News of the Week

DIGITAL

1. As Canadian ISPs Requested, Canada Get Proposed Law To Ban Copyright Settlement Letters
2. AT&T steps up copyright enforcement, kicks customers off network
3. Small And Medium Publishers Protest EU Link Tax, Which Will Harm Them, While Helping Only Large Publishers
4. Section 230 Doesn’t Support Habeus Petition by ‘Revenge’ Pornographer–Bollaert v. Gore (Eric Goldman)
5. Gab is back a week after Pittsburgh shooting controversy forced it offline
6. As He Staves Off T-Series, PewDiePie Isn’t Finished Crossing YouTube Milestones Yet
7. Chrome 71 will block any and all ads on sites with “abusive experiences”
8. YouTube Music Chief Lyor Cohen Joins Chorus Of Execs, Creators Denouncing Article 13
9. YouTube’s head of music warns that EU’s Article 13 is detrimental to remixes, fan videos: Lyor Cohen is the most recent YouTube executive to speak out
10. YouTube’s ‘Edge Of Seventeen’ Marks Latest In A String Of Series From Female-Led Creative Teams
11. Anna Kendrick To Star In YouTuber-Filmmaker Joe Penna’s Second Feature Film ‘Stowaway’
12. Most Parents Who Let Their Kids Watch YouTube Have Encountered Disturbing Videos (Study)
13. YouTube Has Paid Out More Than $3 Billion To Copyright Holders Through Content ID 
14. YouTube paid $3 billion to copyright owners through Content ID: Google said its anti-piracy efforts are doing very well.
15. “Bohemian Rhapsody” Becomes YouTube’s Most-Viewed Music Video From The ‘70s Ahead Of Queen Biopic 
16. Vancouver School District and City of Vancouver Launch FuturePLAY, a STEAM Program with BroadbandTV 
17. VSauce2 Launches Create Unknown Podcast About The Business Of Being A YouTuber
18. Disney Digital Network Lays Off A Number Of Employees As Part Of Shifting Focus To SVOD
19. TanaCon Organizer Files For Bankruptcy, Will Release His Own Documentary About Ill-Fated Event
20. Logan Paul Says Being Axed From ‘Google Preferred’ In January Has Cost Him $5 Million
21. FaZe Clan Is Hiring A House Manager To Oversee Its Growing Fleet Of Creator Mansions
22. Mixer introduces new monetization for streamers  
23. The Privacy Battle To Save Google From Itself
24. Google Patents Eye-Tracking System To Read Expressions For VR 
25. The Next Level Of Tech Activism: Google Employees Walk Out, Demand Changes From Management
26. Thousands of Google employees slam execs’ response to sexual misconduct
27. We’re the Organizers of the Google Walkout. Here Are Our Demands
28. Vice Media President Andrew Creighton Exits Months After Sexual Harassment Investigation
29. Vice Media is cutting its staff by up to 15% amid missed revenue and a traffic slump
30. Nancy Dubuc: Vice Will Be Profitable ‘Within a Fiscal Year’ 
31. Pet Influencers Can Command $15,000 Per Instagram Post, Says Top Animal Talent Manager
32. Snapchat’s PR Firm Sues Influencer For Breaching Terms Of $60,000 Brand Deal
33. Company Sues Influencer for Failing to Influence 
34. Snapchat to Launch Three More Series From Barcroft Media
35. On eve of US elections, Facebook pulls down 115 “inauthentic” accounts
36. Facebook Takes Down 115 Accounts Possibly Linked to Russia Hours Before Polls Open 
37. We Tested Facebook’s Ad Screeners and Some Were Too Strict: The platform mistook a disabled veterans fundraiser for a political ad.
38. We posed as 100 Senators to run ads on Facebook. Facebook approved all of them.
39. Don’t Leave It All to Facebook: The U.S. Should Do More To Protect Our Data Privacy
40. TikTok Tops App Charts, Beating Out YouTube, Facebook, Instagram In Number Of October Downloads
41. Will ‘Deepfakes’ Disrupt The Midterm Election?
42. Our lack of interest in data ethics will come back to haunt us
43. Copyright Office Extends Anti-Circumvention DMCA Exemptions To All Filmmakers, Not Just Documentarians 
44. After Being Sued To Block Sci-Hub; Swedish ISP Blocks Court’s And Elsevier’s Website In Protest
45. Crypt TV Teams With Netflix On Horror Anthology Series ‘Don’t Watch This’
46. Free Flickr accounts slashed to 1,000 pictures; the rest will be deleted
47. Flickr Is Going to Delete a Bunch of Photos—Back Up Yours Now
48. You can now share IGTV videos to your Instagram Story
49. Apple’s heart study is the biggest ever, but with a catch
50. Apple Stock Drops After Company Announces No Growth in iPhone Sales
51. While iPhone sales remain stagnant, Apple services hit $10 billion in revenue
52. Report: Apple Nearly Acquired Leap Motion but the Deal Fell Through
53. Satya Nadella: The cloud is going to move underwater 
54. Red Hat Hysteria: Aren’t We Past The Point Of Being Surprised That ‘Free’ Is A Part Of The Business Model? 
55. Bell Says Latest Helicopter was Designed 10 Times Faster With VR
56. Defendant Can’t Send Virtual Gambling Claims to Arbitration 
57. AI Meets IP: The patent challenge
58. We Need an FDA For Algorithms: UK mathematician Hannah Fry on the promise and danger of an AI world.
59. Should a Self-Driving Car Kill the Baby or the Grandma? Depends on Where You’re From: The infamous “trolley problem” was put to millions of people in a global study, revealing how much ethics diverge across cultures
60. Winklevoss twins claim famed crypto evangelist stole 5,000 bitcoins from them
61. Lawyer: My client didn’t steal 5,000 bitcoins, “Period”
62. Our Music Festival- Empowering a Decentralized Fanbase with Blockchain 
63. Blockchain-based elections would be a disaster for democracy
64. The Case For Giving Robots An Identity
65. Restaurants have strict standards to protect customers. Tech platforms don’t
66. New York Lawmakers Want Social Media History To Be Included In Gun Background Checks
67. Racial Discrimination Lawsuit Against Airbnb Has the Potential to Change Online Marketplaces–Harrington v. Airbnb (Eric Goldman)
68. Making Sense of the Canadian Digital Tax Debate, Part 5: Income Tax Reform to Support the News Media (Michael Geist)
69. Making Sense of the Canadian Digital Tax Debate, Part 6: Ensuring Internet Companies Pay Their Fair Share of Income Tax (Michael Geist)
70. A Victory for Software Preservation: DMCA Exemption Granted for SPN
71. Big Boost For Open Access As Wellcome And Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Back EU’s ‘Plan S’

CREATIVITY

1. Massive Canadian IP Law Reform in a Budget Bill – Throwing Parliamentary Scrutiny Under the Omnibus Bus with Bill C-86
2. Bill C-86: Shaking Up Canada’s IP Legislation 
3. No Need for New Internet Injunctions: Why Canadian Copyright Law Already Provides Rights Holders with the Legal Tools They Need (Michael Geist)
4. U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement: Intellectual Property Provisions for the Modern Age
5. Russian Government Hits Last Independent News Outlet With A $338,000 Fine
6. HBO Would Like Donald Trump to Stop Using Game of Thrones Memes to Stoke Fear Ahead of Elections [Updated]
7. HBO twitchs Trump’s Game of Thrones-tinged tweet a “misappropriation” of trademark
8. Conservative Magazine Tweets That President Trump Is Going to Hell
9. An expert on ‘dangerous speech’ explains how Trump’s rhetoric and the recent spate of violence are and aren’t linked
10. Another Lawsuit And Another Loss For Plaintiffs Trying To Make Twitter Pay For Terrorism
11. New Report Details Massive Mysterious Influence Campaign On Twitter
12. Trump has Twitter. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is winning Instagram
13. Why The Whole Freaking World Knows That Rep. Jeff Fortenberry Hates Being Called Fartenberry
14. Notorious patent enforcement entity values its entire portfolio at $2, folds

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. CRTC Chair Opens the Door to Weakening Canadian Net Neutrality Rules (Michael Geist)
2. Supreme Court rejects industry challenge of 2015 net neutrality rules
3. Supreme Court Rejects Telecom Industry Calls To Hear Net Neutrality Case… For Now
4. California Net Neutrality Law Put On Hold Pending Federal Litigation  
5. As The “Net Neutrality” World Turns . . . .
6. Lawmaker who wants paid fast lanes on Internet wins US Senate seat
7. All The Mergers In The World Apparently Can’t Save AT&T From Cord Cutting
8. AT&T Blackout Of HBO On Dish Highlights Perils Of Megamerger Mania 
9. Cable’s Top Lobbyist Again Calls For Heavier Regulation Of Silicon Valley
10. Verizon Just Obliterated Ajit Pai’s Justification For Killing Net Neutrality
11. Ajit Pai slams Sprint, Charter, and CenturyLink for poor robocall effort
12. FCC Pretends To Hold Carrier Feet To The Fire On Robocalls
13. How robocall spam and cheap tech are screwing with political polls 
14. Digital Businesses Beware: You Could be Liable for the Anti-Spam Violations of Others
15. Charter Spectrum’s CEO Continues To Whine About Streaming Password Sharing
16. Another Study Shockingly Discovers That Cable TV Needs To Compete On Price

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. New data shows China has “taken the gloves off” in hacking attacks on US
2. How did Iran find CIA spies? They Googled it
3. The upshot of GDPR: Programmatic ad rates are rising
4. Hackers Published Private Messages From 81,000 Facebook Users
5. Police decrypt 258,000 messages after breaking pricey IronChat crypto app
6. Cyber-attackers could exploit security flaw found in the embedded video function of Microsoft Word
7. Wyden Unveils Plan to Protect Private Data, Restore ‘Do Not Track,’ and Jail Reckless CEOs
8. Bluetooth bugs bite millions of Wi-Fi APs from Cisco, Meraki, and Aruba
9. Proposed data privacy law could send company execs to prison for 20 years
10. California Passes Internet of Things Law 
11. New Senate report on cyber security should “keep you up at night”
12. Georgia’s Brian Kemp And The No Good, Very Bad Claim That Democrats Were Hacking Voter Registration System
13. Common-Knowledge Attacks on Democracy (Henry Farrell & Bruce Schneier)

GAMES

1. Tencent will use police databases to restrict playtime in China
2. Tencent to run player ID checks across its entire portfolio in China: “Healthy gaming” system to expand beyond Honor of Kings in 2019, to allay the government’s addiction fears
3. Riot Games sued over allegations of sexual harassment, pay disparity
4. Current and former employees file class action lawsuit against Riot Games
5. Riot Games faces class-action suit for discrimination, harassment: One current, one former employee allege company denied equal pay, stifled careers based on their gender
6. He Helped People Cheat at Grand Theft Auto. Then His Home Was Raided: A gamer in Melbourne has had his assets frozen in connection with a popular video game cheat. He’s one of many being sued by game companies worldwide, raising questions about copyright
7. Bizarre: TrustedReviews Pulls Website Reporting on ‘Red Dead’ Leak, Pays More Than A Million To Charities Of Rockstar’s Choice
8. Take-Two Interactive raises financial outlook due to Red Dead Redemption II
9. NBA 2K19 and GTA Online drive Take-Two results: Digital sales continue to accelerate
10. British Website Forced To Pay $1.3 Million Over Red Dead Redemption 2 Leak
11. TI Media donates $1.3 million as apology for leaking internal Take-Two documents
12. Take-Two, TrustedReviews reach legal settlement over Red Dead Redemption 2 leak: ‘Over £1 million’ settlement to be directed to three charities after February article leak of confidential document
13. Red Dead Redemption 2 scores 2018’s biggest second week at UK retail: Football Manager 2019 comes in at No.9 in physical form
14. Rockstar Ports Its Old, Antiquated, Flawed Censorial Blacklist For Player Chat Into New ‘Red Dead Redemption’ Game
15. Twitch users spent 34M hours watching Black Ops 4 on launch week
16. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 sees 34m hours of Twitch viewership during launch week – Gamoloco – Battle royale mode drove 270% increase over WWII’s launch
17. Microsoft’s Twitch Competitor Mixer Rolls Out Hefty Update With More Ways For Creators To Make Money And More Ways For Viewers To Engage
18. Rainbow 6 Siege Will Remove Sex And Gambling References Globally
19. Visual tweaks hit Rainbow Six Siege ahead of release in Asian countries
20. Ubisoft removing references to gambling, skulls for global Rainbow Six Siege release: Expansion to Asia to come with aesthetic game changes for “single, global vision” of the game
21. Just Dance 2019 under fire for advertising paid subscription in ‘Kids Mode’
22. Ubisoft reworking Just Dance kids mode after parental complaint over subscription ads: Calls for younger users to sign up to Unlimited service prompt apology from publisher
23. How to handle entitled gamers when announcing a mobile game: Blizzard isn’t the first games giant to have to manage its fans when moving to smartphones
24. Blizzard announces its first mobile Diablo game
25. Blizzard’s Diablo mobile game meets community backlash: NetEase co-developed Diablo Immortal sparks online petition, Blizzard categorises response as fan “passion”
26. Activision Blizzard stock tumbles following Diablo Immortal backlash: Share price takes 6.74% hit to close out day at lowest point since January
27. Blizzard’s long-awaited World of Warcraft Classic releases next summer
28. World of Warcraft: Classic free to WoW subscribers – Recreation of original World of Warcraft due out in summer 2019
29. Blizzard’s Overwatch League is making big changes with player wellness in mind: Season 2 will have more teams and fewer games
30. Turtle Beach revenue up 107% to $74.4m in latest quarterly financials: Popularity of battle royale games drive strong headset sales
31. Fallout 76 beta: Bethesda extends UK time after bug deletes game from PCs – A bug managed to delete the whole of the Fallout 76 beta from people’s PCs and they were not happy
32. Sony keeping Warhawk, other PS3 game servers live through January [Updated]
33. PUBG’s “console exclusivity” may soon end, as loud hints of a PS4 version mount
34. As PUBG for PS4 looms, Xbox unofficially responds: have the game for free
35. Feature erosion watch: Xbox One loses broadcast TV streaming on iOS/Android – iOS and Android apps no longer able to receive antenna TV signals through console
36. “Companies don’t care about your games. People care about your games”: At Melbourne Games Week, Nick Suttner and Ken Wong advised developers not to see storefronts as monoliths – find the people that work there, and make them your champions
37. Back from the dead: The people keeping old MMOs alive: Dozens of dead or abandoned MMOs are kept alive by teams of volunteers, many of whom struggle with the legal and financial implications of the task
38. Dude, Where’s My Money? Part One: The Science of Steam
39. Dude, Where’s My Money? Part Two: Divvying up the Loot – AurumDust’s Nikolay Bondarenko offers advice on Steam’s tools, key resellers, and how to work with the growing legion of storefronts
40. 5 years into Early Access, DayZ hits beta ahead of a planned 1.0 release this year
41. A ridiculously in-depth look at the email marketing ofBoyfriend Dungeon
42. Starbreeze Studios pre-tax loss triples to $11.3m in Q3 2018: Payday 2 accounts for two-thirds of company’s Q3 revenue as it prepares to launch Overkill’s The Walking Dead
43. Pokemon GO earned $73 million in October: Earnings represent 67% year-over-year increase, edges Niantic’s title over Fortnite for mobile revenue
44. Junichi Masuda likely stepping away from director role on future Pokemon games: After Let’s Go!, Masuda to allow “younger generation” to steer the series
45. Apptopia October report: Asian developers dominate the top new games on iOS and Android – Games from Asian markets account for nine of the top ten new games on App Store in terms of IAP spending
46. Newzoo lowers global games forecast for 2018 to $134.9 Billion: China’s licensing freeze, mobile copycat fatigue bring mobile market predictions down by $7 billion
47. Bringing feudal Japan to life in Ghost of Tsushima: Sucker Punch creative director Nate Fox discusses ensuring the game’s setting is authentic, despite the appeal of the romantic imagery
48. DeNA bringing Tencent’s Arena of Valor to Japan: Mobile specialist will handle operational support, marketing and localisation for the region
49. Report: Japan’s mobile game creators are losing out to China, South Korea
50. Capcom will focus on PC for the future of Monster Hunter: World
51. Capcom considering more cloud games despite Resident Evil 7 shortcomings: Streamed Switch version of horror hit “did not have a significant impact on earnings”, but publisher still sees promise in the technology
52. Brexit will cause ‘serious harm’ to the UK games industry: White paper from Games4EU suggests consumers will take financial hit while industry suffers ‘brain drain’ and ‘cultural diminishment’
53. Profits down at Sega despite upswing in packaged game sales
54. Sega’s H1 games results stagnate on lack of new releases: New Football Manager and Total War games promise a stronger H2
55. Ingress Prime launches today, first major live events imminent: Niantic also planning Netflix series, web series to develop the game’s plot
56. Old School RuneScape mobile debuts with over one million installs: iOS launch more than doubles mobile audience, brings game to #1 in the App Store in eight countries
57. Nintendo to remove offensive Native American designs from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
58. Nintendo Says It Will Remove Racist Native American Animation From Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
59. Nintendo apologizes for Native American caricature: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate callback to 1982 Game & Watch title will see animation changed as company says it “does not represent our company values today”
60. Super Mario Party passes 1.5 million sales in under a month
61. Super Mario Party sells 1.5m units in release month: Joy-Con sales driven up by game’s strong performance, says Nintendo
62. Mario Segale, namesake for Nintendo’s mascot, dies at 84
63. Obituary: Mario Segale, the real-life namesake of Super Mario, has passed away
64. Top Twitch Streamer Ninja Talks Planning For A Future Without ‘Fortnite’
65. Fortnite has been downloaded by half of all Nintendo Switch owners: Epic’s game has been a hit with console’s 22 million-strong audience
66. Tech billionaire Tej Kohli launches €50 million European esports investment fund: Esports Insider co-founder and managing director Sam Cooke brought on as adviser to Rewired GG
67. Discord acquires Blitz Esports, closes content platform: Eight editorial team members let go in transition, League of Legends app to continue under new owner
68. Malaysian government pledges $2.4m for esports in 2019: National budget will boost local esports scene, Razer CEO pledges to match the investment
69. Danish prime minister opens Counter-Strike esports tournament – Lars Løkke Rasmussen: “You are truly sportsmen following your dreams”
70. Bat, ball and keyboard? The expansion of traditional athletic organisations into esports
71. Diablo III leads our list of older games born anew on Nintendo Switch
72. Survey: Teens spend an average of $184 on video games a year
73. Study: Tetris is a great distraction for easing an anxious mind
74. Video: Experimental approaches to improving peer feedback in games
75. Zynga enjoys best mobile performance in company history: Mobile revenue reaches $212 million in Q3 2018
76. Candy Crush Friends Saga surpasses $10 million: King’s most recent Candy Crush entry’s launch driven by US, Android users
77. Sales and profits down at Square Enix as console titles falter
78. Square Enix wants new studio Luminous to focus solely on triple-A
79. Square Enix reports $33m extraordinary loss as new AAA studio shifts focus: Half-year financial results also show declines across the board despite Tomb Raider and Octopath Traveller launches
80. Square Enix picks up 20% stake in Battalion 1944 dev Bulkhead Interactive
81. Square Enix buys 20% of Battalion 1944 developer Bulkhead
82. Record bookings drive Glu Mobile ever closer to profit in Q3: Design Home, Tap Sports Baseball and Covet Fashion represented 79% of all bookings
83. Blog: A case for single-player matchmaking
84. Swiss studio wins Universal GameDev Contest: Gbanga awarded $150,000 and one-year consulting contract with Universal for Voltron: Cubes of Olkarion
85. How to design for coziness…and kindness: Tanya X. Short, Rebecca Cordingley, and other developers of “cozy” games explain why and how they make their games safe, familiar and intimate
86. Kartridge, Kongregate’s game platform with generous rev share, launches in open beta
87. Oculus co-founder: “Free is still not cheap enough” for current VR tech
88. Blizzard’s Hearthstone reaches 100 million registered players 
89. How bad crediting hurts the game industry and muddles history
90. A look back at the top-selling games of the ’90s

