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  • Welcome Cohort 1, UBC Foundations of Digital Media

    Welcome to the website for the UBC flavour of Foundations of Digital Media. Am excited to meet you tomorrow and evolve this course together. The course has been taught in various forms at the Centre for Digital Media for a decade. Hardly an old dog, but nevertheless there are new tricks to be had. Let’s […] Read More

News of the Week; September 26, 2018

By Jon Festinger on September 30, 2018

DIGITAL

  1. Québec Appeals Superior Court Ruling that Bill 74 is Unconstitutional
  2. Protecting Your Social Media Profile: How One New Zealand Technology Company Allegedly Violated Canadian Privacy Law 
  3. Departing Employee Required to Transfer Social Media Accounts–Hyperheal Hyperbarics v. Shapiro 
  4. District Court Misses The Forest For The Trees In Dismissing Constitutional Challenge To FOSTA 
  5. What’s next for the proposed Copyright Directive? (Andres Guadamuz) 
  6. Years Later, FTC Wins Case Against Roca Labs For Its Bogus Non-Disparagement Clause 
  7. Armed with cameras and computers, China’s latest crackdown begins: China has invented a version of social media that makes the rest seem both marginal and harmless. It sets out to shape 1.3 billion people into a predictable, reliable and obedient mass 
  8. The Real Story Behind That Viral Video of President Trump Hissing Like a Snake
  9. White House Admits Exec Order To Regulate Social Media Is ‘Real,’ But No Idea Who Wrote It, And Won’t Use It 
  10. In Which A Bunch Of Us Try To Explain The 1st Amendment To Jeff Sessions Concerning ‘Social Media Bias’
  11. Ecuador wanted to make Julian Assange a diplomat and send him to Moscow
  12. Instagram’s IGTV Is Reportedly Recommending Suggestive Videos Containing Underage Girls
  13. Instagram’s co-founders just quit. That could be bad news for Facebook: Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion in 2012.
  14. Instagram Co-Founders Depart Facebook Amid Reported Rift With Mark Zuckerberg
  15. Mark Zuckerberg Blamed for Instagram Founders’ Departure
  16. Ex-Facebook moderator sues Facebook over exposure to disturbing images
  17. Facebook Is Giving Advertisers Access to Your Shadow Contact Information
  18. Facebook is dominating the stories format
  19. Socially-Conscious Facebook Video Giant ‘ATTN:’ Raises $15 Million, Led By Evolution Media 
  20. Amazon’s Aggressive Anti-Union Tactics Revealed in Leaked 45-Minute Video
  21. In Defense Of Amazon’s Alexa Microwave
  22. Amazon And Snapchat Form A Powerful Partnership 
  23. Soon You’ll Be Able To Use Your Snapchat Camera To Shop For Goods On Amazon
  24. Snapchat is letting users register to vote from its app 
  25. PayPal bans Alex Jones, saying he “promoted hate”
  26. Post-Cody Wilson’s arrest, few know what’s up with his company or legal efforts
  27. Taiwanese authorities arrest Cody Wilson, intend to deport him
  28. Cody Wilson arrives back in the States, enters US Marshals custody
  29. Defense Distributed’s new era—Cody Wilson resigns, former arts professional steps in
  30. Facebook Now Reportedly ‘Reviewing’ Its Distinction Between White Nationalism and White Supremacy
  31. Facebook Says It Will Stop Sending Employees to Help Political Campaigns In-Person
  32. Facebook Makes Dating Service “Facebook Official”
  33. Facebook Is Testing Its Dating Service. Here’s How It’s Different From Tinder
  34. Protecting Users of Facebook and Other Social Media (Margaret Ryznar)
  35. Tinder Lies (Irina Manta)
  36. Social Media Games Your Psychology. Ethical Design Could Change That.
  37. Crowdfunding raises millions for quack cancer remedies, like coffee enemas
  38. If VCs Aren’t Socially Responsible, The Robots Will Win 
  39. Artificial Intelligence: The Robots Are Now Hiring
  40. Legal Aspects of Artificial Intelligence (v2.0)
  41. AI learns to decipher images based on spoken words—almost like a toddler
  42. Playing with AI Fairness: Google’s new machine learning diagnostic tool lets users try on five different types of fairness
  43. When Will We Have Artificial Intelligence As Smart as a Human? Here’s What Experts Think
  44. Computer says “no”: High Court refuses permission to serve Google out of the jurisdiction in copyright infringement proceedings
  45. Google Chrome Is Now Quietly Forcing You to Log In—Here’s What to Do About It  
  46. The World of the Future Will Have Two Separate Internets, Former Google CEO Predicts 
  47. Louisiana’s Attorney General Wants To Break Up Google Over ‘Bias’
  48. Low pay, poor prospects, and psychological toll: The perils of microtask work 
  49. Website Blocking orders: the final chapter
  50. Section 230’s Success in Under-the-Radar Cases (Eric Goldman) 
  51. Departing Employee Required to Transfer Social Media Accounts – Hyperheal Hyperbarics v. Shapiro (Eric Goldman)
  52. BuzzFeed News Eliminates In-House Podcast Team To Double Down On Video Efforts 
  53. Viacom Digital Names Existing Awesomeness Execs Co-Heads Of Network Following Acquisition
  54. Viacom Names Awesomeness Co-Chiefs: Rebecca Glashow and Shelley Zimmerman 
  55. Trudeau appoints BroadbandTV CEO to G20 Business Women Leaders task force 
  56. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Taps BBTV Founder Shahrzad Rafati For Women’s Economic Initiative
  57. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Appoints Shahrzad Rafati to Represent Canada on G20 Business Women Leaders Task Force
  58. Health Issues Force YouTuber And Author Joey Graceffa To Cancel Upcoming ‘Eden’ Tour
  59. YouTube Revamps ‘Trending’ Tab With 5 New Content Categories
  60. YouTube Demonetizes Tween Channels — But Leaves Videos Standing — After Network Owner Is Arrested For Molesting A Minor 
  61. 2018 Streamy Awards Nominations Unveiled, YouTube Signs as Sponsor
  62. YouTube Channel Yes Theory Got Will Smith To Bungee Jump Over The Grand Canyon, And Millions Are Watching
  63. YouTube Has Partnered With Facebook-Owned Oculus On YouTube VR App For The Oculus Go
  64. YouTuber Tyler Oakley Feted For LGBTQ Advocacy Work On Cover Of The Advocate
  65. Laura Lee Returns To YouTube With Apology For Apology Video, Vows To Help Mend Beauty Community
  66. Creators for Good: Shannon Beveridge Seizes the Awkward Moments To Talk About Mental Health
  67. Spotify Is Beta-Testing A Feature That Allows Indie Creators To Upload Their Own Music 
  68. Spotify to Enable Artists to Upload Music Themselves 
  69. Spotify Will Make a Playlist Based on Your DNA
  70. Cult classic TV show Veronica Mars is Hulu’s latest resurrection
  71. Disney Says ESPN+ Streaming Service Notches More Than 1 Million Subscribers
  72. Amazon announces 11 new and refreshed Echo-branded gadgets—like a wall clock
  73. Sex, violence, drugs get the axe in Apple’s upcoming original content 
  74. Apple’s Upcoming Streaming Service Is Reportedly So Bland Staff Are Calling It ‘Expensive NBC’
  75. Apple Watch’s new auto-911 calls after falls may tumble into legal trouble
  76. Apple stole Qualcomm chip secrets and gave them to Intel, Qualcomm claims
  77. Apple Closes Shazam Acquisition, Starts Phasing Out Ads
  78. Insights: With Bigger Phones And Way Faster Networks, Are Creators And Companies Ready?
  79. Decision confronts challenges in valuing Bitcoin 

CREATIVITY

  1. Cuts Like a Knife: Bryan Adams Calls for Stronger Protections Against One-Sided Record Label Contracts (Michael Geist)
  2. To fix Canadian copyright, let creators claim their rights back after 25 years
  3. Congress may actually fix music royalties: The Music Modernization Act
  4. Artist Inspired By Andy Warhol, Creates Truly Astounding Work… Ends Up Giving It Away Over ‘Copyright Infringement’
  5. Monster Energy Loses Again, This Time To The NBA
  6. Pennsylvania Legislator Thinks He Can Ban Teachers From Talking About Politics In The Classroom
  7. Use of Affiliate Links Does Not Necessarily Transform Editorial Content into Advertising Says NAD
  8. The future of UK Intellectual Property Rights in a ‘no deal’ Brexit
  9. Elon Musk May Have Talked His Way Into A Pretty Serious Defamation Lawsuit
  10. Judge Says Student Can Sue School For Suspending Her After She Called A Fictional Cop A ‘Pig’
  11. Spinelli v. NFL: Second Circuit reinstates professional photographers’ copyright infringement claim alleging that NFL and AP exploited thousands of NFL event photographs without authorization or payment.
  12. Famous Protest Art Group In Bulgaria Paint Their Feelings About New EU Copyright Law On Gutenberg Statue
  13. Twelve Rules For Not Being A Total Free Speech Hypocrite

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

  1. NYT sues FCC, says it hid evidence of Russia meddling in net neutrality repeal: FCC broke law by hiding net neutrality comment records, lawsuit alleges. 
  2. New York Times Sues FCC With Eye On Bogus Russian Net Neutrality Comments
  3. Court Orders FCC To Hand Over Data On Bogus Net Neutrality Comments
  4. FCC angers cities and towns with $2 billion giveaway to wireless carriers
  5. Ajit Pai slams cities and towns as FCC erases $2 billion in local fees
  6. The Internet is not an ATM: My Appearance at the Senate Transport and Communications Committee on Broadcast and Telecom Reform (Michael Geist)
  7. SiriusXM to pay $3.5 billion for Pandora
  8. Sirius Plunges Most Since 2011 After $3.5 Billion Pandora Deal
  9. Comcast stock tanks after company strikes $40 billion deal to buy Sky
  10. Even Wall Street Is Nervous About Comcast’s Latest Bid To Grow Bigger For Bigger’s Sake
  11. FCC angers cities and towns with $2 billion giveaway to wireless carriers
  12. FCC Decision Illustrates Details of the Application of FCC Foreign Ownership Approval Requirements 
  13. GAO Again Points Out That Terrible U.S. Broadband Maps Drive (Intentionally) Terrible Broadband Policy 
  14. No, Next-Gen Wireless (5G) Won’t Magically Fix The Broken U.S. Broadband Market

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

  1. State Attorneys General Really Want To Go After Big Internet Companies; But Claim It’s About Privacy, Not Bias
  2. NSA employee who brought hacking tools home sentenced to 66 months in prison
  3. Researchers find Russian “VPNfilter” malware was a Swiss Army hacking knife
  4. The DOJ’s Rules For Spying On Journalists Get A Bit Flimsy When It Reaches The FISA Court
  5. Leaked NSA Exploits Shifting From Ransomware To Cryptocurrency Mining
  6. Unintended Consequences: How The GDPR Can Undermine Privacy
  7. GDPR Being Used To Try To Disappear Public US Court Docket
  8. California Police Officers Used Self-Destructing Messaging App For Years
  9. Cliff-edge moment for privacy rights and criminal investigations
  10. The Necessity of Geoblocking in the Age of (Almost) Unavoidable Geolocation 

GAMES

  1. ArenaNet pulls plug on in-game transactions for Guild Wars 2 players in Belgium: MMO developer joins growing list of games companies forced to take action in Belgium over recent loot box ruling
  2. Report: Guild Wars 2 in-game currency no longer available in Belgium
  3. Activision hits Spyro fan game with cease and desist order
  4. Blog: Examining the debate behind loot boxes
  5. Devil May Cry 5’s microtransactions designed as an ‘option…to save time’
  6. Guitar Hero TV’s planned shutdown spurs false advertising lawsuit
  7. Drawn to Death is closing down its online servers
  8. Blizzard cracks down on third-party data-tracking apps inOverwatch
  9. Blizzard cracks down on third-party Overwatch apps: Players using programs which “impede on the competitive integrity” of the game could face permanent bans
  10. Jagex fires RuneScape moderator for stealing player gold
  11. 2K launches ‘Foundations’ program to support underprivileged communities
  12. 2K Foundations to provide basketball and STEM education facilities in US cities: New initiative will target “underserved” communities in 12 cities in its first year
  13. NBA 2K League reflecting on its rookie season: Brendan Donohue talks Twitch, Olympics, and player diversity as the esports effort enters its sophomore campaign
  14. Overwatch League gets its first female coach: Kyoung Ey Molly Kim has joined the coaching staff at OWL’s new Washington DC team
  15. Capcom launching Street Fighter esports league in Japan
  16. Tencent and PUBG Corp hosting $600,000 mobile tournament
  17. Fans delay football game with esports protest: Young Boys-FC Basel supporters united in opposition of competitive gaming, interrupt match by throwing tennis balls, controllers onto the field
  18. ReadyUp closes $2 million seed funding round: Esports team management and connection platform enters closed beta as round closes
  19. EnVision Esports staff will be paid outstanding salaries if Dot Esports pulls two articles, says former CEO: Artur Minacov says invoices have been sent to pay players allegedly owed thousands of dollars
  20. Ukie study shows potential of esports as a route to games careers
  21. “Companies really need to ask themselves if they’re serious about diversity”: Code Liberation Foundation founder Phoenix Perry says more must be done to help women in the industry – far from being solved, the issue is “getting worse”
  22. Valve will start helping developers moderate their Steam communities 
  23. Valve will start moderating Steam comments next week: Devs can opt out, but reported comments will now be reviewed by an internal moderation team
  24. Valve offers full support on Steam to all new controllers: Platform holder looks to address 22 million controllers still relying on user-created input configurations
  25. Valve reveals just how many PC gamers plug in gamepads—and which kinds
  26. Valve calls out surprising popularity of PS4, Switch Pro controllers on Steam
  27. Video: Game design lessons worth learning from collectible card games
  28. Pokemon GO total revenue reaches over $2 billion: Game achieves milestone 811 days after launch, with Japan leading spending by country
  29. Don’t Miss: Pokemon’s secret ingredient
  30. Marvel’s Spider-Man sold over 3.3 million units in first three days
  31. Spider-Man sells 3.3 million in three days
  32. Free-to-play Warface grabs 1.3M registered players in one week on PS4
  33. Looks Like Twitch Is Now Blocked in China
  34. Twitch abruptly blocked in China & delisted from local iOS App Store
  35. Twitch has been blocked in China: After rise in use due to the Asian Games, website is now inaccessible in much of the country and app is gone
  36. China Has Blocked Twitch Following Mass App Downloads During Asian Games
  37. Blog: Understanding China’s temporary game approval freeze
  38. Nintendo tries out streaming on Switch in Japan: As Switch rapidly catches up to PlayStation 4’s installed base in Japan, Nintendo takes aim at major cross-platform titles with cloud streaming releases – a possible taste of the future to come?
  39. Nintendo Online App allows voice chat with strangers for select games: Service update includes support for lobbies in Mario Kart 8, Mario Tennis Aces, and Arms; Splatoon 2 still friends-only
  40. 25% of Nintendo Switch owners have downloaded the Online app: Launch week for the service drove a 76% increase in installs globally
  41. Nintendo allays Switch cloud save fears with 180-day recovery period: Platform holder assures that data does not disappear when online subscription expires
  42. Nintendo Switch cloud saves disappear 6 months after subscription ends [Updated]
  43. Switch cloud saves are actually stored for 6 months, clarifies Nintendo
  44. You Don’t Need Nintendo Switch Online
  45. Sony (finally) agrees to PlayStation 4 cross-platform play
  46. Sony adding download option to some PlayStation Now games: Streaming subscription service will soon let PS4 users download PS4 and PS2 games for offline play as well
  47. PlayStation Now begins offering downloadable PS2 & PS4 games
  48. Sony officially ending Vita production in Japan in 2019
  49. Sony to end production of PS Vita in Japan next year: No plans for a successor, says SVP Hiroyuki Oda
  50. Sony Decides That It Too Can Compete With Free With Its Own Retro Console
  51. Sony finally allows Fortnite cross-platform play: In a “major policy change,” PS4 users will be able to play with others on Xbox One, Switch for “select third-party content”
  52. Sony Is Finally Allowing Cross-Play On The PS4 [Update]
  53. Sony’s walled garden cracks open: Cross-console play comes to PS4
  54. Fortnite Won
  55. Record 78.3 million people played Fortnite in August
  56. Fortnite had a record 78.3 million players in August: Epic’s blockbuster keeps growing in popularity
  57. World of Warcraft up, League of Legends down: Superdata’s August digital report says Blizzard’s MMORPG enjoying highest Western subscriber base since 2014 while Riot Games’ cornerstone on pace for worst full year performance in just as long
  58. XBox Adaptive Controller Gives Disabled Gamers A Power-Up
  59. Blizzard’s Diablo series tapped for possible Netflix show
  60. Disruptor Beam, Tilting Point partner for $29m user acquisition and publishing deal: Tilting Point to help expand audience of Star Trek Timelines and publish upcoming unannounced Disruptor Beam RPG
  61. “Be careful what you wish for” when after a publisher, says Team17 CEO
  62. Political extremism and gunplay meet in The Church in the Darkness
  63. Filling the gap in UK games funding: A GamesIndustry.biz Investment Summit panel highlighted a gap in public games funding that leaves too many developers out in the cold
  64. Why the BBC is investing in video games (again)
  65. Earthbound Games raises £750k to self-publish Axiom Soccer
  66. Ex-Telltale dev files class action suit over sudden mass layoffs
  67. Former Telltale employees sue studio for labor law violations in mass layoff: Class action lawsuit alleges company violated WARN Act in not providing advance notice of termination
  68. Report: Telltale was in funding talks one day before majority shutdown
  69. Telltale Games Begins ‘Majority Studio Closure’
  70. Telltale Games initiates ‘majority studio closure’
  71. Telltale Games begins wave of layoffs, cancels Stranger Things game
  72. Telltale Games was scuppered by failed finance round: Sources suggest Lionsgate abandoning ‘super show’ project caused mass layoffs
  73. Telltale is pulling The Walking Dead: The Final Season from digital stores
  74. Telltale pulls season passes for The Walking Dead: The Final Season
  75. Telltale Games begins wave of layoffs, cancels Stranger Things game [Updated]
  76. Telltale plans to finish The Walking Dead despite mass layoffs
  77. Telltale looking to work with ‘potential partners’ to finishThe Walking Dead
  78. Footage and concept art from Telltale’s canceled Stranger Things project has surfaced
  79. Big Fish Games laying off 15% of staff to focus on ‘social casino’ and ‘casual’ games
  80. Big Fish Games cuts 15 per cent of its workforce: Layoffs include many executive roles, as the company restructures around casino and casual games
  81. Haptic Suit Company Hardlight VR Closes Due to Lack of Funding
  82. Hands-on: StarVR One is the Most Complete Ultra-wide VR Headset to Date
  83. Bow To Blood developer needs to sell 40,000 copies to break even: Studio behind PSVR exclusive discusses the economics of success in virtual reality
  84. Oculus’ Santa Cruz is now Oculus Quest, priced at $399 
  85. Oculus’ $399 Quest To Take VR Mainstream
  86. Oculus Announces Quest, The High-end Standalone Headset Starting at $400
  87. Oculus Quest’s Insight system promises VR tracking beyond the box 
  88. Oculus mobile app now works with the Rift headset
  89. Smartphone and TV casting coming to Oculus Go
  90. How Odyssey is changing the face of Assassin’s Creed:
  91. French publisher Bigben scoops up Eko Software for nearly $10 million
  92. Bigben acquires Eko Software for €8.5 million: World Rally Championship publisher continues development expansion by picking up French studio working on Warhammer Chaosbane
  93. Building a business in the niche: Green Man Gaming’s David Clark explains how the company is bringing out games like Stormworks Build and Rescue using its status as a publisher/retailer to its advantage
  94. Retrotainment’s cartridge revival: Co-owners Tim Hartman and Greg Caldwell are making new NES games that run on old NES hardware in 2018, and they say the audience is growing
  95. Monster Hunter: World grabs top prize at Japan Game Awards 2018
  96. GLAAD Media Awards adds award for outstanding LGBTQ-inclusive games
  97. GLAAD adds Outstanding Video Game category to its Media Awards
  98. Inside the Awesomenauts matchmaking algorithm
  99. “There are an awful lot of blockchain startups, and most of them are going to fail”: Fig’s Alex Amsel urged  reserving judgement on blockchain – in time, the technology will deliver the new Minecraft
  100. GamesAid donates £213,120 to nine charities: Winning charities revealed at EGX in Birmingham.
  101. Thrustmaster TPR: The best flight sim pedals you can buy in a store like a normal person
  102. Video: Psychosis and the making of Hellblade
  103. Archiving Will Wright’s early design notes for The Sims
  104. “Video Games” Was On Jeopardy Tonight, And It Did Not Go Well

Jon

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News of the Week; September 19, 2018

By Jon Festinger on September 24, 2018

DIGITAL

  1. SCC rules for ISPs in ‘test case’ for copyright infringement litigation costs
  2. Rogers Wins in Supreme Court of Canada (Howard Knopf) 
  3. Rogers v. Voltage – My comments today September 14, 2018 on CTV (Howard Knopf)
  4. Supreme Court of Canada on Copyright Notices: Identification of IP Address “Not Conclusive of Guilt” (Michael Geist)
  5. Notice the Difference?: Supreme Court Rules ISPs Can Be Compensated for Copyright Costs (Michael Geist)
  6. Supreme Court of Canada Rules on Obligations of ISPs Under Notice and Notice Regime – Copyright Owners Have to Pay (Something) to Play
  7. In Cyberwar, There Are No Rules: Why the world desperately needs digital Geneva Conventions.
  8. EU approves controversial Copyright Directive, including internet ‘link tax’ and ‘upload filter’: Those in favor say they’re fighting for content creators, but critics say the new laws will be ‘catastrophic’
  9. EU Continues To Kill The Open Web: Massive Fines For Sites That Don’t Censor Within An Hour 
  10. EU Approves Controversial Copyright Reform, Could Force YouTube And Other Platforms To Remove All Copyrighted Content
  11. European Parliament adopted its position on the controversial Copyright Directive
  12. Guy In Charge Of EU Copyright Directive Claims He Didn’t Know What He Voted On, Needs To Fix Things
  13. Thanks To ISP Bahnhof, We Know Just How Crazy Copyright Trolling In Sweden Is Getting 
  14. Google, Facebook Dealt Blow by EU Lawmakers on Copyright
  15. Google Fights In EU Court Against Ability Of One Country To Censor The Global Internet
  16. Google’s Chinese Search Engine Will Censor Results, Provide Gov’t-Approved Pollution Data
  17. Google, Facebook, Twitter face EU fines over extremist posts
  18. British cave explorer sues Elon Musk for defamation over “pedo guy” tweets
  19. Racism and anti-Semitism surged in corners of the Web after Trump’s election, analysis shows
  20. Donald Trump Jr. Posts Fake Letter to Instagram Mocking Woman Allegedly Assaulted by Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh 
  21. 3D-Printed Gun Activist Cody Wilson Charged With Sexual Assault of a Child [Updated]
  22. Judge orders Cody Wilson’s arrest, but he skipped his return flight from Taiwan 
  23. Lawmakers: Deepfakes Could “Undermine Public Trust” in “Objective Depictions of Reality” 
  24. Is content validation the next growth industry?
  25. Memetic Tribes and Culture War 2.0
  26. Leaked 2016 video will fuel conservative worries about Google bias
  27. Let’s Be Very Clear About What Breitbart’s Leaked Google Video Shows
  28. Where in the World Is Larry Page?: While Alphabet faces existential challenges, its co-founder is exercising his right to be forgotten.
  29. The case against a right to be forgotten 
  30. How Regulating Platforms’ Content Moderation Means Regulating Speech – Even Yours.
  31. UK MP Thinks Secret Online Groups Are The Root Of All Evil Online, Promises To Regulate ‘Large Online Groups’
  32. White House Potentially Exploring Executive Order On ‘Social Media Bias’
  33. Actual Research On Political Bias In Search Results Would Be Useful, But So Far It Doesn’t Show Anything
  34. Media Manipulation, Strategic Amplification, and Responsible Journalism
  35. Can Trusted Brands Beat ‘Fake News’?
  36. Media Planners Battle The Bots 
  37. It’s hard to sue a robot: product liability considerations and AI in Canada
  38. Roca Labs’ Anti-Review Clause Violates FTC Act–FTC v. Roca Labs (Eric Goldman)
  39. Mumford & Sons beware! An AI can now write indie music
  40. No proof blind plaintiffs aware of arbitration clause, so discrimination class action proceeds in court 
  41. Amazon on Track to Be No. 3 in U.S. Digital Ad Revenue but Still Way Behind Google, Facebook
  42. Amazon looking into claims that employees delete bad reviews for cash
  43. Amazon is testing a shopping site called Scout that recommends furniture and women’s shoes based on your likes
  44. Amazon’s Antitrust Antagonist Has a Breakthrough Idea: With a single scholarly article, Lina Khan, 29, has reframed decades of monopoly law.
  45. Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox (Lina Khan)
  46. Why Roku isn’t afraid of competition from Apple, Google and Amazon
  47. ACLU, Labor Union, Allege Facebook’s Ad Targeting Discriminates By Gender
  48. Facebook is letting job advertisers target only men
  49. Can Mark Zuckerberg Fix Facebook Before It Breaks Democracy?
  50. Facebook Watch Unveils Trailers, Launch Dates For Shows Starring Kim Kardashian, Catherine Zeta-Jones
  51. Facebook Watch Debuts Odell Beckham Jr. Docuseries ‘I Am More’
  52. Linus Torvalds apologizes for years of being a jerk, takes time off to learn empathy
  53. Sorry, Sony Music, you don’t own the rights to Bach’s music on Facebook
  54. YouTube Kids now comes with stronger parental controls
  55. YouTube Kids App Unveils New Feature Aimed At Preteens
  56. With 70% Of Viewership On Mobile, YouTube Is Finally Rolling Out Vertical Video Ads
  57. YouTube Greenlights Doc About LGBTQ+ Pride, Starring Raymond Braun
  58. The 9th Most-Viewed YouTube Channel On Earth, ‘Little Baby Bum’, Has Been Acquired
  59. Videos Of ‘Marvel’s Spider-Man’ Game Will Be Restored After Content ID Mix-Up Caused Takedowns, YouTube Says 
  60. Should YouTube Change Its Algorithm To Promote Library Content And Avoid Creator Burnout?
  61. H3h3productions Returns To YouTube After Three-Month Absence With Frank Chat About Burnout
  62. YouTube Premium Launches French Originals
  63. YouTube May Soon Give Its Premium Content A Temporary Trip Outside The Paywall 
  64. YouTube Premium Continues International Push With New French Originals 
  65. YouTube Viewership On TV Sets Has Nearly Doubled Year-Over-Year Across Europe
  66. Rapper Wiz Khalifa Launches YouTube Channel For 5-Year-Old Son Sebastian 
  67. YouTube Opens $5 ‘Channel Memberships’ Feature To Creators With More Than 50,000 Subscribers
  68. Following Go90 Shutdown, Former Content Partners Seek Distribution On YouTube, Netflix
  69. Inside Netflix’s high-stakes quest to win Best Picture 
  70. Creator Couple Lauren Riihimaki and Alex Wassabi Are Taking Time Apart 
  71. Snapchat To Let 20 Publisher Partners Repurpose — And Monetize — User-Generated Snaps
  72. Hulu Reaches For The Stars With New Ad Strategy To Complement Original Space Show ‘The First’ 
  73. UK’s CMA Launches Investigation into Social Media Influencers – UK, US and Canadian Perspectives
  74. Insights: How Influencers And Brands Can Avoid Follower Fraud 
  75. Barstool Sports’ new pizza app gets 175,000 downloads in a month
  76. Snapchat Will Let Media Partners Aggregate, Monetize User Posts: Initial partners include CNN, NBC News, NowThis, Hearst, Viacom, Overtime, Refinery29, Jukin Media
  77. Snap’s users are leaving in waves and may be causing their friends to follow
  78. In Emmys First, Netflix Ties With HBO For Most Wins, Lifting Streamer’s Stock This Morning
  79. Netflix finally tied with HBO for total wins at the 2018 Emmys: Spending money on content works
  80. ‘Insatiable’ Is Back For More — Netflix Is Giving The Massively Polarizing Series A Second Season 
  81. IMAX In Talks With Netflix, Amazon To Distribute Original Films, CEO Says
  82. How Disney’s Netflix Rival Will Actually Work
  83. Fan-Favorite Villain Loki, Avenger Scarlet Witch To Get Their Own Live-Action Series On Disney’s Streaming Platform
  84. General Motors activates OnStar Crisis Assist for Hurricane Florence
  85. California Eyes Questionable Legislation In Bid To Fix The Internet Of Broken Things
  86. Authors’ viral Twitter thread is now a horror film starring Alyson Hannigan 
  87. Twitter Announces 50 New Video Content Deals To Complement Local TV Programming
  88. Periscope Adds Audio-Only Option So Creators Can Stream Off-Camera
  89. Conan O’Brien’s complete late-night TV archive will be posted online in January [Updated]
  90. Fake-cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme lands creator in prison
  91. John Deere Just Swindled Farmers Out Of Their Right To Repair
  92. The Competition Bureau weighs in on restrictions faced by online eyewear retailers
  93. Review: Mega-hit boardgame Scythe goes digital on Steam
  94. Social Media and Its Effect on Your Case – Is Private Really Private?
  95. Apple repays €14B in “illegal aid” to Ireland, so EU drops court case
  96. The iPhone Franchise
  97. Apple Magically Makes the Notch Disappear
  98. iOS 12 on the iPhone 5S, iPhone 6 Plus, and iPad Mini 2: It’s actually faster!
  99. Yes, You Can Own the Movies You Buy from Apple, Kinda
  100. Apple Didn’t Delete That Guys iTunes Movies, But What Happened Still Shows The Insanity Of Copyright
  101. An Oral History Of Apple’s Infinite Loop
  102. How Streaming Is Erasing The History Of Mixtape Rap Producers Like DJ Drama: We Talk To Mixtape Heroes About Being Left Behind By Spotify
  103. What on Earth Makes a $1,200 Graphics Card Worth It? 
  104. Text Messages and Binding Contracts
  105. Congressional Research Service Reports Now Officially Publicly Available
  106. New bill would finally tear down federal judiciary’s ridiculous paywall 
  107. Surprise: Bill Introduced To Finally Make PACER Free To All

