DIGITAL

1. Canadian ISPs And Hollywood Agree On Plan To Make Themselves Judge, Jury and Website Executioner
2. “Suspicious” event routes traffic for big-name sites through Russia: Google, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft all affected by “intentional” BGP mishap.
3. Russia Says Disconnecting From The Rest Of The Net ‘Out Of The Question’, But Wants Alternative DNS Servers For BRICS Nations
4. Prince’s Estate Goes After Another YouTuber, This Time To Protect Copyrights Against Bootleg Concert Footage
5. YouTube’s new music streaming service reportedly launching next March: It will combine YouTube Red with Google Play Music
6. Very Dumb YouTuber Nearly Died In Very Dumb Head-In-Cement Microwave Stunt
7. YouTube Exec Addresses Inappropriate Videos In Open Letter To Family Creators: “We Hear You And We Are Listening” 
8. Gamer Dan “DanTDM” Middleton Leads Forbes List Of Top-Earning YouTube Stars With Estimated $16.5 Million Income In 2017
9. After Investigation, Father Behind Terminated YouTube Channel Toy Freaks Won’t Face Criminal Charges
10. YouTube TV’s Latest Territorial Expansion Adds 34 Markets, Includes College Football Hotbeds Ahead Of Postseason 
11. NFL Inks Multi-Year Deal With Verizon To Expand Live Streaming 
12. Verizon Pays Reported $2.25 Billion To Stream NFL Games (Including This Season’s Playoffs) On Go90, Yahoo, AOL
13. ESPN+ Streaming To Bring ‘Netflix-Like Aggregation’ Of Sports Content 
14. Twitch To Broadcast The NBA’s Second-Tier League With Its Streamers As Commentators
15. Twitch, NBA G League Streaming Deal Elevates Hoops Fan Commentary
16. Amazon Adds Twitch Compatibility For All Alexa-Enabled Devices
17. Ahead of FCC vote, Twitch CEO speaks on importance of net neutrality
18. The Amazon machine
19. Apple TV App Now Makes It Easier For Fans To Discover, Follow Sports
20. Apple confirms Shazam acquisition; Snap and Spotify also expressed interest
21. Apple Acquires Music Identifying Service Shazam: Other potential suitors included Snapchat and Spotify.
22. Instagram Removes Stories Ad With Hair Strand To Trick Users Into Swiping Up
23. Netflix calls out the 53 people who can’t stop watching A Christmas Prince
24. MPAA Wins: Australia To Carve Google And Facebook Out Of Its Expanded Safe Harbor Provisions
25. Google Promised a Way to Jailbreak the iPhone and It Delivered
26. Google Is Giving Away AI That Can Build Your Genome Sequence
27. In Just 4 Hours, Google’s AI Mastered All The Chess Knowledge in History
28. DeepMind AI needs mere 4 hours of self-training to become a chess overlord: AlphaGo Zero needed three days to train up in Go; AlphaZero needed just eight hours.
29. Artificial Intelligence Seeks An Ethical Conscience
30. Former Facebook Exec: ‘You Don’t Realize It But You Are Being Programmed’
31. What Happens When the Government Uses Facebook as a Weapon?: It’s social media in the age of “patriotic trolling” in the Philippines, where the government is waging a campaign to destroy a critic—with a little help from Facebook itself.
32. Rise of the Chatbots 
33. The App That Reminds You You’re Going to Die: It helped me find inner peace. 
34. Insights: High Tech, High Touch, & How To Keep The Human In An Algorithmic World 
35. I used to be a bitcoin bull—here’s why that changed: With “buy bitcoin with credit card” trending on Google, investors should be wary. 
36. Patreon to World: ‘We Messed Up’
37. Patreon Calls Off Fee Change Following Widespread Creator Consternation
38. Why Everyone Is Mad at Patreon Now
39. Change To Patreon’s Fee Structure Has Many Creators Up In Arms
40. Patreon senior engineer: “We don’t need” misbehaving CEOs: “Bad actors” have had their time. “They’re done. They can go.”
41. Uber’s Not The Only One That Should Be Wary Of Disappearing Messaging Apps
42. Uber settles second US lawsuit filed by India rape victim: Woman claimed that Uber execs accessed, shared her medical files.
43. Twitter Will Finally Display View Counts On Video Tweets
44. This Is How Steve Bannon And Breitbart Tried To Sabotage Twitter: For more than a year before he became Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Steve Bannon sought to wage war against Twitter, tasking Milo Yiannopoulos and other Breitbart News employees to look into editorial, financial, and legal ways they could harm the Jack Dorsey–led social network.
45. LinkedIn Activity May Violate Non-Solicitation Agreements 
46. Connected Devices and the Right-To-Repair Movement
47. Cracking down on a bad coin offering
48. SEC Chair Clayton issues statement on cryptocurrencies and ICOs: are all ICOs securities offerings? 
49. Bank of America Wins Patent for Crypto Exchange System
50. This startup uses body heat to mine crypto – for when robots take our jobs
51. How Technology Tests Our Trust
52. Silicon Valley’s Worst Apologies of 2017  

CREATIVITY

1.  The Fight for Fair Copyright Returns: Canadian Government Launches Major Copyright Review (Michael Geist)
2. Opening Statements In The Trademark Battle Of The Comic Cons, While Other Regional Cons Go Full Judas
3. SLCC Rankles Judge With Social Media Posts As A Jury Prepares To Rule
4. San Diego Comic-Con Wins Lawsuit Over ‘Comic Con’ Trademark
5. Comic Con Verdict: Salt Lake Comic Con Loses The Battle, Now Seeks To Win The War 
6. Indigenous activist heads back to court in fight against Cleveland Indians logo
7. Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P. v. ComicMix LLC 
8. Egyptian singer Shyma gets two years in jail – for suggestively eating a banana in a music video: She was arrested last month after authorities said her music video for ‘I Have Issues’ incited debauchery
9. Saudis Will Be Able To Go To Movie Theaters For The First Time In Decades
10. Reporter Says NFL Network Job Interviewer Asked If She “Planned On Getting Knocked Up” 
11. Look, we all want to watch Avengers and X-Men fight, but this Disney-Fox merger still sucks
12. Disney And Fox
13. 11 Minor Star Wars Characters Who Got Absurdly Full Lives Beyond the Movies 
14. Canadian Trade Committee Warns Against Unbalanced U.S. IP Demands in NAFTA (Michael Geist) 
15. State Board That Fined Man For Criticizing The Government Without A License Admits It Was Wrong

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. On the Eve of the FCC’s Reclassification of Broadband Services, the FCC and FTC Release Memorandum of Understanding for Oversight of Broadband 
2. No, The FTC Won’t Save You Once Net Neutrality Rules Are Killed
3. It’s Super Hard To Find Humans In The Fcc’s Net Neutrality Comments
4. FCC Must Investigate Fraud Before Voting On Net Neutrality 
5. What to Expect from the FCC’s Restoring Internet Freedom Order 
6. Net Neutrality a Concern? Companies Are Already Denying You Access to Content
7. Net Neutrality Protests Move Online, Yet Big Tech Is Quiet
8. FCC Plan To Kill Net Neutrality Rules Could Hurt Students
9. FCC Commissioner Blasts Her Own Agency for Withholding Evidence of Fraud
10. A Republican lawmaker urges FCC to delay net neutrality repeal vote: FCC should wait for Congress to create net neutrality law, Republican says. 
11. The FCC Says Net Neutrality Cripples Investment. That’s Not True
12. Net Neutrality, Kanye, and Hot Dogs: Quantifying the Impact of the Day of Action Using Media Cloud and Google Trends
13. Any lawful device: Revisiting Carterfone on the eve of the Net Neutrality vote – From the archives: An old FCC decision provides perspective for what the Commission is doing now.
14. Leaked Video Shows FCC Chair Ajit Pai Roasting Himself With ‘Jokes’ About Being a Verizon Shill 
15. Bomb threat temporarily disrupts FCC vote to kill net neutrality rules: Repeal vote was about to happen when Ajit Pai announced brief recess.
16. FCC Boss Claims Net Neutrality Hurts Small ISPs, But The FCC’s Own Data Proves Otherwise
17. Ajit Pai offers no data for latest claim that net neutrality hurt small ISPs: ISPs supposedly harmed by the rules expanded to new areas and installed fiber.
18. FCC Boss Lies Again, Insists Net Neutrality Harms The Sick And Disabled 
19. FCC Boss ‘Jokes’ About Being A ‘Verizon Puppet’ At Tone Deaf Industry Gala
20. Ajit Pai jokes with Verizon exec about him being a “puppet” FCC chair: “We want to groom a Verizon puppet to install as FCC chair,” Verizon says in skit. 
21. ISP disclosures about data caps and fees eliminated by net neutrality repeal: ISPs won’t have to reveal the full cost of service when you buy broadband.
22. How Reddit and others “broke the Internet” to support net neutrality today: Major websites join last-ditch effort to save net neutrality rules.
23. “Face reality! We need net neutrality!” Crowds chant across the country: Protests led by various activist groups manage to turn out crowds large and small.
24. T-Mobile promises to end the “complete bulls—t” from TV companies in 2018: John Legere wants to give the cable companies a taste of the “Un-carrier” medicine.
25. Why I Changed My Mind On Net Neutrality
26. The Free Market Argument For Net Neutrality
27. Net Neutrality Briefing: My Appearance Before the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics (Michael Geist)
28. Canada’s Lead Negotiator Confirms Government Seeking Net Neutrality Safeguards in NAFTA (Michael Geist)
29. India Embraces Full Net Neutrality As The U.S. Turns Its Back On The Concept
30. Shocker: Study Finds Cord Cutting Very Real, TV Execs Still Failing To Adapt

