DIGITAL
- Saskatchewan Proposes Retroactive PST Changes to Target Online Vendors Like Amazon and Airbnb
- “Zuck off”: Doctors, nurses, scientists rail against Zuckerberg
- Zuckerberg wrote “Instagram can hurt us” days before acquisition
- Facebook Employee Revolt Shows, Yet Again, That There Are Other Incentives Beyond Section 230
- Google wants Samsung to kill Bixby, Galaxy App Store
- Google reportedly peeks into Android data to gain edge over third-party apps: Google is already under investigation by Congress, DOJ, and 50 state AGs.
- Google’s Top Search Result? Surprise! It’s Google
- Under Investigation For Antitrust Abuse, Trump DOJ Rubber Stamps Major Ad Industry Consolidation
- Woz sues YouTube over “bitcoin giveaway” scam videos using his name
- Apple Cofounder Steve Wozniak Sues YouTube For “Unapologetically Hosting” Bitcoin Scammers
- Apple Publishes Study Which Defends Its 30% App Store Cut
- Apple defends its controlled ecosystem in the face of antitrust investigation: Commissioned study says digital marketplaces “need governance to thrive,” reiterates that 30% cut is standard
- Epic Games’ Sweeney calls out Apple, Google for ‘exploitative’ platform fees
- Tim Sweeney: Apple has “gone crazy” over rev share approach: “Apple has no right to take any percent of any company’s revenue just because they made the phone people use to access the stuff,” says Epic Games founder
- Geotagged Social Media Posts Didn’t Support Personal Jurisdiction–Court of Master Sommeliers v. Pilkey (Eric Goldman)
- U.S. Federal Court Rules That Bitcoin is “Money”
- New Crypto Services Address Custody, Payment Cards and ATS’s, OCC Says Banks Can Custody Crypto, DOJ Charges Bitcoin ATM Operator and Crypto Fraudster
- Can Purpose-Built Equipment Bring Blockchain Back as a Tech Solution?
- House of Lords: we need an Online Harms Bill to save our democracy
- UK regulator publishes consultation on video-sharing platform regulation
- New Rules for Online Platforms and Search Engines Offering Services to Businesses in the European Union and the United Kingdom
- Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada urges Zoom to abide by international human rights obligations
- Google will keep 200,000 workers home through next summer
- EU demands major concessions from Google over Fitbit deal
- Bumble Settles over Multistate Dating Lawsuit
- Repeated Amazon Purchases Sufficient to Impute Notice of Arbitration Clause
- Unauthorized Amazon Seller Enforcement: Two Metrics That Matter and Two That Don’t
- Instagram User’s Lawsuit Over Terminated Account Gets Revived (But Not For Long)–Teatotaller v. Facebook (Eric Goldman)
- Philippines Senator Targets Critics With ‘Cyberlibel’ Law, Gets Hailed As A Son Of A Bitch By Thousands Of Citizens
- The First Amendment Bars Regulating Political Neutrality, Even Via Section 230
- Comments on the “Platform Accountability and Consumer Transparency Act” (the “PACT Act”) (Eric Goldman)
- Content Moderation Case Study: Talking About Racism On Social Media (2019)
- Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 7/20/2020
- Top 50 Most Viewed US YouTube Channels • Week Of 7/20/2020
- Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 7/27/2020
- Top 50 Most Viewed US YouTube Channels • Week Of 7/27/2020
- MrBeast Reveals He Spent $3 Million On YouTube Videos For August Alone
- Lollapalooza Trades IRL Fest For Lolla2020, A 4-Day, YouTube-Exclusive Live Stream
- Spotify Says Listening Time For Its 1.5 Million Podcasts More Than Doubled Last Quarter
- Creator-Owned Streaming Service Nebula Hits 100,000 Monthly Paying Subscribers
- Chrissy Teigen Gets Second Quibi Series That Riffs On The ‘Everything Is Cake’ Meme
- Jake Paul Announces Next Boxing Match On Mike Tyson-Roy Jones Jr. Undercard
- Update on transparency requirements for influencers in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States
- Insights: What Will It Take For Livestreamed Shopping To Take Off In U.S.?
