News of the Week; January 31, 2018
DIGITAL
- The Dutch were a secret U.S. ally in war against Russian hackers, local media reveal
- Candid camera: Dutch hacked Russians hacking DNC, including security cameras – AIVD shared data on “Cozy Bear” with US, helping thwart 2014 State Department hack.
- Mueller’s Team Has Interviewed Facebook Staff As Part Of Russia Probe
- Tinder must stop charging its older California users more for “Plus” features – Appeal ruling includes a Tinder dating joke: “We swipe left and reverse.”
- Playboy Lawsuit Raises Major Question—Can Hyperlinking Be Copyright Infringement?
- Appeals court rules that Tinder’s pricing violates age discrimination laws
- We Need To Shine A Light On Private Online Censorship
- Reports allege Apple making fewer iPhone Xs due to weak demand: Thursday’s earning report may tell us more about iPhone X sales so far.
- Apple under investigation by DOJ, SEC for disclosures of its iPhone slow-down update: The government is looking into possible securities laws violations.
- Ruling raises songwriter royalties from Spotify, Apple Music by 44%: The new ruling will also make it easier for them to get paid quickly.
- Will Spotify’s expensive US copyright shortcut be its coda?
- Songwriters Must Get Nearly 5% More Royalties On Streaming Sites Like YouTube, Court Decides
- Fighting The Future: Teamsters Demand UPS Ban Drones And Autonomous Vehicles
- You Can’t Trust Facebook’s Search For Trusted News
- CJEU dismisses Schrems’ class action but grants leave to pursue Facebook Ireland as a consumer
- CJEU gives Green Light for Facebook Lawsuit in Vienna
- Rupert Murdoch Admits, Once Again, He Can’t Make Money Online — Begs Facebook To Just Give Him Money
- Facebook’s Experiment in Ad Transparency Is Like Playing Hide And Seek:Starting in Canada, Facebook is rolling out a global program to prevent foreign meddling in elections. Ads targeted to a narrow audience may be seen by other Facebook users — if they look hard enough.
- Will Facebook’s Recent Announcement of Changes to News Feed Affect Legal Immunities for User Content?
- Health Experts Ask Facebook To Shut Down Messenger Kids
- Facebook Wants To Fix Itself. Here’s A Better Solution.
- People Can Put Your Face On Porn—And The Law Can’t Help You
- It’s Time to Talk About Internet Companies’ Content Moderation Operations
- Why The History Of Content Moderation Matters
- NAFTA Offers Chance for Much-Needed Internet Safe Harbour Rules in Canada (Michael Geist)
- ‘Revenge porn’ bill receives renewed attention amid Greitens investigation
- A Month After Launch, Bloomberg’s 24-Hour, Twitter-Based News Feed Gets One Million Views Per Day
- Now That Tech Runs The World, Let’s Retire The Hacker Ideal
- Japanese exchange says hackers stole over $400M in cryptocurrency
- Two new cryptocurrency heists make off with over $400M worth of blockchange
- Japanese cryptocurrencies exchange abruptly halts withdrawals: Decision spooks digital currency markets
- A Debate About Bitcoin That Was A Debate About Nothing
- Now even YouTube serves ads with CPU-draining cryptocurrency miners: Ad campaign lets attackers profit while unwitting users watch videos.
- Scandinavia’s largest bank just banned all its 30,000 employees from trading cryptocurrency
- Feds shut down alleged $600 million cryptocurrency scam: AriseBank project was endorsed by boxer Evander Holyfield.
- Cryptocurrency Scams Are Just Straight-Up Trolling At This Point
- Virtual Currency – Financial Regulations to Curb Speculation and Money Laundering
- YouTube Blocks Computer-Draining Ads That Secretly Mine Cryptocurrency
- Ad Spend Across YouTube, Facebook Set To Reach $37 Billion By 2022
- Israeli Olympian Learned To Skeleton Sled On YouTube
- In First-Of-Its-Kind Deal, YouTube TV To Be Exclusive Broadcasting Partner Of MLS Team
- Pixel team is now in-house as Google closes $1.1 billion HTC deal: The HTC/Google deal announced last year has officially been completed.
- Google Will Let You Mute Annoying Ads That Stalk You
- The Shallowness of Google Translate: The program uses state-of-the-art AI techniques, but simple tests show that it’s a long way from real understanding.