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Supreme Court of Canada Rules Text Messages Can Attract a Reasonable Expectation of Privacy
2. SCC Recognizes Expectation of Privacy in Text Message Conversations
3. The Supreme Court says your text messages could be considered private even after you send them: The court cautions that much depends on the facts of each case
4. Texting and the Expectation of Privacy
5. Supreme Court of Canada Rules Text Messages May Attract Reasonable Expectation of Privacy (Michael Geist)
6. Canadian Supreme Court Says Privacy Protections Apply To Sent Text Messages Obtained From The Recipient
7. Google Publishes Another Batch Of National Security Letters, Updates Its Transparency Report
8. Top EU Data Protection Body Asks US To Fix Problems Of ‘Privacy Shield’ Or Expect A Referral To Region’s Highest Court
9. UK Court Says Company Is Innocent In Massive Data Breach Caused By Vindictive Employee, But Must Nonetheless Pay Compensation
10. Court Holds NYPD In Contempt For Refusing To Hand Over Documents Related To Black Live Matter Surveillance
11. Court Says Google Must Unmask Person Who Left Wordless, One-Star Review Of Local Psychiatrist
12. How to Track a Cellphone Without GPS—or Consent
13. How Email Open Tracking Quietly Took Over The Web
14. Kaspersky Closes DC Office, Says It Is ‘No Longer Viable’ to Work With Federal Government
15. Exposed: Ethiopia’s nefarious, comically bungled spyware campaign – Publicly traded company helps country spy on critics, no questions asked.
16. Iranian Hackers Have Been Infiltrating Critical Infrastructure Companies
17. Game-changing attack on critical infrastructure site causes outage: Attack will serve as a blueprint for future attacks on other industrial systems.
18. Quantum Computing Is The Next Big Security Risk
19. Making Sense Of Apple’s Recent Security Stumbles

GAMES

1. Crytek sues Star Citizen devs for breach of contract
2. The Force Is Weak With EA’s ‘Star Wars Battlefront II’ Game
3. Loot boxes may not return to Star Wars: Battlefront II: Amid pushback, exec floats possibility that microtransactions could be gone for good.
4. Opinion: This is the game industry’s last chance for lootbox self-regulation
5. New Zealand says lootboxes ‘do not meet the legal definition for gambling’
6. Survey: 11% of British children have taken part in game-related gambling
7. Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst predicts Battlefront 2 will miss its sales target by 2.5m copies
8. NPD Shows Dismal ‘Battlefront 2’ Sales At 20% Of ‘Call of Duty: WWII’ Sales
9. NPD Reveals Star Wars Battlefront II’s Physical Sales in the US Were “Disappointing” During November
   
10. You Must be 18 or Older to Enter cut from Steam over pornography concerns
11. How A Dorm Room Minecraft Scam Brought Down The Internet
12. Time for games to get cultured on culture: Far Cry 4 writer CJ Kershner says developers are getting better about depicting other groups, still have room to improve
13. Former employee sues Crytek Istanbul: Head of game operations laid off in October, still waiting on severance pay
14. Crytek partners with new startup to launch cryptocurrency for games
15. Make games inspired by the public domain
16. Apple’s evolving rules make iOS a hard platform for small devs, says Year Walk dev
17. PlayStation 4 has sold over 70 million units worldwide: Current generation console approaches lifetime sales of PlayStation 3
18. PlayStation 4 surpasses 70M sales as PSVR gains traction
19. Sony Has Sold Over 2 Million PSVR Units Worldwide Since Launch
20. ‘Ready Player One’ Movie Gets First Full Trailer, Book Sequel in the Works
21. Steam now lets devs know what platform users are wishlisting on
22. Accounting co-developer Squanchtendo rebrands to avoid Nintendo confusion
23. Squanchtendo rebrands to avoid Nintendo clash: Justin Roilland’s VR studio now called Squanch Games, teases first title announcement at this week’s Game Awards
24. Zelda: Breath of the Wild takes top honor at The Game Awards
25. Nintendo Switch worldwide sales top 10M units
26. Putting Nintendo Switch’s 10 million sales in context: How does Nintendo’s hot console compare, historically?
27. Is Nintendo Switch really as successful as we think it is? – Review of the Year: We look at a landmark 12 months for Nintendo
28. Call of Duty: World War II longest-running UK No.1 since 2015 – Activision Blizzard’s latest shooter rack up sixth consecutive week in the top spot
29. The Uncharted franchise has surpassed 41M sales
30. Global esports revenue to hit $2.3 billion in 2022 – SuperData: “Advertisers and investors are finally taking notice of esports’ access to key audiences”
31. CrossCut Venture to invest in games and esports after raising $125 million fund: Gaming an esports represent “growing area of importance”
32. Sacramento Kings Unveil Esports Facility Inside Golden 1 Center
33. Investors sink $25M into mobile eSports platform Skillz
34. Playkey raises $10.5m through cryptocurrency sale: Russian streaming platform attracts new investors through Initial Coin Offering
35. LMFAO Xur Is Selling Prometheus Lens
36. People of the Year 2017: SpecialEffect – This year has been the video game charity’s biggest and most important on record
37. People of the Year 2017: Brendan “PlayerUnknown” Greene – The driving force behind the biggest game of 2017 was “a photographer, a DJ, a designer” for most of his life – the remarkable rise of Brendan Greene
38. ‘PlayerUnknown’ argues for better protection against copycat games: “I want other developers to put their own spin on the genre… not just lift things from our game. I want this genre of games to grow. “
39. It’s Not That Videogames Don’t Need Big Award Shows. It’s That They Don’t Need Any

Jon

DIGITAL

1. Truthfeed Spreads Pro-Trump Propaganda: The website has connections to the president’s camp—and white supremacists.
2. YouTube pulls ads on 2 million inappropriate children’s videos: It’s also investigating autocomplete search after suggestions for child exploitation content
3. YouTube Investigating Pedophiliac Phrases In Autocomplete Search Suggestions
4. Adidas, Mars Among Brands To Suspend YouTube Campaigns In Response To Inappropriate Kids Videos
5. YouTube’s Creepy Kid Problem Was Worse Than We Thought
6. Making a federal case out of revenge porn 
7. Chicago Considers Another Dumb ‘Texting And Walking’ Law To Raise Revenue
8. The “Lowdown” on DMCA Regulations and Take-Downs
9. YouTube Announces Its Version Of Snapchat’s Stories Among Community Tab Updates 
10. Apple Projected to Spend $4.2 Billion on Original Content by 2022
11. Analyst Projects Apple’s Original Content Budget Will Rise To $4.2 Billion Per Year By 2022
12. Apple Launches New YouTube Channel With Handful Of How-To Videos
13. BuzzFeed To Lay Off Roughly 100 Staffers Amid Missed Revenue Goals
14. BuzzFeed Lays Off About 100 Staffers, Refocuses Content Efforts 
15. The Potential Of Artificial Intelligence In The Future Of Sports
16. Artificial intelligence to impact personal injury law
17. The challenges of patenting artificial intelligence
18. Designing Artificial Intelligence to Explain Itself: A new working paper maps out critical starting points for thinking about explanation in AI systems.
19. A Layered Model for AI Governance
20. Manufacturing an Artificial Intelligence Revolution (Yarden Katz)
21. Cookie law conundrum: Do you know what your webmaster is busy baking?
22. Consumer protection and online advertising
23. Websites use your CPU to mine cryptocurrency even when you close your browser: Resource-draining code hides in pop-under windows that can remain open indefinitely.
24. Uber’s crisis deepens with record quarterly loss: Uber continues disrupting old-fashioned notions of profit.
25. Uber Waymo Trial Delayed After Justice Department Jumps In, Unprompted, To Tell Judge That Uber Was Withholding Evidence
26. Judge delays trial after ex-Uber employee describes rogue behavior: Richard Jacobs, an ex-security official at Uber, testified in court Tuesday.
27. Chicago: Uber’s claim that hackers fully deleted stolen data is “nonsensical” – Uber’s been sued at least 11 times in just 1 week, faces new scrutiny from Senate.
28. Uber hit with 2 lawsuits over gigantic 2016 data breach: “Uber knew or should have known its security systems were inadequate.” 
29. Cyber Monday topped Prime Day to become Amazon’s biggest shopping day ever
30. Facebook (still) lets housing advertisers exclude users by race: ProPublica bought ads that excluded African-Americans, Spanish speakers, Muslims.
31. How Bored Panda Survived Facebook’s Clickbait Purge
32. The End Of The Social Era Can’t Come Soon Enough: It seems increasingly likely that our society will one day view our infatuation with Twitter, Facebook, and the like as a passing, often destructive fad.
33. Elon Musk wins bet, finishing massive battery installation in 100 days: South Australia battery installation has 100MW capacity, a world record.
34. Email Is Broken. Can Anyone Fix It?
35. Subverting Democracy, Advertising, and the Economy Through Bots 
36. Platform Market Power (Kenneth Bamberger & Orly Lobel)

CREATIVITY 

1.  UK High Court rules that TV Show Formats can be Copyright Protected
2. Journalism Is Imploding Just When We Need It Most
3. Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA Opposes Trademark Application For Dog-Walking Company Called Woof-Tang Clan
4. Blade Runner 2049 Director Opens Up About the Film’s Treatment of Women
5. Wilfrid Laurier graduate student delivers a wake-up call
6. Here’s the full recording of Wilfrid Laurier reprimanding Lindsay Shepherd for showing a Jordan Peterson video: Teaching assistant Shepherd was accused of creating a ‘toxic climate’ at the university by screening a televised debate discussing gender-neutral pronouns
7. Christie Blatchford: Here’s where Laurier can stick their apology to Lindsay Shepherd: Rambukkana’s ‘open letter’ is all I expected of a man who would invoke the spectre of Hitler to try to shut down an underling — craven, dissembling, revisionist
8. Why Wilfrid Laurier University’s president apologized to Lindsay Shepherd: Deborah MacLatchy says she regrets how the meeting was conducted
9. Counter-protests at Wilfrid Laurier University over freedom of speech turn — well, one man was shouting
10. Teaching assistant who was sanctioned questions sincerity of Wilfrid Laurier University’s apology: ‘I didn’t expect their apology to be sincere. I don’t think that they are sincere,’
11. Modern Educayshun: Mao, Orwell and Kafka at Wilfrid Laurier University
12. Commentary: Laurier University incident demonstrates defence of certain kinds of speech
13. Neither Wilfrid Laurier University’s methods nor teaching assistant’s debate helped trans people: Its actions come across as high-handed thought-policing that plays right into the hands of the intolerant, Shree Paradkar writes.
14. A woman approached The Post with dramatic — and false — tale about Roy Moore. She appears to be part of undercover sting operation.
15. How media brands are using marketing to turn accusations of fake news into page views
16. The battle over Gucci’s trademark stripes: Gucci’s trademark infringement claim against Forever 21 took a major step forward this month after a US district court dismissed the counterclaim by the fast fashion chain seeking cancellation of the disputed marks. Gucci claims that Forever 21 has infringed the trademarks protecting its ‘iconic stripe motifs’ in blue-red-blue and green-red-green.
17. The Role of Trademark Law in the History of US Visual Identity Design, c.1860–1960 (Carma Gorman)
18. How Patents Have Contributed To The Opioid Crisis 

