DIGITAL

1. G/O Media Is Fighting Its Staff Over ‘Objectively Bad’ Autoplay Ads: Deadspin, Gizmodo, and Jezebel have been inundated with sound-on ads that the rest of the internet killed a decade ago.
2. What happened when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez came face to face with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg
3. Zuckerberg faces heat in Congress: “It’s almost like you think this is a joke” – Hearing on Libra cryptocurrency went off the rails, running down the CEO.
4. Facebook’s new political-ad policy already showing cracks, loopholes
5. No, you apparently can’t run for office just to put false ads on Facebook
6. Facebook launches a news section — and will pay publishers
7. Facebook will begin paying some outlets for their content as it introduces its News tab: Breitbart News is among the 200 outlets participating in the program.
8. Facebook Launches ‘News’ Tab, Will Pay (Some) Partner Outlets For Their Content
9. ‘Facebook Spaces’ Has Been Shut Down But Its Lessons Shouldn’t Be Forgotten
10. Viacom Digital Studios International Inks Multi-Territory Content Deal With Facebook Watch
11. Facebook deletes the accounts of NSO Group workers
12. Russia’s Fancy Bear hackers conduct “significant cyberattacks” on anti-doping agencies
13. Indian nuclear power plant’s network was hacked, officials confirm
14. Indian nuke plant’s network reportedly hit by malware tied to N. Korea
15. India Looking To Be The Next China, Sends Out Call For Bids On Massive Facial Recognition Program
16. India: Delhi High Court orders removal of all posts defamatory to Ramdev ‘Globally’
17. The LawBytes Podcast, Episode 29: Partisan Posts, Social Media, and Misinformation – Taylor Owen on What Actually Happened Online in the 2019 Election (Michael Geist)
18. Internet Access Provider May Be Vicariously Liable for Subscribers’ BitTorrent Downloads–Warner Bros. v. Charter (Eric Goldman)
19. Instagram expands ban on suicide content to cover cartoons and memes
20. How memes got weaponized: A short history
21. Youth and Cyberbullying
22. Congress concerned teenagers’ favorite app is national security threat
23. TikTok, Under Scrutiny, Distances Itself From China: Three senators have called for an investigation into the social media app, which is owned by the Chinese tech giant ByteDance.
24. Indian Court Orders Global Takedown Of ‘Defamatory’ Video From YouTube, Twitter, Facebook
25. Trump to Tell Federal Agencies to Cut New York Times, Washington Post Subscriptions
26. Twitter blocking all political ads globally starting in November
27. Twitter says it now removes half of all abusive tweets before users report them
28. Twitter shares plunge almost 20% after revenue hit by weaker advertising, low demand
29. India uses opaque legal process to suppress Kashmiri journalism, commentary on Twitter
30. No, Internet Companies Do Not Get A ‘Free Pass’ Thanks To CDA 230
31. Insights: As Social Media Sites Fiddle Over Cannabis Creator Bans, Public Health Suffers
32. Lego’s Mostly Obnoxious IP Bullying Of The 3D Printing Community Doesn’t Make Any Sense
33. Your Periodic Reminder that Blogging About Litigation Can Generate More Litigation–Wexler v. Dorsey & Whitney (Eric Goldman)
34. FTC Reaches Settlement with Developer of Tracking Apps
35. Social Media Bot Company Devumi LLC Reaches $2.5 Million Settlement with FTC for Sale of Misleading Social Media “Influence Indicators”
36. FTC Sues Over Phony Business Practices Online
37. FTC Enforcement Action Against Deceptive Online Reviews
38. The FTC fosters fake reviews, its own commissioners say
39. Customer Review Fraud Top of FTC’s Priority List
40. NAAG Asks Online Retailers to Prevent Illegal Alcohol Sales
41. Skin Care Company, Sunday Riley, Somehow Gets No Consequences In Fake Reviews FTC Settlement
42. Website and Its Operator Settle FTC Charges They Sold Fake Indicators of Social Media Influence
43. Tax Treatment of Cryptocurrency Mining
44. See on Apple TV+: Less Game of Thrones, more unintentionally funny SyFy
45. Apple earnings Q4 2019: Tim Cook says health will be what Apple is remembered for
46. Creatives, Including Judd Apatow, Balk At Netflix Playback Speed Tests: “Don’t F-ck With Our Timing”
47. Spotify Testing Sponsored Version of ‘Brand New Music for You’ Recommendation Feature
48. Spotify launches a dedicated Kids app with curated playlists and playful art
49. Snapchat now lets you 3D Paint faces and pretty much anything else
50. Amazon Can’t Force Arbitration of Minors’ Privacy Claims Based on Alexa Recordings–BF v. Amazon
51. Court Partially Enforces Amazon’s Non-Compete Against Employee Who Joined Google–Amazon v. Moyer
52. Amazon Will Make Amazon Fresh Free, Moving To Strengthen Its Lead In The Online Grocery Market
53. Amid Missed Alphabet Earnings, Analyst Suggests YouTube Spin-Off Could Boast $300 Billion Market Cap
54. YouTube Music Brings 10,000 Fans Together To Create New Queen Music Videos
55. Jesse Ridgway Spent 13 Years Making Content On YouTube. Here’s Why He’s Leaving — And Building Its Competitor.
56. MrBeast Is Going To Plant 20 Million Trees — With A Little Help From The YouTube Community
57. Creators Discovered YouTube’s Publicly Available Code Displayed Channels’ P-Scores, Video Ratings, And More
58. Target Hones YouTube Presence In Massively-Viewed Collabs With Michelle Phan, Emma Chamberlain
59. Ryan ToysReview Changes Clunky Channel Name, Launches Spanish-Language Hub
60. Group Nine Announces New Executive Leadership Structure Following PopSugar Acquisition
61. NBA’s Top Offseason Video Topics, Plus Lebron, Zion, And More Very Engaging Stars For The 2019-20 Season
62. Microsoft finally built a repairable Surface Laptop
63. Red quits the smartphone business after a single, terrible phone
64. Here’s what the people who claimed Google’s quantum supremacy have to say about it
65. Google And Facebook Didn’t Kill Newspapers: The Internet Did
66. Google’s parent company reportedly wants to buy Fitbit
67. An Army “hacker con” goes big: The return of AvengerCon
68. A Turning Point for Tech – Global survey on digital regulation: Technological developments and tech-based business models have become a focus for global regulation across borders and industries in recent years.
69. Global Media Technology and Communications Quarterly: Autumn 2019 Edition
70. Internet Broadcasting and Section 31D of Copyright Act 1957
71. Models for Platform Governance
72. Elon Musk Contributes $1 Million To MrBeast’s #TeamTrees, Pushing Total To $8.2 Million In 5 Days
73. Our FOIA Lawsuit Gets Results: ICE Admits It Didn’t Really Seize A Million ‘Copyright Infringing’ Domains
74. E-retailer takeovers rise as high street decline increases pressure to grow online sales
75. Does reselling online content infringe copyright in the EU?
76. 50 years ago today, the Internet was born. Sort of
77. The Internet At 50: It Has Enabled Many Wonderful Things, But We Have To Fight To Keep It That Way

A.I.

1. DeepMind AI achieves Grandmaster status at Starcraft 2
2. Level up: DeepMind’s AlphaStar achieves Grandmaster level in StarCraft II
3. FACEIT and Google-designed ‘Admin AI’ bans 20,000 toxic CS:GO players in six weeks
4. A health care algorithm offered less care to black patients
5. Skynet, But For Welfare: Automating Social Services Is Killing People
6. Solving Rubik’s Cube with a Robot Hand
7. Six cars aced new pedestrian detection tests 
8. New community management AI from FaceIt bans 20,000 players in trail run: Esports tournament platform reduces number of toxic messages in Counter-Strike games by 20%
9. Patenting Artificial Intelligence Inventions in Canada 
10. The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Patent Infringement Claims 
11. Jones Day Talks:®When AI Invents: Two Applications Test U.S. Patent Law
12. AI technology – the pitfalls of protecting inventions
13. Introducing AI Blindspot: A Call for Tech to Think Holistically and Spot Risks
14. Distracted by Data: What we risk by hyper-focusing on “data” as a problem to solve 
15. Data Voids: Where Missing Data Can Easily Be Exploited
16. When Binary Code Won’t Accommodate Nonbinary People: The next frontier in gender rights is inside databases.

COMMUNICATIONS

1. The Retailers Strike Back with a Motion to Strike in the Allarco Litigation (Howard Knopf) 
2. Motion to Strike in Allarco
3. Wireless Worsens: Report Finds Canadian Wireless Pricing Now Less Competitive Compared to Other Developed Economies (Michael Geist) 
4. Canadian Wireless Carrier Rogers ‘Surprised’ That People Like Unlimited Data Plans
5. AT&T loses another 1.3 million TV customers as DirecTV freefall continues
6. AT&T will slash $3 billion off its capital investments next year
7. AT&T Jacks Up TV Prices Post Merger After Repeatedly Claiming That Wouldn’t Happen
8. Man sues AT&T after fraudulent SIM swap led to $1.8M cryptocurrency theft 
9. AT&T Will Invest $4 Billion In HBO Max Over Next 3 Years, Doesn’t Expect Profit Until 2024 
10. This Idaho Town Lets You Switch Between Cheap Fiber ISPs In A Matter Of Seconds
11. HBO Max will bring up the streaming-video rear in May 2020 for $15/mo
12. FCC plans Huawei/ZTE ban, may require ripping out existing network gear
13. FCC Seeks Comment on Adequacy of US Broadband Deployment
14. FCC Requires 911 Fee Parity Between VoIP Services and Traditional Phone Service
15. TV Network Declares IPTV Tool Copyright Infringing, Even Though It’s Just A Tool
16. Comcast’s ‘Free’ Streaming Box Is Actually $13 After Stupid Fees
17. Comcast fights Google’s encrypted-DNS plan but promises not to spy on users
18. Comcast Insists It’s An Innocent Little Daisy On Consumer Privacy
19. Like The Rest Of Its 5G Footprint, Verizon 5G Sports Venue Availability Is Being Overhyped
20. Eagles fly to Iran, rack up huge roaming charges

PRIVACY

1. Report: Devin Nunes’ Aide Going Around Leaking Ukraine Call Whistleblower’s Name
2. Australia wants to use face recognition for porn age verification
3. New York AG Sues Dunkin’ Over Cybersecurity
4. Georgia Supreme Court Says Cops Need Warrants To Search Vehicle Crash Data Recorders
5. Magistrate Judge Rejects Govt’s Attempt To Use A Stored Records Law To Seek Future Cell Site Location Info
6. Interesting developments in the law of confidential information
7. Steak With A Side Of Surveillance: Outback Restaurants Adding Employee-Tracking Analytics To Its Cameras
8. Whirlpool Left Appliance Data, User Emails Exposed Online
9. Man planted keyloggers in companies’ networks and stole their data
10. WhatsApp suit says Israeli spyware maker exploited its app to target 1,400 users
11. Johannesburg’s network shut down after second attack in 3 months
12. The Stakes for Complying With DoD Cybersecurity Requirements Are Higher Than Ever
13. New Mass Shooting Prevention Bill Will Use ‘Anti-Terrorism’ Methods To Ramp Up Surveillance Of Students
14. IP Insight: Remember the “Right to be Forgotten?”
15. Right to Privacy: Can the Employer conduct Surveillance?
16. The count of managed service providers getting hit with ransomware mounts
17. Five months after returning rental car, man still has remote control
18. The Countdown Begins on California’s “Internet of Things” Law
19. Hacked, cracked or breached: What’s in a name when it comes to privacy?

CREATIVITY

1. General Court confirms cancellation of EU trade mark consisting of the shape of famous Rubik’s Cube (Eleonora Rosati)
2. Aussie Censorship In Action: National Enquirer Editor Threats Get Bookstores To Block Sale Of Ronan Farrow Book
3. Communication Breakdown: Canadian Quirks in Madrid International Trademark Filing System Can Trip Up Foreign Practitioners
4. Strengthening Trade Secret Protection in Canada
5. Federal Court Opens Door to use of Foreign Patent Prosecution Histories in Canadian Litigation
6. UK Supreme Court hands employee-inventor a dramatic £2 million victory
7. Shanks v Unilever: What does this mean for employers’ intellectual property rights?
8. IP Brief – Shanks v Unilever
9. UK Supreme Court awards Professor Shanks £2m compensation for invention of ‘outstanding benefit’ after 13 year court battle
10. Compensation and ownership – Two thorny issues in employee invention cases
11. Supreme Court rules no employer is “too big to pay” employees for inventions of outstanding benefit
12. Reproduction of Works and Kraft-works
13. Louis Vuitton ‘chessboard’ dispute in Poland: the court overturned the Patent Office’s decision
14. Halloween Edition: Copyright for Banana Costume is upheld on A-Peel
15. Olympic Advertising Rules Scaled Back Prior to 2020 Games
16. Is ‘Liverpool’ bigger than Liverpool Football Club?
17. Artistic value and copyright protection for industrial designs
18. Who Owns Truth Hurts?
19. Supreme Court Ruling on When Copyright Infringement Lawsuits May Be Filed Brings Heightened Interest in Preregistration
20. Fair and Balanced Reporting Pays Off: Newspapers Avoid Defamation Suits by Sticking to the Truth
21. Dorsey & Whitney Beats Defamation Claim Over TCPA Blog: Court Finds “Major Spousal Scheme” Headline Was Inactionable Opinion, Not Fact
22. James Woods Avoids Defamation Liability for a Tweet
23. MLB Umpire Joe West Sues Ex-Player Paul Lo Duca for Defamation Over Bribery Claims
24. New NCAA Marketing Rules for Athletes Proposed
25. Federal Labeling Laws vs. State False Advertising Laws: The Ongoing Preemption Battle
26. Cimabue Masterpiece found in French kitchen sells for £20 million

