are you?”
100. Tesla is turning its showrooms into arcades
101. The best games, demos, and tech of E3 2019
102. E3 2019 in photos: Gooigi, crazy arcade machines, and a DOOM museum
103. E3 2019 saw fewer attendees than last year
104. E3 attendance drops slightly for 2019: Next year’s show set for Los Angeles Convention Centre between June 9th and 11th
105. Blog: Does Sony’s absence mean game over for E3?
106. Don’t let ego kill E3 | Opinion: E3 is a silly, special week in the games industry calendar — and maybe it doesn’t need to change that much to survive
107. The GamesIndustry.biz E3 Award Winners
108. The biggest disappointments of E3
109. Call of Duty, Pokemon dominate GameStop pre-orders in wake of E3: Pre-orders up 63% on newly-announced titles last week for gaming retailer
110. Assassin’s Creed Discovery Tour honoured at Games for Change Awards: Ubisoft picked up three awards last night, while Nintendo Labo was named Game of the Year
111. Nintendo and Ubisoft honored at the 2019 Games for Change Awards
112. U.S. Patent No. 7,887,403: Method and system for controlling a game involving battles 
113. Check out Opus Magnum dev Zachtronics’ entire game design history for free

Jon