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. Rogers to cut off support for Viceland TV station
2.  CASL is Constitutional (And Some Guidance on How to Interpret It)
3. Ajit Pai’s Big Lie
4. Ajit Pai’s Shell Game
5. Comcast Spent Millions Repealing Net Neutrality, Now Wants You To Believe It Won’t Take Full, Brutal Advantage 
6. Comcast deleted net neutrality pledge the same day FCC announced repeal: Three-year-old “no paid prioritization” pledge was suddenly removed.
7. Comcast hints at plan for paid fast lanes after net neutrality repeal: Comcast still won’t block or throttle—but paid prioritization may be on the way.
8. AT&T and Comcast lawsuit has nullified a city’s broadband competition law – Bad news for Google Fiber: Nashville utility pole ordinance invalidated by judge.
9. Judge Backs AT&T, Comcast Nuisance Suit Against Google Fiber In Nashville
10. Nazis Want Net Neutrality Repealed To ‘Unleash A Plague Of Frogs On Twitter.’ It Won’t Happen
11. FCC explains why public support for net neutrality won’t stop repeal: Americans who support net neutrality find that their voices don’t count for much.
12. Ajit Pai blames Cher and Hulk actor for ginning up net neutrality support: Net neutrality support is just “fear-mongering and hysteria,” FCC chair says.
13. NY Attorney General Investigating Why Dead People Supported The FCC’s Attack On Net Neutrality
14. The FCC’s Attack On Net Neutrality Is Based Entirely On Debunked Lobbyist Garbage Data
15. Charter is using net neutrality repeal to fight lawsuit over slow speeds: Charter cites FCC preemption of state net neutrality rules in case filed by NY. 
16. More than a Million Pro-Repeal Net Neutrality Comments were Likely Faked: I used natural language processing techniques to analyze net neutrality comments submitted to the FCC from April-October 2017, and the results were disturbing.
17. What An Internet Analyst Got Wrong About Net Neutrality
18. What Actually Happens the Day Net Neutrality Is Repealed
19. Mark Cuban Still Has Absolutely No Idea How Net Neutrality Works
20. Net Neutrality Divide: Canada and the U.S. Go Separate Ways on an Open Internet (Michael Geist)
21. AT&T’s C.E.O. Meets Trump’s Justice
22. AT&T says it should be allowed to buy Time Warner because Comcast bought NBC: AT&T will use customer data to boost advertising business, court filing says. 
23. FCC Adopts Rules Allowing Voice Service Providers to Block Illegal Robocalls 
24. The VCAST decision: how to turn a private copying case into a case about communication/making available to the public
25. TV[R]EV: Is Local TV Worth Saving?

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. SCC To Weigh In On Fees For Identifying ISP Subscribers: Rogers v. Voltage 
2. Supreme Court to rule on Rogers’ charges for infringer names and addresses
3. Yet Another Legal Action By Dogged Privacy Activist Brings Good News And Bad News For Facebook In EU’s Highest Court
4. Security firm was front for advanced Chinese hacking operation, Feds say: The accused hacked 3 multinational corporations in pursuit of intellectual property.
5. Hacker pleads guilty to huge Yahoo hack, admits helping Russia’s FSB: Three fellow co-defendants remain at large in Russia, unlikely to be extradited.
6. Justices hear case that could reshape location privacy in the cellular age – Gorsuch: Unfettered access is “exactly what the framers were concerned about.”
7. 10 Reasons Why the Fourth Amendment Third Party Doctrine Should Be Overruled in Carpenter v. US (Daniel Solove)
8. Supreme Court Must Understand: Cell Phones Aren’t Optional
9. The Fifth Amendment, Decryption and Biometric Passcodes
10. Judge Tosses Long-Running Section 215 Surveillance Lawsuit
11. Big Brother is Watching You: Feds Now Vetting Foreign Workers Via Social Media 
12. Want your kid to behave this Christmas? There’s an app for that
13. What Amazon Echo And Google Home Do With Your Voice Data
14. It’s Not Always AI That Sifts Through Your Sensitive Info
15. Australian man uses snack bags as Faraday cage to block tracking by employer: On 140 occasions, electrician logged that he was working while concealing his location.
16. Anyone Can Hack Macos High Sierra Just By Typing “Root”
17. macOS bug lets you log in as admin with no password required: Here’s how to protect yourself until Apple patches bafflingly bad bug.
18. Federal student aid site offers one-stop shopping for ID thieves?: If you have someone’s name, birthdate, and SSN, FAFSA site will give up sensitive data.
19. Maine Government Agency Tries To Charge Public Records Requester $750 For Opening A PDF
20. How four Microsoft engineers proved that the “darknet” would defeat DRM – From the archives: How this quartet nearly got fired for it.

GAMES

1. Study: Pokémon Go led to increase in traffic deaths, accidents – Detailed look at accident reports shows 26.5% relative increase near Pokéstops.
2. Parent rebukes Epic for suing teenage Fortnite player accused of cheating
3. 14-Year Old Video Game Cheater Sued, Mom Says He’s A Scapegoat [Update]
4. Good News for Game Developers: Court Extends Protections for Using Others’ Trademarks in the Advertising of Artistic Works
5. Activision Considering An Opposition To Trademark For Dog-Curbing Company ‘Call Of Doodee’
6. Destiny 2 misrepresented XP gains to its players until the devs got caught: After confirming a hidden “XP scaling” system, Bungie made XP grinds even slower.
7. Bungie Changes Destiny 2 XP System After Players Discover It Was Rigged
8. Bungie drops hidden Destiny 2XP scaling following player outcry
9. People Are Making Cults And Prisons In Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp
10. Fans launch Black Friday boycott to #FixFIFA: Petition calling for changes has over 26,000 signaures
11. Belgium denounces loot boxes as gambling; Hawaiian legislator calls them “predatory”: Belgium decides that the combination of random rewards and pay-to-play is gambling.
12. Victorian gambling commission: “What occurs with ‘loot boxes’ does constitute gambling” – Commission has limited options for enforcement, looks to work with other agencies to bring about change
13. British Gambling Commission worried about ‘potential risk’ of loot boxes
14. British Gambling Commission concerned with “increasingly blurred” lines between games and gambling: Meanwhile, French politician calls for “prompt and sincere self-regulation” of the industry
15. UK Gambling Commission Determines Loot Boxes Aren’t Gambling Under British Law
16. Teen who spent $10k+ on microtransactions warns devs of the risk they pose: “The majority of the reason that I made my post was not really to slam EA or any of the companies that do this, but to share my story and to show that these transactions are not as innocent as they really appear to be. They can lead you down a path.”
17. Disney flexes its muscle over Star Wars and Marvel: The IP powerhouse values protecting that IP over any business relationship – as firms working on those properties would do well to remember
18. EA: Visceral’s canned Star Wars project too linear for modern tastes
19. Popularity of linear games declining – EA: CFO Blake Jorgensen says cancelled Star Wars project was a type of game “people don’t like as much today as they did five years ago or 10 years ago”
20. “You probably don’t want Darth Vader in pink”: EA CFO Blake Jorgensen says faithfulness to Star Wars canon prevented a cosmetic microtransaction model for Star Wars Battlefront II
21. Star Citizen now offering to sell in-game land: The most successful crowdfunded game ever is asking players to spend more
22. Animal Crossing Pocket Camp: Critical Consensus – A faithful yet divisive pocket-sized recreation of the beloved series, plagued by microtransactions
23. PC microtransaction revenue has doubled since 2012 –  SuperData report: Battlefront II is the poster child of a new and uncomfortable growing pain for the games industry
24. Take-Two president weighs in on loot boxes as ‘not gambling’: “The whole gambling regulator thing, we don’t view that thing as gambling. Our view is the same as the ESA statement, for the most part. So that’s going to play its course.”
25. Games industry is going 100% digital – Take-Two: President Karl Slatoff says physical game sales are probably going away on a 5-20 year timeline, weighs in on loot boxes
26. Games could be hit hard by net neutrality’s death: This is class warfare and gamers and small game companies are in the crosshairs
27. Appeals Court Affirms Dismissal on Standing Grounds of Biometric Privacy Suit over Videogame Facial Scan Feature 
28. Portraying migrants’ struggles via cellphones in Bury Me, My Love
29. Four And A Half Years After Raising $121,000, Skyrim Composer’s Kickstarter Is MIA 
30. Star Citizen offers $50-$100 in-game ‘land claims’ to boost dev funds
31. Global gaming revenue on par with sports at $149bn for 2017: Software revenue alone expected to reach $143.5 billion by 2020
32. ‘Pokémon Go’ Studio Niantic Completes $200M Funding Round
33. Pokémon global lifetime sales surpass 300m: Figure does not include Pokémon Go or downloads, but does include Snap, Stadium and all the other spin-offs
34. Nintendo Switch on track to outpace ten-month sales of the Wii by 20%
35. Nintendo’s “insane turnaround” driving holiday sales – Analyst: We chat with analysts in the wake of Black Friday and Cyber Monday
36. Report: Nintendo to start offering in-game power-ups via cereal boxes: Box for “Super Mario Cereal” reportedly doubles as an Amiibo.
37. Animal Crossing: Pocket Campimpressions: Nintendo should be ashamed – Lots of good AC series content, but core experience is too low on free-to-play scale.
38. VR headset sales are slowly rising out of the doldrums: Lower prices lead to increased interest as PlayStation Move dominates sales.
39. Analyst: 1M VR headsets shipped last quarter, an industry first
40. More than one million VR headsets sold last quarter: PlayStation VR accounts 80% of Japanese market
41. UK charts: PS4 and PSVR enjoy a strong Black Friday: PlayStation VR sold more than in the previous 18 weeks combined, strongest week of the year for software units and revenue
42. VR to star in China’s $1.5bn future tech theme park: Virtual rollercoasters, shooting games and alien tours will feature
43. Over 300,000 games consoles sold in the UK last week – GfK: Black Friday was the 13th biggest day ever for UK games retail
44. Sony posts record Black Friday hardware sales: Head of PSN Eric Lempel says company sold more PlayStations over the weekend than in the 23-year history of the brand
45. PUBG going mobile with Tencent’s help: The wildly popular game is not only coming to China, but it’s about to get the mobile treatment
46. Mobile still a moving target: GameChangerSF is finding more value bringing back lapsed players than searching for new ones
47. Report: Marvel Heroes dev Gazillion shuts down, lays off entire workforce
48. Gazillion Entertainment has officially shut down: Marvel Heroes goes offline a month ahead of schedule as studio closes
49. Rovio shares fall by 20 percent thanks to rising UA costs
50. Indie devs explore the benefits of working with a publisher: “Indie dev is a minefield now. To have a chance at a good level of success, you basically have to nail everything. That’s a really tall order, so devs are simply looking to stack the odds in their favor.”
51. The sunk cost fallacy: Devs describe how it almost destroyed them
52. 9 years in, Demon’s Souls is losing its online features
53. PC free-to-play revenue has doubled since 2012
54. Pokemon game series surpasses 300M lifetime sales
55. Pokemon Go developer Niantic nets $200M in funding
56. Investors pour $50M into social/casino mobile game dev Huuuge
57. Game sells Multiplay server hosting division to Unity for $25.2M
58. Unity buys GAME’s Multiplay Digital business for £19m: GAME bought the entire Multiplay division for £20m almost 3 years ago
59. Zelda concert producer: “I just want to bring video game music to the masses”: Jason Michael Paul looks back on 14 years of creating video game concerts
60. Oral History: How Marvel’s Creative Head Helped Bring Nintendo To America