- Nick Sandmann’s Wacky QAnon Supporting Lawyer Threatens Reporters For ‘Speculating’ On Washington Post’s Settlement With Sandmann
- Twitter Finally Cracked Down on QAnon—but There’s a Catch
- Twitter suspends Donald Trump Jr. for posting COVID misinformation
- Moderation Of Racist Content Leads To Removal Of Non-Racist Pages & Posts (2020)
- Twitter “Likely” To Test Subscription Options This Year As COVID Shrinks Ad Revenue, CEO Says
- Japan’s Top Court Says 45 Million Twitter Users Must Check That Anything They Retweet Is Not A Copyright Infringement
- Trumpian Loudmouths Apparently Losing Interest In Parler With No One To Play Victim To
- TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer Strikes Back At Facebook For Maligning Attacks “Disguised As Patriotism”
- TikTok chief Kevin Mayer launches stinging attack on Facebook
- After Standoff, TikTok Signs Multi-Year Deal With National Music Publishers Association
- Instagram’s TikTok Competitor, Reels, Is Reportedly Looking To Poach Creators With Six-Figure Payments
- TikTok Establishes $200 Million Fund To Get Its Creators Paid
- Joe Biden Campaign Demands Staffers Delete TikTok From Their Personal, Professional Devices
- Banning TikTok Will Accomplish Nothing. Fix Our Broader Security & Privacy Problems Instead.
- Judge orders New York to pay unemployment to Uber and Lyft drivers
- How Technology And The Pandemic Are Bringing People Closer Together, Even As We’re Physically Apart
- Heads roll at Intel after 7nm delay
- AMD: No delays for PS5, Xbox Series X, Zen 3 CPUs, and RDNA 2 GPUs
- 20 years ago, Steve Jobs built the “coolest computer ever”—and it bombed
- International – European Commission launches a Sector Inquiry into the Consumer Internet of Things
A.I.
- Appeals Court Bashes Predictive Policing And The Judge Who Argued People In High Crime Areas Want Fewer Rights
- Are AI produced works protectable under Copyright Law?
- In Report to Congress, FTC Says Malicious Use of Social Media Bots Is a “Serious Issue”
- Deepfakes: An EU and U.S. perspective
- NIST Study Confirms The Obvious: Face Masks Make Facial Recognition Tech Less Useful, More Inaccurate
- Video: A game dev’s guide to going beyond the hype of deep learning
COMMUNICATIONS
- Trump’s call for crackdown on Twitter and Facebook now on Ajit Pai’s desk
- NTIA Follows Trump’s Unconstitutional Order To Request The FCC Review Section 230
- Former Rep. Chris Cox Used His Testimony At Tuesday’s Senate Hearing On The Internet’s Foundational Law To Do Some Myth-Busting
- Tech And COVID-19: Stop Using Video Game Graphics For Fake Crowds, Fox
- FCC Boss Ajit Pai Pretends To Care About A Prison Telco Monopoly Problem He Helped Protect
- Why Is The Boys And Girls Club Trying To Kill A Cable Monopoly’s Merger Conditions?
- Telecom company welcomes Federal Court of Appeal tax decision despite being denied interim relief
- FCC Clarifies Pole Attachment Rules
- FCC Takes Action and Requests Comments on Next Gen TV (ATSC 3.0) Matters
- Charter’s donations to charities and lawmakers may help it impose data caps
- After 100 Years As A Bullying Gatekeeper, AT&T Pivots To Whining Unironically About Bullying Gatekeepers
- AT&T’s epic DirecTV losses mount as another 954,000 video customers flee
- District court enters nearly $13.9 million judgment in FTC robocall action
- New process for Executive Branch review of foreign investments in the U.S. telecoms sector
- Trump campaign foiled in early appeal attempt
- Trump campaign angry that cell carriers blocked spammy texts to voters
- Trump Campaign Gets Pissed At Wireless Carriers For Blocking Unwanted Political Spam
- Sweeping New Interim Rule Further Implements Ban on Targeted Telecommunications and Video Surveillance Companies
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
- Print-on-Demand Vendor Doesn’t Qualify for DMCA Safe Harbor–Feingold v. RageOn (Eric Goldman)
- CBS’ overzealous copyright bots hit Star Trek virtual Comic-Con panel
- Viacom’s Copyright Bots Take Down ‘Star Trek’ Comic-con Panel Because These Bots Suck Out Loud
- Reagan Foundation Tells President Trump and the RNC to Stop Using Reagan for Fundraising Purposes
- Fight or Flight
- Legal implications of syncing copyrighted music with other content
- Marano v. Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Hot topics in media and entertainment – Right of publicity: Evolving law around the use of a person’s name or likeness in documentaries and docudramas
- Makeup Art May Be Copyrightable, Says Second Circuit
- Publisher Decries Damn Libraries Entertaining The Masses Stuck At Home For Free
- Engineering Drawings: A Case of Copyright or Design
- Copyright protection granted to computer programs
- DNA Company Accidentally Exposes Opted Out Users’ Data To Law Enforcement
- Any Way You Slice It, D.C. Circuit Holds That &Pizza Can’t Get Piece of @Pizza
- Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia Pet Just Applied For Trademark On Jingle For Some R-R-R-Reason
- Sky v SkyKick battles on but permission to appeal granted: more uncertainty for brand owners
- Redskins Re-Brand: Did Trademark Speculator Fumble?