CREATIVITY

  1. Compromising on Culture?: Why a Blanket Culture Exception in NAFTA is Unnecessary (Michael Geist)
  2. CBS CEO Moonves’ ouster is a too rare case
  3. Hollywood Chamber Of Commerce Trademark Bullies Kevin Smith’s Podcast Over Hollywood Sign
  4. Senate passes copyright bill to end 140-year protection for old songs
  5. Music Modernization Act Passes in Senate With Unanimous Support
  6. Senate passes Music Modernization Act: The House must approve the bill once again before it’s signed into law by President Trump
  7. Compromise Music Modernization Act Will Bring Old Sound Recordings into The Public Domain, Tiptoe Towards Orphan Works Solution
  8. How intellectual property rights can protect fashion products in the UK: now and post-Brexit
  9. The Outline and the curse of media venture capital
  10. Advertising for E-Cigs – Concerns about Targeting Children 
  11. Court: Trump’s ‘Get ‘Em Out’ Order Directed At Campaign Rally Protesters Is Protected Speech
  12. Blog: Using austerity as a creative tool
  13. The Power Of Live: Global Live Music Fan Study
  14. How the Grateful Dead Changed Live Music Forever
  15. Hollywood’s New Golden Age: The cast and crew at this LA retirement home are in their twilight years, but the show must go on.
  16. People Are Zapping Their Brains to Boost Creativity. Experts Have Concerns.
  17. Why Curiosity Matters: New Research Shows That Curiosity Is Vital To An Organization’s Performance – As Are The Particular Wa In Which People Are Curious And The Experiences They Are Exposed To.
  18. Startups are giving writers and filmmakers more ways to make it in Hollywood

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

  1. Court Rules FCC Must Release Records That Could Explain Fraudulent Net Neutrality Comments
  2. Judge: FCC can’t hide records that may explain net neutrality comment fraud
  3. Ajit Pai calls California’s net neutrality rules “illegal”
  4. Ajit Pai Whines About California’s Net Neutrality Effort, Calls It ‘Radical,’ ‘Illegal’
  5. Scott Wiener Paints Ajit Pai as Telecom Shill as California Net Neutrality Fight Escalates
  6. Charter negotiating with NY to avoid being kicked out of the state
  7. The Nation’s Second Biggest Cable Company Probably Won’t Get Kicked Out Of New York State After All
  8. Despite data caps and throttling, industry says mobile can replace home Internet
  9. Google Fiber’s ‘Failure’ Succeeded In Shining A Light On Pathetic Broadband Competition
  10. AT&T and Verizon want to manage your identity across websites and apps
  11. AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile & Sprint Want Even Broader Access To Your Personal Data
  12. For Wireless Giant Verizon, The Media Business Is A Distraction At Best
  13. AT&T Boss Writes Script for HBO: More Data, More Money – Randall Stephenson wants to use customer data to help WarnerMedia pick projects, challenge internet giants 

 SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

  1. Russians tried to hack Swiss lab testing samples from Skripal attack
  2. WikiLeaks founder sought Russian visa in 2010, per AP report
  3. Russian man pleads guilty, admits he ran notorious Kelihos botnet
  4. Mirai botnet creators praised for helping FBI, won’t serve prison time
  5. European Court Of Human Rights: UK Surveillance Revealed By Snowden Violates Human Rights
  6. Another Batch Of FISA Court Docs Confirms The NSA Frequently Abuses Its Collection Powers 
  7. Federal Court Says NSA PRISM Surveillance Good And Legal Because The Gov’t Said It Was Good And Legal
  8. State Cops Accidentally Out Their Surveillance Of Anti-Police Groups With Browser Screenshot
  9. Bay Area transit system approves new surveillance-oversight policy
  10. Congress Fails To Include A Single Consumer Advocate In Upcoming Privacy Hearing
  11. NewEgg cracked in breach, hosted card-stealing code within its own checkout
  12. Privacy Laws North of the Border: a Primer

GAMES

  1. Valve and Ubisoft fined for breaching consumer laws in France
  2. Valve and Ubisoft fined for breach of French consumer law: Steam and Uplay latest storefronts caught up in European consumer rights violations
  3. Washington State and 15 countries team up over video game gambling concerns  
  4. 15 European gambling regulators unite to tackle loot box threat: Along with Washington State. 
  5. 15 European regulators have come together to help tackle loot boxes
  6. 15 countries and one US state team up to fight gambling in video games
  7. International gambling regulators unite on skins gambling, loot boxes: Agencies from Spain, UK, France, Washington State, and a dozen more concerns about “blurring of lines between gambling and gaming”
  8. Loot boxes in Belgium: Reports on criminal prosecution – but what does this mean?
  9. Australian study warns of link between loot boxes and problem gambling
  10. Australian investigation finds loot boxes are “psychologically akin to gambling”: Report suggests restricting sale of games containing loot boxes to players of legal gambling age
  11. Loot boxes are “psychologically akin to gambling”, according to Australian study: Games with loot boxes should only be available to players of legal gambling age.
  12. 343 FPS chief says no ‘real-money loot boxes’ in Halo Infinite
  13. All Bets are On! Gambling and Video Games
  14. Video Game Addiction Is Real And Professionals Aren’t Prepared To Help
  15. Mobile marketplaces accused of publishing apps violating kids’ privacy laws
  16. How Game Apps That Captivate Kids Have Been Collecting Their Data: A lawsuit by New Mexico’s attorney general accuses a popular app maker, as well as
    online ad businesses run by Google and Twitter, of violating children’s privacy law.
  17. Tiny Lab, Google, ad companies accused of violating Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act: New Mexico lawsuit alleges companies illegally collected and tracked children’s personal information
  18. Capcom shuts down Dead Rising developer Capcom Vancouver
  19. Capcom closing Vancouver studio: Publisher confirms plans to consolidate major development in Japan after announcing $40 million expense on cancelled projects
  20. Mobile game dev Outfit7 opens new Barcelona studio
  21. Analysts doubt China will take six months to begin reapproving games
  22. China may not need six months to start approving games again – analysts: Games are now able to go to market for one month
  23. Take-Two CEO: U.S. gov’t needs to take a stand on China’s game trade
  24. Barriers to China will come down – Zelnick: Take-Two CEO believes government will eventually allow Western game publishers unfettered access to the market, criticizes US government for unequal trade restrictions
  25. China’s console market might be small, but it’s starting to take shape
  26. Game streaming’s latency problems will be over in a few years, CEO says
  27. Streaming, subscriptions won’t be game changers – Take-Two: CEO Strauss Zelnick believes tech will accelerate adoption of cross-platform play, but won’t fundamentally alter the Grand Theft Auto publisher’s business
  28. Rockstar is bringing an open-world online mode to Red Dead Redemption 2
  29. A Benchmark Of Sorts: Steam’s First Fully Uncensored Adult Novel-Game To Be Released In Coming Weeks
  30. Steam’s uncensored adult game Negligee isn’t available in every country
  31. First uncensored adult game on Steam pulled from sale in 28 countries: “The fact is, these restrictions are the downside of being the poster child for the first fully uncensored adult game on Steam,” says developer Dharker Studios
  32. Disney shuts down Star Wars: Rivals following soft launch
  33. Boss Key’s multiplayer shooter LawBreakers has officially shut down
  34. Tattoos, Video Games & Copyright Law: Beauty May Only Be Skin Deep … But Does Copyright go to the Bone?
  35. Ninja Becomes First Gamer To Cover ‘ESPN Magazine’, Says He’s Making Seven Figures Monthly
  36. eSports Milestone: Pro Gamer Ninja To Be The First Pro Gamer Featured On ESPN Magazine Cover
  37. The need for visible women in esports: Hearthstone pro Cordelia Chui and League of Legends team manager Amy Snowdon talk about the problems with trying to fit in
  38. Twitch appoints first-ever head of diversity and inclusion
  39. Twitch hires new head of diversity and inclusion: Streaming giant also adds CFO and Chief Human Resources Officer
  40. TwitchCon Bulks Up Security Measures Following August Shooting At ‘Madden’ Tournament
  41. Twitch Hires Former Vimeo Exec Katrina Jones As First Head Of Diversity And Inclusion
  42. NPD: Madden NFL 19 scores while Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 returns – Nintendo Switch sales remain strong, though still must work to catch PS4’s year-to-date lead
  43. You can now share your Switch game downloads across consoles
  44. Nintendo will erase cloud saves once Switch Online subscription ends
  45. Assassin’s Creed for Switch adopts pay-as-you-play pricing in Japan
  46. Switch owners in Japan are getting a “cloud version” of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey: Ubisoft follows the streaming model adopted by Capcom for Resi 7, selling daily and full-game passes for its upcoming blockbuster
  47. Nintendo Switch cloud save data disappears if you cancel subscription
  48. Nintendo details 2019 line-up for Switch – but why so early?: Latest Nintendo Direct showcases loads of games, answers loads of criticisms about Switch lineup
  49. Nintendo tries bundling Switch with a F2P game: Fortnite
  50. Switch’s replica NES controllers only work with emulated NES games
  51. Stormy Daniels Says Donald Trump Has “A ____ Like The Mushroom Character From Mario Kart”
  52. New NES controllers headline announcement-filled Nintendo Switch presentation
  53. Nintendo Switch NES controllers will be Online Service-exclusive: Joy-Cons designed to look like classic controllers are dedicated to NES games that come with the service
  54. Nintendo requires online subscription to purchase Switch NES controller
  55. Nintendo introduces Fortnite Switch bundle with V-bucks included: Console bundle is the same price as system alone, includes in-game currency and exclusive cosmetics
  56. Pokemon Go and the potential of seasonality: Major changes to Niantic’s mobile AR game helped its popularity to surge over the summer, suggesting a new model developers could consider adopting
  57. Niantic rolls out suggestion system for new Pokémon Golocations
  58. Check out the pitch documents for the original Pokemongames
  59. Ubisoft details its blockchain-powered game HashCraft
  60. Ubisoft reveals HashCraft, a secret new blockchain game
  61. Riot Games Says It Wants To Clean Up Its Mess, But The People Who Made It Are Still There
  62. Ex-Riot devs net $2.5M to help launch new LA studio Singularity 6
  63. Singularity 6 hopes to dominate a lack of competition:
  64. PlayStation is the third most-recognized brand in the UK:Nintendo and Xbox at 11 and 17, respectively; Apple takes top spot
  65. Sony making mini-console debut with PlayStation Classic
  66. Sony Just Announced The $100 PlayStation Classic Console
  67. Sony Is Making A Playstation Classic, And You Can Already Order It
  68. Sony to launch PlayStation Classic on December 3: Mini version of the classic console will be pre-loaded with Final Fantasy VII, Jumping Flash, Ridge Racer Type 4, Tekken 3, 16 other games
  69. Sony joins the classic-console fray with $99 PlayStation Classic on Dec. 3
  70. Sega pushes Mega Drive Mini to 2019: Japanese publisher is rethinking the retro console’s design ahead of simultaneous global launch
  71. Interplay co-founder Brian Fargo wants to buy back the studio
  72. Brian Fargo wants to buy back Interplay: Fargo will attempt to acquire the company he co-founded in 1983 if Bard’s Tale IV hits sales target
  73. Treyarch bosses explain decision to drop single-player campaign from Black Ops 4
  74. Skillz doubles revenue run-rate once more to $400 million: 5,000 new developer partners fuel growth over five-month period
  75. Making a retro indie game stand out from the crowd
  76. Deep Rock Galactic and the advantages of open development
  77. How do you evaluate a mobile game’s profit potential?
  78. Video: UX expert helps explain why Fortnite is such a success
  79. ‘Fortnite’ Is Not YouTube’s Most Popular Game
  80. The standalone YouTube Gaming app is essentially being absorbed into YouTube
  81. YouTube To Shutter Gaming App In 2019, Unveils Revamped Gaming Hub On Flagship Site
  82. YouTube will close YouTube Gaming, move it all to the main site
  83. YouTube Gaming migrates to main YouTube hub: Separate website, app to shut down by March 2019; features implemented on YouTube main
  84. Apple, Kabam veterans form new indie publisher Rogue: Label will publish mobile games with a focus on highly detailed, optimized experiences
  85. Keywords marks a strong six months with two new acquisitions: Trailer Farm and SoundLab join the rapidly growing firm as H1 revenue and profit rise 70 per cent
  86. Wargaming opens new UK studio to develop free-to-play MMO game
  87. Wargaming opens UK studio for new MMO: Studio to lead the development of a new free-to-play IP
  88. Telecoms giant Sky forms new mobile studio with The Walking Dead producer
  89. Sky partners with The Walking Dead producer for joint mobile venture: Skybound Stories to develop narrative-driven experiences out of new and existing IP
  90. Remedy Entertainment is adapting Alan Wake into a television series: Material from unfinished sequel will serve as inspiration for the show, says game creator Sam Lake
  91. Why some devs partner with investment funds over publishers
  92. Aaryn Flynn joins Improbable: Former BioWare GM talks about getting his head in the clouds and building a new studio from scratch in downtown Edmonton
  93. The Comic Book History Behind the New Spider-Man Game’s Unlockable Suits
  94. Blog: The story of Turkey’s video game pioneers
  95. Blog: Understanding the design of the ‘magic circle’
  96. Why do gamers still buy physical games?: We teamed up with GameTrack to ask them
  97. UKIE: Only 19% of parents set and enforce screen time limits for their children – Digital School House report finds just 44 per cent of parents talk to their children about online safety`
  98. Writing the video games of the future: ArenaNet narrative designers Aaron Linde and Alex Kain discuss VR, and what they see as the future of interactive storytelling
  99. Sony applied for a patent on a simulation sickness-detecting VR headset
  100. Rovio has an AR Angry Birds game coming to Magic Leap One
  101. Blog: Why I love physics-based games
  102. Blog: Bloom’s taxonomy of game reviews
  103. Video: A how-to guide for Muslim representation in video games
  104. Blog: How does video game localization work in 2018?
  105. Warren Spector shares how to find personal success in the game industry

Jon

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News of the Week; September 12, 2018

By Jon Festinger on September 16, 2018

DIGITAL

  1. An EU copyright bill could force YouTube-style filtering across the Web
  2. What’s in the sweeping copyright bill just passed by the European Parliament
  3. Creators Supporting Link Taxes And Mandatory Filters Are Handing The Internet Over To The Companies They Hate
  4. The dangers hidden in the proposed Copyright Directive (Andres Guadamuz)
  5. The Intellectual Dishonesty Of Those Supporting The Existing Text Of The EU Copyright Directive
  6. EU Gives Up On The Open Web Experiment, Decides It Will Be The Licensed Web Going Forward
  7. DOJ And State Attorneys General Threatening Social Media Companies Over Moderation Practices Is A First Amendment Issue
  8. Facebook, Twitter, and the Senate Hearings: It’s The Business Model, Period.
  9. Twitter’s latest (and final) punishment for Alex Jones: A permanent ban
  10. Alex Jones Permanently Suspended From Twitter
  11. Apple’s iPhone event will be live streamed on Twitter for the first time
  12. Twitter Announces 50 New Video Content Deals To Complement Local TV Programming
  13. Progressive Web Apps moving mainstream as Twitter makes its mobile site the main one
  14. Microsoft Wants Confirmation That Helping Politicians Not Get Hacked Isn’t An Illegal Campaign Contribution
  15. Reddit Ignored A Year’s Worth Of User Warnings About Iranian Propaganda
  16. Hollywood Studios, Big Fans Of Automated DMCAs, Also Very Busy DMCAing IMDB For Some Reason
  17. No News Is Good News: Campbell Brown vs. the publishers
  18. Amazon Takes Down Nine Books Self-Published on Kindle by Virulent Sexist ‘Roosh’
  19. Facebook Is Not The Internet: Philippines Propaganda Highlights Perils Of Company’s ‘Free Basics’ Walled Garden
  20. Facebook Responds To Blackberry’s Silly 117 Page Patent Lawsuit With Its Own Silly 118 Page Lawsuit
  21. Facebook punishes liberal news site after fact check by right-wing site
  22. The cure for Facebook’s fake news infection? It might be these women: At Facebook, where men outnumber women almost two to one, the future of news is female.
  23. German Court Tells Facebook It Can’t Delete Comments, Even Though German Law Says It Must Delete Comments
  24. Court Denies Politician’s Attempt To Dismiss Lawsuit Over Banning Critics From His Facebook Page
  25. Social media makes us angry and unfocused. Is email the answer?: Subtack CEO Chris Best makes the case for electronic mail
  26. After many opsec fails, Russia seeks to ban soldier social media spoilers
  27. An Avalanche of Speech Can Bury Democracy: For the longest time, we thought that as speech became more democratized, democracy itself would flourish. But in 2018, it is increasingly clear that more speech can in fact threaten democracy.
  28. YouTube Removed Russian Ads In Compliance With Election Law, Google Says
  29. Google Moderation Team Decides My Piece About The Impossible Nature Of Content Moderation Is ‘Dangerous Or Derogatory’
  30. Google kills Google Inbox
  31. You Can Now Pause Your YouTube TV Subscription — And Keep All Stored Programming — For Up To 6 Months
  32. United Airlines Made Its App Stop Working On My Phone, And What This Says About How Broken The Mobile Tech Space Is
  33. New App Popbase Will Let YouTube Creators Make Virtual Avatars To Host Game Shows For Fans
  34. Paul McCartney Will Play a Free Concert on YouTube Friday
  35. Hank Green Has Been Making YouTube Videos For 12 Years — Here’s Why He’s Never Experienced Burnout
  36. ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ Subscriber Count Soars After Lit Musk Interview
  37. Late Vlogger Claire Wineland To Be Subject Of Documentary By Oscar-Winning Director
  38. Nascent Digital Sports Network ‘Overtime’ Inks Content Deal With Basketball Creator Rachel DeMita
  39. Influencer marketing, endorsements, testimonials: food for thought in light of the most recent initiatives by the Italian authorities
  40. WorldStarHipHop Launches Snapchat Channel With Studio71
  41. Viral Aggregator ‘WorldStarHipHop’ Links Up With Studio71 For Snapchat Channel
  42. Meet SelfieCircus and 8 more in Snapchat’s new startup accelerator
  43. Former MTV Chief Sean Atkins Named CEO Of StyleHaul, Will Oversee New MCN Group At RTL
  44. Ex-MTV President Sean Atkins Named StyleHaul CEO
  45. China’s Biggest Streaming Service Eliminates View Counts To Combat Rampant Click Farms
  46. This Video Uses the Power of Deepfakes to Re-Capture This Character’s Cameo Appearance in Rogue One
  47. Here’s How Brands Can Be Proactive Against Influencer Fraud, Per Fullscreen And CreatorIQ Study
  48. Op-Ed: We Gave Corporations Our Data. Now They’re Deciding How AI Will Affect Our Future.
  49. If Artificial Intelligence Only Benefits a Select Few, Everyone Loses
  50. Artificial intelligence in the Gambling Industry
  51. Rise of the Robots: How AI Is Changing the Music World
  52. Doctors said the coma patients would never wake. AI said they would – and they did: Artificial intelligence system developed in Beijing ‘will never replace doctors’ but it can trace brain activity invisible to the human eye
  53. Left Unchecked, Artificial Intelligence Can Become Prejudiced All On Its Own
  54. Countdown to The Singularity
  55. Sim ethics: Say you could make a thousand digital replicas of yourself – should you? What happens when you want to get rid of them?
  56. Drone Racing: The Next Battleground For AI to Try to Dominate Human
  57. Netflix, Hulu and Amazon win numerous creative Emmy awards
  58. Analysis: Netflix Trails Hulu, Amazon, and Several Cable Networks in Quality of Original Shows
  59. EU Officially OKs Apple’s Shazam Acquisition
  60. Big Data? No antitrust problem for Apple/Shazam
  61. You Don’t Own What You’ve Bought: Apple Disappears Purchased Movies
  62. Your new $1,000+ iPhone won’t come with a headphone dongle in the box
  63. Hands-on with the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR
  64. Apple Watch Series 4 hands-on: Sparking envy in current Apple Watch owners
  65. Hello eSIM: Apple moves the iPhone away from physical SIMs
  66. The former Apple engineer who designed the iPhone keyboard reveals what it was like to work under Steve Jobs’ strict requirements for secrecy
  67. Crypto-pocalypse Soon-ish? Judge Rules ICOs Are a Security
  68. Cryptocurrency taxation: what business leaders need to know

CREATIVITY

  1. Saudi Government Outlaws Satire; Violators To Face Five-Year Prison Sentences
  2. Judge Roy Moore Sues Sacha Baron Cohen For Ruining His Immaculate Reputation
  3. US indicts North Korean agent for WannaCry, Sony attacks [Updated]
  4. Bonkers Attorney’s Fees Ruling Results In SDCC Getting $4 Million Out Of SLCC AFter $20k Jury Award
  5. More Comic Conventions Change Their Names After Crazy SDCC Attorney’s Fees And Injunction Ruling
  6. Success! Roanoke ‘Harry Potter Festival’ Changes Name To ‘Generic Magic Festival’ Due To WB’s Bullying
  7. Are Black Movies Being Shut Out by Global Theaters?
  8. McQueen Family Crashes Ferrari’s Limited-Edition Car
  9. Pop’s Biggest Stars Can Control Their Own Narratives Like Never Before. Is That a Good Thing?
  10. Who hates Star Wars for its newfound diversity? Here are the numbers.

