DIGITAL
- Bad Info Follows Every Tragedy. Don’t Fall For It
- Google’s Top Stories Promoted Misinformation About the Las Vegas Shooting From 4Chan
- Google admits citing 4chan to spread fake Vegas shooter news: 4chan was, for some reason, counted among Google News’ “authoritative” sources.
- The Death Loop
- This “Ghost Gun” Machine Now Makes Untraceable Metal Handguns
- Myanmar’s Internet Disrupted Society—And Fueled Extremists
- As US launches DDoS attacks, N. Korea gets more bandwidth—from Russia: Fast pipe from Vladivostok gives N. Korea more Internet in face of US cyber operations.
- Sirius XM Uses DMCA To Memory Hole Archive Of Howard Stern’s Interviews With Donald Trump
- Years of Howard Stern’s interviews with Trump now gone after DMCA takedown: “This is the only public version of a massive quarter century trove of interviews.”
- Former Revenge Porn Site Operator Readies For Senate Run By Issuing Bogus Takedown Requests To YouTube
- Copyright Troll Carl Crowell Ups The Ante: Now Demands Accused Pirates Hand Over Their Hard Drives
- Shouldn’t Federal Judges Understand That Congress Did Not Pass SOPA?
- ‘Six Strikes’ May Be Dead, But ISPs Keep Threatening To Disconnect Accused Pirates Anyway
- Supreme Court Won’t Review US Government Getting To Steal All Of Kim Dotcom’s Stuff
- Supreme Court won’t hear Kim Dotcom’s civil forfeiture case – Dotcom’s lawyer: “It is a bad day for due process and international treaties.”
- Supreme Court says live streaming would “adversely affect” oral arguments: Court wants transparency “while preserving the integrity of its proceedings.”
- Federal Court Rejects Absurd Attempt to Sue #BlackLivesMatter, the Hashtag
- Coffee Subscription Lawsuit Involving Negative Option Contracts a Wake-up Call for Online Sellers
- Female ex-Oracle engineers sue for gender discrimination: Oracle, like Google, stands accused of paying women less than male equivalents.
- Why Tech Leadership Has A Bigger Race Than Gender Problem
- Oracle Tells The White House: Stop Hiring Silicon Valley People & Ditch Open Source
- Elsevier’s Latest Brilliant Idea: Adding Geoblocking To Open Access
- As ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Shows, The Streaming Exclusivity Wars Risk Driving Users Back To Piracy
- That Flag-Burning NFL Photo Isn’t Fake News. It’s A Meme
- Amazon’s First NFL Stream Posts Solid Numbers Despite Glitches, Paywall
- With 372,000 Average Viewers, Amazon Tops Twitter In First Stream Of NFL’s ‘Thursday Night Football’
- Amazon’s Attribution Approach To Streaming NFL Games
- Couple Grifts Amazon Out of $1.2 Million in Electronics
- Facebook: Ten million people exposed to Russia-linked ads
- Why Trump Hate and Russian Ads Are Good for Facebook
- Russia’s Facebook Ads Will Remain Secret, For Now
- Russian Facebook ads featured anti-immigrant messages, puppies, women with rifles: See some of the ads used “to sow discord and chaos, and divide us from one another.”
- Facebook loses attention as publishers shift focus to other platforms
- Who Will Take Responsibility For Facebook?
- Google and Facebook Failed Us: The world’s most powerful information gatekeepers neglected their duties in Las Vegas. Again.
- Does Even Mark Zuckerberg Know What Facebook Is?: The same company that gives you birthday reminders also helped ensure the integrity of the German elections.
- The U.S. Election System Remains Deeply Vulnerable, But States Would Rather Celebrate Fake Success
- Silicon Valley isn’t just disrupting democracy—it’s replacing it
- Trustworthy Networking
- How Vice reassures brand-safety conscious advertisers
- Uber Knew Its Self-Driving Guru Had Taken Google’s Trade Secrets, Report Says
- Waymo vs. Uber: unsealed court documents reveal damning evidence – Reports show lies, visits to shredder, and evasive texts
- Google May Not Need A Smoking Gun To Win Its Case Against Uber
- Here’s the “due diligence” report Waymo hopes will win its case against Uber – Otto’s head of HR: “I’m gonna go get your stuff destroyed this afternoon btw.”