GAMES

1. Valve disables container key sales and trades in CS:GO due to rampant fraud
2. ‘Nearly All’ Counter-Strike Microtransactions Are Being Used for Money Laundering: N”early all key purchases that end up being traded or sold on the marketplace are believed to be fraud-sourced” Valve says.
3. Money laundering prompts Valve to halt CS:GO in-game key sales: “At this point, nearly all key purchases that end up being traded or sold on the marketplace are believed to be fraud-sourced”
4. According to a French court, the principle of exhaustion applies to video games acquired via a download platform
5. Epic is suing a Fortnite user experience tester over Chapter 2 leaks
6. Epic sues tester who leaked Fortnite Chapter 2 details: Developer says defendant Ronald Sykes waited just three days to breach his NDA
7. Ubisoft is suing Rainbox Six Siege cheat provider MizuSoft
8. Ubisoft sues Rainbow Six Siege cheat provider MizuSoft: One of the defendants had recently appeared in a BBC report about cheats
9. Rainbow Six cheat maker faces Ubisoft lawsuit after BBC appearance
10. Ubisoft severely cuts 2019-20 targets in wake of delays and underperforming games
11. Yves Guillemot: “We have no pay-to-win elements in our games”: Ubisoft CEO addresses investor concerns that players will reject games that are too microtransaction-heavy
12. Net bookings decline, but still beat expectations as Ubisoft closes out Q2
13. Ubisoft delays Watch Dogs Legion, Gods & Monsters, Rainbow Six Quarantine: Shares fall by 16% following delays, profit warning and announced overhaul of development process
14. Bethesda’s ‘Fallout 1st’ Paid Server Launch Has Become a Disaster
15. Fallout 1st Is Creating A Class Divide Among Fallout 76 Players
16. Video Game Class War Has ‘Fallout’ Players Targeting Premium Subscribers: “At least 5-7 people in teddy bear costumes kept punching me,” one member complained.
17. As the Fallout 1st disaster hits mainstream headlines, Fallout 76 players head in-game to protest: Everyone disliked that.
18. Fallout 76: The ‘Fallout First’ Web Domain Has Been Taken Over By a Hilarious, Angry Fan
19. Bethesda Has Brought Idiocy To A New Level & Betrayed Their Remaining Fans
20. Bethesda pledges to fix early “Fallout 1st” bugs and complaints
21. Bethesda looks to bolster its mobile game offerings with Alpha Dog Games acquisition
22. Bethesda acquires Alpha Dog: Fallout outfit picks up Nova Scotia-based mobile studio behind MonstroCity: Rampage and Atari’s Ninja Golf remake
23. New budget ends IDM tax credit for video game studios in Alberta, Canada
24. Alberta eliminates game dev tax credit after just one year: Beamdog’s Trent Oster feels “betrayed” after new government budget cancels Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit
25. New Zealand government commits $10m to growth of local games industry: City of Dunedin will become hub for aspirations to grow games industry to $1 billion sector
26. Call of Duty Modern Warfare decried as ‘American propaganda’ over Highway of Death mission: Activision’s latest shooter has been panned by critics and players, claiming game attempts to rewrite history
27. UK Charts: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare launch sales beat Black Ops 4
28. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare saw $600 million in revenue in three days
29. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare grosses $600m in opening weekend – Latest game from Infinity Ward is fastest-selling entry in the franchise this generation
30. EA to ‘double down on live services’ as FIFA and The Sims 4 help outperform goals 
31. EA “doubling down on live services” as digital net revenue share grows in Q2: Apex Legends reaches 70 million players, seven months after launch
32. EA shows its hand for next fiscal year: Beginning March 2020, EA plans focus on Apex, new EA sports title on annual slate, two third-party IP, “exciting remasters”
33. EA Dice’s Star Wars Battlefront I and II have sold 33m copies combined: Battlefront II originally missed 2017 launch sales expectations by around 1m units
34. Tales from the making of Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
35. The Sims franchise surpasses $5b in lifetime sales: EA asserts franchise’s position as part of plans for its increased focus on supporting live services
36. EA will not ship an NBA Live game this fiscal year: NBA Live 20 either cancelled or reworked as franchise prepares for an “innovative new direction”
37. EA Access heading to Steam after U.S. publisher reconnects with Valve
38. EA returns to Steam: SVP Mike Blank talks about the need to reduce fragmentation as EA pledges to bring Jedi Fallen Order, EA Access to Valve’s storefront
39. So long, Origin? EA comes back to Steam with new games
40. Remnant: From the Ashes sells 1 million copies in just over 2 months
41. Watch Afterparty director Adam Hines break down the game’s drink-fueled design
42. Overwatch 2 reportedly to be revealed at BlizzCon: New Hero and PvE mode
43. The Last of Us Part II delayed to May 29: Sony pushes post-apocalyptic sequel back three months to polish the game to Naughty Dog’s standards
44. Sony issuing refunds for faulty WWE 2K20: Latest entry into 2K Games’ annual wrestling franchise mired with bugs and glitches
45. Jaguar designed an electric sportscar just for Gran Turismo
46. Plants vs Zombies: Battle for Neighborville was the No.1 game download across EMEAA last week – The Witcher 3 and Ring Fit Adventure perform strongly at physical retail. FIFA 20 is No.1 combined
47. Starbreeze resumes Payday 2 development, new paid DLC on the horizon
48. Starbreeze restarts Payday 2 content production ten months after pulling the plug: Beleaguered game company turns to reliable territory in recovery attempts
49. Google sets up first Stadia game studio in Montreal
50. Google is making a “spectrum of bets” on Stadia content: As Google unveils new Montreal development studio, Stadia Games & Entertainment boss Jade Raymond discusses the platform strategy
51. Google Stadia’s stealth launch does not inspire confidence | Opinion: After its bombastic announcement, Stadia’s low-key and poorly communicated launch will fuel suspicion that it’s another of Google’s passing fads
52. Google: Stadia exclusives to have features “not possible” on home hardware
53. European gamers wary of digital-only games consoles: Just 11% of players claim they would likely buy a games machine that doesn’t include a disc-drive
54. Apple Arcade isn’t the only subscription: GameClub revives old iOS games
55. GameClub’s “greatest hits anthology” of mobile games launches today: VP of business development Eli Hodapp shares his goals for the subscription service and how it differs from Apple Arcade
56. Gameloft partners with TIM Italy for new mobile subscription service: TIM I love games costs €2/week for access to over 700 games sans in-app purchases or ads
57. My.Games sees Q3 revenue driven by free-to-play mobile: Company aims to have 80% of its revenue from from international markets by 2022
58. Wizards of the Coast acquires Tuque Games: Dungeons & Dragons owner picks up Montreal studio that created Livelock and has been working on a D&D game
59. Scopely announces $200m in Series D funding: Financing will be used to accelerate mergers, acquisitions, and investment strategies
60. Welcome Back, Koster: Why an MMORPG vet is back building a new virtual world
61. The French games industry had over 1200 titles in production in 2019: 63% of those games were new IP
62. Video games in China: beyond the great firewall
63. Empires and Puzzles surpasses $500m lifetime revenue: Match-three puzzler is most profitable in Zynga’s portfolio
64. Zynga reports record Q3 revenues and weaker-than-expected profits
65. GreedFall beat expectations, led Q2 revenue for publisher Focus Home Interactive
66. Greedfall success drives H1 growth for Focus Home Interactive: Publisher says it remains on target to build yearly revenue from €44m to €150m over three years
67. Microsoft relaunches Xbox All Access financing program with next-gen upgrade option
68. Microsoft beat expectations with strong Windows revenue, but Xbox had a rough quarter
69. Xbox services flat as gaming revenue dips to $2.5B in Microsoft’s Q1
70. Xbox All-Access expands to UK and Australia with Project Scarlett upgrade option: The smartphone-style contract will include a console and Ultimate Game Pass
71. Xbox has paid out $1.2 billion to independent developers this generation: ID@Xbox boss Chris Charla says program offers great commercial and artist opportunities
72. Suda51 and Swery collaborating on new game, Devolver unaware it’s the publisher: Acclaimed developers say indie publisher offered $1 million for the project, which Devolver said is “news to us”
73. DragonVale dev Backflip Studios is closing down
74. Backflip Studios shutting down: Hasbro pulling plug on DragonVale and Transformers: Earth Wars developer after a decade in business
75. One company’s cast-off can be Deca Games’ treasure: Founder of indie publisher talks about the perks and pressures of acquiring existing games after original owners stop investing in them
76. Blizzard Loses First Sponsor Due To Stance On Hong Kong Speech
77. Sponsor abandoned Blizzard esports league after Blitzchung controversy: Mitsubishi pulled support for Asia Pacific Hearthstone tournament two days after player was punished for supporting Hong Kong protest
78. League of Legends: Understanding the success of an esport that doesn’t turn a profit: LEC head of business development and sponsorship Alban Dechelotte discusses finding the balance with esport partnerships
79. Modern Times Group considering US IPO as esports business grows: Swedish investment firm begins strategic review, which could also lead to joint venture partnership in video games space
80. WeWork parent considering gaming business: Play By We trademark application says it would run competitions, offer space for conferences or offices
81. No Pixel Podiums: Lack of governance in esports excludes them from the Olympic Games
82. Update Required for Youth Esports – Children’s Privacy Takes Center Stage at Upcoming FTC Workshop
83. Another top Twitch streamer has switched over to Mixer
84. Shroud Pulls A Ninja, Exiting Twitch For Exclusive Livestreaming Deal With Mixer
85. Mixer signs exclusive deal with Shroud: Michael Grzesiek leaves Twitch channel with 7 million followers behind for Microsoft’s livestreaming platform
86. Third Streamer, King Gothalion, Departs Twitch In Exclusive Deal With Mixer
87. Gothalion is the latest big Twitch streamer to switch to Mixer
88. Mixer lowers its subscription price to better compete with Twitch
89. Sony files trademarks for PlayStation 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10: Platform holder’s trademark security process teases decades worth of new console
90. The PS4 has become the second best-selling home console of all time
91. Sony financials: PS4 hardware and software sales ‘lower-than-expected’
92. PlayStation revenues down 17% but Sony’s financials hold steady: PS4 now second best-selling home console of all time, despite slowing sales as generation nears its end
93. PlayStation Vue is shutting down in 2020
94. Report: Sony looking to sell PlayStation Vue as service continues to lose money
95. Sony is trying to sell off PlayStation Vue, but it might have a hard time of it
96. Sony considering sale of PlayStation Vue: Live TV streaming service has reportedly failed to turn a profit since launching in 2015
97. Sony to shut down PlayStation Vue in January: Four years after launch, TV subscription to close due to “slow-to-change” industry
98. An end in Vue: Sony will shutter its streaming video service
99. Kojima Productions’ Death Stranding will come to PC months after PS4 launch
100. Death Stranding no longer a PlayStation exclusive as 505 Games prepares PC version: Publisher will bring Hideo Kojima’s upcoming title to desktops in Summer 2020
101. Enterprise revenue expected to jump 69% this year as VR takes hold in business: PlayStation VR continues as market leading headset, breaching 4.7 million units sold
102. VR Web Browser ‘Supermedium’ No Longer in Active Development
103. UKIE partners with Space Ape and Playmob on environmentally conscious game jam: Bi-annual student game jam will see teams competing for £2,000 scholarship
104. Full motion, full emotion: Bandersnatch’s Emmys as a (literal) game changer: Acclaimed FMV game makers dish in the wake of Black Mirror’s Emmys.
105. Mario Kart Tour’s first-month downloads zoom past 123m: Revenue of $37.4m is the second-best first-month revenue for a Nintendo mobile game
106. Shigeru Miyamoto named ‘Person of Cultural Merit’ by the Japanese government
107. Shigeru Miyamoto recognised with Japanese cultural award: Super Mario creator will be awarded for elevating the Japanese games industry around the world
108. Star Trek Fleet Command publisher Scopely nets $200 million for future acquisitions 
109. Luigi’s Mansion 3 review: The most “Nintendo” game from Nintendo in years
110. Luigi’s Mansion 3: Critical Consensus – Reviewers welcome plumber brother’s latest adventure on Switch as a charming frightfest
111. First Switch game ok’d for launch in China, though the console remains in limbo
112. Switch China launch draws nearer as Tencent approved to publish Mario Bros U DX: Chinese publisher also approved to bring Monster Hunter: World back to shelves
113. Profit up at Capcom thanks to strong Monster Hunter World: Iceborne sales
114. Monster Hunter World: Iceborne drives profit for Capcom in latest financials: DLC has shipped 2.8 million units since September, while base game surpasses 14 million lifetime sales
115. Pokémon Go surpasses $3bn lifetime revenue: Niantic’s augmented reality mobile game on track to break 2016 revenue record
116. Revenue up at Rovio, though high user acquisition costs impact operating profit
117. The Climate Trail: A bleak look at what awaits us if we fail to address climate change
118. Star Theory’s shot beyond the Mun with Kerbal Space Program 2: Creative director Nate Simpson on the challenges of grounding the interstellar sequel in reality while adding accessibility
119. Designing interesting and informative conversations in Heaven’s Vault
120. Ninja Theory launches mental health R&D effort: Hellblade studio’s The Insight Project aiming to “help mental health treatment to go mainstream”
121. Shattering Muslim stereotypes with Islamic Relief’s mobile game: Ultimatum Games’ Shahid Ahmad explains why an idle clicker was perfect for the charity
122. Don’t Miss: How Red Faction: Guerrilla uses player freedom to drive open-world design
123. Blog: Examining the design and UX of Miniclip’s 8 Ball Pool
124. Blog: The client-to-cloud revolution — A 3D view of how we got here
125. Blog: Understanding permadeath as a mechanic in survival horror
126. Meet the new best Android TV device: The 2019 Nvidia Shield TV
127. Cloud gaming service Shadow raises $33m: Start-up has now raised $100 million to date
128. Why I hate fun | Opinion: ArenaNet’s John Hopson has spent a career applying “fun scores” to games — here’s why the practice needs to change
129. Don’t Play the Goose Game: Untitled Goose Game is fun. The problem is, all games are also work. (Ian Bogost)

