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  • Welcome Cohort 1, UBC Foundations of Digital Media

    Welcome to the website for the UBC flavour of Foundations of Digital Media. Am excited to meet you tomorrow and evolve this course together. The course has been taught in various forms at the Centre for Digital Media for a decade. Hardly an old dog, but nevertheless there are new tricks to be had. Let’s […] Read More

News of the Week; March 27, 2019

By Jon Festinger on March 31, 2019

DIGITAL

  1. Muslim Advocacy Group Files Suit Against YouTube, Facebook For Hosting Christchurch Shooting Videos
  2. Microsoft calls for ‘industrywide’ moderation plan after New Zealand shooting: The company’s president calls for more coordination
  3. New Zealand Censors Declare Christchurch Shooting Footage Illegal; Start Rounding Up Violators
  4. Brutal Startup Is Using Eye Tracking to Force You to Watch Ads: It’s basically like “A Clockwork Orange.”
  5. Social media platforms under increasing pressure to protect users from harm
  6. Facebook and Instagram Finally Ban White Nationalism and White Separatism
  7. Facebook’s new rules come down against white nationalism, separatism
  8. Will Facebook’s New Ban On White Nationalist Content Work?
  9. Facebook Settles Claims Alleging Discriminatory Ad Targeting 
  10. Vice Media to Pay $1.9 Million to Settle Pay Discrimination Case
  11. Music labels sue Charter, complain that high Internet speeds fuel piracy
  12. RIAA Continues Its Legal War To Turn ISPs Into The Copyright Police: Sues Charter Communications
  13. The Latest Pro-PewDiePie Hackers Locked Users’ Files Until They Subscribed
  14. New Virus Steals Your Files Until PewDiePie Gets 100M Subscribers: Another ransomware variant encrypts your files unless you subscribe to PewDiePie – but even if you do, it deletes them anyway.
  15. PewDiePie fans keep making junk ransomware: Please, YouTube! Just hide PewDiePie and T-Series’ followers count and put this competition to bed.
  16. How Microsoft found a Huawei driver that opened systems to attack
  17. New Huawei phone has a 5x optical zoom, thanks to a periscope lens
  18. US Is Forcing A Chinese Firm To Sell Gay Dating App Grindr
  19. HMD admits the Nokia 7 Plus was sending personal data to China
  20. How Internet Mercenaries Do Battle for Authoritarian Governments
  21. HTML email reborn, as Google brings AMP to your inbox
  22. Google regrets ‘minor glitch’ that sent Ghanaian currency plummeting
  23. U.S. Supreme Court Refuses to Search Google Settlement Agreement for Fairness  
  24. SCOTUS Remands Google Case to the Ninth Circuit for Spokeo Standing Analysis 
  25. Tenth Lawsuit Against Social Media Providers for “Materially Supporting Terrorists” Fails–Sinclair v. Twitter (Eric Goldman)
  26. The echo of American Fair Use and of its boundaries, in the EU and Italian System. A comparative analysis in the wake of the Fox News victory over TVEyes
  27. Nevada Judge Says Online News Publications Aren’t Protected By The State’s Journalist Shield Law 
  28. Talking Cat App Should Keep Quiet on Advertising, CARU Recommends
  29. A ‘Dark Day’: Copyright Law That Threatens the Internet as We Know It Passes Final EU Vote
  30. EU parliament passes controversial copyright overhaul [Updated]
  31. EU Puts An End To The Open Internet: Link Taxes And Filters Approved By Just 5 Votes
  32. The European Parliament has voted in favour of Article 13: Critics argued that Article 13, and related legislation passed today by MEPs, risked infringing on freedom of speech
  33. Article 13 – MEME Law is coming…
  34. “Memes banned” – the European Parliament votes in the EU Copyright Directive including controversial Articles 11 and 13 
  35. EU Parliament Passes Controversial “Meme Ban”: It’s a “dark day for internet freedom.”
  36. Swedish MEPs Announce Support For Article 13, Demonstrate Near Total Ignorance Of What It Actually Entails
  37. New Report: Germany Caved To France On Copyright In A Deal For Russian Gas
  38. Enough MEPs Say They Mistakenly Voted For Articles 11 & 13 That The Vote Should Have Flipped; EU Parliament Says Too Bad
  39. Tell The EU Not To Wreck The Internet
  40. A Century Ago We Killed The Radio Commons; Don’t Let The EU Do That To The Internet
  41. EU Commission Refuses To Explain Why It Published Medium Article Mocking The Public’s Concerns Over Article 13
  42. EU Internet Companies Warn EU Parliament Not To Vote For Articles 11 & 13; Say They’ll Hand The Internet To Google 
  43. MEPs Realizing How Bad Article 13 Could Be, Begin To Back Away From EU Copyright Directive
  44. Independent Musician Dan Bull’s New Song, Robocopyright, Warns Of The Dangers Of Article 13
  45. Sites Warn EU Users Of Just How Bad Article 13 Will Be
  46. Huge Protests Across Europe Protest Article 13; Politician Lies And Claims They Were Paid To Be There
  47. Supporters Of Article 13, After Denying It’s About Filters, Now Say It’s About Regulating Filters Which They Admit Don’t Work
  48. After EU Copyright Reform Passes, Susan Wojcicki Says “This Is The Beginning” Of YouTube’s Fight
  49. Most Advertisers Have Returned To YouTube After Comments Scandal, Google Exec Says 
  50. YouTube Usage Comprises 37% Of All Mobile Web Traffic, Study Finds
  51. YouTube Facing Lawsuit That Alleges Toy Unboxing Videos Are “Abusive Advertising Practices” Aimed At Children 
  52. YouTube Disabled Comments On Thousands Of Creators’ Channels To Prevent Child Predation. Tech Startup Respondology Thinks It Has A Solution. 
  53. YouTube Shutters ‘Fantastic Adventures’ Channel After Proprietor’s Arrest For Child Abuse
  54. YouTube Millionaires: AR12Gaming Started Sharing His Love For Racecar Games On YouTube In 2012. Now, His Company Sponsors Real-Life Racers.
  55. How YouTube is changing toys
  56. YouTube cancels two original series but denies moving away from original content
  57. YouTube Content Head Susanne Daniels Denies Eyeing Exit Amid High-End Series Cancellations
  58. Kim Kardashian’s Daughter North West Entering YouTube Fray In Collab With JoJo Siwa
  59. Influencers Allegedly Run Roughshod Over FTC Warnings
  60. Influencer Law 101: influencer exclusivity
  61. Law School Exam Part 5: Am I An Influencer?
  62. #InfluencerMarketing: What advertisers need to know about disclosure
  63. Lil Miquela, Shudu, Bermuda and Sophia The Robot: CGI and Robot IT Girls Who Will Become the Influencers of the Future 
  64. Studio71 Launches Weekly Reaction Series With Tal Fishman, Caylus Cunningham On ‘Caffeine’
  65. Ryan ToysReview’s Nickelodeon Series To Premiere On April 19
  66. YouTube’s FaZe Clan Inks Sponsorship, Content Pact With Automaker Nissan
  67. Liza Koshy Will Return To Her YouTube Channel After Yearlong Absence
  68. Liza Koshy Returns To YouTube With A Glitzy Musical For Her Dollar Store Shenanigans
  69. Creators Going Pro: Elle Mills’ YouTube Channel Is Becoming A Diary About The Raw, Vulnerable Parts Of Her Life
  70. Priyanka Chopra Launches YouTube-Funded Inspirational Special ‘If I Could Tell You Just One Thing’
  71. Admitted Meme Thief F-Jerry Sued for Allegedly Stealing a Meme 
  72. Popular Meme Account Sued For Copyright Infringement and Other Claims
  73. Expansion of the Madrid System 
  74. Ruling in Emoji Beach Ball IP Case Left Me Confused: Kangaroo v. Amazon (Eric Goldman)
  75. March Madness! Court Dismisses Lawsuit Over Massive Cyberattack After Basketball Game Loss–Higgins v. Kentucky Sports Radio (Eric Goldman)
  76. Amazon Will Soon Launch Mobile Ads In Search Results
  77. To rival Amazon, UPS enters healthcare—with doorstep nurse delivery
  78. StyleHaul Notifies Employees Of Layoffs, Shutdown Of U.S. Operations (Exclusive) 
  79. Here’s Why Netflix Launched ‘Love, Death & Robots’ With A Different Episode Order For Certain Users
  80. Netflix Reaches Tipping Point As Originals Now Outpace Acquired Titles – Study
  81. Netflix Asks Court To Dismiss Chooseco’s Lawsuit For All The Obvious Reasons
  82. Here’s How Apple’s Spending Its Massive $1 Billion Original Content Budget Ahead Of Streaming Service Launch
  83. Here’s the Full Rundown on Apple TV and the New Apple TV+
  84. Apple finally enters TV streaming space with new Apple TV+ service
  85. Here’s all the TV+ shows Apple flew out celebrities for
  86. Apple’s New Genre Shows Are Still Mysterious, But Here’s What We Learned Today
  87. Apple’s Streaming Service Apple TV+ To Launch This Fall, Will Have Zero Third-Party Content — But Plenty Of Add-Ons
  88. Liveblog: Apple unveils its TV service and more at the March 25 “It’s show time” event
  89. Apple promises its new credit card is a privacy-protecting beast
  90. Apple debuts its own credit card with a physical version to complement the app
  91. The Apple Card Is Great at Privacy but Mediocre Overall
  92. Everything that’s happening with Apple’s News+ subscription service
  93. Apple News+: A newsstand of 300 glossy magazines for $9.99/month
  94. Apple Used Its Oprah Moment to Pull One Over on Us
  95. Apple Designates Amazon As an Authorized Reseller of Apple – Highlighting the Importance of Online Sales Control for Even the World’s Most Powerful Brand
  96. Clippy briefly resurrected as Teams add-on, brutally taken down by brand police
  97. Microsoft ships antivirus for macOS as Windows Defender becomes Microsoft Defender
  98. Microsoft exec bans company from pulling any dumb April Fools’ pranks 
  99. Streaming Powers U.S. Latin Music Market to 18% Growth
  100. eMarketer claims Spotify US will overtake Pandora by 2021
  101. AI-music startup Endel to release albums through Warner Music
  102. A Survey Of The EU’s AI Ecosystem
  103. Expert views on the frontiers of AI and conflict  
  104. How to develop a successful IP strategy for AI
  105. Can AI Be A Fair Judge In Court? Estonia Thinks So
  106. How Artificial Intelligence Is Changing Science
  107. Artificial Intelligence: A Potential Cybersecurity Safeguard or Viable Threat to the Healthcare Industry? 
  108. Algorithmic Accountability: A Primer
  109. Inside Google’s Rebooted Robotics Program
  110. Study shows complexity and uncertainty of IoT regulation in Europe 
  111. New York City Apartment Residents Sue Landlord Over New Smart Locks [Updated]
  112. US computer science grads outperforming those in other key nations
  113. Rethinking the rights of children for the internet age
  114. Disruptive Developments @20EssexStreet: What is the difference between a cryptocurrency trading platform and a kitchen blender? 
  115. What’s in a (User)Name? 
  116. Freetown Man Arrested for Keeping Flat-Screen TV Delivered to Him by Accident With Amazon Order 
  117. This Truck Spilled 40,000 Pounds of Printer Ink In a Crash That Probably Cost a Gazillion Dollars
  118. Man Steals $122 Million From Google And Facebook By Just Asking Them For Money
  119. Digital Business in Canada
  120. Internet Platform Governance, Part 1: What’s the Problem?
  121. Cloud computing in the United States
  122. Federal Prosecutors Recommend Paul Hansmeier Spend The Next 12 Years In Prison

CREATIVITY

  1. Photographer loses lawsuit over use of her photo in political mailer
  2. $35 billion in research funding “now at stake” after Trump executive order
  3. New waves in the battle against piracy of sports rights
  4. Copyright Ownership DJ Claim Must Plead Disputed Ownership 
  5. What do Bruce Springsteen and Venus and Serena Williams all have in common?
  6. Counterfeiting and the importance of brand protection in beauty
  7. Fashion and cultural expressions
  8. Dutch Golden Age painting returned to heirs of Nazi Spoliation victims
  9. Intellectual Property Law Year in Review – March 2019

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

  1. Cable Industry Embarrassed By The Word ‘Cable,’ Stops Using It
  2. FCC has to pay journalist $43,000 after hiding net neutrality records
  3. FCC (Read: Taxpayers) Forced To Pay Journalist’s Legal Bills After Tap Dancing Around FOIA Requests
  4. T-Mobile’s $50 home Internet service has no data cap, but plenty of limits
  5. AT&T’s “5G E” is actually slower than Verizon and T-Mobile 4G, study finds
  6. Another Study Finds Verizon’s 5G Is Barely Available, Not Scaleable
  7. Current Telecom Developments
  8. Bill To Restore Net Neutrality Moves Forward, And The Public Is Still Angry
  9. The regulators are coming: New EU online Platforms Regulation
  10. Five Minutes On… The EU Electronic Communications Code
  11. Comcast’s New Rented Streaming Box Is A Flimsy Attempt To Remain Relevant

