DIGITAL
- Beyond Defamation: Ontario Court Recognizes New Tort of Internet Harassment
- Expanding the Courts’ arsenal to combat online abuse – The new tort of harassment in Internet communications
- Conservative News Outlet Ordered To Pay More Than $250,000 In Legal Fees To Rachel Maddow, MSNBC
- Trump’s False Posts Were Treated with Kid Gloves by Facebook
- Facebook goes nuclear, banning all news posts in Australia
- Big Tech opens wallet for publishers as Australian news code looms
- Google and Facebook grapple with news publishers, as Australia becomes a test case
- The Internet Is Splintering
- The world’s second-most popular desktop operating system isn’t macOS anymore
- Posing as Amazon seller, consumer group investigates fake-review industry
- There won’t be blood: Apple is making its syringe emoji a vaccine dose
- New report on Apple’s VR headset: 8K in each eye, potential $3,000 price tag
- Apple’s car project could put it on a collision course with Tesla
- New York Administrative Law Judge Determines That Online Security Services Are Subject to Sales Tax
- State lawmakers override veto, become first in nation to tax online ads
- Biden Administration Presses Pause on WeChat and TikTok Appeals
- Biden Administration Asks Federal Courts to Pause TikTok and WeChat Cases
- Twitter CFO Says Trump Is Banned In Perpetuity, Even If He Runs For Office Again
- Facebook has been helping law enforcement identify Capitol rioters
- Facebook Blocks News Viewing, Sharing In Australia, Faces Backlash From Emergency Services
- Zuckerberg responds to Apple’s privacy policies: “We need to inflict pain”: Meeting between Zuckerberg, Cook “resulted in a tense standoff.”
- Insights: Apple And Facebook Are Fighting For The Future As Much As For Now
- Inside the Making of Facebook’s Supreme Court: The company has created a board that can overrule even Mark Zuckerberg. Soon it will decide whether to allow Trump back on Facebook.
- The Copia Institute To The Oversight Board Regarding Facebook’s Trump Suspension: There Was No Wrong Decision
- Zuckerberg’s Grand Illusion: Understanding The Oversight Board Experiment
- Why We Filed A Comment With Facebook’s Oversight Board
- United States: towards the end of Internet intermediary immunity?
- New details emerge about Google’s payments to link to French news sites
- Why young designers are using social media to shame fast fashion copycats
- Twitter & India Still Arguing Over Whether Or Not Twitter Accounts Supporting Farmer Protests Need To Be Removed
- Instagram bans top anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over COVID falsehoods
- Orrin Hatch, Who Once Wanted To Destroy The Computers Of Anyone Who Infringed On Copyrights, Now Lies About Section 230
- Content Moderation Case Study: Valve Takes A Hands Off Approach To Porn Via Steam (2018)
- Content Moderation Case Study: Google ‘Removes’ German Residences From Street View By Request (2010)
- Section 230 Protects App Store from Liability for Apps With Loot Boxes–Coffee v. Google (Eric Goldman)
- Section 230 Applies to Articles by Huffington Post Contributors–Page v. Oath (Eric Goldman)
- Nvidia wants to buy CPU designer Arm—Qualcomm is not happy about it
- Nvidia acquisition of Arm under fire from Microsoft and Google
- Prosecutor charges former phone company employee in SIM-swap scheme
- WhatsApp messages – who is in control?
- Google flags its iOS apps as “out of date” after two months of neglect
- Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide Last Week
- Top 50 Most Viewed U.S. YouTube Channels Last Week
- YouTube’s ‘Shorts’ TikTok Clone, With 3.5 Billion Daily Views, To Arrive In The U.S. This March
- YouTube Launches Bi-Weekly ‘Shorts Report’ To Bolster Its TikTok Competitor
- YouTube TV Readies Add-On Package With 4K, Offline Viewing, Unlimited Concurrent TV Screens
- YouTube Unveils 2021 Originals Slate Featuring Markiplier, Marques Brownlee, Jake Roper
- YouTube Will Expand Tipping Tool ‘Applause’ To More Channels, Is Testing Ecommerce Feature For Creators
- TikTok’s U.S. Ad Business Grew 500% In 2020, It Says
- ASA continues crackdown on influencer #ads as Love Island’s Luke M is the latest to fall foul of advertising rules
- SAG-AFTRA Ratifies New ‘Influencer Agreement’ Covering Creator-Generated Branded Content
- Grace Helbig, Mamrie Hart To Catch Up With OG YouTubers In Limited Podcast ‘How Ya Been?’
