DIGITAL

1. Facebook to pay $9 million penalty to Competition Bureau
2. Misleading Privacy Claims Results in $9 Million Dollar Penalty for Facebook
3. High School Can’t Expel Student for Sharing Memes in Private Snapchat Conversation–JS v. Manheim Township School District (Eric Goldman)
4. Covid-19 Just Triggered The Worst Quarter Ever For Cable TV ‘Cord Cutting’
5. One Of The Few Government Officials Who Actually Can ‘Police Speech’ Whines Ridiculously About Facebook’s Oversight Board
6. TikTok accused of breaching US child privacy regulations
7. TikTok Broke Privacy Promises, Children’s Groups Say: Twenty consumer groups said the video app had failed to make some changes it agreed to carry out last year to settle federal charges.
8. The Architect Behind Disney+, Kevin Mayer, Has Been Named CEO Of TikTok
9. Court Tosses Lawsuit From Man Claiming Twitter Discriminated Against Him For Being A Heterosexual Christian
10. The Associated Press Has Some Explaining To Do About Its ‘Tweeted Contract’ To Reuse Viral Content
11. Failure to delete hate speech could cost Facebook, Google billions in France
12. French Government Passes Hate Speech Law, Will Allow Law Enforcement To Run The Internet
13. Google pledges not to make custom software for oil and gas extraction
14. The COVID-19 misinformation crisis is just beginning, but there is hope
15. Think Tank’s Posting of Substantially Cropped Photo of Heartthrob Governor Constitutes Fair Use
16. Facebook Acquires GIF Database GIPHY In Reported $400 Million Deal
17. Facebook is buying Giphy and integrating it with Instagram: Plans to integrate with Instagram and other apps
18. All your reaction GIFs now belong to Facebook, as it buys Giphy for $400M
19. Facebook takes on Amazon with online shopping venture
20. Luxury and online marketplaces – the next chapter (Coty v Amazon)
21. Man shoots down drone, gets hit with felony charges in Minnesota
22. Doctors Are Tweeting About Coronavirus to Make Facts Go Viral: As dubious Covid-19 claims circulate online, UCSF’s Dr. Bob Wachter and others are taking to Twitter
23. Twitch Reveals 8-Member ‘Safety Advisory Council’ Stocked With Streamers, Cyberbullying Experts
24. How the ‘Plandemic’ Movie and Its Falsehoods Spread Widely Online
25. Big Tech searches for a way back into healthcare: Despite past failures, Google and other tech giants see great promise in the sector
26. Quarantine is a weirdly good time for animation: Going remote is giving animators lots of opportunities to shine.
27. Nvidia ditches Intel, cozies up to AMD with its new DGX A100
28. Huawei’s Google app loophole: Just keep re-releasing old devices
29. Google CEO Sundar Pichai defends Pixel team, says “hardware is hard”
30. Google-Fitbit Merger: Competition concerns and harms to consumers
31. No, CDA 230 Isn’t The Only Thing Keeping Conservatives Off YouTube
32. Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 5/18/2020
33. Top 50 Most Viewed US YouTube Channels • Week Of 5/18/2020
34. John Krasinski Tearfully Takes Hit YouTube Series ‘Some Good News’ On Hiatus
35. YouTube Introduces New Grey ‘Clock’ Monetization Icon So Creators See Less Flip-Flopping
36. YouTube’s First Virtual Brandcast Will Focus On Surging TV Viewership
37. YouTube’s New Screen Time Management Feature Wants You To Go To Bed
38. ‘YouTube Select’ Replaces Google Preferred Ad Program, With New Curated Content Lineups
39. YouTube’s Virtual Graduation Ceremony Adds Beyoncé, Mark Rober, Emma Chamberlain To Lineup
40. YouTube Music Names Latest Class Of Artists To Join Its Exclusive ‘Foundry’ Program
41. Children’s Video Goliath ‘CoComelon’ Pacts With Roku In First Off-YouTube Distribution Deal
42. James Charles’ YouTube Original Isn’t Just A Hit. It’s Catapulting The Channels Of Contestants.
43. The Ad Council Taps Meghan Trainor, Addison Rae, Molly Burke For Mental Health Awareness Month
44. $100 Million Deal Sees Joe Rogan’s Podcast Become A Spotify Exclusive—In Both Video And Audio Form
45. Charli D’Amelio Accidentally Deleted — Then Quickly Reclaimed — Her Massive Instagram Account
46. Houseparty Throws 3-Day Livestreaming Event Featuring Katy Perry, Snoop Dogg, Addison Rae
47. After Years Of Fan Efforts, Zack Snyder’s ‘Justice League’ Cut Is Coming To HBO Max
48. Apple TV+ Breaks From Originals-Only Plan To Acquire Legacy Films, TV Series (Report)
49. Leaker claims to have seen “Apple Glass” AR glasses, details how they’ll work
50. Rumor: Apple AR Glasses Leak Points to Name, Price & Possible Launch Window
51. Apple confirms it bought virtual reality event startup NextVR
52. Apple Confirms Acquisition of VR Live Streaming Company NextVR
53. Apple acquired NextVR, suggesting it still harbors VR ambitions
54. Apple reopens some US stores amid COVID-19, but they’ll work differently
55. Samsung is Terminating Its VR Video Apps on All Devices
56. Zoomism and Discipline for Productive Immobility
57. Content Moderation At Scale Is Impossible: Google Removes Podcast Addict From Play Store Because It Has COVID-19 Related Podcasts
58. Rethinking Digital Platforms for the Post-COVID-19 Era: As COVID-19 is a concern, aspects of daily life will be mediated by platforms that see human interactions as content to be moderated, and data to be monetized
59. Emergency Room Doctor: Getting Best COVID-19 Treatment Ideas Via WhatsApp
60. Is ICANN retiring some top-level domains?
61. International online education programs: A global regulatory perspective
62. The challenges ahead for online courts
63. Digital sources and digital archives: historical evidence in the digital age (Trevor Owens, Thomas Padilla)
64. I’m a doctor with quadriplegia—thanks to tech, I’m back at work
65. From iOS to SQL: The world’s most incorrectly pronounced tech terms

A.I.

1. When audio deepfakes put words in Jay-Z’s mouth, did he have a legal case?
2. People who know more about self-driving technology trust it more
3. Our AI Future – Sexbots, Toilet Drones, and Robocops?
4. Reboot Required: Artificial Intelligence System Cannot Be Named As An Inventor Under U.S. Patent Law, USPTO Says
5. USPTO Refuses to Recognize AI Inventorship, but Policy Questions Still Linger
6. Using AI to invent therapeutics: should artificial intelligence be recognised for inventive activity?
7. OK Computer: the creation and integration of AI in Europe (Bernardo Buarquea, Ronald Davies, Ryan Hynes, Dieter Koglera)
8. Artificial Intelligence | How much attention should you pay to legal risks and data governance?
9. Blog: Open-world enemy AI in Mafia III

COMMUNICATIONS

1. Canadian Wireless Carriers Making A Killing During COVID-19, Won’t Remove Caps ‘For Safety’
2. Beware Of Op/Eds Falsely Claiming The US Internet Only Works During A Pandemic Because Lobbyists Neutered The FCC
3. Cell-tower attacks by idiots who claim 5G spreads COVID-19 reportedly hit US
4. Idiots Begin Attacking US 5G Cell Towers Because, Idiots
5. FCC Forced To Fine Sinclair $48 Million For Bullshitting Regulators
6. Ajit Pai doubts Elon Musk’s SpaceX broadband-latency claims
7. Bill Would Ban Broadband Shutoffs Until COVID-19 Pandemic Eases
8. US and Chinese cloud companies vie for dominance in south-east Asia: Google, Amazon and Microsoft challenge Alibaba and Huawei in fastest-growing cloud market
9. K-League 1 strikes record broadcasting rights deals following league restart

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

1. A welcome and timely boost for trade secret protection in Canada
2. Fashion House Sued for Lively Snaps
3. The makeup of protection of a makeup store layout: a missed chance to apply the Cofemel decision?
4. Quaran-streaming: Music licensing and your online business
5. Copyright Making Sure That MTV Remains An Irrelevant Relic, Rather Than A Cultural Icon
6. What’s the Deal with Comedians?: Too Late for Copyright Claim against Seinfeld
7. Victory for Michael Jordan After 8-Year Chinese Trademark Battle
8. Google v Oracle: The Copyright Case of the Decade
9. IP update: recent development in EU copyright law: stim & sami v fleetmanager Sweden ab & nordisk biluthyrning ab (c-753/18)
10. Copyright As Censorship: WSJ Identifies Hundreds Of Bogus News Takedowns; People Blame Google Rather Than Copyright
11. Libraries Have Never Needed Permission To Lend Books, And The Move To Change That Is A Big Problem
12. Canadian Federal Court of Appeal applies new standard of review in appeal of registrar
13. New Nice Classification requirements – do classes matter in Canada?
14. Sussex Royal – if at first you don’t succeed…
15. What businesses need to consider before a brand (re)launch: lessons from SUSSEX ROYAL
16. Federal Circuit Holds Packaging Color Combinations Can Be Inherently Distinctive
17. The Parameters of Generic Marks: Booking.com before the Supreme Court
18. Don’t SULKA: Trademark Plaintiff Must Demonstrate Intent, Ability to Use Mark
19. No Luck Needed for Lucky Brand at the Supreme Court
20. Supreme Court Rules Lucky Brand’s Defense Not Barred Under Defense Preclusion
21. Get Lucky: U.S. Supreme Court Sides With Lucky Brand in Overturning “Defense Preclusion” Ruling
22. The Supreme Court Declines to Revamp Preclusion Law in Lucky v. Marcel Trademark Dispute
23. A Lucky Day for Lucky Brand: U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Second Circuit’s Defense Preclusion Test
24. Defense in Trademark Action Not Precluded by Failure to Raise Same Defense in Earlier Action
25. Romag Fasteners: SCOTUS Holds That Plaintiffs in Trademark Suits Need Not Show “Willful Intent” of Infringement to Recover Damages for Lost Profits
26. IP Insight: DC Comics Prevail in Trade Mark Opposition against Magic Box
27. HT Media and Hindustan Media Venture c. Brainlink International on hindustan.com: the chess game is underway
28. Gömböc: CJEU provides clarity on the protectability of 3D trade marks
29. How to bring an intermediary to justice in a domain name dispute
30. WIPO data reveals rise in international trademark applications originating from Africa
31. Focusing on Functionality, Software Claims Found Patent Eligible
32. The “Plotting” Thickens: Claims that Solve Known Problem with Known Methods Are Obvious
33. First decision under amended PMNOC Regulations: Federal Court finds Amgen’s filgrastim patent obvious
34. G 3/19 – Tomatoes and Broccoli Now Overturned
35. EPO Enlarged Board of Appeal Decision G 3/19 and the patentability of plant and animal products in Europe
36. European Patent Office denies patentability of plants and animals obtained by essentially biological processes (G 3/19 “Pepper”)
37. “Delivery Failed”: Shopping Notification Patent Lost Under § 101
38. Managing Your VR/AR IP Portfolio During Covid-19
39. Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality Patent Prosecution Update: 2020 Q1 Prosecution Statistics
40. Thinking ahead: The impact of insolvency on IP rights

PRIVACY

1. Cookies: A Bite in Cybernauts’ Privacy? A Canadian-European Overview
2. It’s Impossible To Opt Out Of Android’s Ad Tracking; Max Schrems Aims To Change That
3. Court Sends Google Assistant Privacy Lawsuit Back for a Redo
4. A Spectacularly Bad Washington Post Story on Apple and Google’s Exposure Notification Project
5. Now The Washington Post Misleadingly Complains About Google & Apple Protecting Your Privacy Too Much
6. As Some Are Requiring People To Give Up Their Info To Dine, Stories Of Creeps Abusing That Info Come Out
7. COVID-19 contact tracing hits Apple devices with iOS and iPadOS 13.5
8. Privacy commissioners urge respect for privacy rights in using contact-tracing apps
9. Everyone Agrees That Contact Tracing Apps Are Key To Bringing COVID-19 Under Control; Iceland Has Tried Them, And Isn’t So Sure
10. The Case For Contact Tracing Apps Built On Apple And Google’s Exposure Notification System
11. CSIS says proposed federal privacy reforms could hinder spy operations: Spy agency laid out argument in a 14-page submission to the Justice Department
12. FBI Holds Press Conference To Claim Apple Prevented It From [Checks Notes] Verifying Attribution In The Pensacola Air Base Shooting
13. iPhone crypto hid al-Qaida link to naval base shooting, AG fumes
14. Uh Oh: FBI Serves Search Warrant On Senator Richard Burr, Seizes His Phone
15. Senate passes spying bill without search and browsing history protections [Updated]
16. Senate Passes Surveillance Reauthorization Bill 80-16 — One Stripped Of Almost All Of Its Reforms
17. Can a company charge a fee for responding to a right to be forgotten request?
18. Connected Vehicles and GDPR – A Status Update after the Public Consultation
19. India was already a surveillance state. Its Covid-19 app goes even further
20. Fever-Detecting Drones Don’t Work
21. London’s Facial Recognition Rollout Trips Over The Pandemic As Facemasks Render The System Even More Useless

CREATIVITY   

1. Top Things To Know Before Running a Contest in Canada
2. Judge Tells Devin Nunes’ Dad (And Lawyer Stephen Biss) To Put Up Or Shut Up In Defamation Lawsuit Over Esquire Article
3. European Film Bonds A/S & other v Lotus Holdings LLC & others [2020]: High Court judgment in favour of film completion guarantors who have successfully avoided a potential liability of over €18 million.
4. Seventh Circuit Rejects Court Intervention In Light Beer Ad Wars: Is A New Trend Brewing In False Advertising Law?