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

  1. Ajit Pai does ISPs’ bidding, pushes for tighter rules on Google and Facebook
  2. Ajit Pai Again (Falsely) Claims States Are Powerless To Protect Broadband Consumers
  3. Ajit Pai helped Charter kill consumer-protection rules in Minnesota
  4. Verizon throttling firefighters may have violated FCC rule, Democrats say
  5. Verizon’s Pivot From Stodgy Old Telco To Sexy Millennial Ad Brand Isn’t Going So Well
  6. Verizon Says It’s Not Backing Down From Digital Ad Push
  7. ISPs Push Employees To Urge Governor Brown Veto New California Net Neutrality Bill 
  8. With The Death Of Net Neutrality & NBC Merger Conditions, Comcast Is Free To Misbehave
  9. Net neutrality gives “free” Internet to Netflix and Google, ISP claims
  10. FCC data exaggerates broadband access on tribal lands
  11. Fullscreen Founder George Strompolos Steps Down As CEO Following AT&T’s Acquisition Of Otter Media
  12. After Nabbing Billions In Tax Breaks, AT&T’s Promised Job Growth Magically Evaporates
  13. Special Report – Everything we know about 5G

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

  1. DOJ Charges North Korean Spy Over Sony Hack and WannaCry Ransomware [Updated]
  2. Court Shuts Down Feds’ Attempt To Expand The ‘Border Search’ Exception To Cover Inland GPS Monitoring
  3. Florida Appeals Court Tells Law Enforcement It Needs Warrants To Deploy Stingrays 
  4. Documents Show IBM Pitched The NYPD Facial Recognition Software With Built-In Racial Profiling Options
  5. Vizio, sued for making creepy smart TVs, will notify customers via the TVs
  6. Apple takes down Trend Micro Mac apps that collected, stored user data
  7. Dozens of iOS apps surreptitiously share user location data with tracking firms
  8. The Super-Private Tor Browser Gets a Huge Update, But Should You Switch From Chrome?
  9. NSA metadata program “consistent” with Fourth Amendment, Kavanaugh once argued

GAMES

  1. EA defies Belgian loot box decision, setting up potential “gambling” lawsuit
  2. Report: EA risking prosecution after refusing to comply with Belgian loot box laws
  3. EA may go to court over loot boxes in Belgium: FIFA publisher has kept loot boxes in its games despite Belgian Gaming Commission warning
  4. Tencent to verify Chinese Honor of Kings players against public security records: New measures required to ensure minors keep within play-time restrictions
  5. Chinese hold on new video game licenses may last another 4-6 months: Industry slowdown in the country could continue as China centralizes its approval process for new titles
  6. China’s video game licensing freeze could last another six months
  7. Blog: Assessing the impact of China’s changing game regulations
  8. Honour of Kings to require players use real names to comply with new Chinese policies
  9. German org calls on Sony to fix ‘customer-hostile’ terms & conditions
  10. German consumer association warns Sony over “customer-hostile” PSN terms and conditions: Sony could face legal action if it fails to heed complaints
  11. The first “100% uncensored” adult game has been approved for Steam release
  12. Valve’s new Steam content filters have finally arrived
  13. Valve approves uncensored adult game for release on Steam
  14. Steam adds “Adults Only” filter for games with “explicit sexual content”: New filter among a host of changes to make it easier for users to avoid certain kinds of content
  15. Brianna Wu’s Congress bid fails, vows to run again in 2020: “America needs better leadership more than we need another video game. So, I am here for good.”
  16. Two Riot employees depart after defending controversial PAX panel
  17. Two Riot employees exit following PAX session controversy: One confirmed fired after criticizing those upset by PAX West panel focused on uplifting women and non-binary individuals
  18. Riot brings on former Uber culture fixer to fix up culture
  19. The 16 surprising new games that made PAX West an absolute blast
  20. Is the Olympics relevant for esports?: IOC president Thomas Bach dismissed games as “contradictory to Olympic values” – but his approval is less important than what esports is building elsewhere
  21. Overwatch League adds six more teams: Activision Blizzard raises team roster to 20, with new teams in China, Canada, France and the US
  22. The Overwatch League Signs Six More Teams: New franchises include Chengdu, Hangzhou, Paris, Toronto, Vancouver, and Washington, D.C.All six teams will join the Overwatch League for the start of the 2019 season
  23. New LA Times owner makes big esports investment into Daybreak Games
  24. Overwolf and Intel launch $7 million mod fund: Money is available to developers of apps and services for existing games, to be distributed on Overwolf’s app store
  25. Blog: Understanding my approach to modding in Reset Hard
  26. Xbox: “I can’t think of a holiday that has more AAA games in such a tight time period” – Microsoft on a blockbuster Christmas for console games, and retailer views on Game Pass
  27. NPD survey: 34% of players exclusively play mobile games
  28. Games expected to account for 76% of global mobile revenue in 2018: Number of smartphone users to reach three billion by end of year as consumer spending exceeds $92 billion
  29. Analyst: ‘Whale’ spenders aren’t as crucial to F2P mobile games as they once were
  30. DeltaDNA: Increase in casual spenders for F2P games resulting in more balanced revenue sources – Strategy and casino games lead player spending, while action game spending is down overall in spite of Fortnite
  31. Blog: How free-to-play design runs out of steam
  32. Fortnite beta invite to download conversion rate on Android similar to iOS: In the 21 days since launch, 23m players signed up for beta, 15m installed the game
  33. Fortnite on Android reaches 15 million downloads sans Google Play 
  34. Fortnite reaches 15 million Android downloads without Google Play
  35. PUBG logs 1 million peak concurrent players for 365 days in a row, a Steam first
  36. PUBG becomes first Steam game to have one million concurrent players 365 days running: Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 beta breaks record-breaking streak for PUBG
  37. Pearl Abyss acquires EVE Online creator CCP Games for $425 million
  38. Insights: Resetting The Game Biz—Microsoft, Amazon, Samsung and Fortnite Show Where We’re Going
  39. Single-player not going anywhere – Igarashi: Bloodstained producer discusses AAA emphasis on multiplayer, the rising Japanese indie scene, and the future of ArtPlay
  40. What makes a “troll game”? Valve tries for a Steam-wide definition
  41. Valve Clears Up Nothing With Its Latest Explanation Of What Games It Will Ban As ‘Troll Games’
  42. IO Interactive focusing on serving players, not games-as-a-service: Hitman 2 studio hopes departure from episodic format will be a new starting point to build its universe
  43. Eve Online studio CCP acquired by Pearl Abyss: South Korean developer behind Black Desert Online spends $425 million on Icelandic games firm
  44. THQ Nordic has acquired the rights to Kingdoms of Amalur
  45. Devs recount the making of Golden Axe: Beast Rider, a crunch-ridden $15M flop 
  46. Unity CEO claims VR hardware hasn’t seen true consumer launch
  47. Unity boss says VR hardware still not right for consumers: “They’re not cheap enough, they don’t work well enough… there’s not a lot of content,” says John Riccitiello
  48. The Void partners with Marvel and Disney to create VR experiences
  49. Niantic touts 35 percent growth in active players forPokemon Go
  50. Google partners with Unity for open-source matchmaking tool Open Match
  51. Unity and Google Cloud unveil Open Match
  52. Hollow Knight tops EU Nintendo Switch eshop charts for August: In addition, No. 2 Dead Cells sees global success, selling four copies on Switch for every one PS4 copy
  53. Nintendo’s promised cloud saves on Switch won’t work for every game [Updated]
  54. Nintendo: Restrictions on cloud saves for certain Switch games are to curb cheaters
  55. Some Nintendo games won’t support cloud saves: Nintendo Switch Online’s cloud save feature skips games like Splatoon 2 as a move to prevent cheating
  56. No more free rides: Paid Switch Online service launches on Sept. 18
  57. Nintendo Switch Online finally has a concrete launch date
  58. Fire Emblem Heroes summer revenue up 34 per cent over 2017: Sensor Tower data shows Nintendo’s hit mobile game earning $63 million in July and August
  59. Delayed Nintendo Direct Leads To Some Oddly Delivered Switch Announcements
  60. Roblox raises $150 million and sets sights on China
  61. GameStop sales slip as retailer continues exploring a sale: Collectibles and console hardware are bright points as company posts $24.9 million loss in a second quarter where revenues dipped 2.4%
  62. Jagex profit and revenue spike in another record year: Upcoming mobile RuneScape games expected to deliver more growth
  63. Dundee’s games industry boosted by £9m InGAME R&D centre: Game developers and universities both involved in new project designed to encourage growth and innovation
  64. “Homeworld” Sideswiped by a Story – Why I Love: Snowcastle Games’ Thomas French reflects on how Relic’s deep space RTS provided a strong narrative through mechanics
  65. NCSoft shuts down WildStar dev Carbine Studios
  66. Lowering the language barrier for aspiring Arab developers: Fawzi Mesmar never had access to Arabic books on game design, so he wrote one
  67. Wedding Proposal Hidden In Spider-Man Unravels, May Be Patched Out
  68. UK charts: Spider-Man is fastest-selling game of the year – Most successful week one for a Marvel game
  69. In the name of accessibility, Spider-Man offers toggleable puzzles and QTEs
  70. Remedy’s Alan Wake is being adapted for TV
  71. ‘To stay relevant’, U.S. adds select PC games to national software registry
  72. How a CEO fiddled while beloved board game Glory to Romecrashed and burned
  73. Developing Spore: An oral (‘Sporal’?) history 10 years on
  74. Blog: The importance of games that make us think

Jon

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News of the Week; September 5, 2018

By Jon Festinger on September 15, 2018

DIGITAL

  1. DOJ: We will examine social media firms that “may be hurting competition”
  2. We Shouldn’t Want Internet Giants Deciding Who To Silence; But They Should Let Users Decide Who To Hear
  3. Netflix and Other Streaming Services May Soon Be Legally Required to Make Content for Europe
  4. Netflix and Amazon will have to make more European content by law: A quota on local shows and movies will likely become official in December.
  5. Amazon’s valuation briefly surpassed $1 trillion
  6. Amazon achieved a market value of $1,000,000,000,000
  7. Amazon hits $1 trillion market cap one month after Apple: Online giant becomes second ever company to reach the milestone
  8. Amazon’s ad-supported video service faces many hurdles, but the upside is huge
  9. IP Address Subscriber Isn’t Liable for Copyright Infringement by Users Sharing That IP Address–Cobbler v. Gonzales (Eric Goldman)
  10. Copyright in Data Compilations Is Thin
  11. Wikimedia Warns: EU Copyright Directive Could Drastically Change The Internet We Know And Love
  12. YouTube’s Robert Kyncl Urges Creators To Speak Out Against Proposed EU Copyright Law
  13. California Lawmakers Want a Study of Fake News (If Someone Else Pays for It) (Eric Goldman)
  14. There’s A Reason That Misleading Claims Of Bias In Search And Social Media Enjoy Such Traction
  15. A Federal Anti-SLAPP Law Would Make CDA 230 More Effective
  16. Louisiana Police Appear To Be Using A Hoax Antifa List Created By 8Chan To Open Criminal Investigations
  17. Jack Dorsey Woos Irate Republicans by Calmly Explaining Twitter Is Indeed Messed Up
  18. How a Twitter account convinced 4,000 companies to stop advertising on Breitbart: Sleeping Giants founder tells Recode that he wants to be “the source of some kind of conscience” for social media.
  19. Facebook and Twitter’s Biggest Problems Follow Them to Congress
  20. How Trump Could Trigger Armageddon With a Tweet
  21. The President v. Tech
  22. How Trump’s Pressure on Google Threatens Government Manipulation of Search Results
  23. Censorship and Collateral Damage: Analyzing the Telegram Ban in Iran
  24. Google turns 20: how an internet search engine reshaped the world – The biggest moments, product launches, and acquisitions throughout Google’s two-decade history
  25. ­­­­­­­
  26. Google Reportedly Bought Your Banking Data in Secret, and That’s Not Even the Bad News
  27. Google: Sorry professor, old Beethoven recordings on YouTube are copyrighted
  28. Why I Can’t Quit Chrome
  29. 6 Ways Google Chrome Changed the Way We Web
  30. Senator to FTC: You guys really should look at Google one more time
  31. Google celebrates a decade of Google Chrome, launches major redesign
  32. Google wants to get rid of URLs but doesn’t know what to use instead
  33. And Here Come The Completely Ridiculous Lawsuits Over Internet Company ‘Bias’
  34. How Duterte Used Facebook To Fuel the Philippine Drug War
  35. Facebook is building a ‘war room’ for the midterm elections: The company is taking a ‘laser-focused’ approach to ‘the bad actors.’
  36. Instagram is coming after Amazon with plans to launch a standalone shopping app
  37. The state of advertising on Instagram Stories in five charts
  38. YouTube banned Alex Jones, but it’s letting white supremacist content thrive: Creators are profiting off hateful content
  39. YouTube is fighting for a slice of the premium-video market
  40. YouTube Exec Says Using All Caps Titles Causes Videos To Perform Worse
  41. You Can Now Watch The KSI And Logan Paul Fight For Free On YouTube
  42. Nerd City Video Raises Question: Does Jake Paul Hawking Merch To Kids Cross Legal Lines?
  43. Here’s Exactly How Much Money One YouTuber Made Off His First Million Views
  44. Popular YouTuber ‘The Fitness Marshall’ Breaks Down His Four-Year Ad Earnings
  45. How Do Viral Videos Make Money? YouTubers Share Their Secrets
  46. Hello Kitty Is The Latest Beloved Fictional Character To Become A YouTube Vlogger
  47. Philanthropic YouTube Star Lilly Singh To Headline Mashable’s 9th Annual ‘Social Good Summit’
  48. Claire Wineland, Who Chronicled Her Cystic Fibrosis Battle On YouTube, Has Passed Away At 21
  49. ‘Live With Kelly And Ryan’ To Welcome Digital Stars All Week As Part Of ‘LIVEtember’ Initiative
  50. YouTube Premium, YouTube Music Roll Out To 4 More Countries, Bringing Tally To 21
  51. 21st Century Fox Tenders $100 Million Investment In Buzzy Livestreaming Platform Caffeine
  52. 21st Century Fox sinks $100M into social streaming platform Caffeine
  53. 21st Century Fox invests $100m into streaming startup Caffeine: Newly-formed Caffeine Studios’ will use Fox Sports’ experience to create esports and games programmes for new broadcasting platform
  54. Lawyer in trouble with LSO for tweets
  55. $400,000 Raised for Homeless Man on GoFundMe Is Completely Gone, Lawyer Says
  56. The Mystery Of Columbia Pictures DMCAing Its Own Leaked Promotional Posters For Its ‘Holmes And Watson’ Movie
  57. Disney Fixes Its Sketchy DVD Rental License, Wins Injunction Against Redbox Over Digital Downloads
  58. Disney Enterprises Inc. v. Redbox Automated Retail LLC
  59. Researchers show Alexa “skill squatting” could hijack voice commands
  60. Microsoft is finally going to make the Skype UI good for the things people use
  61. “How can they be so good?”: The strange story of Skype
  62. The Scunthorpe Problem, And Why AI Is Not A Silver Bullet For Moderating Platform Content At Scale
  63. New Artificial Intelligence Does Something Extraordinary – It Remembers
  64. Engineering tour de force births programmable optical quantum computer
  65. Special Report: In Venezuela, new cryptocurrency is nowhere to be found
  66. Crunch Time in the NAFTA Negotiations: What’s at Play for Canada on Digital Policy (Michael Geist)
  67. The Rise of the Cyber-Mercenaries: What happens when private firms have cyberweapons as powerful as those owned by governments?
  68. Illusion of control: Why the world is full of buttons that don’t work
  69. I Invented the iPhone’s Autocorrect. Sorry About That, and You’re Welcome
  70. Between Cintiq and streaming, animation is thriving—ask Titmouse’s Chris Prynoski 

CREATIVITY

  1. Ontario Court of Appeal decision answers ‘big legal questions’ on SLAPP suits
  2. More On Mass Copyright Litigation in Canada – Part II (Howard Knopf)
  3. Tanksley v. Daniels
  4. Ninth Circuit Stops Monkeying Around And Denies En Banc Review Of The Monkey Selfie Case
  5. LEGO built a drivable Bugatti Chiron out of a million pieces of Technic: It’s the first-ever life-size drivable car made from technic bricks.
  6. How Not To Freak Out When Someone Copies Your Product
  7. Are campaigns running on infringement?
  8. Listen: ‘The Business of Television’ Author Reveals How Peak TV Shook Up Studio Dealmaking
  9. Reading the Star Wars: Episode IX Script Has Made Domhnall Gleeson Paranoid
  10. How ‘Fake News’ Was Born at the 1968 DNC: The madness of the 1968 Democratic National Convention pushed conservatives’ distrust of ‘the establishment’ into overdrive.
  11. Pottery Barn Is Going to Bankrupt Harry Potter Fans Wanting to Redecorate Like Hogwarts

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

  1.  Court Rules It’s Fine If FCC Wants To Deem Just One Available ISP As ‘Competition’
  2. Millions could lose cheap phone service under FCC’s overhaul of Lifeline
  3. FCC Criticized for Surrendering Power to Punish Verizon After Firefighters Got Throttled During Wildfire
  4. Verizon’s Oath Will Still Scan Your E-mail For Advertising Purposes Because Hey, It’s Verizon
  5. Ajit Pai Coddles Big Telecom, Demonizes Silicon Valley
  6. Ajit Pai Is Suddenly Very Concerned About Whether Tech Companies Are Censoring Conservatives
  7. Man who threatened to kill Ajit Pai’s children pleads guilty, faces prison
  8. T-Mobile/Sprint merger will bring higher prices, small carriers tell FCC
  9. California Is Now Inches Away From Restoring Net Neutrality
  10. California Shakes Off ISP Lobbyists, Embraces Real Net Neutrality
  11. “Gold standard” state net neutrality bill approved by California Assembly
  12. Calif. Senate approves net neutrality rules, sends bill to governor
  13. Comcast Is Trying To Ban States From Protecting Broadband & TV Consumers
  14. That Time Telco Lobbyists Sent Me All Their Talking Points About Trying To Shift The Blame To Internet Companies
  15. RTL CEO Bert Habets on Record Results, ‘American Idol’ Reboot and Taking on Netflix in Europe
  16. AT&T’s Top Anti-Net Neutrality Lobbyist In California Doesn’t Register As A Lobbyist
  17. AT&T and Verizon Are Making Very Different Bets on What 5G Will Mean for Consumers and Content: Next generation of wireless tech promises to make carriers more competitive with traditional TV providers
  18. Telecoms privacy and data security provisions in the USA

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

  1. Canada’s privacy deficit
  2. Cheese danish shipping, warrantless GPS trackers, and a border doctrine challenge
  3. Apple will require all apps to have a privacy policy as of October 3
  4. Five Eyes Surveillance Agencies Say Encryption Is Good, Except When It Keeps Them From Looking At Stuff
  5. DHS Continues Facial Recognition Deployment With An Eye On Expanding Program To All Domestic Travelers
  6. How Location Tracking Actually Works on Your Smartphone
  7. The Physical Security Key That Keeps Google Employees From Getting Phished Is Now Available
  8. Indian Police Adding Pre-Crime Software To Their Long List Of Snooping Tools
  9. Australian Gov’t Likes Intrusive Border Device Searches Just As Much As The US Does
  10. Unpatched routers being used to build vast proxy army, spy on networks

GAMES

  1. Jacksonville Shooting Victim Sues EA And Venue
  2. Madden NFL 19 shooting victim sues EA, claiming negligence
  3. Jacksonville shooting survivor files lawsuit against EA and others for negligence
  4. Jacksonville shooting victim suing EA for negligence: Also seeking damages from seven other defendants, including tournament venue Chicago Pizza and Jacksonville Landing mall
  5. EA donates $1 million to newly established Jacksonville Tribute fund
  6. EA donates $1m to victims of Jacksonville shooting: Publisher sets up Jacksonville Tribute fund in support of those affected
  7. Electronic Arts Delays Popular Video Game, Sinking Stock
  8. EA Bioware commits to free story DLC for Anthem: “We want people to be able to experience the same stories so none of that is going to be locked”
  9. Battlefield V pushed back from Call of Duty and Red Dead Redemption release window: EA stock drops as DICE delays until November to make “final adjustments to the core gameplay”
  10. FIFA 18 sells over 24 million copies: FIFA franchise overall totals 260 million copies sold; FIFA Mobile reaches 193 million installs
  11. Battlefield 5 Dev Says It’s A “Shame” Battlefield 1 Didn’t Initially Include Women: “I don’t think it’s a bandwagon thing…it’s about gamers wanting to express themselves in different ways.”
  12. NBA 2K producer: Microtransactions are ‘unfortunate reality’ of modern games
  13. Microtransactions “an unfortunate reality in modern gaming” – NBA 2K19 dev: Every game tries to get additional revenue from players in some way, says senior producer Rob Jones in wake of NBA 2K18 criticism
  14. And Now Comes The Pushback As One ROMs Site Is Challenging Nintendo’s Takedown Of ROM Sites
  15. Switch sales nearing 5 million units in Japan
  16. Nintendo Switch nears 5m sales in Japan: Only 2m behind lifetime sales of PlayStation 4
  17. Nintendo’s big mobile earner Fire Emblem Heroes had a bumper summer
  18. Diablo 3, Untitled Goose Game lead PAX West’s Nintendo Switch lineup
  19. Gallery: Exploring Nintendo’s flagship New York City store
  20. Let’s Sing 2019 heading to PS4, Xbox One, and… the Nintendo Wii?
  21. “Aren’t you a little too old for that?” Two decades of playing Pokémon
  22. Congressional Candidate Fights Boston Globe’s Use of Gamer Photo
  23. Tencent suspends community manager following sexual harassment accusations
  24. Tencent suspends global community manager after multiple sexual harassment claims: Full investigation pending as Arena of Valor CM accused of sending inappropriate messages to women
  25. Tencent’s value drops by $20 billion following new Chinese regulations: Company has lost more than $160 billion in value this year, falling behind rival Alibaba Group
  26. China to crack down on children’s video gaming time amid fears over addiction
  27. China increasing video game restrictions to combat myopia in children
  28. Chinese Ministry of Education recommends fewer game approvals to combat myopia: Also encourages regulations for screen time and introduction of age ratings for video games in China
  29. Riot’s struggle with toxicity turns inwards: After years of focusing on toxicity in its player base, Riot Games faces up to unpleasant revelations about its own work culture – and the industry at large should take note
  30. Riot responds to controversy over women and non-binary PAX workshops: “No matter how heated a discussion, we expect Rioters to act with respect”
  31. YouTube Orders Pilot For Comedy Series ‘It’s A Man’s World’ About Sexism In Gaming
  32. PewDiePie On Track To Be Overtaken As YouTube’s Most-Subscribed Channel In October
  33. CCP Games: ‘We’re not interested in [harassers] being part of our community’
  34. How Mulaka reflects a culturally respectful development process
  35. European ratings board adding in-game purchase label to boxed games
  36. PEGI adds in-game purchase warning to boxed games: Descriptor will be added to physical releases by the end of the year
  37. Social gaming and gambling advertising, how to deal with them?
  38. No esports in Olympics because ‘killer games’ promote violence: “They, from our point of view, are contradictory to the Olympic values and cannot therefore be accepted”
  39. F1 2018 dominates EMEA charts: But Rainbow Six tops the digital rankings
  40. UK Charts: PES launch sales drop 42% year-on-year – F1 2018 retains pole position
  41. Nazi tattoos scrubbed from Scum days after Early Access debut
  42. Devolver removes neo-Nazi tattoos from Scum: Imagery was included to emphasise ‘prison culture’, review being conducted to check for other potentially offensive content
  43. Video Game Industry Plays for FTC Approval of COPPA Program
  44. BioWare: “Anthem is not a departure, it’s the continued evolution of our craft” – Game director Jon Warner discusses the terror and excitement of leading BioWare’s new flagship IP
  45. How Nicki Minaj and a Drag Race superstar inspiredMonument Valley
  46. Sony scrapping PS2 aftercare service in Japan
  47. Sony Japan Is Finally Saying Goodbye To The PS2
  48. Sony CEO says limited cross-platform play provides the ‘best user experience’
  49. No Fortnite PS4 cross-play because ‘PlayStation is the best place to play’: It’s all about the user experience, says Sony CEO
  50. CEO: PS4 blocks cross-console play to provide “best user experience”
  51. Ten surprising things battle royale can teach us: Will Luton reflects on the lessons developers and publishers can learn from the rise of Fortnite, PUBG and their rivals
  52. Rocket League takes a page from Fortnite with new limited-time Rocket Pass
  53. Markiplier And Pokimane Will Battle It Out In Twitch ‘Fortnite’ Stream To Benefit ‘Stand Up 2 Cancer’
  54. Rainbow Six Siege takes after Fortnite by offering in-game reward for using 2FA
  55. Anthem isn’t charging for story DLC in an effort to keep its audience undivided
  56. More competition means players won’t always stay for DLC, warns Anthem dev
  57. YouTube Taps Gamers To Use New ‘YouTube Giving’ Tools In Fundraising Partnership With St. Jude
  58. How Paradox combines business strategy and game dev
  59. Square Enix and Tencent want to make triple-A games together
  60. Square Enix to create AAA original IP with Tencent: ‘Strategic alliance’ between two firms will also see the creation of a new joint-venture company
  61. Valve is making Counter-Strike: Global Offensive free to play, sort of
  62. Valve: Creating Artifact is not a “zero-sum game” – How the company is keeping its focus narrow for the upcoming online trading card game
  63. Final Fantasy XIV surpasses 14 million lifetime registered players
  64. Green Man Gaming’s £100m IPO: “We’ve grown between 25 to 30% every year”
  65. Skipping Steam: Why Jason Rohrer independently distributes One Hour, One Life 
  66. Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end – 10 Years Ago This Month: Microsoft announces Ensemble’s closing time months before it wraps development on Halo Wars
  67. ‘Minecraft’ Competitor ‘Roblox’ Raises $150 Million At $2.5 Billion Valuation
  68. Roblox closes on $150 million Series F funding round: Company’s largest funding round to date will go toward continued international expansion
  69. QC Games: “We may make terrible calls, but at least they’re ours” – Why the Breach developers left BioWare and EA for life as a AAA independent
  70. The video game creator turning his grief into art: Indie developer Dan Hett talks us through the therapeutic power of games development after the loss of his brother in the Manchester Arena bombing
  71. Blog: Why academics can no longer compete in game AI competitions
  72. Marvel’s Spider-Man Understands the Amazing Fantasy of Becoming Peter Parker 
  73. Spider-Man PS4 review: Does whatever a spider can—and then some
  74. Games intelligence firm SuperData acquired by analytics company Nielsen
  75. SuperData acquired by Nielsen Holdings: Major industry market intelligence company joins analytics group to bolster digital gaming, esports data
  76. Book Excerpt: Understanding video games as culture
  77. Check out Rolling Stone’s 1972 coverage of Spacewar!

