DIGITAL

1. Instagram, YouTube Face Full Block In Russia After Billionaire Wins A Privacy Lawsuit Over Pictures With An Alleged Escort
2. OCA upholds $700,000 award in internet defamation case
3. Playboy says linking to Playmate archive violates copyright; judge says no way: Boing Boing linked to an Imgur-hosted archive that has since been taken down. 
4. Scraping Is OK, Copying Proprietary Software Is Not 
5. Terrible Copyright Ruling Over An Embedded Tweet Undermines Key Concept Of How The Internet Works
6. A Ruling Over Embedded Tweets Could Change Online Publishing
7. Are news publishers directly liable for embedding tweets that contain images not created by that tweeter?
8. Disney Enterprises, Inc. v. Redbox Automated Retail, LLC 
9. 32 lawsuits filed against Intel over Spectre and Meltdown flaws
10. Court Realizes It Totally Screwed Up An Injunction Against Zazzle For Copyright Infringement 
11. John Perry Barlow and the Foundational Values of the Net
12. Twitter “bot” purge causes outcry from trollerati as follower counts fall: Right-wing tweeters see thousands of followers purged for “suspicious account behavior.”
13. Even If The Russian Troll Factory Abused Our Openness Against Us, That Doesn’t Mean We Should Close Up
14. NRA Goes Quiet on Twitter, Just Like After Previous Mass Shootings
15. Parkland Conspiracies Overwhelm The Internet’s Broken Trending Tools
16. Pro-Gun Russian Bots Flood Twitter After Parkland Shooting
17. Special Counsel indicts 13 people, Russian troll farm on conspiracy charges: Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein says Russians conducted “information warfare.”
18. How the Internet Companies That Sold Ads to Russian Trolls Can Fix the Problem: Mueller’s indictments describe a sprawling Russian scheme to sow discord in our elections using social media. The platforms now have a duty to protect our democracy 
19. DOJ Russia Indictment Again Highlights Why Internet Companies Can’t Just Wave A Magic Wand To Make Bad Stuff Go Away
20. TWiT takes on Twitter in trademark dispute
21. Conservative Twitter Users Lose Thousands of Followers, Mass Purge of Bots Suspected
22. A Blockbuster Indictment Details Russia’s Attack On US Democracy
23. The Toolset Of An Elite North Korean Hacker Group On The Rise
24. U.N. chief urges global rules for cyber warfare
25. YouTube’s Top Trending Video This Morning Promoted Conspiracy Theory About Florida Shooting Survivor
26. YouTube Outlines New Official Punishments For ‘Egregious Cases’
27. As “Demonetization Day” Arrives On YouTube, Small Creators Offer Advice To One Another
28. Why Artificial Intelligence Researchers Should Be More Paranoid
29. Algorithmic Impact Assessments: Toward Accountable Automation in Public Agencies 
30. Big Data Suggests Big Potential For Urban Farming
31. Canadian Competition Policy Focuses in on “Big Data”
32. Toward ethical, transparent and fair AI/ML: a critical reading list
33. A Biohacker Regrets Publicly Injecting Himself With CRISPR: “There’s no doubt in my mind that somebody is going to end up hurt eventually.”
34. Internet rages after Google removes “view image” button, bowing to Getty: Getty drops lawsuit against Google in exchange for controversial image search changes.
35. Google’s New Ad Blocker Changed The Web Before It Even Switched On
36. A Lack of Emotional Intelligence is Fueling Misogyny and Racism at Google — and Across Silicon Valley
37. Misogyny Online: Death by a Thousand Cuts
38. Google Fired and Disciplined Employees for Speaking Out About Diversity
39. Ex-Google Employee Claims Wrongful Firing For Criticizing James Damore’s Memo
40. Ex-Google engineer: I was fired for being too liberal – Tim Chevalier sues Google, claims only employees “who represent the majority” speak.
41. Infamous Google memo author shot down by federal labor board: Damore’s gender-focused memo was “discriminatory, constituted sexual harassment.”
42. Good news: Chrome debuts automatic blocking of annoying ads – Starting this week, Chrome took aim at some of the Internet’s most intrusive ads.
43. Glitch on Bitcoin Exchange Drops Prices to Zero Dollars, User Tries to Make Off With Trillions 
44. Taxation of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies
45. NSA Exploit Now Powering Cryptocurrency Mining Malware
46. Tesla cloud resources are hacked to run cryptocurrency-mining malware
47. Cryptocurrency-mining criminals that netted $3 million gear up for more: Attackers who mined 10,829 Monero coins over 18 months target a new server platform
48. Cryptocurrency Mining Company Coinhive Shocked To Learn Its Product Is Being Abused
49. Blockchain Just Isn’t As Radical As You Want It To Be
50. Instagram’s Latest Direct Messaging Feature Challenges Snapchat Again
51. One Down: Instagram Caves To Russian Censorship As All Eyes Turn To YouTube
52. Facebook’s secret weapon in the fight against foreign meddling? Postcards 
53. Copycat: How Facebook Tried To Squash Snapchat
54. Facebook Notification Spam Has Crossed The Line
55. Facebook ‘Security’: A New VPN That’s Spyware And Two-Factor Authentication That Spams You 
56. Wired’s Big Cover Story On Facebook Gets Key Legal Point Totally Backwards, Demonstrating Why CDA 230 Is Actually Important
57. NFL Thursday Night Digital Rights: Amazon, YouTube, Twitter, Verizon Again at Bidding Table
58. YouTube, Amazon, Twitter May Bid Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars For NFL Rights
59. Amazon To Bring Ad-Supported Options To Its Channels Program 
60. Amazon uses cash back benefits to entice Prime members to Whole Foods
61. UberEats Driver Kills Customer During Delivery in Atlanta 
62. Why are we still struggling with hyper-linking and copyright law? (Andres Guadamuz)
63. Could 5G Break Facebook And Google’s Grip On Online Content, Cut ALL Cords?
64. Iran’s National Information Network: Faster Speeds, but at What Cost?
65. Apple’s Excellence in Design Leads to Employees Smacking Into Glass Walls
66. NBA’s Adam Silver Focused On Tech That Creates Magical Experiences
67. Kudos To The Crock-Pot People For Handling The Online Fallout From ‘This Is Us’ So Well
68. Everyone Creates: New Empirical Data Shows Just How Much The Internet Has Enabled A New Creative Economy 

CREATIVITY

1. Court Shakes Off Dumb Copyright Lawsuit Against Taylor Swift 
2. US Judge dismisses Taylor Swift ‘Shake it Off’ lyric as too ‘banal’ to copyright: Nick McDonald comments
3. Judge Dismisses Taylor Swift Lawsuit While Pouring the Burn Sauce
4. John Wiley & Sons Inc. v. DRK Photo: Second Circuit holds that stock photograph company aggregating claims for copyright infringement against third-party licensees for exceeding usage limits of licenses does not have standing  
5. Rearden LLC v. Walt Disney Company: District court dismisses copyright and direct patent infringement claims against various film studios arising out of allegedly unauthorized use of plaintiff’s MOVA computer-graphics motion capture technology
6. Jerry Seinfeld is being sued for allegedly stealing the idea for Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee
7. How a Polish Holocaust Story Became the Basis of a Controversial Copyright Case in Canada’s Federal Court
8. Germany’s Speech Laws Continue To Be A Raging Dumpster Fire Of Censorial Stupidity
9. The Lynyrd Skynyrd Texting Case: Spoliation and Non-Party Texts 
10. Scholastic Wants To Help Young Creators Showcase Their Works By Stripping Them Of Their IP Rights
11. What Black Panther’s Success Means For The Future Of Movies 

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. The Case Against the Bell Coalition’s Website Blocking Plan, Part 4: Absence of Court Orders Would Put Canada At Odds With Almost Everyone (Michael Geist)
2. The Case Against the Bell Coalition’s Website Blocking Plan, Part 5: The Inevitable Expansion of the Block List Standard for “Piracy” Sites (Michael Geist)
3. The Case Against the Bell Coalition’s Website Blocking Plan, Part 6: Over-Blocking of Legitimate Websites (Michael Geist)
4. The Case Against the Bell Coalition’s Website Blocking Plan, Part 7: The Likely Expansion of the Block List to Non-IP Issues (Michael Geist)
5. Bell to Employees: Click Here To Support Our Website Blocking Proposal at the CRTC (Michael Geist) 
6. Congress Pressures FCC Boss Over His Total Failure To Police Net Neutrality Comment Fraud
7. AT&T’s attempt to buy Time Warner suffers a blow in court: AT&T loses bid for evidence; Trump’s hatred of CNN won’t play big role in case. 
8. AT&T tries to prove Trump meddled in merger review because he hates CNN
9. FCC Boss Being Investigated By His Own Agency For Being Too Cozy With The Industry He Regulates 
10. Ajit Pai Is Reportedly Being Investigated by the FCC’s Inspector General 
11. Ajit Pai faces investigation into moves that benefit Sinclair Broadcasting: IG examines whether Pai “improperly coordinated with Sinclair” on rule changes.
12. Ajit Pai’s Plan Will Take Broadband Away From Poor People
13. FCC Broadband Availability Data Derided As Inaccurate, ‘Shameful’ 
14. To kill net neutrality, FCC might have to fight more than half of US states: Bucking FCC and Ajit Pai, lawmakers across US have proposed net neutrality laws.
15. More Than Half Of U.S. States Now Pushing Their Own Net Neutrality Rules
16. Charter fails to defeat lawsuit alleging false Internet speed promises: Net neutrality repeal can’t save Charter from lawsuit, NY Supreme Court says.
17. Starting Small on Media Regulation Modernization – Rule Requiring Hard Copy of FCC Rules Repealed 

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. German Court Says Facebook’s Real Names Policy Violates Users’ Privacy
2. Facebook has been sharing our data for months to help study income inequality: In the US, just 1 percent of the population holds 40 percent of the wealth.
3. Mountain of sensitive FedEx customer data exposed, possibly for years: Company stored customer passports, driver licenses, and more in public Amazon bucket.
4. In terse statement, White House blames Russia for NotPetya worm
5. Mozilla’s Open Letter To Expert Committee Drafting India’s First Data Protection Law Slams Aadhaar Biometric Identity System
6. Internal Versus External Tracking Is Next Frontier Of Data Privacy