GAMES

1. Nintendo sues Switch hack resellers in ongoing fight against Team Xecutor: Platform holder continues to crack down on groups enabling pirated games to run on its console
2. With new Switch-hacking tech looming, Nintendo targets retailers
3. Nintendo notes COVID-19 is delaying Switch production, might hit game development
4. Ubisoft suing Google and Apple for selling Rainbow Six: Siege ‘carbon copy’
5. G2A and Wube Software settle $40,000 chargeback dispute: Factorio developer “satisfied with the results” after marketplace operators conduct internal audit
6. Disney clamps down on Club Penguin clones following abuse allegations
7. Disney: If We Can’t Run Club Penguin, No One Can Run Club Penguin
8. Top mobile trends (and some surprises) during COVID-19 lockdown: GameAnalytics CEO Ioana Hreninciuc explores the effect of the pandemic on player behaviour around the world
9. Blizzard Takes New Stance on Custom Game IP
10. Children and online harms
11. What the Age Appropriate Design Code means for video games: The ICO’s Statutory Code regarding children’s personal data has implications for video games — Baker McKenzie’s Ben Slinn advises to start preparing now
12. Swiss Game Developer Settles FTC Allegations Over COPPA Safe Harbor Claims
13. Madden NFL’s technical problems were on full display in ESPN championship
14. Gambling revenue around esports set to double in 2020
15. More Than A Game: The COVID-19 Pandemic Has Turned Esports Into An Economy Of Its Own
16. Esports: a new market for travel businesses after COVID-19?
17. Video: How to consider player skill growth in esports-friendly games
18. Rooster Teeth Forges Multi-Faceted Pact With U.K. Digital Gaming Brand ‘The Yogscast’
19. Twitch unveils new Safety Advisory Council: Group of online safety experts and Twitch partners to advise on policies, products, and trends
20. Doom Eternal reverses course, will remove kernel-level Denuvo anti-cheat
21. Valve launches Play Next feature to help Steam users choose their next game
22. Valve Releases ‘Half-Life: Alyx’ Steam Workshop Tools for Making & Downloading Mods
23. King has opened up and relinquished control of the Defold game engine
24. King makes Defold engine open source: Candy Crush firm sets up Defold Foundation to handle the tech’s development going forward
25. Unreal Engine is Now Royalty-free for the First $1 Million in Revenue
26. How Epic got such amazing Unreal Engine 5 results on next-gen consoles
27. Epic rolls easier refunds, keyless third-party sales into its Epic Games Store
28. Epic Games store integrates keyless purchasing with third-party platforms: Green Man Gaming, Fanatical, and Genba Digital join Humble in offering automatic purchases without key entry
29. Epic denies disguising load times in Unreal Engine 5 demo: Spokesperson says the goal was to demonstrate the level of detail in the scene
30. Controller pros are dominating PC Fortnite thanks to “overpowered” aim assist
31. Epic Games confirms Fortnite as launch title for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X: Battle royale will be “optimised” for next-gen consoles, migration to Unreal Engine 5 due in 2021
32. Free Grand Theft Auto 5 crashes Epic Games Store: Fortnite creator reports “most users” should now be able to access digital games marketplace
33. Hey, Epic, If you’re Going To Boldly Give Away A Historically Popular Game For Free, Make Sure You Can Handle The Demand
34. Fortnite surpasses $1b in lifetime spending on App Store alone: Epic’s battle royale sees mobile spending rise with Google Play launch
35. Crucible, Amazon’s new online shooter: Alexa, does this game have a chance?
36. Amazon throws itself into the Crucible of AAA at last: Lou Castle explains how Amazon’s hero shooter has evolved to be competitive, streamable, and standout in a crowded field
37. UK Charts: Animal Crossing holds No.1 in another quiet week – No new releases in the retail charts this week
38. Nintendo’s first rumored Mario game for 2020 has come true: Paper Mario in July
39. Half of all New Horizons sales in the U.S., Japan, and Europe were digital
40. Nintendo confirms 50% digital sales for Animal Crossing: New Horizons: New Horizons has already reached its lifetime sales target, according to Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa
41. Nintendo warns of potential software delays due to remote working: “Since there are indeed big limitations on what can be done from home, we do think this will have a large impact”
42. PlayStation Now has reached 2.2 million subscribers
43. PlayStation Now reaches 2.2m subscribers: Sony’s service has doubled its reach in a single year, but still lags behind Xbox Game Pass
44. PlayStation Plus reaches 41.5m subscribers: Subscriptions rose by 2.7 million in the first three months of 2020 alone
45. Sony’s PS5 reveal will be all about the software | Opinion: The slow drip of PS5 information belies how much technical detail we already know — the real “unveiling” will likely be of a software slate
46. Former Xbox exec J Allard is now Intellivision’s global managing director
47. Xbox co-founder J Allard heads up Intellivision: Former Microsoft exec will oversee launch of upcoming Intellivision Amico console this October
48. Take-Two plans to release 93 full titles in the next five years: Of those, 47 are expected to come from existing franchises, while 46 are new IP
49. NBA 2K, GTA, and more push Take-Two’s net revenue over $3B for 2019-20 year
50. Take-Two sets net bookings records as Q4 digital sales jump: Publisher looks ahead to a “light year” for new releases, but remains confident in success of back catalog, digital growth
51. Game spending in the US reached a record quarterly high in Q1 2020: The NPD Group: Consumers spent nearly $10.9 billion on video games from January through March of this year
52. Respawn opens Vancouver studio to focus on Apex Legends development
53. Respawn marks its ten-year anniversary with a new Vancouver studio: Dusty Welch, Chad Grenier, Henry Lee, and Steven Ferreira discuss the new studio’s philosophy and goals for the longevity of Apex Legends
54. Mobile battle royale game Free Fire has more than 80 million daily users
55. The Dark Souls franchise has topped 27 million lifetime sales
56. Ubisoft sales dropped by nearly 14% in fiscal year 2019
57. Ubisoft beats Q4 forecasts, thanks in no small part to player recurring investment
58. Ubisoft prepares for rebound with five AAA titles planned this fiscal year: Publisher reports full-year financials with expected lower revenues after multiple game delays
59. Ubisoft offers Assassin’s Creed: Discovery Tour modes for free for one week – Educational explorations of ancient Greece and Egypt made available to encourage learning from home
60. Humble’s indie game publishing biz is now Humble Games
61. UK Games Fund selects 38 studios for next round of investment: COVID-19 pandemic caused the programme to be revised so more developers could benefit from funding
62. Rewriting the playbook: The independent studios making sports work: We explore how developers are carving their own niches in the face of dominating franchises like FIFA and NBA 2K
63. 2K and Hangar 13 get in on the classic game remake trend with Mafia: Definitive Edition
64. NetEase revenues rise to $2.4bn: Fantasy Westward Journey publisher grows games business overseas with increased playerbase in Japan
65. Keywords to raise £100m for acquisition of pandemic-hit companies: Share sale will allow the services firm to buy companies “less able to weather the disruption”
66. Sumo Group acquires UK work-for-hire studio Lab42
67. Sumo Digital acquires Lab42: Work-for-hire studio to will still operate independently as part of the Sumo group
68. Game of War developer Machine Zone acquired by AppLovin: AppLovin will move its headquarters to studio’s Palo Alto office
69. AppLovin acquires Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire dev Machine Zone
70. Embracer Group sees record shift toward digital due to COVID-19
71. Embracer Group’s games business grew by 31% last year
72. Embracer Group’s full-year games revenue rose 31%: But the “first AAA games releases since Metro Exodus” won’t arrive until the year ending March 2022
73. Mobile battle royale title Free Fire just hit 80 million daily active users
74. Minecraft developer Mojang rebrands as Mojang Studios
75. Mojang returns to its indie roots with Minecraft Dungeons: The 25-person team on turning one of the world’s biggest games into a dungeon crawler for everyone
76. Minecraft has sold 200 million copies in 11 years
77. Minecraft has sold over 200m copies to date: Mojang rebrands as Mojang Studios upon game’s 11th anniversary
78. Planet Zoo has surpassed 1 million sales in under six months
79. South Korean PC gaming cafes take a hit during COVID-19 peak: But the industry appears on the cusp of a rebound as restrictions lift
80. Arcades vs COVID-19: How communities can save small businesses – Arcade owners across the world closed to protect their communities — now those regulars are the best hope for their survival
81. Net sales down at Square Enix due to lack of major HD game releases
82. Tencent is now working on OtherSide’s System Shock game
83. Tencent expects revenues to “normalise” after strong Q1: Online and mobile game revenues soared during the COVID-19 pandemic
84. 10 games, including Moss and Pistol Whip, have surpassed $2M revenue on Oculus Quest
85. More than $100m has been spent on Oculus Quest content: Ten games have earned more than $2m in revenue, including PolyArc’s Moss and Cloudhead Games’ Pistol Whip
86. SuperHot VR sells over 2m copies: Sales of all versions of the game passed two million last year
87. Connecting through The Legend of Dragoon | Why I Love: Miriam Karina Melgoza on how the classic RPG forged a bond between father and daughter, and the power of games to bring families together
88. War Stories: Alan Wake’s transformation emerged from a two-month “sauna”
89. How a rejected My Little Pony game helped save a historic tournament
90. Breath of the samurai: Sony’s Ghost of Tsushima finally looks like a video game
91. Four better ways to talk about immersion in video games
92. Game devs hold virtual meeting from hell in Mythic Quest: Quarantine teaser
93. The sprawling, must-read history of Maxis’ former “serious games” division
94. Q&A: Surviving failed Kickstarters and publishing woes to launch Song of Horror
95. Q&A: Making XCOM tighter and more focused with Chimera Squad
96. Don’t Miss: A look back at the creation and launch of Alan Wake’s American Nightmare
97. Don’t Miss: A Postmortem of Double Fine’s seminal classic Psychonauts
98. Don’t Miss: Composing the music of Red Dead Redemption
99. Don’t Miss: Mafia 3 and the value of putting game developers in a box
100. Don’t Miss: A classic interview with Castlevania composer Michiru Yamane
101. Video: How Ubisoft handled NPC voice design for The Division 2
102. Video: Democratizing real-time filmmaking techniques for indie devs
103. Blog: Creating sequels as an indie developer
104. Blog: How the Game & Watch impacted Nintendo’s handheld vision
105. Blog: Beginning again at Spilt Milk Studios
106. Blog: How Niantic’s response to COVID-19 has protected Pokemon GO
107. Blog: Steam’s wishlist-to-sales %: thoughts & a call for data!
108. Blog: Cultivating curation – A LudoNarraCon 2020 recap
109. Blog: Adding life to worlds with dialogue barks
110. Blog: Composing the interactive music of SPYDER – Part 2
111. Blog: Developing multi-tile creatures in roguelikes
112. Blog: The hidden Switch demo upside & more discoverability tricks
113. Safe in Our World launches Level Up Mental Health campaign: Games companies unite to commit to supporting better mental health practices
114. AccessJam announced to support Global Accessibility Awareness Day: Disabled game developers organisation Accessibility Unlocked kicking off month-long event on May 21
115. U.S. Patent no. 10,315,113: System and method for simulating gameplay of nonplayer characters distributed across networked end user devices

Jon

DIGITAL

1. Bye, Amazon (Tim Bray)
2. Amazon VP Tim Bray Quits To Protest Employee Firings
3. Amazon Vice President: ‘I Quit in Dismay’ at Company Firing Whistleblowers
4. Tim Bray, Early Internet Guru, And Amazon VP Quits Over The ‘Chickenshit’ Company’s Targeting Of Employees Speaking Out About COVID-19
5. An Amazon VP’s resignation has cast a spotlight on the company’s working conditions
6. An Amazon VP’s resignation shows internal unrest is rising to the top: Tim Bray wrote that staying an Amazon VP would have meant “signing off on actions I despised.”
7. “Chickens**t” whistleblower firings are “poison,” resigning Amazon VP says
8. The Pandemic Has Ended the Amazon Debate: It’s clearer than ever that supporting Amazon is a tacit endorsement of abusive work policies and more
9. An Amazon warehouse worker in New York has died of COVID-19: Amazon confirmed the death to The Verge
10. House Panel Wants Bezos to Testify in Antitrust Probe: Amazon reportedly used sensitive seller information to develop its own competing products.
11. Congress wants Jeff Bezos to testify in Amazon antitrust probe: A House subcommittee is scrutinizing whether the company unfairly competes against its own marketplace sellers.
12. Amazon locks down internal employee communications amid organizing efforts
13. Congress calls on Bezos to come explain Amazon’s possible lies
14. The Decentralized Web Could Help Preserve The Internet’s Data For 1,000 Years. Here’s Why We Need IPFS To Build It.
15. A Sure Way to Ruin My Day: The Phrase “Enforceable Browsewrap”–HealthplanCRM v. Avmed
16. California sues to make Uber and Lyft drivers employees
17. Uber lays off 3,700 people as its ride business craters
18. Illinois Supreme Court Finds Daily Fantasy Sports to Be Legal, Rejects DFS Loser’s Gambling Loss Recovery Act Claim
19. Is It Illegal to Prohibit Online Selling?: High Court has ruled on whether it is illegal for a business to restrict online selling by its retailers under competition law – Ping Europe Limited v Competition and Markets Authority
20. Here We Go Again: Russia Gears Up to Interfere in 2020 Election With Coronavirus Disinformation: A campaign linked to Russia aims to manipulate this year’s elections in the United States and Europe.
21. Inside the Early Days of China’s Coronavirus Coverup: The dawn of a pandemic – as seen through the news and social media posts that vanished from China’s internet.
22. How Can Anyone Argue With A Straight Face That China’s Approach To Speech Online Is Better Than The US’s During A Pandemic
23. China Tried To Get The EU Not To Release A Report On China’s COVID-19 Disinformation Efforts
24. Cambodian Government Using Fake News Law To Silence Critics And Coronavirus Reporting
25. Being Too Aggressive At Policing COVID-19 Disinformation Risks Breaking The Important ‘Collective Sensemaking Process’
26. Coronavirus: David Icke kicked off Facebook – Facebook has taken down the official page of conspiracy theorist David Icke for publishing “health misinformation that could cause physical harm”.
27. Ninth Circuit Revives Class Action Suit against Facebook for Selling Users’ Browsing History
28. Court Approves Historic FTC-Facebook Settlement Giving Businesses 5 Billion Reasons to Reevaluate Privacy Programs
29. Facebook’s Zuckerberg praises coronavirus lockdowns as Tesla’s Musk sees ‘fascism’
30. Counter-archiving Facebook (Anat Ben-David)
31. These are the people Facebook put in charge of deciding whether to delete controversial posts
32. Why I’m Joining Facebook’s Oversight Board: Former Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger on why the social media giant ‘needs independent, external oversight’
33. How Facebook’s oversight board could rewrite the rules of the entire internet: The new content moderation board is built so other companies could get in on the action. That could be a mixed blessing.
34. Texas Appeals Court Brushes Off Section 230 In Allowing Lawsuit Over Sex Trafficking Against Facebook To Continue
35. If You’re Complaining About COVID-19 Misinformation Online AND About Section 230, You’re Doing It Wrong
36. Armslist Wins Another Section 230 Ruling–Stokinger v. Armslist (Eric Goldman)
37. Senator Wyden And Others Introduce Bill Calling The DOJ’s Bluff Regarding Its Attempt To Destroy Section 230 & Encryption
38. Twitter runs a test prompting users to revise ‘harmful’ replies
39. Another Suspended Twitter User Loses in Court–Wilson v. Twitter (Eric Goldman)
40. Twitter tests telling users their tweet replies may be offensive
41. Supreme Court Streams Oral Arguments Live For The First Time (Thanks To The Pandemic)
42. In an unusual investor call, Apple reports flat quarterly earnings amid COVID-19
43. How ‘Karen’ Became a Coronavirus Villain: A popular joke about entitled white women is now a big pandemic meme.
44. ICANN blocks controversial sale of .org domain to a private equity firm
45. ICANN Board Blocks The Sale Of The .Org Registry
46. It’s a No-Win for Gig Workers in the Covid-19 Moment
47. Hedge Fund ‘Asshole’ Destroying Local News & Firing Reporters Wants Google & Facebook To Just Hand Him More Money
48. Zoom matchmaking is giving lockdown singletons a shot at love: A reinvention of traditional matchmaking is helping the single, bored, and lonely meet like-minded people, wherever they might live.
49. Zoom Video Conferencing: Data Privacy and Cybersecurity Implications
50. Google Meet, Google’s Zoom competitor, gets wider Gmail integration
51. New earnings report shows Microsoft’s shift to cloud and subscriptions is working
52. ‘What are we doing this for?’: Doctors are fed up with conspiracies ravaging ERs: “I left work and I felt so deflated,” one doctor said about an effort to counter misinformation he saw on Facebook. “I let it get to me.”
53. Medical students learn through virtual clinical rotations
54. In rural Oklahoma, a Wi-Fi hot spot brings a dash of hope and excitement: At high schools, libraries, parking lots &  side streets, Americans are tapping public Wi-Fi hot spots that are lifelines during the coronavirus pandemic.
55. Zoom says it has 300 million daily meeting participants, not users
56. Deplatforming: Following extreme Internet celebrities to Telegram and alternative social media
57. The Power and Perils of Influencer Marketing: Recent Developments, Competition Considerations and Best Practices
58. NFL Draft Prompts Big Social Media Spike
59. YouTube Taps Barack And Michelle Obama, BTS, Jackie Aina, More For Virtual Graduation Event
60. CAA Signs YouTube Beauty Guru Rachel Levin (Exclusive)
61. YouTube Expands Recommendation-Filtering Feature ‘Topics’ To iOS, Browser Site
62. Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 5/04/2020
63. Top 50 Most Viewed US YouTube Channels • Week Of 5/04/2020
64. YouTube To Let News Publishers Natively Vend Their Own Subscription Products By Year’s End (Report)
65. Boots on the Moon! Netflix drops official Space Force trailer
66. Hulu Becomes Latest HBO Max Launch Partner, Will Upgrade Current HBO Add-Ons For Free
67. The Promise – and Risk – of a Career in TikTok: For many young people, being a paid content creator on social media is the dream job. But it’s not as easy as it may look.
68. TikTok Has Reportedly Surpassed 2 Billion Global App Downloads
69. Candidates Can’t Campaign, So They’re Trying To Go Viral: Down-ballot candidates are starting to look a lot like influencers
70. The Biden campaign faces a mind-boggling challenge: How to make Joe go viral – The ex-veep’s small digital team has a tall order going up against Donald Trump, who intuitively understands what clicks.
71. Straight from Monty Python – Implied Warranties: The British Columbia Dead Parrot Case
72. This baby goat live stream is the mood-booster we need: Play, eat, sleep, repeat
73. This Mental Health App Is Tailor-Made for Your Pandemic Woes: Covid Coach, from the National Center for PTSD, offers exercises and resources for dealing with uncertainty, isolation, and unemployment.
74. Google tells employees they can’t expense food or other perks when working from home
75. Google—Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200: Why the Tech Giant Is a “Bad” Monopoly (Alicia Ginsberg)
76. Justin And Hailey Bieber Debut Self-Shot Facebook Watch Series During Quarantine
77. Eko’s Tech Theft Lawsuit Against Quibi To Be Funded By New Investor Elliott Management Corp. (Report)
78. Quibi Denies Purposely Leaking Users’ Emails, But Has Retooled Its Sign-Up Process
79. Quibi Turns To YouTube For Audience Growth, Uploading Full Episodes Of Select Originals
80. Quibi Is What Happens When Hollywood Overvalues Content And Undervalues Community
81. Hulu Becomes Latest HBO Max Launch Partner, Will Upgrade Current HBO Add-Ons For Free
82. Disney hammered by coronavirus shutdowns as operating income drops 37 percent
83. The Black Box and Japanese Discourses of the Digital (David Humphrey)
84. On the Relief of Ignoring the Internet in Fiction: Joyce Hinnefeld Considers the Obstacles of Digital Obsolescence
85. After the Tech-Lash: Digital Policy Priorities in the Post-Pandemic World (Michael Geist)

A.I.