Jon

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News of the Week; August 29, 2018

By Jon Festinger on September 1, 2018

DIGITAL

  1. Blueprints For 3D Printed Guns Will Stay (Sort Of) Offline, Judge Rules
  2. Judge allows temporary ban on 3D-printed gun files to continue
  3. After court order, 3D-printed gun pioneer now sells pay-what-you-want CAD files
  4. Supreme Court rules ISPs entitled to recover costs of blocking websites selling counterfeit goods
  5. Important Appeals Court Ruling States Clearly That Merely Having An IP Address Is Insufficient For Infringement Claims
  6. Conservatives: Stop Crying Wolf On Tech Bias Or No One Will Ever Take You Seriously
  7. President Trump Accuses Google of Rigging Search Results Against Him, Calls It ‘Very Dangerous’
  8. Trump says he will “address” Google’s “suppressing” of conservative news [Updated]
  9. Google Shuts Down 39 YouTube Accounts Linked To Iranian “Influence Operation”
  10. Google Removes YouTube Channels and Web Accounts Tied to Iran
  11. Comments on Trump’s Empty Tweetstorm Threatening Social Media Providers (Eric Goldman)
  12. California Lawmakers Want a Study of Fake News (If Someone Else Pays for It) (Eric Goldman)
  13. How YouTube deals with inappropriate videos
  14. Significant Concerns About The New NAFTA Agreement’s Impact On Innovation And The Internet
  15. Five Years Later, Google Express Is No Closer to Beating Amazon
  16. What Amazon’s Latest Hire Says About Its Sports Broadcasting Ambitions
  17. Amazon may make a free, ad-supported streaming service for Fire TVs
  18. Amazon Pays Employees To Chirp Happily On Twitter About Wonderful Working Conditions
  19. Snapchat surges in popularity as people turn their backs on Facebook in the UK: Snapchat to overtake Facebook among young adults in UK by end of 2018 amid global trend for 20-somethings shunning Zuckerberg’s social network
  20. Facebook, Instagram to charge GST on ads by mid-2019
  21. Dubious Studies And Easy Headlines: No, A New Report Does Not Clearly Show Facebook Leads To Hate Crimes
  22. Facebook’s War on B.S. Is Not Going Well -We Talked to the Fact Checkers on the Front Lines
  23. Continuing charm offensive, Facebook creates tool to boost news publishers’ reach on the platform
  24. Facebook Bans Myanmar Leaders, Admits It Was ‘Too Slow’ to Stop Posts Promoting Genocide
  25. Facebook violates Apple’s data-gathering rules, pulls VPN from App Store
  26. Facebook Watch Rolls Out Internationally
  27. Alleged Facebook scammer arrested in Ecuador, will resist extradition
  28. Fugitive Fraudster Who Demanded Half Of Facebook Arrested After Three Years On The Run
  29. Facebook Watch Now Available Globally, Offering Expanded Creator Tools To More Countries
  30. A look inside Facebook’s efforts to expand Wi-Fi in developing countries
  31. Potential(ly) Reach(ing): Facebook Sued Over Inflated Audience Numbers
  32. Facebook’s ‘Privacy Protecting’ VPN Booted From Apple Store For Snooping Too Much
  33. Fake GNUs: Keep politics out of open source software licences (Andres Guadamuz)
  34. Danish ISPs Get Win That Could End Copyright Trolling In Denmark
  35. Maximum Mudslinging: How Powerful Lobby Groups Are Working to Sideline Civil Society Voices on Digital Policy (Michael Geist)
  36. How The EU May Be About To Kill The Public Domain: Copyright Filters Takedown Beethoven
  37. Honest Government Ads Takes On EU Parliament’s Plan To Censor The Internet With Article 13
  38. A Link Tax Won’t Bring Back Journalists; It Will Do Even More Harm To Them
  39. Apple confirms TV series order of Asimov’s Foundation
  40. Apple and Amazon Have the Most Annoying Ongoing Feud in Tech
  41. Insights: Amazon’s Brand Ambassadors Swear Everything’s A-OK
  42. Microsoft will soon automatically transcribe video files in OneDrive for Office 365 subscribers
  43. Running Windows 95 in an “app” is a dumb stunt that makes a good point: Software piracy remains an important part of preserving our digital heritage.
  44. Microsoft obliquely acknowledges Windows 0-day bug published on Twitter
  45. Mobile Devices and Driving in Ontario and Quebec
  46. Internet Content Moderation Isn’t Politically Biased, It’s Just Impossible To Do Well At Scale
  47. Forget About Social Media Content Moderation; Get Ready For Internet Infrastructure Content Moderation
  48. Can social media posts be tortious or criminal?
  49. Brand Partners Sever Ties With Laura Lee Following Racist Tweet Scandal
  50. The Scandal Enmeshing YouTube’s Beauty Community Has Hit Manny MUA With Loss Of 250,000 Subscribers
  51. Popular YouTuber Kills Self, Two Others In Fiery Crash
  52. KSI v Logan Paul: YouTube boxing fight ends in a draw
  53. KSI vs. Logan Paul “YouTube World Championship” Boxing Match Ends In A Draw As 784K Watch On YouTube (And A Million More Illegally)
  54. KSI vs Logan Paul: Who’s Got The Edge Going Into What Will Be One Of The Biggest YouTube Events Of All Time
  55. KSI Wants To Push Logan Paul Rematch From February To May, Envisions Setting Outside U.S.
  56. YouTube Stars Go Head-to-Head in Pay-Per-View Boxing Match: Two of YouTube’s biggest names opt for ticket sales over ads; Celebrities on platform are seeking new ways to make money
  57. Jake Paul Defeats Deji In YouTube Boxing Event, Launches Merch Line RNBO To 800,000+ Live Viewers
  58. No one should be surprised that pirates hijacked the Logan Paul/KSI boxing match on Twitch
  59. How Much Did Logan Paul And KSI Make From Their ‘YouTube World Boxing Championship’? A Lot.
  60. As Popularity Of Avatar YouTubers Grows In Japan, One Prefecture Gets Its Own Official ‘VTuber’
  61. YouTube Rolls Out New Dashboard To Tell Users Exactly How Much Time They Spend Watching Content
  62. Shots Studios Unveils YouTube Channel Solely Dedicated To Vertical Videos
  63. YouTube Rolling Out Non-Skippable Ads To All Creators Within Its Partner Program
  64. YouTube Starts Telling You How Much Time You’re Wasting on YouTube
  65. BTS Surpasses Taylor Swift To Nab Biggest 24-Hour YouTube Video Debut Of All Time
  66. YouTube Beauty Mogul Jeffree Star Breezes Past 10 Million Subscribers In Roughly 3 Years
  67. Legal concerns emerging from influencer marketing – #Sponsored
  68. Here’s 23,000 Ways That Branded Content Is a S**t Show
  69. Family Vloggers Cole And Savannah LaBrant Accused Of Staging Wildfire Evacuation For Views
  70. Beer Company BrewDog Debuts Streaming-Video Service in Latest Niche SVOD Move
  71. The Young Turks Network Lays Off Staff, Retires Entertainment Shows
  72. BuzzFeed News Is Asking Readers For Donations — But Has No Immediate Paywall Plans
  73. BuzzFeed Zeroes in on Television With Premiere of Netflix Series and Launch of Twitter-Based TV-Review Show
  74. Once powerful, portals fade as video-syndication revenue sources
  75. Netflix’s Latest Price Hike May Have Scared Away Low-Income Consumers
  76. Netflix Is Testing A New Payment Method That Will Cut Apple Out Of The Process
  77. Netflix has a great opportunity in India, says SunTrust
  78. Technology Is Transforming TV – 3 Things Your Business Can Learn From Netflix
  79. Disney Enterprises, Inc. v. VidAngel, Inc.
  80. Get Your MoviePass Refund Now Before the Company’s Out of Money
  81. Andy Signore Is Suing Defy Media For Firing Him, Says Company Fostered “Culture Of Profanity And Obscenity”
  82. A Harm-Reduction Framework for Algorithmic Fairness (Micah Altman, Alexandra Wood, & Effy Vayena)
  83. Today In Useless Surveys: Some People Want Internet Companies To Stop Filtering News And Some Don’t.
  84. SEC Denies Nine More Bitcoin ETF Applications
  85. 4 Key Takeaways from FinCEN Director’s Speech on Cryptocurrency
  86. Venezuela’s Oil-Backed Cryptocurrency Is Giving Blockchain A Bad Name
  87. China Is Serious About Cracking Down on Cryptocurrency
  88. $224 million sought in lawsuit against AT&T over cryptocurrency theft
  89. Copyright and the blockchain
  90. Should Evil AI Research Be Published? Five Experts Weigh In.
  91. Advanced Artificial Intelligence Could Run The World Better Than Humans Ever Could
  92. If We Ever Want Artificial General Intelligence, Governments Need To Invest In It
  93. Industry 4.0 and the regulation of artificial intelligence
  94. It’s Really Easy for Hackers to Take Control of Robots
  95. Self-driving cars will destroy a lot of jobs—they’ll also create a lot
  96. Elon Musk Claims a Tesla Semi Prototype Drove “Across the Country Alone”
  97. Analysis: Why Elon Musk abandoned his plan to take Tesla private
  98. Milan court issues dynamic blocking injunction against Italian ISPs
  99. The World’s First Digital Teacher Just Debuted in New Zealand 

CREATIVITY

  1. Billionaire Steve Wynn, Who Once Tried To Kill Nevada’s Anti-SLAPP Law, Loses Defamation Case Under That Law
  2. More On Mass Copyright Litigation in Canada – Part I (Howard Knopf)
  3. Advantages Making the Federal Court of Canada an Increasingly Desirable Forum for Intellectual Property Disputes
  4. Top Five Reasons Why IT Companies are Coming to Canada
  5. Court of Appeals Finds That Digital Remasters of Pre-1972 Sound Recordings Likely Do Not Result in New Copyrighted Work That Would Bring These Songs under Federal Law – Reversing District Court Decision
  6. US Trade Rep Appears To Misreport Its Own Trade Agreement To Include Copyright Extension
  7. Gray v. Perry
  8. Can You Enhance That?: Copyright in Facts and Retouched Images
  9. Recognizing It Had No Chance, Cox Settles BMG Copyright Trolling Case
  10. Copyright or copyleft?
  11. Who should bear the cost of blocking orders for IP infringement?
  12. Trump’s Anti-press Rhetoric Is Dangerous, But His Actions Are Worse
  13. FBI refutes Trump claim that Clinton’s private email server was hacked by China
  14. The Oft-Forgotten Architecture of Pop Culture Franchises 
  15. Look Before You Leap  – “Weinstein Reps” in Corporate Transactions
  16. Nickelodeon Is Opposing A 12 Year Old New Zealand Girl’s ‘Slime’ Trademark For Some Reason
  17. Supreme Court Asked To Correct Appeals Court (Again) And Explain That Patentable Ideas Need To Be New
  18. The Story of the American Inventor Denied a Patent Because He Was a Slave
  19. Is the U.S. Fair Use Doctrine Compatible with Berne and TRIPS Obligations? (Pamela Samuelson & Kathryn Hashimoto)

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

  1. FCC Approves Another Radio Station Acquisition by a Company that is 100% Foreign-Owned 
  2. FCC can define markets with only one ISP as “competitive,” court rules
  3. Standard of Review: The Beginning of the End or the End of the Beginning?
  4. Net Neutrality Advocates, State Governments Argue Against Internet Freedom Order in D.C. Circuit Briefs
  5. California’s strict net neutrality bill is close to final passage
  6. Robocalls tell seniors net neutrality raises phone bills by $30: Robocalls spread misinformation to seniors as California votes on net neutrality.
  7. Big Telecom Resorts To Lying To Senior Citizens To Scuttle Net Neutrality In California
  8. Just Because The Internet Didn’t Implode The Day After Repeal Doesn’t Mean Killing Net Neutrality Was A Good Idea
  9. Comcast/Charter lobby asks FTC to preempt state broadband regulations
  10. Charter Spectrum Security Flaw Exposes Private Data Of Millions Of Subscribers
  11. FTC Hits Road Block in DIRECTV Advertising Case Seeking $3.95 Billion Remedy
  12. Verizon stops throttling more firefighters, plans unlimited data “with no caps”
  13. Verizon tries to douse criticism, touts “priority access” for first responders
  14. Verizon throttling could trigger FTC investigation of deceptive practices
  15. Don’t Hold Your Breath Waiting For The FCC, FTC To Punish Verizon For Screwing Firefighters
  16. Another Prison Phone Service Caught Recording Privileged Conversations And Passing Them On To Law Enforcement 
  17. T-Mobile Begs Small Wireless Carriers To Support Its Awful Merger. The Problem: They Hate It Too 
  18. RTL Group Sees Record Revenue for First Half of 2018: Results Fuelled by Strong Q2 Performance of FremantleMedia 
  19. A New Book Details the Damage Done by the Right-Wing Media in 2016 

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

  1.  Snoops on a Plane: Looking for Privacy in all the Wrong (Public) Places
  2. NSA leaker who mailed doc outlining Russian hacking gets 5 years in prison
  3. Reality Winner Will Spend Five Years In Jail For Leaking Info Government Officials Released Publicly
  4. Chinese Surveillance State Is Basically The US Surveillance Apparatus Minus The Constitutional Rights
  5. Woman: My iPhone was seized at border, then imaged—feds must now delete data
  6. American Muslim Challenges Warrantless Border Device Search From An Unexpected Legal Angle
  7. Indiana Appeals Court Says Forcing Someone To Unlock Their Phone Violates The 5th Amendment
  8. Prosecutor: Suspect must give up his phone’s passcode in fatal hazing case
  9. UK cops used facial recognition at show, found someone with outstanding warrant: During May 2018 event, South Wales Police false-positive rate went from 92% to 0.02%.
  10. Appeals Court: City-Owned Utility Pulling Electric Use Info Every 15 Minutes Is A Search
  11. Privacy shield team issues guidance
  12. Corporate Cybersecurity Is Becoming Geopolitical. Are U.S. Tech Companies Ready?
  13. Researchers find way to spy on remote screens—through the webcam mic
  14. Ron Wyden Wants The DOJ To Provide Answers On Stingray Devices’ Disruption Of Emergency Call Service
  15. A Tech Company Wants to Implant GPS Trackers in Dementia Patients
  16. Warning Kids About Digital Privacy Doesn’t Work. Here’s What Does.
  17. Bridging The Gap Between Computer Science and Legal Approaches To Privacy (Kobbi Nissim, Aaron Bembenek, Alexandra Wood, Mark Bun, Marco Gaboardi, Urs Gasser, David R. O’Brien, Thomas Steinke, & Salil Vadhan)

GAMES

  1. Shooter opens fire at Jacksonville Madden tournament
  2. Mass Shooting At Madden Tournament In Florida
  3. Competitive Gamers Eli Clayton And Taylor Robertson Killed In Jacksonville Shooting
  4. Victims of Jacksonville shooting were members of competitive Madden community: Elijah ‘TrueBoy’ Clayton and Taylor ‘SpotMePlzz’ Robertson were killed at a Madden Championship Series tournament last weekend
  5. EA cancels remaining Madden qualifiers in wake of shooting
  6. EA cancels Madden competitions after shooting: CEO Andrew Wilson honors slain players, cancels three remaining qualifiers for Madden Classic competitions
  7. Flordia AG Somehow Pivots To The Danger Of Video Games After The Latest Florida Shooting
  8. PAX organizers issue official statement after shooting at Madden Championship Series event: “We have in place extensive proactive measures” to ensure safety at PAX West, future events
  9. Riot Games outlines plan for culture change in wake of workplace sexism allegations: Company promises action steps such as third-party evaluations, anonymous hotline, reevaluation of recruiting practices, and new HR hires
  10. Battle Chef Brigade dev warns against putting work first
  11. Weather Factory launches Coven Club to help connect women in games
  12. Nintendo files takedown notice against Pokemon fan game creation tool
  13. Nintendo shuts down tool used to build Pokémon fan games
  14. Nintendo orders takedown of fan game maker Pokémon Essentials: Decade-old asset kit for RPG Maker pulled, along with wiki on how to develop with it
  15. Ever wanted to see “beyond” the NES game screen? With WideNES, you can
  16. Artists Heading to Dungeons & Dragons Session Say ICE Detained Them, Would Not Allow Them Entry to U.S.
  17. 2K Games alters NBA 2K MyTeam mode to comply with Belgian loot box laws: Publisher also removes premium currency card packs from Dutch version, “disagrees with this position” in both nations
  18. Blizzard removes paid loot boxes and loot chests for players in Belgium
  19. Blizzard locks sale of real money loot boxes in Belgium: Overwatch and Heroes of the Storm join growing list of games forced to halt sale of loot boxes by Belgian authorities
  20. Denuvo Announces Plan To Fail To Combat Online Game Cheaters After Failing To Stop Piracy With Its DRM
  21. Denuvo: “There is no uncrackable game. What we do is protect the initial sales” – Anti-tamper tech is far from iron-clad, but pirates are only willing to wait so long for a cracked game
  22. Denuvo rolling out anti-cheat software: DRM firm plans to prevent players unbalancing multiplayer games and bypassing microtransactions
  23. GameStop shares plummet as buyout deal fails to materialise: With no sign of retailer’s troubles abating, shares fall 9.9 per cent
  24. Post Valve’s ‘Hands Off’ Games Curation Announcement, Everything Is A Mess
  25. Report: Analyzing player preferences from the US games market
  26. Superdata: No Man’s Sky flies once more as Fortnite begins to flag – July digital games market report shows Epic’s battle royale nonetheless continues to drive growth
  27. Fortnite dev Epic offers in-game reward for players that turn on 2FA
  28. Google spots security vulnerability in Epic-hosted FortniteAndroid installer
  29. Google discloses vulnerability in Fortnite launcher that allowed possible malware installation: Epic Games has since fixed the exploit, but CEO Tim Sweeney calls Google disclosure “irresponsible”
  30. Fortnite’s Android vulnerability leads to Google/Epic Games spat
  31. Daybreak Games closing down Just Survive servers in October
  32. Publisher 505 Games takes over support of Roll7’s Laser League
  33. NPD: $19.5bn spent on video games in US during first half of 2018 – Hardware spending reaches seven-year high, with Xbox One and SNES Classic cited as highlights
  34. NPD: Fortnite, PUBG help push U.S. game spending up 40%
  35. UK Charts: F1 2018, Shenmue depose Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy – Activision Blizzard’s nostalgic platformer finally drops to No.3 after eight weeks in the top spot
  36. Tomb Raider overshadows EMEAA game charts: Upcoming release bolsters Rise of the Tomb Raider, Tomb Raider into top ten
  37. NPD: Octopath Traveler leads continued Switch success in July – Nintendo published half of July’s top 10 best selling software titles
  38. Examining why Switch games cost more than their PC counterparts
  39. Switch checks off its indie-game wishlist with Into the Breach, Towerfall
  40. Nintendo rolls out indie-focused Switch news channel
  41. The 10 secrets to indie game success (and why they do not exist)
  42. Game Marketing 101: How to make games and stay afloat
  43. Microsoft reportedly bundling console, Gold and Game Pass into Xbox All Access service
  44. Microsoft is about to announce Xbox All Access subscription
  45. Report: New Microsoft subscription service will include an Xbox One, Xbox Live, and Game Pass
  46. Report: “Xbox All Access” to offer free hardware with two-year agreement
  47. “Xbox All Access” offers free hardware up front with two-year subscription 
  48. Xbox All Access bundles a console, Live, and Game Pass for 24 monthly payments
  49. Microsoft announces Xbox All Access: 24-month payment program gets users an Xbox One, Xbox Live, and Game Pass sans up-front payment
  50. “We don’t see a future where subscriptions are dominant” –  Microsoft: Xbox Game Pass heads say player feedback shows they prefer a service with a smaller number of quality titles to one with thousands of games
  51. Why Xbox bought Ninja Theory: Microsoft explains why mid-sized studios are important to its Game Pass subscription service
  52. Playstation Vue expands its lineup with 200 more local channels
  53. Review: Yakuza Kiwami 2 gets cleaned up for PS4
  54. Blog: Where’s my money, dude? What Steam is silent about
  55. Dota 2 International 2019 moves to Shanghai: First time the championship has been held outside of North America since the 2011 debut
  56. Pro Gamers Fend Off Elon Musk-Backed AI Bots – For Now
  57. Twitter Sets Pact With Overwatch League for Highlights, Weekly Show: Deal for esports content runs through end of 2019
  58. Riot Games details steps forward after workplace toxicity allegations
  59. Riot Games ‘a long way’ from breaking even in esports 
  60. Riot Games “a long way from breaking even” on esports investment: Head of global esports events explains company’s decision to cut costs, focus investments over next three years
  61. Newzoo: Mobile esports seeing windows of opportunity open – Better hardware, Eastern popularity are driving slow but steady growth of large-scale, competitive play
  62. It’s Time for an ‘Overwatch’ Battle Pass
  63. Miyamoto: Game devs must avoid becoming reliant on free-to-play
  64. iFixit dissects the $2,299 Magic Leap One so you don’t have to: Glue barriers, fragile components drop mixed-reality set’s “repairability score.”
  65. Twitch Embraces Nostalgia Again With Pokemon TV And Movie Marathons
  66. Creators Going Pro: How Logdotzip Turned A Passion For Gaming At 14 Into A 10-Person Business A Decade Later
  67. GoldenEye 007 gets quite the 21st-birthday present: An oral history
  68. Riot using League of Legends to drive blood donations in the Netherlands
  69. Riot Games partners with blood bank to promote donation in the Netherlands: League of Legends players who donate blood through Sanquin will receive an in-game skin
  70. Why From Software chose Activision to publish Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice – “When From Software knocks on your door and says ‘hey, we wanna make a game,’ you have only one answer right?”
  71. How World of Warcraft helped Epidemiologists create better disease models
  72. Battle for Azeroth is the fastest-selling World of Warcraft expansion: Day-one global sales surpass 3.4 million
  73. Battle for Azeroth beats out past World of Warcraftexpansions in day-one sales
  74. World of Warcraft devs explore the history of the long-running MMO
  75. Reinventing God of War was a battle against doubt
  76. Assassin’s Creed’s gap year could start a trend
  77. Whoa, There’s Gonna Be A Streets Of Rage 4
  78. Taking on Madden as an option instead of a Hail Mary: Solo developer David Winter is building a business with simulation football games catering to audiences unserved by EA’s juggernaut
  79. Why Velocity Supernova needs a publisher – but is struggling to find one: FuturLab’s James Marsden delves deeper into the difficulties getting a Velocity 2X sequel signed, despite an audience of millions
  80. Oculus Founder Serves up Scathing Review of Magic Leap One, Calling It A “Tragic Heap”
  81. Hands-on: Upcoming VR Shooter ‘Telefrag’ Boasts Impossible, Escher-style Arenas
  82. Orpheus to bring suite of “self-care entertainment” games to VR: New publishing venture focused on games with positive impact on player well-being
  83. Gamescom sets another record for attendance: But with 370,000 visitors, venue management admit to congestion issues
  84. Gamescom 18 boasts 15,000 jump in attendees at record 370,000
  85. Portal was a classic from out of nowhere – Why I Love: YoYo Games’ Russell Kay remembers how The Orange Box toss-in stole the whole Half-Life show

Jon

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News of the Week; August 22, 2018

By Jon Festinger on August 26, 2018

DIGITAL

  1. Will the Canadian Voltage Reverse Class Action Now Fizzle?
  2. Twitter Gets Powerful Win in “Must-Carry” Lawsuit–Taylor v. Twitter
  3. Appeals Court Says Of Course Twitter Can Kick Racists Off Its Platform
  4. As Press Freedom Dies In Turkey, Twitter Is There To Help Dig Its Grave
  5. Dutch Government Prosecuting Dutch Citizen For Insulting Turkish President Recep Erdogan
  6. EU Commission Moving Forward With Legislation Demanding One Hour Removal Of ‘Terrorist Content’
  7. Section 230 Survives to Fight Another Day Following California Supreme Court Decision
  8. Automated ‘Content Protection’ System Sends Wave Of Bogus DMCA Notice Targeting Legitimate URLs
  9. Automated Filter Removed Parliament Member’s Article Warning About Censorship By Automated Filters
  10. 3D-printed gun activists set to face numerous US states in court
  11. Microsoft shuts down phishing sites, accuses Russia of new election meddling
  12. Man sues over Google’s “Location History” fiasco, case could affect millions
  13. Google reportedly plans flagship retail store (again), this time in Chicago
  14. After employee revolt, Google says it is “not close” to launching search in China
  15. Apple complies with China’s rules again, pulls gambling apps from App Store
  16. Apple Store Shoppers Tackle Suspects in $18,000 MacBook Grab-and-Dash Heist
  17. Huawei was caught using a pro camera to fake smartphone photos (again)
  18. UK Consumer Watchdog Is Monitoring Social Influencers Who May Be Failing To Disclose Paid Promotions
  19. Couple behind “prolific” dark net fentanyl sales busted by DOJ
  20. The Internet is making us stupid (Andres Guadamuz)
  21. Facebook: Iran has been posting hundreds of fake pages since 2011
  22. Facebook removed hundreds of pages from Iran and Russia as part of ongoing investigation into platform abuse
  23. Facebook begins rating users on how trustworthy they are at flagging fake news
  24. Facebook Helps Landlords Discriminate Against Minorities, Says U.S. Government
  25. DOJ Asking Court To Force Facebook To Break Encryption On Messenger Voice Calls
  26. ‘Facebook What?’ Half of Users Have Never Heard of Facebook’s Watch Video Service
  27. The Media Tried To Game The Machines and You’ll Never Guess What Happened Next (Facebook Won)
  28. Elon Musk Explains Why He Quit Instagram: ‘I Didn’t Like It’ [Updated]
  29. Brands Are Reaching Out To Young Teens On Instagram To Negotiate Cheap Product Endorsement
  30. Laura Lee Apologizes For Racist Tweets Amid Loss Of 240,000 Subscribers In Roughly 1 Week
  31. Once Again, Court Rejects Silly Claims That YouTube Provided Material Support For Terrorists
  32. Rutgers University Study Warns Against Glut Of Misleading Plastic Surgery Videos On YouTube
  33. “Re-Inspired” Kandee Johnson Returns To YouTube After Months-Long Absence
  34. YouTube Millionaires: MacDoesIt Says YouTube Has “Made A Home” For Him And Other Marginalized Creators
  35. Philip DeFranco Testing New Show Format To Avoid “Suppressed” YouTube Videos
  36. YouTuber True Geordie, The Commentator For KSI And Logan Paul’s Match, Launches Mobile Boxing Game
  37. YouTube Premium Is Readying 50 Originals For 2019. Here’s The Kind Of Content It’s Looking For.
  38. YouTube Outlines Originals Strategy in Europe, Middle East, Africa
  39. YouTube Music Signs American Music Awards Two-Year Title Sponsorship Deal
  40. YouTube Music Inks Two-Year Sponsorship Deal With The American Music Awards
  41. Ariana Grande Using Snapchat to Launch ‘Sweetener’ Merchandise via a Shoppable Selfie Lens
  42. Viacom Lays Off A Number Of AwesomenessTV Employees
  43. Walmart’s Streaming Video Service Plans Coming Into Focus, Will Launch Late 2018
  44. Relax, binge watchers. Netflix is not adding commercials
  45. Netflix will now interrupt series binges with video ads for its other series
  46. Netflix Is Testing Personalized “Surfacing Recommendations” — AKA Ads — Between Episodes
  47. 35% Of Millennials and 42% Of Gen Z Share Their Streaming Service Passwords (Study)
  48. Study Finds Streaming Service Usernames And Passwords For Sale On Dark Web
  49. Check’s in the Mail: Sony Music Disburses $750 Million to Artists in ‘Spotify Windfall’: The “completely voluntary” payment will not count against unrecouped earnings.
  50. Vice Media signs long-term content deal with Bell: Move comes after Rogers walked away from previous $100M pact
  51. Amazon Apparently Wants to Destroy TiVo Now
  52. Amazon Is Planning Live TV Recorder, Challenging TiVo: Box would record live TV and stream that video to smartphones; Device competes with offerings from TiVo, Dish’s Slingbox
  53. Giphy Adds Curated Stories to Desktop, Mobile Web
  54. AT&T Sued After SIM Hijacker Steals $24 Million in Customer’s Cryptocurrency
  55. Ouch, These Stories From the Crypto Crash Are Hard to Stomach
  56. The blockchain bonanza is over for graphics card makers
  57. NVIDIA cryptocurrency revenues fall 82% below $100m estimate for last quarter: Revenues up but OEM segment declines 54 per cent with crypto shortfall
  58. Saving Lives With Tech Amid Syria’s Endless Civil War: The Bashar al-Assad regime’s indiscriminate air strikes have terrorized civilians for years. Now a small band of activist-entrepreneurs is building a sensor network that listens for warplanes
  59. To Build Trust In Artificial Intelligence, IBM Wants Developers To Prove Their Algorithms Are Fair
  60. To Lead in AI, House of Lords Urges UK to stay nimble, focus on ethics, and look to Canada
  61. AI-Generated Art Will Go On Sale Alongside Human-Made Works This Fall
  62. A realistic look at AI in science fiction
  63. The Viral Robot Video That’s Freaking Everyone Out Is Totally Fake
  64. A Robot Will Become A Real-Life Movie Star
  65. Baseball Players Are Sick of Fallible Umpires. Robots Should Make Calls Instead.
  66. The gig economy and the law
  67. Massachusetts gives workers new protections against noncompete clauses
  68. Prenda Scam Boss, Paul Hansmeier, Pleads Guilty
  69. Paul Hansmeier finally cops to being a porn troll, after a years-long saga
  70. Bitmovin Takes A Scorched Earth Approach To Patent Troll, Who Limps Away Quickly
  71. Before You Talk About How Easy Content Moderation Is, You Should Listen To This
  72. The four ways that ex-internet idealists explain where it all went wrong: 21st-century digital evangelists had a lot in common with early Christians and Russian revolutionaries.
  73. Bill Gates Says We Need New Economic Models That Take Tech Into Account
  74. These 3,800-Year-Old Peruvian Carvings Look Like Modern Emoji 

