DIGITAL

1. TikTok reportedly waited nearly 3 hours to call police in Brazil after a teen’s death was livestreamed on the platform, but the company notified its own PR team almost immediately
2. When You Set Out To Block Misinformation, You Can Wind Up Blocking A Hero Like Li Wenliang
3. Chinese Hacking Is Alarming. So Are Data Brokers.
4. The Speaker, the President, and the Case of (the) Ripped Up Speech (Jonathan Zittrain)
5. The Billion-Dollar Disinformation Campaign to Reelect the President 
6. Audit Indicates Intuit Made $1 Billion By Hiding Free File Program From The Public
7. Can Public Infrastructure Fix Social Media?
8. Defamation, social media and the right to insult
9. Ninth Circuit Rules that LinkedIn Cannot Block Data Scraping
10. Registrars raise alarm over proposal for big .com fee hikes: Proposed contract allows Verisign to raise registration fees 7 percent per year.
11. Understanding Internet Culture
12. Competition Bureau’s Marketing and Advertising Priorities: False Online Consumer Reviews
13. Logitech debuts $169 StreamCam: A streamer-focused, USB-C webcam
14. Canadian Government Officially Warns 100 Brands And Ad Agencies To Comply With Influencer Marketing Laws
15. Bad Influence: FTC Settles Two Complaints Alleging Fake Social Media Influence
16. US says Chinese military stole masses of Americans’ data
17. Equifax breach was the work of Chinese state hackers, DOJ says
18. China’s To Blame For The Equifax Hack. But It Shouldn’t Let Equifax, Or US Regulators, Off The Hook.
19. DOJ Charges China With Hacking Equifax. That’s No Reason to Forgive Equifax: We’ve identified the culprits. But corporate accountability and meaningful victim compensation remains nowhere in sight.
20. Justice Department Ramps Up Google Probe, With Heavy Focus on Ad Tools: Antitrust enforcers have contacted more than a dozen publishers, ad tech rivals and ad agencies
21. Why Google Might Prefer Dropping a $22 Billion Business: Divesting its third-party ad operation could stave off even worse regulatory action.
22. Google Tells Websites–Including YouTube–To Remove “Particularly Disruptive” Ads On Short Videos
23. YouTube Wants To Hook Its Users Up With Third-Party Video Subscriptions (Report)
24. The Young Turks Launches Google-Funded Video Course For Aspiring Local Journalists
25. We Need to Talk About ‘Cloud Neutrality’: A multibillion-dollar, privately-owned infrastructure is now essential to the modern internet economy. That should freak you out.
26. Video Sharing Site Protected by CDA Immunity for Removal of Poster’s “Objectionable Material”
27. Sun To Rise on .GAY
28. The Iowa caucuses were a comedy of tech errors and poor planning
29. Snapchat introduces new interventions for mental health
30. Snapchat is testing a big new redesign: A new home for the Snap Map and its original shows – plus a new test of news briefs
31. Justin Bieber Docuseries Becomes YouTube’s Most-Viewed Original In One Week
32. YouTube continues to mirror Twitch, tests new clap feature that lets fans donate to creators: Clapping costs $2 on YouTube now
33. YouTube could compete with Apple and Amazon by offering third-party video subscription services: The report comes after Google boasted good subscriber numbers on YouTube
34. Patreon Adds European Currencies, Will Open Berlin Offices As It Eyes Global Expansion
35. Brazil judge rejects hacking accusation against Greenwald
36. Brazilian Court Refuses To Move Forward With Bogus Charges Against Glenn Greenwald ‘For Now’
37. European Commission continues crack down on cross-border online trade restrictions
38. Can a Retweet Constitute Copyright Infringement? Uh….–Bell v. Chicago Cubs (Eric Goldman)
39. Two New Mass Copyright Lawsuits – Rambo: Last Blood & Angel Has Fallen
40. What Happens When a High-Tech Apparel Brand Shares the Same Name as the Company that Backed the Controversial Iowa Caucus App?
41. ­­
42. Mother Meets Recreation of Her Deceased Child in VR
43. Ubisoft’s next Prince of Persia game is a VR escape room 
44. Oxford VR Picks up $12.5M in Funding for Its VR-based Therapy Platform
45. Steam: Virtual reality’s biggest-ever jump in users happened last month
46. Acer Has Cancelled its ConceptD OJO Headset
47. Nreal Temporarily Halts Production of ‘Light’ AR Headset due to Coronavirus
48. Mobile World Congress canceled due to coronavirus [Updated]
49. Facebook Watch Sets Limited John Legend Series For Valentine’s Day
50. What it takes to get a hate page off Facebook: A letter from the state AG
51. Senators Threaten Twitter For Allowing Iranian Official Who Helped De-Escalate Tensions Via Twitter To Tweet
52. Twitter beats revenue, user growth estimates in fourth quarter
53. Arizona Legislator Wants To Strip Platforms Of Section 230 Immunity If They’re ‘Politically Biased’
54. Pigs Fly As Charles Harder And Donald Trump Support Anti-SLAPP Laws (When They Protect Trump, Of Course)
55. Good News: Virginia Legislature Passes Anti-SLAPP Law
56. Federal Court Ignores Journalist Privilege For Reporting On Court Documents; Allows Bullshit Defamation Suit To Proceed
57. Downloading public court documents costs a dime a page—is that legal?
58. Google Maps gets new icon, tweaked UI for 15th birthday
59. Instagram Launches New Tool To Help Users Tidy Up Their Follows
60. Instagram Confirms It’s Prototyping An Ad-Share Monetization Program For IGTV
61. Instagram Claims Should Be Discontinued, NAD Recommends
62. Amazon might offer Twitch’s streaming technology to businesses: Twitch would still exist, but Amazon would have a new way to monetize its technology.
63. Regulator Ofcom to have more powers over UK social media 
64. Logan Paul Drops Antonio Brown Diss Track, Compounding Reports Of Boxing Bout
65. Apple will introduce universal app purchases for iOS and macOS
66. Here Are All The Titles Netflix Has Removed Because Of Government Censorship
67. Netflix Finally Lets Users Turn Off Contentious Autoplay-While-Browsing Feature
68. Hell freezes over as Netflix finally lets users turn off autoplaying previews
69. Quibi’s Oscar Ad Blitz A Decent Start Amid Disney Networks’ Promotional Blizzard
70. Brands Owning Super Bowl Social Video Conversation Before And After Game
71. ViacomCBS plan would unify all of Star Trek (and more) in one new streaming service
72. WarnerMedia Forms New Film Division To Produce “Mid-Budget” Originals For Streamer HBO Max
73. Hilton Hotels Named Title Sponsor Of BuzzFeed’s ‘BringMe’ Travel Vertical In Sweeping Pact
74. Spotify’s Purchase Of The Ringer Won’t Be Cheap, But The Payoff Could Be Huge
75. Spotify is giving songwriters their own pages and playlists
76. Spotify launches ‘walled garden’ app Spotify Kids to millions more users
77. Tentpole Events Boost Celebs’ Engagement On Social
78. Just one day after launch, Moto Razr durability problems begin to pile up
79. Bitcoin, CRA, and telemarketing scams in Metro Vancouver, Whistler and Squamish, and Vancouver Island
80. The End Of Ownership: Tesla Software Updates Giveth… And Tesla Software Updates Taketh Away…
81. Electronic signatures – legally binding or not worth the paper they’re written on?
82. New Paper Explains How FOSTA Devastated Male Sex Workers (Eric Goldman)
83. AOC Supports Full Repeal Of FOSTA
84. The Future of International Crime: AI, 5G, Encryption, Cryptocurrencies and 3D technologies?
85. Who’s Prone to Drone? A Global Time-Series Analysis of Armed Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Proliferation (Michael Horowitz,Joshua Schwartz. Matthew Fuhrmann)
86. ’90s nostalgia: Dancing Baby does the cha-cha once more in new HD rendering
87. Techdirt Podcast Episode 238: Larry Lessig Defends His ‘Clickbait Defamation’ Lawsuit

A.I.

1. Review of Artificial Intelligence May Result in Significant Changes to PIPEDA
2. Facebook, YouTube order Clearview to stop scraping them for faces to match
3. Google Says Clearview’s Site Scraping Is Wrong; Clearview Reminds Google It Scrapes Sites All The Time
4. Clearview AI and the Legal Challenges Facing Facial Recognition Databases
5. Clearview Looking To Expand Its Market To Problematic Countries Known For Human Rights Abuses
6. Ajunwa to Congress: Help stop employers’ AI-fueled bias
7. AI isn’t just coming to the world of dating—it’s already here
8. Artificial Intelligence at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board
9. LAW’s Danielle Citron: How Campaigns Can Counter Deepfakes – Cybersecurity expert and MacArthur Fellow has devised an eight-point plan for political campaigns to protect against fabricated video and audio
10. Machines have learned how to be creative. What does that mean for art?: A.I. is imbuing computers with the most human of traits, creativity. Not everyone is happy about it
11. AI-Mediated Communication: Definition, Research Agenda, and Ethical Considerations (Jeffrey Hancock, Mor Naaman, Karen Levy)
12. Can Fiction Introduce Empathy Into AI? Do We Want It To?: Flynn Coleman on the Potential for Ethical Technology
13. Radiant app taps Spotify for ‘digital radio hosted by AI’
14. EPO Publishes Grounds for Refusing AI-Invented Patent Applications
15. The EPO explains why the inventor has to be a human being, not a machine
16. The untapped potential of AI for conglomerates
17. Canadian Privacy Regulator Launches Consultation on its Proposals for Ensuring AI Regulation
18. Personal choices and situated data: Privacy negotiations and the acceptance of household Intelligent Personal Assistants (Jason Pridmore, Anouk Mols)

COMMUNICATIONS

1. The Broadcast Panel Report and Discoverability of Canadian Content: Searching for Evidence of a Problem (Michael Geist)
2. The BTLR and USMCA, Part One: Why the Broadcast Panel Recommendations Conflict With Canada’s Emerging Trade Obligations (Michael Geist)
3. Higher Costs and Less Choice: Why Consumers Will Pay the Price for the Broadcast Panel’s Plans to Increase Costs of Internet Services and Sites (Michael Geist)
4. Canadian Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review Panel releases Final Report
5. Update on Allarco Litigation – Allarco’s Potential Exit Costs in the Federal Court (Howard Knopf)
6. Judicial Review: Impact of the Vavilov Judgment
7. Goodbye, Sprint: US judge approves T-Mobile’s purchase of competitor
8. US Antitrust Enforcement Clearly Broken As Court Rubber Stamps T-Mobile Merger
9. US Broadband Gaps Are Twice As Bad As The Government Claims
10. FCC data fails to count 21 million people without broadband, study finds
11. Ajit Pai defeats another attempt to restore FCC’s net neutrality rules
12. Comcast “not welcome” here: Customers protest sale of tiny cable company
13. AT&T Keeps Pretending It Wants Real Net Neutrality And Privacy Laws. It Doesn’t.
14. 5G choices: a pivotal moment in world affairs
15. 5G Could Actually Make The ‘Digital Divide’ Worse
16. iPhones Will Get Bigger And More Expensive This Year Thanks To 5G
17. Microsoft’s first-ever Android Phone, the Surface Duo, spotted in the wild
18. Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip is the first foldable with a flexible glass cover
19. Samsung’s Galaxy S20 is official, with bigger screens, higher prices
20. Andy Rubin’s smartphone startup, Essential, is dead
21. IoT Update: FCC Raises the Benchmark for Rural Broadband Deployments
22. Frontier, nearing bankruptcy, faces scrutiny over weeks-long phone outages

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

1. Downtown Music Publishing LLC v. Peloton Interactive, Inc.
2. “Pound Cake” Sampling Is Fair Use According to the Second Circuit
3. 2nd Circuit Appeals Court Upholds Drake Sampling Fair Use Victory, But Doesn’t Think It’s Useful For Anyone Else
4. Estate of James Oscar Smith v. Drake (USCA 2^nd Circuit, 2.3.20)
5. Transformative Editing as Fair Use Under Copyright
6. Google v. Oracle: Will Software Be Free?
7. Supreme Court Set to Hear Copywrite Arguments in “Google v. Oracle”
8. China and United States see eye to IP
9. Copyright Troll Lawsuit Over Duct Taped Banana Picture
10. Photo Of $120K Banana Art Leads To Copyright Fight
11. Seattle Kraken or Sockeyes: How Legal Implications May Influence Seattle’s Decision
12. Get Up, Stand Up, For Your Copyrights
13. Fashion designers to have more protection against copying
14. Can copyright protect your fabric design from copycats and competitors?
15. Making Waves: IPEC finds fabric design a work of artistic craftmanship
16. CJEU rules that the provision of e-books is an act of communication to the public
17. Caltech Ten-Figure Patent Verdict Showcases Impact of University Intellectual Property
18. Patenting Coronavirus Treatments
19. EU’s top court clarifies when a patent settlement agreement can infringe EU antitrust rules
20. You Mess With Me, You Mess With My Whole (Patent) Family
21. Express License of Patent Includes Implied License of Continuations
22. The six big ways the US and Europe differ on software patents
23. What will France’s PACTE law mean for patents?
24. Standard-essential patents in United Kingdom
25. The future of 5G patent licensing
26. Top Issues in 2020: 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing
27. Government Looking in the Mirror: How to Do Better in IP Protection and Commercialization
28. Tech tools to draft patent applications could revolutionise IP proceedings
29. BREXIT’s Projected Impact on Intellectual Property Rights
30. Copyright Troll Richard Liebowitz Drops Case After Suing On Behalf Of The Wrong Party And Trying To Swap Plaintiffs 

PRIVACY

1. Man who refused to decrypt hard drives is free after four years in jail
2. Appeals Court Rules That People Can’t Be Locked Up Indefinitely For Refusing To Decrypt Devices
3. Harvard Students Again Show ‘Anonymized’ Data Isn’t Really Anonymous
4. As The World Frets Over Social Media Tracking For Advertising, Young People Are Turning Fooling Sites Into Sport
5. US says it can prove Huawei has backdoor access to mobile-phone networks
6. Huawei fires back, points to US’ history of spying on phone networks
7. Privacy Commissioner says Facebook violated PIPEDA: OPC made an application to Federal Court Thursday, seeking declaration Facebook broke the law
8. IP Addresses No Longer Protected in Alberta: From a privacy perspective, the decision is “exceedingly troubling” argues Lisa Lifshitz
9. One of the most destructive botnets can now spread to nearby Wi-Fi networks
10. Personal Data of All 6.5 Million Israeli Voters Is Exposed
11. Transparency Report Shows Ancestry.com Rejected A Warrant Demanding Access To Its DNA Database
12. Inside the closed-door campaigns to rewrite California privacy law, again: How Google, Facebook, the EFF and others lobbied Alastair Mactaggart — and what they managed to get.
13. For decades, US and Germany owned Swiss crypto company used by 120 countries
14. New “red team as a service” platform aims to automate hacking tests for company networks
15. Do Sports Clubs’ WhatsApp Groups Breach the GDPR?
16. Windows trust in abandoned code lets ransomware burrow deep into targeted machines
17. Google Play apps with 470k installs can log in to your Facebook and Google accounts
18. How Attorney General Barr’s War On Encryption Will Harm Our Military
19. Why is the healthcare industry still so bad at cybersecurity?
20. Why you can’t bank on backups to fight ransomware anymore
21. The CJEU’s cookie judgment: why the cookie consent debate continues

CREATIVITY   

1. Advertising Watchdog Says Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop Is Making False Health Marketing Claims
2. Philadelphia Police Clear Gritty of Alleged Assault
3. Former “Bachelor” Contestant Stripped of $1 million Fantasy Football Win
4. MLB Drops Joint Promotion with Roger Waters Over Anti-Semitism Charges
5. Was it all a fantasy? New York Appeals Court says fantasy sports are illegal
6. New York Appellate Court Rules Fantasy Sports is Illegal Gambling
7. Ohio minister may face uphill fight in Super Bowl halftime
8. Could employers ban office football chat?
9. ABC Rejects Frida Mom Commercial for Oscars Broadcast
10. The Beguiling: Glamour in/as Platformed Cultural Production (Alison Hearn, Sarah Banet-Weiser)

