DIGITAL
- New commission exploring impact of digital media on democracy includes McLachlin, Dodek
- YouTube Bans 6 White Supremacist Channels, Including David Duke, Richard Spencer, Stefan Molyneux
- Lawsuit by Black YouTubers against YouTube faces “uphill battle”
- Twitter’s Least-Bad Option for Dealing With Donald Trump: Every plausible configuration of social media in 2020 is unpalatable.
- Bogus Ideas Have Superspreaders, Too
- Twitter not liable in Devin Nunes’ beef with cow account, judge rules
- Facebook will label rule violations as Coke, Pepsi, Starbucks join ad “pause”
- Verizon joins growing Facebook advertiser boycott
- Facebook executive admits to “trust deficit” on call with advertisers
- Reddit bans pro-Trump /r/The_Donald for “rule-breaking content”
- Twitch And Reddit Ramp Up Their Enforcement Against ‘Hateful’ Content
- Reddit bans r/The_Donald and r/ChapoTrapHouse as part of a major expansion of its rules
- You Purged Racists From Your Website? Great, Now Get to Work
- Filmmakers and Others Take on the U.S. Government Over Social Media Surveillance
- Three cops fired after accidental dashcam activation captures racist rants
- Running Geotargeted Advertising Confers Personal Jurisdiction–UMG Recordings v. Kurbanov (Eric Goldman)
- hiQ Files Opposition Brief with Supreme Court in LinkedIn CFAA Data Scraping Dispute
- Confusion Over Plug-Ins, Cookies and Wiretapping…Will Facebook Petition the Supreme Court, and What To Do In the Interim
- How the ‘Karen Meme’ Confronts the Violent History of White Womanhood
- Ken and Karen are White Supremacists
- Doomscrolling is slowly eroding your mental health
- Jenna Marbles Announces Indefinite YouTube Hiatus, Privates Videos With 2 Billion Views After Apologizing For Past Racist Clips
- Shane Dawson Apologizes For Blackface, Pedophilia Jokes, And Willow Smith’s Family Isn’t Having It
- Liza Koshy Apologizes For ‘Perpetuating Racist Ideas’, Cultural Appropriation With Past Character Creations
- David Dobrik Apologizes For Any Past Videos That Made Viewers Feel Unwelcome, Uncomfortable
- YouTube Has Suspended Monetization On All 3 Of Shane Dawson’s Channels
- An embattled group of leakers picks up the WikiLeaks mantle
- DOJ Proposes Curb to Antitrust Immunity Under Communications Decency Act of 1996
- Section 230 Protects Twitter from the “Devin Nunes’ Cow” Lawsuit–Nunes v. Twitter (Eric Goldman)
- Another Day, Another Bad Bill To Reform Section 230 That Will Do More Harm Than Good
- Senator Loeffler’s New Section 230 Reform Bill Would Threaten Encryption And Pressure Websites To Keep Spam & Porn
- ‘But Without 230 Reform, Websites Have No Incentive To Change!’ They Scream Into The Void As Every Large Company Pulls Ads From Facebook
- My Interview With Mathew Ingram Regarding Section 230 (Eric Goldman)
- Author Of Section 230 Chris Cox Says All The Critics Are Wrong About The History And Intent Of 230
- I’d Bet Ted Cruz Will Start Supporting Section 230 Once He Realizes He’s On The Hook For Parler’s Legal Expenses
- As Predicted: Parler Is Banning Users It Doesn’t Like
- Just Like Every Other Platform, Parler Will Take Down Content And Face Impossible Content Moderation Choices
- Parler Speedruns The Content Moderation Learning Curve; Goes From ‘We Allow Everything’ To ‘We’re The Good Censors’ In Days
- Knight Foundation Grant To Copia To Research Content Moderation, Governance, Rules & Norms For Internet Infrastructure
- Brands and influencers beware: UK and Netherlands zooming in on fake likes and reviews
- Brazil’s Proposed ‘Fake News’ Law Says Internet Users Are Guilty Until Proven Innocent, Demands Constant Logging From ISPs
- New Section 301 investigations into digital services taxes involving multiple countries
- Millions of Americans Depend on Libraries for Internet. Now They’re Closed: From big cities to tiny towns, librarians are getting scrappy to meet the need
- Court Upholds Formation of a Lengthy Contract Presented on a Mobile Device–Hidalgo v. AAU (Eric Goldman)
- Facebook Expands Fan Subscriptions To Creators In 7 Regions, Introduces Live Stream Ads And More Video Analytics