CREATIVITY

  1. Only 12% Of Music Revenue Goes To Actual Artists
  2. Stan Lee Has Been Granted a 3-Year Restraining Order Against His Former Manager and Guardian
  3. Kevin Spacey’s new movie might make less than $500 this weekend
  4. Kelly Marie Tran Speaks Out Against Racist Star Wars Fans With Some Powerful Words
  5. Movie Company Sues Post-Production Studio For $5 Million For Leaking ‘Kickboxer’ Film That Grossed $5k Domestically
  6. Museum Visitor Falls Into Giant Hole That Looks Like a Cartoonish Painting on the Floor
  7. Judge In Broward County Documents Case Decides The First Amendment Doesn’t Cover These Public Records
  8. Elected Official Files Business, Trademark Registrations Using Name Of Website That Frequently Criticized Her
  9. In-N-Out Sends Punny Cease And Desist Over Fairly Clear Trademark Infringement
  10. Heaven Hill Distillery Knocks On Bob Dylan’s Door Over His Heaven’s Door Whiskey For Trademark Infringement
  11. As Academic Publishers Fight And Subvert Open Access, Preprints Offer An Alternative Approach For Sharing Knowledge Widely

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

  1. Telus class action case heads to the SCC
  2. This Really Isn’t Our Fight and It Will Cost Us”: Behind the Scenes of CBC Support for Bell’s Website Blocking Plan (Michael Geist)
  3. Email Marketing In Canada (CASL)
  4. Maximum Mudslinging: How Powerful Lobby Groups Are Working to Sideline Civil Society Voices on Digital Policy (Michael Geist)
  5. ‘Oversight’ Hearing Fails Utterly To Hold FCC Accountable For Lying To Congress About Fake DDOS Attack
  6. Ajit Pai Knew FCC Cyberattack Was Fake for Seven Months but Kept Quiet
  7. Ajit Pai knew DDoS claim was false in January, says he couldn’t tell Congress
  8. Ajit Pai Opposes Effort To Update The Definition Of Broadband
  9. A Senator Says U.S. Broadband Maps ‘Stink.’ Here’s Why Nobody Wants To Fix Them.
  10. ISPs say they can’t expand broadband unless gov’t gives them more money
  11. 23 Attorneys General Urge Appeals Court To Restore Net Neutrality
  12. Verizon Throttled The ‘Unlimited’ Data Plan Of A Fire Dept. Battling Wildfires
  13. Verizon throttled fire department’s “unlimited” data during Calif. wildfire
  14. Verizon Throttled Fire Department’s ‘Unlimited’ Plan While They Were Fighting Mendocino Complex Fire
  15. Verizon Is Wrong. Throttling Emergency Responders’ Data Is Definitely About Net Neutrality.
  16. Fire dept. rejects Verizon’s “customer support mistake” excuse for throttling
  17. AT&T/TIME Warner DOJ Smack Down: You Don’t Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows
  18. A Victory for Introductory Offer and Subscription Advertisers: FTC Fails to Prove Deception Against DIRECTV
  19. DirecTV beats $4B lawsuit that alleged it tricked customers into paying more 

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

  1. Canadian Privacy Commissioner says public profiles are private
  2. FBI Tried To Get Google To Turn Over Identifying Info On Hundreds Of Phone Owners
  3. FBI Warning: Data Security Issues Posed by the Internet of Things
  4. Just say no: Wi-Fi-enabled appliance botnet could bring power grid to its knees
  5. The limits of intelligence collection 
  6. Toward defining privacy expectations in an age of oversharing: Our digital data deserves protection, writes Margot Kaminski, a law professor 
  7. Voting Machine Vendors, Election Officials Continue To Look Ridiculous, As Kids Hack Voting Machines In Minutes
  8. Researcher Says Police Body Cameras Are An Insecure Mess
  9. Let’s Retire the Phrase ‘Privacy Policy’: People assume it means their information will be kept private. Nothing could be further from the truth.
  10. Teen Hangout Site Shuttered for COPPA Violations
  11. Recent Developments Regarding the California Consumer Privacy Act

GAMES

  1. Liftoff: Women make in-app purchases at a 79% higher rate than men – iOS user acquisition more expensive, but also more lucrative than Android
  2. Analyst: More players are making in-app purchases (with less nudging)
  3. 2K tweaks loot boxes in NBA 2K to comply with new Belgian gambling laws
  4. Loot Box Regulation: The State of Play
  5. China’s censors may target business models, not content: With no games approved in four months, China’s censorship regime is in flux; could game monetisation be in the sights of the new authorities?
  6. Games of Skill v. Games of Chance – The Legal Analysis
  7. Indictment: Congressman spent campaign funds on $1,500 in Steam games [Updated]
  8. U.S. judge blocks sale of GTA Online cheat programs
  9. US judge blocks man from selling Grand Theft Auto Online cheat programs: Take-Two claims software by David Zipperer has cost the firm more than $500,000
  10. Judge Stanton grants preliminary injunction against creator of “grand theft Auto V” cheat software
  11. Game dev suffers broken teeth, skull fracture after trying to film arrest
  12. Veteran game designer arrested after altercation with police: Industry crowdfunds legal and medical fees for former Disney and Turbine developer Patricia A. Pizer after alleged assault
  13. Discrimination Lawsuit Filed Against ‘League of Legends’ Developer Riot Games
  14. Riot Games exec Greg Street promises change to sexist culture
  15. Video: How Riot partners with players to positively impact the world
  16. How Not Tonight went from workplace sim to twisted Brexit vision
  17. Video: How to foster diversity in games 
  18. Developers of adult games on Steam should “assume months” before game approval
  19. Valve makes Windows games playable on Linux with Steam Play update
  20. Steam Play update makes Windows-only games playable on Linux: Valve rolls out new open source compatibility tool Proton, complete with Vulkan support
  21. “No school shooters”: Robot Cache promises more curation than Steam – CEO says every game submitted will be reviewed for content on blockchain-based marketplace
  22. THQ Nordic team-up brings select Microsoft Studios games to Steam
  23. Judge Orders Alleged EA Games Hacker to Pay $750,000 Bail in Cryptocurrency
  24. ROM sites are falling, but a legal loophole could save game emulation
  25. FTC Approves Changes to Video Game Industry’s Safe Harbor Program Under COPPA
  26. Clash of Clans, Fortnite lead top mobile games for session time: Users spent 3.83 billion hours playing Clash of Clans in May through July of this year
  27. Please Don’t Download Fortnite for Android From Sketchy Places
  28. Impostor Fortnite Android Apps Are Already Spreading Malware
  29. Pokémon Go file check opens new front in war on rooted Android phones
  30. Fortnite’s five-month iOS revenue on par with Clash Royale: Epic’s blockbuster reaches $200 million revenue on the App Store, according to Sensor Tower estimates
  31. PUBG Mobile surpasses 100 million downloads since launch 
  32. PUBG Mobile hits 100 million downloads: Battle royale’s mobile version also reaches 14 million daily active users
  33. Capcom has shipped 10M copies of Monster Hunter: World
  34. Assassin’s Creed to skip major release in 2019: Ubisoft avoids spin-off titles as well, focusing on support of Odyssey
  35. Minigame integrated into EVE Online helps scientists understand cells
  36. EVE Online players further scientific research using pattern-matching minigame
  37. Blog: Making the first game containing Nazi symbols in Germany
  38. How Six Ages builds a game around the power of myth
  39. Steam’s content-driven freeze on game approvals expected to last for months
  40. Valve accidentally unveils Steam.tv broadcasting platform
  41. Valve launches streaming platform Steam TV: Quiet launch of new broadcasting arm gives Twitch and YouTube gaming a new competitor
  42. Some Twitch Users’ Private Messages Were Exposed To Other Users. Here’s How To Check If You’re One Of Them.
  43. Twitch Prime Will Rescind Ad-Free Viewing Beginning Next Month
  44. Pay now or kiss Twitch Prime’s no-advertising perk goodbye starting Sept 14
  45. Mad Machines to debut as a “First on Discord” game: Rocket League-like robot spike hockey game will be exclusive to Discord at launch
  46. Blog: Honest reflections on Patreon from a game media creator
  47. Sony Finally Gets A Little Weird With Its New DualShock 4 Colors
  48. Citing ‘Sony’s plans to discontinue the Vita,’ Bloodstaineddev cancels port
  49. Bloodstained Vita release canceled due to “Sony’s plans to discontinue” handheld: Kickstarter update delays game to 2019, offers refunds to Vita backers
  50. PlayStation VR Passes 3 Million Units Sold
  51. Worldwide PlayStation VR sales have topped 3 million
  52. PlayStation VR hits 3 million sold: Sony says PSVR software sales approaching 22 million; Skyrim tops the list of most-played PSVR games
  53. VR’s slow growth ideal for indies – Moss dev
  54. EA Respawn’s Unannounced Oculus Exclusive Characterized as a “AAA VR Shooter”
  55. EA, Unity, Epic, and others unite to promote best practices for HDR
  56. Inside Two Bit Circus, LA’s new VR and arcade amusement park
  57. Zynga to develop a Star Wars mobile game following Disney partnership
  58. Zynga’s NaturalMotion studio partners with Disney for new Star Wars game: Publisher will also take over mobile tower defense game Star Wars Commander
  59. Microsoft’s Moon Studios, Activision Blizzard stand out in Gamescom Awards: Koch Media, Nintendo also take home multiple honors
  60. Microsoft prepares to kill the Windows 8 store: No new apps from November
  61. Microsoft, Sony, other major publishers form HDR Gaming Interest Group: Group aims to specify and share public guidelines to improve HDR gaming
  62. Minecraft: Education Edition is coming to iPad
  63. Keywords Studios acquires Studio Gobo for £26m: Technical services provider continues spending spree with eighth acquisition this year
  64. Profits tumble 57.5% at Rovio, despite rising games revenue: Angry Birds 2 pulls in €29.7 million but developer admits it “did not see the growth we wanted” from other games
  65. Realm Royale loses 97% of its players in two months: Steam user reviews suggest balancing issues lie at the heart of Hi-Rez Studios’ battle royale decline
  66. Despite millions of downloads, publishers won’t sign the sequel to Velocity 2X
  67. FuturLab: No publisher will sign Velocity 2X sequel, despite millions of downloads – UK studio shares turbulent journey behind Velocity Supernova, the secretly-developed sequel it might never release
  68. Gameseek founder returns with toy and video games retailer: Just three months since the website entered administration leaving customers out of pocket
  69. OK Fine, Maybe Nintendo’s on to Something With the Labo Vehicle Kit
  70. InkyPen brings comics, graphic novels to Nintendo Switch: Comic subscription service’s debut marks first worldwide media app of its kind on the console
  71. Nintendo’s Switch has been hiding a buried “VrMode” for over a year
  72. Shuhei Yoshida’s first play of God of War – “He was horrified”: At Devcom 2018, creative director Cory Barlog laid out the difficult user responses to the in-development God of War, from both playtesters and SIE’s top brass
  73. Cliff Bleszinksi to address Boss Key failure in new book: Industry veteran’s memoir “closes the chapter” on studio that shut down less than a year after its debut title Lawbreakers launched
  74. Scammers are still trying to snag free games from indie devs 
  75. The Division 2 “is like a second marriage”: Massive’s David Polfeldt talks us through his team’s ‘endgame first’ mentality and why the first Division could last longer than we expect
  76. In Octopath Traveler, jobs define more than just gameplay mechanics
  77. Playne: Encouraging mindfulness through video games – Developer Krish Shrikumar on using video games to break down stigma against meditation and mindfulness
  78. The creators of the Nintendo 64 GoldenEye have officially ruled: Oddjob is cheating
  79. Developing GoldenEye 007 when the technology didn’t exist 
  80. F1 2018: More than a great game, it’s an interactive history lesson
  81. Don’t Miss: Devs reflect on the impact and legacy ofBurnout Paradise
  82. Shenmue I & II impressions: A gaming history lesson, but it feels like school
  83. Ubisoft’s once-yearly Assassin’s Creed series is skipping a 2019 release
  84. Don’t Miss: The physics of trains in Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate
  85. Dontnod’s Vampyr picked up for TV adaptation by Fox21
  86. Fox21 adapting Dontnod’s Vampyr for TV: Series based on video game will be produced by same company behind upcoming Life Is Strange TV show
  87. Ustwo Games’ Monument Valley picked up for film adaptation
  88. Lakers, Timberwolves, Nets, and Hawks Join NBA 2K League’s Second Season
  89. Valve’s nearly $25M The International prize pool sets esports-wide record
  90. The International brings record-breaking prize pool: Dota 2 tournament’s $24.8 million pool once again largest in esports history
  91. Esports official medal in 2022 Asian Games up in the air again: OCA backtracks, citing lack of overarching governing body as key hurdle in recognition as a medaling event
  92. NASCAR Team Properties extends gaming license through 2029, expands Esports initiatives.
  93. As Esports Race to Turn Pro, Madden NFL Stays Open to All Gamers
  94. This Is The Longest Madden Glitch I’ve Ever Seen And It Keeps Getting Stranger
  95. Facebook removes its revenue share from Instant Games on Android
  96. Facebook drops its revenue share for Instant Games on Android: Social network will no longer take a cut of in-app purchases on Google devices, applies new rates retroactively
  97. Amazon removes its 20 percent preorder discount on games
  98. Amazon Prime eliminates 20% discount on game pre-orders
  99. GAME’s full-year revenues expected to suffer slight decline
  100. NVIDIA Demo Shows Off Real-time Ray Tracing Capabilities of RTX Cards
  101. ‘Battlefield V’ Shows What NVIDIA RTX Ray Tracing Means for the Future of Gaming
  102. What Will Quantum Computer Games Be Like?  
  103. Rules of the game (part 1): Copyright protection of video games in Canada
  104. Raytracing explained: Nvidia, Microsoft lead the way in revolutionizing gaming graphics

Jon

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News of the Week; August 15, 2018

By Jon Festinger on August 24, 2018

DIGITAL

  1. Unenforceability in the U.S. a Non-Starter When Google Returns to the BC Supreme Court
  2. Google’s servers housed by a third-party ISP qualify as a regular and established place of business to establish proper venue in the Eastern District of Texas
  3. How 3-D Printing Exposes the Fallacy of Federal Gun Laws
  4. Twitter says InfoWars hasn’t ‘violated our rules.’ It looks like that’s not the case
  5. Twitter finally deletes some of Alex Jones, Infowars videos and tweets: Glad to have you on board, Twitter – signed, every other tech company.
  6. Twitter suspends Alex Jones for urging people to keep “battle rifles” ready [Update]
  7. Alex Jones claims he’s being silenced as bans push him to alternative platforms: Removals from Facebook, YouTube, Spotify and Apple haven’t slowed his posting, but the Infowars founder is appealing to the president
  8. InfoWars app will stay in the iOS App Store—here’s Apple’s reason why
  9. Alex Jones’ ‘Free Speech’ Shouldn’t Be Your Primary Concern
  10. Online activists hit hatemongers like Alex Jones where it hurts the most – in the wallet
  11. Vimeo Bans Alex Jones After Conspiracy Hawker Ramps Up Output There
  12. Platforms, Speech And Truth: Policy, Policing And Impossible Choices
  13. Platforms Are Not Publishers: The essential value of the internet is conversation, not content – and journalists need to embrace it.
  14. How social media took us from Tahrir Square to Donald Trump: To understand how digital technologies went from instruments for spreading democracy to weapons for attacking it, you have to look beyond the technologies themselves. (Zeynep Tufekci)
  15. How Turkey silences journalists online, one removal request at a time
  16. Should platforms be regulated? A new survey says yes.
  17. How WeChat Filters Images for One Billion Users
  18. New law bans US gov’t from buying tech from Chinese giants ZTE and Huawei
  19. Sneaky Website User Bound by Online Terms of Use Provision Despite Renewing Subscription in Spouse’s Name 
  20. Now returning: NFL games, player protests, and presidential tweets
  21. Adidas will livestream high school football games on Twitter: A new series will broadcast eight weekly games from across the country through the season.
  22. Is A Twitter Account An Employer’s Trade Secret? Yes, Says Media Company 
  23. Twitter Promptly Suspends Tesla Whistleblower Following Tweets About His Former Employer
  24. Ruby Rose Quits Twitter Following ‘Batwoman’ Backlash
  25. Microsoft Threatens to Stop Hosting Gab, the Worst Social Network, Over Anti-Semitic Threats of Violence
  26. Why Facebook is losing the war on hate speech in Myanmar: Reuters found more than 1,000 examples of posts and images attacking the Rohingya on Facebook. A secretive operation by the social media giant is failing to end the problem.
  27. The Vigilantes on Facebook Who Stream To Catch a Predator-Style Ambushes of Alleged Pedophiles
  28. Facebook will make accounts with a ‘large audience’ verify their location
  29. Facebook Bans ‘Promotion’ Of Kodi Boxes, Even If They’re Perfectly Legal
  30. The Story Behind The Story That Created A Political Nightmare For Facebook: In 2016, Gizmodo reported that Facebook workers “suppressed” conservative news. An editor has second thoughts.
  31. Facebook is hiring the team behind an interactive video company that dragged its feet in complying with data rules
  32. Facebook Beats Sony to Spanish Soccer Rights in India
  33. Accused Pirate Tries For Attorney’s Fees After Copyright Troll Attempts To Run Away From Discovery
  34. Topple Track Attacks EFF and Others With Outrageous DMCA Notices
  35. Drake Becomes First Musician To Hit 50 Billion Global Streams Across All Platforms
  36. Spotify Is Testing A Free Version Of Its Service Where Users Can Skip Ads
  37. Logan Paul Says He Wants To Challenge A UFC Fighter After His Much-Hyped Boxing Match With KSI
  38. KSI Releases Documentary ‘Can’t Lose’ Ahead Of Logan Paul Boxing Match-Up
  39. YouTube Paying Stars Hundreds Of Thousands Of Dollars To Promote New Features (Report)
  40. PBS Taps BroadbandTV to Manage User-Uploaded YouTube Videos
  41. BroadbandTV Announces New Partnership with PBS
  42. BroadbandTV Pacts With PBS To Help It Monetize User-Generated YouTube Uploads
  43. YouTube TV Adds 100th Service Location
  44. YouTube Star Jimmy Wong Cast In Disney’s Live-Action ‘Mulan’ Adaptation, Set For 2020
  45. YouTube Beauty Stars Alissa Ashley And Cloe Feldman Sign With Abrams Artists Agency
  46. YouTube Yanks Horror Film Ad For Violating Its ‘Shocking Content’ Policy
  47. It’s Still Shockingly Easy To Buy (And Sell) Fake YouTube Views
  48. The Flourishing Business of Fake YouTube Views: Plays can be bought for pennies and delivered in bulk, inflating videos’ popularity and making the social media giant vulnerable to manipulation.
  49. Susan Sarandon-Starrer ‘Viper Club’ Is YouTube’s First Film To Get A Theatrical Release
  50. SAG-AFTRA National Director Wants To Protect Online Creators, Says Industry Is “Very Unfair And Unbalanced”
  51. Posting on Social Media? What #paid influencers need to know
  52. Ad Standards: Influencer Marketing Steering Committee Disclosure Guidelines
  53. #Infringement – How social media dealt a blow to Nike’s latest marketing campaign
  54. Lele Pons Signs With Universal Music Group’s 10:22 pm Label
  55. PopSugar Earns the Ire of Two New Fashionistas
  56. NBCUniversal To Release Streaming Service ‘Watch Back,’ Which Rewards Viewers For Engaging
  57. ‘Star Wars’ Series For Disney’s Upcoming Streaming Platform To Cost A Reported $100 Million
  58. The Roku Channel is now available on the Web without a Roku device
  59. Ninja Says He Won’t Stream With Other Women In Order To Preserve His Marriage
  60. Lele Pons Inks Record Deal With Universal Music Group Imprint ‘10:22 pm’
  61. What Am I Worth to Advertisers? My Obsessive Quest to Put a Price on My Attention
  62. Honey Badger Don’t Care, but the Lanham Act Might
  63. Interacting With This Therapy Bot Can Help Children With Autism Perfect Their Social Skills
  64. Watch A Sporty AI Teach Itself To Dribble Better Than You
  65. AI Can Make Sure Cancer Patients Get Just Enough (but Not Too Much) Treatment
  66. AI Is Shining a Spotlight on Women Scientists That Were Previously Overlooked
  67. Helping Global Policymakers Navigate AI’s Challenges and Opportunities
  68. Sophia the Robot – her charm and her challenges
  69. Alexa and Cortana integration starts rolling out today
  70. I Tried Apple’s Screen Time Tool. The Results Were Not Heartening.
  71. Maybe MoviePass Shouldn’t Compare Itself To Uber
  72. It’s Time to Let MoviePass Die
  73. Scientists Knew Blue Light From Screens Contributed to Blindness. Now They Know Why.
  74. The Uncertain Future of Screens and Humans
  75. The California Consumer Privacy Act Should Be Condemned, Not Celebrated
  76. An Update on the Constitutional Court Challenge to FOSTA–Woodhull Freedom v. US
  77. Prisons Switch Device Providers; Render $11.3 Million Of Inmate-Purchased Music Worthless
  78. General Magic—how tech superfriends assembled, dreamt up smartphones, and failed

CREATIVITY

  1. One-Sided Story: Lobbyist Data Shows Music, Movie and Publisher Groups Account For 80 Per cent of Registered Copyright Meetings in Canada Since 2015 Election
  2. Disney Takes Stand Against “Overzealous Copyright Holders”
  3. Irony Alert: Disney (Yes, DISNEY!) Whines About ‘Overzealous Copyright Holders’
  4. Disney Gets Early Loss In Trademark, Copyright Suit Against Unlicensed Birthday Party Characters
  5. Two skyline photo cases, two different results 
  6. Ferrari Crashes Head-On Into Infringement Suit
  7. Aloha Poke Co. Rewarded For Trademark Bullying With Protests Outside Its Headquarters In Chicago
  8. Bruce Lee’s Estate Gets Stiff Roundhouse Kick After Trying To Block Theater Company’s Trademark
  9. The free speech panic: how the right concocted a crisis: Snowflake students have become the target of a new rightwing crusade. But exaggerated claims of censorship reveal a deeper anxiety at the core of modern conservatism
  10. Blame Rupert Murdoch for Trump Calling Journalists ‘Enemies of the People’: Fox News made the president, and there is no doubt about the man who made Fox News what it is.
  11. Dinesh D’Souza and the Decline of Conservatism
  12. Ivanka Trump apparently really hated that SNL “Complicit” ad
  13. School Board Demands Journalists Be Punished For Reporting On The School Board’s Redaction Failure
  14. Broward County School Board Gets Hit With Anti-SLAPP Suit After Trying To Punish Paper For Exposing Its Redaction Failure
  15. Copyright in Cream Cheese
  16. Hall v. Author Solutions LLC
  17. Disney Enterprises, Inc. v. Characters for Hire, LLC

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

  1. When Did Ajit Pai Know?
  2. On Thursday, Ajit Pai Has To Explain Why His FCC Made Up A DDOS Attack And Lied To Congress
  3. Ajit Pai grilled by lawmakers on why FCC spread “myth” of DDoS attack
  4. Ajit Pai Does Something Right, Will Reform Stupid Utility Pole Rules To Speed Up Fiber Deployment
  5. Ajit Pai loses in court—FCC can’t kill broadband subsidy in Tribal areas
  6. Court Rejects Ajit Pai’s Bid To Reduce Broadband Subsidies For Tribal Areas
  7. Oh Look, Yet More Efforts To Strangle Broadband Competition 
  8. The Sinclair/Tribune Merger Is Dead
  9. Tribune calls off merger, blasts Sinclair for circumventing FCC rules
  10. Tribune Kills Merger, Sues Sinclair For Its ‘Unnecessarily Aggressive’ Merger Sales Pitch
  11. FCC says court made error in approval of AT&T/Time Warner merger
  12. Third Comcast Website Flaw Exposes User Data In As Many Months 
  13. Telus vs. Telus: Who Do You Believe on Wireless Competition in Canada?
  14. Speedier broadband standards? Pai’s FCC says 25Mbps is fast enough
  15. A Community-Run ISP Is the Highest Rated Broadband Company in America: A Consumer Reports survey of 176,000 Americans finds that small, locally owned ISPs are routinely ranked higher than big telecom companies.