- Uber Charges Passenger Clueless About Surge Pricing $925 For Ride
- Uber expands board to 17 members, reduces Kalanick’s power: A month into new job, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is making his mark at Uber.
- Uber investors to former CEO: We’ll sue you if you don’t vote how we want: “Our clients have authorized us to pursue any and all legal recourse… ”
- Section 230’s Applicability to ‘Inconsistent’ State Laws
- How Europe is going after big tech when no one else is
- Never Enough: EU Demands Social Media Companies Do The Impossible Even Faster
- Inmates Need Social Media. Take It From A Former Prisoner
- The Hardest Medium to Troll
- Microsoft Discontinues Groove Music, Partners With Spotify Instead
- Microsoft getting out of the music biz, moving Groove subs to Spotify: The app will stick around for local playback, but streaming is gone.
- Beauty for girls, pranks for boys – it’s the same old gender stereotypes for YouTube stars
- YouTube Adds iMessage Support To Make Sharing Videos Even Easier
- YouTube Restricts Externally-Linking End Cards (Include Those To Patreon) To Members Of Its Partner Program
- YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki Launches New Channel With Influencer-Packed Intro Video
- YouTube TV To Serve As Presenting Sponsor Of The 2017 World Series
- YouTube Grows Up: Inside the Plan to Take on Netflix and Hulu
- Stupid Patent Of The Month: Will Patents Slow Artificial Intelligence?
- EFF: Stupid patents are dragging down AI and machine learning – “The patent reads like the table of contents of an intro to AI textbook.”
- Sex Trafficking Experts Say SESTA Is the Wrong Solution
- Artificial Intelligence Is Our Future. But Will It Save Or Destroy Humanity?
- DeepMind wants to answer the big ethical questions posed by AI
- How To Build A Self-Conscious Machine
- The Myth Of A Superhuman AI
- In AI We Trust? (Urs Gasser)
- Mr. Know-It-All: Is It Ok For Me To Ask Customer Service Reps If They’re Robots?
- Google’s DeepMind Launches Ethics Group to Steer AI
- Google’s AI Still Isn’t Smarter Than a First Grader
- What Happened When I Wore Google And Levi’s “Smart” Jacket For A Night
- Google’s Gadget Vision: Same Stuff, Different Screens
- Google unveils a $249 smart camera that decides what’s worth photographing: You can leave it lying around or wear it.
- Google Pixel Buds are wireless earbuds that translate conversations in real time: Google Translate in your ears for $159.
- Chinese High-Tech Startups: Now More Copied Than Copying
- Showtime Won’t Explain Why Its Website Was Hijacking User Browsers To Covertly Mine Cryptocurrency
- South Korea joins China in banning coin offerings: Money has flooded in an “unproductive and speculative direction,” official says.
- Looking Through an IP Lens at Blockchain and Cryptocurrency
- Cryptocurrencies: securities law implications
- Cryptocurrency: A ‘Snap’ on Developments
- LG is releasing a mosquito-repellent phone, but it probably won’t work: It claims to repel mosquitoes with ultrasonic waves, but scientists are skeptical.
- How VR Saves Lives In The OR
- The 3 Biggest Challenges Facing Augmented Reality Today
- Where Are The Drones That Could Be Saving Puerto Rico?
- Stop The Endless Scroll. Delete Social Media From Your Phone
- The War on General-Purpose Computing Turns on the Streaming Media Box Community
- Spurs Pitched Austin As Tech Hub To Lure Iguodala From Warriors
- App Listening For Audio Beacons May Be Illegal Wiretapping–Rackemann v. Colts (Eric Goldman)
CREATIVITY
- How The Supreme Court’s Continued Misunderstanding Of Copyright Ruined Halloween
- Crown copyright alive and well in new decision from the Ontario Court of Appeal (Teresa Scassa)
- The Eggshell Attorney General: Jeff Sessions wants a First Amendment that celebrates robust criticism of everyone but himself.
- New York voters have no 1st Amendment right to snap ballot-booth selfies: “The State’s interest in the integrity of its elections is paramount,” court says.
- Kmart faces copyright lawsuit for selling the wrong banana costume: Copyright law has gone bananas after a Supreme Court ruling earlier this year.