GAMES

1. Sweeney criticizes “customer adversarial” industry tactics: Epic CEO condemns privacy invasion, pay-to-win, and loot boxes, calls for companies to “divorce ourselves from politics”
2. Epic’s Sweeney: Game companies should be platform agnostic, ‘divorce’ from politics
3. Proposed Washington Gambling Law Changes Aimed at Keeping State Video Gaming Industry Around
4. Mario Kart Just Added Vancouver As A Race Track Location
5. Games industry faces major disruption across all sectors as coronavirus spreads: PUBG Corporation postpones Berlin esports event in response to coronavirus
6. Mobile World Congress Barcelona show cancelled over virus fears: Organizing body GSMA says travel concerns and other factors “made it impossible” to hold 2020 edition of annual conference
7. Coronavirus concerns lead to delay of The Outer Worlds Switch port
8. Switch production delayed in China due to coronavirus outbreak
9. Coronavirus concerns lead to delay of The Outer Worlds Switch port
10. Coronavirus concerns lead to delay of The Outer Worlds Switch port
11. Nintendo: Switch “just entering the middle of its lifecycle”: President Shuntaro Furukawa says Switch Lite purchasers who already owned a Switch down to 30% from 43%
12. The world’s only known Nintendo PlayStation could be yours—for over $15,000
13. With 2 million sold, Take-Two is unsure how Game Pass affected The Outer Worlds
14. Take-Two stock slumps following Dan Houser’s departure from Rockstar: Publisher’s share price has increased eight-fold since the day that Grand Theft Auto V launched
15. Grand Theft Auto Online just had its best holiday quarter ever: Six and a half years after launch and 120m units sold, Rockstar’s behemoth leads Take-Two Interactive’s Q3 alongside Red Dead Online
16. GTA, Red Dead can’t stop Take-Two’s revenue from sliding in Q3 2020
17. Take-Two still isn’t sure about subscription services
18. Recurrent consumer spending made up 37% of Take-Two’s $930 million Q3 revenue
19. Team Ninja’s Nioh surpasses 3 million sold
20. With no profit motive, new kids’ mobile IP from BBC focuses on a “safe gaming experience”: A luxury not afforded to most developers yields interesting results
21. Accessible design and focusing on the gaps: HyperDot dev Charles McGregor explains how he stumbled into accessibility after an experiment with eye-tracking
22. King’s Sabrina Carmona wants more women in game dev leadership
23. Black game pros assess industry’s diversity efforts: Panelists at Ubisoft Toronto event say they see progress but there’s still a lot left to do
24. The road to removing crunch is a long one | Opinion: RCP Scotland head Mark Lloyd says a revolution is coming as developers new and old discover a better way of working
25. Nexon Korea agrees to 6.8% pay rise after talks with union
26. Nexon Korea and union agree on pay raises: Publisher tentatively agrees with Starting Point labor union on an average 6.8% salary increase for this year
27. Survey: Game devs, what are you doing about your studio’s carbon emissions?
28. Blizzard president on Warcraft 3 Reforged: “We stand behind our games”: J Allen Brack commits to continued updates and support after poor reception
29. GeForce Now loses all Activision Blizzard titles weeks after launch
30. Activision Blizzard pulls support for Nvidia’s GeForce Now streaming platform
31. Activision Blizzard pulls all games from GeForce Now a week after launch: Nvidia hopes to work with publisher on bringing its titles back to streaming service’s catalogue
32. Mobile is now Activision Blizzard’s leading platform for revenue
33. Call of Duty rises as rest of Activision Blizzard stumbles: Handful of bright spots in year-end financial results came courtesy of flagship shooter series
34. Activision Blizzard saw $6.49 billion in revenue during 2019
35. EA handing Need for Speed franchise back to Criterion
36. EA will move Need for Speed development back to Criterion: Ghost Games to become an EA engineering hub with 30 staff at risk
37. Atari acquires Wonder assets to expand capabilities of VCS console
38. Atari acquires assets from tech start-up Wonder: Technology nods to possible cross-platform functionality with mobile and Atari VCS
39. Steam brought in 95 million monthly active users in 2019
40. Metro Exodus comes to Steam after a year of Epic Games Store exclusivity
41. Zynga posts record revenue of $1.32B in 2019; Q4 revenue and bookings were highest in its history
42. Ubisoft’s net bookings beat expectations, though still down from last year
43. Ubisoft quarterly revenues down 26%: Rough Q3 results still beat forecast as publisher points to full slate for next fiscal year
44. How will Brexit affect investment opportunities for the UK games industry?: With Britain leaving the EU, VC investment is up and game dev tax breaks could be strengthened, but uncertainty looms over every outcome
45. Profits flat at Bandai Namco as video game sales dip slightly
46. UK Charts: FIFA 20 reclaims No.1 and Ring Fit Adventure re-enters Top Five – Zombie Army 4 Dead War is the only new game to enter the charts this week
47. 30% of Switch Lite owners already owned a Nintendo Switch
48. Nintendo will no longer work with outlet that leaked Pokemon Sword and Shield details: Company publicly denounces Portuguese website that broke review embargo with early photos
49. Sony files patent which encourages stuck players to spend money on DLC: Machine learning system also uses contextual data to help players overcome challenges using in-game resources
50. Sony’s 2019 acquisition of Insomniac Games priced at $229 million
51. Sony paid $229 million for Insomniac: SEC filing reveals acquisition cost of Ratchet & Clank and Marvel’s Spider-Man developer in a majority-cash deal
52. ‘Games need to find players’: Phil Spencer talks Game Pass, Series X as next gen looms
53. Phil Spencer: “There’s no slide deck that says we want to turn everyone into a subscriber” – Xbox head wants to “put the player at the center” in the next gen through services, hardware, and models that fit different needs
54. Xbox Chief Says Its Main Competitors Are Now Google, Amazon Rather Than Sony, Nintendo
55. Who are Microsoft’s “real” competitors?: Google and Amazon being the “real” competition for Xbox reveals the tricky balancing act that Microsoft’s games team now faces
56. Xbox extends Project xCloud preview to iOS devices
57. Stadia’s free tier to launch at some point in ‘the next few months’
58. Have we got Google Stadia all wrong?: Google Stadia’s focus should be on accessibility, not on subscription models or exclusives
59. BioWare hits pause on seasonal content to work on full Anthem overhaul
60. BioWare promises “substantial reinvention” for year-old Anthem
61. Anthem team ditches major seasonal updates in favor of “longer-term redesign”: BioWare intends to “reinvent the core gameplay loop” after a challenging first year
62. Glu Mobile returns to profitability with $8.9 million net income for 2019
63. Glu Mobile avoids second year of loss thanks to Q4 surge: Mobile dev posts $8.9 million profit as revenue rises across portfolio
64. Mobile drives Innogames’ FY19 sales to $208 million
65. THQ Nordic opens Slovakian studio Nine Rocks Games
66. THQ Nordic opens new studio Nine Rock Games: Slovakia-based developer staff by team who has worked on DayZ, Conan and Soldier of Fortune 3
67. IronSource opens mobile studio Supersonic Games to create ad-based games
68. IronSource launches new mobile studio Supersonic Games: Debut game Sort It 3D already a chart topper in Europe, America, Korea, and Japan
69. Fledgling mobile studio Double Loop secures $2.5 million in seed funding
70. Double Loop Games raises over $2.5m for mobile games: LVP leads investment in push to make relaxing, connective titles for everyone
71. PUBG Mobile was the top-grossing mobile game for the fifth month in a row – Sensor Tower: Tencent’s title brought in $176.3 million in January, over half of which came from Chinese users
72. Yager receives strategic investment from Tencent
73. Spec Ops: The Line developer Yager nets minority investment from Tencent
74. 2K Silicon Valley studio becomes 31st Union and expands to Spain: “We want to identify opportunities where they haven’t traditionally existed for underrepresented voices”
75. Payday ‘front and center’ as Starbreeze closes out its reconstruction-filled 2019
76. Starbreeze relies on Payday as full-year losses increase to $12m: Co-op heist game accounted for 99.4% of the developer’s Q4 net sales
77. Clash of Clans maker Supercell to ‘significantly’ cut back on hiring
78. Supercell to “slow growth significantly” in coming year: As mobile studio enters its second decade, CEO Ilkka Paananen reaffirms goal to be “as small as possible”
79. Report: System Shock 3 developers are “no longer employed”
80. System Shock 3 development staff reportedly “no longer with the studio”: Highly-anticipated sequel supposedly halted after studio falls “critically behind” in development
81. Lineage 2 M surpasses $152m in three months: NCSoft’s Mobile MMORPG is currently only available in South Korea
82. The New Zealand games industry has doubled its annual revenue in two years
83. New Zealand’s games industry has doubled revenue in two years: National industry earned more than $200m in revenue in the last fiscal year, but investment and skills remain impediments to growth
84. UK spend on Video Games Tax Relief rose to record £582.6m in 2019: But number of projects receiving interim certification reduces as console cycle nears its end
85. Bigben Interactive is now Nacon as publishing and accessories businesses merge
86. Ultimate Rivals dev Bit Fry Game Studios lands $3.5 million investment
87. Putting together an All-Star team of sports licenses: Bit Fry’s Ben Freidlin talks about how & why the developer got the NHL, NBA, MLB, WNBA, NFL Players Association and more on board for Ultimate Rivals
88. Twitch, Gillette Further Three-Year-Old Brand Deal With Fleet Of Five Top Gaming Creators
89. Riot Games Rioting Over Esports Team’s Trademark Infringement
90. Major esport organisations launch new team-owned CS GO league: Flashpoint aims to address “lack of stability and long-term investment” issues of current pro scene
91. Hitmarker: Number of full-time esports jobs doubled last year – The number of senior-level jobs in esports grew an impressive 190% in 2019
92. $1.4bn divestment offsets modest annual loss for MTG: Esport and gaming revenue continues to climb for Swedish entertainment group
93. Teamwork makes the dream work – the crossover between sports and esports
94. Bit Fry backers invest additional $3.5 million: Bitkraft Esports Ventures and 1Up Ventures increase their stake in creator of many-licensed sports franchise Ultimate Rivals
95. Facebook Expects Coronavirus Will Have “additional impact” on Oculus Quest Availability: Quest “unavailable” in most regions
96. Facebook expects coronavirus outbreak to impact Oculus Quest production
97. How to get the best game publishing deal: Don’t be afraid to negotiate and realise your value to avoid a publishing deal gone wrong
98. How Star Trek Online managed to live long and prosper: In a decade when many licensed MMOs struggled and died, lead designer Al Rivera discusses why Cryptic Studios’ voyage to the final frontier has survived
99. Light Brick wants to rebuild how we play with digital Lego: Studio head Karsten Lund explains why Lego’s new internal studio is getting back to basic building bricks with Lego: Builder’s Journey
100. After another major E3 data leak, a gaming luminary says bye to the expo: Comes as reaction to E3 organizers’ plans for the event.
101. ESA names 10 companies still attending E3: Xbox, Nintendo, Ubisoft, and Take-Two among the bigger outfits participating in 2020 show, which will have an industry-only day
102. Ultra-tough dungeon-crawler Below adds easier “Explore” mode
103. Cloudspire: a $130 MOBA for your tabletop?
104. 15 co-op games to play with your partner this Valentine’s Day
105. 5 important realizations about game balance
106. Don’t Miss: The world design of Diablo III
107. Don’t Miss: Sonic the Hedgehog co-creator’s philosophy of game design
108. Sonic the Hedgehog film review: You can slow your roll, Sega fans
109. Don’t Miss: Devs look back at the influential BioShock 2
110. Don’t Miss: Translating the humor & tone of Yakuza games for the West
111. An inside look at how Bungie found and fixed Destiny 2’s currency-deleting bug
112. Video: How Guerrilla crafted the lush vegetation of Horizon Zero Dawn
113. Video: Indexing and iterating design space permutations in game dev
114. Video: How the Nyamakop team broke into game dev from Africa
115. Video: Monetization design and overcoming the dark side of gacha
116. Video: Monitoring and validating world design data in Assassin’s Creed Origins
117. Blog: How my sci-fi adventure Aquamarine found Kickstarter success
118. Blog: Finding the right publisher for your game and other dev tips
119. Blog: Video game composers and the importance of research
120. And Yet it Hurt: How I made a game played in Notepad
121. Humble Bundle rolls out regional pricing for a handful of currencies
122. Humble Bundle joins efforts to raise money for Australian bushfire relief: Humble Bundle sells 60,000 bundles to raise over $2.4 million for bushfire relief effort

Jon

DIGITAL

1. Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault on Regulating Foreign News Sites: “What’s the Big Deal?” (Michael Geist)
2. Weak Walk-Back: Why Steven Guilbeault’s Reversal on Government Licensing News Sites Still Leaves a Huge Regulatory Structure in Place (Michael Geist)
3. Video Excerpts Qualify as Fair Use (and Another 512(f) Claim Fails)–Hughes v. Benjamin (Eric Goldman)
4. Twitter Suspends Reporter For ‘Posting Private Info’ That Is Merely Internal Deutsche Bank Email That Could Implicate Trump
5. Twitter Moves To Quash Fishing Expedition Subpoena For Info On Devin Nunes Cow By Devin Nunes’ Lawyer In Unrelated Case
6. YouTube Sends Cease-And-Desist To Facial Recognition Company That Scrapes Social Media Images For Law Enforcement
7. YouTube Emphasizes Its Ban On Birtherism, Deepfakes As 2020 Election Gets Underway
8. YouTube Says It Will Ban Misleading Election-Related Content: On the day of the Iowa caucuses, the video platform rolled out a complete policy of how it planned to handle false election content.
9. Email release reveals chaos sowed by President Trump’s hurricane tweets
10. ‘Fake news’ – the perfect storm: historical perspectives
11. An Artist Used 99 Phones to Fake a Google Maps Traffic Jam: With his “Google Maps Hack,” artist Simon Weckert draws attention to the systems we take for granted—and how we let them shape us.
12. Google Fiber kills TV service, focuses on broadband and YouTube TV
13. Nightmare Google Photos bug sent private videos to the wrong people
14. Nextdoor Post Isn’t Protected by Anti-SLAPP Law–Jeppson v. Ley (Eric Goldman)
15. Can a “Fire” Emoji Support a Manslaughter Conviction?–Johnson v. State (Eric Goldman)
16. Amazon Tells Ukraine Publication To Alter Its Article After It Links The Company To Ring’s Problematic Ukraine Branch
17. Amazon Value Tops $1 Trillion After Results Beat Expectations
18. Amazon reports big earnings, crosses $1 trillion in value
19. What can Amazon do for you?
20. Record labels want to ask potential jurors: Do you read Ars Technica?
21. Microsoft’s failures to renew: Teams, Hotmail, and Hotmail.co.uk
22. Microsoft now sees Amazon and Google as its main gaming threats
23. Lindsey Graham’s Sneak Attack On Section 230 And Encryption: A Backdoor To A Backdoor?
24. The Plot Against Section 230 Is Being Run By Big Legacy Companies Who Failed To Adapt To The Internet
25. Google Search Qualifies For Section 230, Whether or Not It’s a “Platform”–Chukwurah v. Google (Eric Goldman)
26. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act: Protections for Copyright Owners and Online Service Providers
27. RIAA, Stream-Ripping Sites Engaged In Dumb Game Of Whac-A-Mole With Search Engines
28. Dune’s New Logo Started Disappearing From Twitter Due To Copyright Claims, But No One Is Quite Sure Why
29. What is a porn website’s duty to accommodate?
30. New FTC Settlement Targets Fake Ratings and Reviews
31. Cheap rooms? Probably not? Trivago’s top deals are hotels which pay the most
32. How lawyers brought down internet trolls – without ever uncovering their identities
33. How to virtually block a road: Take a walk with 99 phones
34. YouTuber JayStation Concedes He Faked Girlfriend’s Death To Drive Subscriptions
35. YouTube Takes Down Live Stream Over Copyright Claim…Before Stream Even Starts
36. YouTube Shares Insights Into How It Will Deploy $100 Million Kids Content Fund
37. YouTube Millionaires: Meet Steph Pappas, YouTube’s Up-And-Coming Queen Of Mukbang
38. YouTube Finally Reveals Exactly How Much It Makes From Ads: $34.4 Billion In Last 3 Years
39. Alphabet finally reveals YouTube revenue—$15 billion in 2019
40. Alphabet discloses YouTube ad revenues of $15.15 billion, cloud revenues of $8.92 billion for 2019
41. YouTube Finally Reveals Exactly How Much It Makes From Ads: $34.4 Billion In Last 3 Years
42. CBS makes Star Trek: Picard pilot free on YouTube for a limited time
43. Linux Star Trek fans, rejoice: CBS All Access now works in your OS [Updated]
44. ViacomCBS-Owned Pluto TV To Enter Latin American Market Next Month
45. Amid Push To Build Platform, Editor ‘VSCO’ Will Now Let Members Publish Videos
46. Disney’s Licensing Dogs Charge Underserved School District A Third Of Fundraiser Money For Playing ‘Lion King’ DVD
47. Verizon Says Disney+ Deal Helped It Bring In 790K New Wireless Customers Last Quarter
48. Disney expected to announce up to 30 million subs for Disney+
49. Hulu CEO Randy Freer Exits Amid Streamer’s Ongoing Integration Into Disney
50. Netflix Signs 4-Film Deal With Adam Sandler, After Banking 6 Features To Date
51. Sony, Wattpad Unveil First Original Shows In Development After First-Look Deal
52. Insights: Frumpy Hulu Sharpens Its Edge With Reorg, Big Sundance Deals
53. Spotify needed a huge podcast, and it just bought one of the biggest: Why it matters that Spotify bought The Ringer and Bill Simmons’ podcast
54. China’s New Digital Stars Are Construction Vehicles–And They Have 40 Million Viewers
55. Competition Bureau’s Marketing and Advertising Priorities: Influencer Marketing
56. The FDA Is Studying Influencers Who Endorse Healthcare Products
57. Competition Bureau’s Marketing and Advertising Priorities: Influencer Marketing
58. Casey Neistat Invests In $4.5 Million Seed Round For Aperitif Startup ‘Haus’
59. Chipotle Taps David Dobrik, Zach King, Avani Gregg For TikTok Super Bowl Campaign
60. TikTok Testing New Profile Layouts That Look Strikingly Similar To Instagram
61. James Charles To Attend VidCon 2020 For The First Time As A Featured Creator
62. Jake Paul Defeats AnEsonGib In First Round, Setting Stage For KSI Showdown
63. Messenger Kids adds expanded parental controls, details how much kids’ data Facebook collects
64. Instagram Brings In More Than a Quarter of Facebook Sales
65. Instagram Reportedly Clocked $20 Billion In Ad Revs Last Year, Toppling YouTube’s Tally
66. Teens have figured out how to mess with Instagram’s tracking algorithm: Teenagers are using group accounts to flood Instagram with random user data that can’t be tied to a single person.
67. Snapchat launches Bitmoji TV: zany 4-min cartoons of your avatar: Facebook’t can’t copy this one
68. Snapchat hits 218M users but big Q4 losses sink share price
69. Snapchat Triples Video Ad Earnings And Snags 8 Million New Users, But Misses Q4 Revenue Target
70. Here are the 62 brand-new emoji for 2020
71. OneWeb joins the satellite Internet gold rush this week
72. Tracking the future of remote workplaces: Apps, communication, and liability
73. Social AR/VR Workspace ‘Spatial’ Secures $14M Series A Financing
74. Maryland State Senate’s Budget and Taxation Committee Hears Testimony on Proposed Digital Advertising Tax
75. “Of Ransoms, Bitcoin, and Injunctions”: English High Court grants subrogee insurer proprietary injunction over ransomed Bitcoin
76. SaaS, cashless and convergence drive tech to the top
77. “OK, Boomer”: From Social Media to the Supreme Court
78. Internet Law and Regulation

