DIGITAL

1. Russian hackers hit US government using widespread supply chain attack
2. ~18,000 organizations downloaded backdoor planted by Cozy Bear hackers
3. DHS Cyber Warriors Issue Warning About Massive Hacking Campaign, Disclose They’ve Been Hacked A Day Later
4. Security Researcher Reveals Solarwinds’ Update Server Was ‘Secured’ With The Password ‘solarwinds123’
5. US diplomats’ brain injuries may be from covert microwave attack, experts say: Data from Russian experiments on pulsed RF energy offers best explanation.
6. Fireeye victim of “state-sponsored” hacking
7. Oracle joins Silicon Valley’s Texas exodus
8. Huawei Is Crafting Facial Recognition Tech That Will Make It Easier For The Chinese Government To Target Citizens It Doesn’t Like
9. Apple’s app store is an illegal monopoly, rival Cydia claims in suit
10. Apple introduces privacy labels to make data mining transparent
11. iPhone factory workers say they haven’t been paid, cause millions in damages
12. Uber defends sexual assault victims’ privacy, gets fined $59 million
13. Google and Amazon made to Toe the French Line? Oui!
14. Digital regulation 2.0: UK and EU announce details of major reforms
15. The Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act: A new era for online regulation within Europe
16. Pinterest agrees to $22.5 million settlement in discrimination lawsuit
17. Digital platforms – let the games begin!
18. US law proposal could make streaming copyrighted material a felony
19. Not This Again: Senator Tillis Tries To Slide Dangerous Felony Streaming Bill Into Must Pass Government Funding Bill
20. Tillis Release Details Of His Felony Streaming Bill; A Weird Gift To Hollywood At The Expense Of Taxpayers
21. Reddit Buys TikTok Competitor Dubsmash, Will Integrate App’s Video Creation Tools
22. TikTok Introduces Extensive Policies Against Sexual Harassment, Dangerous Pranks
23. The Christchurch shooter and YouTube’s radicalization trap
24. Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Terrorist Attack on Christchurch Mosques on 15 March 2019
25. People affiliated with French military used Facebook to meddle in Africa
26. FTC Launches Investigation Into Facebook, Twitter, and Other Social Media Sites
27. FTC kicks off sweeping privacy probe of nine major social media firms
28. Facebook Violated Antitrust Laws, Say FTC and More than 40 States
29. FTC’s Misses Opportunity To Understand Social Media; Instead Goes For Weird Fishing Expedition Against Odd Grouping Of Companies
30. New Facebook advertising terms, new Apple iOS 14 privacy rules and updated cookie guidance: help!
31. EU warns that it may break up Big Tech companies
32. The Peril of Persuasion in the Big Tech Age
33. NLRB Finds Executive’s Joking Tweet Violated Federal Labor Law
34. AZ GOP Goes Full Bullshit: Claims It took Down Violence-Inciting Tweet Over Copyright Concerns
35. ICE Withdraws Demand For Journalists’ Sources After Having Its Unconstitutional Demand Outed By BuzzFeed
36. Facebook says hackers backed by Vietnam’s government are linked to IT firm
37. People affiliated with French military used Facebook to meddle in Africa: It’s the first time Facebook has identified people affiliated with a Western government for sanction
38. Facebook Testing ‘Super’, Which Lets Fans Pay To Interact With Their Favorite Creators On Stream
39. Pornhub Purges 80% Of User-Uploaded Videos After Allegations Of Child Exploitation, Rape Content
40. Millions of videos purged from Pornhub amid crackdown on user content
41. Visa and MasterCard ban Pornhub over abusive videos
42. 40 GirlsDoPorn victims sue Pornhub for hosting “sex trafficking” videos
43. China fines Alibaba, Tencent unit under anti-monopoly laws
44. Twitter To Sunset Periscope App In March After Years Of Declining Usage
45. Disney+ drops Andor teaser, announces gazillion other Star Wars projects
46. More Disney 2021 plans: Kate McKinnon as Elizabeth Holmes, Y: The Last Man on FX
47. We’ve got our first real look at Loki as Disney drops lengthy teaser trailer
48. Op-Ed: Social Media Companies Should Permanently Ban Political Advertising (Eric Goldman)
49. Justice Thomas’ Anti-Section 230 Statement Doesn’t Support Reconsideration–JB v. Craigslist (Eric Goldman)
50. As A Parting Shot, Tulsi Gabbard Teams Up With Paul Gosar To Introduce Yet Another Unconstitutional Attack On Section 230
51. USA Today Publishes Yet Another Bogus OpEd Against 230, Completely Misrepresents The Law
52. District Court Rejects CDT’s Challenge Of Trump’s Ridiculous Executive Order On Section 230
53. Trump Appoints Unqualified Guy Who Hates Section 230 To Top Justice Department Role
54. Smaller Internet Companies Say They’re Open To 230 Reform… To Keep Facebook From Being The Only Voice In The Room
55. Lindsey Graham’s Latest Attack On Section 230: Reform It By 2023, Or We Take It Away
56. Content Moderation Case Study: Facebook’s AI Continues To Struggle With Identifying Nudity (2020)
57. Content Moderation Case Study: Vimeo Moderates Uploads Of ‘Commercial-Use’ Videos Using Unclear Guidelines (2009)
58. Sony-Owned Anime Streamer Funimation To Buy Crunchyroll For $1.2 Billion
59. Can Influencers’ Failure to Disclose Sponsorship Constitute False Advertising?–EIS v. WOW Tech
60. YouTube Will Enable Viewers To Toggle Out Of Ads For Alcohol And Gambling
61. After 6 Years, YouTube Supergroup O2L Reunites In The Name Of Charity
62. R.I.P. Henri, le Chat Noir, angst-ridden feline YouTube star for the ages
63. The D’Amelios, Marques Brownlee, Demi Lovato To Headline YouTube’s New Year’s Eve Special ‘Hello 2021’
64. Helping your child make the best use of time online
65. YouTube Greenlights ‘Creator Spotlights’ Docuseries, An Intimate Glimpse Into The Lives Of Top Stars
66. David Dobrik’s Latest Venture, ‘The Hundred Thousand Dollar Puzzle,’ Sells 17,000 Units In One Hour
67. Liza Koshy Signs Overall Deal With Jada And Will Smith-Founded Westbrook Inc.
68. Walmart Looking To Turn Salaried Employees Into Social Influencers With Nascent ‘Spotlight’ Program
69. Meghan Markle, Prince Harry, And Their New Podcast Company ‘Archewell Audio’ Sign Exclusive Deal With Spotify
70. Google sees major services outages two days in a row
71. The Google Home Max is dead—Google shuts down production
72. Instagram Makes ‘Reels’ Shoppable, Bringing Ecommerce To Every Format On The App
73. Giving by Taking Away: Big Tech, Data Colonialism and the Reconfiguration of Social Good
74. 2021 NewFronts Will Stay Virtual, Be Immediately Followed By Podcast Upfronts
75. Here Are Your 2020 Streamy Award Winners
76. CentOS Linux is dead—and Red Hat says Stream is “not a replacement”
77. Where do I go now that CentOS Linux is gone? Check our list
78. VR meetings are weird, but they beat our current reality
79. Stroll down memory lane with this 1996 instruction video on How To Internet

A.I.

1. Arendt’s Algorithm: AI’s Disenfranchising Effect on Refugees as Examined through China’s Uighur Population (Gideon Salutin)
2. How our data encodes systematic racism
3. CDEI publishes review into bias in algorithmic decision-making
4. From whistleblower laws to unions: How Google’s AI ethics meltdown could shape policy
5. White House Finalizes AI Regulatory Framework and Directs Agencies to Develop Plans for AI Regulation and “Non-Regulation”
6. Why CD Projekt used AI to localise Cyberpunk 2077
7. Bias in algorithmic decision-making: recommendations from the UK’s Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation 

COMMUNICATIONS

1. The Broadcasting Act Blunder, Day 15: Mandated Confidential Data Disclosures May Keep Companies Out of Canada (Michael Geist)
2. The Broadcasting Act Blunder, Day 16: Mandated Payments and a Reality Check on Guilbeault’s Billion Dollar Claim (Michael Geist)
3. The Broadcasting Act Blunder, Day 17: The Uncertain Policy Directive (Michael Geist)
4. The Broadcasting Act Blunder, Day 18: The USMCA Trade Threat That Could Lead to Billions in Retaliatory Tariffs (Michael Geist)
5. FCC Accused Of Falsely Inflating U.S. Gigabit Broadband Availability
6. Deep Dive Shows FCC’s Covid Response Was Largely Theatrical Nonsense
7. SpaceX won “rural” FCC funding in surprising places, like major airports
8. Space X Gets $886 Million From FCC To Put Very Small Dent In U.S. Broadband Gaps
9. Senator tries to block Frontier’s FCC funding, citing ISP’s various failures
10. Consumer Groups Say The FCC Just Blew $9 Billion To Deliver Broadband To Already Served Rich People
11. The Cost Of Broadband Is Too Damned High
12. Can Broadband Policy Help Create A More Equitable And inclusive Economy And Society Instead Of The Reverse?
13. Stupid Cable TV Retrans Feuds And Blackouts Make Their Way To Streaming TV
14. AT&T sells Crunchyroll to Sony for $1.2B amid “streamlining” efforts
15. Untouchable No More: Reinforcements Arrive for TCPA Defendants Battling the FCC’s Aggressive Expansion of the Statute
16. The other shoe drops: court holds SCOTUS didn’t find TCPA unconstitutional after all
17. The FCC Reverses Course—Finds Government Contractors Subject to the TCPA
18. Georgia executive order requires telework, virtual conduct of business

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

1.  Eve of destruction: Moral rights infringement and destroying works of art
2. Two Turntables, No Microphone: Using Technical Diagram Is Not Copyright Infringement
3. Brophy v. Belcalis Almanzar (California, Southern District 12.4.20): In lawsuit against Cardi B for using plaintiff’s back tattoo on cover of her album, court holds that transformative fair use is question for jury.
4. Atlantic Recording Corp. v. Spinrilla, LLC (Georgia ND, 10.30.20): Court finds that streaming constitutes “public performance” under Copyright Act and that defendant did not qualify for safe harbor protections under DMCA.
5. Lego’s copyright victory against Lepin in China
6. Ancestry.com Sued Over Yearbook Pic Database
7. Copyright Trolling/SEO Scam, Changing The Photo Credits On Wikimedia Commons
8. Is Your Company Accidentally Granting Implied Copyright Licenses?
9. House Passes PACER Bill As Budget Office Says It Will Cost Less Than $1 Million A Year To Provide Free Access To Court Documents
10. US House passes bill to tear down judiciary’s paywall 
11. APIs front and centre in age of digital interconnectivity 
12. Why Canadian trademark owners should consider whether international registration is right for them 
13. Trademarks Office to allow expedited examination for COVID-related goods and services 
14. The Swiss Shield: A Trademark Registration Is a Defence to Damages Even if Later Invalidated 
15. French Film Company Somehow Trademarks ‘Planet’, Goes After Environmental NGOs For Using The Word 
16. A Rare Case of a Judge Relying on the Initial Interest Confusion Doctrine (Boo)–Nike v. Warren Lotas (Eric Goldman)
17. Battling Bubbles: Beverage Behemoth Coors Defeats Upstart Future Proof’s Motion for a Preliminary Injunction
18. Dishonest Abe? Trademark Battle erupts over THE LINCOLN PROJECT
19. Trade mark rights IN THE RED!
20. Owner of ‘Derby Pie’ Trademark Sues Newspaper For Using The Term, Publishing Recipe 
21. Tasty Trademarks: An Analysis of the Canadian Trademark Applications Covering Taste
22. Trademarks: 1 registration for 107 member states and 123 territories: trinidad and tobago has joined the international trademark system
23. Judge Upholds “Willful and Malicious” Trade-Secret Misappropriation Verdict in Produce Preservation Case
24. Judge Rakoff Sanctions Patentee for Sharing Confidential Documents with Counsel in Overseas Trade Secret Case 
25. Recently Filed Lawsuit by Trinseo Highlights the Potential for the Rapid Spread of Misappropriated Trade Secrets 
26. Ontario Court Affirms the Enforceability of Patent No-Challenge Clauses 
27. Federal Circuit Compels Transfer of Ownership of Japanese Patent Applications
28. Today’s No Patent Challenge Provisions in License Agreements 
29. What are the rules around software patents?
30. The Unified patent court and unitary patent – Introduction
31. Top Section 101 Patent Eligibility Stories of 2020
32. The UK Supreme Court, patent infringement, and the challenges of judging IP cases: In conversation with Lord Neuberger
33. World Trade Organization Considers IP Rights for Covid Vaccines
34. Software development intellectual property joint ventures
35. Intellectual property infringement on the rise

PRIVACY

1. Oh, Canada! Government Proposes New Federal Privacy Law with Enhanced Individual Rights and Hefty Fines
2. Privacy Limits on Employee Background Checks in Ontario
3. What’s “So” Important: Computer Fraud and Abuse Act Gets a Close Look from SCOTUS
4. Supreme Court Says Muslim Men Can Sue The FBI For Placing Them On The No-Fly List For Refusing To Become Informants
5. Apple, Cloudflare Join Forces To Encrypt DNS
6. New Report Shows Cellphone Encryption Isn’t Really Stopping Cops From Searching Phones
7. Up to 3 million devices infected by malware-laced Chrome and Edge add-ons
8. Brave browser-maker launches privacy-friendly news reader
9. 4 major browsers are getting hit in widespread malware attacks 
10. Regulatory Crackdown on Ransomware
11. IoT Goes Federal under Newly Signed Law
12. Yes, data privacy regulations apply to IoT devices too
13. As Voice Recognition Technology Market Surges, Organizations Face Privacy and Cybersecurity Concerns
14. RCMP commits to changes in how it collects, uses information about protesters
15. Home Depot’s Agrees to Multistate Settlement Related to 2014 Breach – The Cost: $17.5 Million and Updated Cybersecurity Requirements
16. Augmented reality and e-commerce: IP implications of a powerful alliance
17. Biden Faces Early Test on Digital Trade With EU Privacy Talks
18. Schrems II is a Board / CEO-Level issue because
19. Top 5 Privacy Developments in 2020 and 5 More to Prepare for in 2021