- The Dirty War Over Diversity Inside Google
- YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, Google CEO Sundar Pichai Talk Jobs In Recode, MSNBC Interview
- The Dangers Of Keeping Women Out Of Tech
- Vice Chief Digital Officer, Previously Suspended After Report Of Sexual Misconduct, Will Not Return To Role
- Vice Media has fired the founder of its digital ad agency Carrot Creative following a sexual misconduct investigation
- Vice Media Goes After Vice Industry Token, A Porn Crypto-Currency Company, For Trademark
- FTC Staff Report: Consumer Recognition of Paid Search Advertising Online, Native Advertising
- Fitbit slaps expiration date on Pebble smartwatch support: Devices will continue to work after that date, but key features won’t be supported.
- Can Our Phones Save Us From Our Phones?
- Your New Best Friend: AI Chatbot
- Artificial Intelligence May Have Cracked Freaky 600-Year-Old Manuscript
- Google hired professional photographers to help train its AI camera
- Algorithms and Justice: Scrapping the ‘Black Box’
- Can an Algorithm Tell When Kids Are in Danger?: Child protective agencies are haunted when they fail to save kids. Pittsburgh officials believe a new data analysis program is helping them make better judgment calls.
- The case against understanding why AI makes decisions
- This op-ed wasn’t written by AI
- Microsoft’s “Ink to Code” turns drawings into user interfaces: Early prototype is being developed as a “Garage” project.
- Microsoft 2Q18: Trump tax hit turns strong quarter into $6.3B loss: Taxes aside, revenue was up 12 percent and operating income up 10 percent.
- Shocking Report Suggests Some Celebrities May Be Buying Social Media Followers
- DraftKings Cofounder Sees Big Future With Foray Into Live Streaming
- Pablo Escobar’s Brother Gives Up His Quest For A Billion Dollar Extortion Of Netflix Over ‘Narcos’
- Insights: Netflix’s Great Week Leaves Pretenders Chasing The Dream
- What Does It Mean That Netflix, Amazon Left Sundance Empty-Handed?
- After dominating Sundance for 2 years, Netflix and Amazon bought zero movies at the festival this time around — and insiders told us why
- Amazon Video Direct’s New Compensation Rates May Leave Creators Feeling Burned
- Now Amazon is disrupting fashion retail, too: Ecommerce giant is set to overtake Macy’s as the largest seller of clothing in the US
- Walmart joins, well, most of its competitors in selling e-books: Kobo e-books, audiobooks, and e-readers are coming to Walmart stores.
- Fujifilm acquires Xerox for $6.1 billion: The new company, Fuji Xerox, will have a combined revenue of $18 billion.
CREATIVITY
- ‘We Shall Overcome’ Overcomes Bogus Copyright Claim — Officially In The Public Domain
- Grumpy Cat still grumpy despite big copyright verdict
- Do ‘Fast and Furious’ Movies Cause a Rise in Speeding?: Evidence suggests you may want to be more cautious near theaters in April 2020, when “Fast and Furious 9” is expected to arrive.
- Another Day, Another Flimsy Report Claiming TV Cord Cutting Won’t Save You Money
- Vegas Golden Knights Brand in Free-Fall?
- The NFL Pretending Trademark Law Says Something It Doesn’t Leads To Hilariously Amateurish Ads For ‘The Big Game’
- Salt Lake Comic Con Files For A New Trial And Seeks Round 2
- Freud hid Bacon masterpiece for years to spite him
- Spanish Government Uses Hate Speech Law To Arrest Critic Of The Spanish Government
- Israelis sue New Zealanders over cancelled Lorde concert
- Are women taking back Hollywood?
- Don’t Make the TPP Mistake Again: Why Canada Needs to Maintain a Progressive Approach on IP in NAFTA (Michael Geist)
- TPP Is Back, Minus Copyright Provisions And Pharma Patent Extensions, In A Clear Snub To Trump And The US
- Sarajevo’s City Government Says No One Can Use The Name ‘Sarajevo’ Without Its Permission
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- New York, Montana governors sign executive orders to safeguard net neutrality
- Montana to FCC: You can’t stop us from protecting net neutrality – Montana governor is ready for lawsuits over attempt to protect net neutrality.
- New York Governor Signs Executive Order on Net Neutrality, as AT&T CEO Calls for Internet Bill of Rights
- Net neutrality will be enforced in New York under orders from governor: Executive order prevents state from buying Internet service that isn’t neutral.
- California Senate defies FCC, approves net neutrality law: Net neutrality takes big step forward in California, but lawsuits loom.
- The GAO Says It Will Investigate Bogus Net Neutrality Comments, Eventually
- Mayor quits FCC committee, says it favors ISPs over the public interest: Ajit Pai accused of tilting broadband committee toward industry representatives.
