News of the Week; January 27, 2021

DIGITAL

  1. YouTube Suspends Donald Trump Indefinitely, Demonetizes Rudy Giuliani
  2. Parler’s attempt to get back on Amazon Web Services rejected by judge
  3. Judge Easily Rejects Parler’s Demands To Have Amazon Reinstate Parler
  4. Court Rejects Parler’s Demand That Amazon Host Its Services (Eric Goldman)
  5. This site posted every face from Parler’s Capitol Hill insurrection videos
  6. Facebook calls in its Oversight Board to rule on Trump ban
  7. Facebook’s Oversight Board to Decide on Trump Ban
  8. Oversight Board Agrees To Review Facebook’s Trump Suspension
  9. Donald Trump Permanently Suspended from Twitter
  10. Insights: The Donald’s Digital Death Penalty—Deplatforming, Politics, And The Future Of Social Media
  11. Disingenuous, Lying, Whining, Bloviating, Insurrection Encouraging Senator Josh Hawley Given Pages Of Major Newspaper To Explain How He’s Being Silenced
  12. Parole Violator Who Raided Senate Building Sold Out By The GPS Unit Attached To Him For Previous Parole Violations
  13. Let’s fix Facebook’s content issues
  14. California Appeals Court Says Section 230 Immunizes Twitter From Banned User’s Lawsuit
  15. Dozens Of Human Rights Group Tell Congress: Do Not Gut Section 230 On Our Behalf; It’ll Do More Harm Than Good
  16. Twitter is opening up its full tweet archive to academic researchers for free
  17. De-platforming Is a Fix, But Only a Short-Term One
  18. Have Social Media Companies Become Too Powerful?
  19. Twitter launches ‘Birdwatch,’ a forum to combat misinformation
  20. Planning to Sue Twitter Over an Account Suspension? YOU WILL LOSE–Murphy v. Twitter (Eric Goldman)
  21. Website ADA Lawsuit Filed Against Golden State Warriors
  22. NLRB Approves Workplace Social Media Policy Limiting Employees’ Online Communications
  23. EFF Tells Louisiana Court Satire Is Still Protected Speech Even If The Government Doesn’t Get The Joke
  24. Unfiltered: How YouTube’s Content ID Discourages Fair Use and Dictates What We See Online (EFF)
  25. Big Tech worldwide nerulation: not if, but how
  26. Google agrees to pay French news sites to send them traffic
  27. Google: We’ll shut down Australian search before we pay news sites for links
  28. Google Threatens To Pull Out Of Australia Entirely; Australians Demand That It Both Stay And Pay News Orgs For Giving Them Traffic
  29. Court Tosses RICO Lawsuit Demanding $90 Million And The Dissolution Of Google For Supposed Anti-Conservative Bias
  30. Google Maps will soon show COVID vaccine locations
  31. Google takes Tilt Brush open source as official development comes to an end
  32. Sexual Harassment: Now Digital and Still Happening
  33. Silicon Valley Takes the Battlespace
  34. The history of the connected battlespace, part one: Command, control, and conquer
  35. Why Red Hat killed CentOS—a CentOS board member speaks
  36. Antitrust and the Tech Industry
  37. Role Reversal: Ninth Circuit Rejects Consumer’s Attempt to Enforce Updated Arbitration Provision in Website Terms of Use
  38. Former US Ambassador Sues Apple Because Telegram Users Are Making Him Feel Scared
  39. House Republicans Have A Big Tech Plan… That Is Both Unconstitutional And Ridiculous
