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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; July 29, 2020

By Jon Festinger on August 2, 2020

DIGITAL

  1. Saskatchewan Proposes Retroactive PST Changes to Target Online Vendors Like Amazon and Airbnb
  2. “Zuck off”: Doctors, nurses, scientists rail against Zuckerberg
  3. Zuckerberg wrote “Instagram can hurt us” days before acquisition
  4. Facebook Employee Revolt Shows, Yet Again, That There Are Other Incentives Beyond Section 230
  5. Google wants Samsung to kill Bixby, Galaxy App Store
  6. Google reportedly peeks into Android data to gain edge over third-party apps: Google is already under investigation by Congress, DOJ, and 50 state AGs.
  7. Google’s Top Search Result? Surprise! It’s Google
  8. Under Investigation For Antitrust Abuse, Trump DOJ Rubber Stamps Major Ad Industry Consolidation
  9. Woz sues YouTube over “bitcoin giveaway” scam videos using his name
  10. Apple Cofounder Steve Wozniak Sues YouTube For “Unapologetically Hosting” Bitcoin Scammers
  11. Apple Publishes Study Which Defends Its 30% App Store Cut
  12. Apple defends its controlled ecosystem in the face of antitrust investigation: Commissioned study says digital marketplaces “need governance to thrive,” reiterates that 30% cut is standard
  13. Epic Games’ Sweeney calls out Apple, Google for ‘exploitative’ platform fees
  14. Tim Sweeney: Apple has “gone crazy” over rev share approach: “Apple has no right to take any percent of any company’s revenue just because they made the phone people use to access the stuff,” says Epic Games founder
  15. Geotagged Social Media Posts Didn’t Support Personal Jurisdiction–Court of Master Sommeliers v. Pilkey (Eric Goldman)
  16. U.S. Federal Court Rules That Bitcoin is “Money”
  17. New Crypto Services Address Custody, Payment Cards and ATS’s, OCC Says Banks Can Custody Crypto, DOJ Charges Bitcoin ATM Operator and Crypto Fraudster
  18. Can Purpose-Built Equipment Bring Blockchain Back as a Tech Solution?
  19. House of Lords: we need an Online Harms Bill to save our democracy
  20. UK regulator publishes consultation on video-sharing platform regulation
  21. New Rules for Online Platforms and Search Engines Offering Services to Businesses in the European Union and the United Kingdom
  22. Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada urges Zoom to abide by international human rights obligations
  23. Google will keep 200,000 workers home through next summer
  24. EU demands major concessions from Google over Fitbit deal
  25. Bumble Settles over Multistate Dating Lawsuit
  26. Repeated Amazon Purchases Sufficient to Impute Notice of Arbitration Clause
  27. Unauthorized Amazon Seller Enforcement: Two Metrics That Matter and Two That Don’t
  28. Instagram User’s Lawsuit Over Terminated Account Gets Revived (But Not For Long)–Teatotaller v. Facebook (Eric Goldman)
  29. Philippines Senator Targets Critics With ‘Cyberlibel’ Law, Gets Hailed As A Son Of A Bitch By Thousands Of Citizens
  30. The First Amendment Bars Regulating Political Neutrality, Even Via Section 230
  31. Comments on the “Platform Accountability and Consumer Transparency Act” (the “PACT Act”) (Eric Goldman)
  32. Content Moderation Case Study: Talking About Racism On Social Media (2019)
  33. Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 7/20/2020
  34. Top 50 Most Viewed US YouTube Channels • Week Of 7/20/2020
  35. Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 7/27/2020
  36. Top 50 Most Viewed US YouTube Channels • Week Of 7/27/2020
  37. MrBeast Reveals He Spent $3 Million On YouTube Videos For August Alone
  38. Lollapalooza Trades IRL Fest For Lolla2020, A 4-Day, YouTube-Exclusive Live Stream
  39. Spotify Says Listening Time For Its 1.5 Million Podcasts More Than Doubled Last Quarter
  40. Creator-Owned Streaming Service Nebula Hits 100,000 Monthly Paying Subscribers
  41. Chrissy Teigen Gets Second Quibi Series That Riffs On The ‘Everything Is Cake’ Meme
  42. Jake Paul Announces Next Boxing Match On Mike Tyson-Roy Jones Jr. Undercard
  43. Update on transparency requirements for influencers in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States
  44. Insights: What Will It Take For Livestreamed Shopping To Take Off In U.S.?
  45. Nick Sandmann’s Wacky QAnon Supporting Lawyer Threatens Reporters For ‘Speculating’ On Washington Post’s Settlement With Sandmann
  46. Twitter Finally Cracked Down on QAnon—but There’s a Catch
  47. Twitter suspends Donald Trump Jr. for posting COVID misinformation
  48. Moderation Of Racist Content Leads To Removal Of Non-Racist Pages & Posts (2020)
  49. Twitter “Likely” To Test Subscription Options This Year As COVID Shrinks Ad Revenue, CEO Says
  50. Japan’s Top Court Says 45 Million Twitter Users Must Check That Anything They Retweet Is Not A Copyright Infringement
  51. Trumpian Loudmouths Apparently Losing Interest In Parler With No One To Play Victim To
  52. TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer Strikes Back At Facebook For Maligning Attacks “Disguised As Patriotism”
  53. TikTok chief Kevin Mayer launches stinging attack on Facebook
  54. After Standoff, TikTok Signs Multi-Year Deal With National Music Publishers Association
  55. Instagram’s TikTok Competitor, Reels, Is Reportedly Looking To Poach Creators With Six-Figure Payments
  56. TikTok Establishes $200 Million Fund To Get Its Creators Paid
  57. Joe Biden Campaign Demands Staffers Delete TikTok From Their Personal, Professional Devices
  58. Banning TikTok Will Accomplish Nothing. Fix Our Broader Security & Privacy Problems Instead.
  59. Judge orders New York to pay unemployment to Uber and Lyft drivers
  60. How Technology And The Pandemic Are Bringing People Closer Together, Even As We’re Physically Apart
  61. Heads roll at Intel after 7nm delay
  62. AMD: No delays for PS5, Xbox Series X, Zen 3 CPUs, and RDNA 2 GPUs
  63. 20 years ago, Steve Jobs built the “coolest computer ever”—and it bombed
  64. International – European Commission launches a Sector Inquiry into the Consumer Internet of Things

A.I.

  1. Appeals Court Bashes Predictive Policing And The Judge Who Argued People In High Crime Areas Want Fewer Rights
  2. Are AI produced works protectable under Copyright Law?
  3. In Report to Congress, FTC Says Malicious Use of Social Media Bots Is a “Serious Issue”
  4. Deepfakes: An EU and U.S. perspective
  5. NIST Study Confirms The Obvious: Face Masks Make Facial Recognition Tech Less Useful, More Inaccurate
  6. Video: A game dev’s guide to going beyond the hype of deep learning

COMMUNICATIONS

  1. Trump’s call for crackdown on Twitter and Facebook now on Ajit Pai’s desk
  2. NTIA Follows Trump’s Unconstitutional Order To Request The FCC Review Section 230
  3. Former Rep. Chris Cox Used His Testimony At Tuesday’s Senate Hearing On The Internet’s Foundational Law To Do Some Myth-Busting
  4. Tech And COVID-19: Stop Using Video Game Graphics For Fake Crowds, Fox
  5. FCC Boss Ajit Pai Pretends To Care About A Prison Telco Monopoly Problem He Helped Protect
  6. Why Is The Boys And Girls Club Trying To Kill A Cable Monopoly’s Merger Conditions?
  7. Telecom company welcomes Federal Court of Appeal tax decision despite being denied interim relief
  8. FCC Clarifies Pole Attachment Rules
  9. FCC Takes Action and Requests Comments on Next Gen TV (ATSC 3.0) Matters
  10. Charter’s donations to charities and lawmakers may help it impose data caps
  11. After 100 Years As A Bullying Gatekeeper, AT&T Pivots To Whining Unironically About Bullying Gatekeepers
  12. AT&T’s epic DirecTV losses mount as another 954,000 video customers flee
  13. District court enters nearly $13.9 million judgment in FTC robocall action
  14. New process for Executive Branch review of foreign investments in the U.S. telecoms sector
  15. Trump campaign foiled in early appeal attempt
  16. Trump campaign angry that cell carriers blocked spammy texts to voters
  17. Trump Campaign Gets Pissed At Wireless Carriers For Blocking Unwanted Political Spam
  18. Sweeping New Interim Rule Further Implements Ban on Targeted Telecommunications and Video Surveillance Companies

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

  1. Print-on-Demand Vendor Doesn’t Qualify for DMCA Safe Harbor–Feingold v. RageOn (Eric Goldman)
  2. CBS’ overzealous copyright bots hit Star Trek virtual Comic-Con panel
  3. Viacom’s Copyright Bots Take Down ‘Star Trek’ Comic-con Panel Because These Bots Suck Out Loud
  4. Reagan Foundation Tells President Trump and the RNC to Stop Using Reagan for Fundraising Purposes
  5. Fight or Flight
  6. Legal implications of syncing copyrighted music with other content
  7. Marano v. Metropolitan Museum of Art
  8. Hot topics in media and entertainment – Right of publicity: Evolving law around the use of a person’s name or likeness in documentaries and docudramas
  9. Makeup Art May Be Copyrightable, Says Second Circuit
  10. Publisher Decries Damn Libraries Entertaining The Masses Stuck At Home For Free
  11. Engineering Drawings: A Case of Copyright or Design
  12. Copyright protection granted to computer programs
  13. DNA Company Accidentally Exposes Opted Out Users’ Data To Law Enforcement
  14. Any Way You Slice It, D.C. Circuit Holds That &Pizza Can’t Get Piece of @Pizza
  15. Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia Pet Just Applied For Trademark On Jingle For Some R-R-R-Reason
  16. Sky v SkyKick battles on but permission to appeal granted: more uncertainty for brand owners
  17. Redskins Re-Brand: Did Trademark Speculator Fumble?
  18. Flagging the importance of Trade Mark choice
  19. Federal Circuit Holds Cancellation Standing Does Not Require Proprietary Interest in Asserted Mark
  20. Supreme Court: “Generic.com” Trademarks May Be Registered if Consumers Do Not Perceive Them as Generic
  21. Damages still available for infringement even where trade mark revoked
  22. Stone Brewing Is Very Upset That People Don’t Like Its Trademark Bullying
  23. Reputation and the power of the influencer: Sugar Bear Hair v Beauty Bear
  24. The real IP issues with virtual influencers
  25. Cannabis Industry Insight – U.S. Trademark Registrations Continue to be Denied for Foods and Dietary Supplements containing Hemp-Derived CBD
  26. Trademarks: ‘HERBS R US Design’ Found to Depreciate the Goodwill attaching to the ‘TOYS R US Design’
  27. Certification Mark Protectability
  28. A grey area? How to register colours as trademarks
  29. Equipping U.S. Rightsholders with the Tools to Deal with the Challenges of 3D Printing
  30. EPO filing statistics: is 3D printing due some hype (again)?
  31. Playing Keep-Away: Protecting Your Trade Secrets in a Remote Work Environment
  32. On redetermination, PMPRB concludes that Galderma’s patent ‘pertains to’ DIFFERIN
  33. Around 1600 viewers register for live video stream of computer software patent case
  34. Federal Circuit Explains When You Can Ignore the Words Before the Colon in a Patent Preamble
  35. The Federal Circuit Provides a Refresher on Joint Inventorship
  36. Independently Performed, Publicly Disclosed Prior Work Can Lead to Joint Inventorship
  37. Federal Circuit Confirms Joint Inventorship on Nobel Prize Winner’s Cancer Treatment Patents
  38. Then You Didn’t See Them; Now You Do: Co-Inventors Added
  39. Judge Matsumoto Holds That “Very Small Side Load” Is Indefinite and That “Retention Element” Is a Means-Plus-Function Claim Limitation
  40. Weight Loss Patent Application Does Not Survive Section 101 Scrutiny
  41. Dead on Arrival? Federal Circuit Majority Finds That Substitute Claims Live On (Uniloc v. Hulu: Part 1)
  42. IP Alert | Federal Circuit Affirms Alice’s Applicability in IPR Proceedings
  43. Extendable hose patent appeal unravels before the Court
  44. Fractured Federal Circuit Panel Finds That Sovereign Immunity Does Not Prevent Exclusive Licensee from Pursuing Unlicensed Infringement Alone
  45. Disclosure of “Preferred” Compounds Having a Complex Chemical Structure May Teach Away from Simpler Compounds Encompassed by a Broad Chemical Genus
  46. TopGolf Wins Patent Appeal
  47. You Can’t Clasp That: Judge Schofield Finds No Infringement Under Doctrine of Equivalents Due To Prosecution History Estoppel
  48. Federal Circuit: Licensees’ Failure to Mark Eliminates Entitlement to Pre-Suit Damages
  49. Diamonds are forever, but patents can tell us about the next 20 years
  50. Projection effects in a 3D motion graphical user interface: non-technical
  51. Dissecting the Regeneron v Kymab mouse case – what it says and its impact on patents
  52. Patent first, science later: the Federal Court’s ‘clear and unmistakable direction’ to patentees
  53. The Game Begins: Strategies for the Early Stages of Patent Litigation – The Claimant’s View
  54. US Patent Litigation
  55. Participation of Women Inventors in the US Patent System Is Increasing Slowly but Surely
  56. Patent Trivia – Fun with Some Facts about Patents

PRIVACY

  1. Washington State AG Settles with Online Platform Over Alleged COPPA Violations
  2. No free lunch: global privacy regulators set expectations of video teleconference providers
  3. Russia’s GRU hackers hit US government and energy targets
  4. North Korea’s Lazarus brings state-sponsored hacking approach to ransomware
  5. Texas AG Investigates Facebook’s Use of Biometric Identifiers
  6. EU Plans To Use Supercomputers To Break Encryption, But Also Wants Platforms To ‘Create Opportunities’ To Snoop On End-To-End Communications
  7. Garmin’s four-day service meltdown was caused by ransomware
  8. CBP Has Access To Billions Of License Plate Images Collected By Private Companies
  9. Rite Aid deployed facial recognition in hundreds of stores, report finds
  10. Hackers actively exploit high-severity networking vulnerabilities
  11. No free lunch: global privacy regulators set expectations of video teleconference providers
  12. Data Privacy and Cybersecurity Schrems II Decision – what does it mean in practice?
  13. Schrems II Decision – what does it mean in practice?

CREATIVITY   

  1. About Time: New York Finally Passes Anti-SLAPP Bill
  2. Content Moderation Case Study: Talking About Racism On Social Media (2019)
  3. A Legen-dairy Victory: Ben & Jerry’s Wins “Happy Cows” False Advertising Lawsuit
  4. Study: Magicians’ priming techniques are effective at influencing choice – Card trick priming technique used by illusionist Derren Brown inspires psychologists.
  5. Court Blocks Federal Officers From Attacking, Arresting Reporters Covering Protests In Portland
  6. We can see the true face of Van Eyck Lamb of God after latest restoration

GAMES

  1. Loot boxes should be a consumer protection matter not a gambling one, says EU report: EU lacks authority to regulate gambling across member states but could tackle “problematic design features” from a different perspective
  2. Nintendo Suffers Another Substantial Leak As Mountains Of Source Code Hit The Web
  3. Huge apparent leak unearths Nintendo’s prototype history
  4. A scrapped Luigi, unused Pokemon sprites & more dug up in retro Nintendo leak
  5. Meet CtW: The investors taking on Activision Blizzard and EA over exec pay – Dieter Waizenegger and Michael Varner on why they want to change how corporations think about compensation
  6. Shigeru Miyamoto’s base salary is higher than Bobby Kotick’s: But Activision CEO takes home more than $30 million after equity awards
  7. Chinese-made drone app in Google Play spooks security researchers 
  8. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wants to stop the U.S. military recruiting through Twitch
  9. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Files Amendment To Bar Military Branches From Twitch, All Other Gaming Platforms 
  10. The US Army is reportedly withdrawing from Twitch as criticism mounts: Meanwhile, US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez plans legislation to keep them from using gaming as recruitment 
  11. Riot quickly drops controversial LEC sponsor after outrage from devs, community 
  12. Lessons learned guiding Riot Games through a cultural crisis: At a time of cultural crisis for many companies, CEO Nicolo Laurent shares his experiences from the ongoing evolution of Riot Games
  13. Niantic doubles donation to Black Lives Matter causes to $10m: Pokémon Go developer will share revenues from weekend event with non-profit organisations and Black creators 
  14. How will the Age Appropriate Design Code impact the games industry? 
  15. Commercials in Your Console — Marketers Experiment With Ad Placement in Console Video Games
  16. Are platforms devaluing games to gain market share? 
  17. Op-Ed: Game development in a time of upheaval 
  18. DIY game platform Roblox tops 150 million monthly active users
  19. Roblox developers set to earn $250 million in 2020: Creators on the platform earned more than double the collective total from 2019 
  20. Achievement unlocked – investment and M&A in the games industry 
  21. Players spent $17.5m during Pokémon Go Fest 2020: Spending reached $8.9 million on event’s opening day, biggest one-day revenues since 2016
  22. Analogue Pocket ships in May 2021: Handheld system will cost $199, support Game Boy, Game Gear, Lynx, Neo Geo Pocket Color games 
  23. Suikoden successor’s Kickstarter raises $1.5 million on day one: Upcoming Japanese RPG Eiyuden Chronicle aims for release on PC, Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 in 2022 
  24. Investment health check: Preparing for the due diligence process: In the second of two articles, Sheridans’ Kamila Bochenek describes how preparing for the due diligence process can benefit your games business overall 
  25. US homes with a console jump 31% year-over-year, says Comscore: Media tracking firm also sees surge in gaming site traffic after pro sports leagues halted 
  26. Report: Twitch viewership grew by 56% in Q2 
  27. Livestreaming pandemic surge sustained through Q2: StreamElements says hours watched on Twitch jumped 56% over first quarter of year while Facebook Gaming rose 75%
  28. Amidst pandemic, the ESA focuses on positive impacts of gaming: Stanley Pierre-Louis discusses COVID-19 impacts, digital E3, its lobbying responsibilities, and the industry’s recent #MeToo movement 
  29. Respawn responds to crunch and burnout complaint posted on Glassdoor 
  30. Respawn responds as Glassdoor review warns of crunch during lockdown: Apex Legends game director Chad Grenier says the problem “is not with the intent of Respawn’s leadership”
  31. Ubisoft Quebec managing director steps down 
  32. Ubisoft Québec boss departs ‘independently’ of emerging allegations
  33. Tell Me Why FAQ clarifies game’s depiction of trans and Indigenous characters
  34. Dontnod’s Tell Me Why aims for a transgender story not “rooted in pain or trauma”: “The idea that being transgender is caused by trauma is a stereotype that has no basis in fact, and it plays no role in Tyler’s story” 
  35. “I don’t envision us going back to everybody being in the studio five days a week — ever”: 2K’s Cloud Chamber Games expects permanent changes to its work culture after the COVID-19 pandemic 
  36. Ghost of Tsushima holds No.1 as Paper Mario slips l UK Charts: Animal Crossing: New Horizons returns to No.2 
  37. Ghost of Tsushima sold over 2.4 million copies in three days
  38. Ghost of Tsushima sells 2.4 million in three days: Sucker Punch’s latest becomes Sony’s fastest-selling new IP of the generation 
  39. PlayStation Japan warns of Ghost of Tsushima stock shortage: Sucker Punch Productions’ exclusive has surpassed expectations in Japan, Sony advises customers to purchase the digital version 
  40. The console war is over | Opinion: Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo all want different things from the next generation — is it really a war if everyone wins? 
  41. Suikoden creators launch Rabbit & Bear Studios for crowdfunded JRPG: Eiyuden Chronicle will be “an ode to the classic JRPG genre from the PlayStation era”
  42. Xbox’s cross-gen pledge might not apply to every upcoming first-party game
  43. Xbox Games Showcase bookended by Halo Infinite, Fable: A total of nine Xbox Games Studios and a number of third-parties showed off 21 games
  44. Xbox’s July event: Halo Infinite finally has some first-party company
  45. We should talk about Halo Infinite’s not quite next-gen premiere 
  46. Xbox Game Pass is all about the power of word-of-mouth marketing
  47. Xbox confuses its cross-generation message | Podcast
  48. Editorial: Microsoft Partnering With Facebook Gaming Could Be Big For Xbox VR
  49. Huuuge Games has acquired Bow Land developer Double Star
  50. Huuuge Games acquires Double Star: Mobile firms had already worked together to publish Double Star’s casual RPG Bow Land
  51. SuperData: Valorant and The Last of Us Part 2 set records for digital sales in June – Riot’s shooter had the best launch for a free-to-play PC title, while TLOU2 sold more digital units than any PlayStation exclusive 
  52. Report: Digital game revenue increased by 9% year-over-year in June (SuperData) 
  53. Animal Crossing, FIFA, The Last of Us top European game sales so far this year: Both Animal Crossing: New Horizons and FIFA 20 were the best-selling game in seven countries each 
  54. Animal Crossing is Japan’s best-selling game of the year so far: Japanese gamers spent more than $1.6 billion on physical games and download cards in the first half of 2020
  55. Report: Valve is quietly testing a Playtest button on Steam
  56. Gaming Talent Firm Loaded Signs Rising Twitch Streamers ‘CohhCarnage’ And ‘Sacriel’
  57. Ferrari launching esports series this September: Fastest racer will be given the chance to join the sports car manufacturer’s esports team in 2021 
  58. Konami is now making esports PCs: New Arespear brand of computers is manufactured by Konami Amusement, starts shipping in September 
  59. GAME sells its Belong brand to esports firm Vindex: GAME CEO Martyn Gibbs joins Vindex to oversee global expansion of esports arenas 
  60. eSports Players and Teams Benefit from Negotiated Contracts
  61. Squanch Games shelves VR focus for now 
  62. Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality Litigation Update: AR Design Innovations Litigations Cases Consolidated into Single Action 
  63. Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality Patent Prosecution Update: 2020 Q2 Prosecution Statistics 
  64. Moss developer Polyarc raises $9 million to explore AR development
  65. Moss dev Polyarc secures $9m investment to branch into augmented reality: Series B funding round led by Hiro Capital
  66. SuperData raises XR forecast for 2020 to $6.9 billion: But it’s lowering its long-term projections for the second time this year
  67. The sublime theatrics and pacing of Metal Gear Solid 4 | Why I Love: Nomina Games co-founder Darrel Wijaya talks about Hideo Kojima’s interactive cinematic blockbuster
  68. The five-year quest to remove all nuclear weapons from Metal Gear Solid V
  69. EA’s strategy for remastering Command & Conquer
  70. Blog: When debug UI ruins your game design
  71. Blog: An agil-ish approach to game jams 
  72. Blog: Stay at home development and family management
  73. Blog: The Rapid Prototyping Game
  74. Blog: Using emergent systems to improve interactive storytelling
  75. Video: ILMxLab’s perspective on pioneering immersive entertainment 
  76. Video: Expanding animation & design capabilities in Battlefield 1 post-launch 
  77. Video: Designing great interactive narratives on mobile 
  78. Video: Crafting multiplayer maps for casual and competitive play 
  79. Don’t Miss: Understanding the successful relaunch of Final Fantasy XIV
  80. Final Fantasy XIV Online has surpassed 20 million registered users 
  81. Don’t Miss: Inside the campaign design of Halo 5: Guardians
  82. Don’t Miss: StarCraft II and the art of single-player storytelling
  83. The Google Play Indie Games Festival winners have been announced
  84. We don’t need E3 anymore: Fancensus head of analytics Ryan Janes analyses the media impact for the summer’s biggest announcements

Jon

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News of the Week; July 22, 2020

By Jon Festinger on July 28, 2020

DIGITAL

  1. Twitter accounts of prominent figures hacked
  2. Hackers obtained Twitter DMs for 36 high-profile account holders
  3. The importance of the Twitter hack should not be missed (Andres Guadamuz)
  4. Thieves Breach Twitter Security to Commandeer Famous Accounts
  5. Who’s Behind Wednesday’s Epic Twitter Hack?
  6. Holy Hell Were We Lucky That Twitter’s Big Breach Was Just A Bunch Of SIM Swapping Kids; Can We Please Encrypt DMs Now?
  7. Twitter and the way of the hashtag
  8. QAnon conspiracy kicked off Twitter as platform bans thousands of accounts
  9. Court Can’t Compel Twitter to Shut Down Trump’s Account (Eric Goldman)
  10. If Twitter Shuts Down Trump’s Account For Repeat Infringement Then Will Trump Fans Finally Realize That Copyright Is The Problem?
  11. The Trump Administration Has Given The CIA Free Rein To Engage In A Cyberwar
  12. Tech Policy In The Time Of Trump: Mid-2020 Edition
  13. A Case Where The Courts Got Section 230 Right Because It Turns Out Section 230 Is Not Really All That Hard
  14. Content Moderation Case Study: Can An Open Encyclopedia Handle Disinformation? (2005)
  15. Facebook Cannot Separate Itself From the Hate It Spreads: The social network doesn’t just ‘hold a mirror up to society’— it does something much more powerful and concerning
  16. Facebook overrides fact-checks when climate science is “opinion”
  17. Facebook Bans Content Promoting Conversion Therapy
  18. Copyright Trolling Evolved: Okularity Accused Of DMCAing Social Media Accounts, Then Demanding MILLIONS To Reinstate
  19. Content Moderation Case Study: Dealing With Misinformation During A Pandemic (2020)
  20. Russia-linked hackers accused of targeting COVID-19 vaccine developers
  21. Emojis Keep Teen Out of Jail–State v. DRC (Eric Goldman)
  22. Time to tackle market dominance of tech giants says CMA
  23. The end of 30%? | Opinion: The European Commission has opened an antitrust investigation into Apple — will this be the end of the App Store’s 30% revenue share?
  24. Amazon Will Now Let You Create Your Own Streaming Service, Using Twitch Technology
  25. Amazon.com: more transparency, less counterfeits
  26. Can a Blawg Be Liable for Defamation? Not Likely (Whew!) 
  27. Google Bans Advertising for Spying Products and Services 
  28. Google Strengthens Clickbait Advertising Policy 
  29. Google Prohibits Ads Promoting COVID-19 Conspiracy Theories
  30. Why some self-driving startups reject Google’s “moonshot” approach
  31. Online platforms required to deal with business users fairly and transparently from 12 July 2020
  32. How SVODs Are Leveraging Facebook And YouTube To Grow Their Audiences
  33. Snap Sees Slowdown In User, Revenue Growth, Says Originals Now Reach 75% Of U.S. Gen Z Population
  34. US investors try to buy TikTok from Chinese owner
  35. Facebook To Launch TikTok Competitor ‘Reels’ Globally In August
  36. TikTok Drops New Creator-Starring PSAs To Help Users Recognize Misinformation Online
  37. TikTok Plans To Hire 10,000 U.S.-Based Staffers Over Next 3 Years, Company Says
  38. Charli And Dixie D’Amelio Drive Hollister’s New ‘Jeans Lab’ Campaign To 2.5 Billion TikTok Views In 6 Days
  39. Influencer Marketing Firm CreatorIQ Closes $24 Million Funding Round
  40. Student-Athletes & NIL: The Next Rising Class of Social Media Influencers
  41. Do old social media posts constitute advertising? And when is a question a claim?
  42. Lilly Singh Unveiled As Co-Owner Of Pro Women’s Soccer Team Coming To Los Angeles
  43. Judge Denies Netflix’s Request To Dismiss Discrimination Lawsuit From Comedian Mo’Nique
  44. ‘Extraction,’ ‘Bird Box,’ ‘The Irishman’ Among Netflix’s Top 10 Most-Watched Original Film Debuts Ever
  45. Netflix’s Q2 Report: 10 Million New Subscribers, Production Delays For 2021, And Content Head Ted Sarandos Is Now Co-CEO
  46. Insights: Netflix Is Still Winning The Streaming Wars, But That Might Start Getting More Difficult Soon
  47. HBO Max, Peacock Already Losing Major Launch Titles Like ‘Harry Potter,’ ‘The Matrix’ Trilogy (Report)
  48. NBC’s Peacock Topped App Charts On Release, Besting The Debuts Of Quibi, HBO Max (Report)
  49. Rapper Logic Signs Seven-Figure Streaming Deal With Twitch
  50. Vox Media Lays Off 70 Employees, As Coronavirus Continues To Grind Away At Revenues
  51. Petnet ‘Smart’ Feeder Customers Are Stuck In ‘Internet Of Broken Things’ Purgatory
  52. Consumer IoT – European Commission initiates inquiry into the consumer Internet of Things sector
  53. Woman Who Refused To Wear Mask At Starbucks Wants Half The $100k In Tip Money Barista Got From GoFundMe Campaign
  54. Is It OK to Embed Instagram Photos? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  55. Instagram Opens Up New ‘Shop’ Tab For Users In The U.S.
  56. We Shouldn’t Call Michelle Obama’s (And Joe Rogan’s) Proprietary Exclusive Audio From Spotify A ‘Podcast’ Any More
  57. Spotify Rolls Out Native Video Podcast Capability To H3h3 Productions, Rooster Teeth, The Misfits Podcast, More
  58. Podcast Advertising Remains Resilient In Face Of COVID, Will Surpass $812 Million This Year (Study)
  59. FinCEN warns of virtual currency social media scam
  60. DOJ Indicts Cyprus National Who Apparently Hacked Ripoff Report And Deleted Negative Reviews
  61. Tech And COVID-19: MLB Rolls Out Remote Cheering Function In Its MLB App
  62. Hands-on: The $300 Kano PC, a “build-it-yourself” Chromebook competitor
  63. Socialism’s DIY Computer: The Galaksija computer was a craze in 1980s Yugoslavia, inspiring thousands of people to build versions in their own homes. The idea was simple – make technology available to everyone.
  64. Mediated trust: A theoretical framework to address the trustworthiness of technological trust mediators (Balázs Bodó)
  65. The Political Power of Platforms: How Current Attempts to Regulate Misinformation Amplify Opinion Power (Natali Helberger)
  66. Seeing the forest for the trees: Visualizing platformization and its governance (José Van Dijck)
  67. Governing smart mobility: policy instrumentation, technological utopianism, and the administrative quest for knowledge (Dalia Mukhtar-Landgren, Alexander Paulsson)
  68. Re-assembling the surveillable refugee body in the era of data-craving (Martin Lemberg-Pedersen, Eman Haioty)
  69. Commission launches sector inquiry into the Internet of Things for consumer related products and services
  70. European Commission launches a Sector Inquiry into the Consumer Internet of Things

A.I.