GAMES

1. Gameloft facing lawsuit from outsourcing firm over copyright infringement
2. Outsourcer suing Gameloft over Asphalt assets and trade secrets: Vietnamese studio Glass Egg claims employees created assets without company’s knowledge
3. Despite increased downloads, Gameloft sees drop in daily and monthly average users
4. European regulator: Nintendo’s strict eShop refund policy is unlawful
5. After 600 days of being banned, former CS:GO streamer sues Twitch
6. Ubisoft Perma-Bans Creator Of Cool, Non-Cheating Tool For ‘The Division’ Because It Was Made With Cheating Software
7. Add-on dev Flight Sim Labs under fire for using malware as DRM
8. Flight-sim devs say hidden password-dump tool was used to fight pirates: Developer says tool was intended to target one specific cracker.
9. Streamer Sues Twitch Over Suspension: James ‘PhantomL0rd’ Varga says he was a “scapegoat”.
10. Banned Twitch streamer files lawsuit against platform for loss of earnings and “reputational harm”: James “Phantoml0rd” Varga argues he was never given adequate explanation for the ban
11. Twitch delays enforcement of new community guidelines over clarity concerns: Video platform criticised for new guidelines being vague
12. Twitch Just Launched Chat Rooms And It’s The 90s All Over Again
13. EVE Online to permanently ban repeat offenders using bots
14. Eugen Systems devs on strike after claiming violation of rights 
15. Video games, not guns, to blame for school shooting, says Kentucky gov.: “It’s the same as pornography…. we are reaping what we’ve sown here.”
16. Game industry pushes back against efforts to restore gameplay servers: DMCA exemption fight shows mistrust over limited “preservation” claims.
17. ESA argues against DMCA exemption for abandoned online games
18. ESA opposes potential DMCA rule change aimed at preserving abandoned online games: “Preservation of online video games is now critical,” says Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment
19. Hawaii proposes landmark legislation against loot boxes: State representative who previously declared legislation a “slippery slope” affirms support for efforts toward regulating loot boxes; expects more states to follow Hawaii’s lead
20. U.S. Senator calls on ESRB and FTC to review loot box practices 
21. Blog: Much ado about loot boxes
22. Report: 69% of consumers find cosmetic microtransactions acceptable: Only 6% of consumers never spend money on microtransactions
23. 27% of Brits have purchased 18-rated games while still underage: While still underage, 65% of millennials have played an 18-rated video game and 35% bought one
24. Microsoft: “Representation isn’t just good common sense, it’s good business sense” – At the DICE Summit today, Phil Spencer urged the industry to pursue diversity and inclusivity or risk missing out on the growth opportunities to come
25. Learning from scantily clad dancer scandal, Xbox exec calls for inclusivity: Phil Spencer sees “opportunity and responsibility to make gaming for everyone.”
26. For Xbox boss Spencer, inclusivity is key for successful company culture 
27. Rovio partners with GSN Games for cash-wagering Angry Birds game
28. Nightdive puts crowdfunded System Shock reboot on hiatus: The project lost focus after raising more than $1.3 million from Kickstarter backers
29. Atari launching two cryptocurrencies: Shares spike 52% after company unveils Atari Token and Pong, announces plans to allow cryptocurrencies in its gambling business
30. Atari stock jumps 52% on plans for nostalgia-backed cryptocurrencies: “Atari Token” and “Pong Token” continue long trend of zombie corporate licensing.
31. Doom on Switch may have changed everything with new motion controls: Nintendo teased this brilliant idea in Splatoon. Will other shooters follow?
32. UK Charts: Nintendo Switch push sends FIFA back to No.1: Kingdom Come –  Deliverence makes No.2, Bayonetta 2 back at No.5
33. Super Rare Games bringing limited edition indie games to Nintendo Switch
34. How Nintendo Labo is using the Switch’s IR Camera and HD Rumble features
35. How Switch’s success is impacting devs in the game porting biz
36. Nintendo To Expel Members From ‘Creators Program’ In Accordance With New YouTube Policy
37. Starbreeze banking on The Walking Dead after posting pre-tax loss of $22.2M
38. Ubisoft Berlin’s growth ambitions will need government support: “We intend to grow to a considerable size,” says studio director Istvan Tajnay, “but we could grow to a huge size if parameters were right”
39. How Augmented Reality Is Shaping The Future Of Play
40. Gree VR Fund invests $18.3m into 17 augmented and virtual reality startups: San Francisco-based venture capital fund re-brands to reflect commitment beyond just virtual reality
41. The Difference Between Smartglasses & AR Glasses, and Why Everyone is Confused
42. Could Esports Become Part Of Olympics By 2024?
43. Daytona 500 Race Week Features Esports Tournament On Mobile Stage
44. How Major League Baseball Is Approaching Future Entry Into Esports
45. Blizzard using in-game rewards to promote OverwatchLeague streams on Twitch
46. The CEO of esports team Splyce explains the human side of professional play
47. Learning to love older games: The recent boom in remastered games isn’t just business as usual; it signifies an underlying shift in how consumers value older games
48. Meet the brewery making its own video game: Tiny Rebel Games teams up with its sister company to create Beer Money
49. A Videogame Developer Who Finds Power In Pathos
50. Nightdive Studios puts System Shock remake on hold 
51. Blog: Building my courtroom drama game, Twelve Absent Men
52. How multimedia trade marks could kill cloned games: Harbottle & Lewis’ Kostya Lobov believes a new form of IP protection will greatly benefit developers – as shown by Rebellion’s Sniper Elite 4
53. Bandai Namco opens two virtual reality arcades in south England: Plans to further expand the operation across the UK throughout 2018
54. Blog: Flash games aren’t dead, they’re just in a coma
55. Blog: How marketing drives engagement in free to play games
56. Opinion: Why there’s no such thing as ‘the game industry’
57. “History is our playground”: Bringing Assassin’s Creed into the classroom – We speak to Maxime Durand, franchise historian behind the publisher’s flagship series, about its new violence-free Discovery Mode
58. Blog: Listen to a Harvard Egyptologist discuss Assassin’s Creed: Origins

Jon

DIGITAL

1. As Outlets Like Russia Today Influence Viewers, YouTube Will Add Notices To State-Sponsored Content
2. YouTube will put disclaimers on state-funded broadcasts to fight propaganda: In efforts to educate viewers on where their news comes from.
3. Appeals court: Twitter can’t be sued for “material support” of terrorism – 9th Circuit – “We conclude that Twitter has the better of the argument.” 
4. Court Dismisses — For A Second Time — Lawsuit Seeking To Hold Facebook Responsible For Acts Of Terrorism 
5. How Twitter Bots and Trump Fans Made #ReleaseTheMemo Go Viral: Russian bots and their American allies gamed social media to put a flawed intelligence document atop the political agenda. That should alarm us.
6. ‘Fiction is outperforming reality’: how YouTube’s algorithm distorts truth – An ex-YouTube insider reveals how its recommendation algorithm promotes divisive clips and conspiracy videos. Did they harm Hillary Clinton’s bid for the presidency? 
7. Ich Bin Ein Tweeter: I had enough of the trolling and toxic taunts on Twitter. So I reset my location and “moved” to Germany, the safest social media state in the world. 
8. Learning The Politics Of “Digital Dissensus” 
9. Policing the internet – “fake news” and social media offence update 
10. China launches salvo against “network navy” of trolls who spread fake news: More than 200 arrests, thousands of accounts and websites seized for “illegal speculation.”
11. Small Creator Sues YouTube Over Faulty DMCA Takedown Procedure
12. Socioeconomic group classification based on user features / Facebook, Inc.
13. Facebook Patents Tech To Bucket Users Into Different Social Classes
14. Telegram iOS app removed from App Store last week due to child pornography: The app was restored only after Telegram removed the content.
15. Theresa May Again Demands Tech Companies Do More To Right The World’s Social Media Wrongs
16. It’s Time For A Serious Talk About The Science Of Tech “Addiction”
17. Push Resumes For An EU Google Tax, With The Bulgarian Government Leading The Way
18. Nest is done as a standalone Alphabet company, merges with Google: Google plans to “combine hardware, software, and services” between the two companies 
19. Live Stream Of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy Rocket Test Peaks At 2.3 Million Concurrent Views
20. Americans staying home, streaming video, and using less energy because of it – Decouple economic growth from energy consumption: Tell your boss you want to work from home.
21. Kian Lawley Out At Fox Film ‘The Hate U Give’ After Clip With Racist Remarks Surfaces
22. On The Internet, Everyone Is A Creator
23. Logan Paul Discusses “The Hardest Time Of My Life” In ‘Good Morning America’ Interview
24. Logan Paul Returns to YouTube With ‘Comeback’ Video: ‘I Will Never Forget Who I Am at My Core’
25. Logan Paul Is Back To Old Antics In First Comeback Vlog After Suicide Scandal
26. Data-Saving YouTube Go App Arrives In 130 More Countries (But Not The US) 
27. YouTube “tightening and enforcing” policies toward content creators: “We realise we have a serious social responsibility to get these emerging policy issues right,” says CEO 
28. YouTube Announces 3 Potential Punishments For Top Creators Who Harm The Broader Community
29. YouTube CEO Shares 5 Goals With Creators For 2018: “Addressing Your Concerns About Demonetization Is A Top Priority”
30. Kylie Jenner Chooses YouTube For Baby Reveal, Nabs 28 Million Views In 24 Hours
31. YouTube On ‘Play Button’ Awards: “Not All Creators Who Apply Will Receive Awards”
32. YouTube TV subscribers can now watch live TV on Apple TV, Roku devices: Announcement comes after the rollout was delayed at the end of 2017.
33. As The Winter Olympics Approach, YouTube Shares Data And Prepares To Host Highlights 
34. YouTube Uses Its Version Of Snapchat’s Stories For Black History Month Campaign
35. Snapchat Uses Live Streaming To Highlight Top Moments From 2018 Winter Olympics
36. Patreon Introduces Exclusive Snapchat-Like Content For Donors, By Creators
37. How Snapchat Is Sending #Metoo Down The Memory Hole: Disappearing-messaging apps may keep snoopers away—but they can also prevent us from preserving the past and finding justice in the future.
38. BuzzFeed And NBCUniversal’s Latest Project Targets Millennial Parents
39. Putting Pinners First: How Pinterest Is Building Partnerships For Compassionate Content Moderation
40. Implementing Transparency About Content Moderation
41. Tosca Musk Launches Streaming Service That Celebrates The Female Gaze 
42. Hulu’s Super Bowl stream fails during final moments of game: Some customers lost video right before the end
43. Hulu and Vue fumbled during the Super Bowl (but so did NBC): Two of the big streaming TV services cut out at critical moments in the game.
44. Warner Music Hits $1 Billion in First Quarter, Digital Revenue Up 20%
45. Study Suggests Shutting Down Filesharing Sites Would Hurt Music Industry, New Artists
46. Appeals Court Makes A Mess Of Copyright Law Concerning ISPs And Safe Harbors
47. BMG V. Cox is Major Copyright Victory for Music Industry
48. Cox Not Entitled to DMCA Protection Given Lax Infringer Policy
49. Fourth Circuit Raises Bar for DMCA Safe Harbor Defense 
50. The Gig Economy’s Tipping Point
51. Alexa, print money: Even Bezos stunned by Q4 Amazon income – Exceeds operating income estimate by 69%; hints at exactly how well Echo is doing.
52. Inside Amazon’s Artificial Intelligence Flywheel: How deep learning came to power Alexa, Amazon Web Services, and nearly every other division of the company.
53. What Amazon Does to Poor Cities: The debate over Amazon’s HQ2 obscures the company’s rapid expansion of warehouses in low-income areas.
54. Don’t Make AI Artificially Stupid In The Name Of Transparency
55. AI Just Learned How To Boost The Brain’s Memory
56. Half of Americans Want Universal Income, but Expect AI Companies to Pay It 
57. Greedy, Brittle, Opaque, And Shallow: The Downsides To Deep Learning – We’ve been promised a revolution in how and why nearly everything happens. But the limits of modern artificial intelligence are closer than we think.
58. Photo Algorithms ID White Men Fine—Black Women, Not So Much
59. Line-Drawing Exercises: Autonomy and Automation – An existential worry lies beneath concerns about the future of AI. We as humans fear that we will lose our autonomy as we pursue automation with such abandon. (John Palfrey)
60. The Expansion Of Algorithmic Governance: From Code is Law to Law is Code (Samer Hassan & Primavera De Filippi)
61. Irony Alert? Tech Insiders Form Organization to Combat the Dangers of Technology
62. The End Of Data Without Borders: The storage and transmission of data around the world involves a constant clash of competing local, regional, and national regulations. But why does anyone care where data is physically located?
63. Our Hackable Political Future
64. The Big ICO Swindle: Many cryptocurrency speculators are banking on the theory that someone dumber than them will buy their tokens for more than they paid. That’s a pretty good bet … until it isn’t.
65. A Classic Scam Finds New Life Stealing Bitcoin On Twitter
66. Decrypting Taxation of Cryptocurrency
67. Why experts are worried about Tether, a dollar-pegged cryptocurrency: Markets treat a tether as though it’s worth $1. But what if it’s not?
68. Cryptocurrency botnets are rendering some companies unable to operate: Smominru botnet has infected 526,000 machines, generated as much as $3.6 million.
69. Crypto Utopia In Puerto Rico: Digital Evangelism Or Disaster Capitalism? (Andres Guadamuz)
70. A Video Platform That Wants To Be YouTube For Cryptocurrency Users Has Raised $20 Million
71. Cryptocurrency in Small Bytes: Who’s in Charge Here Anyway? The U.S. Regulatory Landscape for Token Offerings
72. The Wired Guide To The Blockchain: It’s super secure and slightly hard to understand, but the idea of creating tamper-proof databases has captured the attention of everyone from anarchist techies to staid bankers. 
73. Feds Take Down A Half-Billion Dollar Cybercrime Forum After 7 Years Online
74. No “Bright Line” In Influencer Marketing No-Nos, Tubefilter And SAG-AFTRA FTC Panel Shows
75. ‘Catalog Of Missing Devices’ Compiles The Useful Tech Products DRM Is Preventing Us From Owning
76. Viacom Will Reportedly Acquire Online Video Gathering VidCon
77. It’s Official: Viacom Announces Its Acquisition Of VidCon
78. Mitú, NFL Announce Partnership To Engage Latino Football Fans
79. This Pastor Is Putting His Faith In A Virtual Reality Church: D.J. Soto believes Christianity can be renewed through worship in virtual space. His VR mega-church is even attracting atheists.
80. Uber doesn’t want jury to see report, but judge says Uber is “stuck” with it: Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick may take the stand today.
81. Waymo presents damning internal messages from Uber, which responds in kind
82. Kalanick agrees: Google was and is “in the lead” in autonomous vehicles – According to a colleague’s notes, Uber’s co-founder sought “pound of flesh.”
83. Uber: We had “no justification” for covering up data breach – Republican senator – data breach incident “raises red flags within this committee.”
84. Waymo v. Uberkicks Off With Travis Kalanick In The Crosshairs
85. Waymo v. Uber’s big Question: What On Earth Is A Trade Secret, Anyway?
86. Google joins “universal stylus” group, hopes for cross-device compatibility: Can you build a universal stylus standard without Apple, Microsoft, and Samsung?
87. Push Resumes For An EU Google Tax, With The Bulgarian Government Leading The Way
88. Samsung leader walks from prison after bribery charges “suspended”: “Samsung is above the law and the court” says national assembly member.
89. iPhone X Damage Report: Two Months Later
90. How will new iPhones manage power? Apple’s response to senator raises questions: Apple is also exploring options for those who paid full price for new batteries.
91. Op-ed: Apple was right to throttle iPhones, but some things still need to change – Prioritizing battery life and stability over speed was the best move for users.
92. Apple sets quarterly revenue record following iPhone X launch
93. Apple, Verizon Continue to Lobby Against The Right To Repair Your Own Devices
94. It’s Time For A Serious Talk About The Science Of Tech “Addiction”
95. The Formula For Phone Addiction Might Double As A Cure
96. The Secret To Breaking Up With Your Phone? Remember That You Will Die.
97. Comprehensive US cell phone safety study inches toward publication: In this study, being in one of the control groups was fatal.
98. Relatively few LG customers will see any money from “bootloop” lawsuit: Chamberlain v. LG was sent to arbitration in June 2017; now LG has quietly settled.
99. Toronto lawyer serves claim with Instagram
100. IP monitor – Government is reviewing Copyright Act for currency with digital technology
101. Moderation Is The Commodity
102. 5 Takeaways From Tech Leaders’ Content Moderation Conference: Tech companies’ legal leaders and policy experts gathered at Santa Clara University School of Law on Feb. 2 for a day of panels on content moderation and removal.
103. Behold, the 157 new emoji for 2018: New smileys, animals, hair colors, and lots more arrive in Unicode Emoji 11.0.
104. Rebalancing Regulation of Speech: Hyper-Local Content on Global Web-Based Platforms (Chinmayi Arun)
105. Co-founder of EFF, John Perry Barlow, dead at 70: “The Internet we all know and love today exists and thrives because of Barlow’s vision.”
106. Mourning John Perry Barlow, The Bard Of The Internet