A.I.

1. Patent law’s approach to AI: finding the way forward
2. Could Star Trek’s DATA Be a Patent Inventor?
3. UK Intellectual Property Office finds that patent law does not cater for inventions created by AI machines and calls for debate
4. Patenting Considerations for Artificial Intelligence in Biotech and Synthetic Biology – Part 2: Key Issues in Patent Subject Matter Eligibility
5. Someone used neural networks to upscale a famous 1896 video to 4k quality (Updated)
6. Modl.ai closes $1.7m seed funding round: Startup uses AI-driven player archetypes to drastically reduce playtest times
7. Machine behaviour
8. Oyez! Robot
9. Closing the AI accountability gap: defining an end-to-end framework for internal algorithmic auditing
10. Transhumanism, Moral Perfection, and Those 76 Trombones (Tom Koch)

COMMUNICATIONS

1.  The CRTC Knows Best: Panel Report Recommends Costly Overhaul of Canadian Communications Law to Regulate Internet Sites and Services Worldwide (Michael Geist)
2. Not Neutral: Why the Broadcast Panel Report Weakens Net Neutrality in Canada (Michael Geist)
3. Broadcasting report constitutes a stunning overreach
4. Jonathan Kay: The federal government’s unsettling communications power grab – No one should trust any agency of government to regulate speech. I’m no fan of the Rebel. But free countries don’t ban book sales. Ever.
5. No Netflix Tax? (Sort Of…): The Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review Panel Releases Its Final Report
6. Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review Panel Releases its Final Report to the Federal Government
7. Broadcaster to Pay $50,000 for Failing to Announce That “Live” Program Was Prerecorded
8. 1 Year Later, FCC Finally Admits Wireless Carriers Broke The Law On Location Data
9. FCC accuses carriers of being “gateways” for foreign robocallers
10. Sinclair Pays Tribune $60 Million To Settle Lawsuit Over Dodgy Merger
11. Did You Know that There is a Rule that Broadcasters Have to Tell Their Audience that a Program Is Recorded When It Seems to Be Live? – FCC Sends a $50,000 Reminder
12. AT&T is doing exactly what it told Congress it wouldn’t do with Time Warner
13. AT&T’s Attempt To Dominate The Pay TV Sector Continues To Go…Poorly
14. AT&T Keeps On Firing Employees Despite Claims The Trump Tax Cut Would Boost Job Growth
15. AT&T slashed billions from network spending, cut tens of thousands of jobs
16. AT&T, Comcast Dramatically Cut Network Spending Despite Net Neutrality Repeal
17. FCC proposes to fine racist troll $13 million for robocalling spree
18. Quick Thoughts on a Few Political Broadcasting Legal Issues to Survive the Primary Season
19. The United States vs. Robocalls
20. Federal robocall watchdogs flex enforcement muscles
21. Eleventh Cir. Rejects Broad Reading of “Autodialer”
22. FCC Makes Permanent At-Home Call Handling by Sign Language Interpreters for VRS
23. Ajit Pai’s “surprise” change makes it harder to get FCC broadband funding
24. Ajit Pai: Carrier sales of phone-location data is illegal, FCC plans punishment
25. Smaller Cable Companies Are Giving Up On Cable TV Altogether
26. DoD’s Squeeze of Chinese Telecom Equipment Continues
27. The electronic communications code: a new year, a new approach?
28. The end of BlackBerry phones: TCL will cease sales in August 2020
29. Telecom pioneer and convicted fraudster Bernard Ebbers has died

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

1. Conservative MP Dan Albas on Copyright Term Extension in USMCA: Government Needs to Mitigate Damage to Copyright Law (Michael Geist)
2. Woman Threatens Rep. Steve King With A Lawsuit For Using A 12-Year-Old Meme On His Facebook Page
3. Success kid’s mom won’t stand for Steve King’s “meme” ad: Laney Griner, mother behind the meme, sent cease-and-desist to the Iowa congressman.
4. The EPO’s fourth law of robotics: a robot must not be the inventor of a patent
5. EPO publishes reasons for rejecting AI as inventor on patent application
6. Can your AI machine be an inventor? The EPO says no….
7. Caltech wins $1.1 billion patent award against Apple and Broadcom
8. Patent Re-examination in Canada: Court Takes Truck Argument Off the Road
9. Seedlings Clarifies Key Patent Litigation Issues
10. Federal Circuit Alters Landscape for Design Patent Litigation
11. Kendall and Kylie Jenner “Klauber-ed” for Allegedly Infringing Lace Designs
12. Blockchain and intellectual property – the de-centralised alliance
13. Creative Interpretations of a Creative Commons License
14. Do you want to build a snowman? No, but I’d like to protect one! IP for animated characters.
15. BMI Settlement of Royalty Battle with RMLC to Include Music in Podcasts? – Not So Fast….
16. Schrödinger’s Shades of Grey: the CJEU’s landmark paroxetine ruling – antitrust market definition and patent settlement agreements
17. The United Kingdom will not implement the European Union Copyright Directive
18. Will rejecting the EU’s new copyright directive #savetheinternet?
19. It’s That Time Of Year: No, The NFL Can’t Stop Every Business From Using ‘Super Bowl’ In Every Instance
20. Update to Trademark Practice in Canada
21. How the New U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Deal (Mostly) Expands Intellectual Property Protections
22. Brexit: Implications for IP
23. Brexit & IP – status quo for the transition period; changes to come post-transition
24. Brexit is a Done Deal: What Are the Implications for Your IP?
25. Cofemel’s first UK outing – The wooly world of copyright and designs
26. Risk of Electronic Device Search For Patent Attorneys and Inventors Crossing the US-Canada Border with Confidential Information
27. File When Ready! Criteria for Determining if an Invention Should Be Patented
28. Fifth Circuit Holds that Mitigation is Not an Absolute Defense to Statutory Damages for Copyright Infringement and DMCA Violations
29. Ninth Circuit Affirms $3.9 Million Attorney’s Fees Award in Ultraman Copyright Dispute
30. Competition between generics and originators – what’s the relevance of a patent? (Part II)
31. Intellectual Property Outlook: Cases and Trends to Follow in 2020 – Part 2 

PRIVACY

1. Facebook Agrees to Landmark 550 Million Dollar Settlement in BIPA Class Action
2. Ring LLC Faces a Proposed Class Action Alleging Camera Doorbells Should Incorporate Enhanced Cybersecurity Features
3. Amazon Ring now lets users opt out of receiving police video requests
4. Ring Updates Privacy Dashboard Again, Allows Users To Preemptively Block All Law Enforcement Requests For Footage
5. Facial Recognition Developer Told Cops To Test Out The Software By Running Searches On Friends And Family
6. Avast shutters data-selling subsidiary amid user outrage
7. YouTube demands Clearview AI stop scraping its videos for facial recognition database
8. Lawsuit Says Clearview’s Facial Recognition App Violates Illinois Privacy Laws
9. NJ AG Bans Clearview AI – Preventing a Chain of Privacy Violations or Interfering with Clearview’s Intellectual Property?
10. Facebook Pays $550 Million Settlement In Illinois Facial Recognition Lawsuit, Which Could Pose Problems For Clearview
11. New ransomware doesn’t just encrypt data. It also meddles with critical infrastructure
12. Flaws in WhatsApp’s desktop app allowed remote access to files
13. Court Order Shows DEA Demanding Tons Of Data From WhatsApp And Bunch Of Other Service Providers
14. ‘Wake-up call’: Iowa caucus disinformation serves as warning about 2020 election – On Monday night, it didn’t take foreign interference to highlight the persistent vulnerabilities that Russia exploited in 2016.
15. Who Needs the Russians?: Don’t blame shadowy foreign hackers for the chaos in Iowa. Blame Shadow’s caucus app. (Zeynep Tufekci)
16. “Untagging” From Photo Privacy Lawsuit: Facebook Settles Its Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Litigation For $550 Million
17. Big News in Biometrics – Supreme Court Declines to Weigh in on What Plaintiffs Must Show to Bring Biometric Privacy Suit
18. Cyber Criminals Using Coronavirus Concern to Assist with Intrusions
19. If You Give a User a Cookie (Notice)
20. A Comprehensive Review of the new Washington Privacy Act
21. Cambridge, Massachusetts Passes Ban On Facial Recognition Tech Use By Government Agencies
22. London Police Move Forward With Full-Time Deployment Of Facial Recognition Tech That Can’t Accurately Recognize Faces
23. Criminal Charges Finally Dropped Against Security Researchers Who Broke Into An Iowa Courthouse
24. Why we don’t know as much as we should about police surveillance technology: Despite a growing number of high-tech tools, law enforcement agencies don’t seem to want to disclose what they’re using.
25. Should Your Antivirus Software Be Spying On You?
26. Dear Ashley Madison user, I know everything about you. Pay up or else
27. Britain Cracks Down on Child Data Privacy
28. Blurred Lines: Navigating The Modern Day Data Privacy And Security Labyrinth
29. The fractured future of browser privacy
30. More than 200 browser extensions ejected from Firefox and Chrome stores

CREATIVITY   

1. Prince Harry loses IPSO complaint against Mail on Sunday over criticism of his Instagram wildlife photography
2. Bachelor Contestants Embroiled in Fantasy Sports Law Controversy
3. The Guardian to Ban Advertising for Fossil Fuels
4. What we learned from studying makerspaces – implications for policy