- Flagging the importance of Trade Mark choice
- Federal Circuit Holds Cancellation Standing Does Not Require Proprietary Interest in Asserted Mark
- Supreme Court: “Generic.com” Trademarks May Be Registered if Consumers Do Not Perceive Them as Generic
- Damages still available for infringement even where trade mark revoked
- Stone Brewing Is Very Upset That People Don’t Like Its Trademark Bullying
- Reputation and the power of the influencer: Sugar Bear Hair v Beauty Bear
- The real IP issues with virtual influencers
- Cannabis Industry Insight – U.S. Trademark Registrations Continue to be Denied for Foods and Dietary Supplements containing Hemp-Derived CBD
- Trademarks: ‘HERBS R US Design’ Found to Depreciate the Goodwill attaching to the ‘TOYS R US Design’
- Certification Mark Protectability
- A grey area? How to register colours as trademarks
- Equipping U.S. Rightsholders with the Tools to Deal with the Challenges of 3D Printing
- EPO filing statistics: is 3D printing due some hype (again)?
- Playing Keep-Away: Protecting Your Trade Secrets in a Remote Work Environment
- On redetermination, PMPRB concludes that Galderma’s patent ‘pertains to’ DIFFERIN
- Around 1600 viewers register for live video stream of computer software patent case
- Federal Circuit Explains When You Can Ignore the Words Before the Colon in a Patent Preamble
- The Federal Circuit Provides a Refresher on Joint Inventorship
- Independently Performed, Publicly Disclosed Prior Work Can Lead to Joint Inventorship
- Federal Circuit Confirms Joint Inventorship on Nobel Prize Winner’s Cancer Treatment Patents
- Then You Didn’t See Them; Now You Do: Co-Inventors Added
- Judge Matsumoto Holds That “Very Small Side Load” Is Indefinite and That “Retention Element” Is a Means-Plus-Function Claim Limitation
- Weight Loss Patent Application Does Not Survive Section 101 Scrutiny
- Dead on Arrival? Federal Circuit Majority Finds That Substitute Claims Live On (Uniloc v. Hulu: Part 1)
- IP Alert | Federal Circuit Affirms Alice’s Applicability in IPR Proceedings
- Extendable hose patent appeal unravels before the Court
- Fractured Federal Circuit Panel Finds That Sovereign Immunity Does Not Prevent Exclusive Licensee from Pursuing Unlicensed Infringement Alone
- Disclosure of “Preferred” Compounds Having a Complex Chemical Structure May Teach Away from Simpler Compounds Encompassed by a Broad Chemical Genus
- TopGolf Wins Patent Appeal
- You Can’t Clasp That: Judge Schofield Finds No Infringement Under Doctrine of Equivalents Due To Prosecution History Estoppel
- Federal Circuit: Licensees’ Failure to Mark Eliminates Entitlement to Pre-Suit Damages
- Diamonds are forever, but patents can tell us about the next 20 years
- Projection effects in a 3D motion graphical user interface: non-technical
- Dissecting the Regeneron v Kymab mouse case – what it says and its impact on patents
- Patent first, science later: the Federal Court’s ‘clear and unmistakable direction’ to patentees
- The Game Begins: Strategies for the Early Stages of Patent Litigation – The Claimant’s View
- US Patent Litigation
- Participation of Women Inventors in the US Patent System Is Increasing Slowly but Surely
- Patent Trivia – Fun with Some Facts about Patents
PRIVACY
- Washington State AG Settles with Online Platform Over Alleged COPPA Violations
- No free lunch: global privacy regulators set expectations of video teleconference providers
- Russia’s GRU hackers hit US government and energy targets
- North Korea’s Lazarus brings state-sponsored hacking approach to ransomware
- Texas AG Investigates Facebook’s Use of Biometric Identifiers
- EU Plans To Use Supercomputers To Break Encryption, But Also Wants Platforms To ‘Create Opportunities’ To Snoop On End-To-End Communications
- Garmin’s four-day service meltdown was caused by ransomware
- CBP Has Access To Billions Of License Plate Images Collected By Private Companies
- Rite Aid deployed facial recognition in hundreds of stores, report finds
- Hackers actively exploit high-severity networking vulnerabilities
- No free lunch: global privacy regulators set expectations of video teleconference providers
- Data Privacy and Cybersecurity Schrems II Decision – what does it mean in practice?