CREATIVITY

1.  Ed Sheeran Among the Latest Musicians Accused of Copying Australian Artists
2. Insights: After Music’s Massive Week, Can People Finally Make Money From It Again?
3. Tarnishing The History Of Martin Luther King Jr.: Copyright Enforcement Edition
4. Director Of Thor: Ragnarok Pirated Clips For His Sizzle Reel
5. International Inconsistencies In Copyright: Why It’s Hard To Know What’s Really Available To The Public
6. Israeli Music Fans Sue Two New Zealanders For Convincing Lorde To Cancel Her Israeli Concert 
7. Public School Board Member Threatens Boss Of Woman Who Spoke Out Against School Book Banning
8. Come Witness The Commentators That Help The NFL Fool The Public About Its ‘Super Bowl’ Trademark Rights
9. BrewDog Beats Back Trademark Action From The Elvis Presley Estate
10. Moosehead Breweries Cuts And Runs From Trademark Suit Against Hop ‘N Moose Brewing
11. Best Buy Will No Longer Sell CDs and Target May Be Next
12. Online Talent Search Company Settles FTC Allegations it Collected Children’s Information without Consent and Misled Consumers
13. Understanding the Consumer Review Fairness Act of 2016 (Eric Goldman)

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. Hail Mary Pass to Supreme Court Missed Its Mark: Application to Stay CRTC Order Prohibiting Simultaneous Substitution during the Super Bowl Dismissed
2. Broadcasting Procedural Letter Addressed to Netflix (CRTC)
3. No Panic: Canadian TV and Film Production Posts Biggest Year Ever Raising Doubts About the Need for Site Blocking and Netflix Regulation (Michael Geist)
4. Anti-piracy group under fire for website-blocking proposal
5. Does Canada Even Have a Huge Piracy Problem?: A coalition of powerful organizations wants to block piracy websites in Canada.
6. Thousands Slam Bell Coalition’s Website Blocking Proposal in Submissions to the CRTC (Michael Geist)
7. Canada’s SOPA Moment: Why the CRTC Should Reject the Bell Coalition’s Dangerous Internet Blocking Plan (Michael Geist)
8. Russia Blocks 500 ‘Pirate’ Sites in Four Months, Without a Single Court Order
9. Bell offers free phone unlocking for all following protests: Telecom had declined requests from non-customers but has changed its policy 
10. How Bell Let’s Talk became a triple win for BCE, consumers and the mental health cause: In an era of donor fatigue and one-hit wonder online campaigns, BCE’s annual corporate social responsibility effort continues to succeed despite criticism from skeptic
11. Here’s Ajit Pai’s “proof” that killing net neutrality created more broadband: Pai’s FCC takes credit for broadband deployments that began under Obama.
12. There are Ajit Pai “Verizon puppet” jokes that the FCC doesn’t want you to read: FCC won’t release emails about joke “collusion” video, says they would harm agency.
13. Trump’s FCC Pats Itself On The Back For A Historically Stupid Year
14. FCC Report Falsely Claims Killing Net Neutrality Already Helping Broadband Competition 
15. ISPs must follow net neutrality in New Jersey, governor declares: ISPs can’t block or throttle traffic if they sell broadband to state agencies.
16. California’s Net Neutrality Law Takes Another Step Forward
17. New Jersey The Latest State To Protect Net Neutrality By Executive Order
18. San Francisco seeks universal fiber broadband with net neutrality and privacy: Affordable broadband and consumer protections for all—that’s the plan at least.
19. FCC Reaches Consent Decree with Noncommercial Broadcaster Imposing Largest Fine Ever Issued for Underwriting Violations – $115,000
20. FTC issues comments on FCC’s robocall blocking rules 
21. Trump Administration Proposes Construction of Federal 5G Wireless Network
22. A New Frequency Range Could Open Up More Wireless Tech
23. Comcast accused of demanding $3.5 million “punitive ransom” from rival: Wave Broadband says it had to pay big bucks to avoid losing sports networks.

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Right to be Forgotten, eh? Canada’s Privacy Commissioner Says Law Requires Search Engine De-indexing
2. Canadian Privacy Commissioner Report Says Existing Law Already Gives Canadians A Right To Be Forgotten
3. It is time to overhaul Canada’s data protection—your rights are at stake – Opinion: A draft position by Canada’s privacy commissioner on the right to be forgotten shows how our inadequate laws are being overstretched
4. Here’s what you need to know about Canada’s ‘extraordinarily permissive’ new spying laws
5. China Exporting Its Surveillance Tech And Philosophy To Other Countries, Helped By Equipment Donations
6. Devin Nunes Releases Memo That Doesn’t Show The Surveillance Abuses He Hypocritically ‘Cares’ About
7. Missouri Governor Sued Over His Office’s Use Of Self-Destructing Communications
8. Judge should order governor to stop using ephemeral messaging app, lawyers say – Missouri governor’s lawyer: Use of Confide is protected under the First Amendment.
9. Single-Pixel Tracker Leads Paranoid Turkish Authorities To Wrongly Accuse Over 10,000 People Of Treason
10. Digital insecurity of journalists in Pakistan: DRF report
11. IBM’s New AI Can Predict Psychosis in Your Speech
12. The Equifax “Lock & Alert” app works, but what does it do?: Equifax’s new free phone app can “lock” your Equifax credit report. Just beware of typos.
13. Hacker Lauri Love Wins Extradition Appeal; Won’t Be Shipped Off To The US
14. In just 24 hours, 5,000 Android devices are conscripted into mining botnet: Worm-like infection targets devices that have seldom-used port 5555 open.
15. Why cops won’t need a warrant to pull the data off your autonomous car: “It’s like instant replay in the NFL; I can tell what happened.”
16. Facial Recognition in Retail: “Attention all Shoppers: We Already Know Everything about You”
17. The House That Spied on Me
18. Mind The Gap: This Researcher Steals Data With Noise, Light, And Magnets
19. GDPR: The Most Frequently Asked Questions: Is a Service Provider’s Privacy Shield Certification Good Enough?
20. Children and the GDPR
21. Data is power: Towards additional guidance on profiling and automated decision-making in the GDPR (Frederike Kaltheuner, Elettra Bietti)