Jon

DIGITAL

1. Livestream of Germany shooting removed from Twitch: Streaming site is still investigating, will permanently suspend any accounts reposting footage
2. Self-Regulation Of Social Media Platforms Failing To Curb Disinformation, Says New Report
3. Political ads can lie if they want, Facebook confirms
4. Inside Mark Zuckerberg’s private meetings with conservative pundits
5. Warren escalates Facebook fight with ad targeting Zuckerberg
6. #DeleteFacebook trends after report Zuckerberg secretly dined with conservatives
7. Facebook can be forced to remove content on a global scale after landmark CJEU ruling
8. Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, and eBay all quit Facebook’s Libra in one day
9. Facebook launches Libra Association—and says 180 companies could join
10. Third Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Sprawling Anti-Competitive Conduct Complaint Against Facebook
11. Facebook’s new Portal has a refined design but familiar limitations: It’s a better Portal, but it’s still a Portal
12. Grace Helbig To Sit Down With Powerful Women In Studio71 Facebook Series
13. Instagram’s latest security feature lets you better manage third-party app permissions: See who has your data at a glance
14. How Pinterest Built One of Silicon Valley’s Most Successful Algorithms
15. Rent-a-troll: Researchers pit disinformation farmers against each other
16. In flip-flop, Apple bans app used by Hong Kong protestors
17. Apple Signs Overall TV Deal With Oscar-Winning Auteur Alfonso Cuarón
18. 10 Risks Associated with Inaccessible Websites and Mobile Apps
19. Feds hit GirlsDoPorn owners with criminal sex trafficking charges
20. Top Myths About Content Moderation (Eric Goldman)
21. UK porn blacklist is dead after government abandons age verification
22. Elizabeth Warren’s Feud With Facebook Over ‘False’ Ads Just Highlights The Impossibility Of Content Moderation At Scale
23. Section 230 Helps Tumblr Defeat Nonconsensual Pornography Suit–Poole v. Tumblr (Eric Goldman)
24. The PLAN Act Proposes to Amend Section 230 to “Protect”…Landlords and Hotel Chains? (Eric Goldman)
25. New Paper Explains Why Technologists Should Rally Behind Section 230 (Eric Goldman)
26. ASA rules Casumo ad was targeted irresponsibly
27. Attorney Who Sued Grindr Responds Extremely Poorly To The Supreme Court’s Rejection Of Her Section 230 Lawsuit
28. Why International Human Rights Law Cannot Replace Content Moderation
29. How Photos of Your Kids Are Powering Surveillance Technology
30. Avatar Alert! ASA uses child avatars to tackle irresponsible ads targeted at children
31. The do’s and don’ts of sharing about your children online
32. The Ellen Show Issues Copyright Takedown On Transformative Video Commenting On Her Friendship With President Bush
33. Techdirt Podcast Episode 229: Pirate Shaming Lists Don’t Work
34. ‘The Irishman’ Ban Once Again Shows Hollywood’s Disdain For Netflix is Stupid & Counterproductive
35. Infamous Police Interrogation Firm Sues Netflix For Defamation Over Criticism Of Its Interrogation Technique
36. How to protect your brand on social media — seven top tips
37. Disney Bans Netflix Advertising on Most of Its Networks
38. James Murdoch reportedly bought a stake in Vice, as his new company begins to make media investments
39. OECD Publishes Digital Tax Draft Proposal
40. Government Tells Supreme Court Not to Review Copyright Fair Use Decision In Long-Running Oracle-Google Dispute over Software Copyrights
41. Supreme Court Passes on Challenge to Extension of Title III to Websites and Mobile Apps
42. Supreme Court Denies Review in Website Accessibility Case Against Domino’s Pizza
43. US Supreme Court denies review of Robles v. Domino’s Pizza, opening door to more lawsuits on website and mobile app accessibility claims
44. Supreme Court Passes On Domino’s ADA Website Case
45. The Supreme Court Deals a Blow to Businesses Regarding Accessibility of Their Websites and Mobile Applications
46. Wild West of Website Accessibility Lawsuits Continues
47. Mobile App Sweepstakes and the Law
48. Gathering social media as evidence in e-discovery
49. Comments on Social Media about an Employee’s National Origin Could Lead to Allegations of Discrimination
50. Electronic signatures – no new law required, says Law Commission
51. Twitter releases new Catalyst app for macOS Catalina
52. Whoops, Twitter The Latest To Use Two Factor Authentication Phone Numbers For Marketing
53. Influencer Advertising: How Brands Can Successfully Navigate Using Influencers or Dealing With Employees Posting About Work on Social Media
54. David Dobrik, Joey Graceffa, Brandon Rogers Lead This Year’s Streamy Awards Nominations
55. HBO Max Taps YouTubers LaurDIY, Michelle Khare To Host Kids’ Competition Series
56. Pocket.watch Greenlights Shows With The Onyx Family, Eh Bee Family, Expands Hulu Pact
57. Viral Video Upstart ‘Doing Things Media’ Appoints Former Group Nine Exec President, Taps Starry Advisers
58. YouTube Continues Crackdown On ‘Pick-Up Artist’ Vloggers Globally
59. YouTube Drops Trailer For Original Series ‘BookTube,’ Featuring All-Star Authors Chatting With Creators
60. ‘Bon Appétit’ Magazine Is Making Cover Stars Out Of Its Beloved YouTube Crew
61. YouTube Star Jordyn Jones Drops Self-Titled EP, Will Embark On ‘Eyes On Me’ Tour
62. YouTube Pacts With Michelle Obama On Third Series To Spotlight Global Girls’ Education Initiatives
63. YouTube Pacts With MerchBar To Help ‘Official Artist Channels’ Drive Merch, Vinyl Sales
64. YouTube Drops Trailer For Latest Learning-Focused Original, Starring VSauce3’s Jake Roper
65. Man agrees to pay $25,000 for abusing YouTube’s takedown system
66. Guns N’ Roses Lays Claim To Only Music Videos From The ’90s — And Now The ’80s — With 1 Billion Views
67. Sardonic Twitter Account ‘Dril’ Nabs Weekly Web Series On Adult Swim
68. Jenna Marbles Celebrates 20 Million Subscribers By Taking A Well-Deserved Nap
69. After Near-Death Experience, ‘Threadbanger’ Star Says Merch Sales Helped Pay Off Hospital Bills
70. Shane Dawson Launches Online Store With Jeffree Star’s Killer Merch, All Items Promptly Sell Out
71. Gigi Gorgeous To Launch Eponymous Makeup Brand In Collaboration With Ipsy
72. Rooster Teeth’s Podcast Network, The Roost, Unveils Slate Of 3 Scripted Series
73. Trump Signs Up For Twitch, Will Livestream Campaign Rallies
74. Amazon Pacts With Howard University On College Program To Diversify Entertainment Pipeline
75. Amazon’s massive investment in food delivery startup Deliveroo faces further delays thanks to a formal antitrust probe
76. EU orders Broadcom to halt exclusivity deals while investigation deepens
77. Hulu Finally Adds Download Feature, But Only For $11.99-Per-Month Subscribers
78. Adobe backtracks, will refund customers after canceling their accounts
79. LinkedIn Data Scraping Case—9th Circuit’s Trigger for CFAA Liability
80. Alert: IRS Issues New Guidance and FAQs on Virtual Currencies
81. U.S. Internal Revenue Service Takes on “Hard Fork” and “Airdrop” as Part of New Guidance on Virtual Currency
82. Cryptocurrency Industry and Investors Receive New Guidance on Key Tax Issues: Hard Forks, Airdrops and Other Virtual Currency Transactions Addressed by IRS
83. The legal challenges of Blockchain and smart contracts according to a recent EU Flagship report
84. Why it’s time to start talking about blockchain ethics: Blockchain technology is changing the nature of money and organizations. We should probably start pondering the potential consequences.
85. Patent Attacks Against Open Source Intensify!
86. Riot will use League of Legends as springboard for deluge of new games
87. After a decade of League of Legends, Riot to expand with new games
88. Legal Research Services Are Struggling With Emojis and Emoticons (Eric Goldman)
89. The Lines of Code That Changed Everything: Apollo 11, the JPEG, the first pop-up ad, and 33 other bits of software that have transformed our world.
90. The biggest lie tech people tell themselves — and the rest of us: They see facial recognition, smart diapers, and surveillance devices as inevitable evolutions. They’re not.
91. Ethical Open Source: Is the world ready? – Open source status quo is challenged by developers unsatisfied with current state of ethics, writes Lisa Lifshitz

A.I.

1. Digital dystopia: how algorithms punish the poor
2. Is a popular machine learning text tool trained using copyrighted material? (Andres Guadamuz)
3. Is A.I. The Next Step For Influencer Marketing? Meet Lil Miquela. 
4. The Next Word: Where will predictive text take us?
5. Microsoft wants to use AI to bleep out bad words in Xbox Live party chat
6. Video: Using data-informed design to make more accessible games
7. Ethics and Governance of AI at Berkman Klein: Report on Impact, 2017-2019

COMMUNICATIONS

1. CBC Sues the Conservative Party of Canada for Copyright Infringement Citing Campaign Video, Posting Debate Excerpts on Twitter (Michael Geist) 
2. What Was the CBC Thinking?: A Closer Look at the Video Clips in its Copyright Lawsuit Against the Conservative Party (Michael Geist)
3. CBC vs. CPC: Why the CBC’s Attempt to Use Copyright to Stifle Expression Backfired Badly (Michael Geist)
4. Platforms or People?: The Liberals and Conservatives Outline Competing Visions of Internet Responsibility (Michael Geist) 
5. CNN Rejects Trump Campaign Commercials
6. Washington State keeps enforcing net neutrality as it hails FCC court loss
7. T-Mobile and Sprint get FCC approval to merge in 3-2 party-line vote
8. AT&T raises prices 7% by making its customers pay AT&T’s property taxes
9. AT&T charged customers for a corporate tax that it doesn’t have to pay
10. AT&T and other carriers want to hide detailed 5G maps from FCC and public 
11. Wireless Industry Is Trying To Hide Where 5G Is Actually Available
12. A Brief Overview of the EU Electronic Communications Code 

PRIVACY

1. Why Political Parties + Mass Data Collection + Religious Targeting + No Privacy Laws = Trouble (Michael Geist)
2. US claims cyber strike on Iran after attack on Saudi oil facility
3. Federal Trade Commission Hosts Workshop to Review the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule
4. Court of Justice of the European Union rules on Cookie Consent
5. The Cookie Consent Form Crumbles as EU Now Requires Users to Opt In to Website Tracking
6. EU’s Highest Court Crumbles Cookie Consent Via Pre-Checked Box
7. Forum cracks the vintage passwords of Ken Thompson and other Unix pioneers
8. Activists’ phones targeted by one of the world’s most advanced spyware apps
9. Low Cost Phones Are Turning Privacy Into A Luxury Option
10. Data for a whopping 26 million stolen payment cards leaked in hack of fraud bazaar
11. New French Mandate Will Use Facial Recognition App To Create ‘Secure Digital IDs’
12. Planting tiny spy chips in hardware can cost as little as $200
13. After Jack Hack, Government Starts Taking Wireless ‘SIM Hijacking’ Seriously
14. The European Court of Justice Issues Two Important Decisions Clarifying the Scope of the Right to Be Forgotten and ISPs’ Liability
15. How A Right To Be Forgotten Stifles A Free Press And Free Expression
16. New Draft ePrivacy Regulation Released
17. Cyber and data breaches: the questions that always arise
18. New Bill Would Force Hardware Makers To Disclose Hidden Mics, Cameras
19. The Long Arm of UK Law Enforcement Reaches a Handshake Deal with U.S. DOJ on UK-U.S. Electronic Data
20. The City Of Baltimore Blew Off A $76,000 Ransomware Demand Only To Find Out A Bunch Of Its Data Had Never Been Backed Up

CREATIVITY

1. Can You Copyright a Powder? Charlotte Tilbury Wins Over look-a-like Contender from Aldi
2. Banksy’s Fake Store Is An Attempt To Abuse Trademark Law To Avoid Copyright Law
3. Harry and Meghan take on the press – what is the likely outcome?
4. Copyright fit for a princess
5. New guidance on works of joint authorship under the Copyright Act
6. CJEU and German Courts Rule on the Copyrightability of Non-Fictional Literature
7. The Latest: Hollywood Writers Guild and Talent Agencies Entangled in Labor/Antitrust Lawsuits and Countersuits
8. Anti-Safe Space Crusader Bret Stephens Apparently Needs A Safe Space: Backs Out Of Bedbug Debate
9. True North and Rebel News seek judicial review on press accreditation denial for debates
10. How A Key Story About The 1919 Black Sox Scandal Was Completely Made Up… Due To A Confused Understanding Of Copyright
11. Portland Police Review Board Says It’s OK For Officers To Lie To Get Someone To Stop Filming Them
12. Tax Preparation Patent Directed to an Abstract Idea
13. GMR Sues Entravision for Royalty Payments – Looking at the Issues Raised By This New Development in the Music Royalty Wars