Jon

DIGITAL

1. Canadian Government Banning Settlement Demands in Copyright Notice-and-Notice System (Michael Geist)
2. Canadian Government Rejects Access Copyright’s Demand for Statutory Damages (Michael Geist)
3. Canadian ISPs Want To Amend Law To Outlaw Settlement Letters
4. This is fine: IBM acquires Red Hat
5. Who owns this AI-generated painting? (Andres Guadamuz)
6. Painting created by Artificial Intelligence goes under the hammer at Christie’s  
7. This AI Lie Detector Flags Falsified Police Reports
8. AI Dreamed Up These Nightmare Fuel Halloween Masks
9. Glimpse: Truly Useful Augmented Reality is Coming. We’re Not Ready. – Soon we’ll be using augmented reality more seamlessly than ever before. And that means we need ground rules for how to not be creeps.
10. Facebook Sees A Future In Augmented Reality Glasses 
11. Hey, How’d That Facebook ‘War Room’ Fare During Brazil’s Election Season? Oh.
12. Facebook yanks content tied to Iranian effort due to “inauthentic behavior”: Detected last week by investigators, accounts targeted US and UK users to “spread discord.”
13. Facebook Bans Proud Boys, Vice Co-Founder Gavin McInnes
14. U.K., Canada Call on Mark Zuckerberg to Appear Before International Panel
15. Instagram’s IGTV, BuzzFeed Launch Accelerator Program For 15 Vertical Video Creators
16. Liza Koshy To Co-Host ‘Election Afterparty’ On MTV With Charlamagne Tha God
17. Snapchat Lost Users in Quarter, Says Declines Will Continue
18. Snap expands Snapchat Shows with 25 new series out of the UK
19. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel Rescinded Promotion for Ex-WarnerMedia Exec Kristen O’Hara, Who Is Now Leaving (Report)
20. GitHub is now officially a part of Microsoft
21. Snapchat Content Chief Wants To Foster Creator Ecosystem Like On YouTube, Vine — And He’s Unimpressed By IGTV
22. EU ‘Protecting Consumers’ By Forcing Them To Pay More For Android?
23. Google CEO: We need to “take a much harder line on inappropriate behavior”
24. Over a decade, Google handsomely paid 3 men accused of misconduct, per report
25. YouTube Fixes Error Messages Stating Certain Free Videos Required Payment
26. YouTube’s ‘Cobra Kai’ Pilot Passes 50 Million Views, With Perfect Rotten Tomatoes Score
27. YouTube’s New King? India’s T-Series Could Soon Overtake Pewdiepie To Become The World’s Biggest Channel
28. Naomi Campbell, Janelle Monáe, And Lakeith Stanfield Grace #YouTubeBlack Creator Summit
29. Disney Star Peyton List Joins Cast Of YouTube Premium’s ‘Cobra Kai’ For Season 2
30. Trudeau’s gift to Google
31. Patreon And Reddit Add Integrations To Help Creators Connect With And Gain New Supporters
32. Elle Mills Launches Patreon Account Because She Spends “Way More Money Creating Videos Than I Earn From Them”
33. Brands and Influencers: Navigating Influencer Agreements from Macro to Micro
34. SVOD Service Zeus Inks Tech Pact With Vimeo On Back-End, Unveils 3 New Shows
35. Fox Nation Sets Launch Date
36. FilmStruck Is Latest Casualty Of WarnerMedia Streamlining, Will Shutter In November
37. Warner Bros. and Turner Are Killing One of the Internet’s Last Good Things
38. Cheddar Buys ‘Rate My Professors’ Website From Viacom
39. UK Government Screws Head On Straight, Bans Use Of Term ‘Fake News’ By Gov’t Officials
40. Brookings survey finds 57 percent say they have seen fake news during 2018 elections and 19 percent believe it has influenced their vote
41. Breitbart Snowflakes Threaten To Sue People Who Have Asked Advertisers To Stop Advertising On Breitbart
42. Trump Tweets, ‘I Rarely Use a Cellphone,’ From His iPhone
43. The President’s Phone OPSEC Continues To Be, Well, Crap
44. Campbell Soup Co. Executive Is Out After Tweeting George Soros Conspiracy Theory
45. UK set to impose new “tech tax” on Silicon Valley giants
46. U.K. to Slap New Tax on Technology Giants
47. UK Commits to Introducing Targeted Digital Services Tax
48. The Digital Services Tax: A Conceptual Defense (Wei Cui)
49. FundamentalVR Partners with Mayo Clinic to Develop VR Surgical Simulations, Raises $1.4M Financing
50. The Indiana Supreme Court’s Decision in Daniels v. FanDuel, Inc.: What it Means for Right of Publicity Law and the Future of Online Sports Betting
51. Half of enterprise machines run Windows 10, as Windows 7’s end of life looms
52. Court Rules on Remand that it Lacks Long-Arm Jurisdiction Over Tech Company in Defamation Lawsuit 
53. After 10 Years, Bitcoin Has Changed Everything—And Nothing
54. Court Orders Tracing Remedy For Cryptocurrency – Copytrack Pte Ltd v. Wall
55. Swedish Court Misunderstands Memes
56. Mail bombing suspect repeatedly threatened Democrats on Twitter
57. Detailed And Thorough Debunking Of Bloomberg’s Sketchy Story About Supply Chain Hack
58. Section 230 Protects Twitter’s Decision to Suspend User’s Account–Mezey v. Twitter (Eric Goldman)
59. Video Advertising Contract Descends Into Possible “Cyberattack”–Radian Weapons v. GY6Vids
60. Seventh Different Lawsuit Against Social Media Providers for “Material Support to Terrorists” Fails–Taamneh v. Twitter (Eric Goldman)
61. Making Sense of the Canadian Digital Tax Debate, Part 2: Mandated Canadian Content Contributions aka a “Netflix Tax” (Michael Geist)
62. Making Sense of the Canadian Digital Tax Debate, Part 3: New Taxes or Fees on Internet Access (Michael Geist)
63. Making Sense of the Canadian Digital Tax Debate, Part 4: New Taxes or Fees on Digital Devices (Michael Geist)
64. Helium implicated in weird iPhone malfunctions
65. Why almost everyone was wrong about Tesla’s cash flow situation
66. Eye doctors find that WebMD symptom checker was wrong more than half the time

CREATIVITY

1. New Bill C-86 introduces many more changes to IP laws
2. Taking on the Trolls: Canadian Government To Regulate Patent Demand Letters (Michael Geist)
3. Pharrell Is Not At All Happy About Trump Using ‘Happy’ At His Rally… And He Might Actually Have A Case
4. Judge Engelmayer: Copyright Damages from Brief Display of Plaintiff’s Art in Kendrick Lamar Music Video Are Not Inherently Speculative 
5. Copyright in the United States
6. Fair use isn’t arithmetic 
7. EU Copyright Directive Update: Fresh (But Slim) Hope Of Stopping Link Taxes And Upload Filters
8. Indiana Supreme Court Rules Against Student Athletes in Fantasy Sports Rights of Publicity Case
9. Indiana Supreme Court: No Right to Publicity in Fantasy Sports
10. Megyn Kelly ousted from NBC show after blackface backlash
11. The House Of Cards cast bailed on Megyn Kelly, and now NBC News might even cut her loose 
12. Fox News takes a hard pass on Megyn Kelly
13. MoMA museum claims infringement and dilution by MoMaCha tea café name
14. The Urban Legend About Scattering Human Ashes at Disney Is True, and It’s Worse Than We Thought

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. Net neutrality delay: Calif. agrees to suspend law until after court case
2. California Agrees To Delay Net Neutrality Law Pending Outcome Of Federal Lawsuit
3. California Delays Implementation of Its Net Neutrality Law Pending Challenge of FCC’s Order 
4. FCC Falsely Declares Community Broadband An ‘Ominous’ Attack On Free Speech
5. Texas, Arkansas, & Nebraska AGs Are Now Aiding The Broadband Industry’s Assault On Net Neutrality
6. Charter Spectrum Jacks Up Rates (Again) Thanks To Merger ‘Synergies’
7. FCC Republican claims municipal broadband is threat to First Amendment
8. Verizon won’t speed up 5G buildout despite FCC preempting local fees

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Facebook could face legal claims from a million UK users following Information Commissioner’s data breach fine
2. When idle gossip goes too far – data breach involving Facebook
3. The New Mandatory Data Breach Reporting Regimes: Four Key Elements
4. EFF Sues California Law Enforcement Agency For Refusing To Hand Over Stingray Documents
5. Court: Teen’s driving killed someone, but he can’t be forced to give up passcode
6. Feds took woman’s iPhone at border, she sued, now they agree to delete data
7. Florida Appeals Court Says Producing Passwords Is Testimonial And Protected By The Fifth Amendment
8. New Signal privacy feature removes sender ID from metadata
9. How a 19th-Century Teenager Sparked a Battle Over Who Owns Our Faces
10. My Father Says He’s A ‘Targeted Individual.’ Maybe We All Are
11. Feds Also Using ‘Reverse Warrants’ To Gather Location/Identifying Info On Thousands Of Non-Suspects
12. The Price of Privacy: Canada’s Top Court Rules, ISPs must disclose the identity of illegal downloaders at a “reasonable” cost
13. Last Chance To Opt Out Of #MyHealthRecord, Australians!
14. Take a Wild Guess Why Visiting 9,000 Porn Sites on Your Government Computer Is a Dumb Idea
15. EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework Joint Annual Review 2.0 

GAMES

1. Suspect in fatal swatting faces 46 new charges: Tyler Barriss expected to plead guilty to phoning in bomb threats and using police to harass others for years leading up to last December’s death over a Call of Duty argument
2. The Library of Congress just made game preservation a little bit easier
3. Researchers can now legally restore “abandoned” online game servers
4. Analyst expects Houser brothers to receive huge Red Dead royalties: Take-Two clarifies that last year’s royalties of $383m shared across all studios
5. Rockstar devs detail the studio’s history with ‘mandatory’ crunch
6. Rockstar’s broken work ethics: Former employees detail mandatory long hours, unpaid overtime, and a culture of fear at studios behind Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption
7. Rockstar: “Overtime is not mandatory” – Red Dead Redemption developer responds to increasing number of stories about studio’s intense working conditions
8. Red Dead Redemption 2: Critical Consensus – Rockstar’s latest hailed as a masterpiece, raising the bar for open worlds to come
9. Red Dead Redemption 2 made $725 million over the weekend
10. Red Dead Redemption 2 makes $725 million in three days: It’s the second biggest entertainment launch in history behind GTA V
11. Red Dead Redemption 2 UK sales more than double the first game: Rockstar’s latest epic is the second fastest-selling game of the year
12. Crunch, work-life balance, and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey: A view from the top
13. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey built without ‘massive crunch’: “We think it’s a false economy to burn out our teams. We risk losing them”
14. SAG-AFTRA’s new agreement opens doors for small-budget and indie games
15. Ex-IGDA head Kate Edwards now convinced game devs need unions: Edwards explains what pushed her from being open to the idea of organized labor to believing it needs to happen
16. Twitch teams up with Harmonix to develop a streaming karaoke game
17. Female Gamers Defend Twitch Star Pokimane After Sexist Backlash Following Makeup-Free Stream
18. Introducing the games industry’s latest gender diversity initiative – G Into Gaming
19. Can a video game prevent domestic violence?: We speak to Professor Adele Jones about her ongoing work to tackle abuse and the attitudes that lead to it
20. Renegotiated music licenses bring Alan Wake back to digital stores
21. Alan Wake returns to digital storefronts after music rights snafu [Updated]
22. Edge Case Games ceases support for Fractured Space: Developer intends to keep servers online “for the foreseeable future”
23. The dark, ironic, surreal games of Central and Eastern Europe: The region’s developers have found a place in the market by taking the upheaval of the past, and creating a unique visual and thematic identity
24. Epic Games secures $1.25 billion from multiple investors
25. Epic Games raises $1.25 billion from handful of investors: KKR, ICONIQ Capital, Smash Ventures, and four more join the ranks of Fortnite studio’s minority shareholders
26. ‘Fortnite’s’ Streaming Popularity May Have Peaked (Analyst)
27. Games deals in 2018 worth record $25bn but “could signal top of the market”: IPO market falls 90 per cent but games investment reaches “unprecedented” levels, according to Digi-Capital
28. SuperData: Digital spend on console reaches $1.24bn for September – Destiny 2 Forsaken expansion beats out Fortnite to top digital console rankings
29. Liftoff: Mobile user acquisition costs drop while in-app purchases struggle – Mobile App Engagement Index report notes that costs to get users from install to in-app purchase are rising quickly despite high engagement
30. Candy Crush Saga is the UK’s most popular game of all time on Android
31. Nier: Automata’s 2B Is Coming To Soulcalibur VI
32. Massive apples, cubes draw ire in ranked SoulCalibur VIonline play
33. Zynga reports rising revenues and deals for Harry Potter & Game of Thrones games
34. Zynga investing in Harry Potter, Game of Thrones titles: Both licensed games will be casual, mobile experiences to be developed at company’s US studios
35. Edge Case Games ends development of free-to-playFractured Space
36. The balance of Scavengers, a multiplayer game built by “famously vicious trolls”: Midwinter Entertainment CEO Josh Holmes believes “griefing” is an inevitable part of playing online – and accepting that is key to ensuring fair play
37. Turning a documentary into a video game: The team behind Never Alone discuss its upcoming Blue Planet tie-in with the BBC
38. Team Sonic Racing delayed until May 2019: Return of Sega-themed kart racing series was due on shelves before Christmas
39. Industry-first esports gambling platform gets wagering license approval: “There is finally a legitimate, regulated operator in the space that has a pretty comprehensive offering,” says Unikrn CEO
40. Esports Integrity Coalition issues five-year ban to CS:GO cheater: OpTic disbands in wake of Nikhil ‘forsaken’ Kumawat’s ban for cheating in two competitions
41. NBA superstar Michael Jordan leads $26m investment into aXiomatic Gaming: Jordan invests in parent company of third-most valuable esports organisation, Team Liquid
42. Conde Nast owner Advanced Publications acquires The Esports Observer 
43. Advance acquires The Esports Observer: Media company makes significant investment increase shortly after acquiring gaming analytics firm Newzoo
44. Esports makes up 9-17% of Twitch’s viewership in 2018 so far: Fortnite viewership dips in Q3 of this year, leaving Activision Blizzard to command attention once more
45. Blizzard launches standalone, souped-up Overwatch viewer for esports event
46. Unikrn gets gambling license for crypto-based betting on esports and games
47. Monster Hunter: World continues to drive sales at Capcom
48. Monster Hunter: World drives Capcom to strong six-month results – Hit title has eclipsed 10m shipments, helped Capcom to double profits
49. Microsoft gaming revenue up 44% despite quiet Q1 2019: Platform holder to expand Xbox Game Pass offering on PC
50. Microsoft Reveals ‘Maquette’, a VR Tool for Spatial Ideation and Design
51. Microsoft CEO reveals Xbox Game Pass is heading to PC
52. Microsoft is bringing all-you-can-play Game Pass subscription to PC
53. Minecraft reaches 150 million downloads in China: Free-to-play Chinese version gains 50 million players in five months
54. Sony sold nearly 4 million PS4s in the last three months
55. Sony reports 65% increase in games profit driven by sales of Spider-Man
56. Don’t mean a thing if you ain’t got that swing…in Spider-Man
57. Spider-Man drives 65% increase in games profits for Sony: Software sales were behind a strong fiscal Q2, Sony said, even as PS4 hardware sales continued to fall
58. Blog: A design analysis of Marvel’s Spider-Man
59. Here are all 20 games you’ll get with the PlayStation Classic
60. Full List Of PlayStation Classic Games Is Missing Some Classics
61. PlayStation Classic’s full game list announced, and it might annoy you
62. PlayStation Classic’s full game list announced, and it might annoy you
63. Sony announces PlayStation Classic game line-up: 20 titles on plug-and-play console include Metal Gear Solid, Grand Theft Auto, and Rayman
64. Why Playstation Classic (and other throwback consoles) may never feature the sports games we loved
65. Sony licenses PSVR design to Lenovo following eerily similar VR headsets
66. Sony licenses PSVR design for Lenovo VR headset: Two-year deal aims to expand and improve VR industry
67. Before crucial holiday season, Nintendo struggles as Sony shines
68. Nintendo recommits to “keep the business going” for 3DS
69. Bethesda hasn’t forsaken the Switch, despite Fallout 76skipping the console
70. Nintendo Switch version of Fallout 76 “wasn’t doable”: New game won’t be following Doom and Wolfenstein to Nintendo’s console, but Bethesda remains committed to the Switch as a “viable platform”
71. Switch reaches 22m lifetime sales in a solid six months for Nintendo: Total software unit sales are now at 111 million units for Nintendo’s console
72. Over 1,300 games from 500+ publishers have been released on the Switch’s eShop
73. Switch sales remain steady as Nintendo reports bump in profits
74. Report: Nintendo’s latest mobile game Dragalia Lostearned $28M in first month
75. Fortnite downloaded onto ‘nearly half’ of all Switch consoles
76. The Switch has surpassed 22M units in lifetime sales
77. A peek at Nintendo’s early Wii Remote prototype for the GameCube
78. Japanese auction reveals Nintendo’s first Wii remote—for the GameCube
79. Super Mario Odyssey has sold over 12 million copies
80. Income from player recurring investment rises to $297 million for Ubisoft
81. Ubisoft CEO: Cloud gaming can help AAA games grow beyond PC and console
82. Steam, Proud Adopters Of Hands Off Games Policy, Very Hands On When Banning All Of TorrentFreak
83. Steam now boasts 90 million monthly active users
84. New Valve Data Gives Fresh Insight into Number of VR Headsets Used on Steam
85. Oculus Now Lets You Record Abusive Behavior on Go & Gear VR
86. Has the VR boom hit a wall?: Enormous progress has been made in headset design and software development for VR – but without a major technological leap forward, current devices won’t reach the mass market
87. Don’t Miss: Here They Lie and the ethics of VR horror
88. EA reveals Project Atlas, a new game dev platform ‘in the cloud’
89. EA details new cloud native development platform, Project Atlas: Unified platform aims to “seamlessly converge” artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and Frostbite engine
90. FIFA & Madden drive a strong Q2 for EA ahead ofBattlefield V
91. Battlefield V will have premium currency, but no pay-to-win progression system
92. The rising need for game economy designers in freemium mobile games
93. What drives players to digital murder in The Sims games
94. Unity announces a winner for the Universal game dev contest 
95. Child of Light and Talking Tom to be adapted for TV and film
96. Blog: The universal inaccessibility of board games
97. Blog: A different approach to difficulty
98. Blog: Let’s talk about innovation in mobile games
99. Blog: Playing video games – A rambling essay about hating what you love
100. Blog: Why record $25 billion games deals could signal top of the market
101. Tabletop games are bigger than ever, and its driving growth in the digital sector
102. Raspberry Pi launches game dev magazine Wireframe 
103. Raspberry Pi launches games development magazine Wireframe: Fortnightly publication launches November 8th, 10,000 free welcome issues on offer
104. Australian devs’ advice to students: Specialise, and kill your darlings – At Melbourne Games Week, Blake Mizzi and Chris Wright outlined two key mistakes students make after graduating