GAMES

1. Nintendo switches it up with website blocking injunction
2. FBI catches hacker that stole Nintendo’s secrets for years
3. Appeals Court Tells Serial Litigant Runescape Didn’t Violate His Constitutional Rights By Muting His Account
4. Federal court: Getting muted in RuneScape doesn’t violate your civil rights: Serial litigator in Pennsylvania loses latest appeal
5. First ever UK Games Industry Census highlights need for more diversity
6. GDC State of the Industry: Nearly half of game makers still work over 40 hours/week
7. Bleszinski regrets being too political with LawBreakers: In reflecting on Boss Key’s demise, studio co-founder says it was a mistake to push his personal beliefs in a divided world
8. Fable Fortune is being shut down two years after launch
9. Creators Going Pro: ImSuda And Friends Put The “Fun” In ‘Fortnite’ With Their Content Goldmine Group Gaming Sessions
10. Kentucky officials trying to ban Fortnite from varsity esports: “There is no place for shooter games in our schools,” says Kentucky High School Athletic Association commissioner
11. For the love of the (video) game: Canadian law firms are rising to the challenge as the esports industry spreads like wildfire
12. FaZe Clan Seeking To Sign Newest Member In Upcoming Quibi Competition Series
13. The UK games industry is still overwhelmingly young, white, and male: But on the heels of its first UK Games Industry Census, UKIE launches initiative to improve diversity
14. How to identify and avoid unconscious bias: The GamesIndustry.biz Academy explores the effect of unconscious biases on the workplace, and how you can steer away from them and towards diversity
15. ESA launches Game Generation campaign to highlight positive impact of gaming: “Game Generation is about celebrating the more than 164 million Americans who love video games and the positive impact,” says ESA
16. Taipei Game Show postponed in response to coronavirus outbreak: With 320,000 people set to attend, organisers take action to avoid “unthinkable risks” of cluster infection
17. STJV issues call for testimonials from those in video game education: French game workers union concerned about reports of dysfunction in academic settings, hopes to implement action plan
18. Cheat software: Can publishers level the playing field? – Legal expert Dr Andreas Lober offers practical advice to publishers battling the rise of cheat software in online games
19. Only 23% of EA’s $5.4 billion net bookings in the last year came from non-digital sources
20. Digital net revenue was 70% of EA’s total revenue in Q3: And The Sims 4 has now passed 20m unique players worldwide
21. EA beats expectations with $1.98 billion in Q3 revenue as live operations grow
22. EA planning to publish 14 games next fiscal year: Publisher wants to rely on a “broad-based model,” avoid dependence on any one title
23. Jedi: Fallen Order sells almost 8 million copies to beat EA expectations
24. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order has sold around 8m units: EA says single-player adventure hit the “high-end” of its expectations, projects 10m units by end of fiscal year
25. EA wants to stop including daily and monthly active user data in earnings reports
26. EA still lukewarm on bringing its portfolio to Switch: Blake Jorgensen – “We’re conscious of the fact that the top selling titles are all Nintendo software”
27. Nintendo Switch overtook the SNES’ lifetime sales over the holidays: The Switch Lite’s launch pushed the hybrid console’s sales over 52 million, while Pokemon Sword and Shield sold more than 16 million copies.
28. Profits and sales up at Nintendo as Switch continues momentum
29. The Nintendo Switch has surpassed 52 million lifetime sales
30. Nintendo raises Switch forecast as console shipments pass 52 million: Switch software sales now expected to hit 140 million for the year
31. Nintendo: No new Switch model planned for 2020
32. Nintendo’s 2020 plans don’t include a new Switch model
33. The Outer Worlds will be digital-only on Switch: Launches March 6, retail version will contain a download code
34. Free-to-play Fire Emblem Heroes is adding a $9.49 monthly subscription pass
35. Nintendo’s latest subscription model is attached to Fire Emblem Heroes: $10/month Feh Pass offers free heroes and gameplay augments
36. UK Charts: Nintendo Switch games dominate as stock shortages end – Call of Duty Modern Warfare is at No.1
37. PlatinumGames turns to Kickstarter to self-publish The Wonderful 101 on Switch
38. PlayStation game sales pass one billion units: More than 1.18 billion first- and third-party PlayStation games had been sold as of January 31, 2020
39. PlayStation Vue Officially Shuts Down
40. PS4 hardware and software sales down as next-gen looms large
41. Sony gaming revenue and profit on the decline as new console generation looms: Network service revenue rises, while software and hardware take considerable hit
42. Take Two stock dips as Rockstar scribe Dan Houser announces departure
43. Capcom credits jump in profit to increasing interest in digital sales
44. Monster Hunter World Iceborne boosts profits at Capcom: Strong digital sales lead to best ever nine-month “profit levels” at the Japanese publisher
45. Koei Tecmo games profits slide in slow Q3: A single retail release kept revenue at a standstill, but a busier quarter lies ahead
46. Dena shuts down two of its Japanese mobile titles: Fantasy Earth Genesis and Torikago Scrap March servers to shutter in March
47. DeNA’s existing titles out-performed new games during the last nine months
48. DeNA reassessing games strategy as older titles fail to deliver: Mobile games firm posts hefty operating losses in Q3, thanks to games business impairment loss
49. Mobile Yu-Gi-Oh! and PES titles are Konami’s top revenue earning games this year
50. Code Vein passes 1 million sales in under five months
51. Zynga posts record full-year revenues: Q4 revenues up 63% year-over-year but Words With Friends publisher still posts modest net loss
52. The mobile games market is getting bigger — and not just for the top ten: Battle passes made money for the major publishers in 2019, but there was growth outside of the top ten
53. Microsoft’s gaming revenue down 21% in Q2, but subscriptions are still up: Holiday hardware sales were predictably low as current console generation comes to a close
54. Phil Spencer claims Amazon and Google are ‘main competitors’ to Xbox
55. Phil Spencer: “We see Amazon and Google as the main competitors”: Sony and Nintendo are out of position to keep up with “tens of billions” Microsoft has invested in cloud tech, says Spencer
56. GeForce Now: Nvidia implements aggressive pricing to consolidate cloud gaming position
57. Nvidia launches GeForce Now cloud gaming service at $4.99/month: Paid subscription gives priority server access and six-hour sessions, but there’s a free version too
58. Now out of beta, GeForce Now offers cloud-based streaming of owned Steam and EGS games
59. RIP Stadia? Nvidia’s newly launched cloud-gaming service is (mostly) a stunner
60. Google Stadia’s latest free game only has a few thousand total players
61. Google responds to Stadia complaints over lack of announcements
62. Google responds to complaints of slow Stadia announcements: Internet giant tells GamesIndustry.biz there will be more news on streaming service exclusives “soon”
63. Stadia Isn’t Starting Off Well, Even Judging By Player Counts On Free Games
64. Android app developers have earned over $80 billion through Google Play
65. In Europe, Google Play users spent more on mobile gaming in 2019 than App Store users: Sensor Tower High Google Play spending of $1 billion in Germany helped buck the global trend
66. Fate/Grand Order just passed $4 billion in revenue: It was the most talked-about game on Twitter and the No.8 free-to-play game by revenue in 2019
67. Discord no longer doubles as a game launcher as two non-core features get the axe
68. Improbable has purchased online game hosting company Zeuz
69. Improbable acquires game hosting service company Zeuz: Deal marks Improbable’s third acquisition in six months
70. What I learned about community management from my immigrant parents
71. Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser is leaving the studio
72. Dan Houser departs Rockstar Games: Co-founder to leave company in March after year-long hiatus
73. UK trade bodies respond to points-based immigration proposal: UKIE suggests “little impact” on games industry, while TIGA welcomes attention given to creative and STEM sectors
74. Facebook Seeks To Arm Gaming Creators With Preset Tools To Encourage Inclusion
75. Digital games driving growth at Sega as packaged titles underperform
76. Sega Europe announces fully recyclable packaging for all PC titles: Building on work from Sports Interactive last year, Sega Europe introduces blanket policy for PC titles
77. Sega lowers full-year forecast on soft Q3 packaged sales: Mario & Sonic, Persona 5 Royal, and New Sakura Wars all launched in the quarter, but packaged sales did not meet expectations
78. Creative Chronicles: Designing for colour blindness in games
79. Barclays introduces video games tax relief loans: Developers able to claim 90% of their tax credit before it is fully processed
80. Bigben Group forms new entity ahead of planned IPO: Nacon will unite accessories and games publishing assets in a proposed listing on the Euronext exchange
81. Nacon buys Rig headset brand from Plantronics: Bigben gaming business preparing for IPO picks up communications company’s gaming line
82. Amplifier Game Invest opens new Seattle studio CC7 Entertainment
83. Supercell sinks $1.1 million into fledgling Swedish studio Wild Games
84. Supercell backs new mobile studio formed by EA DICE veterans: Stockholm-based Wild Games breaks cover to announce $1.1m investment
85. In Elsinore, more matter is more art: Golden Glitch’s Katie Chironis and Connor Fallon on the nearly decade-long challenge of making Shakespeare’s Hamlet into a time loop video game
86. Scopely scores partnership with Mattel and Hasbro for new Scrabble mobile game
87. Ubisoft acquires mobile studio Kolibri Games to expand into ‘idle’ genre
88. Ubisoft acquires free-to-play mobile dev Kolibri Games: Idle Miner Tycoon to strengthen Ubisoft’s idle game portfolio
89. GameRefinery acquires Reflection.io: UK market data firm adds to new parent’s services for mobile developers
90. WarCraft III Reforged: Not the flavor of chaos we were hoping for
91. Can a solo indie developer use ray tracing in their game?: Zeng Xiancheng on why the realistic lighting technique is not solely the realm of AAA developers
92. Who saved Rare?: “We were so worried about challenging ourselves technically, that we paused a little bit with worrying about people”
93. PlayStation to close Manchester VR studio: VR outfit to close its doors after five years
94. Sony Interactive Entertainment’s VR-focused Manchester Studio to close down
95. Can Alyx pull VR out of its niche? | Opinion: Half-Life Alyx is driving headset sales before it’s even released — but it’s going to take a lot more to make VR into a viable market for AAA games
96. The Oculus Store made almost $5 million on Christmas Day2
97. Mark Zuckerberg: ‘people bought nearly $5M in Oculus Store content on Christmas Day’
98. More than $5m worth of Oculus content was sold on Christmas Day: Mark Zuckerberg points to holiday surge as sign of progress for the VR ecosystem
99. Exploring new frontiers of color with The Outer Worlds: Art director Daniel Alpert discusses the visually striking approach to Obsidian’s latest RPG
100. 38,000 Flash games will live on after Flash support dies this year thanks to Flashpoint
101. Video: A game artist’s guide to escaping your comfort zone 
102. Video: Cursed problems in game design
103. Video: Using chance to enhance fun
104. Video: Why forums can be great for indie discoverability and community
105. Don’t Miss: A Classic Postmortem on how Maxis avoided sequel-itis on The Sims 2
106. Blog: Organizing engaging and dynamic forces
107. Blog: Utilizing 3D cameras in 2D games
108. Blog: How Tencent’s global mobile games biz took the crown in 2019
109. Blog: Lessons and statistics after four years as an indie developer
110. Blog: Pack-ratting in games – Do players need to have it all?
111. Are gamers scarier than biker gangs?: 10 Years Ago This Month: South Australian attorney general compares the threats he receives while Activision Blizzard starts a new layoff tradition
112. What ‘Dragons Love Tacos’ taught me about game discoverability
113. The Coalition’s Rod Fergusson leaves Gears of War for Diablo: Former Xbox studios leader departs for Blizzard
114. Where now for Gears of War?: As franchise lead Rod Fergusson departs, Xbox commits to the IP and its studio
115. Call of Duty raises $1.6 million for Australian fire relief through in-game campaign
116. The games industry continues to rally behind Australian bushfire relief: Activision led widespread efforts with $1.6m raised through the sale of a special COD pack
117. U.S. Patent no. 10,279,260: Cut-scene gameplay

Jon

DIGITAL

1. YouTube, Facebook, Twitter Try To Crack Down On Coronavirus Conspiracies
2. Here’s how Facebook plans to make final decisions about controversial content it’s taken down: The company announced details Tuesday about how what’s been called its “Supreme Court” for content moderation will work.
3. Feds, states consider tag-teaming massive Google investigation
4. Congressional Committee Pens Letter Urging YouTube To Stop “Incentivizing Climate Misinformation”
5. YouTube Streamer Hit With Demonetization Over Copyright Claims To Numbers ’36’ And ’50’
6. This Is Why Researchers Studying Radicalization On YouTube Need To Be Logged In
7. Oscar De La Hoya Slams YouTuber Boxing Matches: “Just Stick In Your Own Lane”
8. YouTube Moderators Reportedly Ordered To Sign Document Acknowledging Their Job Could Cause Long-Term Mental Health Issues
9. As Tulsi Gabbard’s Silly Attention Seeking Lawsuit Against Google Falters, She Files Equally Silly Lawsuit Against Hillary Clinton
10. Google’s tenth messaging service will “unify” Gmail, Drive, Hangouts Chat
11. Prince Harry And Meghan Markle Video Views Balloon After Royal Exit
12. Influencer Post Lacked Necessary Disclosure, Says British Ad Authority
13. Germany Wants To Limit Memes And Mashups Derived From Press Publishers’ Material To 128-by-128 Pixels In Resolution, And Three Seconds In Length
14. Dolly Parton’s Meme Exposes Social Media’s Masquerade: The country star’s “LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Tinder” post speaks to people’s desire to be what any platform needs them to be. 
15. My Instagram: We all die immediately of a Brazilian butt lift
16. Welcome News: DC Circuit Revives The Constitutional Challenge Of FOSTA
17. FOSTA Constitutional Challenge Revived–Woodhull Freedom Foundation v. US (Eric Goldman)
18. BuzzFeed Wins Libel Suit Regarding “King of Bullsh*t News” Article
19. BuzzFeed Editor Ben Smith To Depart, Named ‘New York Times’ Media Columnist
20. Massachusetts Fire Marshal Warns Against TikTok ‘Outlet Challenge’, Says Student Participants Will Face Charges
21. Linus Torvalds pulled WireGuard VPN into the 5.6 kernel source tree
22. Former Microsoft IP counsel joins social video firm TikTok as GC
23. StreamElements Opens New Creator Vending Platform SE.Merch To All Twitch Streamers
24. As We Get Closer And Closer To The EU Requiring ContentID Everywhere, More Abuses Of ContentID Exposed
25. Copyright As Censorship: Gun Rights Advocate Gets Video Taken Down With Bogus Copyright Claim
26. The Grim Conclusions of the Largest-Ever Study of Fake News: Falsehoods almost always beat out the truth on Twitter, penetrating further, faster, and deeper into the social network than accurate information.
27. ‘Fake news’ as infrastructural uncanny (Jonathan Gray, Liliana Bounegru, Tommaso Venturini)
28. Do Not Gamble with Browsewrap Terms of Use
29. Employers Get their Email Systems Back: NLRB Overrules Purple Communications
30. Academic Consensus Growing: Phones And Social Media Aren’t Damaging Your Kids
31. Will 2020 be the year of reckoning for social media regulation?
32. Canada ready to ‘impose costs’ on malicious cyberactors, advisers tell Trudeau: Canada will work with allies to strike back at foreign cyberattackers
33. 11th Circ. Insurance Ruling Views Cybercrime Realistically
34. SmileDirectClub Is Trying To Silence Criticism By Tying Refunds To Non-Disparagement Agreements
35. Aspirant Host David Dobrik Makes Late-Night Debut On Fallon, Nabbing 9 Million Views
36. CBS Gets Angry Joe’s YouTube Review Of ‘Picard’ Taken Down For Using 26 Seconds Of The Show’s Trailer
37. Attorney General Barr’s Anti-Encryption Efforts Aren’t Supported By Many FBI Officials
38. Is William Barr’s Latest Attack On Section 230 Simply An Effort To Harm Tech Companies For Blocking His Desire To Kill Encryption?
39. Time Magazine Explains Why Section 230 Is So Vital To Protecting Free Speech
40. Twitter Asks Judge To Dismiss Devin Nunes’ Frivolous Lawsuit Via Section 230
41. Is Devin Nunes’ Lawyer Using Questionable Subpoenas In An Unrelated Case To Seek Info On Satirical @DevinCow Account?
42. Emoji reactions are sliding into Twitter’s DMs
43. Netflix Inks Overall Deal With ‘Big Mouth’ Animation Studio Titmouse
44. Netflix And ‘Big Mouth’ Studio Titmouse Hook Up For Multiyear Adult Animation Deal
45. Netflix to Lay Off Roughly 15 in Marketing Department Shift
46. Netflix to Lay Off Employees as It Shifts Marketing Strategy:  Sources say at least 15 people are expected to exit this week as the company moves to better advertise the service rather than its individual shows.
47. WarnerMedia takes $1.2 billion revenue hit in hopes that HBO Max pays off in the long run: Most of that $1.2 billion hit is because of HBO Max investment
48. Vox Media aims for $20m-plus podcast business in 2020
49. Samsung Galaxy Fold review: The future is an ugly disappointment
50. After a decade of drama, Apple is ready to kill Flash in Safari once and for all
51. Microsoft’s sneaky plan to switch Chrome searches from Google to Bing
52. Amazon faces employee revolt over slow climate action
53. Amazon Music passes 55M customers, still lags behind Spotify and Apple
54. Get ready to see Spotify’s looping videos on Instagram
55. Instagram Allows Businesses to See and Share Stories that Mention Them
56. Sonos sunsets several smart speakers’ software support, spurring storm [Updated]
57. You Don’t Own What You’ve Bought: Under Armour Smart Hardware Gets Lobotomized
58. Apple reports a blowout Q1 2020, but names coronavirus as a worry for the next quarter
59. Apple TV+ Has Reportedly Amassed A Formidable 33.6 Million Subscribers In The U.S.
60. Insights: Will Peacock’s Throwback Approach Take Flight For Comcast?
61. Snapchat And NBC Expand Olympics Content Pact Around 2020 Tokyo Games
62. NBC partners with Snapchat on four daily shows for 2020 Tokyo Olympics
63. Vine Successor ‘Byte’ Now Live On iOS And Android — With Monetization Soon To Follow
64. Byte Ascends U.S. App Store Charts In Debut, Vows To Fix Comment Spam Issue
65. The tools and tricks that let Ars Technica function without a physical office
66. Home Owners Association Threatens Residents With Lawsuit For Online Criticism
67. FTC and State AGs Continue Focus on Deceptive Social Media Marketing
68. Competition Bureau’s Marketing and Advertising Priorities
69. The dangers of electronic signatures – can you prove who signed?
70. (We)Work is a Scam: What the fall of WeWork tells us about the unicorn economy and worker exploitation.
71. 2019 Emoji Law Year-in-Review (Eric Goldman)
72. Top Issues in 2020: Digital Technology
73. Tax Wars: How to End the Conflict over Taxing Global Digital Commerce
74. Proliferating Predation: Reverse Redlining, the Digital Proliferation of Inferior Social Welfare Products, and How to Stop it (Sam Gilman)

A.I.