- King’s College Football Coach Sued For Copyright Infringement For Retweeting A Book Page 2 Years Ago
- The Long Read: Confessions Of An English Music-Pirate
- Politics in the Workplace: Do NFL Players Have Freedom of Speech to Protest at Games?
- Police Chief Takes To Facebook To Complain About A Journalist Committing Journalism
- Judge: Barrett Brown donors can sue government over subpoenaed records – San Francisco activist led campaign to raise money for jailed journalist.
- The Trump Administration is Investigating the “Theft of IP” by China: What You Need to Know About Trademarks in China
- ASA cracking down on gender stereotypes in advertisements
- Unbalancing Act: How Conferences Perpetuate The Music Industry’s Gender Parity Crisis – Conferences have the opportunity to improve on reality’s mistakes. Unfortunately, the data shows otherwise.
- Lynda Carter to James Cameron: ‘Stop Dissing Wonder Woman, You Poor Soul’
- Remembering Tom Petty, Unlikely Video Pioneer
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- Globe editorial: A bad idea for ‘fixing’ Canada’s internet rules
- Joly’s Digital Cancon Plan: Netflix May Be The Star, But No New Regulations, Taxes or Bailouts is the Story (Michael Geist)
- Cancon 2.0 and the Netflix deal: The 10 key takeaways – On Thursday, the Heritage Minister unveiled ‘Creative Canada,’ the first major overhaul of the cultural funding regime in more than 25 years. Here’s what you need to know
- Five reasons to like Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly’s Netflix deal
- Netflix commits to a $400 million investment in Canadian film and TV: It’s the company’s first permanent production outside the US
- Netflix Canada and the Misleading Claims About “Level Playing Fields” (Michael Geist)
- The Launch of ‘Creative Canada’: Some Brief Thoughts Following the Minister’s Speech
- Canada’s Cultural Funding Regime Receives Overhaul
‘Creative Canada’ – More Musings - Fake Data on Fakes: Digging Into Bell’s Dubious Canadian Piracy Claims (Michael Geist)
- Bell MTS hikes most of its rates
- Secretary of State refers Fox/Sky merger to the CMA on public interest grounds
- FCC chair accused of ignoring investment data in push to end net neutrality: Pai ignores cyclical nature of wireless network investment, critics say.
- ISPs want Supreme Court to kill Title II net neutrality rules now and forever: FCC may soon revoke net neutrality rules, but ISPs want immunity from regulation.
- Hoping The Third Time’s The Charm, ISPs Urge Supreme Court To Kill Net Neutrality
- Net neutrality debate ‘controlled by bots’
- Trump’s FCC Boss Blasts Apple For Refusing To ‘Turn On’ FM iPhone Chipsets That Don’t Actually Exist
- FCC chief Ajit Pai wants Apple to stop disabling FM radio chips in iPhones: Pai cites public safety concerns; Apple says new iPhones have no FM chip at all.
- Ajit Pai gets new term on FCC despite protest of anti-net neutrality plan: Democrats objected to Pai’s re-nomination, but Republicans had his back.
- Why some Senate Democrats voted to give Ajit Pai another term on FCC: Pai’s support mostly came from GOP senators, but four Democrats broke ranks
- Broadband Lobbyists Gush Over Re-Appointment Of Trump’s FCC Boss
- AT&T’s wireless home Internet, with 160GB cap, is now in 18 states: AT&T got nearly $3 billion federal subsidy to connect 1.1 million rural customers.
- As Broadband Usage Caps Expand, Nobody Is Checking Whether Usage Meters Are Reliable
- T-Mobile agrees to stop claiming its network is faster than Verizon’s: Verizon wins ruling as T-Mobile’s use of crowdsourced speed tests is criticized.
- What’s Going on With the Rumored, Not Good T-Mobile and Sprint Merger
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- So, Uh, That Billion-Account Yahoo Breach Was Actually 3 Billion
- Every Yahoo account that existed—all 3 billion—was compromised in 2013 hack: It’s official. If you had a Yahoo account in 2013, it was compromised.
- Hacks Are Always Worse Than Reported: All Of Yahoo Email Was Hacked In 2013. All. Of. It.
- NSA warned White House against using personal email: In briefings to incoming Trump aides, security officials highlighted the dangers of unsecured email and phones.