- Collectibles Marketplace Goldin Auctions Raises $40 Million, Pacts With Logan Paul For Pokemon Card Event
- Charli D’Amelio Builds On Dunkin’ Donuts Alliance With Second Signature Coffee Drink
- Emma Chamberlain Named Spokesmodel For PacSun
- This Week In Social Video: Super Bowl (Ad) Shuffle
- Disney+ Closes 2020 With 94.9 Million Subscribers, Expects To Hit 230 Million In 2024
- Apple TV+ acquires a “sci-fi courtroom drama” about a murderous robot doll
- After the failure of the Facebook Phone, get ready for a Facebook Watch
- Parler’s Found A New Host (And A New CEO)… For Now
- Parler says it’s back without “Big Tech” after being kicked off Amazon
- When Can Plaintiffs Serve Process Via Online Methods? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- Internet Law Year-in-Review for 2020 (Eric Goldman)
- An anniversary for great justice: Remembering “All Your Base” 20 years later
A.I.
- AI Update: USPTO Releases Report on Growth of Artificial Intelligence Applications
- IP law and strategy for AI – A European perspective
- AI Hiring Tools Present New Risks: What’s Next in the US
- Top Ten Legal Considerations for Use and/or Development of Artificial Intelligence in Health Care
- FDA Issues Long-Awaited Action Plan for Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning-Based Software As a Medical Device
- Video: The AI of Assassin’s Creed Origins
COMMUNICATIONS
- Vancouver’s TSN 1040 off the air after Bell suddenly pulls the plug: Vancouver’s most popular sports radio station shut down Tuesday morning, surprising fans and staff alike
- Bell abandoning all-sports format at radio stations in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Hamilton
- Why Laid Off Bell Sports Journalists Should Form A Worker Co-op: We cannot rely on legacy corporate media to save the journalism industry. It’s time to build something better.
- Circumventing Parliament: How Bill C-10 Dramatically Reduces Parliamentary Oversight and Review Over Broadcast Policy (Michael Geist)
- Texas Power, Phone Outages Again Highlight How Infrastructure Underinvestment Will Be Fatal Moving Forward
- Ajit Pai Tried To Strangle A Broadband Aid Program For Low Income Americans. Then A Pandemic Hit.
- State Laws Restricting Community Broadband Are Hurting US Communities During The Pandemic
- Are Social Media Services “State Actors” or “Common Carriers”? (Eric Goldman)
- FCC to Hold Hearing to Determine What Felony Conviction of Station Owner Means for License Renewal – What Does the FCC Character Policy Require of Broadcast Applicants?
- The Return of the Fairness Doctrine – What it Was and Why it Won’t Return
- The digital divide is giving American churches hell
- Dumb New GOP Talking Point: If You Restore Net Neutrality, You HAVE To Kill Section 230. Just Because!
- AT&T scrambles to install fiber for 90-year-old after his viral WSJ ad
- A 90 Year Old Shouldn’t Have To Buy A $10,000 Ad Just To Get AT&T To Upgrade His Shitty DSL Line
- Cox cuts some users’ uploads from 30Mbps to 10Mbps—here’s how to avoid it
- Frontier raises sneaky “Internet Infrastructure Surcharge” from $4 to $7
- Annoyance Builds At Elon Musk Getting A Billion In Subsidies For Starlink Broadband
- SpaceX plans Starlink phone service, emergency backup, and low-income access
- SpaceX Starlink passes 10,000 users and fights opposition to FCC funding
- FCC Prepares to Auction AM and FM Radio Construction Permits, Seeks Comments on Procedures
- Louisiana AG Sues Journalists To Keep Them From Obtaining Documents Detailing Sexual Harassment By Top Prosecutor
- CAN-SPAM Requires Falsity or Deception, But What Do Those Words Mean?–Rad v. US
- Kang v. PF Chang’s, Inc.: Reasonable Consumer Deception, or Just a “Crabby” Plaintiff?