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

  1. Facebook apps logged users’ passwords in plaintext, because why not
  2. Facebook stored hundreds of millions of passwords in plain text
  3. Facebook Screws Up Again
  4. Vigilant And Its Customers Are Lying About ICE’s Access To Plate Records
  5. Thomas Goolnik Again Convinces Google To Forget Our Story About Thomas Goolnik Getting Google To Forget Our Story About Thomas Goolnik
  6. Illinois Appeals Court Says Fifth Amendment Protections Apply To Cellphone Passwords
  7. California and European Privacy FAQs: Does the GDPR require that a company obtain consent from a website user before placing cookies on its browser?
  8. The privacy risks of unchecked facial-recognition technology
  9. The Government Is Using the Most Vulnerable People to Test Facial Recognition Software
  10. Having Privacy in Public: Limits to Unwanted Surveillance in Public Spaces
  11. Hijacked ASUS software updates installed backdoor on at least 0.5 million PCs
  12. Asus Goes Mute As Hackers Covertly Install Backdoors Using Company Software Update
  13. Reckless VII: Wife of Journalist Slain in Cartel-Linked Killing Targeted with NSO Group’s Spyware
  14. Critical flaw lets hackers control lifesaving devices implanted inside patients
  15. A rogue’s gallery of bad actors is exploiting that critical WinRAR flaw
  16. Telegram Goes Nuclear With New Message Deletion Feature
  17. Preparing for Compliance with the California Consumer Privacy Act 
  18. Casino Screwup Royale: A tale of “ethical hacking” gone awry

GAMES

  1. Blog: How games software and hardware could top $200 billion by 2023
  2. Opinion: After Christchurch – What we owe our game communities
  3. “If we make room for them, then there is no room for anyone else”: IGF Award host Meg Jayanth calls for devs to reject fascists, demand better treatment for themselves and their colleagues
  4. #1ReasonToBe: “Inclusivity is a battle we can win”: Rami Ismail’s final stint hosting the panel shares the stories of a refugee turns games developer, an Egyptian woman who refused to let a visa rejection silence her, and more
  5. Overwatch saw 40% less disruptive behavior with the endorsement system
  6. PUBG Corp and NetEase settle Battlegrounds lawsuit
  7. PUBG Corp, NetEase settle copyright lawsuit: After suit alleging Knives Out, Rules of Survival copied PUBG and countersuit against “shameless attempt” at genre monopoly, companies now dismissing cases
  8. Madden Litigation Sputters Out With Settlement
  9. EA Lays Off 350 People In Marketing, Publishing, And More
  10. EA lays off 350 staff in marketing, publishing, and operations 
  11. EA closes Japan and Russia offices amid mass layoffs
  12. EA lays off 350 amid major organizational changes: Company reorganizing marketing, publishing, operations teams, decreases presence in Japan and Russia
  13. Electronic Arts closes Japan office as part of mass layoffs: Russian division also appears to be shuttering with operations moving to larger, regional office
  14. EA signs publishing deal with Vicarious Visions founders
  15. Sega removing actor from Western version of Judgmentafter drug scandal
  16. Judgment has sold through 97% of stock following controversy
  17. “Hard Rock” Hamilton Says Microsoft Can’t Leave Gears of War Lawsuit
  18. Judgement sales surge following voice actor drug charge controversy: There was “no correct way to deal with the situation,” says Sega chief creative officer
  19. Labor organizers share insight and tips on unionizing the game industry
  20. Roblox on creating kinder communities
  21. Game source code is a teaching tool, not a trade secret, argues VGHF founder
  22. Apple Finally Jumps Into Games with Subscription Service Featuring 100+ Exclusives
  23. Apple announces its own game subscription service, Apple Arcade
  24. Apple unveils Apple Arcade subscription service for iOS, Mac, Apple TV games
  25. Apple Arcade Games Subscription Service Announced
  26. Apple reveals game subscription service Apple Arcade: Program to launch this fall with focus on new, premium titles
  27. KO_OP, ustwo games announce Apple Arcade exclusives
  28. Opinion: A closer look at the strategy behind Apple Arcade
  29. Google Stadia Streaming Platform Launch, Game, And Feature Details Revealed
  30. Google Exec On Stadia’s Internet Speed Requirements
  31. Hands-On With Google Stadia
  32. Google Claims Stadia Is More Powerful Than PS4 And Xbox One Combined – GDC 2019
  33. Google’s Stadia Could Take Video Games Out of Your Hands: The new streaming service could make owning a video game a thing of the past
  34. In Wake Of Google Stadia, Reports Suggest Walmart Is Exploring A Game Streaming Service
  35. Report: Walmart is looking to enter the game streaming business
  36. Walmart exploring its own game streaming service – Report: Retail giant began talking to developers and publishers about its plans earlier this year
  37. Phil Spencer Reportedly Says Stadia Announcement Had ‘No Big Surprises’, Says Xbox Will ‘Go Big’ At E3
  38. Xbox will reportedly “go big” on streaming at E3 2019: Internal email from Phil Spencer says Google Stadia is a “validation” and notes “no big surprises” in Google reveal
  39. Report: Microsoft’s disc-less Xbox One S gets name and launch date
  40. Microsoft unveils new indie game showcase calledID@Xbox Game Pass
  41. Another World designer Eric Chahi sets up indie studio Pixel Reef
  42. Blog: My full time indie developer life – Year 2
  43. Blog: The colonial, non-colonial, and decolonial in video games
  44. All the Game Streaming Services Google Stadia Is Up Against
  45. Would a Google Stadia subscription service be bad news for the industry?: Analysts discuss Stadia’s potential to drive “a major downward trend” on prices, and what subscriptions mean for developers and diversity of games
  46. Google Stadia will support the Xbox Adaptive Controller: Microsoft’s accessible device included among third-party controllers Google’s platform will support
  47. Google tries to reassure gamers about Stadia speed and latency concerns
  48. How id Software went from skeptical to excited about Google Stadia streaming
  49. Slow Broadband, Usage Caps Could Mar Google Stadia’s Game Streaming Ambitions
  50. Google Stadia can succeed if it follows Fortnite’s footsteps | Opinion
  51. Nav promoted his new album in Fortnite stream with Ninja
  52. In-venue streaming and broadcasting of live sporting events – key legal issues for sports clubs and leagues
  53. Valve stays the course despite intensifying competition
  54. Valve Software dreams of analyzing your brainwaves to tailor in-game rewards: “We can figure out what kinds of rewards you like, and the kinds you don’t.”
  55. Valve is pushing new social features for Steam later this year 
  56. Standalone Vive Focus Plus will cost $799 when it arrives in April
  57. Valve Psychologist: Brain-computer Interfaces Are Coming & Could Be Built into VR Headsets
  58. PlayStation VR headset sales have topped 4.2 million
  59. ‘No Man’s Sky’ is Getting Full VR Support for PSVR, Rift, and Vive
  60. Sony Announces 4.2 Million PlayStation VR Units Sold
  61. Putting Sony’s 4.2 million PSVR sales in context
  62. Sony is pulling digital PS4 games from sale at GameStop, other retailers
  63. Sony stops selling digital game codes at physical retailers
  64. Sony pulls full game download codes from all stores: PlayStation confirms to GamesIndustry.biz new strategy starts April 1, cards for DLC and virtual currency will still be available
  65. Devil May Cry 5 shipped 2m units in two weeks
  66. Devil May Cry 5 has sold 2 million copies in first two weeks
  67. 6 years in, Warframe nears 50 million lifetime players
  68. Fallout 76 and a handful of upcoming Bethesda titles now headed for Steam
  69. Metro Exodus on Epic Store outsells its predecessor on Steam — but what does that tell us?: “It’s about the game, and not the store you sell on,” suggests Epic
  70. Observation will be an Epic Games Store exclusive, Steam page pulled
  71. Epic offers support for third-party key sales — but not for exclusives
  72. Sweeney commits to human moderators & quality filters for Epic’s Games Store
  73. Epic Games Store is making the industry better but “gamers don’t see that”: CEO Tim Sweeney addresses backlash against exclusivity deals, promises human curation to block “shock controversy games” like Rape Day
  74. Report: Nintendo Is Releasing Two New Switch Models
  75. Report: Nintendo planning two new Switch models
  76. Nintendo Allegedly Set To Release Two New Switch Models
  77. Report: Nintendo to release two new Switch models in 2019
  78. Stardew Valley is the best-selling indie game on Nintendo Switch
  79. Dead Cells has passed 1 million sales, and Switch leads the way on consoles
  80. Nintendo’s Labo VR Kit Is Its Wildest Cardboard Adventure Yet
  81. This Might Be the Least Fun Switch Accessory
  82. Oculus Founder: Rift S Suitable for Only About 70% of Population Due to IPD
  83. eSports and Copyright between choreographies and UGC 
  84. GameStop moving into esports with new events venue 
  85. GameStop partners with three esports organisations: Games retailer signs deals with Houston Outlaws, Envy Gaming, and OpTic Gaming
  86. Comcast plans to build a $50 million esports arena in Philadelphia
  87. SuperData: Apex Legends’ $92m launch month the best ever for a free-to-play game
  88. Mobile strength pushed Tencent past $19bn games revenue in 2018
  89. WarDucks raises $3.8 million to expand studio and create location-based AR game
  90. WarDucks raises €3.3 million for location-based AR mobile game
  91. I played 11 Assassin’s Creed games in 11 years, and Odyssey made them all worth it
  92. UK Charts: Sekiro Shadows Die Twice is the seventh new No.1 of the year – Activision and From Software title narrowly beats The Division 2
  93. Kabam acquires Montreal-based mobile studio Riposte Games & Co
  94. GAME revenue dips but profits jump on ‘relentless’ cost savings
  95. Indies clean up at GDC Awards 2019: God of War takes home yet another Game of the Year gong, and Return of the Obra Dinn wins $33,000 in IGF prizes
  96. GDC 2019 attendance sets new record at 29,000
  97. GDC celebrates record-breaking attendance and locks in 2020 dates!
  98. Blog: The best slides I saw at GDC 2019
  99. GDC 2019, as told through livetweets 
  100. Video Game Deep Cuts: The Game Developers Conference Aftermath
  101. A dev trained robots to generate “garbage” slot machine games—and made $50K
  102. Intel and Spirit AI are working on machine learning-powered voice chat moderation
  103. Video: Systemic AI design in Just Cause 3
  104. Get a job: DeepMind is hiring a Games Designer
  105. Deep Dive: Flexiscope, the play-time aware dungeon generator in Book of Demons
  106. Don’t Miss: Devs weigh in on the best ways to write and design characters
  107. Relinquishing Control: Remedy’s paradigm shift – Game director on leaving behind the tightly controlled experiences of Alan Wake and Quantum Break for, “a world that can support many stories, not just one story”
  108. Daedalic: “If we do this right, no one else will be able to make a Gollum game” – CEO discusses plans for the iconic character, who will star in the first of many Lord of the Rings games
  109. Critical Consensus: Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 –  Critics lament the lack of political heft in its story, but The Division 2 gets much right that BioWare’s Anthem got wrong
  110. ‘Buddy pass’ will let Wolfenstein: Youngblood players share with friends
  111. Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt spent heavily on R&D in 2018
  112. Boyfriend Dungeon dev examines why game fashion sucks, and what to do about it
  113. First-person digger: Stanley Black & Decker’s game controller for excavators
  114. The next generation starts with you | Opinion: Game Dragons’ Philip Oliver offers advice on how to better work with academia to improve the quality of graduates
  115. Twitch Launches ‘Squad Stream’ Feature, Enabling Four-Person Multiplay
  116. Ninja Is Getting His Face On A Red Bull Can
  117. Building a ‘homebrew’ video game console
  118. Niantic announces second Pokémon GO Earth Day event
  119. Obituary: Take-Two founder Ryan Brant has passed away
  120. Take-Two founder Ryan Brant dies: Publisher expresses condolences, gratitude to Brant for his vision and contributions

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Class #10

By Jon Festinger on March 25, 2019

Slides below…

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News of the Week; March 20, 2019