  40. How Can Conservatives Fight Back Against Big Tech? For A Start, Just Be Sane Again.
  41. Not just MagSafe: Apple reminds users not to hold iPhones near pacemakers
  42. Apple reports double-digit sales booms for every product category in Q1 2021
  43. Loon’s bubble bursts—Alphabet shuts down Internet balloon company
  44. FTC Reaches Multi-Million Dollar Settlement With Ticket Brokers in its First BOTS Act Case
  45. Southwest Airlines Sues to Stop Web Scraping of Fare Information
  46. Labor Board Approves Carefully Crafted Social Media Policies
  47. FOSTA Survives Constitutional Challenge–US v. Martono (Eric Goldman)
  48. Comments on the “Protecting Constitutional Rights from Online Platform Censorship Act” (Eric Goldman)
  49. Lawyer Can’t Sue Google for Bad Client Review–Lewis v. Google (Eric Goldman)
  50. Content Moderation Case Study: Facebook Targets Misinformation Spread By The Philippines Government (2020)
  51. Content Moderation Case Study: Social Media Upstart Parler Struggles To Moderate Pornography (2020)
  52. Mirroring Qualifies for Section 230–Monsarrat v. Newman (Eric Goldman)
  53. An alternate dimension: Virtual influencers
  54. Instagram Launches Professional Dashboard For Creators Building Businesses
  55. The Number Of Channels Monetizing Via YouTube’s Partner Program Doubled In 2020, CEO Says
  56. YouTube Issues Significantly Expanded Guide To Self-Certification, Asks For Creator Feedback
  57. JoJo Siwa Allegedly Swatted By Paparazzi After Coming Out As Part Of LGBTQ+ Community
  58. Jake Paul Signs With Triller And Snoop Dogg-Owned ‘The Fight Club’ For April Boxing Bout
  59. Jake Paul To Battle UFC Fighter Ben Askren In Upcoming Triller Boxing Match
  60. Invite-Only Chat App Clubhouse To Develop Creator Monetization With Series B Funding
  61. Genflow, Which Helps enceruencers Build Their Own Brands, Raises $11 Million
  62. IAC’s Vimeo Raises $300 Million At $5.7 Billion Valuation, With Spinoff Slated For Next Quarter
  63. Vimeo Rolls Out Lead-Generation Integrations With Mailchimp, HubSpot, Constant Contact
  64. ‘Selma,’ ‘When They See Us’ Filmmaker Ava DuVernay Signs Exclusive Podcast Deal With Spotify
  65. Byte, Clash Merge To Take On TikTok
  66. Italian Data Protection Authority Orders TikTok To Block Underage Users Following Death Of 10-Year-Old Girl
  67. This Tiktok star uses astrology to predict bitcoin prices
  68. TikTok Testing Q&A Tool, Enabling Creators To More Seamlessly Respond To Viewer Inquiries
  69. TikTok Launches ‘Creator Portal’, A Hub For Educational Resources, Best Practices, More
  70. TikTok Helps Push 17-Year-Old Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drivers License” To No. 1 Billboard Debut
  71. TikTok To Lay Off Most Indian Staffers After Country Makes Ban Permanent (Report)
  72. Public Actors Without Public Values: Legitimacy, Domination and the Regulation of the Technology Sector
  73. A class for itself? On the worldviews of the new tech elite
  74. Evolving Trends in the Production and Distribution of Streaming Media
  75. Privacy, Digitalization, Rule of Law Some Contemporary Challenges
  76. Crypto Asset Regulation: Is the US or UK Keeping Up Best With This Emerging Market?
  77. Break the Backlog: The Durable Conclusions from the Online Courtroom Project