- Who is leading the 5G patent race? A patent landscape analysis on declared SEPs and standards contributions
- A reckoning for the paparazzi and tabloid media
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
- A consultation on how to implement an extended general term of copyright protection in Canada (Canada)
- Copyright Term Extension – March 12 2021 Deadline to Respond to Very Disappointing Document (Howard Knopf)
- Afraid to Lead: Canadian Government Launches Timid Consultation on Implementing Copyright Term Extension (Michael Geist)
- The Copyright Bill That Does Nothing: Senate Bill Proposes Copyright Reform to Support Media Organizations (Michael Geist)
- Copyright Term Extension: To Life Plus 70 Years, But Not Beyond! Government Consultation on Copyright Term Extension Now Open
- Should We Require Human Inventorship? Submit Your Amicus Brief by March
- Is This Beverly Hills Cop Playing Sublime’s ‘Santeria’ to Avoid Being Live-streamed?: Police in Beverly Hills have been playing music while being filmed, seemingly in an effort to trigger Instagram’s copyright filters.
- Copyright and database rights in database schema: Software Solutions Ltd and others v 365 Health and Wellbeing Ltd and Smith
- Judiciary’s Approach to Moral Rights under Copyright Law
- H&M and Unicolors weave up at Copyright battle at US SC
- UK Courts find hidden voice in film authorship dispute
- Pan-European Design Protection: Considerations for the fashion sector post-Brexit
- Utah Theme Park Sues Taylor Swift Over Album Title After Exploiting It
- A Shoe-In? Fleet Feet Gives Injunction Appeal the Moot Boot
- Amazon keeps hitting the target… but not quite in a trade mark context
- One too many Pink Ladies
- Tefal fails to secure trade mark protection for its red dot despite survey evidence
- ‘It’s like milk but made for humans’: General Court overturns EUIPO’s refusal to register Oatly’s trade mark
- When is a slogan a trade mark?
- Random Jackass Attempts To Trademark ‘Mayor Of Mar-A-Lago’ In The Most Hilarious Way
- How life sciences companies can strengthen IP strategies through the use of trade secrets
- ITC Finds Trade Secret Misappropriation and Bars Electric Vehicle Batteries from SK Innovation—With Exceptions
- $6 Million Verdict Vacated in Flooring Tech Trade Secrets Row
- The Facts on Fax Machines: They’re Not Dead, They’re Indefinite
- Foreign Prosecution History: To Admit, Or Not To Admit, That Remains a Puzzle To Canadian Courts
- Federal Court finds silodosin formulation patent valid but not infringed
- Patent application extensions of time in Canada
- Extensions of time in Canada: worth the trouble?
- Contradictory Positions Render Claims Indefinite
- “Safe Harbor” Act May Save Pfizer From Infringement for Covid Vaccine Clinical Trials
- It Is Improper To Read a Claim in a Grammatically Incorrect Way Simply To Include a Disclosed Embodiment
- US patents: Body blow for antibodies
- There’s no such thing as an international patent
- Everyday IP — Flushing out the facts: When was indoor plumbing invented?
- From Snail Mail to Streaming: The Netflix Intellectual Property Story
- Cloud Contracts: The Impact of Common Terms of Service Provisions on Intellectual Property Rights
- The link between intellectual property rights and business performance
- IP law looms large over U.S.-China relations
PRIVACY
- France ties Russia’s Sandworm to a multiyear hacking spree
- North Korea may have hacked into Pfizer servers looking for COVID data
- Enough is enough — Governing the ungovernable
- Comments on the Clearview AI joint Report of Findings
- Big Brother’s Access Limited – Canadian Privacy Commissioners Rule Clearview AI’s Facial Recognition Tool in Breach of Canadian Privacy Laws
- Privacy trends to watch in 2021: Canada modernizes its private-sector privacy laws
- FTC Chair Rebecca Slaughter Outlines Data Privacy Enforcement Agenda
- FTC Settles Facial Recognition Data Misuse Allegations with App Developer
- Analyst: Tighter IDFA privacy rules on iOS spell short-term trouble for in-app ads
- Microsoft is seeing a big spike in Web shell use
- Microsoft: SolarWinds attack took more than 1,000 engineers to create – Microsoft reckons that the huge attack on security vendors and more took the combined power of at least 1,000 engineers to create.