GAMES

1. Valve suspends Counter-Strike co-creator after arrest for sexual exploitation of a child
2. Valve Suspends Counter-Strike Co-Creator Following Disturbing Allegations: Cliffe has been suspended “until we know more,” says Valve.
3. Counter-Strike’s Jess Cliffe arrested for sexual exploitation of a child: Co-creator of classic first-person shooter suspended by Valve until more is known of charges
4. Counter-Strike Co-Creator Charged With Paying 16-Year-Old For Sex
5. Charges filed, details emerge for arrest of Counter-Strike’s co-creator: Charged with commercial sexual abuse of a minor.
6. “A risk to the community”—Counter-Strike co-creator faces $150K bail post-arrest: Defense acknowledges sexual contact, says client “had no idea” witness was a minor.
7. Subnautica developer fired over “many hateful statements”: Sound designer Simon Chylinski dropped from underwater survival game after history of insensitive tweets
8. Is it right to classify excessive video game play as a health disorder?: “Once we say games are also an activity that pulls for that compulsiveness, the question is why aren’t more people then getting pulled into it?”
9. ‘Dangerous gaming’: is the WHO right to class excessive video game play as a health disorder?: Industry figures question research that ‘pathologises’ compulsive gaming, while scientist involved defends move to address addiction
10. Germany is considering a ban on loot boxes
11. German Youth Protection Commission investigates loot boxes: It’s “conceivable” that loot boxes violate existing regulation, says commission chairman
12. Quantic Dream labels claims of toxic conditions as “smear campaign”: Council of Paris investigating public funds awarded to studio, and considering tighter regulations for companies that do not care for staff
13. EA stock reaches all-time high ahead of Battlefront II loot box return: Company’s stock rose 7%, peaking at $131 following recent financial results
14. Take-Two swings to profit, has high hopes for Red Dead Redemption 2
15. The Myth of Metacritocracy: 10 Years Ago This Month: EA learns a costly lesson about striving for excellence and Take-Two tells it to take a hike
16. Take-Two’s usual performers carry company to solid quarter: Record quarters for Grand Theft Auto Online and NBA 2K continue to tide publisher over during a light year of major releases
17. Over 1M Battlegrounds cheaters were banned in January alone
18. PUBG Corp prepares to introduce new anti-cheat solution as total bans exceeds 2.5m: PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds bans one million cheaters in January alone
19. Donkey Kong scoreboard strips Billy Mitchell’s high score claims 
20. Indiegogo threatens to recoup Spectrum Vega+ funds, new release date promised: Former managing director of Retro Computers Ltd refutes allegations made by company’s current directors
21. Kickstarter and games in 2017
22. Atari Gets The Settlement It Was Surely Fishing For Over An Homage To ‘Breakout’ In KitKat Commercial
23. Amid furor over past sexism, Atari co-founder loses prestigious award: Bushnell apologizes for behavior, “applauds” GDC for promoting awareness.
24. Twitch Ended 2017 With 15 Million Daily Visitors, 27K Partnered Streamers
25. Konami apologizes for announcing nuclear disarmament (in Metal Gear Solid V): Server-wide cutscene event seems to have been activated prematurely by a glitch.
26. Capcom’s hunt for a global audience: Monster Hunter was perhaps the best example of a “big in Japan” game – until Capcom’s persistence and confidence finally paid off this week
27. Capcom lays off workers at Dead Rising studio
28. Layoffs at Capcom Vancouver: 30% of studio laid off as Dead Rising developer reportedly sees one project cancelled, another has scope reduced
29. Report: Gameloft closes New Orleans studio, layoffs at Gameloft Madrid
30. Sales and profits slip at Sega despite bump in physical sales
31. Jump in physical game sales can’t save Sega from sales and income drops: Games success not enough to overcome slumping arcade and smartphone performance
32. Sonic 3D Blast dev releases director’s cut after 25 years
33. Mojang is shutting down Scrolls’ online servers
34. Existing titles drive profits at Square Enix as sales fall flat
35. Smartphone success boosts Square Enix after a quiet nine months on consoles: Online titles Final Fantasy XIV and Dragon Quest X boost sales and subscriber numbers
36. The 8 Ways Nintendo Can Double Down On Switch’s Success
37. I’m A Nintendo Switch N00b Who Just Got A Hands-On With Labo
38. The Switch’s premium online service is launching this September
39. Nintendo to continue mobile push with Mario Kart Tour
40. Nintendo will release a Mario Kart mobile game by March 2019: Mario Kart Tour will launch in the next financial year, the publisher said today
41. Nintendo announces Super Mario movie in partnership with Illumination: Animation studio behind Despicable Me and Minions franchises to co-produce with Shigeru Miyamoto
42. Why isn’t Nintendo Switch breaking records in the UK?: It’s the fastest-selling games console in almost every market it’s been released in, but not Britain
43. Nintendo working on Mario movie with Minions creator Illumination
44. Super Mario Odyssey producer settles the debate over Toad’s head: Is it a hat, or part of his anatomy?
45. Why Nintendo Switch needs to find a new model of discovery: The family-friendly platform must learn from Steam’s cautionary tale
46. After a rocky launch, Failbetter Games ends indie fund and lays off some staff
47. NCsoft posts another year of record-breaking growth: Slight declines in mobile aren’t enough to ruin the show as online PC games enjoy a strong quarter
48. Steam Winter Sale Data and the Effects of a Front Page Feature
49. Report: Google considering streaming service for games
50. Google prepping game streaming service – Report
51. Google’s “Yeti” is reportedly a gaming hardware, streaming service beast: According to The Information, Google has been working on this for the past two years.
52. How mobile game devs are evolving test and launch strategies: Google Play biz dev manager Emily Putze tracks how the traditional launch playbook for mobile games is changing
53. Sony’s software strength offsets flat hardware sales: Sony shipped 9 million units of the PlayStation 4 in Q3, down 700k over last year
54. Has the PS4 peaked? Annual console shipments are flat for 2017: This is about the age when Sony systems start their long, slow decline.
55. Kaz Hirai steps down as president and CEO of Sony Corp.: Hirai hands leadership to CFO Kenichiro Yoshida after six years at the helm
56. Sony financials: PlayStation software shines as hardware slows
57. As Sony CEO Kaz Hirai steps down, the future of some products is in question: His successor has built a reputation for making tough cuts to get in the black.
58. Sony Interactive Entertainment files Inter Partes Review of 3D Video Patent
59. Upcoming PlayStation 4 update includes playtime management 
60. Microsoft responds to indie retail backlash over Xbox Game Pass: Platform holder “pleasantly surprised” by store demand, considering broadening its distribution plans
61. Always Be Pitching: How to find and talk to publishers to survive as an indie
62. Layoffs at Nexon America after company restructuring
63. Jobs lost as Nexon America restructures: But publisher insists there’s no significant impact to overall workforce, layoffs unrelated to struggling Lawbreakers
64. UK game dev sector grows more than four times the rate of the economy in 2017: Games development sector contributes nearly £1.5 billion to the UK’s GDP, says TIGA report
65. Pillars of Eternity II director on Obsidian’s shift from studio-for-hire to building its own IP: Working on your own IP is “less about the freedom and more about the institutional knowledge to understand what the IP is”
66. New studio Lunar Great Wall will also teach games development: Italian start-up’s Claudio Giacopazzi tells us how the team will balance creation and education
67. Encouraging charity with Don-Ay, the first ‘donation game’: Italian developer Affinity Project talks us through its mobile endless runner that enables players to help save real-world animals
68. Gamevil and Com2us merge in the US: Mobile companies combine to focus efforts in North America
69. Keywords expects $186m in revenues after 11 acquisitions in 2017: Service empire’s studio count has grown eightfold in the last five years
70. Examining the role outsourcing plays in modern game development
71. Tamatem nets $2.5M to localize mobile games for Arabic-speaking markets
72. Q&A: Translating the humor & tone of Yakuza games for the West
73. Trailmix aims to reinvent casual games – with a little help from Supercell: Backed by $4.2m from Supercell, King veterans Carolin Krenzer and Tristan Clark will push toward a richer and more meaningful take on casual gaming
74. Human: Fall Flat dev credits community feedback for success
75. “It’s hard to put in words how life-changing blockchain technology will be”: EverdreamSoft plans to demonstrate the new tech’s power by enabling players to sell – and more importantly own – in-game cards
76. Blog: Can week-one Steam sales predict first-year sales?
77. Latest Steam survey puts Oculus Rift and HTC Vive with equal market share
78. Pokemon Go developer Niantic scoops up AR API maker Escher Reality
79. Open-source game dev tool Godot Engine adds VR support
80. Blog: The next surprise billion dollar game will be on Alexa
81. Game dev in Oceania: A hands-off Aussie gov’t, and a Kiwi PM’s visit
82. Blog: Are casual games maturing? 
83. How Tetris was discovered in America
84. Smithsonian American Art Museum puts out call for indie devs
85. Applications open for Smithsonian American Art Museum exhibition: Smithsonian puts out call for indie devs to explore this year’s theme of “game spaces”
86. Machinima founder and VR developer Hugh Hancock has passed away

Jon

DIGITAL

1. Canadian Court Asserts Jurisdiction over Craigslist Based on Cloud-Based Virtual Presence in Canada 
2. Free Internet-Service Contracts Caught up by Consumer Protection Legislation in Quebec
3. Appeals Court Says Accessing Data In A Way The Host Doesn’t Like Doesn’t Violate Computer Crime Laws
4. DMCA Counternotification Doesn’t Create Personal Jurisdiction in Copyright Owner’s Home Court–Real v. Matteo (Eric Goldman)
5. Tech Policy A Year Into The Trump Administration: Where Are We Now?
6. Donald Trump one year on: How the Twitter President changed social media and the country’s top office – Mr Trump has weaponised Twitter, using it not just to reach the masses but to control the news agenda through bluster and distraction
7. Senators ask social media execs to investigate “ReleaseTheMemo” hashtag: Meanwhile, WikiLeaks is offering to pay for a leaked copy of the memo in question.
8. Twitter begins emailing the 677,775 Americans who took Russian election bait
9. Russia-linked Twitter accounts are working overtime to help Devin Nunes and WikiLeaks
10. Here’s why the epidemic of malicious ads grew so much worse last year: Forced redirects from Zirconium group push phony malware and fake Flash updates.
11. Italian Government Criminalizes ‘Fake News,’ Provides Direct Reporting Line To State Police Force
12. Brazilian Government Mobilizes Federal Police To Handle ‘Fake News’ Problem
13. Psychiatrist Bitterly Drops Defamation Lawsuit Against Redditors
14. Battling Botnets – Evolving U.S. Government Policies and Frameworks to Address Security and Resiliency Challenges
15. Apple Successfully Avoids $50 Billion in American Taxes
16. iOS 11.3 will be about more than just performance throttling options; AR is the focus: iOS 11.3 will add a performance throttling toggle and updates to Messages.
17. EFF to Court: Linking Is Not Copyright Infringement
18. EFF Tells Court That Boing Boing Linking To Playboy Images Is Not Infringement
19. YouTube Musician Chrissy Chambers Wins Benchmark Revenge Porn Lawsuit
20. Southwest’s Nonsense Lawsuit Over A Site That Made $45 Helping People Book Cheaper Flights
21. Philippines Trying To Shut Down Popular News Site For Reporting On President Duterte
22. The Constant Pressure For YouTube To Police ‘Bad’ Content Means That It’s Becoming A Gatekeeper 
23. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube Receive Praise From European Commission For Anti-Terrorist Efforts 
24. What Has Tech Done To Fix Its Harassment Problem?
25. YouTube is setting up an ‘Intelligence Desk’ to weed out dicey content before it raises bigger brand safety concerns
26. Many Of YouTube’s Top Stars Have Come Out In Favor Of Partner Program Changes
27. Logan Paul Returns To YouTube, Pledges To Donate $1 Million To Suicide Prevention Organizations
28. Hotel Bans Influencers After YouTuber Proposes Free Stay In Exchange For Publicity
29. Hotel That Banned Influencers Has Released #Bloggergate-Inspired Merch
30. Millions of ‘Under-Connected’ American Families Experience A Whole Different Internet
31. Demonized Smartphones Are Just Our Latest Technological Scapegoat
32. Marriott Freezes Its Social Media Globally, And Makes Grovelling Apology To China, All For A Drop-Down Menu And Liking A Tweet
33. China’s Solution To The VPN Quandary: Only Authorized, And Presumably Backdoored, Crypto Links Allowed
34. Tunisia’s Plans To Bring In Its Own National ‘Aadhaar’ Biometric ID System Halted — For Now
35. YouTube To Invest $5 Million In Creators Who Counter Hate And Promote Tolerance
36. Insights: Facebook, Apple, Amazon, And Google’s Charm Offensive or: FANGs Make Nice With America
37. Google CEO Reaffirms Firing James Damore Was the Way to Go, ‘I Don’t Regret It’
38. Enforcement of Foreign Court Order. District court grants preliminary injunction preventing enforcement in the United States of Canadian court order requiring Google to delist certain search results worldwide
39. Alphabet launches a cybersecurity company called “Chronicle”: It’s a “cybersecurity intelligence platform” powered by Alphabet’s servers.
40. YouTube to Invest $5 Million This Year in Creators Who Promote ‘Empathy and Understanding’
41. YouTube Deletes Channel Of Former USA Gymnastics Doctor Larry Nassar
42. AARP Is Embracing YouTube, And The 50-Plus Crowd Is Sticking Around To Watch
43. YouTube TV Has Amassed 300,000 Subscribers, While Hulu Live TV Counts 450,000 (Report)
44. YouTube’s Consolidation Of Music Hubs Will Lessen Prominence Of Vevo-Branded Channels
45. YouTube Will Merge Vevo Channel Subscribers Into Unified ‘Official’ Music Artist Accounts
46. Competition in the digital age: How to tame the tech titans – The dominance of Google, Facebook and Amazon is bad for consumers and competition
47. Amazon names 20 “finalist” cities in its new headquarters beauty pageant: Expansion candidates include most major East Coast cities, plus a few surprises.
48. Today’s the day you can go to Amazon Go—a store with no queues and no cash: Until now, only Amazon employees could use the high-tech, hyper-convenient store. 
49. Amazon Go debuts, and its prying cameras foil our shoplifting attempts
50. Netflix Added Record 8.3 Million Subs Last Quarter, Will Test 15-Minute Stand-Up Special Format
51. Netflix Lost $39 Million After Canceling Kevin Spacey Projects
52. The Internet Is Enabling a New Kind of Poorly Paid Hell: For some Americans, sub-minimum-wage online tasks are the only work available.
53. A New Service Would Make Deep Learning More Accessible to Millions of Coders
54. Why This Intercontinental Quantum-Encrypted Video Hangout Is A Big Deal
55. We Need to Open the AI Black Box Before It’s Too Late
56. Software used in judicial decisions meets its equal in random amateurs: Software used to predict if people being sentenced will commit another crime.
57. Forget The Robot Singularity Apocalypse. Let’s Talk About The Multiplicity
58. People Keep Confusing Their Teslas For Self-Driving Cars
59. The End of the Awl and the Vanishing of Freedom and Fun from the Internet
60. Spotify Launches Visual-Podcast Strategy in Bid to Expand Beyond Music
61. Spotify’s Spotlight Section Will Blend Podcasts, Images, Videos To Create New Media Offering
62. Spotify Retools Content Strategy With a Pivot Away From Video
63. Users Can Now Share Snapchat Stories Outside Of Snapchat
64. Snapchat is no longer a private, disappearing, messaging app
65. Snapchat Stories Can Now Live Outside The App
66. ESPN Finds Success With Katie Nolan Hosting SportsCenter On Snapchat
67. Snap Lays Off Two Dozen Staffers — Predominantly Within Its Content Division
68. New Report: Digital Threats to Democratic Elections 
69. Not Your Grandad’s Facebook? Targeted Social Media Ads Spur Age Discrimination Lawsuit 
70. Facebook’s Bad Idea: Crowdsourced Ratings Work For Toasters, But Not News – Opinion – User reviews might work when you’re shopping for a phone charger on Amazon, but crowdsourcing “news” was what got us into this mess in the first place.
71. Facebook Has Coined a New Unit of Time Called “the Flick”
72. I Can’t Believe How Dumb Facebook’s News Feed Update Is 
73. What the Heck Happened to the Cryptocurrency This Week?!
74. Hackers Have Walked Off With About 14% of Big Digital Currencies
75. Hacking and theft: the dark side of Blockchain
76. Confessions Of A Bitcoin Sceptic (Andres Gudamuz)
77. Major payment company: “Fewer and fewer use cases” for bitcoin payments – Stripe: bitcoin is “better-suited to being an asset than a means of exchange.”
78. Marathon Patent Group Acquires Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Transmission Patents
79. Here’s why you can’t buy a high-end graphics card at Best Buy: “Cryptocurrency can’t crash soon enough,” one gamer fumes.
80. Blockchain technology could spell the end of DRM, says Robot Cache founder: Products tracked on the blockchain can’t be copied or altered, allowing users to resell their digital goods
81. We Put The Entire Internet On The Blockchain—And You Can Too
82. Rise of Blockchain and ICOs Brings Regulatory Scrutiny
83. A Rescue Drone Saved Two Teen Swimmers on Its First Day of Deployment 
84. Intel in meltdown over security breach lawsuit
85. Inside Intel’s Plans To Capture The Olympics In Virtual Reality
86. The Digital Poorhouse
87. Microsoft’s “Ink to Code” turns drawings into user interfaces: Early prototype is being developed as a “Garage” project.
88. Sequel To ‘Man From Earth’ To Be Released On Pirate Sites By Its Creators
89. Primary care online – A revolution in modern society or a professional minefield?
90. Copyright in data file formats from SAS to Technomed
91. Cloud Communities: The Dawn of Global Citizenship? 
92. The Cyberlaw Guide to Protest Art: Roadmap
93. Twenty-Five Years Later: What Happened to Progressive Tech Policy?: A glimpse at how the Internet has changed over time
94. Bring in the Nerds: Reviving the Office of Technology Assessment 