1. Jukebox: Introducing Jukebox, a neural net that generates music, including rudimentary singing, as raw audio in a variety of genres and artist styles. We’re releasing the model weights and code to explore the generated samples.
2. To Invent is Human: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Rejects AI System as an Inventor
3. Video: How 343 uses machine learning for optimal matchmaking
4. US patent office rules that artificial intelligence cannot be a legal inventor: Only ‘natural persons’ need apply
5. Does An Invention Discovered With Artificial Intelligence Obtain Patent Protection?
6. Ha Ha, Our New Robot Overlords Can’t Get Patents
7. USPTO denies patent application for invention by AI
8. USPTO Rules Artificial Intelligence Cannot Be Named As Inventor for Patent Application
9. Harrisburg University Researchers Claim Their ‘Unbiased’ Facial Recognition Software Can Identify Potential Criminals
10. AI Software Gets Mixed Reviews for Tackling Coronavirus
11. Drone-to-door medicines trial takes flight in Ireland
12. An AI algorithm inspired by how kids learn is harder to confuse
13. How well can algorithms recognize your masked face?
14. How coronavirus set the stage for a techno-future with robots and AI
15. “Deepfake” Technology: Very Real Marketing Value … and Risks
16. Harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) to increase wellbeing for all: The case for a new technology diplomacy
17. Volvo plans cars with lidar and “eyes off” highway driving by 2022
18. US FTC Publishes Guidance on Using Artificial Intelligence and Algorithms

COMMUNICATIONS

1. Advocacy group wants CRTC to do more to protect privacy amid contact tracing debate: Telecommunications Act requires privacy protections and monitoring and disclosing of contact tracing
2. NYT defeats Ajit Pai as judge orders FCC to provide net neutrality records
3. Judge Orders FCC To Hand Over Data On Fake Net Neutrality Comments
4. CenturyLink still hasn’t met 2019 FCC deadline, now faces pandemic roadblocks
5. AT&T CEO Steps Down After Bungled, Megamerger-Fueled TV Failure
6. ‘Job Creating’ Sprint T-Mobile Merger Triggers Estimated 6,000 Non-Covid Layoffs
7. Federal Communications Commission Penalizes Marriott Vacations for Unauthorized Transfer of Private Radio Licenses
8. Comcast overcharged elderly couple $600, denied refund until contacted by Ars
9. Comcast Graciously Extends Suspension Of Completely Unnecessary Data Caps
10. Frontier, amid bankruptcy, is suspected of lying about broadband expansion
11. What’s New in 5G – May 2020

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

1. York University statement on recent court decision regarding Access Copyright
2. Supreme Court May Weigh In on the Legality of Data Scraping
3. Supreme Court Offers Guidance Regarding Eligibility of State Legislative Records for Protection Under the Copyright Act
4. Allen v. Cooper and Georgia v. Public.Resource.org: The Supreme Court Navigates the Relationship Between State Government and Federal Copyright Law
5. Jennifer Lopez sued for copyright infringement
6. Once Upon a Time: Everything was Copyrighted
7. 11th Circuit Tells Guitar Maker to Take a [Pantera] Walk on Delayed Copyright Claims
8. Ricky Martin’s “Vida” Lives On, but Plaintiff Will Get Another Shot at It
9. Hiring out cars with radios is not a “communication to the public”
10. IP in Street Arts
11. Surely Not The Equivalent Of The Mona Lisa?*
12. EU Joins In The Bullying Of South Africa For Daring To Adopt US-Style Fair Use Principles
13. IP Alert: Two Recent IP Rulings Have Far-Reaching Consequences
14. Show me the money: Supreme Court rules that trademark infringers may disgorge profits even if the law was not willfully violated
15. Supreme Court Raises the Stakes Against Unauthorized Resellers: Willfulness No Longer Required for Manufacturers to Obtain Profits in Trademark Cases
16. Court Sides With Nike And Dismisses Kawhi Leonard’s Lawsuit Over ‘Klaw’ Logo
17. Remix Culture Done Right: Wes Tank Mashes Up Dr. Seuss With Dr. Dre (And So Far The Copyright Police Have Left Him Alone)
18. Can Smells be Trademarks?
19. Ardbeg v AlbergWhisky
20. Luxury Arcade Game Win
21. Lion’s head trade mark not sufficiently distinctive for Parisian brand Pierre Balmain
22. Bentley Clothing wins trade mark battle against Bentley Motors
23. Highest EU court pours hot water on Coty v Amazon case
24. High Court disarms ‘weaponised’ TMs in landmark ruling
25. There are more things …than are dreamt of in your philosophy: Damages for infringing a revoked and unused trademark? Yes says the CJEU…
26. C‑622/18 – AR v Cooper International Spirits LLC and Others – Damages for trade mark infringement possible where trade mark revoked for non-use
27. Sky v Skykick – High Court decision
28. Skykick liable for infringement of Sky’s trade mark registrations even after they are held to be partially invalid
29. Are second hand sales use of a registered trade mark?
30. SCOTUS Livestreams Oral Arguments on BOOKING.COM Trademark Registerability
31. As Twisted as Cheese!
32. Supplementary protection for vaccines: Canada diverges from Europe
33. USPTO Reports on Examination Outcomes Post-Alice
34. U.S. Patent Office Report Shows Improving Post-Alice Patent Examination Outcomes
35. Fish Hook Claims Can’t Catch a Patent
36. Fishing for Eligibility in Murky Waters
37. Wurst Case Scenario: Sausage Tray Design Patent Found Obvious
38. An Invention That Changes the Normal Operation of a System Is Not Abstract Under § 101
39. A History of the Solar Cell, in Patents
40. Wearable Technologies and Intellectual Property: Stand Alone Software and Software as Medical Devices
41. Patent Infringement for the Public Good
42. Patents – public interest argument fails in medical devices case
43. Most number of Patent Applications filed by?
44. Patent Litigation Filings on the Increase with the COVID-19 Pandemic
45. We’re Saved! Company Claims It’s Patented ‘Containing the Spread of Disinformation’ And Will Stop COVID-19 Disinfo

PRIVACY

1. UK City Leaves Nearly Nine Million License Plate/Location Data Records Exposed On The Open Web
2. Suspected DNC & German Parliament Hacker Used His Name As His Email Password
3. A facial recognition company wants to help with contact tracing. A senator has questions.: Clearview CEO Hoan Ton-That said it’s in discussions with federal and state agencies to help with contact tracing.
4. Here’s how Apple, Google will warn you if you’ve been exposed to COVID-19
5. Ethics of instantaneous contract tracing using mobile phone apps in the control of the COVID-19 pandemic
6. Contact tracing, data and privacy: Technological choices in response to COVID-19
7. Would you let Google, Apple contact-trace your family? Here’s what Reddit’s Alexis Ohanian says
8. Court Filings Show NSO Group Ran Malware Attacks Through Servers Located In California
9. Filings In Facebook’s Lawsuit Against NSO Show FBI Director Chris Wray Was For Encryption Before He Was Against It
10. Hard Pass: Clearview Offers To Help Out With COVID-19 Contact Tracing
11. Google Purged Almost 1,000 Abusive ‘Creeperware’ Apps. Now Some Are Coming Back.: Catch a Cheating Spouse now has more than 10,000 downloads
12. Coronavirus Has Complicated California’s Internet Privacy Law: Business groups have asked the state to hold off on enforcement of privacy rules.
13. South Korea is relying on technology to contain COVID-19, including measures that would break privacy laws in the US — and so far, it’s working
14. Downloading COVID-19 contact tracing apps is a moral obligation
15. Ring Docs Show Company Is Testing Consumer Enthusiasm For Facial Recognition, License Plate Reader Capabilities

CREATIVITY   

1. A $750,000 Foot Long: Costs Awarded to CBC in Failed Subway Defamation Suit
2. Court Tosses Former Sheriff Arpaio’s Attempt To Relitigate His Libel Lawsuit The Court Tossed Last Year
3. Devin Nunes’ Lawyer Facing Sanctions, While Nunes Himself May Have To Pay His Opponents’ Legal Bills
4. Court Slaps Down Corporal Punishment Defamation Case Against Broadcasting Corporation
5. What’s the ASA’s ‘beef’ with Burger King?
6. Media consortium seeking search warrants from Nova Scotia mass shooting: Halifax Judge says she’ll push to hold hearings as soon as possible
7. Journalism, press freedom and COVID-19 (UNESCO)
8. A Brave New Art World Online
9. How Art Movements Tried to Make Sense of the World in the Wake of the 1918 Flu Pandemic
10. Thinking Through Covid-19 Responses With Foucault – An Initial Overview
11. AMC Theaters Pouts Like A Child Because NBC Universal Proved Movie Release Windows Are Nonsense
12. 2H 2019 and Q1 2020 Quick Links, Part 6 (Pornography/CSAM) (Eric Goldman)
13. 2H 2019 and Q1 2020 Quick Links, Part 7 (Content Moderation, Censorship, Defamation, & More) (Eric Goldman)

GAMES

1. Microsoft facing controller drift suit: Plaintiff in class-action suit says Xbox One controllers have problems with faulty analog sticks
2. Who Owns the Ink?
3. Billy Mitchell suing Twin Galaxies over disqualified Donkey Kong scores: Former record holder asserts leaderboard site “at least implied [that he was a cheater]”
4. Billy Mitchell takes his Donkey Kong high-score cheating case to court
5. No More Monkeying Around – Donkey Kong High Score Record Holder Sues Video Game Leaderboard For Defamation
6. Drama in iRacing as IndyCar champ wrecks F1 star on purpose
7. Why the makers of Plague Inc. are building a mode where you destroy the virus
8. Sony says The Last of Us Part 2 leak didn’t leak from employees
9. Sony says major The Last of Us Part 2 leak didn’t come from employee
10. Proposed Anti-Spying Legislation May Not Be Cause for Alarm for Gamers in Congress
11. Australia integrity boss eyes corruption threat in online games
12. Gambling Games by Another Name? District Court Offers Clarity On Line Between Social Gaming and Gambling.
13. ESRB and PEGI Introduce Loot Box Warnings
14. Video Games: What’s in for the ‘Look and Feel’?
15. Are bootleg game soundtracks damaging the industry?: The popularity of video game music clashes with its lack of availability in physical formats — we examine both sides of this complex issue
16. Report: Work-from-home issues to blame as Nintendo axes June Direct
17. Fans Port Mario 64 To PC And Make It Way Better, So Of Course Nintendo Is Trying To Nuke The Project
18. Generating Game of Thrones characters in Skyrim’s character creator
19. Beyond emulation: The massive effort to reverse-engineer N64 source code
20. Shooter genre sees the most growth on PC in the midst of social isolation
21. Roblox believes user-generated content will bring us the Metaverse
22. Roblox Corp launches $2 million fundraiser to support COVID-19 charities
23. Xbox Game Pass now has over 10 million subscribers
24. Xbox Game Pass now has more than 10 million subscribers
25. Why Gears Tactics is an important release for modern Xbox
26. Phil Spencer says COVID-19 could delay Xbox Series X launch titles
27. Amid “Significant Reduction” In Q1 Ad Buys, Video Game Marketing Is Showing “Relative Strength,” Facebook Says
28. Rovio profits soar to $14 million as UA spending is cut by almost half
29. Gaming viewership, playtime surged in China under lockdown: Niko Partners – But ad revenue dropped, and players gravitated toward familiar, not new, titles
30. The “COVID bounce” in games shouldn’t obscure what lies ahead | Opinion: The spike in interest and revenue is temporary, says MIDiA Research’s Karol Severin, and will likely give way to recession and harder times
31. MicroProse brand, known for X-COM and Civilization, has been revived
32. MicroProse returns after two decade absence: The storied publisher is back with three new games, 18 years since its last release
33. The resurrection of MicroProse and return of “Wild Bill” Stealey: The original publisher’s co-founder explains how he’s helping the new MicroProse’s CEO restore the brand to former glories
34. Multiple EA titles are headed to Nintendo Switch this year: Publisher also planning a fourth sports title, an HD remake, and next-gen upgrades for some current games
35. Electronic Arts beats investor expectations with $1.39 billion in Q4 revenue
36. Live services drive fiscal 2020 rebound for EA: Publisher enjoys record net revenues, plans for continued focus on live services into 2021
37. UK Charts: FIFA 20 reclaims No.1 from Animal Crossing New Horizons – Mario Kart 8 Deluxe speeds back into the top five
38. Animal Crossing Pocket Camp enjoys halo effect from New Horizons: April was the mobile title’s highest ever month for revenue, according to Sensor Tower’s data
39. How Animal Crossing’s fake industries let players afford real rent amid COVID-19
40. Activision Blizzard bookings up 21% amid pandemic: New Call of Duty on track for fall, two other Activision IP titles in the works for current fiscal year
41. Activision Blizzard posts $1.79 billion Q1 revenues as pandemic creates gaming surge
42. Activision Blizzard raises full year outlooks as Q1 revenue beats expectations
43. Activision Blizzard now fully WFH and covering employees’ COVID-19 costs
44. Sensor Tower receives $45m investment: Private equity firm Riverwood Capital invests following record year for Sensor Tower
45. After deadline issues for Doom Eternal’s OST, a new composer will score its DLC
46. THQ Nordic and Koch Media trade IPs: Franchise swaps put Red Faction and Risen series closer to their original developers; Painkiller, Sacred, and more change hands
47. Google’s Stadia controller will finally work wirelessly with computers starting this week: But it still won’t work wirelessly with a phone
48. Cloud Gaming: Why It Matters And The Games It Will Create
49. The impact of one streamer on a game after release
50. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla won’t be launching on Steam
51. New Guild Wars 2 content won’t have voice acting at launch due to COVID-19
52. Indivisible publisher 505 Games says release tool mishap caused surprise launch
53. Video Game Chic
54. PewDiePie Signs Exclusive Livestreaming Deal With YouTube
55. PewDiePie signs exclusivity deal with YouTube: Video platform secures live streaming rights for its most-subscribed content creator, with 104 million followers
56. NBA 2K League to air live on ESPN2: Sports network gives esports league matches three Tuesday primetime slots this month
57. ESPN to air live NBA 2K League games: On ESPN2, ESPN.com, and the ESPN app, depending on when you’re watching
58. Tulip mania? The business of esports and its time in the sun
59. Twitch is launching a dedicated esports channel
60. Esports Conglomerate ReKTGlobal Pacts With Management Company TalentX On Gamer-Focused Firm
61. RektGlobal launches talent agency for esports athletes and influencers: TalentX Gaming is a joint venture with TalentX Entertainment
62. Fortnite World Cup and Dota 2 International cancelled
63. There won’t be a Fortnite World Cup in 2020: All competitions will be online this year
64. Epic Games Axes Second Annual ‘Fortnite World Cup’ Due To Coronavirus
65. Fortnite Streamer Ewok Pens Sponsorship Deal with HyperX
66. Fortnite’s newest mode cuts combat to create a purely social space
67. Valve indefinitely delays Dota 2’s The International 2020: Valve’s annual Dota 2 championship is the latest event impacted by COVID-19
68. Valve Drops Support for SteamVR on MacOS
69. Valve drops SteamVR support for MacOS
70. Valve ends support for SteamVR on macOS
71. Analysis: ‘Half-Life: Alyx’ Adds Nearly 1 Million VR Users to Steam in Record Gain
72. Half-Life: Alyx triggers surge in new VR users on Steam: But number of Steam players with virtual reality headsets is still less than 2%
73. The Half-Life effect on PC-VR is the biggest Steam has ever seen
74. Report: Facebook is working on an updated version of its Oculus Quest VR headset
75. Magic Leap warns of “critical” battery safety issue
76. Cedar Lane Technologies Inc. v. Corel, Inc.
77. Sega launches new Sega Music brand
78. The latest Unreal Engine update adds initial support for next-gen consoles
79. Epic updates Unreal Engine to support next-gen development: Version 4.25 allows developers to build and ship games for PS5, Xbox Series X
80. Microsoft will build Xbox Series X buzz with monthly ‘Xbox 20/20’ showcase
81. Guilded raises $7m to build gaming chat platform
82. Guilded raises $7 million to expand its community-focused game chat platform
83. My.Games launches $10m hypercasual publishing programme
84. My.Games launches $10 million publishing program for hyper-casual developers 
85. Finnish studio Dazzle Rocks nets $6.8 million to build social sandbox MMO
86. Dazzle Rocks raises $6.8m for new social sandbox game: Galaxy Interactive leads Series A funding for Helsinki studio
87. EA reports net revenue of $5.5 billion for fiscal 2020
88. EA reaped $5.5 billion in revenue last year, most of which came from digital dealings
89. Zynga reports $104M loss for Q1 despite record-setting revenues
90. Zynga posts its best-ever Q1 by way of $404 million in revenue
91. Zynga continues to post soaring revenues and deepening losses: For the fifth straight quarter, publisher says the bottom line has been hurt by success of 2018 acquisitions
92. How big is too big for a popular game? | Opinion
93. Review: Sagrada, a top dice-drafting board game, goes digital
94. Unity has acquired visual scripting solution Bolt
95. War Stories: How Prince of Persia slew the Apple II’s memory limitations
96. Prince of Persia concept video appears—and confirms why series has been dormant
97. Have a look at this pitch footage for a canned Prince of Persia game
98. Don’t Miss: Creating a natural movement system for Dying Light
99. Don’t Miss: A level designer breaks down The Last of Us 2’s trailer level
100. Don’t Miss: A classic postmortem of BioWare’s Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
101. Don’t Miss: Balancing storytelling and player choice in Prey
102. Don’t Miss: Examining the pay-to-flay monetization of Mortal Kombat X
103. Don’t Miss: Games, psychology, and UX with Celia Hodent – GDC Podcast ep. 8
104. Blog: Should players buy their own UI?
105. Blog: Developing games for the Sinclair Spectrum Plus
106. Blog: Tips for marketing your queer narrative indie game
107. Blog: Anatomy of a failed Kickstarter – Part 3
108. Blog: Five lessons learned growing a game dev start-up
109. Blog: How to crack the match 3 code – Part 1
110. Video: How NetEase applied reinforcement learning to build game AI
111. Tales From The Quarantine: ‘Queer Eye’ Guy Now Offering Support And Advice On Your Video Game Home Furnishings
112. Summer Game Fest 2020 Steps in to Fill E3 Void for Video-Game Biz
113. GDC’s summer event will be digital only: The conference returns, sort of, in August
114. Global Game Jam founders Susan Gold and Gorm Lai leave after 12 years
115. U.S. Patent no. 10,313,679: Systems and methods for encoder-guided adaptive-quality rendering