- France: Russian state hackers targeted Centreon servers in years-long campaign
- Hacked Florida Water Plant Found To Have Been Using Unsupported Windows 7 Machines And Shared Passwords
- Minneapolis, Minnesota Becomes The Latest Major City To Pass A Facial Recognition Ban
- Amazon will use cameras and AI to monitor delivery drivers
- Gun Trafficking Investigation Shows The FBI Is Still Capable Of Accessing Communications On Encrypted Devices
- Google Pixel phones will soon track heart rate using only the camera
- Zoombombing countermeasures are ineffective in the vast majority of cases
- The Perfect Storm for Privacy and Adtech: How the End of the Cookie Era Will Reshape the Digital Marketplace
- Virginia is about to get a major California-style data privacy law
- Report: Google considering an iOS-style anti-tracking feature for Android
- Information Commissioner confirms conservatives illegally collected data to racially profile voters
- CBP Facial Recognition Program Has Gathered 50 Million Face Photos, Identified Fewer Than 300 Imposters
- Biometric Privacy in the Era of COVID-19: Facial Recognition Compliance for Airports and Airlines
- Cops can’t access $60M in seized bitcoin—fraudster won’t give password
GAMES
- Riot Games CEO sued by former assistant for sexual harassment
- Google Wins Motion to Dismiss Loot Box Class Action
- Nintendo reportedly raises damages sought in Colopl lawsuit to $47m
- Nintendo claims additional damages in White Cat Project lawsuit
- Latest Nintendo Direct event led by Zelda: Skyward Sword HD remaster
- Nintendo ends pandemic-driven Nintendo Direct hiatus with a remaster-filled showcase
- First PS5 drift class action lawsuit filed against Sony
- Epic Games’ Case Against Teenage Fortnite Cheater Finally Settles
- Epic files EU antitrust complaint against Apple
- Fortnite vs. Apple continues to escalate with new antitrust complaint
- Fortnite fight expands as Epic claims Apple broke EU competition law
- North Dakota lawmakers jump into Apple/Epic fight with new app store bill
- Coalition for App Fairness behind North Dakota bill against Apple: Money from the organisation co-founded by Epic Games paid for lobbyists to introduce new bill into state senate
- A North Dakota bill aiming to loosen Apple’s tight grip on iOS has failed
- Video Gaming/E-Gaming Law update, February 2021
- One Patent To Rule Them All | Podcast: We discuss the implications of Warner Bros’ Nemesis system patent, with Harbottle & Lewis’ Kostya Lobov
- PC versions of Grand Theft Auto reverse-engineered to raw source code
- New dev revives Six Days in Fallujah a decade after controversal announcement
- Six Days in Fallujah dev: “I don’t think we need to portray the atrocities” – Peter Tamte wants to tell the story without politics, without addressing why the war started, or what war crimes were committed
- Hackers claim to have sold Cyberpunk 2077, Witcher 3 source code
- CD Projekt Red source code reportedly sells for millions in dark Web auction
- How close is too close? A look into the use of altered trade marks and third-party ‘patches’ in videogames
- US regulations reportedly prevented GameStop from cashing in on share surge
- Why didn’t GameStop sell some of its inflated stock during the bubble?