  1. European Artificial Intelligence Policy: Mapping the Institutional Landscape
  2. Can Algorithms Tackle the ‘Infodemic’?
  3. Science Fiction, Science Fact, And AI Consciousness with Beth Singler
  4. Big data and modern slavery
  5. Video: An overview of knowledge representation in game AI
  6. Regulating human control over autonomous systems
  7. Robots, Automation, and Employment: Where We Are (Lukas Wolters)
  8. Resisting the Algorithmic Boss: Guessing, Gaming, Reframing and Contesting Rules in App-based Management (Joanna Bronowicka, Mirela Ivanova)

COMMUNICATIONS

  1. Ajit Pai urges states to cap prison phone rates after he helped kill FCC caps
  2. FCC: Phone carriers that profit from robocalls could have all calls blocked
  3. FCC approves call blocking safe harbors
  4. FCC Adopts Safe Harbors to Encourage Phone Companies to Block Illegal Robocallers
  5. AT&T claims a phone made in 2019 will stop working, urges users to upgrade
  6. Verizon Has To Walk Back Bogus 5G Coverage Claims
  7. Charter Spectrum’s Bullshit ‘Broadcast TV’ Fee Soars To $16.45 Per Month
  8. Attorney General’s Office Achieves Victory on Maine Broadband Privacy Law
  9. Interim Rule Implements Section 889 Ban on Contractors Using Technologies from Certain China-Based Companies
  10. Rule Banning Chinese Telecommunications Equipment is Released
  11. August Is Coming: Interim Rule Banning Federal Contractor Use of Certain Chinese Technologies Takes Effect August 13th\
  12. New Rule Expands U.S. Government Contracting Ban on Targeted Chinese Telecommunications and Video Surveillance Suppliers
  13. UK to remove Huawei from UK 5G networks by 2027, bans Huawei from supplying new 5G equipment
  14. What’s New in 5G – July 2020
  15. If Thumbs Are Required, It’s Not an Autodialer
  16. Study: Community Broadband Drives Competition, Lowering Costs
  17. The Political Defence of the Commons: The Case of Community Networks (Félix Tréguer, Melanie Dulong de Rosnay)

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

  1. “No one can own the law” – United States confirms copyright protection does not extend to works of legislators or judges
  2. Forever(ly) Brothers, Forever(ly) Rivals: The Everly Brothers’ Epic Battle Over Authorship of “Cathy’s Clown”
  3. Reproduction of infringing content online: who’s liable?
  4. Yet Another ‘Stranger Things’ Copyright Suit Over A String Of Likely Non-Protectable Elements
  5. Porn distribution company loses piracy suit appeal against Web host
  6. Court Reconsiders and Changes Course in Instagram Embedding Case
  7. Copyright Win Falls Apart at the Seams on Challenge to Registration Validity
  8. Why Are Pizzerias Arguing Whether Web Browsing Is Copyright Infringement?–Imapizza v. At Pizza (Eric Goldman)
  9. Court sanctions Liebowitz $103K! Requires service of a copy of the order on all of his clients and filing in all of his cases!! But can the Court do that?
  10. Copyright Troll Richard Liebowitz Says It’s Really Unfair That He Should Have To Tell Clients And Courts How Frequently He’s Been Caught Lying In Court
  11. Using Music in Podcasts – Talk to the Copyright Holders – Why You Can’t Rely on Your ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and SoundExchange Licenses
  12. Amendments to Mexico’s Copyright Legislation, in a Nutshell
  13. “I told you NO, you can’t have their number…” – CJEU confirms IP Enforcement Directive does not require disclosure of email addresses, telephone numbers or IP addresses
  14. Trademark Licensing in Canada: Everything You Need to Know You Can Learn From The Hells Angels
  15. That’s Not My Employment Law Group! A Trademark Battle Between Two Law Firms.
  16. Lady Antebellum Changes Name to “Lady A” and Files Trademark Lawsuit
  17. British Amateur Gymnastics Association v UK Gymnastics Ltd [2020] EWHC 1678 (IPEC)
  18. XOXO mark fails to distinguish, says General Court
  19. Trademark Law Alert – “LADY A” Case Could Present Interesting Issues…or Not
  20. Brighton & Hove Albion FC seeks trade mark protection for ‘Albion’ – but why?
  21. Booking.com Remand on USPTO Attorney Fee Issue Portends Closure on Circuit Split
  22. Stone Brewing, One-Time Battlers Of ‘Big Beer’, Out Here Trying To Cancel Non-Confusing Trademarks
  23. SCOTUS Alert: Adding “.com” To A Generic Term Can Be A Trademark
  24. Supreme Court: ‘Generic.com’ Domains Not Necessarily Generic; May Be Federally Registered
  25. Success for Louis Vuitton in pattern trademark dispute
  26. Check Mate! Louis Vuitton defends its chequerboard pattern for the second time
  27. The EU General Court provides clarification on trademarks consisting of slogans, advertising messages, idiomatic expressions
  28. Loss of gravity for the Moon Boot
  29. A breakthrough for the luxury trademark ‘Damier Azur’, but the battle is not yet won!
  30. Nosecco Appeal of UKIPO Decision Dismissed
  31. No-go for Nosecco following opposition by Prosecco
  32. Nosecco, Prosecco and the clash between marketing ideas and IP rights
  33. Still no perfect trademark for ‘perfect’ energy bar
  34. The Michael Jordan Case and The New Balance Case: The Latest Trend in Chinese Trademark Battle
  35. Don’t Get Schooled: What You Can Learn from the Wave of Trade Secret Cases That Followed the 2007-2008 Financial Crisis
  36. In assessing design patent infringement, the devil is in the details
  37. The Federal Court finds compelled disclosure and review of third-party rebates are ultra vires the Patent Act
  38. Board Should Fix Obvious Claim Errors in Order to Make a Decision on the Merits
  39. Necessity of Articulated Reasoning with Rational Underpinning in an Obviousness Rejection
  40. Aerospace to garden hoses: differing opinions in the English Court of Appeal as to obviousness over obscure prior art
  41. Functional Limitations vs. Intended Use
  42. Publication Does Not Necessarily Defeat Joint Inventorship
  43. Collaboration and Concerted Effort are What Result in Joint Inventorship
  44. Federal Circuit Upholds Enbrel® Patents and Blocks Biosimilar
  45. Who owns patents, SEPs and develops standards for smart home technologies?
  46. Modern methods for improving conventional prior-art searches
  47. Patentability of Diagnostic Inventions in the United States, Europe and Canada – Part 1
  48. Patentability of Diagnostic Inventions in the United States, Europe and Canada – Part 2
  49. Zombie Patents? USPTO Issuing Notices of Abandonment in U.S. National Stage PCT Applications After Filing of an RCE where no Inventor Oath or Declaration or Substitute Statement has been Filed
  50. Mid-year review of 2020’s major patent cases from across the globe
  51. Do you need to put in place an escrow agreement with respect to the software and/or source code that you license?
  52. Ontario Government Unveils Intellectual Property Action Plan Along with COVID-19 Research Projects
  53. Business Development Bank of Canada Commits $160-Million Fund Geared Towards Canada’s Intellectual Property Development
  54. IP Litigation Quarterly Update
  55. Q2 2020 Quick Links (Everything) (Eric Goldman)

PRIVACY

  1. The impact of Schrems II on Canada: No more onward transfer on the basis of the EU-US Privacy Shield
  2. US-EU Privacy Shield data sharing agreement struck down by court
  3. As Expected, US Surveillance Of Social Media Leads To EU Court Of Justice Rejecting EU/US Privacy Shield
  4. The European Court of Justice invalidates the EU-US Privacy Shield: Case-by-case assessment necessary when using EU standard contractual clauses
  5. Adapting to the Death of Privacy Shield
  6. Court of Justice of the European Union invalidates EU-U.S. Privacy Shield, while standard contractual clauses survive (for now)
  7. Privacy Shield Is Dead! Long Live Standard Contractual Clauses! For Now…
  8. Federal judge calls out CSIS for ‘cavalier institutional approach’ to rule of law: Judge calls for comprehensive review after failure to flag info likely obtained illegally
  9. DOJ: Chinese hackers stole “hundreds of millions of dollars” of secrets
  10. Latest VPN Security Scandals Show (Yet Again) That VPNs Aren’t A Panacea
  11. Privacy and civil rights advocates urge federal government to ban facial recognition surveillance
  12. CBP Updates Privacy Impact Assessment On License Plate Readers; Says Opting Out Involves Not Driving
  13. Three LAPD Officers Facing Criminal Charges For Faking Gang Database Records
  14. The Microsoft Police State: Mass Surveillance, Facial Recognition, And The Azure Cloud
  15. Slack says Microsoft is up to its old tricks, “browser-war” style
  16. Iranian state hackers caught with their pants down in intercepted videos
  17. Website Accessibility Under the California Consumer Privacy Act
  18. There’s a reason your inbox has more malicious spam—Emotet is back
  19. CBP does end run around warrants, simply buys license plate-reader data
  20. Injunction Defunction: The Second Circuit Extinguishes Injunctive Relief as a Remedy for Consumer False Advertising Claims
  21. Recent Court Decision Carries Lessons for Retaining and Using Cybersecurity Consultants to Investigate a Breach
  22. Can Companies Record Customer Service Calls Under U.S. Law?
  23. The EU Commission publishes its first evaluation of the GDPR
  24. Don’t Give Up on Your Digital Privacy Yet: A federal data privacy law is still important. Here’s why.

CREATIVITY   

  1. In brief: prohibited and controlled advertising in Canada
  2. The importance of the Johnny Depp libel trial
  3. Banksy’s face-mask themed artwork removed from London Underground
  4. Second Circuit Wrecks All Sorts Of First Amendment Protections To Keep Lawsuit Against Joy Reid Alive
  5. Third Circuit Court Of Appeals: F Cheer, Indeed
  6. California Federal Judge Denies Motion to Dismiss False Advertising Class Action Involving Breyers Natural Vanilla Ice Cream
  7. Court Deems Vanilla False Advertising Claims Too… Vanilla
  8. New Florida Law Gives College Athletes Right to Profit from their Name, Image and Likeness
  9. We harmed him—really we did: NHL hockey team argues unwanted texts it sent actually did injure people because…TCPAWORD
  10. Advertising a Game of Chance? Contact a Sweepstakes Lawyer
  11. How Artists Can Support Charitable Initiatives Through Art Sales
  12. New York City Reopens for Film and Television Production

GAMES

  1. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey has two leads because Ubisoft execs believed women don’t sell: Both Syndicate and Origins also originally featured women leads more prominently
  2. Ubisoft fires PR director over harassment allegations: Stone Chin denies allegation of sexual assault, claims it was not linked to Ubisoft’s decision to terminate his employment
  3. French union preparing collective lawsuit against Ubisoft amid abuse allegations: Solidaires Informatique invites victims of sexism and abuse to join as it seeks to take publisher to court 
  4. Ubisoft CEO: When informed of misconduct in the past, “we made tough decisions” – Yves Guillemot says certain individuals “betrayed trust,” while Frédérick Duguet defends representation in publisher’s games
  5. Ubisoft has a five pronged plan to address the studio’s culture of misconduct
  6. A record quarter at Ubisoft can’t distract from its troubled studio culture
  7. Ubisoft is keeping its next-gen games priced at $60, for now
  8. The writing team for Voltage’s Lovestruck is on strike over pay, working conditions
  9. Lovestruck dev Voltage defends conduct following writers strike
  10. Voltage Entertainment says striking writers group “is not a union”: Group of 21 Lovestruck writers wants better pay, but Voltage says freelance contracts preclude collective bargaining
  11. Despite gov’t approval, Google rejects Attentat 1942 from Google Play Store in Germany
  12. Google blocks anti-fascist game for containing references to Nazis: “Stores and platforms have to deal with hateful content, if reviewers took a closer look at Attentat 1942 for just a moment, they would find out we are not that”
  13. German regulator won’t ban Coin Star after all
  14. Deadly Premonition 2 dev claims transgender content “fixed”: A patch has altered a sequence criticised for treatment of a transgender character, but issues remain elsewhere in the game
  15. Deaf accessibility in video games
  16. Twitch Stops U.S. Army From Linking To Recruitment Page Under Guise Of Xbox Controller Giveaway 
  17. Twitch orders end to US Army giveaway promotion on its channel: Alleged controller giveaway reportedly sent users to a recruitment page with no mention of a contest
  18. ISFE, EGDF express concerns over CJEU ruling on EU to US data transfer: Both organizations call free data transfer “crucial” to the EU games industry 
  19. Government responds to the DCMS Select Committee’s Report on Immersive and Addictive Technology
  20. EA’s new $30 online-only game: An uphill slog in a free-to-play world
  21. EA to update Madden NFL 21, making Washington a “generic team”: Following team’s decision, EA will also ditch name and logo until new ones are chosen 
  22. Video game streaming 
  23. GameStop will require face masks for customers; reportedly won’t enforce it: Employees say if customers refuse to wear masks, they are to complete transactions “quickly as possible” 
  24. Wales Interactive quietly pulls announcement for FMV game about female streamer abuse: Publisher says Gamer Girl was designed to raise awareness of the toxicity women face online
  25. Metacritic counters review bombs by eliminating launch-day user reviews
  26. Metacritic now delays user reviews until more than 24 hours after games launch: Company says the decision was not influenced by backlash and review bombing against The Last Of Us Part II
  27. How to design better communities: Kitfox Games’ Victoria Tran explained how the right ruleset can lead your community away from toxicity
  28. Numinous Games announces The Playability Initiative for accessible gaming: New initiative to partner with AbleGamers, disabled communities for new, adaptive game
  29. Cloud gaming “will take the biggest hit” from 5G delays caused by Huawei ban: But analysts tells GamesIndustry.biz mobile market “will thrive with or without 5G” 
  30. GDC Survey: One third of game businesses suffering decline amid COVID-19 pandemic: Decline is offset by similar numbers seeing business improve, but 25% of developers have been hit financially
  31. Developing Bake It under quarantine: Kwalee’s head of development Simon Platt on the processes and tools needed to make and ship a new product during lockdown
  32. 63% of UK games businesses report no risk of closure during COVID-19 pandemic: Meanwhile, 80% do not expect to make redundancies and 56% are still recruiting despite difficulties
  33. Ghost of Tsushima comfortably beats Paper Mario to No.1 | UK Charts: But Paper Mario The Origami King enjoys the biggest launch in the series to date
  34. Please insert disc: Microsoft Flight Simulator will spread across ten DVDs
  35. ‘We believe in generations:’ PlayStation argues cross-gen games risk stifling innovation
  36. As the PS5 draws near, PlayStation promises there’s ‘still a ton of life in’ the PS4
  37. Microsoft resets expectations ahead of Xbox Showcase: “No business, devices or similar news, just games,” says Xbox marketing head Aaron Greenberg
  38. Microsoft is adding xCloud to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate in September
  39. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate gets free xCloud game streaming in September
  40. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers will get Project xCloud access from September: Platform holder announces cloud streaming will soon be added to subscription service in supported countries
  41. Xbox backs off Game Pass on every platform goal: Phil Spencer says other consoles “aren’t really that interested in having a full Xbox experience on their hardware”
  42. No Man’s Sky has added 1 million new players since Xbox Game Pass launch
  43. Can Xbox One continue on as gaming’s “low-end” console option?
  44. Microsoft ending production of Xbox One X and Xbox One S All-Digital Edition
  45. Xbox One minus two: Microsoft kills console versions before Series X launch
  46. Xbox One X and Xbox One S All-Digital discontinued ahead of Xbox Series X: Only the Xbox One S remains in production as Microsoft pulls the plug on its high-end and disc-less current-gen consoles
  47. Microsoft halts sale of 12 month Xbox Live Gold subscriptions
  48. Xbox Series X won’t support Kinect hardware, games
  49. Xbox closes Q4 with gains in hardware revenue, record engagement
  50. Microsoft’s gaming revenues jump in Q4 of FY20 due to ongoing lockdowns: After several flat or down quarters in a row, Xbox content and services revenue up 65%
  51. Layoffs at Microsoft as it begins new fiscal year: Reports suggest less than 1,000 people affected, currently unclear whether this includes any at Xbox 
  52. Cloud streaming: complement, not competition, to next-gen consoles: Microsoft’s decision to bundle xCloud as part of Games Pass Ultimate is the smartest decision anyone has made in cloud streaming so far 
  53. Microsoft migrates ‘Minecraft’ from Amazon Web Services to its own Azure: Since 2014, developer Mojang had used AWS servers for Minecraft Realms.
  54. Ubisoft’s holiday next-gen games will be the same price as current-gen: However, the publisher leaves the door open for a price hike next year
  55. Ubisoft reports record bookings despite light Q1 release slate: Assassin’s Creed, Just Dance, Rainbow Six Siege performing well in pandemic; Ubisoft Forward had more concurrent viewers than any of publisher’s E3 briefings
  56. Stadia’s ‘Click To Play’ – the future? 
  57. Rocket League goes free-to-play: Game will launch on Epic Games Store; Steam version will no longer be available for new users
  58. Rocket League’s free-to-play transition is a red card for its Steam listing
  59. Rocket League will tone down its Steam presence following free-to-play shift
  60. Crossfire dev Smilegate opens Barcelona studio to develop triple-A projects
  61. Smilegate opens new Barcelona studio: Spanish office to be focused on AAA titles, beginning with an open-world console game
  62. Paradox acquires Surviving the Aftermath developer Iceflake Studios
  63. Paradox buys Iceflake Studios: Finnish company becomes the ninth developer in the Paradox family
  64. TinyBuild nabs Hello Neighbor dev team, plans to invest $15M into the franchise
  65. TinyBuild acquires Hello Neighbor developers: Team will now be called Eerie Guest Studios, indie publisher will invest more than $15 million into franchise
  66. Nazara Technologies buys majority stake in Paper Boat Apps: Indian firm raises stake to 51%, values the educational game developer at around $20m
  67. Nintendo isn’t throwing in the towel on mobile just yet: Annual report positions mobile business as a key target area in company’s long-term strategy
  68. Mobile dev Carbonated raises $8.5 million in seed funding
  69. Carbonated raises $8.5m in seed funding: Developer started by ex-EA, Zynga vets working on mobile real-time PVP game Madworld
  70. Mobalytics closes $11.25m Series A round: Almaz Capital and Cabra VC lead investment in the startup’s “personal gaming assistant” and analytics platform
  71. Nexon OC shuts down: Company says studio’s in-development projects didn’t fit with overall focus
  72. Investment health check: Growing your studio from seed to Series A: In the first of two articles, Sheridans’ Tim Davies outlines four key steps to prepare your company for investor scrutiny
  73. VGames raises over $30m for Israel and Eastern Europe-focused investment fund: Fund founded by Eitan Reisel to focus on early-stage game studios
  74. Reaching Chinese gamers through internet cafés
  75. Ring Fit Adventure sprints to the US top 10 in June thanks to stock increase – NPD: The Last of Us Part 2 debuts at No.1, sees second-highest launch month dollar sales for a Sony-published game ever
  76. Roblox now has a social Party Space for online hangouts
  77. Adopt Me: The most popular game you’ve never played – Josh Ling on the rapid rise of the biggest game on Roblox — millions in revenue, 50m monthly users, and a team set to reach 100 people by the end of 2020
  78. How to guarantee your pitch will be rejected: Publishers and investors share advice on the common mistakes to avoid in your presentation when you’re pitching
  79. Polish studio Far From Home launches with close-to-home support network: CEO Blumenfeld explains why the “AA+” development studio is using alternative stock exchange NewConnect to support big ambitions
  80. Drive-in esports arenas planned for Horizon malls in the US: Four cities in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Texas to launch centers for both viewership and competition 
  81. Former Faze Clan executives launch new esports organization Xset: Co-founder Greg Selkoe wants to recruit more women and people of color, have a “clear social mission”
  82. A new skull has been added to Halo 3 after 13 years
  83. Designing the real-time stealth and combat of Desperados III
  84. Blog: Looking at the response to accessibility in The Last of Us Part II
  85. Blog: Game composers and the importance of themes – Part 2
  86. Blog: How modern roguelikes are becoming more accessible
  87. Blog: Macro and micro narrative storytelling 
  88. Video: Uses and abuses of analytics in games
  89. Video: Using machine learning, live telemetry & computer vision to manage communities
  90. Don’t Miss: Talking evocative games with thatgamecompany’s Jenova Chen
  91. Don’t Miss: Frog Fractions 2 and the art of surprising players expecting to be surprised
  92. The Asus ROG 3 is the ultimate Android gaming phone that nobody asked for 
  93. Dreams wins Game of the Year at Games for Change Festival: Media Molecule and Thatgamecompany picked up two prizes each at the online event
  94. Why Ian Livingstone is building a school: Industry veteran on the ethos behind Livingstone Academy and why “there’s no point teaching children like robots”
  95. U.S. Patent no. 9,861,896: Method and system for an integrated platform wide party system within a multiplayer gaming environment

Jon

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News of the Week; July 15, 2020

By Jon Festinger on July 19, 2020

DIGITAL

  1. ‘Too big to fail’: why even a historic ad boycott won’t change Facebook – The company has survived previous seemingly existential crises with little damage to its monarchical structure
  2. Zuckerberg and the Facebook ad boycott; how will it end?
  3. The Fake Nerd Boys of Silicon Valley
  4. We need tougher action against disinformation and propaganda
  5. Musk, Obama, Biden, Bezos, Gates—bitcoin scam hits Twitter in coordinated blitz
  6. Twitter lost control of its internal systems to Bitcoin-scamming hackers
  7. Trump’s Twitter Tantrums Are Affecting How Judges Evaluate Online Discourse–US v. Cook (Eric Goldman)
  8. Trump admin caves to Harvard and MIT, won’t deport online-only students
  9. White supremacist pleads guilty to multiple “swatting” incidents
  10. Reports of a Silicon Valley/Military Divide Have Been Greatly Exaggerated
  11. UN Special Rapporteur Warns of Racial Discrimination Exacerbated by Technology
  12. Emerging digital technologies entrench racial inequality, UN expert warns
  13. Heller v. Uber – What Employers Need to Know
  14. Canada: Supreme Court Strikes Down Uber’s Arbitration Clause In Uber Technologies Inc. V. Heller, 2020 SCC 16
  15. Uber Technologies Inc. V. Heller (2020 SCC 16)
  16. Images and misinformation in political groups: evidence from WhatsApp in India
  17. Rise of The Karen. feat. Apryl Williams
  18. When Piracy Literally Saves Lives
  19. EFF, Orin Kerr Ask The Supreme Court To Prevent Turning The CFAA Into A Convenient Way To Punish Site Users, Security Researchers
  20. French parliament passes porn age-verification legislation
  21. What A Shock: Scammers Are Abusing YouTube’s Notice And Takedown System With DMCA Claims
  22. Now That USMCA Is In Effect… Can Congress Even Reform Section 230 Without Violating The Agreement?
  23. DOJ Section 230 report unintentionally highlights dangers of internet heckler’s vetoes
  24. House Government Appropriations Bill Would Bar FTC & FCC From Doing Anything Related To Trump’s Inane Anti-230 Executive Order
  25. Understanding The ‘Splinternet’
  26. Americans Disagree On What Content Should Be Moderated, But They All Agree Social Media Companies Suck At Moderation
  27. Spotify Launches Podcast Charts, Challenging Apple’s Status As Industry’s De Facto Ranker
  28. Google Finally Gets Around To Banning Ads For Stalkerware
  29. Google bans ads for stalkerware apps—with some exceptions
  30. Google Search Results Allegedly Promote YouTube Videos Over More Popular Clips From Competitive Platforms
  31. YouTube Now Tells Creators Exactly How Much They Make From Ads, Super Chat, Channel Memberships Per 1,000 Views
  32. What Makes A YouTube Video Hit The Trending Tab? This Data Scientist Broke Down Every Single Video That Trended In 2019.
  33. Top 50 Most Viewed US YouTube Channels • Week Of 7/13/2020
  34. Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 7/13/2020
  35. YouTube Adds Mental Health Information Panels To Videos About Depression, Anxiety
  36. YouTube Kids Finally Arrives On Amazon Fire TV
  37. Amazon supermarket will roll out fancy new smart cart when it opens
  38. Amazon bans TikTok on employee phones, then calls it a mistake
  39. Amazon Doubles Back, Saying Email Instructing Employees To Delete TikTok Was “Sent In Error”
  40. TikTok Says It Removed 49 Million Videos For Content Violations In The Second Half Of 2019
  41. FYP.RIP Lets TikTok Creators Download Every Video They’ve Ever Made At Once
  42. Addison Rae, TikTok’s Second-Biggest Star, Soars Past 50 Million Followers
  43. Jason Derulo Says He Makes “Far More” Than $75,000 Per TikTok
  44. Tiktok deletes 49 million videos for rule-breaking over 6 month period
  45. Snapchat Tests Special ‘Brand Profiles’ — Complete With Ecommerce, Lens Collections, More
  46. NBCUniversal’s Peacock Debuts With 13,000 Hours Of Free Content
  47. Noted Incubator Reportedly Shells Out $10 Million To Develop Patrick Starrr Beauty Brand, Launching At Sephora
  48. Influencer-Enmeshed Beauty Brand Morphe Ceases All Ties With Jeffree Star
  49. Just 8% Of Quibi’s Early Free Trial Users Converted To Paying Subscribers
  50. What’s wrong with WhatsApp:As social media has become more inhospitable, the appeal of private online groups has grown. But they hold their own dangers – to those both inside and out.
  51. Jukin Launches Fourth OTT Brand, ‘WeatherSpy’, A Hip Weather Hub Targeting Cord Cutters
  52. Spotify Launches Podcast Charts, Challenging Apple’s Status As Industry’s De Facto Ranker
  53. Registration of generic Top Level Domains (gTLD)
  54. Tesla’s stock soars as tens of thousands of Robinhood users buy it
  55. New York State Department of Financial Services Proposes Framework for a Conditional BitLicense
  56. Who Should Be in Charge of Cyberspace? The European Union, Member States and the Constitution of Structural Power (Moritz Weiss)
  57. The Postdigital Emergence of Memes and GIFs: Meaning, Discourse, and Hypernarrative Creativity (Albin Wagener)
  58. Content Moderation Case Study: Dealing With Misinformation In Search (2004)

A.I.