GAMES

1. US Hearthstone players banned for Hong Kong protest: Team that held up a “Free Hong Kong, Boycott Blizz” sign punished “for engaging in behavior disruptive to” tournament broadcast
2. College Hearthstone team hit with 6-month ban after showing ‘Free Hong Kong’ sign
3. Nintendo NYC Overwatch launch event cancelled by Blizzard
4. Blizzard cancels Overwatch live event at Nintendo World in New York: Launch event for Overwatch on Nintendo Switch cancelled amid hostility over Chinese censorship furore
5. Blizzard employees organise walkout following Hong Kong controversy: Popular caster Brian Kibler also withdrew his participation to the Hearthstone Grandmasters final
6. Thanks Blizzard: Riot Games Forced To Let Everyone Know They’re Allowed To Use Hong Kong’s LoL Team’s Name
7. Blizzard’s Face Plant Creates Marketing Opportunity For Companies With A Spine
8. The GamesIndustry.biz Podcast: Can Blizzard recover from Blitzchung?: We discuss the wider impact of the backlash against the World of Warcraft publisher
9. Blizzard reinstates Hong Kong protestor’s prize, says “China had no influence”
10. Blizzard reduces ban for Hearthstone player, but stands by its initial reasoning
11. Blizzard: Chinese interests “had no influence” on Blitzchung ban – Hearthstone developer reduces punishments for pro player’s support of Hong Kong protesters
12. Publishers risk being trapped between the US and China | Opinion: Publishers are on the frontline of a battle that goes beyond trade — and will far outlast the Trump administration
13. Blitzchung says he will “be more careful” following Blizzard statement: The Hearthstone pro player says he has “no idea” if he’ll still want to compete after his six months ban
14. More Fallout From The Hong Kong Protests Hitting eSports
15. Riot calls for esports casters, players to avoid ‘sensitive topics’ during its broadcasts
16. Riot Games: “We aren’t telling anyone to avoid saying ‘Hong Kong'” – League of Legends firm clarifies confusion as rumours spread it is censoring esports team name Hong Kong Attitude
17. Riot Games directs casters and players not to discuss politics on air: Global head of League of Legends esports says it wants “to keep broadcasts focused on the game”
18. After a decade of League of Legends, Riot to expand with new games
19. Riot Games files trademark lawsuit against esports organisation Riot Squad: The League of Legends developer says the copyright infringement has caused “irreparable damage”
20. Paradox takes Stellaris: Galaxy Command offline over stolen Halo 4 artwork
21. Two Hat: Stop tweaking your game and start fixing your community – Security expert Two Hat teams up with Image Analyzer to tackle harmful online content and toxic communities
22. A case for ethical game design from BioWare’s Åsa Roos
23. A guide for devs to battle (and convert) their online haters
24. German regulator begins process to ban Coin Master game: Review board considers blacklisting game with gambling-like elements as harmful to minors, decision could set precedent for other titles
25. FTC Takes a Peek at Loot Box Regulation
26. Ustwo Games accused of union busting: Independent Workers Union of Great Britain has taken legal action against Monument Valley developer
27. Gay World of Warcraft guild forced to change name because of user complaints
28. Blizzard forces name change for gay guild: Publisher renames “Gay Boys” as “Guild ZFXPK” in response to player reports, changes it back but says it can’t stop it happening again
29. Video games help people with disabilities find friends and transcend real-world limitations
30. Rocksteady and Creative Assembly under fire over Video Game Tax Relief: TaxWatch UK highlights ways multinational companies are using scheme to shift profits
31. Changing mental health depictions in games: Developers say the industry is getting better at incorporating real conditions into their stories, but more progress is needed
32. New charity Safe In Our World focuses on mental health in the games industry: Organisation aims to raise awareness of mental health issues among both gamers and developers
33. G2A: “There’s no place in a business like ours for shadiness or fraud” – Communications boss Maciej Kuc addresses the biggest complaints against the divisive marketplace
34. Steam will soon let users play local-multiplayer games over the internet
35. Steam to add ability to play local co-op games with friends online: Support will be added automatically week of October 21 for all applicable games
36. Steam’s next big feature will make any “local multiplayer” game work online
37. Case study: Steam’s ‘Deal Of The Day’ and DLC attach rates4
38. Untitled Goose Game passed 100,000 sales in first two weeks
39. “Troll Factory” turns disinformation campaigns into teaching game
40. PlayStation 5 to Launch Holiday 2020, Including New Controller with Improved Haptics
41. After All That, Sony Unceremoniously Rolls Out PS4 Remote Play To All Android Devices
42. World of Warcraft sees Q3 streaming rise – StreamElements: WoW Classic interest persists as Fortnite continues to dip
43. Sony Reveals AR Headset Prototype in New Ghostbusters Location-based Attraction
44. DIY thumbsticks and clay creations: How Google designed its Stadia gamepad
45. Google Stadia finally has a concrete launch date
46. Google Stadia launching at 9am PST, November 19 for pre-orderers
47. Google backs away from Daydream VR due to a general lack of interest
48. Google ending Daydream: Company will stop selling View VR headset holder, citing decreasing usage and lack of adoption by developers and consumers
49. Nintendo Switch sales in Europe pass 10m: Since launch, 36 million Nintendo-published games have been shifted
50. Blizzard calls off public event to promote Switch Overwatch launch
51. Video: How (and why) Blizzard finally ported Overwatch to Switch
52. “The Switcher” is real: Witcher 3 on Switch is a blurry, tolerable compromise
53. Apple now sells Xbox controllers on its official store
54. Apple is selling Xbox controllers: Microsoft’s GamePad available through mobile giant’s online store following Apple Arcade launch
55. Mixer’s other co-founder also leaves Microsoft
56. Mixer co-founder Matt Salsamendi departs Microsoft
57. Microsoft introduces swear filters for Xbox: Platform holder will roll out four levels of filtration later this year to all Xbox devices and apps
58. Both Co-Founders Of Microsoft’s Twitch Competitor Mixer Are Departing The Business
59. The public preview for Xbox’s streaming service Project xCloud is now live
60. Analogue shows off Pocket retro portable: $199 handheld hardware set for 2020, will play original carts from Game Boy family, Game Gear, Lynx, and Neo Geo Pocket Color
61. $199 Analogue Pocket promises FPGA accuracy for portable retro gaming
62. The Analogue Pocket offers a modern way to play and make Game Boy games
63. Snapchat partnered with Adidas to launch its first shoppable mobile game
64. Hitman dev IO Interactive partners with Warner Bros. on ‘new game experience’
65. Warner Bros partners with IO Interactive for new game: Hitman partnership transformed into multi-IP deal with both IO studios involved in development
66. Niantic wants players to help expand location-games with new ‘Wayfarer’ tool
67. Niantic announces Wayfarer program to improve in-game play locations: Program currently in beta for Ingress players, coming to Pokemon Go players later
68. Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery reaches $150m in revenue – Jam City’s title has been downloaded 54.6 million times across iOS and Android
69. FIFA 20 tops EMEAA charts for second week since launch: Just Cause 3 makes surprise appearance in top ten, climbing from No. 123 last week
70. Busy September charts see FIFA 20 take No.1: A strong slate of new releases battle for top five, with Borderlands 3 in second place
71. FIFA 20 retains No.1 as Grid reaches Top Five: Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair debuts at No.31
72. Daybreak Games lays off multiple employees in company ‘realignment’
73. Daybreak Game Company suffers more layoffs: Company “realignment” leads to third round of redundancies in 18 months
74. Report: 50 workers laid off at Bendy and the Ink Machine developer Kindly Beast
75. Bendy and the Ink Machine studio Kindly Beast lays off just under 50 – CEO Mike Mood: “All current projects will continue as planned”
76. PUBG Mobile is highest-grossing smartphone game in Q3: Sensor Tower report shows growth across all metrics in the mobile game sector
77. Fortnite’s latest narrative turn has taken the entire game offline
78. Fortnite “shuts down” ahead of battle royale’s Chapter 2: Latest live event sees iconic island devoured by black hole in livestream, game currently unavailable
79. Fortnite is back after suddenly going dark for days to hype a big content update
80. Don’t Miss: The unconventional launch of Fortnite
81. Esports-focused mobile dev Meta Games nets $2 million in funding
82. Nerd Street Gamers raises $12m for building esports facilities: Will start by constructing 3,000 square foot spaces for Five Below stores
83. Esports’ ongoing data competition: PCU v. ACU v. AMA – Newzoo’s new head of esports Remer Rietkerk on the challenges of finding good data for the right occasion
84. Millennial Esports acquires YouTube channel LetsGoRacing: The channel, created by Grand Central Entertainment, focuses on motorsports and, recently, esports racing
85. Hiro Capital is “determined to fill the post-seed gap” with new €100m fund: Industry veterans will invest in around 20 promising games, esports and digital sports companies by 2021
86. What we can learn from… successful game teams: Crunch and financial rewards don’t work, says Department of Play’s Will Luton, but there are strategies that can lead to more effective teams and projects
87. Curve Digital owner Catalis Group acquired by NorthEdge Capital for $113 million
88. NorthEdge Capital acquires Curve Digital parent Catalis: Company invests £46.6m in games group, deal values Catalis at £90m
89. Summerfall Studios breaks new ground with Chorus: An Adventure Musical – Australian startup has assembled David Gaider, Austin Wintory, Troy Baker and Laura Bailey for its “interactive musical”
90. The enduring appeal of simulation games: Simulation games find their audience among maturing gamers and wild-eyed influencers alike
91. Divinity: Fallen Heroes placed on indefinite hold by developer Larian Studios
92. How Ubisoft designed and refined its Assassin’s Creed VR escape rooms
93. Owlchemy’s audio wizard offers tips on making the most of music in VR
94. Using body language to create more compelling VR game characters 
95. Fine-tuning for the ‘action hero’ feel in PlayStation’s VR game Blood & Truth
96. How to get your game on the front page of Imgur: A practical guide
97. Don’t Miss: An in-depth look at the physics of trains in Assassin’s Creed Syndicate
98. Don’t Miss: 10 video game production lessons learned the hard way
99. Don’t Miss: How the Surviving Mars devs built a city-builder on a barren planet
100. Blog: Making games is easy – selling them, not so much
101. Blog: The problem with the indie game pedestal9
102. Blog: A look at scavenger hunts in two modern adventure games
103. Blog: Rimworld, Dwarf Fortress, and procedurally generated storytelling
104. Blog: The simple difficulty of bringing Frostpunk to consoles
105. Blog: Accessibility and difficulty as barriers to art
106. Blog: An exploration of map region-based narrative
107. Video: The math behind predictable projectiles in games
108. How Raw Data dev Survios succeeds by recycling its own tech
109. Adi Shankar working on another video game TV series, this time for Far Cry 3 – Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Vibe to be a part of a greater Ubisoft multiverse of shows
110. Ubisoft is making animated shows based on Rayman, Watch Dogs, and more
111. Ukie releasing advice pack to help UK games industry prepare for no-deal Brexit
112. UKIE prepares no-deal Brexit advice: Trade body to release free written, audio, and visual content as Britain prepares to leave EU
113. Thousands of DOS games have been added to the Internet Archive
114. U.S. Patent no. 9,180,378: Conditional access to areas in a video game

Jon

DIGITAL

1. Microsoft: Customers are entitled to know about federal data requests
2. DOJ reportedly launches its own Facebook probe at AG Barr’s urging
3. Why You Can’t Really Consent to Facebook’s Facial Recognition: While the social media platform’s latest approach to facial recognition appears to respect user’s choices, the offer is so tainted we can’t truly agree to it (Evan Selinger & Woodrow Hartzog)
4. Zuckerberg blasts Elizabeth Warren’s plan to break up Facebook and says it’s an ‘existential’ threat
5. Elizabeth Warren Wants Congress To Be Smarter About Tech… While Grossly Overstating Google & Facebook’s Market Power
6. Facebook tried to fight $5B FTC fine, is ready to fight antitrust probes
7. Facebook, Like Instagram, To Test Hiding ‘Likes’, Reactions, And Video Viewcounts
8. Instagram wants people to make more longform IGTV content, but it still isn’t giving them a way to monetize: The new @creators account encourages people to keep making content
9. Coolest Man on Instagram Gets Copyright Case Tossed
10. Top Oracle Lawyer Attempting To Gaslight Entire Software Community: Insists APIs Are Executable
11. All I Ever Wanted Was a One-Trick Pony: Our devices do way too much – and not always on our behalf. (Zeynep Tufekci)
12. How The U.S. Hacked ISIS
13. At Least 70 Countries Have Had Disinformation Campaigns, Study Finds
14. German police seize “bulletproof” hosting data center in former NATO  bunker
15. The Internet’s horrifying new method for installing Google apps on Huawei phones: Just make a Chinese website your device’s remote administrator. It’ll be fine!
16. Just As Everyone Predicted: EU Copyright Directive’s Link Tax Won’t Lead To Google Paying Publishers
17. New Study On Effects Of Manga Piracy Show Piracy’s Effects Are More Nuanced Than Good Or Bad
18. Why big ISPs aren’t happy about Google’s plans for encrypted DNS
19. Google adds password “checkup” into Web account password manager
20. Maria Ressa: “Facebook Broke Democracy in Many Countries around the World, Including in Mine”: Manila-journalist discusses how Silicon Valley has “forever changed” our societies
21. Launch of Facebook’s Libra could be delayed over regulatory concerns: executive
22. Facebook’s new VR chat app will throw paid staffers at “on-boarding” trolls
23. Facebook is rolling out a test to hide your likes
24. Facebook’s new VR chat app will feature paid in-game hosts to model community behaviour: Facebook Horizon Guides will act more like hosts in a physical space, than moderators in a digital one
25. Kazakh Government Takes Down 93k Websites To Site-Block A Single Massage Parlour
26. TikTok Says It No Longer Uses Guidelines That Could Censor Content Criticizing Chinese Government
27. How TikTok Holds Our Attention: On the popular short- app, young people are churning through images and sounds at warp speed, repurposing reality into ironic, bite-size content.
28. WarnerMedia CEO John Stankey on Diversity: ‘We’ve ot More Work to Do’
29. Unpatchable bug in millions of iOS devices exploited, developer claims
30. Developer of Checkm8 explains why iDevice jailbreak exploit is a game changer
31. Competitor Gets Pyrrhic Victory in False Advertising Suit Over Search Ads–Harbor Breeze v. Newport Fishing (Eric Goldman)
32. Product liability litigation for connected devices
33. Grindr and Armslist Cases Reaffirm Core Protections for User-Generated Content
34. 9th Circuit Takes Narrow View of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act in LinkedIn Data Scraping Case
35. hiQ v. LinkedIn Redux? Ninth Circuit Decision Tested in New Case
36. Nerd City Calls On YouTube For More Demonetization Transparency Amid New Study About LGBTQ+ Video Titles
37. YouTube just made it way easier for creators to search and filter comments: Including the ability to search via subscriber count
38. YouTube Adds Ability To Auto-Delete Search And Viewing History
39. YouTube Music is launching three new personalized playlists
40. YouTube Music Will Now Come Pre-Installed On Android Devices, Replacing Google’s Play Music
41. Google beefs up user privacy controls for Assistant, YouTube: You can now tell Google Assistant to delete your activity history.
42. YouTube Just Implemented Creators’ Most Requested Feature To Date: Comment Filters
43. “Netflix has forgotten more about product and tech than new services have built”
44. Tesla Brings YouTube, Netflix, Hulu To New In-Car ‘Theater’ Feature
45. Musk broke the law with anti-union tweet, judge rules
46. YouTube’s First Exclusive MLB Live Streams Brought An Average Of 1.2 Million Views Apiece
47. Snapchat takes the fight to Netflix and Disney Plus with eight new Snap Originals
48. Vevo Looking To Supercharge OTT Distribution
49. Catie Turner’s Song “Prom Queen” Sees Nearly 1M New Spotify Streams After Starring In Shane Dawson Trailer
50. Spotify now lets you add podcasts to playlists
51. Meet Electrophone, the streaming service you’ve never heard of: Long before Spotify, music buffs signed up to hear live concerts by telephone
52. Victoria Beckham – Fashion Victim?
53. Popular Blogger Breached Advertising Code for Endorsing Sleep Medicine
54. eSignature and ePayment News and Trends
55. Caspar Lee-Founded Influencer Marketing Firm Closes $3.6 Million Funding Round
56. Influencer Sinead Burke Unveils Series With Just-Launched Podcast Network Lemonada
57. Vice To Acquire Refinery29, Will Form Combined Entity Vice Media Group
58. Vice Media Acquires Refinery29 in a $400 Million Deal
59. Watching You Watch: The Tracking Ecosystem of Over-the-Top TV Streaming Devices (Hooman Mohajeri Moghaddam, Gunes Acar, Ben Burgess, Arunesh Mathur, Danny Yuxing Huang, Nick Feamster, Edward W. Felten, Prateek Mittal, Arvind Narayanan)
60. Information Exposure From Consumer IoT Devices: A Multidimensional, Network-Informed Measurement Approach (Jingjing Ren, Daniel J. Dubois, David Choffnes, Anna Maria Mandalari,  Roman Kolcun, L Hamed Haddadi)
61. IoT Inspector: Crowdsourcing Labeled Network Traffic from Smart Home Devices at Scale (Danny Yuxing Huang, Noah Apthorpe, Gunes Acar, Frank Li, Nick Feamster)
62. Communication with locked-in patients in question after misconduct finding: The work claimed it was possible to interpret yes-or-no answers from brain waves.
63. iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max review: High quality for high prices
64. The Surface Phone is real! Microsoft surprises with a dual-screen Android phone
65. Dependencies: Both Technological And Human, On Display In The Story Of A Developer Who Deleted Code Being Used By ICE
66. Match.com’s Alleged Deceptive Marketing Practices Lead to Federal Action Under FTC Act/ROSCA
67. Response to Yelp Review Costs Small Dental Practice $10,000 and Two Years of Monitoring to Settle HIPAA Complaint
68. NLRB Memo Refines Position on Employer Social Media Policies
69. Another Month, Another (Unhelpful) NLRB Advice Memo on Social Media Rules
70. As Pushback Grows in Europe Against Facebook’s Libra, Walmart Considers its own Cryptocurrency
71. Crypto founder pledges to fight the SEC
72. The Failed Political Promise of Silicon Valley: Tech was meant to help us transcend our most intractable problems. What went wrong?
73. Electronic signatures and contracts
74. Men hack electronic billboard, play porn on it
75. Woman who sleeps in $500 EMF-blocking sack wants area-wide Wi-Fi limits

A.I.