Jon

DIGITAL

1. Court Rejects Gossip Site’s Fair Use Defense–Barcroft v. Coed Media
2. Cable Providers “Cut the Cord”: Audio/Video Streaming Patents Fail Both Alice Steps
3. Playboy Sues BoingBoing For Linking To Collection Of Centerfold Pictures
4. Google LLC v. Equustek Solutions Inc.: On Google’s motion for preliminary injunction, district court enjoins enforcement of Canadian court order requiring Google to delist search results worldwide, finding that Google had established likelihood of success on merits of its argument that order undermined safe harbor protection afforded by Communications Decency Act to Google as interactive service provider, and threatens free speech.
5. Why Google should be afraid of a Missouri Republican’s Google probe: Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley is probing Google’s business practices.
6. Shady Anti-Spyware Developer Loses Lawsuit Against Competitor Who Flagged Its Software As Malicious
7. California Appeals Court Issues A Ruling That Manages To Both Protect And Undermine Online Speech
8. Should we still doubt about the legality of Copyleft?
9. Julian Assange’s Secret DMs to Donald Trump Jr. Are Somehow Dumber, Sadder Than You’d Think
10. Twitter’s Authentication Policy Is A Verified Mess
11. Unusual experiment reveals the power of non-mainstream media: Scholars found that small media outlets have a big effect on Twitter discussions.
12. Facebook Live Is The New QVC
13. The Latest Social Media Trend in Government: It’s hard to get people to follow their local government on Facebook or Twitter. A few cities are using their employees’ personal accounts to connect with more residents.
14. Instagram CEO Positions His Company as Safer Alternative to Controversial Rivals
15. How A Russian Troll Fooled America: Reconstructing the life of a covert Kremlin influence account
16. Very Tired-Sounding John Kelly: Yeah, I Just Ignore Donald Trump’s Tweets
17. University could lose millions from “unethical” research backed by Peter Thiel: With nudge from federal regulators, an internal investigation found big problems.
18. Canada Revenue Agency Obtains Broad Court Order for Years of PayPal Data (Michael Geist)
19. For nearly a year, WikiLeaks was DMing with Donald Trump Jr.: “if your father ‘loses’ we think it is much more interesting if he DOES NOT conceed”
20. WikiLeaks Hitting Up Donald Trump Jr. Shouldn’t Surprise You
21. UK Gov’t Destroys Key Emails From Julian Assange Case, Shrugs About It
22. Trump’s Data Gurus Are Now Turning Their Attention To Your TV: Cambridge Analytica is eyeing targeted TV ads and mobile apps alongside some surprising allies.
23. Paradise Papers: Royalties from thousands of song classics tucked away tax-free – Music catalogue based in Jersey collected millions from songs by Duke Ellington, Sheryl Crow, The Trammps
24. Logitech Once Again Shows That In The Modern Era, You Don’t Really Own What You Buy
25. After online outrage, Logitech will now replace Harmony Link devices for free: You’ll have a new device no matter your warranty status.
26. After Backlash, Logitech Will Upgrade All Harmony Link Owners For Free
27. YouTube Red Climbs the List of Top Ten OTT Platforms
28. Don’t Let YouTube Babysit Your Children
29. Algorithmic Videos Are Making YouTube Unsuitable For Young Children, And Google’s ‘Revenue Architecture’ Is To Blame
30. Encore+ a new YouTube channel for retro CanCon: TV shows and films include Degrassi High, The Littlest Hobo, Mr. Dressup and Due South
31. Google broadens takedown of extremist YouTube videos
32. YouTube Will Remove More Extremist Videos With The Aid Of Government Lists
33. YouTube Vows To Crack Down On Inappropriate Videos Aimed At Children
34. YouTube Pacts With Ticketmaster To Help Musicians Boost Concert Sales
35. YouTube partners with Ticketmaster to sell concert tickets on artists’ video pages
36. YouTube Says World Series Ad Campaign Drove “Double Digit” Lift In YouTube TV Brand Awareness
37. YouTube To Discontinue In-Video Notifications As It Continues To Transition To Card-Based System
38. Online Video Star Matthias Declines Invite To Yearly Rewind Video In Protest Against YouTube’s Policies
39. Fullscreen Shutting Down Subscription VOD Service, Will Lay Off 25 Employees
40. Fullscreen To Shutter SVOD Service In January, Will Lay Off Roughly 25 Staffers
41. Disney Streaming Service May Signal End Of Marvel-Netflix Shows
42. Netflix Study Finds Stigmas Surrounding Public Binge-Viewing Have Dwindled
43. Offering Good Legal Options Works: Interest In Netflix Outpaces Pirate Options In Brazil
44. Sports Illustrated TV: Time Inc.’s First Subscription VOD Is $5 Monthly on Amazon Channels
45. Amazon Paid A Reported $250 Million For Rights To ‘Lord Of The Rings’ Prequel Series
46. Amazon launches Alexa, Echo, and Prime Music in Canada today: Alexa has a new Canadian English accent.
47. Amazon Music app for Android quietly gets Chromecast support: Casting gets a little easier for Android users who get their tunes from Amazon.
48. WhatsApp: inside the secret world of group chat – When WhatsApp launched it quickly became the main messaging service for groups of friends and family. More recently it’s become a useful platform for activists and politicians, fuelling a ‘whisper network’ of alliances and playing a crucial role in the recent revelation of the sexual abuse scandal
49. Facebook Defeats Lawsuit By User Suspended Over ‘Bowling Green Massacre’–Shulman v. Facebook (Eric Goldman)
50. Facebook, show us your secret recipe
51. Sean Parker unloads on Facebook “exploiting” human psychology
52. Facebook can’t cope with the world it’s created
53. Facebook Local Might Be The Only Facebook App You Need
54. Huge media companies like CBS and ESPN are banding together to fight Google and Facebook — but it may not be enough
55. Why Google should be afraid of a Missouri Republican’s Google probe: Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley is probing Google’s business practices.
56. Fashion, Maslow and Facebook’s control of social
57. ESPN Launches a New Version of ‘SportsCenter’ to Snapchat
58. The Facts: Non-Consensual Intimate Image Pilot
59. How One Woman’s Digital Life Was Weaponized Against Her
60. Online harassment of women journalists and international law: not “just” a gender issue, but a threat to democracy
61. And Another Thing: Those Dumb Social Media Guidelines For Journalists Are Going To Paint A Target On Their Backs
62. Breitbart’s Coming Exploitation Of The Believe Women Movement
63. Section 230(c)(2) Protects Anti-Malware Vendor–Enigma v. Malwarebytes  (Eric Goldman)
64. 230 bars false advertising claim against antimalware provider (Rebecca Tushnet)
65. Celebrate The 20th Anniversary Of A Seminal Section 230 Case Upholding It With This Series Of Essays
66. Commemorating the 20th Anniversary of Internet Law’s Most Important Judicial Decision
67. Copyright Infringement and the DMCA’s Safe Harbor Provisions 
68. The UK’s Broad Rejection of the §230 Model
69. UK Government promises more visas, more investment for tech sector
70. Sex, Scandal and Intermediary Liability: Imagining Life Without ‘Zeran v. AOL’: The Bazee.com legal saga highlights what could happen without a strong third-party liability protection standard for Internet businesses.
71. Wikipedia Warns That SESTA Could Destroy Wikipedia
72. Monkey Selfie Photographer Says He’s Now Going To Sue Wikipedia
73. China’s Bytedance Buying Social-Video App Musical.ly
74. U.S. Employs Rarely Used Tool to Probe China IP Practices
75. What My Personal Chat Bot Is Teaching Me About AI’s Future
76. The Robots Are Coming: For our jobs. Our military. And our current way of life. That is, unless a handful of local AI wizards can stop them
77. Ray Kurzweil On Turing Tests, Brain Extenders, And Ai Ethics
78. The real danger of Artificial Intelligence it’s not what you think
79. A Great Use For Artificial Intelligence: Scamming Scammers By Wasting Their Time
80. Welcome To The Era Of The Ai Coworker
81. Today, World Leaders Will Meet to Decide the Future of “Killer Robots”
82. Boston Dynamics CEO Believes Robotics Will Become “Bigger Than the Internet”
83. Could Software Stop School Shootings?: Panic button apps and AI could keep kids safer from shootings, but there are many non-technological problems to solve first.
84. Bitcoin compromise collapses, leaving future growth in doubt: Bitcoiners don’t trust elites—even Bitcoin elites.
85. Bitcoin rival doubles in price in four days as Bitcoin price slumps: With Bitcoin mired in controversy, a rival called Bitcoin Cash is gaining ground.
86. CEO who presided over Mt. Gox’s collapse could end up with massive profits: Creditors to be paid out at April 2014’s ~$440 per Bitcoin, not Nov. 2017’s ~$6,500.
87. Bitcoin Gold, the latest Bitcoin fork, explained
88. Covert Cryptocurrency Miners Quickly Become A Major Problem
89. Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain | How will these impact IP law?
90. 17-Qubit Chips Have Officially Arrived, and So Begins the Quantum Revolution
91. ESPN Streaming Service Set to Launch in Spring of 2018
92. North Korea’s Apple Obsession Brings New Meaning to the Phrase ‘Walled Garden’
93. HTC Announces Multi-million Dollar Vive Art Initiative, Bringing VR to Museums Worldwide
94. Hashtag History
95. CompuServe Forums, RIP: More than two decades of discussion and bad advice about to be deleted.