CREATIVITY

1. Now Another Judge Smacks Around A Guardaley Shell Company Acting As A Copyright Troll 
2. Hitting the right notes – Florence Foster Jenkins provides helpful guidance on joint ownership of copyright
3. The Strange Copyright of Doctor Who
4. Anything Your Heart Designs: Swarovski Hit with Copyright Infringement of Galatea’s “Two In One Heart” Design
5. Grumpy Cat wins $710,000 payout in copyright lawsuit
6. Protect your design: Recent developments in Canadian copyright law 
7. IP: Copyright – 3D Printing Complicates Copyright
8. K-pop superstars T-ara vow to fight for rights to their name; experts predict bitter legal battle ahead
9. Brexit: opportunity or threat for the Art industry?
10. UK Begins Absolutely Bonkers ‘Education’ Of Grade Schoolers About Intellectual Property And Piracy 
11. US Army Files Dumb Trademark Opposition Against The NHL’s Las Vegas Golden Knights
12. Censorship By Weaponizing Free Speech: Rethinking How The Marketplace Of Ideas Works
13. Engineered for Dystopia: Engineering is full of authoritarians who, predictably, take all the wrong lessons from pop culture 

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. Bell Canada, et al. v. Attorney General of Canada (Motion to Stay CRTC Decision Denied, January 24, 2018)
2. Vice’s Canadian cable TV channel is going off the air, after low ratings and reported losses for the $100 million joint venture 
3. Mozilla, Consumer Groups Sue The FCC For Its Attack On Net Neutrality
4. Net neutrality comment fraud will be investigated by government: Democrats requested investigation after millions of people were impersonated.
5. Net neutrality is bad? 1 million PornHub employees can’t be wrong. Oh, wait: Millions of comments sent to FCC through bulk system used fake email addresses.
6. Senate Push To Save Net Neutrality Needs Just One Vote, But You Still Shouldn’t Get Your Hopes Up
7. Sorry, FCC: Montana is enforcing net neutrality with new executive order – State enforces net neutrality in government contracts, despite FCC preemption. 
8. State AGs file protective petition to stop rollback of net neutrality rules; Senate Democrats announce plans to reverse FCC rule
9. Montana Governor Takes Preserving Net Neutrality Into His Own Hands 
10. Montana becomes the first state to implement net neutrality: Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock signs executive order requiring ISPs with state contracts to treat all content equally.
11. Montana Says It Won’t Do Business With Net Neutrality Violating ISPs
12. AT&T CEO’s net neutrality plan calls for regulation of websites: AT&T also wants to make sure net neutrality law won’t be too strict.
13. AT&T’s Bogus ‘Internet Bill Of Rights’ Aims To Undermine Net Neutrality, Foist Regulation Upon Silicon Valley Competitors
14. FCC Won’t Redefine ‘Broadband;’ Move Could Have Worsened Digital Divide
15. FCC Backtracks on Boneheaded Plan to Redefine Broadband 
16. FCC admits mobile can’t replace home Internet, won’t lower speed standard: Pai offers no data for claim that Title II repeal boosts broadband construction.
17. FCC Backs Off Plan to Weaken Broadband Definition, But Still Can’t Admit Limited Competition Is A Problem
18. Apple rejects net neutrality testing app, says it offers “no benefits to users”: Researcher’s iPhone app tests speeds of YouTube, Amazon, Netflix, and more. 
19. The net neutrality testing app that Apple rejected is available now: App tests video speeds to help researchers gather data for throttling study.
20. Apple’s Incoherent App Approval Process Strikes Again, Net Neutrality App Banned For No Real Reason
21. A Comcast net neutrality commitment from the NBC merger just expired: Comcast will no longer face FCC oversight on net neutrality.
22. A Perfect Storm Of Comcast Unaccountability Is Brewing
23. FCC Fines Sinclair Broadcast Group $13.3 Million for Failure to Disclose Paid Content 
24. Competition watchdog says Fox’s Sky takeover would result in the Murdoch family “having too much influence over public opinion”

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Teen Hacker Who Social Engineered His Way Into Top-Level US Government Officials’ Accounts Pleads Guilty To Ten Charges
2. A Bunch Of Politicians Who Complain About Trump’s Authoritarian Tendencies Just Gave Him 6 Years To Warrantlessly Spy On Americans
3. Finding Your Voice: Forget About Siri and Alexa — When It Comes to Voice Identification, the “NSA Reigns Supreme”
4. Tinder’s Lack Of Encryption Lets Strangers Spy On Your Swipes
5. Want to see all data Windows 10 sends Microsoft? There’s an app for that: The next big update to Windows 10 will be even more transparent about what it collects.
6. Artificial Intelligence Is Going To Supercharge Surveillance: What happens when digital eyes get the brains to match?
7. Menacing Malware Shows The Dangers Of Industrial System Sabotage
8. WTF is GDPR?
9. GDPR compliance – the final countdown begins
10. The right to data portability in the GDPR: Towards user-centric interoperability of digital services
11. OnePlus got pwned, exposed up to 40,000 users to credit card fraud: A malicious script injected into OnePlus’ payment page went undiscovered for two months.
12. Malicious Chrome extension is next to impossible to manually remove: Extensions remain the Achilles heel for an otherwise highly secure browser.
13. Meltdown And Spectre Patching Has Been A Total Train Wreck
14. Android Users: To Avoid Malware, Try The F-Droid App Store