Jon

DIGITAL

1. TheDirty Easily Defeats Another Defamation Lawsuit–Laake v. Dirty World (Eric Goldman)
2. Another Terrible Copyright Ruling on IAPs’ Liability for Users’ File-Sharing–Warner v. Charter (Eric Goldman)
3. Section 230 Doesn’t Protect Advertising “Background Reports” on People–Lukis v. Whitepages (Eric Goldman)
4. Ninth Circuit Reinstates Decade-Old Lawsuit Against Facebook For Tracking Logged-Out Users–In re Facebook Internet Tracking (Eric Goldman)
5. Facebook Tells Court Laura Loomer’s Defamation Allegations All Target Protected Opinions
6. Disgraced Former NASCAR Boss, Brian France, Uses SLAPP Suit To Silence Parody Twitter Account
7. Federal Court Dismisses Twitter’s Long-Running Lawsuit Over NSL Reporting
8. The Internet’s Titans Make a Power Grab: Facebook and other platforms insisted that they didn’t want to be “arbiters of truth.” The coronavirus changed their mind overnight.
9. Facebook takes down event pages for several anti-quarantine protests
10. Australia Gives Up Any Pretense: Pushes Straight Up Tax On Facebook & Google To Pay News Orgs
11. Coronavirus has made Amazon a public utility – so we should treat it like one
12. Amazon closes warehouses in France, tries to make US shoppers buy less
13. No more negotiating: new rules could finally force Google and Facebook to pay for news
14. Uber accuses Levandowski of fraud, refuses to pay $179M Google judgment
15. Russia’s online disinformation has a 100-year history
16. ICANN delays .org sale again after scathing letter from California AG
17. Netflix streams some educational films on YouTube for free
18. Consumers Seeking Uplifting YouTube Content During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Recent surveys found that majority consumers are seeking uplifting YouTube content during the COVID-19 pandemic.
19. The Web-based version of Apple Music has officially launched
20. Why Apple has stopped making small phones—and why it should start again
21. Report: Apple’s Chinese contractors cut hours as iPhone demand falls
22. Apple just announced one of its biggest regional expansions for the App Store ever
23. The App Store and Apple Arcade rolled out in 20 more countries
24. Fraggle Rock is back as Apple TV+ quarantine fodder—so here’s our fan-fiction
25. A Lot Of YouTube Creators Just Disclosed Their Declining AdSense Rates Amid The Coronavirus Pandemic. Most Are Down At Least 20%, With A Few Bright Spots.
26. New YouTube Updates Will Help Reduce Creator Workload and Emphasize Security
27. Who’s Zoomin’ who? How the coronavirus crisis is finally putting the ‘social’ into social media
28. The right to Internet as the right to health? Obligations to remove barriers to the access of information during a pandemic
29. China’s NBA Free Speech Debacle Turned Out To Be A Prelude To Its COVID-19 Denialism
30. Chinese Embassy Gets Briefly Suspended From Twitter; Insists ‘Free Speech Must Be Honored’ On Platform Banned Across China
31. The Geopolitical Streisand Effect: The More China And The WHO Try To Silence Taiwan, The More Attention Its Success Fighting COVID-19 Gets
32. People Are Making Bots to Snatch Whole Foods Delivery Order Time Slots: Developers are creating a tech divide between those who can use a bot to order their food and those who just have to keep trying during the pandemic.
33. Coronavirus Could Lead to the Next Wave of Automation: A survey of executives found more than a third investing in automation in response to the coronavirus. Workers need to get organised.
34. NYAG Announces Shut Down of More Than 20 Websites Promoting Coronavirus Scams
35. Technology’s had us ‘social distancing’ for years. Can our digital ‘lifeline’ get us through the coronavirus pandemic?
36. Straight to (CO)Video: We’re finally getting around to watching these things
37. This Is No Time for an Internet Blackout: Citing security to silence dissent is always a bad look, but right now the side effects are especially cruel.
38. A Snap Shot on Inadvertent Licensing Through Social Media
39. How 3-D printing is helping the US fight medical equipment shortages and the coronavirus pandemic
40. Ga. Supreme Court’s First Zoom Arguments to Run Monday Through Thursday: For its first-ever remote oral arguments, the Georgia Supreme Court will hear appeals of several murder convictions plus
41. The Jury Is Still Out On Zoom Trials: Courts are moving online due to COVID-19. No one is sure if that’s a good thing.
42. Mirror, Mirror on the Screen: The Tyranny of Zoom Calls –  Working from home was supposed to turn people into slobs. But many say constant video calling has heightened their awareness of their appearance.
43. The New White Lies of Lockdown: Spotty Wi-Fi, an upcoming meal, another Zoom happy hour—people are coming up with new excuses for ending social interactions.
44. COVID-19 and Virtual Meeting Best Practices
45. [Virtual] Data Overload: Data, Journalism, & COVID-19: Responsibly And Accurately Interpreting And Reporting Complicated Data
46. Social-media companies must flatten the curve of misinformation: The pandemic lays bare the failure to quarantine online scams, hoaxes and lies amid political battles.
47. Instagram Is Rushing To Roll Out A Memorial Account Feature Because Of COVID-19 Deaths: “We’ve been working on these updates…we’ve accelerated in light of COVID-19 to help support our community…”
48. Instagram wants to move all of the Lives you’ve been watching to IGTV
49. Spotify now lets Premium users hide songs they don’t want to hear from playlists: Skip that one track
50. ‘Feasting on fantasy’ – my month of extreme immersion in Disney+: Disney’s streaming service arrived as the lockdown kicked in. It seemed like a sensible investment. Pretty soon, it was infiltrating my every waking hour.
51. The Computer Scientist Who Can’t Stop Telling Stories: For pioneering computer scientist Donald Knuth, good coding is synonymous with beautiful expression.
52. Even Cars and Coffee is going virtual thanks to COVID-19
53. The race to save the first draft of coronavirus history from internet oblivion: How researchers, archivists, and citizens are racing to preserve a record of we lived and changed during this strange period of history
54. Is this the end of Airbnb?: Hosts are calling it the Airbnb apocalypse. But it’s more akin to an enema
55. “A Darwinian Moment”: The Coronavirus Is Blowing Up the Media Landscape: The 2008 financial collapse killed a lot of media dinosaurs. But the COVID-19 asteroid may be even bigger.
56. The pandemic was bitcoin’s chance to shine. It hasn’t… yet
57. Digital Finance & The COVID-19 Crisis
58. Digital Ethics
59. Logistics of the Future – Physical Internet and Its Practicality
60. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Facebook: Updating Identity Economics

A.I.

1. Chinese Dreamwriter Decision: a Dream Come True for AI-generated Works?
2. Fairness and AI: Sandra Wachter on why fairness cannot be automated
3. When artificial intelligence is the inventor or creator: who claims the rights?
4. Some countries in the Middle East are using artificial intelligence to fight the coronavirus pandemic
5. Coronavirus: Will Covid-19 speed up the use of robots to replace human workers?
6. AI Diagnostics & Digital Healthcare
7. Delivery robots move medical supplies to help with COVID-19 response: The road-legal robots will be limited to 5 miles per hour for safety reasons.
8. Navigating Artificial Intelligence and Consumer Protection Laws In Wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic
9. AI lets you be Albert Einstein or the Mona Lisa on all your Zoom calls
10. Artificial Intelligence: The Growing Role of AI on Patents
11. A note on artificial intelligence and intellectual property in Sweden and the EU
12. How much access to data should be permitted during the COVID-19 pandemic?: Urs Gasser explores the risks and benefits of mining data to combat COVID-19

COMMUNICATIONS

1. Fox News hosts have measurable effect on COVID cases, study finds: Comparison of Fox News hosts reveals effect of disinformation on COVID-19 deaths.
2. Misinformation During a Pandemic (Leonardo Bursztyn, Aakaash Rao, Christopher Roth, David Yanagizawa-Drott)
3. Charter has 230 infected employees after resisting work-at-home requests
4. Why the Murdochs backed Donald Trump’s COVID-19 denialism: Fox News has been accused of ‘deceiving the public’ in its coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. Has it finally gone too far?
5. FCC Denies Application of Hoax Rule to Trump Press Conferences on COVID-19 – Looking at the First Amendment and the Commission’s Regulation of Political Speech
6. FCC and Industry Groups Ask for Supreme Court Review of Third Circuit Ownership Decision
7. FCC approves 5G network despite military saying it will harm GPS
8. FCC blasted for “shameful” ruling against cities and fire department
9. ISPs Ignore Toothless FCC Demand To Not Kick Users Offline During COVID-19
10. Tracfone Made Up “Fictitious” Users To Defraud Taxpayers, FCC
11. FCC Still Doesn’t Know Where Broadband Is As It Eyes $9 Billion In New Subsidies
12. Spotty broadband is robbing students of their education during COVID-19
13. AT&T gave FCC false broadband-coverage data in parts of 20 states
14. AT&T Provided FCC Bunk Broadband Availability Data Across 20 States
15. AT&T’s massive TV losses continue as another 900,000 customers flee
16. Net neutrality: are ‘zero-rated’ bundles prohibited traffic management measures under regulation 2015/2120?
17. Telecom’s Latest Dumb Claim: The Internet Only Works During A Pandemic Because We Killed Net Neutrality

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

1. Access Copyright v York University: York Wins re “Mandatory Tariff” and Loses re Fair Dealing Guidelines (Howard Knopf)
2. Two Montreal lawyers file application to trademark the term COVID-19
3. A Copy of a Copy of a Copy: Internet Mimesis and the Copyrightability of Memes (Elena Elmerinda Scialabba)
4. All’s Fair in Love and War . . . So What About Fair Use in the Time of Coronavirus?
5. 3M files lawsuit in Canada against firm accused of price gouging on N95 masks: Ontario company allegedly claimed a phoney affiliation with the U.S. medical-gear maker
6. Court Rules Photographer Gave Up Exclusive Copyright Licensing Rights by Posting to Instagram.
7. Instagram Terms of Use Allows Mashable to Avoid Copyright Infringement Claim for Embedded Content
8. It’s not infringing if it’s an authorized embedding
9. Kendall Jenner Sued for Posting Video of Kendall Jenner
10. Keeping Up with Copyright: Kendall Jenner Sued for Infringement over Instagram Video
11. Cortés-Ramos v. Martin-Morales, aka Ricky Martin: In copyright suit against pop singer Ricky Martin, Court dismisses based on plaintiff’s failure to plead registration with Copyright Office should be without prejudice
12. Purohit v. Legend Pictures, LLC: In suit alleging that film infringed on plaintiff’s book featuring mythological figure Krampus, court dismisses plaintiff’s claims, finding no substantial similarity between works
13. An Untimely Copyright Lawsuit About a Timeless Guitar
14. Making waves: Nike and Footlocker face challenge from the makers of ‘The Endless Summer’ film
15. Copyright protection for original clothing designs
16. Self-driving startup Zoox settles Tesla lawsuit, lays off 100 workers
17. What’s Your Type? Intellectual Property Rights In Fonts And Typefaces
18. What’s your type? Intellectual Property Rights in Fonts and Typefaces
19. Constructing a firm foundation for copyright protection
20. SCOTUS Redefines State “Piracy”
21. CJEU’s in Coty v Amazon: storing without knowledge of infringement is not itself infringement
22. Trademark infringement: Liability for counterfeit goods
23. Balmain case highlights risk of using specialised public with low distinctive character marks
24. INTA releases brand valuation report, offers blueprint to put trademark professionals at centre of conversation
25. Implementation of the E.U. “Trademark reform package” in France: the French TM Office now competent to invalidate or revoke trademark registrations
26. Trade Dress Update: Federal Circuit Holds that Multi-Colored Product Packaging Marks May Be Inherently Distinctive
27. The Federal Circuit Reconsiders the Inherent Distinctiveness of Color Marks in In re Forney
28. You can’t be blue anymore: Blame colour monopolies
29. Bad Spaniels Dog Toys — Expressive Art or Noisy Trademark Infringers?
30. Adding another dimension to your trademark portfolio: Securing registration in 3D trademarks
31. How Will SCOTUS Resolve the Circuit Split on Recovery of Profits for Trademark Infringement?
32. The impact of Brexit on the resale of software licences
33. The Simpsons Shows Precisely How One Should Handle Derivative Homage Works
34. Dog Toy Maker Wins Big in Appeal Against Jack Daniels
35. Jack Daniels Gets Chewed Up In Trademark Case Over ‘Bad Spaniels’ Doggy Chew Toy
36. Trademark Owners Can Protect Themselves from Unauthorized Distributors Price Gouging in Their Name
37. Trade Secret Litigation: Activity on the Rise
38. 3D printing — the value of patents for the future of manufacturing
39. Australia Takes Its First Baby Steps On the Road To A Right-To-Repair Law, With A Consultation About Tractors
40. IP protection in the autonomous vehicle space
41. Open COVID Pledge Rolled Out to Make Patents and Other IP Available for COVID-19 Response
42. Patents and Their Role in a COVID-19 Cure
43. Key IP Considerations in Corporate Venture Capital Transactions
44. The pursuit of balance between antitrust laws and Intellectual Property
45. EU’s proposed post-Brexit trade agreement: three key IP takeaways for life sciences
46. COVID-19 and its effects on Intellectual Property
47. Innovation’s Relationship with IP and Antitrust Laws in Times of Crisis
48. 2H 2019 and Q1 2020 Quick Links, Part 1 (Copyright, E-Commerce, Advertising) (Eric Goldman)
49. 2H 2019 and Q1 2020 Quick Links, Part 2 (Trademarks/Keywords) (Eric Goldman)
50. 2H 2019 and Q1 2020 Quick Links, Part 3 (FOSTA/Backpage) (Eric Goldman)

PRIVACY

1. Facebook takes Canada’s privacy czar to court over personal data probe: A 2019 Privacy Commissioner investigation report found major shortcomings in Facebook’s procedures
2. Revival of Facebook Internet Tracking Litigation Reveals Importance of CCPA Compliance and Highlights Ambiguities
3. French Hypocrisy: Fines Google For Being Soft On Privacy; Now Angry That Google Won’t Let It Spy On Users
4. IoT Update: FTC Settles with Smart Lock Manufacturer and Provides Guidance for IoT Companies
5. A start-up is using photos to ID you. Big tech can stop it from happening again.
6. Cybersecurity Firm Finds A Bunch Of Clearview’s Secret Stuff Sitting Around In An Poorly-Secured Cloud Storage Bucket
7. Leaked pics from Amazon Ring show potential new surveillance features
8. Hackers target oil producers as they struggle with a record glut of crude
9. Apple and Google look like problematic heroes in the pandemic: New contact-tracing technology is supposed to go away after the pandemic. Privacy experts aren’t so sure it will.
10. Google Apple Contact Tracing (GACT): a wolf in sheep’s clothes.
11. 2 billion phones cannot use Google and Apple contact-tracing tech
12. As Google becomes key infrastructure for new coronavirus relief, old issues haunt it
13. NYC Mayor Asks Residents To Snitch On Social Distancing Violators, Gets Dick Pics And Hitler Memes Instead
14. Surveillance, Privacy and COVID-19
15. Coronavirus tests Germans’ devotion to privacy: New initiatives to limit the spread of Covid-19 have sparked a debate over how far the government can go to control the pandemic
16. The secret behind “unkillable” Android backdoor called xHelper has been revealed
17. Children’s privacy is at risk with rapid shifts to online schooling under coronavirus
18. EU Publishes Common Toolbox and Data Protection Guidance on Tracing Apps to Fight COVID-19
19. Europe’s coronavirus-tracing apps risk an unprecedented increase in mass surveillance, experts warned
20. We need privacy and data laws to tackle this world pandemic: Governments are increasingly using digital technologies and big data analytics to address the Covid-19 pandemic.
21. Tracking Covid-19 using big data and big tech: a digital Pandora’s Box
22. The Privacy Factor in Ending the Lockdown: The only way to protect health and the economy is through tracking & tracing. To make this palatable in democracies, regulatory & technological hurdles need to be cleared.
23. More surveillance and less privacy will be the new normal after the coronavirus pandemic
24. Gulf states use coronavirus threat to tighten authoritarian controls and surveillance
25. COVID-19 tracking data should be managed the way data trusts are
26. Contact-tracing apps enjoy limited success amid privacy fears: Phone apps designed to help limit the spread of coronavirus have had only modest uptakes so far.
27. A European Contact-Tracing App Might Be More Privacy-Invading Than Apple and Google’s
28. The expansion of mass surveillance to stop coronavirus should worry us all
29. Is Contact Tracing a Privacy Threat?
30. German government might have lost tens of millions of euros in COVID-19 phishing attack: German state failed to put in place a citizen verification procedure and allowed fraudsters to steal millions of euros.
31. Global Examples of COVID-19 Surveillance Technologies
32. U.S Treasury Issues North Korea Cyber Threat Advisory
33. Team Trump Turns to Peter Thiel’s Palantir to Track Virus
34. Trump Admin Gives Coronavirus Tracking Contract to Peter Thiel’s Palantir: Report
35. More surveillance and less privacy will be the new normal after the coronavirus pandemic
36. Another Federal Court Says Chalking Tires Is A Violation Of The Fourth Amendment
37. Opting Out: Biometric Information Privacy and Standing (Michelle Jackson)

CREATIVITY   

1. Court Tells Pro-Trump 12-Year-Old That Calling Him A Defender Of Racism And Sexual Assault Is Protected Speech
2. Iraq Joins China In Suppressing Journalism About COVID-19
3. Southeast Asia’s Coronavirus-Driven Censorship: Across Southeast Asia, there’s a worrying rush to sacrifice free speech in the name of nebulous benefits amid a crisis.
4. The complicated issue of coronavirus merch: The next big fashion trend or simply problematic? We investigate.
5. Daily Fantasy Sports Case Skillfully Comes to a Head