- NSA Warned Trump Staffers Against Personal Email/Device Use; Were Ignored
- The NSA Warned Jared Kushner Not to Do the Dumb Email Thing That He Then Did
- After Kushner’s private e-mail became known, it moved to Trump Org servers: In late September, it changed from outlook.com to mailhost01.trumporg.com.
- Well-Known Email Prankster Ends Up With Sensitive Document From Jared Kushner’s Lawyer
- Congressman demands to know if DHS will collect his social media history, too – Rep. Ted Lieu, naturalized American: “Does your proposed rule apply to me?”
- Use of Search Warrants to Create Trump Enemies List Continues
- Justice Department Demands Names of Thousands Who Liked Anti-Trump Facebook Page
- DOJ’s Facebook Warrants Target Thousands Of Users For Protesting Inauguration
- FOIA’ed Documents Show NSA Abuse Of Pen Register Statutes To Collect Content
- FBI may keep secret the name of vendor that cracked terrorist’s iPhone: Judge agrees with FBI that national security trumps the public’s right to know.
- SEC hack came as internal security team begged for funding: Forensic investigative unit was forced to use equipment tagged for scrap.
- The new surveillance state
- Sounding the privacy alarm
- As Expected, EU Court Of Justice To Review If Internet Company’s Privacy Practices Are Acceptible
- An alarming number of patched Macs remain vulnerable to stealthy firmware hacks: At-risk EFI versions likely put Windows and Linux PCs at risk, too.
- New Equifax CEO offers “sincere and total apology” to consumers: Embattled company vows to give consumers more control over their credit data.
- Equifax, Which Said Executives Did Not Know of Hack Before Trades, Has Launched a ‘Thorough Review’
- Equifax Was Warned About Vulnerability But Failed To Patch It
- Can Equifax’s Offerings Actually Protect Your Identity?
- A series of delays and major errors led to massive Equifax breach: Former CEO’s testimony to Congress reveals a shocking lack of security rigor.
- 6 Fresh Horrors From The Equifax CEO’s Congressional Hearing
- IRS awards Equifax no-bid, $7.25 million contract after hack: “This is considered a critical service that cannot lapse.”
- Into the Breach: How Canada’s Security Breach Disclosure Regulations Fall Short (Michael Geist)
- Auto Location Tracking Company Leaves Customer Data Exposed Online
- “NSFW” doesn’t begin to describe Bluetooth security in sex toys: Poor security lets connected “wearables” be hijacked by attackers.
- Can Pseudonyms Make Better Online Citizens?
GAMES
- Nintendo Creators Program cuts off livestreamers: YouTube Live broadcasts no longer allowed under revenue share initiative
- Nintendo no longer welcoming YouTube livestreams of its games: Live gameplay no longer allowed for channels in Nintendo’s revenue sharing program.
- Nintendo Bars Its YouTube Partners From Monetizing Their Live Streams
- Community registered designs & the CJEU – Nintendo v Big Ben
- Another classic Nintendo console, another insane dump of instruction manuals: One year later, and now you’re playing with super instruction manuals.
- Nintendo closing Wii Shop Channel: Wii and Wii U users will lose access to online storefront in 2019, sale of Wii Points currency to stop in March
- Parents Sue “Subway Surfers” Game for Privacy Violations (or Why Gamedevs Need a COPPA Compliant Privacy Policy)
- Netflix hints at move into publishing with Stranger Things: The Game
- Netflix Gets Into Game Development With A Mobile Tie-In For ‘Stranger Things’
- Unity reacts to Switch development woes: “More than 30% of games on Switch are made with Unity”
- Settling the debate: What makes a “core” Mario game? – And what does the argument say about how we define and value games in general?
- Sonic 3D Blast’s secret level select was actually a certification-passing trick
- ‘Sonic The Hedgehog’s Live-Action Movie Speeds Forward With ‘Deadpool’ Director Tim Miller
- Sonic the Hedgehog movie lands at Paramount: Producer behind Fast and the Furious franchise and Blue Streak teams up with Blur Studio co-founder for live-action/CG movie
- Chinese dev sues Fox over allegedly bungled Planet of the Apes tie-in game
- Dev calls it quits after losing entire game catalog in Valve’s ‘fake games’ purge
- Silicon Echo’s reputation is “destroyed beyond repair” after Steam’s fake game crackdown: Studio “forced to give up game development” after its entire catalogue was removed from leading PC marketplace
- Valve Collaborates with Fans Through New Shapeways 3D Printing Licensing Agreement
- Idea v. Expression: Game Studio Bluehole Gets Its Fur Up Over Epic Games Putting 100 Vs. 100 Player Battle Royale Into Game
- Can Cloned Video Games Survive the Battle Royale?