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

  1. We’re Bad At Regulating Privacy, Because We Don’t Understand Privacy
  2. Brief To FISA Court Says The Presumption Of Openness Should Apply There, Too
  3. Judge Bypasses The First Amendment, Conjures Up A Right To Be Forgotten For The Complainant
  4. AP Exclusive: Google tracks your movements, like it or not
  5. Google May Still Be Tracking You, Even If You Opted Out
  6. In-vehicle wireless devices are endangering emergency first responders
  7. Australian gov’t wants to force tech firms to weaken crypto
  8. Australian law could force tech firms to hand over customer data: Companies like Facebook, Apple and Google could face a $7.3 million fine if they don’t.
  9. Australian Gov’t Floats New Batch Of Compelled Access Legislation With An Eye On Encryption
  10. Malware has no trouble hiding and bypassing macOS user warnings 
  11. A New Pacemaker Hack Puts Malware Directly On The Device
  12. Hack causes pacemakers to deliver life-threatening shocks
  13. In-the-wild router exploit sends unwitting users to fake banking site
  14. Hackers Find Earth’s Satellite Communication Systems Aren’t All That Secure
  15. Hackers Reportedly Breach PGA Servers, Demand Bitcoin Ransom
  16. Bitcoin and ether are both down more than two-thirds from their peaks 
  17. Hacking A Brand New Mac Remotely, Right Out Of The Box 
  18. Pre-Teen Hackers Prove It: The U.S. Election System Simply Isn’t Secure Enough
  19. Facial Recognition Tool That Tracks People Across Social Media Now Available to Hackers
  20. Windows 10 to get disposable sandboxes for dodgy apps
  21. Caesars Palace not-so-Praetorian guards intimidate DEF CON goers with searches [Updated]

GAMES

  1. Bethesda defends legal action against man selling pre-owned copy of Evil Within 2: Publisher says sale of sealed and unopened games still constitutes unauthorised reselling if listed as new
  2. Bethesda hits Amazon seller with legal threat over reselling pre-owned game as ‘new’
  3. Bethesda reluctant to bring Elder Scrolls: Legends to systems that don’t offer cross-play
  4. Bethesda pressures Sony with “non-negotiable” cross-platform demand [Updated]
  5. Lawsuit threat shuts down ROM downloads on major emulation site
  6. Devs corroborate claims of sexist culture as Riot looks for way forward
  7. Ex-Naughty Dog dev explores the perks of a studio devoid of ‘dedicated management’
  8. Former IGN Reviewer Responds To Plagiarism Allegations: ‘Not At All Intentional’
  9. IGN Pulls Ex-Editor’s Posts After Dozens More Plagiarism Accusations Surface
  10. IGN pulls all of writer’s work after plagiarism scandal: Further evidence of former employee’s wrong-doing prompts gaming site to scrub him from the archives
  11. Germany relaxes regulations on Nazi imagery in video games
  12. Germany relaxes stance on Nazi symbols in video games: Like films, games featuring “unconstitutional” symbols can now be submitted for age-rating in Germany
  13. “Flooding the market with Nazi symbols is not something we want”: Game MD Felix Falk on the long struggle to allow games tackling Nazism and its imagery to be rated in Germany, and the responsibility of being part of “the social discourse”
  14. Germany says games with Nazi symbols can get “artistic” exception to ban
  15. Video Games In Germany Can Now Maybe Kinda Sometimes Have Swastikas
  16. “Games need to take more responsibility”: Nick Button-Brown talks about making kids games when 11-year-olds are playing Grand Theft Auto, and how the industry needs to embrace its social responsibility
  17. Ready at Dawn shuts down Deformers servers
  18. Growth of Chinese market slows to a crawl amid halt on government-issued licences: Market growth down to five per cent for first half of 2018, compared to nearly 30 per cent the year prior
  19. New initiative aiming to boost diversity among games industry speakers
  20. Over a year later, South Korean devs still aren’t allowed to publish games in China
  21. Korean devs have been unable to publish in China since March 2017: Meanwhile, Chinese developers continue to push aggressively into Korea
  22. China has quietly stopped approving new games for release 
  23. Monster Hunter: World pulled from sale in China – WeGame cites “large number of complaints” though FT report suggests “bureaucratic infighting”
  24. Tencent has pulled Monster Hunter: World from sale in China
  25. Monster Hunter World PC release pulls in record number of concurrent Steam users
  26. Monster Hunter: World debuts on PC, becomes Steam’s biggest new launch of 2018
  27. Mobile-focused Tencent is reportedly on the outs with Riot
  28. Tencent reports decrease in PC and mobile revenue despite rising DAUs
  29. Discord turns retailer with beta launch of game storefront
  30. Publishing platforms need policies around not-for-profit game devs
  31. Games4EU launches, highlights Brexit’s negative impact on UK games industry
  32. Anti-Brexit group Games4EU launches campaign: Grassroots movements aims to demonstrate the damage leaving the European Union will do to the UK games industry
  33. Culture clash: Why Arena of Valor is struggling in America – Mintegral’s Jeff Sue sees the Western version of Tencent’s Honor of Kings as a game “lost in translation”
  34. Tencent’s mobile games revenues drop, but daily users are on the rise
  35. Fortnite Didn’t Do Anything New. That’s Why It Will Shape The Future Of Gaming.
  36. Fortnite devs working to segregate keyboard/mouse players
  37. Proposed Fortnite changes aim to group mouse-and-keyboard players together
  38. Google Play warns searchers that Fortnite “is not available”
  39. Google Play searches now warn that Fortnite isn’t hosted in the store
  40. Fortnite on Android gets off to a bumpy, Samsung-only start, lags behind PUBG
  41. Jagex launches publishing arm: “We’ve already seen 100 games”: Jagex Partners will focus on ‘a handful’ of live games to begin with
  42. RuneScape dev forms Jagex Partners to take on publishing live games
  43. EA’s chief design officer Patrick Soderlund is stepping down
  44. Patrick Söderlund leaves Electronic Arts after 12 years: Publisher reshuffling teams as long-serving exec makes surprise departure
  45. Madden NFL franchise reaches 130m lifetime sales: EA reports “strong opening weekend” for Madden 19
  46. Pete Hines says cross-platform play a necessity for The Elder Scrolls: Legends: Bethesda VP calls feature “essentially non-negotiable” in bringing the game to new platforms
  47. ZeniMax-owned Escalation Studios is now Bethesda Game Studios Dallas
  48. Fallout 76 avoiding Steam so Bethesda can form ‘direct relationships’ with players
  49. Jam City’s Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery clears $50 million in revenue
  50. Sensor Tower: Harry Potter Hogwarts Mystery revenue surpasses $55m – First-time downloads continue to rise noticeably through July
  51. Phoenix Point crowdfunding breaks $2 million – here’s how it was done: Snapshot Games explains how $250,000 on advertising drove almost $1.2 million in revenue
  52. DLC: Can games change people’s minds? – Developers behind Wolfenstein The New Colossus, Night in the Woods, and Katamary Damacy share whether their message-laden games impacted the audience
  53. PlayStation consoles surpass 500 million sold worldwide: And Sony is celebrating with a fancy PS4
  54. Ubisoft quietly ends development on planned Steep Switch release
  55. Steep canceled on Nintendo Switch: Ubisoft to focus on “new live content and challenges” for current platforms
  56. Diablo III’s Switch version leaked ahead of official unveil, coming “2018” [Updated]
  57. Nintendo narrows down Switch Online launch to the ‘second half of September’
  58. Nintendo Switch Online coming in “the second half” of September: The Switch’s delayed online service gets its most specific launch window to date
  59. Nintendo Switch ‘Test VR Mode’ Reportedly Uncovered by Modders
  60. Nintendo has sold over 700 million total hardware units: Switch sales inch closer to 20 million, 3DS nears 73 million units
  61. Nintendo Using Copyright To Erase Video Game History
  62. GameMaker Studio 2 now offers Switch support in open beta
  63. One month in, Pokemon Quest has brought in over $8 million on mobile
  64. Cuphead sells over 3M copies nearly a year after launch
  65. Paradox Interactive’s record Q2 revenues marred by declining profits: Royalty payments to third-party devs and two cancelled projects dragged on the Swedish publisher’s bottom line
  66. Midnight Hub shuts down: Swedish studio calls it quits after Lake Ridden sees sluggish sales despite “the best launch imaginable”
  67. Sekai Project hit by significant layoffs: CEO confirms “many” of its staff have been let go, employee reports suggest entire LA office has been closed
  68. Sumo: “Constraining Eve Valkyrie devs to VR would be the wrong thing to do”
  69. Magic Leap One Hands-on Suggests a Headset That’s a Lot Like HoloLens
  70. Valve seems to be working on tools to get Windows games running on Linux
  71. Valve tells Dota 2 teams not to take on gambling sponsors: Professional teams competing in The International 2018 advised to end existing long-term contracts
  72. Inaugural Overwatch League final pulls in nearly 11m viewers: OWL final sets precedent as first live esports event to be aired on prime time ESPN
  73. Overwatch League reportedly adding Toronto team for $35 million: Splyce to partner with OverActive Media, Pittsburgh Penguins investor
  74. The Strong museum’s eGameRevolution exhibit now features a Wargaming collection
  75. Twitch Unveils “Several Big Discovery Changes,” Nixes Playlist-Like ‘Communities’ Feature
  76. Twitch Is Approaching Top YouTube Stars With Exclusive Livestreaming Deals Potentially Worth Millions (Report)
  77. How IGN is using Fortnite and Marvel to grow on Snapchat Discover
  78. GOG: Streaming is another layer of DRM – Head of global communication Lukasz Kukawski says streaming won’t take over game distribution, talks about storefront’s approach to discoverability and audience expansion
  79. Whole new worlds: Improbable’s tech lets smaller studios think big – With Mavericks and Seed, Automaton and Klang Games are using SpatialOS to redefine what it means to be massively multiplayer
  80. This isn’t a game: We try out a professional driver-in-the-loop simulator
  81. After 14 years, the biggest obstacle for World of Warcraft is time, not technology: Blizzard technical director Patrick Dawson on overcoming the challenges of continued development on an ageing MMO
  82. Rockstar reveals first Red Dead Redemption 2 gameplay details
  83. Publisher Tilting Point sets up Barcelona studio to support live mobile games 
  84. Tilting Point opens new Barcelona studio: Mobile firm’s new outfit will focus on publishing, art and user acquisition
  85. Crystal Dynamics opening Washington studio: Bellevue-based Crystal Northwest formed with Wargaming Seattle veterans, set to work on tech development for upcoming Avengers game
  86. Epic Games launches new learning platform providing free video tutorials 
  87. Unreal Engine Online Learning becomes new, free hub for learning Unreal: Epic Games launches platform to help train developers of all skill levels in its engine
  88. Slow online checkouts drive over a quarter of gamers to abandon their orders: Developers may be willing to sacrifice sales revenue for the reliability of subscription services, says SuperData
  89. How Neopets has influenced a generation of game developers

Jon

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News of the Week; August 8, 2018

By Jon Festinger on August 23, 2018

DIGITAL

  1. How bots amplify hoaxes and propaganda on social media: Zignal Labs CEO Josh Ginsberg says consumers and companies need to know what’s bot-generated and what’s not so they can make informed decisions about things like elections.
  2. ‘It’s our time to serve the Motherland’ How Russia’s war in Georgia sparked Moscow’s modern-day recruitment of criminal hackers
  3. As ‘DNC Hacked Itself’ Conspiracy Theory Collapses, Key Backer Of Claim Exposed As UK Troll
  4. Bill Says US Tech Companies Must Let The Feds Know When Foreign Companies Poke Around In Their Source Code
  5. Court Says Comey And Other DOJ Officials Must Answer BuzzFeed’s Questions About The Steele Dossier
  6. The Expensive Education of Mark Zuckerberg and Silicon Valley: They have weaponized social media, and we are all paying the price.
  7. Alex Jones’ Infowars Channels Scrubbed From YouTube, Facebook, Apple, And Spotify
  8. YouTube bans Alex Jones, following Facebook and Apple’s lead
  9. YouTube Bans InfoWars Following Removals From Apple, Facebook, and Spotify
  10. Alex Jones hit with bans from Facebook and Apple
  11. Alex Jones podcast episodes yanked from Spotify over “hate content”
  12. Alex Jones Is Shirtlessly Screaming Into the Void on Popular Social Network Google+
  13. Filling the void Alex Jones left behind: YouTube’s attempt to burst the (far-)right bubble is a chance for Fox News
  14. Twitter Founder Jack Dorsey Explains Why Twitter Isn’t Banning Alex Jones
  15. Op-ed: Alex Jones is a crackpot—but banning him from Facebook might be a bad idea [Updated]
  16. How journalists should not cover an online conspiracy theory: The QAnon narrative shows the need for better practices in reporting on baseless claims and hoaxes. Here’s how the media can take action
  17. Online Hate Is Rampant. Here’s How To Keep It From Spreading
  18. Report: Feds investigating whether Musk’s buyout tweet broke the law
  19. In Germany, a news site is pairing up liberals and conservatives and actually getting them to (gasp) have a civil conversation
  20. Saudi State Media Posted a Photo That Sure Looks Like a Threat to Attack Toronto 
  21. Senators Demand Answers on Google’s Reported Plans for Censored Search Engine in China
  22. BBC Migrates Everything To HTTPS, Immediately Finds Itself Blocked By The Chinese Government
  23. Apple becomes first US public company worth $1 trillion: Q3 earnings report bolsters stock to record amount, maintained to market close
  24. That’s trillion with a T—Apple hits market value of $1 trillion
  25. Apple Kills App Affiliate Program In Pointless Move
  26. Apple shuts App Store affiliate program, imperiling recommendation sites
  27. Sensing Blood In The Water, All Major Labels Sue Cox For ‘Ignoring’ Their DMCA Notices
  28. Indian Court Grants PepsiCo’s Takedown Request Targeting Thousands Of ‘Disparaging’ Social Media Posts
  29. Yet Another Study Shows You Beat Piracy Through Innovation, Rather Than Enforcement
  30. SESTA, FOSTA, And How To Make Sense Of The Acronym Soup
  31. Evidence Mounts: UK Study Shows Better Legal Alternatives Pushing Pirates To Become Customers
  32. The War On Fan-Subtitles Comes To Australia in The Form Of Site-Blocking
  33. Microsoft adding support for Movies Anywhere, giving away free X-Men movie
  34. Amazon’s Head Of Unscripted TV Out After Investigation Into Inappropriate Comments (Report)
  35. Wells Fargo Admits ‘Computer Glitch’ May Have Contributed to 400 Foreclosures
  36. Only a small percentage of users buys stuff through Alexa, report claims
  37. Report: Almost Nobody Is Using Amazon’s Alexa to Actually Buy Stuff
  38. Amazon launches grocery pickup at Whole Foods for Prime members
  39. Facebook Faces Another Consequence of Its Privacy Problems: Shareholder Lawsuits
  40. Facebook Wanted Us to Kill This Investigative Tool
  41. Facebook Is Asking Banks to Share Data on Customers’ Spending Habits
  42. Facebook: We’re not asking for financial data, we’re just partnering with banks
  43. This Facebook Feature Shouldn’t Exist
  44. Facebook Asked To Change Terms Of Service To Protect Journalists
  45. ‘People You May Know:’ A Controversial Facebook Feature’s 10-Year History
  46. YouTube Set To Overtake Facebook As Second Largest Website In America
  47. YouTube is about to pass Facebook as the second biggest website in US, according to new study: Facebook’s web traffic has declined by nearly half in the last two years, while YouTube is climbing.
  48. YouTube Premium Announces First Spanish-Language Slate With Gael García Bernal, Maluma, Sofia Niño de Rivera
  49. Go90 or bust: How AwesomenessTV’s fate was tied to Verizon
  50. Easier streaming services put dent in illegal downloading
  51. Fight Over Virginia Tech Sportswriter’s Twitter Account: Who Owns Employees’ Social Media Accounts?
  52. Warner Music Group Acquires UPROXX: The 10-year-old online hub and video production house aimed at youth boasts a reach of 40 million people.
  53. Warner Music Group Sells Its Entire Stake in Spotify
  54. Spotify’s $30 billion playlist for global domination
  55. Bytedance Nixes Musical.ly Brand As Short-Form Video Site Merges Into Sister Platform ‘TikTok’
  56. Music Streaming Service Deezer Raises $185 Million
  57. Crowd-Sauce: How Memes Are Helping Rappers Reach Number One
  58. Why Fitness Is The New Hot Marketing Platform And Revenue Stream For Music
  59. Snapchat Made $262 Million During Q2 But Lost 3 Million Daily Active Users
  60. Roku Exceeds Q2 Earnings Expectations, Brings Free Streaming Service To Web
  61. Why Did Anyone Think MoviePass Could Have Worked?: The company had deep-pocketed backers and a plan. It just overlooked a few important details.
  62. Katzenberg’s WndrCo Confirms $1 Billion Raise For Shortform Subscription Service, Doesn’t Plan To Compete With Netflix, Hulu
  63. Warner Bros. And DC Comics’ ‘DC Universe’ Streaming Service Launching In Beta This Month
  64. Disney Will Shuttle Marvel Cinematic Universe To Its Own Streaming Service Starting With ‘Captain Marvel’ In 2019
  65. Peloton Raises $550 Million As It Builds “A Media Company Akin To Netflix,” Says CEO
  66. Researchers Inadvertently Discover Crypto Scam Involving 15,000 Twitter Bots
  67. Some Traders Are Talking Up Cryptocurrencies, Then Dumping Them, Costing Others Millions
  68. America Needs a Blockchain Strategy ASAP
  69. 3D-printed (and CNC-milled) guns: Nine questions you were too afraid to ask
  70. New in School: AI-Driven Gun Detection Systems
  71. The Algorithm That Could Save Vulnerable New Yorkers From Being Forced Out of Their Homes
  72. Uber driver who struck, killed young girl is convicted of vehicular manslaughter
  73. Patreon Creators See Dip In Earnings Due To Payments Being Mistakenly Marked As Fraudulent, Company Says
  74. Silicon Valley Writes A Playbook To Help Avert Ethical Disasters
  75. The Free-Market Fraud: Tech Innovation and Alternatives
  76. New open source effort: Legal code to make reporting security bugs safer
  77. Is there such a thing as Internet politics? (Andres Guadamuz)

CREATIVITY

  1. Some Notes About Recent Developments at the Copyright Board of Canada (Howard Knopf)
  2. When Copying Isn’t Infringement
  3. Court Awards $12,500 For ‘Emotional Harm’ From Bogus Copyright Lawsuit
  4. Alvin Toffler Investigated by FBI for Communist Activities According to Newly Released Files
  5. Moneyballing the Movies: How the Box Office Became a Sport – Every weekend, new releases are graded on their box office returns. How did covering the movie business become a haven for statheads?
  6. Warner Bros. Is Finally Realizing Supergirl Should Be the Center of the DC Universe
  7. Is This the End of the TV Writers’ Room as We Know It?
  8. ‘Anything For A Hit’ Exclusive Book Excerpt: Atlantic Records in the ’80s Was Like Plunging Into ‘A Circus Mixed with an Orgy’
  9. MPAA: To Save Free Speech, We Must Broadly Censor Free Speech

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

  1. FCC lied to Congress about made-up DDoS attack, investigation found 
  2. Here’s the Internal Report Proving the FCC Made Up a Cyberattack
  3. That Hack of the FCC’s Comment Section Last Year? It Never Actually Happened, Agency Admits
  4. Ajit Pai Throws His Employees Under The Bus After Investigation Proves FCC Made Up DDOS Attack
  5. Ajit Pai admits FCC lied about “DDoS,” blames it on Obama administration
  6. Trump admin asks Supreme Court to re-kill already-dead net neutrality rules
  7. Trump Admin Hopes Kavanaugh Supreme Court Delivers The Killing Blow To Net Neutrality
  8. Report Highlights How U.S. Telcos Abandoned Rural American Broadband
  9. ISPs’ listed speeds drop up to 41% after UK requires accurate advertising
  10. FCC sides with Google Fiber over Comcast with new pro-competition rule
  11. Verizon lied about 4G coverage—and it could hurt rural America, group says
  12. FCC Tackles “Slamming and Cramming” 
  13. Charter CEO Apparently Unaware He Runs One Of The Most Despised Companies In America
  14. Will The “Real Journalists” At Fox News Please Stand Up?: It’s time for the Shep Smiths of Fox News to speak out against the pro-Trump propagandists like Hannity, Carlson, and Pirro.
  15. AT&T Acquires The Chernin Group’s Stake In Otter Media In Reported $1 Billion Deal
  16. $50 a month for 1Mbps: How AT&T and Verizon rip off DSL customers
  17. Behind Ryerson’s Support for Site Blocking: Bell Reviewed Draft Submission, Was Warned It Did Not Represent Faculty View 
  18. “One of Our Key Hiring Companies”: The Missing Link in the George Brown College Support for Bell’s Site Blocking Plan 
  19. Aiding by Omission in CASL? Good Enough, CRTC Says

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

  1. Does the Canada Border Services Agency Have the Authority to Search Your Electronic Devices?
  2. The Pentagon Tells Soldiers To Stop Sharing Their Locations With Apps
  3. Pentagon tells troops: Turn off fitness tracker GPS when you head to warzones
  4. Facebook Granted ‘Unprecedented’ Leave To Appeal Over Referral Of Privacy Shield Case To Top EU Court
  5. FTC Asks Whether to Expand Enforcement Power over Corporate Privacy Practices 
  6. ICANN Loses Yet Again In Its Quixotic Quest To Obtain A Special Exemption From The EU’s GDPR
  7. China’s influence on digital privacy could be global
  8. Cramming Software With Thousands of Fake Bugs Could Make It More Secure
  9. Unixiz Agrees to Settle Charges Under COPPA and the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act 
  10. The Legal Paradox of Commoditizing Athlete Data Trade Secrets
  11. How to win (or at least not lose) the war on phishing? Enlist machine learning