GAMES

1. Nintendo Hates You: DMCA Takedowns Of Game Music Continue While Nintendo Offers No Legit Way To Listen
2. Germany Opens Legal Action Against Facebook Account Requirement for Oculus Headsets
3. GOG backtracks on Devotion re-launch hours after it was announced
4. The Strong Museum now includes decades of files from the LGBTQ Game Archive
5. Copyright law is bricking your game console. Time to fix that
6. British MPs want console scalping made illegal, call for more consumer protection
7. UK Members of Parliament call for ban on bulk buying consoles
8. Major Gaming Company Sued for Making Games Too Challenging
9. Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony unite to create safer online spaces
10. Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony release joint commitment to online safety
11. Microsoft delays launch of EA Play on Game Pass Ultimate for PC until 2021
12. CD Projekt offering refunds to Cyberpunk players on consoles after shaky launch
13. Amid massive bugs, CDPR offers refunds for Cyberpunk 2077 on consoles
14. CD Projekt: Polarizing Cyberpunk 2077 launch ‘the wrong approach’
15. CDPR admits it “ignored the signals” of Cyberpunk 2077’s console issues
16. Cyberpunk 2077 developers were “updating the last-gen version until the very last minute”
17. Requests for refunds on Cyberpunk 2077 met with inconsistent response
18. PC version of Cyberpunk 2077 now features an epilepsy warning
19. Cyberpunk 2077’s Stream-Safe Setting Option For Its Music Failed To Keep Streamers Safe
20. Cyberpunk 2077 launches with some real dystopia in tow | Opinion
21. CD Projekt Red stock falls 29% in run-up to Cyberpunk 2077 launch
22. Cyberpunk 2077 racked up 8m pre-orders, 74% were digital
23. Cyberpunk 2077 already passed 1m concurrent users on Steam
24. CD Projekt Red boasts 8 million preorders for Cyberpunk 2077
25. CDPR estimates Cyberpunk 2077 has recouped development, marketing costs
26. Cyberpunk 2077 developers promised full bonuses despite declining review scores
27. CD Projekt Red apologises for not showing last-gen Cyberpunk 2077, offers refunds
28. Cyberpunk 2077 is the second biggest retail launch of the year | UK Boxed Charts
29. EA agrees $1.2 billion acquisition of Codemasters
30. EA set to pay $1.2 billion for Codemasters and its stable of racing games
31. Sky News reports EA has gatecrashed Take-Two’s Codemasters takeover
32. EA outbids Take-Two to buy Codemasters Group for $1.2 billion
33. EA to acquire Dirt developer Codemasters, scuppering Take-Two deal
34. Publicity on the Pitch? Football Superstars vs EA Sports
35. Keywords acquires High Voltage Software for $50m
36. New Unity updates target programming, graphics, quality of life improvements 
37. Steam gets ‘experimental’ with discovery
38. Valve’s latest Steam Labs experiment is an expansive discoverability overhaul
39. Valve upgrades News Hub from experiment to full-fledged Steam feature
40. Inside ‘Browsing Steam’: the biggest change to Steam Discovery in recent history
41. Steam breaks concurrent users record at nearly 25m
42. Streamloots launches mental health support program for streamers
43. Facebook Gaming creators have earned $50m in Stars in 2020
44. 2020 has shown our lack of leadership | Opinion
45. Maximizing the 2020 holidays for mobile user acquisition
46. The Last of Us Part 2 dominates at The Game Awards
47. Tilting Point pens $40 million UA team up with Gunship Battle: Total Warfare dev Joycity
48. Five mobile games topped $1b in revenue this year – Sensor Tower
49. Nintendo Switch is the best-selling console in Canada for 25 straight months
50. Switch cracks down (further) on extreme discounting
51. “Mass Effect Will Return:” Teaser trailer sets a new (old) direction for the sequel
52. UK games industry made record $3.84 billion economic contribution in 2019
53. Developers and publishers contributed £2.91bn to UK economy last year
54. US games spending breaks November records at $7bn
55. Report: PlayStation 5 breaks unit and dollar sales records for a new console launch month (NPD)
56. PS5 makes its mark but Nintendo Switch holds No.1 in huge November for video games | EMEAA Charts
57. The Nintendo Switch sold over 1.3m units in China this year
58. Nintendo Switch was the best-selling console in November in the US, despite next-gen launches
59. The Super-est SuperFX: An unmodified SNES, revved up with ray tracing [Updated]
60. Subscription library Ubisoft+ is now on Google Stadia
61. Stadia is now on iOS, but not through the App Store
62. Dr. Seuss gets serious about games
63. Ark Survival Evolved gets an animated series: David Tennant, Russell Crowe, Vin Diesel, Elliot Page among the cast of show coming in 2022
64. Vin Diesel joins Studio Wildcard as executive producer on Ark
65. Unity acquires 3D content creator RestAR
66. Tilting Point invests up to $40m in UA funding for Gunship Battle: Total Warfare
67. Steam introduces new discovery tools
68. Rollic acquires matching game Onnect for $6m
69. Zynga’s Rollic fully acquires Onnect from Chef Game Studio
70. Zynga-owned Rollic acquires Onnect from dev Chef Game Studio for $6 million
71. SteelSeries acquires KontrolFreek
72. Fnatic raises over £2m in crowdfunding
73. Roblox purchases digital avatar firm Loom.ai
74. Roblox delays IPO to 2021
75. Leyou shareholders approve Tencent takeover
76. Bad Robot Games’ first in-house dev studio will create ‘cross-medium’ franchises
77. J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Games Forms In-House Studio Led by Gaming Vet Mike Booth
78. Control has surpassed 2 million sales 15 months after launch
79. Pocket Mortys developer Big Pixel Studios is shutting down 
80. Big Pixel Studios shuts down, impacting about 40
81. Fortnite focuses in on boosting playability on lower-powered PCs
82. Talent Firm Loaded Signs 16-Year-Old Fortnite Pro BenjyFishy
83. Philadelphia Eagles Reach Multi-Year Deal with Esports Entertainment Group to Become NFL’s First Esports Tournament Club Provider
84. Facebook Slashes Price of Oculus Rift S to $300
85. Zynga veterans launch VR gaming company ForeVR
86. VR Destination ‘Sandbox VR’ Emerges from Chapter 11 Bankruptcy After Reorganization
87. Leaked Photos Reveal Possible Lenovo AR Glasses Ahead of CES 2021
88. Niantic donated a total of $7m in 2020 to Black Lives Matter charities
89. Make Way – ‘Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond’ Needs 180GB and Recommends Demanding Specs
90. ‘Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond’ Review – War Never Felt so Bland
91. We have a winner in the world’s first quantum chess tournament
92. How Watch Dogs: Legion’s ‘play as anyone’ simulation works
93. “No adaptation without interpretation” — turning Animal Farm into a game
94. The Last of Us Part II dominates The Game Awards 2020
95. The Game Awards’ Future Class highlights 50 people shaping the future of the game industry
96. How beautiful voxels laid the way for Teardown’s heist-y framework 
97. Blog: The not-so-secrets to success in the games industry
98. Blog: Integrating Joustus in Shovel Knight: King of Cards – Part 3
99. Blog: How to make a decent game trailer for less than $100 
100. Blog: A postmortem of asynchronous 1v1 horror title Antithesis
101. Blog: Softening polygon intersections in Blightbound 
102. Blog: A BioShock Infinite level design analysis 
103. Blog: Zen and the art of retro level design in Kudzu
104. Blog: A look at the revenue, expenses and statistics of Starlight X-2
105. Blog: What every game designer should know about human psychology
106. Blog: A developmental look at game aesthetics
107. Video: How embedded QA can improve games accessibility
108. Video: Telling location-based stories in games
109. Don’t Miss: From The Witcher 3 to Cyberpunk – The evolution of CD Projekt’s quest design
110. Best of 2020: Nintendo Switch Game Sales – The Three Biggest Misconceptions
111. Best of 2020: Creating the ever-improvising text adventures of AI Dungeon 2
112. Best of 2020: How Dishonored and Assassin’s Creed designers craft iconic stealthy encounters
113. Best of 2020: A look back at the 5-year development of Eastshade
114. Best of 2020: How Blizzard, Ubisoft, and other studios went remote in the time of COVID-19

Jon

DIGITAL

1. Increased Web Page Accessibility Requirements for Private and Non-Profit Organizations in Ontario Come into Effect in 2021 and AODA Accessibility Report Due Date Extended
2. Utter Insanity: Trump Lawyer Suggests Former Trump Cybersecurity Official Should Be ‘Taken Out And Shot’ For Saying The Election Was Secure
3. Just As #DiaperDon Starts Trending, Trump Claims That Twitter Uses ‘Fake’ Trends, Calls For ‘Termination’ Of Section 230
4. Trump Promises To Defund The Entire Military, If Congress Won’t Let Him Punish The Internet For Being Mean To Him
5. Trump to Congress: Repeal Section 230 or I’ll veto military funding
6. White House Still Pushing To Slip Section 230 Repeal Into ‘Must Pass’ Military Spending Bill
7. Congress Decides To Ignore Trump’s Ridiculous Veto Threat If Military Authorization Doesn’t Wipe Out Section 230
8. New Ebook on Zeran v. AOL, the Most Important Section 230 Case (Eric Goldman)
9. Twitter To Relaunch Account Verification In 2021
10. Pinterest shareholders sue firm over rampant gender, race discrimination
11. Federal Court Strikes Down California’s Ban On ‘Offensive’ License Plates
12. European regulator hits Apple with a fine over iPhone water-resistance claims
13. Amazon to roll out tools to monitor factory workers and machines
14. Amazon Web Services adds macOS on bare metal to EC2
15. Amazon to pay employee bonus amid threat of Black Friday strikes
16. Oracle vulnerability that executes malicious code is under active attack
17. Cases against Facebook are reportedly coming… when FTC decides how
18. Facebook Gaming Introduces Non-Gaming Content Hub For Partners Called ‘Hanging Out’
19. Facebook’s libra currency to launch next year in limited format
20. Lilly Singh, Liza Koshy, More Hosted Instagram Live Fundraisers For ‘Giving Tuesday’
21. The Material Conditions of Platforms: Monopolization Through Decentralization
22. 512(f) Claim Against Robo-Notice Sender Can Proceed–Enttech v. Okularity (Eric Goldman)
23. Content Moderation Case Study: Reclaiming A Hashtag (2020)
24. Is Free Speech Online About To Get A Lot Less Free?
25. Salesforces buys Slack for $27.7bn
26. Salesforce to acquire Slack in $27.7 billion deal
27. Salesforce strikes deal to acquire Slack for $27.7 billion
28. Snapchat Taps Michael Le, Dytto To Host Interactive Dance Series, With Potential For Viewers To Monetize (Trailer)
29. How to restore moral and technical order in a time of misinformation
30. As a Service | Selling to consumers using a subscription model
31. Platform Regulation Should Focus on Transparency, Not Content
32. New Tech Regulation for the UK? Sounds familiEUr…
33. New York Passes Wide-Ranging Automatic Renewal (Subscription Model) Law
34. The risks and rewards of influencer marketing
35. Influencer Philanthropy and Social Media – What are the Rules, What are Best Practices?
36. Bella Poarch, The #YouHaveTo Hashtag, “Savage Love” Top TikTok’s Biggest Trends Of 2020
37. TikTok Users Can Now Auto-Skip Videos That Might Trigger Photosensitive Epilepsy
38. TikTok Is Reportedly Testing 3-Minute Videos
39. I Turn My Camera on. Notes on the Aesthetics of Tiktok
40. YouTube Suspends ‘OANN’ From Monetization, Strikes Channel For Repeated COVID Misinformation
41. YouTube Teams With British Vogue For ‘Masterclass’ Series Starring Fashion Experts, Influencers, More
42. How old, ambient Japanese music became a smash hit on YouTube
43. Creators Can Now Host Live Pre-Shows, Embed Trailers Ahead Of Their YouTube Video ‘Premieres’
44. Top 50 Most Viewed US YouTube Channels • Week Of 11/30/2020
45. Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 11/30/2020
46. YouTube’s Latest Original Is A Charitable ‘Secret Santa’ Exchange With AsapSCIENCE, Molly Burke, More
47. Jake Paul Says He’s In Talks To Fight UFC Champ Conor McGregor
48. Washington considers digital advertising tax
49. Big Tech’s carbon problem: Energy-guzzling data centres and supply chains mean our online lives leave a heavy environmental footprint.
50. Google, the Media Patron: How the Digital Giant Ensnares Journalism
51. Is Google Really the Borg?
52. ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ Becomes Netflix’s Most-Watched Limited Scripted Series, 4th Biggest TV Show Overall
53. Taylor Swift Re-Teams With Disney+ For ‘Folkore’ Concert Documentary
54. As organizations accelerate their digital transformation initiatives, they are increasingly embracing the power, affordability and versatility of open source software.
55. Perpetually Missing from Tech Policy: ISPs And The IoT
56. Choose your movies and also their endings!

A.I.

1. DeepMind AI handles protein folding, which humbled previous software
2. Amazon inquiry after Alexa accused of antisemitism
3. Amazon’s Alexa accused of sharing anti-Semitic conspiracies, Holocaust denial
4. The Time Has Come for International Regulation on Artificial Intelligence’
5. A robot’s muse: when AI creates art
6. AI inventors? Why should we care?
7. Thinking outside the black box: explainable AI is coming into focus
8. Artificial Intelligence and Recruitment – how to address the pitfalls
9. Artificial intelligence, robotics and automation: The best or the worst thing to ever happen to humanity?
10. The use of artificial intelligence: interesting technological developments in the legal and accountancy sectors
11. AI can run your work meetings now
12. The Full Automation Fallacy
13. Speaking to algorithms? Rhetorical political analysis as technological analysis
14. Deciding what’s fair
15. A “Light Touch” Regulatory Framework for AI – Transparency at the Heart of AI Regulation
16. Machines as Manifestations of Global Systems: Steps toward a Sociometabolic Ontology of Technology
17. Artificial Intelligence, Aesthetics, and Future of Culture
18. AI did it My Way

COMMUNICATIONS

1. The Broadcasting Act Blunder, Day Six: The Beginning of the End of Canadian Broadcast Ownership and Control Requirements (Michael Geist)
2. The Broadcasting Act Blunder, Day Seven: Beware Bill C-10’s Unintended Consequences (Michael Geist)
3. The Broadcasting Act Blunder, Day 8: The Unnecessary Discoverability Requirements (Michael Geist)
4. The Broadcasting Act Blunder, Day 9: Why Use Cross-Subsidies When the Government is Rolling Out Tech Tax Policies? (Michael Geist)
5. The Broadcasting Act Blunder, Day 10: Downgrading the Role of Canadians in their Own Programming (Michael Geist)
6. Ajit Pai announces departure from FCC after four-year deregulatory blitz
7. Ajit Pai, Easily The Most Controversial FCC Boss In History, Will Step Down January 20
8. Senate rushes to confirm Trump FCC nominee in order to hinder Biden admin
9. FCC agenda meeting to evaluate items of interest for manufacturers and operators of radiofrequency equipment 
10. FCC Makes More Spectrum Available in 5.9 GHz Band for Unlicensed Use 
11. President-Elect Biden Announces FCC Transition Team 
12. FCC Proposes $20,000 Fine for TV Station Program-Length Commercial in Children’s Programming
13. FCC Adopts New Program Carriage Complaint Procedures
14. Comcast Increases Prices And Bogus Fees In The Middle Of A Pandemic 
15. Verizon, NYC Settle Lawsuit Over Verizon’s Empty Fiber Promises
16. Verizon wiring up 500K homes with FiOS to settle years-long fight with NYC 
17. In the Conversion to NextGen TV, Who is Responsible for the Content of the Simulcast Streams?
18. More Subsidies Alone Won’t Fix What Ails U.S. Broadband
19. Broadband and the UK’s National Infrastructure Strategy