- Fintech Startup ‘Karat’ Raises $4.6 Million To Launch Credit Card Exclusively For Digital Creators
- Social Video Views Climbed for Latin American Creators During Quarantine
- Netflix Embraces YouTube, TikTok, And Instagram For ‘Pride’ Event
- YouTube Users Watch 450 Million Hours Of Content On TV Screens Each Day
- Top 50 Most Viewed US YouTube Channels • Week Of 6/29/2020
- Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 6/29/2020
- YouTube TV jumps 30% in price effective immediately
- YouTube TV Hikes Subscription Price To $65 After Adding Suite Of ViacomCBS Channels
- At Brandcast, YouTube Renews Originals From James Charles, MrBeast, Markiplier, And Marques Brownlee
- YouTube Cancels Its Longest-Running Original—Joey Graceffa’s ‘Escape The Night’
- After A Decade, Ingrid Nilsen Emotionally Closes Chapter On Her YouTube Career
- Tati Westbrook Accuses Shane Dawson, Jeffree Star Of Coercing Her Into James Charles Takedown Video
- At NewFronts, TikTok Brings Ad Offerings To The Fore With New ‘TikTok For Business’ Platform
- Spotify Duo for couples is cheaper than the standard family plan
- New domain name dispute resolution policies for .AC, .IO and .SH
- Microsoft’s “new approach” to retail stores: Closing them forever
- Microsoft closing its retail stores: Xbox maker closing 82 Microsoft Store locations, will run “Microsoft Experience Centers” in London, New York, Syndey, and Redmond
- Cutting off tech’s nose to spite the West’s strategic face?
- Three cops fired after accidental dashcam activation captures racist rants
- Search engine startup asks users to be the customer, not the product
- Chinese bank requires foreign firm to install app with covert backdoor
- Lessons from China – The Formation of a Social Credit System: Profiling, Reputation Scoring, Social Engineering (Paul Langer)
- COVID-19 spread 4X faster in one Amazon warehouse than local area
- Amazon pays $1.2 billion for self-driving startup Zoox
- Uncovered: 1,000 phrases that incorrectly trigger Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant
A.I.
- Detroit police chief cops to 96-percent facial recognition error rate
- Facial Recognition Software Finally Gets Around To Getting An Innocent Person Arrested
- Tesla driver blames Autopilot for crash, faces negligent driving charge
- Voicemod raises $8m for AI-powered ‘voice avatars’: Technology enables players to alter their voice and apply effects that match the in-game action
COMMUNICATIONS
- FCA Upholds Constitutionality of CASL CEM Provisions and CRTC Approach to B2B Exemption and Conspicuous Publication Implied Consent
- FCC helps Charter avoid broadband competition
- New Bill Would Kill State Laws Blocking Broadband Competition
- Small ISPs “stunned” by FCC move to ban Huawei/ZTE gear during pandemic
- AT&T Ditches $15 TV Service It Used As Regulator Bait To Seal Time Warner Merger
- Comcast’s data cap and overage fees return tomorrow after 3-month break
- ISPs To Bring Back Usage Caps After Brief Pandemic Hiatus
- T-Mobile Is Already Trying To Wiggle Out Of Its Sprint Merger Conditions
- Dish buys Boost prepaid biz from T-Mobile, finally enters wireless market
- Telehealth Use Surges Around the World Amid COVID-19
- Landmark EU General Court ruling on Hutchinson-Telefónica UK merger reframes the threshold for proving competitive harm
- $100 billion “universal fiber” plan proposed by Democrats in Congress
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
- Access Copyright and York University File Leave to Appeal Material in the Supreme Court of Canada (Howard Knopf)
- Copyright Board Activity in 2020: Launch of Twitter Account and Guidelines for Economic Evidence (Howard Knopf)
- Florida Law Will Allow College Athletes to Profit from Name, Image, and Likeness Starting Summer 2021
- Can copyright law help Brompton ride out an IP storm?
- Zindel v. Fox Searchlight Pictures, Inc.: Ninth Circuit reverses dismissal of copyright claims against The Shape of Water film, ruling that dismissal on pleadings was premature because additional evidence could aid.