CREATIVITY

1.  Maybe the Canadian Copyright Bar and the Copyright Board Should Try Some PMNOC Remedies Instead of Rearranging the Deck Chairs? (Howard Knopf)
2. With The US Out, Canada Gets Copyright Out Of TPP And Moves Closer To Agreement
3. Creator Of Arguably The World’s Worst Film Loses Injunction Against Unflattering Documentary
4. Taylor Swift Using Dubious Trademark Registrations To Shut Down Sales Of Fan-Made Goods
5. Playboy Sues BoingBoing For Linking To Collection Of Centerfold Pictures
6. Professor Says Threats Of Retaliation By China Stopped Publication Of His Book Revealing Chinese Influence In Australia
7. Florida Supreme Court Denies Copyright Protection for Sound Recordings Predating Coverage Under the Federal Copyright Act 
8. Lawsuit Brought By Cosby Show Production Company Against Documentary Is The Reason We Have Fair Use
9. Not All Pirates are in the Caribbean
10. When Music You Wrote Becomes A Hate Speech Soundtrack
11. The Fans Made Louis C.K. – Now They Might Undo Him
12. Gal Gadot Will Not Play Wonder Woman Again Unless Brett Ratner Is Gone 
13. Ellen Page alleges director Brett Ratner outed her as a teen on ‘X-Men’ set
14. Brett Ratner and Russell Simmons were investigated by police in 2001 after alleged sexual battery
15. Six women accuse filmmaker Brett Ratner of sexual harassment or misconduct
16. Actress Roundtable: Jennifer Lawrence, Emma Stone and Top Stars on Harassment in Hollywood and Ideas for Industry Change
17. New York Ballot Selfie Ban Upheld… For Now 
18. Pricing access to the Trump White House: the strange case of the Times social media policy: “Any semblance of a political opinion must be squashed, with the appearance of neutrality and balance preserved at all costs.”
19. Repeated Unwanted Emails to Politician’s Personal Email Address Can be Harassment–Hagedorn v. Cattani
20. Coachella, Trademark Lawyers Want “Filmchella” Organizer Held in Contempt
21. No One Knows What Omarosa Is Doing in the White House—Even Omarosa: The ‘Apprentice’ star has a top salary and a high-ranking job. But when we spent time with her, it was her wedding she was planning.
22. Mapping Media Coverage Of Mass Shootings, Hurricanes And More
23. FTC Fills Up With Trump Nominations
24. FTC Speaks Out on Children’s Voice Recordings: In a new Enforcement Policy Statement, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) decreased the burden for operators with regard to the collection of certain audio voice recordings of children under the age of 13.
25. The Superior Court of Québec analyses the exception allowing the use of a work protected by copyright for the purpose of news reporting
26. Presentation on the First 18 Months of the Defend Trade Secrets Act
27. Logitech Once Again Shows That In The Modern Era, You Don’t Really Own What You Buy
28. Disney is planning a live-action Star Wars TV show for its streaming service: The long-rumored live-action Star Wars series might finally actually happen
29. Glamorizing the Nightmare Trade: How a TV show is making a drug criminal way too cool.

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. Canada’s Billion Dollar Wireless Cash Grab: CRTC Data Shows Overage Fees Now Exceed Roaming Revenues (Michael Geist)
2. FIFA Trial: Fox Sports Accused of Playing Role in Bribing Officials
3. The NBA’s Vision For The Broadcast Of The Future
4. Colorado Voters Shoot Down Comcast’s Protectionist State Broadband Law
5. Google Fiber now sells $55-per-month gigabit Internet (in one city): $55 gigabit available in San Antonio while people in other cities pay $70.
6. Lawmakers demand investigation into FCC Chairman Ajit Pai: Pai accused of evading questions about FCC helping Sinclair expand media empire.
7. The FCC is having a terrible month, and consumers will pay the price
8. Is Trump’s AT&T Merger Roadblock A Return To Sensible Antitrust, Or Just More Cronyism?
9. AT&T says it’s “prepared to litigate” if US tries to block Time Warner deal: Trump’s DOJ reportedly wants AT&T to sell either CNN or DirecTV.
10. AT&T Promises Your Broadband Will Suck Less…But Only If It Gets Another Massive Tax Cut 
11. FCC’s latest gift to telcos could leave Americans with worse Internet access: FCC will let carriers abandon copper lines without offering adequate replacements.
12. Net neutrality rules should apply to ISPs and websites, senator says: Franken – Google, Facebook, and others are a “new kind” of Internet gatekeeper.
13. Pressure grows on FCC to kill state consumer protection laws: Mobile lobby says FCC should enforce “non-regulation” policy throughout nation.
14. Philo, Funded By Five Major Media Companies, Offers $16-Per-Month Skinny Bundle With Limited Channels 

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Canada Revenue Agency Obtains Broad Court Order for Years of PayPal Data (Michael Geist)
2. First Ever En Banc FISA Court Review Gives Plaintiffs Standing To Challenge Surveillance Program Secrecy
3. Anonymous Speech Online Dealt a Blow in US v. Glassdoor Opinion
4. Ninth Circuit Lets Us See Its Glassdoor Ruling, And It’s Terrible
5. Hackers Say They’ve Broken Face ID A Week After iPhone X Release
6. Hackers say they broke Apple’s Face ID. Here’s why we’re not convinced: Key questions persist about $150 mask hackers used to unlock Face-protected iPhone X.
7. Watch A 10-Year-Old’s Face Unlock His Mom’s iPhone X
8. Should We Teach Facial Recognition Technology About Race?
9. Trump’s Taxes Have Probably Already Been Hacked
10. He Perfected A Password-Hacking Tool—Then The Russians Came Calling
11. Security Breach and Spilled Secrets Have Shaken the N.S.A. to Its Core: A serial leak of the agency’s cyberweapons has damaged morale, slowed intelligence operations, and resulted in hacking attacks on businesses and civilians worldwide.
12. DOJ Still Demanding Identity Of Twitter Users Because Someone They Shouldn’t Have Arrested Tweeted A Smiley Emoji
13. Texas National Guard Latest Agency To Be Discovered Operating Flying Cell Tower Spoofers
14. The Pentagon Opened Up To Hackers—And Fixed Thousands Of Bugs
15. DOJ: Strong encryption that we don’t have access to is “unreasonable” – Rod Rosenstein – We should weigh “law enforcement equities” against security.
16. Latest DOJ WTFness: Encryption Is Like A Locked House That Won’t Let Its Owners Back Inside
17. How Journalists Fought Back Against Crippling Email Bombs
18. How AV can open you to attacks that otherwise wouldn’t be possible: New AVGater flaw provided key ingredient for hacker to hijack computer.
19. Recent Intel Chipsets Have A Built-In Hidden Computer, Running Minix With A Networking Stack And A Web Server
20. Survey of bug bounty hunters shows who pans for pwns: Bug hunters are educated, young, looking for challenge—and cash to feed security habit.
21. No boundaries: Exfiltration of personal data by session-replay scripts
22. Hack Brief: OnePlus Phones Have An Unfortunate Backdoor Built In
23. Netflix Knows Some Very Strange Things About Public Viewing Habits