1. EPO refuses to name machine as legal inventor
2. Google and Microsoft shouldn’t decide how technology is regulated: A researcher who studies AI principles warns that giving too much credence to Big Tech is like “asking the fox for guidance on henhouse security procedures.”
3. Stop Blaming Algorithms For Misinformation And Threats To Democracy; The Real Problem Is Societal
4. Privacy Tip #223 – Navigating Individual Data Privacy in a World with AI
5. AI and drug discovery
6. How a $300 projector can fool Tesla’s Autopilot
7. Facial Recognition Is Only The Beginning
8. The EU is funding dystopian Artificial Intelligence projects
9. Black-Boxed Politics: Opacity is a Choice in AI Systems
10. Algorithmic Experts: Selling Algorithmic Lore on YouTube (Sophie Bishop)
11. Automation in Moderation (Hannah Bloch-Wehba)
12. Explainable AI under contract and tort law: legal incentives and technical challenges (Philipp Hacker, Ralf Krestel, Stefan Grundmann, Felix Naumann)
13. Algorithmic Realism: Expanding the Boundaries of Algorithmic Thought (Ben Green, Salomé Viljoen)

COMMUNICATIONS

1.  Canada’s Communication Future: Time to Act (Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review Panel)
2. Independent panel report calls for more Canadian streaming content and an ad-free CBC
3. A Demonstrably False Premise: Why “Inevitable” Canadian Internet and Cancon Regulations Won’t Level the Playing Field, Support Canadian Stories or Save a Thriving Industry (Michael Geist)
4. Conservative critic says broadcast review report doesn’t address inequalities in media market 
5. Telecommunications review includes ‘extreme’ recommendations, warns expert
6. Telecommunications Industry and Regulators Work Together to Thwart Fraudsters and Scam Artists
7. Update on Allarco’s “Unusual” Litigation (Howard Knopf)
8. DOJ sues US telecom providers for connecting Indian robocall scammers
9. AT&T loses another 1.2 million TV subscribers as DirecTV keeps tanking
10. DirecTV races to decommission broken Boeing satellite before it explodes
11. CenturyLink, Frontier took FCC cash, failed to deploy all required broadband
12. Oh Look, More Giant ISPs Taking Taxpayer Money For Unfinished Networks
13. FCC Commissioner Asks Record Labels for Information About Payola Practices – What are the FCC Rules? How Do These Practices Compare to Online Music Providers?
14. FCC Fines Broadcaster $1.13 Million for Improper Monitoring of Tower Lighting
15. FCC Taps Four “Spectrum Administrators” for 3.5 GHz, Including Sony and Google
16. Ajit Pai promised faster broadband expansion—Comcast cut spending instead
17. Comcast Says It Will Respond To Cord Cutting In 2020 With…More Price Hikes
18. Traditional TV Enters Its Final Death Spiral
19. Verizon’s 5G Superbowl Ads Will Hype Nonexistent Firefighter Tech And A Barely Available Network
20. Verizon brings 5G to the Super Bowl—for part of the stadium, anyway
21. The ‘Race To 5G’ Is A Giant Pile Of Lobbyist Nonsense
22. Telus’ CLO discusses growth plans 

PRIVACY

1. Stopping the Press: New York Times Journalist Targeted by Saudi-linked Pegasus Spyware Operator
2. “Totally Clueless”: Dating apps Grindr and OkCupid reported for breach of privacy rules
3. Italian Spyware Company Execs Arrested After Company Employees Spied On Innocent Citizens
4. China fears lead Interior Department to limit use of foreign drones
5. UK Ignores US, Won’t Fully Ban Huawei Gear From Its Networks
6. FISA Court Orders FBI To Start Cleaning Up Its Carter Page Surveillance Mess
7. Amazon’s Ring app shares loads of your personal info, report finds
8. Letter To Judge Details Vault 7 Leaker’s Post-Incarceration Leaking
9. Dozens of companies have data dumped online by ransomware ring seeking leverage
10. Keepin’ It “Real”: OPC Finds that PIPEDA Applies to Foreign-Incorporated Business
11. Canada’s Piece Of The Regulatory Pie: Application Of Canadian Data Privacy Laws To A Local Data Processor With A Global Reach
12. New “Off-Facebook Activity” portal lets you know where you’re being followed
13. Puerto Rico’s Justice Department Demanded Info From Facebook About Journalists Who Livestreamed Protests
14. Skimming heist that hit convenience chain may have compromised 30 million cards
15. ICO Code: Think of the Children
16. Do retailers drop more cookies on Americans or Europeans?
17. What percentage of United States retailers configure their cookie notice to respond differently to visitors with European IP addresses?
18. Why it’s time to stop force-feeding cookies to users
19. Protecting the ‘Smart World’ Around Us: California’s ‘Internet of Things’ Law
20. Maryland bill would outlaw ransomware, keep researchers from reporting bugs
21. London to deploy live facial recognition to find wanted faces in a crowd
22. Law Enforcement’s New Facial Recognition Toy Scrapes Photos From Websites, Serves Up ‘Matches’ In Seconds
23. Facial Recognition Company Clearview Lied About Its Crime-Solving Power In Pitches To Law Enforcement Agencies
24. Leaked Document Suggests Possible Facial Recognition Ban In Europe
25. Cy Vance Is So Sure Encryption Is Pure Evil He Thinks Over-The-Air Software Updates Are Just Encryption Backdoors Apple Won’t Tell Him About
26. Two-Factor Authentication—Not Broken Yet, But the Bad Guys Are Doing Their Worst
27. New document-tracking technology created for legal departments to protect data privacy: Usage controls will be applied to confidential legal documents to enable in-house counsel to track files
28. Lawmakers Propose COPPA Expansion
29. Google researchers find serious privacy risks in Safari’s anti-tracking protections
30. Yelp Disclosures Cost Mortgage Broker $120K in FTC Deal
31. Advertising technology: A short introduction to the relationship between adtech, privacy and data protection
32. Ransomware Attacks Reached Unprecedented Numbers in 2019
33. Identity Theft and Imposter Scams Were the Most Common Complaints That the FTC Received in 2019
34. FTC Fines Five Companies for Falsely Claiming Privacy Shield Certification
35. Emerging Cyber-Security Threats for 2020: The Rise of Disruptionware and High-Impact Ransomware Attacks
36. International Data Privacy Day: Privacy, Technology, and Cybersecurity Trends to Watch in 2020
37. The Limitations of European Data Protection As A Model for Global Privacy Regulation (Shannon Mercer)
38. The Wiretapping of Things (Eldar Haber)

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

1. How the Supreme Court’s New Standard of Review Will Impact IP
2. USMCA amendments: implications for Canadian IP law
3. Article 13: UK will not implement EU copyright law
4. Tom Kabinet: CJEU rules resale of e-books requires permission of copyright holder
5. CJEU judgement in Sky v Skykick (case C-371/18)
6. UK Government “has no plans” to implement the Copyright Directive
7. UK Says It Won’t Implement The EU Copyright Directive, Which Wouldn’t Have Passed Without Its Support During A Crucial Vote
8. Here’s why the UK is (finally) dumping Article 13 for good: The UK had plenty of opportunities to veto the controversial EU copyright legislation, so why did it wait so long to torpedo Article 13?
9. An IP Roadmap for Phase-One Sino-US Economic and Trade Agreement
10. Phase 1 U.S. China Trade Deal: Patent Provisions
11. PMPRB Publishes Draft Guidelines to Operationalize Amendments to the Patented Medicines Regulations
12. Court of Appeal clarifies rules for joint authorship of copyright
13. Fair Use and Fanatic Fans
14. Lego A/S v. Zuru, Inc.
15. Structured Asset Sales, LLC v. Sheeran
16. Two Cases Raise New Copyright Infringement Concerns for Internet Linking
17. #CopyrightInfringement: The Sequel
18. IP Insight: Is Linking to Radio Streams Online Copyright Infringement?
19. In ‘N Out Burger Continues Its BS Pop-Up Technique To Keep Trademarks It Isn’t Actually Using
20. SDNY: Collateral Estoppel Halts Social Media Patent Case
21. Conversant Wireless v Huawei: patents valid & essential
22. Competition between generics and originators – what’s the relevance of a patent?
23. Cannabis patent litigation update: construing cannabis claims
24. Recent Suit By US Olympic Committee Is Excellent Reminder Of Special Protection Afforded To The Words “Olympic” and “Paralympic”
25. Life sciences intellectual property: 2019 highlights
26. 2020 Intellectual Property Primer: Cases to Watch this Year
27. Tricks of the trade: Can you just do a quick search on …?

CREATIVITY   

1. Goop’s Netflix series: It’s so much worse than I expected and I can’t unsee it
2. JLo Character Hustles Into Court Over Publicity Rights
3. Deaf man demands closed captioning for porn videos in federal lawsuit
4. Patreon can’t solve its porn pirate problem
5. In the ’60s, America’s wearable art movement reflected true counterculture
6. Guardian to ban advertising from fossil fuel firms: Move follows efforts to reduce carbon footprint and increase reporting on climate crisis
7. Class Action Alleges MLB Cheating Scandal Tainted Fantasy League
8. Tied Up in Knots? Tied House Laws and the First Amendment
9. Planning a Super Bowl-themed Marketing Campaign? 5 Tips for Staying In Bounds

GAMES

1. Japanese court ups punishment for unlicensed Mario Kart-themed go-karts: Maricar must change its name, pay out $458k instead of $92k to Nintendo
2. Blizzard automatically owns any and all Warcraft 3: Reforged custom games
3. Blizzard now claims full copyright for player-made “custom game” mods
4. Warcraft 3 Reforged EULA gives Blizzard total ownership of all custom games: With the remake, Blizzard appears to be trying to avoid another Dota situation
5. How Warcraft III birthed a genre, changed a franchise, and earned a Reforge-ing
6. Riot Games denies collusion in gender discrimination lawsuit: 2 US government agencies attempt to discredit Riot Games and plaintiffs’ legal counsel in bid for $400 million compensation for current and former employees
7. Game companies fall short on Bloomberg Gender Equality Index: Just five publicly-owned gaming or gaming-related companies appear on 2020 index measuring gender equality in the workplace
8. Over one-fourth of developers say their studio has no diversity or inclusion initiatives – State of the Industry: Over half of developers are in favor of unionization; meanwhile, needle hasn’t moved on accessibility
9. The industry is becoming more diverse, and more developers support inclusion efforts: IGDA developer survey: 85% of developers said that diversity in the games industry was important
10. Crunch and ‘extended hours’ both down in latest IGDA dev satisfaction survey
11. Bethesda restores characters who lost their clothes in Fallout 76 hack
12. Industry faces “significant” regulatory risk following 2019 government inquiry: Concerns around bullying and gaming disorder could lead to “badly-informed regulation that damages the functioning of the industry”
13. FTC Public Workshop on Loot Boxes – So What Now?
14. When do deceptive playable ads help, and when do they hurt?: Dan Greenberg of ironSource says misleading interactive mobile ads were huge in 2019, but likely to be reined in this year
15. Rockstar defends the $49m it received in UK tax relief last year
16. Court rules Nintendo’s strict digital pre-order policies don’t violate EU laws
17. The story of how Nintendo’s iconic logo escaped an “age-up” remake
18. Analyst: Nintendo passes $1 billion revenue on mobile, largely thanks to Fire Emblem
19. Plague Inc. maker: Don’t use our game for coronavirus modeling
20. There are better ways to learn about coronavirus, says Plague Inc. developer
21. Plague Inc dev: Game is “not a scientific model” for coronavirus outbreak – Ndemic Creations compelled to release statement as sales spike in China
22. Blitzchung on Hong Kong protest: “Even if I had a chance to go back, I would still do it” – Hearthstone pro still “disappointed” in Blizzard but doesn’t hate the company
23. Game revenue down 21% at Microsoft as Xbox hardware sales slow
24. Microsoft’s Azure is still growing fast to take on AWS, but Xbox is still struggling: The tech giant reported impressive revenue in everything but gaming.
25. Console tariff off the table as tensions ease between US and China: Tariff backtrack is well-timed as PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X prepare for launch
26. U.S.-China trade deal clears way for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X
27. Don’t Miss: How a ragtag band of modders restored Star Wars KOTOR II
28. Don’t Miss: What went right (and wrong) during the development of BioShock
29. Gabby DaRienzo wants to talk about burnout
30. Rocket League ending MacOS and Linux support in March
31. Rocket League left behind on macOS and Linux due to DirectX 11 shift
32. Rocket League will drop support for Mac, Linux versions in March: Change comes eight months after Epic Games acquired the game’s creators.
33. Rocket League is dropping Mac, Linux because of crazy-low player counts [Updated]
34. Rocket League support ending on Mac and Linux, offers refunds: Psyonix woking with Valve to expand refunds beyond normal two-week policy but requires manual request
35. Project xCloud is coming to Canada at the end of January
36. Counterplay Games’ Duelyst is going offline for good in February
37. Paradox has been quietly testing a DLC subscription service 
38. Paradox trialling subscription model to address DLC criticism: But strategy publisher assures long-running fans that no future expansions will be exclusive to subscribers
39. EA ends support for mobile Tetris, Tetris Blitz
40. You Don’t Own What You Buy: The Tetris Edition
41. US game content revenues hit $35.4 billion in 2019, say NPD and ESA: Overall spending on gaming similar to last year when omitting hardware revenues from the equation
42. GDC State of the Industry: Devs torn on whether subscription services devalue games
43. Developers are divided on how subscription services will affect game values – GDC State of the Industry: One-fourth of devs are concerned such services will devalue games, another fourth aren’t worried at all
44. Game consoles excluded from tariffs on Chinese imports ‘until further notice’
45. GDC State of the Industry: Game devs shifting focus to next-gen consoles
46. UK Charts: The Witcher 3 rises as Dragon Ball holds No.1 – Meanwhile, Rugby 20 makes the Top 20
47. Minecraft was the UK’s best-selling new IP of the decade: Mojang’s hit sold more retail units than any other new games property, but Destiny led the way in revenue generated
48. Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption 2 have sold a combined 150m units: Red Dead Redemption 2 is the best-selling game of the last four years in the US, by dollar sales
49. Red Dead Redemption 2 digital unit sales doubled in December, thanks to Steam launch
50. GDC State of the Industry: Most devs feel Steam’s 30% cut isn’t justified; many prefer 10-15%
51. The State Of Game Discoverability: January 2020
52. Mobile publishing platform Coda secures $4 million to expand operations
53. Stardew Valley has sold 10 million copies in 4 years
54. Nintendo mobile games have brought in $1b in lifetime revenue: Sensor Tower Fire Emblem Heroes accounted for 61% of the total; Dr. Mario World brought in less than 1%
55. Nintendo is halting Wii repairs in Japan due to parts shortage
56. Digital Bros moves to acquire all Starbreeze assets from Smilegate
57. Torchlight successor pivots away from free-to-play following alpha feedback
58. THQ-owned Amplifier Game Invest opens new studio in Sweden
59. Amplifier Game Invest opens new development studio in Sweden: River End Games is funded by recently rebranded investment arm of THQ Nordic parent Embracer Group
60. The Witcher heralds an era of game IPs on TV | Opinion: As media giants prepare to do battle over streaming, well-known IPs are a potent weapon — and videogames remain the last great untapped source
61. Netflix is also developing a standalone The Witcher anime film: “Nightmare of the Wolf” to be led by The Witcher showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, animated by Legend of Korra and Voltron studio
62. What new console features are important to gamers?: ISFE and Ipsos Mori’s GameTrack consumer survey find shorter load times a close second to better graphics; VR and handheld modes less crucial
63. Facebook Withdrew Oculus Go From Enterprise Platform, Now Offers Quest Only
64. Pokemon Home keeps cross-platform cloud storage in the mix with free, paid tiers
65. Pokémon Home cloud service detailed and priced: Launches on mobile and Switch next month, will cost up to £15.99 per year
66. Chrono.gg secures $5.5m to build its answer to the discoverability problem: CEO Justin Sacks explains why tackling the issues with PC storefronts means letting content creators make a whole lot more of them
67. Atari to Open Game-themed Hotels Across the US with “the latest in VR and AR”
68. Atari wants to open gaming hotels in at least eight US cities: Planned locations to include VR and AR experiences, esports venues
69. Hero bans work for some games but aren’t a fit for Overwatch, argues Jeff Kaplan
70. Activision Blizzard And YouTube Execs Say Rewards Are Coming For Viewers Of Overwatch, Call Of Duty Leagues
71. Esports events delayed, cancelled as coronavirus spreads: Competitions for League of Legends, Pokemon, CS GO already affected, Overwatch League currently in discussions
72. Lifting the veil on antitrust questions arising in the distribution of esports: mandatory commissions
73. Creators Going Pro: How 23-Year-Old Formula Went From Esports Team Manager To ‘Fortnite’ Maven
74. YouTube’s Call Of Duty League Livestream Peaks At 102K Viewers, With Related Videos Bringing 4+ Million Views
75. Ninja was reportedly paid between $20m and $30m for Mixer exclusivity deal: Other top streamers above certain viewership thresholds may have been offered as much as $10m
76. Esports Organization 100 Thieves Unveils New Facility in Los Angeles
77. Gaming Org ‘100 Thieves’ Opens Massive Compound For Player Training, Streaming, Retail, More
78. Stadia owners on Reddit are blasting Google over radio silence and lack of support
79. Google deal lands Activision Blizzard esports events exclusively on YouTube Gaming
80. Activision Blizzard and Google sign esports, cloud deals: Overwatch League and others will air exclusively on YouTube and Google Cloud becomes preferred cloud service for game hosting
81. Esports player contracts – knowing your worth and ‘equalising’ the contractual playing field
82. Patrick Johnston: Esports’ gaming gladiators starring in digital – and real – arenas
83. YouTube Scores Exclusive Streaming for Activision Blizzard’s E-Sports, Including Overwatch and Call of Duty Leagues
84. YouTube Gaming To Exclusively Livestream Overwatch, Call Of Duty Leagues As Part Of Multiyear Activision Blizzard/Google Partnership
85. Doom Eternal hands-on: It’s more, more, more—and maybe just a little bit less, too
86. Doom Eternal dev team were ‘crunching pretty hard’ during 2019
87. Id Software was “crunching pretty hard most of last year” on Doom Eternal: But studio confident that four-month delay has made upcoming shooter the “best game we’ve ever made”
88. Disney to Sell Fox Video Game Division to Scopely
89. Report: Disney is shutting down Storyscape developer Fogbank Entertainment
90. Disney reportedly closing down Fogbank Entertainment: FoxNext’s San Francisco studio was not part of recent sale to Scopely
91. Tencent wants to buy ‘full ownership’ of Conan Exiles developer Funcom
92. Com2us and Skybound will partner on new The Walking Dead mobile game
93. Com2uS leads new investment round in Skybound Entertainment: C Ventures and Third Wave Digital were also involved in the round, new The Walking Dead mobile game confirmed
94. Housemarque puts all other projects on hold to focus on “most ambitious game to date”: Stormdivers, other upcoming titles paused for unannounced project now three years in development
95. Riot takes its licensing game up a league: Hire of Disney and Nickelodeon vet Ron Johnson coincides with increased focus on external partners for consumer products
96. Bare-bones Tetris mobile game arrives to replace EA’s departing ones: Tetris 2011 and Tetris Blitz will go offline in April
97. No plans for a full Source 2 SDK, and other tidbits from Valve’s Half-Life: Alyx AMA
98. Report: Valve Index sales more than doubled amid Half-Life Alyx reveal
99. Valve Index sales more than doubled following Half-Life Alyx announcement – SuperData: The Index sold 149k units in 2019, 103k of which were sold in Q4
100. “The devil is in the details” when creating a metaverse: Novaquark’s user-generated MMO Dual Universe is clear on its grand ambition, but has lots of specifics to nail down
101. This amazing glitch puts Star Fox 64 ships in an unmodified Zelda cartridge
102. Blog: Designing fun movement in games (with video)
103. Blog: Analyzing the storytelling of Kingdom Hearts III
104. Video: A game dev’s guide to the UX of engagement and immersion
105. Video: How Myst’s designers stuffed an entire universe onto a single CD-ROM
106. Video: What a decade with Thoreau can teach you about game design
107. Video: How Bungie crafted the music of Destiny 2’s open world
108. Designing the simulation of the wild and wonderful Planet Zoo
109. A fleet of Arwings were just spawned in vanilla Ocarina of Time for the first time ever
110. State of The Game Industry 2020
111. Ustwo earns B Corp status, plans to further reduce environmental impact: Parent of Monument Valley developer joins movement of companies working to “balance purpose and profit”
112. Untitled Goose Game dev will donate 1 percent of income to Indigenous Australians
113. Untitled Goose Game dev promises at least 1% of future revenues to Australian Indigenous groups: “Our games are made on stolen land,” says House House as it joins Pay The Rent movement
114. One single EVE Online ship sale raises over $30,000 for Australian fire relief