GAMES

  1. Tired of legal threats, emulation hub EmuParadise drops its ROM library
  2. Inside The Culture Of Sexism At Riot Games
  3. Current and former Riot employees discuss the toxic feedback culture of the studio
  4. Riot Games responds to sexist work culture exposé: “We haven’t lived up to our own values,” says League of Legends developer as criticism mounts in wake of damning report
  5. Minecraft boss says US work culture needs more “off-ramps” for employees: Employees should be able “immerse themselves in their life experiences” without damaging their careers, says Helen Chiang
  6. SNK artist discusses discrimination in the Japanese games industry 
  7. EA issues apology after removing Kaepernick’s name from song in Madden 19 [Updated]
  8. EA says mistake led to censorship of Colin Kaepernick’s name in Madden 19’s soundtrack
  9. EA made “unfortunate mistake” removing Colin Kaepernick’s name from Madden 19 song: Company issues official statement on omission after it was discovered in early copies
  10. GameFly to axe video game streaming service in August
  11. BioWare is still exploring new projects outside of Anthem
  12. “Netflix of games” a threat to developers: If subscription streaming services take off, creators likely to lose leverage in dealing with platform holders
  13. IGN Pulls Review After Plagiarism Accusations 
  14. IGN drops Dead Cells reviewer after plagiarism investigation
  15. Fallout 76 won’t be launching on Steam
  16. War changes: Fallout 76 is series’ first in a decade to skip Steam
  17. Fallout Shelter surpasses $90M in lifetime mobile revenue
  18. ZX Spectrum and Sinclair trademark holder to pull branding rights from Vega+
  19. EmuParadise removes ROMs: Users won’t be able to download games from long-running site any more; “It’s not worth it for us to risk potentially disastrous consequences”
  20. Facebook introduces AR games to group chats
  21. Fake apps find a way to Google Play!
  22. Confirmed: Fortnite on Android will drive its bus past Google’s 30% cut [Updated]
  23. “30% store tax is a high cost,” says Sweeney as Fortnite skips Google Play: Epic Games CEO explains studio’s decision to aim for direct downloads, praises openness of Google’s platform
  24. Epic Games is bypassing the Google Play Store forFortnite’s Android release
  25. Google not at fault for clones and unsanctioned apps on Google Play, says Epic CEO
  26. Analyst: Fortnite streams have racked up over 600M hours viewed in 2018
  27. The battle royale boom helped Turtle Beach achieve a record quarter
  28. Gamefly ends video game streaming service
  29. Faeria: The CCG that abandoned free-to-play and went premium
  30. New Unity report suggests 67% of indies plan to self-publish
  31. Unity survey shows over half of indie studios working in mobile, 40% in VR or AR: Top-ranking studios by revenue and DAU showed a preference for mobile and freemium models
  32. Unity partners with Google to introduce AdMob integration for mobile games
  33. Minecraft’s studio head says devs and studios benefit from generous time off policies
  34. Netmarble’s Lineage 2: Revolution has seen $1.3 billion in player spending – Sensor Tower data indicates the importance of the mobile RPG to Netmarble’s business
  35. Crackdown and confidentiality: Sumo Digital’s approach to AAA development – The UK studio discusses handling coveted IP and why it’s not afraid of missing out on the limelight
  36. Nexon withholds shareholder dividends to “review and execute effective investments”: Korean games firm sees simultaneous two per cent revenue increase and profit decline
  37. Sony and Nintendo’s strategies converge: Bumper results for both platform holders point to a similar key to success – seeing themselves as game creators first and foremost
  38. WarioWare Gold: A fine example of Nintendo’s weird “end of life” history
  39. How do you pronounce “NES”? Nintendo throws a wrench in the debate
  40. You Can’t Compete With Free Meets Its Ultimate Counterexample In The NES Classic
  41. With $400M+ revenue, Fire Emblem Heroes reigns as Nintendo’s big mobile earner
  42. Octopath Traveler has shipped 1M copies worldwide
  43. Elon Musk adding Atari classics to Tesla software, wants original games for car display: Billionaire reveals Tempest, Missile Command and Pole Position coming in next four week – with the latter controlled by steering wheel
  44. Mobile revenue failed to meet Square Enix’s expectations this quarter
  45. Square Enix sees revenue and profit tumble in quiet Q1 for games
  46. Bandai Namco sees flat first quarter with little help from game sales
  47. Game sales and revenue down at Bandai Namco
  48. Game revenue down at Sega despite increase in physical sales
  49. Sega Sammy net sales down 35.8% in latest financial report: Entertainment contents arm suffers least with only 10.5% decline
  50. Capcom: “We’d prefer a game that got a 9 and sold less, than a 6 but sold more.” – Publisher on its fear over Resident Evil 2’s E3 reveal, the Monster Hunter gamble and new IP
  51. Harmonix signs multiplatform publishing deal with NCSoft
  52. Take-Two expects GTA Online sales to ‘moderate’ as it beats estimates again: Publisher anticipates international growth for NBA2K, too
  53. Digital sales drive Take-Two’s rising profits ahead of Red Dead Redemption 2
  54. NBA 2K18 reaches ten million units sold: Lifetime franchise sales exceed 80 million
  55. Activision Blizzard exceeds Q2 revenue goals thanks to in-game spending
  56. Activision Blizzard exceeds second quarter outlook despite headwinds: Call of Duty season, record Hearthstone pre-purchases drove $1.64 billion in net revenue
  57. Activision Blizzard: Tech issues will halt wide adoption of streaming in the near term
  58. Blizzard confirms “multiple Diablo projects” in production, news by end of 2018
  59. Spyro Reignited Trilogy only has one game on the disc: Activision warns that second and third instalments will need to be downloaded after purchase
  60. Tencent and Activision bringing Call of Duty to mobile in China
  61. Fire Emblem Heroes earns $400 million globally: Mobile game nearly ten time more profitable than Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp
  62. Fallout Shelter surpasses $90m lifetime revenue
  63. China’s “enormous opportunity” for Eve Online
  64. CCP partners with NetEase to grow Eve Online in China: Major local publisher takes over Serenity server following collaboration on mobile spin-off Eve Project Galaxy
  65. Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins Becomes First Creator In Twitch History To Amass 10 Million Followers
  66. Fortnite powers Ninja to become first Twitch streamer with 10m followers
  67. No Man Sky scores biggest Twitch numbers since launch
  68. With NEXT update, No Man’s Sky finally brings it all together
  69. After two years, is No Man’s Sky everything Hello Games originally promised?: Hello Games’ procedurally generated creation is better than ever after two years of persistent updates
  70. Opinion: Battle for Azeroth and the death of nuance
  71. Frostkeep Studios is serious about making “the game that players want” with Rend
  72. PUBG developers launch “Fix PUBG” campaign
  73. PUBG dev launches ‘Fix PUBG’ website to address longstanding bug complaints
  74. Elon Musk-funded Dota 2 bots spank top-tier humans, and they know how to trash talk
  75. Newzoo: Esports viewership will continue to bear greater resemblance to traditional sports
  76. Overwatch League adds new teams in Guangzhou and Atlanta
  77. Kakao Games sinks $16.8M into esports studio Neptune
  78. Esports Business Projected to Reach $1.5 Billion in Revenue by 2020
  79. EA: Diversity and engagement key to growing FIFA eWorld Cup – FIFA competitive gaming commissioner shares how the game’s accessibility will lead to success across a wider swath of media
  80. Inside Magic Leap’s Quest To Remake Itself As An Ordinary Company (With A Real Product)
  81. After years of hype, Magic Leap starts selling $2,300 AR headset
  82. Inside Magic Leap: How it works and what it means for game devs
  83. Oculus Removes Handful of Fake Game Reviews, Says They’re Uncommon
  84. Facebook introduces AR games to Messenger
  85. Augmented Reality Recreates A New York City Not Seen for Centuries
  86. Innovation Report: 1 in 3 AR/VR/MR devs are making a platform exclusive
  87. Metaari: Game-based learning market will reach $17 billion by 2023 – Improved VR, AR, and AI technology will drive further investment, development opportunity
  88. Halo TV series confirmed for a 2020 release
  89. Digital collectable card games will generate $1.5 billion revenue in 2018: SuperData report forecasts global rise to $2 billion by 2020
  90. Blog: What men and women consider hardcore gaming are not the same
  91. Tips and best practices for localizing licensed IPs
  92. Book Excerpt: Tips on negotiating key legal agreements in games
  93. Real Estate Developer Found Using Video Game Footage In Marketing Material… Which Is Pretty Cool!

Jon

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News of the Week; August 1, 2019

By Jon Festinger on August 21, 2018

DIGITAL

  1. Facebook Loses $120 Billion in Market Value, as Stock Slides on Fears Growth Is Hitting a Wall
  2. YouTube comes down on Alex Jones for hate speech, child endangerment content
  3. Alex Jones hit with 30-day Facebook suspension for bullying and hate speech: Only Jones’ personal profile is affected, not his official channels, including InfoWars
  4. Facebook, Following YouTube’s Lead, Takes Action Against InfoWars And Alex Jones
  5. Alex Jones slammed with 30-day ban from Facebook for hateful videos [Update]
  6. Ted Cruz Bravely Defends Alex Jones Against Facebook’s Temporary Internet Jail
  7. Twitter Responds to Claims of ‘Shadow Banning’
  8. Insights: Twitter, Facebook Investors Find No Upside In Doing The Right Thing
  9. Facebook Just Shut Down Dozens of Fake Pages
  10. Facebook’s latest meddling disclosure: “We expected the organization to evolve”
  11. ‘We Are Not Bots’: Facebook Censors U.S. Activists After Falsely Claiming They ‘Unwittingly’ Planned Protest
  12. MPs slam Facebooks serious failings in report identifying the misuse of personal data as threatening our democracy.
  13. Facebook Settles with the Washington Attorney General Over Ad Targeting Practices
  14. Facebook’s “downvote” system begins rolling out wider in US—here’s how it works
  15. Facebook Starts Showing You How Much Time You Waste on Facebook
  16. Facebook And Instagram Add Tools To Help Users Not Get Addicted To Facebook And Instagram
  17. Cops Lose Qualified Immunity After Arresting Man For A Snarky Facebook Comment
  18. A Cautionary Tale of Sarcasm in Social Media–Ross v. City of Jackson
  19. Ignorant Hysteria Over 3D Printed Guns Leads To Courts Ignoring The First Amendment
  20. Universal Right Back At It Issuing A DMCA For A Reporter’s Video Of Prince Fans Singing ‘Purple Rain’
  21. Universal Retracts DMCA On Journalist Video Of Prince Fans Singing Purple Rain
  22. Website User Held to Arbitration Provision Despite Renewing Subscription in Wife’s Name 
  23. Embedding preview images is not copyright infringement, says German court
  24. 3D-printed gun website yanks CAD files after federal judicial order
  25. You Can’t Legally 3D Print Guns Quite Yet
  26. The Battle Over 3D-Printed Guns Is Getting Serious
  27. 8 states take aim at 3D gun company, sue to get files off the Internet
  28. Is Code Free Speech?
  29. Inside the Unabomber’s angsty, odd and furious online revival: A TV drama has rekindled interest in anti-technology terrorist Ted Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber. Ironically enough, his followers now congregate online
  30. How they did it (and will likely try again): GRU hackers vs. US elections: Latest Mueller indictment offers excruciating details to confirm known election pwnage.
  31. On Conspiracy Theories and Election Hacking 
  32. Why We’re Sharing 3 Million Russian Troll Tweets
  33. My short life as (the face of) a Russian disinformation troll
  34. Daily Beast: Russian hackers targeted Democrat facing tough 2018 election
  35. Russian Government Decides To Stamp Out ‘Fake News’ At Home, Presumably Leaving Export Operations Unaffected
  36. DOJ announces arrest of 3 men allegedly behind notorious FIN7 hacking group
  37. Report: Julian Assange’s Thin Ice at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London Could Be About to Break
  38. The age of cyberwar is here. We can’t keep citizens out of the debate
  39. Senator Mark Warner Lays Out Ideas For Regulating Internet Platforms
  40. Microsoft invests $500,000 in coding and tech training for students of colour: Firm’s support will open Seattle chapter for Black Girls Code and boost Technology Access Foundation’s STEM program
  41. Windows 10 will try not to reboot when you’re just grabbing a cup of coffee
  42. Twitter’s One Step Closer to Figuring Out Why It Sucks
  43. Twitter is funding college professors to audit its platform for toxicity
  44. On Amazon Prime Day warehouse workers around the world took action against the company. We hear about some of the organizing going on in fulfillment centers from Germany to New Jersey.
  45. Amazon’s Rekognition messes up, matches 28 lawmakers to mugshots
  46. Amazon’s Face Recognition Falsely Matched 28 Members of Congress With Mugshots
  47. Amazon Rekognition Falsely Matched 28 Members of Congress to Mugshots
  48. Amazon wrongly IDed 28 members of Congress, and they’re not happy about it
  49. Congress Members Want Answers After Amazon’s Facial Recognition Software Says 28 Of Them Are Criminals
  50. Congress Members Demand Answers From, Investigation Of Federal Facial Rec Tech Users
  51. Amazon: Cops should set confidence level on facial recognition to 99%
  52. The Value Of Public Shaming
  53. The future role of AI in fact checking
  54. Data’s day of reckoning: We can build a future we want to live in, or we can build a nightmare. The choice is up to us.
  55. Why Westerners Fear Robots And The Japanese Do Not
  56. The “Biometric Mirror” Judges You The Way We’ve Taught It To: With Bias
  57. Contractual considerations in Robotic Process Automation and Artificial Intelligence outsourcing
  58. AI Coaches Are Here To Unleash Your Inner LeBron
  59. Canadian Developments in AI and Technology: Ethical Considerations for Innovators
  60. Neural network implemented with light instead of electrons
  61. Regulation-bot: the rise of AI legislation
  62. The Rise of the Last-Mile Exchange: Keeping up with the growing volume of e-commerce will require delivery companies to disrupt their long-standing business model.
  63. Report: Google is preparing to cave to Chinese search censorship
  64. Google’s Censored Chinese Search Engine Shows It’s No Longer Afraid of U.S. Backlash
  65. Google Developing Censored Search Engine For China: Report
  66. Disappointing: Google Makes Plan To Return To China With Censored Search Engine
  67. Google Glass Is Back, And May Have Finally Found A Place It Belongs
  68. YouTube Will Bring Original Programming To Germany, Japan, Mexico, France, And India
  69. YouTube In Hot Water Again After Search Results For Tom Hanks Lead To Conspiracy Theories
  70. YouTube’s Second Demi Lovato Documentary Is In Production But On Hold After Apparent Overdose
  71. YouTube Premium’s Fall Slate To Feature Will Smith, Robert Downey Jr., Kirsten Dunst
  72. YouTube Music Is Seriously Bulking Up Its Senior Leadership On A Global Scale
  73. Indian PM Narendra Modi Surpasses One Million Subscribers, Will Soon Be Top World Leader On YouTube
  74. Jimmy Kimmel Enlists Goddaughter To Teach Him About YouTube Beauty Tutorials
  75. Casey Neistat Is “Just Getting Started” After Surpassing 10 Million Subscribers
  76. Casey Neistat Challenges Logan Paul In Testy Interview: “All That Really Matters Is What Transpired”
  77. Will Smith To Casey Neistat: “Let’s Get To Creatin’”
  78. Alisha Marie Returns From Two-Month Hiatus, Looks To Normalize Breaks For YouTube Stars
  79. Huda Kattan, Lele Pons Are Instagram’s Top-Paid Digital Influencers At $33,000 Per Post (Report)
  80. “Kidtech” Company Superawesome Launches Video Player For Family-Friendly Publishers
  81. CBS Announces Plans For 24/7 Streaming Local News Services, Launching First In New York
  82. Viacom confirms Awesomeness TV acquisition
  83. Viacom To Acquire Digital Media Company AwesomenessTV For Rumored Price “Below $300 Million”
  84. Viacom announces it’s buying Awesomeness: Viacom announced it’s buying Awesomeness for a price well under $300 million – Awesomeness was owned by NBCUniversal, Verizon, and Hearst.
  85. Jeffrey Katzenberg’s WndrCo Raises Additional $200 Million, For $1 Billion In Total Funding (Report)
  86. Spotify Hits 83 Million Premium Subs in Q2 as Net Loss Doubles: CEO Daniel Ek says direct-licensing deals with artists don’t make Spotify a record label
  87. Spotify is now streaming Archie motion comics
  88. Spotify Debuts ‘Archie’ Motion Comic Amid Pivot To Audio-Visual Content
  89. Penske Media Makes Strategic Investment in BuzzAngle Music: Key PMC brands, including Rolling Stone and Variety, will utilize the platform’s data, analysis and consumption charts.
  90. Snapchat To Act As Matchmaker For Creators And Advertisers Via ‘Storytellers’ Initiative
  91. NFL Renews Snapchat Deal for Two Years, Will Flood the Zone for Sunday Games 
  92. Snapchat launches new Lenses that respond to your voice
  93. Snapchat’s Latest Lenses Are Speech-Activated With Words Like “Love” And “Wow”
  94. MoviePass Is Jacking Up Its Prices as It Tries to Survive
  95. MoviePass, AMC, and the Era of Cinema Subscriptions
  96. Mission: Impossible’s Box Office ‘Failure’ Shows Why We Need MoviePass
  97. The strange story of how MoviePass’ owner was created by an Indian company accused of massive fraud
  98. WhatsApp Rightly Refuses Indian Government’s Silly Demand To Break Encryption
  99. Loyalty vs. Freedom of Expression: Who Wins the Battle in the Social Media Ring
  100. OSC Cryptocurrency Survey Reveals Public’s Uncertainty About Blockchain Issues
  101. Cryptomining Malware Is Infecting Corporate Networks Worldwide
  102. Hackers find creative way to steal $7.7 million without being detected
  103. The Rise Of An “Assassination Marketplace” Shows The Dark Side of Decentralized Networks
  104. NFLPA Bets on Blockchain-Backed Social Streaming Platform SportsCastr
  105. California Federal Court Denies Preliminary Injunction In “Blockchain” Dispute 
  106. Up to Two-Thirds of Bitcoin Transactions Have No Economic Value
  107. Inside Ecobee’s plans to outsmart Nest: The smart-thermostat maker wants to remodel our houses for the digital age — if Google’s Nest doesn’t squash it first.
  108. How Software Ate the Point of Sale: Or, why paying for stuff is so complicated now
  109. Services drove Apple’s best third quarter ever, but iPhone sales aren’t growing
  110. Growing Up Jobs: Steve Jobs and Chrisann Brennan were 23 when their daughter was born. Lisa Brennan-Jobs remembers the pride and pain of a childhood spent navigating the vastness between her struggling single mom and Apple’s mercurial founder.
  111. Happy Birthday To Us! Wired Turns 25 

CREATIVITY

  1. Inequality in 1,100 Popular Films: Examining Portrayals of Gender, Race/Ethnicity, LGBT & Disability from 2007 to 2017 (Dr. Stacy L. Smith, Marc Choueiti, Dr. Katherine Pieper, Ariana Case, & Angel Choi)
  2. In the era of #MeToo, is it still OK to laugh at ‘Animal House’?
  3. Stephen Colbert swallows hard and addresses boss Les Moonves’ #MeToo mess
  4. Assaults in dressing rooms. Groping during lessons. Classical musicians reveal a profession rife with harassment.
  5. Down for what?: Every rapper wants a woman who will do anything, except be her own person.
  6. The Sex-Trafficking Case Testing the Limits of the First Amendment: How a couple of crusading journalists made a fortune selling adult escort ads and in the process became unlikely and widely reviled First Amendment advocates.
  7. Why Are We Still So Worried About Wat­­ching Porn?: Decades of fearmongering almost got porn addiction added to the International Classification of Diseases. Thankfully, the World Health Organization got it right.
  8. Staircases in Space: Why Are Places in Science Fiction Not Wheelchair-Accessible?
  9. “Known but not discussed”: Low-income people aren’t getting quality news and information. What can the industry do about it?
  10. How music has responded to a decade of economic inequality: Popular music has always delivered social critique. But it’s struggled to grapple with the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.
  11. The 200 Greatest Songs By 21st Century Women+
  12. Sony Finds Itself In Court After Bullying Film Studio Over Supposed ‘Slender Man’ Copyright Infringement
  13. Better by design: significant changes coming to Canada’s industrial design legislation
  14. Are headline and title writers getting too cocky about their IP rights?
  15. Fox Shareholders Have Agreed to the Disney Deal, and the X-Men Are Coming Back to Marvel

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

  1. CRTC Truthiness: New Docs Reveal New Story About Bell Meetings with the Commission on Website Blocking 
  2. Trump Throws His FCC Under The Bus For Pointing Out Sinclair May Have Lied During Its Merger Sales Pitch
  3. Ajit Pai Lies (Again) To Congress With Claim Net Neutrality Killed Broadband Investment
  4. FCC Chairman Will Not Recuse Himself From Investigation Into Former Client Securus Technologies
  5. Cord Cutting Accelerates Faster Than Expected, As Cable Still Refuses To Compete On Price
  6. The Fairfax and Nine merger is the disruption of digital media arriving to Australia in a big way
  7. NY threatens to kick Charter out of the state after broadband failures
  8. New York State Votes To Kick Charter Out Of The State For Poor Service, Failing To Meet Merger Conditions
  9. NY orders Charter out of state, says it must sell Time Warner Cable system
  10. Comcast installed Wi-Fi gear without approval—and this city is not happy
  11. Comcast, Charter dominate US; telcos “abandoned rural America,” report says 

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

  1. GDPR Compliance for Canadian Organizations
  2. How GDPR is affecting the kidtech biz: The EU’s new data protection and privacy regulations went into effect in May, but experts say the kids industry is not prepared for the potential fines.
  3. UK Tribunal Says GCHQ Engaged In Illegal Telco Collection Program For More Than A Decade
  4. Inspector General Says NSA Still Hasn’t Implemented Its Post-Snowden Internal Security Measures
  5. Court Rejects Evidence From Warrantless Search Of Phone Six Years After The Gov’t Seized It
  6. Cops Slowly Wise Up To The SIM Hijacking Trend Carriers Don’t Want To Seriously Address
  7. EU And Japan Agree To Free Data Flows, Just As Tottering Privacy Shield Framework Threatens Transatlantic Transfers
  8. Sir Cliff Richard v The BBC: Blurring the lines between libel and privacy law
  9. Freedom of expression: On a Cliff edge?
  10. Hold on to Your Coins! Understanding Sextortion Scam Emails and What You Should Do
  11. Click on this iOS phishing scam and you’ll be connected to “Apple Care”
  12. Password breach teaches Reddit that, yes, phone-based 2FA is that bad
  13. New Spectre attack enables secrets to be leaked over a network
  14. Shipping company’s networks in the Americas crippled by ransomware attack
  15. Bringing the Fourth Amendment into the Digital Age: Implications of Carpenter v. United States
  16. New Report Says The Feds’ Focus On Device Encryption Is Holding Local Law Enforcement Back
  17. Burglar wakes up couple to ask to use their Wi-Fi network

GAMES

  1. Detroit dev Quantic Dream loses in court case brought by ex-employee
  2. Former Quantic Dream employee wins court case against developer: Court rules in favour of employee who quit due to circulation of offensive photoshopped images
  3. SimCity 2000 remake removed by EA for using copyrighted assets
  4. EA shuts down open source SimCity 2000 over lifted assets: “The current audio visual output of the repository creates content that infringes on Electronic Arts copyright,” says publisher
  5. EA financials show quiet Q1 reflective of few releases: Net revenue of $1.137 billion nonetheless above estimates ahead of packed Q2
  6. FIFA Mobile’s debut in China brings EA its highest grossing day for a mobile game
  7. EA open to cross-platform playability for Battlefield, other key franchises: Publisher also eyeing Fortnite’s success as a model for future free-to-play mobile releases
  8. Area 35 ends legal dispute over Kickstarter embezzlement claims in settlement
  9. Area 35, ex-employee settle defamation suit: Tariq Lacy retracts embezzlement accusations against studio CEO Hiroaki Yura
  10. Abstractism removed from Steam store for ‘cryptojacking’: Game disguised as indie platformer installed programs to mine cryptocurrency using players’ computers
  11. Valve removes Steam game after allegations of hidden cryptocurrency miner [Updated]
  12. Valve adds safeguards to Steam to address concerns over fake item scams
  13. Steam sees surprising, significant usage dip in 2018
  14. Prominent Denuvo hacker arrested for breaching anti-piracy tech
  15. Denuvo investigation reportedly leads to arrest for games pirate Voksi: However, Bulgarian cracker claims he voluntarily went to police, reached out to DRM firm for “peaceful solution”
  16. An overlooked line of code led to slow performance forWarhammer Online
  17. Daily Mirror paid interview subject of Fortnite hit piece: “Fortnite made me a suicidal drug addict” author offered £300 for case study
  18. Fortnite mobile earned average of $3.47 per install 90 days after launch – SensorTower: Battle royale ranked #6 most-downloaded app in the US for Q2 despite iOS exclusivity
  19. Analyst estimates put Fortnite at more than 100M downloads on iOS
  20. Fortnite mobile breaks 100m downloads and $160m IAP revenue: PUBG not expected to reach 100 million milestone for another 206 days
  21. Fortnite cosmetics possibly taking revenue from top console games
  22. Dutch Dota 2 players can now see the contents of their next loot box: Valve’s attempts to comply with loot box regulations continue apace
  23. Forza Motorsport 7 will not feature loot boxes
  24. Forza Motorsport 7 removes prize crates, avoids paid tokens: Microtransaction system from prior Forza games will not appear in Forza Horizon 4, either
  25. Gran Turismo Sport gets microtransactions in July update: Polyphony Digital adds ability to purchase in-game cars for real money
  26. Gran Turismo Sport, revisited: More tracks, more cars, more everything
  27. Spectrum ISP kicked out of NY for allegedly throttling online games and streams
  28. New York shows Spectrum ISP the door, in part for throttling League of Legends: State public service commission revokes approval of Charter, Time Warner merger due to “various instances of misconduct”
  29. One Week Later, Blizzard Still Doesn’t Know WhyWorld Of Warcraft’s Leveling System Is Borked
  30. Nintendo barely improves conflict minerals sourcing over two years: One-fourth of company’s smelters and refiners aren’t following protocols to prevent human rights abuses
  31. NPD: NES Classic was the highest unit-selling platform for June – Retro consoles help lead 52% YOY hardware sales growth
  32. Nintendo has sold nearly 20M Switch systems and 87M Switch games
  33. Switch sales lead Nintendo’s first quarter while 3DS and mobile income stagnate
  34. Increased profits and $1.5bn sales kick off Nintendo’s financial year: Platform holder maintains forecast as Switch lifetime sales reach 19.7 million consoles, 86.93 million games
  35. Nintendo stock increase trips up hedge fund’s $400 million bet: Melvin Capital’s months-long short position in Switch maker suffers setback, may still prove profitable
  36. Nintendo’s next Labo kit coming in Sept, looks like next-gen Pilotwings
  37. The Sinclair ZX Vega+ is finally being shipped to Indiegogo backers
  38. Sales up at Sony as PS4 software exceeds expectations
  39. Worldwide PlayStation 4 shipments have topped 80 million
  40. PlayStation drives $17.9 billion Q1 for Sony: Higher-than-expected software sales and 43% digital ratio among financial highlights
  41. The business case for a streaming Xbox
  42. Zynga Q2 sees bookings jump 12%: Social publisher beats guidance with $233.9 million in non-GAAP sales, net losses of just over $900,000
  43. Glu Mobile narrows losses with record Q2 bookings
  44. Zynga’s mobile ‘forever franchises’ contribute to Q2 growth 
  45. Sega capitalizing on foreign exchange with Yakuza, Total War: Sega Europe exec John Clark says audiences in Asia and the West are increasingly interested in games from the other region’s developers, but for different reasons
  46. Sea of Thieves has attracted over 5 million players
  47. Sea of Thieves reaches five million players as Cursed Sails expansion launches: Plus, 40 million hours broadcast on Twitch but it’s still unclear how player count translates to sales due to Game Pass inclusion
  48. Live Streams Of A Chinese Robot-Fighting Tournament Are Getting Millions Of Views On Twitch
  49. No Man’s Sky Next reaches over 50,000 concurrent players: Hello Games’ space exploration game sees resurgence after a 200k+ concurrent user peak at launch
  50. No Man’s Sky hit almost 100,000 concurrent players on Steam this past weekend
  51. Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle revenue tops $1B after two years
  52. Dragon Ball Z mobile title reaches estimated $1 billion revenue: Sensor Tower data indicates Bandai Namco’s Dokkan Battle has hit major milestone after two years
  53. MapleStory M achieves three million downloads in first week: Mobile version of hugely popular Korean MMO tops highest grossing charts in key Asian markets
  54. Monster Hunter: World helps Capcom to record-breaking first quarter
  55. Monster Hunter: World passes 8m sold in strong Q1 for Capcom – Game revenue increased 79 per cent year-on-year on the strength of Monster Hunter and Street Fighter
  56. $2.65m Binding of Isaac card game Kickstarter smashes target by over 5,000%: Almost 40,000 backers successfully funded tabletop spin-off of popular indie roguelike
  57. From failed Kickstarter to career-defining success: The story of Pony Island: Daniel Mullins discusses how he bounced back from failure to create “the smartest game of 2016”
  58. The art of failing: What 11 bit Studios learnt from Beat Cop – Marketing director Patryk Grzeszczuk – “We were too far away from the times and the culture that were depicted in the game”
  59. Mail.ru took a $27m impairment charge on Armored Warfare development in Q2: The charge was related to the game’s recent poor performance, in a quarter that saw revenues rise but profits halve
  60. Paradox Interactive chooses development over stagnation with CEO switch
  61. Paradox: “We’ve released crappy games in the past… I don’t want to do that anymore”
  62. Dead Cells dev hopes to challenge exploitation with equal pay model
  63. Dead Cells dev Motion Twin touts equal pay system: All 11 employees at French studio have identical salary, same say in project direction
  64. Empires & Puzzles: Disrupting the biggest market with the smallest team – CEO Timo Soininen discusses the importance of mid-development marketing and defying the “so-called industry experts”
  65. Steam user count has decreased 17 percent since January 
  66. Steam active users on unusual decline throughout 2018: Steep decrease after January surge may reflect popularity of PUBG, then Fortnite
  67. Steam game accused of covertly mining for cryptocurrency
  68. Lessons learned and questions raised in bringing a game from console to Steam
  69. Worldwide digital spending up 15% in June – Superdata: PUBG bolstered by Steam sale with second-best month of all time by unit sales
  70. PUBG Mobile’s revenue reaches $30 million: Users globally spending about $650k daily over the last month, nearly triple the amount for the previous month
  71. Valve adds pop-ups to Community Market warning of potential scams: Dialogue boxes warn users if they attempt to purchase items for a game they don’t own, or a new release
  72. Valve’s first new game in 5 years, Artifact, coming in November, starting at $20
  73. How League of Legends Went From Idea to Esport
  74. Why Competitive Gaming Is Starting To Look A Lot Like Professional Sports: Can an FPS compete with the NFL?
  75. How mobile can unlock esports for a casual audience: nWay CEO Taehoon Kim on the success of Power Rangers Legacy Wars and how it’s helping grow mobile esports
  76. Overwatch League franchise spots for next season could be worth up to $60m: London Spitfires crowned Season 1 champions as Activision Blizzard prepares to open up six new spots globally
  77. Making the piracy problem worse – 10 Years Ago This Month: Some publishers look at the recording industry’s disastrous reaction to file-sharing and basically copy it
  78. Pokémon Go brushes off competition from Jurassic World and The Walking Dead: Apptopia co-founder and COO Jonathan Kay explains why Pokémon Go thrives as its competitors flounder
  79. HTC Pushes Back On Reports of Declining Headset Sales
  80. HTC defends lack of data when disputing VR “tailspin”: Headset manufacturer claims its leading position shows health of market – despite failing to demonstrate with sales figures
  81. HTC, amidst a major revenue decline, brags about its VR revenue
  82. PlayStation VR co-creator Richard Marks has swapped Sony for Google
  83. Samsung Odyssey Drops to $400 and HP to $200 as Steep Discounts Continue for Windows VR Headsets
  84. New XRDC Innovation Report reveals Vive still devs’ top target as AR rises
  85. The GamesIndustry.biz Podcast: Artificial intelligence, with Chet Faliszek
  86. Elon Musk to video game devs: Help me put “super fun games” on Tesla screens
  87. Why did licensed games get better?
  88. Defy Media Sells Off Another Property — Its ‘Escapist Magazine’ Gaming News Site
  89. The Escapist relaunches with “no politics” pledge
  90. FoxNext to join Disney after $71.3 billion Fox deal approved by shareholders: 21st Century Fox games division one of the “key assets” acquired by Disney
  91. Disney’s purchase of Fox moves FoxNext into the House of Mouse
  92. iOS game collection aims to spotlight pre-mobile handheld games
  93. Blog: Meet The mobile puzzlers from a century ago 