A.I.

  1. Valve’s Gabe Newell imagines “editing” personalities with future headsets: “Remember when Bob got hacked by Russian malware [and] ran naked through forests?”
  2. Facebook’s Post-Insurrection Purge Catches A Bunch Of Left Wing Accounts In Its AI Net
  3. Algorithms and consumer harm: CMA publishes new research paper and launches call for information
  4. Research and analysis – Algorithms: How they can reduce competition and harm consumers (Competition & Markets Authority, U.K.)
  5. A short primer on patenting AI and machine learning inventions at the European Patent Office
  6. Towards a deliberative framework for responsible innovation in artificial intelligence
  7. Sidewalk-robot startup celebrates 1 million deliveries
  8. Waymo CEO dismisses Tesla self-driving plan: “This is not how it works”
  9. AI and Life Sciences: Has protein folding been solved?
  10. AI Update: UK Parliament Research Briefing on AI in the UK Healthcare System
  11. Andrew Gray and the AI Boot Camp
  12. Scale AI Valued at $3.5B After Series D Fundraising Round

COMMUNICATIONS

  1. Report calls for powerful new federal body to regulate social media 
  2. Telecoms Paused PAC Spending To Insurrectionists, But Their Umbrella Lobbying Orgs Didn’t
  3. Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel replaces Ajit Pai, is now acting FCC chairwoman
  4. Rosenworcel Announces Staff Appointments
  5. New Interim FCC Boss Jessica Rosenworcel Will Likely Restore Net Neutrality, Just Not Yet
  6. SpaceX adds laser links to Starlink satellites to serve Earth’s polar areas
  7. CenturyLink, Frontier missed FCC broadband deadlines in dozens of states
  8. Outgoing FCC’s Last Act Is A Delusional Report That Pretends US Broadband Is Wonderful
  9. FCC Issues Declaratory Ruling on Pole Attachment Costs and Pole Replacements
  10. Biden Fires Steve Bannon Protege, Who Tried To Turn Voice Of America Into A New Breitbart
  11. Broadband Monopolies Keep Getting Money For Networks Never Fully Deployed
  12. AT&T eats a $15.5 billion impairment charge as DirecTV debacle continues
  13. AT&T may keep majority ownership of DirecTV as it closes in on final deal 
  14. New US rules target use of Chinese IT and communications goods and services 
  15. FCC Seeks Comment on Permitting Mobile Services in 12 GHz Band 
  16. FCC’s Annual Broadband Deployment Report Shows Digital Divide Closing
  17. Can public service broadcasting survive Silicon Valley? Synthesizing leadership perspectives at the BBC, PBS, NPR, CPB and local U.S. stations (Erik Martin)

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

  1.  Software-Generated “Infringement Report” Supports $262,931 in Remedies For Copyright Infringement
  2. Securing Copyright and Trademark Rights for Broadcasts and Promotions Related to NFL Championship Games and Super Bowl LV (55)
  3. Sony Music Entertainment v. Cox Communications (USDC, Virginia: January 12, 2021): Denies ISP’s post-trial motion to reduce $1 billion statutory damages award in copyright infringement action.
  4. The Tricky Issue of Joint Authorship in Copyright Works
  5. BMG, Aggressive Champion Of Copyright Enforcement, Accused Of Copyright Infringement By Jehovah’s Witnesses
  6. CASE-ing the Joint: The Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement Act
  7. Turns Out That Brexit Means Rotting Pigs’ Heads, And Losing An EU Copyright Exception
  8. Finds Alleged Parody Fails on Copyright Fair Use Factors but Passes Rogers Test to Avoid Trademark Liability
  9. Sports data rights in 2021: the outlook