Jon

DIGITAL

1.  This Week’s Bomb Scares Are A Perfect Misinformation Storm
2. Twitter takes down more accounts affiliated with Alex Jones’s Infowars
3. Twitter plays whac-a-mole with Alex Jones, suspends 18 linked accounts
4. Bleacher Report’s House of Highlights Sets Twitter Live Talk Show Debut
5. Uber vice president resigns after sexual misconduct allegations
6. Microsoft making more of the Windows 10 built-in apps removable
7. Microsoft’s problem isn’t how often it updates Windows—it’s how it develops it
8. Microsoft posts a record $29.1 billion Q1. Same old, same old
9. eBay is going to war with Amazon over an alleged scheme to steal business that is ‘startling in breadth’
10. Why Netflix Features Black Actors In Promos To Black Users
11. Rideshare and Chill? Lyft Introducing a Spotify/Netflix-Inspired Subscription Service 
12. Establishing an AI code of ethics will be harder than people think: Ethics are too subjective to guide the use of AI, argue some legal scholars.
13. Novelists Have A Boring New Gimmick: Writing Dull Books With AI 
14. This Startup Is Paying Strangers To Train AI’s
15. The AI Cold War That Threatens Us All
16. Want to Keep Canadian AI Thriving?: Create a Copyright Exception for Informational Analysis (Michael Geist)
17. New Roundup Ranks The World’s Robots By Creepiness
18. An agnostic observation on machine-originated works and copyright
19. How Alibaba Used Big Data To Dream Up A Peppercorn Snickers Bar 
20. The HTC Exodus Blockchain Phone Comes Into Focus
21. Two Cryptocurrency Heavyweights Partner On A Dollar-Backed Stablecoin
22. FinCEN warns of Iran using virtual currencies to bypass sanctions
23. It’s Blockchain your Honour
24. Why A Blockchain-based DRM Has Always Been A Terrible Idea
25. Inside Facebook’s election war room: In a Menlo Park conference room, a global effort to fight misinformation comes together
26. Facebook’s War Room Is Definitely Managing at Least One Crisis
27. Facebook is using new software to identify and remove child nudity photos uploaded to the site 
28. Facebook May Buy A Cybersecurity Company To Prevent Another Major Hack
29. SoundCloud now lets you share songs to Instagram Stories
30. Hundreds of health crowdfunding campaigns are for sham treatments
31. Instagram just surpassed Snapchat as the most used app among American teens, according to a new Wall Street survey
32. Snapchat helped over 400,000 users register to vote: To combat historically low voter turnout 
33. Report: Amazon Tried To Sell Facial Recognition Tech To Ice
34. Microsoft making more of the Windows 10 built-in apps removable
35. Axios Ridiculously Calls For Newsrooms To Ban Journalists From Having Opinions Online
36. Trump Wants to Borrow Tech Workers From Amazon, Google, and Microsoft: Report
37. Google to charge Android OEMs as much as $40 per phone in EU 
38. Just As Expected: GDPR Has Made Google Even More Dominant In Europe
39. Google to Remove Deceptive Travel Ads
40. CEO Gets Nine Months In Prison For Forging Court Documents Ordering Google To Delist Negative Reviews
41. YouTube CEO Calls on Creators to Rally Against EU Copyright Legislation
42. GroupM: YouTube’s better at brand safety, but still has a ways to go
43. YouTube partners with Eventbrite to sell concert tickets below music videos
44. YouTube is investing $20M in educational content, creators: Including partnering with third-party studios and networks
45. YouTube Invests $20 Million In Its ‘YouTube Learning’ Initiative To Support Creators, Launches Channel To Curate Educational Content 
46. Susan Wojcicki Says YouTube Update This Quarter Improved Monetization Icon Accuracy By 10%
47. Susan Wojcicki Warns Article 13 Could Result In Shutdown Of Millions Of YouTube Channels In The EU
48. Rihanna Tries Her Hand At Being A Beauty Vlogger In New YouTube Series 
49. David Dobrik, Casey Neistat, ‘Escape The Night’ Lead 2018 Streamys Nominees; Awards To Air Oct. 22 On YouTube
50. YouTube Revamps Look Of Video Embeds, Adds New Shortcuts To Boost Channel Growth
51. PewDiePie Decries YouTube’s Release Of Logan Paul Movie While His Series Remains Shelved
52. 2018 Streamy Awards: Complete Winners List
53. Todd The Hero Dog Named First-Ever ‘Dog Of The Year’ At 8th Annual Streamys
54. Influencer Marketing – Three Golden Rules 
55. Warner Bros. Promptly Shutters K-Drama Streaming Destination DramaFever
56. Intel’s 5GHz i9 Processor Is Incredible for Hype and Pretty Good for Computing, Too 
57. IBM: Quantum Computers Could Be Useful, But We Don’t Know Exactly How
58. The Incredible Evolution of the Smartphone Notch: From Bezels to All Screen
59. This Gorgeous All-Screen Phone Shows How the Notch Dies
60. Streaming Exclusives Will Drive Users Back To Piracy And The Industry Is Largely Oblivious 
61. Bad Newspaper Photoshop: Manny Machado Apparently Needs Emergency Shoulder Surgery, Probably Not Worth $300M
62. Another Report Shows That FOSTA Increased (Not Decreased) Sex Trafficking; Where Is The Outrage?
63. As Predicted, Australian Government Looks To Creep Site Censorship Into Search Censorship
64. UK Refreshes Stupid Porn Filter Law, Making It Fresher But No Less Stupid
65. Interpol Alert Issued By Turkey For Exiled Journalists President Erdogan Wants To Toss In Jail
66. Vietnam Expands Decades Long Effort To Crack Down On Any Dissent Online By Demanding Data Be Kept In The Country
67. Mexico Reverses Ban On Selling Roku Hardware After Absurd Piracy Ruling 
68. 100 Websites That Shaped the Internet as We Know It
69. Section 230 Applies to Defend Trade Secret Act Claims–Craft Beer Stellar v. Glassdoor (Eric Goldman)
70. Making Sense of the Canadian Digital Tax Debate, Part 1: Digital Sales Taxes (Michael Geist) 

CREATIVITY

1. USMCA versus NAFTA: what’s changed and what it means for intellectual property in Canada
2. U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement: Business Insights on Intellectual Property Issues
3. Ninth Circuit Finds Bus Ads Protected by First Amendment
4. Photographers’ Claims Against the NFL Score a Touchdown
5. Appeals Court Says Of Course Georgia’s Laws (Including Annotations) Are Not Protected By Copyright And Free To Share
6. No Substantial Similarity Between TV Shows Empire and Cream
7. Supreme Court to Address Meaning of “Full Costs” as Used in Copyright Act
8. Too hyperbolic to be believed: How social media is transforming libel law 
9. Disney Wouldn’t Let Wreck-It Ralph 2 Joke About Kylo Ren
10. Internet Memes Are Making UK Children Fat, Say Researchers Who Don’t Understand Memes
11. Fake Products From Movies Become Awesome Pop Culture Posters
12. “Bank For Your Buck” – The Legal Implications of Banksy’s Destruction of “Girl with Balloon” 
13. Block Party? UK Government Considers New Ways of Clamping Down on Illegal Streaming 
14. Intellectual Property and the implications of a “No Deal” Brexit
15. It’s Blockchain your Honour

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. Consumer Groups Say FCC Deregulatory Fever Harming Hurricane Michael Recovery
2. Ajit Pai killed rules that could have helped Florida recover from hurricane 
3. Ajit Pai, Telecom Lobbyists Are Now Coordinating Their Lies In Perfect Symmetry
4. Entire broadband industry sues Vermont to stop state net neutrality law
5. 3 states try to help the FCC kill net neutrality and preempt state laws
6. Broadband Industry Sues Vermont For Daring To Protect Consumers, Net Neutrality
7. CP24 re a news report about 4-20
and a panel discussion about the Ontario provincial election (CBSC Decision 17/18-1438)
8. Turner Axes Super Deluxe Following AT&T’s Time Warner Acquisition 
9. T-Mobile CEO Insists New Merger Will Create Jobs, Competition. Wall Street, History Disagree.
10. Big Bird Goes Digital: The FCC Undertakes to Modernize Children’s Television 
11. New Law Sets Up Federal-State Showdown Over Net Neutrality
12. NY’s AG Is Trying To Tie Major ISPs To Those Bogus Net Neutrality Comments

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. NYT: Chinese and Russian spies routinely eavesdrop on Trump’s iPhone calls
2. How Russia’s “influence operations” targeted the midterms (and how they still do)
3. Russia was likely behind dangerous critical infrastructure attack, report says
4. Russian trolls get DM from US Cyber Command: We know who you are. Stop it
5. Voltage Pictures and the Massive Mass Litigation Mess in Canada (Howard Knopf)
6. High Court blocks data privacy opt out group action against Google
7. Hack on 8 adult websites exposes oodles of intimate user data
8. Amazon, Super Micro Join Apple in Demanding Retraction of Bloomberg Story on Hacked Server Boards
9. Apple CEO Tim Cook calls on Bloomberg to retract its Chinese spy story
10. Apple Demands Retraction Of Bloomberg’s Big ‘Chip Infiltration’ Story; Bloomberg Has Some Explaining To Do
11. Apple CEO Tim Cook Calls for Tougher Privacy Laws
12. Tim Cook calls for strong US privacy law, rips “data-industrial complex”
13. Apple’s TV subscription service starts in 2019 to compete with Netflix, Amazon
14. Amazon pitched its facial recognition to ICE, released emails show [Updated]
15. This business card-sized Japanese phone bucks the giant-phone trend
16. Big Tech Splits Over Privacy Issues, at Least on the Surface: Big tech companies are paying lip service to online privacy, but their efforts are paper-thin.
17. Two new supply-chain attacks come to light in less than a week
18. California Passes First-Of-Its-Kind Law Focused on Internet of Things Cybersecurity 
19. Firefox 63 blocks tracking cookies, offers a VPN when you need one
20. Judge Says FOIA Isn’t Battleship; Requesters Don’t Need To Score Direct Hits To Obtain Documents