1. Should there be copyright protection for artificial intelligence works? (Andres Guadamuz)
2. Can artificial intelligence be an inventor? 
3. Monkey see monkey do – Copyright whimsy in an AI world
4. This Picasso painting had never been seen before. Until a neural network painted it.: With help from a neural network, researchers reconstructed an image the artist created and painted over during his Blue Period.
5. Unpacking “Ethical AI”: A curated reading list
6. Tesla just bought an AI startup to improve Autopilot—here’s what it does
7. YouTube is experimenting with ways to make its algorithm even more addictive: Platform says it’s trying to do what it can to minimize extreme content. But it’s still looking for ways to keep users on the site.
8. If Software is Eating the World: What’s Alexa got to do with it?
9. D-Wave announces the next generation of its quantum annealer
10. What problems can you solve on a quantum annealer?
11. Celebrating Ian Kerr (Michael Geist) 

COMMUNICATIONS

1. Telcos And Rupert Murdoch Pushing Nonsense Story That Google Helping Keep Your Internet Activity More Private Is An Antitrust Violation
2. Comcast Apparently Feels Qualified To Give Google Lectures On Monopoly Power
3. Hidden Fees Mean US Cable & Broadband Bills Can Be 45% Higher Than Advertised
4. Sprint Busted For Allegedly Defrauding The FCC Lifeline Program
5. US federal appeals court rules states can pass net neutrality rules
6. Court Says FCC Can’t Stop States From Protecting Net Neutrality
7. D.C. Circuit Vacates FCC Order Preempting State Net Neutrality Regulation and Remands
8. Appeals Court Largely Upholds FCC’s Broadband Internet Reclassification Order, But Vacates and Remands in Part
9. Court upholds net neutrality repeal, but lets states pass their own: Mozilla’s case against the FCC largely fails, though DC appeals court says pre-emption of state and local laws goes too far
10. Why Ajit Pai’s “unhinged” net neutrality repeal was upheld by judges
11. Massive Study Proves Once And For All That No, Net Neutrality Did Not Hurt Broadband Investment
12. Nonprofit fights TV networks in court to keep free TV service alive
13. Nonprofit TV Service Locast Accuses Big Four Broadcasters Of Collusion
14. AT&T Proclaims It Cannot Be Sued For Selling Your Location Data To Random Nitwits
15. AT&T vows to keep DirecTV despite losing millions of subscribers
16. FCC Bans Text Message, International Spoofing
17. The US is gifting 5G patent leadership to others
18. GSA Implements Restrictions on Certain Chinese-Made Telecommunications Services and Equipment
19. Sports & Antitrust – Commercialisation of sports broadcasting rights under the spotlight
20. From Innovation to Regulation: Why the Liberals Have Lost Their Way on Digital Policy (Michael Geist) 

PRIVACY

1. How Long Will Unbreakable Commercial Encryption Last?
2. Privacy Harm Exceptionalism (Ryan Calo)
3. Vimeo collected detailed facial scans without consent, lawsuit alleges
4. Welcome To A World Of 500-Megapixel Cameras, And Surveillance Systems Able To Zoom In On Small Objects A Kilometer Away
5. Ring Considered Using 911 Calls To Trigger Automated Streaming Of Camera Footage To Local PDs
6. DoorDash hack spills loads of data for 4.9 million people
7. Hey Doordash: Why Are You Hiding Your ‘Security Notice’ From Google Just Days After You Revealed A Massive Security Breach?
8. Yahoo Hack Victims Line Up To Get $100 (Or Less) For Historic Hack
9. Former Yahoo engineer admits using his access to steal users’ sexual images
10. Plan for massive facial recognition database sparks privacy concerns: Identity fraud is justification for collecting photos from drivers’ licences and passports but critics say plan too invasive
11. CCPA Privacy FAQs: Does the CCPA require that a company obtain consent from a website user before placing cookies on their browser?
12. Cookies consent does not escape the GDPR: The CJEU issued its decision in the Planet49 case
13. ECJ Issues First Cookie Decision After GDPR
14. Balancing GDPR Rights And TM Owner Need For Domain Data
15. When the Fight Against Online Piracy meets the GDPR
16. Do we have a `right to be forgotten’ online?
17. “Right to be forgotten” EU privacy law can only be applied inside the EU
18. California’s New Privacy Law: Recent Amendments and Approaching Compliance Deadlines
19. Proposed Digital Charter Could Bring Sweeping Changes to Canadian Privacy Laws
20. No, The New Agreement To Share Data Between US And UK Law Enforcement Does Not Require Encryption Backdoors
21. Councilman “mind-boggled” by Baltimore City IT department ineptitude
22. Ransomware forces 3 hospitals to turn away all but the most critical patients
23. The Rise of Networked Vigilante Surveillance: What happens when the neighborhood watch gets automatic license plate readers?
24. If Signed by Governor, California Bill AB-602 Will Provide Private Right of Action for Victims of Sexually Explicit ‘Deepfakes’
25. Facebook, Reddit, and others need a deepfakes plan now, senators say
26. Documents Show The FBI Is Targeting Financial Institutions, Credit Reporting Agencies, And Universities With NSLs
27. Can We Really Forget?
28. Market Intelligence – Privacy & Cybersecurity – Canada
29. Market Intelligence – Privacy & Cybersecurity – The United States
30. Tech Companies Are Quietly Phasing Out a Major Privacy Safeguard: More and more companies are failing to issue transparency reports to tell consumers how much of their information governments have demanded.

CREATIVITY

1. “A Broad and Liberal Interpretation”: The Supreme Court of Canada Expands Copyright Users’ Rights (Michael Geist)
2. SCC dismisses appeal of Ontario land surveyors over breach of copyright
3. Keatley Surveying Ltd. v. Teranet Inc. (2019 SCC 43)
4. Supreme Court of Canada rules on Crown copyright
5. Render Unto Caesar: Supreme Court of Canada Issues First Decision Considering the Scope of Crown Copyright
6. When Copyright in a Work Transfers to the Crown: Keatley v. Teranet
7. Now We Know Who Owns the Copyright in a Registered Plan of Survey
8. Parker v. Winwood: Affirms summary judgment for defendants in copyright infringement case involving Spencer Davis Group song Gimme Some Lovin’, finding statements by band members hearsay.
9. #StrikeAPose #CopyrightInfringement
10. “Copyright Troll” Lawyer Gets Sanctioned (Again)–Sands v. Bauer Media (Eric Goldman)
11. Australian State’s Proposed Ag-Gag Law Threatens General Right To Protest, Critics Warn
12. New England Patriots Player Asks Judge to Throw Out ‘Trash Talk’ Lawsuit
13. Fear Not: New York Times v. Sullivan Heartily Embraced by the Court’s Newest Jurist, Justice Kavanaugh
14. Never Ever Getting Back Together: Taylor Swift Re-Records Back Catalogue
15. Canadian ISPs Continue Quest To Bankrupt TVAddons, Site That Hosted Tons Of Legal Kodi Addons
16. Being Designated A ‘Hate Group’ By The SPLC Isn’t Defamation, Says Federal Court
17. Second Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Lawyer’s Libel Suit against New York Post
18. McDonald’s ‘Mc’ mark partially revoked for lack of genuine use
19. Sony, Marvel bury the hatchet so Spider-Man can stay in the MCU
20. Devin Nunes Sues Again; He REALLY Doesn’t Want You To Read This Article About His Family’s Cow Farm In Iowa
21. What’s Australian For Streisand Effect? Perhaps It’s Fatty McF—head
22. Federal Court Blocks South Dakota’s Pro-Pipeline, Anti-First Amendment ‘Riot Boosting’ Law
23. A Tale of Two (or 33) Copyrights: Calculating Statutory Damages
24. Post-Creation Letter Exchange Doesn’t Constitute Work for Hire Agreement
25. That’s Bananas: Third Circuit Examines Copyright Protection Under Star Athletica
26. NAD Exonerates Perdue’s Art Department
27. IP and counterculture: Who owns a tattoo?
28. In Sweeping Ruling, Federal Appeals Court Invalidates Tennessee Billboard Law
29. US Courts Rep Ignores Everything About The Internet, Says PACER Access Can Never Be Free Because It Costs Money To Operate
30. EU’s Top Court Confirms Copyright for Design, but Looking Good Will Not Do the Trick
31. Liverpool FC Denied ‘Liverpool’ Trademark Due To Its Geographic Significance
32. MONOPOLY shown the boot
33. Canadian patent rules streamlined
34. Guide to Doing Business in Canada: Intellectual property
35. Old Master discovered in elderly woman’s kitchen worth £5.3 million

GAMES

1. Abdin v. CBS Broadcasting: Court grants motion to dismiss claims that Star Trek Discovery tv series infringes video game concept involving fictionalized space-traveling creature, finding lack of substantial similarity.
2. Zynga advises users to change passwords following data breach: Words With Friends and Draw Something players may have had usernames, passwords, other information stolen
3. Duke Nukem 3D’s composer is suing Gearbox, CEO Pitchford, and Valve
4. Duke Nukem 3D composer sues Gearbox, Pitchford, and Valve: Gearbox allegedly failed to pay royalties to Bobby Prince with Duke Nukem re-release
5. Walgreens suing AtGames for breach of contract: Retailer alleges plug-and-play gaming company owes it nearly $1.62 million for unsold products it returned
6. Frogwares says publisher Focus Home is wrongfully delisting games
7. Frogwares games pulled after split with Focus Home Interactive: Sherlock Holmes studio says publisher has refused to transfer store listings to it, leaving some games permanently unavailable
8. Google Play apps laden with ad malware were downloaded by millions of users
9. Video Gaming: Is My Loot Box Legal?
10. Rocket League is binning loot boxes in exchange for ‘blueprints’
11. Counter-Strike: GO lets players in France reveal loot box contents ahead of purchase
12. The rights to Ms. Pac-Man are caught up in a messy legal battle
13. Joy-Con drift class action lawsuit expands to include Switch Lite issues
14. Switch Lite added to Joy-Con drift class action lawsuit
15. Nintendo is already working on new Switch Lite model amid Joy-Con drift concerns
16. The GamesIndustry.biz Podcast: A tale of two Nintendos
17. Nintendo nails the Switch Lite but leaves people scratching their heads with Mario Kart Tour
18. Virtuos: Switch ports, co-development, and next-gen – Virtuos on its journey from small contract studio to pushing the boundaries of what’s possible on Nintendo Switch
19. Nintendo is bringing Brain Training to the Switch: Almost 15 years after its debut, the 33m-selling series will appear on Nintendo’s latest console
20. Switch Lite takes aim at a broader demographic | Opinion
21. Nintendo Switch: A discoverability followup
22. Mario Kart Tour downloaded over 10m times globally in its first day: Newest Sensor Tower numbers put first-day downloads at over 20m, player spending over $1m
23. Report: Mario & Luigi developer AlphaDream has filed for bankruptcy
24. Mario & Luigi RPG series developer enters bankruptcy: AlphaDream’s future in question due to sagging revenues and rising development costs
25. Super Mario Maker 2 catches up with 1998, lets you play online with friends
26. Hands- and legs-on with Nintendo’s mildly diverting Ring Fit Adventure
27. Link awakens at the top of the EMEAA charts this week: Hero in green conquers on debut week despite exclusivity, only physical sales reported
28. FIFA 20 and Xbox One dominate UK charts: FIFA boxed sales drop 7% year-on-year
29. FIFA 20: Critical Consensus – A largely beautiful game is dominated by Ultimate Team, which still relies on monetisation that seems uglier by the day
30. Cuphead has sold 5 million copies in two years
31. Cuphead hits 5m sales in two years: Studio MDHR is celebrating the game’s second birthday with discounts and giveaways on all platforms
32. Talking Tom dev Outfit7’s game library surpasses 10 billion downloads
33. Why did Borderlands 3 re-cast Troy Baker’s role?: Voice actor says developer Gearbox “wouldn’t go union”; studio says it tries to meet or exceed union standards for pay, working conditions
34. Excessive crunch is bad for business | Opinion: Crunch is a health issue for thousands of employees, says Unionen’s Henrik Ehrenberg, and it’s a counterproductive way to run a business
35. Global game companies have claimed millions through Video Game Tax Relief in UK: TIGA defends scheme, saying it would be “very limiting” if large international companies could not benefit
36. On average, it costs $35.42 to get a mobile gamer to make first in-app purchase – Liftoff: Costs to acquire and register users continue to increase, conversion rates dipped YOY
37. Naughty Dog drops online mode from The Last of Us Part II to focus on single-player
38. Can game makers rise to meet the challenge of climate change?: Activists and experts talk about the UN Playing for the Planet Alliance, and what more needs to be done
39. Atari partners with Antstream, responds to VCS concerns: Throwback VCS console status update includes retro game-streaming app, statement that designer’s work on project is “largely concluded”
40. EA is offering a free month of Origin Access to encourage 2FA use
41. Astroneer’s Wanderer update is a tribute to late System Era co-founder Paul Pepera
42. Ubisoft opens new mobile and instant game studio in Vietnam
43. Blizzard’s President On Making Sure Nothing Changes
44. Destiny maker Bungie wants to release a new IP before 2025
45. Bungie plans to launch more franchises, build up publishing group by 2025
46. Bungie: “Our vision is to become a multi-franchise entertainment company” – CEO Pete Parsons says company’s plans through 2025 include more than just the Destiny franchise
47. Ubisoft opens new Vietnam studio: Da Nang location will expand Ubisoft’s mobile development business
48. Ubisoft announces free coding game Rabbids Coding: Educational PC title launches October 8 targeting reading-age children and up
49. Logitech acquires streaming software maker Streamlabs for $89 million
50. Logitech acquires Streamlabs for at least $89m: PC and gaming hardware manufacturer picks up livestreaming software company following multi-year partnership
51. Valve shares tips for designing touch screen controls for PC games
52. Improbable acquires online game dev company The Multiplayer Guys
53. PlayStation Now cuts price in half, adds time limited “marquee games”: Titles like GTA V and God of War will be available for limited periods at new $9.99 a month price
54. Sony lowers price of PS Now streaming service and adds ‘marquee’ titles
55. Sony slashes PlayStation Now streaming prices ahead of Google Stadia launch
56. PlayStation starts selling console hardware direct to consumers: Customers in the US can now buy PS4 and PSVR hardware, games and accessories from the PlayStation website
57. Enthusiast Gaming completes complex merger with Luminosity: Newly formed entity will be the publicly traded Enthusiast Gaming Holdings
58. Pokémon Masters generates $33m revenue in first month: DeNA’s Pokémon offering becomes second highest grossing Pokémon mobile game
59. One year in, Dragalia Lost revenue surpassed by Pocket Camp again: Nintendo and CyGames’ new mobile IP has made $106m since launch
60. PlayStation quietly brings PS4 cross-play out of beta
61. PUBG cross-play between Xbox One and PS4 has launched
62. Limited cross-play enabled in PUBG: PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds becomes latest game to find flexibility in Sony’s still rigid stance
63. Fortnite US July revenues down 52% year-over-year: Edison Trends looks at consumer spending trends for Epic’s hit as well as Black Ops 4, Apex Legends, and PUBG
64. Free-to-play PUBG arrives in Europe next week: PUBG Lite is designed for low-spec PCs, open beta launches in Europe and Russia on October 10
65. Why tens of millions more Android gamers are playing PUBG Mobile than Fortnite
66. FaZe Clan Scores Content Creation, Merch Partnership With Soccer Club Manchester City
67. ESL, Dreamhack partner with Nielsen for esports data: MTG’s esports leagues will help tracking firm with sponsor valuation, brand impact, and consumer analytics efforts
68. Esports BAR returns to Miami this week: Conference’s third year brings brands, publishers, and investors back to Florida for keynotes, mentorship, and roundtables
69. Ninja Calls ‘The Masked Singer’ Stint “The Scariest Thing I Have Ever Done”
70. Twitch Rebrands With New Logo, New Slogan: “You’re Already One Of Us”
71. Twitch is rebranding for the first time, and it has a logo for everyone
72. At TwitchCon, CEO Addresses Controversial Policy Enforcement, Reveals Sweeping Ad System Overhaul
73. Twitch, In Bid To Lock Down Top Talent, Inks Exclusive Streaming Deal With ‘NickMercs’
74. Gaming Talent Management Firm ‘Loaded’ Signs Jordan Fisher, Its First Traditional Star
75. Video: Crowdfunding your video game in 2019
76. The mysterious origins of an uncrackable video game: With the digital shovels, archaeologists are digging into the code of early video games to uncover long forgotten secrets that could have relevance today.
77. Minecraft Earth “couldn’t have been made two years ago”: Torfi Olafsson and Jessica Zahn discuss the technical, social, and geographical challenges of bringing Minecraft into the real world
78. More like Microsoft than Apple: Carmack wants Oculus to keep older VR games alive
79. Oculus to be “more Microsoft than Apple” on VR software preservation: Oculus CTO John Carmack lamented that “every program I ever wrote for iOS is lost to the ages now”
80. Oculus CTO Explains Why “Gear VR’s days are numbered”
81. Oculus’ John Carmack calls Gear VR “a missed opportunity”: CTO offered a “eulogy” for the mobile VR headset, saying its “days are numbered”
82. Carmack: Lessons from the Gear VR paved the way for Oculus’ current mobile VR
83. Oculus CTO: ‘Rift S Still Worthwhile Even After Quest Gets PC-tether Feature’
84. We put Oculus Quest’s two craziest new VR features through their paces
85. The new MS Flight Simulator taught me how to fly an actual plane: Ahead of closed alpha, Microsoft takes the wraps off its ambitious return to the skies.
86. Video: How vehicles replicate and collide in Watch Dogs 2 multiplayer
87. Knights And Bikes: Turning aesthetic mood into gameplay
88. Video: Ubisoft’s Alex Karpazis rates your Rainbow Six: Siege loadouts
89. Rockstar wants to capture the appeal of RDR 2’s single player in Online
90. Lab Zero Games: From killer girls to inner worlds
91. Don’t Miss: Creating the inviting mini-world of Animal Crossing
92. Dontnod: “If we didn’t talk about politics, that would be a political message” – Life is Strange game director Michel Koch on why the series doesn’t shy away from tough, divisive subjects
93. Don’t Miss: Accommodating player failure and recovery
94. Blog: Which are the most commonly used game engines?
95. Blog: Steam has a lack of data scientists
96. Blog: The science behind a fun and successful casual game
97. Blog: Towards a language of video games – Part 1
98. Video: Practical tips for designing memorable characters
99. The former Witcher developers making a mobile game about travel and humanity
100. Playing ‘Untitled Goose Game’ is the new punching a wall
101. US reportedly considering restrictions on investments in China: Latest discussions in ongoing trade war still said to be in early stages
102. Tencent becomes largest shareholder in Conan Exiles dev Funcom
103. Tencent acquires minority stake in Funcom: Chinese gaming giant becomes largest single shareholder of Conan Exiles dev
104. National Film and Sound Archive of Australia to begin preserving video games
105. National Film and Sound Archive of Australia to start preserving video games: Initial eight additions include Shadow Run, LA Noire, Hollow Knight and Florence
106. Watch Adam Saltsman explain how Overland was ‘tuned for drama’
107. Gummy Drop dev Big Fish Games donates $250,000 to National Breast Cancer Foundation
108. The Strong Museum receives grant to fund exhibit on the cultural impact of video games
109. Strong Museum awarded $700k for exhibit on gaming’s cultural impact
110. Welsh universities, government partner to form Games Talent Wales: Grassroots talent development program created to support budding, local, indie studios
111. U.S. Patent No. 8,814,675: Method of operating an online game using terraformed game spaces
112. DIGRA ’19 – Proceedings Of The 2019 Digra International Conference: Game, Play And The Emerging Ludo-Mix – 49 Articles Or Papers