By Jon Festinger on March 24, 2019

DIGITAL

  1. Supreme Court rules key part of law against child-luring via internet is unconstitutional
  2. Canada Supreme Court Rules That Privacy is Not An “All-or-Nothing Concept” 
  3. R. v. Morrison (2019 SCC 15)
  4. 49 Dead and Dozens Wounded in New Zealand Terror Attacks That Were Livestreamed on Facebook
  5. Facebook: No one reported NZ shooting video during 17-minute livestream 
  6. The New Zealand Massacre Was Made to Go Viral: The attack marks a grim new age of social media-fueled terrorism.
  7. Social media sites struggle to contain video of New Zealand shooting
  8. One Video Of The Christchurch Massacre Was Uploaded To YouTube Every Second
  9. New Zealand ISPs Say They’re Blocking Sites That Fail to Remove Christchurch Shooting Video
  10. NZ declares massacre video “objectionable,” arrests people who shared it
  11. 4chan, 8chan blocked by Australian and NZ ISPs for hosting shooting video
  12. If You Think Big Internet Companies Are Somehow To Blame For The New Zealand Massacre, You’re Wrong
  13. Americans Built Tech for China’s Sinister “Re-Education Camps”: MIT and Yale – and possibly Microsoft – are helping build China’s surveillance state.
  14. Vladimir Putin signs sweeping Internet-censorship bills: Publishing “unreliable socially significant information” can lead to big fines.
  15. Terrified Of The Internet, Putin Signs Laws Making It Illegal To Criticize Government Leaders Online
  16. Court Dismissed Lawsuit Brought Against Social Media Companies Alleging An Anti-Conservative Conspiracy
  17. People Call On YouTube, Facebook, Twitter To More Stringently Monitor Hate Content Following Christchurch Shooting
  18. Using Networks To Govern Network Problems
  19. FTC Takes Hard Line On Fake Paid Reviews
  20. YouTube Creators Are Trying To Move On From ‘Subscribe To Pewdiepie’
  21. Arizona Woman Who Ran Popular Kids’ YouTube Channel Arrested On 7 Counts Of Child Abuse
  22. YouTuber Adam22 Held At Gunpoint While Livestreaming, Suspect In Custody
  23. YouTube Tattooist Romeo Lacoste On Inappropriate Messages To Young Fans: “Some Are Real, And Some Are Fabricated”
  24. After YouTube Disables Comments On ‘Special Books By Special Kids’ Organization’s Channel, Founders Say It’s Discrimination
  25. YouTube Will Require Content Owners To Give Timestamps When They Copyright Claim A Video
  26. Blackpink are first K-Pop artist with 20m YouTube subscribers
  27. YouTube creators are using a hilarious tactic to combat copyright policies
  28. Axel Voss Says Maybe YouTube Shouldn’t Exist
  29. Sephora Severs Product Partnership With YouTuber Olivia Jade In Wake Of College Bribery Scandal
  30. Lilly Singh Lands Late-Night TV Slot On NBC, Will Host ‘A Little Late With Lilly Singh’
  31. Disney now owns 21st Century Fox, X-Men, and most of Hulu
  32. LSO bencher candidates leverage Twitter to promote platform, engage readers
  33. Devin Nunes’ ludicrous $250 million lawsuit against Twitter, explained
  34. “He’s literally suing an imaginary cow”: Late-night hosts mock Nunes
  35. Rep. Devin Nunes Sues Internet Cow For Saying Mean Things About Him Online
  36. @DevinCow Now Has More Twitter Followers Than Devin Nunes
  37. US Huawei Blackballing Efforts Stall Due To Lack Of ‘Actual Facts’
  38. Court Tosses Antitrust Claims That Internet Giants Are Biased Against Conservatives–Freedom Watch v. Google (Eric Goldman)
  39. Thai Government Uses Fake News Law To Lock Up Opposing Party Leaders
  40. Political agreement reached on Online Platform Regulation
  41. Google Hit With $1.7 Billion Fine in Europe for Abusing Advertising Dominance
  42. The EU fines Google $1.69 billion for bundling search and advertising: Showing Google Ads above Custom Search results lands the company in hot water.
  43. How Google influences the conversation in Washington
  44. Social Video App ‘Firework’ Emerges From Beta, Enabling Creators To Film Horizontal And Vertical Clips Simultaneously
  45. Spotify vs. Apple: the latest updates
  46. Spotify’s EU antitrust complaint could be a serious threat to Apple
  47. Ahead of Streaming Launch, Apple’s Iron-Clad Secrecy Is Reportedly Stressing Out Hollywood
  48. Apple Objects To Norway Political Party’s Logo Claiming Potential Customer Confusion Over Trademark
  49. Apple Watch accurately spotted heart condition 34% of the time in study
  50. How Canadian Copyright Reform Could Support the Government’s Supercluster Investment (Michael Geist)
  51. News Organization Like Reuters Supporting The EU Copyright Directive Is A Shameful Support For Censorship
  52. The 2012 Web Blackout Helped Stop SOPA/PIPA And Then ACTA; Here Comes The 2019 Version To Stop Article 13
  53. Proposed EU Copyright Directive shifts balance of responsibilities between rights holders and platforms
  54. As Recording Industry Announces Massive Growth, Why Do We Need Article 13 Again?
  55. Internet Blackout Coming To Show The EU Parliament It’s Not Just ‘Bots’ Concerned About Article 13
  56. Silicon Valley’s Fingerprints Are All Over the College Bribery Scandal
  57. Ethics before algorithms: Technology needs to be used ethically and sometimes not at all
  58. Europe’s silver bullet in global AI battle: Ethics – EU experts hope ‘trust’ will prove to be the bloc’s competitive edge.
  59. Bill Gates Compares Artificial Intelligence to Nuclear Weapons
  60. There’s a Power Struggle Inside Google to Control Superhuman AI: If DeepMind builds a superhuman AI, who will control it?
  61. A Quarter of Europeans Trust AI More Than Politicians: They’d rather ditch human politicians and put robots in charge, according to new research.
  62. Washington Prison Management Software Setting People Free Too Early, Keeping Other People Locked Up Too Long
  63. New Google App Describes Objects To Blind People
  64. When Google Fiber Abandons Your City as a Failed Experiment
  65. Supreme Court Reverses Google Settlement But Ducks Ruling on Its Fairness 
  66. Facebook Had A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day 
  67. Mark Zuckerberg discovers privacy
  68. Facebook Blames Protracted Outage on a ‘Server Configuration Change’
  69. Insights: Has All Of “Social Media,” Not Just Facebook, Reached A Pivot Point?
  70. Online ‘Reputation Management’ Company Brags About Abusing Copyright Law To Take Down Bad Reviews
  71. Bogus DMCA Takedown Targeting Indian Copyright Blog Demonstrates The Problems Of Notice And Takedown
  72. Japanese Government Puts Restrictive Copyright Amendments On Hold Over ‘Internet Atrophy’ Worries
  73. $900 Robot Commits Adorable Seppuku, Showing Again How In The Modern Era You Don’t Own What You Buy
  74. Ninth Circuit Tells Online Services: Section 230 Isn’t For You
  75. It’s time to start caring about “VR cinema,” and SXSW’s stunners are proof
  76. Oculus grabs Beat Saber as an Oculus Quest launch title
  77. Oculus “phasing out” Rift, launching $399 Rift S this spring
  78. Oculus: “It’s no longer a burden to get into virtual reality”
  79. Do Adjacent Organic Search Results Constitute Trademark Infringement? Of Course Not…But…–America CAN! v. CDF (Eric Goldman)
  80. Viacom’s Awesomeness Inks Deals To Distribute 18 Flagship Series, Films Internationally
  81. Netflix Won’t Be Integrated Into Apple’s Forthcoming Video Service, CEO Says
  82. ‘Subscription Fatigue’: Nearly Half of U.S. Consumers Frustrated by Streaming Explosion, Study Finds
  83. Two Examples of How Courts Interpret Emojis (Eric Gold
  84. More Kardashian Drama: A Legal Fight Over Ownership of the Kimoji Emoji Set–Liebensohn v. Kardashian
  85. Insider is finding new revenue on Snapchat from old Facebook news-feed videos
  86. Facebook’s ‘Red Table Talk’ Garners Daytime Emmy Nomination
  87. Myspace apparently lost 12 years’ worth of music, and almost no one noticed
  88. Snapchat ramps up UK pitch, but ad buyers remain unconvinced
  89. Instagram just took advantage of Amazon’s biggest weakness: Amazon’s failure in “discovery shopping” is Instagram’s opportunity, as its users can now shop inside the app.
  90. Art Law & More Instagram 
  91. Republican Devin Nunes sues Twitter, users over attacks 
  92. No, Twitter Is Not Completely Removing Likes And Retweets — But Here’s Why It’s Hiding Them
  93. Twitter wants workforce to be at least 5% black, 5% Latinx by the end of this year
  94. When online harassment doesn’t follow the rules
  95. Security Researcher Discovers Flaws In Yelp-For-MAGAs App, Developer Threatens To Report Him To The Deep State
  96. Patreon Launches Tiered Pricing for Creators, Introduces Rates for Micropayments 
  97. Patreon Launches 3 New Creator Plans — ‘Lite’, ‘Pro’, And ‘Premium’ — That Vary By Features And Fees
  98. Kickstarter employees launch unionization effort
  99. Building an inclusive studio culture begins with retention 
  100. Tech support: law firms lining up to take advantage of tech boom
  101. Plenty of likes for defamation reform in a digital world
  102. Can I Use This Song In My Podcast? It Depends. 
  103. D-Wave 2000Q hands-on: Steep learning curve for quantum computing: Reconceptualizing a problem is the hard part, but the end is rewarding.
  104. California Becomes 20th State To Push ‘Right to Repair’ Legislation

CREATIVITY

  1. NMPA Publishers File $150M Lawsuit Against Peloton Over Unlicensed Music by Drake, Ariana Grande & More
  2. Peloton is being sued for using music without permission in its video fitness classes
  3. Competition Bureau Releases Updated Enforcement Guidelines on Abuse of Dominance and Intellectual Property
  4. So you think you can dance? Copyright protection of dance moves
  5. Protected or Unprotected: The Supreme Court Hears Iancu v. Brunetti 
  6. Supreme Court Clarifies the Rules for Enforcing Copyrights
  7. NYC’s New Tourist Trap Claims the Rights to Every Photo You Take Inside of It
  8. Miss Vanjie! Miss Vanjie!: What RuPaul’s Drag Race Can Teach Us About Fair Use Under Copyright
  9. Florida College Asked Local Sheriff To Declare Faculty Member’s Artwork Obscene
  10. Monster Energy Loses Trademark Opposition As UK IPO Mentions That The Letter ‘M’ Isn’t Distinctive
  11. Captain Marvel Presents Complicated Political Messages Worth Examining
  12. Report: James Gunn has been un-fired from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
  13. Holy Rocket Raccoon! James Gunn Is Back onGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 [Updated]
  14. James Gunn Is Doing Both Guardians 3 and Suicide Squad 2
  15. Adnan Virk Agrees Not To Sue ESPN After He Gets New Job
  16. Report: In Bollywood, Movie Piracy Is Largely Carried Out By Rival Publishing Houses

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

  1. Cable lobby seeks better reputation by dropping “cable” from its name: American Cable Association is now “America’s Communications Association.”
  2. Verizon Confirms That Yes, 5G Will Cost You Extra
  3. NBA commissioner ‘surprised’ by changes after AT&T, Time Warner merger: “They are going to have to retool their packages so they are able to connect directly with that younger fan base,” said the head of the NBA.
  4. ISPs strike deal with Vermont to suspend state net neutrality law
  5. Hearing On New Net Neutrality Law Once Again Conjures Up A Greatest Hits Of Nonsense
  6. Ajit Pai’s plan for phone location data never mentions the word “privacy”
  7. AT&T and Comcast claim “anti-robocalling milestone” with new Caller ID tech
  8. Why, Exactly, Do We Still Trust Telecom Megamerger ‘Synergy’ Promises?
  9. It Ends Today: FCC’s Disastrous Solicited Fax TCPA Rules Now Officially Withdrawn 
  10. Smartphone Stops Arrow When Absurdly Lucky Man Tries to Photograph Attacker

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

  1. Appeals Court: Stored Communications Act Privacy Protections Cover Opened And Read Emails
  2. Federal Court Blocks Washington State’s Unconstitutional Cyberstalking Law
  3. Sharing Computers and Sharing Space: Privacy interests persist
  4. United States Federal Trade Commission strikes one for children’s privacy
  5. Burn After Reading? – DOJ Loosens Previous Ban on Secretive Messaging Apps
  6. How hackers pulled off a $20 million bank heist
  7. “Severe” ransomware attack cripples big aluminum producer
  8. Senate Judiciary Committee Holds Hearing on GDPR and CCPA
  9. A new rash of highly covert card-skimming malware infects ecommerce sites
  10. Nasty WinRAR bug is being actively exploited to install hard-to-detect malware
  11. Travelers Beware – Compelled to Open Your Phone?
  12. Urgent Message: Privacy Shield Notices Need Updating Before No-Deal Brexit Withdrawal Date