GAMES

1. Zombie Orpheus cancels contract with GOG over transphobia: JourneyQuest producers pull content, saying “We cannot do business with a company that doesn’t take human rights seriously”
2. Rockstar Games defends itself over working conditions claims
3. Rockstar allows employees to speak out on 100-hour week controversy: Tools programmer Vivianne Langdon kicks things off with assurances she’s never worked more than 50 hours a week, with paid overtime
4. Red Dead Redemption 2 Developers Speak Out After Rockstar Lifts Social Media Ban
5. The Red Dead Redemption 2 companion app can completely replace its HUD
6. Rockstar says average work week under 46 hours: “We will not stop working to improve in this area,” says co-head of Red Dead Redemption 2 developer
7. Independent game stores may get Red Dead Redemption 2 late: A number of smaller US stores have reported they may not have copies until 5-10 days after release
8. Rockstar developers speak out about “100-hour weeks” comment
9. Rockstar states overtime is ‘optional’ for studio that sometimes pulled 50-hour weeks
10. Rockstar Lincoln QA tester: “Overtime is NOT optional, it is expected” – Current employee describes “standard” crunch hours v. “true” crunch hours, new policy change making overtime optional
11. Rockstar Games clocks the average employee’s workweek at 42-45 hours  
12. Rockstar devs detail the company’s long and troubled relationship with crunch
13. Rockstar QA Studio Told That Overtime Is Now Optional After Workers Said It Felt Mandatory
14. Rockstar employees past and present offer mixed takes on company’s work culture: Extensive report shows uneven experiences across Rockstar studios and departments, including year-long crunch
15. Rockstar devs comment on work culture after 100-hours backlash
16. 100-hour weeks mean bad management, not passion: Rockstar may not be the hell it’s been portrayed as – but we need to stop lionising long overtime and start seeing it as a shameful sign of failure
17. Grand Theft Auto V hack exposed single-player games to malicious trolls
18. Six Foot lays off nearly one third of dev team followingDreadnought Steam launch
19. How Riot has been removing cheaters from League of Legends
20. Games as a service drives huge market value spike for EA, Activision
21. EA Origin Access includes more indie games in its repertoire 
22. Xbox sees earnings rise on the strength of third-party game sales  
23. Fan Translator Likely Finds His Work In Official Game Release And Is Totally Cool With It
24. Bethesda softens ground for “spectacular issues” with Fallout 76 launch
25. “Don’t give into fear and keep adding more features” – How not to overwork your employees: EA’s Criterion, one of the UK’s best places to work, on how it avoids crunching
26. How to avoid video game development crunch: “Teams who are having fun make better games and making games should be fun – otherwise, what’s the point?”
27. “I’ve seen sleep disorders, chronic stress fatigue, dissolved relationships, broken marriages…”: At Game Connect Asia Pacific, Keith Fuller detailed the fallout from crunch, and Kate Edwards said “we need to find our rage” in order to fight it
28. A post-mortem of Telltale Games: Speaking at Sweden Game Conference 2018, former Telltale narrative designer Emily Grace Buck says it’s time for a “really serious conversation about potentially starting a union”
29. Skybound “fully expect” third episode of The Walking Dead’s final season to launch this year: CEO Ian Howe said reuniting the Telltale team is difficult due to people moving on, and others not wanting to come back
30. Skybound CEO aims to finish out The Walking Dead with ‘100%’ former Telltalers
31. Six Foot lays off one third of development staff: Flagship game Dreadnought hampered by delays, slow sales, and mixed reviews
32. ‘Fortnite’ Developer Sues Two YouTubers For Using, Selling Cheat Codes
33. Epic Games to establish new office in Australia and New Zealand
34. Some Best Buy copies of Starlink are missing the game itself: Several people report receiving starter packs with all pieces except the game
35. Dota 2 now dynamically discloses loot box odds in-game
36. Valve publishes loot box odds for Dota 2: Chances of receiving a rare item from a bundle now disclosed in game, with escalating odds calculated
37. Discord updates terms of service to force arbitration over lawsuits
38. NPD: Marvel’s Spider-Man was the biggest PlayStation exclusive launch ever – The web-slinger’s latest outperformed the combined launch sales of all his previous adventures since 1995
39. A Nintendo-backed initiative aims to work Labo into classrooms  
40. Nintendo Labo heads to schools: Institute of Play program will bring the kits to 100 classrooms to integrate into curriculum
41. Common problems when translating games into Japanese
42. Steam reaches 90m monthly active users: Halt on new-game licenses in China buoy Steam’s market presence as Tencent continues to suffer
43. Steam surpasses 30 million domestic users in China
44. Steam’s Chinese audience grows to more than 30 million users: Dota 2 credited with driving Valve’s marketplace in the region as firm prepares for China-only version
45. China ends ‘green channel’ game approvals amid ongoing licensing freeze
46. China closes last remaining official game licensing process: ‘Green channel’ process reportedly shuttered while companies continue to wait for licensing to re-open
47. “More people have played Florence in Mandarin than in English”: At Game Connect Asia Pacific, Mountains founder Ken Wong emphasised the importance of Asian markets – for studios of all sizes
48. Call of Duty brings in $500 million in three days: Black Ops 4 sees launch weekend revenue in line with last year’s WWII, not quite up to Black Ops III’s $550 million
49. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 review: War games, now with battle royale!
50. Call of Duty Black Ops 4: Critical Consensus: Activision’s annual shooter ditches the campaign but critics say a standout battle royale mode is a fine reward
51. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 introduces special in-game items to support veterans
52. With Black Ops 4, Call Of Duty Takes Aim At A Fortnite World
53. Gamigo confirms acquisition of Trion Worlds
54. Significant layoffs at Trion Worlds following acquisition by Gamigo
55. Jade Raymond departs EA
56. EA Motive founder Jade Raymond departs EA
57. EA and Activision’s $79bn games-as-a-service growth: DFC reports shows both publishers’ values have surged since 2012 as they increase focus on live titles
58. Games as a service drives huge market value spike for EA, Activision
59. All eyes on Red Dead as UK games retail falters: LEGO, SoulCalibur and Starlink fail to lift physical sales in poor start to Q4
60. Splash Damage ends live development on Dirty Bomb two months after launch: Servers will remain up “as long as there are a meaningful number of players”
61. The average Football Manager 2018 player has over 285 hours of playtime: Nearly half of the game’s owners were still playing in September – almost a year after release
62. Unity dabbles in development with FPS Sample Game: VP of engineering Brett Bibby says undertaking will demonstrate the “best way to build a specific type of game”
63. Drake And Scooter Braun Join Nadeshot’s ‘100 Thieves’ Esports Startup, Which Has Raised $25 Million To Date
64. Abrams Artists Agency Onboards New Esports And Digital Branding Agents
65. Betting platform nabs license for cryptocurrency gambling on eSports
66. Green Man Gaming delays float due to ‘horrendous’ equity markets
67. Arena of Valor brings in $15 million lifetime player spending: International version of Honor of Kings sees strong September led by US spending
68. CCP CEO: “You can’t build a business” on current VR – Hilmar Veigar Pétursson says virtual reality has fallen far short of the Eve developer’s expectations
69. CCP Games CEO: “We expected VR to be two to three times as big”
70. SuperData: Mobile AR to generate more revenue than VR by 2021
71. VR and AR dev Resolution Games secures $7.5 million in funding
72. After five years of waiting, Sixense will refund its VR controller Kickstarter backers
73. A postmortem of Boyfriend Dungeon’s $272K Kickstarter
74. Oculus co-founder Brendan Iribe leaves Facebook
75. Oculus Co-founder Departs Facebook Amidst Rumor of Rift 2 Cancellation
76. Facebook exodus continues as Oculus co-founder Brendan Iribe leaves
77. Oculus Shut Down Movie Purchases & Rentals on Rift Toda
78. PSVR’s Weirdest Game ‘Accounting+’ Now Available on Vive & Rift with New Levels
79. UK magazines GamesTM and GamesMaster to close: Multiformat magazines axed
80. Phoenix Labs on walking the line between Dauntless and reckless: In the wake of its latest funding round, co-founder Jesse Houston talks about growing the studio and the game at a deliberate pace
81. What does it take to reach No.1 on mobile?: AppLovin’s Lion Studios shares its secrets of success as it pushes indie title Flip Trickster to the top of the charts
82. If less than 30% of players come back to your game on Day 2, fix it or kill it: But GameAnalytics’ mobile benchmarking reports shows that 40% retention rates for Day 1 mean a game is doing well
83. “Designing with marketing in mind” in Move or Die: At the Dev Play conference, Nicolae Berbece described taking Move or Die from a humble Flash game to an audience of over 500,000 people
84. Diddy Kong was my Dark Souls: Sumo Digital’s Jamie Smith says Rare’s N64 kart racer left the competition in the dust
85. Those painted sculptures in Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey are true to history
86. Listen to history experts discuss Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
87. Intellivision joins the retro console space with new hardware coming in 2020: Formerly defunct console brand is re-imaged as Intellivision Amico

Jon

DIGITAL

1. Twitter releases archive of 10 million tweets from state-backed troll accounts: Over 9 million of those originated from Russian-backed accounts 
2. Twitter Offers Up Semi-Public Database of Known State-Sponsored Accounts 
3. New research suggests Twitter’s strategy for fighting misinformation is ineffective 
4. Twitter Under Formal Investigation for How It Tracks Users in the GDPR Era
5. Netflix Reminds Everyone That The Internet Isn’t A Broadcast Medium With New Choose Your Own Adventure Shows
6. Why is a Lisbon soccer team trying to unmask Portuguese bloggers in US court?
7. Facebook Portal’s claims to protect user privacy are falling apart
8. Here’s how to see if you’re among the 30 million compromised Facebook users
9. Facebook confirms 30 million people had personal data stolen in breach
10. Advertisers allege Facebook hid the fact that no one watches video ads
11. Help Wired Track How Political Ads Target You On Facebook
12. How to Do Everything But Delete Your Facebook Profile 
13. Facebook Tempts Political Backlash With Massive Purge of 810 Pages and Accounts
14. Already facing an uphill misinformation fight, Facebook loses to scammers, too
15. Please Don’t Post Your Potentially Felonious Crimes to Facebook
16. A New Facebook Lawsuit Makes ‘Pivot To Video’ Seem Even More Shortsighted
17. Facebook Now Dominates YouTube For Video Content. Here’s How Brands Should Respond
18. Looking beyond Facebook and Instagram, DTC brands try Snapchat
19. Amazon patents Alexa tech to tell if you’re sick, depressed and sell you meds
20. Amazon launches online store featuring ‘Shark Tank’ products 
21. Amazon overtakes Microsoft to top intangible value ranking; research calls for “revolution” in accounting
22. Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, dies at 65
23. Paul Allen—Microsoft co-founder, Seahawks owner, and space pioneer—dies at 65
24. PC market flat, as Surface becomes a top-5 computer brand in the US
25. YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki Addresses Continuing Concerns About Conspiratorial Content, Says Platform “Is In A Much Better Place” 
26. YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki: Despite Its Problems, YouTube Is Growing Up 
27. Creators In YouTube’s Partner Program Can Now Be Kicked Out For Posting “Duplicative Content”
28. YouTube is cracking down on creators who post duplicated content: Changes to YouTube’s Partner Program are afoot 
29. Mamrie Hart And Grace Helbig YouTube Show ‘This Might Get’ Gets Axed, But Will Live On As A Podcast
30. After $5 billion EU antitrust fine, Google will start charging for Android apps
31. Google’s YouTube suffers a major outage
32. Google Is Finally Ready To Talk About Its Chinese Search Engine 
33. Google Chief Sundar Pichai Explains Early-Stage China Plans
34. Senators to Google: Why didn’t you disclose Google+ vulnerability sooner?
35. The Good Censor Document Shows Google Struggling With The Challenges Of Content Moderation
36. Chinese Professor Argues Google Should Launch A Censored Search Engine In China
37. Report: Former top Waymo engineer altered code to go on “forbidden routes”
38. Creators Face Brief Existential Crisis Amid Temporary YouTube Outage 
39. Pioneering YouTuber Gigi Gorgeous Has Penned A Memoir About Her Transgender Journey
40. YouTube Premium Moves Forward With Logan Paul Film 10 Months After Suicide Controversy 
41. This 2-Year-Old’s YouTube Cooking Tutorials Are Scoring Hundreds Of Thousands Of Views
42. Former YouTube Exec Launches Incubator Initiative For Education Creators 
43. WarnerMedia To Launch Streaming Service In 2019, Comprising Content From HBO, Warner Bros., More
44. Fullscreen Offers Advertisers New ‘Shield’ Tool To Ensure Brand Safety 
45. Uber CEO backs out of Saudi conference after suspected state-sanctioned murder of Washington Post journalist
46. Anand Giridharadas On Saudi Money And Silicon Valley Hypocrisy
47. Turkish Paper Claims Evidence of Jamal Khashoggi’s Murder Was Transmitted by His Apple Watch
48. Apple Will Reportedly Make Original Video Programming Free For All Device Owners
49. Apple Acquires Music-Analytics Startup Asaii
50. Mixcloud and Universal Music Announce Multi-Year Licensing Deal
51. Portal A, Kevin Hart, ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Honored At First ‘Streamys Brand Awards’
52. Jay Shetty To Host 2nd Annual ‘Streamys Purpose Awards’, Followed By Creator Summit On Mental Health
53. The Rise of the Influencer: Advertising Standards Agency release clear guidance for ‘Influencers’- #AD not #Spon? 
54. Jeffrey Katzenberg Announces Shortform Subscription Service’s Name, Confirms Deals With Guillermo Del Toro, Antoine Fuqua, Jason Blum
55. Snap could go private if it can’t get people to stay on its app for longer, analyst says
56. Snapchat Just Released A Meme-Filled Set Of Lenses For Cats
57. You Have No Idea What Artificial Intelligence Really Does: The world of AI is full of hype and deception.
58. Art, AI & Infringement: A Copyright Conundrum
59. A Shortage Of Trained Job-Seekers Is Holding AI Back
60. Roborace wants the future of racing to be AI plus humans, working together 
61. The Boston Dynamics Robot Atlas Is Now A Parkour Master
62. Glimpse: Man’s Best Friend, Forever? We May Love Robot Dogs As Much As the Real Thing
63. Cryptocurrencies “on the brink of an implosion” – Juniper: Research firm sees further falls likely with market cap of blockchain currencies already 75% down within the last year
64. Cryptocurrencies Just Plummeted $13 Billion in Value Over the Course of a Few Hours
65. Reports: Crypto Is A Threat To Your Savings Account, But Not World Markets
66. Everything You Wanted to Know About Blockchain in One Infographic 
67. NBA & NextVR Announce 2018-19 VR Livestream Lineup
68. Internet Relay Chat turns 30—and we remember how it changed our lives
69. Palm rises from the dead as a zombie brand, launches tiny smartphone
70. Disrupting the Reaper: Tech Titans’ Quest for Immortality Rages Forward – Silicon Valley’s war on death continues—as does the uncomfortable, spreading psychology of those rich enough to fight it. 
71. Goodbye NAFTA, Hello USMCA: A New Framework for Investment, IP and the Digital Economy
72. The Full “Culture Exception” That Isn’t: Why Canada Caved on Independent Cultural Policy in the USMCA (Michael Geist)
73. Tech firms to SEC: We want the option to pay non-employee workers in equity
74. What do we actually know about the risks of screen time and digital media? 

CREATIVITY

1. Woman who bought shredded Banksy artwork will go through with purchase: Buyer of Girl With Balloon, who paid £1.04m for work, says she has her ‘own piece of art history’
2. Banksy’s Self-Destructing “Love Is In the Bin” – A Good Reminder of the Moral Rights of Authors
3. Star Wars Writer Chuck Wendig Claims Marvel Fired Him for ‘Vulgarity’ and ‘Too Much Politics’ On His Social Media
4. Stairway To Heaven Is Not Blurred Lines
5. Can’t Wish Away The Mistakes In The Original ‘Stairway To Heaven’ Verdict
6. PEN America Sues Donald Trump For 1st Amendment Violations In Attacking The Press
7. Another Critic Of Egypt’s Government Gets Hit With ‘Fake News’ Charges
8. One of the Screenwriters of the Original AladdinHas a Big Complaint About the Remake
9. Will mass copyright infringement litigation slow?
10. We regret to inform you that America is now at war with The View
11. Will Donald Trump Support A Federal Anti-SLAPP Law Now That It’s Helped Him Win Stormy Daniels’ Defamation Suit?
12. Warner Media Opposes Trademark Filed By Actual ‘Wicked Witch’ Over Its Wizard Of Oz Trademarks
13. A Modern Melody for the Music Industry: The Music Modernization Act Is Now the Law of the Land
14. Zen Studios alters classic pinball art to protect family-friendly rating [Updated]
15. Boeing Accused Of Covert, Coordinated Op-Ed Smear Campaign Against Space X
16. African Nations Rife With Illegitimate Collection Societies: Nigeria Files Criminal Complaint Against COSON

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. Up to 9.5 million net neutrality comments were made with stolen identities 
2. 99.7% Of Original Comments Opposed FCC Repeal Of Net Neutrality
3. Oh Look, The FCC Is Lying Again In Its Latest Court Filings On Net Neutrality
4. FCC tells court it has no “legal authority” to impose net neutrality rules
5. Comcast complains it will make less money under Calif. net neutrality law
6. Washington State Laughs At Federal Attack On State Net Neutrality Laws 
7. 34 State AGs Demand The FCC Do More To End Annoying Robocalls
8. Stop Working for Fox News
9. AT&T to launch streaming service after $85b Time Warner purchase
10. DOJ Continues To Point Out A Mega-Merged AT&T Will Jack Up Prices On Everybody
11. WarnerMedia To Launch Streaming Service In 2019, Comprising Content From HBO, Warner Bros., More
12. USMCA Impact on Communications Industries
13. Widespread Cable, Internet, and Radio Outages Mark Hurricane Michael’s Path of Destruction
14. Ajit Pai slams carriers for slow restoration of cell service after hurricane
15. Verizon fiber suffered “unprecedented” damage from Hurricane Michael
16. Wall Street Quietly Warns That 5G Wireless Is Being Aggressively Over-hyped

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Canadian Privacy Commissioner Goes To Court To Determine If Canada Can Force Google To Delete History
2. 21-year-old who created powerful RAT software sentenced to 30 months
3. Another Massive Credit Reporting Database Breached By Criminals
4. Vizio Customers Get A Pittance In Settlement Over Snooping Televisions
5. Winter is coming: Preparing for Canada’s new mandatory federal data breach regulations
6. Does Canadian Privacy Law Apply to Google Search? (Michael Geist)
7. Apple to Australia: “This is no time to weaken encryption”
8. New Internet of Things (IoT) NIST Draft Publication Provides Welcomed Guidance 
9. ‘Do Not Track,’ the Privacy Tool Used by Millions of People, Doesn’t Do Anything
10. Ancestry Sites Could Soon Expose Nearly Anyone’s Identity, Researchers Say
11. Creeps Will Soon Be Able To Find Almost Anyone On Genealogy Sites
12. IBM Built A Menacing Black Truck For “Cybersecurity Incident Response”
13. If Supermicro boards were so bug-ridden, why would hackers ever need implants?