GAMES

1. Court rules illegal bot makers must pay $1.3 million to Twitch
2. Judge Orders Makers Of Illegal Bots To Pay Twitch $1.3 Million
3. It Kind Of Looks Like Crytek Sued Star Citizen Developer By Pretending Its Engine License Says Something It Doesn’t
4. Legal Analysis of the ESL Genting Situation & DMCA
5. Athletes’ Right of Publicity Claims Directed to Sports Video Games Not Preempted by Copyright Act 
6. Valve appeals $2.4M fine as Australian legal battle rages on
7. Atari Settles Kit Kat Spat With Nestle
8. Atari looks to equity crowdfunding for RollerCoaster Tycoon Switch release
9. Professors Stick Up for Game Producers Against Lindsay Lohan Swipe
10. The heavy cost of toxic work culture: Regardless of the truth of the allegations of harassment and toxicity at Quantic Dream, many in the industry will have found the claims all too familiar
11. How crunch is more than a labor issue in the video game industry
12. Trion Worlds adds premium server with “no lootboxes” to Rift: Rift Prime server’s “progressively unlocked content” a response to debate in the wider industry
13. Report provides ethical ways for devs to monetize games
14. PUBG Corp. to donate $2M in lootbox proceeds to charity
15. PUBG Corp donating $2m to charity: $1m charity campaign planned for later in the year following various donations in 2017
16. PUBG Corp. to kick off 2018 expansion with new Amsterdam office: CEO Chang Han Kim also explains why there is no PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds movie in the works
17. Unlocked PS4 consoles can now run copies of PS2 games: Recent exploit also allows for homebrew and PS4 game piracy.
18. “We are giving back the true ownership of the assets to players”: French startup B2Expand is using blockchain tech to let players own and sell in-game items for Beyond the Void, and Ubisoft is helping
19. ESA: The U.S. game industry saw $36B in revenue in 2017
20. US games industry revenue hits record $36bn in 2017: Industry revenue sees 18% growth over 2016 with strong performance from hardware and software sales
21. US console, PC market up 11% in 2017 – NPD: Hardware sales drove growth and Switch drove hardware sales as number of retail releases trend upward
22. Digital game sales up 17% in December – Superdata: Research firm finds gamers worldwide spent nearly $10 billion on games as Call of Duty – World War II and Grand Theft Auto Online break records
23. Mobile gaming sessions down by 16% in 2017 but users spending more money than ever: Meanwhile, larger high-end mobile devices seize 55% of market
24. Ubisoft adds a digital assistant to its Ubisoft Club companion app
25. Google Play aims to “fundamentally change the trajectory” of Indian game revenues: Director of Apps & Games Purnima Kochikar on the role of India in teaching developers to “build for billions”
26. Aristocrat buys Big Fish for $990 million: Australian casino firm follows up $500m Plarium acquisition with another huge deal
27. Denuvo Sold To Irdeto, Which Boasts Of Acquiring ‘The World Leader In Gaming Security’
28. Game security outfit Denuvo acquired by cybersecurity specialist Irdeto
29. Is Patreon a viable alternative to funding the indie dev dream?: Breaking the mould: Sokpop’s antithetical approach to games development
30. Teaching players to rig elections
31. Xbox is preparing for a post-console future: The latest Game Pass subscription offering is the next step in Microsoft’s hardwareless future
32. Xbox Game Pass service getting first-party exclusives at launch
33. Xbox Game Pass subscription service to include all first party games: Sea of Thieves, Crackdown 2 and State of Decay 2 will launch day and date on the service
34. Minecraft sets new monthly active users record at 74M
35. Minecraft reaches 74m MAUs from 144m sales: Monthly active users are up 35 per cent in the space of a year
36. EVE Online community raises $119k in memory of departed dev
37. Nintendo Labo: the next Wonderbook?: The Switch’s latest bold attempt to win over kids can’t work, can it?
38. Nintendo’s share price jumps on Labo reveal: Games giant returning to ten year-high after major project showcase
39. Crazy kaiju-robot antics only hint at Nintendo Labo’s true potential: We examine limited footage to figure out the robot suit—and predict Labo’s future.
40. Gamasutra Asks: What to make of Nintendo Labo?
41. Switch sold 1.5 million in US for December: Nintendo says its latest is the fastest-selling home console in US history; 3DS posts best monthly sales in three years
42. Nintendo hardware sold a combined 2.6M units in December alone
43. GDC State of the Industry: Dev interest in Nintendo Switch up, VR interest down
44. Stardew Valley was the most-downloaded Switch title in 2017
45. Stardew Valley was the world’s most downloaded Switch title in 2017 – But Minecraft: Switch Edition dominates in home territory of Japan
46. Nintendo doesn’t seem to be “looking into” VR very much anymore: 4K update doesn’t seem to be in the immediate cards for the Switch, either.
47. Oculus creates a new, open source unit of time to measure frame rates
48. Video: Examining educational games through the lens of ‘fun’
49. Facepunch Studios’ Rust to leave Early Access after four years: February release will arrive without any “big reveals”, but will come with more stable development and a $15 price increase
50. Years after predicted “death,” game consoles are doing better than ever: Switch leads the way, but the entire console market is thriving.
51. An MMO goes full circle, promises to bring subscriptions back this year: Rift went F2P in 2013. Rift Prime will undo that change—and on a separate server, to boot.
52. Chinese mobile game market sees consumer spending rise by 250% since 2015
53. Overwatch League player benched following homophobic remarks during livestream: Dallas Fuel’s Felix “xQc” Lengyel suspended until February 10
54. Athletes’ right of publicity claims directed to sports video games not preempted by Copyright Act 
55. Is eSports the next big sensation?
56. Mail.Ru Group acquires Russian eSports leader ESforce for $100M
57. Mail.Ru acquires largest Russian esports company in $100m deal: Esports “forecast by some to overtake the traditional sports market over the next decade,” says Mail.Ru CEO
58. Nazara buys majority stake in Indian esports firm: Nodwin Gaming sells 55 per cent stake, will now operate as a subsidiary of Nazara
59. Facebook signs eSports streaming agreement for CS: GO Pro League and ESL One
60. ESL signs exclusive streaming deal with Facebook for CS:GO, Dota 2 esports: The esports league will also create a new show for Facebook Watch
61. Facebook Goes Deeper Into Twitch’s Territory With Exclusive Esports Streaming Deal
62. Gfinity: “We’re getting ready for when the esports revenue finally takes off” – Esports firm discusses its Elite series, why it’s partnering with EA and getting ready for the inevitable esports revenue
63. Anthem delayed to 2019 – Report: BioWare devs tell Kotaku the studio is feeling the pressure of EA’s expectations and YouTubers’ anger
64. Twitch inks deal to broadcast exclusive content from top Disney YouTubers: What do you Maker that.
65. Twitch challenges YouTube with new video producer tools, Disney partnership: Four of YouTube’s most popular gamers will produce “exclusive” Twitch content.
66. Twitch reaches exclusive Disney deal, swipes at YouTube with prerecorded video tools
67. Maker’s Jacksepticeye, Strawburry17 To Create Exclusive Twitch Content As Part Of New Disney Deal
68. Echo Fox President Jared Jeffries On Crossover Of NBA And Esports
69. ESports Disputes: Choosing your battleground
70. MLB Is Making R.B.I. Baseball 18: Priced at $29.99 on PS4, Nintendo Switch and Xbox One.
71. Do we even need a Netflix for games?: All forms of entertainment have perfected the on-demand model – except video games. We speak to the firms striving to rectify this
72. Investors Poured a Record $2 Billion into VR/AR in 2017, But Early Stage Funding Slowed
73. ‘VRChat’ Reaches 2 Million Installs, Doubling in the Last Ten Days
74. Virtual Reality Users Watch Helplessly as Another User Has In-Game Seizure: “There was nothing we could do.”
75. U.S. Olympic Athletes Are Using Virtual Reality to Train for Events
76. U.S. Ski Team Trained In Virtual Reality For Pyeongchang Olympics
77. More data, “real feedback” would greatly benefit indies – Clever Endeavour CEO: Ultimate Chicken Horse developer Richard Atlas lays out the biggest challenges he sees facing his studio after its first success
78. UK Games Fund opens for fourth round, grants of up to £25,000 available: Pitch development programme announced for developers who don’t meet the UKGF criteria
79. Drawn to Death developer lays off ‘vast majority’ of staff
80. To build a future, Italy’s games industry must reckon with its past: Cultural prejudice against games remains strong in Italy, but the AESVI and its development community have gained vital ground on the path to acceptance
81. The Mysterious Japanese Game That Took 14 Years To Officially Come Out
82. Call of Duty WWII and Historical Memory
83. Virtual Worlds Designed by Their Inhabitants

Jon

         DIGITAL

1. Pro-Kremlin Twitter Trolls Take Aim At Robert Mueller
2. Should Twitter’s Ban on Hateful Content Apply to President Trump?
3. Twitter Makes Clear it Won’t Block Trump—as Long as He’s President
4. Chuck Johnson Sues Twitter, Copying Dennis Prager’s Lawsuit Against YouTube
5. Potential Discrimination Through Social Media Ads 
6. Free speech vs. censorship in Germany: New rules on online hate speech cause problems for internet giants.
7. It Took Only Three Days For Germany’s New Hate Speech Law To Cause Collateral Damage
8. Intel CEO sold all the stock he could after Intel learned of security bug: Intel claims sale was unrelated, but he planned sale after researchers disclosed bugs.
9. Five California Communities Settle Auto-Renewal Claims with Online Dating Company eHarmony for More than $2 Million 
10. Senator questions Apple over intentional iPhone slowdowns: The government of France is looking for answers, too.
11. Apple planning new, “robust” parental controls to help protect children, teens: Investors are worried about youth becoming addicted to their smartphones.
12. James Damore’s Lawsuit Is Designed To Embarrass Google
13. Google fired James Damore for a controversial gender memo—now he’s suing: Damore argued few women program due to interest in “people rather than things.”
14. Engineer says he quit Google after order to stop pro-diversity posts: Diversity advocate says he was told to “avoid posting on controversial topics.”
15. Conservatives Are Now Getting Angry About Google’s Fact-Checking Module
16. Google Bans Rehab-Related Search Ads in Another Country After Embarrassing Report
17. Linus Torvalds Is Not Happy About Intel’s Meltdown and Spectre Mess
18. Triple Meltdown: How So Many Researchers Found A 20-Year-Old Chip Flaw At The Same Time
19. Meltdown and Spectre: Here’s what Intel, Apple, Microsoft, others are doing about it: Intel, Microsoft, ARM, and others have responded. We dig in.
20. Bad docs and blue screens make Microsoft suspend Spectre patch for AMD machines: Blue screen crashes on decade-old AMD chips seem to be widespread.
21. Intel faces class action lawsuits regarding Meltdown and Spectre: Class action lawsuits have been filed in California, Indiana, and Oregon.
22. EMC, VMware security bugs throw gasoline on cloud security fire: Backups of virtual machines on some hosts could be accessed or altered by an attacker.
23. Airbnb Gets Crucial Section 230 Win Over Unauthorized Subleases–La Park La Brea v. Airbnb (Eric Goldman)
24. GoPro Loses Two-Year Battle With the Sky
25. Man’s YouTube Video of White Noise Hit With Five Copyright Claims
26. White Noise On YouTube Gets FIVE Separate Copyright Claims From Other White Noise Providers
27. A Video Featuring Nothing But White Noise Has Received Five Content ID Claims Since 2015
28. Will Smith Has Launched His Own YouTube Channel
29. RTL Group Acquires United Screens for $14.9 Million
30. Europe’s RTL Group Increases Online Video Footprint With $14.9 Million Acquisition Of United Screens
31. Amazon’s Next Big Thing Could Be Serving You Ads on the Go
32. Hulu now has over 17 million subscribers
33. Amazon, Hulu, Netflix Achieve Near-Sweep Of Top TV Categories At 2018 Golden Globes
34. I Spent A Week Living With Chatbots—Did All That Self-Help Help?
35. A Former Facebook VP Says Social Media Is Destroying Society. And He’s Right.
36. Mark Zuckerberg Essentially Launched Facebook’s Reelection Campaign
37. How to Fix Facebook—Before It Fixes Us: An early investor explains why the social media platform’s business model is such a threat—and what to do about it.
38. Facebook’s Virtual Assistant M Is Dead. So Are Chatbots
39. NBC News got 4 million subscribers in 5 months to its Snapchat show
40. In Series Of Tweets, YouTube Hints At “Further Consequences” For Logan Paul
41. YouTube Star Logan Paul Puts His Vlog On Hiatus As He Takes Time “To Reflect”
42. YouTube Removes Logan Paul From Google Preferred, Puts His YouTube Red Originals On Hold In Wake Of Controversy
43. Content moderation is not a panacea: Logan Paul, YouTube, and what we should expect from platforms
44. Iced tea company scraps plans to raise millions for blockchain pivot: Company’s stock tripled last month after it changed its name to Long Blockchain.
45. We found a deleted page that reveals the paparazzi roots of Kodak Coin: Kodak’s stock has tripled since announcing the blockchain project on Tuesday.
46. GoPro will stop selling drones once remaining Karma inventory is gone: Citing “untenable” aerial market and “hostile regulatory environments.”
47. China Is Building a $2.1 Billion Industrial Park for AI Research
48. Robots Have Replaced Humans in 25% of China’s Ammunition Factories
49. China’s Crackdown on Crypto-Mining Threatens Bitcoin’s Future
50. Remember Dogecoin? The joke currency soared to $2 billion this weekend: “There’s no active development anymore,” Dogecoin’s co-founder said last year.
51. Hackers find new ways to print digital money for free: As valuations soar, attackers find ever more powerful CPUs to covertly conscript.
52. Oracle app server hack let one attacker mine $226,000 worth of cryptocoins: Exploit published in December makes cracking unpatched Oracle servers easy.
53. The Algorithms Aren’t Biased, We Are
54. The ethics of Artificial Intelligence – the next step?
55. The Strange Brands in Your Instagram Feed: A new breed of online retailer doesn’t make or even touch products, but they’ve got a few other tricks for turning nothing into money.
56. Brands and ecommerce platforms: a tainted relationship?
57. Why Europe Is Willing To Regulate Tech More Than The U.S.
58. Intellectual Property Rights post Brexit – a call to arms
59. Don’t Be Evil: Fred Turner on Utopias, Frontiers, and Brogrammers
60. Does This Black Mirror Fan Theory Mean We’re Finally Ready For The Singularity?
61. “Oh My God, This Is So F—-D Up”: Inside Silicon Valley’s Secretive, Orgiastic Dark Side – Some of the most powerful men in Silicon Valley are regulars at exclusive, drug-fueled, sex-laced parties—gatherings they describe not as scandalous, or even secret, but as a bold, unconventional lifestyle choice. Yet, while the guys get laid, the women get screwed. In an adaptation from her new book, Brotopia, Emily Chang exposes the tired and toxic dynamic at play.
62. How To Curb Silicon Valley Power—Even With Weak Antitrust Laws
63. Commentary: 3D printing
64. Consumer 3D Printing: Is the UK Copyright and Design Law Framework Fit for Purpose (Pedro Malaquias)
65. Cross-examining the network: The year in digital and social media research – Journalist’s Resource sifts through the academic journals so you don’t have to. Here are what they consider 10 of the most important pieces of new research into digital and social media published in 2017.