GAMES

  1. Community management post-Christchurch massacre | Opinion: Veteran product manager James Kozanecki says the industry can no longer dismiss toxic behavior as harmless trolling 
  2. The Culling: Origins’ servers are being switched off in May
  3. ‘No console required’: Google unveils streaming game platform, ‘Stadia’
  4. Google jumps into gaming with Google Stadia streaming service, coming “in 2019”
  5. Google Reveals Stadia Streaming Console
  6. Google unveils first details of Stadia streaming service
  7. Google’s new Stadia streaming service will let you play video games without downloading them
  8. Hands on with Google Stadia: It works, but is that enough?: Playing Assassin’s Creed on a Chromebook is neat but only part of the story.
  9. Google Stadia supports the Xbox Adaptive Controller
  10. Google Is Better Positioned For Cloud Streaming Than Anyone, But Don’t Expect The World Just Yet: Google isn’t afraid to shut down projects when they don’t work.
  11. ‘Care more about your streamers’ advises Magic: The Gathering Arena dev
  12. Google Made Chromecast Cool Again
  13. Google’s New Cloud Gaming Platform ‘Stadia’ Comes With Major Features Built Specifically For YouTubers
  14. Google Stadia has promise, but GDC failed to address its biggest obstacles | Opinion: The GI team weighs in on bandwidth, business models, and the potential link between accessibility and diversity
  15. Stadia’s biz dev director talks challenges, opportunities in new age of cloud games
  16. Phil Harrison: Stadia starts an “inevitable and one-way shift” away from consoles: Google VP also addresses concerns about bandwidth caps and those cryptic game teases shown before the keynote
  17. Opinion: Chez Stadia – Google’s new cloud platform
  18. Snapchat Said to Launch Gaming Inside Its App 
  19. Snapchat Will Reportedly Launch An In-App Gaming Platform Next Month
  20. Snapchat to unveil gaming platform next month – Report
  21. Report: Snapchat’s rumored game platform to be announced in April
  22. Axiom Verge getting its physical Wii U release after ongoing legal battle
  23. The high cost of a Wii U retail release: Limited Run Games and BadLand Publishing give their sides of the falling out over a Wii U physical version of Axiom Verge, and why it’s finally launching
  24. Axiom Verge producer files suit against BadLand Publishing for $200k: Dan Adelman alleges publisher hasn’t paid share of European distribution earnings, flaked on promise of healthcare fund for developer’s ill son
  25. Four Indian cities ban PUBG Mobile: Battle royale game suspected of triggering violent behaviour, police have already arrested players
  26. Mukti: Acknowledging the grim reality of human trafficking in India – UnderDogs founder and CEO Vaibhav Chavan discusses his hope to raise awareness of a growing problem
  27. Loot boxes aren’t the problem but how we use them is, says legal expert: “The key is how we use these mechanics, not whether we use them,” says Will Bucher
  28. Epic says its Game Store is not spying on you
  29. Epic’s Tim Sweeney addressees privacy concerns for the Epic Games Store
  30. Julian Gollop defends Epic Games Store exclusivity for Phoenix Point: Developer assures that refunds will be offered to those who don’t want to use Epic, or Steam keys if they wait a year
  31. Epic Games Store roadmap outlines cloud saves, achievements, user reviews
  32. Epic responds to accusations of Steam data mining: Sweeney says issue stems from “our rush to implement social features in the early days of Fortnite”
  33. Epic offers support for third-party key sales — but not for exclusives: Tim Sweeney reveals Epic Game Store roadmap, but concedes it will have to compete on games to compensate for lack of features
  34. Devs can now sell Epic Game Store keys on the Humble Store
  35. Epic Games announces $100m MegaGrants program, launches free Online Services tools
  36. Epic expands its dev grants program with $100M in Epic MegaGrants
  37. Quantic Dream, Ubisoft lead next wave of Epic Games Store exclusives
  38. Remedy, Quantic Dream, and other devs sign on for Epic Games Store exclusives
  39. Google unveils first-party game studio led by Jade Raymond
  40. Epic CEO: “You’re going to see lower prices” on Epic Games Store
  41. “Energizing Times”: Microsoft to “go big” at E3 in response to Google Stadia
  42. Games for Change debuts new accelerator program for ‘social impact’ games
  43. Carlos Santana Smashed A TV With A Bat Because The Phillies Were Playing Fortnite During Games
  44. Kicking off the streaming wars | Opinion: GDC 2019: Industry giants have decided that the medium’s future lies in streaming – but success is far from assured even for enormous players like Google and Amazon
  45. Steam Link Anywhere beta drops Steam Link’s local-wifi-only restriction
  46. Any Steam game can now use Valve’s low-latency, DoS-proofed networking
  47. Steam Link Anywhere lets you take your PC gaming with you
  48. Steam devs can now use the networking APIs created forCS:GO and Dota 2
  49. Steam removes “off-topic review bombs” from overall game review scores
  50. Steam user reviews will no longer count ‘off-topic review bombs’
  51. Microsoft is bringing Xbox Live to iOS and Android
  52. Xbox Live is coming to iOS and Android, but not Switch (yet) – GDC 2019: Microsoft reveals new cloud services and packages for games studios
  53. Cuphead is heading to the Nintendo Switch with Xbox Live support
  54. Cuphead will bring Xbox Live to Switch: Microsoft plans to add features from its online service to Nintendo’s platform with a post-launch update to StudioMDHR game
  55. Minecraft is joining Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass lineup
  56. Pokemon Go’s PvP was designed to appeal to players new and old–and it worked
  57. Facebook launching new Gaming Tab: Update will make all gaming content accessible from main navigation, serve as new hub for streaming
  58. Nvidia moves toward global rollout for GeForce Now cloud platform
  59. Unity unveils new ties to Nvidia RTX pipeline, takes shots at Unreal
  60. Epic lays plans for Unreal Engine ray tracing and physics revamps
  61. Unity and Nvidia partner to launch real-time raytracing tech 
  62. Unity partners with Havok to roll out new physics systems
  63. Unity partners with Tencent for China, cloud gaming services
  64. Unity partnering with Tencent to help its devs make waves in China
  65. Tencent shares reach six month high after difficult 2018
  66. Tencent Music financials reveal revenues grew by 72.9% in 2018
  67. Devs share an inside look at Armello’s games-as-a-service success
  68. How indie devs can form their own worker cooperative
  69. 3 indie leaders share tips on keeping your small studio afloat without a hit
  70. Call of Duty Mobile announced for iOS, Android, made by China’s Tencent
  71. Call of Duty: Mobile will launch outside of China: Activision and Tencent unveil free-to-play title, confirm launch in North America, South America and Europe
  72. The next Zelda game on Switch is an indie mash-up with Crypt of the Necrodancer
  73. Suda51: Grasshopper team “stronger” for Travis Strikes Again experience – Grasshopper’s CEO may use the experience for a full sequel to the divisive Switch spin-off
  74. Unknown Nintendo Game Gets Digitized With Museum’s Help, Showing The Importance Of Copyright Exceptions
  75. UK Charts: Slow start for The Division 2: However, Ubisoft’s new action game makes No.1
  76. Atari VCS console delayed following spec boost: Console will now be cooler and quieter, the manufacturer states
  77. Discord evolves verified servers with new community tools
  78. When and what to culturalize?: Netmarble US president Simon Sim lays out the Marvel Future Fight company’s approach to adapting games and monetization for new markets
  79. Update: Lucasfilm Games job postings apparently not linked to studio revival
  80. Chet Faliszek and Kimberly Voll form co-op game studio Stray Bombay
  81. Chet Faliszek and Kimberly Voll form Stray Bombay Company: Former Valve writer and Riot Games designer launch their own co-op focused development studio
  82. Former Valve designer, writer dishes on his new “co-op” game studio – Joined by ex-Riot dev: “Chet said one sentence. I said, ‘Oh my god. That’s the game.'”
  83. Left 4 Dead’s developers are Back 4 Blood with new spiritual successor
  84. Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery grosses $110m in first year: Mobile RPG becomes most successful game from Jam City
  85. Netflix Getting Its First Capcom Anime Series
  86. Wargaming announces new IP in built with Amazon game tech: World of Tanks developers partners with Frag Lab on “next generation” free-to-play shooter
  87. Mega Crit’s Slay the Spire has sold 1.5m copies
  88. A Letter To The Apex Legends Player I Probably Disappointed
  89. EA opens ‘multi-million dollar’ esports broadcast studio
  90. EA builds its own esports broadcast studio: New facility “signals EA’s commitment to competitive gaming for years to come,” will host tournaments, esports-focused shows
  91. NPD: Anthem was the best-selling game in February
  92. EA: People want inclusive games with friendlier communities
  93. Team spaces in Call of Duty esports league reportedly cost $25m each: Preparations begin for franchised, city-based competition around Activision’s flagship shooter
  94. The Simpsons Producers Worked With Riot Games On An Upcoming Esports Episode
  95. 5th Planet closes Nottingham studio: CEO says “now is the time to take the consequences” for underperforming games as it lays off 14 people
  96. Doodle Jump Space Chase dev’s closure was third wave of layoffs since November: 5th Planet Games repeatedly slashed headcount at its Nottingham studio before shutting it down outright
  97. “We need to move away from short-form VR experiences”: NDreams’ VP of development Tom Gillo discusses the company’s plans to become a AAA VR developer
  98. ‘Beat Saber’ Sells Over One Million Copies
  99. Beat Saber has crossed 1 million sales in under a year
  100. Beat Saber sells over 1m copies: Milestone was reached in February across PSVR, Steam, and Oculus Home
  101. Oculus Quest’s powerful, portable VR, as proven by the fun of Beat Saber
  102. The Oculus Rift S is a new PC VR headset with built-in tracking
  103. Hands-on with the new $399 Oculus Rift S: More pixels, zero webcams, better fit
  104. Rohrer: Make fewer consumable games, more ‘unique situation generators’
  105. The U.S. Army is building a giant VR battlefield to train soldiers virtually
  106. Corporations, not consumers, drive demand for HP’s new VR headset
  107. God of War leads BAFTA Games Award nominations
  108. God of War leads BAFTA nominations: Sony’s epic in the running for 10 prizes, while Red Dead Redemption 2, Florence and Return of the Obra Dinn are up for six
  109. Blind Squirrel lands $5M in funding to self-publish its first game, Drifters
  110. Shadow Warrior developer Flying Wild Hog acquired by Supernova 
  111. Bomber Crew dev Runner Deck acquired by Catalis
  112. Double Eleven acquires VooFoo Studios: UK developer and publisher adds Mantis Burn Racing studio for undisclosed fee
  113. Turtle Beach acquires PC peripherals company Roccat
  114. Asteri acquires Prima Games: Strategy guide brand leaves behind physical releases, looks to help developers gather player feedback on unfinished titles
  115. UK games retail: Prices continue to rise as supermarket power wanes
  116. Blog: Engaging players through ritual
  117. Wargroove dev demystifies game development by involving its community
  118. Video: Unpopular opinion: All narrative is linear
  119. How Neopets has influenced a generation of game developers
  120. Games for Change Accelerator to offer funding and support for social impact games
  121. Blockchain Games and Collectibles – Patents and Other Legal Issues 
  122. U.S. Patent No. 7,628,688: Game apparatus, game control method, recording medium and program 
  123. Former EA and THQ exec Danny Bilson to helm USC Games program
  124. Return of the Obra Dinn takes Grand Prize at the 21st IGF Awards!
  125. God of War wins Game of the Year at the 2019 Game Developers Choice Awards

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Class #9

By Jon Festinger on March 18, 2019

Slides below..

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News of the Week; March 13, 2019