  1. Don’t ask if artificial intelligence is good or fair, ask how it shifts power
  2. Fan Uses AI Software To Lipread What Actors Really Said In TV Series Before Chinese Authorities Censored Them
  3. Detroit PD Now Linked To Two Bogus Arrests Stemming From Facial Recognition False Positives
  4. Algorithmic state surveillance: Challenging the notion of agency in human rights (Eleni Kosta)
  5. The algorithmic regulation of security: An infrastructural perspective (Rocco Bellanova, Marieke de Goede)
  6. Data and the Task of the Humanities: We have automated the society of clues to act on its own divinations, with consequences far beyond the individual.
  7. CFPB Highlights the Growing Role of Artificial Intelligence in the Delivery of Financial Services
  8. Deepfakes Can Mean Deep Water and Deep Pockets for Your Business
  9. Transparency in artificial intelligence (Stefan Larsson, Fredrik Heintz)

COMMUNICATIONS

  1. Federal Court Defends CASL, Says Prohibition on Spam is Constitutional
  2. Supreme Court Upholds Robocalling Restrictions but Leaves Future of Regulatory Exemptions Uncertain
  3. Supreme Court Makes Debt Collection Robocalling Illegal (Again)
  4. TCPA Restrictions on Robocalls Expanded by SCOTUS
  5. The U.S. Supreme Court Broadens The TCPA Class Action Trap For Unwary Businesses
  6. FRACTURED LANDSCAPE: This One Graphic Explains Exactly why SCOTUS is Taking Yet Another Look at the TCPA
  7. The TCPA and the First Amendment: Where We Are and Where We’re Going
  8. Breaking: SCOTUS Will Decide ATDS Definition in Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid et al.
  9. Supreme Court Agrees to Review Growing Circuit Split on Definition of ATDS
  10. SCOTUS to Resolve Autodialer Circuit Split
  11. Two FCC Fines for Contests Where Prizes Not Awarded on a Timely Basis – What Broadcasters Should Watch Out for in Conducting Contests
  12. FCC Continues to Prosecute Pirate Radio Operators – Two Settlements with Identified Violators
  13. FCC Proposes to Update Ex Parte Rules
  14. FCC releases new guidance on autodialers, leaves key questions unanswered
  15. Old School TV Gatekeepers (AT&T, Comcast), Struggle With Modern Streaming Gatekeepers (Amazon, Roku)
  16. Frontier misled subscribers about Internet speeds and prices, AG finds
  17. Charter’s hidden “Broadcast TV” fee now adds $197 a year to cable bills
  18. Verizon’s 5G network is tiny—Verizon ads “falsely implied” it’s nationwide
  19. UK bans Huawei from 5G networks in “victory for the Trump administration”
  20. Small ISPs Being Forced To Eat The Costs Of FCC’s Huawei Ban
  21. This Iowa Town Is Building An Open Access Fiber Broadband Network. Google Fiber Is Its First Customer

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

  1. U.S. Court Of Appeals Hears Arguments That Lawsuit Against Disney For ‘Pirates’ Shouldn’t Have Been Dismissed
  2. Top EU Court Says Online Platforms Must Only Provide Postal Addresses Of People Who Upload Unauthorized Copies Of Copyright Material
  3. Neil Young ‘NOT ok’ with Trump playing his music at Mount Rushmore event
  4. Legal Implications of Syncing Copyrighted Music with Other Content
  5. Meek Mill, Atlantic Records Face Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Over Lifted Lyrics
  6. US copyright enters the social media age
  7. IP Insight – Brompton Doesn’t Fold Before Court of Justice
  8. How Absolutely Desperate Must You Be To Try To Claim That The Answer To ‘Cancel Culture’ Is Stronger Copyright?
  9. Are fundamental rights the answer to the deficiencies of EU copyright law, discussed in a European context? (Maria Christina Michailidou)
  10. Brexit: Intellectual Property and Software Code Post-Brexit Transition
  11. When Paying for It Doesn’t Mean You Own It
  12. Conducting your way through music licensing: common issues
  13. Random Issues to Consider as Media Businesses Adapt to the New World of the Virus – Music Uses on Zoom and Other Platforms, Unlicensed FM Transmitters
  14. A look at recent student athlete name, image and likeness legislation
  15. Not all pun and games: Federal Court not amused with cannabis company’s brand parody
  16. GOOGLES Wins Right to Sue Google
  17. PlanetArt v Photobox offers practical tips for designing UK-targeted apps
  18. “Trump Too Small” is Too Personal for Trademark Registration
  19. No, Trademark Trolls Collecting Various Fake Names For A Washington Football Team Will Not Get In The Way Of The NFL Team’s Renaming
  20. If It Isn’t Perceived as Generic, Then It Isn’t Generic: Takeaways from USPTO v. Booking.com
  21. Trade mark rights in generic terms: does the US booking.com decision open the door in the U.S. or Australia?
  22. Supreme Court: “Booking.com” Can Be Registered as Trademark
  23. The Greek Freak and celebrity trade marks
  24. Iconic Ferrari 250 GTO Trademark (Partially) Cancelled
  25. Ferrari loses EU trade mark for ‘world’s most expensive car’
  26. “Nosecco” lost its sparkle: Logo trade mark application rejected by UK IPO and decision upheld by High Court
  27. Owls swoop in to secure WAWAW trade mark
  28. Tiger King: Murder, mayhem and misuse of intellectual property
  29. A tale of conflicting data sets: filing and litigation statistics paint a contrasting picture of the US trademark landscape
  30. Trademarks for Business Owners: 4 (More) Things Every Trademark Owner Should Know
  31. I found out about this amusing Karen parody of American Girl dolls because they want it taken down
  32. American Girl Brand Sees The Light On Parody
  33. Knock It Off, Knockoffs? Ninth Circuit Affirms Trade Dress Rights but Not Fame
  34. IBM has a problem with Google’s Open Usage Commons: The ties between the Open Usage Commons and Google may be too strong and clear.
  35. Can Trademark Law Combat Price Gouging? 3M is Testing Theories to Protect its Brand
  36. Amazon Will Display Seller Identifying Information On Seller Profile Pages – What Does It Really Mean For Brands Trying To Stop Unauthorized Sales?
  37. Descriptive marks: marketer’s nirvana or lawyer’s nightmare?
  38. Moving on Up: Increased Costs Awards in Canadian Patent Litigation
  39. Challenges in Canada: how CIPO is tackling a backlog caused by covid-19, legislative change and Madrid
  40. Device Having a Chamber “Loaded With” a Composition Positively Requires Presence of Composition in Device
  41. Do Lord Justice Arnold’s comments on Fibrogen v Akebia signify a change in approach to instruction of experts?
  42. Patentee’s Failure to Fully Define Non-Standard Physical Characteristic Leads to Invalidity Holding
  43. Lights Out for Light-up Shoe Patents Found to Be Obvious
  44. Lights Out for Light-Up Shoe Patent, Thanks to Non-Limiting Preamble
  45. Reliance on Common Sense Permitted in Obviousness Analysis
  46. Electronic Communication Technologies, LLC v. ShoppersChoice.com, No. 2019-1587 (Fed. Cir. May 14, 2020)
  47. Cochlear Bone Anchored Solutions AB v. Oticon Medical AB, No. 2019-1105 (Fed. Cir. May 15, 2020)
  48. Common Sense in Patents: Makes Sense?!
  49. Can One Have Too Many Patents?
  50. Patent Assignments: Difficult Decisions in a Difficult Time
  51. Patent Analytics Provider Tracks “Examiners Who Procrastinate”
  52. A Tale of Two Districts: Patent Trials in the Eastern and Western Districts of Texas During the COVID-19 Pandemic
  53. The One Secret Everyone Needs to Know About Patents
  54. Canada Announces Accelerated Exam for Pandemic Related Inventions Filed by “Small Entities”
  55. China’s Latest Patent Law Amendment Introduces Patent Linkage and Patent Term Extension
  56. Keeping a secret: five tips for creating an effective non-disclosure agreement
  57. EUIPO Report Names Turkey as the Third Biggest Producer of Counterfeit Goods
  58. How Do I Protect Intellectual Property?

PRIVACY

  1. Clearview Calls It Quits In Canada While Under Investigation By The Privacy Commissioner
  2. Safety first! New Canadian cloud security guidance is issued
  3. Companies Are Selling Cops Access To Personal Data Harvested From Malicious Hacking And Data Breaches
  4. C Is for Cookie Lawsuit: Google Accused of Wiretap Act Violations for Collection of Web Browsing Data
  5. Malware stashed in China-mandated software is more extensive than thought
  6. Are consumers in Europe more likely than consumers in the United States to “opt-in” to cookies?”
  7. Ars readers hated this startup’s privacy policy—so the company changed it
  8. This device keeps Alexa and other voice assistants from snooping on you
  9. California’s Effort to Suppress the Publication of Age Information Violates the Constitution–IMDb v. Becerra (Eric Goldman)
  10. CCPA 2.0: How the California Privacy Rights Act is “Targeting” Digital Advertising
  11. The Nuances of Data Colonialism
  12. Data is Dangerous: Comparing the Risks that the United States, Canada and Germany See in Data Troves (Susan Aaronson)

CREATIVITY   

  1. Judge Does The Expected: Gets Rid Of Prior Restraint Order Against Mary Trump, Allows Her To Publish Her Book
  2. Tucker Carlson’s top writer resigns after secretly posting racist and sexist remarks in online forum
  3. ‘His hatred is infectious’: Tucker Carlson, Trump’s heir apparent and 2024 candidate?
  4. A Letter on Justice and Open Debate
  5. A Deeply Provincial View of Free Speech: Many prominent writers and thinkers seem invested in the notion that simply facing strong public criticism is a threat to free speech.
  6. Documents Show SFPD Ignored The Press Pass The Department Had Issued To Brian Carmody In Order To Place Him Under Surveillance
  7. L.A. Newspaper Sues Sheriff’s Department Over Its Repeated Refusal To Comply With The Law
  8. What That Harper’s Letter About Cancel Culture Could Have Said
  9. Legally blown: Reese Witherspoon and her fashion line face breach of contract and privacy class action over ‘free dress’ giveaway
  10. France to exactly restore Notre Dame spire, ditching modern designs

GAMES

  1. Big Fish Games Reaches $155 Million Settlement over Online Gambling Games
  2. European Union sets limits on platform madness: A new regulation will create a more fair and transparent relationship between games companies and the app stores
  3. Three-quarters of all US households include someone who plays video games – ESA: Of 214 million gamers, 41% are women, and 21% are under the age of 18
  4. Ubisoft’s “most powerful creative force” resigns in wake of sweeping allegations
  5. Ubisoft executives resign amid sexual misconduct allegations
  6. Three more Ubisoft executives step down due to toxic culture: Chief Creative Officer Serge Hascoët and Ubisoft Canadian studios head Yannis Mallat leave the company as global head of HR Cécile Cornet leaves her role
  7. Toxic culture at Ubisoft connected to dysfunction in HR department: About half of the recent cases of toxic behaviour unearthed at Ubisoft had previously been flagged to HR, recent reports suggest
  8. What went wrong at Ubisoft? | Podcast: In this week’s double episode, we discuss recent developments at Ubisoft along with the wider issues of abuse in the games industry
  9. Top Ubisoft Executives Out Amid Allegations Of Company-Wide Misconduct
  10. Christophe Derennes named head of Ubisoft Montreal after Yannis Mallat’s resignation
  11. Interplay silent on Earthworm Jim developer’s racist, homophobic remarks
  12. Researchers criticise whiteboard technical tests: Software engineer hiring practice discriminates against women, suggests study
  13. Feminist Frequency launching Games and Online Harassment Hotline: Free text message emotional support service goes live next month, will be staffed by paid agents trained in crisis response
  14. WoW Alters Its Character Creation System to Add Diversity
  15. Blizzard will make changing character gender free in next WoW expansion: Most other aesthetic character changes can already be made without spending real money 
  16. Swery apologizes for depiction of transgender individual in Deadly Premonition 2 
  17. BAFTA Games Awards applicants will be challenged over diversity and inclusion
  18. Decades later, these remakes haven’t fixed their racial representation issues
  19. There’s a new initiative to create a game industry code of ethics 
  20. 8,000 games have been pulled from the App Store in China over missing ISBNs 
  21. Over 8,000 games pulled from App Store in China in one week: Apple clamps down on paid games or titles with in-app purchases that have not been approved by Chinese regulator 
  22. EA developing an addiction to executive overpay, says investment group: CtW Investment Group launches shareholder campaign against publisher, highlights “fallacy” of above-ordinary compensation as a motivator
  23. ‘The Sims’ game has been turned into a reality show, and players are competing for $100,000 
  24. You’ll Be Mad You’re Not Competing In This Sims Reality TV Show 
  25. Global Mis-Steps: From acquisition to accusations – GlobalStep sources describe “culling” of staff, incorrect pay, and a stifling culture of fear at UK QA studio formerly known as Testology 
  26. Tilting Point acquires Plamee Studios and FTX Games assets 
  27. Huuuge Games has purchased interactive ad company Playable Platform 
  28. Huuuge Games acquires Dutch advertising startup: Mobile developer now has 11 international offices and over 600 staff
  29. Animoca Brands buys social gaming platform Gamee for $6.53 million 
  30. Former Ubisoft developers open new Canadian studio Beans
  31. Game companies line up for pandemic relief loans: Developers take advantage of a US program that will forgive loans for retaining staff, deadline to apply is August 8 
  32. Analyst: Mobile games generated 1 billion downloads each week in Q2 2020
  33. Analyzing those Satisfactory sales numbers (& more!)
  34. F1 2020 overtakes The Last of Us Part 2 at No.1 | UK Charts:Codemasters licensed racing game enjoys its biggest launch since 2017
  35. Sony invests $250 million in Epic Games
  36. Sony Invests $250 Million In Epic Games, Reportedly Valuing The ‘Fortnite’ Publisher At $17.9 Billion 
  37. Sony invests $250m in Epic Games: Tech giants plan to broaden existing collaborations across technology, social entertainment, and digital ecosystems 
  38. Report: Sony increasing PlayStation 5 production by 50 percent 
  39. Sony reportedly increasing PS5 production to 10m units by 2021 
  40. Could Sony stumble on cross-generation games? | Opinion: If Sony tries to charge for PS5 versions of late-gen PS4 hits, comparisons with Microsoft’s consumer-friendly strategy will be harsh
  41. Are Xbox Series X developers being held back by Xbox One?: “Held back is a meme that gets created by people who are too caught up in device competition”
  42. Developing for Xbox Game Pass: “I could never pitch these ideas to a publisher”: Xbox, Double Fine, Obsidian, Mojang and InXile discuss how Game Pass is changing the games they make
  43. Microsoft details how Xbox Series X will load 4.8GB/s from memory
  44. Microsoft rolls out special version of Project xCloud for developers in lockdown: PC Content Test App allows games makers to access their Xbox development kits remotely 
  45. How Minecraft and Mojang taught Xbox how to buy studios – Xbox’s new studios: “Things have been almost exactly the same, just without the terror of going out of business” 
  46. Phil Spencer: “I don’t have any regrets about Mixer” – Xbox chief discusses what the Mixer closure means for its strategy
  47. PES 2021 “pared back” as Konami focuses on Xbox Series X, PS5 version: Publisher confirms there will still be a release this year with an “affordably priced” season update
  48. Stadia lands exclusives from Konami, Harmonix, and more: Bomberman publisher & Rock Band dev join Splash Damage, Uppercut Games, Supermassive, and Bad Dream in working on games for Google’s service
  49. Splash Damage exploring friendlier territory with Outcasters: Veteran developer of competitive online shooters aims for approachability with its new game for Stadia
  50. Stadia’s Click to Play aims to speed up game launches with sharable, instant-play links
  51. For the second time this year, Amazon Games puts a new title into hiding
  52. Amazon delays MMORPG New World into 2021: Company says alpha feedback demonstrated need for more endgame experiences
  53. Google Play apps with 500,000 downloads subscribe users to costly services
  54. The return of the $70 video game has been a long time coming
  55. Rising video game prices drove UK inflation in June: The Last of Us Part 2’s launch, plus ongoing Switch success stories, likely to be biggest contributors
  56. PUBG has sold over 70 million copies worldwide
  57. Unreal Engine devs can now capture facial animation using an iOS app
  58. Unreal’s new iPhone app does live motion capture with Face ID sensors
  59. The surprising way that paid DLC works
  60. Capcom says its game sales are 80% digital and rising: Publisher aiming to reduce physical media to just 10% of its game sales in the future
  61. Finnish mobile studio Traplight nets $9 million to support Battle Legion
  62. Traplight closes €8m investment round: Finnish mobile dev to focus on live-service development of latest title, Battle Legion 
  63. Tencent is the latest potential buyer for Leyou Technologies: Chinese tech and games giant reportedly in talks to acquire parent of Warframe developer Digital Extremes
  64. Twitch Faces Sudden Stream of DMCA Notices Over Background Music
  65. Twitch reinstates Donald Trump’s channel after two-week ban
  66. What did (and didn’t) work for the first year of Valve’s Steam Labs experiments
  67. Valve secrets spill over—including Half-Life 3—in new Steam documentary app
  68. Half-Life Alyx developers want to make a full-scale Half-Life game for consoles: “This ice has been broken, now we’re hoping to smash through the ice completely”
  69. Far Cry 6 announced at Ubisoft Forward, launches next year: Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla and Watch Dogs: Legion also get release dates, smart delivery on Xbox 
  70. Pokémon Snap had a different kind of focus | Why I Love: Tag Games CEO Marc Williamson believes developers could learn from the Nintendo photo safari’s escapist tourism without pressure
  71. How COVID-19 transformed Pokémon Go into “Pokémon stay-at-home”
  72. Nintendo and Lego team up on a $229 mechanical NES and TV set
  73. Paper Mario: The Origami King folds the usual RPG tropes into knots
  74. Why is this copy of Super Mario Bros. worth a record $114,000?
  75. Vintage ‘Super Mario Bros.’ Video Game Sells for $114,000
  76. Rare copy of Super Mario Bros sells for a record $114,000: The NES classic seta new standard for vintage game prices at auction last weekend
  77. Free-to-play brawler Ninjala surpasses 3 million downloads on Switch
  78. Moderating the “marketplace of ideas” with user-made gaming platform Core: Manticore Games co-founder Frédéric Descamps discusses challenges & potential with new platform that promises to be YouTube of gaming
  79. Twitch deletes Black Lives Matter video after criticism it lacked Black creators: Twitch partners from the Black community said they were overshadowed, spoken over by white personalities
  80. Ninja Denounces TikTok As Concerns Surrounding App’s Ban Mount — And Byte Soars To Top Of Apple App Charts
  81. The New Frontier of Esports Sponsorship
  82. TikTok Collab House SwayLA Launches ‘SwayGaming’ Offshoot For Esports Creators
  83. ‘Microsoft Flight Simulator’ VR Support Still a Post-Launch “top wish list item”: No direct confirmation of future VR support
  84. A ‘nod’ to Command and Conquer’s Construction Yard
  85. The Chinese Room’s ambition to move out of the art house niche: With Sumo at their side, Dan Pinchbeck and Ed Daly want to make the best games of the decade
  86. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla hands-on: An incomplete Witcher-ization
  87. Watch Dogs: Legion hands-on: Play as anyone, care about no one
  88. Ghost of Tsushima review: An open-world haiku of honor, stealth, and revenge 
  89. Video: Emergent storytelling techniques in The Sims
  90. Video: A game dev’s guide to organizing your levels and mechanics 
  91. Don’t Miss: An oral (‘Sporal’?) history on the development of Maxis’ Spore
  92. Don’t Miss: How adding 0.2 seconds to Halo 3’s sniper rifle fire rate changed the game 
  93. Blog: Balancing Tips – How we managed math on Idle Idol
  94. Blog: Camera evolution in third-person games
  95. Blog: Money or passion? How to become an indie entrepreneur
  96. Blog: Improving narrative accessibility
  97. Blog: A beginner’s guide to making your own games
  98. Media Molecule’s Dreams named GOTY at 2020 Games for Change Awards

Jon

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News of the Week; July 8, 2020

By Jon Festinger on July 11, 2020

DIGITAL

  1. Does First Amendment let ISPs sell Web-browsing data? Judge is skeptical
  2. Hong Kong’s National Security Law Allows Police To Censor The Internet, Compel Decryption
  3. Trump administration “looking into” ban on TikTok, other Chinese apps
  4. Secretary Of State Mike Pompeo Says U.S. Is “Certainly Looking At” A TikTok Ban
  5. Pompeo Says US May Ban TikTok; It’s Not Clear That It Can
  6. As India Bans TikTok, Instagram Has Begun Testing TikTok Clone ‘Reels’
  7. Behind Bars, but Still Posting on TikTok
  8. TikTok, Once an Oasis of Inoffensive Fun, Ventures Warily Into Politics
  9. New ‘National Security’ Law Threatens Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Protesters With Life In Prison
  10. Hong Kong downloads of Signal surge as residents fear crackdown
  11. Lawsuit & Bi-Partisan Group Of Senators Seek To Push Back On Trump Administration’s Attempt To Corrupt The Open Technology Fund
  12. Harvard, MIT sue Trump admin to block deportation of online-only students
  13. Lessons (re)learned from the new ECHR case Vladimir Kharitonov v. Russia on blocking access to a website and the freedom of expression
  14. The Guardian view on Facebook and democracy: real and present danger – Political advertising is banned from being on television or radio. Unless Facebook changes, it may be time to extend this prohibition to social media
  15. Facebook Follows Twitter In Recognizing A ‘More Speech’ Approach Is Best For Newsworthy Liars
  16. Facebook Agrees to Prohibit Hate Speech in Ads in the Wake of #StopHateForProfit Campaign
  17. Facebook Shutters TikTok Competitor ‘Lasso’, As Instagram’s Own Clone ‘Reels’ Expands To New Markets
  18. Facebook Launches New Business Tool Feature To Support CCPA Compliance
  19. A Review of the “Final” CCPA Regulations from the CA Attorney General (Eric Goldman)
  20. Facebook removes false accounts linked to Brazil President Bolsonaro: Decision comes as Brazil’s president careens from crisis to crisis, with different investigations drawing close to him, his family and allies.
  21. Amazon’s settlement with OFAC puts e-commerce companies on notice
  22. The Loss Of Public Goods To Big Tech: What has not been questioned enough during the COVID-19 crisis is unrelenting capitalism itself.
  23. Harper’s Gives Prestigious Platform To Famous Writers So They Can Whine About Being Silenced
  24. Rather Than Attacking Section 230, Why Aren’t Trump Supporters Angry About The DMCA That’s Actually Causing Issues?
  25. Why Does Richard Blumenthal Always Feel The Need To Lie About Section 230?
  26. Want to Learn More About Section 230? A Guide to My Work (Eric Goldman)
  27. “Shitty Media Men” List Operator Doesn’t Qualify for Section 230 (Yet)–Elliott v. Donegan (Eric Goldman)
  28. US DoJ Report Recommends Curtailing Immunity of Online Platforms for User-Generated Content
  29. Post No Evil: Content Moderation Decisions Are Always Trickier Than You Think
  30. Right-Wing Media Outlets Duped by a Middle East Propaganda Campaign
  31. Beware the dangers of complacent clicktivism (Andres Guadamuz)
  32. Supreme Court of Canada Invalidates Uber Arbitration Clause in $400-Million Class Action
  33. Uber v. Heller: Supreme Court applies the law of unconscionability to arbitration agreements and identifies a new role for the Court
  34. California Appeals Court Relies on Nexus Theory to Reverse Dismissal of ADA Website Violation Complaint
  35. IT pros indicted after arranging credit card payments for weed startup
  36. ‘Hamilton’ Film Debut Drove 72.4% Spike In U.S. Disney+ App Downloads This Weekend
  37. Amid Sputtering Launch, Here Are All Of The Originals That Quibi Has Renewed To Date
  38. To Gmail, Most Black Lives Matter Emails Are“Promotions”
  39. Unhappy Google Advertiser’s Lawsuit Completely Falls Apart–Dreamstime v. Google (Eric Goldman)
  40. Google Has Developed Auto-Generated Comment-Replying Technology For YouTube Creators
  41. YouTube Unveils New Analytics Hub For Musicians, Tracking Official And Fan-Uploaded Videos Alike
  42. YouTube Test Note Indicates Platform Is Developing “Multi-Segment” Video Feature—AKA A TikTok Competitor
  43. YouTube Might Let Creators See How Their Videos Perform Compared To Uploads On Similar Channels
  44. YouTube Lowering Minimum Video Length For Mid-Roll Ads From 10 To 8 Minutes
  45. YouTube Jacks Live TV Streaming Prices 30%, As Streaming Sector Starts To Resemble Good Old Cable
  46. YouTube Calls On People To Film Their ‘Life In A Day’ July 25 For Sequel To 2010 Documentary
  47. Top 50 Most Viewed US YouTube Channels • Week Of 7/06/2020
  48. Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 7/06/2020
  49. TINA Fires First Salvo at Virtual Influencers
  50. Petnet charges new $30 annual fee for a service that still doesn’t work
  51. TikTok Launches Self-Serve Ad Sales, Pledges $100 Million In Ad Credits For Small Businesses Affected By Pandemic
  52. The case for a digital non-aligned movement: The world wide web is on a crash course that could lead to permanent fragmentation. Only coordinated international solidarity can stop it.
  53. Internet Nondiscrimination Principles Revisited
  54. Do Emails Create Legally Binding Contracts?
  55. Is DocuSign the new Zoom? Do we trust e-signatures yet?
  56. Online user reviews in the spotlight – Preliminary results of sector inquiry published in Germany
  57. Amazon Prime Video will finally offer one of Netflix’s most basic features
  58. The rise and fall of Adobe Flash
  59. The 416 quadrillion reasons why Japan’s supercomputer is number 1

A.I.

  1. How AI can empower communities and strengthen democracy
  2. Detroit Police Chief Says Facial Recognition Software Involved In Bogus Arrest Is Wrong ’96 Percent Of The Time’
  3. Boston The Latest City To Ban Facial Recognition Use By Government Agencies
  4. Protecting inventions which use Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence
  5. When your AI starts to invent: Hot topics in patenting AI-generated inventions
  6. Tru Luv secures investment for “emotionally conscious AI”: Startup founded by Brie Code to explore “an alternative to the gamification model of rising challenge, fear, shock, or FOMO”
  7. FTC and NAD Actions Highlight Continued Scrutiny of Online Reviews
  8. WIPO’s revised paper on IP policy and AI
  9. Into the Whirlpool: How Predictive Data Put Brainwashing on the Spin Cycle (Rebecca Lemov)
  10. Understanding the societal impacts of machine translation: a critical review of the literature on medical and legal use cases (Minako O’Hagan, Carol O’Sullivan)
  11. Software-Sorted Exclusion of Asylum Seekers in Norway and Finland (Funda Ustek-Silda, Marja Alastalo)
  12. Insights: VidCon, Comic-Con, Other Conferences Go Virtual, Try To Keep The Fun

COMMUNICATIONS

  1. Federal Court of Appeal Rules CASL Constitutionally Valid and Provides Interpretive Guidance
  2. Federal Court of Appeal Rules on Constitutionality and Application of Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation
  3. Senators Challenge Trump’s Ongoing Pressure on Internet Platform Protections
  4. House OKs $100B broadband plan with $50 monthly discounts for poor people
  5. House Passes Massive Broadband Bill That Surprisingly Doesn’t Suck
  6. City builds open-access broadband network with Google Fiber as its first ISP
  7. FCC’s Assault On Low-Income Broadband Program Is Making The COVID-19 Crisis Worse
  8. Charter Spectrum Lobbies FCC To Kill Time Warner Cable Merger Conditions
  9. FCC Finalizes Designations of Huawei and ZTE
  10. FCC Issues Important Autodialer Ruling
  11. Supreme Court strikes down 2015 law allowing robocalls by debt collectors
  12. A Dark Day for Free Speech: Supreme Court Upholds Statute Supposedly Preventing Robocalls-But at what Cost?
  13. Supreme Court Decides Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants
  14. In a Win Against Robocalls, the Supreme Court Severs TCPA Federal Debt Collection Exemption
  15. Supreme Court Declines to Invalidate the TCPA Cell Phone Calling Restrictions
  16. If You Thought the TCPA Was on Its Way Out, Think Again: The Supreme Court Expands Its Prohibitions Instead
  17. Delicate Surgery: Supreme Court Upholds the TCPA but Strikes Down the Government Debt Exception as Unconstitutional in Barr v. AAPC
  18. What lies ahead for regulation of the 5G ecosystem?
  19. 5G was going to unite the world—instead it’s tearing us apart
  20. Chinese 5G Plans Start At $10, Showing The ‘Race to 5G’ Isn’t Much Of One
  21. New EU Rules for Platform Providers
  22. The remote British village that built one of the UK’s fastest Internet networks
  23. For All The Hype, Trump’s Favorite ‘News’ Channel (OAN) Faces Shrinking Footprint

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

  1. Research Libraries Tell Publishers To Drop Their Awful Lawsuit Against The Internet Archive
  2. Google v. Oracle and the Future of Software Development
  3. The Case of Enola Holmes
  4. Estate Of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Alleges Copyright Infringement Over Sherlock’s Emotional Awakening
  5. In Copyright Case Over Photos, the Second Circuit Brings Four Critical Issues into Focus
  6. Court Reconsiders Decision About Website Getting License to Embedded Photo from Instagram Terms of Use
  7. S.D.N.Y Reconsiders Instagram Embedding By Mashable
  8. Sinclair v. Ziff Davis, LLC: Court grants photographer’s motion to reconsider dismissal of copyright case against news site that embedded link to plaintiff’s Instagram image
  9. Instagram Rolls Out Ability To Pin Three Comments To The Top Of Any Thread
  10. Law firm marketing alert: Blog image violated copyright, photojournalist’s complaint says
  11. Copyright, Competition, and Controversy: Press Publishers’ Right under the Copyright Directive
  12. News Company’s ‘Digital Audience Director’ Fails To Understand Embedding, Issues Bogus DMCA Takedown Notices
  13. Can cloud storage-portals be asked to put in place a filtering mechanism to ferret out infringing materials?
  14. Not so elementary
  15. Pablo Escobar Estate Sues Atlanta Restaurant
  16. Sci-Hub Downloads Boost Article Citations — And Help Academic Publishers
  17. Copyright Office Issues Report on DMCA Safe Harbors: Section 512 is “Unbalanced”
  18. A functional shape may be protected by copyright rules the CJEU
  19. Functional shapes and copyright law
  20. Copyright and Trade Marks in relation to Shapes: two European Perspectives
  21. Supreme Court Decision in Booking.com: Generic Domain Names Can Be Protected as Trademarks
  22. US Supreme Court Holds That Adding ‘.com’ to Generic Name May Create Protectable Trademark
  23. Supreme Court Clears the Way for Generic.com Trademark Registrations
  24. Consumer Perception Is Key To Registration Of Generic “.com” Marks
  25. Supreme Court Rules that “Booking.com” Is Eligible for Trademark Protection
  26. SCOTUS Holds That ‘Generic.com’ Trademarks Like Booking.com May Be Capable of Registration
  27. Supreme Court Upholds Booking.com Trademark Registration
  28. Supreme Court Rejects PTO “Generic Term” Rule
  29. U.S. Supreme Court Allows Booking.com to Trademark Its Domain Name
  30. SCOTUS Eliminates Bright Line Rule Against Generic Term and Top Level Domain Name Trademarks
  31. Generic + Generic = Protectable Trademark
  32. U.S. Supreme Court rejects categorical rule that generic term plus “.com” results in a generic composite
  33. Should I File for My Trademark + ‘.COM?’ It Depends
  34. Supreme Court Promotes Weaponization of Generic Domain Names–USPTO v. Booking.com (Eric Goldman)
  35. Manchester United Alleges Trademark Infringement through Third-Party Mods to Football Manager
  36. Trademark Battle Heats Up Over Fizzy Way To Cool Down
  37. Black Lives Matter in trademarks and branding
  38. More Disputes Over Trademarked Area Codes. Why Is This Allowed Again?
  39. Pairing Unsuccessful: Bluetooth and Fiat Denied Summary Judgment in Suit over Unauthorized Use of BLUETOOTH Marks
  40. The G.O.A.T. Trademark Registration Stands, and the Goats With It
  41. easyJet opposes Easy Nurse at the UKIPO
  42. The General Court looks at distinctiveness of the XOXO mark
  43. CJEU annuls EUIPO’s trade mark invalidation of Louis Vuitton’s Damier Azur pattern
  44. Hermès: How WWII shortages led to the creation of an iconic brand
  45. Prosecco celebrates a non-alcoholic win
  46. ‘Nosecco’ is a no-no, says the High Court
  47. A clear NO to Nosecco! High Court of Justice rejects the appeal in a new chapter in the bubble war. The protected designation of origin “Prosecco” is an obstacle to the registration of the trademark “Nosecco”
  48. Trademark Enforcement Tips and Traps: Navigating Canada’s Trademark System One Year After the Major Changes
  49. The protection of wine geographical indications: legislative efforts since Pliny
  50. Federal Court releases decision on validity of the Amending Regulations of the Patented Medicines Regulations
  51. Granting Security Interest in Patents Did Not Deprive Patent Owner of Standing to Sue for Patent Infringement
  52. UK Supreme Court upholds appeal by biotech firm Kymab to revoke antibody patents held by US giant Regeneron
  53. Patenting the future? Kymab prevails in the battle of the mice
  54. Regeneron Patents Revoked for Claim Breadth
  55. G 3/19: plants produced by essentially biological processes are excluded from patentability
  56. European Patent Office did not grant a patent on concept of linking customer data with a key instead of personally identifiable information to improve privacy protection.
  57. Nanotechnology patents: challenge for industrial property and its regulations
  58. Crystal clear? Patenting polymorphs in Europe
  59. Federal Circuit: Digital Guitar Instruction Patent Directed to an Abstract Idea
  60. Federal Circuit: Common Sense May Substitute For Elements Not In The Prior Art
  61. Federal Circuit Emphasizes Role of Common Sense in Obviousness Analysis
  62. Patents Claiming a Range of Values, Such as Gate Sizes for Semiconductor Chips, Must Enable One of Ordinary Skill to Make and Use the Entire Claimed Range
  63. Double Patenting: A comparative guide between U.S. & Canadian practice
  64. Global patent strategies in the world of tech & engineering
  65. Intellectual Property in the Cloud: The Patent Troll Threat
  66. PODCAST: Patent Troll Litigation is on the Upswing
  67. The space IP race: protection and enforcement of your orbiting assets