Jon

DIGITAL

1. Examining The Expanding Web Of Chinese And Russian Information Controls
2. Ninth Circuit’s LinkedIn Decision Does Not Greenlight the Unauthorized Webscraping of Public Websites
3. The Ninth Circuit Takes On Web Scraping
4. Instagram Confirms Security Issue Exposed User Accounts And Phone Numbers
5. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram Are Epicenters For Steroid Sales — And So Are Their Recommendation Algorithms (Study)
6. Facebook plans launch of its own “Supreme Court” for handling takedown appeals
7. Audible fires back at book publishers, says captions are fair use: Audible Captions is not a book of any kind,” Audible writes in court filing.
8. Hotel Owner Files Libel Suit Against Reviewer For Calling Nazis Nazis, Gets Support From Austrian Court
9. Twitter Stands Up For Devin Nunes’ Parody Accounts: Won’t Reveal Who’s Behind Them
10. History Repeats Itself: Twitter Launches Illegal SF Street Stencil Campaign Just As IBM DId Decades Ago
11. Scraping the Web: Practical Implications From the hiQ v. LinkedIn Opinion
12. Facebook is launching a streaming device that watches you while you watch TV
13. House lawmakers ask Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google to turn over trove of records in antitrust probe
14. Congress wants Facebook, Google, Apple, and Amazon emails as probe heats up
15. WSJ: Amazon changed search results to boost profits despite internal dissent
16. Kickstarter accused of “union busting campaign” by former employees: Two former staff claim they were fired for their roles in unionising Kickstarter’s workforce
17. Ninth Circuit Upholds Amazon.com’s Cost-Sharing Valuation
18. The $24 Billion Online Casino Boom China Is Struggling to Halt: The Communist Party is hard-pressed to stop the spread of digital gambling in Asia.
19. Self-Help in Cyberspace: A Path Forward
20. Would the Internet Be Healthier Without ‘Like’ Counts?: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube have moved to hide or obscure measures of popularity, in the name of less toxic dialog. Users give a thumbs-down.
21. OONI Explorer team unlock the web’s untold censorship stories
22. Amazon Music Jumps Into the Hi-Res Audio Game: Amazon adds “high definition” and “ultra high definition” options to its music-streaming service, taking hi-fi music into the mass market
23. Alibaba Opens Online Marketplace to U.S.-Based Businesses
24. Content Moderation Is Impossible: Facebook Settles Legal Fight Over Famous Painting Of A Woman’s Genitals
25. Facebook launches its own Supreme Court
26. Facing Fines—The Mechanics of Facebook’s Reportedly Forthcoming FTC Settlement
27. Facebook Unveils Several Video Product Updates, Including ‘Live’ Rehearsals, Pre-Scheduled ‘Watch Parties’
28. Congress Is Investigating Apple’s Repair Monopoly: Part of the antitrust investigation centers on “Apple’s restrictions on third-party repairs.”
29. Apple Takes on EU’s Vestager in Record $14 Billion Tax Fight
30. Apple, services and moats
31. The U1 chip in the iPhone 11 is the beginning of an Ultra Wideband revolution
32. Apple’s Big YouTube Stream Was Just Part Of Its Swelling Social Video Impact
33. Disney CEO Bob Iger resigns from his Apple board seat
34. “We Could Say Anything To Each Other”: Bob Iger Remembers Steve Jobs, The Pixar Drama, And The Apple Merger That Wasn’t
35. Less Human Than Human: The Design Philosophy of Steve Jobs – To what degree do “good design,” or “taste,” depend on human values?
36. Ninth Circuit Reverses Course While Quoting Its Own Precedent Saying Otherwise; Says Section 230 Doesn’t Cover Anti-Competitive Moderation
37. Terrible Ninth Circuit 230(c)(2) Ruling Will Make the Internet More Dangerous–Enigma v. Malwarebytes (Eric Goldman)
38. Court Enforces Arbitration Clause in “Modified Clickwrap”–Chen v. Sierra Trading Post
39. That Time EFF Got A Copyright Takedown Demand Of Its Own Artwork
40. Forwarding email is a crime, Jerry Falwell Jr. says after leaks to media: A legal expert told the AP Falwell’s claims were “totally insane.”
41. Meet the three North Korean hacking groups funding the country’s weapons programs
42. NBCUniversal’s streaming service is called Peacock: Launching with a slate of original and beloved licensed series
43. NBCUniversal’s Streaming Service Peacock Will Reboot ‘Battlestar Galactica’ And Revive ‘Saved By The Bell’
44. NBC Peacock is Comcast’s dive into the crazy streaming-video fray
45. Oh, frak: There’s another Battlestar Galactica reboot coming
46. Bizarre Streaming Service Quibi Already Has a Better Lineup Than Apple TV+
47. Tinder Wraps First Scripted Series, A Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Set In The Apocalypse
48. Insights: Music’s 360 Deals Come To The Hypercompetitive Video Streaming World
49. Whistle Inks Multi-Year Deal With U.K.-Based Soccer Content Company ‘OTRO’
50. Google’s ‘Smart City’ Project For Toronto
51. YouTube’s Abbreviated Subscriber Counts Are Here
52. Google launches YouTube Music Charts in India
53. YouTube Changes Music Chart 24-Hour Rankings to Exclude Paid Ad Views
54. YouTube Will No Longer Count Ads Toward Music Charts, 24-Hour Music Video Debuts
55. YouTube Is Bringing Its Most Prominent Ad Product, The Masthead, To Smart TV Screens
56. YouTube introduces a massive ad box to its TV app: A prominent feature on the standard site
57. YouTube To Shutter Its TV-Optimized ‘Leanback’ Feature On Oct. 2
58. YouTube Testing New ‘Profile Cards’ That Showcase Channel-Specific Comment History
59. Google Is Adding The Ability To Search For ‘Key Moments’ Within YouTube Videos
60. Google Launches Ability to Find Key Moments in YouTube Videos via Search
61. SoulPancake’s NewFronts Presentation: Control Over Its YouTube Ad Inventory, New Programming, And A PBS Partnership
62. Lilly Singh Posts Confident Late-Night Debut With Socially-Conscious Bits, YouTube-Esque Challenges
63. ‘Close Friends,’ for a Monthly Fee: Influencer culture has normalized charging money for all kinds of intimacy.
64. Instagram Partners With Jonah Hill On Anti-Bullying Docuseries For IGTV
65. Instagram Debuts Jonah Hill’s ‘Un-filtered’ Bullying Docu-Series
66. Instagram tightens rules on diet and cosmetic surgery posts: Platform responds to concerns about impact of content on mental health of young people
67. Instagram, Facebook, and the Perils of “Sharenting”
68. Fantasy Football Videos Gain Steam All Summer From Unexpected Sources
69. Whistle Inks Content Deal With U.K. Soccer Subscription App ‘OTRO’
70. Christine Sydelko Says She’s Quitting The Internet: “It’s Such A Trivial Job”
71. PewDiePie Retracts $50K Donation To Anti-Defamation League, Says It Doesn’t “Feel Genuine”
72. Rooster Teeth Lays Off 13% Of Staff, Is Beginning “A New Chapter,” CEO Says
73. DoubleVerify Becomes a Snapchat Measurement Partner: Its viewability and fraud verification technology will help brands maximize their campaigns
74. Snapchat Is Once Again Pivoting Back to News
75. #No Filter: Terminating an Employee for Social Media Posts – Part 2
76. Volkswagen’s bold plan to create a new car operating system
77. It’s real and it’s spectacular: Netflix buys exclusive rights to stream Seinfeld
78. Warner Media’s Rooster Teeth Lays Off 50 Employees: Cuts represent about 13% of the Austin-based digital production company’s employees
79. WarnerMedia Unveils J.J. Abrams, Bad Robot Mega-Deal
80. CBS, Viacom, and WarnerMedia ban e-cigarette advertisements amid vaping health crisis: Following a similar CNN ban last week
81. One Year After Acquiring Ecommerce Startup ‘Kit’, Patreon Sells It To Affiliate Link Company Geniuslink
82. England’s Law Commission reports on e-signatures – A missed opportunity?
83. Just How Far Does California’s New IoT Security Law Reach?
84. Rhode Island Expands Electronic Money Transfer Licensing Requirements to Certain Cryptocurrency Service Providers
85. Björk made music’s first “VR pop album”—she opens up about its heartbreak
86. Say hello to 802.11ax: Wi-Fi 6 device certification begins today
87. Does The Public Care About Tech Backlash? And Does That Matter?
88. Impact of digital disruption worldwide
89. I researched Uighur society in China for 8 years and watched how technology opened new opportunities – then became a trap

A.I.