By Jon Festinger on March 17, 2019

DIGITAL

  1. Elizabeth Warren Proposes Plan to Break Up Big Tech
  2. Elizabeth Warren proposes breaking up Amazon, Google, and Facebook
  3. Here’s how we can break up Big Tech
  4. How To Actually Break Up Big Tech
  5. SXSWarren: A day later, Elizabeth Warren defends her Big Tech breakup proposal
  6. Elizabeth Warren Wants To Break Up Amazon, Google And Facebook; But Does Her Plan Make Any Sense?
  7. Everyone’s Overreacting To The Wrong Thing About Facebook (Briefly) Blocking Elizabeth Warren’s Ads 
  8. It Sure Sounds Like Elizabeth Warren Wants To Bring The EU Copyright Directive Stateside 
  9. House of Lords calls for new Digital Authority to regulate tech giants: New authority would oversee regulation to “facilitate the urgent change that is needed” 
  10. Seeking the “right regulation” of digital services: Lords’ Communications Committee articulates its vision 
  11. UK lords call for central ‘Digital Authority’ to help regulate internet: They want government to take a more aggressive approach.
  12. Regulating in a digital world (House of Lords) 
  13. FTC Launches a New Task Force Dedicated to Monitoring the Tech Industry for Anti-Competitive Practices 
  14. Tim Berners-Lee on 30 years of the world wide web: ‘We can get the web we want’
  15. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says democracy ‘has a Facebook problem’: The comments came after the platform took down ads criticizing its power
  16. Facebook and Google to be fined for harmful content, Margot James says
  17. As anti-vax movement gets weirder—and dumber—Facebook announces crackdown
  18. Anti-vaxx ‘mobs’: doctors face harassment campaigns on Facebook
  19. Zuckerberg: Facebook will shift focus to private networks instead of open ones
  20. Why Facebook’s pivot to privacy could backfire: If all this is a PR stunt, it would be a very bad bargain
  21. Facebook Watch Sets New 24-Hour Viewing Record With Jada Pinkett Smith’s ‘Red Table Talk’
  22. Facebook Watch’s New Video Incubator To Act As Matchmaker For Publishers, Influencers
  23. Zuckerberg: Facebook is Building a Machine to Read Your Thoughts
  24. Facebook’s Privacy Cake
  25. A Trip Inside Mark Zuckerberg’s Sprawling, Embattled Compound in Hawaii
  26. Yes, Actually, There Is A Lot Of Good News In Zuckerberg’s New Plans For Facebook
  27. Facebook is testing ‘Watch Party’ features on Instagram, too
  28. Facebook Watch’s New Video Incubator To Act As Matchmaker For Publishers, Influencers
  29. When Facebook Goes Down, Don’t Blame Hackers
  30. Instagram founders on Snapchat and breaking up Facebook
  31. Do People Want A Better Facebook, Or A Dead Facebook?
  32. How Two Years Of Instagram Stories Has Altered The Way We Love, Act And Play
  33. Dangerous Speech and Misinformation Fans India – Pakistan War
  34. GOP funds messaging sites that look remarkably like trusted local news
  35. The Company That Owns MrBeast And Jake Paul’s YouTube MCN Just Lost Its Network Status For “Egregious and Repeated” Policy Violations
  36. YouTube Terminated Yeah1’s MCN Status, So It’s Selling ScaleLab Back To Original Owners For $12 Million
  37. YouTube Terminates All ‘SevenAwesomeKids’ Channels After Owner Ian Rylett Pleads Guilty To Child Abuse
  38. YouTube Star Olivia Jade Emerges As Beneficiary In College Bribery Scandal
  39. YouTube Continues Conspiracy Crackdown With Fact-Checking Cards On Search Results
  40. Here’s How YouTube Fought ‘Captain Marvel’ Trolls 
  41. YouTube fought Brie Larson trolls by changing its search algorithm 
  42. Father Of Alison Parker Accuses YouTube Of Promoting Conspiracy Theories About His Daughter’s Murder
  43. Youtube’s Family Vloggers Worry About Their Future Amid Comment Section Crackdown: Without comments, YouTube is just ‘short films’ 
  44. YouTube, Louis Vuitton Host Emma Chamberlain At Paris Fashion Week
  45. Disaster In The Making: Article 13 Puts User Rights At A Disadvantage To Corporate Greed
  46. Major Labels Split On Support For Article 13; As Music Publishers Whine That They Can’t Make Money From Parodies
  47. UN Human Rights Expert Warns EU Not To Pass Article 13
  48. German Government Confirms That Article 13 Does Mean Upload Filters, Destroying Claims To The Contrary Once And For All
  49. 170 Years Of German Publishers Demanding Special Copyrights For The Press Because Of New Technology
  50. YouTube Premium, YouTube Music Roll Out To Critical Indian Market
  51. Logan Paul Investigates One Of YouTube’s Top Conspiracies In ‘Flat Earth: To The Edge And Back’
  52. Man Arrested After Driving Across U.S. To Confront Google Employees He Suspected Shut Down His YouTube Channel
  53. Google Hardware makes cuts to laptop and tablet development, cancels products
  54. Identifying and acting on fake advertorial content
  55. Court Ruling Provides Help to Brands Struggling with Grey Market Sales on Online Marketplaces
  56. Elon Musk’s late-night announcement to raise prices and reopen some stores
  57. Musk lawyers accuse SEC of “unconstitutional power grab”
  58. EU Parliament Paid News Publisher AFP To Create Bogus Propaganda Video In Favor Of EU Copyright Directive
  59. Beyond Hybrid War: How China Exploits Social Media to Sway American Opinion
  60. Netflix “Doubling Down” On Interactive Content After Success Of ‘Bandersnatch’
  61. Bandersnatch was a hit, so Netflix plans to make more interactive shows like it 
  62. Netflix wants to make more interactive shows after the success of Black Mirror: Bandersnatch: Wacky comedies or romantic Choose Your Own Adventure-style stories are possibilities 
  63. Netflix And ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ Producer Team On Scripted Thai Cave Rescue Series
  64. Netflix’s Formula 1: Drive to Survive finds pressure at the core of F1
  65. Disney to close “vault” for good as it moves film library to streaming service
  66. With Fox, Disney will have an even bigger footprint in Hollywood
  67. Amazon to close all its pop-up shops: Company said Wednesday it will focus on opening more bookstores instead
  68. Sorry Amazon: Philadelphia bans cashless stores
  69. Hearst Opens L.A. Production Studio Ahead Of Clevver Relaunch In Coming Weeks 
  70. BuzzFeed CEO Says Company Is Generating Over $200: Million Annually From Businesses That Didn’t Exist Two Years Ago
  71. Microsoft proves the critics right: We’re heading toward a Chrome-only Web
  72. Nvidia to acquire high performance computing company Mellanox for $6.9 billion
  73. Allo Could Have Been Great. Google Blew It.
  74. Do You Really Need Disclosures in Google Ads?
  75. Google to Ban Political Ads in Canadian Election
  76. Boeing Promises Software Update For Plane That Crashed
  77. eCommerce Executive Pleads Guilty to Price Fixing on Online Marketplace
  78. N.Y. Court of Appeals: No Difference Between “Private” and “Public” Posts in Discovery 
  79. Windows 10 passes 800 million devices
  80. Why I Regret Upgrading to an iPhone XS
  81. A “serious” Windows 0-day is being actively exploited in the wild
  82. Competition Bureau chief expected to continue focus on Big Data
  83. Artificial Intelligence: Canadian and International Trends 
  84. AI & Global Governance: The Advantages of Applying the International Human Rights Framework to Artificial Intelligence (Centre for Policy Research at United Nations University)
  85. Laws should monitor bias in AI, experts say
  86. U.S. Army Assures Public That Robot Tank System Adheres to AI Murder Policy
  87. Could On-Demand Artificial Intelligence-based Authentication End The Fake News Menace?
  88. Why Inclusion Matters for the Future of Artificial Intelligence
  89. “What can artificial intelligence teach us about fairness?”
  90. Patch is using AI to write 3,000 articles a week
  91. Degenerate Feedback Loops in Recommender Systems (Ray Jiang, Silvia Chiappa, Tor Lattimore, Andras Agyorgy, Pushmeet Kohli)
  92. This Site Detects Whether Text Was Written by a Bot
  93. Tech That Can “Detect Emotion” Could Keep You From Getting A Job 
  94. See The Robot Head That Might Interview You For Your Next Job
  95. You’re Hired! This Site Generates Random Neural Network Résumés: These gibberish résumés show that HR might still require a human touch.
  96. Facial recognition’s ‘dirty little secret’: Millions of online photos scraped without consent – People’s faces are being used without their permission, in order to power technology that could eventually be used to surveil them, legal experts say. 
  97. Using Creative Commons images to train artificial intelligence (Andres Guadamuz)
  98. Why IBM Thinks Quantum Computers Will Boost Machine Learning
  99. Data mining, AI and Media: A brave new world? 
  100. Why Self-Checkout Is and Has Always Been the Worst
  101. Failure to Launch – OSC Director Determines That Bitcoin Fund is Not Ready for the Retail Spotlight
  102. The ability to say NO on the Internet
  103. Reclaiming the Data Commons
  104. Twitter Defeats Yet Another Lawsuit from a Suspended User–Cox v. Twitter (Eric Goldman)
  105. Section 230 Preempts Unfair Competition Law Claim–Taylor v. Twitter (Eric Goldman)
  106. Appeals Court Upholds Dismissal Of Defamation Lawsuit Against Actor James Woods
  107. Tweet Containing Question Mark Isn’t Defamatory–Boulger v. Woods 
  108. “We’re killing our capacity for creativity”: Twitter VP Bruce Daisley explains why checking emails outside of work and the misuse of open plan offices is creating so much stress
  109. Twitter Debuts An In-App Camera Function
  110. Twitter Launches Improved In-App Camera With 280-Second Video Limit
  111. Filtering Software Defeats Another Lawsuit–PC Drivers v. Malwarebytes (Eric Goldman)
  112. Vice May Be Looking to Raise Another $200 Million (Report)
  113. After Laying Off 250 Staffers, Vice Is Now Looking To Raise $200 Million (Report)
  114. Copyright in the Digital Single Market – Link Tax
  115. Empowering the Marginalized: Tales of the Digital Good Life
  116. You are seeing this because you are…:  Targeted advertisements are getting so specific they’ll choose the color of your next panties before you even knew you wanted them.
  117. Design Justice, A.I., and Escape from the Design Justice, A.I., and Escape from the Matrix of Domination
  118. Calling Doctor Google? Technology Adoption and Health Information Seeking among Low-income African-American Older Adults (Hyunjin Seo, Joseph Erba, Mugur Geana, Crystal Lumpkins)
  119. Cookie Policy
  120. Website Law Alert – A Website’s Non-Compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act or the Copyright Act Can be Expensive
  121. Is It Actually Okay To Touch Your Computer Screen? 
  122. Who are the next billion users and what do they want?
  123. A Book Review Of Code And Other Laws Of Cyberspace
  124. Thoughtful design as the gateway to ethical data processing
  125. ­­­
  126. The Web’s Dad Isn’t Angry, Just Disappointed  
  127. German Football League To Try Novel Antipiracy Strategy Of Actually Having Legal Alternatives For Its Content
  128. The Trouble With Emojis
  129. ‘Sealioning’ Is A Common Trolling Tactic On Social Media–What Is It?
  130. Even the Queen Needs a Social Media Policy
  131. Delete Never: The Digital Hoarders Who Collect Tumblrs, Medieval Manuscripts, and Terabytes of Text Files

CREATIVITY

  1. Supreme Court Says Of Course You Need To Register Your Copyright Before You Can Sue; Copyright Trolls & Hollywood Freak Out
  2. SCOTUS issues ruling in Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com, LLC 
  3. Supreme Court Requires Completed Copyright Registration Before Filing Suit–Fourth Estate Public Benefit v. Wall-Street
  4. Application Rejected: Supreme Court Requires Registration to Commence Copyright Infringement Suit 
  5. More Copyright Policy Should Be As Boring As This Supreme Court Decision
  6. Banksy wins pivotal case against museum for trademark infringement
  7. Court Rules “Transformed” Photo of Candidate is Fair Use, Not Infringement
  8. Big Fair Use Win For Mashups: ‘Oh, The Places You’ll Boldly Go!’ Deemed To Be Fair Use
  9. NYTimes Reporter Gets Bogus Defamation Lawsuit Dismissed As Judge Philosophizes About SLAPP Suits
  10. Adverts must avoid harmful gender stereotypes 
  11. Race and Resistance Amid Feminism, Priming, and Capitalism: The (surprisingly-globalized) Visual of an Asian American Woman Activist
  12. Captain Marvel review: The hero we, and Marvel Studios, need right now
  13. Captain Marvel is kicking the box office’s ass
  14. Captain Marvel’s Box Office Success Defies Trolls: In spite of the haters and the controversy, Captain Marvel prevailed at the box office this weekend.
  15. Why It’s Actually Great That ‘Captain Marvel’ Is Just Fine 
  16. Captain Marvel’s Directors Discuss the Importance of the Women in Carol Danvers’ Life
  17. calc.exe is now open source; there’s surprising depth in its ancient code
  18. 5 Reasons You Really Need To Go See ‘Captain Marvel’
  19. Stan Lee’s Captain Marvel cameo raises a lot of questions
  20. Man angry his photo was used to prove all hipsters look alike — then learns it wasn’t him
  21. Supreme Court Issues Two Important Decisions Tackling Copyright Registration and Litigation Costs
  22. DuBay v. King
  23. Denver Club “Stripped” Carmen Electra and Others of Compensation, Suit Says 
  24. How generational attitudes towards IP are impacting the law
  25. Was La Toya Jackson Right About Her Family All Along? 
  26. Music Writer From 1999 Predicts What Bands Will Still Be Around in 2019

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY 

  1. I feel cheated’: Big telcos hike prices for $60 plans with 10 GB, sparking complaints
  2. The Federal Government Signals a New Policy Approach for the CRTC in the Telecom Sector (Stephen Zolf)
  3. Net Neutrality Update: House Hearing and Proposed Legislation
  4. New Bill Would Enshrine The FCC’s Net Neutrality Rules Into Standalone Federal Law
  5. John Oliver Robocalls Ajit Pai For Not Doing More To Thwart Robocalls
  6. John Oliver fights robocalls… by robocalling Ajit Pai and the FCC
  7. Combatting Illegal Robocalls: FCC’s “Top Consumer Protection Priority” 
  8. T-Mobile Still Pretending That Staying At Trump’s DC Hotel Isn’t An Obvious Ploy To Gain Merger Approval
  9. Report Claims Trump Pushed For AT&T Time Warner DOJ Lawsuit To Hurt CNN, Help Rupert Murdoch 
  10. AT&T CFO Says Growing WarnerMedia, Reducing Debt Are Key Priorities
  11. AT&T raises DirecTV Now price—again—after promising lower post-merger bills
  12. Sprint steps up fight against AT&T’s “fake 5G” with full-page Sunday NYT ad
  13. Yes, 5G will cost you more—Verizon plans $10 add-on charge for 5G access
  14. Russian Telecom Giant Agrees to Pay $850 Million in Penalties to Resolve Alleged Involvement in FCPA Bribery Scheme 
  15. Tucker Carlson’s war on the ruling class is a master class of misdirection
  16. DramaFever’s Former Finance VP Sues Warner Bros., Alleging Anti-Asian Bias
  17. Do TV Program Ratings Do a Good Job Telling Families Which Programs are Appropriate for Kids to Watch? Congress Wants to Know, So the FCC is Asking 
  18. Cable and satellite TV sinks again as online streaming soars
  19. Ajit Pai’s rosy broadband deployment claim may be based on gigantic error
  20. Much Of The Broadband Growth Ajit Pai Credits To Killing Net Neutrality Was Actually Due To A Clerical Error
  21. New York hasn’t followed through on order to kick Charter out of state
  22. Portland Lawmakers Want to Block 5G Rollout, Citing Shaky Health Risks
  23. A Call to Regulate E-Cig Advertising – What is the FCC’s Role in Regulating Advertising For the Vices? 
  24. Researchers Tune In To Smallest Radio Frequency In Quantum Mechanics 