GAMES

1. Selena Gomez suing fashion game makers for using likeness without permission
2. Selena Gomez suing Chinese mobile publisher over using her likeness: Singer says she did not agree to appear in Clothes Forever – Styling Game, decries “unsavoury” microtransactions
3. Infinity Ward updates matchmaking in Call of Duty to bring cheaters together
4. NBA 2K Avoids Tattoo Copyright Infringement in Three Ways
5. Video Game Tattoo Copyright Litigation: LeBron Scores a Slam Dunk While WWE Still Wrestling with Allegations
6. Epic Sues Game Tester Over Trade Secret Breach
7. Epic Games Dances Around Infringement Claims as Court Finds Transformative Use
8. Report: Epic Games exploring funding round at over $15 billion valuation
9. Cooking Mama creator threatens lawsuit over “unauthorized” Switch launch
10. Gaming Emote Litigation: Battle Royale Ensues Over Fortnite Emotes with Plaintiffs Testing Different Causes of Action
11. Google wins victory royale over Epic Games, snags Fortnite for Google Play
12. Fortnite finally hits Google Play, but Epic still isn’t a fan of Google’s mobile tactics
13. Valve confirms code leak for two online games
14. Analyst: US game spend jumps during COVID-19 pandemic as more are encouraged to stay home
15. Finland recognises the Demoscene as part of its cultural heritage: Subculture is now part of the National Inventory of Living Heritage, and can be nominated for UNESCO international heritage status
16. Activist investor ValueAct believes Nintendo can rival Netflix, Disney+: San Francisco company has built up $1.1 billion stake in the platform holder over the last year
17. Nintendo Switch sales doubled year-over-year in March
18. Nintendo working with suppliers to boost Switch production in 2020
19. Nintendo Account holders told to bolster security due to spike in ‘unauthorised activity’
20. The curious case of Animal Crossing in China | Opinion: China plays a bigger role in console sales than people think, says Apptutti’s Daniel Camilo, and Nintendo’s game is compelling proof
21. Nintendo isn’t saying, so here’s how to fend off the account hijacking spree
22. Finally, you can build an entire “game” out of Super Mario Maker 2 levels
23. Pokemon Rumble Rush shuts down: Service will end July 21, 2020, just over one year after launch
24. Xbox Game Studios, Codemasters, and others pull games from GeForce Now
25. Sony Plans Limited PlayStation 5 Output in First Year
26. PlayStation’s low-key PC experiment | Opinion: Rumours of more PS4 exclusive titles following Horizon: Zero Dawn to PC have been squashed, but is that the end of Sony’s multiplatform strategy?
27. Sony, Sega say PC listings for Bloodborne, Persona 5 and more were “not accurate”: Publishers shut down rumours of ports after several titles were listed on Amazon France
28. Report: Sony scaling back initial PS5 production numbers
29. Sony reportedly limiting PS5 launch window to 6m units: But sources suggests COVID-19 has not affected production of next-generation console
30. Recession’s impact on next-gen consoles to be felt “later in 2021,” says analyst: Ampere’s Piers Harding-Rolls says downturn will inevitably undermine sales once early adopter crowd gets theirs
31. Monster Hunter Riders tops 5 million downloads in Japan after two months
32. Minecraft ray tracing is now live on PC—and it’s a must-play, if you can
33. Keywords reports strong 2019 performance amid COVID-19 doubts: Revenue up 30% last year, but the company declines to offer guidance for 2020 due to pandemic disruption
34. Superplus Games nets $4.7 million to create casual PvP titles for mobile
35. Superplus Games raises $4.7m: Finnish studio currently working on multiple casual, PvP-focused mobile titles
36. Report: The games industry braces for a recession (Ampere Analysis)
37. European mobile game downloads growing faster than spending: Sensor Tower finds March new installs were up 19% over February while spending grew 12%
38. Sega shuttering two mobile games after parting ways with developer Demiurge
39. Facebook has launched its dedicated ‘Facebook Gaming’ mobile app
40. Paradox reports “best” financial year in its history for 2019
41. Newzoo: Shooter games are growing during coronavirus, but esports forecast takes a dip
42. Nevada authorizes betting on League of Legends, Overwatch esports
43. Paytm First Games teams up with ESPL for mobile esports tournaments in India
44. BMW Motorsport is winning a lot in esports, and here’s why
45. BMW teams up with 5 global esports teams in a brand alliance
46. How COVID-19 Made Esports the ‘Only Game in Town’
47. One Consequence Of The COVID-19 Shutdown? This Is Esports’ Moment
48. Esports Milestone: Gambling On Esports Will Double To $14 Billion In 2020
49. Riot Games lays out prize pools, no blood rule for Valorant esports: New shooter will cap prize pools at $10k for small tournaments, and $50k at medium tournaments
50. Riot addresses “kernel-level driver” concerns with expanded bug bounties
51. Riot posts $100,000 bug bounty to track down flaws in Valorant’s anti-cheat
52. Riot Games acquires Hytale developer Hypixel Studios
53. Riot acquires Hypixel: League of Legends maker was already an early investor in the developer of upcoming sandbox game Hytale
54. One month after COVID-19 closures, GameStop readies to reopen stores
55. Ubisoft Developing Senior Citizen Esports Movie From ‘I Feel Pretty’ Team
56. Konami indefinitely delays PES Euro 2020 DLC, cancels boxed edition: Planned esports tournament will still take place, but London finals will now be played online
57. In Half-Life’s improv scene, anyone can speak for Gordon Freeman
58. Steam gets ‘editorial’ when we weren’t looking
59. Final Fantasy VII Remake digital sales and shipments have topped 3.5 million units
60. Oculus Connect shifts to digital as Facebook extends in-person event ban into 2021
61. Bethesda Has “no update” on ‘Elder: Scrolls Blades VR’ Nearly Two Years After Announcement
62. ‘Half-Life: Alyx’ Was Among the Best Selling Steam Games Released in March
63. Magic Leap lays off staff in bid to ‘adapt to new market realities’
64. Magic Leap Announces Layoffs & Pivot Away From Near-term Consumer Ambitions
65. An extended interview with Homeworld designer Rob Cunningham
66. Disruptor Beam completes pivot to tools provider with Beamable rebrand
67. The enduring ripples of the Indie Megabooth: Founder Kelly Wallick shares her hopes for the Megabooth to drive industry-wide change toward diversity and sustainability
68. Baba Is a tough act to follow: Arvi Teikari talks about following up the innovative Baba Is You with a “very traditional Metroidvania” and livestreaming development
69. The design of Peggle-like dungeon crawler Roundguard
70. Don’t Miss: Doing an HD remake the right way: Chrono Trigger edition
71. Don’t Miss: A look at choice overload in games, and how to avoid it
72. Don’t Miss: Veteran director Khris Brown on the secrets of great voice acting
73. Don’t Miss: The secret history of Donkey Kong
74. Video: Less stressful game development via DevOps
75. Video: The origin story of Void Bastards’ striking art style
76. Video: What you should know before making a cross-platform game
77. Video: The Kine game dev postmortem
78. Blog: Anatomy of a failed Kickstarter
79. Blog: The production data and tools I used to develop Hang Line
80. Blog: Prioritizing accessibility considerations
81. U.S. Patent no. 10,290,142: Water surface rendering in virtual environment
82. U.S. Patent no. 10,286,328: Modular accessory for video gaming

Jon

DIGITAL

1. Dear Jeff Bezos, instead of firing me, protect your workers from coronavirus: I spoke up for safety at an Amazon warehouse. Unfortunately I believe it cost me my job
2. Leaked Amazon Memo Details Plan to Smear Fired Warehouse Organizer: ‘He’s Not Smart or Articulate’ –  Written notes from the meeting, attended by CEO Jeff Bezos, detail Amazon’s strategy to fight union organizing,
3. Leaked Amazon memo: Walkout leader “not smart or articulate”
4. Amazon Confronts Coronavirus and Unions: One a Real Threat, the Other Overblown: As the world’s largest online retailer was coping with a global crisis, why did it create a new one for itself?
5. Is Amazon approaching its breaking point in the Covid-19 crisis?
6. In a surprising change, Amazon now sells movies in its Prime Video iOS app
7. TikTok Users In China Temporarily Banned For Speaking Their Own Cantonese Language Instead Of Using The Official Mandarin
8. The limits of decentralization (Andres Guadamuz)
9. Lessig v. NYT: Very. Good. News. (Lawrence Lessig)
10. Social Links: Biden’s stance on CDA §230; liability for user-generated content; Twitter’s process for reviewing Trump’s tweets
11. Twitter notifies users that it’s now sharing more data with advertisers: Users in Europe are the exception
12. Twitter Updates its Policies to Allow Some Coronavirus-Related Advertising
13. Rangers, NHL condemn racial slurs in hijacked player video chat
14. The Coronavirus Reveals That the Stars Are Not Like Us: If there was ever a fourth wall dividing celebrities and the rest of us on social media, the quarantine has broken it.
15. A Must For Millions, Zoom Has A Dark Side – And An FBI Warning
16. Zoombombing is a crime, not a prank, prosecutors warn: Disrupting a Zoom meeting could lead to “law enforcement knocking at your door.”
17. Using Zoom while working from home? Here are the privacy risks to watch out for: Don’t let tattle-tale software features disrupt your remote workflow.
18. ‘Zoombombing’ Becomes a Dangerous Organized Effort: Zoom, the videoconferencing app, has become a target for harassment and abuse coordinated in private off-platform chats.
19. Zoom brings in former Facebook security head amid lawsuits, investigations
20. Zoom adds new security and privacy measures to prevent Zoombombing: Passwords and waiting rooms will be turned on by default
21. Teleconferencing Company Zoom Pitching End-To-End Encryption That Really Isn’t End-To-End
22. Senator Blumenthal Is Super Mad That Zoom Isn’t Actually Offering The End To End Encryption His Law Will Outlaw
23. Senator backing anti-crypto bill calls out Zoom’s lack of end-to-end crypto
24. A Big Zooming Mess: A Cautionary Tale
25. Judge Isn’t Impressed By Lawyer’s Purported Unfamiliarity With LinkedIn–Reyes v. Tanaka
26. Netflix will allow parents to remove movies and shows, filter by rating in new update: Making profile accounts for kids even more specific
27. Netflix’s ‘Tiger King’ Is Most Popular TV Show In U.S., Spurring YouTube Views For Joe Exotic
28. “When They See Us” Sees Dismissal of Defamation Claim
29. Google revises COVID-19 ad ban after backlash: Democrats slammed Google for preventing them from criticizing Trump’s response to the crisis. Google said it will announce new policies in the coming days.
30. YouTube says it will suppress content promoting false 5G coronavirus conspiracy: 5G masts have been set on fire in the UK
31. Jon Cusack The Latest Celebrity To Spread Nonsense About 5G
32. 5G Isn’t Interesting Enough To Warrant These Stupid Conspiracy Theories
33. YouTube moves to limit spread of false coronavirus 5G theory: Decision comes as four more phone masts are attacked
34. YouTube profits from videos promoting unproven Covid-19 treatments: New report finds company is running ads on videos pushing herbs and potentially unsafe over-the-counter treatments for virus
35. YouTube Makes Select Premium Series Free To Watch Amid Ongoing Quarantining
36. YouTube Kids App Sees More Usage Than All Major Video Platforms’—Including YouTube
37. Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber Takes The YouTube Stage, Will Stream Free Musicals Every Friday
38. Robin Williams Estate Launches YouTube Channel To Commemorate The Comedic Legend
39. All Creators In The YouTube Partner Program Can Now Monetize Content About COVID-19
40. Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 4/6/2020
41. FTC Enforces against Advertiser and Influencers for Breaching Influence Marketing Practices
42. Influencers and Targets on Social Media: Investigating the Impact of Network Homogeneity and Group Identification on Online Influence
43. With Billions of Interactions Around COVID-19, Influencers Are Harnessing Their Platforms For Good
44. How Children’s Social Video Content is Growing During Quarantines
45. Navy Deploys USS Barbra Streisand After Firing A Captain For Expressing His Coronavirus Concerns
46. Quibi, day one: This phone-focused TV service really isn’t that bad
47. Mobile video service Quibi launches to mixed reviews
48. Quibi Sees 300,000 Day 1 Downloads—Just 7.5% Of Disney+’s Debut Audience
49. Hip-Hop and R&B Hitmakers Are Setting Viewership Records Via Instagram Live Battles
50. How conspiracy theories about COVID-19 went viral: Why do epidemics breed conspiracy theories? And what do scientists say?
51. Coronavirus, the ‘Soros Bio-weapon’: How Far Right anti- Semitic Conspiracy Theories Are Infecting Mainstream Politics – As the virus spreads white supremacists and the far-right are repackaging old anti-Semitic tropes
52. Why pandemics are the perfect environment for conspiracy theories to flourish
53. Why Wikipedia is winning against the coronavirus ‘infodemic’: Against all odds, Wikipedia’s eccentric volunteer editors are holding back the tide of coronavirus misinformation
54. What Role Should Newsrooms Play in Debunking COVID-19 Misinformation?: When conspiracies pass a tipping point, newsrooms collectively pushing out strong debunks can slow the spread of myths and misinformation
55. Why Wikipedia Is Immune to Coronavirus: As the pandemic has been accompanied by an ‘infodemic’ of bad information, Wikipedia has stepped in to provide relief. It has become the go-to source for COVID-19 information.
56. Media deal with Facebook and Google more urgent with coronavirus taking jobs, says regulator: Australian Competition Commission pushing for code of conduct to ensure news businesses are treated fairly
57. Content Moderation Is Impossible: Facebook’s Attempts To Block Mask Gouging Took Down DIY Face Mask Instructions
58. Facebook to Hire 10,000 Workers This Year, Sets Plans for Doling Out $100M in Aid to Small Businesses
59. Citing Virus Misinformation, South Africa Tests Speech Limits: Suppressing false Covid-19 information may have benefits, but as South Africa shows, combatting fake news isn’t simple.
60. New Penalties for Posting Fake News on Social Networks
61. Coronavirus: Uber and Lyft trying to evade driver unemployment costs, critics say: Ride-hailing companies pushed for direct aid to drivers
62. Coronavirus slowed Uber and Lyft – but not their big-money efforts to undo AB 5: The gig economy companies added $267,000 to a California campaign that seeks to rewrite the rules for contract workers.
63. Learning From Home Is Hard Enough. Try Doing It Where Wifi Is Illegal.: In the “valley of the telescopes,” remote education is a disaster.
64. Can Airbnb Survive Coronavirus?: The short-term rental market is reeling from the coronavirus-driven tourism collapse. Can the industry’s dominant player stage a comeback after lockdowns lift?
65. How the Covid-19 crisis locked Airbnb out of its own homes: The short-let platform’s business model has been exposed. Bookings have fallen off a cliff but Airbnb simply can’t change tack
66. Airbnb may become obsolete depending on recovery of tourism after Covid-19 crisis: Bookings on Airbnb slumped from 96% to 41% this year due travel restrictions imposed by many countries in view of the pandemic.
67. Airbnb has been rocked by COVID-19. Do we really want to see it recover?: It’s time to consider alternatives to the profit-driven models of platform capitalists.
68. Airbnb is reeling from the coronavirus fallout
69. Delivery apps have transformed urban life in China: They have also created a new kind of worker
70. China Tech Looks Unready for What’s Coming Next: They survived the coronavirus lockdown, but even the biggest companies aren’t safe from the global recession.
71. Lockdown was supposed to be an introvert’s paradise. It’s not.: Calendars cleared by coronavirus are filling up with virtual happy hours & some are starting to feel exhausted.
72. Working, Working Together, And Networking During the Web-Hype of the ‘Corona Crisis’
73. Snapchat Taps Will Smith For Quarantined Celebrity Talk Show, Set In His Garage
74. Trial by video conference? Not yet, but coronavirus forces Bay Area courts to embrace more virtual proceedings
75. Apple will battle COVID-19 by designing and making millions of medical face shields
76. Apple doubles donation to China’s COVID-19 relief efforts: iPhone maker has now contributed $7 million to fighting the pandemic
77. Spotify now works with Siri on the Apple Watch: Apple started allowing third-party Siri music support last year
78. Spotify Expands Self-Serve Ad Studio to 18 Markets Around the World: Company has seen a 68% increase in monthly active advertisers in a year
79. SoundCloud now lets artists add a direct donation button to their page: To help musicians affected by the pandemic
80. Courts are moving to video during coronavirus, but research shows it’s hard to get a fair trial remotely
81. ‘Beginning of a new era’: how culture went virtual in the face of crisis
82. Livestreams Are Moving to Hard Tickets to Replace Lost Touring Revenue
83. The coronavirus crisis could fundamentally alter the internet: The covid-19 pandemic has many of us stuck at home. The result could completely reshape how we use the internet
84. Already Popular, the E-Signature Is Forever Part of Commercial Life
85. The problem of innovation in technoscientific capitalism: data rentiership and the policy implications of turning personal digital data into a private asset
86. Unblurring videoconferencing legal risks
87. Vertical Restraints in a Digital World (David Evans)
88. Intel’s 10th-generation H-series laptop CPUs break 5GHz

A.I.