GAMES

1. John Carmack and ZeniMax have ended their legal dispute
2. Epic sues YouTubers for using and selling Fortnite cheats
3. Epic Games files suit against YouTubers over Fortnite cheats: Lawsuit alleges defendants promoted cheats in videos, violating copyright and terms of use
4. Epic sues two YouTubers over Fortnite cheats: Brandon Lucas and Colton Conter stand accused of promoting and selling cheats for the hit game
5. Fortnite, GTA V hackers face legal action for online cheating
6. GTA V cheaters’ assets frozen following Australian court ruling
7. Epic Games Likely DMCA’d Its Own Fortnite Trailer, Showing The Problems With YouTube’s DMCA Process Yet Again
8. Fortnite’s Android version is no longer invite-only
9. GTA cheat developers have assets frozen in crackdown: Australian federal court approves search and seizure orders against creators of “Infamous” cheat
10. Developers drag Rockstar over 100-hour weeks on Red Dead Redemption 2: Where studio management sees dedication, creators from across the AAA and indie spectrum see mismanagement, abuse
11. Dan Houser: “We have some senior people who work very hard purely because they’re passionate” – Rockstar co-founder provides additional context to earlier statement about “100-hour weeks” on Red Dead Redemption 2
12. Former Rockstar and Telltale dev says “time for change” on crunch culture: Job J. Stauffer recalls harsh work culture on GTA IV, cites “dozens” of other devs with similar experiences
13. Crunch isn’t required, claims Rockstar co-founder after 100-hour weeks comment
14. How the West Was Digitized: The making of Rockstar Games’ Red Dead Redemption 2.
15. Sega reports ‘long overtime’ hours cut by 80%
16. Sega credits strong localizations for jump in worldwide game sales
17. Rockstar debacle prompts devs to spotlight their crunch-free games
18. Valve under investigation by Brazilian government over violent political game
19. Brazilian government opens investigation into Valve, Steam, and developers behind Bolsomito 2k18: Game features character based on Brazilian presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro punching minorities with the aim of purging “the evils of communism”
20. German regulator warns Outfit 7 and Green Tea Games over in-app purchases: Consumer protection body concerned by how studios are targeting minors with microtransactions priced at up to €109.99
21. Discord’s problem: Which Nazi group were you reporting again? – A year after promising to take action against all forms of hate, gaming-focused communication platform’s follow-through is lacking
22. Discord Store enters global open beta: Service launches with 23 store titles, new Nitro subscription service
23. China’s new game approval process could hurt indies most – Vicarious: CEO of PR firm specializing in bringing Chinese titles to the West talks about potential knock-on effects of new regulatory system
24. China’s Huawei thinks it can capture Switch market…with a $1,000 phone
25. The Witcher Saga: the author’s quest for additional royalties from video game developer 
26. Starlink: Is this Christmas’ riskiest video game? – In a period awash with major sequels, Ubisoft’s Starlink is the only new IP coming out. Can it survive?
27. Ubisoft to partner with EGAL at UC Berkeley to research industry diversity: Company to provide support and research materials for MBA student projects
28. Ubisoft issues call for third season of incubator program at Station F: Blockchain, AI technology start-ups encouraged to apply for six-month support program at Paris campus
29. Ubisoft Massive COO: “We don’t want to take a stance in current politics” – Speaking during Sweden Game Conference 2018, Alf Condelius discusses the separation of games and politics with The Division
30. Ubisoft Joins Blockchain Game Alliance as Publishers Anticipate Death of the Video Game Console
31. Ubisoft has a free-to-play mobile Assassin’s Creed game on the way
32. Sega’s Genesis (and more) get an HDMI upgrade with the Mega Sg: $190 FPGA-powered hardware also supports Master System, Game Gear, and more.
33. The Xbox Tanker is turning: It takes years for a console platform to win back hearts and minds, but Xbox is finally getting there; now it needs to find and promote its unique difference
34. Microsoft has pulled the plug on Minecraft’s Apple TV version
35. Microsoft kills support for Minecraft on Apple TV: “We need to reallocate resources to the platforms that our players use the most,” says Microsoft
36. Creators Going Pro: Gary ‘RageElixir’ Yong Has Built A Top ‘Minecraft’ Channel By Seizing Opportunities
37. Bethesda Softworks opens new office to expand global operations
38. Bethesda teams up with West Virginia Tourism Office forFallout 76 promo
39. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 more anticipated this holiday than Red Dead Redemption 2 – Nielsen’s season interest rankings also show hype for Spider-Man, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and Super Mario Party
40. Call of Duty children’s hoodies are a “consequence of success”: Activision Blizzard exec Philippe Bost assures that official merchandise is only ever targeted at adults
41. Players are exploiting Black Ops 4 emotes to peek around corners
42. Starlink: Battle for Atlas review: Cool toys, solid spacefaring
43. Report: Blizzard considering bringing cross-platform play to Diablo 3
44. Educational games startup Kahoot valued at $300 million: Valuation follows $15.4 million in fundraising, company’s worth has tripled in seven months
45. War Child UK partners with Bandai Namco on 11-11: Memories Retold: “Together we can work to end the suffering of children caught in the violence of war,” says Elijah Wood, star of 11-11: Memories Retold
46. Bandai Namco agrees to European distribution deal forCyberpunk 2077
47. The uphill battle of getting Katamari Damacy noticed by Namco
48. Conde Nast owner Advance buys majority stake in market researcher Newzoo
49. Blog: Working with local devs to gain experience in games user research
50. Panic Button and the search for “design fun”: GM Adam Creighton shares how the studio hailed for Switch ports approaches broadening its portfolio, tackling hardware challenges, and accessibility
51. “It felt like the reality of the world was fighting against this game”: Greg Lobanov talks about trying to make the relentlessly positive Wandersong during relentlessly turbulent times
52. Roblox acquires PacketZoom: Mobile performance improvement start-up will bring its technology to MMO studio as it pursues international growth
53. Fighting Esports Group closes $15m funding round
54. Ninja Continues Bid To Take Gaming Mainstream With ‘Ellen’ Appearance
55. The Division developer: Politics in games are ‘bad for business’
56. Feel better about your PlayStation VR with sweet new games Astro Bot, Firewall
57. ‘Astro Bot’ Ranked 6th Best PS4 Game of 2018, #1 PSVR Game of All Time
58. Sony has fixed the messaging bug that’s been crashing PS4s
59. VR design principles in RIGS: Mechanized Combat League
60. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg: ‘Oculus Quest Completes Company’s First-Gen Lineup’
61. Facebook is testing a mobile app for watching Facebook Gaming streams
62. Magic Leap wants to avoid a takeover and go public: CEO Ronny Abovitz believes an IPO would be “the best thing for the creative community”
63. The Magic Leap Con
64. Cloudhead’s The Gallery crowned game of the year at VR Awards 2018: Meanwhile, HTC takes home the gong for best headset with Vive Pro
65. CVAA Compliance Waiver for Video Games Set to Expire in December 2018
66. How Landfall Games finds the fun in physics engines
67. Q&A: Inside the tools and techniques used to build The Crew 2’s open world
68. Blog: Self-determination theory and player affect
69. Ars on your lunch break: This is your brain on video games
70. Loot Crate now offers a monthly indie game subscription service 
71. Loot Crate launches monthly indie game subscription: Loot Play subscribers will get five games each month for $10, but only one will be revealed before launch
72. Video Game Monetization (e.g., ‘Loot Boxes’): a Blueprint for Practical Social Responsibility Measures (Daniel Luke King & Paul H. Delfabbro)
73. What developers say Apple needs to do to make the Apple TV a gaming console
74. Why Paradox is bringing visual editing tools to its next engine update
75. Canceled version of a Shenmue HD remaster shows what could’ve been
76. Video: BioWare’s postmortem look at the making of Star Wars: The Old Republic
77. National Videogame Museum to open in Sheffield this November 

Jon

DIGITAL

1. Libel by Tweet: Ontario Court of Appeal Upholds Dismissal of Twitter Libel Claim under Anti-SLAPP Legislation 
2. Setting the Standard?: How the USMCA Quietly Reshapes Global Digital Trade Agreements (Michael Geist)
3. Why the USMCA Will Enhance Online Free Speech in Canada (Michael Geist)
4. How Canada Surrendered Policy Flexibility for Data Localization Rules in the USMCA (Michael Geist)
5. USMCA: Four Important Changes to Intellectual Property Rights
6. H-1B: As immigration furor roils Silicon Valley, Canada smooths way for techies
7. Boof!: Pro-Kavanaugh “Robo-Texts” Trigger Potentially Massive TCPA Class Action against Faith and Freedom Coalition, Inc. in Florida 
8. Government Moves To Seize All Backpage Assets Prior To Securing Convictions
9. Facebook, Whose Support Made FOSTA Law, Now Sued For Facilitating Sex Trafficking Under FOSTA 
10. Facebook Glitch Stopped Some Users With Lots of Posts From Deleting Their Accounts
11. Facebook Launches a Camera for Your Home—What Could Possibly Go Wrong
12. Facebook unveils smart displays, promises not to snoop on your video calls 
13. Insights: Should You Give Facebook Another Portal Into Your Life?
14. Facebook Watch Sets Series Adaptation Of ‘Limetown’ Podcast With Jessica Biel
15. Google Successfully Amends Its AdWords TOS to Add Arbitration Clause–Trudeau v. Google (Eric Goldman)
16. Google Drops Bid for Massive Military Cloud Computing Contract Amid Employee Pressure
17. Google Call Screening: A personal robot that talks to, hangs up on spam calls 
18. Google+ shutting down after data leak affecting 500,000 users
19. Google Didn’t Report Its Data Leak Till Months Later. Now It’ll Face the Consequences.
20. Google+ users, upset over data leak, sue Google
21. Blogger Defeats Defamation Claims Over Posts Claiming a “Scam”–RainSoft v. MacFarland  (Eric Goldman)
22. Augmented Retail – The Use of Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality to Enhance the Customer Shopping Experience 
23. This Brain-Analyzing AI Could Kill Your Dream Of Being A Professional Athlete
24. Would a BDSM Sex Robot Violate Asimov’s First Law of Robotics?
25. Here are the top ways people die while taking selfies and “being cool”
26. Thanks To Copyright, We Already Know How Aggressive Content Moderation Works: And It’s A Disaster
27. 8% Of People Admit To Watching YouTube Videos While Driving, As Vlogging Behind The Wheel Runs Rampant
28. YouTube TV Adds Ability To Fast-Forward Through Ads On DVR’d Shows
29. YouTube To Net $3.4 Billion In U.S. Ad Revenues This Year (Study) 
30. Indian Children’s Channel ChuChu TV, Which Has 20 Billion Views, Readies Global Licensing Push
31. After Scandal, Manny MUA Plots YouTube Return With Self-Produced Docuseries
32. Top YouTubers Are Taking Heat For Their Deals With A Controversial Mental Health App
33. YouTube To Collaborate With Joseph Gordon-Levitt On Hourlong TV Special
34. Vox To Debunk Misconceptions About The News In Ad-Supported YouTube Original
35. Vice Media to Launch First Series on Instagram’s IGTV, Slates YouTube and Snapchat Programming
36. Viacom Announces New Awesomeness, MTV, Comedy Central TV Shows To Premiere On YouTube, Twitter, Hulu
37. CAP releases a new guide for social media influencers 
38. Team 10 Ex-COO Nick Crompton Claims Jake Paul’s Pranks Are Fake In Dawson Docuseries
39. Jukin Launches New Ad Tool That Creates 6-Second Spots With User-Generated Content
40. TiVo Bolt OTA review: For would-be cord-cutters with great antenna reception 
41. Snapchat is collaborating with Hollywood producers and writers to add scripted shows to the app amid user decline
42. Snapchat turns its attention to India as it battles Instagram to win users
43. Insights: Should Amazon Snap Up Struggling Snapchat?
44. New Amazon Minimum Wage Is Below Median Pay in Most Areas
45. Leaked Whole Foods Email Clarifies How Amazon’s Pay Raises Will Work
46. Amazon Has a Massive New Division—and No One’s Paying Attention to It
47. Amazon built an AI tool to hire people but had to shut it down because it was discriminating against women
48. Amazon’s Secret AI Hiring Tool Reportedly ‘Penalized’ Resumes With the Word ‘Women’s’
49. California’s War On ‘Bots’ Could Be A Steep Uphill Climb
50. Netflix Released Record-High 676 Hours of Original Programming in Q3
51. Netflix Is In Final Negotiations To Purchase Its First Production Studio, Will Bring 1,000+ Jobs Per Year To New Mexico
52. Bloomberg: Super Micro motherboards used by Apple, Amazon contained Chinese spy chips
53. How The Us Forced China To Quit Stealing – Using A Chinese Spy: For years, China has systematically looted American trade secrets. Here’s the messy inside story of how DC got Beijing to clean up its act for a while. 
54. Apple, Amazon Deny China Installed Tiny Spy Microchips on Their Servers, but We’re Still Freaked Out
55. Bloomberg stands by Chinese chip story as Apple, Amazon ratchet up denials
56. Apple to Congress: Chinese spy-chip story is “simply wrong”
57. Apple Watch Series 4 Review: A Giant Leap
58. I take back every bad thing I ever said about the Apple Watch
59. How Jamal Khashoggi’s Apple Watch Could Solve His Disappearance
60. Data-deletion bug forces Microsoft to suspend rollout of Windows 10 update
61. Microsoft promises to defend—not attack—Linux with its 60,000 patents
62. Vogue launches a Spanish-language edition on Snapchat Discover
63. Snapchat Envisions TV For The Mobile Era With Slate Of A Dozen ‘Snap Originals’
64. Fox News Unveils Long-Form Programs for Fox Nation Streaming Service
65. Why Are Tech Companies Pouring Money Into Instant Translators?: Do we *really* need to speak every language on earth? Tech companies seem to think we do.
66. Now Twitter’s ‘Report’ Function Being Used To Disappear Complaint About GDPR Being Used To Disappear Public Court Document 
67. Federal Court Dumps Another Lawsuit Against Twitter For Contributing To Worldwide Terrorism
68. Elon Musk isn’t on his Twitter leash yet, so he’s taunting the SEC
69. SEC’s Action Against Elon Musk Highlights the Importance of Care in Tweeting Corporate Information
70. Elon Musk, Tesla, and the Perils of Social Media
71. Fake Elon Musks Clutter Twitter with Crypto Scams: The scammers stay one step ahead of the platform, which isn’t great news for the midterms.
72. Elon Musk Is Making Good on His Promise to Pay for Flint’s Clean Water
73. Tim Berners-Lee Moves Forward With His Big Plan To Fix The Web By Bringing Back Its Original Decentralized Promise
74. The Internet’s keepers? “Some call us hoarders—I like to say we’re archivists”
75. We’ll Soon Know Exactly How Terrible The Internet Is For Our Mental Health
76. Domain names: Seven “dirty words” now acceptable in .US 
77. Creative Commons Continues To Try To Help Courts Understand What Its NonCommercial License Means
78. The Internet’s keepers? “Some call us hoarders—I like to say we’re archivists”
79. Dark Web vendor with totally amazing beard sentenced to 20 years in prison 

CREATIVITY

1. Taylor Swift Causes Surge in Voter Registration After Endorsing Democrats on Instagram
2. State Street Escalates Policy on Board Gender Diversity and Touts Impact of its “Fearless Girl” Campaign 
3. Ninth Circuit Extends Tam 1st Amendment Protections to Advertising
4. Skidmore v. Led Zeppelin
5. Ronnie Van Zant Inc. v. Cleopatra Records, Inc.
6. Full Speed Ahead for Graffiti Artist’s Suit Against GM
7. Banksy booby-trapped one of his paintings to “self-destruct” at auction, and that’s actually pretty funny
8. Spanish Court Moves Forward With Prosecution Of Man Who Offended A Bunch Of Religious Lawyers
9. Bangladesh government to discuss tough new media law with journalists
10. Most Chinese Patents Are Being Discarded By Their Owners Because They Are Not Worth The Maintenance Fees To Keep Them
11. A ‘No Deal Brexit’ and its Affects on IP 
12. USMCA (NAFTA 2.0): What’s New for Intellectual Property in Canada
13. Recording proceedings in the lower courts – are televised trials likely in the future? 
14. Ousted Guardians of the Galaxy director switches camps, tied to new DC Comics film

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. Major US telecom was infiltrated by backdoored Supermicro hardware, Bloomberg says
2. AT&T-Time Warner appeal: How liberal judges could help the DOJ’s case
3. HBO, CNN, DC Comics, and more could join a streaming video service under AT&T
4. Ajit Pai’s 5G plans make it harder for small ISPs to deploy broadband
5. Ajit Pai faces rare criticism from GOP senator on rural broadband failures
6. Justice Department, ISPs File Suit against California Net Neutrality Law
7. Robocallers “evolved” to sidestep new call blocking rules, AGs tell FCC
8. 35 States Tell the FCC to Get Off Its Ass and Do Something About Spoofed Robocalls
9. Wi-Fi 6 Is Coming: Here’s Why You Should Care
10. Hate your Comcast broadband? Verizon might sell you 5G home Internet
11. After throttling firefighters, Verizon praises itself for “sav[ing] lives” 
12. New Verizon Ad Hopes To Make You Forget It Throttled Firefighters For No Reason
13. AT&T Claims It Wants Meaningful Privacy Rules…After Just Lobbying To Kill Meaningful Privacy Rules

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Russian spies hacked officials to protect doping athletes, US charges
2. As Everyone Knows, In The Age Of The Internet, Privacy Is Dead — Which Is Awkward If You Are A Russian Spy
3. Travelers To New Zealand Now Face $3,000 Fines If They Don’t Give Their Device Passwords To Customs Agents
4. Feds to judge: We still think we can put GPS trackers on cars entering US
5. Free Law Project Takes A Stand Against Attempt To Use GDPR To Disappear A Public Court Docket
6. Instagram is testing the ability to share your precise location history with Facebook: Revealed just weeks after Instagram’s co-founders left the company 
7. Now Instagram might let Facebook spy on your location
8. Lawyers for Vizio Smart TV owners propose final deal, around $20 per person
9. Vizio Agrees to $17M Settlement to Resolve Smart TV Class Action Suit 
10. California’s new data privacy law: What you need to know
11. California Passes First Cybersecurity Law Regulating IoT Devices
12. California’s IoT Security Law is Well-Intentioned, but a Comprehensive Federal Law is Needed (Eric Goldman)
13. Equifax Inc 2017 US data breach generates fines for Equifax Ltd in the UK