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

1.  Nicki Minaj Safeguards the Right for Artists to Experiment with Unlicensed Work
2. Skateboard Graphic Artist Sues Jack Black, Tony Hawk, and The Berrics for Copyright Infringement of Skateboard Graphic Design
3. PewDiePie’s “My Heart Will Go On”: A Case Study in the DMCA and YouTube’s Copyright Dispute Process (Part I)
4. Peace does not get a chance
5. Supermodel Sues for Alleged Unauthorized Use of Her Likeness 
6. The EU Commission better get its skates on when it comes to copyright
7. World’s Worst Copyright Troll, Richard Liebowitz, Suspended From Practicing Law
8. ‘Tis The Season: Congress Looks To Sneak In Unconstitutional Copyright Reform Bill Into ‘Must Pass’ Spending Bill
9. Circumventing technological protection measures and website blocking orders: An EU perspective
10. Ferrari Wins Legal Case Against Designer Philipp Plein’s Use Of Its Supercars, But He Says It’s Not Over
11. Philipp Plein Loses Court Battle Against Ferrari Over Illegal Use of Its Brand
12. How the Freddy copycat fashion case opens up new options for designers
13. Nevermind: Who Really Owns Nirvana’s Iconic Smiley Face Design? 
14. From football stadiums to railway stations…covering the bigger picture with registered designs
15. When Trademarks Get Messi: Likelihood of Confusion and Leo Messi’s Big European Trademark Win 
16. Deus ex Machina Motorcycles Pty. Ltd. v. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.
17. AMERICAN EAGLE found to infringe EAGLE RARE trade mark in the UK
18. EUIPO: What’s in the name…………… Hamilton!
19. A Butler cannot be Royal!
20. Minimalist trademarks: trend to follow or end of the road for uniqueness?
21. The Burberry case: influencers, rappers and VIPs, watch out for improper use and associations to reputed brands
22. A guide to trade mark revocation for legacy brands
23. Snap Removal in Trade Secret Cases
24. Risks and rewards of trade secrets in Europe
25. Patenting antibody-based biologics in Canada
26. Federal Circuit Confirms That “Magnetic Fuzz” Is Too Fuzzy for a Patent Claim 
27. Working from home — does it affect patent ownership for employee inventions?
28. It’s a Date – Twitter Reply Proves Prior Art Publication Date 
29. Effectively using experts in IP litigation part two: practice 
30. (S)he´s making a list, (S)he´s checking it twice: An IP due diligence checklist for the holidays – or any time 

PRIVACY

1.  Proposed Canadian Privacy Bill Introduces Fines and New Requirements for Private Organizations
2. Understanding the Draft Consumer Privacy Protection Act: A Summary of the Key Changes Proposed
3. French Gov’t Walks Back Proposal To Make Publishing Images Of Police Officers Illegal After Massive Protests Erupt Across The Nation
4. Once more unto the breach: The Supreme Court weighs in on a circuit split on what constitutes a hack 
5. New Orleans PD Finally Admits It Uses Facial Recognition Tech After Denying It For Years 
6. Autonomous vehicles and big data: Managing the personal information deluge 
7. Canada Re-enters the International Ring with Bold New Privacy Law Including Significant Fines
8. Post-Schrems II: European Data Protection Board’s Recommendations Bring Further Clarity and Practical Steps Regarding International Data Flows
9. Does Tor provide more benefit or harm? New paper says it depends
10. The Supreme Court will finally rule on controversial US hacking law

GAMES

1. Twin Galaxies attacks Billy Mitchell as a fraud in new legal claims
2. Nicalis issues DMCA against free Cave Story games
3. Subverse developer under fire for partnering with racist YouTuber Arch
4. Supercell cancels Hay Day Pop
5. Supercell shutting down Hay Day Pop after less than a year 
6. ‘As abstract as killing people in a video game,’ doctor says of Alek Minassian’s mind
7. The Legality of Loot Boxes: A Primer
8. Fortnite’s Nexus War event could expose Twitch streamers to DMCA problems
9. Travis Scott reportedly grossed roughly $20m for Fortnite concert appearance
10. Fortnite’s Season 4 finale attracted a record 15.3 million concurrent players
11. Marvel finale was Fortnite’s biggest event ever at 15.3m concurrent users
12. Wallace & Gromit maker Aardman partners with Bandai Namco on new game franchise
13. What are the biggest changes impacting the games industry?
14. Survey finds gaming by Americans over 45 has spiked in 2020
15. Remote work is here to stay — but it won’t be cheap or easy
16. How meditation and cooperation shaped Vela Games
17. The Witcher 3 is the bedrock of CD Projekt Red’s financials one last time
18. Fall Guys developer Mediatonic opens new UK studio
19. How ‘buoyant’ Sega Europe is helping Sega Sammy stay afloat
20. EG7 acquires Daybreak
21. MechWarrior developer Piranha Games acquired by EG7 for $24.2 million
22. EG7 pens deal to acquire EverQuest and H1Z1 dev Daybreak for $300 million
23. Uri Geller retracts 20-year ban on Kadabra Pokémon trading cards
24. Super Nintendo World now opening in February
25. Universal Studios Japan will open Super Nintendo World in February
26. The PlayStation 5’s ‘Activities’ quick-select is Sony’s answer to common single player woes
27. PS5 comes out top in massive month for console sales | UK Monthly Charts
28. UK mobile game spending reaches new single-day record on Black Friday
29. Black Friday physical game sales drop 20% over 2019 l UK Boxed Sales
30. Worldwide digital games spending down 10% between Black Friday and Cyber Monday
31. Console remains largest employer of development staff in the UK
32. GTA5: A Living World Eyeing A Decade Of Rabid Play Instead Of Just A ‘Game’
33. TinyBuild invests $3m in Secret Neighbor developer Hologryph
34. Tinybuild sinks $3 million into Secret Neighbor developer Hologryph
35. Saudi Arabian charity Misk acquires 33.3% stake in SNK
36. Phoenix Labs expands to Montreal and LA
37. Dauntless dev Phoenix Labs opens two new studios to support growth
38. Remnant: From the Ashes tops 1.7 million base game sales in just over a year
39. Marvel’s Avengers fails to meet Square Enix sales targets
40. Playco charts a course to the billion-player mobile game
41. Krafton to consolidate Pnix and Delusion Studio into new studio, RisingWings
42. Was Activision Blizzard right to ignore mobile? | 10 Years Ago This Month
43. Cyberpunk 2077 pre-orders “visibly higher” than any Witcher title
44. CDPR will take down Cyberpunk 2077 streams & let’s plays aired before launch
45. Dead Cells sells over 3.5m copies
46. Dead Cells surpasses 3.5 million sold ahead of second DLC announce
47. Genshin Impact made almost $400m in two months on mobile
48. Genshin Impact wins iPhone Game of the Year
49. Apple picks Genshin Impact as its iPhone Game of the Year 
50. Google names Genshin Impact its best game of 2020
51. Bigger Games raises $6 million for casual puzzle games
52. Immortals: Fenyx Rising | Critical Consensus
53. Sonic The Hedgehog 2 movie expected to start production in March
54. That time Roger Ebert said games will never be as worthy as movies
55. ‘Interactive reality TV’ project Rival Peak launches on Facebook
56. We test Herman Miller’s $1,499 gaming chair: All business—to a fault
57. The Game Theorists Raise Staggering $3 Million For St. Jude During 9-Hour YouTube Stream
58. Food Publishers Surprisingly Didn’t Lean On Thanksgiving Video Content This Year
59. Sega unveils never-before-seen prototype ‘Venus’ handheld
60. BBTV Signs 5 International Gamers Who Count 23 Million Collective Subscribers
61. Esports platform Smashgg acquired by Microsoft
62. AR Mario Kart anchors Universal’s Super Nintendo World in February
63. VR spending to pass $1bn in 2020
64. Analyst: 2020 will see 6.4 million consumer VR headsets sold, spending surpass $1bn 
65. Blog: A pre-postmortem about marketing
66. Blog: Key ingredients for compelling video game characters 
67. Q&A: Hand-painting the watercolor world of Dordogne
68. Video: A look at Insomniac Games’ cache simulator
69. Video: Lessons from Sony Interactive Entertainment’s localization process
70. Don’t Miss: Using procedural destruction to unleash chaos in Control
71. Don’t Miss: Why do devs love Slack, and how do they get the most out of it?
72. Best of 2020: Rebuilding a classic in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition
73. Best of 2020: Behind the dizzying ride to the top for Among Us

Jon

DIGITAL

1. Amazon Sues Two TikTok, Instagram Influencers For Alleged Scheme To Sell Knockoff Designer Goods
2. The Case Against Holding Amazon Liable for Third-Party Merchants’ Sales in its Marketplace (Eric Goldman)
3. Massive, China-state-funded hack hits companies around the world, report says
4. Hackers sponsored by Russia and North Korea are targeting COVID-19 researchers
5. Russian Internet Research Agency Disinformation Activities on Tumblr: Identity, Privacy, and Ambivalence
6. WHO Is Blocking Commenters From Even Mentioning Taiwan On Its Facebook Page
7. Facebook Expands Access To ‘Rights Manager’ Video Copyright Tool, Rolls Out In-Stream Ads To 4 More Countries
8. Facebook Can Block Scraper (For Now)–Facebook v. BrandTotal (Eric Goldman)
9. Day After Senator Lindsey Graham Is Credibly Accused Of Trying To Undermine The Election, He Hosts Hearing Attacking Social Media For Undermining Election
10. Trump Fires US Cybersecurity Director Chris Krebs After Krebs Debunks Trump’s Claims Of Election Systems Fraud
11. US Cybersecurity Director Expecting To Be Fired After Refusing To Edit Page Debunking Election Hacking Myths
12. Trump Campaign Gets Laughed Out Of Court For Claiming A Bunch Of Unvetted Webform Submissions Is ‘Evidence’ Of Voter Fraud
13. Trump Campaign’s Ridiculous SLAPP Suit Against CNN Tossed Out Easily
14. After Trump tweets Defcon hacking video, voting security experts call BS: Dozens of computer scientists say there’s “no credible evidence” of election fraud.
15. Trump admin puts a hold on TikTok ban it seems to have forgotten about
16. Trumpland Apparently Just Forgot About Its Manufactured TikTok Hysteria
17. Commerce Department Remembers It Was Supposed To Ban TikTok; Says It Won’t Enforce For Now
18. Insights: Social Media In The Post-Trump Era Headed To Splitsville
19. The announcement of election results prompted the expected chorus of brands messaging about “unity,” but some opted to celebrate on social media.
20. Facebook Extends Political Advertising Ban for Another Month, Including Advertising for Run-Offs
21. Google to Extend Political Advertising Ban Through Year-End
22. Google Pay relaunch transforms it into a full-fledged financial service
23. Alphabet CEO: Plan to target EU commissioner was not “sanctioned” by me
24. UK Politician Demands The Impossible: Social Media Companies Must Not Take Down Political Speech, But Must Block Disinformation
25. Wish.com: sexually explicit in-app ads deemed offensive and inappropriately targeted
26. Upload Filters And The Internet Architecture: What’s There To Like?
27. Content Moderation Case Study: GoFundMe Addresses Controversial Fundraising Efforts (2020)
28. Counterfeit Merch Is A Big Problem For Creators, And It’s Even Worse Than You Think.
29. Markiplier, Ethan Nestor Bid Farewell To High-Concept ‘Unus Annus’ Channel — A Metaphor For Death
30. Hulu raises Live TV price to $65, matching YouTube TV’s latest price hike
31. Top 50 Most Viewed US YouTube Channels • Week Of 11/16/2020
32. Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 11/16/2020
33. YouTube Is Serving Young Viewers Age-Inappropriate Ads, Videos With Little Educational Value, Study Finds
34. YouTube Shelves Annual ‘Rewind’ Video Given Hardships, Heaviness Of 2020
35. YouTube Launches ‘Audio Ad’ Format To Capture Background Content Consumers
36. Steph Curry’s YouTube Series ‘5 Minutes From Home’ Is Becoming An Audible Original Podcast
37. Trump-Endorsed Right-wing YouTube Channels See Rise In Viewership
38. On The Podcast: Ninja Doesn’t Want To Be Called A ‘YouTuber’. Is He Right?
39. YouTube Will Now Serve Ads On Channels That Aren’t Eligible For Its Partner Program — Though Creators Won’t Earn A Cut
40. GitHub agrees RIAA claim is bunk, restores popular YouTube download tool
41. Teespring Teams Up With YouTubers For Merch-Selling Cyber Monday Live Streams
42. Audiovisual Media Services Directive – European Commission adopts guidelines on video-sharing platforms and the promotion of European works
43. BuzzFeed Seeking Next Social Video Star In IGTV Competition ‘Show Off’
44. ‘The Good Place,’ ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ Developer Tracey Pakosta Is Netflix’s New Head Of Comedy
45. Instagram Gives Reels, Shop Permanent Spots On Nav Bar
46. Instagram Finally Adds Ability To Search Platform Via Keyword
47. TikTok’s ‘Hashtag Challenge Plus’ Ad Format Is Generating Billions Of Views For Brands
48. ICE Briefly Becomes A Stranded Minor: Loses Its Twitter Account For Being Too Young
49. Twitter Launches Stories-Like ‘Fleets’ Feature, With ‘Audio Spaces’ Soon To Follow
50. What is Parler, and why is everyone suddenly talking about it?
51. ‘Stop the Steal’ supporters, restrained by Facebook, turn to Parler to peddle false election claims
52. What If Cambridge Analytica Owned Its Own Social Network? CA Backer Rebekah Mercer Admits She’s A Co-Founder Of Parler
53. A history of Intel vs. AMD desktop performance, with CPU charts galore
54. Beyond Screen Time: Identity Development in the Digital Age
55. Nova Scotia’s eCourt platform is first online judicial dispute resolution service in Canada
56. Why Does Silicon Valley Want to Reengineer Humans?: Human beings are not the problem. We are the solution.
57. Japan-UK Trade Deal Shows How Controversial Digital Policies Can Be Slipped Through With Little Scrutiny Or Resistance

A.I.