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

  1. Redefining our privacy expectations: The SCC’s recent Jarvis ruling will have broad effects, particularly in the grey areas, on the use of surveillance technology.
  2. Be Careful What You Wish For: ‘Privacy Protection’ Now Used As An Excuse To Cut Off Investigative Journalists From Key Database
  3. New Florida Bill Seeks To Bury Recordings Of Mass Shootings
  4. A world of hurt after GoDaddy, Apple, and Google misissue >1 million certificates
  5. Appeals Court Doesn’t Buy Government’s National Security Assertions; Says Lawsuit Against FBI Can Continue
  6. OSFI Provides New Guidance on Technology and Cybersecurity
  7. United States Federal Trade Commission strikes one for children’s privacy
  8. FTC Not Kidding Around with TikTok’s Record-Setting COPPA Fine – Five Steps to Reduce Your Risk Now
  9. Data Privacy Alert: TikTok to Pay $5.7 Million for Violating COPPA
  10. FTC Enters Consent Decree with TikTok and Issues Largest-Ever Fine Under COPPA 
  11. JavaScript infinite alert prank lands 13-year-old Japanese girl in hot water
  12. Citrix says its network was breached by international criminals
  13. Three men cop to $21 million vishing and smishing scheme: Phone-based scam may be low-tech, but it netted big bucks, prosecutors say.
  14. An email marketing company left 809 million records exposed online
  15. A brief history of Wi-Fi security protocols from “oh my, that’s bad” to WPA3
  16. CBP Put A Bunch Of Journalists, Immigration Lawyers, And Activists On A Secret Watchlist
  17. Clapper Continues To Pretend He Didn’t Lie To Congress About Domestic Surveillance Programs
  18. Owner of MAGA-Friendly Yelp Knockoff Threatens to Call FBI After Researcher Exposes Security Holes
  19. “Yelp, but for MAGA” turns red over security disclosure, threatens researcher
  20. Major Data Privacy Changes at Tech Companies Are a Sign of the Times 
  21. The Galaxy S10’s face unlock fooled by pictures, siblings
  22. Why people think their phones are listening to them
  23. It’s Apparently Easy To Pretend To Be A Cop, Grab Location Data From Cellular Carriers
  24. FOIA Documents Detail DHS/CBP’s Rules-Free Rollout Of Biometric Scanning Program
  25. Thailand Decides To Make Its Terrible Cybersecurity Law Even Worse

GAMES

  1. Take-Two settles copyright case with another GTA V cheat creator: Defendant Erik Cameron acknowledges violations, pays undisclosed settlement
  2. Take-Two Interactive shares jump after Sony acquisition rumors
  3. About those rumors Sony is buying Take-Two…: How “purely unconfirmed market speculation” turns into headlines around the industry
  4. Sega pulls Judgment from sale in Japan following drug arrest
  5. Sega pulls Judgment from sale in Japan after actor arrested for alleged cocaine use: Publisher is considering next move after Pierre Taki admits to violating nation’s drug laws
  6. Anita Sarkeesian talks about exposing gaming’s most toxic trends with sheer data
  7. Inclusion in games a pressing concern for players, according to survey
  8. Spyro Reignited Trilogy now features subtitles in cutscenes
  9. Activision adds classic Spyro subtitles months after fan outcry [Updated]
  10. War Child UK’s Armistice fundraiser raised $380k in 2018
  11. The ‘equal pay and equal say’ structure of the game dev studio KO_OP
  12. Don’t Miss: Dealing with the scourge of burnout in game dev
  13. EA says it failed in response to Sims influencer’s alleged sexual harassment
  14. EA apologises for delay in dealing with Sims community sexual predator: “We are disappointed in how events have unfolded and we own our responsibility to that,” says The Sims general manager
  15. Respawn has banned 355,000 in ‘ongoing war’ againstApex Legends cheaters  
  16. Respawn has banned over 355,000 Apex Legends cheaters since launch: “We take cheating very seriously and care deeply about the health of Apex Legends for all players,” says developer
  17. MrBeast Drops Video Of Real Life, EA-Sponsored ‘Apex Legends’ Battle Starring 39 YouTubers Competing For $200,000
  18. App Annie: Tencent retains spot as top revenue-earning publisher for third year – NetEase takes second once more, Activision Blizzard rises to No. 3
  19. NetEase and Tencent included in latest round of China game approvals
  20. Ninja reportedly earned $1m for promotion of Apex Legends: Top streamer Tyler Blevins one of the few paid for promotion of EA and Respawn’s surprise release battle royale
  21. Celebrities drop Fortnite dance lawsuits, but only temporarily
  22. Fortnite adjusts cross-platform play to separate out Switch and mobile users: Xbox One and PS4 players will be together by default with Switch and mobile in their own pool
  23. ‘The Carlton’ Dances Its Way Out of Copyright Protection
  24. 2 Milly, Alfonso Ribeiro, others drop lawsuits against Epic Games over dances: Supreme Court ruling on copyright law forces plaintiffs to wait for dances to be granted copyright registration 
  25. Valve removes rape fantasy game from Steam: “We think ‘Rape Day’ poses unknown costs and risks and therefore won’t be on Steam”
  26. With Rape Day ban, Steam shows it’s not as “hands off” as it claims
  27. UK politician calls for review of Steam, sexually violent content  
  28. Rape Day prompts call for UK government review: British MP questions how Valve is “able to get away with this kind of stupidity” 
  29. When good monetization meets bad ethics: Riot Games’ Leanne Loombe says the industry needs to be driven by more than revenue to avoid regulation
  30. Building a better world through games: Riot’s Soha El-Sabaawi, Microsoft’s Gabi Michel, Tru Luv’s Brie Code, and Ubisoft’s Kaitlin Tremblay discuss challenges and strategies for making the industry and the world beyond it a better place
  31. New Microsoft app lets users stream PC games to an Xbox One 
  32. PS4 Remote Play is now possible on iPhones and iPads
  33. Newest PS4 Update Lets You Stream Your PS4 Screen To iOS Devices
  34. You can now play PlayStation 4 games on your iPhone
  35. Sony launches PS4 Remote Play for iOS: App allows users to play PS4 games on mobile device, but sans DualShock 4 controllers
  36. PlayStation Now launches in 7 more countries
  37. Google patent application describes notification system for multi-device controller: Filing unearthed ahead of big GDC reveal next week
  38. Jade Raymond appointed new VP at Google: EA Motive founder joins company just ahead of teased GDC reveal
  39. Game industry vet Jade Raymond signs on as a Google VP
  40. Jade Raymond Named Vice President of Google
  41. All signs point to a Google game console announcement at GDC
  42. Google Play apps with 150 million installs contain aggressive adware
  43. Hennig: “Things are clearly not working the way they used to” – Uncharted creative director says mass layoffs a red flag that AAA development must change, shift to outsourcing “feels inevitable”
  44. 209 were laid off from Blizzard as part of earlier Activision Blizzard cuts
  45. Blizzard cuts more than 200 US jobs as part of Activision restructure: IT and marketing sees most layoffs, Overwatch firm’s cuts account for more than a quarter of planned 800 redundancies 
  46. Blizzard brings original Diablo to GOG: Game is available now DRM-free, Warcraft and Warcraft II planned as well
  47. Devil May Cry 5 is Capcom’s second UK No.1 of 2019
  48. Anthem tumbles to No.4
  49. Brawl Stars made $150m in its first three months: Supercell’s newest game has also passed 75 million installs, biggest audience is US
  50. Marvel Strike Force first-year revenue topped $150 million
  51. Octopath Traveler shipped 1.5 million copies, has a mobile prequel on the way
  52. The Division 2 won’t be sold on digital third-party stores following its launch 
  53. EA isn’t hosting a press conference at E3 2019  
  54. EA foregoes EA Play press conference for E3: EA Play will begin the Friday before E3 and focus on hands-on demos, livestreams
  55. Anthem’s launch and the power of the sunk-cost fallacy | Opinion: Bioware’s latest is one of the most egregiously unfinished and broken launches in many years, but these games often get free pass – for now
  56. Halo: Master Chief Collection is finally confirmed for PC, will include Reach
  57. Game studio funding: The right investor at the right stage
  58. “Our whole world fell apart”: The fall of Splendy Games – Simon Sparks offers a cautionary tale of how an ambitious indie collapsed, and the toll it took on his mental health
  59. Don’t let your first game be your last | Opinion: Game Dragons’ Philip Oliver advises indies on how to select a project that will set up the future of their studio
  60. Evolving the way we think about community | Opinion: Abusive influencers show companies need to reconsider who they lend their legitimacy to, and how 
  61. SpatialOS dev Improbable is setting up its own game development studios
  62. Improbable opens first development studios in London and Edmonton: Former BioWare GM Aaryn Flyn to lead Canadian team, while UK will be headed by former DICE producer John Wasilczyk 
  63. Tim Sweeney: Storefront battle will be won with developer support – Epic Games CEO says PC digital storefronts are “nearly perfect” for consumers already
  64. Epic plans to add an undo button to Fortnite’s in-game store
  65. Phoenix Point will be an Epic Games Store exclusive for a year  
  66. Konami building esports centre to help Japan catch up with Western ‘pioneers’
  67. Konami building esports centre in downtown Tokyo: 12-storey building will open doors this November, will offers classes to help grow Japan’s esports scene
  68. How do you spell e-Stadium? 
  69. Gaming Luminaries Ninja, DrLupo, And CouRage Sign With Talent Management Firm ‘Loaded’
  70. Valve laid off 13 staff and terminated ‘a portion’ of contracted devs last month
  71. Valve lays off 13, some involved with VR: Company says layoffs “do not represent any major changes”
  72. Valve Laid Off Contractors and 13 Employees, Some Working on VR
  73. Magic: The Gathering creator Richard Garfield is no longer working on Valve’s Artifact
  74. Valve terminates contract with Artifact designer: “We weren’t surprised by the layoff considering how rocky the launch was,” says Richard Garfield
  75. GameByte: Parents’ increase game spending for their kids by 34% in 2018 – Nintendo Switch is the console children request to spend money on the most
  76. Nintendo reportedly asks mobile partners to stop players from spending so much: Company concerned with being perceived as greedy, requests third party developers adjust microtransactions
  77. Nintendo introduces Nintendo Labo VR Kit: Fourth Labo series kit includes six creations, including VR goggles for “shareable, simple VR gaming experiences”
  78. Brand new Nintendo Labo kits will turn your Switch into a VR headset
  79. Nintendo veterans reflect on the risks and rewards of hardware development
  80. Nintendo Jumps into VR (Again) With Switch VR ‘Labo’ Kit Coming in April
  81. How VR brought me inside a scary-real radioactive Fukushima reactor: Here’s what it’s like inside the melted down reactors of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
  82. CAA Continues Foray Into Gaming Creator Space With ‘Criken’, Elspeth Eastman (Exclusive)
  83. Cloud games tech firm Hadean raises £7m
  84. Black jackets, sunglasses, and radical accountability as a worker co-op: Scott Benson and Bethany Hockenberry explain why and how The Glory Society follows a “no bosses needed” model
  85. U.S. Patent No. 6,231,444: Operating device for game machine 
  86. Don’t Miss: A water interaction model for great video game boat physics
  87. Video: Creating the unique visuals of Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak
  88. Video: Recreating a classic era in automotive history inMafia III
  89. Netflix is turning Dragon’s Dogma into an anime series
  90. Dwarf Fortress is headed to Steam and itch.io, 17 years into its development
  91. Unknown NES wrestling game discovered, beaten 30 years later
  92. The death of Flash is exaggerated, argues one Flash developer
  93. The eyes have it: Creating believable digital humans
  94. Blog: The psychology of matchmaking
  95. Blog: The two philosophies of gameplay
  96. Blog: How music enhances virtual presence

Jon

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Video before presentation

By Anya on March 14, 2019

Here is a short video to watch before my presentation on predictive policing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxvyeaL7NEM

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Class #8

By Jon Festinger on March 11, 2019

Slides below…

Jon

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Noor’s Journal – First Entry

By noor dissi on March 11, 2019

Composed on 7th of February 2019

When I was reading Why Do People Fall for Fake News? by Gordon Pennycook and David Rand, I was intrigued by their observation on how there are two supposed claims that explain why people perceive news the way they do or rather believe in fake news so comfortably. The first claim supports the idea that people are “hijacked by [their] partisan convictions: that is, [they’re] prone to rationalization”, the other claim suggests that people “often fail to exercise [their] critical faculties: that is, [they’re] mentally lazy”. I believe that these two groups of claims intersect very intrinsically. Our ability to rationalize information is very much influenced by the socio-cultural and socio-political environment we are members of. Being “hijacked” could possibly be synonymous to being “conditioned” into certain behavioral and thought patterns, and accepting fake news so easily without critical question is a reflection of such social conditioning. The ability to exercise “critical faculties” requires a certain type of environment that accepts and adopts self-critical ideologies and practices. Finding such environments might require a level of privilege that is not available or accessible to a large group of people. So my question is, how can individuals employ a critical mindset when the accessibility to critical practices are not as widespread? and if there is access to such criticality, how far does subjectivity go when making judgments of what is fake news and what is not?