CREATIVITY

1. Disney’s 1998 copyright term extension expires this year and Big Content’s lobbyists say they’re not going to try for another one
2. Why Mickey Mouse’s 1998 copyright extension probably won’t happen again: Copyrights from the 1920s will start expiring next year if Congress doesn’t act.
3. Copyright Maximalists Throw In The Towel On Term Extension; Admit That Maybe Copyright Is Too Long
4. Donald Trump Hires Charles Harder To Threaten Steve Bannon With A Lawsuit, Block Publication Of New Book
5. Trump attorney sends Bannon cease and desist letter over ‘disparaging’ comments
6. Publisher Not At All Impressed By Trump’s Defamation Threat Letter; Promises To Defend The First Amendment
7. By Complaining About US’s ‘Very Weak’ Libel Laws, Trump Is Actually S——g On Our ‘Very Strong’ First Amendment
8. Really Bad Ideas: French President Macron Wants To Ban ‘Fake News’ During The Election
9. The Gorilla Channel Satire Demonstrates The Ridiculousness Of Banning Fake News
10. Appeals Court Drives Another Stake Into The Heart Of Idaho’s ‘Ag-Gag’ Law
11. The Other Side: Phoenix Comicon Proactively Changes Names To Avoid San Diego Comic-Con Bully
12. It Begins: Some Comic Conventions Refusing To Fold After San Diego Comic-Con Gets Its Trademark Win
13. Bad week gets worse for Fox Judge Jeanine Pirro  
14. Army Officially Opposes Vegas Golden Knights Trademark
15. Theatre roles need to change following Soulpepper harassment allegations, Winnipeg directors say: Myth of ‘all-powerful’ director, vulnerability of actors contribute to culture of abuse, say 2 local directors
16. Guardians of the Galaxy Is Leading The Unlikely Cassette Tape Revival
17. Music Modernization Act launched in the US
18. Shocked, Shocked To Learn The Patent Office Is Structurally Designed To Approve (Lousy) Patents
19. Is the First Amendment Obsolete? (Tim Wu)

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. FCC releases final net neutrality repeal order, three weeks after vote: With repeal officially published, FCC will soon face lawsuits.
2. Tech Giants To Join Legal Battle Over Net Neutrality
3. FCC Chair Ajit Pai cancels his CES appearance days before show: Pai likely would have had to answer questions about net neutrality repeal.
4. Maine Governor Tells 16-Year-Old Worried About Net Neutrality Repeal To ‘Pick Up A Book And Read’
5. “Vote out” congresspeople who won’t back net neutrality, advocates say: “If they don’t vote for net neutrality, let’s vote them out,” new campaign says.
6. Supporters Aim To Use Net Neutrality To Bludgeon Cash-Compromised Lawmakers In The Midterms
7. California The Latest State To Propose Its Own Net Neutrality Rules
8. Net neutrality gaining steam in state legislatures after FCC repeal: Nebraska and California may challenge FCC’s attempt to preempt state laws
9. GOP senator says she’ll vote to restore net neutrality rules: One more Republican vote needed to get net neutrality bill through Senate.
10. Uphill Effort To Reverse Net Neutrality Repeal Has The Early Votes
11. Restoration of net neutrality rules hits key milestone in Senate: 30 senators support net neutrality bill as Democrats try to force a vote.
12. Net Neutrality: From Rules to Enforcement
13. The History of Net Neutrality In 13 Years of Tales of the Sausage Factory (with a few additions).
14. FCC Prepares To Weaken Broadband’s Definition To Hide Competitive, Coverage Issues
15. FCC plan to lower broadband standards is met with “Mobile Only Challenge”: Many say that mobile can’t replace cable or fiber, but FCC may think otherwise.
16. AT&T and Comcast finalize court victory over Nashville and Google Fiber: Nashville won’t appeal as Google Fiber-backed utility pole rule is invalidated.
17. Comcast fired 500 despite claiming tax cut would create thousands of jobs: As Comcast pushed for tax cut, fired employees had to sign NDAs to get severance.
18. Those Annoying Cable Channel Blackouts Are Only Going To Get Worse In 2018
19. What is a Cable System – The Copyright Office Wants to Know  

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. We(Chat) The People: Technology and Social Control in China
2. China Plans To Turn Country’s Most Popular App, WeChat, Into An Official ID System
3. Want Anybody’s Personal Details From Aadhaar, India’s Billion-Person Identity Database? Yours For $8
4. “Political pressure” reportedly kills Huawei/AT&T smartphone deal: Spying concerns from members of congress means AT&T won’t be selling Huawei phones.
5. Prosecutors say Mac spyware stole millions of user images over 13 years: Fruitfly creepware turned on cameras and mics, automatically detected porn searches.
6. Internet of Toys Enforcement: VTech Agrees to COPPA Settlement 
7. FTC and VTech Settle Alleged COPPA Privacy and Security Violations
8. FTC lawsuit over 2015 VTech data breach ends in settlement
9. WhatsApp Security Flaws Could Allow Snoops To Slide Into Group Chats
10. How The Government Hides Secret Surveillance Programs
11. Google Puts Its SCA Warrant Appeal on Hold as High Court Prepares to Hear Microsoft Case 
12. New York State Appellate Court Says Cell Site Location Records Have No Expectation Of Privacy
13. The security of pretty much every computer on the planet has just gotten a lot worse
14. Collection, storage and transfer of data in Canada

GAMES

1. Star Citizen devs file motion to dismiss Crytek lawsuit
2. Star Citizen maker says engine suit “never should have been filed”: CIG accuses Crytek of selective and misleading reading of license agreement.
3. Cloud Imperium Games responds to Crytek suit: Star Citizen studio calls CryEngine maker’s complaint misleading and scandalous, saying it “sacrifices legal sufficiency for loud publicity”
4. Crowdsourced Content in Video Games: How Ownership Issues Almost “Ganked” a Copyright Case
5. BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT, INC., AND VALVE CORPORATION, Plaintiffs,
   v.
   LILITH GAMES (SHANGHAI) CO. LTD., AND UCOOL, INC., Defendants.
6. Regulators eye game monetisation in 2018: Controversy over monetisation of games isn’t going away, and it’s likely to reach the corridors of government sooner rather than later
7. Eagle-eyed YouTuber discovers ongoing EA online-matchmaking shenanigans: 2017 papers confirm tests of existing games with “spending” as future objective.
8. Epic planning audit to combat copyright infringement on Unreal Marketplace
9. US government developing school shooting survival sim: Army and Department of Homeland Security working on first-person game that lets users play a teacher, cop, or shooter
10. Epic clampdown on real-world guns and copyright-infringing game assets: Engine provider conducting thorough audit of Unreal Marketplace for trademark abuse
11. NSPCC and Aardman create mobile game to help combat child abuse
12. The World Health Organization Identifies Gaming Disorder as a Mental Health Condition
13. WHO: “There is increasing and well-documented evidence of gaming disorder”: Recent listing is “only a clinical description” for diagnoses, not prevention or treatment
14. Funplus Interactive ad deemed misleading by Advertising Standards Agency: Mobile developer used image from different game to promote King of Avalon: Dragon Warfare
15. Civilization VI depiction upsets Poundmaker Cree Nation: Headman Milton Tootoosis says 2K never consulted First Nation for expansion, which “perpetuates this myth that First Nations had similar values” to colonial culture
16. Civilization V mod adds realistic superintelligent AI research
17. Smosh Games YouTuber departs following sexual assault allegations: Amra ‘Flitz’ Ricketts denies all “false claims” but “cannot risk negative impact” on YouTube group
18. Amra ‘Flitz’ Ricketts Departs Smosh Games Amid Sexual Assault Allegations
19. IGDA Survey: Game companies must do more to foster diversity
20. How the 2018 Tax Reform Will Change Things for Indie Developers
21. Glu Mobile sells Moscow dev studio and game rights for $4.5M
22. Could movie shorts provide a template for funding indie games?: The Chinese Room’s Andrew Crawshaw ponders the potential for experimental tie-ins around AAA blockbusters
23. Epic planning audit to combat copyright infringement on Unreal Marketplace
24. App Store generates almost $900 million in seven days: Pokémon GO amongst the big Christmas success stories
25. App Store sets new records as holiday spending tops $890M
26. Steam breaks 18m concurrent users with largest growth in platform’s history: PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds accounts for 16% of all concurrent users
27. 80 years for a sleeveless jacket: PUBG’s loot box rates disclosed – Meanwhile, rarest item in new premium crate could cost $1,562.50 to acquire
28. The rarest new PUBG items show up once every 80 years, on average: Artificial scarcity raises aftermarket values for ultra-rare cosmetics.
29. How do you do ‘loot boxes’ right? F2P MMO game devs weigh in
30. 7,672 games hit Steam in 2017 alone, says Steam Spy
31. Steam saw more than 7,600 games debut in 2017 – SteamSpy: Tracking site finds 53% year-over-year jump in release numbers, slowing rate of growth for online storefront
32. Confusion surrounds GOG’s rejection of Opus Magnum: Popular puzzle game from Zachtronics rejected by digital store but developer unable to share details
33. Star Citizen developers raised $34.9m in 2017: For the second year in a row, Star Citizen crowd-sourced more money than all games on Kickstarter combined
34. BroadbandTV Launches New Division To Develop Creator-Driven Mobile Games
35. Spanish government cuts €2m fund for indie developers: 20 developers lose up to €150,000 each
36. Ukie publishes funding and tax relief guide for UK game devs
37. Ukie launches Access to Finance guide with Harbottle and Lewis: “There is money available if you know where to look,” says Ukie CEO
38. Access to finance the leading obstacle to success for UK games industry in 2018: TIGA CEO: Looming clouds of Brexit beginning to “cast shadows on our games industry”
39. With ~3M units sold last month, PS4 surpasses 73M sales worldwide
40. 5.9 million PS4 consoles sold during 2017 Christmas period
41. Japanese console game market experiences growth for the first time in 11 years
42. Nintendo Switch surpasses Wii U lifetime sales in Japan
43. Japanese console market spikes for the first time in 11 years: Nintendo Switch and PS4 drive hardware sales up 73% year on year
44. Switch becomes fastest-selling home console of all time in the U.S.
45. Nintendo Switch becomes fastest-selling console in US history: Platform holder breaks own record set by the Wii over ten years ago
46. Nintendo Switch NBA game jumps through ridiculous hoops to issue a patch: With no answers from Playgrounds’ devs, we sleuth out the weirdest Switch patch yet.
47. Amid a rising tide of games, devs reflect on state of the Switch market
48. Nintendo Switch NBA game jumps through ridiculous hoops to issue a patch: With no answers from Playgrounds’ devs, we sleuth out the weirdest Switch patch yet.
49. Hyperkin plans to release a new (old) Game Boy in 2018: Ultra Game Boy brings slim aluminum case, backlight for under $100.
50. Miiverse archive recovers 17TB of social mirth after Nintendo’s shutdown: Archive Team saves hundreds of millions of posts from the vibrant social network.
51. Haptic Controllers Bring Real Pain To VR Games
52. Sony to Nearly Double the Total Number of PSVR Games by End of 2018
53. Sony expects 130 PlayStation VR games this year: 80% increase driven by 2 million install base, company says
54. Record over $3B AR/VR investment in 2017 ($1.5B + in Q4)
55. VR/AR startups drew record investment in 2017 – Report: Digi-Capital says $3 billion haul led by Magic Leap, Improbable, Unity, Niantic; VR investment cooling as mobile AR ramps up
56. Oculus sets sights on Chinese market with Xiaomi partnership
57. Pokémon Go dropping support for older iPhones next month: iPhone 5 and 5C will no longer be able to run Niantic’s location-based phenomenon
58. Asus sets up Chinese esports company with $16m investment: Well-established esports brand looks to spread into China with new League of Legends team
59. Google eyes up Chinese eSports market with Chushou investment
60. Video: The importance of storytellers in eSports
61. Google Looks To Get Into Chinese E-Sports Market With Investment In Live Streaming Platform Chushou
62. NRG CEO Andy Miller On Overwatch League’s Traditional Sports Influence
63. Twitch Will Stream Every Match In The Overwatch League, Which Begins Play On January 10
64. Twitch gets Overwatch League rights: Streaming platform signs deal for exclusive third-party rights for regular season and playoffs outside of China for next two years
65. Part 1 – Let the games begin: German IP law in the world of esports
66. Playable Ads: The Most Fun Ad Ever!
67. How Playmob is gaming for a better world: CEO and co-founder Jude Ower on the power of playable ads to affect real social change
68. Mad Catz returns under new management: Defunct peripherals brand rescued by Chinese holding company
69. 49% of European gamers like to revisit classic games: However, almost 40% say retro games are never as good as they remember
70. Even Realistic Videogames Like Call Of Duty Won’t Help Us Win Wars
71. UK Charts: FIFA ends Call of Duty’s nine-week stay at No.1: It means WWII equals but does not beat Modern Warfare 2’s consecutive No.1 record
72. Itch.io saw 100k projects created and 68k completed in 2017
73. Our Video Game Predictions For 2018
74. The Rise and Fall of EA Sports Big, as Told by the Creator of SSX: After the success of SSX, other likeminded extreme sports games like Cranked failed to come to fruition.
75. Discovering the first video game commercial
76. “The least-worst idea we had”—The creation of the Age of Empires empire: A brief oral history from the original game’s designers at Ensemble Studios.
77. The rise, fall, and rise of MDickie—or, how to be the best worst game developer: “Single-handedly responsible for the WORST games to ever be enjoyed by millions of people.”