Jon

DIGITAL

1. San Francisco Pride Members Have Voted To Ban YouTube From This Year’s Parade
2. Anonymous Internet Posters Not Immune To Default Judgment
3. Your online activity is now effectively a social ‘credit score’: Especially when the Morality Police get acquired.
4. Facebook Still Isn’t Obligated to Publish Russian Troll Content–FAN v. Facebook (Eric Goldman)
5. Who is right about political ads, Twitter or Facebook?
6. Turkish Government Finally Lifts Wikipedia Ban
7. Harry and Meghan, the royal family of surveillance capitalism: From tabloid nationalism to international Instagram influencers – Meghan and Harry aren’t leaving the monarchy, they are leading it.
8. Brazil charges American journalist Glenn Greenwald with cybercrimes
9. Brazil prosecutes Glenn Greenwald in “attack on press freedom”
10. In A Blatant Attack On Press Freedom, Brazilian Government Charges Glenn Greenwald With ‘Cybercrimes’ For Reporting On Leaked Documents
11. The Similarities Between The US’s Case Against Julian Assange And Brazil’s Against Glenn Greenwald Are Uncanny
12. PayPal Giving Fund Enters Multi-State Settlement to Ensure Transparency to Donors
13. 23 Attorneys General Band Together to Make PayPal’s Charitable Donations Platform More Transparent
14. Vimeo Defeats Lawsuit for Terminating Account That Posted Conversion Therapy Videos–Domen v. Vimeo (Eric Goldman)
15. Does the principle of exhaustion apply to digital media? The CJEU provides clarity
16. A Sale or Not a Sale? The Digital Advertising Debate
17. Are legislators too slow to respond to digital trends?
18. Disney Accelerates Rollout Of ‘Plus’ Service In Key European Markets
19. Bad Ideas: Raising The Arbitrary Age Of Internet Service ‘Consent’ To 16
20. The Silicon Valley Economy Is Here. And It’s a Nightmare.: Low pay, soaring rents, and cities littered with e-scooters. Welcome to the future.
21. The psychology of Silicon Valley: We have to understand the people behind big tech in order to fix it
22. Biden wants Sec. 230 gone, calls tech “totally irresponsible,” “little creeps”: Biden had harsh words about tech, seemingly spurred by anger with Facebook.
23. Critics fear Facebook fact-checkers losing misinformation fight 
24. Facebook Watch Axes 2 Tentpole Series Amid Reported Shift Toward Unscripted Content
25. UFC Signs 3-Show Deal With Facebook Watch, Aiming To Promote Its PPV Matches
26. DraftKings Comes Under Fire Following Collusion Scandal Involving “Bachelor” Stars
27. Amazon retains world’s most valuable brand title by smashing through $200 billion barrier
28. TikTok Moves To Five-Floor Office In Culver City, Reportedly Looking For New CEO
29. TikTok Brought In 500% More Revenue, 738 Million Downloads In 2019
30. TikTok Entices Brands With Self-Serve Ad Buying, But Struggles With Lack Of User Data, Few Performance Metrics (Report)
31. Famous Birthdays Surpasses 25 Million Monthly Visitors, Driven By TikTok Surge
32. Report: TikTok owner ByteDance planning big push into mobile games
33. Spotify Reportedly In Talks To Acquire Media And Podcast Upstart ‘The Ringer’
34. Spotify’s new test lets influencers post Stories to introduce their own playlists
35. Instagram is testing direct messaging on desktop
36. Instagram is dropping the annoying IGTV button: ‘Very few are clicking into the IGTV icon’
37. Instagram’s Standalone IGTV App Has Clocked Just 7 Million Downloads To Date
38. Opinion: The Dishonest and Wasteful Practice Of Influencer Marketing – Stop chasing vanity metrics and unproven tactics, and return to the fundamentals of marketing and advertising
39. ASA continues to focus on Influencer Marketing in 2020
40. Influencer Marketing: Top Business and Legal Considerations for 2020
41. Learn From Sofia Vergara – Are Your Online Ads Legal?
42. Liza Koshy’s ‘Liza On Demand’ Gets Third Season Order At YouTube Originals
43. YouTube Rolls Out Profile Cards, Which Display Users’ Comment Histories (Sort Of)
44. Clorox Establishes Influencer Advisory Board, Tapping Hundreds To Bolster YouTube Presence
45. Bombay High Court in a Landmark Decision Restrains Review Video by Youtuber and Emphasizes on Responsible Use of the Power of Social Media
46. Leading European MCN Divimove Acquires Digital Talent Firm ‘Tube One’
47. Creators Going Pro: Walk Off The Earth’s Gotye Cover Went Viral On YouTube. Less Than A Month Later, They Had A Record Deal.
48. Apple TV+: Can it be saved before everyone’s free trials run out?
49. Netflix Now Counts 2 Minutes Of Watching As A “View” — A Change That Boosts Its Viewership Figures By 35%
50. Netflix To Spend An Estimated $17.3 Billion On Content In 2020
51. Studio Ghibli Signs First Streaming Deals, Bringing 21 Films To Netflix And HBO Max
52. Turner Sports Pacts With Twitch On Linear And Digital Series, ‘ELeague Super Punch’
53. Smart scale goes dumb as Under Armour pulls the plug on connected tech
54. Microsoft pledges to wipe out its carbon footprint by 2050 
55. Microsoft announces plans to be “carbon negative” by 2030: Company also plans to remove all its historical carbon emissions by 2050
56. The PinePhone starts shipping—a Linux-powered smartphone for $150
57. The Horizons of Technology and Digitalization in Arbitration
58. Canadian Securities Administrators Provide Guidance on Platforms that Facilitate Crypto Asset Trading
59. Somewhere over the rainbow: Dealing with evidence stored on a cloud
60. Political information in the age of the internet (Filip Matějka & Guido Tabellini)
61. Nobody can see all of CES. But I tried

A.I.

1. Alexa, Should We Trust You?: The voice revolution has only just begun. Today, Alexa is a humble servant. Very soon, she could be much more – a teacher, a therapist, a confidant, an informant.
2. Chinese court rules that AI article has copyright (Andres Guadamuz)
3. The Killer Algorithms Nobody’s Talking About: Activists fret about armies relying on killer robots, but some forms of artificial intelligence that don’t actually pull the trigger could still be a nightmare
4. Update on Federal Register Notice on Artificial Intelligence (AI) Patent Issues
5. The rise of AI and WIPO consultation on intellectual property issues
6. Why do we get sad when robots die?: It’s not about seeming “human” – it’s about the work machines do for us.
7. And an Algorithm to Entangle them All? Social Credit, Data Driven Governance, and Legal Entanglement in Post-Law Legal Orders (Larry Backer)
8. Robot Rights? Let’s Talk about Human Welfare Instead (Abeba Birhane & Jelle van Dijk)
9. Artificial Intelligence and Community Well-being: A Proposal for an Emerging Area of Research (Laura Musikanski, Bogdana Rakova, James Bradbury, Rhonda Phillips, Margaret Manson) 
10. Artificial Intelligence, 5G and the Future Balance of Power
11. Intellectual Property and Artificial Intelligence 
12. A Tangled Web: How the Internet of Things and AI Expose Companies to Increased Tort, Privacy, and Cybersecurity Litigation
13. The machines are whispering: We tested AI Dungeon 2 and cannot stop laughing

COMMUNICATIONS

1. Comcast settles lying allegations, will issue refunds and cancel debts
2. Four defendants settle, six remain in FTC illegal robocalling suit
3. Verizon Launches New Private Search Engine In Hopes You’ve Forgotten Its Terrible Track Record On Privacy
4. Verizon Kills Cable Contracts As TV Sector Finally Starts Listening To Cord Cutters. Kind Of.
5. FCC shuts New York out of $20B broadband fund, and senators are angry
6. Smart homes will turn dumb overnight as Charter kills security service
7. Real or fake: New NBC Peacock shows
8. Combating Improper Robocalls: The TRACED Act Signed into Law
9. Lowest Unit Charge Windows Open in About 30 States and Territories – Reviewing A Broadcaster’s Political Advertising Obligations
10. Frontier, an ISP in 29 states, plans to file for bankruptcy
11. After Years Of Scandal And Incompetence, US Telco Frontier Files For Bankruptcy
12. The good, the bad and the 5G – an unprecedented level of threat (and opportunity)
13. Globalization, International Organizations, and Telecommunications (Kirsten Rodine-Hardy) 

PRIVACY

1. Report: Bezos’ phone uploaded GBs of personal data after getting Saudi prince’s WhatsApp message – The gigabytes-big data grab allegedly came over WhatsApp text from Mohammed bin Salman.
2. Report Says Saudi Prince MBS’s Whatsapp Account Personally Sent Jeff Bezos Malware Used To Access His Phone
3. The Secretive Company That Might End Privacy as We Know It: A little-known start-up helps law enforcement match photos of unknown people to their online images – and “might lead to a dystopian future or something”
4. Reuters: Apple cut backup end-to-end encryption plans after FBI complained
5. New Report Says Apple Dropped Plans To Fully Encrypt Backups After FBI Complained
6. The FBI Can Get Into The Latest IPhones, So Why Is It Asking Apple To Break Encryption On Older Models?
7. The EU might ban facial recognition in public for five years
8. We’re Banning Facial Recognition. We’re Missing the Point. (Bruce Schneier)
9. California’s Ban Of Facial Recognition Tech Killed Off San Diego’s Mostly Useless Biometric Program
10. GirlsDoPorn website goes offline after $13M judgment, criminal charges
11. Privacy issues with e-discovery in Canada
12. WeLeakInfo gets pwned by FBI; Dutch, N. Irish police arrest alleged breach brokers
13. A Georgia election server was vulnerable to Shellshock and may have been hacked 
14. Bipartisan Legislation Aims to Expand Federal Protections for Children’s Online Privacy
15. The AdTech and the data protection debate
16. Study Shows The Internet Is Hugely Vulnerable To SIM Hijacking Attacks
17. Dear Reuters: This Is NOT How You Report On Dishonest, Disingenuous Talking Points From US Officials Regarding Encryption
18. Another reason to hurry with Windows server patches: A new RDP vulnerability
19. Researchers find serious flaws in WordPress plugins used on 400k sites
20. Top Issues in 2020: Privacy & Cybersecurity
21. What percentage of United States retailers have decided to block European visitors from reaching their websites?

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

1. IP Insight – Harry and Meghan Prioritise Trade Marks
2. Harry and Meghan seek global trademark for ‘Sussex Royal’ brand: Filings suggest plans for items and activities from clothing to ‘emotional support groups’
3. The “M” Word in Canadian Copyright Law – The “Mandatory” Matter (Howard Knopf)
4. Exceptional Circumstances Now Required for Extensions In Trademark Examination
5. Peppa Pig Owner Wins Copyright Infringement Case
6. Zazzle’s Insufficient Copyright Oversight Procedures Support Willful Infringement Finding
7. Fifth Circuit Holds Failure to Mitigate is No Bar to Statutory Damages Under Copyright Act
8. Federal Court dismisses patent infringement action for delay
9. Facebook Surges in U.S. Patent Rankings Due to Mounting AR Strategy
10. Trademark Opposition Stupidly Prevents Indians Pitcher Shane Bieber From Telling Everyone He’s ‘Not Justin’
11. Fair use or fair dealing? Where are we now?
12. A Blog’s RSS Feed May Not Grant an Implied Copyright License–MidlevelU v. Newstex (Eric Goldman)
13. CRISPR Patent – “Appeal Dismissed, Patent Revoked”
14. Breaking: EPO Board of Appeal upholds invalidation of Broad’s CRISPR-Cas9 patent
15. Patent battle over CRISPR
16. A Mixed Bag on New Rules – Juggling Copyright Preclusion and Patent Infringement
17. How Sonos’s case against Google could help shift the US patent narrative
18. Trade secret or patent protection – how do we decide?
19. Can newly discovered cannabis compounds be protected by patents?
20. Beat the Weeds: File Your Cannabis Trademarks in Canada
21. Intellectual Property Outlook: Cases and Trends to Follow in 2020 – PART 1
22. China update: IP section in the China-US trade deal (phase one)
23. EU Advocate General suggests pay-for-delay settlement agreements may be an abuse of dominant position
24. A new route to patent protection in Italy from July 2020
25. The EU Copyright Directive: Potential Copyright Liability and a “Best Efforts” Standard for Platforms

CREATIVITY   

1. No cameras in the courtroom in Meng Wanzhou case, B.C. judge rules: 13 Canadian and international media outlets had applied for right to broadcast extradition hearing
2. Why Is The NYC MTA Going After A Random Artist Who Created A Different Subway Map For Infringement?
3. Radiohead.com unveils “The Radiohead Library,” an official band repository
4. Radiohead Public Library: archive of band’s work goes live – Band collate music videos, newsletters and other ephemera on site, and upload rarities to streaming services
5. Rep. Lieu Tells Rep. Nunes He Looks Forward To Discovery, As More Evidence Of Nunes Connections With Parnas Emerge
6. Airbus Asks Court To Dismiss Chuck Yeager’s Lawsuit, Pointing Out It Doesn’t Allege Anything Actionable
7. “Come See Us At The Superb Owl” – Don’t Try This At Home! 2020 Update on Super Bowl Advertising and Promotions
8. Advertising – False Advertising Claims: Opting for Court
9. Klimt art thieves confess to stealing then returning painting: Portrait of a Lady was hidden in same Italian gallery from which it went missing in 1997
10. Additional Compliance for the Art World
11. Digital Street Culture Decoded: Why Criminalizing Drill Music is Street Illiterate and Counterproductive (Jonathan Ilan)