1. IP Rights and AI-Generated Works
2. Amazon begins shifting Alexa’s cloud AI to its own silicon
3. Video: Using AI to create interactive digital actors
4. ICO publishes guidance on AI decision making
5. Artificial intelligence and gender discrimination
6. Artificial vision, white space and racial surveillance capitalism
7. Technology vs Ideology: How Far will Artificial Intelligence and Distributed Ledger Technology Transform Corporate Governance and Business?
8. AI revolution in medicine

COMMUNICATIONS

1. Law Bytes Episode 69: Bram Abramson on the Government’s Plan to Regulate Internet Streaming Services (Michael Geist)
2. Two Trump Defamation Claims Dismissed Including Claim Against TV Station for Political Attack Ad – What is the Relevance for Broadcasters? 
3. How the Presidential Transition Will Affect the FCC
4. Big TCPA News: Biden Announces FCC Transition Team that Includes Former Commissioner Clyburn 
5. FCC Boss Pai Urged To Accept Trump Loss, Pause Dumb Attack On Social Media
6. FCC takes spectrum from auto industry in plan to “supersize” Wi-Fi
7. Broadband power users explode, making data caps more profitable for ISPs
8. Digital Redlining: ISPs Widening The Digital Divide
9. How Our Biggest ISPs Are Failing Students During COVID-19
10. TV services head towards complex post-Brexit regulatory world
11. FTC Tries to Clean Out 25 Fake Disinfectant Websites

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

1. Boesen v. United Sports Publications, Ltd.: Court dismisses copyright claim, holding that publisher’s article that “embedded” Caroline Wozniacki’s Instagram post featuring plaintiff’s photograph constituted fair use. 
2. Flo & Eddie, Inc. v. Pandora Media, Inc.: Court denies anti-SLAPP motion by owners of pre-1972 sound recordings created by The Turtles, holding Pandora’s failure to pay for use of recordings was not a speech right
3. Artistic license and use of copyright in creative pursuits
4. The Pose Is Prologue
5. Despite RIAA’s Claim That YouTube-dl Is Infringing, Journalists Use It All The Time
6. GitHub, EFF Push Back Against RIAA, Reinstate Youtube-dl Repository
7. YouTube Seeks To Crack Down On COVID-19 Vaccine Conspiracies In Fact-Check Panels
8. Donald Trump Argues That Use Of ‘Electric Avenue’ In Campaign Video Was Transformative
9. Montgomery v. Holland: Second Circuit affirms dismissal of copyright infringement claim targeting 2014 television miniseries Rosemary’s Baby, holding it was not substantially similar to plaintiff’s short stories.
10. Is Software Patentable?
11. Scientific publishers propose installing spyware in university libraries to protect copyrights: The hypothetical plan to combat digital piracy called for the use of software to monitor those accessing academic material
12. Proctorio used DMCA to take down a student’s critical tweets: “This is really a textbook example of fair use”
13. Copyright rides to the rescue: Brompton Bicycle is protected by copyright
14. Copyright: Online platform operators’ liability for users illegally uploading copyright material
15. No Future for Copyright or Trade Dress Protection for Personal Planner Layout
16. The First Step to Protecting Your Brand in Canada 
17. EMPOWER-ing trademark infringement claims against public authorities
18. Four Seasons Total Landscaping: trademark lessons from a bizarre political event 
19. In a Galaxy Not So Far, Far Away: Millennial Falcon v. Millennium Falcon
20. Can Clickbait Cause Confusion? Purchasing AdWord Did Not Constitute Trademark Infringement or an Unfair Trade Practice
21. Will the growing second-hand market for fashion fuel trademark disputes?
22. Hugo Boss And Art Teacher Reach ‘Amicable Solution’ Over ‘Be Boss, Be Kind’ Trademark Application
23. Trademark everything: The not-so-secret world of celebrity IP
24. Why Don’t Conservatives Care About Copyright?
25. Food Industry Insight – The Trade Dress of a Cookie is Held to be Functional
26. Ninth Circuit Rules That the Identification of a Trade Secret May Be Developed Through Discovery 
27. Patent eligibility in Canada clarified with new Examination Guidelines
28. CIPO’s new guidelines on patentable subject matter explained
29. Presumed essential: CIPO clarifies its approach toward eligibility analysis following Federal Court decision 
30. Canadian Patent Office Issues Guidance to “Cooperate” With Inventors of Computer-Based Inventions 
31. Supreme Court to Decide Constitutionality of Patent Board 
32. Moderna’s covid vaccine is promising news, but IP issues may mean the financial windfall it enjoys are limited
33. Working with known materials in life sciences: Key patent considerations
34. Canadian courts show trend of awarding higher costs in IP litigation
35. Five things to know about protecting IP rights on Amazon 

PRIVACY

1. “Publicity Placing the Plaintiff in a False Light” is the Newest Privacy Tort in Ontario
2. Canada’s GDPR Moment: Why the Consumer Privacy Protection Act is Canada’s Biggest Privacy Overhaul in Decades (Michael Geist)
3. Privacy Pressure Points: A Closer Look at Ten Consumer Privacy Protection Act Concerns (Michael Geist)
4. Canada’s proposed new privacy law – Summary of business impacts
5. The Canadian Government Proposes Significant Changes to Privacy Law: Key Features include New Requirements, Orders, Penalties and a Private Right of Action 
6. Information privacy and security in a virtual learning world
7. Appeals Court Says Baltimore PD’s Aerial Surveillance Program Doesn’t Violate The Constitution
8. Federal Court Says State Regulation That Compels Production Of Code May Violate The First Amendment 
9. Barbash v. STX Financing, LLC: Court dismisses adult entertainment host’s invasion of privacy and defamation claims against producers and distributors of film Hustlers
10. How the U.S. Military Buys Location Data from Ordinary Apps: A Muslim prayer app with 98M downloads connects to a supply chain that sends people’s personal data to brokers, contractors & the military.
11. Zoom Gets An FTC Wrist Slap For Misleading Users On Security, Encryption 
12. Instructors And School Administrators Are Somehow Managing To Make Intrusive Testing Spyware Even Worse
13. EU Data Protection Regulators Issue Critical Draft Guidance on Personal Data Transfers 
14. Not Again! California Voters Enact California Privacy Rights Act: Now What?
15. FTC requires video conferencing provider to safeguard against security risks 
16. Election 2020: Looking Forward to What a Biden Presidency May Mean for Data Privacy and Data Privacy Litigation  
17. ICO Fines Ticketmaster £1.25 Million for Security Failures 
18. Marriott International, Inc. fined £18.4m for personal data breach by the UK ICO under the GDPR (reduced from £99.2m) 
19. H&M hit with €35.3m fine for GDPR employee breach
20. Resisting the rise of facial recognition
21. Five months after the Schrems II decision, the EDPB has added long awaited clarity to the CJEU’s language regarding ‘supplemental measures’
22. The iOS COVID-19 app ecosystem has become a privacy minefield
23. Information privacy and security in a virtual learning world
24. The Posthumous Privacy Paradox: Privacy preferences and Behavior Regarding Digital Remains

CREATIVITY

1. Court of Appeal rules on the confidentiality of live sports data
2. EU Court Backs Austrian Court, Says Local Libel Law Applies Everywhere In The World
3. Conspiracy theories masquerading as news may be the biggest threat to our democratic world
4. About Time: NY Governor Cuomo Signs Anti-SLAPP Law
5. Freedom of Speech Gets a Big Boost With New York’s Passage of Widely Expanded Anti-SLAPP Law
6. Devin Nunes Files Another SLAPP Suit; Sues The Washington Post Again
7. COVID-19: Court Dismisses MLB Ticket Purchasers’ Action for Reimbursement After Shortened Season

GAMES

1. Nintendo faces yet another Joy-Con drift lawsuit: An expert analysis noted that the drift is caused by “extensive wear on the pad surface on the interior of the Joy-Con”
2. The dance-off ends: a (partial) resolution to Fortnite’s slurry of copyright lawsuits.
3. Oxford University study finds playing games can positively impact emotional well-being
4. Oxford University study shows video games can benefit well-being and mental health: But researchers call for more studies into this field, following its success in collaborating with EA and Nintendo­­­
5. Pokémon Go raises its level cap for the first time in over four years
6. Video game play is positively correlated with well-being (Niklas Johannes, Matti Vuorre, Andrew K. Przybylski)
7. Court Upholds Gaming App’s Clickthrough TOS–Ball v. Skillz (Eric Goldman)
8. Survey finds growing harassment among US gamers: ADL-Newzoo poll finds 68% of online multiplayer games experienced severe harassment in past six months, 22% said it made them quit playing certain games entirely
9. Free to Play? Hate, Harassment and Positive Social Experience in Online Games 2020
10. Ubisoft Singapore MD stepping down after misconduct allegations
11. Ubisoft removes Singapore studio head: Hugues Ricour no longer leading Skull and Bones studio after report of sexual harassment, but remains with the publisher
12. Global Game Revenues Up an Extra $15 Billion This Year as Engagement Skyrockets
13. Judge dismisses Apple’s “theft” claims in Epic Games lawsuit
14. Apple will halve App Store platform fees for smaller developers in 2021
15. Apple drops its cut of App Store revenues from 30% to 15% for some developers
16. Apple to cut down App Store share to 15% for small developers: The company’s new App Store Small Business Program means studios earning less than $1m a year in proceeds will benefit from a reduced commission
17. Epic CEO: App Store changes offer ‘no relief to customers’ from ‘Apple Tax’
18. Epic Games files against Apple Australia: Fortnite firm claims battle royale’s removal breaches Australian consumer law
19. Apple settles with states for $113M over iPhone battery throttling
20. Streamers protest Twitch DMCA policy with homemade video game noises: Beep beep beep. Pow! Schooooo… po-pow!
21. Twitch eyes new tools, licensing deals after ‘understandably frustrating’ DMCA takedowns
22. Twitch streamers report DMCA takedowns for in-game sound effects: Content creators report flags on sounds such as clock chimes, police sirens, bird noises, and wind
23. Twitch Continues To Trip Over Itself In Response To DMCA Apocalypse
24. Twitch’s No Good, Very Bad Time Continues: Part 1
25. xQcOW, Pokimane Are Twitch’s Top-Earning Streamers Of 2020
26. Twitch sees record viewership in October – Report: StreamElements and Arsenal find 1.6 billion hours watched on the platform last month, nearly doubling previous October
27. EA launching FIFA spend-tracking tool: FIFA Playtime gives players an overview of how much time and money they’ve spent on FIFA 21, ability to set spending and Ultimate Team limits
28. EA has loot boxed itself in with FIFA Ultimate Team | Opinion: Publisher is in the position of having to fix its gambling problem without admitting there’s a problem to fix
29. EA must reconsider its FIFA goals | Podcast: The team discusses EA’s reluctance to acknowledge the resemblances of Ultimate Team to gambling, and the consequences that could bring
30. FIFA 21 debuts at No.1 in the US for October in a first for the franchise: Nintendo Switch hardware sets a new dollar sales record for the month, surpassing the Wii in 2008
31. Is a Tattoo Protected by Copyright? Is it Infringed if it Appears in a Computer Game? 
32. Star Trek’s Space-Traveling Tardigrades Live Long and Prosper After Second Circuit Affirms Non-Infringement of Video Game Copyright
33. Capcom says personal details of 350,000 potentially compromised after recent hack
34. Capcom: Up to 350,000 people could be affected by ransomware leak
35. Capcom confirms it was the victim of a ransomware attack: Employee personal information, sales reports, and other financial information was compromised
36. Playrix: gameplay footage must be representative of the gaming experience
37. Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla sees the franchise’s best launch sales so far: It sold more copies at launch than any other Assassin’s Creed game, and set a new record for Ubisoft PC launch sales
38. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla beats Call of Duty in race for No.1 | UK Boxed Charts: It’s a massive, massive week for UK game sales
39. Genshin Impact was the top-grossing mobile game worldwide in October: It brought in nearly $239m in player spending, beating out Honor of Kings
40. Graffiti Games leaders launch Indie Game Coach: Alex Josef and Alex Van Lepp to provide free and low-cost resources, coaching, and consulting for new, independent developers
41. How a Guilty Gear project contributed to the collapse of Skullgirls dev Lab Zero
42. Epic releases thousands of What Remains of Edith Finch assets for free
43. Epic Games acquires real-time animation firm Hyprsense: The company will collaborate closely with 3Lateral and Cubic Motion to “make content production more accessible”
44. Half of US and UK players want more diverse characters in games: Research conducted by Newzoo shows that gamers want publishers to take an “active stance” on societal issues
45. Respawn emphasises its no crunch policy: Accused of being too slow with content, Apex Legends game director says the studio “refuses to crunch the team”
46. Animal Jam data breach exposes personal info of approximately 46m accounts: Emails, usernames, encrypted passwords, billing addresses, and real names were posted on public hacker forum
47. Ubisoft Montreal staffers barricade on roof, escorted out by police
48. Police operation underway at Ubisoft Montreal: Reported hostage situation may have been a hoax, police begin evacuating building
49. Police say ‘hoax’ emergency call prompted Ubisoft Montreal studio scare
50. The challenge and promise of DualSense | Opinion: PlayStation 5’s advanced haptic system is arguably the most interesting innovation of the new generation, but it creates a tricky marketing conundrum
51. Discovery takeaways from the new PlayStation 5 store?
52. Sony thinks cross-gen games will be ‘important’ for the next 3 years as players transition to PS5
53. Demon’s Souls PS5 review: A gorgeous game worth dying (repeatedly) for
54. Ghost of Tsushima passes 5m sold: Sucker Punch’s game is the fastest selling new IP for the PS4 from a Sony first-party studio
55. Xbox Series X and S deliver Microsoft’s biggest ever console launch
56. Xbox Series X|S is biggest console launch in Microsoft’s history: But Phil Spencer says platform holder still focused on player numbers of unit sales
57. How will the Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 benefit indies?: We speak to indie studios and publishers about the possibilities afforded by the new consoles
58. Xbox Series S|X launch, big releases drive new records for UK broadband use: Service providers report new highs among Call of Duty updates and preloads, debuts of Destiny 2: Beyond Light and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
59. Microsoft expects Xbox Series X and S to be in short supply until after holidays
60. Microsoft expects Xbox Series X|S shortages until Q2 2021: CFO Tim Stuart points to summer next year for “the supply profile meeting the demand profile”
61. Microsoft suggests higher AAA price-point is “warranted”: CFO Tim Stuart said that publishers need to “make the right decision for their content”
62. The Falconeer: An unexpected jewel in the Xbox launch line-up
63. Bethesda games will likely be “first or better” (not “only”) on Xbox
64. Microsoft to begin testing Project xCloud in new regions including Australia and Japan
65. Microsoft to roll out Project xCloud in four new markets: The cloud gaming beta is coming to Australia, Brazil, Japan, and Mexico this November
66. What next-gen consoles really mean for audio: Sumo Digital discusses the audio tools that could be a game changer for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S
67. Switch sets new October sales record in the U.S. as next-gen arrives
68. The Switch had the second-best October sales in the US of any console ever: At over 735,000 units sold, it was outpaced only by the Wii in 2008
69. Happy 20th Birthday To ‘No One Lives Forever’, The Classic PC Game That Can’t Be Sold Today Thanks To IP
70. Why are there no James Bond games?: In the absence of new film No Time To Die, we explore 007’s ongoing absence from video games and the challenge of developing with a licence
71. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla debuts with record launch week sales for the franchise
72. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla doubles Odyssey’s player count at launch: The latest entry in Ubisoft’s series also saw record viewership on Twitch and YouTube
73. Freshly founded Gunzilla Games aims to take on triple-A shooter development
74. Gunzilla Games enters AAA shooter market with $25m in funding: After helping Warface developer Blackwood spin out from Crytek, Vlad Korolev is looking to build a studio from scratch
75. The careful cultivation and localization of Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin: Edelweiss and XSeed discuss the historical Japanese roots of the in-depth rice farming sim, and the challenges of bringing it West
76. PUBG Corp is bringing a new version of banned PUBG Mobile to India
77. PUBG Corp. creating new PUBG Mobile for India to get around ban: Korean publisher establishes Indian subsidiary that will hire 100 people, pledges to invest $100 million into local gaming and entertainment industry
78. Fortnite mulls monthly paid subscription
79. New League of Legends character not based on real person, says Riot
80. Grubhub Taps Addison Rae, CrankGameplays, More For Virtual Friendsgiving Promo On ‘Animal Crossing’
81. Unity revenue up 53.3% year-over-year at close of first public quarter
82. Unity shares first earnings following IPO with $201 million in Q3 revenue: On earnings call, CEO John Riccitiello addresses price hikes, COVID-19 impacts, future investments, and finding a casual audience
83. Ghost of Tsushima has topped 5 million sales in under four months
84. Fall Guys has sold over 10 million copies on Steam
85. Fall Guys has sold more than 10 million copies on Steam alone
86. Data deep dive: What’s the ‘long tail’ like for Steam games?
87. Steam’s initial PS5 controller support doesn’t include the controller’s advanced haptics
88. Zynga opens Austin studio to work on upcoming Star Wars project
89. Zynga to open new studio in its Austin office: The new studio will focus on the development of NaturalMotion’s Star Wars game
90. Google and My.Games launch mobile accelerator program
91. My.Games launches cloud gaming service
92. Thunderful acquires long-time LittleBigPlanet collaborator Station Interactive
93. Thunderful acquires Station Interactive: Swedish development studio’s employees, IP, and assets will be incorporated into Thunderful Development
94. As lockdowns lift, Tencent gaming revenues continue to rise: Online games revenues up 45% year-over-year, 8% quarter-over-quarter thanks to Honour of Kings, Peacekeeper Elite
95. Paradox reports record quarterly revenues as Crusader Kings III sales top 1 million
96. Embracer acquires 13 studios including Shadow Warrior dev Flying Wild Hog
97. Embracer Group H1 sales up 132% to $524.2m: THQ Nordic and Koch Media parent reports growth across all divisions as it adds 13 new studios
98. Thunderful Group intends to go public to raise cash for further acquisitions
99. Thunderful Group prepares for IPO on NASDAQ First North Premier: Listing expected to raise close to $90 million for Swedish games firm, company valued at $395 million
100. Female-led Queens Gaming Collective raises $1.5m: Gaming lifestyle company launches after seed round led by Bitkraft Ventures
101. Mobile startup Lila Games raises $2.8m: Indian developer attracts investment from execs at Super Evil Megacorp and Machine Zone
102. Conversation as the crewmate: Understanding the rise of Among Us: Barbie Koelker from conversation analysis platform Spiketrap explores Among Us’ growing popularity
103. New toolbox shows teachers how to best use games in their classroom
104. Wiggin acquires games law firm Purewal & Partners: Founder Jas Purewal is joining as partner, alongside his team
105. All eyes on esports: staying ahead of the legal hurdles: As investment pours into the sector, legal firm Reed Smith offers advice to new companies seeking to avoid legal pitfalls
106. The pandemic-fuelled esports boom: legal and regulatory considerations for investors
107. NRG Esports Unveils Sprawling Content Creation “Castle” In Los Angeles
108. Valve adds extensive developer commentary to Half-Life: Alyx
109. Double win for Valve at 2020 VR Awards: Index headset won best hardware, while Half-Life: Alyx was crowned Game of the Year
110. VR dev Resolution Games kicks off push into publishing with Odd Raven deal
111. Resolution Games launches VR publishing arm: First partnership will bring Odd Raven Studio’s Carly and the Reaperman to Oculus Quest and Quest 2 next year
112. Video: Lessons in developing functional artificial intelligence using VR
113. Blog: The psychology of irresistible game offers
114. Blog: 12 misconceptions that hurt the player experience
115. Blog: Roguelike lessons horror games need to learn
116. Blog: Spilt Milk Devlog 06 – Fascism Fighters 4000 (Part 1)
117. Blog: What mechanics should you add to an Early Access game?
118. Video: Porting your game to Oculus Quest
119. Video: Why Survios builds new tech for games like Battlewake
120. Don’t Miss: Looking back to Mark Cerny’s 2013 tech breakdown of the then-next-gen PS4
121. Don’t Miss: Bad crediting hurts the game industry and muddles history
122. Don’t Miss: How games like Super Mario Galaxy and Demon’s Souls handle subjective difficulty
123. Don’t Miss: Inside the development of Supergiant Games’ Hades
124. Q&A: Why Assassin’s Creed Valhalla did away with side quests
125. The Last of Us Part 2, Hades dominate The Game Awards nominations: Sony received 22 nominations for its published games, including ten for The Last of Us Part 2
126. U.S. Patent No. 10,471,357: Systems and methods for simulating a particular user in an interactive computer system