Jon

DIGITAL

1. Court Allows Some Access to Employee’s Social Media Accounts
2. 17-Year-Old Mexican Social Media Star Shot And Killed After Insulting Cartel Leader
3. Confessions of a Digital Nazi Hunter
4. British Military Chief Warns Russia Could Cut NATO’s Internet Connections, As Traffic For World’s Top Sites Is Mysteriously Routed Via…Russia
5. Germany Accuses Chinese Intelligence Services Of Using Fake LinkedIn Profiles To Recruit Informants And Extract Sensitive Information
6. Chinese hackers go after think tanks in wave of more surgical strikes: When one NGO blocked intrusion, frustrated hackers tried to knock its website offline.
7. How Controversial Chinese Billionaire Founder of Faraday Future Got a Gag Order Against Critic
8. Geekbench and Reddit think they’ve cracked why iPhones get slower over time: Testing suggests that iOS 10.2.1 added this functionality to prevent shutdowns.
9. Apple Had Way Better Options Than Slowing Down Your iPhone
10. Of Course Apple Is Getting Sued Over the Old iPhone Throttling Fiasco
11. Apple Facing A Bunch Of Lawsuits After Admitting It Slows Down Older Devices, But Insisting It’s For A Good Reason
12. Days after iPhone battery fiasco, lawsuits against Apple begin to mount: Customers say they would rather have replaced battery than bought a new phone.
13. Shane Dawson Confronted His Hater To Break Down The Relationship Between Creator And Fan
14. Vice Founders Offer Apology, Changes As Culture Of Sexual Misconduct Comes To Light
15. How do you change the most important law in Internet history? Carefully – Op-ed: Changes to law shielding websites from liability for user posts should be minor.
16. Hotel That Charged Guest $350 For A Negative Review Now Facing A Lawsuit From State Attorney General
17. YouTube Star Poppy Collaborates With Microsoft’s New Chatbot To Make “High-Quality Internet Content”
18. As Artificial Intelligence Advances, Here Are Five Tough Projects For 2018
19. Data mining program designed to predict child abuse proves unreliable, DCFS says
20. Bitcoin’s price plunges amid broad cryptocurrency sell-off: Every major cryptocurrency suffered double-digit losses in the last 24 hours.
21. Bitcoin Crashed and Took the Whole Market Down With It
22. The Real Price of Bitcoin? According to Morgan Stanley, It’s Zero
23. Ten years in, nobody has come up with a use for blockchain
24. Iced Tea Maker’s Stock Price Triples After Adding ‘Blockchain’ to Name
25. Iced tea company rebrands as “Long Blockchain” and stock price triples
26. Songwriters, streaming companies strike landmark deal on music licensing
27. Facebook, Ready To Make Music, Lands Licensing Deal With Universal Music Group
28. Facebook Ditches ‘Disputed’ News Tag After It Totally Backfired
29. German regulator alleges abuse of dominance by Facebook over data usage policies 
30. Facebook’s Collection And Use Of Data From Third-Party Sources Is ‘Abusive’, Says Germany’s Competition Authority
31. Netflix Delves Into Podcasting To Promote True Crime Docuseries ‘Wormwood’
32. Nvidia to cease producing new drivers for 32-bit systems: Bit by bit, the PC world is continuing to drop its legacy support.
33. Warren Kinsella settles claim against Twitter
34. Loud, influential, and hyped: How we overestimate Twitter
35. Library of Congress Gives Up Collecting All Tweets Because Twitter Is Garbage
36. Twitter Survives TCPA Text Messaging Class Action
37. CNN To Discontinue Its Snapchat News Show At The End Of The Year
38. Pinterest Should Die
39. Why Teens Aren’t Partying Anymore
40. As Amazon Ramps Up Furniture and Appliance Business, Home Depot Is Sweating
41. Charter, Disney Execs Pledge To Crack Down On Streaming Password Sharing ‘Piracy’
42. UEFA secures UK court order to block illegal soccer streams: Using the same technology as the Premier League to stop feeds at their source.
43. Why Workplace Instant Messaging Is Hot Again
44. Google fights fragmentation: New Android features to be forced on apps in 2018 – New Play Store rules give developers one year to adopt any new Android changes.
45. Adult supervision no longer needed at Google (Alpahbet)…so Eric Schmidt is stepping aside 
46. Top EU Court Says Uber Is A Transport Service That Can Be Regulated Like Traditional Taxis
47. The Most Awesome Codebreaker In World War II Was A Woman
48. Virtual Reality Lets You Arrive Without Traveling
49. Virtual reality’s best experiences and biggest (teleportation) steps in 2017: Who made VR’s best stuff in 2017 – and why wasn’t it Valve or Oculus? Plus, 2018 
50. Big Tech: The New Predatory Capitalism – The tech giants are menacing democracy, privacy, and competition. Can they be housebroken?
51. How Data Saved The Golden State Warriors
52. Your face in froth: London cafe offers Europe’s first ‘selfieccino.’
53. The most talked-about stories on Ars Technica in 2017
54. The Worst Gadgets of 2017
55. 2017 Was A Volatile Year In The World Of Online Video. Here Are Five Reasons Why. 
56. The Canadian Copyright Review in the Age of Technological Disruption (Michael Geist)

CREATIVITY

1. Livent decision and the scope of auditor liability
2. Good News: Trump Protestors Accused Of ‘Hiding Behind The First Amendment’ Acquitted
3. You can transfer a copyright without saying ‘copyright’ 
4. EU Commission Hid Yet Another Report That Showed Its Assumptions About Copyright Were Wrong
5. Europe’s Ongoing Attack On Free Speech, And Why It Should Concern Us All
6. Fox News website beefs up and ‘goes a little Breitbart’: As competition surges on the right, Fox’s website increasingly follows the path of its prime-time hosts.
7. Dear Barstool Sports: No You Cannot Sue The NFL For Its Non-Infringing Merchandise. Also, Relax.
8. A Kat’s 2017 Copyright Awards
9. These experts figured out why so many bogus patents get approved: Empirical research reveals three big problems with how patents are vetted.
10. Concerns Around The Discourse About “Fake News” And Elections
11. Class of 2018 

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. Months Later, And People Are Still Discovering Their Dead Loved Ones Were Used To Support Killing Net Neutrality 
2. The Heroes We Need: An Overview of Who’s Fighting for and Against Net Neutrality
3. The End of the Internet? What to Expect after the FCC’s 3-2 Vote to Restore Internet Freedom 
4. Comcast’s Tax-Cut Investment ‘Increase’ Is A Giant Nothingburger
5. Washington state: Comcast was “even more deceptive” than we thought – “Additional consumers… rejected the SPP, but Comcast signed them up anyway.”
6. Comcast claims it’ll spend $50B because of net neutrality repeal and tax cut: Comcast says it will increase network investment, but it was already doing that.
7. Why Net Neutrality Will Be A Campaign Issue In 2018
8. FCC tries to make Miami pirate radio station walk the plank: $144,000 fine for ignoring all requests to stop.
9. The UK Just Decided That 10 Mbps Broadband Should be a Legal Right
10. CRTC Seeks Comments on Its Reseller Registration Obligation
11. Globe editorial: In 2018, the fight for net neutrality must continue 

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Jailed Russian says he hacked DNC on Kremlin’s orders and can prove it
2. Canadian Government Looking To Step Up Domestic Surveillance, Scale Back Intelligence Oversight
3. Facial recognition at US airports becoming routine, researchers warn – Prof asks: “We’re wondering if this is the best use of a billion dollars?”
4. What Amazon Echo And Google Home Do With Your Voice Data
5. Facebook Transparency Report: Lots Of Government Surveillance, Bad Copyright Takedown Requests
6. OkCupid begins enforcing real-name rules, insists it’s a good idea: Dating site claims it’s “keeping with the times,” but what of users’ privacy desires?
7. Snowden’s New App Turns Your Phone Into A Home Security System
8. No boundaries for user identities: Web trackers exploit browser login managers
9. FOIA Researchers Are Targeting a Shadowy FBI Program Called ‘Gravestone’
10. Improve your online safety with advice from experts

GAMES

1. FCC issues final extension for video game CVAA accessibility waiver
2. Founding member of Lizard Squad pleads guilty to cyber-crimes
3. Apple now requires App Store games with loot boxes to list odds: Wednesday update to iOS rules also touches on VPN services, cryptocurrency apps.
4. Guideline changes mean App Store devs must now reveal loot crate odds
5. Developers must disclose loot box odds following update to App Store guidelines: Change to guidelines comes amidst ongoing debate as to whether loot boxes constitute gambling
6. Can AAA Games Survive Without Microtransactions?: After a series of microtransaction controversies this year, we decided to delve into the price of videogames, and whether or not AAA games need things like lootboxes to stay profitable.
7. Ubisoft releases open-source code for World in Conflictservers
8. One of the first ever LGBTQ video games has been restored
9. ‘Pokémon GO’ Now Uses Apple’s ARKit on iOS 11, Bringing Pokémon Closer to Reality
10. A Christmas gift from Game Boy ROM hackers: Super Mario Land 2 in color
11. NBA G League’s Streaming Deal With Twitch
12. Rocket League surpasses 38 million players: 2017 is “best year yet” but there is still work to be done, says developer
13. Cuphead sells two million units in two months: “Even in our wildest dreams, we never thought our crazy little characters would be embraced by this many fans,” says developer
14. Call of Duty: WWII tops $1 billion worldwide – Activision says military shooter and Destiny 2 are 2017’s top grossing console games in North America
15. Jason Schreier’s Top 10 Games Of 2017
16. IGN’s Top 10 Most Improved Games Of 2017
17. From Automata To Zelda, These Are The Best Games Of 2017
18. 2017: Celebrating the bright spots – It may not have been a superb year overall, but expectations were defied and challenges overcome with creativity and passion in 2017
19. Report: Nintendo won’t be rolling out 64GB Switch cartridges until 2019
20. “Gamification” Is Improving Mental Health Treatment In So Many Ways
21. War Stories: Lord British created an ecology for Ultima Online, but no one saw it
22. Game of the Year 2017: The GI team picks their favourites, surprises and disappointments from 2017, and grants its top honour to Nintendo for creating an instant classic
23. Gamasutra’s Best of 2017: The top 10 games of the year
24. Gamasutra’s Best of 2017: Katherine Cross’ top 10 games

Jon