  10. Trademarks in 2020: Notable Canadian trademark cases and developments 
  11. Are Trademark Injunctions Continuing their Awakening from Hibernation?
  12. Top 5 trademark considerations every cleantech entrepreneur should know 
  13. Pearl Jam v Pearl Jamm
  14. Proud to Be an American, God Bless The USA, But Not Functioning as A Trademark 
  15. What’s Cookin’? No Likelihood of Confusion Between Two KITCHEN Marks 
  16. Tommy Hilfiger invalidates trademark piggybacking on its iconic flag logo 
  17. Brizzy v. Vizzy: Molson Coors Obtains Cheers-Worthy Trademark Ruling at Fifth Circuit 
  18. “Lettuce Turnip the Beet” Pun on T-Shirts Not Trademark Use, Ninth Circuit Affirms 
  19. Trademarks and Expressive Works 
  20. Stay A Lot More Than Six Feet From The NFL’s Trademarks! 2021 Update on Super Bowl Advertising and Promotions 
  21. Laches and Acquiescence in Trademark Proceedings
  22. More ‘failure to function’ refusals in 2020
  23. Generic.com Terms are Not Ineligible for Registration 
  24. Trademark Law Updates – Fees, Fraud and Injunction Presumptions
  25. January 2021 Trademark Update 
  26. US Trademark Amendment Act Will Provide New Procedures for Challenging Use Claims
  27. UDRP on Gameroom.com: Facebook keeps its domain name
  28. How does Brexit affect European Trademark Rights?
  29. Can I keep my .eu domain name?
  30. Who’s on the Line?: Protecting Your Trade Secrets on Zoom Calls
  31. Pepper Spray Manufacturer’s Successful Self-Defense Reinforces Best Practices for Design Patents
  32. Rothy’s v Giesswein – English Court leaves a lasting mark on EU Community design rights 
  33. Federal Court of Appeal Cautions Against Use of Foreign Prosecution History 
  34. Federal Court of Appeal affirms summary judgment in patent prosecutions: Court also upholds interpretation of file wrapper estoppel in precedent-setting case
  35. Federal Court continues trend of granting summary judgment in appropriate patent proceedings
  36. Federal Court upholds validity of two patents pertaining to ELIQUIS
  37. Non-practicing entity’s allegations of patent infringement against oil sands producer /operator dismissed
  38. Choueifaty patent application found to possess patentable subject-matter
  39. Federal Court finds silodosin formulation patent valid but not infringed
  40. Patent Appeal Board Allows Dosage Regimen Claims – No Physician Skill Needed
  41. PMPRB proposes to modify Guidelines definition of “gap medicine” to include medicines sold by July 1, 2021
  42. Patentee’s Success Story in a Hatch-Waxman Litigation Case
  43. A New Application of an Abstract Idea Is Still Abstract: Court Affirms Dismissal Under § 101
  44. Patentee Cannot Cure Lack of Written Description by Reference To Matter Present Only Foreign Priority Application
  45. Happiest Baby’s SNOO patent Rocks Baby Automatically
  46. Illuminating insufficiency: the English Patents Court examines “Regeneron ranges”
  47. Regeneron Recast – Mr Justice Birss provides illuminating insight into the law of sufficiency
  48. UKIPO “Green Channel” – can the patent system encourage more innovation in green technologies?
  49. Cannabis: Patents in Europe
  50. Senate Passed New Legislation to Punish Foreign Individuals and Corporations for IP Theft
  51. Biden administration promises hard stance against Chinese IP abuses  
  52. Intellectual Property Issues for Foreign Enterprises Acquiring Chinese Companies
  53. Critical and curious terms from the world of Intellectual Property
  54. Top Enforcement Issues to watch in 2021