GAMES

1. Sony sues hacker for manufacturing and distributing jailbroken PS4s: Defendant’s actions “were knowing, deliberate, willful and in complete disregard of SIE’s rights,” Sony claims
2. Sony confirms PlayStation 5 (but doesn’t call it PlayStation 5): CEO Kenichiro Yoshida says it’s “necessary to have a next-generation hardware”
3. PlayStation users will be able to change PSN ID starting 2019
4. Sony confirms PSN name change feature: Long-requested ability to change PlayStation Network IDs will roll out early next year, will cause problems with some games
5. Sony CEO claims next-gen hardware is ‘necessary’ 
6. Change that embarrassing PlayStation account name starting next year
7. Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., Plaintiff, – against – David Zipperer (United States District Court Southern District Of New York, August 16, 2018)
8. Microsoft Announces Xbox Game Streaming Service
9. Microsoft unveils Project xCloud game streaming technology
10. Microsoft announces Project Xcloud—Xbox game streaming for myriad devices
11. Microsoft details game streaming service Project xCloud: Public trials begin next year, Xbox One developers apparently able to bring games across “with no additional work”
12. Microsoft in talks to buy Obsidian – Report: Xbox outfit closing in on a deal for Pillars of Eternity developer with one source telling Kotaku it’s “a matter of when, not if”
13. Mojang is making some Minecraft libraries open source
14. EA “closely monitoring” Ronaldo rape investigation: FIFA 19 cover athlete downplayed in promotional materials as police look into allegations
15. FIFA 19 scores at launch on top of EMEAA charts: Forza Horizon 4 launch just misses capturing Spider-Man
16. EA partners with the Premier League for new esports competition
17. EA announces partnership with English Premier League: Landmark deal “carves a critical path forward” for FIFA esports
18. Jacksonville victims to be honoured with charity Madden tournament tomorrow: Muthead League scraps plans for season six in favour of raising money for tribute fund
19. South Korean network OGN bringing esports programming to North America with $100m investment: Esports producer to partner with PUBG Corp to livestream and broadcast upcoming National PUBG League
20. NHL Team Institutes ‘No Video Game’ Policy For Players Due To Fortnite ‘Addiction’
21. Infinite Esports & Entertainment lays off 19 employees, replaces president: “We think we grew too fast” says new president Ryan Musselman
22. Industry staff protest working conditions with Twitter storm: IGDA exec Jen MacLean issues statement on #AsAGamesWorker protest
23. A closer look at the malware that masquerades as Fortnitecheats
24. Fortnite season 6 trailer gets a copyright strike from… Epic Games?: Well, at least the players seem to be having a laugh
25. Epic is bringing a physical Fortnite bundle to store shelves for the holidays
26. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey sales out-perform rest of series on current console generation: Physical, digital, and “player recurring investment” in first few days top Origins, Syndicate, or Unity
27. Google’s Project Stream: That’s really a full Assassin’s Creedin my browser
28. UK retailer GAME selling Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 early: Extra time agreed upon with Activision so players can download 50GB day one patch
29. Declaration of gambling regulators on their concerns related to the blurring of lines between gambling and gaming
30. Loot Boxes: Gaming or Gambling? 
31. Report: Telltale Games lays off remaining ‘skeleton crew’
32. Remaining Telltale staffers laid off: Former narrative designer confirms her “skeleton crew” lost their jobs, but “there are still good people at the company”
33. Report: Telltale wants another studio (and ex-The Walking Dead devs) to finish the game
34. Skybound’s Walking Dead finale hasn’t secured original devs yet: Company says the intent is to use ex-Telltale developers to finish the story, but “there are a lot of moving parts”
35. Opinion: Will Telltale’s fate be a catalyst for industry reform?
36. Skybound to complete development of Telltale’s The Walking Dead: The Walking Dead parent company steps in
37. Skybound vague on future of Telltale partnership
38. Skybound Games will finish work on Telltale’s The Walking Dead
39. Pixel Toys embraces games-as-a-service with Warhammer: Realm War
40. “We aren’t curing cancer. There’s a human cost to making games”
41. Blizzard to champion diversity at BlizzCon 2018
42. Jagex investigates streamer following allegations of abusive behaviour: Ali “Gross Gore” Larson accused of sexual harassment, verbal abuse, and physical violence during RuneFest 2018
43. SuperData launches media measurement tool SuperData Arena: Dashboard will allow users to track multiple metrics related to game streaming and videos across major content platforms
44. Games industry contributes £2.87bn to UK economy, supports nearly 50,000 jobs: 2016 screen industries report also shows every £1 invested via tax relief adds £4 to economy
45. Leaked Video Seems To Show Open-World Harry Potter Game
46. Developers weigh in on “cold reality” check for indies: Responses to John Warner’s sobering article came from a range of indie devs, both with and without AAA experience
47. Indie dev’s “honest mistake” inadvertently revives dying game: HyperReuts sees average player count explode from one, to an all-time peak of over 170,000
48. War Stories: Serious Sam almost didn’t happen—until crates saved the day
49. Com2uS: “We were just shocked” by audience response to Summoners War esports – CEO Casey Lee discusses stumbling into mobile esports as a way to engage and grow its existing community
50. Romanian government boosts games industry with €94 million tech fund: A huge new fund was revealed at Dev.Play 2018 today, pointing to a bright future for the country’s game developers
51. Homescapes emulates Gardenscapes with reported $420m first year revenue: Sensor Tower’s data suggests another massive hit for Playrix
52. GOG Celebrates 10 Years Of Competing With Piracy And Being DRM Free By Saying So
53. Epic Games acquires game security and player service outfit Kamu
54. Epic Games acquires game security and anti-cheat firm Kamu: Helsinki specialist has already been working on Fortnite, will continue to work will all other customers
55. Epic to launch “Support-A-Creator” Fortnite initiative: Creators will receive $5 for every 10k in-game currency spent by individual players until the end of the year
56. CD Projekt Red partners with Digital Scapes on Cyberpunk 2077: Vancouver-based studio to bring BioWare, Radical Entertainment, Relic veterans to work on upcoming open-world RPG
57. Sensor Tower: Fortnite on iOS earns $300m in 200 days: $20m of the total was earned in the past week after the launch of Season 6
58. Wavedash lays off the majority of its staff: Studio says loss of investor support prompted layoffs, offers to introduce hiring developers to former staff
59. Blog: Why one size doesn’t fit all in virtual reality
60. Nintendo Could Be Fixing the Switch’s Biggest Flaw
61. Report: Nintendo to launch updated Switch console in 2019
62. Report: New Nintendo Switch Model Coming In 2019
63. Nintendo planning new Switch for 2019 – Report: Wall Street Journal says an improved model is set for late next year
64. Nintendo gives Switch subscribers decked-out NES Zeldasave file
65. Nintendo hacks The Legend of Zelda to make it more accessible
66. Dragalia Lost is a turning point for Nintendo: After focusing on mobile games based on established IPs, Nintendo’s launch of an original IP unashamedly focused on the Japanese market is a major departure
67. Nintendo has patented a Game Boy case for smartphones
68. Nintendo patents Game Boy phone controller/case: Filing invites speculation of a new way for Mario maker to monetize its legacy games on smartphones
69. My.com: “Launching on console is shaping how the whole company looks at games”
70. Making games is just the beginning for Media Molecule’s Dreams: Siobhan Reddy tells us why the upcoming title aims to transform everyone into a game developer, filmmaker, musician, artist and more
71. NFTS secures £10m funding to run national centre for immersive storytelling
72. Blog: Using artificial intelligence to generate game content
73. Stuxnet Documentary ‘Zero Days VR’ Wins an Emmy
74. Borderlands 2 getting full-scale PlayStation VR port December 14
75. Magic Leap announces grant program for indie developers 
76. ‘Beat Saber’ is Now the 7th Best Rated Steam Game of All Time
77. How Early Access shaped the narrative structure of We Happy Few
78. Mega Man is the next game franchise headed to The Big Screen
79. Capcom announces live-action Mega Man movie: Japanese publisher working with Planet of the Apes production company Chernin Entertainment
80. Netflix’s Witcher Series Has Cast 2 of Its Most Important Female Characters
81. Paul W. S. Anderson’s Monster Hunter movie slated for production: Film will feature two protagonists from different worlds battling big beasties in order to survive
82. Redundant translations in video games and anime
83. How to choose what game to make next
84. Blog: How ‘design thinking’ can help create good games
85. Don’t Miss: 6 ways that the Final Fantasy series continues to influence devs
86. Brian Fargo kicks off ten-part Video Game MBA video series tomorrow
87. Here’s A Candid Breakdown Of Exactly How Much Money Twitch Streamers Earn Per Month
88. Hands-on: Fallout 76 lets you bring some company to the Apocalypse
89. Ars on your lunch break: Repairing your brain with video games

Jon

DIGITAL

1. From Copyright Term to Super Bowl Commercials: Breaking Down the Digital NAFTA Deal (Michael Geist)
2. Canadian Music Group Calls For Copyright Tax on Broadband Data Use (Michael Geist) 
3. Court Agrees That Suppressing Reviews Unfair
4. Another Social Media “Material Support to Terrorists” Lawsuit Fails–Cain v. Twitter (Eric Goldman) 
5. Another 512(f) Case Fails–Handshoe v. Perrett (Eric Goldman)
6. Section 230 Helps Malware Vendor Avoid Liability for Blocking Decision–PC Drivers v. Malwarebytes (Eric Goldman)
7. Chinese ‘Rage Comic’ Site First Victim Of Government’s History-Rewriting ‘Heroes And Martyrs’ Law 
8. The UK Government Is Planning to Regulate Hate Speech Online
9. The first “social network” of brains lets three people transmit thoughts to each other’s heads: BrainNet allows collaborative problem-solving using direct brain-to-brain communication.
10. 50 Million Facebook Accounts Affected in Massive Security Breach
11. 50 million Facebook accounts hit by account hijacking security exploit
12. 50 million Facebook accounts breached by access-token-harvesting attack
13. Study Shows Facebook’s Still Miles Away From Taking Privacy, Transparency Seriously
14. Breaking: Hackers Accessed 50 Million Facebook Accounts 
15. Okay, Facebook, You Win. I’m Done.
16. Facebook Resets Access to 90 Million Accounts Following Security Breach
17. After Massive Breach, Facebook Says Hackers Didn’t Use Your Login to Access Third-Party Apps
18. Facebook Tells Cops Its ‘Real Name’ Policy Applies To Law Enforcement Too
19. Facebook and Employers Are Subject to Gender Bias Employment Complaint 
20. Facebook Real Estate Binge Shows No Signs of Slowing
21. Facebook Rolls Out ‘Premieres’, Which Let Creators Debut On-Demand Videos As Live Events
22. Even If You Hate Zuckerberg Now, You’ll Love Him Later: Just ask Bill Gates how it works.
23. Exclusive: WhatsApp Cofounder Brian Acton Gives The Inside Story On #DeleteFacebook And Why He Left $850 Million Behind
24. Facebook takes on YouTube with more video advertising options
25. Conspiracy Vlogger Is Arrested For Threatening To Kill YouTube Employees
26. This Nifty Tool Estimates How Much Money YouTubers Can Make From AdSense Vs. Selling Merch
27. YouTube Collabs With Dior To Give 7 Creators Backstage Access During Paris Fashion Week
28. Google is trying to earn more money from YouTube by capitalizing on people using it for searches
29. YouTube Launches New Ads That Let Users Make Third-Party Purchases Without Leaving The Site
30. Fans’ Dedicated Effort Makes Late Actor Stefán Karl Stefánsson A YouTube Millionaire
31. YouTuber Daniel ‘PeeWeeToms’ Thomas, Who Vlogged His Battle With Lung Cancer, Has Passed Away
32. 1 Year After Launching Native Player, Reddit Is Driving 1 Billion Monthly Video Views
33. Reddit Surpasses 1 Billion Video Views, Closes in on 1 Million Uploads per Month
34. Vigilante engineer stops Waymo from patenting key lidar technology: Eric Swildens had no dog in the fight other than intellectual curiosity.
35. Google Is Killing Inbox—Here Are Some Alternatives
36. Google taking new steps to prevent malicious Chrome extensions
37. BroadbandTV Unveils Distribution & Label Services for Music Artists
38. BroadbandTV Launches Distribution and Label Services for Musicians
39. BBTV To Help Digital Musicians Secure Distribution On Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, More
40. Report says use of AI could be violating human rights
41. California Enacts Nation’s First Anti-Bot Law
42. An AI Took A Road Trip And Wrote A Terrible Novel About It
43. Why Technology Favors Tyranny: Artificial intelligence could erase many practical advantages of democracy, and erode the ideals of liberty and equality. It will further concentrate power among a small elite if we don’t take steps to stop it.
44. The first “social network” of brains lets three people transmit thoughts to each other’s heads: BrainNet allows collaborative problem-solving using direct brain-to-brain communication. 
45. Artificial Intelligence & Human Rights: Opportunities & Risks (Filippo A. Raso, Hannah Hilligoss, Vivek Krishnamurthy, Christopher Bavitz, and Levin Kim)
46. It’s Time To Talk About Robot Gender Stereotypes
47. Researchers find the most plausible cause of wellbeing decline in youth is increased screen time
48. Are Canadian Employees Concerned about the Right to Disconnect?
49. Another 512(f) Case Fails–Handshoe v. Perrett
50. The Icing on the Cake: an unfair investigation into a joke gone viral 
51. Spotify Founders to Sell Another $100 Million in Shares
52. Pandora Will Sell Ads for SoundCloud in the U.S. Under Exclusive Pact: Audio-streaming platforms reach more than 100 million unduplicated listeners in U.S.
53. MoviePass Is Now Re-Enrolling Former Customers in an ‘Unlimited’ Plan Unless They ‘Opt Out’
54. Fine Brothers Entertainment Developing Slate Of 4 TV Shows With JASH, Fly On The Wall, More
55. CBS Bullies Fan Star Trek Project To Shut Down Despite Creators’ Pleas For Instructions On Being Legit
56. Netflix Plans To Try Out “Interactive” Shows
57. Netflix is planning a choose-your-own-adventure episode of ‘Black Mirror’
58. Report: Netflix to offer “choose-your-own-adventure” TV series
59. Report: Netflix’s Black Mirror is getting the choose-your-own-adventure treatment
60. Netflix’s ‘House Of Cards’ Kills Off Kevin Spacey In Trailer For Final Season (Watch)
61. Netflix To Launch Third European HQ In Paris, Unveils 7 French Series And Films
62. Netflix And Amazon Are Doubling Original Programming Slates To Compete In Crowded Space (Study)
63. Amazon institutes $15 minimum wage for all US employees, including temps
64. Amazon Raises Minimum Wage to $15 After Criticism About Workers on Food Stamps [Updated]
65. Amazon’s $15-Per-Hour About-Face Is Creating Confusion for Whole Foods Workers
66. EBay accuses Amazon of ‘unlawful’ merchant poaching
67. Some Apple Employees Think Company’s New TV Service Will Be Dull As Nails
68. Apple Imposes Privacy Policy Requirement for All Apps Operating on its Platform 
69. FDA Hearts Apple’s New Watch
70. iPhone XS and XS Max review: Big screens, big performance, big lenses, big prices
71. Major Complaints About the iPhone XS Are Stacking Up 
72. Twitter Now Lets Its Publishing Partners Rake In Global In-Stream Video Ad Revenues
73. James Woods Is Correct That Twitter Shouldn’t Have Blocked His Account, But Still Hypocritical On Free Speech
74. Brazil’s Government Wants Twitter To Turn Over Data On Users Who Mocked Victim Of Assassination Attempt
75. Did France Just Make It Effectively Impossible To Use Twitter? 
76. Elon Musk, Twitter and Disclosure Controls and Procedures 
77. Elon Musk sued by SEC over ‘funding secured’ tweet
78. SEC lawsuit seeks to force Musk out as Tesla CEO and board member
79. Tesla is outgrowing Elon Musk
80. Musk settles—out as Tesla chairman, owes $20 million in penalties
81. Elon Musk to Resign as Tesla Chairman, Pay $20 Million Fine in SEC Settlement Over Catastrophic ‘420’ Tweet
82. Elon Musk to Step Down as Tesla Chairman as Part of SEC Settlement
83. SEC settlement sends Tesla stock soaring
84. Cop Pulls Tesla Model 3 Driver Over For ‘Computer’ Mounted On Dashboard
85. What is a Devil’s Triangle? Kavanaugh’s testimony inspires real-time Wikipedia edits
86. Brett Kavanaugh And The Information Terrorists Trying To Reshape America: The network architecture built in Gamergate helped propel Trump to the presidency and fuel conspiracies like Pizzagate and QAnon. Now it’s backing Brett Kavanaugh.
87. With his internet cut off, Julian Assange steps down as editor of WikiLeaks 
88. African Countries Shooting Themselves In The Digital Foot By Imposing Taxes And Levies On Internet Use 
89. FOSTA Provides Another Tool For Silencing People You Dislike
90. Six Months Later, People Are Finally Realizing That FOSTA Actually Is Putting Lives At Risk
91. Thanks To Streaming Fragmentation, Bittorrent Traffic Is Suddenly Rising In Traffic Share
92. Insights: Streaming Giants Are Remaking Awards Season, Just Like Everything Else in Hollywood
93. My Grudge Against Iomega and the Click of Death
94. Remember How Bad Android Was?
95. Confused Swedish Ad Board Says ‘Distracted Boyfriend Meme’ Is Sexist

CREATIVITY

1. British Columbia Court of Appeal orders Vancouver transit authority to reconsider selling ad space to anti-abortion group
2. A need-to-know guide on IP in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement
3. NAFTA/USMCA is Even Worse Than You Thought on Intellectual Property: CETA Victory is Now Forfeited & Long Live Life + 70 etc. (Howard Knopf)
4. The Cost of Canadian IP Capitulation in NAFTA. (Howard Knopf)
5. The USMCA and Copyright Reform: Who is Writing Canada’s Copyright Law Anyway? (Michael Geist)
6. A Mix Of Good And Bad Ideas In NAFTA Replacement
7. Good News! USMCA (a/k/a NAFTA 2.0) Embraces Section 230-Like Internet Immunity (Eric Goldman)
8. The Copyright Directive
9. How to Obtain a Global Injunction in a Copyright Infringement Case (Eric Goldman)
10. Another Zombie Bad Idea That Just Won’t Die: Copyright Small Claims Court Would Be A Free Speech Disaster
11. Court Shoots Down Record Label’s Attempt To Expand The Definition Of ‘Vicarious’ Infringement
12. Music Group Cheers On Its Own Fake Antipiracy Victories
13. Giving Cops The Finger Is Protected Speech, Says Another Federal Court
14. Fashion Designer Balenciaga Opposes Parody Pet-Wear Maker’s Trademark Application For ‘Pawlenciaga’
15. Matt Damon opens SNL’s season as a belligerent, beer-bashing Brett Kavanaugh
16. Kenan Thompson tells Seth Meyers about skipping out on Kanye West’s SNL “circus”