1. Google is changing its search algorithm to prioritize original news reporting: Humans will train it, as usual
2. On “AI” replacing jobs and humans
3. Artificial Intelligence & the Intellectual Property Landscape
4. Who needs qubits? Factoring algorithm run on a probabilistic computer
5. Video: Deterministic vs. replicated AI: Building For Honor’s battlefield
6. The LawBytes Podcast, Episode 24: A Tribute to Ian Kerr (Michael Geist) 

COMMUNICATIONS

1. Counterpoint: Big telcos have no business howling over CRTC decision that encourages fair internet prices – Any unfairness pales in comparison to what Canadian consumers have had to put up with for years
2. 50% of US homes still won’t have fiber broadband by 2025, study says
3. AT&T to lose 1.1 million TV subscribers as DirecTV continues nosedive
4. Lawsuit: AT&T signed customers up for DirecTV Now without their knowledge
5. AT&T considers getting rid of DirecTV as TV business tanks, WSJ reports
6. AT&T’s Terrible New TV Branding Confuses Even AT&T
7. Some Investors Are Fed Up With AT&T’s Costly Obsession With Merger Mania
8. FCC Commissioner Investigating Payola in the Radio Industry 
9. Colorado Town Offers 1 Gbps For $60 After Years Of Battling Comcast
10. Comcast Sues Maine For Demanding It Sell TV Channels À La Carte
11. Verizon plans 5G Home Internet in every city where it deploys mobile 5G
12. At Qualcomm, 5G is headed everywhere and into virtually everything
13. Upcoming FCC Consumer Advisory Committee Meeting Will Consider Robocall Working Group Recommendation 
14. FCC Expands Anti-Spoofing Prohibitions to Foreign-Originated Calls, Text-Messaging Services
15. FCC’s consumer Advisory Committee adopts robocall blocking recommendation
16. Alarm Industry Communications Committee Seeks Reconsideration of Call Blocking Declaratory Ruling to Prevent Blocking of Alarm Calls
17. Fall TV Is the Crystallization of Broadcast’s Existential Crisis 

PRIVACY

1. Digital privacy evolves in class actions: With two recent failed digital privacy class-action certifications, litigators say certification is becoming a higher hurdle to pass
2. District court allows majority of privacy invasion class action claims to proceed against social media company
3. Millions of Americans’ Medical Images and Data Are Available on the Internet. Anyone Can Take a Peek.
4. Millions of Americans’ medical images and data are available on the Internet
5. University Of Alabama Is Using A Location-Tracking App To Punish Students For Leaving Football Games Early
6. The DMV Is Selling Your Data To Vast Array Of Third Parties
7. Hackers are exploiting a platform-agnostic flaw to track mobile phone locations
8. Advanced hackers are infecting IT providers in hopes of hitting their customers
9. You’d Think The FBI Would Be More Sensitive To Protecting Encrypted Communications Now That We Know The Russians Cracked The FBI’s Comms
10. Privacy Regulators Turning Up the Heat: Major Fines for Data Breaches and Privacy Violations This Summer
11. Los Angeles partnership launches platform to help people catch phishes
12. Encryption Working Group Releases Paper To ‘Move The Conversation Forward’
13. Denmark Releases 32 Prisoners Convicted Because Of Flawed Mobile Phone Tracking Data
14. Spouse of Ring exec among lawmakers trying to weaken Calif. privacy law
15. California’s Consumer Privacy Act Completes its 2019 Legislative Journey
16. California now has toughest law in U.S. for the collection of personal information
17. And At the End of the Day, the CCPA Remains Very Much the Same 
18. California Legislature Passes CCPA Amendments and Privacy Bills
19. Compliance Tips From the Largest COPPA Settlement Ever
20. CCPA’s Moving Target Comes into Focus
21. Nevada’s New Privacy Law Will Go Into Effect Next Month: Are You Ready?
22. A connected world will be a playground for hackers: Few companies making connected gadgets have much experience with cyber security
23. Feds seek to seize all profits from Snowden’s book over NDA violation
24. DOJ Decides To Help Publicize Snowden’s Memoir By Suing Him For Failing To Run His Book By The CIA And NSA First

CREATIVITY

1. Mercedes’s Claims Against Street Artists Survive Dismissal Motion 
2. When IP meets counterculture: Is graffiti protected by copyright?
3. After Being Sued, Mississippi Rewrites Its Unconstitutional Ban On The Use Of Meat Words By Vegan Food Producers
4. New Mexico City Starts Crowdfunding Effort To Pay For Its Stupid Defense Of Constitutional Violations
5. Lawsuit Settlement Over Detainment Of A Journalist Will Force Denver Police Department To Admit The First Amendment Exists 
6. Australian Aboriginal Flag Mess Is Getting Worse — All Thanks To Copyright 
7. USPTO Drops Its Demands For Applicants’ Green Cards
8. The Music Business Wants to Blow Up Copyright – and the Trump Administration Is On Board
9. She’s just not that ‘Into You’ – Ariana Grande seeks $10 million after snubbing Forever 21 
10. Charlotte Tilbury successful in copyright action against Aldi for “lookalike” makeup
11. All Over the Map: Publishers, Writers, Small Towns & Apartment Owners Weigh In On Consent Decree Debate 
12. Researchers analyzed more than 300,000 local news stories on Facebook. Here’s what they found.: “Aside from critical information needs, 31 percent of stories categorized covered sports and 9 percent were obituaries.” 
13. THE Ohio State University Loses Its Trademark Application For ‘THE’ 
14. Liverpool FC Fans Plan Protest Of Their Own Club Over Trademark Issue 
15. AB InBev Fails To Get ‘Patagonia’ Trademark Suit Dismissed
16. Monster Energy Opposes Teenager’s Trademark Application Over Logos Not At All Similar
17. Fluid Trademarks: Will Companies Go With the Flow?
18. Intellectual Property Is Neither Intellectual, Nor Property: Discuss
19. Elections Advertising—What You Need to Know About the Third-Party Advertising Rules
20. The amendment to the Patent Rules – Coming into Force October 30
21. The Cutthroat Battle for Controlling Le Monde
22. No-deal brexit and intellectual property
23. The MoviePass Mess Has Finally Come To An End
24. Ken Burns’ Soft-Focus Look at Country Music: The filmmaker’s latest documentary has more than three chords, not enough of the truth.
25. The Decline and Fall of the Modern Nerd: The sad saga of how fandom transformed from being about love into hate and intolerance
26. The Female Patrons Who Shaped Art History
27. No, James Murdoch Doesn’t Watch “Succession”: After leaving the family empire, Rupert Murdoch’s son is fighting threats to democracy that sound an awful lot like Fox News.
28. The 100 best TV shows of the 21st century
29. The 100 best films of the 21st century

GAMES

1. Parliamentary committee recommends banning loot box sales to children: Report proposes industry tax to fund research into the harmful effects of gaming, slams “wilfully obtuse” industry representatives
2. UK Parliament: Ban all loot boxes until evidence proves they’re safe for kids
3. UK committee argues loot boxes should be covered by gambling regulations
4. Electronic Arts responds to DCMS committee calls for loot box regulation: Publisher “doesn’t agree with all conclusions” but will continue dialogue with UK government
5. TIGA: Government should “urgently” carry out research around loot boxes and gambling – CEO Dr Richard Wilson raises impartiality concerns over suggestion of taxing industry to fund research; PEGI also weighs in
6. The GamesIndustry.biz Podcast: A Turning Point For Loot Boxes? – Haydn and Brendan discuss the potential consequences of recommendations that the UK government introduces regulation
7. Nintendo’s ROM Site War Continues With Huge Lawsuit Against Site Despite Not Sending DMCA Notices
8. Anti-bullying advocates assess what’s wrong in games: There’s a cultural problem that isn’t going to fix itself overnight, but behaviours can and do change with the right support
9. Sea of Thieves adds microtransaction store in latest update
10. Former Donkey Kong champ threatens to sue Guinness over record removal
11. Steam’s latest discovery update tilts the algorithm away from popular games
12. Discord cuts games from paid subscription plan after Nitro Games fails to take off
13. Discord pulls free games from Nitro: Chat service pulls feature from subscription offering because “vast majority of Nitro subscribers didn’t play them”
14. Second person gets prison sentence in fatal swatting case: Call of Duty WWII player gets 15 months for asking third party to report emergency at online opponent’s address
15. Instigator of fatal Kansas swatting receives prison sentence
16. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare offering cross-platform play in all modes
17. Devs restore Modern Warfare’s mini-map after two days of beta backlash
18. Video: A cautionary tale in community crisis management
19. Newzoo: Android games will earn more revenue than iOS games in 2019 – Between Google Play and third-party stores, Android games will earn majority of revenue for the first time this year
20. Google Stadia Founder’s Edition is nearly sold out: Premium bundle is being replaced with similar bundle sans Buddy Pass with a different controller
21. Nintendo’s weird exercise ring is used to control a Switch RPG
22. Nintendo’s first Ring-Con game is a Switch fitness RPG: Ring Fit Adventure
23. Nintendo’s new fitness game is Ring Fit Adventure: Switch title uses new Ring-Con and leg strap peripherals to sense movement, launches October 18
24. How do people find your game on Switch?: A discoverability run-down
25. Sega Genesis Mini review: $80 delivers a ton of blast-processing fun
26. Report: The PS4 has sold-through 30 million units in the United States
27. PlayStation 4 has sold 30m units in the US, analyst reveals: Meanwhile, Niko Partners’ Daniel Ahmad also says Gears 5’s boxed sales in the UK are “tiny and no longer important” for Microsoft
28. Gears 5 saw 3 million players during launch week through Game Pass and retail
29. Rockstar Games now has its own game launcher on PC
30. Rockstar Games launches its own storefront: GTA V, Bully, others now available through latest publisher-driven game launcher
31. Rockstar Games Launcher: We install it on Windows so you don’t have to
32. Gears 5 tops 3 million players in first week: Microsoft says The Coalition sequel enjoyed “the biggest launch week of any Xbox Game Studios title this generation”
33. EMEAA charts: Slam dunk for NBA 2K20 in launch week – Strong digital sales push older games into the top ten, while Game Pass sees Gears 5 barely rank
34. Borderlands 3 has nearly doubled Borderlands 2’s peak concurrents record on PC
35. Borderlands 3 is the biggest UK boxed launch of 2019: But the lack of digital data makes all of this hard to compare
36. Borderlands 3 PC doubles 2’s peak concurrent users at launch: Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford reveals latest outing is breaking company records despite Epic backlash
37. Borderlands 3 is a lot more Borderlands, in ways both good and bad
38. Apple Arcade soft launches early, to surprise of some developers
39. Blog: The long slow death of an indie studio
40. Indie game pricing is in a familiar death spiral | Opinion: Data suggests a race to the bottom in PC indie game pricing, and Apple Arcade is a reminder of where this process leads
41. Swedish games industry generated €1.87bn in 2018, employs almost 8,000 people: Latest figures from Dataspelsbranschen also shows the number of companies is also on the rise
42. Blog: NetEase drives mobile games business in Japan, Tencent targets emerging markets
43. Scavengers dev Midwinter Entertainment acquired by Improbable
44. Keywords expands game audio services with TV+Synchron Berlin acquisition
45. JoJo Siwa’s Latest Business Venutre Is A Mobile Game Called ‘Live To Dance’
46. Ex-King, Z2 devs launch Starform: New Seattle-based studio aims to make online games for friends, attracts $1.25 million in funding
47. How to develop for a licence (successfully): Brand Licensing Europe’s Anna Knight speaks to developers and IP holders about pleasing both fans and gamers
48. Football Manager boss Miles Jacobson calls for an end to plastic packaging: Sports Interactive director tells us he expects savings of up to 20 tonnes of plastic as series switches to eco-friendly cases
49. How PES wants to level the playing field: European brand manager Lennart Bobzien discusses the eFootball rebrand and renewed efforts to put Konami’s football game on top
50. Vivendi, Riot veterans announce gaming broadcast network, VENN: Ben Kusin and Ariel Horn share their plans and goals for a space that unifies publishers, leagues and audiences under one network
51. One decade in, League of Legends still averages 8M peak concurrent players daily
52. League of Legends hits 8 million peak concurrent players a day: Riot shares August’s daily worldwide average figures, says it’s larger than the top 10 games on Steam combined
53. Valve launches revamped Steam Library in open beta
54. Twitch sexual content crackdown causing confusion: Streaming site has issued multiple suspensions against streamers wearing Chun-Li costumes, sports bras and more
55. Twitch acquires IGDB to bolster search and discoverability capabilities
56. Twitch acquires Internet Gaming Database: Acquisition will see Twitch feed database into discovery feature set
57. Esports: The next billion dollar industry
58. Video: Building explosive 8-bit Nintendo eSports the Tetris World Championship way
59. Dignitas CEO: Soccer, basketball, and esports will be the major sports of the future
60. Esports tournament platform XY Gaming raises $2.5 million
61. XY Gaming announces $2.5m funding round: Funds will go toward expanding esports tournament platform, adding games such as Fortnite
62. Subnation’s ‘LVL UP’ Highlights Explosion Of Premium Content For Esports
63. PlayVS lands another $50 million: High school esports platform details Series C funding round, brings total funding to $96 million in just over a year
64. Hulu dropped support for Google’s Daydream VR
65. HTC Vive Cosmos VR: We have the price, release date, and first hands-on
66. Image courtesy Daqri: Well-funded AR Headset Startup DAQRI is Shutting Down
67. Vive Cosmos arrives on October 3 for £699: New virtual reality headset from HTC will cost roughly the same as predecessor
68. 2K will donate up to $500,000 to blood cancer research in WWE marketing campaign: Publisher partners with Leukemia & Lymphona Society as survivor Roman Reigns stars on the cover of this year’s wrestling game
69. UKIE partners with Alzheimer’s Research UK for Journo/Dev Swap game jam: GamesIndustry.biz will be publishing the developers-turned-journalists coverage from September 27
70. Don’t Miss: Gwent and 6 other minigames that developers should study
71. The 57 years of unseen work that built Cyberpunk 2077’s Night City
72. Bioware, Beamdog devs unveil Summerfall Studios
73. Blog: Creating hit games in Dreams
74. Blog: The difference of accessibility vs. playability in game design
75. Blog: Historians play Assassin’s Creed Discovery Tour
76. Blog: Why not just use thumbsticks?
77. Kojima details the subtly social gameplay of Death Stranding
78. Don’t Miss: How Sonic Mania’s devs made the old new (and good) again
79. Don’t Miss: Writing Firewatch, and capturing the beauty of being alone
80. Watch two of GreedFall’s developers discuss their new colonial RPG
81. Where do you go from Doom?: Doom Eternal’s Marty Stratton and Hugo Martin talk about their approach to following up the successful reboot of a seminal classic
82. Every game should copy Death Stranding’s “Very Easy Mode”
83. Knights and Bikes TV show in the works: Peaky Blinders production company Tiger Aspect options rights for animated series based on Foam Sword game
84. How a basement hacker transformed Donkey Kong for the Atari 2600
85. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate wins big at the Japan Game Awards
86. Proposed E3 revamp could turn expo into ‘fan, media, and influencer festival’
87. E3 2020 pitch shows move towards celebrities, consumers and influencers: ESA pitch also includes 10,000 additional consumer passes for the E3 showfloor
88. This new eco-friendly game packaging could save tonnes of plastic every year
89. Football Manager 2020 studio swaps to recyclable packaging, wants others to do the same
90. Billy Mitchell Threatens To Sue The Guinness World Record Folks For Removing His Records
91. Knights and Bikes is being turned into an animated TV show
92. U.S. Patent No. 9,364,746: System and method configured to unlock content within a videogame