PRIVACY

  1. Court Shoots Down AT&T, Comcast Attempt To Crush Maine Privacy Law
  2. COVID-19: Data protection lessons from Google’s contact-tracing API
  3. Unbridled Surveillance Will Not Save Us From COVID-19
  4. Police infiltrate encrypted phones, arrest hundreds in organized crime bust
  5. NY partygoers get subpoenas after stonewalling COVID-19 contact tracers
  6. Social Media Platform Fined 100,000 USD by Washington State AG for COPPA Violations
  7. Toss Out the Milk, The Cookie Party is Over
  8. What factors determine whether the use of an advertising cookie constitutes the sale of information?
  9. Apple’s iOS 14 Transformative Privacy Announcements
  10. GALA Releases First-Ever Global Guide to Privacy Laws Related to Advertising & Marketing
  11. California Privacy Rights Act to appear on November 2020 ballot

CREATIVITY   

  1. That Was Quick: Appellate Court Says Simon & Schuster Not Subject To Prior Restraint Order Over Mary Trump’s Book; But Fight’s Not Over Yet
  2. Court of Appeal Affirms: No First Amendment Protection for Misleading Commercial Speech
  3. That’s a relief (from sanctions) for Johnny Depp – libel trial can proceed despite failure to disclose texts
  4. Why Music Matters In Our Professional Space During COVID-19
  5. Live Nation Seeks Sweeping Changes to Artist Contracts for Music Festivals: What Does this Mean for Brand Sponsors?
  6. Scrabble players move toward banning 200+ slurs from tournament play

GAMES

  1. India bans 59 Chinese apps, including Clash of Kings: Moonton’s Mobile Legends also banned over security concerns
  2. How mobile games crushed consoles
  3. UK government urged to ‘immediately’ classify loot boxes as gambling
  4. House of Lords calls for loot boxes to be immediately reclassified as gambling: Committee believes chance-based monetisation should be regulated without waiting for wider Gambling Act review
  5. Ofcom: Less than 6% of UK children, 4% of adults have purchased loot boxes – Regulator’s report also shows game subscription services have yet to take off
  6. Infinity Ward has removed the controversial ‘OK’ gesture from Modern Warfare
  7. Infinity Ward pulls “OK” gesture from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Sign has become known as a white supremacist gesture; developer has yet to comment
  8. Ubisoft exec Maxime Beland has resigned after harassment and assault allegations
  9. Ubisoft’s Maxime Béland resigns amid abuse allegations: Tommy François placed on disciplinary leave, one unnamed Toronto employee dismissed
  10. ‘Change starts today’ says Ubisoft CEO, after years of allegations arise
  11. Ubisoft to restructure its editorial team in wake of abuse allegations: Publisher also bringing in third-parties, new roles for internal culture examination and reformation
  12. EVO co-founder/CEO Joey Cuellar removed after sexual abuse allegations
  13. Evo CEO dismissed, event cancelled amid accusations of misconduct and abuse: Capcom, NetherRealm and influencers pulled support before cancellation
  14. Nintendo condemns abuse as allegations spread across Smash Bros. community: Platform holder is “deeply disturbed” as more than 50 players accused of a variety of sexual offences
  15. We need a movement to tackle systemic abuse, not a moment | Opinion: For years people within the industry have listened, but they refused to hear
  16. Naughty Dog condemns abusive fan response to The Last of Us 2: Creative director Neil Druckman and voice actor Laura Bailey receive death threats and abuse over game’s narrative decisions
  17. FaZe Clan, Twitch, Facebook Gaming Hook Up With Gamers.Vote For Monthlong Voter Registration Campaign
  18. Former Bungie boss says deal with Activision “not a marriage made in heaven at all”: “We knew it was a risk right from the get go, and it turned out to be exactly as bad as we thought it to be,” says Marty O’Donnell
  19. PES loses licenses for AC Milan and Inter Milan: Unrenewed agreements will not affect eFootball PES 2020 or myClub, but likely to affect PES 2021 and other future games
  20. 2K breaks gaming’s de facto $60 ceiling, asks $70 for next-gen NBA 2K21
  21. Take-Two Interactive’s NBA 2K21 will cost $10 more on next-gen consoles
  22. NBA 2K21 price is $10 more expensive on Xbox Series X and PS5: First next-gen game details suggest higher game pricing for new machines
  23. IDG: Other publishers are considering raising game prices for PS5 and Xbox Series X – Cost of development has increased between 200% and 300% while game prices have remained flat
  24. Microsoft reportedly against publishers from charging for Xbox Series X upgrades: Platform holder said to be encouraging alternative models for those who don’t want to engage with its Smart Delivery scheme
  25. Report: Xbox ‘encouraging’ publishers to keep cross-gen game upgrades free
  26. Report: Microsoft eyeing purchase of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
  27. PlayStation suspends Facebook advertising: The platform holder joins Coca-Cola, Honda, Unilever, Ford, Starbucks and Microsoft
  28. Sony considering a bid for Digital Extremes owner Leyou
  29. PlayStation Unveils Indie Games Initiative
  30. The Last of Us Part 2 holds firm as Iron Man VR debuts at No.2 UK Charts: 3DS games continue to flood the chart
  31. PlayStation unseats Nintendo in June with The Last of Us Part 2 l UK Charts: Console hardware sales begin to show signs of slowing down
  32. Furukawa: Mobile is still ‘contributing to the sustainable growth’ of Nintendo
  33. Since launching four years ago today, Pokémon Go has grossed $3.6bn: Despite global lockdown, Niantic’s location-based mobile game is on track for another record year
  34. Analyst: Pokemon Go revenue still on the rise despite global pandemic
  35. How to patch out implicit bias from your hiring process: Speaking at Ludicious X, Celia Hodent suggests avoiding discrimination when recruiting is much like improving a video game
  36. Crush Crushing stereotypes with adult games about everyday people: Nutaku and Sad Panda Studios talk about the stigmas still facing adult and dating games, and the importance of visible women creators
  37. COVID-19 and pivot towards game development lead to layoffs at Kongregate
  38. Kongregate no longer accepting new titles, undergoing layoffs: Company apologies for employees finding out about layoffs through direct deposit notifications
  39. Overcoming the “ugly necessity” of scaling back inactive teams: Matchmaking platform SupplyDrop aims to connect studios that have too many developers with those that have too few
  40. Zynga closes acquisition of Peak for $1.8 billion: Mobile giant takes on Istanbul studio along with Toon Blast, Toy Blast 
  41. 11 Bit Studios commits $21m to production of seven games: Four of the new products are through its publishing label, while three are first-party titles
  42. Google makes its Maps Platform gaming solution available for all mobile developers 
  43. Amazon and Google are in games for the wrong reasons | Opinion: Amazon’s Crucible won’t be the last embarrassment if tech companies don’t stop viewing games as a means to drive cloud service revenue
  44. Paradox Interactive acquires Playrion Game Studio to help with mobile push
  45. Paradox acquires Playrion: Mobile-focused developer behind Airlines Manager becomes publisher’s eighth internal studio
  46. Animoca Brands raises $4.1 million ahead of proposed initial public offering 
  47. Zynga acquires Toon Blast developer Peak for $1.85 billion
  48. Discord raises $100 million and plans to move beyond gaming
  49. With $5.7 million, One More Game comes out of the shadows 
  50. Voicemod raises $8 million for silly or serious voice filters in games
  51. Core is paying devs per DAU in a bid to kickstart the creation platform’s economy 
  52. Manticore Games launches $1m creator fund for proprietary game dev platform: Core creator economy kickstarted after four months in Alpha
  53. Why the discussion around difficulty is outdated and archaic: At Ludicious X, ArenaNet’s Jennifer Scheurle offered a roadmap for moving beyond the tired language and debates around difficulty in video games 
  54. Westworld creators take aim at Fallout in upcoming Amazon Studios series 
  55. Amazon Studios developing new Fallout TV series: Westworld co-creators to produce the project with Kilter Films 
  56. ‘Fallout’ TV Series From ‘Westworld’ Creators in the Works at Amazon: Based on the video game, the drama is currently in development but has a series commitment penalty attached.
  57. EA partners with TBS for four-episode The Sims reality show: The Sims Spark’d will see 12 community personalities compete in creative in-game design challenges 
  58. My Friend Pedro to get a TV adaptation: Legendary Television to develop game into an R-rated dramedy
  59. The Netflix of gaming? Why subscription video-game services face an uphill battle
  60. Sega’s next retro hardware is a 1/6th-scale multi-game arcade cabinet
  61. Sega announces Astro City Mini arcade cabinet: Tiny arcade machine comes pre-loaded with 36 Sega arcade titles
  62. Video game projects remain steadfast on Kickstarter despite COVID-related declines: March 2020 saw two video games projects raise over $2m each, and funded project ratios are holding steady 
  63. PUBG Mobile shoots through $3 billion in lifetime revenue 
  64. PUBG Mobile has made over $3 billion in lifetime revenue 
  65. Following Dissolution Of Mixer, Gaming Luminary Ninja Hosts First YouTube Live Stream 
  66. Ninja appears to have moved to YouTube Gaming: Following Mixer’s shutdown, Twitch’s former top streamer has moved platforms once more 
  67. 72% of esports audience is male, says report: IDC and Esports Charts report looks into who’s watching esports and how the pandemic pushed up viewership
  68. Psyonix commits $4.5m a year in prizes to Rocket League esports: RLCS X will be protected “if live international events are not possible during the season due to worldwide health concerns” 
  69. EVO 2020 game tourney canceled, co-founder fired
  70. Iron Man VR review: A sad, painful end to the PS4’s PlayStation VR era 
  71. First game from Oculus co-founder’s new studio “unlikely to be VR” 
  72. How to successfully cater to older players: Mobile veteran Wilhelm Taht looks at lessons from Bingo Bash’s success on successfully appealing to players aged 55+
  73. Mobile game discovery – Why it’s tricky for indies
  74. We traced Namco’s “new” Pac-Man demake to its source: A 2008 fan ROMhack
  75. European trade bodies unite for Eurovision-style Gamescom contest: Live showcase hosted by Mr Midas will celebrate the best unreleased games from across Europe
  76. Understanding how to implement a prototype (or ‘template’) system in The Machinery
  77. Homebound with EarthBound 
  78. THQ Nordic’s Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning remaster opens the door for new DLC
  79. An extended interview with Star Control creators Fred Ford & Paul Reiche III 
  80. Notes on inspiration from a BAFTA-winning studio: Sarepta Studio’s CEO Catharina Bøhler explores the many ways to find inspiration and stay creative during development
  81. F1 2020 reviewed—Codemasters takes another racing game win
  82. PR danger closer than it may appear | 10 Years Ago This Month: EA’s Medal of Honor studio honors the troops by letting people play as the Taliban amidst a good month for bad calls 
  83. Integrating ‘the nobility of work’ into Hardspace: Shipbreaker 
  84. Opinion: Backlash to criticism harms The Last of Us Part II 
  85. Blog: Soft skills for game developers
  86. Blog: The subtle manipulation of mobile games
  87. Blog: A Torchlight 3 early access launch weekend postmortem 
  88. Video: Balancing accessibility with depth to make vehicles feel great 
  89. Video: Tips and tools for finding inspiration when you’re stuck
  90. Video: A microtransaction design primer for game devs 
  91. Don’t Miss: The Team Fortress 2 guide to keeping your game alive
  92. Don’t Miss: Designing Destiny 2’s PvEvP Gambit mode
  93. Don’t Miss: A deep dive into the ‘old school’ save system of Alien: Isolation
  94. Video Gaming/E-Gaming Law update 
  95. U.S. Patent no. 10,029,177: System and method for a videogame with a secondary metagame
  96. U.S. Patent no. 10,078,410: System to locomote an entity in three dimensional space

Jon

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News of the Week; July 1, 2020

By Jon Festinger on July 4, 2020

DIGITAL

  1. New commission exploring impact of digital media on democracy includes McLachlin, Dodek
  2. YouTube Bans 6 White Supremacist Channels, Including David Duke, Richard Spencer, Stefan Molyneux
  3. Lawsuit by Black YouTubers against YouTube faces “uphill battle”
  4. Twitter’s Least-Bad Option for Dealing With Donald Trump: Every plausible configuration of social media in 2020 is unpalatable.
  5. Bogus Ideas Have Superspreaders, Too
  6. Twitter not liable in Devin Nunes’ beef with cow account, judge rules
  7. Facebook will label rule violations as Coke, Pepsi, Starbucks join ad “pause”
  8. Verizon joins growing Facebook advertiser boycott
  9. Facebook executive admits to “trust deficit” on call with advertisers
  10. Reddit bans pro-Trump /r/The_Donald for “rule-breaking content”
  11. Twitch And Reddit Ramp Up Their Enforcement Against ‘Hateful’ Content
  12. Reddit bans r/The_Donald and r/ChapoTrapHouse as part of a major expansion of its rules
  13. You Purged Racists From Your Website? Great, Now Get to Work
  14. Filmmakers and Others Take on the U.S. Government Over Social Media Surveillance
  15. Three cops fired after accidental dashcam activation captures racist rants
  16. Running Geotargeted Advertising Confers Personal Jurisdiction–UMG Recordings v. Kurbanov (Eric Goldman)
  17. hiQ Files Opposition Brief with Supreme Court in LinkedIn CFAA Data Scraping Dispute
  18. Confusion Over Plug-Ins, Cookies and Wiretapping…Will Facebook Petition the Supreme Court, and What To Do In the Interim
  19. How the ‘Karen Meme’ Confronts the Violent History of White Womanhood
  20. Ken and Karen are White Supremacists
  21. Doomscrolling is slowly eroding your mental health
  22. Jenna Marbles Announces Indefinite YouTube Hiatus, Privates Videos With 2 Billion Views After Apologizing For Past Racist Clips
  23. Shane Dawson Apologizes For Blackface, Pedophilia Jokes, And Willow Smith’s Family Isn’t Having It
  24. Liza Koshy Apologizes For ‘Perpetuating Racist Ideas’, Cultural Appropriation With Past Character Creations
  25. David Dobrik Apologizes For Any Past Videos That Made Viewers Feel Unwelcome, Uncomfortable
  26. YouTube Has Suspended Monetization On All 3 Of Shane Dawson’s Channels
  27. An embattled group of leakers picks up the WikiLeaks mantle
  28. DOJ Proposes Curb to Antitrust Immunity Under Communications Decency Act of 1996
  29. Section 230 Protects Twitter from the “Devin Nunes’ Cow” Lawsuit–Nunes v. Twitter (Eric Goldman)
  30. Another Day, Another Bad Bill To Reform Section 230 That Will Do More Harm Than Good
  31. Senator Loeffler’s New Section 230 Reform Bill Would Threaten Encryption And Pressure Websites To Keep Spam & Porn
  32. ‘But Without 230 Reform, Websites Have No Incentive To Change!’ They Scream Into The Void As Every Large Company Pulls Ads From Facebook
  33. My Interview With Mathew Ingram Regarding Section 230 (Eric Goldman)
  34. Author Of Section 230 Chris Cox Says All The Critics Are Wrong About The History And Intent Of 230
  35. I’d Bet Ted Cruz Will Start Supporting Section 230 Once He Realizes He’s On The Hook For Parler’s Legal Expenses
  36. As Predicted: Parler Is Banning Users It Doesn’t Like
  37. Just Like Every Other Platform, Parler Will Take Down Content And Face Impossible Content Moderation Choices
  38. Parler Speedruns The Content Moderation Learning Curve; Goes From ‘We Allow Everything’ To ‘We’re The Good Censors’ In Days
  39. Knight Foundation Grant To Copia To Research Content Moderation, Governance, Rules & Norms For Internet Infrastructure
  40. Brands and influencers beware: UK and Netherlands zooming in on fake likes and reviews
  41. Brazil’s Proposed ‘Fake News’ Law Says Internet Users Are Guilty Until Proven Innocent, Demands Constant Logging From ISPs
  42. New Section 301 investigations into digital services taxes involving multiple countries
  43. Millions of Americans Depend on Libraries for Internet. Now They’re Closed: From big cities to tiny towns, librarians are getting scrappy to meet the need
  44. Court Upholds Formation of a Lengthy Contract Presented on a Mobile Device–Hidalgo v. AAU (Eric Goldman)
  45. Facebook Expands Fan Subscriptions To Creators In 7 Regions, Introduces Live Stream Ads And More Video Analytics
  46. Fintech Startup ‘Karat’ Raises $4.6 Million To Launch Credit Card Exclusively For Digital Creators
  47. Social Video Views Climbed for Latin American Creators During Quarantine
  48. Netflix Embraces YouTube, TikTok, And Instagram For ‘Pride’ Event
  49. YouTube Users Watch 450 Million Hours Of Content On TV Screens Each Day
  50. Top 50 Most Viewed US YouTube Channels • Week Of 6/29/2020
  51. Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 6/29/2020
  52. YouTube TV jumps 30% in price effective immediately
  53. YouTube TV Hikes Subscription Price To $65 After Adding Suite Of ViacomCBS Channels
  54. At Brandcast, YouTube Renews Originals From James Charles, MrBeast, Markiplier, And Marques Brownlee
  55. YouTube Cancels Its Longest-Running Original—Joey Graceffa’s ‘Escape The Night’
  56. After A Decade, Ingrid Nilsen Emotionally Closes Chapter On Her YouTube Career
  57. Tati Westbrook Accuses Shane Dawson, Jeffree Star Of Coercing Her Into James Charles Takedown Video
  58. At NewFronts, TikTok Brings Ad Offerings To The Fore With New ‘TikTok For Business’ Platform
  59. Spotify Duo for couples is cheaper than the standard family plan
  60. New domain name dispute resolution policies for .AC, .IO and .SH
  61. Microsoft’s “new approach” to retail stores: Closing them forever
  62. Microsoft closing its retail stores: Xbox maker closing 82 Microsoft Store locations, will run “Microsoft Experience Centers” in London, New York, Syndey, and Redmond
  63. Cutting off tech’s nose to spite the West’s strategic face?
  64. Three cops fired after accidental dashcam activation captures racist rants
  65. Search engine startup asks users to be the customer, not the product
  66. Chinese bank requires foreign firm to install app with covert backdoor
  67. Lessons from China – The Formation of a Social Credit System: Profiling, Reputation Scoring, Social Engineering (Paul Langer)
  68. COVID-19 spread 4X faster in one Amazon warehouse than local area
  69. Amazon pays $1.2 billion for self-driving startup Zoox
  70. Uncovered: 1,000 phrases that incorrectly trigger Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant

A.I.

  1. Detroit police chief cops to 96-percent facial recognition error rate
  2. Facial Recognition Software Finally Gets Around To Getting An Innocent Person Arrested
  3. Tesla driver blames Autopilot for crash, faces negligent driving charge
  4. Voicemod raises $8m for AI-powered ‘voice avatars’: Technology enables players to alter their voice and apply effects that match the in-game action

COMMUNICATIONS

  1. FCA Upholds Constitutionality of CASL CEM Provisions and CRTC Approach to B2B Exemption and Conspicuous Publication Implied Consent
  2. FCC helps Charter avoid broadband competition
  3. New Bill Would Kill State Laws Blocking Broadband Competition
  4. Small ISPs “stunned” by FCC move to ban Huawei/ZTE gear during pandemic
  5. AT&T Ditches $15 TV Service It Used As Regulator Bait To Seal Time Warner Merger
  6. Comcast’s data cap and overage fees return tomorrow after 3-month break
  7. ISPs To Bring Back Usage Caps After Brief Pandemic Hiatus
  8. T-Mobile Is Already Trying To Wiggle Out Of Its Sprint Merger Conditions
  9. Dish buys Boost prepaid biz from T-Mobile, finally enters wireless market
  10. Telehealth Use Surges Around the World Amid COVID-19
  11. Landmark EU General Court ruling on Hutchinson-Telefónica UK merger reframes the threshold for proving competitive harm
  12. $100 billion “universal fiber” plan proposed by Democrats in Congress

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

  1. Access Copyright and York University File Leave to Appeal Material in the Supreme Court of Canada (Howard Knopf)
  2. Copyright Board Activity in 2020: Launch of Twitter Account and Guidelines for Economic Evidence (Howard Knopf)
  3. Florida Law Will Allow College Athletes to Profit from Name, Image, and Likeness Starting Summer 2021
  4. Can copyright law help Brompton ride out an IP storm?
  5. Zindel v. Fox Searchlight Pictures, Inc.: Ninth Circuit reverses dismissal of copyright claims against The Shape of Water film, ruling that dismissal on pleadings was premature because additional evidence could aid.
  6. The fair remuneration provisions in the new Copyright Directive
  7. Copyright: Hyperlinks and the Communication to the Public Right
  8. John Bolton Doesn’t Need Copyright Protection
  9. Companies Issuing Bogus Copyright Claims To Hide Police Training Materials From The Public
  10. Copyright Troll Richard Liebowitz Benchslapped And Sanctioned AGAIN In A Massive Filing Detailing Pages Upon Pages Of Him Lying Under Oath
  11. Supreme Court says generic domains like booking.com can be trademarked
  12. Prosecco People Move On From Bullying Puns Over Trademark To Bullying Portmanteau Over Trademark
  13. Captain Tom Moore – a positive pandemic trade mark story
  14. Vegan food fight: Does Nestlé’s Incredible Burger infringe Impossible Burger?
  15. EU law on the “technical result” and “substantial value” exclusions for shape marks
  16. Where Claimed Points of Novelty Have Primarily Functional Purpose, They Fail “Ornamental Design” Patentability Requirement
  17. Federal Circuit Affirms Use of Common Sense for Obviousness Determination
  18. Falling short of a sufficient disclosure
  19. Patent claim ambiguities and their interpretations
  20. Upheaval for patent law of sufficiency from the UK Supreme Court
  21. Patents diary June 2020: UK Supreme Court holds Regeneron’s transgenic mice patents invalid
  22. Supreme Court Decision: Regeneron v Kymab
  23. Territorial licensing: “start at the end before you begin”

PRIVACY

  1. Tim Hortons Mobile App Under Investigation For Data Privacy Concerns
  2. Tim Hortons scaling back data collection as four privacy watchdogs announce joint investigation into app: Probe by federal, Alberta, Quebec & B.C. commissioners comes after report on coffee chain’s data collection practices
  3. Contact Tracing Apps in Canada: Province of Alberta launches, and Federal Government Announces Nationwide Initiative
  4. The Most Important Privacy Case You’ve Never Heard Of
  5. Foreign adversaries likely to try exploiting critical networking bug, US says
  6. TikTok and 32 other iOS apps still snoop your sensitive clipboard data
  7. UK Information Commissioner Says Police Are Grabbing Too Much Data From Phones Owned By Crime Victims
  8. Indiana Supreme Court Says Compelled Decryption Of Smartphones Violates The Fifth Amendment
  9. Instagram Users, Beware Of Copyright Infringement Warning You May Receive In DMs
  10. Insights: Apple’s Latest Privacy Push Further Complicates Competitors’ Data Handling
  11. Does the CCPA apply to cookies that are used for data analytics?
  12. Moral Data Markets: Human-Centric Data Protection
  13. Two record DDoSes disclosed this week underscore their growing menace
  14. Comcast And Mozilla Partner Up To Help Encrypt DNS
  15. Privacy Questions Raised By Distance Learning

CREATIVITY   

  1. Charles Harder Tries And Fails To Censor Another Book About His Most Famous Client, The President
  2. NY Judge Apparently Unaware Of The Supreme Court’s Ban On Prior Restraint: Puts Temporary Restraining Order On Trump’s Niece’s Book
  3. Goldman Sachs Created A Font, But You Are Forbidden By Its License To Critique Goldman Sachs Using It
  4. German Minister Files Criminal Complaint Against A Journalist Who Said Police Officers Are ‘Trash People’