1. Robots help China manage the coronavirus pandemic
2. The Far-Right Helped Create The World’s Most Powerful Facial Recognition Technology: Clearview AI, which has alarmed privacy experts, hired several far-right employees, a HuffPost investigation found.
3. AI Startups Cut Staff as Coronavirus Slams Economy: Job and spending forecasts had been relatively optimistic for the sector
4. ‘Show me your ID’: Tunisia deploys ‘robocop’ to enforce coronavirus lockdown – A police robot is patrolling the streets of the capital calling out suspected violators of the lockdown
5. Robot Vehicles Make Contactless Deliveries Amid Coronavirus Quarantine
6. Robots May Become Heroes In War On Coronavirus
7. Even the Pandemic Doesn’t Stop Europe’s Push to Regulate AI
8. How to Design AI for Social Good: Seven Essential Factors
9. Capitalism’s mirror stage: artificial intelligence and the quantified worker
10. Machine Learning Patentability in 2019: 5 Cases Analyzed and Lessons Learned Part 5
11. When Computers Invent: How the Use of Artificial Intelligence to Treat COVID-19 Highlights Novel Inventorship Issues

COMMUNICATIONS

1.  SLAPP Suit Filed Against Fox News Over Awful & Dangerous COVID-19 Coverage
2. TV stations don’t have to correct Trump’s COVID-19 statements, FCC says
3. Ex-FCC Staffer Says FCC Authority Given Up In Net Neutrality Repeal Sure Would Prove Handy In A Crisis
4. How the 5G coronavirus conspiracy theory tore through the internet: From an interview with a Belgian doctor to  arson attacks, the conspiracy theory that 5G is linked to the coronavirus pandemic has spread unlike any other
5. Why 5G is not causing the coronavirus pandemic, despite the conspiracy theory about towers, Wuhan and radiation: All scientific evidence points to 5G in its current form being non-harmful to humans
6. Radio station sanctioned for misleading coronavirus interview
7. White House Establishes Committee on Foreign Participation in U.S. Telecommunications
8. Pandemic hasn’t crushed broadband networks—even rural areas are doing OK
9. Fearing the Invisible: The long history behind the 5G COVID-19 conspiracy theory.
10. CMF to Invest C$353M in Canadian TV, Digital Media Production
11. T-Mobile, Sprint took a risk by finishing merger without Calif. approval
12. The T-Mobile Merger Closes, Highlighting Vast U.S. Media, Legal, And Policy Failures
13. FCC: TracFone made up “fictitious” customers to defraud low-income program
14. Verizon refuses to give DSL users its low-income deals during pandemic
15. Verizon canceling FiOS installs and telling customers to wait a few months

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

1. Canada legislates the use of inventions during the pandemic
2. Amendments to the Patent Act in response to COVID-19
3. “Lightly Sketched” Characters Not Copyrightable
4. The Batmobile is Copyrightable… Your Cute and Fuzzy Characters May Not Be
5. Copyright Protection for the Selection and Arrangement of Uncopyrightable Elements: Gray v. Perry
6. Court schools overzealous copyright licensor, holding that high school choir arrangement was fair use and awarding choir defendants their attorney’s fees
7. That Coronavirus Image Is Public Domain, But That Won’t Stop Getty From Trying To Sell You A $500 License To Use It
8. Lightbulb Moment: It’s Possible to Grant an Implied Copyright Sublicense
9. Johannsongs-Publishing, Ltd. v. Rolf Lovland: Court grants summary judgment for “You Raise Me Up” finding it not similar to Icelandic song “Soknudur” excluding musicologist’s reports as unreliable and unhelpful.
10. Waite v. Universal Music Group: In class action involving termination of grants of copyrighted under U.S. Copyright Act, court finds recordings were not works made for hire that would be ineligible for termination.
11. Copyright Termination. Special Report: Two SDNY Decisions on the Same Day!
12. World’s Worst Copyright Trolling Lawyer, Richard Liebowitz, Files Lawsuit Against Ellen Barkin For Posting Photo Of Herself
13. SCOTUS Sinks the CRCA, Confirms States are Immune from Copyright Suits
14. US Supreme Court Holds Unanimously That States Cannot Be Sued for Damages in Copyright Infringement Suits
15. States Can Be Pirates: Managing Business Copyright Protections
16. Response Clothing Limited v The Edinburgh Woollen Mill Limited: The Edinburgh Woollen Mill finds itself in a stitch following infringement of copyright in wave design fabric
17. Ninth Circuit Rallies in Defense of a Parody Dog Toy–Bad Spaniels v. Jack Daniel’s
18. Southern District of New York Revisits Tiffany v. eBay in Chanel’s Lawsuit Against The RealReal
19. Court Approves Settlement Between BMI and Radio Music Licensing Committee, Though Terms Are Not Yet Public – Many Other Music Licensing Issues Still Facing the Radio Industry
20. Anti-Piracy Copyright Lawyer Decides To Abuse Trademarks To Shut Down Pirates
21. Protecting against digital trademark infringement
22. Federal Circuit Says Logos Must Be Taken Seriously in Evaluating Infringement of Design Patents
23. Bad Faith Finding Still Required to Ban Patent Infringement Accusations
24. University libraries offer online “lending” of scanned in-copyright books
25. Patents in Crisis: Is there a Solution in Sight?
26. Predictive Text Patent Troll Tries To Shake Down Wikipedia
27. Bad Idea Is Bad: Senator Sasse Wants To Give Whoever Patents COVID-19 Treatments 10 Extra Years Of Patent Protection
28. How intellectual property rights can protect automotive designs
29. Dr. Drew apologizes for being a COVID-19 denier after copyright silliness: Dr. Drew coronavirus supercut restored to YouTube after copyright takedown.
30. Dr. Drew Pinsky Played Down COVID-19, Then Tries To DMCA Away The Evidence
31. Should Your Company Grant a Free License to Your Company’s Intellectual Property in Response to the COVID-19 Emergency?
32. COVID-19 and the future of open access
33. 3D printing and IP in a pandemic
34. Corona Beer vs coronavirus: effects on the company’s brand and its response
35. Those Ex-Theranos Patents Look Really Bad; Contest Opened To Find Prior Art To Get Them Invalidated
36. No Need to Wonder Anymore: Ninth Circuit Holds Stairway to Heaven Does Not Infringe Taurus
37. The Final Revenge of Queen Anne’s Revenge: State’s Use of Photographs Is Not Piracy
38. Role of IP in the Growth of Disney
39. Sky v SkyKick: was the CJEU swayed by Sky’s well-known brand?
40. Religious Institutions v. COVID-19: Why Religious Institutions Should Think Twice Before Live Streaming
41. Supreme Court rules on balancing of copyright and fundamental rights (Sweeden)
42. CJEU: hiring out cars with radio receivers not communication to the public
43. “Don’t change the station! I like this song” – the CJEU clarifies ‘communication to the public’ (again)
44. EU Says That, No, Rental Car Companies Don’t Need To Pay A License To Rent Cars With Radios That Might Play Music
45. CJEU finds Amazon not liable for direct infringement by unwittingly stocking infringing goods being sold through its website
46. European Court of Justice Holds Amazon Not Liable for Storing Third-Party Sellers’ Infringing Products, Another Reason Why Brands Must Take Greater Control In The European Market
47. Amazon: no infringing use but online platforms still in hot water?
48. Companies are Not only Sharing IP, They are Enabling Others to Copy Their Product
49. Protecting Intellectual Property and Data if Employee Separation is Anticipated
50. The issue of confidentiality in Intellectual Property litigation

PRIVACY

1. Saudi Arabia Exploiting Wireless SS7 Flaw to Track Targets In The United States
2. Website cookies in Canada: is consent required?
3. Bugs that let sites hijack Mac and iPhone cameras fetch $75k bounty
4. Attackers can bypass fingerprint authentication with an ~80% success rate
5. Pixel 4 face unlock finally gains an alertness check
6. Another Coronavirus Side Effect: In-Home Surveillance By Remote Workers’ Employers
7. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and Online Learning
8. The publication of COVID-19 quarantine lists violates the right to privacy
9. Google is releasing your anonymized location data to help health officials with coronavirus containment
10. Your Phone May Be Contributing to Google’s Coronavirus Reports: Location data is a new, somewhat controversial tool in the fight against Covid-19
11. Google knows if everyone in your county is actually staying home or not
12. Tech firms, others gain waiver to share patient data, raising​ privacy fears: The waiver from DHHS, seeks to make it easier for public health authorities to utilize patient data in the fight against COVID-19.
13. Coronavirus and the Future of Surveillance: Democracies Must Offer an Alternative to Authoritarian Solutions
14. NASA sees an “exponential” jump in malware attacks as personnel work from home
15. FTC Sends Warning Letters to VoIP Service Providers
16. Civil society groups call for protection of human rights in digital surveillance amid COVID-19: The measures adopted should be lawful, necessary and proportionate, wrote the signatories
17. Tracking coronavirus: big data and the challenge to privacy
18. Using tech to fight the virus: How much privacy are South Koreans relinquishing in the battle against COVID-19?
19. Covid-19: the race to create privacy-focused contact tracing tools
20. The Right and Wrong Ways to Use Location Data in the Pandemic: Using smartphone information from to track coronavirus may be a good idea. But using it to track the movements of specific individuals is not.
21. Pand-Veillance: The Catalyst Effect of Covid-19 on Surveillance Practices (Arthur Laudrain)
22. COVID-19 and Applicable Law to Transnational Personal Data: Trends and Dynamics (Jie Huang)
23. COVID-19 Will Someday Fade Away. The Wireless Location Data Practices Being Embraced To Track It Probably Won’t.
24. Governments turn to tech in coronavirus fight – but at what cost?: Critics warn privacy, civil liberties may be at risk as govt’s turn to tech volunteers, companies in COVID-19 responses.
25. COVID’s borders: between peer-to-peer surveillance and the “common good”
26. Coronavirus: location-tracking apps could stop the disease – here’s how
27. Data protection in times of COVID-19: the risks of surveillance in Brazil
28. Privacy Experts Say Responsible Coronavirus Surveillance Is Possible
29. Coronavirus is testing the limits of Russia’s surveillance state
30. Make Europe capital of data sovereignty
31. Enlisting tech to fight coronavirus sparks surveillance fears
32. We Mapped How the Coronavirus Is Driving New Surveillance Programs Around the World: At least 28 countries are ramping up surveillance to combat the coronavirus
33. Complex ecologies of trust in data practices and data-driven systems
34. Plastic surveillance: Payment cards and the history of transactional data, 1888 to present (Josh Lauer)

CREATIVITY   

1. Journalism hit hard by corona crisis
2. COVID-19 Entertainment Update: Silver Linings Playbook for Entertainment Companies
3. Art matters more than ever during the COVID-19 crisis
4. The Pandemic’s Effects on Museums and Art Schools
5. HR ‘Don’ts’ Inspired by Netflix’s Tiger King
6. Ten Years Later—Lessons Learned from the Museum of Fine Arts Boston Kokoschka Case

GAMES

1. Activision scores First Amendment victory in Humvee trademark lawsuit
2. Activision has a First Amendment right to use Humvees in Call of Duty
3. Humvee Can’t Stop Depictions of Its Vehicles in the ‘Call of Duty’ Videogame–AM General v. Activision Blizzard (Eric Goldman)
4. Activision Permabans 50,000 Players Amid Rampant ‘Call Of Duty: Warzone’ Cheating
5. Xbox architect sues Atari over unpaid work on crowdfunded console
6. Atari VCS system architect Rob Wyatt is suing Atari over missed payments
7. Tin Giant sues Atari for unpaid work on VCS console: Xbox architect Rob Wyatt accuses Atari of breach of contract and defamation
8. Tencent sues tech company for putting its games on rival cloud service without permission: League of Legends, CrossFire, and Dungeon Fighter Online allegedly made available without Tencent’s permission
9. Who owns your video game?: An issue between the NFTS and its students has raised questions about IP ownership — Sheridans’ Tim Davies is here to help
10. Pac-Man Owners Caught in Retro Game IP Maze
11. Bears Versus Yetis the Triple Town Copyright Infringement Case
12. Solid Oak Sketches, LLC v. 2K Games, Inc.
13. Copyright Defenses When a Copyright Infringement Claim Gets Under Your Skin
14. Watch as Charles Leclerc takes debut F1 Esports win in Virtual Grand Prix
15. Bubba Wallace loses sponsorship after rage-quitting during NASCAR iRacing event
16. Bubba Wallace rage-quit a NASCAR esports race, then lost his sponsor
17. Maybe It’s The Quarantine Talking, But NASCAR’s Esports Takeover Is Hilarious Fun
18. Racing turns hard into esports while the real world is on hold
19. How are traditional sports and esports converging as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic?
20. Esports Gain Prominence As Major Leagues Go Dark
21. A pandemic proved that esports is more vital than ever for entertainment | Opinion: As the last sport left standing, esports is in a position to rally fans, new users, and curious onlookers
22. Gaming hours, spend, digital purchases up as COVID-19 keeps players inside – Nielsen: 29% of gamers in the US say they’re playing online with friends more often
23. Mobile games spending expected to see minimal impact from COVID-19 – Sensor Tower: Spending expected to reach $72b in 2020, near $100b by 2024
24. The party goes on in massive online worlds
25. Strange Times: During The COVID-19 Outbreak, Evictions Get A Pause…In Final Fantasy 14
26. N3TWORK aims to help devs tackle UA and growth with $50 million fund
27. N3twork announces $50m fund to scale published mobile games: Growth fund to support 100 games over the next year, alongside $1m pilot fund
28. Over 1m boxed games sold in the UK in three weeks: But Resident Evil 3 disappoints in latest charts
29. Bonuses: Gaming’s second favorite surprise mechanic | Opinion – Developers can push themselves to extremes in the hopes of a big payday, but there’s no guarantee success will be rewarded
30. UK Government enlists game developers to push ‘Stay Home, Save Lives’ messaging
31. UK developers work with government to fight COVID-19: King, Rebellion, and Codemasters to include “Stay At Home, Stay Safe” messaging in their games
32. Getting the hate out of games: ADL’s Daniel Kelley says the industry can learn from social media to make communities welcoming to more players
33. SMG Studio: Platform holders need to drive accessibility
34. Report: Game X Change keeps stores open, gives staff bogus advice for facing COVID-19
35. Game X Change remains open despite COVID-19, sends workers debunked health advice: Employees report store has also failed to provide stores with cleaning and safety supplies
36. Phil Spencer talks how Xbox teams are weathering remote work in the lead-up to Series X
37. Microsoft: Staggered launch would “hurt” Xbox Series X – Phil Spencer wants to keep global rollout for new console in the face of COVID-19 pressures
38. Phil Spencer: Launch price will be ‘critical’ to the success of Xbox Series X
39. Xbox cautiously rolling out Project xCloud preview in Western Europe: Registrations now open, streaming service will arrive when internet infrastructure is not overwhelmed due to coronavirus
40. Over 1,100 Steam games earned at least $10k within two weeks of launch in 2019: That’s up 18% from last year, while new game release totals were up 11%
41. Ars analysis: ~80% of Steam games earn under $5K in first two weeks
42. Valve’s breakdown of Steam launch earnings says ‘success’ is on the rise4
43. Embracer Group raises $164 million to acquire more studios and publishers 
44. Embracer Group raises $164m for acquisition and expansion: THQ Nordic parent company also issues COVID-19 business impact assessment
45. Demiurge co-founder buys the studio back from Sega: Original CEO Albert Reed wants the Marvel Puzzle Quest developer to return to supporting work on AAA titles
46. Stadia launches free tier including two-month trial of Stadia Pro
47. Stadia’s wider launch begins with a two-month free Stadia Pro trial
48. Google offers Stadia Pro for free for two months: But it’s still not the official launch of Stadia Base
49. Stadia will lower default settings to reduce internet strain during COVID-19
50. Amazon Makes Grab For Gaming With Development Of Stadia Competitor, PC Titles ‘Crucible’ And ‘New World’
51. Report: COVID-19 could delay Amazon’s cloud-based gaming platform into 2021
52. Coronavirus reportedly delays Amazon’s game streaming service Project Tempo into 2021: But internet giant will release first original IP Crucible next month, interactive casual games for Twitch in the summer
53. Twitch breaks 3b total hours watched in a single quarter for the first time: Twitch, YouTube Gaming, and Facebook Gaming all see lifts in hours watched, though Mixer continues downward trend
54. Twitch Expands Nudity Guidelines To Allow Cleavage, Swimwear, Breastfeeding
55. Valorant’s closed beta debut lands Riot Games a new Twitch viewership record
56. Quarantine questions for the streaming future | Opinion: The games industry has pinned its future to fast broadband infrastructure — but as the world self-isolates, the risks of those choices become clear
57. The Last of Us Part II and Iron Man VR delayed as COVID-19 complicates release plans
58. The Last of Us Part 2, Iron Man VR delayed “indefinitely”: PlayStation issues automatic refunds for digital pre-orders of both games
59. ‘Iron Man VR’ for PSVR Delayed Indefinitely Amid Coronavirus Pandemic
60. The Last of Us Part II is “nearly done.” So why is it being delayed?
61. The next PlayStation controller is called DualSense, looks like a cool robot
62. The PS5 DualSense gamepad doubles down on dream of next-gen immersion
63. Don’t Miss: Mark Cerny’s 2013 ‘no holds barred’ PlayStation 4 hardware deep dive
64. People Are Playing the Piano in ‘Half-Life: Alyx’ and It’s Magnificent
65. How height, audio cues, and trust sculpted VR locomotion in Half-Life: Alyx
66. The best practices and design principles of VR development
67. “People are returning, and buying new stuff — that never happened before in VR”: Last year brought the next generation of VR hardware, says Ndreams’ and 2020 will see the same revolution in VR software
68. Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality Litigation Update: Responding to Patent Litigation Threats from AR/VR Non-Practicing Entities
69. GameStop ordered to close Boston store after violating lockdown: Retailer issued a nuisance order, staff had been serving shoppers through the door with hands wrapped in plastic bags
70. Nintendo says “more systems on the way” as Switch sells out worldwide: Major retailer says that some customers are picking up PS4 or Xbox One instead
71. Searching for the ultimate Super Mario Bros. player among the masses
72. Report: Animal Crossing has sold over 2.6 million retail copies in Japan alone
73. Animal Crossing: New Horizons sales top 2.6m in Japan: Nintendo’s latest drives Switch sales, towers over the competition in latest Japanese sales charts
74. Parenting in a pandemic: Chaos, control, and an Animal Crossing meltdown
75. Cooking Mama dev shuts down rumours of Switch version mining cryptocurrency: Studio says blockchain was never a feature, is “frustrated” by distribution problems
76. Sony forms $100 million global relief fund to help those affected by COVID-19
77. Sony sets up $100m COVID-19 Relief Fund: Company will fund support for frontline medical workers, educators, and the entertainment industry
78. Electronic Arts pledges at least $2m in match-funded support for COVID-19 relief: Staff around the world lead grassroots efforts to support local frontline workers and relief organisations
79. British government starts pushing social distancing via in-game ads
80. Irish studio Vela Games raises $3.1 million to create ‘player first’ co-op titles
81. You can help medical science just by playing a new Borderlands mini-game
82. Gearbox to help scientists map the human gut with Borderlands Science: New puzzle game within Borderlands 3 will enlist players to make up for computer shortfalls
83. After the lockdown: China studios on returning to work – Chinese developers share lessons learned from remote working and their efforts to prevent a second wave of COVID-19
84. Facebook Gaming launches Tournaments: Starting today, Facebook Gaming users can create brackets for their friends
85. SteelSeries acquires Nahimic: Accessories firm will use new subsidiary’s expertise to improve its proprietary audio engine
86. Resident Evil 3: Critical Consensus – Capcom’s third remake finds the classic series at a turning point — and there are dissenting voices amid the critical praise
87. Final Fantasy VII Remake spoiler-free review: Our kind of Cloud gaming
88. Final Fantasy 7 Remake: Critical Consensus – Critics praise this impressive but bloated reimagining of the iconic RPG
89. After over 300 weeks of releases, Ubisoft is ending work on new Rocksmith DLC
90. Retro console Amico receives 10,000 pre-sales in one week: Upcoming console from Intellivision Entertainment also sells over 100,000 to major retailers ahead of October launch
91. Designing around panic in The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners
92. War Stories: How Homeworld brought the third dimension to real-time strategy
93. Blog: Historians discuss Through the Darkest of Times
94. Blog: The difference between random and randomized progression
95. Blog: Getting the most out of player reviews
96. Blog: What does games culturalization involve?
97. Blog: Designing the art of Damaged In Transit
98. Blog: Best virtual development practices for a COVID-19 world
99. Blog: The impact of product managers on game design
100. Blog: A postmortem of my rope-swinging action title Hang Line
101. Don’t Miss: How Rogue Legacy handles tutorials without being boring
102. Video: Learning from 2 case studies of LGBTQ+ representation in games
103. Video: Overcoming creative block on Super Crush KO
104. Video: Lessons learned about matchmaking for engagement in Halo 5
105. Outer Wilds and Disco Elysium win big at BAFTA Games Awards
106. Outer Wilds wins best game, original IP, and design at 2020 BAFTA Game Awards: Disco Elysium also takes home three honors for best narrative, music, and debut
107. U.S. Patent no. 10,286,327: Multiplayer video game matchmaking system and methods