- Schrems II Decision – what does it mean in practice?
CREATIVITY
- About Time: New York Finally Passes Anti-SLAPP Bill
- Content Moderation Case Study: Talking About Racism On Social Media (2019)
- A Legen-dairy Victory: Ben & Jerry’s Wins “Happy Cows” False Advertising Lawsuit
- Study: Magicians’ priming techniques are effective at influencing choice – Card trick priming technique used by illusionist Derren Brown inspires psychologists.
- Court Blocks Federal Officers From Attacking, Arresting Reporters Covering Protests In Portland
- We can see the true face of Van Eyck Lamb of God after latest restoration
GAMES
- Loot boxes should be a consumer protection matter not a gambling one, says EU report: EU lacks authority to regulate gambling across member states but could tackle “problematic design features” from a different perspective
- Nintendo Suffers Another Substantial Leak As Mountains Of Source Code Hit The Web
- Huge apparent leak unearths Nintendo’s prototype history
- A scrapped Luigi, unused Pokemon sprites & more dug up in retro Nintendo leak
- Meet CtW: The investors taking on Activision Blizzard and EA over exec pay – Dieter Waizenegger and Michael Varner on why they want to change how corporations think about compensation
- Shigeru Miyamoto’s base salary is higher than Bobby Kotick’s: But Activision CEO takes home more than $30 million after equity awards
- Chinese-made drone app in Google Play spooks security researchers
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wants to stop the U.S. military recruiting through Twitch
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Files Amendment To Bar Military Branches From Twitch, All Other Gaming Platforms
- The US Army is reportedly withdrawing from Twitch as criticism mounts: Meanwhile, US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez plans legislation to keep them from using gaming as recruitment
- Riot quickly drops controversial LEC sponsor after outrage from devs, community
- Lessons learned guiding Riot Games through a cultural crisis: At a time of cultural crisis for many companies, CEO Nicolo Laurent shares his experiences from the ongoing evolution of Riot Games
- Niantic doubles donation to Black Lives Matter causes to $10m: Pokémon Go developer will share revenues from weekend event with non-profit organisations and Black creators
- How will the Age Appropriate Design Code impact the games industry?
- Commercials in Your Console — Marketers Experiment With Ad Placement in Console Video Games
- Are platforms devaluing games to gain market share?
- Op-Ed: Game development in a time of upheaval
- DIY game platform Roblox tops 150 million monthly active users
- Roblox developers set to earn $250 million in 2020: Creators on the platform earned more than double the collective total from 2019
- Achievement unlocked – investment and M&A in the games industry
- Players spent $17.5m during Pokémon Go Fest 2020: Spending reached $8.9 million on event’s opening day, biggest one-day revenues since 2016
- Analogue Pocket ships in May 2021: Handheld system will cost $199, support Game Boy, Game Gear, Lynx, Neo Geo Pocket Color games
- Suikoden successor’s Kickstarter raises $1.5 million on day one: Upcoming Japanese RPG Eiyuden Chronicle aims for release on PC, Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 in 2022
- Investment health check: Preparing for the due diligence process: In the second of two articles, Sheridans’ Kamila Bochenek describes how preparing for the due diligence process can benefit your games business overall
- US homes with a console jump 31% year-over-year, says Comscore: Media tracking firm also sees surge in gaming site traffic after pro sports leagues halted
- Report: Twitch viewership grew by 56% in Q2
- Livestreaming pandemic surge sustained through Q2: StreamElements says hours watched on Twitch jumped 56% over first quarter of year while Facebook Gaming rose 75%
- Amidst pandemic, the ESA focuses on positive impacts of gaming: Stanley Pierre-Louis discusses COVID-19 impacts, digital E3, its lobbying responsibilities, and the industry’s recent #MeToo movement
- Respawn responds to crunch and burnout complaint posted on Glassdoor
- Respawn responds as Glassdoor review warns of crunch during lockdown: Apex Legends game director Chad Grenier says the problem “is not with the intent of Respawn’s leadership”
- Ubisoft Quebec managing director steps down
- Ubisoft Québec boss departs ‘independently’ of emerging allegations
- Tell Me Why FAQ clarifies game’s depiction of trans and Indigenous characters
- Dontnod’s Tell Me Why aims for a transgender story not “rooted in pain or trauma”: “The idea that being transgender is caused by trauma is a stereotype that has no basis in fact, and it plays no role in Tyler’s story”
- “I don’t envision us going back to everybody being in the studio five days a week — ever”: 2K’s Cloud Chamber Games expects permanent changes to its work culture after the COVID-19 pandemic
- Ghost of Tsushima holds No.1 as Paper Mario slips l UK Charts: Animal Crossing: New Horizons returns to No.2
- Ghost of Tsushima sold over 2.4 million copies in three days
- Ghost of Tsushima sells 2.4 million in three days: Sucker Punch’s latest becomes Sony’s fastest-selling new IP of the generation
- PlayStation Japan warns of Ghost of Tsushima stock shortage: Sucker Punch Productions’ exclusive has surpassed expectations in Japan, Sony advises customers to purchase the digital version
- The console war is over | Opinion: Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo all want different things from the next generation — is it really a war if everyone wins?