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1.  Application Denied: CRTC Rejects Bell Coalition Website Blocking Proposal (Michael Geist)
2. Canadian Music Group Calls For Copyright Tax on Broadband Data Use (Michael Geist) 
3. California Net Neutrality Bill Signed Into Law
4. Calif. enacts net neutrality law—US gov’t immediately sues to block it [Updated]
5. The DOJ’s New Net Neutrality Lawsuit Is A Giant Middle Finger To State Rights, Consumers, Competition & The Democratic Process
6. Trump admin claims Calif. net neutrality law causes “irreparable harm” to US
7. Entire broadband industry sues California to stop net neutrality law
8. Cities will sue FCC to stop $2 billion giveaway to wireless carriers
9. Cities, Counties Say FCC 5G Plan A Massive Handout To Wireless Carriers
10. ESPN Has Finally Realized This Whole Streaming Thing Has Legs
11. Ninth Circuit Adopts Expansive Definition of Auto-Dialer in TCPA Case
12. TCPA on the Front Line: The Battle for the Future of American Free Speech is Quietly Taking Shape in an Appeal Over “Robocalls” 
13. Report Finds U.S. Wireless Video Streaming Utterly Mediocre Thanks To Arbitrary Carrier Throttling

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. California Enacts the Nation’s First Internet of Things Security Law
2. California Enacts New Requirements for Internet of Things Manufacturers 
3. The Entire Broadband Industry Just Sued California For Daring To Protect Net Neutrality
4. Analyst Who Accidentally Leaked NSA Software Given Five More Years In Prison Than General Who Handed Classified Info To His Mistress
5. Everything Wrong In One Story: Data Silos, Privacy, And Algorithmic Blocking
6. How Face ID could be a game-changer for aggressive US border agents 
7. FBI Makes Child Porn Suspect Unlock iPhone X Using His Face 
8. Cops told suspect he had to open iPhone X with his face, so he did 
9. The FBI Forced A Suspect To Unlock His iPhone With His Face: But should investigators have the right to do that?
10. Feds Finally Get Around To Using Someone’s Face To Unlock Their Cellphone
11. FBI: We can’t listen to Facebook Messenger voice calls. Judge: Tough luck
12. FBI vs. Facebook Messenger: What’s at stake?
13. Don’t want New Zealand officials to get into your phone? Pay up to NZ$5,000
14. How Oakland sets the new standard for meaningful police tech oversight
15. DOJ Loses Another Attempt To Obtain Encryption-Breaking Precedent In Federal Court
16. Four Companies Settle FTC Allegations Regarding False EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Certifications 
17. In a Shift, Apple and Amazon Say They Are in Favor of Federal Privacy Regulation
18. Facebook Reportedly Defeats Government Demand to Wiretap Messenger Calls
19. New Mexico AG Charges App Maker With COPPA Violations
20. First UEFI malware discovered in wild is laptop security software hijacked by Russians
21. CEO who sold phones with “totally unbreakable encryption” takes plea deal

GAMES

1. Game devs call for better working conditions via #AsAGamesWorker
2. Telltale Games and the lure of the cliff edge: Disastrous studio collapses are a fixture of the industry – and that won’t change until we stop celebrating the brinksmanship of executives
3. 2018 will go down as the Year of the Bad Employer: Telltale just the latest in a parade of game dev horror stories likely leading to unionization
4. Telltale reportedly searching for partner to finish Walking Dead by hiring its former devs: Third episode is supposedly almost finished, would be completed with the fourth by Telltale vets as contract employees
5. More than 1,000 jobs lost to studio closures over the past year
6. “It’s not enough to point at Bayonetta or FemShep and say ‘job done'”: NFTS student Daisy Fernandez discusses female representation in games and the barriers for women seeking a career in development
7. Time is limited, and devs are struggling now that games demand more of it
8. Epic Games Says Fortnite’s New Breast Physics Were ‘Unintended, Embarrassing, Careless’
9. Epic will remove “embarrassing” breast physics from Fortnite: The inclusion of breast physics in the latest update was “unintended” says Epic
10. Video: A retrospective look at ‘girl games’ of the ’90s
11. Tencent using facial recognition to check users’ ages in Honour of Kings: Limited trial introduced over the weekend as part of public health campaign
12. Tencent testing facial recognition to enforce playtime restrictions in China
13. The Witcher author wants $16 million in royalties from CD Projekt Red
14. CD Project Red rejects Witcher author’s request for $16.1m in additional royalties: “Mr Andrzej Sapkowski expects payment beyond what had been contractually agreed”
15. FIFA 19 discloses loot box odds in-game
16. Valve kicks 179 rule-breaking games off Steam
17. Steam’s downfall would be a blow to ‘the creative freedom of devs,’ argues Larian CEO
18. Blog: Why do publishers leave Steam?
19. Even a decade in, GOG doesn’t want to try and be the Steam-slayer
20. PUBG has banned 13 million cheating players to date
21. 13 million PUBG accounts banned to-date: A Reddit user has crunched the numbers
22. Patent authority rules against Nintendo, lets go-kart firm keep MariCar trademark
23. Nintendo awarded $88,000 in lawsuit against Mario Kart-themed go-kart business
24. Nintendo wins lawsuit against unlicensed Mario Kart-themed tourist attraction: MariCar ordered to pay $89,000 in damages
25. Another Tourist Crashes Real-Life (And Totally Unofficial) Mario Kart In Tokyo
26. I’m Finally Convinced: The Nintendo Switch Really Is the Console For Everyone
27. Report: A new Nintendo Switch model will arrive in 2019
28. Nintendo president: “I compete for time,” not against Xbox, PlayStation
29. Sony Caves: The PS4 Will Soon Begin Supporting Cross-Console Play
30. Industry reacts to Sony’s cross-play U-turn: Microsoft keen to connect Minecraft players, Bethesda says no plans for Fallout 76, but hope remains for Rocket League and Hearthstone
31. Friends reunited: Sony admits enabling cross-play took too long
32. Sony is shuttering PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale’s online servers
33. Canucks players banned from playing video games on road trips
34. Canucks players put in video game ban on the road
35. Canucks ban video games, ‘Fortnite’ from NHL road trips
36. Housemarque goes battle royale: “We’ve had pushback, and we’re expecting more”
37. ESA president Michael Gallagher steps down
38. Fullscreen Study Finds Avid Gamers Have Twice As Much Discretionary Income As Non-Gamers
39. World of Warcraft community rallies for the creator of a beloved mod: World of Warcraft’s most essential mod is maintained by one man
40. DBM author gets a surprise support package from MSI and Blizzard
41. Carbine Studios will shut down WildStar on November 28
42. ‘First on Discord’ initiative launching with seven (timed) PC exclusives
43. Oculus Quest will “end up competing with the Nintendo Switch as a device”
44. Nintendo reveals it invented “Bowsette” before the Internet did
45. Dragalia Lost has lowest-grossing launch of Nintendo’s mobile line-up: Publisher’s latest mobile offering generates $3 million in Japan and US over five days
46. Konami’s Dance Dance Revolution is getting a movie adaptation
47. Chinese console and TV-based game market projected to reach $736m in 2018: Grey market software to account for nearly two-thirds of market value
48. World Rally Championship dev Kylotonn acquired by Bigben 
49. Bigben spending spree continues with Kylotonn acquisition: The Paris-based racing studio joins the family
50. Carmack compares Oculus Quest hardware power to last-gen game consoles
51. Devs will need to code creatively to get the most out of the Oculus Quest
52. Nate Nanzer: “The train has left the station” on esports opportunities – Overwatch League commissioner reflects on its inaugural year, the relationship between esports and traditional sports, and the League’s role in diversity leadership
53. Hands-on: Oculus Quest is an intriguing new middle ground for VR
54. 562 adapts to VR growing at a Snailiens’ pace
55. ‘Astro Bot Rescue Mission’ Review – This VR Platformer Earns Our First 10 Out of 10
56. John Carmack’s advice for mobile VR devs: Iterate, iterate, iterate
57. Stupid Patent of the Month: Trolling Virtual Reality
58. My confusing, 10-day journey to getting a UWP game to work on Windows 10
59. Block party: Minecraft has over 90 million monthly active players
60. Minecraft exceeds 90m monthly active users: Despite dominating the headlines, Fortnite still lags behind as Minecraft gains nearly 20 million monthly users in 2018 alone
61. Newzoo: Catering to families with Xbox Game Pass could be key to closing gap on Sony
62. Forza Horizon 4 is the best open-world driving game you can buy
63. How Serious Sam set itself apart in the era of Duke Nukemand Quake
64. Review: Civilization VI on the iPhone is the full experience
65. How The Universim’s ‘god game’ twist charmed Early Access players
66. Ubisoft Joins Blockchain Game Alliance as Publishers Anticipate Death of the Video Game Console
67. Google and Ubisoft to test game-streaming service with Assassin’s Creed Odyssey: Limited number of users in the US will be able to play Assassin’s Creed Odyssey for free through their Chrome browser
68. Google is testing an in-Chrome game streaming service with Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
69. Google announces “Project Stream”—a “test” of game streaming in Chrome
70. Vivendi will sell all Ubisoft shares by March 2019
71. Vivendi lays plan to relinquish the last of its Ubisoft stock by 2019
72. Ubisoft chief: The games industry needs to find its soul
73. “Gaming is not about entertainment, it’s about learning”: Ubisoft chief creative officer Serge Hascoet says the games industry is missing a soul, doesn’t do enough to benefit players in their lives away from the game
74. Liquid Media acquires rights to 65 classic video game titles
75. Warner Bros distributing Cyberpunk 2077 in North America: Partnership with developer CD Projekt Red continues after publisher distributed past Witcher games in the region
76. Tencent investing $316 million in Bilibili: Chinese gaming giant to purchase approximately 12.3% in shares of video sharing company that owns Overwatch League Hangzhou team
77. Tencent restructures with an eye on corporate clients as games business stutters
78. Chinese console and TV-based game market projected to reach $736m in 2018: Grey market software to account for nearly two-thirds of market value
79. Disney shuts down Club Penguin Island, lays off developers
80. Club Penguin Island shuts down, “dozens” of developers reportedly laid off
81. Ex-Irrational and Slipgate veteran shares the secret to game dev survival: Apathy will kill your game, so work on something you believe in, says indie developer Gwen Frey
82. Blog: Indie marketing – It’s never too soon
83. It’s time we stopped encouraging indies: The Fall director John Warner rethinks the ethics of guiding aspiring developers without acknowledging some harsh realities
84. Three pain points in the production and design of Shadow of the Tomb Raider
85. Don’t Miss: How reference data was captured for Forza Motorsport 5
86. Video: Sid Meier explores ‘interesting decisions’ in gameplay
87. The Walking Dead Producer Says Video Games Resurrected The Zombie Genre
88. How EVE Online has evolved in the era of F2P
89. Leaked Video Seems To Show Open-World Harry Potter Game
90. Twitch Viewers Band Together To Fund A Streamer’s Life-Saving Trip To The ER
91. Seattle police try new opt-in registry system to combat SWATting
92. Police to Seattle’s techies, streamers: Sign up for our anti-swatting service [Updated]
93. EA has killed, pledges to kill again – 10 Years Ago This Month: EA CEO John Riccitiello gets into the spooky spirit of the season by promising the publisher would be an unstoppable game-cancelling machine

Jon

DIGITAL

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

CREATIVITY

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

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

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

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

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

GAMES

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

Jon

DIGITAL

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

CREATIVITY

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

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

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

 SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

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

GAMES

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

Jon

DIGITAL

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

CREATIVITY

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

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

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

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

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

GAMES

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

Jon

DIGITAL

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

CREATIVITY

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

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

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

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

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

GAMES

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

Jon

DIGITAL

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

CREATIVITY

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

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

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

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

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

GAMES

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

Jon

DIGITAL

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

CREATIVITY

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

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

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

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

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

GAMES

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

Jon

DIGITAL

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

CREATIVITY

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

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

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

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

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

GAMES

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

Jon

DIGITAL

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

CREATIVITY

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

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

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

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

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

GAMES

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

Jon

DIGITAL

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

CREATIVITY

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

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

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

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

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

GAMES

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

Jon

DIGITAL

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

CREATIVITY

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

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

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

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

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

GAMES

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

Jon

DIGITAL

1. 3D-printed gun lawsuit ends after 3+ years—in gun publisher’s favor
2. “Content is fire, Social Media is gasoline” – Court of Appeal considers the challenges for interim injunctions in the digital age 
3. EU: Google illegally used Android to dominate search, must pay $5B fine
4. EU Fines Google $5 Billion for Stifling Android’s Competition 
5. Here’s Why Google Just Got Hit With a Record $5 Billion Fine 
6. How Google’s Safe Browsing Helped Build A More Secure Web
7. Some Thoughts On The EU’s Latest $5 Billion Google Antitrust Fine
8. Businesses Cannot Contractually Ban “Abusive” Consumer Reviews
9. Trolling the Internet for Photos Creates Copyright Headaches for Ad Agency (and the Advertiser)–Laspata v. Rimowa
10. Executives From YouTube, Facebook, Twitter To Testify Before Congress Regarding Political Bias
11. Shadow Politics: Meet The Digital Sleuth Exposing Fake News – Buried in media scholar Jonathan Albright’s research was proof of a massive political misinformation campaign. Now he’s taking on the the world’s biggest platforms before it’s too late.
12. 12 Russian intel officers indicted for hacking the DNC and Clinton campaign
13. Russia Indictment 2.0: What to Make of Mueller’s Hacking Indictment
14. Indicting 12 Russian Hackers Could Be Mueller’s Biggest Move Yet
15. Bitcoin, malware and ‘spearphishing’ helped Russian agents hack Democratic Party computers in 2016 election
16. Cryptocurrency’s Criminal Revolution: The Unsavory Cast Of Bitcoin’s Biggest Beneficiaries
17. Suspect behind bitcoin exchange that “catered to criminals” ordered to France
18. The SIM Hijackers: Meet the hackers who flip seized Instagram handles and cryptocurrency in a shady, buzzing underground market for stolen accounts and usernames. Their victims’ weakness? Phone numbers.
19. Apple Updates Crypto Currency Aspects of App Store Review Guidelines 
20. AI & Blockchain: An Introduction
21. Coty gets green light for online platform ban
22. Instagram Model Attacked By Shark While Attempting To Snap The Perfect Shot
23. Study: Instagram leads as influencer marketing platform 
24. California Supreme Court Ruling Immunizes Yelp from Defamatory Content Removal
25. ‘Smart’ TVs Remain The Poster Child For Dismal Privacy, Transparency & Security Standards
26. States prevail over e-commerce companies in Battle for sales taxes
27. Magic Leap Finally Demoed Its Headset And It Is… Disappointing
28. Magic Leap’s Disappointing Demo Could Be A Death Knell For AR 
29. Much of the excitement and cool factor around Magic Leap is now gone
30. The best augmented reality I saw this year was live theater funded by a liquor company: Whiskey-sponsored immersive theater. Snickers escape rooms. Immersive branding is just getting started.
31. ‘Rick & Morty VR’, ‘Coco VR’, ‘Blade Runner 2049 VR’ & More Nominated for Emmys
32. DOJ Tells Ron Wyden About The Times It Has Collected Journalists’ Communications; Leaves Some Facts Out
33. Why the Craig behind Craigslist gave big bucks to a journalism program: His philanthropy funds veterans, women, voter protection and trustworthy journalism.
34. Copyright As Censorship: FIFA’s Overaggressive Copyright Takedowns Target Fans Celebrating And Pussy Riot Protesting
35. Trump revealed as Facebook’s biggest political advertiser
36. Media – both on the left and right – are pressing Facebook to define what journalism is
37. Notification: Facebook – you have a £500,000 fine from the Information Commissioner’s Office
38. Why is InfoWars allowed on Facebook? Zuckerberg: Because it doesn’t cause “harm”
39. Here’s What It Takes to Get Kicked off Facebook (Hint: It’s A Lot)
40. Facebook says it will begin removing misinformation that leads to violence
41. How We Can ‘Free’ Our Facebook Friends
42. Inside Facebook, Twitter and Google’s AI battle over your social lives: From stamping out trolls to removing fake bot accounts, here’s how social networks are waging war using AI weapons.
43. UK: ICO announces intention to fine Facebook £500,000 and publishes data analytics investigation update 
44. A FOSTA Of One’s Own: UK Parliament Members Looking To Punish Websites, Push Traffickers Underground
45. Digital Ads Are Starting To Feel Psychic: Targeted advertising has become so uncanny, it feels like we’re being surveilled. Two artists want to hear these stories.
46. How publishers and advertisers can balance privacy and monetization
47. DeepMind Created a Test to Measure an AI’s Ability to Reason
48. New Quantum Computer Milestone Would Make Richard Feynman Very Happy
49. D-Wave’s quantum computer successfully models a quantum system
50. The quantified heart: Artificial intelligence promises ever more control over the highs and lows of our emotions. Uneasy? Perhaps you should be
51. A new hope: AI for news media
52. Artificial Intelligence Is Automating Hollywood. Now, Art Can Thrive.
53. Top AI Experts Vow They Won’t Help Create Lethal Autonomous Weapons
54. Netflix Scores 112 Emmy Nominations, Beating Out HBO’s 108
55. Netflix to Launch Comedy Radio Channel on SiriusXM
56. For First Time In Two Years, Netflix Falls Short Of Quarterly Growth Expectations
57. Investors are worried that Netflix is getting as big as it can get
58. Netflix Can Either Become the Dominant Media Monopoly of the 21st Century or Go Bust
59. Netflix Is King No More as Disney Retakes Media-Company Crown 
60. Netflix CEO Proclaims The Death Of Net Neutrality Is No Big Deal
61. Will Smith Collects $20,000 In Two Days By Selling Merch On YouTube’s New Teespring Shelf
62. Shawn Mendes To Kick Off Year-Long Partnership Between YouTube Music, Rolling Stone
63. Guns N’ Roses’ “November Rain” Becomes Oldest Music Video To Reach One Billion YouTube Views 
64. Female Science-Focused YouTubers Face Inordinate Amount Of Criticism, Study Finds
65. YouTube TV Gifts Subscribers Week Of Free Service To Apologize For World Cup Outage
66. Progress Isn’t Linear: YouTube TV’s World Cup Flub Threatens Public’s Trust For Sports Streaming
67. Tickets For The First-Ever VidCon London Are On Sale Now
68. Talent Firm ‘Addition’ Signs Lifestyle Creators Aaryn Williams, Ally Chen, And Jennifer Zhang
69. Racial Discrimination Complaint Against The Young Turks Leads To A Lawsuit
70. Insights: Purging – It’s Not Just For Twitter Anymore (Or At Least It Shouldn’t Be)
71. A Serial Twitter Follow/Unfollower Explains Himself: “I’m just trying to get eyes on me. It’s a big attention game online… the end goal for me is just be on as many screens as I can.”
72. Unfollowing Everybody (Anil Dash)
73. The 10 Most Difficult-To-Defend Online Fandoms
74. Creators Are Making As Much As $50,000 With Music Video App Triller’s New Monetization Feature
75. Kid-Friendly Network Pocket.watch Raises $15 Million Series B Round Led By Viacom
76. Original Shows From DeStorm, Lil Tay Lead The Way As New SVOD Service Zeus Launches
77. Do Subscription Models Work with Apps?: Thoughts on Setapp  –  subscription-based collection for Mac apps
78. Reddit Reinvents The Chat Room With Community Chat
79. Don’t Feed The Trolls, And Other Hideous Lies: The mantra about the best way to respond to online abuse has only made it worse
80. The “Intellectual Dark Web” Is Nothing New
81. PC market appears to have grown for the first time since 2012
82. Microsoft finally gives Teams what it needs to take on Slack: A free version
83. Early Amazon Prime Day Sales Were Up Over 50% Despite Website Crashes and Worker Strikes
84. Uber faces new probe over alleged gender discrimination in hiring practices
85. Elon Musk could face lawsuit for calling cave rescuer a “pedo guy”
86. Antarctic Exploration Vessel Which Should Be Named Boaty McBoatface But Tragically Isn’t Launches