GAMES

1. Humvee maker sues Activision over trademark infringement in Call of Duty
2. Humvee maker suing Activision over trademark infringement in Call of Duty: Automotive firm says series success came “only at the expense of AM General”
3. Complaint: Call of Duty Video Game Infringes Trademarks by Pervasively Featuring Humvees 
4. Staffers stage walkout at IGN over mismanagement of sexual harassment claims
5. IGN promises change following allegations of sexual harassment against former editor: Content staff release statement declaring solidarity with victims, some employees stop work in protest against harassment
6. Russian military cites game screenshot as “evidence” of US ISIS support: Image from mobile AC-130 Gunship Simulator apparently came from a YouTube trailer.
7. Behind the addictive psychology and seductive art of loot boxes: How gambling principles and seductive animation compel players to drop cash on card packs and weapon crates.
8. From loot tables to loot boxes, how do we manage an addiction to addiction?
9. Compulsion Loops & Dopamine in Games and Gamification
10. Battlefront II dev: ‘It’s up to us to make sure that grind is fun and not overwhelming’: “I think crates can be a fun addition as long as you don’t feel forced to engage with them in order to progress. I feel that’s where the issue is with our game right now and that’s where we’ll look to solve as quickly as we can.”
11. EA could replace annual sports games with live services: CEO Andrew Wilson says approach to Korean and Chinese markets could be extended globally, publisher is looking at subscription model for mobile games
12. EA CEO: It’s only a matter of time before games embrace subscription services – “The notion that [subscription streaming services] wouldn’t impact our industry, I think, is naive. Will it take a little bit longer? Yes, for a whole bunch of reasons [like] file size, level of interactivity, and design.”
13. EA: Live services plus subscriptions equals “uncapped” monetization – CFO Blake Jorgensen discusses how publisher is becoming less dependent on new titles, growing a more stable business
14. Unlocking a Hero in ‘Star Wars Battlefront II’ Takes Almost Two Days of Gameplay
15. Can EA fix what’s broken with Star Wars: Battlefront II’s economy? – Rant: Loot boxes are just the beginning of EA’s worst-ever dive into pay-to-win.
16. Fans Worry Star Wars Battlefront 2’s ‘Free’ DLC Heroes Are Going To Take Eons To Grind For
17. Star Wars: Battlefront 2 Players Won’t Be Able To Finish Campaign Until Nearly A Month After Launch
18. Congratulations to EA for Posting the Most Hated Comment in Reddit History 
19. EA Defense Of Star Wars Battlefront II Becomes Most Downvoted Reddit Comment Ever
20. EA promises “constant adjustments” to Battlefront II monetization: Users estimate it will take 40 hours to unlock iconic characters, prompting more backlash against the multiplayer shooter
21. Battlefront II devs cut cost of in-game unlocks 75% in response to fan outcry
22. Star Wars Battlefront 2 Developer Confirms That They Will Continue Tweaking The Loot Boxes In Response To Community Feedback: “We’re not somehow trying to bite the hand that feeds us.”
23. The Curious Case Of The ‘EA Game Dev’ Who Said He Received Death Threats
24. Battlefront II, Overwatch under scrutiny by Belgian gambling regulator
25. Need for Speed: Payback can’t avoid its own bankruptcy – Poor driving and awful writing don’t justify a tremendous loot-drop grind.
26. EA buys out a game studio after shutting another one down 3 weeks ago: Studio behind Titanfall, unnamed Star Wars game stays with EA to tune of up to $455M.
27. EA buys Titanfall dev Respawn Entertainment for as much as $455M
28. Electronic Arts to acquire Titanfall maker Respawn for as much as $455 million
29. Reviews vs. revenues: Mixed messages for Take-Two – NBA 2K18 players say they hate virtual currency, but sales figures say they’re spending more than ever; Take-Two listens to the latter at its peril
30. Ex-BioWare dev traces loot boxes back to Mass Effect 3and FIFA
31. The Real Problem With ‘Games As Service’ Isn’t The Microtransactions
32. From loot tables to loot boxes, how do we manage an addiction to addiction?
33. Publishers argue mandated ESRB ratings puts physical indie releases at risk
34. Indies feel the pinch from Sony’s new ESRB mandate: Special edition physical versions of online titles have to be rated, and it’s not going over well with some small studios
35. Guillemot: “PlayStation 5 and fourth Xbox to launch 2019 at the earliest” – Ubisoft CEO does not expect new consoles any time soon thanks to launch of PS4 Pro and Xbox One X
36. Softly, softly: The Xbox One X Launch
37. GameStop aborts the launch of its unlimited game rental program
38. GameStop suspends its unlimited used games program: The PowerPass program has been “temporarily paused” – customers who purchased a pass will get refunds
39. Wolfenstein 2 Reminds Us What Heroes Look Like
40. Bury me, my Love: Using video games to push back far-right rhetoric – Developer Florent Maurin on how we perceive refugees and the role of games in the debate
41. Now you see me: Representation as innovation – Broader representation of gender, race and sexuality can lead to new stories, says Kim Belair, and new stories can enlighten and excite
42. Victoria state government creates opportunities for women in games with $140,000 pledge: Funding opens up positions in seven Australian studios
43. UK government pledges 2,000 visas, £61m investment to Tech sector: Number of visas doubled to bring in more talent, with three £20m schemes planned to grow Britain’s digital industries
44. Pulling back the curtain on Overwatch’s development process
45. More than 6,000 games released on Steam in 2017 so far: Almost ten years’ worth of new games are already on the marketplace – and there’s still a month to go
46. Ark dev: “Retail was not something we had planned to do” – Studio Wildcard’s Jesse Rapczak on the benefits of retail in a digital era, Ark getting enhanced for Xbox One X, and possibly targeting Switch
47. Disney severs ties with Marvel Heroes dev Gazillion Entertainment
48. Kickstarter Launches a Patreon Competitor Called Drip
49. Kickstarter Looks To Compete With Patreon, Launches New Platform Called Drip
50. Kickstarter launches Patreon rival Drip: New crowdfunding platform allows creators to offer subscriptions for ongoing content, will integrate with Kickstarter
51. ‘Pokémon GO’ Makers Announce Harry Potter AR Game, Releasing 2018
52. Where is VR’s Nintendo Switch?: Cloudhead Games CEO Denny Unger says that developers need a device that offers both mobility and a high-powered VR experience
53. More third-party publishers ‘aggressively’ ramp up Nintendo Switch support: Square Enix and Ubisoft are the latest to pledge additional products
54. Doom definitely works on the Switch, but it looks noticeably worse: Reboot looks pretty good in portable mode, pretty fuzzy on the big screen.
55. Report: Nintendo boosting Switch production, could make 30M consoles next year
56. Nintendo takes a gamble with record-setting Switch production plans: Reported bump to 25 to 30 million units per year carries its share of risk.
57. Nintendo to ship almost 50 million Switch units by April 2019: Platform holder plans to produce up to 30 million consoles in next fiscal year
58. Nintendo Switch Has Added Its First Video Streaming App: Hulu
59. Open-world games are broken, and Nintendo spent 2017 trying to fix them
60. Porting classic games to smartphones isn’t the way to go, says Nintendo
61. Report suggests Nintendo close to deal for a new Mario movie: Miyamoto would be a producer on possible Illumination Entertainment film.
62. Minions studio close to deal for Mario movie – Report: Universal’s Illumination Entertainment and Nintendo nearly ready to move forward with animated feature film
63. IO Interactive has cut a deal to make a Hitman TV series
64. Hitman series in the works at streaming platform Hulu: John Wick creator Derek Kolstad on board to write pilot
65. Game Developers Conference announces the inaugural GDC Film Festival
66. GDC rolling out its own film festival: Event organizers open submissions for documentaries and other game-focused films to screen during annual conference
67. National Videogame Arcade launching music festival in 2018: Masaya Matsura, Jessica Curry and Rob Hubbard to headline new event
68. CCP dev: “Virtual reality doesn’t need a killer app” – Eve Valkyrie lead game designer Andrew Whillans also shares how to account for low install bases with VR multiplayer games
69. Latest Figures Suggest ‘Resident Evil 7’ Could Have Some 475,000 PSVR Players
70. Sony ramping up Move production for PSVR push: Platform holder also reports virtual reality attach rate highest on PS4 Pro, five games sold per headset
71. ‘Haptic Shape Illusion’ Allows VR Controllers to Simulate Feel of Physically Larger Objects
72. Tencent still eyes acquisition of PUBG developer Bluehole – report: Tencent working with firm to deliver PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds in China, says Korean Times
73. Tencent to help establish Snapchat as games platform: Chinese behemoth believes mobile games will help social media firm meet growth expectations
74. Tencent online gaming revenue exceeds $4bn in latest quarterly financials: Company-wide profit up to $2.7 billion, year-on-year increase of 67%
75. Marvel Heroes Shut Down By Disney
76. New Counter-Strike Matchmaking System Analyses Your Behavior In Other Steam Games
77. Studio founded to develop bespoke esports title: Former US talent agency esports head looks to build competitive game from the ground-up
78. Konami partners with eSports outfit to launch a new PES league
79. Esports Industry Awards winners announced: Eefje “Sjokz” Depoortere and Megan “RheingoldRiver” Cutrofello first women to be recognised at awards
80. The Game Awards adds new honors, including an award for ‘live games’
81. Nominees revealed for The Game Awards 2017
82. DRM Strikes Again: Sonic Forces Just Plain Broken Thanks To Denuvo
83. Warner Bros.’s Machinima Launches 24-Hour Channel on Twitch
84. Razer raises $500 million with Hong Kong IPO: Successful floatation drives stock up 40%, sells just over one billion shares
85. What do players want from DLC? Obsidian survey attempts to find out
86. The Digital Ruins of a Forgotten Future: Second Life was supposed to be the future of the internet, but then Facebook came along. Yet many people still spend hours each day inhabiting this virtual realm. Their stories—and the world they’ve built—illuminate the promise and limitations of online life.