Jon

DIGITAL

1. Facebook Charged Biden a Higher Price Than Trump for Campaign Ads: In swing states, Biden paid average ad rates of $34 compared with Trump’s average of $17 in July and August
2. The Trump Camp Has Bought YouTube’s Masthead Ad 20 Times This Election—Including On Election Day
3. What Twitter Did After Trump Said Democrats Are Trying to “STEAL” the Election
4. Trump’s campaign and family boost bogus conspiracy theories in a bid to undermine vote count: Campaign sent estimated 9 million texts according to anti-robocall firm, some seeking money to launch voting challenges
5. Court tosses constitutional challenge to Trump order on social media
6. Facebook targeted in U.K. legal action over Cambridge Analytica
7. Facebook sued by UK group over Cambridge Analytica breach
8. Insights: Social Media Platforms’ Election-Protection Plans A Start, But Not Nearly Enough Change For Long-Term
9. What The Election Means For Tech
10. While Social Media Was Quick To Highlight And Limit The Spread Of False Claims Of Election Victory, Traditional Media Just Let It Flow
11. Another Court Rejects Trump’s Censorial Anti-TikTok EO–Marland v. Trump (Eric Goldman)
12. Judge: Trump Admin‘s TikTok ban would cause “irreparable harm” to creators
13. Three TikTok Influencers Influenced A Judge To Block Trump’s TikTok Ban
14. TikTok Countersues Triller, Says Its Tech Doesn’t Violate Patent
15. TikTok Re-Ups Licensing Deal With Sony, Adding Marketing, Artist Discovery Components
16. Nixon Scandal Resulted In A Law To Prevent The Politicization Of Antitrust Cases; Meanwhile Trump Uses His Politicized Antitrust Effort In Campaign Ad
17. As Trump falsely claims victory, Twitter and Facebook counter misinformation
18. How Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Reddit are handling the election
19. Turkish President Sues Dutch Lawmaker Over A Bunch Of ‘Insulting’ Tweets
20. U.S. Department of Justice Sues Google for Antitrust Violations
21. Google Kills Nest Secure, Can’t Be Bothered To Explain Support Roadmap
22. Senate hauls Zuckerberg, Dorsey into hearing to yell at them about tweets
23. The Senate Snowflake Grievance Committee Quizzes Tech CEOs On Tweets & Employee Viewpoints
24. A Digital Tech New Deal to break up Big Tech: Antitrust efforts in the US are not enough to counter the global power of Big Tech.
25. NZ Supreme Court Gives A Mixed Bag Extradition Ruling To Kim Dotcom; Extradition Still Alive, But He Can Raise Procedural Issues
26. Transparency Is Important; Mandated Transparency Is Dangerous And Will Stifle Innovation And Competition
27. Constitutional Challenge to Trump’s Anti-230 EO Fails–Rock the Vote v. Trump (Eric Goldman)
28. Free Market Advocate Switches Sides, Calls For Direct Government Interference In Online Moderation Decisions
29. Trump campaign out $2.3 million after hack of Wisconsin GOP
30. Changing Section 230 Won’t Fix Politicians’ Issues With Section 230
31. Twitter, Facebook, Google Heads Testify on Section 230 and Local Journalism
32. Your Problem Is Not With Section 230, But The 1st Amendment
33. Snapchat Isn’t Liable for Its Speed Filter (Even if Section 230 Doesn’t Apply)–Maynard v. Snapchat (Eric Goldman)
34. Creators Are Starting To Make A Lot Of Money On Facebook
35. Facebook’s Handy Identity Crisis: Publisher or bulletin board? Can it really give up news sharing? Why the tech giant works hard to resist definition.
36. Facebook Takes Aim at NYU Web Scrapers
37. This microscopic 3D-printed Star Trek Voyager can move on its own
38. Apple One, Apple’s answer to Amazon Prime, is finally launching
39. On The Podcast: All The Reasons Why Quibi Didn’t Work
40. A Quick Bite Post Mortem For For Quibi: Hollywood Still Doesn’t Get The Internet
41. BEN Group Acquires YouTube Channel-Optimizing Browser Extension ‘TubeBuddy’
42. YouTube Hits $5 Billion In Ad Revenue, 30 Million Premium And Music Subscribers In Q3
43. YouTube Soundtracking Service Epidemic Sound Launches ‘Music Recommender’ Tool For Creators
44. Ryan Kaji Becomes First YouTuber To Be Featured In Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade In Roughly A Century
45. “Baby Shark” Overtakes “Despacito” To Become YouTube’s Most-Watched Video Of All Time
46. Tati Westbrook Sued By Former Business Partner In Her Halo Beauty Vitamin Venture
47. David Dobrik Links Up With Leonardo DiCaprio For Second Voter Registration Contest
48. Google says it’s “committed” to Nest Secure but won’t ship any new features
49. Senate hauls Zuckerberg, Dorsey into hearing to yell at them about tweets
50. Netflix Raises Subscription Prices In The U.S., Causing Shares To Jump 4%
51. Spotify CEO Says ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ Is No. 1 English Podcast, Has “Outperformed Our Expectations”
52. Filtering feminisms: Emergent feminist visibilities on Instagra
53. Creator Community Standard Beefs Up In-House Video Production With Acquisition Of Studio Mighteor
54. The Ongoing Transformation of the Digital Public Sphere: Basic Considerations on a Moving Target
55. Decentralize the feedback infrastructure! (Pedro Garcia Lopez)
56. Revisiting the Black Box Society by rethinking the political economy of big data (Benedetta Brevini, Frank Pasquale)
57. Dark pools and data markets: an exploration of the regulatory challenges
58. The Janus faces of Silicon Valley
59. Freedom of Expression and Alternatives for Internet Governance: Prospects and Pitfalls (Emma Ricknell)
60. A Digital Tech New Deal: Digital Socialism, Decolonization, and Reparations for a Sustainable Global Economy (Michael Kwet)
61. California votes against granting Uber and Lyft drivers employee status
62. Who Needs to Tell the U.S. Internal Revenue Service About Their Cryptocurrency Activity?
63. US Bank Crypto Services Proceed, Crypto Debit Cards Launch in US and Mexico, Blockchain Enterprise Developments, and Crypto Enforcement Continues
64. Someone has transferred ~$1 billion from a bitcoin wallet quiet since 2015

A.I.

1. A new way to plug a human brain into a computer: Via veins
2. Acknowledging AI as an Inventor of IP – A Slippery Slope to Giving AI the Same Rights as Humans?
3. AI use in U.S. criminal justice reinforced racialized decision-making: Law Commission of Ontario
4. Racial Discrimination in Face Recognition Technology
5. Legal and Ethics Checklist for AI Systems
6. Draft Proposal for the Regulation of Ethical AI
7. Weak Ties: The Urban History of an Algorithm
8. Patent protection of machine learning and artificial intelligence inventions in Europe
9. “Oh Jeeeesus”: Drivers react to Tesla’s full self-driving beta release
10. Tesla raises “full self-driving” price from $8,000 to $10,000
11. Connected cars must be open to third parties, say Massachusetts voters
12. Content Moderation Case Study: Moderating An Anonymous Social Network (2015)
13. Content Moderation Case Studies: Using AI To Detect Problematic Edits On Wikipedia (2015)
14. Video: Character control with neural networks in Assassin’s Creed
15. More Than a Feeling: Emotion detection doesn’t work, but it will try to change your behavior anyway (Frank Pasquale)
16. No longer sci-fi: our bodies as computers 
17. Apply for UK Government funding for robotic AI by 20 November 2020 

COMMUNICATIONS

1.  Altering the broadcasting landscape – Canada’s Broadcasting Act to be amended
2. Feds propose changes to Broadcasting Act that may raise $800 million from streamers: New regulations would ensure streaming platforms face same rules as traditional broadcasters
3. Broadcasting Act Amendments
4. The Government’s Internet Regulation Bill: Why Bill C-10 Will Mean a CRTC-Approved Netflix Service, Reduced Consumer Choice, and Less Investment in Canadian Culture (Michael Geist)
5. Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault’s “Get Money from Web Giants” Internet Regulation Bill: An Unauthorized Backgrounder (Michael Geist)
6. What’s Another Way Supporters of Mandated Facebook Media Payments Promote Their Position? Paid Facebook Advertising (Michael Geist)
7. The tech antitrust problem no one is talking about: Americans pay more for broadband, have fewer choices than consumers in other countries.
8. Monopolistic U.S. ISPs Take Full Advantage Of The Covid Crisis
9. “Stay Home” robocalls to voters prompt FBI, FCC investigations
10. FCC forces T-Mobile to pay $200 million fine for subsidiary Sprint’s fraud
11. Time to Treat Broadband Like the Essential Service It Is
12. The Enormous Cost Of Digital Inequality 
13. Cable TV Execs Move Past Denial Stage, Now Fully Expect A ‘Cord Cutting’ Bloodbath
14. FCC Approves All-Digital AM Radio Broadcasts
15. FCC Establishes $9 Billion Fund to Support 5G Services in Rural America
16. FCC to Lift Freeze on TV Station Technical Improvement Applications
17. More on the FCC Rule Changes on Public Notice of Broadcast Applications and Required New Link on Station Homepages
18. Comcast Tells Customers They May Lose Access To Comcast Channels If Comcast Can’t Agree With Comcast 
19. What’s New in 5G – November 2020 
20. Audiovisual Media Services Regulations 2020 Made

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

1.  Use Your Illusion: Rights in posthumous holographic performance
2. Intellectual Property & Architecture – Copyright Protection in Focus
3. Tenth Circuit Breathes New Life into a Spooky Skeleton Copyright Dispute 
4. Protect Your Posts: New Group Copyright Registration Option for Online Blogs and Articles 
5. The US election: a vote on IP?
6. New Working Paper – Memes and Parasites: A discourse analysis of the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive 
7. Canada: Official marks can lead to damages for infringement of regular trademarks, according to Canada’s Federal Court of Appeal 
8. Procedures and strategies for anti-counterfeiting: Canada
9. Ninth Circuit: Likelihood of Confusion Required to Sustain TM Counterfeiting Claim 
10. Hallmark Win in Greeting Card Trademark Dispute: Court Finds Unauthorized Sale of Cards Meant for Destruction Infringing
11. Neat infringement claim leaves whiskey competitor’s trade mark on the rocks
12. Counterfeit luxury goods 
13. Brand protection in the digital world 
14. Distilling the value of corporate trademarks 
15. Descriptive Use of a Registered Trademark is not Infringement
16. Slogans as marks: when does a slogan function as a mark 
17. Trademark Cancellation Is Appropriate Sanction for Misconduct
18. Cookie Trade Dress Infringement Case Crumbles in Face of Functionality Challenge
19. A Clear Need: To Allege Misappropriation, Identify Trade Secret 
20. CIPO’s Patentable Subject-Matter Guidance – Same Code, Different Syntax 
21. The Canadian Patent Office Releases New Guidelines: The Diagnostic’s Industry Should Be Cautiously Optimistic 
22. Canadian Patents: What to Keep in Mind One Year After the Coming into Force of the New Rules? 
23. The Intersection between Drop-Shipping and Patent Infringement 
24. The Changing Patent Landscape in the Semiconductor Space 
25. Size Matters in Obviousness Analysis 
26. Marathon musings – Patenting running watch algorithms in Europe
27. Five Patents You Should Know About for Halloween 2020
28. Courtrooms and the America’s Cup – Patent infringement set to be the latest out-of-water battle 
29. A “Bitterly Divided” Federal Circuit Declines to Stay Decision Invalidating Car Driveshaft Patent
30. Clearing the 5G Patent Forest! 
31. People With Silly Patents Would Really Like It If It Was Harder To Cancel Them
32. Final PMPRB guidelines released 
33. “Zombie” Privacy & IP Rights: Protecting the Rights to an Individual’s Image after Death: Part 1 of 2
34. “Zombie” Privacy & IP Rights: Protecting the Rights to an Individual’s Image after Death: Part 2 of 2
35. How Might New Supreme Court Justice Barrett Rule on IP Cases?