GAMES

  1. Newzoo: There will be over 3 billion gamers by 2023
  2. Report: Games market to generate $159 billion in 2020 (Newzoo)
  3. Global games market value to reach $159bn in 2020: Revenue and audience growth booms in Africa, Middle East, and Latin America
  4. Roblox hacked by Trump supporters: More than a thousand users’ profiles changed, telling kids to ask their parents to re-elect US president
  5. Pokemon Go Developer Niantic Wins Battle Over 3D Virtual Thematic Environment Patent
  6. Niantic partners with immersive theatre company Punchdrunk: Sleep No More creators to work with AR developers on multiple, unannounced projects
  7. Confederate flag and other “notorious iconography” banned in Forza: Anti-police brutality phrases such as a ACAB and FTP also banned
  8. Cyberpunk 2077 will be censored in Japan: Sexual references, nudity and dismemberment to be toned down
  9. Cyberpunk 2077’s big summer trailer: Braindance your way into Keanu
  10. Twin Galaxies says Billy Mitchell “flirts with perjury” in high-score case
  11. Are Loot Boxes Considered Gambling? UK Needs More Evidence
  12. Global Game Jam in turmoil following Black Lives Matter silence: Bullying allegations surface after resignation of executive committee member over refusal to issue statement on BLM
  13. IGDA criticizes industry for ignoring harassment allegations: Developer group says it will compile resources for studio leaders to create safe and positive company cultures
  14. Ubisoft reportedly places executives on leave amid abuse investigation: Tommy François and Maxime Béland each face at least three claims of misconduct
  15. Ubisoft to investigate rampant sexual assault and harassment accusations
  16. Report: Ubisoft suspends two executives accused of sexual and physical abuse
  17. Ubisoft CEO sanctions formation of ‘multidisciplinary working group’ to tackle abuse
  18. The Ubisoft paradox: How the publisher enabled a culture of abuse and control
  19. Leaders, members, sponsors depart top WoW guild amid assault, abuse allegations: Multiple people allege that Method protected member accused of sexual assault and preying on minors
  20. Abuse in the industry isn’t down to a few “bad apples” | Opinion: The story can’t end with the outing of individual abusers — ending predation in the games industry requires cultural and institutional change
  21. EA pledges to investigate allegations of abuse and support victims
  22. Twitch suspends Donald Trump’s channel for hateful conduct: Streaming platform cites the president’s comments portraying Mexicans as criminals
  23. Twitch Temporarily Bans Donald Trump, Citing Newly Reviewed Policies Against Hateful Conduct
  24. Twitch Executive Hassan Bokhari Accused Of Sexual Assault As Platform Begins Permabanning Alleged Abusers
  25. Twitch addresses sexual abuse allegations with permanent ban pledge
  26. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla creative director steps down after misconduct allegations
  27. DrDisrespect banned from Twitch again: Guy Beahm’s latest ban is reportedly permanent, but reason for the punishment remains unclear
  28. Dr. DisRespect Was (Probably) Not Permabanned For Trying To Develop A Twitch Competitor
  29. Twitch will issue permanent suspensions to abusers on its platform: Investigation is ongoing as Twitch takes additional steps to combat abuse and hate within its communities
  30. EA urges employees to come forward with experiences of abuse: Publisher offers resources for both its staff and community members who may have experienced harassment or abuse
  31. Avast finds 17 Trojan gaming apps still available on Google Play: Online security firm reported 47 Trojan gaming apps to Google, which have been downloaded 15 million times
  32. The Last of Us Part 2 sells 4 million: Naughty Dog sequel tops Spider-Man to become fastest-selling first-party PS4 exclusive over first three days
  33. The Last of Us Part II sold over 4 million copies in three days
  34. 3DS, SpongeBob SquarePants and The Last of Us Part 2 lead UK Charts: Stock clearance sees cult 3DS RPG Bravely Second take No.2
  35. Roblox player spending passes $1.5bn on mobile: May was the game’s biggest month ever with revenue of over $100 million
  36. Amazon’s latest PC game to be delisted from Steam after less than two months
  37. Amazon’s Crucible retreats into closed beta: Following rocky launch, competitive free-to-play shooter will close its doors to new players
  38. Sonic the Hedgehog film producer snaps up Disco Elysium screen rights
  39. Plans revealed for Disco Elysium TV series: Adaptation will be produced by DJ2 Entertainment, which is run by Sonic The Hedgehog movie’s co-producer
  40. Starbreeze seeks $26m to fund ongoing development of Payday 3: COVID-19 lockdown interrupted publisher negotiations for the next Payday game
  41. Discord is pivoting away from games to become ‘your place to talk’
  42. Discord raises $100m to further expand beyond games: Communications platform redesigned to be more accessible to non-gamers, company reportedly valued at $3.5 billion
  43. Admix raises $7m in funding for “non-intrusive” ads: London-based startup allows developers to place programmatic advertising space within their games
  44. Sinespace dev partners with Unity to let Asset Store creators sell models in-game 
  45. European retailers can no longer sell download codes for Nintendo-published titles
  46. Microsoft reportedly stops advertising on Facebook: But Xbox firm is still redirecting Mixer users to the social network
  47. Microsoft exiting the retail store business, closing 83 locations
  48. Report: Latest Xbox Lockhart rumors point towards an August announce
  49. Microsoft plans to reveal Xbox Lockhart model in August
  50. Mixer just saw its second-best quarter ever – Streamlabs: Twitch smashed viewership records in Q2 2020, with over 5 billion hours watched
  51. Mixer Shuts Down, Showing Again Why You Don’t Need To Freak Out By Copycat Competitors
  52. Descenders’ weekly sales increased five times thanks to Xbox Game Pass: No More Robots says subscription service has “elevated the game to heights we couldn’t have imagined”
  53. Nintendo Switch game sales: the three biggest misconceptions
  54. Nintendo reportedly stops sale of digital download codes for EMEA retailers: Third-party digital titles, add-on content, and eshop funds will still be available in stores
  55. Report: Apple scraps deals with some Apple Arcade devs in pursuit of more engagement
  56. Apple reportedly ending some Arcade contracts, seeking higher retention: Tech giant said to be honing in on titles that will keep users subscribed to its service past the free trial
  57. Gaming on Apple platforms is set for some big changes—here are a few
  58. New hack runs homebrew code from DVD-R on unmodified PlayStation 2
  59. PlayStation now has a dedicated initiative for indie games: PlayStation Indies
  60. Why this month’s PC port of Death Stranding is the definitive version
  61. Tencent starts US studio to make AAA games for next-gen consoles: Led by Rockstar veteran Steve Martin, LightSpeed LA will debut with an open world game for PS5 and Xbox Series X
  62. Harmonix’s Fuser wants to make you a DJ… but only up to a point – Preview: Successor to DropMix succeeds where DJ Hero failed, but is that enough?
  63. Crysis Remastered delayed for additional polish: Development team acknowledges mixed feedback to trailer leak
  64. How to navigate the modern world of games publishing
  65. Gamers more trusting of brands than non-gamers, says Gameloft: Report from mobile publisher’s advertising arm finds gamers see elevated benefits from companies like Tesla, Amazon, and Lexus
  66. Focus Home Interactive acquires Lords of the Fallen dev Deck13 for $7.9M
  67. Keywords buys development engineering provider Coconut Lizard for $2.47M
  68. PlayBrain raises $6m to grow Japanese esports events infrastructure: Bitkraft Esports Ventures leads investment, bringing total funding to $8 million
  69. Guild Esports launches with David Beckham as co-owner
  70. Guild Esports breaks cover with David Beckham as co-owner: Startup is also backed by Blue Star Capital, with Overwatch League exec Carleton Curtis at the helm
  71. Pressure Mounts for Xbox’s Missing VR Strategy as PSVR Revenue Exceeds $2 Billion
  72. Facebook Says It Has Developed the ‘Thinnest VR display to date’ With Holographic Folded Optics
  73. How holographic tech is shrinking VR displays to the size of sunglasses
  74. Google Glass 3.0? Google acquires smart glasses maker North
  75. Google Acquires North, the Startup Behind ‘Focals’ Smartglasses
  76. Google gives Android depth sensing and object occlusion with ARCore 1.18
  77. Ken Levine: “You don’t come up with amazing things by being completely normal” – Founder of Ghost Story Games discusses the difficult balance between creativity and efficiency in game development
  78. A Neverwinter Nights intro to game design | Why I Love: Little Chicken Game Company’s Erik Kors shares how the world of Faerûn led him to the world of game development
  79. Umurangi Generation’s approach to modernizing cyberpunk: Naphtali Faulkner talks about the inspirations and intentions behind his sci-fi photography game
  80. Shawn Layden: COVID-19 is an opportunity to build a better industry: “If we don’t take something positive from this extended period of quarantine, we’ve really squandered the opportunity”
  81. You should play Namco’s lost arcade-action classic, Mr. Driller DrillLand
  82. The astronomical challenge of recording The Outer Worlds: How did Obsidian handle voice work for a game with almost 350 characters, 40 voice actors, and recording studios in different countries?
  83. Kongregate shuts off game submissions as Flash’s final days approach
  84. Super Nintendo World park opening reportedly delayed due to COVID-19: Universal Studios Japan reopened just over a week ago with special safety restrictions
  85. How to move your role-playing game nights online
  86. The Last of Us Part II is PlayStation Studios’ fastest-selling PS4 game
  87. Prioritizing accessibility early on was vital for The Last of Us Part 2’s robust features
  88. Don’t Miss: The evolution of CD Projekt’s quest design for Cyberpunk: 2077
  89. Don’t Miss: Blizzard’s postmortem of Diablo II
  90. Don’t Miss: Designing CrossCode to stand out in the retro RPG market
  91. Don’t Miss: Incorporating level design in melee combat systems
  92. Video: Devs share their experiences going from corporate to indie and back again
  93. Video: An architectural approach to video game level design
  94. Video: The mechanics of explosive growth in Roblox

Jon

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News of the Week; June 24, 2020

By Jon Festinger on July 2, 2020

DIGITAL

  1. TikTok Teens and K-Pop Stans Say They Sank Trump Rally: Did a successful prank inflate attendance expectations for President Trump’s rally in Tulsa, Okla.?
  2. In the UK, social media use associated with COVID-19 conspiracy theories
  3. Four Black Creators File Suit Against YouTube, Alleging Racial Discrimination In Algorithm
  4. Jukin Media Steps In With Copyright Claim After Trump Posts Doctored Video Of Hugging Toddlers
  5. Trump’s Plan To Turn US Global Media Operations Into State-Sponsored Breitbart… Could Threaten The Open (And Encrypted) Internet
  6. Google, Amazon condemn Trump order cutting off foreign worker visas
  7. Civil Rights Organizations Call for Facebook Advertising Boycott
  8. Facebook Ordered to Turn Over Internal Investigation Documents to Massachusetts Attorney General
  9. Court Denies Facebook’s Motion to Stay Order Compelling Production of Documents
  10. Facebook pulls Trump campaign ads for featuring Nazi-associated image
  11. Facebook’s New Content Moderation Appeals Process
  12. Content Moderation At Scale Is Impossible: Facebook Kicks Off Anti-Racist Skinheads/Musicians While Trying To Block Racists
  13. Viral TikTok Video From Black Artist Kirby Prompts Pepsi To Rebrand ‘Aunt Jemima’ Products
  14. TikTok faces scrutiny from EU watchdogs over data practices: Last month, Dutch data-protection commission investigated company’s policies to protect children’s data
  15. Apple caters to China by pulling thousands of “unlicensed” iPhone games
  16. Apple is changing parts of its app review process after the Hey controversy
  17. Vice Calls Out Brands For Deeming George Floyd, ‘Black Lives Matter’ Content Unsafe For Advertising
  18. Instagram Unveils Suite Of Programming, Tools, And Resources In Honor Of Juneteenth
  19. Sweating the Details: Court Analyzes User Interface to Uphold Online Arbitration Clause
  20. Southern District Says the Post Is the Story: Paparazzo’s Cardi B snaps are fair use when it comes to lipstick and hurled shoes
  21. Snap Says It Reaches More 13 To 24-Year-Olds In The U.S. Than Facebook, Instagram, And Messenger Combined
  22. FTC COPPA Settlement with App Developer Highlights Penalty Policy Considerations
  23. Twin Proposals Would Reform Section 230’s Liability Protections and Broadly Affect Online Content
  24. President Trump Loves Section 230 for Himself, Just Not for Anyone Else
  25. Judge Sides With Twitter Over Devin Nunes In Case Over Satirical Internet Cow: Section 230 Removes Twitter From Frivolous Case
  26. Americans Would Probably Love Section 230—If They Understood It (Eric Goldman)
  27. Further Thoughts On Moderation v. Discretion v. Censorship
  28. “There’s Always a Tweet” Applies to Trump’s Anti-Social Media Rhetoric
  29. Risk Mitigation For Social Media Cos. In Light Of Trump Order
  30. Another Court Rejects Turo’s Eligibility for Section 230–Turo v. Los Angeles (Eric Goldman)
  31. Hello! You’ve Been Referred Here Because You’re Wrong About Section 230 Of The Communications Decency Act
  32. Online harms: what progress in the UK and EU?
  33. The Communication Decency Act and the DOJ’s Proposed Solution: No Easy Answers
  34. Social Media Posts During Turbulent Times: FAQs on Employee Rights and Employer Responsibilities
  35. Electronic Data exclusion cries out for Judicial Interpretation
  36. Using the internet to cause emotional distress is a felony?
  37. Google to start fact-checking Google Images
  38. Google pushes “text fragment links” with new Chrome extension
  39. Masked arsonist might’ve gotten away with it if she hadn’t left Etsy review
  40. Twitter terminates DDoSecrets, falsely claims it may infect visitors
  41. Kim Kardashian West Signs With Spotify For ‘Innocence Project’ Podcast
  42. CBD Advertisements: What Celebrity Influencers Need to Know
  43. Reviewing the Americans With Disabilities Act’s Application to Websites–Martinez v. SDCCU (Eric Goldman)
  44. Insights: Can YouTube’s $100M Black Lives Matter Program Fuel A New Generation Of Marginalized Creators?
  45. YouTube’s ‘Cobra Kai’ To Kick It At Netflix, Starting With Season 3
  46. YouTube Launches Virtual Summer Camp With Arts, Sports, And STEM-Related Content
  47. Select Management Signs Slew Of YouTube Stars, Including Kelsey Darragh, Aaron Burriss, Hey It’s Fei
  48. YouTube Introduces New Shoppable Ads, ‘Video Action Campaigns’ For High-Traffic Marketing Spots
  49. Jessica Alba Drops Beauty Interview Series On Newly-Launched YouTube Channel
  50. Top 50 Most Viewed US YouTube Channels • Week Of 6/22/2020
  51. Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 6/22/2020
  52. NBA All-Star Stephen Curry To Host YouTube Competition Special ‘Ultimate Home Championship’
  53. With YouTube Music, Google is holding my speakers for ransom
  54. Philip DeFranco Signs With Semaphore To Seek Out Licensing Opportunities
  55. Hulu’s NewFronts Presentation Unveils Interactive Ad Format ‘GatewayGo,’ Nielsen Ad-Targeting Integration
  56. Roku Kicks Off Virtual NewFronts With Tools To Help Advertisers Weather Pandemic
  57. Condé Nast Unveils Podcast Network, Tap-To-Buy Video Ad Product At First NewFronts Outing
  58. Whistle To Launch Social Video Network In Collaboration With Survivalist Host Bear Grylls
  59. Barstool Sports Touts 950K Views Per Day For Founder Dave Portnoy’s Day Trading Show, Launches Branded Content Division
  60. Can you 3D print Damascus steel? Pretty much, yeah
  61. The Coronavirus Laid Bare Our Empty Lip Service To Fixing The ‘Digital Divide’
  62. Five practical steps to ensure due process during virtual hearings
  63. TV writers, like all of us, are developing a love-hate relationship with Zoom
  64. The long, winding, technological road to GPS in every car

A.I.

  1. China Won’t Win the Race for AI Dominance: Authoritarians Love Data, but Innovation Matters More
  2. Police arrested wrong man based on facial recognition fail, ACLU says
  3. In A First, TikTok Lifts Veil On Inner-Workings Of #ForYou Page Algorithm
  4. Artificial Intelligence and the Boardroom Risk
  5. The artist and the algorithm: how YouTube is changing our relationship with music
  6. Endure and survive – The AI of The Last of Us

COMMUNICATIONS

  1. Pay to Link?: Canadian Heritage Minister Guilbeault Backs Bringing the Link Tax to Canada (Michael Geist)
  2. Heritage Minister raises possibility of link tax for internet companies (Michael Geist)
  3. Europeans vow to pursue digital tax plans after US “provocation”
  4. Charter seeks FCC OK to impose data caps and charge fees to video services
  5. FCC’s O’Rielly Musters A Tiny Bit Of Courage To Almost Acknowledge Trump’s Executive Order Is Unenforceable Gibberish
  6. AT&T Has Now Eliminated 41,000 Jobs Since Its $42 Billion Trump Tax Cut
  7. AT&T Says Being Misleading About ‘Unlimited’ Data Plans Was Ok, Because Reporters Told Consumers It Was Being Misleading
  8. The Fastest ISP In America Is Community Owned And Operated
  9. Yet More Layoffs Hit Sprint/T-Mobile, Despite Promises This Assuredly Wouldn’t Happen
  10. T-Mobile already trying to get out of merger conditions on 5G and hiring
  11. If T-Mobile’s giant outage affected you, now’s your chance to tell the FCC
  12. FCC Skeptical About Space X Satellite Broadband Claims
  13. FCC Seeks Further Comment on TRACED Act’s Traceback Consortium’s Role
  14. FCC Seeking Comment on the Origination of Programming by FM Translators
  15. Fifteen Year Drought Over: How the Defense in Evonik/PeroxyChem and T-Mobile/Sprint Successfully Litigated the Fix

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

  1. Publishers Sue Internet Archive for free access to E-books
  2. Second Circuit Declines to Decide if Human Skin Can Be a Tangible Medium of Expression under Copyright Law and Affirms Dismissal of Makeup Artist’s Lawsuit
  3. Second Circuit Avoids “Making Up” Copyright Ruling Finding Artist’s Claims Preempted
  4. Copyright and memes: Drake effect, exceptions to infringement
  5. Ninth Circuit Decision Solidifies the Importance of Adhering to Registration Formalities
  6. Get ready to explore the boundaries of copyright on a bike before the ECJ (Case C‑833/18 (Brompton))
  7. A ride towards copyright for functional designs: could the iconic Brompton folding bike enjoy copyright protection? The view from Milan
  8. Copyright: Text and Data Mining – New Rules?
  9. Political Campaigns and Unauthorized Music
  10. Software patentability in Canada and beyond
  11. Copyright Gets In The Way Of Chef Andres’ ‘Recipes For The People’; Because The DMCA Takedown System Is Still Broken
  12. Cheez-It Issues A Bogus DMCA Notice To Nuke A Picture It Didn’t Like, Receives Dozens Of Offensive Images In Response
  13. Copyright Filters And Takedowns Are Broken: Questlove Says YouTube Flagged Him For Playing His Own Tracks
  14. Amazon and Valentino v. Kaitlyn Pan: contractual breach and counterfeiting
  15. Kawhi Leonard’s Fight for the “Claw”: An Oregon Court Holds that Nike Owns the “Claw Design” Logo
  16. Too vague: Prince Harry and Meghan’s trade mark application refused
  17. Another blow for Meghan and Harry’s trade mark strategy? Let’s investigate…
  18. Harry & Meghan’s ARCHEWELL US trade mark – not as hopeless as some reports suggest
  19. Netflix Outsmarts POTUS On Space Force Trade Mark
  20. Don’t Let Your Trademark Go Up In Smoke: “smoking is cool” Branding Is Prohibited Under Canada’s Cannabis Act
  21. Supreme Court rules in favour of Apple on trademark debranding
  22. NOKIA v Kokiya: the letters of the law
  23. Restaurant Industry Insight – Registering a Descriptive Restaurant Name
  24. In the company of Jedi´s
  25. Unfair advantage? Burlington Arcade successful at CJEU
  26. Three key differences between U.S. and Canadian patent law that can affect patent filing strategies in Canada
  27. Dropbox’s Patents Invalidated for Patent-Ineligible Subject Matter
  28. U.S. District Court Again Finds Patents for Updating Toolbar Without User Intervention Invalid
  29. Federal Circuit: Prior Dismissal Bars Customer Lawsuits
  30. Non-Infringement Need Not “Be Actually Litigated” to Invoke Kessler Doctrine
  31. Non-Infringement Need Not Be “Actually Litigated” to Shield Accused Products From Infringement Liability in Subsequent Actions
  32. Regeneron v Kymab and the effect of claim scope on the requirement of sufficiency of disclosure
  33. Rights of patentee or general Welfare of the public: which way should the scales tilt?
  34. Lifecycle of a smart idea: Patent strategy – Optimising life sciences patents
  35. Aces of the skies – the patent dogfight between DJI and Autel
  36. FibroGen & Astellas v Akebia & Otsuka – Lord Justice Arnold returns to the Patents Court for monster six patent trial
  37. Federal Circuit Patent Update
  38. Fun summer inventions and patents
  39. A Brief History of Patents & Slavery In Honor of Juneteenth
  40. Intellectual property in the time of COVID-19
  41. Brexit: implications for holders of intellectual property rights and domain names
  42. IP Post-NAFTA: What CUSMA Coming into Force Means for Canadian IP Law
  43. Revised draft Guidelines operationalizing the Patented Medicines Regulations: notable changes
  44. Intellectual Property – Top tips for Directors

PRIVACY

  1. Double-double tracking: How Tim Hortons knows where you sleep, work and vacation: Tim Hortons is logging detailed location data of customers through its app — and many may not realize it’s happening at all
  2. It’s unconstitutional for cops to force phone unlocking, court rules
  3. Millions of documents from >200 US police agencies published in “BlueLeaks” trove
  4. Tech Companies Are Limiting Police Use of Facial Recognition. Here’s Why
  5. New York City Residents Turn City’s Traffic Cameras Into Cop-Watching Tools
  6. So Much For Going Dark: FBI Using Social Media, E-Commerce Sites To Track Down Suspects (Including Non-Lawbreakers)
  7. NIST Releases Cybersecurity Guidance for Manufacturers of IoT Devices
  8. Alleged Privacy Law Violations Create Potential $5 Billion Issue For Google
  9. High Court Protects Privacy of Googlers from Insolvency Probe
  10. Google LLC loses appeal against French Data Protection Authority decision before France highest administrative Court
  11. Chrome extensions with 33 million downloads slurped sensitive user data
  12. Top German Court Rules Facebook’s Collection And Use Of Data From Third-Party Sources Requires ‘Voluntary’ Consent
  13. Privacy Issues of U.S. Collection of Social Media Information from Visa Applicants
  14. Privacy Concerns Lead To Deletion Of All Data Collected By Norway’s Contact Tracing App
  15. FTC Pounces on Maker of Children’s App Menagerie
  16. Immediate Steps Needed to Prevent Your Pandemic WFH Savior Videoconferencing from Turning Into a Future Litigation Nightmare
  17. One Of The World’s Largest Web Tracking Companies Leaks Tons Of Personal Info From An Unsecured Server
  18. To evade detection, hackers are requiring targets to complete CAPTCHAs
  19. Crooks abuse Google Analytics to conceal theft of payment card data
  20. It’s Long Past Time To Encrypt The Entire DNS
  21. Is Data Privacy A Privilege? The Racial Implications Of Technology Based Tools In Government

CREATIVITY   

  1. UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention Declares Detention of Sri Lankan Author Violated International Law
  2. Police Memo Says Officers Raiding A Journalist’s Home Were Instructed To Turn Off Their Body Cameras
  3. Appeals Court Says California’s IMDb-Targeting ‘Ageism’ Law Is Unconstitutional
  4. Tennessean Newspaper Apologizes For Running “Horrific” and “Utterly Indefensible” Advertisement
  5. Advertising Falls within Commercial Activity Exception to Sovereign Immunity
  6. Reese Witherspoon and Draper James in COVID-19 Giveaway Suit
  7. Schrodinger’s Classified Info: Trump Argues John Bolton’s Book Is Both False & Classified
  8. In Defamation Law, Context is Everything.
  9. The Need For A Federal Anti-SLAPP Law Is Clear And Overwhelming
  10. ViacomCBS Says It Is In No Rush to Make Major Acquisition
  11. ‘Wunderkind’ London Art Dealer Arrested by FBI
  12. The “root-and-branch rethink” of the film and TV production industry
  13. French Constitutional Council Kills Government’s Brand New Hate Speech Law

GAMES

  1. Class action lawsuit brought against Apple over loot boxes: Loot boxes are indisputably gambling under California law, argues 100-member lawsuit
  2. Starting in July, iOS games will require gov’t approval to launch on China’s App Store
  3. California court dismisses Magic Leap lawsuit against competitor Nreal
  4. Magic Leap’s lawsuit against competitor Nreal thrown out of court: “From the beginning we’ve firmly stated that Magic Leap’s claims against Nreal are meritless,” says Nreal founder
  5. ‘The Sims’ Becomes An Outlet For Would-Be Protesters Who Cannot Attend Protests
  6. FDA First: Agency Approves Video Game Treatment For ADHD, Requires A Prescription
  7. Dozens of YouTubers, Twitch Streamers, And Gaming Executives Face Sexual Abuse Allegations
  8. Dying Light 2 writer Chris Avellone accused of sexual assault and harassment
  9. As streamers face harassment allegations, Twitch sees boycott threat
  10. Mass DMCA Takedown Requests Issued on Twitch
  11. A wave of abuse allegations sweeps the games industry
  12. Ubisoft and Insomniac face allegations over mistreatment of women
  13. Insomniac responds to allegations from former staff about culture of harassment
  14. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla creative director leaves project: Takes leave of absence from Ubisoft after accusations of marital infidelity
  15. Ubisoft ‘deeply concerned’ with sexual assault allegations against multiple employees
  16. Industry’s abuse problem brought into focus by latest wave of allegations: Less than a year since high profile industry figures named, dozens of streamers, influencers and developers called out for abusive behaviour
  17. Hearthstone pro says he was blacklisted after spouse criticized Blizzard: Janne “Savjz” Mikkonen says he was punished because Christina Mikkonen “spoke up about the injust practices” of Blizzard
  18. Cheeky Devils left Red-faced – High Court rejects Manchester United’s procedural request in video game case
  19. Police cars removed from Epic Games’ Fortnite: The Wall Street Journal alleges that police vehicles were removed in response to the killing of George Floyd
  20. Valve looks to stem tide of racist bots in Team Fortress 2: After months of inaction, Valve quietly works to “mitigate the use of new and free accounts for abusive purposes”
  21. Bot mafias have wreaked havoc in World of Warcraft Classic
  22. Too little, too shy: The gaming industry’s response to #BLM | Opinion: Gaming companies want to get away with tokens of sympathy for #BlackLivesMatter — Don’t let them
  23. How the games industry can put its diversity pledges into action | Opinion: The industry’s diversity problems aren’t new, but willing developers have all the tools they need to take action
  24. Zynga launches $25 million charity fund to foster inclusion and diversity
  25. Kowloon Nights launches $2 million game investment fund for Black creators
  26. Former Microsoft employee accuses Mixer manager of racist comments: Milan Lee has a meeting with Microsoft’s Phil Spencer to discuss an experience that made him leave the company
  27. Microsoft is killing its game-streaming service, folding it into Facebook’s
  28. Microsoft is shutting down Mixer, redirecting its users to Facebook Gaming
  29. Microsoft Shutters Mixer, Looks To Shepherd Creators To Facebook Gaming As Part Of New Pact
  30. Microsoft announces the closure of streaming platform Mixer, will partner with Facebook Gaming
  31. Microsoft shutting down Mixer: Streaming service closing July 22 with partners being transitioned to Facebook Gaming; exclusive streamers like Ninja, Shroud free to leave
  32. Lone Echo developer Ready at Dawn acquired by Facebook
  33. Humble’s ‘Fight for Racial Justice’ bundle has raised over $4.3M for charity
  34. Humble Bundle raises £3.5m for Black Lives Matter: Bundle of more than 50 games and books was bought by 130,000 people
  35. App Imperialism: The Political Economy of the Canadian App Store (David Nieborg, Chris Young, Daniel Joseph)
  36. Guinness reinstates Billy Mitchell’s Donkey Kong, Pac-Man records
  37. Twitch sells CurseForge to Overwolf: Mod management platform will become stand-alone app supported by subscriptions, in-app advertising
  38. EA pledges tougher stance on toxicity with Positive Play Charter: The publisher has removed more than 3,500 player-created assets featuring “inappropriate and hurtful” language in recent weeks
  39. EA and the war against toxicity: Chief marketing officer Chris Bruzzo on why Electronic Arts is ramping up its efforts to stamp out hate speech in games
  40. Report: Microsoft could launch xCloud streaming service as part of Xbox Game Pass
  41. Xbox Series X difference will be immersion more than visuals, Spencer says: Head of Xbox talks about what will separate Microsoft’s next-gen, says cell phone-like All Access payment program will be “critical” this generation
  42. Lack of Smart Delivery won’t prevent PS5 owners from playing Cyberpunk 2077
  43. PlayStation posts bug bounty to track down PS4 and PSN security issues
  44. EA: “PS5 and Xbox Series X games will feel different, better and more visceral” – Chief Studios Officer Laura Miele on breaking down platform barriers, making games more inclusive, and COVID-19
  45. EA Sports renews exclusivity deal with La Liga for FIFA franchise: The extended deal includes a “joint commitment” to pushing further into esports
  46. The Sims 4 records peak high of 10 million monthly active users
  47. The Sims 4 hit 10m MAUs in the last quarter: EA’s six year old title also added 2.5m new players in the last two months, ahead of its relaunch on Steam
  48. EA is bringing seven games to the Nintendo Switch in the next 12 months: Including Burnout Paradise: Remastered and Apex Legends
  49. Evercade’s retro portable made me fall out of love with game cartridges
  50. Activision follows Crash Bandicoot remakes with the first new Crash game in a decade
  51. This War of Mine is now recommended reading for Polish high school students
  52. This War of Mine will be added to school reading list in Poland: “I don’t think we’ve ever encountered a game being officially included in the educational system on a national level as school reading”
  53. CEX staff report concerns as stores re-open: Employees take issue with inconsistent rules, no quarantine period on trade-ins, no reduction in opening hours
  54. Facebook prepares to wage war over release of Gaming app on iOS
  55. Apple repeatedly rejects Facebook Gaming app for App Store inclusion: Platform’s rules ban apps whose main focus is distributing other games
  56. Apple App Store Has Denied Hosting Facebook’s Standalone Gaming App At Least 5 Times Since February (Report)
  57. New App Store review processes will let devs challenge guideline violations
  58. Apple to allow developers to challenge App Store Review Guidelines: New systems will put devs in a stronger position to appeal Apple’s decisions and change problematic App Store rules
  59. Stadia Share launches in beta with Crayta in July: Creators will be able to generate shareable links directly to their game sessions
  60. The mystery Pokemon project being developed by Tencent is a cross-platform MOBA
  61. Cyberpunk 2077 has been delayed again—this time to November
  62. Cyberpunk 2077 delayed two more months: CD Projekt Red pushes release back to November 19 saying more time needed for balancing and bug fixing
  63. Population Zero and the dangers of Early Access hype: Three key lessons from a game made by a studio of 60 people, that had a very rough launch
  64. South Australian government extends 10% rebate to its games industry: The production rebate is the first of its kind to be extended to game developers in Australia
  65. Shawn Layden: “I would welcome a return to the 12 to 15 hour AAA game” – At Gamelab Live, the former PlayStation exec discussed the industry’s need to rethink the spiralling costs of AAA development
  66. Call of Duty: Mobile reaches 250m downloads after eight months – Sensor Tower estimates show sharp increase in revenue and downloads since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic
  67. Report: Digital games market revenue reached $10.2 billion in May (SuperData)
  68. Digital games spending reaches $10.2b in May as COVID-19 restrictions relax: Grand Theft Auto 5, Civilization 6 see PC spending surges thanks to free Epic Games Store release
  69. The Last of Us Part 2 smashes sales records | UK Charts: It beats Uncharted 4 to become Sony’s fastest-selling PS4 game
  70. Examining the indie ins and outs of today’s game distribution platforms
  71. Epic Games Store hit 61m MAUs during “The Vault” game giveaway: Epic’s Steam competitor reached 13m peak concurrent users during campaign in which Grand Theft Auto 5 was given away for free
  72. One tricky racing sim: Assetto Corsa Competizione is now on consoles
  73. ‘Fortnite’ To Test Full-Length Film Screenings With Christopher Nolan’s ‘Inception,’ ‘Batman Begins,’ ‘The Prestige’
  74. Fortnite is a masterclass in flexibility | Opinion: Epic’s battle royale is a cultural phenomenon due to a will to challenge fundamental ideas about what a game is and what its players want to experience
  75. FaZe Clan Takes Ownership Stake In Meal Replacement Shake Startup ‘CTRL’
  76. Cloud Gaming – Opportunities and Risks for eSports
  77. Igniting the fire of eSports regulatory reform
  78. Esports as sport
  79. EA: Playing ‘Star Wars: Squadrons’ in VR Will Be “more like being a real pilot”
  80. Facebook acquires Ready at Dawn: Oculus parent picks up Lone Echo franchise studio to work on VR content
  81. Oculus will start offering Quest software regardless of quality
  82. Oculus is winding down Oculus Go support to instead double down on Quest and Rift
  83. Oculus Go headset discontinued: VR company will stop adding developers’ apps and updates to Oculus Store this December, pledges to open up Quest distribution options
  84. Quest-curious VR devs will be able to officially bypass the Oculus Store in 2021
  85. The digitisation of Pokémon: The Pokémon Company’s Peter Murphy discusses the release of the new Isle of Armor DLC
  86. How playtesting influenced the last days of Control’s development
  87. Blog: Game composers and the importance of themes – Part 1
  88. Don’t Miss: A level designer breaks down The Last of Us 2’s trailer level
  89. Don’t Miss: The untold story of Lumines: Electronic Symphony
  90. Don’t Miss: What went right (and wrong) during Deadly Premonition’s development
  91. Video: High-performance animation transitions in Gears of War
  92. Video: Using deep learning to combat cheating in Counter-Strike
  93. Unity’s Learn Premium suite of game dev courses is now available for free
  94. Unity makes premium learning tools free on a permanent basis: More than 350 hours of online courses are now available to everyone due to ongoing impact of COVID-19
  95. Minecraft, King’s Quest, and more join the World Video Game Hall of Fame
  96. U.S. Patent no. 10,325,266: Rewarding classes of purchasers