Jon

DIGITAL

1. Hong Kong ISPs Refuse To Help China Censor The Internet
2. Senator: Mark Zuckerberg should face “the possibility of a prison term”: “He ought to be held personally accountable,” Ron Wyden (D-OR) said.
3. FTC Fines Google $150-$200 Million For YouTube’s Child Data Privacy Violations 
4. YouTube fined $170 million for violations of children’s privacy
5. Google Is Fined $170 Million for Violating Children’s Privacy on YouTube
6. Google Exec Accused Of Fathering, Abandoning Baby With Employee
7. The career rise and controversy of David Drummond, Alphabet’s chief lawyer whose extramarital relationship with a former employee reignited criticism of Google’s culture
8. Google’s top lawyer allegedly cheated on his wife with multiple employees – against Google’s own policies: Drummond denies he had relationships with more than one Google employee
9. Google lets David Drummond do the talking
10. $650,000-a-year Google legal chief ‘had affairs with employees – and a CHILD with me before dumping me by text’ claims ex-worker as she hits out at ‘sexist culture’ at company
11. YouTube Re-Bans InfoWars Channel After It Temporarily Circumvented The Site’s Terms Of Service
12. Amid Reported FTC Investigation, YouTube Announces New ‘YouTube Kids’ Website
13. YouTube Kids is getting its own website: The platform has also introduced new age-based categories.
14. GM and Tesla unlock connected car features to help with Hurricane Dorian: OnStar’s Crisis Assist is free, and Tesla is unlocking extra range on some cars.
15. There Is Essentially No Statute of Limitations for Online Copyright Infringement–APL v. US (Eric Goldman)
16. Facebook Confirms 2 Billion Users Will Now Need To Opt In To Facial Recognition
17. Instagram may allow creators to syndicate IGTV videos to Facebook
18. Indiana Appeals Court Decides Badmouthing A Cop On Facebook Is A Crime
19. Netflix can kill The OA, but it can’t kill a movement: #SaveTheOA understands the stakes of the streaming wars.
20. YouTube Now Requires Creators To Manually Approve Crowdsourced Video Translations To Clamp Down On Trolls
21. YouTube Makes ‘Cobra Kai’ Free To Kick Off AVOD Era, Unveils New European Slate
22. YouTube Hands Out Grants To 8 Indian Creators As Part Of $20 Million ‘Learning Fund’
23. Delhi High Court yet again calls for accountability from e-commerce platforms.
24. Pinterest’s Way Of Dealing With Anti-Vax Nonsense And Scams Is Only Possible Because Of Section 230
25. Reminder: The Copyright Office Will Be Yanking Eligibility for the DMCA Online Safe Harbor (Again) (Eric Goldman)
26. Three Years Later And The Copyright Office Still Can’t Build A Functioning Website For DMCA Agents, But Demands Everyone Re-Register
27. Pressured By ‘Right To Repair’ Movement, Apple Will Sell Parts To Independent Repair Shops
28. Spotify is testing a ‘Create podcast’ button inside its app: Record, edit and publish a podcast right from your phone.
29. Pandora now lets you share music and podcasts to your Instagram Stories
30. Vevo strikes a new distribution deal for smart TVs
31. YouTube will stop displaying exact follower counts in September: It’s an attempt to take pressure off of creators, but it’s drawing criticism.
32. Amazon’s Next-Day Delivery System Has Brought Chaos And Carnage To America’s Streets — But The World’s Biggest Retailer Has A System To Escape The Blame
33. Amazon delivery contractors operate with little oversight, report finds
34. Alibaba, the $435 billion Chinese shopping giant, is gunning for Amazon in Europe
35. President Trump tweets picture of sensitive satellite photo of Iranian launch site
36. Judge Wants To Know Who’s Behind Devin Nunes’ Cow’s And Mom’s Twitter Account
37. Knight Institute Warns Rep. Ocasio-Cortez That She, Like Trump, Can’t Block People On Twitter
38. Former Hotel Exec Gets Elected To Congress, Decides First Order Of Business Is To Destroy Airbnb
39. Josh Hawley Continues To Pretend That Silicon Valley Isn’t Innovative
40. Vice sees success with its year-old cross-platform video ad sales push
41. Vice News To Merge With Viceland Amid Layoffs At Latter, Pivot Away From Entertainment
42. Pro Tip: Don’t Send A Completely Bogus Defamation Threat To A Website That Employs A Former ACLU Badass
43. Antonio Neri and Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s cultural revolution
44. Unix at 50: How the OS that powered smartphones started from failure
45. Film & TV makers debut new feature to end the “soap opera effect” scourge
46. The (un)sustainability of Bitcoin | Alex de Vries

A.I.

1. A Voice Deepfake Was Used To Scam A CEO Out Of $243,000
2. Fraudsters deepfake CEO’s voice to trick manager into transferring $243,000
3. How YACHT fed their old music to the machine and got a killer new album
4. IoT botnet creator cops plea to hacking more than 800,000 devices
5. AI having uneven impact on lawyers
6. White House Now Thinks Harvesting Fitness Tracker Data Could Stop The Next Mass Shooting

COMMUNICATIONS

1. Fraudsters preying on Telus customers impacted by major email outage
2. AT&T’s confusing mess of online TV services even has AT&T confused
3. Unlicensed signal boosters get a boost from Amazon
4. The FCC Doesn’t Actually Know How Many People Have Broadband
5. DOJ ‘Solution’ For Sprint T-Mobile Merger Will Result In Less Overall Wireless Coverage
6. Comcast, beware: New city-run broadband offers 1Gbps for $60 a month
7. Samsung launches its first 5G-integrated CPU
8. Resolving telecoms disputes involving state entities in the Middle East

PRIVACY

1. EFF Sues CBP, ICE Over Refusal To Hand Over Its GPS Tracking Device Policies
2. Facebook And Twitter Hope To Fix California’s Troubled Privacy Law With…Misleading Ads?
3. You Know That Mobile Phone Tracking Data You Used As Evidence In Over 10,000 Court Cases? Turns Out Some Of It Was Wrong, But We’re Not Sure Which Yet
4. Just As Attorney General Barr Insists iPhone Users Have Too Much Security, We Learn They Don’t Have Nearly Enough
5. A glut of iOS 0-days pushes their price below cost of those for Android: Top price for unpublished Android exploits reaches $2.5 million, a 25% premium over iOS.
6. The Conflict Between Social Media Transparency And Bad Privacy Laws Is Going To Get Worse
7. Rash of ransomware continues with 13 new victims—most of them schools
8. Armed with iOS 0days, hackers indiscriminately infected iPhones for two years
9. Ring reportedly shared video sharing data, detailed maps with police in 2018
10. GirlsDoPorn.com faces trial for allegedly filming 22 women under false pretenses
11. InvizBox 2 redefines what “privacy” routers can do
12. Office Of Legal Counsel Sued For Refusing To Turn Over Legal Memos Congress Said Aren’t Exempt From FOIA Law

CREATIVITY

1. ‘Baby Shark’, Derived From A Public Domain Folk Song, Now The Subject Of A Copyright Dispute
2. Uber Takes On Beautician/Barber Over Her BeauBer Mobile App
3. Tom Brady Fails To Trademark ‘Tom Terrific’ As USPTO Rightly Assesses He’s Not The Most Terrific Tom
4. Even Kirk Herbstreit Thinks THE Ohio State Is Being THE Silliest With Its ‘THE’ Trademark Application
5. In video message on Dorian, President Trump displays doctored forecast
6. Bedbug Privilege: Bret Stephens Uses His NY Times Column To Suggest Jokingly Comparing Him To A Bedbug Is Prelude To Ethnic Genocide
7. Should advertising regulators enforce wokeness?

GAMES

1. Blizzard is suing Chinese studio Sina Games for ripping offWarcraft series
2. Report: Valve is pushing back against accusations it violated EU trade rules
3. Valve reportedly fighting EU antitrust charges: Focus Home, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Koch Media, and ZeniMax reportedly settling charges
4. Recent Valve VR update contains hidden Half-Life demo code
5. Night in the Woods devs cut ties with collaborator accused of assault: Others accused of harassment in the industry include Skyrim composer, Oculus co-founder.
6. Oculus VR faces two allegations of sexual assault and harassment: Facebook’s current head of VR/AR describes stories as “sickening”
7. Chucklefish responds to accusations it exploited Starboundvolunteers
8. Sony Is Feverishly Battling Vita Tinkerers Despite Vita Being Discontinued
9. Report: Annapurna Interactive parent company wipes $200 million in debt
10. Starbreeze seeking to extend reconstruction period for a third time
11. Facebook is using Minecraft to train an AI Assistant
12. Former colleagues accuse Alexis Kennedy of abuse, retaliation: Weather Factory co-founder denies accusations from Red Queens’ Meg Jayanth and Failbetter’s Olivia Wood
13. Voice actor shares a second warning about Skyrim composer: Aeralie Brighton accuses Jeremy Soule of sexual misconduct; he says, “I don’t agree with her point of view”
14. Ken Wong apologises following accounts of abuse from former employee: Florence designer admits to his “failure as a leader” but assures he is working hard to “take better care of my team”
15. Night in the Woods team cancels game amid Alec Holowka allegations: Scott Benson and Bethany Hockenberry cut ties with Holowka, will handle the property alone from now on
16. Ukie launches diversity census to analyse shape of the UK games industry
17. UKIE launches UK diversity census: New study aims to deliver detailed analysis on the British games industry
18. NBA 2K20 trailer sells the thrill of gambling | Opinion: The lurid online casino is wilfully short-sighted at a precarious time for the industry
19. Ninja Becomes Adidas’ First Pro Gamer Partner In Multiyear Deal
20. Niko Partners: Mobile esport games grossed $15.3bn worldwide last year – Mobile esport titles poised to overtake PC competitors which grossed $16.1 billion in 2018
21. ‘This is a sport.’ Playing video games for $7,000 in scholarship money at Durham College
22. ESL and Dreamhack merging CS GO tourneys to form ESL Pro Tour – IEM Katowice and ESL One Cologne Counter-Strike: Global Offensive competitions will serve as two Masters events for 2020
23. Twitch Signs Top YouTube Streamer Nick Eh 30: Twitch’s deal with the ‘Fortnite’ player comes just weeks after the platform’s biggest star, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, moved to Microsoft’s Mixer.
24. Gearbox launches Homeworld 3 crowdfunding campaign with $1 goal
25. Microsoft partners with SK Telecom for 5G game-streaming in Korea
26. Chris Charla: “Discoverability may be harder to solve than investment” – ID@Xbox head on the importance of sustainability, and how Microsoft is trying to ensure “every game has a chance”
27. Yu-Gi-Oh is the best-selling boxed game in EMEAA charts: But Switch-exclusive Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution missed out to FIFA and (yes) GTA V in combined Top 10
28. What convinced Ubisoft to launch its own subscription service?: As Uplay+ launches, Brenda Panagrossi talks about the motivations and market research behind the publisher’s new offering
29. Yves Guillemot on the thin line between politics and entertainment: Ubisoft CEO speaks about the difficulty of tackling sensitive real-world issues while running a multi-billion dollar entertainment firm
30. Nintendo adds SNES titles to Nintendo Switch Online: 20 titles join the service tomorrow, compatible controller will be sold only to online subscription members
31. Nintendo is the new lead partner for Digital Schoolhouse: Firm will help 55 schools teach students about careers in the games industry, including esports via a Smash Bros tournament
32. Nintendo Direct shows off surprise sequels, new ports in aggressive year-end pitch
33. The best-selling games product on Amazon last month was a Switch screen protector: Nintendo dominated the online retail giant last month with six of the ten best-selling games
34. Nintendo Switch will finally get SNES games—20 of them—starting tomorrow
35. Pokemon Masters has topped 10 million downloads in four days
36. Trine 4 publisher Modus Games acquires Brazilian studio The Balance
37. Don’t Miss: The pros and cons of procedural generation inOverland
38. Don’t Miss: Tackling network programming for Age of Empires’ demanding battles – in 1996
39. Don’t Miss: A classic postmortem of Epic Games’ Unreal Tournament
40. Why you may be underpricing your video game
41. Blog: How onboarding should be applied to tutorials
42. Blog: 50 mistakes to avoid when developing an advergame
43. Blog: How painting works in Chicory: A Colorful Tale
44. Blog: The UX of the Overwatch role queue
45. Opinion: Can World of Warcraft Classic capture the MMO’s original glory?
46. Don’t Miss: Rethinking the RPG to make it fun to be the bad guy in Tyranny
47. How Remedy harnessed the ethereal beauty of brutalism to shape Control
48. Crafting the mobile-friendly atmospheric storytelling ofSky: Children of the Light
49. How to make 80-hour adventures for blind gamers | Opinion:  Accessibility consultant and blind gamer Brandon Cole offers advice on how to open up your epic blockbusters to the visually impaired
50. Video: How indies and small studios can succeed with licensed games
51. Video: A data-driven deep dive into the 12 motivations for players
52. Video: Conquering the creative challenges in Marvel’s Spider-Man
53. Disney, Marvel, and a decade of missed opportunity: 10 Years Ago This Month: Media giant planned to make super hero games internally, then spent years dismantling its own studios
54. Koch Media CEO: “We should welcome Epic and their business model” – Klemens Kundratitz says publisher is open to more exclusives with Epic Games Store despite backlash against Metro Exodus
55. A dev’s guide to sustainably supporting live games without crunching
56. Producer Keith Fuller on business realities of crunch, how to overcome them
57. How to get your game released on Google Stadia: Google’s Ray Bautista says Stadia is “moving away from the Wild West that exists in some storefronts today”
58. Google open sources real-time hand and finger tracking tech
59. Google Play apps with 1.5 million downloads drained batteries and slowed devices
60. Viveport Infinity rolls out support for the Valve Index
61. Nine Steam pre-release marketing tips from Valve’s Alden Kroll: Steam UI and interaction designer offers insight on the tools developers can use to build an audience before launch
62. Steam Library redesign ushers in new features for devs alongside spruced up game pages
63. Steam’s new, handsome “Library” update is better 16 years late than never
64. Steam Library overhaul to focus on organization, events: Coming changes include new developer tools, customizable “collections,” more from Steam Labs
65. Lucky’s Tale dev Playful secures $23 million to create viewer-friendly games  
66. Porsche got thousands of Twitch viewers to play its newest ad: The prize? Showing off Porsche’s newest Formula E car
67. Sales revenue up at CD Projekt thanks to evergreen The Witcher series
68. CD Projekt first-half revenues climb 26%: The Witcher franchise continues to drive Polish publisher’s results as Cyberpunk 2077 sees “final, most intensive phase of development”
69. Luminous Productions’ Back Stage tech demo shows off Square Enix’s ray tracing tech
70. Mobile studio Cerberus Interactive nets $1.75 million in funding
71. Investors sink $4 million into instant game developer Knock Knock
72. Modus Games acquires The Balance Inc: Maximum Games’ newly-launched publishing label picks up Brazilian studio behind Override – Mech City Brawl
73. Project xCloud to use SK Telecom exclusively in Korea: Microsoft partnership with mobile carrier calls for a 5G/LTE public preview of the streaming service next month
74. Sam Barlow on crafting stories players tell themselves: The acclaimed developer discusses his work on Telling Lies and Her Story, and how he hopes to advance interactive fiction
75. Critique Gaming: “We try to explore reality in meaningful ways” – Romanian indie dev discusses its motives as a politically charged studio, and how to breach difficult topics in sensible ways
76. Serious Games for and as Cultural Heritage (Boyan Bontchev)
77. First encounter: Ohio Challenger 2P (and its 4KB of RAM) – [From the archives] Wait, I can write my own video games?!?!

Jon