PRIVACY

1. Alberta Court of Appeal rules that searches of electronic devices at the border are unconstitutional
2. Cybersecurity Among Factors Driving Privacy Law Reform in Canada
3. Use of Facial Recognition Software for Customer Analytics
4. California Voters Approve New Data Privacy Law
5. California Voters Pass Proposition 24 – the California Privacy Rights Act
6. California Passes Proposition 24: California Privacy Rights Act to Become Law
7. California Voters Approve Reworking of Landmark Consumer Privacy Law – What CCPA 2.0 Will Mean for Businesses and Consumers
8. Clearview Resurfaces To Make Some Empty Promises About Keeping Cops From Abusing Its Tech
9. Portland, Maine has voted to ban facial recognition
10. Risks and Compliance Under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act: No Actual Harm Required for Private Cause of Action
11. One Clear Message From Voters This Election? More Privacy
12. Stanford Research Shows VR Users Can Be Identified Using Only 5 Minutes of Motion Data
13. How the Upcoming Election Could Change Privacy Law in the U.S.
14. Google’s Project Zero discloses Windows 0day that’s been under active exploit
15. EFF Asks Government To Dump DHS’s Plan To Massively Expand Its Biometric Collections
16. Senator Wyden Wants To Know If The NSA Is Still Demanding Tech Companies Build Backdoors Into Their Products
17. ICO fines Marriott 18.4 million pounds for failing to secure customer data 
18. A New Wave of Class Action Lawsuits is Targeting Online Customer Tracking
19. UK Privacy Regulator Dramatically Reduces Fine for British Airways’ GDPR Violations 
20. Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield Invalidated by Swiss Commissioner
21. Dr. Strangenet—or, how I stopped worrying and embraced the WFH IT apocalypse

CREATIVITY

1. Trump Appointee Removes ‘Firewall’ Preventing Administration From Meddling In VOA Reporting
2. President-For-Life Hopeful Donald Trump Issues Executive Order Mandating ‘Patriotic’ Education For Kids
3. Johnny Depp loses high-risk libel trial against NGN and Dan Wootton
4. To Prevent Free, Frictionless Access To Human Knowledge, Publishers Want Librarians To Be Afraid, Very Afraid

GAMES

1. Bandai Namco, AtGames resolve legal dispute: Judge dismisses lawsuit over Ms. Pac-Man rights, clearing way for re-release of AtGames’ Namco arcade microconsole
2. EA fined €10m over loot boxes as Dutch court sides with gambling authority: District court unmoved by FIFA publisher’s defenses, denies its bid to keep fines from being made public
3. Dutch judge rules that EA should be fined €500k every week until it removes FIFA loot boxes: FUT Had Been Deemed In Violation Of Gambling Rules
4. Opening Pandora’s Loot Box? Canadian Class Action Lawsuit Over Loot Boxes May Provide Guidance On The Legality of Loot Boxes in Canada
5. Sony legal threat compels PS5 faceplate company to cancel all orders: CustomizeMyPlates also had to rebrand from PlateStation5 following complaints from platform holder
6. Judge rejects Google’s attempt to push Epic case to October 2022: Fortnite firm has suggested February 2021 as judge tells both companies to “get moving”
7. Amazon patents method of grouping toxic players together online: Patent filing suggests gamers would be able to specify preferences for the behaviours they would accept
8. Ubisoft investigating after ransomware group claims to have leaked Watch Dogs source code: 560GB code for Legion reportedly available online, could endanger anti-piracy measures
9. Reports of Watch Dogs Legion source code leak prompts Ubisoft investigation 
10. Take-Two Finds Less Success with Second Take on Copyright and Tattoos
11. Randy Orton’s Tattoos Divide Courts as Gamers Prepare for PS5 and Xbox Series X
12. 2020 is already a record year for games investment: $5.2 billion in investment in Q3 alone brings the year’s total to $9.9 billion so far
13. Scopely raises $340 million at $3.3 billion valuation as mobile games thrive during pandemic
14. Newzoo raises its annual games industry forecast for 2020 once again: COVID-19’s impact on the market expected to bring industry revenue to $174.9 billion this year
15. Billy Mitchell’s Defamation Case Against Twin Galaxies Over ‘Donkey Kong’ High Score Can Go Forward
16. Opportunity for Game Publishers & Developers: Over a Quarter of Western Lapsed Gamers Are Looking to Play Again
17. Lab Zero founder Mike Zaimont suspended from work on Guilty Gear update
18. Standing on the shoulders of Riot Grrrl: Story Juice and punk feminism in games: “When you can’t see your stories and perspectives in an industry, then you have to put them there,” says studio founder Dr Hannah Wood
19. Game developers have too much job security | 10 Years Ago This Month
20. Biden/Harris Campaign Deploys Custom ‘Fortnite’ Map To Teach Voters About Key Policies
21. Old School Runescape breaks concurrent player record during Leagues II event
22. Is the games industry open to working class people?
23. Black representation in games | Podcast
24. Twitch Marketing Promo Over Golden Emoji Goes Horribly Wrong After DMCA Nuclear Strike
25. Hasan Piker’s Twitch Stream Is the Future of Election Night Coverage: Last night’s Twitch stream was so thoroughly modern that I was actually able to calm down.
26. Elastic Audio announces Intonal, a new audio programming language for games: CEO Andrew Beck says Intonal would allow game sound design to be as reactive and adaptive as graphic design
27. Pokémon Go’s 2020 revenues estimated at $1bn so far: Niantic game on course to record its best year ever, third biggest mobile game globally
28. Digital and catalog sales continue to drive growth at Capcom
29. Capcom’s games business rescues six-month results: Total revenue and profits increased despite the impact of COVID-19 on arcades and amusement centres
30. Frostpunk board game raises over €2m on Kickstarter
31. Guild Wars 2 pauses Steam plans to focus on expansion development
32. Steam rolls out built-in playtest invite and management tool beta for devs
33. The Lego Group helps Builder’s Journey dev Light Brick go independent 
34. PUBG Mobile has ceased operations in India due to government ban: Tencent statement defends protection of user data — “we deeply regret this outcome”
35. Tencent shutting down PUBG Mobile in India following government ban
36. Tencent leads $25 million investment in Avakin Life dev Lockwood Publishing
37. Tencent invests in Lockwood Publishing: Chinese tech giant leads a $25 million investment round in the Avakin Life creator
38. Tencent-owned Honor of Kings is recording 100 million average daily active users
39. Sega Sammy sells off arcade business as COVID takes its toll
40. Sega Sammy sells arcade business Sega Entertainment to Genda Inc: Company says arcades suffered due to COVID-19; expects “extraordinary losses” for fiscal year related to the sale
41. Gfinity cuts costs, seeks stability following another year of losses: Operating loss for the year was £5.5 million as company ponders acquisitions, partnerships, or sale
42. Zynga posts record quarterly revenues, bookings: Social publisher sees even more acquisitions in its future as revenue, engagement metrics grow, but net loss remains
43. Stillfront acquires collectible card game developer Everguild for $1.37 million
44. Stillfront Group acquires Everguild for £1.06m: Studio collective expands into the CCG genre with Madrid-based developer
45. Curve Digital acquires For the King developer IronOak Games
46. Curve Digital acquires IronOak Games: Canadian studio behind For the King becomes Curve’s second studio acquisition
47. UK startup Sugar closes £1.5m pre-seed round: Passion Capital leads investment in new firm offering finance to games studios wishin to avoid equity funding
48. Phil Spencer: “Our motivation is not to turn everybody into a subscriber” – The Xbox chief renewed his commitment to retail and said Game Pass is not here to “take options away from people”
49. Phil Spencer calls for more diverse leaders in games: Having “visible leaders” should be the industry’s focus, Xbox chief said, addressing the role Microsoft has to play against racial inequity
50. Bethesda exec says an Xbox-exclusive Elder Scrolls is “hard to imagine”
51. Bethesda, Microsoft Make Conflicting Statements About Game Exclusivity After Studio Purchase
52. Microsoft tightens Xbox security to prevent DDOS attacks: Xbox players were being targeted through “random party invites” in multiplayer titles
53. Xbox Party Chat security is being improved to protect IP addresses
54. PlayStation boss prefers organic studio growth over ‘frenzied’ spending
55. PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan on making PS5 more successful than PS4: “I’ve done them all, and this has easily been the most extraordinary PlayStation launch of any of them.”
56. Sony expects PS5 to exceed PS4’s 7.6m launch sales this fiscal year: But CFO Hiro Totoki says each unit will make a “negative contribution to earnings for the time being”
57. The big boost – PlayStation Plus & Fall Guys’ success?
58. Does PlayStation need to buy more games studios? | Opinion: With Microsoft snapping up major studios and publishers in recent years, we consider the implications for Sony
59. Sony reportedly puts a stop to third-party PS5 faceplate plans
60. War Stories: How Nintendo sold the NES to a skeptical country
61. Bringing more franchises to mobile is Activision Blizzard’s biggest opportunity, says COO
62. Activision-Blizzard needs to hire 2,000 people to meet production demands: Publisher to beef up for franchise-focused strategy a year and a half after laying off 800
63. Activision Blizzard reports $1.95 billion in revenue
64. Activision Blizzard beats forecasts with $1.95 billion in Q3 net revenue
65. Call of Duty drives Activision Blizzard revenues up 52% year-over-year: Modern Warfare reboot sets franchise record for first-year premium sales as engagement dips for Blizzard, King
66. Far Cry 6, Rainbow 6 Quarantine delayed: Ubisoft pushes upcoming games into next fiscal year as it reports record profits for first half of year
67. Live games keep cash flow steady as Ubisoft readies for big launches
68. Some current-gen Ubisoft games are forward compatible on Xbox but not PlayStation
69. Ubisoft ‘undertook profound actions’ to address studio culture concerns, says CEO
70. Ubisoft’s strong earnings benefit from live service games and back catalog sales during pandemic
71. Facebook’s cloud isn’t for the birds | Opinion
72. CD Projekt Red’s stock fell 25% in two months amid Cyberpunk uncertainty: Negative stories about the production and release of Cyberpunk 2077 coincided with €2.5b decline in market cap
73. CD Projekt attributes new Cyberpunk delay to working with current-gen consoles: Co-CEO Adam Kiciński apologizes to staff for “demeaning and harmful” comments about crunch during investor call
74. CD Projekt: Cyberpunk crunch ‘not that bad’, ‘mostly’ hits QA, engineers, programmers
75. Developer talent representation evolving alongside the industry: CAA head of games Derek Douglas discusses how Hollywood agencies have handled gaming over his 15-year career
76. Friday the 13th: The Game winds down with final patch, end of dedicated servers
77. Skate 3 returns to top three ten years after release | UK Digital Charts: But FIFA 21 remains at the top
78. Soft opening week for Watch Dogs Legion and Pikmin 3 | UK Physical Charts: New Dark Pictures game breaks Top Ten
79. What could game publishers be doing better?
80. Gears Pop! to shut down as long-term support becomes unfeasible
81. Light Brick Studio splitting off from Lego: Builder’s Journey developer goes indie with investment from Lego Ventures, will continue to work on Lego games
82. Caspar Lee-Founded Fund Invests In Spanish Creator Monetization Startup ‘Streamloots’
83. Oculus Quest 2 pre-orders were five times higher than Oculus Quest: Mark Zuckerberg sets a target of “ten million active units” to make Facebook’s VR platform self-sustaining
84. PlayStation boss suggests the ‘meaningful’ future of VR is still years away
85. Jim Ryan: “We’re more than a few minutes from the future of VR” – PlayStation’s CEO said VR will not be “meaningful component of interactive entertainment” until at least 2022
86. Sony to give away adapters to allow VR use on PlayStation 5: PSVR is not compatible with the PS5 out of the box, but Sony will start shipping adapters for free from the end of October
87. The PlayStation 5 only supports PlayStation VR for PS4 games right now
88. Saved by Morrowind, striving for Starfield: Todd Howard and the story of Bethesda
89. Blog: Breaking down the level design of Die Young: Prologue
90. Blog: A study on modern mobile design
91. Blog: What I learned after making an Among Us-like game in 10 days
92. Blog: What is the Unity Asset Store and how to make money on it?
93. Video: Designing the robot dinosaurs of Horizon Zero Dawn 
94. Video: Creating Michelangelo’s David in VR
95. Don’t Miss: The six year journey to Donut County
96. Don’t Miss: Game dev advice for creating terrifying and memorable 2D monsters
97. Don’t Miss: Building the PvE features in World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth
98. Don’t Miss: Building a light-hearted puzzle game around Friday the 13th 
99. Don’t Miss: 6 techniques to make game narratives more dynamic
100. Video: Building a writer’s room for Life is Strange: Before the Storm
101. Mobile game sales deep dive: Meteorfall: Krumit’s Tale
102. Thanks To Fair Use, One Man Is Trying To Preserve Old School Video Game Manuals