Jon

DIGITAL

1. Court: Violating a site’s terms of service isn’t criminal hacking
2. Levandowski says Uber must pay his $179 million judgment to Google
3. Yet Another Court Says Suing Twitter For Terrorist Acts Is A Waste Of Everyone’s Time
4. “Material Support for Terrorism” Lawsuit Fails a Third Time–Colon v. Twitter (Eric Goldman)
5. Redbox’s Terms of Use Fail (OUCH)–Wilson v. Redbox (Eric Goldman)
6. Section 230 Protects Classifying Non-Competitive Software as a Threat–Asurvio v. Malwarebytes (Eric Goldman)
7. Broadband Speeds Dip In Major Cities Due To Covid-19
8. Coronavirus misinformation is the latest test for social media platforms
9. Study looks at how Russian troll farms are politicizing vaccines
10. How China Built a Twitter Propaganda Machine Then Let It Loose on Coronavirus: ProPublica analyzed thousands of fake and hijacked Twitter accounts to understand how covert Chinese propaganda spreads around the globe.
11. Coronavirus Conspiracy Theories Are a Public Health Hazard: It’s time to debunk the worst—and most dangerous—Covid-19 misinformation. 
12. The Digital Response to the Outbreak of COVID-19: Undeniably, we need to use technology as part of disaster response, but the regulatory immaturity of the industry makes technology companies risky allies
13. Internet Archive offers 1.4 million copyrighted books for free online: Massive online library project is venturing into uncharted legal waters.
14. Authors fume as online library “lends” unlimited free books
15. Publishers And Authors Misguided Freakout Over Internet Archive’s Decision To Enable More Digital Book Checkouts During A Pandemic
16. Streaming Gets Big Bump During Coronavirus Quarantines, Nielsen Says: SVOD platforms outpaced the overall gains in TV usage during the first few weeks of March.
17. As More People Shelter At Home, Podcasts See 15% Drop In U.S.-Based Listeners
18. Amazon: Walkout leader’s firing wasn’t due to his organizing efforts
19. Amazon, Walmart Suspend Marketing Deals With Digital Media Firms
20. Email, text message attacks surge during COVID-19 crisis
21. An Internet Shutdown Is Keeping Coronavirus Information from Millions in Pakistan
22. South Korea: Cyberbullying Amid Coronavirus – Some online trolls seem determined to infuse Korean politics and COVID-19 with racial tensions.
23. Anti-Vaxxer Sues Facebook, In The Middle Of A Pandemic, For ‘In Excess’ Of $5 Billion For Shutting Down His Account
24. Facebook spends US$100M to support local news amid pandemic
25. Facebook invests $100M in journalism as COVID-19 makes it more vital than ever: In the form of direct grants and advertising spend
26. Facebook Says Live Streams Have Increased 50% This Month, Will Expand ‘Stars’ Monetization To Musicians, More
27. Facebook has a new way for communities to help each other through COVID-19: Its Community Help feature is expanding
28. Tech giants are navigating an ‘infodemic.’ Are they doing it right?: Social media platforms have resisted being arbiters of truth for years, but COVID-19 has changed that, fast.
29. How data-mining companies are set to gain from the Covid-19 pandemic: Their business model, challenged by numerous activists and analysts, is likely to gain further public acceptance, to the detriment of democracy.
30. Democrats say Google’s COVID-19 ad ban is a gift to Donald Trump: “To not allow political candidates to mention or discuss COVID-19 is something that has the potential to dramatically bolster Trump’s…reelection.”
31. Judge Allows PEN America’s Lawsuit Against Donald Trump Over Retaliation Against The Media To Proceed
32. President Trump Is So Upset About This Ad Showing His Failed Handling Of COVID-19 That He’s Demanding It Be Taken Down
33. Democrats Being Blocked From Advertising On Trump’s Failed COVID-19 Response Due To Content Moderation Rules
34. How Do You Moderate COVID-19 Misinformation When It’s Coming From Official Sources?
35. Jared Kushner’s Coronavirus Task Force Is Using Private Email Accounts To Conduct Official Business
36. Google sent users 40,000 warnings of nation-state hack attacks in 2019
37. Tech Firms Are Swooping in to Profit From COVID-19: Tech is winning gov’t contracts to roll out spurious apps & services. Innovation must be administered publicly to prevent the further commodification of health care.
38. Tech giants should give away their money instead of their products: Anything helps, yes. But there’s a limit to even a billion dollars in donations – “Can’t make payroll on ad credits.”
39. The Online Cold War: foreign hackers and trolls undeterred by virus crisis
40. Apple acquires Dark Sky weather app, and that’s bad news for Android users
41. Bogus coronavirus claims lead Google Play to finally give Infowars the boot: Apple kicked Alex Jones out of the App Store in 2018.
42. Google Commits $800 Million, Mostly in Ad Credits, to Coronavirus Relief Efforts
43. Don’t Click That Link! It Might Be Viral: There’s been an explosion of Covid-19-related websites, some real and some nefarious.
44. Frequency of looking for and accessing information about the coronavirus pandemic among adults worldwide as of March 2020
45. Snapchat preempts clones, syndicates Stories to other apps
46. Snapchat Reports Engagement Records During the Coronavirus Pandemic: The app reached all-time highs in Snaps sent, Snap Games, time spent watching Shows
47. Spotify is bringing its kids app to the US, Canada, and France: Just as kids are stuck at home because of the pandemic
48. Spotify and Warner Music Group renew their global licensing deal, resolve issue in India
49. HQ Trivia returns with surprise $1,000 show and $100,000 donation
50. Resurrected HQ Trivia App Welcomes 100,000 Players For First Game Back
51. HQ Trivia returns, reportedly acquired by private investor: Live mobile trivia competition to donate $100k to World Central Kitchen
52. Will Airbnb Become Obsolete After the Coronavirus?: The world’s most-visited cities are deserted. When the virus passes, they will be durably changed.
53. Patreon, Which Had 150,000 Pre-Pandemic Creators, Sees 30,000 Sign-Ups In March Alone
54. B.C.’s Civil Resolution Tribunal keeps ‘doors open’ during pandemic: CRT is able to stay fully operational because it operates remotely
55. COVID-19 court closures forcing long-overdue use of technology, say lawyers
56. Vancouver studio uses 3D printers to make face shields for hospital workers
57. Some Instacart and Amazon Workers Stay Home, Calling for More Pay in Coronavirus Pandemic: Coronavirus risks prompt walkouts, pay demands at delivery and retail companies
58. “Amazon Is a Breeding Ground”
59. Amazon fires warehouse worker who led Staten Island warehouse walkout
60. No Masks and Uncertain Sick Leave: New York Whole Foods Delivery Workers Say Amazon Is Failing To Protect Them
61. Amazon auditions to be ‘the new Red Cross’ in Covid-19 crisis | Free to read This could be the group’s finest hour but there are concerns about workers being put at risk
62. Why Amazon Is Poised to Emerge from the Covid-19 Crisis Stronger Than Ever: Amazon has reacted to the coronavirus with restrictions designed to cement its market power at the expense of merchants and consumers.
63. Who needs a government when you’ve got Amazon to keep things running?: While Trump blusters, the online giant has taken on the role of regulator and benevolent dictator
64. Nationalize Amazon: Instead of letting Amazon use coronavirus to dominate even more of the economy, the company should be nationalized and reoriented to serve the public good instead of predatory capitalism.
65. We Should Nationalize Food Delivery Apps and Turn Them Into a Public Food Service
66. The Technology 202: Mask scams and misinformation still present on social media despite tougher policies
67. Well Hyped Satellite Broadband Provider OneWeb Files For Bankruptcy
68. OneWeb goes bankrupt, lays off staff, will sell satellite-broadband business
69. Daisy Keech Moves Out Of ‘Hype House’ Mansion, Files Suit Against Ex-Business Partners
70. John Krasinski Launches ‘Some Good News’ YouTube Channel, Gaining 330K Subscribers Overnight
71. YouTube Taps Lilly Singh, Philip DeFranco, Others For Coronavirus Interview Series With Dr. Fauci
72. “With me” videos on YouTube are seeing huge spikes in viewership as people stay home: A growth of 600 percent since social isolating started
73. Reese Witherspoon Pacts With YouTube For Charitable ‘Shine On’ Series Amid Quarantine
74. We Talked To Industry Insiders About How The Coronavirus Is Impacting YouTube Ad Revenues
75. YouTube Sets 480p Resolution Limit On Android App Across India Amid Coronavirus Lockdown
76. YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, Instagram See Significant Boosts In Traffic Amid Digital Ad Woes
77. YouTube To Launch TikTok Competitor ‘Shorts’ Later This Year
78. TikTok Strikes Short-Term Licensing Deals With Sony, Warner, Universal
79. Facebook Hosts Beware: Potential Defamation Liability around the Corner
80. FTC Paid Endorser Settlement Sets Framework for Advertiser Best Practices
81. Rihanna’s ‘Fenty Beauty House’ Temporarily Shutters As Coronavirus Precaution
82. Google Wants Your Data in Exchange for a Coronavirus Test: Public health shouldn’t mean surrendering privacy to Silicon Valley.
83. Disney+ Is Reportedly Asking Users If It Should Offer Shows Aimed At Older Audiences
84. Patreon, Which Had 150,000 Pre-Pandemic Creators, Sees 30,000 Sign-Ups In March Alone
85. How U.S. Sports Are Publishing On Social Video Without Games Being Played
86. BuzzFeed Cuts Staff, Executive Pay In Attempt To Prevent Coronavirus-Related Layoffs
87. Some Silicon Valley Companies Are Booming as COVID-19 Rages: For some businesses, the novel coronavirus pandemic and efforts to contain it have been a boon, boosting their popularity if not yet their revenue.
88. We just glimpsed how a “digital dollar” might work, thanks to coronavirus: Proposal for new government-run payment platform didn’t make it into the coronavirus relief plan. It won’t be the last we hear of the idea.
89. Not having lockdown parties on Zoom? What are you waiting for?: Zoom birthday parties & virtual pubs demonstrate social distancing isn’t isolation – will the party stop when we can all go outside again?
90. Coronavirus scammers are getting taken down by grassroots ‘hackers without borders’
91. ‘The Valley has stepped up’: Ro Khanna on layoffs, bailouts, Trump and crisis innovation – Protocol talks with the California representative about how the tech industry is being affected by the crisis — and what comes next.
92. New pandemic edtech power networks
93. Ad Council’s COVID-19 PSAs Bring Together White House, Social Platforms, Tech Companies, Advertisers, And Influencers
94. From female computers to male comput♂rs: Or why there are so few women writing algorithms and developing software
95. The Law of Informational Capitalism (Amy Kapczynski)
96. Digital Repression in Autocracies (Erica Frantz, Andrea Kendall-Taylor, Joseph Wright)

A.I.

1. AI and big data won’t work miracles in the fight against coronavirus
2. EU Parliament Told Predictive Policing Software Relies On Dirty Data Generated By Corrupt Cops
3. As Platforms Rely Less on Human Content Moderators, What’s at Stake?: In response to COVID, some social media sent content moderators. This could be a glimpse into their desire to rely less on human labour
4. Neural implants plus AI turn sentence-length thoughts to text
5. Unity Game Simulation Lets Studios Use AI Bots To Playtest Games In Google Cloud
6. CAA Signs Human Avatar-Fashioning Tech Startup ‘Soul Machines’
7. The false positive problem of automatic bot detection in social science research: A study of Botometer’s diagnostic ability over time
8. Emotional AI, soft biometrics and the surveillance of emotional life: An unusual consensus on privacy (Andrew McStay)
9. The benefits of Artificial Intelligence in the field of IP
10. Artificial Intelligence – Our March 2020 report

COMMUNICATIONS

1. Video Streaming to TVs Soared 85% in U.S. in First Three Weeks of March, Nielsen Says
2. Broadband speeds fall in dozens of big US cities during pandemic
3. Alarm, Denial, Blame: The Pro-Trump Media’s Coronavirus Distortion – Hannity, Limbaugh & other commentators turned a pandemic into a battle of us vs. them – the battle President Trump has waged.
4. Charter gives techs $25 gift cards instead of hazard pay during pandemic
5. Comcast waiving data caps hasn’t hurt its network—why not make it permanent?
6. Instead of COVID-19 Hazard Pay, Spectrum Is Giving Its Repair Techs $25 Gift Cards To Closed Restaurants
7. Saudi spies tracked phones using flaws the FCC failed to fix for years
8. Saudi Arabia reportedly tracked phones by using industry-wide carrier weakness
9. Teardown of Huawei flagship phone finds US parts despite blacklisting
10. AT&T, Verizon Will Waive Wireless Overage Fees During Pandemic. But You’ll Have To Ask.
11. Verizon Is The Only US Wireless Carrier Charging Extra For 5G
12. FCC Permits Schools and Libraries to Make Wi-Fi Available to Public
13. FCC requires anti-robocall tech after “voluntary” plan didn’t work out [Updated]
14. Goodbye, John Legere: CEO leaves as T-Mobile completes Sprint merger
15. Frontier prepares for bankruptcy, regrets failure to install enough fiber
16. China’s economy was hit hard by the pandemic. Its 5G ambitions could be crucial to its recovery
17. Is the media an essential service?
18. Opinion of the Advocate General of the Court of Justice on net neutrality and zero-rating
19. Tone Deaf: Using COVID-19 As A Prop To Celebrate The Death Of Net Neutrality