- Loot boxes have reached a new low with Forza 7’s “pay to earn” option – Rant: The scourge must be stopped.
- New casino game lets you bet real money on Pac-Man: Pac-Man Battle Casino part of a trend towards skill-based casino gambling.
- Overwatch director gets candid about the ‘scary’ side of game dev
- Overwatch director says it’s “scary” to be open with players: Amid threats and attacks, “It often feels like there is no winning.”
- Jeff Kaplan: ”It often feels like there is no winning” against toxic Overwatch users – Game director says forums don’t feel like a safe environment for his team
- Riot dev out after taking shots at oft-banned player: League of Legends studio apologizes to Tyler1 after lead experience designer speculates on his demise
- How to fight online hate in a GamerGate world, according to Zoe Quinn – Molly Sauter: Crash Override succeeds in conveying what it is like to be the target of a sustained, misogynistic harassment campaign
- Inbetween Games’ debut is a tribute to Berlin’s diversity: With All Walls Must Fall, a team of ex-Yager devs have captured the energy and inclusivity of the German capital
- Denuvo Game Cracked In Mere Hours
- FIFA 18 takes No.1, three out of five copies sold on PS4
- Why one Japanese entrepreneur is using an RPG to help fight depression
- PlayStation introduces credit card: The card promises rewards such as games, DLC, electronics and more
- Sony releasing updated PlayStation VR in Japan this month: Western release to follow, introduces stereo headphone cable support and new Processor Unit with HDR pass through
- Steam, Samsung and Halo all coming to Windows Mixed Reality: SteamVR preview now available to developers, Samsung Odyssey headset announced, and Halo Recruit VR experience will launch on October 17
- Microsoft acquires social VR platform AltspaceVR
- AltspaceVR is now part of Microsoft: Social VR company saved from going out of business by acquisition deal
- The inside story of the Xbox One X: Microsoft has created the world’s most powerful console. Could this next-generation machine lead to the rise of games as high art?
- World’s Largest Cinema Chain, AMC, Leads $30M Investment to Bring VR to Movie Theaters: Partnering with Dreamscape Immersive
- 35% of UK adults have heard of eSports, but only 7% are tuning in
- 35% of UK adults aware of esports – but only 7% watch it: YouGov study puts Britain at the bottom of the table when compared to China, the US, Germany and more
- Esports Leagues Set To Level Up With Permanent Franchises
- Immortals split threatens Counter-Strike team: Five-man squad sees one player fired, two more indefinitely suspended after missing tournament matches, making Twitter death threat
- Champions of the Shengha introduces moneyback guarantee: BfB Labs offers full refund after ten days for £40 heart-tracking mobile game
- Alibaba establishes games division to create titles in-house
- Alibaba planning to establish dedicated games business unit: Chinese e-commerce giant acquires online games firm EJoy, aims to “pursue excellence” in the industry
- The Strong’s latest windfall: Artifacts from the first coin-op game maker
- Ubisoft using machine learning to translate hieroglyphics: The Assassin’s Creed developer has put out a call for historians and researchers to aid in the project
- Can developers control streamers?: Reed Smith partner Carolyn Pepper walks through the options available if studios wish to stop influencers covering their games
- Bungie goes indie, BioWare gets bought – 10 Years Ago This Month: Halo studio gets its freedom from Microsoft as Electronic Arts acquires Mass Effect maker and Pandemic
- Microsoft alters Forza Motorsport 7 VIP pass store language following backlash
- Brain in a Jar 1: Two Systems
- How hitting a game cartridge unlocks gaming’s weirdest Easter egg: Sonic 3D Blast trick started as way to hide game-breaking bugs.
- Connecting educators with the unique teaching ability of gamesCan Pseudonyms Make Better Online Citizens?
Jon