PRIVACY

  1. The CPPA’s Privacy Law Enforcement Regime
  2. ADT Tech Spied On Women For Four Years Before Getting Caught By Accident
  3. Britain Helps Children Learn From Home By Procuring Them Laptops Preloaded With Russian Malware
  4. North Korea hackers use social media to target security researchers
  5. Military intelligence buys location data instead of getting warrants, memo shows
  6. NYPD Still Blowing The Public’s Money To Keep The Public From Seeing The NYPD’s Misconduct Records
  7. New Yorkers Receive Postmortem Rights and Protection Against Digitization of Sexually Manipulated Content in New Right of Publicity Statute
  8. Chrome and Edge want to help with that password problem of yours
  9. Home alarm tech backdoored security cameras to spy on customers having sex
  10. Flo Period App Gets A Wrist Slap For Sharing Private Health Data
  11. United Kingdom: Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) issues statement on SolarWinds Orion compromise
  12. Amazon Ring App Found To Be (Again) Exposing User Locations, Home Addresses
  13. Court approves grocery store data breach settlement
  14. Appeals Court Rejects Clearview’s Attempt To Dodge A State Lawsuit By Trying To Make It A Federal Case
  15. 2020 Privacy Year In Review

GAMES

  1. Québec law firm files latest Nintendo Switch Joy-Con drift lawsuit: Lambert Avocat seeking compensation for all Québec consumers who bought Switch controllers since August 2017
  2. European Commission called to investigate into Joy-Con drift
  3. BEUC calls for Joy-Con Drift investigation after receiving 25,000 complaints
  4. Valve on trial for allegedly infringing controller patents: The Steam Controller is accused of being based on a patent belonging to SCUF
  5. US Court dismisses Wargaming lawsuit against former employees
  6. Jagex disputes Plutos Sama’s claims of ownership: RuneScape dev calls RICO lawsuit against former owner “meritless,” says it was fully acquired by Carlyle Group
  7. Runescape developer Jagex has been acquired by The Carlyle Group
  8. FTC Reaches Settlement with Tapjoy for Allegedly Deceiving Consumers About In-Game Rewards
  9. Mobile Ad Company Settles FTC Charges Over Misleading In-Game Rewards
  10. Epic’s Fortnite v Apple dispute arrives in the UK
  11. How Final Fantasy VII Remake legitimizes sexuality and gender identity
  12. Twitch bans Donald Trump’s account indefinitely
  13. Twitch indefinitely suspends account of former U.S. President Donald Trump
  14. Twitch permanently bans Trump, will update policy after Capitol siege: Streaming site says recent events have raised concerns over “rhetoric that encourages violence”
  15. Twitch’s new harassment policy goes into effect today: What’s new
  16. Activision Is Resisting Diversity Hiring Push by America’s Unions
  17. Activision Blizzard says interviewing diverse candidates for every opening “unworkable”
  18. Scavengers Studio creative director accused of belittling, screaming at, groping employees
  19. Report: Scavengers Studio co-founder allegedly groped, screamed at employees
  20. Scavengers suspends co-founder Simon Darveau
  21. Scavengers CEO steps down, suspends creative director after abuse allegations
  22. MAGFest executive director resigns after accusations of abusive behavior
  23. So, Uh, What’s Up With GameStop’s Stock?
  24. GameStop stock hits new highs as Redditors and stock market short sellers wage war
  25. For Basically No Reason, Gamestop’s Stock Price Is Rollercoastering In A Tug Of War Being Fought On Reddit
  26. The complete moron’s guide to GameStop’s stock roller coaster
  27. A Fight Over GameStop’s Soaring Stock Turns Ugly: The denizens of the WallStreetBets subreddit helped push the flailing stock to dizzying heights – while a short seller alleged an accompanying harassment campaign.
  28. How WallStreetBets Pushed GameStop Shares to the Moon
  29. Discord bans r/WallStreetBets server (for hate speech)
  30. GameStop share price reaches record high amid Reddit-driven short squeeze
  31. GameStop shares continue to soar following Elon Musk tweet
  32. GameStop stock soars, craters, closes up
  33. GameStop stock up 135% in 24 hours, Biden administration “monitoring the situation”
  34. All eyes on GameStop stock: The White House is now ‘monitoring the situation’
  35. Google halts Play Store ‘review bombing’ by GameStop traders
  36. Google Play bans video app for standard “.ass” subtitle support
  37. The Pokémon Company takes measures against Sword and Shield hackers
  38. The Pokemon Company is clamping down on Sword, Shield, and Home hackers
  39. Rovio quietly shutters game streaming service Hatch
  40. EA forms new studio Full Circle to revive Skate franchise
  41. Codemasters directors to vote in favour of EA bid
  42. Codemasters’ directors vote in favor of $1.2 billion EA acquisition
  43. Huuuge Games IPO could raise almost $400m
  44. Developers should be wary of the IPO’s siren call | Opinion:
  45. As CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk woes turn legal, developers with an eye on the stock market should think carefully about doing business under that level of scrutiny
  46. Cyberpunk 2077’s launch month sets digital sales record despite refunds
  47. Was the Cyberpunk 2077 launch a perfect storm? | This Week in Business
  48. CDPR working to navigate physical Cyberpunk 2077 returns as refunds roll out 