Jon

DIGITAL

1. Did a U.S. Court Just Disrespect the Supreme Court of Canada’s Global De-Indexing Decision?
2. US judge says “global de-indexing order” against Google threatens free speech: Canada’s highest court sought to alter search results, but it won’t apply in US.
3. Equustek No-Shows Legal Challenge Of Canadian Court Order Demanding Google Delist Sites Worldwide
4. Company that sought to control Google search results is a no-show in US court: Equustek won an unprecedented global order, but it’s unlikely to stick in the US.
5. US Court Protects Google From Canadian Court’s Delisting Order–Google v. Equustek (Eric Goldman)
6. U.S. Judge Rules Canadian Court Order “Threatens Free Speech on the Global Internet” (Michael Geist)
7. Linking in the US: is an embedded tweet an infringement of the public display right?
8. Does Sharing A Link To Online Content Amount To Copyright Infringement?: This would destroy the way we communicate today, including interactions on social media platforms — and you can thank Tom Brady for it.
9. Piracy site for science research dinged again in court—this time for $4.8M: Latest ruling might require Google to remove Sci-Hub from search.
10. Global Music Lobby Groups Hit Ottawa in Blitz Over Copyright Term Extension (Michael Geist)
11. Judge Ignores Congress, Pretends SOPA Exists, Orders Site Blocking Of Sci-Hub
12. Russian Twitter Support for Trump Began Right After He Started Campaign: In three months after Mr. Trump announced his candidacy, tweets from Russian accounts offered far more praise for the businessman than criticism
13. Russia funded Facebook and Twitter investments through Kushner associate: Institutions with close links to Kremlin financed stakes through business associate of Trump’s son-in-law, leaked files reveal
14. On last day of work, rogue Twitter employee deactivated Trump’s account: “We are conducting a full internal review.”
15. Trump Account Deactivation Exposes Tensions Within Twitter: Disconnect between Twitter’s employees and its highest-profile user is exposed after account deactivation
16. The rogue Twitter employee who deleted Trump’s account could face hacking charges
17. Don’t Cheer For The Twitter Employee Who Deleted Donald Trump’s Account
18. Trump Twitter Use Violates First Amendment, Argue Scholars in Brief by Georgetown Law’s ICAP
19. Newly released e-mails show Ivanka Trump kept using personal account: “The unusual formatting makes it appear that she is not using a government account.”
20. How Russia ‘Pushed Our Buttons’ With Fake Online Ads
21. Jenna Abrams, Russia’s Clown Troll Princess, Duped the World
22. Inside story: How Russians hacked the Democrats’ emails
23. Mitch McConnell: Tech Companies Should Help Us Weaponize the Internet Against Russia
24. Twitter rewrote its user guidelines so it’s easier to tell what will get you banned: Twitter hopes it can make things clearer.
25. Dianne Feinstein Wants Twitter To Just Hand Her A Bunch Of Private Communications
26. Congress Pats Itself On The Back Via Social Media For Its Opportunity To Slam Social Media
27. Twitter officially doubles character count, says most 280 testers didn’t use it: Today, you can spell out “two hundred and eighty” and still have room to say other stuff.
28. Twitter gives new 280-character limit to all users following limited testing phase: The tech company said the new limit will begin its global rollout Tuesday, with everyone receiving the bump up from 140 characters soon
29. Facebook’s New Mission: Video Will Bring Us Together
30. Senator Portman Pushes Forward With SESTA, Despite Being Misinformed
31. Dear Senators Portman & Blumenthal: What Should Blogs Do If SESTA Passes?
32. Internet Association Sells Out The Internet: Caves In And Will Now Support Revised SESTA
33. Will Sheryl Sandberg And Facebook Help Small Websites Threatened By SESTA?
34. How The Internet Association’s Support For SESTA Just Hurt Facebook And Its Users
35. How SESTA Undermines Section 230’s Good Samaritan Provisions (Eric Goldman)
36. Why Does SESTA Allow State Attorneys General To File Civil Claims?
37. Another Human Trafficking Expert Raises Concerns About SESTA
38. Ron Wyden Puts A Hold On SESTA And Warns About Its Dangers
39. Would Shutting Down Backpage Reduce Violence Against Women?
40. It’s Getting Harder for Tech Companies To Deny Responsibility for Content: The industry, having lost control of the narrative in Washington, has reversed course and backed a bill against online sex trafficking
41. Beware These Texas Shooting Rumors That Spread on CNN and Google
42. Now, Silicon Valley Is Totally Cool With a Bill That Could Ruin the Internet 
43. The Internet is Not a VCR
44. EFF destroys the podcasting patent, one last time: Owners of an infamous licensing campaign have now really tried everything.
45. Government-Supported Dutch YouTube Channel Turns Heads By Depicting Effects Of Recreational Drugs
46. YouTube’s Latest Pitch To Brands Celebrates Users Who Are “More Than Just Viewers”
47. After Neglecting Creators, Snapchat To Offer Monetization Opportunities, New Content Tools
48. Snapchat To Redesign Its App Following Disappointing Results
49. CNN Launches E-Commerce Unit, Plans Digital News Subscriptions in 2018
50. Amazon Fresh reportedly shutting down in neighborhoods in up to five states: Customers in affected areas will have to find a new grocery delivery service.
51. With deletion of one wallet, $280M in Ethereum wallets gets frozen: Parity multi-signature wallets created since July break, affecting 1M ETH.
52. SEC warns that celebrity cryptocurrency endorsements may be illegal: Floyd Mayweather and Paris Hilton could be in hot water for paid endorsements.
53. With deletion of one wallet, $280M in Ethereum wallets gets frozen: Parity multi-signature wallets created since July break, affecting 1M ETH.
54. How To Keep Your Bitcoin Safe And Secure
55. Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs): The Current State of Play
56. IBM’s plan to regulate pot with blockchains isn’t as crazy as it sounds: Canada is legalizing marijuana, and IBM wants to help.
57. How A Tiny Error Shut Off The Internet For Parts Of The Us
58. The Web began dying in 2014, here’s how
59. Something is wrong on the internet
60. The Tower of Babel: Five Challenges of the Modern Internet
61. Stephen Hawking: “I Fear That AI May Replace Humans Altogether”
62. Computer says no: why making AIs fair, accountable and transparent is crucial – As powerful AIs proliferate in society, the ability to trace their decisions, challenge them and remove ingrained biases has become a key area of research
63. Ray Kurzweil: “AI Will Not Displace Humans, It’s Going to Enhance Us”
64. Can copyright survive artificial intelligence?
65. China Could Soon Overtake the US in AI Development, Former Google CEO Says
66. DeepMind “Never Found the Limit” of AlphaGo Zero’s Intelligence
67. Can Artificial Intelligence Revolutionize Medicine?
68. Artificial Intelligence Is Putting Ultrasound On Your Phone
69. How sheep with cameras got some tiny islands onto Google Street View
70. The Google Docs Lockout Fiasco & The Failed Promise Of The Cloud
71. Intel Brings Virtual Reality Content To NBA On TNT, Offers Vision Of Future
72. Steven Soderbergh’s New App Will Change How You Watch TV
73. Apple At Its Best
74. I Hate How Much I Love the iPhone X
75. iPhone 8 and 8 Plus are hits as Apple sells 46.7 million smartphones in Q4: Apple Watch sales continue to grow while the company bounces back in China.
76. When Apple soured on Irish tax laws, it turned to a tiny English Channel island: “Apple is so big that it is effectively able to negotiate its own tax laws.”
77. Supreme Court won’t hear Apple v. Samsung round two: Apple has $120M final resolution in one of its two big cases against Samsung.
78. Apple’s Video Offering Takes Shape with Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon TV drama
79. Broadcom wants to buy Qualcomm in unprecedented $130 billion deal: Broadcom would become the world’s third-largest chipmaker, behind Intel and Samsung.
80. Elderly doctor: I lost my license because I don’t know how to use a computer – Doc says her paper records are just fine – state medical board disagrees.
81. Doctor with no computer skills vows to battle medical board in court: “I am not going to compromise patients’ lives or health for the system.”
82. Watching Hackers in 2017 – what happened to all the anarchy?: The 1995 cult classic depicts a vision of techies as stylish, punk and sexy – over twenty years later that aesthetic and attitude is nowhere to be seen
83. The Year in Push Alerts: How the onslaught of breaking news has shaped our lives since Nov. 8, 2016.
84. The End Of The Cult Of The Founder
85. Vice Opens Up Asia HQ, Plots Regional Expansion

CREATIVITY

1. High Court rules on copyright protection of TV formats for game shows 
2. DC Comics Defeats “Jesus” Trademark
3. Moosehead Still At It: Sues Hop ‘N Moose Brewing For Trademark Infringement
4. ‘Cosby Show’ Producer Sues BBC for Using Clips in Bill Cosby Doc: In a copyright lawsuit, Carsey-Werner Company alleges the network sought to capitalize on the popularity of ‘The Cosby Show.’
5. This lawsuit against a Cosby rape documentary is why fair use exists: “Cosby Show” producers say even 7-second clips amount to copyright infringement.
6. Harvey Weinstein: Rape claim by actress credible, police say
7. David Boies Accused Of Running Horrifying Spy Operation Against Harvey Weinstein’s Accusers
8. Netflix Reportedly Severs Ties With Kevin Spacey, Effective Immediately
9. Netflix Is the Reason Behind the Disney, Fox Deal Talks
10. Taylor Swift’s Legal Rep Tries To Kill Critical Blog Post With Bogus Defamation, Copyright Claims 
11. Taylor Swift threatens to sue blogger who connected her to white supremacists: Swift tried to use copyright to keep her threat of a lawsuit secret.
12. Taylor Swift Attempts to Silence Critic, ACLU Fires Back: Pop star and attorney send threatening letter to local blogger
13. India: In Defence of AIB’s Game of Thrones Memes: When can Satire/Critique Act as a Suitable Defence?
14. SLAPP Alert: Professor Sues Another For Defamation Over Competing Academic Papers
15. Disney Bans LA Times Writers From Advance Screenings In Response To Negative Articles
16. LA Times: You can’t read our Thor review because Disney is mad – LA Times documented lavish election spending to defend Disneyland tax breaks.
17. Disney forced to backpedal after banning LA Times from Thor screening: LA Times documented lavish election spending that defended Disneyland tax breaks.
18. Thor: Ragnarok’s Valkyrie Shows How Far We’ve Got to Go for LGBTQ Representation on the Big Screen
19. Chadwick Boseman Chose His Black Panther Accent to Make a Point About White Supremacy
20. Museum fees are killing art history, say academics
21. Top Academic Publisher Kowtows To China: Censors Thousands Of Papers, Denies It Is Censorship
22. Journalists also have a “duty to warn”: Are we starting to do our jobs?: Media’s obsession with “balance” and addiction to spectacle led to disaster. Can we get back to real reporting now?
23. Marvel loses creator of Jessica Jones, Miles Morales to DC: Bendis worked with Marvel since the early 2000s, writing for nearly every big series.
24. Canadian Heritage Minister Joly Hints Many Cultural Groups Don’t Comply With Lobbyist Reporting Rules (Michael Geist)

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. Quebec Digital Sales Tax Bill Demonstrates the Complications That Come With Implementing a “Netflix Tax” (Michael Geist)
2. US regulators demand CNN sale to approve AT&T-Time Warner deal: Dispute erupts in public as AT&T boss says he will not put news channel up for sale
3. Trump’s DOJ wants AT&T/Time Warner to sell CNN or DirecTV before merger: AT&T could fight government in court in order to keep merger intact.
4. Giant International Egos May Derail The Sprint T-Mobile Merger
5. Competition Dodges A Bullet As T-Mobile, Sprint Merger Dies
6. T-Mobile and Sprint finally, officially, say they definitely won’t merge: T-Mobile and Sprint will “fight the duopoly,” but as separate companies.
7. Don’t Pay Verizon’s $10 ‘Premium Video’ Upcharge
8. FCC Boss Demolishes Media Ownership Rules In Massive Gift To Sinclair Broadcasting
9. FCC tries to help cable companies avoid state consumer protection rules: The FCC wants to block Minnesota from regulating Charter’s VoIP phone service.
10. Sorry, Comcast: Voters say “yes” to city-run broadband in Colorado – Municipal broadband wins “David vs. Goliath battle” in Fort Collins, Colorado.
11. Comcast Tries To Stop Colorado City From Even Talking About Building Its Own Broadband Network
12. Comcast has a lot to lose if municipal broadband takes off: Comcast revenue could take a big hit in two cities that might build networks.
13. Comcast Urges FCC To Ban States From Protecting Broadband Privacy, Net Neutrality
14. Comcast asks the FCC to prohibit states from enforcing net neutrality: Pressure builds on FCC Chair Ajit Pai to preempt state net neutrality laws.
15. AT&T Backs Off Nuisance Lawsuit Intended To Hamstring Broadband Competitors Like Google Fiber
16. An AT&T drone is now providing cellular service to people in Puerto Rico: Cellular network still devastated; carriers scramble to reconnect residents.
17. AT&T struggles to get Trump administration approval for Time Warner merger: DOJ could sue to block merger, but AT&T says everything is on track.
18. House Antitrust Subcommittee Explores the Role of Antitrust Law in Net Neutrality 
19. What blockchain can learn from the net neutrality debate: antitrust and regulatory aspects of “paid prioritization” for a nascent technology 
20. Australia’s national broadband network under relentless attack—by cockatoos: Birds love steel braided cables for beak maintenance.
21. ESPN Joins List Of Companies Enforcing Stringent Social Media Policies, Which Is Both Bad And Stupid