Jon

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News of the Week; June 17, 2020

By Jon Festinger on July 1, 2020

DIGITAL

  1. Undress or fail: Instagram’s algorithm strong-arms users into showing skin
  2. Instagram Users: Post at Your Own Risk. Your Public Content May Be Legally Sublicensed
  3. Instagram To Review Its Policies, Algorithms For Any Bias Against Black Community
  4. Two SDNY Courts Post Opposite Conclusions on Instagram Fair Use
  5. Zoom cites Chinese law to defend censorship of human rights activists
  6. Amid pressure, Zoom will end-to-end encrypt all calls, free or paid
  7. Zoom & China: Never Forget That Content Moderation Requests From Government Involve Moral Questions
  8. Philippines Spits On Free Speech, Convicts Journalist Maria Ressa For Criminal ‘Cyber Libel’
  9. Amazon Senses US Isn’t Currently Receptive To Its Cop Tech, Puts Rekognition On Mothballs For A Year
  10. Internet Archive ends “emergency library” early to appease publishers
  11. Internet Archive Closing National Emergency Library Two Weeks Early, Due To Lawsuit, Despite How Useful It’s Been
  12. KleptoSettlement: Behavioral Advertising Data Collection in Kids’ Apps Leads to Avoidable FTC Fine
  13. Brokerage Account Formation Process Upheld–Valelly v. Merrill Lynch (Eric Goldman)
  14. Justice Department proposes major overhaul of Sec. 230 protections
  15. Per Section 230, Facebook Can Tell This Plaintiff To Piss Off–Fyk v. Facebook (Eric Goldman)
  16. Cybersecurity Experts Support Supreme Court Review of Enigma v. Malwarebytes Ruling on Section 230(c)(2)(B) (Eric Goldman)
  17. Ron Wyden Explains Why President Trump (And Many Others) Are Totally Wrong About Section 230
  18. Justice Department Releases Its Own Preposterous Recommendations On Updating Section 230
  19. Devin Nunes’ Lawyer Tells Judge To Ignore Section 230, Because Twitter Is Anti-Devin Nunes
  20. Senator Hawley’s Latest Dumb Anti-230 Plan Would Wipe Out The President’s Advantage On Facebook
  21. Senator Hawley’s Section 230 Reform Even Dumber Than We Expected; Would Launch A Ton Of Vexatious Lawsuits
  22. Trust & Safety Professional Association Launches: This Is Important
  23. eBay execs sent roaches and “bloody pig mask” to harass journalists, feds say
  24. eBay Execs Thought Sending Dead Pigs, Live Spiders To Small News Website Was A Good Idea
  25. Facebook Defends Not Censoring Political Ads – Looking at the Differences In Regulation of Political Speech on Different Communications Platforms
  26. Facebook to Allow Users to Block all Political Advertising
  27. Facebook Lets Users Turn Off Political Ads, Launches Voter Registration Campaign
  28. The Bureau targets privacy: Facebook Inc. to pay the Competition Bureau a $9M administrative monetary penalty for misleading representations
  29. Why one email app went to war with Apple—and why neither one is right
  30. EC opens antitrust probe into Apple Pay, Apple’s App Store
  31. The European Commission opens formal antitrust probes against Apple in relation to Apple Pay and the App Store
  32. The Antitrust Case Against Apple (Bapu Kotapati, Simon Mutungi, Melissa Newham, Jeff Schroeder, Melody Wang)
  33. A crackdown on illegal content – but at what cost? Debate around the EU’s online liability overhaul
  34. Disclosing networks of state-linked information operations we’ve removed (Twitter)
  35. Has Twitter just had its saddest fortnight ever?: A tool that quantifies global happiness on social media recorded an unprecedented dip in mood starting in May.
  36. Twitter Introduces Audio Tweets, Enabling Users To Share 140-Second Voice Missives
  37. No, Google Didn’t Demonetize The Federalist & It’s Not An Example Of Anti-Conservative Bias
  38. An investigation of Google’s ad personalisation: After 10 years using Google services, here’s what I learned about surveillance capitalism
  39. Google Updates Ad Targeting Policies to Help Prevent Discrimination
  40. New Google rule bans discriminatory targeting for housing ads
  41. Top 50 Most Viewed US YouTube Channels • Week Of 6/15/2020
  42. Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 6/15/2020
  43. YouTube Launches $100 Million, Multiyear Fund To Amplify Voices Of Black Creators
  44. ‘Dear Class Of 2020’ Becomes YouTube’s Most-Watched Live Original To Date, Raising $2 Million
  45. YouTube Pulls Creators’ AdSense Fundraisers, Citing Policy Violations—But Will Donate The Amount They Raised
  46. YouTube To Introduce Channel Customization, Rolls Out Algorithm-Generated ‘Creator Mixes’ For Each Viewer
  47. YouTube Rebrands Influencer Marketing Platform ‘FameBit’ To ‘BrandConnect’, Taps Google Vet Lori Sobel To Lead Unit
  48. Buzzy ‘Dad, How Do I?’ YouTube Channel Links With Lowe’s For Father’s Day Contest
  49. Linus from Linus Tech Tips looks back on YouTube comments and Internet fame
  50. OpenZFS removed offensive terminology from its code
  51. Lawsuit vs. Western Digital wants to end any use of SMR in NAS drives
  52. Collapse of Quadriga crypto exchange was a result of fraud, says OSC: With company bankrupt and founder dead, enforcement action ‘not practical’
  53. Machine-learning clusters in Azure hijacked to mine cryptocurrency
  54. Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian Resigns From Board, As Company Agrees To Replace Him With Black Candidate
  55. Viral TikTok Satirist And Donald Trump Imitator Sarah Cooper Signs With WME
  56. National Security Threat: TikTok
  57. Cars, Guns, Cider, And Snapchat Don’t Cause Crime
  58. District of Columbia AG claims online lender violated usury statutes
  59. Cameo Adds New Product Tier, Enabling Fans To Chat With Celebrities On Zoom
  60. WarnerMedia Axes HBO Go, Rebrands HBO Now In Wake Of Max Launch
  61. Netflix Drops Somber Dave Chappelle Special ‘8:46’ On YouTube, Netting 3.4 Million Views In 24 Hours
  62. Quibi Predicted It Would Net 7 Million Year-One Subscribers. It’s On Track To Bring In Just 2 Million. (Report)
  63. Eyeing Living Rooms, Quibi Reportedly In Talks To Create Roku, Amazon Fire TV Apps
  64. Hulu is ending Hulu VR support for most (but not all) virtual reality headsets
  65. Hulu is Shutting Down Its VR App on Most Headsets Tomorrow
  66. Snap Taps Rickey Thompson, Denzel Dion For Original Docuseries; Re-Ups With Disney, ViacomCBS, More For ‘Discover’
  67. The Young Turks To Drop Non-Political Interview Series On Just-Launched Twitch Channel
  68. ‘Myth: A Frozen Tale’ is Disney Animation’s First Publicly Released VR Short Film, Now on Quest
  69. After Libra, Digital Yuan and COVID-19: Central Bank Digital Currencies and the New World of Money and Payment Systems (Douglas Arner, Ross Buckley, Dirk Zetzsche, Anton Didenko)

A.I.

  1. Why general artificial intelligence will not be realized (Ragnar Fjelland)
  2. Algo IP: Intellectual Property in AI Datasets, Insights and Outputs – the Growing Importance of Trade Secrets
  3. Deepfakes aren’t very good—nor are the tools to detect them
  4. Occupational Change, Artificial Intelligence And The Geography Of EU Labour Markets
  5. If the shoppers can’t come to the shops, let the shops come to them: can AI save our shops?
  6. Artificial Intelligence and Europe: Risks, Developments and Implications (Jacopo Scipione)
  7. The Chinese approach to artificial intelligence: an analysis of policy, ethics, and regulation
  8. Artificial Intelligence and WIPO
  9. Will Robots Replace Patent Examiners?
  10. Who’s a Bot? Who’s Not?: It sometimes seems that automated bots are taking over social media and driving human discourse. But some (real) researchers aren’t so sure.
  11. Can AI mitigate the climate crisis? Not really.
  12. Getting it right: Using consumer-facing AI tools wisely
  13. Don’t Miss: A look at the data-driven AI framework behind Destroy All Humans 2
  14. Boston Dynamics now sells a robot dog to the public, starting at $74,500

COMMUNICATIONS

  1. What the Federal Court of Appeal Anti-Spam Law Case Means for the Interpretation of CASL (Michael Geist)
  2. US Falls Out Of Top 10 Fastest Broadband Speeds
  3. Another 5G Infrastructure Win for the Wireless Industry
  4. Senators Wyden And Markey Make It Clear AT&T Is Violating Net Neutrality
  5. AT&T’s “headcount rationalization”—i.e. job cuts—hits thousands more workers
  6. U.S. Commerce Department Revises Export Controls on Huawei, Permits Some Sharing of Export Controlled Technology in Setting Standards for 5G and Other Technology
  7. FCC Republican has “deep reservations” about Trump’s social media crackdown
  8. FCC Adopts Declaratory Ruling and Starts Rulemaking on ATSC 3.0 TV Datacasting Issues – the Broadcast Internet
  9. FCC proposes $225m fine for spoofed robocalls and state AGs follow suit
  10. FCC has “serious doubts” that SpaceX can deliver latencies under 100ms
  11. FCC’s Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment Makes Statement on Civil Rights Demonstrations and the Racial Divide
  12. FCC Reaches $5 Million Settlement with magicJack
  13. FCC Proposes Largest Fine in Its History for Telemarketing Violations
  14. T-Mobile Merger ‘Synergies’ Culminate In Massive 12 Hour Nationwide Outage
  15. The DOJ’s Plan To ‘Fix’ The T-Mobile Merger Is Already A Hot Mess
  16. T-Mobile’s outage yesterday was so big that even Ajit Pai is mad
  17. Platform Mergers: Lessons from a Case in the Digital TV Market (Mark Ivaldi, Jiekai Zhang)

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

  1. Apple, SOCAN highlights changing role of Copyright Board, says IP professor Ariel Katz
  2. Federal Court of Appeal Issues Two Decisions on the Copyright Act’s “Making Available” Right
  3. I’m So Tired: IP Rights Exhaustion
  4. SA Music LLC v. Amazon.com, Inc.: Court dismisses copyright claims, holding distribution of work through digital music store requires transfer or download of file containing copyright work from one computer to another.
  5. A co-hop-yright clash
  6. Wheely good news for product designers?
  7. Brompton Bicycle – far from folded
  8. Riding copyright in the right direction?
  9. I want to Ride my (Brompton Folding) Bicycle
  10. CJEU confirms that original functional shapes may obtain copyright protection
  11. The CJEU confirms copyright can subsist in functional shapes provided they are original
  12. CJEU rules that functional shapes are eligible for copyright protection, in so far as they are original works
  13. CJEU on eligibility of functional shape under Copyright Law
  14. Can copyright protect technical products? Brompton provides some answers
  15. The Brompton Bicycle – the collapsible bike with a collapsing monopoly?
  16. WIPO brings ‘poor man’s copyright’ into digital age
  17. Copyright protection for Brompton’s folding bicycle? CJEU gives green light to the possibility across Europe
  18. Karen Hepp v. Facebook, Inc.: Dismisses news anchor’s right of publicity claims against Facebook & others, holding exception to safe harbor based on “any law pertaining to intellectual property” does not apply.
  19. Do You Like The Creepy Dolls Horror Subgenre?
  20. Pablo Star Ltd. v. The Welsh Government: Court rejects Welsh government’s motion to dismiss on sovereign immunity grounds finding use of photographs in tourism ads is commercial activity without immunity.
  21. Social media influencers beware: Street art is protected by copyright
  22. Inaccuracies in copyright registration doom fabric designer’s big jury verdict against H&M
  23. Stop Asking Marvel To Keep Cops From Wearing Masks With ‘The Punisher’ Skull On It
  24. Toys “R” Us Successful in Depreciation of Goodwill Claim Against “Herbs R Us”
  25. Canada: Protective Orders in Trademark Cases
  26. Netflix Trumps US Armed Forces in Space Race
  27. Booking.com: Does a dot.com make a brand name distinctive?
  28. Yes, your product is incredible, but should you call it that?
  29. The Kimono controversy: a matter of cultural awareness and risk management
  30. Dissecting SkyKick
  31. Supreme Court Suggests Claim Preclusion May Be Less Relevant to Trademark Cases and Questions Its Applicability to a Defense Rather than a Claim
  32. A trademark tasting session to celebrate World Gin Day
  33. Time to Brighton up that brand portfolio?
  34. Trade marks: Don’t register them “purely as a legal weapon”
  35. The Scent of a Crayon: Unique Complications with Scent and Other Non-Traditional Trademarks in Canada
  36. 3M Continues to Use Lanham Act to Combat Nefarious Use of 3M Mark for N-95 Masks
  37. Flag Day Greetings
  38. My Big Fat Greek Lawsuits
  39. Ninth Circuit Closes Lips on Confusion Claims Against Pucker Vodka
  40. Flying on Red Bull’s wings
  41. UK High Court issues latest decision in MERCK trademark saga
  42. L’Oreal Appeals $66 Million Trade Secret Judgment
  43. UK based .eu domain name owners beware – Brexit is coming
  44. Southern District Of New York Grants Motion To Dismiss Patent And Trade Secret Claims, Finding Patents Ineligible Under Section 101 And That Trade Secret Claim Failed To Identify A Protectable Secret
  45. Follow the Rules! Recent Changes to Canada’s Patent Procedures
  46. PTAB Designates As Informative a Decision Instituting Post-Grant Review for a Design Patent Lacking Ornamentality
  47. Federal Circuit Affirms Rule 12(b)(6) Dismissal Because the Patent Was Directed to the Patent-Ineligible Abstract Idea of Teaching a User to Play the Guitar
  48. Encrypting/decrypting audio data with reduced latency: technical
  49. PTAB Decision on Functional Language for a Camera Claim Limitation
  50. Efficient use of search tools for prior art and patent searching

PRIVACY

  1. B.C. woman finds photos, videos of herself for sale online. And it’s legal
  2. High-tech surveillance amplifies police bias and overreach (Andrew Ferguson)
  3. Quebec Introduces New Amendments to Its Privacy Regimes
  4. Congressional Reps Demand Federal Law Enforcement Agencies Stop Surveilling Protesters
  5. Tradeoffs: Facebook Helping The FBI Hack Tails To Track Down A Truly Awful Child Predator Raises Many Questions
  6. UPnP flaw exposes millions of network devices to attacks over the Internet
  7. Knoxville shuts down parts of its network after being hit by ransomware
  8. Intel will soon bake anti-malware defenses directly into its CPUs
  9. More than 7 in 10 Americans won’t use contact-tracing apps, data shows
  10. Political groups use “deeply spooky” protester location data, report finds
  11. Tracking Kids Through Your App? Think Again.
  12. Data Sharing Without Borders: New ‘landmark’ US-UK data sharing agreement.
  13. Data protection, gaming affiliates, & direct marketing – processor or controller?
  14. Highest German Court Rules on Cookie Consent (Planet49)
  15. Can You Build A Privacy Law That Doesn’t Create Privacy Trolls?
  16. A tale of two cybers – how threat reporting by cybersecurity firms systematically underrepresents threats to civil society (Lennart Maschmeyer, Ronald Deibert, Jon Lindsay)
  17. Own Data? Ethical Reflections on Data Ownership (Patrik Hummel, Matthias Braun, Peter Dabrock)

CREATIVITY   

  1. Appeals Court Again Says That The White House Can’t Just Remove A Press Pass Because It Didn’t Like A Reporter Mocking Seb Gorka
  2. The First Amendment Protects Radio Hosts Covering Online Attacks Against A Sports Referee
  3. Trump Campaign Is So Pathetic It Claims CNN Poll Is Defamatory; Demands Retraction
  4. Legally Bombed: Reese Witherspoon’s Clothing Company Earns Failing Grade on ‘Free Dress’ Giveaway
  5. Stolen Banksy mural rediscovered in Italian farmhouse
  6. Is it Misleading to Name a Product “Potato Skins Snacks” When the Product Isn’t Made From Potato Skins?
  7. Retrial Ordered in Libel Case Concerning UK Polish-Language Newspaper

GAMES

  1. Judge rejects defence theory of ‘gaming consciousness’ and convicts man of Marpole murders
  2. Federal Court Affirms Activision’s First Amendment Rights In Using Humvees in ‘Call Of Duty’ Game
  3. Activision investigating after Modern Warfare update goes rogue on Xbox
  4. Nintendo issues cease-and-desist for Switch modchip installation service
  5. Nintendo Cryptically Points Out That Selling ‘Animal Crossing’ Assets For Real Money Violates ToS
  6. Rockstar stops hackers from spawning KKK members in Red Dead Online
  7. FDA approves game marketed as a treatment for ADHD: Prescription-only device is first game-based therapy the US agency has approved for any condition
  8. May I Have This Dance? Epic Games Prevails in Second Dance Emote Suit.
  9. Fortnite Defeats Another Lawsuit Over Emote Dance Moves–Brantley v. Epic Games (Eric Goldman)
  10. Duke Nukem and the Dangers of Acquired IP in Serial Game Development
  11. Gearbox sues 3D Realms for breach of Duke Nukem acquisition contract: After original Duke Nukem composer sues Gearbox over royalties, developer brings in original IP owner
  12. Manchester United sues Football Manager makers for trade mark infringement
  13. Developers remove games from Steam over Valve’s Black Lives Matter silence
  14. Riot Games exec Ron Johnson resigns following inflammatory George Floyd Facebook post: Johnson exercised “really poor judgement” says Riot CEO Nicolo Laurent
  15. Little Devil Inside dev apologizes for racist stereotypes shown in trailer
  16. “The industry hasn’t changed enough — not even close”: POC in Play’s Chella Ramanan and Adam Campbell on the industry’s response to the Black Lives Matter movement, and the effort needed to make a lasting change
  17. Kowloon Nights launches $2m fund for projects by Black creators: Fairchild Initiative aims to empower Black-owned and led studios worldwide
  18. The itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality has surpassed its $5M goal
  19. Itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality finishes with $8.1m raised: Over 810,000 people purchased the bundle, which contained more than 1,700 games
  20. Humble Bundle launches Fight for Racial Justice bundle: 100% of proceeds will support NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Race Forward, and The Bail Project
  21. Humble’s huge ‘Fight for Racial Justice’ charity bundle has already raised over $1.3M
  22. Applications are open for Humble’s $1 million Black Game Developer Fund
  23. GDC renews commitments to supporting game developers in marginalized communities
  24. Square Enix apologises for “insensitive” Marvel’s Avengers tweet: “Now was not the appropriate time to share this content.”
  25. Tomb Raider and Deus Ex dev Eidos Montreal opens new R&D studio
  26. Square Enix announces new Eidos-Sherbrooke studio: The newly created R&D studio will be remote, with premises not due to open until early 2021
  27. The importance of diversity in games
  28. The chicanery of Penguin Cretins: Valve maintains its signature silence as wayward developers code-swap games on Steam, leaving users frustrated and confused
  29. UK government to call for evidence that loot boxes should be classed as gambling: DCMS confirms call will begin later this year, findings will be considered alongside a review of the Gambling Act
  30. The UK Government sets out its plan of action on immersive technologies (mostly video games)
  31. Capcom bans ex-EVO champion after racist tweet: Ryan “FChamp” Ramirez apologizes for “very insensitive” post, refuses to call it racist
  32. Xbox demands racist influencer team disassociate from its brand: Brazilian streamers XboxMilGrau has been banned on Twitch and YouTube, reportedly worked with Microsoft in the past
  33. Virtual concert company Wave nets $30 million to stage more interactive gigs
  34. Devs can now dig around in the source code for three games from Blendo Games
  35. Resident Evil becomes first Capcom franchise to surpass 100 million sales
  36. Neostream will change character designs using racist stereotypes: The developer was criticised following Little Devil Inside’s appearance at the PS5 reveal last week
  37. EA extends free Xbox Series X upgrade offer for Madden NFL 21 after player complaints: Publisher is not using Xbox’s Smart Delivery tech, but instead using its own ‘Dual Entitlement’ model
  38. Xbox expands on Smart Delivery, confirms game progress will carry forward
  39. PS5 will far outsell Xbox Series X, predicts analyst: Ampere’s Piers Harding-Rolls expects PS5 to sell 66 million sold by end of 2024, compared to 37 million for Series X
  40. Sony unveils PlayStation 5 design, but remains silent on price
  41. Spider-Man, Ratchet and Clank, Gran Turismo, and more are coming to PS5
  42. Sony finally reveals PlayStation 5 hardware—and a discless “Digital Edition”
  43. PlayStation 5’s reveal was all about continuity | Opinion: Laser-focused on game announcements, Sony’s unveiling was an hour-long promise to maintain the software strategy that has driven the PS4’s success
  44. Sony announces PlayStation 5 Digital Edition: Two versions of next-gen console shown alongside 26 upcoming games
  45. PS5 Digital Edition exists because “many consumers purchase solely digitally”: PlayStation boss says no news on price but platform holder is focused on “getting the value equation right”
  46. GTA Online is getting a standalone release on PlayStation 5
  47. Grand Theft Auto Online coming to PS5 for free in 2021: Standalone version of GTAV’s online game will be available as a free exclusive for three months
  48. Grand Theft Auto Online is a killer app for PlayStation 5 | Opinion: The deal between PlayStation and Rockstar has the potential to win over millions of fans for Sony’s next console
  49. Bethesda’s Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo will be timed PS5 exclusives – New games from Arkane and Tango Gameworks among a handful of console exclusives at PS5 reveal event
  50. The PlayStation 5 looks to be the biggest game console in decades
  51. Data suggests almost half of Xbox One users also own a PlayStation 4
  52. Google cuts Stadia Premiere Edition price from $130 to $100
  53. Google Stadia Premiere Edition gets a price cut: But it’s no longer offering three months of Stadia Pro for free
  54. Ubisoft’s next open-world game leaks as an unfinished prototype on Stadia
  55. The Evolution of Game Genres: NES, Gameboy, and SNES
  56. Playable Worlds raises $10 million to beef up cloud-based game tech
  57. For sale to good home: Warner Bros’ gaming division
  58. AT&T reportedly looking to sell Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment: Take-Two, EA, Activision Blizzard among potential buyers for potential $4 billion purchase of division
  59. Analyst says a WBIE deal could “set off a wave” of mergers, acquisitions: Stephens’ Jeff Cohen expects largest publishers will be looking to expand their line-ups going into the next generation
  60. Report: Fortnite maker Epic could sell stake at $17 billion valuation
  61. Epic reportedly worth $17 billion in new funding round: Bloomberg reports that the Fortnite firm is about to close a $750 million round
  62. Fortnite “The Device” event was capped at 12m players: But 8.4 million more watched live on Twitch and YouTube
  63. Latest Fortnite event attracts 12M in-game players, another 8.4M via streams
  64. Virtual concert firm Wave raises $30m in funding: Series B round will fund “in-game activations and social experiences at the nexus of gaming and entertainment”
  65. NPD: May US game sales jump 52% – Despite no new releases in the top 10, software sales up 67% as hardware grows 56% for strongest May numbers since 2008
  66. Mario Kart 8: Deluxe races back to pole position | UK Charts – Ring Fit Adventure holds firm at No.2
  67. Brawl Stars outpaces Clash Royale on Chinese App Store launch: Supercell’s new game also earned more in one week in China than on its global launch, according to Sensor Tower estimates
  68. NetEase teams up with Warner Bros for The Lord of the Rings: Rise to War
  69. New Zealand games industry shrunk 9% in 2019: Rebound expected as next gen console releases loom and subscription service revenue climbs
  70. The Last of Us Part 2 | Critical Consensus: Naughty Dog’s latest is a great achievement, but a sky-high Metacritic score masks discord among critics about its treatment of violence
  71. The Last of Us Part 2 review: A less confident, less focused sequel
  72. Studio 369 formed out of Rune 2 launch disaster
  73. Unity changes up its business model to prioritize long-term support services
  74. Playable Worlds lands $10m investment: Galaxy Interactive leads Series A funding for Raph Koster’s sandbox MMO company
  75. Ziggurat has acquired the BloodRayne franchise and other Majesco licenses
  76. Ziggurat Interactive acquires BloodRayne and other Majesco licenses: Retro publisher working with BloodRayne dev to revive franchise
  77. Facebook Gaming Snags TikTok Star Noen Eubanks For Exclusive Livestreaming Deal
  78. Facebook Gaming Expands Availability Of Key Monetization Tools, Readies New ‘Live Breaks’ Ad Format
  79. Twitch Looking To Give Creators More Control Over Clips After “Sudden Influx” Of Copyright Claims
  80. Twitch Faces the Music: A Sudden Influx of DMCA Takedown Notices Hits Twitch
  81. WWE Lawyers DMCA Tweet With Video Of Independent Wrestling Event, Probably Over A Hashtag That Promotes WWE
  82. Verizon Inks Three-Year Sponsorship Deal For Riot Games’ ‘League Of Legends’ Championships
  83. Luckbox closes $3.8m investment round: Esports betting platform prepares to go public after turnover increases 13 times since March
  84. Is Esports Betting Sports Betting in Iowa?
  85. Influencers and esports
  86. COVID-19 & Esports – Part 1 – The Economic and Industry Impact
  87. COVID-19 & Esports – Part 2 – The Socio-Cultural Context
  88. COVID-19 & Esports – Part 3 – Implications For the Future
  89. PlayStation 5 Will Support PSVR, Sony Affirms
  90. Armed and Gelatinous: Building an arcade cabinet that sticks – Rob Howland and Anthony Prusakowski on taking a goopy game jam title to the arcade, and why that approach might benefit indie developers
  91. Double Loop’s plans for relaxing mobile games are far from “casual”
  92. Talking Tiberium: Command & Conquer dev on LAN mode, going open source, and more
  93. Boomshakalaka: How the original NBA Jam caught fire through chaos
  94. Pokemon takes another stab at free-to-play with Pokemon Cafe Mix
  95. Pokemon Go dev Niantic delays plans to end support for 32-bit Android devices
  96. Pokemon Snap is being revived on the Nintendo Switch
  97. Over 21 years later, Pokémon Snap is coming back on Switch
  98. Dissecting the dual-genre design of Disintegration
  99. Don’t Miss: Creating the ‘hidden horror’ of Observer
  100. Don’t Miss: Making Insomniac’s Spider-Man do what a spider can
  101. Don’t Miss: What was it like programming Skyrim?
  102. Don’t Miss: The game is the boss – Housemarque’s Resogun postmortem7
  103. Blog: Starcom: Nexus postmortem, an indie dev journey
  104. Blog: Finding, choosing, and managing moderators
  105. Video: Golden rules for designing chatbot games
  106. Watch EA’s Jim Vessella discuss the remastering of Command & Conquer
  107. Niantic to promote 1,000 small businesses in Pokemon Go for free for a year: Players can nominate favorite local spots across US, Japan, Great Britain, Canada, Mexico
  108. An EVE Online mini-game is helping researchers better analyze COVID-19 data
  109. EVE Online’s latest citizen science project to help COVID-19 research: CCP Games has announced the third phase of its Project Discovery initiative
  110. U.S. Patent no. 10,322,346: Interactive collectible card games with defense and offence team formations
  111. U.S. Patent no. 10,322,351: Matchmaking system and method for multiplayer video games

Jon

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News of the Week; June 10, 2020

By Jon Festinger on June 21, 2020

DIGITAL

  1. CDT First Out The Gate In Suing To Block Donald Trump’s Silly Executive Order On Section 230
  2. Think Of The Kitten: A Crash Course On Section 230
  3. Twitter Taking Down Trump Campaign Video Over Questionable Copyright Claim Demonstrates Why Trump Should Support Section 230
  4. Senators Rubio, Hawley, Loeffler And Cramer Ask The FCC To Reinterpret Section 230 In A Totally Ridiculous Manner
  5. Looking at the President’s Executive Order on Online Media – Part 2, What Real Risk Does It Pose for Media Companies?
  6. The President Goes on the Offensive Against Social Media Platforms
  7. My Galley by CJR Interview on Trump’s Anti-Section 230 Executive Order (Eric Goldman)
  8. Section 230 Ends Demonetized YouTuber’s Lawsuit–Lewis v. Google (Eric Goldman)
  9. Section 230 Applies to Publicity Rights Claim–Hepp v. Facebook (Eric Goldman)
  10. What is a “True Threat” Online?–In re. R.D. (Eric Goldman)
  11. #ShareTheMicNow Campaign Seeks To Magnify The Voices Of Black Women On Instagram
  12. Former NFL Player Emmanuel Acho Launches Viral ‘Uncomfortable Conversations With A Black Man’ Series
  13. Facebook Shareholders The Latest Group To Ask Facebook To Drop Its Encryption Plans
  14. Coming This Summer: Facebook Will Begin Blocking Advertisements From State-Controlled Media Entities In The United States
  15. The Internet’s most important—and misunderstood—law, explained
  16. Apple is now worth 1.5 trillion dollars
  17. Norway Supreme Court Signs Off On Apple’s Harassment Of An Independent Repair Shop
  18. Instagram just threw users of its embedding API under the bus
  19. IBM asks Congress for police reform, leaves facial recognition business
  20. “Culture of workplace fear” leads to COVID-19 spread at Amazon, suit says
  21. Online content sharing – pay to play?
  22. Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Film App ‘Whatifi’ Launches With $10 Million In Venture Funding
  23. YouTube Provides Rare, Robust Window Into Monetization Guidelines For Creators
  24. Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 6/08/2020
  25. Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 6/01/2020
  26. Top 50 Most Viewed US YouTube Channels • Week Of 6/08/2020
  27. Top 50 Most Viewed US YouTube Channels • Week Of 6/01/2020
  28. U.S. Kids Spend 86 Minutes Per Day Watching YouTube Videos—And 82 Minutes Watching TikTok (Study)
  29. Despite National Security Concerns, This Congressman Has Launched A Quippy TikTok Account
  30. Don Henley Tells Senators: We Must Change Copyright Law… Because The People Like TikTok?
  31. Jake Paul Charged With Criminal Trespass And Unlawful Assembly After Denying Looting At Arizona Mall
  32. Instagram and Embedding Photos – An Update and a Bombshell (?) from Instagram
  33. New CAP/CMA Guidance: #Ad(vice) for Influencers
  34. Influencer marketing and obvious brand references
  35. The Playlist: DLA Piper’s music law updates
  36. Google Meet takes on Zoom with AI-powered noise cancellation
  37. Zoom defenders cite legit reasons to not end-to-end encrypt free calls

A.I.