CREATIVITY

1. All’s Fair in Whoville: Dr. Seuss Parody is Fair Use
2. DeLorean Estate Alleges ‘Back to the Future’ Royalties Were Improperly Distributed
3. Green v. Harbach
4. The first rule of copyright reform: Don’t mess with free speech and net neutrality (Michael Geist)
5. Guy In Charge Of Pushing Draconian EU Copyright Directive, Evasive About His Own Use Of Copyright Protected Images
6. Did The Ninth Circuit’s “Blurred Lines” Ruling Just Quietly Move To Kill Off The So-Called Inverse Ratio Rule?
7. Court Won’t Rehear Blurred Lines Case, Bad News For Music Creativity
8. Is the press regulator subject to judicial review? – Coulter v Independent Press Standards Organisation CIC (IPSO)
9. The MAGA Trolls Have Met Their Match In Sacha Baron Cohen And “Who Is America?” 
10. Congressman Introduces Legislation To Criminalize Protesting In A Mask
11. When Black Performers Use Their ‘White Voice’
12. Court to Kanye Plaintiff: Imma Let You Finish
13. Kanye’s Tweet Could Be False Advertising, New York Court Rules
14. Pussy Riot has a wake up call for America’s youth in the Trump era
15. State Appeals Court Tosses Defamation Suit Against Lawyer Who Wrote About Teen Driver Who Injured His Client
16. How A US Burger Chain Brought ‘Ruby Tuesday’ Full Circle Through Trademark Bullying
17. Eighth Grade’s R rating deters actual 8th-graders from seeing it. What a shame.: The MPAA ratings system and its very specific hang-ups are keeping teens away from the movies they need most.
18. Disruption, Consolidation, Uncertainty: Welcome to Hollywood’s Age of Anxiety
19. Why Did American Music Festivals Almost Disappear in the 1970s and ’80s?
20. There Is Now Just One Blockbuster Left in the US
21. Alaska’s last two Blockbusters are shutting down, leaving one in US
22. The Simpsons Wouldn’t Exist Without Yellow Submarine: How the Beatles classic changed the future of animation.
23. Q2 2018 Quick Links, Part 5 (Potpourri) (Eric Goldman)

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. Canada: A $250,000 Reminder that “CASL” is Not Just an Anti-Spam Law
2. AG’s False Advertising Suit Challenging Broadband Claims Not Preempted
3. Bill to save net neutrality gets first Republican vote in US House
4. The Cable TV & Broadband Sector Has A Nasty Billing Fraud Problem
5. The FCC’s Sneaky Plan To Make It Easier To Ignore ISP Complaints
6. Ajit Pai Pretends To Care About Identity Fraud That Plagued Net Neutrality Repeal
7. Ajit Pai’s Cure For The ‘Digital Divide’ Looks Suspiciously Like A Giant Middle Finger
8. Ajit Pai finalizes vote to limit FCC reviews of customer complaints
9. Ajit Pai deals major setback to Sinclair/Tribune merger
10. The FCC Mysteriously Retreats From Sinclair Cronyism, Potentially Dooming Controversial Merger
11. FCC Seeks “Large Step” Toward Advancing Broadband Infrastructure Goals With Draft One-Touch Make-Ready Order 
12. Trump administration appeals court loss in AT&T/Time Warner case
13. After AT&T Jacks Up Prices Post Merger, DOJ Decides To Appeal Court Loss
14. Charter Spectrum’s New ‘Unlimited’ Wireless Service Bans HD Video Entirely

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Supreme Court of Canada affirms privacy protections in tobacco health-data case
2. B.C. wins SCC appeal on production of health-care databases in Big Tobacco case
3. PIPEDA at 20: Time for PIPEDA 2.0 (Michael Geist)
4. US v. Microsoft Litigation Update: Supreme Court Dismisses Case as Moot After Congress Amends Stored Communications Act
5. Shocker: DOJ’s Computer Crimes And Intellectual Property Section Supports Security Researchers DMCA Exemptions
6. Judge slams FBI for improper cellphone search, stingray use
7. Oregon Supreme Court Sets Up New Limits For Digital Device Searches
8. Florida Man Jailed for Failing to Unlock His Phone
9. Guy Gets Tossed In Jail For Contempt Charges Because Cops Say They Need To Unlock His Phones To Get Evidence Of Drug Possession 
10. State Appeals Court Says Exigency Beats A Warrant Requirement If A Phone Has A Passcode
11. Walmart Patents Tech for Eavesdropping on Workers
12. Our Data, Ourselves: How to stop tech firms from monopolizing our personal information. 
13. Microsoft President Calls For Government Rules For Facial Recognition Technology
14. How Facial Recognition Could Tear Us Apart: Will the new tech create a safer society – or a dystopian panopticon?
15. Smart TVs are invading privacy and should be investigated, senators say 
16. ‘Smart’ TVs Remain The Poster Child For Dismal Privacy, Transparency & Security Standards
17. Should we have any expectation of privacy in public spaces? (Andres Guadamuz)
18. Obtained Documents Show The DEA Sold Compromised Phones To Suspected Drug Dealers
19. Health Insurers Are Vacuuming Up Details About You – And It Could Raise Your Rates
20. The most ambitious browser mitigation yet for Spectre attacks comes to Chrome
21. California’s Data Privacy Law: What It Is and How to Comply (A Step-By-Step Guide)
22. Can the Privacy Shield survive? What’s next for exports of personal data to the US?
23. European Parliament Turns Up The Pressure On US-EU Privacy Shield Data Transfer Deal A Little More

GAMES

1. Tencent awarded $2.9M in case against dev of allegedLeague of Legends clone
2. Tencent awarded $2.89 million in lawsuit against Mobile Legends CEO: Riot Games parent company wins non-compete suit in China
3. Capcom Wins Judgement to Uphold Patent in Lawsuit to Rescind Decision for its Patent #3295771
4. Star Citizen backer loses court case for $4,500 refund: Arbitration clause in end-user license agreement protects developer RSI from refund claims in court
5. Court denies Star Citizen backer’s $4,500 refund lawsuit
6. EPIC Bravely Defeats 14 Year Old’s Mom In Court To Continue Lawsuit Against Her Son For Cheating In Fortnite
7. Saudi Arabia appears to ban 47 video games after deaths of children
8. Credit card thieves reportedly using Clash of Clans to launder money
9. Coming soon? German courts ban vague release dates on pre-orders
10. Germany bans vague pre-order release dates: Retailers no longer to pre-sell games that are “coming soon”, courts have ruled
11. NetEase moves to dismiss PUBG Corp lawsuit: Knives Out developer calls complaint a “shameless attempt” to monopolize a genre
12. As PUBG-like contenders emerge, Islands of Nyne might already have them beat: While we wait for Battlefield, Call of Duty, awesome sci-fi twist is already here.
13. Nintendo lawsuit against Colopl won’t block developer’s Switch release: Platform holder says ongoing patent dispute and defendant’s games business are “completely separate matters”
14. Tempest 4000 finally lives after delays, legal threats—but what’s up on PC?
15. Social features have cut down on toxic behavior inOverwatch
16. Toxicity in Overwatch down by over a quarter following new measures from Blizzard: Game director promises further improvement along with exploration and implementation of new systems
17. Ubisoft is now insta-banning toxic Rainbow Six Siegeplayers
18. Rainbow Six Siege instantly bans players for using slurs: Bans last nearly half an hour for the first offense, with possible permanent bans after the third
19. Amazon may have allowed sales of pirated games: Retailer says “We strictly prohibit the sale of counterfeit products, and these games have been removed”
20. Amazon claims to be spiking listings for pirated games
21. The ArenaNet Catastrophe Has The Whole Game Industry Rethinking Harassment Policies
22. Opinion: It’s past time to get serious about social media policies
23. Over half of UK parents let kids play 18+ rated games
24. How Bossa relied on players to help build its skyfaring MMO Worlds Adrift
25. Jade Raymond on applying lessons from Assassin’s Creed to her new project at EA: The original game was designed as a “sandbox for creatives” with the intention to “hand off the keys to other professionals”
26. Madden lead Carlos Guerrero dismissed from EA: Senior producer departs after only two months due to company policy violation
27. Valve brings trading back to CS:GO in the Netherlands, though loot boxes remain blocked
28. Valve locks Counter-Strike loot boxes for Dutch and Belgian players: Steam item trading returns, but CS:GO’s containers are now locked
29. Valve is temporarily withholding adult games from Steam 
30. Valve temporarily halting new adult game releases on Steam: Company isn’t approving updates or new games until planned filter is in place
31. Valve updates “Upcoming” tab on Steam to focus on user interests: Suggestions based on past purchases and pre-release interest will replace chronological listing
32. Blog: The three ages of Steam distribution
33. Actor Nathan Fillion Just Created A YouTube Fan Film Of Video Game ‘Uncharted’
34. Uncharted fan film, starring Nathan Fillion, beats Sony to live-action punch
35. Nathan Fillion Is Finally Playing Nathan Drake in This Uncharted Fan Film
36. Nathan Fillion Made An Uncharted Fan-Film, And It’s Excellent
37. Fallout 76 and the thrill of ‘stranger danger’: Bethesda’s Pete Hines discusses how the publisher’s previous RPGs have been cheating players – and how its next title resolves this
38. Blizzard does away with World of Warcraft Battle Chest pricing
39. Blizzard makes WoW base game and expansions free to subscribers: New subs now only have to pay an extra fee for the latest expansion, Battle For Azeroth
40. Colonial Marines modder finds big AI fix by changing one letter of code
41. A years-old, one-letter typo led to Aliens: Colonial Marines’ weird AI
42. A One-Letter Typo is (in Part) the Reason Aliens: Colonial Marines Sucked
43. Nintendo showcases DIY games made with Labo’s Toy-Con Garage
44. Hands-on with Nintendo’s weirdest, and maybe rarest, classic console yet
45. The Makers Of Nintendo’s Latest Hidden Gem Worry People Missed It
46. Nintendo hid a load-your-own NES emulator inside a GameCube classic
47. What’s behind Nintendo’s falling stock price?: Nintendo has lost almost a quarter of its valuation in recent months – but its strategy and line-up remains sound despite investor jitters
48. Milan court applies Nintendo v Big Ben in fast fashion lawsuit against ZARA
49. Modders revamp Super Mario Odyssey on hacked Switch hardware
50. Japan is taking steps to legalize paid esports tournaments
51. The Most Important Video Game on the Planet: How Fortnite became the Instagram of gaming.
52. Fortnite has collected $1 billion from in-game purchases
53. Fortnite has earned $1 billion from in-game purchases alone: Revenue has only continued to rise month by month since game’s battle royale debut
54. ‘Fortnite’ Streamer Ninja Helped Florida’s GuardianCon Raise $2.7 Million For St. Jude
55. Dan Bull’s Epic Collaboration Brings Together 100 Creators For ‘Fortnite’ Rap Battle
56. Encouraging collaboration among players in Sea of Thieves
57. Despite Its Best Efforts, NBA 2K League Can’t Beat The Real Thing
58. App Store and Google Play spending hits $34.4B during first half of 2018
59. Mobile game spending up 19 per cent in H1 2018 – Sensor Tower: Tencent’s Honor of Kings led mobile spending on Google Play and the App Store, PUBG Mobile led downloads
60. Marvel Strike Force brings in over $25 million since launch: Turn-based mobile RPG accumulates 10 million installs over four months
61. NetEase’s Identity V downloaded over 100 million times: Asymmetrical multiplayer horror game’s downloads doubled upon global release
62. The Crew 2 activity “in line” with The Crew 1: Ubisoft sees open-world racing sequel following in the tracks of its predecessor, hoping continued support leads to continuous sales over coming years
63. Back catalog games continue to drive growth for Ubisoft as Q1 sales hit $466M
64. Ubisoft net bookings ahead of projections in Q1: Company reports $466 million in sales for the quarter, remains on track for full-year estimates
65. Ubisoft Berlin granted $1.84M in subsidies from city senate for expansion
66. Ubisoft Berlin approved for $1.85m subsidy from city government: Studio plans to use money to expand, creating around 150 new jobs
67. Epic increases revenue split for Unreal Engine Marketplace sellers
68. Epic Games adjusts Unreal Engine Marketplace share in favor of creators: Developer/store split changed to 88/12% from 70%/30%, applied retroactively
69. Epic ups Unreal Marketplace creators’ pay well above industry standard
70. Vampyr sells 450,000 copies in first month
71. Hangar 13: Diversifying your team protects you from blind spots – The Mafia III developer on “walking a tightrope” with the game’s narrative and how the risks it took shaped the new Brighton studio
72. Tropico publisher Kalypso acquires rights to Commandos series
73. Tropico publisher acquires Commandos franchise among others – Kalypso Media: “We see it as our responsibility to want to revive and further develop these beloved games for the fans around the world”
74. Pokemon Go developer Niantic acquires Seismic Games
75. Niantic acquires VR and mobile developer Seismic Games
76. VR rivals come together to develop a single-cable spec for VR headsets
77. Facebook spends $88M on Oculus permits in Seattle to expand VR headquarters
78. Facebook invested $88.3 million to expand its Redmond Oculus HQ this year: Company spent $106 million on construction and permits over the last three years
79. Octi raises $7.5 million in seed funding: AR startup’s app can discern human movement in videos, outline people and add effects
80. AppLovin’ takes $400 million investment: KKR & Co investment is based on a $2 billion valuation of the mobile marketing firm
81. Video game Kickstarters have raised almost $10m so far in 2018: Total money pledged reaches three-year high, but number of campaigns drops to six-year low and success rate remains steady
82. Blog: Crowdfunding and video games in 2018 – A mid-year update
83. Earn while you play start-up Blast secures $12m seed funding: “If you can attach a positive outcome to something that people already do and love, like gaming, you can change lives”
84. Klang Games raises $8.75m for AI-driven space colonization MMO: Spotify-backer firm Northzone leads Series A funding round
85. “There will be more IPOs”: Rebuilding trust in the UK games industry
86. “Real innovation is coming from emerging markets in many spaces – game development is one of them”
87. Ovosonico: Games will be “like the Netflix button on your remote – that easy” – CEO Massimo Guarini on preparing for the horizontal expansion of the industry, and the Italian studio’s pivot into indie AAA
88. Taking stock after five years of ID@Xbox: Chris Charla talks about the program’s biggest successes, pain points, and the conventional wisdom on when to announce and release independent games
89. The Washington Post Is Now Streaming The News On Twitch
90. The Twitch Streamers Who Spend Years Broadcasting To No One
91. Top YouTube Gamer Jacksepticeye, Citing Mental Health, Is On A Break
92. Don’t Miss: Fight or flight – Exploring the neuroscience of survival horror
93. Video: How devs can apply the 5 domains of play to develop empathy
94. Ninja Theory dominates the Develop Awards
95. French game designer Muriel Tramis awarded Legion of Honor
96. Challenging videogame music tropes: “Music doesn’t exist for a passive viewer… it’s the player’s emotional reality,” says composer James Hannigan
97. The 20 JRPGs You Must Play
98. Video Game Deep Cuts: Octopath’s DOS Demake
99. Watch a Guy Build a Brand New, Completely Obsolete Gaming PC With 20-Year-Old Parts