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Canadian Court Says Law Enforcement Doesn’t Have To Hand Over Info On Stingray Devices
2. Kim Dotcom settles case he filed against NZ police over “military-style raid”: Cops could have “knocked at our door at a reasonable hour and advised me of my arrest.”
3. FBI can’t break the encryption on Texas shooter’s smartphone: FBI won’t confirm it’s an iPhone: “I don’t want to tell bad guys what phone to buy.”
4. Miami City Attorney Tries To Erase Photos Of Fired Firefighters From The Internet
5. Should I be worried that Amazon knows so much about me?
6. Security vs. convenience? IoT requires another level of thinking about risk – Op-ed: Devices like Amazon Key put too much risk assessment on users; bad decisions follow.
7. With Amazon Key’s launch, customers and lawyers have lots of questions – Prof: “Why would anyone want to give Amazon access to their home?”
8. How Facebook Figures Out Everyone You’ve Ever Met
9. Uploading all your nudes to Facebook isn’t such a bad idea: An industry-wide database of image hashes could stop non-consensual pornography, or revenge porn, at source
10. To prevent revenge porn, Facebook will look at user-submitted nude photos: Pilot program goals are laudable, but is the remedy as bad as the ailment it treats?
11. Flaw crippling millions of crypto keys is worse than first disclosed: Estonia abruptly suspends digital ID cards as crypto attacks get easier and cheaper.
12. Cryptojacking craze that drains your CPU now done by 2,500 sites: Android apps with millions of Google Play downloads also crash the party.
13. Stuxnet-style code signing is more widespread than anyone thought: Forgeries undermine the trust millions of people place in digital certificates.
14. Critical Tor flaw leaks users’ real IP address—update now
15. Russia’s ‘Fancy Bear’ Hackers Exploit A Microsoft Office Flaw—And NYC Terrorism Fear
16. The Devious Netflix Phish That Just Won’t Die
17. So What the Hell Is Doxxing?: What doxxing really is, plus advice on how to protect yourself from unwanted exposure of personal and private information online.
18. What Is Informational Injury? The FTC Wants to Know What Folks Think Is Enough Harm to Take Action
19. The Case Of Glassdoor And The Grand Jury Subpoena, And How Courts Are Messing With Online Speech In Secret
20. Some Thoughts On Gag Rules And Government Unmasking Demands

GAMES

1. Humvee maker sues Activision over ‘Call of Duty’
2. AM General sues Activision over ‘Call of Duty’ Humvee use: The “Call of Duty” franchise rakes in billions, and AM General wants a piece of the pie.
3. Overwatch devs aim to combat toxicity with a dedicated ‘strike team’
4. The Trouble with Trailers: Developers have learned to deal with violence and difficult themes intelligently and respectfully in recent years – it’s time for marketing teams to catch up
5. The Price Wolfenstein 2 Had To Pay To Get Around Germany’s Anti-Nazi Laws Was Removing A Mustache
6. Board members vote to officially end voice actors’ strike
7. Nearly a year later, video game voice actors end their strike: Approved deal ends the longest acting strike in U.S. history.
8. In Amazon’s game engine, voice actors can now be replaced with robots: Just after actor strike ends, Lumberyard update adds a full text-to-speech pipeline.
9. The End of Ownership: Video gamers have discovered a new and scary loophole in the laws of ownership—and the upshot is that a lot of your digital property might not technically be yours.
10. The life, death, and rebirth of EVE Online’s player-created cemetery
11. Need For Speed Payback Review: One step forwards and two steps back for the series.
12. Call Of Duty: WWII Is A Small Story, Told Poorly
13. Launch to launch, Call of Duty: WWII saw double Infinite Warfare’s sales
14. Call of Duty: WWII doubles Infinite Warfare sales worldwide – Over $500m in opening weekend is just shy of Black Ops III’s $550m
15. Niantic is developing a Harry Potter AR game
16. Harry Potter AR game in the works from Niantic
17. Pokemon Go creator looking to replicate its mobile success in partnership with Warner Bros
18. Report: Apple preparing to release AR headset in 2020
19. PUBG ban in China unlikely, says industry analyst: China is already the number one region for the game, with a 40% share of active players
20. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds crosses 20 million copies sold
21. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds hits 20 million sold: Bluehole survival shooter hits newest milestone less than a month after reaching 15 million
22. Fortnite’s Battle Royale reaches 20 million downloads: Epic Games’ free-to-play battle royale edges in front of main rival PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, but remains well behind on concurrent players
23. Canadian game dev surging – ESA Canada: Trade group says national games industry growing at six times the pace of the country’s economy
24. As ESA enthusiastically backs GOP tax reform plan, some devs dismay
25. UK console game sales now 30 – 45% digital: Confidential data shown to GamesIndustry.biz reveals massive shift in UK game sales
26. UK physical market drops 16% in October as downloads increase: FIFA 18 tops a very different looking Top 20
27. UK games tax relief extended to 2023: European Commission renotifies tax incentive scheme, granting another six years of support for British developers
28. Super Mario Odyssey sells over 500,000 copies in Japan in a few days: The latest Famitsu numbers, which don’t include download sales, make Mario the second-highest selling Switch software launch
29. Odyssey is fastest-selling Super Mario game in US and Europe: Switch sales now at 2.6m in the US, with Odyssey selling 1.1m
30. L.A. Noire is too big to download to a standard Switch: Even the physical version requires a massive downloadable patch.
31. EA not committing to more Switch games: Publisher wants to wait until system has been on sale a year to decide on development support beyond FIFA 18
32. Sold Out: “Nintendo does not exclude you, it just asks you to up your game” – CEO Garry Williams says “the opportunities are there” for boxed games on Switch following digital indie gold rush
33. Mobile still a “core pillar” of Nintendo’s strategy, despite Super Mario Run shortfall: “There is still much we have to learn,” says president Tatsumi Kimishima; no plans for platform holder to manufacture smartphones
34. Sales up at Capcom thanks to ‘stalwart’ Monster Hunterfranchise
35. Monster Hunter Switch drives Capcom’s sales up to $295mz: Nintendo title shows “stalwart performance”, publisher expects downloads to account for one in three sales by April
36. Bandai surprised by Switch’s popularity, wants more titles on console
37. Bandai Namco ramping up support for the Nintendo Switch: “We didn’t think the Switch [would] be accepted this fast”, says president Mitsuaki Taguchi
38. One modder is on a quest to preserve Nintendo’s forgotten Flash games
39. Blizzard has its own classic World of Warcraft server in the works
40. Blizzard finally relents to years of fan pressure with World of Warcraft Classic: Shock announcement comes at outset of annual Blizzcon event.
41. Destiny 2 and digital drive Activision Blizzard growth: More than half of Destiny 2 copies sold on consoles were purchased digitally as Activision side carries the company’s quarter – Over $1bn in-game revenues
42. For console games, downloads are approaching a tipping point: Destiny 2’s digital success could spell long-term trouble for discs
43. Activision Blizzard beats expectations to post record Q3 revenues
44. StarCraft II goes free-to-play seven years after launch: Single-player campaign, ranked multiplayer available free of charge.
45. Blizzard is making StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty free-to-play
46. Starcraft II goes free-to-play: New WoW expansion announced alongside new business model for Blizzard’s hit RTS
47. Take-Two plans to only release games with ‘recurrent consumer spending’ hooks: “It may not always be an online model, it probably won’t always be a virtual currency model, but there will be some ability to engage in an ongoing basis with our titles after release across the board. That’s a sea change in our business.”
48. NBA 2K18, GTA Online drive Take-Two’s Q2: CEO Strauss Zelnick says despite complaints of aggressive microtransactions, player spending “probably the best barometer of how a title’s being received”
49. Take-Two wants “recurrent consumer spending” from all titles, won’t always be virtual currency: Meanwhile CEO Strauss Zelnick remains confident Red Dead 2 won’t cannibalise ongoing GTA Online success
50. Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy drive strong earnings for Square Enix
51. New Dragon Quest, old Final Fantasy drive Square Enix growth: Japanese debut of DQ XI, HD remaster of FF XII, and Nier: Automata push publisher to 24% sales growth for first half of fiscal year
52. For the first time, Ubisoft’s microtransactions out-earned digital game sales
53. Microtransactions now account for nearly half of Take-Two’s revenue
54. Games revenue slows to a crawl at Microsoft
55. Microsoft gaming revenue stalls ahead of Xbox One X launch: Strong Xbox software and services revenue offset by lower hardware revenue
56. Pressure Mounts for Xbox’s Missing VR Strategy as PSVR Rakes in Half a Billion in Hardware Alone: VR nowhere in sight for next week’s Xbox One X launch
57. Microsoft joins OpenXR VR and AR standardization project
58. Xbox plans to ramp up in-house development efforts
59. Xbox to make bigger first-party push, could acquire studios: “We need to grow,” Xbox boss Phil Spencer tells Bloomberg
60. Microsoft will have game streaming within 3 years as focus shifts to software: After years of decline, Microsoft plans to invest in first-party game development.
61. Microsoft could bring first-party titles to rival platforms
62. Xbox One X games at launch: The boosts, the bummers, and the bottom line
63. Xbox One X review: An exclamation point for hardware, a question mark for software: Is Microsoft’s “true 4K” console worth $100 more than the PS4 Pro?
64. Xbox One X pre-orders from Amazon UK delayed: Stock issues to responsible for delay, says distributor
65. Assassin’s Creed Origins launch sales double Syndicate’s: Strong return of historical action franchise a bonus as Mario + Rabbids, Rainbow Six Siege help push first half sales up 66% year-over-year
66. Zynga sees earnings rise for the second quarter in a row
67. Zynga turnaround continues, company buys Peak Games’ card studio for $100m: Zynga has now posted two consecutive profitable quarters for the first time since going public
68. Zynga looks to solidify newfound profitability: Developer building a portfolio of card games to keep players engaged for “a very long period of time”
69. 2 Years of Gremlins, Inc.: demographics
70. VR devs react to CCP exit: “VR is not dead”: Studios still optimistic about VR’s future, saying headlines about its death are simply “scandalous”
71. Opioids Haven’t Solved Chronic Pain. Maybe Virtual Reality Can
72. Wind Simulation Accessory for VR Headsets Hits $30k Crowdfunding Goal on Day One
73. A word of warning on VR: Professor Mark Mon-Williams explains why VR headsets have different minimum age ratings, and what developers can do to avoid potential negative effects
74. Intel To Bring Esports To PyeongChang Before Winter Olympic Games
75. Dallas Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones Acquires compLexity Gaming
76. Dallas Cowboys owner buys majority stake in Complexity Gaming: Complexity to relocate to Cowboys’ headquarters as construction begins on “state-of-the-art operations centre”
77. UK games tax relief initiative extended until 2023
78. Zynga pays $100M in cash to buy Turkish mobile dev Peak Games
79. Zynga sees earnings rise for the second quarter in a row
80. Telltale Games lays off 90 employees

Jon