  1. Algo IP: Intellectual Property in Algorithms, Computer Generated Works and Computer Implemented Inventions
  2. Protecting AI inventions
  3. Artificial Intelligence Systems and IP
  4. What if HAL could have IP rights? WIPO joins the conversation on AI and IP
  5. This bot hunts software bugs for the Pentagon
  6. Balancing the stealth AI in Splinter Cell: Blacklist

COMMUNICATIONS

  1. CASL is Constitutional: Federal Court of Appeal Upholds Constitutionality of Canada’s Anti-Spam Law (Michael Geist)
  2. No Opinions Permitted: Broadcast Panel Rules Jokingly Criticizing Canadian Content During Radio News Segment Violates Code of Ethics (Michael Geist)
  3. Verizon Appeals NAD Decision Regarding 5G Claims
  4. 5G Conspiracy Idiots Now Threatening Telecom Workers That Don’t Even Work In Wireless
  5. Cox slows Internet speeds in entire neighborhoods to punish any heavy users
  6. Major ISP Cox Begins Throttling Entire Neighborhoods for ‘Excessive Usage’
  7. Small ISP cancels data caps permanently after reviewing pandemic usage
  8. Cable Customers Have Paid $3.5 Billion For Sports They Can’t Watch
  9. Ajit Pai caves to SpaceX but is still skeptical of Musk’s latency claims
  10. FCC failed to monitor Chinese telecoms for almost 20 years: Senate report
  11. FCC Delays Law Banning Your ISP From Charging You ‘Rental Fees’ For Hardware You Already Own

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

  1. Entertainment Software Assoc. v. Society Composers, (2020 FCA 100)
  2. CMRRA-SODRAC Inc. v. Apple Canada Inc., (2020 FCA 101)
  3. Read All About It: SDNY Rejects Newsweek’s Defenses Over Embedded Content Copyright Claims
  4. Brown v. Netflix Inc.: Use of eight seconds of children’s song “Fish Sticks n’ Tater Tots” in documentary film depicting burlesque dancer in “reverse mermaid” costume was held to be transformative fair use
  5. Major Publishers Sue The Internet Archive’s Digital Library Program In The Midst Of A Pandemic
  6. After Taming Open Access, Academic Publishing Giants Now Seek To Assimilate The World Of Preprints
  7. The Federal Court of Appeal Makes its Making Available Judgment Available: It’s Not Just About “The Vibe”
  8. Access Copyright v. York University – Some Thoughts on the Federal Court of Appeal’s Judgment (Howard Knopf)
  9. Judge Orders Down ‘N Out Burger Joint To Hand Over All Signage To In-N-Out, Which Has Almost No Presence In Australia
  10. Unauthorized Photographs: The Rights Of The People We Capture
  11. With website blocking and international treaties, copyright law evolves with the digital domain
  12. Copyright: Works of artistic craftsmanship and Cofemel
  13. No, California Law Review, Food Plating Does Not Deserve Copyright Protection
  14. Is 3D printing a threat to the value of IP portfolios?
  15. Making the best of a bad situation – Canadian trademark trends in a time of change
  16. Trademarks: Specifications and bad faith
  17. Supreme Court Helps Trademark Owners: Proof of “Willfulness” Is Not Required To Recover Infringer’s Profits
  18. Baskin in glory: the Tiger King loses zoo to rival in trade mark battle
  19. Trump Campaign Gets Parody Cartoon Taken Down Off Redbubble Over Trademark Claim On MAGA Hats
  20. Infringement Action Under PM(NOC) Regulations Cannot Become Moot
  21. Traditionally bred plants and animals are no longer patent eligible at the European Patent Office – what is still protectable?
  22. Impact of COVID-19 on patent ecosystem
  23. Design Patent Protection for Fashion
  24. Joint Ownership of Patents: It Is Not Always Nice to Share
  25. A Non-Precedential Case Study: Federal Circuit Says District Court Did Not Clearly Err in Holding Dosing Patent Invalid Based on Obviousness and Obviousness Type Double Patenting

PRIVACY

  1. FTC settles with children app developer for COPPA violations
  2. Iran- and China-backed phishers try to hook the Trump and Biden campaigns
  3. DEA Wants In On The Fun, Asks DOJ To Give It Permission To Surveil George Floyd Protests
  4. Senator wants to know if police are using Clearview to ID protesters
  5. Chicago Mayor Says City’s Police Officers Will Be ‘Stripped Of Their Powers’ If They Turn Off Their Cameras
  6. Hackers for hire targeted hundreds of institutions, says report
  7. Schools turn to surveillance tech to prevent COVID-19 spread
  8. Plundering of crypto keys from ultrasecure SGX sends Intel scrambling again
  9. Investigation Shows Governor’s Claims That Democrats Tried To Hack The Georgia Election Were B.S.
  10. Researchers say online voting tech used in 5 states is fatally flawed
  11. Study Shows Major E-Voting System Open To Numerous Hacking Attacks
  12. Carnegie Mellon Researchers Design ‘Nutrition Label’ For The Internet Of Broken Things

CREATIVITY   

  1. Fox News Is a Flaming Pile of Garbage, But You Can’t Sue Them for That–WASHLITE v. Fox News (Eric Goldman)
  2. #NoRightsMatter: US Postal Service, Law Enforcement Team Up To Seize ‘Black Lives Matter’ Facemasks
  3. Sheriff Goes All In On Violating The First Amendment After Assaulting A Protester For Carrying A ‘F*CK TRUMP’ Sign
  4. Adam Rapoport: Bon Appetit editor resigns over ‘racist culture’
  5. Staff Of Bon Appétit Apologized For Being Complicit In Racism: “The deeply offensive photo circulating of Adam is horrific on its own, but also speaks to the much broader and longstanding impact of racism at these brands.”
  6. New Report Details Pervasive Culture of Racism at Bon Appétit: ‘Nowhere Have I Ever Felt More Isolated’: Business Insider report describes “toxic” workplace in which people of color are regularly sidelined & paid less
  7. If The NY Times Doesn’t Publish My OpEd On Why James Bennet Is An Incompetent Dweeb, It Must Hate Free Speech
  8. No, The Resignation Of NYT Editor James Bennet Does Not Mean American Newsrooms Have ‘Turned Into College Campuses’
  9. Big Little Material Omissions: Reese Witherspoon and Draper James Subject of Class Action Lawsuit
  10. Guelph Treasure Heirs Respond to U.S. Brief that Argued Nazi Art Theft Was a Domestic Affair
  11. The F-word’s hidden superpower: Repeating it can increase your pain threshold
  12. Electric race cars and human drama on display in And We Go Green

GAMES

  1. Ubisoft Alleges Rainbow Six Siege Infringement by Ejoy.com
  2. Sony fined $3.5 million for issuing ‘misleading’ refund advice to PlayStation users
  3. Investors argue against excessive pay package for Activision CEO
  4. Activision Blizzard shareholders upset over CEO Bobby Kotick’s compensation: Publisher defends Kotick’s pay despite his “apparent failure” to meet performance targets
  5. UK government calls for more evidence in ongoing loot box debate 
  6. UK could class loot boxes as gambling to protect children: Ministers call for evidence on video games such as Fifa that charge money for rewards
  7. Government Response to the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee Report on Immersive and Addictive Technologies (U.K. Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
  8. Escape from Tarkov dev Battlestate will clamp down on real world trading
  9. Brantley v. Epic Games, Inc.: Trademark & related claims targeting use of “Running Man” dance move in Fortnite dismissed; claims pre-empted by Copyright Act & failure to allege protectable trademark.
  10. Riot exec resigns after blaming George Floyd’s death on his lifestyle
  11. Riot Games exec placed on leave for Facebook post blaming George Floyd’s death on “criminal lifestyle”: “The sentiment…is…counter to our belief that addressing systemic racism requires immediate societal change”
  12. Riot pledges $10 million to create pathways for minority-led studios
  13. Itchio’s Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality has raised $2.4M with one week left to go
  14. Canadian publisher Klei donates $1 million to Black Lives Matter charities
  15. EA Sports pledges to up efforts to fight toxic behavior in its games: Publisher promises increased resources, in-game tools, better filters amid global protests against racism and police brutality
  16. Games industry donates to Black Lives Matter and more to support US protests
  17. Neil Druckmann: The Last of Us Part 2 will “normalise stuff that is normal” – Naughty Dog director reacts to leaks, says people who will “benefit most from this story are the ones yelling the loudest”
  18. Naughty Dog ramps up accessibility options for The Last of Us Part II
  19. Red Candle Games’ Devotion is getting a relaunch (in Taiwan)
  20. Devotion gets a physical release in Taiwan: Red Candle Games’ horror title returns in limited capacity after developer pulled it from Steam last year
  21. Guinness World Records People Accidentally Claiming Copyright On Tons Of ‘Super Mario Bros.’ Speedruns
  22. Sky Sports working with FIFA devs to artificially fill Premier League stadiums
  23. EA Access inches closer to Steam launch as more EA games go up for sale
  24. Epic Games Store scores next Total War game as exclusive: A Total War Saga Troy will only be available through Epic for the first year, will be free for the first 24 hours
  25. Ahead of PS5 showcase, Microsoft confirms Hellblade II will run on Unreal 5
  26. Nintendo claims 300K accounts have been hacked after NNID security breach
  27. Hacks Are Always Worse Than Reported: Nintendo’s Breached Accounts Magically Double
  28. From Zelda to Civ to Frostpunk—can climate change be fun?
  29. Online sales up 517% at GameStop, though overall sales are still on a decline
  30. GAME re-opening stores on June 15: All stores in England and North Ireland will open doors next Monday, but Belong Arenas remain closed
  31. UK retailer Game will isolate trade-in stock for three days to stop COVID-19
  32. My.Games offers 90/10 revenue split to devs that promote its store: All other studios will get 70/30 as company seeks to reward those that bring new users to its marketplace
  33. Cyberpunk 2077 will come to Stadia after console, PC launch
  34. Sony’s Back Button Attachment is finally back in stock, so here’s our review
  35. Despite 100GB video games, average download times are decreasing
  36. How Sega hopes to use Japanese arcades as streaming data centers
  37. Outer Worlds on Switch: A monumental, messy conversion on weak hardware
  38. Command & Conquer Remastered Collection review: Loving the smell of Tiberium
  39. Bungie will cycle out content to keep Destiny 2 fresh well into next-gen
  40. Destiny 3 may never exist—to that end, the series will wipe older campaign content
  41. Mobile publisher Playrix acquires Croatian game studio Cateia Games
  42. Playrix acquires Croatian PC developer Cateia Games
  43. Kalypso Media has acquired Port Royale developer Gaming Mind Studios
  44. Australian games industry valued at $3.6b in 2019: Software, hardware, and accessories sales were down, but subscription revenue rose 28% year-over-year
  45. Guilty Gear dev Arc System Works opens new division to expand globally
  46. Arc System Works to expand international business with new division: Guilty Gear creator Daisuke Ishiwatari becomes chief creative officer as part of broad restructuring
  47. Unity report shows massive spike in video game business due to COVID-19
  48. Unity: Fine-tuning solutions to gaming’s “massive content problem” – Brett Bibby on helping developers to meet a 100x increase in game content, and Unity’s solutions to the spread of remote working
  49. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night has sold over 1 million copies worldwide
  50. Chinese game company NetEase has opened a new studio in Japan
  51. Tinybuild: Indie publishers must move beyond “transactional relationships”
  52. You have five seconds: Why you need strong visual design in your indie game: Skelattack’s creator David Stanley on why first impressions are everything, plus art tips so your assets stand out
  53. YouTube Pacts With Geoff Keighley For Exclusive ‘Summer Game Fest’ Programming
  54. The Esports Boom: A Temporary ‘Sports Fix’ or in a League of Its Own?
  55. Boom.tv raises $10m in Series A funding: Bitkraft leads investment round to support Code Red ProAm series, esports entertainment platform
  56. I choose you: Pokémon Draft League brings pro sports excitement to the game
  57. FaZe Clan To Release Movie Slate Beginning This Year In Pact With ‘Invisible Narratives’
  58. SimRefinery, a long lost training simuator from Maxis, has been recovered
  59. A lost Maxis “Sim” game has been discovered by an Ars reader [Updated]
  60. Deep Dive: Designing the Super Mario Maker-inspired I Wanna Maker
  61. Video: Harmonizing the creative and business goals of Dead by Daylight
  62. Video: Designing Headliner to teach players about media manipulation
  63. Video: Designing Mortal Kombat 11’s empowering tutorial mode
  64. Don’t Miss: Big Huge Games’ postmortem of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
  65. Don’t Miss: A postmortem of Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell
  66. Don’t Miss: Making Oxenfree’s narrative unfold like a free-flowing conversation
  67. Don’t Miss: What went right (and wrong) during the development of Persona 4
  68. Don’t Miss: As traffic hits all-time high, Jackbox adjusting to dev’ing from home
  69. Blog: Steam’s wishlist conversions – how hot are yours?
  70. Blog: Understanding open world level design – Part 5
  71. Blog: Moving on stairs in a 2D side-scroller
  72. Blog: Some thoughts about research and upgrades in RTS games
  73. Blog: Making a SNES game in 2020

Black Lives Matter Online Virtual Issue of the Information, Communication & Society Journal (“iCS”)

Like millions of other academics and citizens worldwide the senior editorial team of the iCS Journal were shocked and appalled by the brutal killing of George Floyd as yet another example of the unrelenting and deep-seated racism in our societies. iCS like many other journals has always sought to publish and disseminate research findings that address questions of race, ethnicity and discrimination in order to expose such injustices. It is of course no surprise that the discrimination found in everyday life is sadly replicated online and through social media. Following the suggestion of one of their Editorial Team, Victor Avila Torres, they have selected the following published articles dealing with online racism, discrimination and discursive oppression for wider circulation. In solidarity with the Black Lives Matter campaign these are now freely available to download and share.

Anastasia Kanjere (2018) Defending Race Privileges on the Internet: How witness uses innocence discourse online
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2018.1477972?src=recsys&

Jen Schradie (2012) The Trend of Class, Race and Ethnicity in Social Media Inequality
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2012.665939

Ariadna Matamoros-Fernández (2017) Platformed Racism: the mediation and circulation of an Australian race-based controversy on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2017.1293130

Summer Harlow and Anna Benbrook (2017) How #Blacklivesmatter: Exploring the role of hip-hop celebrities in constructing racial identity on Black Twitter
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2017.1386705

Andre Brock, Lynette Kvasny and Kayla Hales (2010) Cultural Appropriations of Technical Capital: Black women, weblogs and digital divide
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2010.498897

Kishonna L. Gray (2012) Intersecting Oppressions and Online Communities: Examining the experiences of women of color on Xbox Live
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2011.642401

Apryl Williams and Vanessa Gonlin (2017) I Got All My Sisters With Me (On Black Twitter): Second screening of ‘How to get away with murder’ as a discourse on black womanhood
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2017.1303077

Karen Mossberger, Caroline J. Tolbert and Christopher Anderson (2016) The Mobile Internet and Digital Citizenship in African-American and Latino Communities
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2016.1243142

Deborah Gabriel (2016) Blogging while Black, British and Female: a critical study on discursive activism
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2016.1146784

Seeta Pena Gangadharan and Jedrzej Niklas (2019) Decentering Technology in Discourse on Discrimination
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2019.1593484

Correa, T. and Jeong, S.H. (2010) Race and Online Content Creation: Why minorities are actively participating in the Web
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2010.514355

Kanjere, A. (2018) Defending race privilege on the Internet: how whiteness uses innocence discourse online
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2018.1477972

Lu. J.H., and Steele, C.K. (2019) ‘Joy as resistance’: cross-platform resilience and (re)invention of Black oral culture online
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2019.1575449

Book Reviews:

Yan Wang (2018) Constructing Digital Cultures: Tweets, trends, race and gender by Judith E. Rosenbaum
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2018.1550098?src=recsys

Kinga Polynczuk-Alenius (2019) Algorithms of Oppression: How search engines reinforce racism by Safya Umoja Noble
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2019.1593485?af=R

Jon

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News of the Week; June 3, 2020

By Jon Festinger on June 20, 2020

DIGITAL

  1. Russian hackers are exploiting bug that gives control of US servers
  2. White House, Trump accounts both get Twitter rulebreaker warning
  3. No, Twitter Fact Checking The President Is Not Evidence Of Anti-Conservative Bias
  4. Facebook employees revolt over Zuckerberg’s stance on Trump
  5. Employees, civil rights groups blast Facebook inaction on Trump statements
  6. Facebook’s Oversight Board Can’t Intervene, So Stop Asking
  7. President Trump’s Executive Order
  8. Trump Prepares Order to Limit Social Media Companies’ Protections: The move is almost certain to face a court challenge and signals the latest salvo by President Trump to crack down on online platforms.
  9. A Quick Take on the May 26 Executive Order on Platforms and CDA 230
  10. Executive Order “Clarifies” (Rewrites) Online Speech Protections
  11. Trump’s “Preventing Online Censorship” Executive Order Is Pro-Censorship Political Theater (Eric Goldman)
  12. The Two Things To Understand About Trump’s Executive Order On Social Media: (1) It’s A Distraction (2) It’s Legally Meaningless
  13. Executive order targeting social media companies unlikely to change foundational internet law
  14. Section 230 Executive Order Strikes Back at Twitter, But Legal Impact Likely to be Limited
  15. Trump’s Executive Order Targeting Social Platforms Could Hurt “Internet Freedom,” Google Says
  16. President Trump’s Social Media Executive Order Would Restrict Legal Protections for Internet Speech
  17. Trump Issues Executive Order Aimed at Curtailing Online Platforms’ Immunity for User Generated Content
  18. Executive Order Aimed at Restricting Civil Liability Protections Afforded to Social Media Companies
  19. The Implications of Trump’s Executive Order and Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act
  20. The President’s Executive Order on Online Media – What Does Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act Provide?
  21. Trump is desperate to punish Big Tech but has no good way to do it
  22. Leaked draft details Trump’s likely attack on technology giants
  23. Joe Biden Wastes A Huge Opportunity To Support Free Speech; Still Wants To ‘Revoke’ Section 230
  24. The Communications Decency Act Suddenly Is Center Stage Again
  25. Why the USMCA Locks in the Internet Platform Liability System in the U.S., Canada and Mexico (Michael Geist)
  26. Trump’s Final Executive Order On Social Media Deliberately Removed Reference To Importance Of Newspapers To Democracy
  27. Zuckerberg dismisses fact-checking after bragging about fact-checking
  28. Mark Zuckerberg’s Ridiculously Wrong, Misleading, And Self-Serving Statements Regarding Twitter Fact-Checking The President
  29. New Study Finds No Evidence Of Anti-Conservative Bias In Facebook Moderation (If Anything, It’s The Opposite)
  30. Are Targeted Ads the Result of Wiretapping? Facebook Asks the Ninth Circuit to Reconsider.
  31. DC Appeals Court Dumps Lawsuit Claiming Multiple Tech Companies Are Engaged In An Anti-Conservative Conspiracy
  32. Court Rejects Another Lawsuit Alleging that Internet Companies Suppress Conservative Views–Freedom Watch v. Google (Eric Goldman)
  33. Court’s Enforcement of Hybrid Clickwrap Agreement to Defeat TCPA Claim Provides Lessons for Marketers
  34. Consent in online contexts – the German Federal Court of Justice’s decision on Planet49 and Facebook
  35. Red Pills and NPCs: How geek culture become political (Andres Guadamuz)
  36. Nest users now covered by Google’s ultra-secure Advanced Protection Program
  37. FDA and FTC Joint Warning Letters Target Amazon Affiliates Making False COVID-19 Claims
  38. Court Discovers Rare and Elusive “Enforceable Browsewrap”
  39. Big Tech goes on pandemic M&A spree despite political backlash
  40. Everyone’s ordering delivery, but apps aren’t making money
  41. Western Digital gets sued for sneaking SMR disks into its NAS channel: WD clearly underestimated the consumer outrage they’d face over SMR disks.
  42. Are Google’s cookies crumbling?
  43. Amid YouTube’s Pivot Away From Scripted Originals, Axed ‘Step Up’ Series Dances On At Starz
  44. Top 50 Most Viewed US YouTube Channels • Week Of 5/25/2020
  45. YouTube makes video chapters official
  46. YouTube Fully Rolls Out ‘Chapters’ For Easier Video Navigation And Re-Watching
  47. YouTube Squads Up Dozens Of Creators—Including Typical Gamer, Daithi De Nogla, CouRage—For Charity ‘Warzone’ Tournament
  48. Insights: HBO Max May Change A Lot, And Complicate A Lot More
  49. How Social Media Usage Of Popular DIY Hashtags Has Changed
  50. Video Messaging Startup ‘Loom’ Closes $29 Million Funding Round At $350 Million Valuation
  51. TikTok Taps Bill Nye, Lilly Singh, Tyra Banks For $50 Million Educational Content Initiative
  52. Chinese Tech Giant ByteDance Reportedly Working To Bring TikTok’s Operations Stateside
  53. 3D printing in the time of COVID-19: A triad of legal perspectives
  54. International Norms Governing Behaviour in Cyberspace: The UN’s Charter
  55. Website Terms and Conditions: More Important than Ever

A.I.

  1. ACLU sues facial recognition firm Clearview AI, calling it a ‘nightmare scenario’ for privacy: Alleging Clearview violated a well-known Illinois biometric privacy law
  2. Clearview Says Section 230 Immunizes It From Vermont’s Lawsuit Over Alleged Privacy Violations
  3. Securus Quietly Settles Lawsuit Over Illegally Spying On Inmate Attorney Conversations
  4. Microsoft sacks journalists to replace them with robots: Users of the homepages of the MSN website and Edge browser will now see news stories generated by AI
  5. Walmart employees are out to show its anti-shoplifting AI doesn’t work
  6. With a Side of Knowledge podcast talks AI, bias with race and technology expert Mutale Nkonde
  7. How Artificial Intelligence Can Comply with the Federal Trade Commission Act
  8. Patent Law Alert – AI Machines Are Not Human Inventors
  9. Protecting AI and machine-learning inventions

COMMUNICATIONS

  1. AT&T exempts HBO Max from data caps but still limits your Netflix use: AT&T-owned HBO Max gets special treatment on AT&T network.
  2. Net Neutrali-what? AT&T’s New Streaming Service Won’t Count Against Its Broadband Caps. But Netflix Will.
  3. AT&T’s Streaming Headaches Continue As Contract Feuds Keep New TV Service Off Amazon, Roku
  4. FCC Republican excitedly endorses Trump’s crackdown on social media
  5. Last Minute Addition To Louisiana Bill Hamstrings Community Broadband
  6. A $350 “anti-5G” device is just a 128MB USB stick, teardown finds: 5GBioShield uses “quantum nano-layer technology” to restructure reality itself.
  7. Robocalls Down 50% in Eight Months!: How Changes in Technology and Regulator Priorities Have Accomplished What Lawsuits Never Could
  8. FCC Waives Broad Outreach Recruitment Requirements to Allow Re-hiring of Employees Laid Off Due to COVID-19
  9. What’s New in 5G – June 2020

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

  1. JAVEX vs. JAVELO – Federal Court of Appeal applies Vavilov to first Trademark Opposition Appeal
  2. Lawsuit over online book lending could bankrupt Internet Archive
  3. Italian Public Prosecutor Says Project Gutenberg’s Collection Of Public Domain Books Must Be Blocked For Copyright Infringement
  4. Nothing “Fishy” About Use of Children’s Song “Fish Sticks n’ Tater Tots” in Documentary about Burlesque Dancers, Court Rules
  5. Chalk this One Up to the Utilitarian Nature of a Toy Chalk Holder
  6. Southern District of New York: Embedding Public Instagram Post Does Not Infringe Photographer’s Copyright
  7. Leonard v Nike: Copyright in the Klaw
  8. District Court Mostly Refuses To Terminate The Litigation Testing The Copyright Termination Provision
  9. Protection of store layout under copyright law: the KIKO case
  10. Defendant Must Prove that Copied Portion of Copyrighted Work is Unprotectable
  11. Open Source Software: the Affero GPL, the ‘as a Service’ world and the CAL
  12. SpaceX launch footage was taken down thanks to bogus copyright claim
  13. Just As The Copyright Office Tries To Ignore The Problem Of Bad Takedowns, NBC & Disney Take Down NASA’s Public Domain Space Launch
  14. Copyright Blocks Interview Of Protesters Because Marvin Gaye’s ‘Let’s Get It On’ Was Playing In The Background
  15. Copyright Office Finds DCMA Tilts Away From Copyright Owners; Will Congress Act to Change That?
  16. Conducting Your Way Through Music Licensing: The Most Common Issues
  17. In The Midst Of A Pandemic And Widespread Unrest, Senate Republicans Think It’s Time To Use Copyright To Make The Richest Musicians Richer
  18. Reversing Examining Attorney, TTAB Gives the Green Light to Color Mark Application
  19. Private Prison Company Sues Netflix Over Use Of Logo In ‘Messiah’
  20. Down N’ Out – Down on their luck
  21. Lucky Brand Strikes Gold After SCOTUS Rejects Marcel’s Defense Preclusion Argument
  22. Are GODIVA’s “Belgium 1926” Chocolates Made in Belgium?
  23. Amended Patented Medicines Regulations will come into force on 1 January 2021
  24. Federal Circuit: Patent Eligibility Turns on the Content – Not Length – of the Claims
  25. EPO: Plants and Plant Materials Not Patentable if Exclusively Obtained by Essentially Biological Process
  26. EPO does not follow the US and JEM on Patentability of Plants
  27. Our Top 5 Added Matter Drafting Tips
  28. The importance of IP due diligence

PRIVACY

  1. Federal Court Says Sneaking A Warrantless Peek At A Cellphone Lock Screen Violates The Fourth Amendment
  2. Privacy and breach of confidence cases against the media
  3. Arizona AG Sues Google For Location Data Failures, After Telecom Got A Wrist Slap For Far Worse Behavior
  4. iPhone privacy prompts discriminate against non-Apple apps, complaint says
  5. iPhone looters find devices disabled, with a warning they’re being tracked
  6. Cisco security breach hits corporate servers that ran unpatched software
  7. Ransomware gang is auctioning off victims’ confidential data
  8. German Constitutional Court Says Unjustified Surveillance Of Foreign Citizens Is Illegal

CREATIVITY   

  1. California Anti-SLAPP Law Gives Rachel Maddow An Early Exit From Conservative News Network’s Bogus Libel Lawsuit
  2. Lenny Dykstra Deemed ‘Libel-Proof’ In Defamation Suit Loss To Ron Darling And Publisher
  3. Some Thoughts About Combating Racist Content in Advertising
  4. Dallas PD Asks Residents To Snitch On Protesters, Gets A Load Of K-Pop Videos Instead
  5. Dearth of women in classic Hollywood was result of studio system, study finds
  6. Cops — Newly Wary Of Looking Like Authoritarian Assholes — Open Fire On, Arrest Journalists
  7. Bangladeshi Government Decides There’s No Time Like The Present To Censor/Arrest More Journalists
  8. Scotland’s first “virtual appeal” reaffirms the value of fair comment
  9. SmileDirectClub Sues NBC For $2.85 Billion, Claims Factual Statements And Quotes From Customers Are Defamatory