- Suikoden creators launch Rabbit & Bear Studios for crowdfunded JRPG: Eiyuden Chronicle will be “an ode to the classic JRPG genre from the PlayStation era”
- Xbox’s cross-gen pledge might not apply to every upcoming first-party game
- Xbox Games Showcase bookended by Halo Infinite, Fable: A total of nine Xbox Games Studios and a number of third-parties showed off 21 games
- Xbox’s July event: Halo Infinite finally has some first-party company
- We should talk about Halo Infinite’s not quite next-gen premiere
- Xbox Game Pass is all about the power of word-of-mouth marketing
- Xbox confuses its cross-generation message | Podcast
- Editorial: Microsoft Partnering With Facebook Gaming Could Be Big For Xbox VR
- Huuuge Games has acquired Bow Land developer Double Star
- Huuuge Games acquires Double Star: Mobile firms had already worked together to publish Double Star’s casual RPG Bow Land
- SuperData: Valorant and The Last of Us Part 2 set records for digital sales in June – Riot’s shooter had the best launch for a free-to-play PC title, while TLOU2 sold more digital units than any PlayStation exclusive
- Report: Digital game revenue increased by 9% year-over-year in June (SuperData)
- Animal Crossing, FIFA, The Last of Us top European game sales so far this year: Both Animal Crossing: New Horizons and FIFA 20 were the best-selling game in seven countries each
- Animal Crossing is Japan’s best-selling game of the year so far: Japanese gamers spent more than $1.6 billion on physical games and download cards in the first half of 2020
- Report: Valve is quietly testing a Playtest button on Steam
- Gaming Talent Firm Loaded Signs Rising Twitch Streamers ‘CohhCarnage’ And ‘Sacriel’
- Ferrari launching esports series this September: Fastest racer will be given the chance to join the sports car manufacturer’s esports team in 2021
- Konami is now making esports PCs: New Arespear brand of computers is manufactured by Konami Amusement, starts shipping in September
- GAME sells its Belong brand to esports firm Vindex: GAME CEO Martyn Gibbs joins Vindex to oversee global expansion of esports arenas
- eSports Players and Teams Benefit from Negotiated Contracts
- Squanch Games shelves VR focus for now
- Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality Litigation Update: AR Design Innovations Litigations Cases Consolidated into Single Action
- Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality Patent Prosecution Update: 2020 Q2 Prosecution Statistics
- Moss developer Polyarc raises $9 million to explore AR development
- Moss dev Polyarc secures $9m investment to branch into augmented reality: Series B funding round led by Hiro Capital
- SuperData raises XR forecast for 2020 to $6.9 billion: But it’s lowering its long-term projections for the second time this year
- The sublime theatrics and pacing of Metal Gear Solid 4 | Why I Love: Nomina Games co-founder Darrel Wijaya talks about Hideo Kojima’s interactive cinematic blockbuster
- The five-year quest to remove all nuclear weapons from Metal Gear Solid V
- EA’s strategy for remastering Command & Conquer
- Blog: When debug UI ruins your game design
- Blog: An agil-ish approach to game jams
- Blog: Stay at home development and family management
- Blog: The Rapid Prototyping Game
- Blog: Using emergent systems to improve interactive storytelling
- Video: ILMxLab’s perspective on pioneering immersive entertainment
- Video: Expanding animation & design capabilities in Battlefield 1 post-launch
- Video: Designing great interactive narratives on mobile
- Video: Crafting multiplayer maps for casual and competitive play
- Don’t Miss: Understanding the successful relaunch of Final Fantasy XIV
- Final Fantasy XIV Online has surpassed 20 million registered users
- Don’t Miss: Inside the campaign design of Halo 5: Guardians
- Don’t Miss: StarCraft II and the art of single-player storytelling
- The Google Play Indie Games Festival winners have been announced
- We don’t need E3 anymore: Fancensus head of analytics Ryan Janes analyses the media impact for the summer’s biggest announcements
Jon