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News of the Week; March 6, 2019

By Jon Festinger on March 10, 2019

DIGITAL

  1.  To Fight Pedophiles, YouTube Disables Comments On Videos Featuring Kids
  2. YouTube will disable comments on most videos of kids because of pedophiles
  3. YouTube Disables Comments On Tens Of Millions Of Videos Featuring Kids In Effort To Prevent Adpocalypse 2.0
  4. YouTube Bans Comments on Videos With Minors
  5. YouTube is demonetizing all videos about Momo
  6. Susan Wojcicki Says YouTube’s Mass Disabling Of Comments On Videos Of Kids Is “A Trade-Off” For Young Creators
  7. YouTube CEO Defends Its Efforts To Reduce Violent Content
  8. YouTube Is Demonetizing Every Video About The ‘Momo Challenge,’ Which Isn’t Actually A Thing
  9. That Creepy Momo Sculpture Has Been Destroyed
  10. YouTube TV Crosses 1 Million Subscriber Mark, Hulu With Live TV Nears 2 Million 
  11. Michael Jackson Estate Turns To YouTube To Shift Focus From HBO’s ‘Leaving Neverland’
  12. Marzia Bisgonin Says She “Feels Good” About Quitting YouTube, After Adjustment Period
  13. YouTube May Never Be 100% Safe For Advertisers, Says Company’s U.K. Marketing Director
  14. YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki Agrees To “Tea Session” With Shane Dawson Over ‘Trending’ Tab Concerns
  15. Comedy Central Launches YouTube Channel To Host Slate Of Original Digital Programming
  16. EU Set to Make Sweeping Copyright Changes
  17. The politics behind the proposed copyright directive (Andres Guadamuz)
  18. Supporters Of Article 13 Briefly Tried To Move Parliament Vote Up Before Scheduled Protests; Now Deny Plan That They Clearly Had
  19. Why Does MEP Axel Voss Keep Lying About Article 13?
  20. Article 13 Supporters Find Smoking Gun That Isn’t: Majority Of Tweets Criticizing Copyright Directive Are Not Coming From DC
  21. Clash Of EU’s Poorly Thought Out Laws: German Data Protection Commissioner Warns That Article 13 Might Violate GDPR
  22. EU officials say Facebook, Twitter, Google failing in “fake news” battle
  23. The Equustek Effect: How One Case Has Sparked Canada’s Aggressive Approach Over Internet Jurisdiction (Michael Geist)
  24. Twitter’s Shift Away From GPS-Tagged Tweets Suggests It Will Be Harder To Fight ‘Deep Fakes’
  25. Twitter Unveils ‘Timing Is Everything’ Tool To Help Creators Maximize Video Viewership
  26. BlackBerry Continues Its Shameful Descent Into Patent Trolling By Suing Twitter
  27. Data Exploiting as an Abuse of Dominance: The German Facebook Decision
  28. Facebook faces complaints from more former content moderators in lawsuit: The contract workers say repeated exposure to violent images caused significant psychological harm.
  29. Facebook Finally Shuts Down Its Snooping, B.S. ‘VPN’ After A Full Year Of Complaints
  30. In Wake Of Data Scandals, Mark Zuckerberg Lays Out Plan To Transform Facebook Into A “Privacy-Focused Communications Platform”
  31. Mark Zuckerberg On Facebook’s Future And What Scares Him Most
  32. Mark Zuckerberg pivots to privacy
  33. Facebook’s Pivot To Privacy Is Missing Something Crucial
  34. Instagram Fashionista’s Suit Survives Clever Challenges
  35. Instagram is Working on a New Ad Unit for Sponsored Posts
  36. Model Misbehavior? Gigi Hadid Faces Copyright Suit Over Instagram Post 
  37. Willie’s Creative Commons lesson: The essential attribution requirement 
  38. Supreme Court Holds Copyright Owners Must Wait to Commence an Infringement Suit Until After the Copyright Office Acts
  39. Swiss Supreme Court Refuses To Order ISPs To Block ‘Pirate’ Sites
  40. Oracle Shoots for “Full Moon” and Loses: Supreme Court Says Copyright Award of “Full Costs” Limited to Statutorily Enumerated Costs
  41. A Big Copyright Mess: Miel Bredouw, Barstool Sports, Slob On My Carol Of The Bells And The DMCA
  42. The rise of tech-worker activism
  43. Closing the gender gap in the tech industry: Despite efforts from companies and universities, the number of women majoring in computer science is declining. A non-profit is trying to change that by offering coding lessons to girls as early as kindergarten
  44. Get ready for a Facebook-sponsored cryptocurrency
  45. After buying firm run by HackingTeam vets, Coinbase CEO has some regrets
  46. ‘The Washington Post’ Streamed Michael Cohen’s Testimony On Twitch — With Emojis And Memes Aplenty
  47. Twitch To Launch ‘Stream Star’ Singing Competition Series With $20,000 Prize
  48. Legendary Shutters ‘Alpha’ Streaming Service From Nerdist And Geek & Sundry, Moves Programming To Twitch
  49. The TikTok Takeover: How Gen Z’s New Favorite App Is Turning Memes Into Hits
  50. TikTok, the Party has Stopped: FTC Levies Record COPPA Fine
  51. FTC Issues Largest Fine Ever Under COPPA 
  52. FTC Slams TikTok With Record Fine For Spying on Pre-Teens: “This record penalty should be a reminder to all online services and websites that target children.”
  53. FTC Issues Record $5.7 Million COPPA Penalty Against Music.ly 
  54. Musical.ly’s COPPA Failure Falls Flat at the FTC; Will Pay Note-Worthy Fine 
  55. The FTC Probably Doesn’t Need A New ‘Big Tech’ Task Force. It Just Needs To Do Its Job
  56. Can a Hashtag Make a False Claim? #Yes
  57. The Deep Vault of Millennial Fintech Apps: Savings, investment, and credit card debt services are increasingly marketing to younger users. But they might be useless—or even predatory.
  58. The Impossibility Of Content Moderation Extends To The People Tasked With Doing Content Moderation
  59. Google pay equity analysis leads to raises for thousands of men
  60. What Did Google Actually Find Out About How It Pays Women and Men?
  61. Google to ban political ads ahead of federal election, citing new transparency rules
  62. Google decision to ban political ads could leave election war rooms struggling to get message to voters
  63. The Volvo Polestar 2 is the first Google Android car
  64. Amazon to give power to brands to remove fakes from website: Retailer also introduces serial numbers and automatic detection to curb frauds sales
  65. Amazon’s latest program to curb emissions? One delivery day per house, per week
  66. Amazon to open all-new grocery stores separate from Whole Foods
  67. Amazon Becomes Latest Video Platform To Pull Anti-Vaccination Content
  68. NZ Study Yet Again Concludes That Piracy Is A Function Of Price And Ease Of Access
  69. Insights: Sports Programming Is Digital Media Investors’ Hot New Game
  70. Can the media business be saved? A “Spotify for news” is not the answer: Chavern’s organization advocates on behalf of 2,000 print and online media outlets.
  71. Insights: Here’s Why Netflix’s ‘Roma’ Near Miss Still Means It Won Oscar Season
  72. Steven Spielberg is gunning to make sure Netflix never has another Oscars contender like Roma
  73. After Roma swept the Oscars, Steven Spielberg seeks to block streaming films
  74. Steven Spielberg Wants To Bar Netflix From The Academy Awards
  75. Roma wasn’t built in a day; how Netflix conquered the Oscars 
  76. Netflix is testing even more expensive subscription prices 
  77. Inside the secretly effective–and underrated–way Netflix keeps its shows and movies at the forefront of pop culture 
  78. Netflix Heads to Court: How Fox’s Poaching Trial Could Reshape Hollywood
  79. With Big Stars and Paid Subscriptions, Luminary Aims to Be the Netflix of Podcasts
  80. Until the Disney-Fox Deal Closes, Networks Find Themselves in Limbo: Upfronts are looming, but post-acquisition plans can’t be put into action yet 
  81. How Fox Employees Are Bracing for Life Under Disney
  82. Disney Is Reportedly In Active Discussions To Purchase AT&T’s 10% Stake In Hulu
  83. Why Is Disney Releasing ‘Avengers,’ ‘Star Wars,’ ‘Frozen’ And ‘Maleficent’ Sequels In The Same Year?
  84. AT&T Plans to Revamp CNN’s Digital Arm: Telecom giant sees opportunity to reach larger audience; intends to focus on product development and analytics
  85. Medium lowers its paywall for Twitter users
  86. Once Again, Sharing Streaming Passwords Is Not ‘Piracy’ Or ‘Freeloading’
  87. Elon Musk said he doesn’t respect the SEC—he might come to regret it
  88. Thunderbolt 3 becomes USB4, as Intel’s interconnect goes royalty-free
  89. Chromium-based Edge screenshots might as well be Chrome
  90. Microsoft’s latest security service uses human intelligence, not artificial
  91. Microsoft is first major cloud provider to open African data centers
  92. Behind the Hype of Apple’s Plan to End Mining
  93. ‘The risk paid off’: How Apple prevailed in the U.S.-China trade war – But Apple could face future threats if the latest trade talks fail.
  94. Yes, Apple. Siri Is Extremely Terrible
  95. Apple no longer refuses to fix iPhones with third-party batteries
  96. After the Galaxy Fold, Samsung has two more foldable smartphones coming
  97. Y Combinator CEO: AI Will Replace Jobs, But Life Will Be Awesome
  98. Are robots competing for your job? Probably, but don’t count yourself out.
  99. Your March Horoscope Is Here, And Our AI Astrologer Is Getting Smarter
  100. Making artificial intelligence socially just: why the current focus on ethics is not enough
  101. Robo ART! – Copyright originality
  102. Why vinyl records survive in the digital age
  103. Theranos: How a broken patent system sustained its decade-long deception
  104. Toughest Work in Technology Transactions: Due Diligence Turnaround
  105. Emerging Digital Technology and the “Law of the Horse” (Alicia Solow-Niederman)
  106. Blockchain-based Digital Assets and the Case for Revisiting Copyright’s First Sale Doctrine (Phillip Shaverdian)
  107. Blockchain Technology and the Government: Dealing With the Threat of Data Manipulation and Increasing Records Longevity (Alexander Fung)
  108. Injustice Ex Machina: Predictive Algorithms in Criminal Sentencing (Andrew Lee Park)
  109. Destination Unknown: The Perilous Future of Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence Technologies Under the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (Chris Ott)
  110. Weirdly interconnected qubits give D-Wave a big jump in performance

CREATIVITY

  1. Australia Threatening Over 100 Journalists For Accurately Reporting On Cardinal Pell’s Sex Abuse Trial
  2. How to protect journalism in the digital age? The Cairncross Review reports 
  3. The Making of the Fox News White House: Fox News has always been partisan. But has it become propaganda?
  4. How David Pecker Built His Tabloid Empire AMI on Fear
  5. Source: Leaked Documents Show the U.S. Government Tracking Journalists and Immigration Advocates Through a Secret Database – The documents detail an intelligence-gathering effort by the United States and Mexican authorities, targeting more than 50 people
  6. Meet J2’s Vivek Shah, the CEO quietly presiding over a $4 billion media business: J2 Global owns a portfolio of media and internet service companies that includes PCMag, Mashable, and Speedtest by Ookla.
  7. The Tyranny Of Copyright: How A Once-Humble Legal Issue Has Tormented A Generation Of Speech
  8. Big Win For Open Access, As University Of California Cancels All Elsevier Subscriptions, Worth $11 Million A Year
  9. Access Copyright v. York U – the Federal Court of Appeal Hearing is March 5 and 6, 2019
  10. Big Win For Open Access, As University Of California Cancels All Elsevier Subscriptions, Worth $11 Million A Year
  11. Milan court partly sides with Banksy in interim proceedings for trade mark and copyright infringement
  12. Judge Refuses To Hand The Government Biker Gang’s Trademark
  13. Hollywood Accounting Rears Its Ugly Head Again: Fox’s ‘False Testimony’ And ‘Aversion For The Truth’ Leads To $179M Fine
  14. Don’t Celebrate Copyright Being Used For Political Censorship Just Because You Don’t Like The President
  15. Producer Scott Rudin Going Around Killing Off Licensed Community Theater Shows Of To Kill A Mockingbird
  16. U.S. Supreme Court Decides Two Copyright Cases and Impacts Registration Strategy for Copyright Owners
  17. Registrations, not Applications: Supreme Court Says Copyright Owners Must Wait to Sue 
  18. Supreme Court’s Strict Construction of Copyright Act Pre-Suit Requirements Likely to Up the Ante on “Preregistration”
  19. Supreme Court Defines “Full Costs” with Respect to the Copyright Act
  20. Copyright Lawsuits: Harder to Bring, Harder to Collect
  21. E.D. Pa. Court Dismisses Case, Finding That Fax Was Not An Advertisement 
  22. Captain Marvel Review: Carol Danvers’ debut puts a fresh spin on Marvel’s Phase One origin story formula.
  23. It’s Been 20 Years Since “Cruel Intentions,” And There’s Never Been Another Movie Quite Like It
  24. There’s Only One Surviving Blockbuster Left on Planet Earth