GAMES

1. California claims $10 million gender discrimination settlement lets Riot off lightly
2. Nintendo Wins Battle with Pirates on UK Seas
3. Court Sides With Nintendo Over RomUniverse In Atttempt To Dismiss The Former’s Lawsuit
4. Court overturns $10.1 million verdict against Nintendo in Wii Remote lawsuit
5. Court reverses $10.1 million judgement against Nintendo in Wii patent case
6. Patent infringement ruling against Nintendo Wii Remotes overturned: Dallas federal court declares patent invalid, nullifies $10m payout to iLife Technologies
7. Nintendo can continue preventing cancellation of pre-orders in Germany: Lawsuit instigated by Norwegian Consumer Council dismissed, but may be appealed
8. Unsubtle Rainbow Six Siege DDoS dealers hit with Ubisoft lawsuit
9. Ubisoft files lawsuit against site that enabled Rainbow Six Siege DDoS attacks: Publisher claims group behind ShortNameGame sold the software used to disrupt the game
10. Crytek, Cloud Imperium battle over how to end Star Citizen lawsuit
11. Cloud Imperium responds to Crytek’s attempt to dismiss its own lawsuit: Star Citizen developer maintains engine providers claim “is and always has been meritless”
12. Researchers Scientifically Create Video Games To Benefit Cognitive Function
13. UK’s top mental health nurse wants crack down on loot boxes
14. NHS mental health director calls for loot box ban: UKIE responds, emphasising that industry already addresses spending caps and disclosed drop rates
15. UK lays out standards for handling children’s data: Information Commissioner finalizes Age Appropriate Design Code with 15 standards for developers to meet
16. Joe Biden Can’t Tell The Difference Between The 1st Amendment & Section 230; Still Thinks Video Games Cause Violence
17. Women suing Riot Games may be entitled to $400m not $10m: Two state regulators attempt to intervene with gender discrimination class action lawsuit in plaintiffs’ favour
18. The top 7 reasons women quit game development
19. Game dev union leader: “Dream job” passion “can open us up to exploitation”
20. Activision Blizzard, EA, Sony, Microsoft included in HRC’s 2020 Corporate Equality Index
21. GTA developer Rockstar pushes back against UK tax abuse allegations
22. Rockstar responds to claims it abuses tax relief: But Grand Theft Auto developer makes no comment on reports it has not paid corporate tax in four years
23. The best-selling games of the decade show AAA was left behind by innovation | Opinion: The games industry has made great strides forward in the past ten years – but none of that is apparent in the retail charts
24. Stillfront Group acquires Dragon Story dev Storm8 for as much as $400 million
25. Stillfront Group acquires Storm8 for up to $400m: Game studio coalition also raises $220m in additional financing
26. Current Prison Architect developer Double Eleven opens Malaysian office
27. Digital Bros. to buy Starbreeze assets from Smilegate: The €19.2m deal will give Italian publisher 30% of Starbreeze stock and 40% of voting rights
28. Tencent wants to fully acquire Conan Exiles developer Funcom
29. Tencent bids to acquire 100% of Funcom: Proposed deal would value the Norwegian studio at around $148 million
30. Tencent intends to further diversify investments outside of games
31. Tencent ramping up investments – but may veer away from games: Having already poured money into eleven games firms, Chinese giant is concentrating on new industries such as ‘smart retail’
32. Daybreak Games restructures internal studios around key franchises
33. Following Cyberpunk delay, CD Projekt Red expects dev team crunch
34. Cyberpunk 2077 release pushed back to September 17, 2020
35. CD Projekt Red delays Cyberpunk 2077 from April to September
36. Cyberpunk 2077 pushed to September: CD Projekt reveals that development staff have been required to crunch on upcoming RPG
37. Dying Light 2 delayed, no new release window given: Techland drops spring release target for open-world zombie shooter, says it will have more details “in the coming months”
38. Leaked images show Xbox Series X is missing Xbox One’s HDMI input
39. Xbox continues to expand Project xCloud’s preview library as testing continues
40. Microsoft goes all-in on the ‘evergreen platform’: Bowing out of launch exclusives for Xbox Series X means Microsoft is now fully committed to the bold vision it’s talked about for so many years
41. Report: Major PlayStation-exclusive series will get a PC port this year
42. Report: The Switch Lite topped 1 million sales in Japan in three months
43. Switch sales up 29% in Japan for 2019 as PS4 sales drop 29%: Famitsu numbers have hardware unit sales flat for the year; Switch Lite moves more than 1 million in just over three months
44. YouTube TV comes to PS4, replacing PlayStation’s own doomed TV service PS Vue
45. YouTube TV comes to PS4 as PS Vue moves out: Sony hardware maintains a live TV option at about the same price
46. Google expects 120 games to hit Stadia this year, including some exclusives
47. Stadia embracing timed exclusive strategy: Google says it wants to have more than 10 games debuting only on its streaming service in the first half of this year
48. BT becomes first European partner for Google Stadia: Google attempts to address Stadia lag problems with new high-speed broadband deal
49. Report: Google wants to bring the Steam game store to… Chrome OS?
50. NetEase launches own digital distribution platform in China
51. OpenCritic reviews have been added to the Epic Games Store
52. Epic Games Store avoids review bombing with OpenCritic integration: Review aggregation site will display how many critics recommend purchase on each title’s store page
53. Scopely acquires Marvel Strike Force dev FoxNext Games from Disney
54. Disney confirms sale of FoxNext, Cold Iron Studios to Scopely: Acquisition does not include Fox IP licensed games, which will stay with Disney
55. Significant layoffs at Super Lucky’s Tale developer Playful Studios
56. Playful Studios “significantly reduces” full-time staff: Super Lucky’s Tale devs undergoes layoffs amid transition to new production model
57. Amazon’s Twitch Drops Sharp after YouTube, Microsoft Say ‘Game On’
58. Only YouTube Gaming saw hours watched, streamed, and concurrent viewership up last quarter: Streamlabs – Twitch viewership began a decline in 2019, but other platforms have a long way to go to catch up
59. Video: YouTuber Mark “Markiplier” Fischbach reflects on his video history
60. Call of Duty Modern Warfare was the best-selling game of the year in the US: But Nintendo thrived in hardware and software sales at the end of its competitors’ console generations
61. Grand Theft Auto V was the best-selling game of the decade in the US: Joining it in the top ten – Seven Call of Duties, Red Dead Redemption II, and Minecraft
62. UK Charts: Star Wars Battlefront II returns to Top Five: Otherwise, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is No.1 again
63. Dragon Ball Z and 3DS conquer latest UK Charts
64. The transcendent appeal of Mount & Blade Warband – Why I Love: The difficulty got John Nejady interested in TaleWorlds’ medieval battle game, but the community he found made it something more
65. Why the traditional product lifecycle “maybe doesn’t apply” to League of Legends: After ten years, League of Legends is still one of the most popular games on earth and Riot Games is riding that wave into new spaces
66. Report: PS4 exclusive Horizon Zero Dawn could come to PC
67. Horizon Zero Dawn reportedly coming to PC: Current PS4 exclusive may be part of suggested Sony strategy to “lean into a wider installed base”
68. Don’t Miss: Designing the stealth, economy, and encounters of Horizon Zero Dawn
69. Don’t Miss: Making Horizon Zero Dawn’s Machines feel like living creatures
70. 2020 African Games Industry Trends: Games Industry Africa’s Vic Bassey forecasts seven key storylines for the continent’s developing market in the year ahead
71. Media firm behind Autosport plans to “change the landscape” of racing games: Ex-Codemasters creative director Stephen Hood on how the new Motorsport Games group can disrupt the market
72. What is the best game engine for your game?: In-depth guides to finding the best game engine to develop your game, including Unreal, Unity, GameMaker, and more
73. How to apply for Video Games Tax Relief and make a VGTR claim
74. China Leading Esports Boom: More than a quarter of Internet users in China watch esports at least once per month, a new report finds, more than double the rate of audiences in the U.S. and Western Europe.
75. Turner Sports Pacts With Twitch On Linear And Digital Series, ‘ELeague Super Punch’
76. Oculus Go Now Permanently Priced at $150, All Supported Countries to See Similar Drop
77. Every classic Half-Life game is now free on Steam
78. Valve Makes All ‘Half-Life’ Games Free to Play Until ‘Half-Life: Alyx’ Launches in March
79. Valve: ‘Half-Life: Alyx’ Dev Team is the ‘single largest we’ve ever had’
80. Valve opens up about Half-Life: Alyx, Source 2 engine on Reddit
81. No plans for a full Source 2 SDK, and other tidbits from Valve’s Half-Life: Alyx AMA
82. Valve Confirms ‘Left 4 Dead’ VR Game Not in Active Development
83. Designing the mind-bending perspective puzzles of Superliminal
84. Don’t Miss: Deconstructing the success of The Witcher 3’s open world
85. Q&A: Evolving the combat design of id Software’s Doom Eternal
86. Blog: Resources for video game music composers – The big list 2020
87. Blog: How to keep adding content without hitting a limit
88. Blog: Is your 21st century games career what you thought it’d be?
89. Blog: Video game marketing predictions for 2020
90. Video: How to talk about games with those who don’t approve
91. Video: A performance and memory postmortem of Middle-earth: Shadow of War
92. Humble Bundle joins efforts to raise money for Australian bushfire relief: Meanwhile, Warframe dev Digital Extremes donates $30,000 to two chairties
93. U.S. Patent no. 10,278,001: Multiple listener cloud render with enhanced instant replay
94. U.S. Patent no. 10,279,252: Game execution environments

Jon

DIGITAL

1. Indian Supreme Court finds 150-day Internet blackout in Kashmir illegal
2. India’s Supreme Court Declares Country’s 5 Month Internet Blackout Illegal
3. Instagram is taking down posts supporting slain Iranian general Soleimani
4. Instagram Now Placing Warnings Over Posts Deemed To Contain “False Information”
5. China: Privacy, Security and Content Regulation to Increase in 2020
6. Brazil supreme court sides with Netflix over gay Jesus comedy
7. On Russian Troll Journalism
8. Fake News as a Tool of Populism in Turkey: The Pastor Andrew Brunson Case
9. ‘On the Shoulders of Giants’, Analysis of a Social Network of Intellectual Influence
10. Website Denied Section 230 for No Good Reason, Wins the Case Anyways–DF Pace v. Baker-White
11. Academic Journals In Russia Retract Over 800 Papers Because Of Plagiarism, Self-Plagiarism And ‘Gift Authorship’
12. Gambling on Browsewrap: Casino App Loses Huuuge Bet on Enforcing Terms of Use
13. Facebook Says (Again) That It Won’t Limit Political Ads
14. Facebook Not Fact-Checking Candidate Ads – Looking at the Contrast Between Online Political Ads and Those Running on Broadcast and Cable
15. Malware Marketer NSO Group Looks Like It’s Blowing Off Facebook’s Lawsuit
16. Misleading political ads are the user’s problem to avoid, Facebook says: Rather than ban lies or microtargeting, the company’s putting the onus on users.
17. Instagram adds new tools to Boomerang feature to catch up with competitors: Users can now choose where the loop starts and ends
18. On Novel Grounds, Philadelphia Judge Rejects Uber’s Bid to Arbitrate Passenger’s Personal Injury Claim
19. William Gibson: ‘I was losing a sense of how weird the real world was’ – The writer who invented ‘cyberspace’ – and possibly the most influential living sci-fi author – on the challenges of a reality even stranger than fiction
20. FBI arrests man suspected of orchestrating dozens of “swatting” calls 
21. New Feature Alert: Twitter to Allow Users to Limit or Block Replies Completely
22. Deleting WhatsApp chats during dawn raids may cost you dearly
23. Mozilla lays off 70 people as non-search revenue fails to materialize
24. Google gives Chrome OS Apps a shutdown date
25. Inside Google’s Quest for Millions of Medical Records: The company has struck deals that grant it access to troves of patient data; ‘We want to be helpful’
26. Chrome’s Move To Stomp Out Third Party Cookies? Good For Privacy, Good For Google’s Ad Business… Or Both?
27. When YouTubers Cry: Prince Concert Videos Deemed Not Fair Use
28. Content Moderation At Scale Is Impossible: YouTube Says That Frank Capra’s US Government WWII Propaganda Violates Community Guidelines 
29. YouTube To Stream Coachella For 10th Year Running, Announces Doc About Festival
30. YouTube Studio Adds New ‘Restrictions’ Column, Ability to Manually Insert Mid-Roll Ads, More
31. ASA rules that Betway YouTube video breached the CAP Code
32. YouTube App Introduces New Subscription Feed Filters For ‘Unwatched’, ‘Live’ Videos, More
33. Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 1/12/2020
34. Beauty Creator NikkieTutorials Thwarts Apparent Blackmail Attempt By Coming Out As Trans
35. Justin Bieber Faces “Yummy” Backlash After Posting Guide Showing How To Game Billboard Charts
36. ‘RackaRacka‌’ Prankster ‌Appears‌ ‌In‌ ‌Court‌ ‌After‌ ‌Arrest‌ ‌For‌ ‌Underwater Car ‌Prank‌
37. Olay Spokesmodel Lilly Singh To Star In Brand’s Super Bowl Commercial
38. Instagram Creator Behind ‘House Of Highlights’ Tapped By ESPN To Helm Social Content, Strategy
39. Tell the Whole Story – New Rules for Influencer Marketing under the Competition Act
40. Casper Flags Its Use of Influencers as a Risk
41. The Israeli Chipmunk Emoji Mystery Resolved! (Eric Goldman)
42. Golden Globes Piloted Facebook’s ‘Collaborative Stories’ Feature At 77th Awards (Exclusive)
43. Snapchat was overtaken by Pinterest in US users last year. But the real threat is coming from China’s TikTok and no one knows how fast it’s growing.
44. WME Signs TikTok Luminary Chase Hudson And His Creator Collective ‘The Hype House’
45. Spotify Makes Push Into Sports Podcasting
46. Spotify is now making playlists for your pets
47. Spotify, Warner Music Sign Global Deal, Ending Dispute in India
48. Amazon lifts ban on FedEx for third-party marketplace sellers
49. Amazon Sets Cast For ‘Lord Of The Rings’ Series, Production To Start Next Month
50. Amazon asks court to block US/Microsoft contract because of Trump interference
51. New Bluetooth standard copies best features of Apple, Qualcomm’s proprietary tech
52. Apple launches replacement program for iPhone battery cases
53. ECJ toughens the requirements for the use of cookies: Active consent of users required
54. How online sales of food pose a regulatory challenge in the EU
55. Tax on digital advertising introduced in Maryland Senate
56. Maryland Proposes (French) Tax on Advertising – Digital Platforms and Advertisers Beware!
57. New Trend Developing? Another Digital Advertising Tax Proposal
58. Anti-SLAPP Laws Work: Tennessee Doctor Suing Patient Over Negative Review Drops Lawsuit
59. Dear Larry Lessig: Please Don’t File SLAPP Suits
60. SEC Staff Issues Guidance on Technology, Data and Intellectual Property Risks in International Operations
61. NIST Solicits Comments on Revised Draft IoT Cybersecurity Device Guidance
62. Tesla is now worth more than Ford and GM—combined
63. Linus Torvalds says “Don’t use ZFS”—but doesn’t seem to understand it
64. The Way We Train Doctors Is Backward – And Cyberpatient Has The Treatment
65. Notes on the networked psyche: Exploring online hyper-sensibilities
66. Digital Transformation is a matter of survival
67. An Oral History of Rickrolling: From the pages of 4chan to the White House, the story behind the meme that’s never going to give you up
68. Shifting Capitalist Critiques: The Discourse about Unionisation in the Hi-Tech Sector (Eran Fisher & Ben Fisher)
69. Turf wars: Using social media network analysis to examine the suspected astroturfing campaign for the Adani Carmichael Coal mine on Twitter (Hanna Della Bosca, David Schlosberg & Chao Sun)
70. To-Do Is to Be: Foucault, Levinas, and Technologically Mediated Subjectivation (Jan Peter Bergen & Peter-Paul Verbeek)
71. Digital Platform Policy and Regulation: Toward a Radical Democratic Turn (Bart Cammaerts & Robin Mansell)

A.I.