Jon

DIGITAL

1. Justice Dept. files long-awaited antitrust suit against Google
2. What we know about the DOJ’s antitrust case against Google so far
3. Bill Barr’s Google ‘Antitrust Inquiry’ Is A Weaponized Farce
4. Trademark Genericide And One Big Way The DOJ Admits That Its Antitrust Lawsuit Against Google Is Utter Garbage
5. Supporters Of Using Antitrust Against Big Tech Should Be Very Disappointed In How Weak The DOJ’s Case Is
6. AOC makes explosive Twitch debut with over 435,000 Among Us viewers
7. Facebook and the Group That Planned to Kidnap Gretchen Whitmer: Extremist groups and conspiracy theorists like to connect with each other just like everyone else.
8. Facebook Is So ‘Biased Against Conservatives’ That Mark Zuckerberg Personally Agreed To Diminish The Reach Of ‘Left-Leaning’ Sites
9. Cambridge Analytica’s Crime Was Not Violating Your Privacy Or Taking Data From Facebook, It Was A Massive Campaign Finance Scam
10. Facebook to pause all political advertising—after the election
11. Facebook Will Temporarily Ban All Political and Issue Advertising After the Presidential Election
12. Facebook Abuses Trademark To Give New Prominence To Group Of Facebook Critics Who Are Trying To Shame Company Into More Moderation
13. Facebook announces ban on anti-vaccination ads
14. Facebook Bans Ads That Discourage People From Getting Vaccinated
15. Facebook’s Oversight Board: what is it and will it make a difference?
16. Six Russians accused of the world’s most destructive hacks indicted
17. DOJ Says Trump’s Tweets Declassifying All Russia Investigation Docs Doesn’t Mean Anything; Judge Says They Better Go Ask Him
18. Twitter abruptly changes hacked-materials policy after blocking Biden story
19. Twitter Fixes Its Bad Policy On Blocking ‘Hacked’ Documents
20. How Not to Cover Voter Fraud Disinformation: Journalists should treat systematic disinformation campaigns from President Trump no differently than from Russian propagandists and Facebook clickbait artists (Yochai Benkler)
21. Court Says Trump Appointee Had No Authority To Fire Open Technology Fund Board; Says They Remain In Place
22. How Zello Became A Recruitment & Organizing Tool For The Far Right
23. CARU Says: Discord Is Not Directed At Children Under 13
24. How a Road Trip Through America’s Battlegrounds Revealed a Nation Plagued by Misinformation
25. Google search being searched for Anti-trust
26. China Micro-Censors The VP Debate In The Most Hamfisted Way
27. Mumbai Police Help Indian Prime Minister Modi Scrub BuzzFeed Of Images That Offended His Delicate Sensibilities
28. Democracy & Dragons
29. Against Platform Determinism
30. Trolling for Truth on Social Media
31. Global disinformation campaigns and legal challenges
32. Hacking democracy: managing influence campaigns and disinformation in the digital age
33. Global competition and the emerging challenge to open data
34. The Law and Political Economy of Workplace Technological Change (Brishen Rogers)
35. Where Platform Capitalism and Racial Capitalism Meet: The Sociology of Race and Racism in the Digital Society
36. Wired Norms: Inscription, resistance, and subversion in the governance of the Internet infrastructure (Niels ten Oever)
37. Replicating Silicon Valley? Law and Human Capital in the Making of China’s Tech Startups (Li-Wen Lin)
38. Forget TikTok. IRS Inquiry Shows The Continued Abuse Of Location Data Is The Real Scandal.
39. WeChat and TikTok Win Preliminary Injunctions Against Trump Administration’s Efforts to Ban the Apps
40. Pakistan Reverses TikTok Ban, But Has Stipulations
41. TikTok Unboxing Videos Are Driving Record Sales For Mini Brands, VIP Pets
42. LinkedIn Isn’t a State Actor–Perez v. LinkedIn (Eric Goldman)
43. DOJ Seizes Domains, Claiming They Pushed Iranian Disinformation; Should Raise 1st Amendment Concerns
44. The GOP’s Blisteringly Hypocritical Road From Whining About Net Neutrality To Supporting Trump’s Idiotic Attack On Social Media
45. While Trump Continues To Complain About 230, It’s Copyright Law That Once Again Actually Gets His Content Removed
46. League Of California Cities Want Congress To Change Section 230… To Let Cops Spy On Everyone Using Social Media
47. Section 230 Liability Shield Continues to Receive Scrutiny
48. Section 230 Basics: There Is No Such Thing As A Publisher-Or-Platform Distinction
49. Another Anti-Section 230 Bill? Sure, Why Not?
50. Justice Thomas Writes a Misguided Anti-Section 230 Statement “Without the Benefit of Briefing”–Enigma v. Malwarebytes (Eric Goldman)
51. Blatant Hypocrite Ajit Pai Decides To Move Forward With Bogus, Unconstitutional Rulemaking On Section 230
52. FCC Announces Section 230 Rulemaking
53. Chairman Pai: FCC to Address Social Media Immunity Under Section 230
54. Jeffrey Toobin’s Zoom Dick Incident Is The Perfect Example Of Why We Need Section 230
55. FCC trying to help Trump win election with Twitter crackdown, Democrats say
56. FCC cites Title II in defense of helping Trump’s attack on social media
57. FCC Too Afraid To Go On Record To Truly Support Trump’s Dumb Attack On Social Media
58. Ajit Pai says he’ll help Trump impose crackdown on Twitter and Facebook
59. Insights: With Zoom And Its Many Competitors, We’re All Livestreamers Now
60. Ted Cruz Once Insisted That Net Neutrality Was The Gov’t Takeover Of The Internet; Now Demands That Twitter Host All Nonsense
61. Republicans, Who Have Made Sure The Federal Election Commission Can’t Do Anything, File A Complaint About Twitter’s Moderation Practices
62. Content Moderation Case Study: Facebook’s Internal ‘Hate Speech’ Guidelines Appear To Leave Protected Groups Unprotected (June 2017)
63. Content Moderation Case Study: Apple Removes Games Containing Confederate Flags (June 2015)
64. Content Moderation Case Study: Handling Trolls Invading A Community (1993)
65. Assessment of the Code of Practice on Disinformation
66. Instagram Agrees To New Measures To Curb “Hidden” Influencer Advertising In The U.K.
67. Quibi Is Shutting Down
68. Quibi streaming service shutting down after less than 1 year
69. YouTube cracks down on QAnon conspiracists
70. YouTube Bans Content Endorsing QAnon, Pizzagate
71. YouTube Expands COVID Misinformation Policy To Ban Vaccine Conspiracies
72. New Google Nest Hub experiment nixes the “Hey Google” voice hotword
73. Google Chat goes free in 2021, while Hangouts loses features this month
74. Google wants to turn YouTube into QVC with new shopping features
75. Can You Avoid Creator Burnout By Working The YouTube Algorithm? Is More Actually Less? We Take A Look.
76. YouTube Unveils First 5 Originals Produced By Its $100 Million ‘Black Voices’ Fund
77. YouTube Gives Premium Subscribers Exclusive Access To Test New Features
78. YouTube Testing Ecommerce Tools That Turn Creator Videos Into Product Catalogs
79. Top 50 Most Viewed US YouTube Channels • Week Of 10/05/2020
80. Top 50 Most Viewed US YouTube Channels • Week Of 10/12/2020
81. Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 10/05/2020
82. Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 10/12/2020
83. Is The Creator-Owned “Smart YouTuber Mafia” A New Standard For Digital Content?
84. Blast off with Scott Manley as he discusses his top 1,000 YouTube comments
85. Google shuts down Trusted Contacts, its emergency location sharing app
86. Google kills the Nest Secure, its $500 home security system
87. David Dobrik, Emma Chamberlain, James Charles Lead This Year’s Pack Of Streamy Nominees
88. MrBeast’s ‘Creator Games’ Sequel Sets YouTube Record With 1 Million Concurrent Viewers
89. YouTube Exec Ryan Wyatt Says Valkyrae Is “The Fastest-Growing Livestreamer In The Entire World”
90. France Passes Law Giving Child Influencers Same Protections As Young Actors, Models
91. Snap Hits Record $50 Billion Valuation After Significant Q3 Growth In Revenue, DAUs
92. Snapchat Launches ‘Sounds’, Enabling Users To Orchestrate Snaps, Stories With Licensed Music
93. Teespring Will Now Let Creators Vend ‘Digital Products’, Like Photo Presets And Ebooks
94. Reels Rolls Out New Content Discovery, Sharing Features
95. Twitter Disables Core Functions To Prevent Spread Of Election Misinformation
96. Joe Biden Taps Portal A For #ImVotingFor Influencer Campaign On Instagram, Twitter
97. Twitter Will Turn Off Some Features to Fight Election Misinformation
98. QAnon/8chan sites back online after being ousted by DDoS-protection vendor
99. Google Music shuts down smart speaker support and music store
100. Logan Paul’s Pokemon Card Unboxing Stream Gets 300,000 Concurrent Viewers, Raises $130,000 For Charity
101. Facebook Unveils Free Tool Enabling Creators To Test Video Post Performance Before Publishing
102. Spotify Now Lets Podcasters Use Its Entire Music Library In Their Shows
103. Riot Games and Spotify team up
104. Brooklyn-Based Startup MSCHF Wants To Pay Influencers To Take Down “Evil” Brands
105. Stupid Use Of Profanity Filter Makes A Mess Of Virtual Paleontologist Conference
106. IBM to split into two companies by end of 2021
107. Insights: Could The Streaming Services Killing Movie Theaters Save Them Instead?
108. Netflix Nixes Free Trials In U.S.
109. ‘Ratched’ Hooks 48 Million Viewers In 28 Days, Becoming Netflix’s Most-Watched Debut Of 2020
110. Following Staff Exodus, Bon Appetit Relaunches YouTube Channel With 8 New And 3 Returning Hosts
111. Apple pays $288,000 to white-hat hackers who had run of company’s network
112. Microsoft thumbs its nose at Apple with new “app fairness” policy
113. Trickbot—the for-hire botnet Microsoft attacked—is scrambling to stay alive
114. 1980s MTV is back, sort of: Apple launches Apple Music TV channel
115. Coordinating office space: Digital technologies and the platformization of work
116. Targeting Ontological Security: Information Warfare in the Modern Age
117. We’re touching our smartphones more than ever. And it’s changing the ancient connection between the body and the brain
118. The pernicious contagion of misinformation: False statements – about Covid-19 and so much else – spread like a virus online. Scientists should study them like one.
119. The Internet is full of business cats: Dealing with the breakdown of the work/home divide
120. A giant cat picture was just discovered among the Nazca Lines: Archaeologists haven’t yet located an accompanying giant meme caption.
121. Another Significant Cryptocurrency Decision: SEC v. Kik Interactive Inc. and Token Offerings Under the Securities Laws
122. Unpacking the DOJ’s cryptocurrency guidance: Enforcement priorities and industry implications
123. DOJ’s Evolving Framework for Cryptocurrency Enforcement
124. The US Department of Justice issues Cryptocurrency Enforcement Framework forecasting increased scrutiny of activities involving cryptocurrency
125. Chinese City Issues Digital Currency in Pilot Program
126. A Map for the New World of Blockchain
127. New Export Controls: Emerging Technologies
128. New Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy launched at McGill University’s Max Bell School of Public Policy

A.I.

1. Waymo finally launches an actual public, driverless taxi service
2. The Unforeseen Benefits of Driverless Transport during a Pandemic
3. Trustworthy artificial intelligence 
4. Are we being too hard on HAL? Some thoughts on the legal need for “explainable” artificial intelligence. 
5. AI and Your Legal Analysis
6. Artificial Intelligence Licensing: What You Need to Know
7. The Losers of automation. How the introduction of robotics changed the European occupational class structure
8. To Surveil and Predict: A Human Rights Analysis of Algorithmic Policing in Canada
9. Expanding Biometric Class Actions Beyond Illinois 
10. AI and the fight for inventorship – DABUS patent knocked out in UK High Court
11. ‘Machines set loose to slaughter’: the dangerous rise of military AI 
12. Human Judgment in algorithmic loops: Individual justice and automated decision‐making
13. Algorithmic Censorship by Social Platforms: Power and Resistance
14. Is Facebook too big to know? The Markup has a plan (and a browser) to wrap its arms around it: The CBP will pay Americans to monitor the choices that tech company algorithms are making for them.
15. Artificial intelligence – from principles to practice
16. Doctor Alexa will see you now – regulating artificial intelligence in healthcare
17. USPTO Releases Report on Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property Policy
18. Government Data Practices as Necropolitics and Racial Arithmetic
19. Artificial Intelligence improves clinical trials
20. Legal industry ramping up adoption of artificial intelligence, says AI platform partner

COMMUNICATIONS

1.  How Can Linking to an Article be Immoral When the Media Source Itself Does the Posting? (Michael Geist)
2. How Can Linking to an Article be Immoral When the Media Source Itself Does the Posting, Part 2: A Day in the Life of the Toronto Star on Facebook (Michael Geist)
3. Forget Link Licensing and Cross-Subsidies: When it Comes to Tech, Canada Should be Focused on Competition Law and Tax Policy (Michael Geist) 
4. Class dismissed: CRTC finds OneClass in violation of Canada’s anti-spam legislation
5. NASA and Nokia are putting a 4G network on the moon
6. AT&T plans thousands of layoffs at HBO, Warner Bros., rest of WarnerMedia
7. AT&T Is Taking An Absolute Bath On Its DirecTV Merger
8. AT&T Gives Up On DSL, Leaving Many Out Of Broadband’s Reach 
9. Comcast says gigabit downloads and uploads are now possible over cable
10. Verizon’s New ‘Nationwide’ 5G Isn’t Nationwide, Barely Faster Than 4G
11. Successful 5G implementation
12. Half Of Smartphone Users Incorrectly Think They Already Have 5G
13. FCC Adopts Final Rule Formalizing Team Telecom Foreign Ownership Review
14. FCC Adopts Rules Codifying Foreign Investment Process
15. The November Election and the FCC: Predictions for Five Key Policies
16. Wisconsin Gets Wise To Foxconn’s Grift, Blocks New Subsidies
17. Employees Say Foxconn & Donald Trump’s Wisconsin Factory Scam Was An Absurdist Hellscape 
18. Access to Infrastructure: using existing ducts and pipes to install new fibre broadband
19. Five Bar Owners Arrested In France For Not Logging Internet Use By Patrons Using Bars’ WiFi Connections