- The fair remuneration provisions in the new Copyright Directive
- Copyright: Hyperlinks and the Communication to the Public Right
- John Bolton Doesn’t Need Copyright Protection
- Companies Issuing Bogus Copyright Claims To Hide Police Training Materials From The Public
- Copyright Troll Richard Liebowitz Benchslapped And Sanctioned AGAIN In A Massive Filing Detailing Pages Upon Pages Of Him Lying Under Oath
- Supreme Court says generic domains like booking.com can be trademarked
- Prosecco People Move On From Bullying Puns Over Trademark To Bullying Portmanteau Over Trademark
- Captain Tom Moore – a positive pandemic trade mark story
- Vegan food fight: Does Nestlé’s Incredible Burger infringe Impossible Burger?
- EU law on the “technical result” and “substantial value” exclusions for shape marks
- Where Claimed Points of Novelty Have Primarily Functional Purpose, They Fail “Ornamental Design” Patentability Requirement
- Federal Circuit Affirms Use of Common Sense for Obviousness Determination
- Falling short of a sufficient disclosure
- Patent claim ambiguities and their interpretations
- Upheaval for patent law of sufficiency from the UK Supreme Court
- Patents diary June 2020: UK Supreme Court holds Regeneron’s transgenic mice patents invalid
- Supreme Court Decision: Regeneron v Kymab
- Territorial licensing: “start at the end before you begin”
PRIVACY
- Tim Hortons Mobile App Under Investigation For Data Privacy Concerns
- Tim Hortons scaling back data collection as four privacy watchdogs announce joint investigation into app: Probe by federal, Alberta, Quebec & B.C. commissioners comes after report on coffee chain’s data collection practices
- Contact Tracing Apps in Canada: Province of Alberta launches, and Federal Government Announces Nationwide Initiative
- The Most Important Privacy Case You’ve Never Heard Of
- Foreign adversaries likely to try exploiting critical networking bug, US says
- TikTok and 32 other iOS apps still snoop your sensitive clipboard data
- UK Information Commissioner Says Police Are Grabbing Too Much Data From Phones Owned By Crime Victims
- Indiana Supreme Court Says Compelled Decryption Of Smartphones Violates The Fifth Amendment
- Instagram Users, Beware Of Copyright Infringement Warning You May Receive In DMs
- Insights: Apple’s Latest Privacy Push Further Complicates Competitors’ Data Handling
- Does the CCPA apply to cookies that are used for data analytics?
- Moral Data Markets: Human-Centric Data Protection
- Two record DDoSes disclosed this week underscore their growing menace
- Comcast And Mozilla Partner Up To Help Encrypt DNS
- Privacy Questions Raised By Distance Learning
CREATIVITY
- Charles Harder Tries And Fails To Censor Another Book About His Most Famous Client, The President
- NY Judge Apparently Unaware Of The Supreme Court’s Ban On Prior Restraint: Puts Temporary Restraining Order On Trump’s Niece’s Book
- Goldman Sachs Created A Font, But You Are Forbidden By Its License To Critique Goldman Sachs Using It
- German Minister Files Criminal Complaint Against A Journalist Who Said Police Officers Are ‘Trash People’
GAMES
- Newzoo: There will be over 3 billion gamers by 2023
- Report: Games market to generate $159 billion in 2020 (Newzoo)
- Global games market value to reach $159bn in 2020: Revenue and audience growth booms in Africa, Middle East, and Latin America
- Roblox hacked by Trump supporters: More than a thousand users’ profiles changed, telling kids to ask their parents to re-elect US president
- Pokemon Go Developer Niantic Wins Battle Over 3D Virtual Thematic Environment Patent
- Niantic partners with immersive theatre company Punchdrunk: Sleep No More creators to work with AR developers on multiple, unannounced projects
- Confederate flag and other “notorious iconography” banned in Forza: Anti-police brutality phrases such as a ACAB and FTP also banned
- Cyberpunk 2077 will be censored in Japan: Sexual references, nudity and dismemberment to be toned down
- Cyberpunk 2077’s big summer trailer: Braindance your way into Keanu
- Twin Galaxies says Billy Mitchell “flirts with perjury” in high-score case
- Are Loot Boxes Considered Gambling? UK Needs More Evidence
- Global Game Jam in turmoil following Black Lives Matter silence: Bullying allegations surface after resignation of executive committee member over refusal to issue statement on BLM
- IGDA criticizes industry for ignoring harassment allegations: Developer group says it will compile resources for studio leaders to create safe and positive company cultures
- Ubisoft reportedly places executives on leave amid abuse investigation: Tommy François and Maxime Béland each face at least three claims of misconduct
- Ubisoft to investigate rampant sexual assault and harassment accusations
- Report: Ubisoft suspends two executives accused of sexual and physical abuse
- Ubisoft CEO sanctions formation of ‘multidisciplinary working group’ to tackle abuse
- The Ubisoft paradox: How the publisher enabled a culture of abuse and control