1. Technology Can’t Fix Algorithmic Injustice: We need greater democratic oversight of AI not just from developers and designers, but from all members of society.
2. Chinese court rules AI-written article is protected by copyright
3. Chinese Court Says AI-Generated Content Is Subject To Copyright Protection
4. Evolution of IP Protection for Artificial Intelligence in France
5. “Alexa, Can You Receive a Patent?”: Chris Mammen Discusses AI as Inventors in MIT Technology Review Article
6. Artificial Intelligence (AI) Machine can be an Inventor? EPO says NO!!!
7. AI Update: WIPO Begins Public Consultation Process on Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property Policy
8. Ad Delivery Algorithms: The Hidden Arbiters of Political Messaging
9. Do androids dream of product liability?
10. Creating the ever-improvising text adventures of AI Dungeon 2
11. What is AI-Based Contract Management?
12. Insights: Deepfake Videos Go Commercial! In Election Season! WCGW?
13. The line between deepfake legislation and deeply fake legislation
14. How Google researchers used neural networks to make weather forecasts
15. Principled Artificial Intelligence: Mapping Consensus In Ethical And Rights-Based Approaches To Principles For AI (Jessica Fjeld, Nele Achten, Hannah Hilligoss, Adam Christopher Nagy, Madhulika Srikumar)
16. From a ‘Race to AI’ to a ‘Race to AI Regulation’ – Regulatory Competition for Artificial Intelligence (Nathalie Smuha)
17. Addressing the Growing Need for Algorithmic Transparency (Hugh J. Watson & Conner Nations)
18. ‘Move Fast and Break Things’: Law, Technology, and the Problem of Speed (Simon Chesterman) 

COMMUNICATIONS

1. Don’t trust the US gov’t, states tell court in T-Mobile/Sprint merger case
2. US may subsidize Huawei alternatives with proposed $1.25 billion fund 
3. PIRATE Act Passes Senate, and Now on to the President for Signature – Provides for Big Fines and Enforcement Sweeps in Big Markets
4. Congress Adopts New Cable Operator Advertising and Billing Requirements Affecting Both Video and Broadband Internet Offerings
5. FCC Fines Noncommercial Broadcaster $76,000 for Airing Commercial Advertisements 
6. Ajit Pai Hits CES… To Make Up Some Stuff About Net Neutrality
7. FCC Kicks Off 2020 by Establishing the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund
8. Some FCC Subsidized Low Income Phones Are A Chinese Malware Shitshow
9. Verizon’s great FiOS offer to me: Pay $50 extra for slower Internet
10. Verizon offers no-tracking search engine, promises to protect your privacy
11. FCC will pay ISPs to deploy broadband with 250GB monthly data cap 
12. Washington And Oregon Fine CenturyLink For Completely Bogus Broadband Fees 
13. Scripps Broadcasting Agrees to Pay $1,130,000 to Settle Investigation of Tower Violations 
14. ISP settles with two more states over hidden fees and false advertising, agrees to pay $15 million
15. AT&T TV Service Goes Dark On Roku As The Streaming Wars Get Stupid
16. Bipartisan Senators Introduce 5G Bill Pushing Non-Chinese Vendors
17. China Isn’t the Only Problem With 5G: The network has plenty of other security weaknesses, including ones the United States doesn’t want to fix since they help its own surveillance efforts.
18. New Law Bans ISPs From Charging You A ‘Rental’ Fee For Hardware You Already Own 
19. President Signs Sweeping New Robocall Legislation 
20. Dissolving privacy, one merger at a time: Competition, data and third party tracking (Reuben Binns & Elettra Bietti) 

PRIVACY

1. Attorney General William Barr Says Apple Isn’t Doing Enough To Let The DOJ Check Out A Dead Man’s Phones
2. Bill Barr: Apple Is Holding Up This Investigation. Apple: You Waited A Month To Tell Us You Needed More Help
3. Unable to unlock gunman’s iPhones, the FBI (once again) asks for Apple’s help (updated)
4. San Bernardino 2.0: FBI Asking Apple To Crack Encryption On Phones Owned By Pensacola Naval Station Gunman
5. The broken record of breaking encryption skips again in Florida shooter case
6. Exploit that gives remote access affects ~200 million cable modems
7. Advocates ask colleges to avoid facial recognition as surveillance grows
8. Google plans to drop Chrome support for tracking cookies by 2022
9. Patch Windows 10 and Server now because certificate validation is broken
10. Windows 7: “I’m not dead yet!” – Over half of businesses still haven’t finished move to Windows 10; zombie systems flourish.
11. Failure to Apply Recent Microsoft Patch May Create Legal Liabilities
12. Critical Windows 10 vulnerability used to Rickroll the NSA and Github
13. Senator Wyden Wants Paid Ad Blocking Whitelists Investigated
14. Grindr shares personal data with ad companies in violation of GDPR, complaint alleges: A Norwegian nonprofit has filed three complaints against the company
15. Amazon’s Ring fired at least four employees for snooping on user videos
16. Shocking Absolutely No One, Ring Admits Employees Improperly Accessed Customers’ Data
17. Ring Throws A Moist Towelette On Its Dumpster Fire With A Couple Of Minimal Security Tweaks
18. It’s 2020. American elections are still “frighteningly easy” targets
19. Ninth Circuit Doubles Down on Bad Ruling That Undermines Cybersecurity–Enigma v. Malwarebytes (Eric Goldman)
20. Iranian hackers have been “password spraying” the US grid
21. US Government-funded Android phones come preinstalled with unremovable malware
22. The Deadline for Registration of “Data Brokers” in California Is Near: Are You Ready?
23. Data From Smartwatch Help Investigators Solve The Case Of The Stabbing That Never Happened
24. Amazon takes a swipe at PayPal’s $4 billion acquisition: Holiday shoppers warned that Honey, a popular browser extension, was a “security risk.”
25. Paul Krugman’s no good, very bad Internet day
26. Company Sells Surveillance Cameras Hidden In Tombstones, Threatens Websites For Talking About Its Tombstone Cameras
27. Unpatched Citrix vulnerability now exploited, patch weeks away
28. January 2020 Survey of Fortune 500 Companies’ Privacy Representations
29. Are you protected against phishing email? What the Court of Appeal said in insurance matters
30. Federal Privacy Law – Is It About to Change?
31. Federal Privacy Law – Is It About to Change: Part Deux?
32. Towards a Transatlantic Concept of Data Privacy (Erdem Büyüksagis)

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

1. Appeals Court Makes The Right Call Regarding Non-Commercial Creative Commons Licenses
2. Notable Works Entering the Public Domain in 2020
3. Life + 70 Years: Copyrighted Works That Have Entered into the Public Domain in 2020 – Economic Rights Gone with the Wind
4. Harry and Meghan seek global trademark for ‘Sussex Royal’ brand: Filings suggest plans for items and activities from clothing to ‘emotional support groups’
5. Can Booking.com Trademark Its Company Name? How Will the U.S. Supreme Court Resolve Whether a Generic Term Plus a Top-Level Domain Is Protectable?
6. Carve It All Up: Compumark Report Shows Trademark Registrations, Claims Of Infringement Both Rising Fast
7. Smartphone Apps for Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram declared patent infringing by German Court – The End of Social Networks?
8. Who owns the ink? Reproduction of tattoos in film, photographs and video games
9. Wells Fargo Twice Found Guilty of Willfully Infringing Patents on Remote Check Depositing Technology
10. Non-Prior Art Evidence May Be Used to Prove Inherency
11. When Merger Clauses Don’t Merge
12. A Different Analysis for Manufacturing Method Patents under the 35 U.S.C. § 271 (e)(1) Safe Harbor Provision?
13. Biosimilar Litigation Trends and Lessons Learned in 2019
14. Athena Diagnostics v. Mayo Collaborative Services
15. The EU should not contemplate abandoning the Unified Patent Court system
16. 2019 Will Go Down in History as “The Year of Change” in Canadian Trademark Law
17. 2019 Will Go Down in History as “The Year of Change” in Canadian Trademark Law Part II
18. Key Patent Decisions of 2019
19. Who Holds the Right to Exclude for Machine Work Products? (Garry Gabison)

CREATIVITY   

1. The Rorshach Test Of The Covington Catholic Boy’s DC Encounter Now Extends To Bogus Lawsuits And Confidential Settlements
2. Professor Removed From Teaching For Sharing A Downfall Parody Video
3. Former “Bachelor” Contestant’s $1 million Fantasy Football Win Under Investigation
4. Defamation and Wrongful Termination Claims Against the Los Angeles Times Were Properly Dismissed
5. Sober ad campaign leaves brewery with an unwanted hangover.
6. Beer Institute Says Modelo Commercials with Athletes Don’t Violate its Advertising Guidelines
7. Don’t Oversell It – False or Misleading Advertising
8. Marvel Studios’ ‘Avengers: Endgame’ Receives Oscar Nomination: The film also took home two Critics’ Choice Awards!
9. How Years Of Copyright Maximalism Is Now Killing Pop Music
10. The Revolutionary Sixties: Poetry and Social Change (Viviane Carvalho da Annunciação)
11. Video Screen Interfaces as New Sites of Media Circulation Power (David Hesmondhalgh, Amanda D. Lotz)
12. Impact of Censorship on Translating and Publishing Virginia Woolf During the 1930s in Italy (Anna Maria Cipriani)
13. Popular Music and the State: The British Honours System and its Treatment of Popular Musicians (Emma-Jayne Reekie)

GAMES

1. Report: China to further regulate online games and streaming to curb addiction
2. China reveals new mental health initiative that may further limit violence in games: “Healthy China 2030” includes crackdown on games considered violent, pornographic, or promoting gambling
3. Japanese prefecture considers restrictions on gaming time for minors: Proposed ordinance in Kagawa Prefecture would limit those under 18 to one hour of gaming per day
4. How Game Companies Use Credits To Reward, Or Punish, Developers
5. How can Rio Ferdinand help protect kids from inappropriate video games?: UKIE CEO Dr Jo Twist on why spending time gaming with children is just as important as using parental controls
6. Nintendo Escapes Vice Grip in ITC Challenge
7. Inside TASBot’s semi-secret, probably legal effort to control the Nintendo Switch
8. Nintendo Switch was best-selling console in France last year: Lifetime sales exceed expectations to reach 3.3 million, Switch Lite outsells Xbox One
9. Super Nintendo World to focus on “interactive experiences”: New details about the Osaka theme park were revealed ahead of its summer opening
10. Nintendo looking at ‘interesting’ ways it can use AR technology
11. In a series first, Pokemon Sword and Shield will offer an expansion pass
12. Game Dev Torrents Its Way To More Sales, Not Less
13. Analyst: With $894 million in revenue, 2019 marked Pokemon Go’s best year so far
14. 2019 was Pokemon Go’s best year ever: Niantic’s location-based game brought in $894 million last year, even more than its 2016 launch year
15. Microsoft first-party titles to be cross-compatible between Xbox One, Xbox Series X
16. Xbox Series X won’t have next-gen exclusives for a while
17. Xbox won’t kick off the Series X generation with next-gen exclusives
18. Xbox still plans to attend E3 2020
19. Phil Spencer confirms Xbox will be at E3 2020: Platform holder responds to Sony’s decision to ditch major games showcase for a second consecutive year
20. Sony’s skipping E3 again in 2020
21. PlayStation will not participate in E3 2020: The company will instead attend ‘hundreds of consumer events across the globe’
22. On eve of PS5, Sony confirms it will skip E3 for second year in a row
23. Is PlayStation right to skip E3?: Sony does not need to go to LA to get people excited for PS5
24. Sony’s PS5 marketing strategy does away with convention | Opinion: E3 absenteeism is just the latest example of a company paying little heed to conventional wisdom, but will that help or hurt it?
25. Call of Duty, Beat Saber, and Apex Legends led PlayStation downloads in 2019
26. SIE boss: The ‘biggest, more unique’ PS5 features have yet to be revealed
27. Square Enix is shutting down Mobius Final Fantasy after four years
28. Final Fantasy VII Remake delayed: Hotly-anticipated remake of beloved PlayStation classic pushed back by one month for polish
29. Square Enix Delays Final Fantasy VII Remake And Avengers
30. Call of Duty and GTA V dominated PlayStation Store downloads in 2019
31. ‘Beat Saber’ Takes Top Spot as PSVR’s Most Downloaded Game of 2019
32. HTC permanently trims $200 off Vive Pro price tag 
33. Report: Valve Index headset sold out globally as Half-Life: Alyx nears launch
34. Valve Index out of stock around the globe ahead of Half-Life Alyx launch: Prospect of VR exclusive Half-Life drives sales of high-end hardware, despite $999 price tag
35. Riot Games launches new tabletop division
36. Riot Games sets up Riot Tabletop to take another stab at board games
37. Subscriptions will “unlock the market to weirder things,” says Outer Wilds dev
38. Look at how digital changes the UK charts: Call of Duty retains No.1, but Uno, The Sims 4 and Rainbow Six make the Top Ten
39. Growth of mobile gamers slows while revenue continues rising – Research firm finds number of US and Canada mobile users playing games was up just 2% last year, but revenues jumped 24% to more than $11.82 billion
40. FIFA 2020 enjoys sixth consecutive week at No. 1 in EMEAA charts: Both Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Luigi’s Mansion 3 make appearance in top ten despite Nintendo not reporting digital sales figures
41. GameStop says its unexpectedly low holiday sales follow an industry-wide trend
42. GameStop holiday sales down 27.5% in 2019: CEO lowers full-year guidance again, maintains declining sales are reflective of market trends
43. GameStop stock tumbles by 16 percent following poor holiday sales
44. GAME threatens to close 40 UK stores unless rents are cut: Retailer says ‘landlords need to work with us’
45. Subnautica has surpassed 5 million sales worldwide
46. Subnautica has sold over 5m copies: Unknown Worlds founder Charlie Cleveland comments on milestone reached nearly two years after game’s full launch
47. Monster Hunter World: Iceborne’s PC release pushes it past 4 million shipped
48. Don’t Miss: How Monster Hunter: World’s director breathed new life into the series
49. Call of Duty Mobile reached 180m downloads in launch quarter
50. Video: How Call of Duty handles automated testing and profiling
51. Comical career sim Job Simulator has crossed 1 million sales
52. Terry Cavanagh has released the source code for VVVVVV on Github
53. YouTuber Extortion? MxR Plays v. Jukin – Real Law Review // LegalEagle
54. YouTube signs on exclusive streaming deals with 3 big gaming creators: LazarBeam, Muselk and Valkyrae
55. YouTube Signs Creators LazarBeam And Muselk, Poaches 100 Thieves Member Valkyrae From Twitch
56. Twitch Reportedly Fell Short Of Ad Revenue Projections Last Year
57. Twitch is launching Hype Train this afternoon, which means you’ll get emotes for going off in chat
58. Researchers find 17 Google Play apps that bombard users with battery-draining ads
59. Google Stadia is like the early days of Steam, says Tequila Works CEO: Developer of Stadia-exclusive Gylt believes platform hasn’t reached its potential yet, but that game streaming services will only get better
60. Analyst: Facebook Gaming saw sizable growth in viewers and stream time during 2019
61. Facebook Gaming streaming market share sees end-of-year rise: In December 2019, Facebook held 8.5% of the market, compared to 3.1% a year prior
62. Mobile gaming projected to surpass $100b in spend in 2020: Mobile games now bring in more spending than all other game types combined
63. 32 notable mobile games released in December 2019 you may have missed
64. Mobius Final Fantasy shutting down after five years: Japanese version of the game has already ended; global service to conclude in June 2020
65. GTA IV unavailable on Steam because Rockstar can no longer generate keys
66. Rockstar says defunct Games for Windows Live to blame for GTA IV delisting
67. Analyzing the top Steam tags
68. Steam’s year in graphs: An in-depth 2019 breakdown
69. Exclusives helped the Epic Games Store earn $680 million during 2019
70. Epic Games Store tops $680 million in player spending: Storefront touts 108 million PC customers a little over a year after launch, extends weekly free game promotion through 2020
71. Ninja’s Getting His Own ‘Fortnite’ Skin, Epic Games Says More Creator Skins To Come
72. In 2019, video game projects on Kickstarter held steady: Ico Partners – Though tabletop drove segment’s rise, video games saw only minute growth in funded projects, money raised
73. Overwatch League addresses on-air talent departures: Activision Blizzard’s esports outfit will “evolve” its broadcast after losing five hosts and casters in the past month
74. BT becomes first major UK brand to sponsor an esports team: Excel Esports signs multi-year partnership with British telecom giant
75. Professional gaming… Are there investment opportunities in esports?
76. UK retailer GAME likely to close 40 stores amid ‘challenging retail market’
77. This simulator company reverse-engineered the Tesla Nürburgring lap
78. The tiniest controller we’ve ever tested is a lot better than you might think
79. The Witcher’s Netflix success: How three timelines somehow became cohesive
80. RuneScape saw 1.1 million paid subscriptions in 2019, an all-time high
81. The RuneScape franchise reached a record peak of 1.1m paid subscribers in 2019: Old School RuneScape on mobile also achieved a new milestone of 8m installs
82. Kansas Game Invest rebrands as Amplifier after THQ Nordic acquisition
83. Phoenix Games acquires Promotion Software and Emergency dev Sixteen Tons
84. Hamburg creates $2.2 million fund to support local game developers
85. Designing user interfaces for visually impaired players
86. Blog: A condemnation of time
87. Blog: A Kirby Super Star retrospective
88. Blog: The importance of the new player’s experience
89. Blog: A TILTit postmortem (or how to not publish a game in today’s market)
90. Blog: What I learned making 12 games in one year
91. Blog: A conversational Touring Karts postmortem
92. Blog: Kickstarter and games in 2019
93. Blog: How monster design influences player behavior and level design 
94. Control and Death Stranding lead nominations for 2020 DICE Awards 
95. Control, Death Stranding each receive eight DICE 2020 nominations, including Game of the Year: Disco Elysium and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare honored with six nominations
96. Jägermeister’s indie game soundtrack competition returns for second year
97. Super Crate Box: Elegant, frantic, and unapologetically small
98. GDC YouTube Top 5: Mipumi Games’ Eline Muijres
99. Ubisoft, Bungie join ranks of devs raising funds for those affected by Australian fires
100. Infinity Ward, Bungie and Ubisoft join Australian bushfire relief efforts: Modern Warfare DLC, Destiny 2 T-shirt sales and AUS$30,000 donation all go towards charities and emergency services
101. Awesome Games Done Quick 2020 raises a record $3.13 million for charity
102. Australian developers organising global fundraising auction for fire services: Game Devs For Firies calls on industry to help encourage donations to bushfire relief by offering signed games, services and more
103. Toward a Critical History of Touch Feedback in Video Games (David Parisi)

Jon