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

1. Supreme Court of Canada to Hear York University/Access Copyright Appeals
2. Justice Luc Martineau is new chair of Copyright Board of Canada
3. Google gets mixed reception in Supreme Court clash with Oracle: Justices held a low-tech telephone session in one of the biggest software fights in American history on Wednesday
4. Google’s Supreme Court faceoff with Oracle was a disaster for Google 
5. IP Alert | Supreme Court Hears Arguments in “Copyright Case of the Century”
6. Supremes won’t review the morality of whitewashing graffiti art
7. Denial of Certiorari Leaves in Place Ninth Circuit En Banc Decision Finding No Infringement in “Stairway to Heaven”
8. hiQ Labs v. LinkedIn Corp., the Web Scraping Saga Continues
9. Music in Podcasts – As Podcasts Shut Down Following Infringement Notices, Looking at the Required Music Rights
10. 512(f) Claim Survives Motion to Dismiss–Brandyn Love v. Nuclear Blast America (Eric Goldman)
11. By the Book: Unauthorized Material Doesn’t Forfeit Training Guide’s Copyright Protection
12. Nicki Minaj’s Experimentation with Tracy Chapman’s Classic “Baby Can I Hold You” Qualifies as a Fair Use Under Copyright 
13. NY Art Disputes Highlight Fame’s Role In Copyright Suits 
14. “Can’t Hold Us” Liable: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis Win Affirmance in Copyright Suit
15. We Interrupt This Hellscape With A Bit Of Good News On The Copyright Front 
16. DMCA Takedown Notices: A New Opponent for Twitch Streamers 
17. Twitch blasts streamers with vague, unhelpful DMCA takedown emails
18. Lessons from a pandemic: long-term impacts on Canadian trademark practice 
19. The Cousteau Society, Inc. v. Cousteau: Court holds granddaughter of Jacques-Yves Cousteau cannot escape trademark infringement based on unauthorized use of Cousteau’s trademarks in film projects and materials.
20. Microsoft Wields Its IP For Good, Cripples Botnet Via Trademark Litigation 
21. Will Disney’s newest Toy Story 4 character go ‘caboom’?
22. Boston University students launch “F*ck It Won’t Cut It” campaign, University files a Trademark application
23. Lehman Brothers is Gone but Not Abandoned 
24. EU: What does Brexit mean for EU trade marks and designs?
25. Comparative aspects of trademark dilution between the United States and China
26. Versace ripped off the Canucks’ spaghetti-skate logo 
27. Depreciation of goodwill with cannabis trademarks 
28. Determined not to tumble: British Gymnastics’ trade mark dispute and IP protections for sports properties
29. The Third Circuit Shares Some Food for Thought on the Bounds of Trade Dress Protection 
30. Court of Appeal Upholds Interim Injunction in Trade Secrets Case
31. How to Keep Trade Secrets Secret
32. New Trade Secret Protections in China
33. Protection of store layout under IP law
34. Protecting Recipes and Food as Intellectual Property
35. $644-million award for patent infringement upheld on appeal; Accounting of profits remedy removes “economic incentive to infringe”
36. IP monitor: Quebec Superior Court dismisses application for disavowal of a IP monitor – Quebec Superior Court dismisses application for disavowal of admissions of patent invalidity
37. Federal Court Freezes Out Motion to Vary Injunction in Patent Case
38. US Patent Boss Says No Evidence Of Patents Holding Back COVID Treatments, Days Before Pharma Firms Prove He’s Wrong
39. Federal Circuit Restores Induced Infringement Verdict Against Teva
40. Watch Out: The Patent Maximalists Are On The Warpath To Destroy Innovation And Empower Patent Trolls 
41. Applying the Broadest Reasonable Interpretation of the Claim in Light of the Specification, Federal Circuit Revives Claims in Heart Valve Patent
42. Why Is My Company Being Sued For Patent Infringement In Waco, Texas?
43. Beyond borders: Extraterritorial reach of Australian patents
44. Inadequate Translation of a Non-English Application Leads to US Patent Invalidation
45. Skinny Label Does Not Prevent Finding of Induced Infringement 
46. Expert Testimony Stricken Where Expert Did Not Show Non-Infringing Alternatives Were Available in the United States 
47. Worried about being sued for patent infringement in multiple jurisdictions? Three ways to gain control 
48. New Grape Varieties – Raisin Awareness of Plant Patents 
49. High Stakes: Protecting Your Cannabis Intellectual Property 
50. Nobel Prize 2020: A Chemistry Patent Attorney’s View 
51. Key IP Agreements for Startups
52. Blowing away the competition: design evolution, and what it’s like to be Head of IP at Dyson

PRIVACY

1. Canadian privacy and data protection basics for emerging companies
2. Sask. privacy commissioner finds clinic’s loss of Dictaphone with patient info was privacy breach
3. Location Data Obtained By CBP Comes From Phone Apps, Is Capable Of Tracking People On Both Sides Of The Border
4. H&M fined €35.3m under GDPR for ‘Return to Work’ practices
5. Fancy Bear imposters are on a hacking extortion spree
6. COVID-19 Is Driving The Uptake Of Chess — And Of Surveillance Tools To Stop Online Players Cheating
7. Adblockers installed 300,000 times are malicious and should be removed now
8. Privacy as an aggregate public good
9. United States: California Privacy Rights Act – what you need to know
10. Schrems II Series: United States Defence 
11. In wake of the Schrems II, CNIL challenges use of Microsoft cloud storage to host public health data lakes (the Health Data Hub case – Part 1)
12. Judge Shuts Down Vallejo PD’s Illegally-Obtained Stingray
13. SF Chronicle Op-Ed: “Prop. 24 is the Wrong Policy Approach, at the Wrong Time, via the Wrong Process” (Eric Goldman)
14. The Right to be Forgotten

CREATIVITY

1. Quebec court acquits fiction author of child pornography charges
2. DOJ Is Suing Melania Trump’s Ex-Friend Over Her Book, Despite Never Being A Government Employee
3. Administration Officials (Again) Break The Law By Investigating Voice Of America Journalist For ‘Anti-Trump Bias’
4. Devin Nunes Asks Appeals Court To Invalidate Bedrock Supreme Court 1st Amendment Ruling
5. ICE Spent Your Tax Dollars Dragging A Journalist Through The Internet Sewer Over A Mistake She Apologized For
6. Federal Judge Ridiculously Says That Holding A Sign Telling People Cops Are Ahead Is Not Free Speech

GAMES

1. Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against EA in Canada Over Loot Boxes
2. EA facing Canadian class action lawsuit over loot boxes: Two plaintiffs seeking damages as suit calls out “unlicensed, illegal gaming system” in over 60 titles
3. Mark Sutherland and Shawn Moore v. Electronic Arts Inc. (Notice of Civil Claim The Supreme Court of B.C., September 30, 2020)
4. Rune 2 lawsuit alleges deliberate sabotage from Bethesda, ZeniMax
5. ZeniMax, Bethesda, Roundhouse added to lawsuit over Rune 2: Ragnarok accuses companies involved in Human Head demise and Roundhouse formation of sabotaging Rune 2 and a game based on the Oblivion Song comic
6. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is running an Among Us stream to drive voter turnout
7. AOC makes explosive Twitch debut with over 435,000 Among Us viewers
8. AOC’s debut Twitch stream is one of the biggest ever: And she’s genuinely pretty good at Among Us
9. 439,000 People Watched Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Take On Top Content Creators In ‘Among Us’
10. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Storms Twitch: More than 400,000 people tuned into AOC’s stream of a marathon Among Us session with representative Ilhan Omar and Twitch luminaries.
11. US Rep Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez’s Twitch stream drew 439k peak viewers: Among Us stream with fellow Representative Ilhan Omar and popular Twitch streamers saw highest peak of any politician on Twitch
12. AOC’s record-breaking Twitch stream is the future of politics: Young, tech-savvy, meme-literate, and accessible
13. Twitch purges videos after “thousands” of requests from music labels: Streaming site offers content creators the ability to delete all videos as it issues “a one-time warning to learn about copyright law”
14. Women and gamers of color detail experiences with online harassment in games like Call of Duty
15. More allegations surface against Rooster Teeth’s Ryan Haywood: Former Achievement Hunter host described as “predatory,” allegedly taking advantage of power imbalance to solicit sexual favours from young women
16. A lawyer’s perspective on the industry’s abuse problem: Toxic family notions, favoritism and lack of regulation all lead to abuse, says legal expert Siobhán Crawford
17. Summer video game reveals showed record number of female protagonists: But Feminist Frenquency’s annual analysis warns this may be a “one-off statistical anomaly”
18. Liar Liar, Mobile Game Ads Under Fire — ASA Bans Misleading Ads for Mobile Games
19. Epic vs. Apple is losing PR steam | Opinion: Sensible rulings in Epic’s legal dispute with Apple have pared the case back to its core question — and shown just how disruptive Epic’s demand really is
20. Take-Two Opposes Trademark For An Entertainment Company Running An Axe-Throwing Facility
21. NBA 2K21 adds unskippable ads to loading screens: 2K Sports introduces new monetization method to latest basketball title weeks after launch
22. Players slam 2K after publisher inserts unskippable ads into NBA 2K21
23. Sega takes flak for releasing Golden Axe prototype made ‘under crunch conditions’
24. Sega criticised for launching Golden Axe prototype created “under crunch conditions”: Sega edited the Steam page and said in a statement that it “didn’t mean to dredge up painful memories”
25. Bungie cease and desist pulls Destiny 2 cheat tool offline
26. GameStop’s Microsoft partnership reportedly lands it a cut of digital Xbox revenue
27. Microsoft will give GameStop a share of Xbox’s digital revenues
28. Xbox’s GameStop deal: lifeline or table scraps?
29. Microsoft will share digital revenues with GameStop on every Xbox it sells: Investment advisor says retailer will even get a share of DLC sales if physical game was purchased from another company
30. Microsoft confirms Xbox Series X|S launch titles: 30 games will be “fully optimized” for next-gen system upon release, none exclusive to next-gen
31. Xbox Series X unleashed: Our unrestricted preview
32. Phil Spencer: Xbox could recoup Bethesda acquisition without PlayStation releases
33. Xbox head: Bethesda purchase wasn’t to keep games away from other platforms – While each game’s platforms will be decided case-by-case, Phil Spencer says Elder Scrolls doesn’t need to be on PlayStation to recoup costs
34. What happened with Microsoft’s Switch publishing experiments? 
35. Nintendo Nukes ‘Zelda’ Fan Game, As Per Usual
36. Switch game discovery – look on the bright side?
37. Nintendo Switch shines on Amazon’s Prime Day | UK Boxed Charts: 29 out of the Top 40 jumped in sales week-on-week
38. One-third of US gamers surveyed plan to buy a next-gen console this year: Baird finds purchase intent for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S roughly equal, Call of Duty expected to top holiday sales
39. The PlayStation 5 user interface is an instant hub that prioritizes gameplay
40. PlayStation 5 UI revealed: “Activity” shortcuts, picture-in-picture
41. PlayStation Store to drop PS3 content and Wishlists on desktop and mobile: PS Vita and PSP games will also be gone as part of incoming store revamp
42. PlayStation clarifies how its voice chat reporting tool will work on PS5
43. Future PS5 updates will optimize cooling based on data from individual games
44. PS5 will use downloadable updates to control game-by-game fan speed
45. Google Stadia’s free demos could prove the value of game streaming
46. Amazon Luna is live, and it’s already out-streaming Google Stadia
47. Luna, Amazon’s take on cloud-based gaming, launches in (limited) early access
48. Growth in UK games industry fastest ever recorded: Games development headcount is at an all-time high of 18,279 in the UK
49. Lessons in community building from EVE Online
50. YouTube: Among Us videos reached 4bn views in September – Video platform’s report shows US as largest audience, but viewers flooding in from around the world
51. Unity creates Social Impact Division to support non-profits
52. Unity launches Social Impact Division backed by $67m fund: New division will provide grants for work in education, sustainability, and health and well-being
53. FIFA download launch sales spike 31% over last year | UK Digital Charts: Overall sales down only slightly over last year’s entry
54. EA Motive boss: ‘player autonomy’ is key to studio’s future
55. Avengers assembles September sales chart heavy on new releases: Square Enix’s latest just one of seven games debuting in the top 20 as NPD’s total US game sales for the month rise 10% year-over-year
56. Marvel’s Avengers’ next-gen version delayed to 2021 to ensure product quality: Crystal Dynamics is taking its time after initial launch that “was not without turbulence”
57. Report: China-owned mobile studio Playtika is chasing an IPO in the U.S.
58. Mobile game publisher Playtika files to go public in window for game IPOs
59. Playtika files IPO draft: Publisher behind Best Fiends, June’s Journey has confidentially submitted preliminary paperwork to go public
60. MAG Interactive reports $25 million in sales: Revenue at the mobile games company also grew 28% from June to August 2020
61. Game rental shop GameFly acquired by Alliance Entertainment group
62. GameFly sold to distributor Alliance Entertainment: New owner says it will expand US rental-by-mail service’s selection of games, as well as hardware, accessories, and collectibles for sale
63. ‘Fortnite’ Taps J Balvin For Latest In-Game Concert In Honor Of Halloween
64. New nonprofit organisation Hit Save to support games preservation: The community-driven organisation is based in the US but will operate globally
65. Z Event raises €5.7m for Amnesty International: The live streaming event broke the record for the most money raised for charity on Twitch
66. Talent Firm Loaded Adds Pro Gamer Maria ‘Chica’ Lopez To Starry Roster
67. Facebook Gaming Streamer Avori Henderson Signs With Ford Models’ New Esports And Gaming Division
68. Blizzard winding down development on StarCraft II after over a decade
69. Blizzard no longer developing new content for StarCraft 2: Developer will continue to issue balance fixes and work with partners on esports
70. New ex-Blizzard game studio formed to pick up a fallen RTS mantle
71. Ex-Blizzard devs land $4.7m for new studio Frost Giant 
72. EVOS Esports closes $12m Series B round: Southeast Asia-focused esports firm has raised more than $16m in its lifetime
73. Devolver Digital acquires Serious Sam dev Croteam
74. Devolver Digital acquires Serious Sam developer Croteam: Publisher further cements partnership following decades of publishing deals
75. How the Nemesis system got an indie makeover in Star Renegades
76. Ubisoft Connect announced as a ‘refreshed’ replacement for Uplay and Ubisoft Club
77. Overcoming AR’s limitations with Mario Kart Live Home Circuit: Velan Studios president Guha Bala on reinventing Nintendo’s best-selling racing franchise for augmented reality
78. Sony Unveils ‘Spatial Reality Display’ with Eye-tracking for Glasses-free 3D Viewing: Priced at $5,000 and launching in November
79. PSVR Not Compatible With PS5 Camera, New Japanese Bundles Include Adapter for PS4 Camera
80. Oculus Quest 2 quietly drops support for Oculus Go games
81. Facebook Develops Hand Tracking Method to Touch Type in VR Without a Keyboard
82. Cliff Bleszinski may return to games development “slowly and cautiously”: Fall Guys and Among Us has given Gears of War designer hope as he reflects on the mistakes of Boss Key Productions
83. Devolver brings in head of licensing to put Fall Guys ‘on the licensing map’
84. Ken Williams doesn’t know how his design philosophy could work today: Sierra On-Line co-founder talks about his new book, disconnecting from the games industry, and what’s changed since he left nearly 25 years ago
85. Tides of Chaos: How Baldur’s Gate 3 tackles the pure RNG of D&D-inspired dice rolls
86. Learn how Supergiant brought Hades’ hand-painted characters to life
87. Rocket League’s appeal isn’t rocket science | Why I Love
88. Blog: Networking into the games industry as a new grad
89. Blog: The in-app purchase merchandising playbook – Part 1 
90. Video: How Criterion Games improved its studio leadership
91. Video: Why your game community is now a marketing asset
92. Video: The developers of Ghostrunner discuss the making a cyberpunk platformer
93. Don’t Miss: The undying allure of the Metroidvania
94. Don’t Miss: Crafting GoNNER’s modular abilities
95. Don’t Miss: How the developers of New Vegas took back Fallout
96. Don’t Miss: Crafting Danganronpa to surprise players
97. Don’t Miss: The designer is god–or the devil–in The Talos Principle
98. Q&A: Designing for seasons in bumbling platform royale Fall Guys
99. Data Deep Dive: Meteorfall: Krumit’s Tale on Steam
100. New non-profit Hit Save! wants to help preserve video games and their history
101. The Video Game History Foundation is working to save our source code
102. French charity steam Z Event raises $6.7 million for Amnesty International
103. U.S. Patent no. 9,492,740: Remote and/or distributed equipping of video game characters
104. U.S. Patent No. 10,625,156: Method and system for sharing video game content

Jon