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

1. Bill C-4 Receives Royal Assent: Incoming Changes to the Intellectual Property Landscape
2. EU: infringement of software license agreement can result in an intellectual property infringement
3. The Open COVID IP Pledge
4. IP monitor: Canadian Intellectual Property Office announces further extension of deadlines in wake of pandemic
5. COVID-19: Canadian Government Can Now Use Patented Inventions to Respond to the Public Health Emergency
6. COVID-19 Emergency Response Act: Amendments to the Patent Act
7. COVID-19 and intellectual property
8. Patents Concerning Coronavirus Treatments
9. Evalve v Edwards – Review of competing public interests in grant of final injunctions
10. Florida Atlantic University Suddenly Decides Owl Tutoring’s Name Is Trademark Infringement After Over A Decade
11. Lean Trademark Strategies – For The Covid-19 Pandemic And Its Aftermath
12. A “Dark Horse” Victory for Katy Perry: Central District of California Overturns $2.8M Copyright Verdict
13. First Circuit Treads “Unchartered Waters”: Holds Copyright Sublicenses Can Be Implied
14. RIAA Realizes It Sued Charter Over A Bunch Of Songs It Doesn’t Hold The Copyrights For
15. A Snapshot From Section 101: Patent Directed to Image Cataloging Not Patent Eligible
16. A Collision of Patents, Copyrights, and Piracy on the High Seas
17. 67 Years Ago Today: Jonas Salk Announced The Polio Vaccine… And Did NOT Patent It
18. Supreme Court Holds that States are Immune from Copyright Infringement
19. GEICO Earns Victory at Intersection Between Copyright and Trade Secret Law Covering Source Code
20. Top 3 legal predictions on Copyright for 2020
21. Copyright Termination. Chapter One: What Kind of Grants Can Be Recaptured?
22. Copyright Termination. Chapter 2: When Can a Grant Be Terminated?
23. Is Your Character Entitled to Copyright Protection? The Ninth Circuit Reinforces High Bar for Copyright Protection of Characters
24. The Pirates Of Precedence, or How a Modest Copyright Case Could Affect Controversial Supreme Court Cases
25. Ninth Circuit Shows Led Zeppelin a Whole Lotta Love in ‘Stairway’ Copyright Win
26. Copyright Is Broken: COVID-19 Pandemic Revealing Just How Messed Up Our Permission-Based Culture Is
27. Permission Culture Gone Mad: Worries About Proper License For ‘Balcony Singing’ Lead Collection Society To Say It’s Okay, You Can Sing
28. I Just Took a DNA Test . . . Am I the Joint Author?
29. U.S. Supreme Court Holds Copyright Remedy Classification Act of 1990 Does Not Abrogate State Sovereign Immunity for Copyright Infringement: Allen v. Cooper
30. Judge Ramos Finds “Bad Faith” Enforcement of a Patent is Not Patent Misuse
31. Global patent law update
32. Eli Lilly and Co v Genentech Inc: issue estoppel and abuse of process in patent cases

PRIVACY

1. Zoom iOS App Sends Data to Facebook Even if You Don’t Have a Facebook Account: Zoom’s privacy policy isn’t explicit about the data transfer to Facebook at all.
2. Zoom is being sued for allegedly handing over data to Facebook
3. Zoom Meetings Aren’t End-To-End Encrypted, Despite Misleading Marketing
4. Who’s Zoomin’ Who? Privacy and Data Security Concerns over Stay-at-Home Video Conferencing
5. Zoom’s privacy problems are growing as platform explodes in popularity
6. Attackers can use Zoom to steal users’ Windows credentials with no warning
7. Researchers Say Kids’ Android Apps Are Still Riddled With Malware
8. >4,000 Android apps silently access your installed software
9. UK’s National Health Service Plans To Use Big Data Analysis To Fight COVID-19 — With The Help Of Palantir
10. Can ProctorU Be Trusted With Students’ Personal Data?
11. Moscow To Launch New Surveillance App To Track Residents In Coronavirus Lockdown
12. Voluntary Virus Tracking Apps Seek To Get A Grip On The Coronavirus Problem
13. How Much Data Does Clearview Gather On People? The Answer (Sadly) Will Not Surprise You.
14. Maine Event: ISP Privacy Law Challenged on Free Speech Grounds
15. Geolocation and the Fight Against COVID-19: Could the Emergencies Act Overrule Privacy Law Protections for Cellphone Location Data?
16. Appeals Court Tells Baltimore PD To Start Coughing Up Information About Its Cell Site Simulators
17. Countries are using apps and data networks to keep tabs on the pandemic: And also, in the process, their citizens
18. Will Germans trade privacy for coronavirus protection?
19. Australian state will install home surveillance hardware to make sure if you’re in virus isolation, you stay there: Could be a wearable, could be wired. Backed by big fines and jail
20. Verily’s COVID-19 website becomes a health data privacy battleground: “These tools can be a helpful part of the solution during our ongoing public health emergency, but patient privacy shouldn’t be sacrificed as a result”
21. Pitching trade against privacy: reconciling EU governance of personal data flows with external trade (Svetlana Yakovleva, Kristina Irion)
22. Someone Convinced Google To Delist Our Entire Right To Be Forgotten Tag In The EU For Searches On Their Name

1. Johnny Depp disclosure in libel case in English MAC Court Ruling
2. The death of Hungary’s democracy is a worldwide press-freedom warning
3. Judge Schofield: Claims Over White House Revocation of Press Credentials and Security Clearances May Proceed
4. Call for Creatives: United Nations Opens Submission Process for COVID-19 Messaging Work
5. ‘The real ideological war has just begun and Covid-19 is only the starting point’: Ai Weiwei on China’s response to the outbreak – The Chinese artist reflects on how authoritarian political systems tackle the crisis effectively
6. The importance of art now and beyond Covid-19: The always deeply flawed and unequal conditions of labour for the artistic community have been revealed and made much worse by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
7. The importance of art in the time of coronavirus
8. UK gallery curator calls for public art project in response to Covid-19: Ambitious national programme is needed to support artists and institutions, says Serpentine Galleries’ artistic director
9. In a Pandemic, How Do You Make the Case for an Art Emergency?: Literary Arts Leaders are Bracing for Months of Financial Crisis
10. ‘A Matter Of Common Decency’: What Literature Can Teach Us About Epidemics
11. Insights: Adapting Hollywood To The Pandemic, And What Happens Hereafter
12. Call for Depression Era-style Public Art Project
13. This American Life host Ira Glass on storytelling during Covid-19
14. The Architecture of Quarantine Is No Longer a Thing of the Past
15. Ethics and Reporting Practices for COVID-19
16. Disease control: Mapping violations of free speech under the cloak of the coronavirus crisis
17. The ‘human canvas’ livestreams from Tasmanian museum
18. Marvel, DC will delay digital comic books during brick-and-mortar closures
19. Adam Schlesinger, Emmy Winner and Fountains of Wayne Cofounder, Dies of Coronavirus Complications

GAMES

1. ‘NBA 2K’ Publisher Beats Copyright Suit Over LeBron James’ Tattoos: In a landmark decision on the tatto a federal judge rules that Take-Two’s depiction was de minimus and that an implied license was granted.
2. Judge Swain: Depicting NBA Players’ Tattoos in Video Game Is “Fair Use”
3. Court Manages To Get NBA2K Tattoo Copyright, Trademark Case Exactly Right
4. Videogame Doesn’t Infringe Tattoo Copyright By Depicting Basketball Players–Solid Oak Sketches v. 2K Games (Eric Goldman)
5. Videogame Can Replicate Musician’s “Signature Move” (Unless It’s a False Endorsement, Which It Isn’t)–Pellegrino v. Epic Games (Eric Goldman)
6. US court dismisses Humvee trademark infringement suit against Activision: New York judge rules that use of Humvees in Call of Duty is protected as artistic expression
7. Wargaming.net files lawsuit against group of former employees: Blitz Team says it has become target of “unfair competition and legal bullying” at hands of Wargaming
8. Gamevice brings yet another accusation of Nintendo patent infringement: This is the peripherals manufacturer’s third attempt at such a complaint
9. Nintendo Switch sells out at retail, leading to third-party price inflation
10. The year of Mario: A ton of classic 3D games reportedly coming to Switch in 2020
11. How SNES emulators got a few pixels from complete perfection
12. Report: Gearbox overspent on Borderlands 3, and devs see bonuses cut in response
13. Borderlands 3 devs accuse Gearbox of shorting bonuses: Kotaku reports that promised six-figure bonuses have been significantly reduced, studio planning an IPO
14. Epic offers $1m reward for evidence of Houseparty smear campaign: Fortnite developers assures that app does not enable access to bank accounts or other services
15. Activision has dished out over 50,000 permabans in Call of Duty: Warzone
16. Activision permabans over 50,000 cheaters in Call of Duty: Warzone – Publisher says it has “zero tolerance” policy on cheaters and will issue regular updates on number of bans handed out
17. Jedi Academy dev promises to fix mistake that let PC gamers slaughter console players
18. Sony declines to sell Call of Duty in Russia (again): Modern Warfare 2 Remastered will not be sold through PlayStation Store
19. Players host weddings, classes, more in online games during COVID-19 crisis
20. Hyper casual dominated new mobile downloads in 2019: More than 75% of the 20 most downloaded new mobile games of 2019 were hyper casual
21. Fox’s virtual Texas NASCAR race sets esports record with 1.3 million viewers
22. NASCAR’s First Virtual Race Draws Record-Setting 903K Viewers, Seals Broadcast Deal For Rest Of Season
23. Mobile esports team Tribe Gaming raises $1 million: Backers include NBA all-star Gordon Hayward, WWE wrestler Cesaro, and Super Evil Megacorp CEO Kristian Segerstrale
24. During The Outbreak: All Sports Are eSports Now
25. How to play Pokémon Go when everyone’s stuck inside
26. Pokémon and Apex Legends esports events cancelled: Physical events scrapped amid coronavirus concerns, prize money shifted to online competitions
27. Anybrain receives €1m investment form Trust Esport: Artificial intelligence startup works to secure online gaming and make esports more fair
28. FaZe Clan, Verizon Host Charity ‘Fortnite’ Match For Coronavirus Relief Efforts
29. ESL partners up with PUBG Mobile to host competitions for the game
30. Andre ‘Typical Gamer’ Rebelo Signs Exclusive Streaming Deal With YouTube
31. What is happening with video game sales during coronavirus: GamesIndustry.biz analyses the latest figures from GSD
32. Pandemic has led to spikes in mobile gaming, says ironSource: App monetization firm reports daily average users, new game installs up in regions under lock down
33. The rise and rise of video games: Covid-19 has drawn renewed attention to an under-appreciated industry
34. Kojima’s GBA experiment—and the sunny island childhood it changed forever
35. Kojima Productions working remotely after employee diagnosed with COVID-19
36. Kojima Productions staff working remotely after employee diagnosed with COVID-19: Developer is working with health authorities to prevent further spread of virus
37. UK retailer Game furloughs staff with full pay through April: However, company tells staff it cannot guarantee full pay or jobs past that point
38. Twitch is holding a Stream Aid charity event to raise money for the fight against coronavirus
39. Twitch ‘Stream Aid’ To Combat Coronavirus Raises $2.8 Million, Nabs 135,000 Concurrent Viewers
40. A Twitch streamer is exposing coronavirus scams live
41. Mojang shakes up AR game Minecraft Earth to adapt to shelter-in-place play
42. Pokémon Go temporarily changes mechanics to reduce spread of COVID-19: Mojang follows suit with changes to Minecraft Earth
43. Pokémon Go revenue spikes as game continues to adjust for COVID-19: Last week was its highest-earning week in 2020 so far, despite lockdowns
44. Record number of Steam users online during coronavirus outbreak: Steam sees record numbers of users in-game, and record concurrent users for third week running
45. With more people staying home, Steam makes changes to reduce bandwidth use
46. GameStop turns a Q4 profit despite 28% dip in sales: Retailer says pandemic has increased demand; chain closed 320 stores last year and looks to close that many or more in the current year
47. Amid pandemic closures, GameStop says it’s seeing increased business
48. GameStop ends 2019 with sales down year-over-year, but ‘increased financial flexibility’
49. GameStop to close at least 320 stores in 2020
50. GameStop says no indication of PS5, Xbox Series X delays: Retailer says as of right now, pandemic has had “minimal” impact on product deliveries
51. Sony says COVID-19 won’t impact PS5 launch (yet)
52. Early Access MMO Last Oasis offering full refunds due to server problems: Game being taken offline for a week while developers fix issues
53. Colopl acquires Steins;Gate developer Mages for $15 million: Studio will become a wholly owned subsidiary after mobile firm purchases all shares
54. Koch Media, Kalypso Media expand physical publishing partnership
55. South Australia launches second round of Games Innovation Fund
56. Xbox encouraging devs to push updates during off-peak hours to lessen server strain
57. Microsoft adjusts Xbox Live functionality due to pandemic: As demand for cloud services surges, custom gamerpics disabled and game updates only delivered in off-peak hours
58. Future shuts down Official Xbox Magazine after almost two decades
59. Official Xbox Magazine closed: Publication is reportedly one of six magazines Future has discontinued
60. Sony doesn’t see pandemic affecting PS5 launch: Despite factory closures and downgraded profit forecast, Sony estimates no material impact on its gaming business so far
61. Sony will begin limiting PSN download speeds in the U.S.
62. Sony reduces PSN download speeds for the US: PlayStation maker expands European downgrade “to help ensure internet stability” during pandemic
63. Bungie: Google Stadia an “amazing solution” for playtesting during lockdown – COO Patrick O’Kelley says Google’s streaming platform can replicate an essential aspect of game development
64. Google Stadia, ‘beefy laptops’ drive Bungie’s remote work success
65. Tencent and Huawei are working on a mobile cloud gaming platform
66. All hail Nintendo’s animal overlords | Opinion: Animal Crossing looks set to be one of the year’s biggest games — we might reflect on what it says about the appetite for different kinds of escapism
67. A Super Mario Christmas is the ideal counter to PS5 and Xbox Series X | Opinion: Why a bunch of Mario ports may be all Nintendo needs to face off against the new consoles
68. Strong week for UK physical game sales despite lockdown: “Animal Crossing New Horizons” drops to No.3
69. Final Fantasy VII Remake shipping early amid COVID-19 disruption: Square Enix reveals European and Australian players may receive the game sooner than April 10 launch
70. Square Enix will ship ‘Final Fantasy VII Remake’ early to some countries: Disruption caused by the coronavirus will leave some players open to spoilers.
71. Epic launches new publishing program with 50/50 profit sharing for developers
72. Epic launches publishing label with Remedy, Playdead and GenDesign onboard: Epic Games Publishing will be multiplatform, cover as much as 100% of costs, and offer partners 50/50 profit share
73. Epic Games is now a third-party multi-plat publisher, secures three big studios
74. Epic signs Playdead, Remedy, and genDesign to new publishing label
75. COVID-19 preventing Bethesda from hosting digital E3 showcase
76. Star Citizen dev Cloud Imperium raises $17.25 million in funding
77. Cloud Imperium secures $17.25m in additional investment: Existing investors pour more finance into Star Citizen developer
78. Colopl acquires game and interactive novel developer Mages for $14.92 million
79. Terraria has sold over 30 million copies across all platforms
80. Niantic acquires 6D.ai to help map out the entire world for AR
81. Niantic acquires AR mapping company 6D.ai: Location-based game developer working on dynamic, 3D map of the world
82. How to Clean Your VR Headset
83. Roto VR Picks up $1.86M Investment to Support Roll-out of Rotating VR Chair
84. ‘Half-Life: Alyx’ Now Among Steam’s 10 Best Rated Games Ever, Surpassing All Other ‘Half-Life’ Titles
85. With Half-Life: Alyx out, Valve shifts focus to its Hammer level editor
86. Forte recruits 5 more high-end game studios to make blockchain-based games
87. Wasteland 3 delayed due to COVID-19: Minecraft Dungeons also delayed into May for the same reason
88. The Sandbox blockchain-based world will feature virtual Atari theme park
89. Researchers turn to PC gamers for help with COVID-19: Folding@home downloaded onto over one million devices
90. Tinybuild’s Hello Neighbour books have made $16m in revenue: Book series hits 2m sales as game franchise passes 30m downloads
91. League of Legends: The art of balance – Summoner’s Rift team manager John Frank discusses the intricacies of balancing one of the world’s most successful competitive titles
92. An extended interview with Crash Bandicoot designer Andy Gavin
93. What happens when an outbreak ruins your game announcement plans?
94. WHO and game companies launch #PlayApartTogether to promote physical distancing
95. Industry launches #PlayApartTogether in fight against COVID-19 pandemic: Over 50 companies now using their platforms to spread key messages, organisers in talks 70 more
96. Resident Evil 3 Remake review: Are we ready for pandemic nostalgia?
97. Deep Dive: Making a cozy, therapeutic experience in Coffee Talk
98. Don’t Miss: How Mario Kart influenced Nintendo’s fighting game, ARMS
99. Don’t Miss: What it took to port Resident Evil 2 to the N64
100. Don’t Miss: The Valkyrie Profile-inspired design of Indivisible
101. Don’t Miss: Give players a place to feel ‘cozy’ and they’ll keep coming back
102. Video: Storytelling with verbs to better integrate narrative and gameplay
103. Video: Using forgiveness mechanics to design better games 
104. Video: How Gearbox baked accessibility features into Borderlands 3
105. Blog: Understanding and effectively implementing live ops
106. Blog: Differentiating narratives using the selfish story model
107. Next big thing or next big bubble? – 10 Years Ago This Month: Streaming, motion controls, and stereoscopic 3D were all pushed as transformative technologies
108. 28 years later, a no-disc version of the Sega CD exists—and it rocks [Updated]
109. Insert Coin, the arcade documentary worth feeding all your quarters into 
110. Cyberpunk dev CD Projekt Red donates $950,000 to help fight COVID-19
111. Eidos-Montreal hosting Deus Ex flash sale to help those affected by COVID-19
112. Rockstar pledges 5% of Red Dead and GTA Online revenue to fight COVID-19
113. Dozens of devs pitch in games for Humble’s all-for-charity Conquer COVID-19 bundle
114. Game industry backs ‘Play Apart Together’ campaign to slow spread of COVID-19
115. U.S. Patent no. 10,286,326: Soft reservation system and method for multiplayer video games

Jon