Jon

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News of the Week; July 25, 2018

By Jon Festinger on August 20, 2018

DIGITAL

  1. Microsoft exec: We stopped Russia from hacking 3 congressional campaigns
  2. Yes, Russians Hacked U.S. Electric Companies, Homeland Security Confirms
  3. Breaking With 30 Years Of Traditional Opacity, DOJ Releases FISA Warrant Applications For Surveillance Of Carter Page
  4. Wikileaks Refused To Publish Manafort Family Texts, So Someone Else Did
  5. Digital age reinforces the need for judiciary to act as a bulwark against tyranny
  6. The ‘Guerrilla’ Wikipedia Editors Who Combat Conspiracy Theories
  7. How Silicon Valley Turned Evil: What Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, and Elon Musk can learn from their predecessors – before they destroy the world.
  8. Is Any Press Really Good Press? California Supreme Court Rules on Fate of Defamatory Yelp Reviews
  9. Facebook stock dives nearly 20% on warning of slow revenue growth
  10. Facebook Just Learned The True Cost Of Fixing Its Problems
  11. Facebook Sets Up China Subsidiary to Build Local Innovation Hub
  12. After a single day, Facebook is pushed out of China again
  13. Facebook follows SpaceX and OneWeb into high-speed satellite broadband
  14. Senators Wyden & Rubio Ask Google And Amazon To Bring Back Domain Fronting
  15. Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Twitter partner for ambitious new data project: An open-source collaboration for ‘the future of portability’
  16. Study: Analysis of top Facebook pages covering American political news – Study of 463 leading Facebook pages shows that partisan pages have roughly equal engagement, but right-wing pages drastically outnumber left-wing pages
  17. Facebook bows to WA state pressure to remove “discriminatory” ad filters
  18. Facebook’s Fight Against Fake News Keeps Raising Questions
  19. Departing Facebook Security Officer’s Memo: “We Need To Be Willing To Pick Sides”: In a brutally honest note about his departure, Facebook’s Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos calls on his colleagues “to intentionally not collect data where possible”
  20. Listen To Stephen Fry Perfectly Analogize The Moral Panics Around Facebook To The Ones Over The Printing Press
  21. Should Your Family Be Able to Inherit Your Facebook Messages?
  22. Appeals Court Won’t Yet Review Awful District Court Decision That Says Embedding Could Be Infringement
  23. Does the Public Have a First Amendment Right to Post Comments on a Public Official’s Twitter Feed? First Amendment Challenges to Social Media Access in the 21st Century
  24. Twitter courted comedians, then the opposition: How jokes became ammo during the social media platform’s shift from distraction to political warzone
  25. Was It Ethical For Dropbox To Share Customer Data With Scientists?
  26. The Internet Apologizes …:Even those who designed our digital world are aghast at what they created. A breakdown of what went wrong – from the architects who built it.
  27. Cyberbullying
  28. Leaders Who Pledged Not To Build Autonomous Killing Machines Are Ignoring The Real Problem
  29. U.S. Department of Defense Established A Center To Better Integrate AI
  30. ‘The discourse is unhinged’: how the media gets AI alarmingly wrong
  31. We Need Transparency in Algorithms, But Too Much Can Backfire
  32. Google’s iron grip on Android: Controlling open source by any means necessary
  33. Advertiser’s Suit Against Google Loses for Third (and Final) Time–Abid v. Google
  34. Google Wants You to Use Physical Security Keys So Bad It’s Willing to Sell You One
  35. Google launches “Shielded VMs” to protect cloud servers from rootkits, data theft
  36. Big News: Big Internet Platforms Making It Easy To Move Your Data Somewhere Else
  37. Science Fiction Is Not Social Reality: The tech industry is inspired to create our world from linear, scripted science fiction stories.
  38. Delete your account: It’s a “great shame,” says Silicon Valley insider Jaron Lanier, that so much of big tech’s AI has been aimed at manipulating you.­­
  39. Brainwashing your wife to want sex? Here is adtech at its worst
  40. Resale Price Maintenance, Pricing Algorithms and Monitoring Software: a Recipe for Disaster 
  41. DARPA Is Funding Research Into AI That Can Explain What It’s “Thinking”
  42. Robots And Racism (Bartneck, C., Yogeeswaran, K., Ser, Q. M., Woodward, G., Sparrow, R., Wang, S., & Eyssel, F.)
  43. Influence and responsibility: New Canadian influencer marketing guidelines emerge
  44. The Database: A Look At The Growing World Of Streaming And Over-The-Top Video
  45. Mozilla Exec Says YouTube Runs Five Times Slower Than Chrome On Firefox, Offers Solution
  46. YouTube Streams Over 180 Million Hours to TV Screens Every Day
  47. YouTube Deletes Videos Posted by Infowars, Suspends Alt-Right Channel From Live-Streaming
  48. YouTube Issues Another Strike Against InfoWars For Hate Speech, Child Endangerment
  49. Documentary Series ‘Best Shot,’ Co-Produced By Lebron James, Tips Off On NBA YouTube Channel
  50. YouTube Will Distribute Grants To Education-Focused Channels Via ‘YouTube Learning’ Fund
  51. YouTube shuts down FamilyOFive channel over ‘child endangerment’ concerns
  52. YouTube Finally Terminates Channels Belonging To Notorious ‘DaddyOFive’ Parents
  53. YouTube Blocks ‘FamilyOFive’ Account of Parents Convicted of Child Neglect
  54. Carrie Hope Fletcher Urges Boycott Of Fellow YouTuber Alex Day’s Upcoming Book
  55. Ahead Of Boxing Match, Deji Olatunji Says He’s Being Sued For Greg Paul Press Conference Assault
  56. Logan Paul And KSI Have Launched A Pay-Per-View YouTube Channel Dedicated To Their Upcoming Boxing Match
  57. YouTube Is Reportedly Combatting Instagram’s IGTV By Cutting Six-Figure Checks To Creators
  58. YouTube Experimenting With ‘Explore’ Tab To Expose Viewers To Broader Video Variety
  59. What would you do if your teenager became an overnight Instagram sensation?
  60. Mac ’n Cheese bubbles over in Instagram copyright dispute
  61. GoDaddy & Instagram Avoid Liability for Users’ Photos of Knockoff Goods–Franklin v. X Gear 101
  62. Insights: As Subscriptions Drain Wallets, Ad-Supported Online Services Find New Fans
  63. Netflix Launches Its First European Production Hub in Madrid
  64. Shonda Rhimes’ Eight-Show Netflix Slate Has A Some Romance, Some History, Some Intrigue
  65. Petition To Halt Release Of Netflix Series ‘Insatiable’ Garners 123,000 Signatures
  66. Netflix Will Enable Subscribers To Use Its Popular Characters As Their Profile Icons
  67. Sony Looking To Sell Stake In Crackle And Onboard Strategic Partner (Report)
  68. Musical.ly Reportedly Shut Down Live.ly Because Its Owner Didn’t Want A LiveMe Competitor
  69. How radio found new life on the internet and changed music discovery forever
  70. Twitch Launches Creator Camp Channel To Help Its Users Become Better Streamers
  71. Snapchat Opens A Private Marketplace For Brands To Buy Ads In Discover Shows
  72. Snapchat and Nielsen Partner to Integrate Offline Data For Audience Targeting
  73. Snapchat is shutting down Snapcash
  74. Snapchat starts to syndicate video shows on Discover
  75. Snapchat Is Launching A Show Where Parents Look At Their Kids’ Dating App Profiles
  76. Sony’s Monstrous New Smartphone Camera Sensor Could Make Us Care About Megapixels Again
  77. Research Confirms The Anecdotal Evidence: Internet Content Filters Are A Waste Of Money
  78. ‘Piracy Audiences Are Untapped Pools of Wealth’
  79. Chinese Citizens Are Using Blockchain to Warn Each Other of Unsafe Vaccines
  80. CSA reinforces position that securities laws apply to cryptocurrency offerings, confirms regulatory scrutiny for industry participants
  81. Hacker Exposes Security Vulnerability in Popular Cryptocurrency Site Etherscan
  82. The Role of IP in the Crypto Bubble
  83. Declining cryptocurrency prices are making graphics cards affordable again
  84. Behold This Disastrously Bad Op-Ed Calling for Amazon to Replace Libraries
  85. Amazon Studios’ Top Film Executive Is Departing Amid Strategic Shift
  86. Best Buy Should Be Dead, But It’s Thriving in the Age of Amazon: The big-box retailer doesn’t just want to sell you electronics. It wants its in-home consultants to be “personal chief technology officers.”
  87. Amazon’s Face Recognition Falsely Matched 28 Members of Congress With Mugshots
  88. Can We Make Non-Racist Face Recognition?
  89. For One Last Night, Make It a Blockbuster Night: Everything is 10 years behind in Alaska—including the way people see movies.But now, the late fees are finally coming due, and the end of the Blockbuster era is upon us.
  90. Click-wraps the way of the future ‒ but make sure they’re legal
  91. A new digital divide: Young people who can’t use keyboards

CREATIVITY

  1. The value of a copyrighted photograph is not necessarily in the eye of the beholder
  2. When Does “All” Mean All?
  3. Tesla clears the air with “farting unicorn” artist after copyright stink
  4. Au Revoir, Droit de Suite—9th Circuit Narrows California Resale Royalty Act to a Single Year’s Sales
  5. South Africa’s Proposed Fair Use Right In Copyright Bill Is Surprisingly Good — At The Moment
  6. False Advertising in a Movie Trailer?
  7. Who owns the Roger Federer RF monogram trade mark? 
  8. Ecuador Will Imminently Withdraw Asylum for Julian Assange and Hand Him Over to the UK. What Comes Next?
  9. The View From Somewhere: The Press Needs To Be Anti-Partisan, Not Bi-Partisan
  10. Cambodian Government Latest To Stifle Press With ‘Fake News’ Legislation
  11. The Daily News Was Superman’s Paper – Tronc Fed It Kryptonite: The owners fired half the paper’s staff Monday in a savage move that not only guts the newspaper, but also drastically diminishes the reporting of New York City.
  12. Tronc Is Incompetent, but Gutting Newsrooms Is Just Normal Capitalism
  13. If You’re A Journalist Hiring Lawyers To Intimidate Publishers Into Killing Stories About Your Misdeeds, You’re A Hypocrite
  14. Disney confirms Guardians director fired over years-old tweets
  15. James Gunn Will No Longer Direct Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in the Wake of Appalling Tweets 
  16. Hollywood’s Zero-Tolerance on Racism, Sexism Is the New Normal
  17. The US Army Gets Armistice With NHL Team Over ‘Golden Knights’ Trademark
  18. Four ways President Trump is changing prime time TV
  19. The Propaganda Films That Saved Walt Disney’s Cartoon Empire
  20. Marvel Offers Grief Counseling at Comic-Con for Fans Traumatized by the End of Infinity War 
  21. Art technicians: The industry’s dirty secret, or all part of the process?
  22. The Standard Consent Agreement That Protects Sacha Baron Cohen
  23. The death of Don Draper: Advertising, once a creative industry, is now a data-driven business reliant on algorithms. The implications are deeply sinister – not only for the consumer but for democracy itself.
  24. How The Global Music Copyright Business Grew By $1.5bn In 2016 (And Why That’s Amazing News Today)
  25. Blurred Lines Between Inspiration and Infringement: Ninth Circuit Holds “Blurred Lines” Infringes Copyright
  26. You Don’t Need to Be a Musician to Get a Record Deal in 2018: Streaming has upturned music’s status quo – and labels are looking farther afield for truly fresh talent
  27. Trying to protect – and expand – Cuba’s undiscovered musical legacy

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

  1. Court Rules Quebec Plan for Mandated ISP Blocking of Online Gambling Sites is Unconstitutional
  2. A $250,000 Reminder that “CASL” is Not Just an AntiSpam Law
  3. CRTC Issues Penalties to Middle Men Under CASL to Combat Malware Installation
  4. Audio Bulletin – CRTC Issues Penalties to Middle Men Under CASL to Combat Malware Installation
  5. How far will the FCC pursue Sinclair Broadcasting’s “misrepresentations” now that Trump has intervened?
  6. FCC votes against Sinclair/Tribune merger, likely dooming deal
  7. FCC Confirms Sinclair Misled Agency To Try And Get Its Megamerger Approved
  8. Trump tweets anger at FCC after Pai blocks Sinclair/Tribune merger
  9. Comcast Drops Its Bid to Buy Fox, Meaning There’s Nothing Stopping the Disney Deal Now
  10. Comcast admits defeat in bidding war for Fox, clearing path for Disney
  11. Ajit Pai gets message from his hometown ISP: Don’t hurt us small ISPs
  12. Viacom in Talks to Buy AwesomenessTV
  13. Viacom In Advanced Talks To Acquire AwesomenessTV (Report)
  14. Verizon Took A $658 Million Hit “Mainly Related To The Discontinuation” Of Go90
  15. FCC will now take your comments on whether to allow T-Mobile/Sprint merger
  16. Wireless Carriers Have A SIM Hijacking Problem They Don’t Want To Talk About
  17. Massachusetts Just The Latest State To Embrace Net Neutrality
  18. India Embraces Full Net Neutrality As The U.S. Runs The Opposite Direction
  19. NYC Will Stop Gouging Incarcerated New Yorkers For Calling Home
  20. Personal liability for directors over nuisance calls
  21. Sen. Ron Wyden On Breaking Up Facebook, Net Neutrality, And The Law That Built The Internet
  22. Survey: 5.4 Million Americans Will Cut The Cable TV Cord In 2018

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

  1. Canadian Court Affirms Citizens Still Have An Expectation Of Privacy In Devices Being Repaired By Third Parties
  2. Toronto Approves Gunshot-Detecting Surveillance Tech Days After Mass Shooting: Rattled by a string of gun violence this year, Toronto just approved ShotSpotter, a US-based audio surveillance system that purports to detect the sound of gunshots.
  3. Public Facebook Profiles Not Equivalent to Public Information Under PIPEDA
  4. Texas Judges Continue To Turn Expungement Orders Into ‘Right To Be Forgotten’ Requests
  5. Snoopware installed by 11 million+ iOS, Android, Chrome, and Firefox users
  6. Decade-old Bluetooth flaw lets hackers steal data passing between devices
  7. Today’s the day that Chrome brands plain old HTTP “not secure”
  8. In the Internet of Things, Opportunities Abound for Class Action Litigation
  9. UK Court Rules a Suspect in a Criminal Investigation has Reasonable Expectation it will be Kept Private
  10. UK Judge Says Accurate Journalism Is An Invasion Of Privacy In Cliff Richard Case
  11. Congratulations and Celebrations to Sir Cliff Richards in High Court Privacy Success
  12. Sir Cliff Richard wins landmark privacy battle against the BBC
  13. Privacy Cliff’s courageous battle with the BBC brings the right outcome
  14. Federal Judge Blasts FBI, Agent For Breaking The Law When Seeking Stingray Warrants
  15. 24 people have now been sentenced in India-based phone-scam case
  16. This school scans classrooms every 30 seconds through facial recognition technology
  17. Uber, Lyft driver booted after newspaper reveals he was livestreaming passengers
  18. Venmo’s terrible idea
  19. British Airways asked customers to post personal information on Twitter ‘to comply with GDPR’
  20. Irish Lawmakers Realizing The GDPR’s Consent Requirements Seem A Bit Onerous, Want To ‘Infer’ Consent
  21. Demonstrating Compliance with both GDPR and CCPA
  22. Cybersecurity, Privacy and Data Protection Alert: California Consumer Privacy Act
  23. Once Again…California Sets the Tone for U.S. Data Privacy 
  24. California Passes Groundbreaking Data Privacy Law with an Expansion of Consumers’ Privacy Rights
  25. A First (But Very Incomplete) Crack at Inventorying the California Consumer Privacy Act’s Problems
  26. The World Economy Runs on GPS. It Needs a Backup Plan: The small satellite network, which keeps global computer systems from freaking out, is shockingly vulnerable to all kinds of interference.
  27. Ars on your lunch break: The consequences of a government genetic database

GAMES

  1. Two Researchers Challenged a Scientific Study About Violent Video Games – and Took a Hit for Being Right: How two researchers paid a price for challenging a retracted study about violent video games.
  2. Nintendo files lawsuit against two popular ROM websites
  3. Nintendo to ROM sites: Forget cease-and-desist, now we’re suing
  4. Nintendo files copyright infringement lawsuit against two console ROM websites: LoveROMs and LoveRETRO are “among the most open and notorious online hubs for pirated video games” says platform holder
  5. Roblox: “Our work on safety is never-ending” – Developer behind popular kids game responds to recent gang rape incident, reiterates that hacker behind it has been banned
  6. Roblox on track to pay in-game devs $70M in 2018, more than double 2017’s payout
  7. Blind Mind Studios releases source code for Star Ruler 2
  8. PUBG Corp apologizes, removes offensive Japanese mask from game
  9. PUBG developer apologies after controversial World War II references found in game: Purchasable mask and AI bot caused offence across Korea and China with allusions to Imperial Japan
  10. Video chat with PUBG creator: “We could put battle royale in everything”
  11. PUBG Mobile reaches $30M in revenue 4 months after launch
  12. How Landfall accidentally struck a vein with a joke battle royale game
  13. Valve bans over 90,000 Steam accounts in one week
  14. 90,000 Steam accounts banned in Valve’s biggest anti-cheat purge to date: Just under 30,000 cheaters dealt with on Wednesday, followed by a record-breaking 60,000 yesterday
  15. Psyonix shares Rocket League loot box drop rates ahead of progression overhaul
  16. Dota 2 loot boxes now reveal contents ahead of purchase for Dutch players
  17. Niantic introduces three-strike policy for cheaters inPokémon Go
  18. Niantic outlines Pokemon Go cheating policy: Developer offers clarity on three-strike disciplinary system as ban waves ramp up
  19. Guiding children towards healthy gaming: “We have amazing materials for parents, we need to shout about them much more,” says Andy Robertson
  20. For the record: Report on Saudi Arabia ban of 47 games inaccurate
  21. Rebuilding MidBoss – Interim CEO and creative director discuss trying to save the 2064: Read Only Memories studio after sexual harassment and employee mistreatment scandal
  22. Gaming’s toxic men, explained: Experts tackle the phenomenon of angry men, trolls, racists and misogynists who hover around the video game industry
  23. The GamesIndustry.biz Careers Survey 2018: Lower pay but less crunch
  24. Studio Pixel Punk: Getting diversity right means going beyond “good intentions”
  25. 2K’s light slate belies bigger ambitions: President David Ismailer discusses publisher’s plans to grow, how it evaluates development partners, and thoughts on esports betting
  26. International Olympic Committee hosts forum to discuss esports: Riots Games CEO hopes forum might lead to esports “being more legitimised the world over”
  27. Esports Could Enter The Olympics Fray By The 2024 Summer Games In Paris (Report)
  28. James Ohlen: Anthem failure won’t mean the end of BioWare – Long-serving designer also disputes “conspiracy theories” that EA is driving studio away from story-driven RPGs
  29. Bandai Namco: “We want 50% of our games to be new IP” – Digital and marketing VP Hervé Hoerdt details how the Japanese publisher plans to create new brands that yield movies, toys and more
  30. Bandai Namco Amusement Lab Inc. established for VR arcade development
  31. Bandai Namco establishes new development team for VR, AR, MR: Bandai Namco Amusement Lab Inc. will focus on XR experiences primarily for arcades
  32. This VR Horror Game Is Exactly as Scary as Your Body Can Handle
  33. The Magic Hustle: Magic Leap not so Magical – Silicon Valley Global News SVGN.io
  34. Unity: “Games wouldn’t see the light of day” without asset stores – Asset Store boss Peter O’Reilly on the misconception around “asset flips”, and why Unity won’t match the Unreal Marketplace’s 88/12 revenue split
  35. Minecraft most downloaded Switch game in Japan so far this year: Retail version beats out all other packaged software for 2018 after less than one month on store shelves
  36. Blog: Breath of the Wild and the Montessori method
  37. Octopath Traveler impresses in European charts
  38. Square Enix bets on game streaming with Blacknut partnership
  39. Square Enix partners with Blacknut for cloud gaming: Partnership will bring Lara Croft Go, Hitman Go, more to Blacknut-supported devices
  40. UK Charts: Crash Bandicoot holds No.1 as Xbox exclusives dominate Top Ten
  41. Microsoft’s streaming Xbox will split up games to keep latency low
  42. Forward-box: Xbox Adaptive Controller’s packaging is a good Microsoft move
  43. Designing accessible packaging for the Xbox One Adaptive Controller
  44. Candy Crush Saga revenue spikes 18% in Q2 to over $200m: King’s six-year-old game ranked No. 7 for global app spending and No. 6 for games
  45. Next Games looks to The Walking Dead for growth after €7m H1 loss
  46. Layoffs at OnRush developer after racer fails to gain traction
  47. Onrush struggles lead to Evolution layoffs: Driveclub director Paul Pustchynsky among those who have been made redundant as Codemasters “decapitates” studio
  48. Raiders of the Broken Planet going free-to-play less than a year after launch: MercurySteam’s online shooter also rebranding as Spacelords as of August 23rd, director says episodic model “didn’t work as planned”
  49. Apple promotes iPhone gaming performance with new ad
  50. Analyst: Fortnite now rakes in $2 million per day on iOS alone
  51. Fortnite daily mobile revenue reaches $2m: Launch of Season 5 sets new record of $3 million revenue in a single day
  52. Why the world loves “Fortnite” and I don’t
  53. Epic releases postmortem for Fortnite’s playground mode
  54. How Fortnite Captured Teens’ Hearts and Minds: The craze for the third-person shooter game has elements of Beatlemania, the opioid crisis, and eating Tide Pods.
  55. Video: The unconventional launch of Fortnite 
  56. Report: Epic’s net worth could rise to $8B thanks toFortnite
  57. Breaking down Azeroth’s gates: Nostalgia is a powerful force for millions of former WoW players; but to convince them that they can re-engage without facing a time-sink, Blizzard needs to innovate once more
  58. In A New Game Available On YouTube, Video URLs Are Hidden Inside Puzzles
  59. YouTube Stars Kristopher London, Jesser Play ‘NBA 2k19’ With The Lakers, Get Scanned Into The Game
  60. Matthew Patrick Announces The Passing Of Game Theorists Editor Ronnie “Oni” Edwards
  61. Halo devs not working on battle royale mode for Infinite
  62. Rockfish: Live Steam broadcasting will change the game for indie marketing – Valve’s store page streaming beta helped Everspace to its highest ever single-day revenue, says CEO Michael Schade
  63. Blog: Being a solo indie in a post-Steam Greenlight world
  64. Oculus Go supporting otherwise faltering VR headset market: Q2 shipments show waning interest in VR as Pokemon Go continues to popularize AR
  65. No Man’s Sky Next update attracts over 40,000 players on Steam
  66. Bethesda unlikely to use external developers in future
  67. Bethesda’s growth makes it ‘less likely’ it’ll let external devs tackle its IP
  68. Google Play continues to widen global download gap with iOS: Android storefront saw over 20 billion app downloads in Q2, iOS downloads around 8 billion
  69. Microsoft ends fiscal year with $10 billion in games revenue, more Xbox Live users
  70. Microsoft annual gaming revenue tops $10 billion: Xbox maker’s full-year results show year-over-year growth in sales, Xbox Live active users
  71. Jurassic World Evolution hits one million sales
  72. Jurassic World Evolution has sold over 1 million copies
  73. Defiance 2050 developer Trion Worlds lays off 15 staff
  74. Trion Worlds eliminates 15 positions post-Defiance 2050 launch: MMO studio says round of layoffs necessary to enable continued development on upcoming projects
  75. UK tax breaks have helped finance 480 video games: In fact, more games have benefitted from tax relief than TV productions
  76. How piracy led to GOG encouraging DRM-free releases
  77. Muriel Tramis becomes second-ever game designer awarded the Legion of Honour
  78. Understanding the human cost of creating No Man’s Sky
  79. Writers discuss the evolving role narrative has in game development
  80. Former BioWare dev James Ohlen discusses creative freedom and burnout
  81. A quick word on which versions of Mega Man X Legacy Collection to get—or avoid
  82. The Game Outcomes Project: How teamwork, leadership and culture drive results

Jon

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