- Leaders, members, sponsors depart top WoW guild amid assault, abuse allegations: Multiple people allege that Method protected member accused of sexual assault and preying on minors
- Abuse in the industry isn’t down to a few “bad apples” | Opinion: The story can’t end with the outing of individual abusers — ending predation in the games industry requires cultural and institutional change
- EA pledges to investigate allegations of abuse and support victims
- Twitch suspends Donald Trump’s channel for hateful conduct: Streaming platform cites the president’s comments portraying Mexicans as criminals
- Twitch Temporarily Bans Donald Trump, Citing Newly Reviewed Policies Against Hateful Conduct
- Twitch Executive Hassan Bokhari Accused Of Sexual Assault As Platform Begins Permabanning Alleged Abusers
- Twitch addresses sexual abuse allegations with permanent ban pledge
- Assassin’s Creed Valhalla creative director steps down after misconduct allegations
- DrDisrespect banned from Twitch again: Guy Beahm’s latest ban is reportedly permanent, but reason for the punishment remains unclear
- Dr. DisRespect Was (Probably) Not Permabanned For Trying To Develop A Twitch Competitor
- Twitch will issue permanent suspensions to abusers on its platform: Investigation is ongoing as Twitch takes additional steps to combat abuse and hate within its communities
- EA urges employees to come forward with experiences of abuse: Publisher offers resources for both its staff and community members who may have experienced harassment or abuse
- Avast finds 17 Trojan gaming apps still available on Google Play: Online security firm reported 47 Trojan gaming apps to Google, which have been downloaded 15 million times
- The Last of Us Part 2 sells 4 million: Naughty Dog sequel tops Spider-Man to become fastest-selling first-party PS4 exclusive over first three days
- The Last of Us Part II sold over 4 million copies in three days
- 3DS, SpongeBob SquarePants and The Last of Us Part 2 lead UK Charts: Stock clearance sees cult 3DS RPG Bravely Second take No.2
- Roblox player spending passes $1.5bn on mobile: May was the game’s biggest month ever with revenue of over $100 million
- Amazon’s latest PC game to be delisted from Steam after less than two months
- Amazon’s Crucible retreats into closed beta: Following rocky launch, competitive free-to-play shooter will close its doors to new players
- Sonic the Hedgehog film producer snaps up Disco Elysium screen rights
- Plans revealed for Disco Elysium TV series: Adaptation will be produced by DJ2 Entertainment, which is run by Sonic The Hedgehog movie’s co-producer
- Starbreeze seeks $26m to fund ongoing development of Payday 3: COVID-19 lockdown interrupted publisher negotiations for the next Payday game
- Discord is pivoting away from games to become ‘your place to talk’
- Discord raises $100m to further expand beyond games: Communications platform redesigned to be more accessible to non-gamers, company reportedly valued at $3.5 billion
- Admix raises $7m in funding for “non-intrusive” ads: London-based startup allows developers to place programmatic advertising space within their games
- Sinespace dev partners with Unity to let Asset Store creators sell models in-game
- European retailers can no longer sell download codes for Nintendo-published titles
- Microsoft reportedly stops advertising on Facebook: But Xbox firm is still redirecting Mixer users to the social network
- Microsoft exiting the retail store business, closing 83 locations
- Report: Latest Xbox Lockhart rumors point towards an August announce
- Microsoft plans to reveal Xbox Lockhart model in August
- Mixer just saw its second-best quarter ever – Streamlabs: Twitch smashed viewership records in Q2 2020, with over 5 billion hours watched
- Mixer Shuts Down, Showing Again Why You Don’t Need To Freak Out By Copycat Competitors
- Descenders’ weekly sales increased five times thanks to Xbox Game Pass: No More Robots says subscription service has “elevated the game to heights we couldn’t have imagined”
- Nintendo Switch game sales: the three biggest misconceptions
- Nintendo reportedly stops sale of digital download codes for EMEA retailers: Third-party digital titles, add-on content, and eshop funds will still be available in stores
- Report: Apple scraps deals with some Apple Arcade devs in pursuit of more engagement
- Apple reportedly ending some Arcade contracts, seeking higher retention: Tech giant said to be honing in on titles that will keep users subscribed to its service past the free trial
- Gaming on Apple platforms is set for some big changes—here are a few
- New hack runs homebrew code from DVD-R on unmodified PlayStation 2
- PlayStation now has a dedicated initiative for indie games: PlayStation Indies
- Why this month’s PC port of Death Stranding is the definitive version
- Tencent starts US studio to make AAA games for next-gen consoles: Led by Rockstar veteran Steve Martin, LightSpeed LA will debut with an open world game for PS5 and Xbox Series X
- Harmonix’s Fuser wants to make you a DJ… but only up to a point – Preview: Successor to DropMix succeeds where DJ Hero failed, but is that enough?