- Habbo: “The last month left a bruise on our community” – Sulake CEO Valtteri Karu on Habbo’s troubled migration from Flash to Unity, and how the firm aims to win back the trust of its players
- Why a “Black Panther moment” is not the answer to games’ diversity problem: Studio AC Games founder Adam Campbell on how improving representation in video games takes less effort, not more
- Niantic launches Black Developers Initiative, offers funding and mentorship
- Microsoft launches gaming accessibility testing platform for developers
- Microsoft updates Xbox Accessibility Guidelines to help devs make games for everyone
- Report: Microsoft testing web-based xCloud streaming ahead of public preview
- Xbox takes back-compat to new extremes, tricks old games to run faster
- Stadia staff lauded for “great progress” one week before closure
- Ex-Stadia developers dish on Google’s mismanagement and poor communication
- Report: Stadia boss praised first-party studios for ‘great progress’ days before closure
- Steam developer gets banned for “Very Positive” review trickery
- Eximius dev relaunching title after publisher dispute
- Amazon delays New World again
- Future of work in games: new EU-UK relationship brings renewed focus on immigration for the games industry
- Ampere: PS5 and Xbox Series X|S sales in line with, not ahead of, previous gen – But firm believes new PlayStation could sell up to eight million units by end of March, surpassing PS4
- PC hardware and accessories spending grew 62% in the US in 2020
- US game spending up 42% in January, says NPD
- Dreams of easy money create a risk of tough acquisitions | Opinion: As frothy valuations and predatory firms drive a wave of acquisitions, serious questions need to be asked about the chimeras being created
- Profits falter despite rising game sales at Sega Sammy
- Sega Sammy reports sharp income decline despite soaring game sales
- Supercell posts solid profits, despite fifth straight year of revenue decline
- Playtonic branches into game publishing with Playtonic Friends label
- Yooka-Laylee developer Playtonic launches publishing division
- Asmodee acquires Board Game Arena
- Pole to Win acquires 5518 Studios
- Record year for Remedy despite no new game releases
- Remedy had a record financial year despite lack of new releases
- Valheim tops 1 million sales during first week on Steam Early Access
- Valheim has topped 2 million sales in under two weeks
- Human: Fall Flat has topped 25 million sales worldwide
- Trials of Mana remake tops 1 million digital sales and shipments
- An acceleration of consolidation | This Week in Business
- Kwalee launches PC and console publishing arm
- Tilting Point sinks $60 million into Match 3D developer Loop Games
- Zynga delivers record annual revenues thanks to ‘forever franchises’
- Zynga still in the market for more acquisitions
- NaturalMotion working on cross-platform games as Zynga eyes growth on console, PC
- Asmodee acquires digital multiplayer board game platform Board Game Arena
- Starbreeze losses shrink to $15.8m as Payday continues to grow
- Thanks to Payday 2-driven stability, Starbreeze pushes ahead on Payday 3
- Netmarble doubles full-year profits for 2020
- Peter Molyneux’s studio 22cans suffers layoffs
- Colossi Games raises $2.5m in funding
- Colossi Games nets $2.5 million to boost production on debut mobile game
- What Do 140 Million ‘GTA 5’ Sales Mean For ‘GTA 6’?
- Bad Robot looking to be the rare Hollywood-and-games success story
- Last Of Us HBO series casts Pedro Pascal as Joel
- Dota 2 is getting a Netflix series: The eight-episode anime series will launch on March 25
- Twitch and Facebook Gaming set record highs in January
- The ‘GaaS or subscription service’ squeeze in games
- Striker VR Raises $4M to Bring Its Haptic VR Gun to Consumers – First Look
- Why The Medium embraced a local Polish setting for a global audience
- GoldenEye, Mario and how to succeed in the world of nostalgia
- Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury launch 190% bigger than Wii U original | UK Boxed Charts
- Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury | Critical Consensus
- Valheim is the endless Viking survival game we have craved for years
- Online fighting games during COVID: How rollback helps us connect
- The games of love: Our favorite couch co-op games to play with a partner
- Blog: Breaking down the essentials of live ops – Part 1
- Blog: Designing for a sense of mystery and wonder
- Blog: Designing touch controls for Human: Fall Flat
- Blog: How developers are dealing with toxic behaviour in social VR
- Blog: Video game music concerts in 2021
- Blog: Lessons learned from teaching game design
Jon