  49. How India’s shifting political climate is influencing local game development
  50. Romania: Copyright Perspective – Legal nature of Video Games
  51. New York Times Decides Kids Are Playing Too Many Video Games During The Pandemic
  52. Dead by Daylight studio apologises following developer comments about colourblind mode
  53. Plex adds game-streaming as paid add-on, completely botches the landing
  54. Xbox Live price increase reversed after less than one day
  55. Microsoft’s rolled back its Xbox Live Gold price increase
  56. Xbox Live Gold price hike reversed, service to no longer be required for free-to-play games: After outcry, Microsoft reverses course and goes a step further
  57. Xbox U-turns on Gold subscription price hike after fan backlash
  58. Opinion: Xbox’s Gold pricing flipflop & Game Pass ramifications
  59. Xbox Series X|S launches help push Microsoft gaming revenue up 51%
  60. Microsoft earnings: Xbox hardware sales shot up 86% with Series X/S
  61. Xbox revenue up 51% in a quarter defined by Game Pass growth, Series X|S debut
  62. Xbox Game Pass driving revenue at Microsoft after crossing 18 million subscribers
  63. Here’s Every Game Coming to The PlayStation 5 And Xbox Series X In 2021
  64. Can the games industry keep its COVID customers?
  65. Epic Games Pushes Into Film With Funding For Animated Feature ‘Gilgamesh’
  66. Using player-avatar relations to make more engaging and successful games: Avatars can be the key to offering more intense and satisfying game experiences, and inspiring loyalty among players
  67. Steam ‘prologues’… do they really help?
  68. Hitman 3 surpasses its predecessor to claim No.1 | UK Boxed Charts
  69. Hitman 3 recoups project costs in under a week
  70. IO Interactive’s Hitman 3 made back its dev costs in a single week
  71. FIFA 21 was Europe’s best-selling boxed game in 2020
  72. Switch expanding the console market, says Interpret
  73. What a Wipeout spiritual successor can teach investors about games
  74. Capcom raises forecasts thanks to growing digital sales
  75. Capcom raises full year earnings forecast thanks to strong digital sales
  76. Resident Evil VIII gets May release date, massive preview, playable demo
  77. Digital sales now make up 91 percent of Focus Home Interactive’s revenue
  78. Hyrule Warriors drives record Q3 for Koei Tecmo
  79. Deep Rock Galactic has topped 2 million sales
  80. Konami restructuring internal departments, has not dissolved games development teams
  81. Tencent acquires minority stake in Dontnod
  82. Tencent picks up minority stake in Dontnod for $36.3 million
  83. Tencent invests 30 million euros into DONTNOD, funding self-publishing
  84. Sagard NewGen nabs minority stake in Flight Simulator dev Asobo Studio
  85. Blizzard absorbs acclaimed Activision studio as a dedicated “support” team
  86. Vicarious Visions merged into Blizzard
  87. Vicarious Visions is now a part of Blizzard Entertainment
  88. DualShockers acquired by GRV Media
  89. Jagex sold to Carlyle Group
  90. RuneScape publisher Jagex acquired by The Carlyle Group for at least $530 million
  91. Team 17 acquires Golf With Your Friends franchise for $16.4 million
  92. Team17 acquires Golf With Your Friends for £12m
  93. Nacon acquires Big Ant Studios for €35m
  94. Nacon acquires Cricket 19 developer Big Ant Studios for $42.5 million
  95. Azerion fully acquires Habbo Hotel developer Sulake
  96. Habbo developer Sulake to be fully acquired by Azerion 
  97. Imvu receives $35m investment
  98. Together Labs nets $35 million to fund avatar-based social platform IMVU
  99. MegaDev secures $1.9m for PC cheat platform Plitch
  100. Huuuge ambitions: How a $300m IPO will make the Polish mobile studio last forever
  101. Sagard NewGen acquires minority stake in Asobo Studio
  102. Tencent made record number of games M&A deals in 2020
  103. Tencent acquires majority stake in Klei Entertainment
  104. Games projects raised $23m on Kickstarter in 2020
  105. The rise of Fall Guys and how Mediatonic plans to take it higher
  106. The Esports Industry Grew; Now It’s Time For It To Grow Up
  107. PlayVS expands to Canada with GameSeta acquisition
  108. Epic pledges $20 million for Fortnite esports in 2021
  109. Rival Peak reaches 22m views
  110. GamersNexus’ Steve Burke overclocks his YouTube channel’s best comments
  111. Apple reportedly planning VR headset for next year
  112. Report: Apple’s VR headset will be a pricey, high-end niche standalone
  113. PSVR 2 could be the hottest VR headset yet | Patent Trawling
  114. Pokémon Crystal keeps us interested by telling us less | Why I Love
  115. The ‘fab four’ game marketing maxims to live by
  116. Blog: The scary secrets of horror design from Silent Hill 4
  117. Blog: Everything you need to know about LiveOps in 2021
  118. Blog: Microtransations and the race to the bottom
  119. Blog: Using data-driven lessons from Academia: School Simulator to understand discounts
  120. Blog: A design discussion on Death Stranding
  121. Video: Behind the massive crowds of Assassin’s Creed Unity 
  122. Video: The tech behind Inkle’s interactive film scripts
  123. Don’t Miss: The Cabal – Valve’s design process for creating Half-Life
  124. Don’t Miss: How Monster Hunter: World’s director breathed new life into the series
  125. The Last of Us Part II leads the 2021 DICE Awards nominations

Jon