- Crysis Remastered delayed for additional polish: Development team acknowledges mixed feedback to trailer leak
- How to navigate the modern world of games publishing
- Gamers more trusting of brands than non-gamers, says Gameloft: Report from mobile publisher’s advertising arm finds gamers see elevated benefits from companies like Tesla, Amazon, and Lexus
- Focus Home Interactive acquires Lords of the Fallen dev Deck13 for $7.9M
- Keywords buys development engineering provider Coconut Lizard for $2.47M
- PlayBrain raises $6m to grow Japanese esports events infrastructure: Bitkraft Esports Ventures leads investment, bringing total funding to $8 million
- Guild Esports launches with David Beckham as co-owner
- Guild Esports breaks cover with David Beckham as co-owner: Startup is also backed by Blue Star Capital, with Overwatch League exec Carleton Curtis at the helm
- Pressure Mounts for Xbox’s Missing VR Strategy as PSVR Revenue Exceeds $2 Billion
- Facebook Says It Has Developed the ‘Thinnest VR display to date’ With Holographic Folded Optics
- How holographic tech is shrinking VR displays to the size of sunglasses
- Google Glass 3.0? Google acquires smart glasses maker North
- Google Acquires North, the Startup Behind ‘Focals’ Smartglasses
- Google gives Android depth sensing and object occlusion with ARCore 1.18
- Ken Levine: “You don’t come up with amazing things by being completely normal” – Founder of Ghost Story Games discusses the difficult balance between creativity and efficiency in game development
- A Neverwinter Nights intro to game design | Why I Love: Little Chicken Game Company’s Erik Kors shares how the world of Faerûn led him to the world of game development
- Umurangi Generation’s approach to modernizing cyberpunk: Naphtali Faulkner talks about the inspirations and intentions behind his sci-fi photography game
- Shawn Layden: COVID-19 is an opportunity to build a better industry: “If we don’t take something positive from this extended period of quarantine, we’ve really squandered the opportunity”
- You should play Namco’s lost arcade-action classic, Mr. Driller DrillLand
- The astronomical challenge of recording The Outer Worlds: How did Obsidian handle voice work for a game with almost 350 characters, 40 voice actors, and recording studios in different countries?
- Kongregate shuts off game submissions as Flash’s final days approach
- Super Nintendo World park opening reportedly delayed due to COVID-19: Universal Studios Japan reopened just over a week ago with special safety restrictions
- How to move your role-playing game nights online
- The Last of Us Part II is PlayStation Studios’ fastest-selling PS4 game
- Prioritizing accessibility early on was vital for The Last of Us Part 2’s robust features
- Don’t Miss: The evolution of CD Projekt’s quest design for Cyberpunk: 2077
- Don’t Miss: Blizzard’s postmortem of Diablo II
- Don’t Miss: Designing CrossCode to stand out in the retro RPG market
- Don’t Miss: Incorporating level design in melee combat systems
- Video: Devs share their experiences going from corporate to indie and back again
- Video: An architectural approach to video game level design
- Video: The mechanics of explosive growth in Roblox
Jon