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

  1. Democrats’ net neutrality bill would fully restore Obama-era FCC rules
  2. AT&T Begins Trying To Screw Up HBO In Earnest
  3. HBO CEO Richard Plepler, Who Forever Shifted TV Landscape, Abruptly Steps Down
  4. HBO boss quits as owner AT&T seeks more shows and more profit
  5. “The AT&T Guys, At The End Of The Day, Are Bean Counters”: With Plepler Out Of HBO, Wall Street Scrutinizes The Logic Of AT&T’s Monster Reorg
  6. As HBO and Turner bosses quit, AT&T announces big Time Warner reorganization
  7. TV’s brand illusion: It’s no longer about the network. And it probably never was.
  8. Trump to staff on AT&T/Time Warner merger: “I want that deal blocked!”
  9. T-Mobile has spent $195,000 at Trump hotel while lobbying for Sprint merger
  10. US Telcos Teeter Toward Bankruptcy As Comcast’s Broadband Monopoly Grows
  11. Comcast set mobile pins to “0000,” helping attackers steal phone numbers
  12. Class Damages Models After Comcast: Rigorous Proof or Expert’s Promise?
  13. Democrats’ Net Neutrality Bill Would Force Ajit Pai to Actually Do His Job
  14. The future of cable may be no TV at all, as one small company from Arizona shows
  15. Broadcasting and Brexit: 10 Things You Need to Know Today

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

  1. China’s “democracy” includes mandatory apps, mass chat surveillance: Researcher discovers servers in China collecting data on 364 million social media profiles daily.
  2. The Democratization of Surveillance
  3. Report: The NSA’s Domestic Metadata Collection System Is Not Being Used and May Be Discontinued
  4. Telephony Metadata: Is the Contact-Chaining Program Unsalvageable?
  5. The NSA Appears To Have Shut Down Its Bulk Collection Of Phone Records
  6. House aide: NSA has shut down phone call record surveillance
  7. Google temporarily shuts down Android TV photo sharing after privacy bug
  8. Post-Charlottesville Doxxing and Misidentification Creates Legal Risks–Vangheluwe v. GotNews
  9. Seventh Circuit Ignores Two Supreme Court Decisions To Hand Out Bad Precedent On Cell Site Location Info
  10. Two Months Later, News Orgs Are Finally ‘Allowed’ To Report On Top Vatican Official’s Child Molestation Conviction
  11. Mozilla Says Australia’s Compelled Access Law Could Turn Staff There Into ‘Insider Threats’
  12. Do professionals have the “right to be forgotten”? 
  13. Deception & Trust: A Deep Look At Deep Fakes
  14. Stupid Patent Of The Month: Veripath Patents Following Privacy Laws
  15. Why ‘ji32k7au4a83’ Is a Remarkably Common Password
  16. The Digital Revolution Takes on New Meaning: Among Calls for Heightened U.S. Data Privacy Measures, California is King
  17. California and European Privacy FAQs: Do all companies have to post their privacy notices online?
  18. Congress Holds Hearings on Privacy and Data Protection 
  19. Chicago Tried To Justify Not Informing ACLU Of Social Media Monitoring Partner By Saying ACLU Is Really Mean
  20. The Importance of Privacy by Design in Mobile Apps (Debunking the Aphorism that any Publicity is Good Publicity) 
  21. Company’s Facebook Snooping Didn’t Prevent Critical Trade Secrets Injunction 

GAMES

  1.  Epic Games is now being sued over loot boxes in Fortnite: Save the World
  2. Epic Games sued over ‘predatory’ Llama loot boxes: Even though randomized llama loot boxes aren’t a thing anymore
  3. California man sues Epic Games over “predatory” loot boxes: Complaint alleges Save the World’s loot llamas were “like playing a slot machine”
  4. Shakedown: Hawaii coming first to the Epic Games Store
  5. Kartridge is the latest PC storefront using exclusive games to entice players
  6. Unpacking Recent Loot Box Updates  
  7. Anthem: Bioware Addresses Fan Concerns With Loot Update, Here’s What It Changes
  8. Anthem is crashing entire PlayStation 4 systems, say players
  9. EA soliciting help from Anthem players to figure out PS4 crashing issues
  10. Sony begins refunding Anthem purchases in light of “full power down” reports
  11. How games whitewash Nazism, and the responsibility developers have to history: Through the Darkest of Times devs explore the industry’s dangerous failure when it comes to depicting fascism
  12. One week later, THQ Nordic disavows 8chan AMA
  13. THQ Nordic group CEO apologizes for perturbing 8chan AMA
  14. THQ Nordic parent company apologizes for 8chan AMA: Co-founder and CEO Lars Wingefors “condemns all unethical content this website stands for”, regrets implicit endorsement
  15. Valve bans sexual violence game from Steam, but stops short of condemning it
  16. Steam is in the rape fantasy business | Opinion – Upcoming visual novel highlights the problems with Valve’s refusal to apply content standards to its storefront
  17. Developers are manipulating Steam’s Popular Upcoming list
  18. Academics call for industry co-operation on gaming disorder: “We are scrabbling around in the dark here, lighting little matches and seeing tiny bits of the pictures around us,” says Dr David Zendle.
  19. Nintendo to smartphone game makers: You can only gouge our players so much
  20. Report: Nintendo is telling mobile development partners to stop players overspending
  21. Average Nintendo Japan employee earns $80,000, works less than 8 hours per day: Platform holder’s recruitment page also reveals average worker spends 13.5 years at the company
  22. Nintendo’s first VR product in 24 years is coming to Nintendo Switch
  23. Newzoo: Games are the third most-popular mobile app category – Half of mobile app users at least check into gaming apps, social media and shopping remain more popular 
  24. Fortnite teams with Weezer in attempt to become the next Second Life: Follows record-breaking stream of DJ Marshmello concert inside its battlegrounds.
  25. Vivendi has sold off its final Ubisoft shares
  26. Vivendi sells remaining Ubisoft shares: Media conglomerate ultimately gained €1.2 billion from failed attempt to acquire publisher
  27. There’s confusion around an unofficial adaptation of One Hour One Life, says dev  
  28. One Hour One Life dev struggles with unofficial port: Jason Rohrer stands by decision to release game into the public domain despite problems with customer confusion around mobile adaptation
  29. Multiplayer Skyrim mod criticized for lifting code from another mod
  30. Devil May Cry 5 deluxe edition will let players experience the game like a low-budget movie
  31. How Artificial Intelligence Will Revolutionize The Way Video Games Are Developed And Played: The advances of modern AI research could bring unprecedented benefits to game development­­­
  32. Duplication or innovation? How games become genres: Earthbound Games’ Colin Anderson reflects on the rise of the FPS, the sandbox RPG and more 
  33. A new triple-A Star Wars game will be announced at Celebration Chicago in April 
  34. What Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is and how it could change EA
  35. Apex Legends attracts 50 million players in first month 
  36. Apex Legends hits 50 million players: Respawn’s free-to-play battle royale game passes milestone in its first month of release
  37. Is Red Dead Redemption Online tanking Take-Two’s share price? | Opinion: Despite fantastic sales, Take-Two can’t catch a break – perhaps because investors expected RDR2 to be something it simply isn’t 
  38. Activision Blizzard: 800 job cuts could “negatively impact” our business: Call of Duty publisher has set aside $150 million to compensate affected staff
  39. Activision recognises $164m revenues from giving up Destiny rights: Publisher reiterates it “no longer has any material rights or obligations” to Bungie’s franchise
  40. New ToeJam & Earl game, 8Bitdo controller get Genesis nostalgia right: Sega wasn’t involved with game or controller, but its Sega Ages line gets a shout, too. 
  41. One of Pokémon’s New Starters, in the Style ofDetective Pikachu
  42. Why arcade Pac-Man players literally grabbed onto the game
  43. Don’t Miss: Between a rock and a ‘Harada’ place: The massive Tekken interview
  44. Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Links hits 90 million downloads 
  45. Cloud gaming will determine the new lord of digital distribution 
  46. Tencent set to unveil new cloud gaming service: Tencent Instant Play to bring cloud gaming to PC and Android, overview with Intel planned for GDC 
  47. Nexon shortlists five bidders including Kakao and Tencent
  48. Tencent among shortlisted bidders for Nexon: Netmarble not invited but forms consortium with MBK partners, main bidding to begin in early April
  49. Electronic Arts, Amazon, and Comcast make bids to buy Nexon
  50. Horizon Zero Dawn sold over 10 million copies in 2 years
  51. PlayStation’s upcoming Chinese conference aims to boost locally-made games
  52. Sony PlayLink developer Wish Studios has shut down
  53. PlayStation Japan signals imminent end to PS Vita shipments
  54. Sony ends PlayStation Vita production in Japan
  55. Blog: Move or Die and its four year journey to the PS4
  56. Here are the most popular PlayStation games, based on public trophy data
  57. Wish Studios closing down: Brighton-based indie developer shutters, leading to 13 redundancies
  58. Dev shares real talk about the personal costs of living in fear of layoffs
  59. Discless Xbox “Maverick” could arrive as soon as May
  60. Disc-less Xbox arriving in May, report suggests: Latest information appears to confirm several rumours from last year
  61. Phil Spencer claims Xbox’s multi-device future will benefit everyone  
  62. From “schokly” licensed games to a critically acclaimed indie: Oxenfree co-director Sean Krankel on the collapse of shovelware and how it helped shape Night School Studio
  63. Dear Villagers: “We’re trying to find the best indie games that could be AA” – Head of publishing Guillaume Jamet talks us through the ambition behind Playdius’ rebrand 
  64. Playdius rebrands as Dear Villagers, plans to focus on PC and console titles
  65. Dying Light dev TechLand to close Polish publishing department
  66. Techland planning to shut down Polish publishing division by the end of the year: 13 employees expected to be laid off by end of 2019, global publishing business to remain intact
  67. Merch maker Numskull Designs is getting into game publishing
  68. Merchandise firm Numskull forms games publishing division with Rising Star vets
  69. Dropbox’s Angela Roseboro is Riot Games’ first chief diversity officer: “I was so taken by the heart and soul of this company and – in spite of setbacks or hurdles – I’m excited to be part of this journey”
  70. POC in Play formed to promote racial diversity, equity in UK gaming industry: Founders include multiple industry veterans, with UsTwo Games offering support
  71. BrightLocker dissolved as devs claim unpaid debts: Holding company takes over community-building platform as developers say they haven’t been paid money owed
  72. Roblox boasts over 1 billion hours of engagement per month
  73. In Less Than A Day, ‘Critical Role’ Fans Pledge $3.3+ Million To Bring Animated ‘Vox Machina’ Special To Life
  74. Update: Critical Role Animated Special Kickstarter Hits $4 Million
  75. eSports – Advergaming and the new frontier of advertising law and image rights 
  76. Nintendo announces Tetris 99 Maximus Cup tournament
  77. ESL & Oculus Announce Esport’s VR League Season 3, Biggest Prize Pool Yet
  78. Warriors Gaming Squad drafts NBA 2K League’s first woman player – Chiquita Evans: “Barriers are made to be broken… I’m just the beginning”
  79. VR and cloud gaming frenzy seizes MWC as 5G hype builds
  80. Hipfire Games raises additional $205k for VR gameFailspace
  81. VR and mobile developer Hipfire Games raises over $200,000: Financial investment to boost debut game Fail Space
  82. Crowdfunding platform BrightLocker shuts down  
  83. Why HTC targeted Vive Pro at gamers, and why Pro Eye won’t replace it 
  84. Magic Leap Announces First Round of Independent Creator Program Grant Recipients 
  85. Oculus planning a stricter, ‘quality-first’ approach for Quest app submissions
  86. Oculus Quest targets “quality-first” approach with more stringent store curation: Developers must have concept document approved before submitting games to Quest store
  87. Blog: Designing a planet-scale real-world AR platform
  88. Blog: Remembering Advance Wars
  89. Road to the IGF: Seemingly Pointless’ eCheese Zone
  90. YouTube Premium’s Woman-Led Video Game Dramedy ‘It’s A Man’s World’ Sets Core Cast
  91. The Influencer is dead. Long live the influencer: Latest analysis shows Top 10 influencers account for 84% of yearly view growth – but a spot in that list is not secure year-on-year
  92. U.S. Patent No. 4,445,187: Video games with voice dialog 
  93. Blog: Historians discuss Far Cry 2

Jon

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Class #7

By Jon Festinger on March 4, 2019

Slides below…

Jon

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