GAMES

  1. Keepin’ It Real: Courts Recognize the Legitimate Goal of Video Game Makers
  2. Something on Which Even Patent Litigators Can Agree: McRO v. Bandai, Inc. Clarifies the Framework for Enablement Challenges and for Enablement Defenses
  3. EB Games Australia admits to misleading customers over Fallout 76 refunds
  4. EB Games offers refunds for Fallout 76: Retailer admits to Australian Competition and Consumer Commission it likely misled customers over their rights
  5. Games industry speaks out in support of black communities amid violence in US: Microsoft, Sony, and Riot Games among those advocating for the unheard as riots and police brutality rock US cities
  6. Humble is putting $1 million toward publishing games from Black game devs
  7. Game companies delay events, make donations amid police brutality protests
  8. Infinity Ward pledges to “do more” to moderate racist content in its games: Call of Duty developer to add more resources to block hateful content following week of protests, police violence
  9. Gaming’s lost boys embrace their inner censor | Opinion: The Last of Us 2 attracts reactionary fury for depicting diversity — and the erstwhile free speech warriors now find themselves cheering for government censorship
  10. The Outer Worlds writing team honored with Nebula Award 
  11. GWU Seattle calls for removal of GWU International member over ‘exclusionary behavior’
  12. The Last of Us Pt. 2 hands-on: You can’t pet the dog—but you can expect terror
  13. Denuvo security software removed from Doom Eternal and Metro Exodus: Despite speculation, removal of Anti-Cheat and Anti-Tamper was not in response to performance issues
  14. Denuvo’s Anti-Cheat Software Now Getting Ripped From Games At Record Speed Too
  15. CS:GO tournament victors banned for cheating: Eagle-eyed viewers catch cheaters after technical issue left flaw in tournament’s anti-cheat measures
  16. The unexpected and creative ways devs are dealing with remote work
  17. Sony delays June PS5 event ‘to stand back and allow more important voices to be heard’
  18. PlayStation 5 games to be revealed on June 4th: Over an hour of new games to be shown next week
  19. Sony’s Jim Ryan: “We are going to launch PS5 this holiday and we’re going to launch globally”: PlayStation on how COVID-19 has (and hasn’t) changed its launch plans for its next console
  20. Sony says after July 13th, new PS4 games must be PS5 compatible
  21. New PS4 games must also run on PlayStation 5 from July, Sony tells devs: Updates to existing games “strongly recommended” to add compatibility.
  22. Sony requires PS5 compatibility for all future PS4 releases: Games submitted for certification after July 13 must be playable on upcoming console
  23. Xbox Series X will add HDR support to backwards compatible titles
  24. Xbox Series X backward compatibility will add HDR, 120 fps support to older games: Thousands of games will be supported on the next-gen Xbox
  25. Phil Spencer says Xbox Series X on track for worldwide launch this holiday: Xbox boss discusses plans upcoming next-gen console on former Nintendo president Reggie Fils-Aime’s podcast
  26. Double Fine winding down Presents publishing label following Microsoft purchase
  27. Google’s “overpromising” led to Stadia “disappointment,” says RDR2 publisher: If you’re paying $60 for a game, “are you really unwilling to buy a $300 console?”
  28. Sega reveals Game Gear Micro: Miniature retro handheld confirmed for October Japan launch in four colors, each with a different selection of four games
  29. Sega’s tiny Game Gear Micro is 92% smaller than the original
  30. 30 years later, a lost Days of Thunder NES game recovered from 21 floppy disks
  31. Codemasters secures FIA World Rally Championship license from 2023
  32. Codemasters to create games based on the World Rally Championship: Racing game specialist signs five-year licensing deal
  33. Professional Race Car Driver Hires Expert Gamer To Race His Video Game Car
  34. EA renews Madden NFL license through 2026
  35. EA renews NFL, NFLPA deal: Multi-year agreement ensures Madden NFL will continue to be the only simulation title with the licenses of the league and its players association
  36. EA maintains exclusive Madden NFL license in multiyear renewal: NFL, NFLPA extend long-term deals for simulation football video games
  37. If GTA5 keeps selling, would Take-Two wait to launch GTA6?: CEO Strauss Zelnick responds to concerns of the publisher cannibalizing its own successes
  38. Take-Two tried to poach entire Kerbal 2 dev team as it cancelled deal with their studio
  39. Star Theory reportedly shutters after Take-Two takes over Kerbal Space Program 2: Lack of other projects and GDC’s cancellation force studio to close in March
  40. NetEase to open secondary listing on Hong Kong stock exchange: New listing approved, Chinese publisher reportedly hopes to raise $3 billion
  41. Rovio acquires (and rebrands) Darkfire Heroes dev Darkfire Games
  42. Zynga acquires mobile gaming company Peak for $1.8 billion
  43. Zynga acquires Toon Blast and Toy Blast developer Peak for $1.8 billion
  44. Zynga to acquire Toon Blast developer for $1.8bn: Acquisition of Peak Games expected to increase Zynga’s global audience by 60%
  45. African mobile game publisher Carry1st secures $2.5 million to expand operations
  46. CD Projekt starts 2020 off with a record Q1 as The Witcher series continues its reign
  47. The Witcher franchise has crossed 50 million sales
  48. The Witcher series surpasses 50m units sold: That’s up from 40 million around the same time last year
  49. Mobile gaming sees record weekly downloads amid COVID-19 lockdown: Average weekly installs reached 1.2 billion as downloads increase by 35% from January to March 4
  50. David Braben: “Physical games will go away in two to three years” – Frontier CEO says investors see games industry as a “safe haven” during recession at today’s Investment Summit Online
  51. Game discoverability and the Nintendo Switch: What’s selling?
  52. UK boxed games market delivers strongest April in five years: Latest GfK figures show PS4, Xbox One and Switch sales up 48% for the first four months of 2020
  53. Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition takes No.1 | UK Charts: PlayStation 4 sale shakes up the top 40
  54. Creative Assembly launching Total War Saga: Troy for free on the Epic Games Store
  55. Sweeney: EGS free game promos boost a game’s Steam and console sales too
  56. Steam Cloud Play beta lets developers enable GeForce Now integration
  57. Nvidia launches opt-in process for GeForce Now: Hardware manufacturer responds after multiple game companies pulled their catalogues from its streaming service
  58. Roblox’s continuing construction of a social, creative space: Matthew Curtis talks about prioritising better monetization, discoverability, and technology for the platform’s creators
  59. Avakin Life reaches 1.4m daily active users: Online virtual world and social app now has 200 million registered users since 2013 launch
  60. Life is Strange developer Dontnod opens new studio in Canada
  61. Dontnod Entertainment opens new Canadian studio: Life is Strange developer alludes to new projects at its first international studio
  62. Just Cause developer Avalanche is opening a new UK studio 
  63. Avalanche opens new UK studio: New Liverpool-based developer expected to house 50 staff by 2022
  64. Paradox to sign collective bargaining agreement with Swedish labor unions
  65. Paradox opens studio in Barcelona to focus on grand strategy development
  66. Paradox opening Barcelona studio: Europa Universalis designer Johan Andersson will lead Paradox Tinto efforts on grand strategy games
  67. Lego Ventures: Fortnite is the “first credible metaverse”
  68. Bandai Namco cancels support for physical 2020 World Tour events: COVID-19 pushes Tekken, Soulcalibur, and Dragon Ball FighterZ tournaments to digital venues
  69. One Month After the ‘Half-Life: Alyx’ Surge, VR Usage on Steam Remains at Record High
  70. Magic Leap Founder Rony Abovitz to Step Down as CEO
  71. Magic Leap CEO Ronny Abovitz to step down: Abovitz will continue as CEO until a replacement is found, and remain on the board after the transition
  72. HTC co-founder reveals new VR headset and social platform: Priced at $599, Mova headset offers hand-tracking and 5G while social platform Manova makes big promises
  73. VGDC: Brandon Sheffield’s ‘All Time Greats’ article/video picks
  74. Q&A: Storytelling through erasure in the astonishingly unique If Found
  75. Video: Achieving high-quality game VFX on mobile devices
  76. Video: Building intrinsically motivated teams via self-determination theory
  77. Don’t Miss: Inside the narrative design of Star Wars Battlefront 2
  78. Don’t Miss: A look back on the usefulness of video game manuals
  79. Don’t Miss: Creator Alexey Pajitnov on the past, present, and future of Tetris
  80. Blog: Lessons from the history of mobile 4X strategy
  81. Blog: Understanding open world level design – Part 2
  82. Blog: Understanding open world level design – Part 3
  83. Blog: Understanding open world level design – Part 4
  84. Blog: A level design breakdown of the Ghost of Tsushima trailer
  85. Blog: Can Amazon’s first big-budget game succeed as a slow-burner?
  86. Obituary: Darklands creator Arnold Hendrick
  87. Control, Sayonara Wild Hearts lead winners of 2020 Nordic Game Awards
  88. U.S. Patent no. 10,322,336: Haptic braille output for a game controller

Jon

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News of the Week; May 27, 2020

By Jon Festinger on June 19, 2020

DIGITAL

  1. ‘Trump’s executive order expected to target Twitter, Facebook and Google
  2. President to Unveil Executive Order to Address CDA Section 230 Protections
  3. Newsweek Publishes Facts Optional, Wronger Than Wrong, Piece About Section 230
  4. So Wait, People Really Think The Barr DOJ’s Investigation Into Google Is In Good Faith?
  5. Why Content Moderation Codes Are More Guidelines Than Rules
  6. Proposed bill would ban microtargeting of political advertisements: Just because ads can be targeted to individuals doesn’t mean they should be.
  7. Facebook Pays Multimillion Dollar Penalty in First Case in Canada to Subject Privacy Policies to Misleading Advertising Laws
  8. Facebook Executives Shut Down Efforts to Make the Site Less Divisive: The social-media giant internally studied how it polarizes users, then largely shelved the research
  9. Bombshell report: Facebook has known that it is fomenting extremism for years — and refuses to stop
  10. Plaintiffs Push For Preliminary Approval Of $550 Million Settlement In Facebook Privacy Class Action
  11. Grandmother ordered to delete Facebook photos under GDPR: Woman must delete photographs of her grandchildren posted on Facebook and Pinterest without their parents’ permission, a court in the has ruled.
  12. Facebook launches independent “Oversight Board” for hate speech, harassment and privacy
  13. Mr Zuckerberg, Tear Down My Wall
  14. Facebook workers get remote work option—but it could come with a pay cut
  15. Former NSO Employees Says The Company Impersonated Facebook To Deploy Malware
  16. Twitter’s first fact-check on President Trump calls out “false claims”
  17. Trump Is a Problem That Twitter Cannot Fix: When a duly elected president is bent on spreading misinformation, tech companies can rein him in only so much.
  18. Twitter Grapples Anew With Its Trump Conundrum: The social media company came under fire — again — for not removing Mr. Trump’s posts that contain falsehoods.
  19. Trump, Twitter, And Free Speech
  20. When The Problem Isn’t Twitter But President Trump
  21. Delayed implementation but the UK Government remains committed to regulating online harms
  22. Neighbouring rights: interim measures imposed on Google in the press sector
  23. Democrats want to restrict political ad targeting ahead of the 2020 election: Time is running out for new rules to apply to this election
  24. The Boogaloo Movement Is Not What You Think
  25. Keeping up with the Kardashians in “Kuarantine”
  26. The FTC: Influencing the Future of the Influencers
  27. Deletion Of Comments Criticizing Chinese Government Was A Contextual Error, YouTube Says
  28. YouTube auto-deletes comments with phrases critical of Chinese government
  29. YouTube Is Considering Letting Creators Self-Limit The Reach Of Their Videos To Lessen Harassment
  30. ViacomCBS Snaps Up John Krasinski’s YouTube Web Series ‘Some Good News,’ Will Produce Future Episodes With New Host
  31. How Does John Krasinski’s Newly Sold ‘Some Good News’ Stack Up Against Late-Night Shows?
  32. U.K.-Based YouTube Prankster Morgz Signs With A3 Artists Agency (Exclusive)
  33. Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 5/25/2020
  34. YouTube Kids App Arrives On Apple TV
  35. BuzzFeed’s Latest ‘Unsolved’ Season Scares Up Record YouTube Traffic
  36. Netflix Cancels ‘Terrace House’ Production After Death Of Star Hana Kimura
  37. Instagram Finally Brings In Monetization For (Some) Creators With Purchasable Badges, IGTV Ads
  38. Amid Pandemic, Target Says It’s The First Mass Retailer To Launch Shoppable Instagram Posts
  39. SDNY: Instagram Sublicense Protects Against Liability for Embedding of Public Posts
  40. Addressing Possible Limits of COPPA Safe Harbors
  41. Insights: Will Apple Plusing Up Its Streaming Service Set Off Another Round Of Hollywood Consolidation?
  42. Fanbytes Launches ByteHouse, TikTok’s First U.K.-Based Creator Collective
  43. Fullscreen Looks Beyond YouTube For Latest Fully-Managed Talent Signings
  44. Digital News Network ‘The Young Turks’ Launches Twitch Channel
  45. We Lose A Lot When Podcasts Go Closed Instead Of Open
  46. Intel acquires Rivet, maker of Killer Wireless-AC gaming Wi-Fi gear
  47. Crypto hedge funds struggle to recover from “bloodbath”
  48. Gears of war: When mechanical analog computers ruled the waves
  49. Privacy and Zambonis in the Age of COVID-19: My Ian Kerr Memorial Lecture (Michael Geist)

A.I.

  1. After watching 50,000 hours of Pac-Man, Nvidia’s AI generated a playable clone
  2. The Intersection of Artificial Intelligence, COVID-19, and Copyright
  3. Recent FTC Guidance on the Use of Artificial Intelligence and Algorithms in the Age of COVID-19
  4. A Neurophilosophy of Big Data & Civil Liberties, and the Need for a New Social Contract
  5. Uncovering the secrets of Alien: Isolation’s AI

COMMUNICATIONS

  1. Looking at Changes to the FCC’s Public Notice Requirements for Broadcast Applications
  2. FCC to Consider Exemption of TV Broadcast Internet Services from Broadcast Ownership Rules and Regulations for ATSC 3.0 Non-Broadcast Services
  3. FCC Issues NPRM Aimed at One-Ring Scam Phone Calls
  4. Selective decoupling: phasing out domestic deployment of Chinese telecoms technology
  5. Team Telecom emerges from shadows and FCC cracks down on Chinese telecoms companies
  6. Making Internet service a utility—what’s the worst that could happen?
  7. New Study Tries, Fails, To Claim Community Broadband Is An Inevitable Boondoggle
  8. The FCC’s ‘Contest Rule’ and how it may affect your sweepstakes
  9. AT&T still refuses to kill misleading 5GE network icon for 4G service
  10. AT&T Won’t Stop Lying About ‘Fake 5G’
  11. Verizon Tries To Temper 5G Enthusiasm After Report Clearly Shows US 5G Is Slow, Lame
  12. OpenSignal compares 5G experiences across ten major carriers
  13. Legal challenge to OFCOM’s 5G network auction
  14. Let’s Talk About ‘Neutrality’ — And How Math Works

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

  1. Clorox v Chloretec: The Application of Vavilov in the Trademarks Context
  2. Chalk One Up to the Knock-Off
  3. Pencil Shaped Chalk Holder Is a Non-Copyrightable Idea
  4. Led Zeppelin‘s Stairway to Heaven found not to infringe copyright in Spirit’s instrumental, Taurus
  5. The Second Circuit Affirms the Dismissal of Copyright Claims against Seinfeld over Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee
  6. Second Circuit Limits Copyright Damages To Three Years Preceding Suit
  7. Copyright Damages Limited to Three Years Before Lawsuit Filing
  8. Paparazzi Suit Victims Try Unconventional Plays
  9. And the winner of the prize for best legal click bait headline from the NYT so far this year is …
  10. How A Feud Among Wolf-Kink Erotica FanFic Authors Demonstrates What The Copyright Office Got Wrong In Its DMCA Report
  11. Jerry Seinfeld Gets To Keep Driving Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee*
  12. Justices form unique alliances in holding Georgia’s annotated code not protected by copyright; Thomas dissent presses for closer review of precedent
  13. U.S. Supreme Court: States Cannot Copyright Legal Code Annotations
  14. Eighth Circuit Holds Business Information Database Copyrightable, Affirming $11.2 Million Jury Verdict
  15. CRS Examines IP Rights Abroad, Considers State Sovereign Immunity in Copyright Suits
  16. The rental of cars fitted with radio receivers does not constitute an act of unauthorised communication of musical works to the public (case c-753/18)
  17. Copyright Office Finds Aspects of the DMCA “Unbalanced” in Favor of Online Service Providers
  18. Designs and copyright protection: UK drifts closer towards Europe
  19. Stretching Copyright: Protecting online fitness workouts
  20. Lack of evidence of non-use and confusion result in POKEWORKS trademark remaining on the register
  21. Three Point Shot: Jordan’s Last Dance in Trademark Dispute Scores Big in Chinese Top Court
  22. Some Brands Have All the Luck
  23. US Supreme Court Rejects ‘Defense Preclusion’ in Trademark Suit
  24. Supreme Court Clarifies Concept of Defense Preclusion Through Lucky Brand Trademark Battle
  25. Supreme Court Rules Defense Not Barred in Subsequent Action Involving Different Trademarks, Conduct and Claims
  26. Recent Federal Court Decision Reaffirms Exceptions to First Sale Doctrine for Brands Bringing Trademark Claims Against Unauthorized Resellers
  27. Tax Service’s Registered Trademark’s Suggestiveness Presented Jury Question
  28. Replacing Rogers Test with “Genuine Artistic Motive” Test Doesn’t Change the Finale in Dispute Over WILD AMERICA
  29. The Impact of Romag Fasteners Inc. v. Fossil Inc.: Willfulness Is Not Required For An Award Of Profits In Trademark Infringement
  30. What the Supreme Court’s Romag Decision means for trademark infringement and damages
  31. ‘Maybe’ Is Not Enough: Foreign Business Fails to Obtain Declaratory Judgment for Potential Use of Trademark
  32. Third judgement in Sky v SkyKick – Louise Foster and Sarah Darby provide some take-away thoughts
  33. Tiger King Trademark Troubles
  34. A Lesson From Tiger King: Corporate Separateness
  35. General Court “shades” some light on 3D trademark registration
  36. Can you trademark a design in the EU?
  37. The Intersection of Trademarks and Open Source
  38. Trademarks rocket while designs level off: UKIPO releases latest annual filings data
  39. Pepper trumps Broccoli: EPO finds products produced by essentially biological processes are not patentable
  40. A Dynamic Reversal by the EPO’s Enlarged Board of Appeal
  41. Joint Inventorship Claim for Online Dating Patent Ends in Heartbreak, Attorneys’ Fees Award
  42. Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality Litigation Update: AR Design Innovations Litigations
  43. Determining the Article of Manufacture in Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality Design Patents
  44. Design Patents: An Underutilized Tool for Protecting Sporting Goods
  45. Rise in extended reality technology patents suggests market revival
  46. Common Patent Misconceptions – Myth #3: My idea is too obvious for patenting.
  47. Clarifying the patentability of medical use inventions in China
  48. Intellectual Property Issue-Spotting: Common Themes in Recent Ad Campaigns
  49. Federal Circuit Patent Update
  50. Protecting intellectual property in the fashion industry – debunking the myths – PART ONE: copyright and patents
  51. Protecting intellectual property in the fashion industry – debunking the myths – PART TWO: Unregistered Design Rights and Registered Designs
  52. Protecting intellectual property in the fashion industry – debunking the myths – PART THREE: Registered and Unregistered Trade Marks
  53. Copyright protection of fashion designs in Spain after Cofemel

PRIVACY

  1. Facebook Pays Multimillion Dollar Penalty in First Case in Canada to Subject Privacy Policies to Misleading Advertising Laws
  2. Just turning your phone on qualifies as searching it, court rules
  3. After FBI Successfully Breaks Into IPhones, Bill Barr Says It’s Time For Legislated Encryption Backdoors
  4. S-Town Podcast Lawsuit Settled – Reminder on Getting Releases from Podcast Subjects
  5. Banks Get Payout From Equifax Hack While Consumers Still Wait For Compensation
  6. The Grubman Ransomware Attack and What It Means for the Cyber Risks That You May Face
  7. Senate Talking Points Say Warrantless Collection Of Internet Use Data Keeps Terrorists From Killing Us
  8. Digital Media and the Right to Be Forgotten
  9. Court Tells Grandma To Delete Photos Of Grandkids On Facebook For Violating The GDPR
  10. Yes, This Site Uses Cookies, Because Nearly All Sites Use Cookies, And We’re Notifying You Because We’re Told We Have To

CREATIVITY   

  1. FTC Sues Negative Option Marketers
  2. Judge Dismisses Half-Baked False Advertising Claims Against Ghirardelli
  3. Judge Sends Devin Nunes’ SLAPP Suits Against CNN And Washington Post Off To Their Proper Venues
  4. The Law of Defamation and Political Advertising Argued in Trump Suit Against Wisconsin TV Station
  5. Bakker Claims Coronavirus Prosecution Attacks His Faith
  6. Kansas City penguins delight in their first art history lesson

GAMES

  1. Manchester United sues Sega over Football Manager trademark use: Sega and developer Sports Interactive reply that club’s name, logo have been used since 1992 “without complaint”
  2. Rainbow Six: Siege clone Area F2 has been taken offline following lawsuit from Ubisoft
  3. The Last of Us Part 2 reportedly banned in the Middle East: Upcoming hit believed to be “banned by the competent authorities” of United Arab Emirates and Saudia Arabia
  4. Naughty Dog uses new Twitter feature to block Last of Us Part II spoilers
  5. FTC Settles with Digital Game Company Over Allegedly False COPPA Safe Harbor Claims
  6. G2A confirms stolen game key sales, pays $40,000 to Factorio devs
  7. G2A to pay Factorio dev $39,600 after allowing illegal game key sales
  8. Hackers infect multiple game developers with advanced malware
  9. First Amendment May Protect Use of Trademarks As Artistic Expression: AM General LLC v. Activision Blizzard, Inc. et al.
  10. EA and NFL to extend partnership until 2025: Madden publisher could have exclusivity for football simulation games until 2026 if series “achieves certain revenue goals”
  11. EA is releasing the source code for Command & Conquer: Red Alert and Tiberian Dawn
  12. EA releasing source code for Command & Conquer and Red Alert: Code will go open source alongside Remastered Collection next month
  13. Nintendo Escapes Digital Pre-Order Dispute in EU
  14. A Place Where We Can Be Together: Animal Crossing has become a place for weddings and graduations
  15. Animal Crossing: New Horizons sold 3.6m digital units in April – It’s now the top Nintendo Switch title in lifetime digital sales and digital revenue
  16. Game Discoverability & The Nintendo Switch: Where We’re At
  17. COVID-19: Video games good for mental health during pandemic, says U of S prof
  18. NPD: US console sales in April up 163% to $420m – Video games hardware and software generated $1.5 billion last month, making it the biggest April on record
  19. Report: Video game sales increased by 73% in April, setting new records for the month (NPD Group)
  20. Worldwide digital games market: April 2020 – Game spending totaled a record-breaking $10.5B in April 2020, showing the continued strength of the medium during the COVID-19 crisis.
  21. U.S. console-hardware spending hits mammoth $420 million in April
  22. App Annie: Mobile gaming will widen its lead over console and PC titles in 2020
  23. Nexon CEO: COVID-19 has spotlighted gaming’s importance – Owen Mahoney suggests that gaming’s resilience in the face of pandemic is reflective of its broader role within entertainment
  24. The giants of the video game industry have thrived in the pandemic. Can the success continue?
  25. How COVID-19 is taking gaming and esports to the next level
  26. Don’t expect huge change in the post-COVID industry | Opinion: Expectations of radical change in the wake of the pandemic are overblown — in-person working will remain the default paradigm
  27. Why games firms are ready to go back to the office | Podcast: We discuss recent comments from Satya Nadella and Strauss Zelnick, plus PlayStation Now vs Xbox Game Pass
  28. As traffic hits all-time high, Jackbox adjusting to dev’ing from home
  29. The IGDA debuts standards, reporting system to curb bad industry behavior
  30. IGDA: “We’re not looking to call people out — we’re looking to improve the industry” – Renee Gittins on the IGDA’s push to tackle crunch, diversity and more with a database of reported bad behaviour
  31. UK Charts: Maneater debuts at No.6 as Nintendo dominates: Animal Crossing and Mario Kart claim the top two positions
  32. Seven Deadly Sins push Netmarble Q1 revenues up – The Seven Deadly Sins: Grand Cross became the mobile publisher’s second biggest game less than a month after worldwide launch
  33. How the Dauntless community taught Phoenix Labs about trust: Phoenix Labs’ Nick Clifford explores the value of building lasting relationships within your community, and how to get there
  34. Amplifier Game Invest acquires Italian developer DestinyBit
  35. Little Nightmares has sold over 2 million copies worldwide 
  36. Don’t expect next-gen console launches in China anytime soon | Opinion: The suspension of the PlayStation Store in China underlines the problems that Sony and Microsoft continue to face, says Apptutti’s Daniel Camilo
  37. Stadia exclusivity pushes PS4, Xbox One versions of Serious Sam 4 into 2021: Croteam’s upcoming shooter will launch on Google’s streaming service and Steam in August
  38. Xbox Family Settings app will help parents manage their kids’ gaming habits
  39. Xbox boosts responsible gaming strategy with Family Settings app: The platform holder discusses the evolution of its safety ecosystem and the new family features developed for its app
  40. After some high-profile opt outs, Nvidia GeForce Now swaps to an opt-in library
  41. Naughty Dog tests new Twitter feature to limit The Last of Us Part 2 spoilers: PlayStation studio cuts off replies following social media abuse over upcoming blockbuster
  42. Gamestream raises $3.8 million to grow its B2B-focused cloud gaming platform
  43. Gamestream raises €3.5m to build up B2B cloud gaming technology: Eponyme Partners leads investment round in turnkey cloud gaming service
  44. Game companies in Spain to benefit from $21.9 million in protective financing
  45. Spanish game devs to benefit from €20m in government finance: Culture industries hit by COVID-19 pandemic can apply for financing on “beneficial” terms
  46. Italy announces fund to support country’s game studios during COVID-19 crisis
  47. Italian government approves €4m fund for games developers: Trade body IIDEA’s First Playable Fund will offer up to €200,000 per prototype
  48. Slovakian games industry has nearly doubled in size since 2016: Fledgling sector expected to turnover €55 million in 2020
  49. CD Projekt’s market cap rivals Ubisoft — but not for much longer | Opinion: Polish publisher is riding high on The Witcher and Cyberpunk, but Ubisoft is about to emerge from a year of uncertainty with five AAA launches
  50. Tencent will be “taking the System Shock franchise forward”: OtherSide Entertainment’s role on the third game unclear after deal with the Chinese publisher
  51. Tencent acquires 20% stake in Marvelous, Inc.
  52. Tencent acquires 20% stake in Story of Seasons dev Marvelous for $65 million
  53. Tencent takes 20% stake in Marvelous for $65m: Investment from Chinese giant will enable Story of Seasons developer to build new and existing IP
  54. PlatinumGames dispels rumors that Microsoft is buying it – Atsushi Inaba: “That conversation has not come to our doorstep at all”
  55. Cheating in Esports tournaments – legal arguments for discouraging bad players
  56. Audi parks driver for using a ringer in charity esports race
  57. League of Legends putting ads on the playfield: Viewers of official esports matches will see Mastercard, Alienware, other brands featured on in-game banners
  58. The E-Sports and Gaming Industries Offer Vital Tools to Musicians in the Wake of COVID-19
  59. Ninja Launches Star-Studded, Six-Week ‘Fortnite’ Tournament On His Mixer Channel
  60. Ninja Teams With Killer Merch For Clothing Brand Relaunch, ‘Fortnite’ Capsule, Future Streetwear Drops
  61. Amazon Games and Bandai Namco are bringing a free Pac-Man game to Twitch
  62. Twitch signs three more exclusivity deals with top streamers: Streaming platform wars escalate as Summit1G, Dakotaz and JoshOG commit to multi-year partnerships with Twitch
  63. Twitch Inks Exclusive Streaming And Appearance Deals With Summit1G, Dakotaz, JoshOG
  64. Twitch Launches New Corporate Channel Dedicated To Gaming News, Event Coverage, More
  65. Fortnite is morphing into a movie theater with help from Christopher Nolan
  66. Christopher Nolan Premieres ‘Tenet’ Trailer Inside Fortnite, With Another Film Arriving In-Game This Summer
  67. With Theaters Closed, The Trailer For Christopher Nolan’s ‘Tenet’ Debuts In Fortnite Instead
  68. CAA Signs Facebook Gaming Creator Jonna Mae (Exclusive)
  69. Markiplier And Jacksepticeye’s Clothing Brand Cloak Digs Up ‘Minecraft’ Partnership
  70. Minecraft Dungeons review: A smashing good Diablo clone for any age
  71. Minecraft Dungeons | Critical Consensus: Mojang is commended for making a kid-friendly action-RPG, but critics question its value for more experienced players
  72. Analyst speculates on Grand Theft Auto release from Take-Two marketing spike: Publisher refutes speculation, saying unusually high marketing commitments for fiscal 2024 are to external parties
  73. AR Pokemon will soon be able to hide behind real-world objects in Pokemon Go
  74. Niantic adds ‘reality blending’ to Pokémon Go to make your virtual pals even more realistic: A new AR feature to make pokémon more believably blend with the environment
  75. Magic Leap raises $350m after mass layoffs: But augmented reality firm withdraws notice regarding potential redundancies for remaining staff
  76. Magic Leap withdraws conditional layoff notices after raising $350 million
  77. Why it took five years to build Lego Super Mario: “The only brief was: do something that only these two companies could do together”
  78. Dread X Collection: Evoking Kojima’s PT in context, not content: Dread XP’s Ted Hentschke says Silent Hill teaser and horror film anthologies inspired his approach to indie horror game dev
  79. How does a hit like Katana Zero change things for a creator?: Juggling multiple projects helped produce Justin Stander’s breakthrough hit, but he’s now looking forward to creating one thing at a time
  80. An extensive look at Maxis’ short stint in serious simulation games
  81. Don’t Miss: A classic game postmortem of Westwood Studios’ Command & Conquer
  82. Don’t Miss: Designing the Elusive Targets system in 2016’s Hitman
  83. Don’t Miss: A postmortem look at how Blizzard built Diablo II
  84. Video: A new strategy for narrative desigers
  85. Blog: Narrative vs. gameplay – A toolbox for harmonious coexistence
  86. Blog: Demystifying C#’s under-utilized superpower for game development
  87. Blog: Launch day depression (and why i’m over it)
  88. Blog: Highlights of global accessibility awareness day 2020
  89. Blog: Why new players matter to indie developers
  90. Blog: Creating stronger bonds between players and NPCs through group conflict
  91. Game Tech Deep Dive: Gears Tactics – When art meets scalability
  92. U.S. Patent no. 10,315,119: Video game with concurrent processing of game-related physical objects
  93. “Abstract Assertion of Breadth” Does Not Prove Non-Enablement: Patent on method of animating faces invideo games

Jon

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