- City-Run Broadband Can Keep Net Neutrality Alive–And It’s Cheap
- FCC Hopes Its Phony Dedication To Rural Broadband Will Make You Forget It Killed Net Neutrality
- FCC ‘Broadband Advisory Panel’ Faces Accusations Of Cronyism
- The Same FCC That Ignored Science To Kill Net Neutrality Has Created An ‘Office Of Economics & Analysis’
- Listen Up, Music Lovers: Here’s Why Net Neutrality Matters
- “Check your Comcast bill for unwanted fees,” new consumer alert says: Washington AG received 74 more complaints since amending lawsuit against Comcast.
- Harvard Study Shows Community-Owned ISPs Offer Lower, More Transparent Prices
- Google Fiber’s wireless Internet service is leaving Boston: Google Fiber’s Webpass division will continue operating in seven other markets.
- Sometimes, a Rule Means Just What it Says – FCC Denies TV Station Satellite Must-Carry Request Because it Was Not Sent By Certified Mail
- Time for the FCC to Review Children’s Television Educational Programming Obligations of Broadcasters? Commissioner O’Rielly Thinks So
- Comment Dates Set on National TV Ownership Caps – Can and Should the FCC Amend the 39% Audience Cap?
- Supreme Court stays Bell’s Super Bowl appeal, so U.S. ads will air in Canada this year: Hearing still to be held over whether Canadians can watch U.S. ads during football game
- Here Is Your Yearly Reminder That You Can Find Super Bowl Ads On YouTube’s AdBlitz Channel
- Canadian Parliamentary Committee Recommends Changes and Clarifications to Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL)
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- Draft OPC Position on Online Reputation (Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada)
- OPC Report Asserts Pipeda Protections Are Similar To EU “Right To Be Forgotten”
- Why a Canadian right to be forgotten creates more problems than it solves (Michael Geist)
- Expectation of Privacy in Text Message Conversations More Stringent in Canada Than the U.S.
- Troll networks threaten the 2019 Canadian federal election: UBC – Researcher says election laws need to be updated to protect from digital interference
- Minnesota Supreme Court Says Unlocking A Phone With A Fingerprint Isn’t A Fifth Amendment Issue
- UK Appeals Court Says GCHQ’s Mass Collection Of Internet Communications Is Illegal
- EU’s Highest Court Says Privacy Activist Can Litigate Against Facebook In Austria, But Not As Part Of A Class Action
- Happy Data Privacy Day! A turning point for anonymity, privacy, and the tools that deliver them
- Huawei loses another carrier deal as spying fears impede its US growth: Following AT&T’s lead, now Verizon has dropped plans to sell the Chinese phones.
- Scoop: Trump team considers nationalizing 5G network
- To counter China, White House memo suggests a nationalized 5G network: Memo claims government-run network would keep US safe from foreign attacks.
- Trump Administration May Build 5G Network to Protect Against Cyber Threats: The U.S. government has concerns over whether or not existing technologies might allow for China to spy on sensitive information. One proposed solution is to develop a 5G network
- Leaked Trump Plan To ‘Nationalize’ Nation’s 5G Networks A Bizarre, Unrealistic Pipe Dream
- China’s Surveillance State Should Scare Everyone: The country is perfecting a vast network of digital espionage as a means of social control – with implications for democracies worldwide.
- FBI Director Chris Wray Says Secure Encryption Backdoors Are Possible; Sen. Ron Wyden Asks Him To Produce Receipts
- Fitness tracking app reveals US army secrets?
- Fitness app that revealed military bases highlights bigger privacy issues
- Fitness Tracker Data Exposes Military Operations, Shows What Damage That Can Be Done With ‘Just Metadata’
- “Heatmap” for social athlete’s app reveals secret bases, secret places: Data map inadvertently reveals movements of people in dangerous and sensitive places.
- Fitness tracking app Strava gives away location of secret US army bases: Data about exercise routes shared online by soldiers can be used to pinpoint overseas facilities
- The Strava Heat Map And The End Of Secrets
- Unintended Consequences Of EU’s New Internet Privacy Rules: Facebook Won’t Use AI To Catch Suicidal Users
- The Latest Data Privacy Debacle
- High-severity vulnerability in Lenovo laptops let hackers access passwords
- Disrupting The Fourth Amendment: Half Of Law Enforcement E-Warrants Approved In 10 Minutes Or Less
- Harris Stingray Nondisclosure Agreement Forbids Cops From Telling Legislators About Surveillance Tech
- Senate IT Tells Staffers They’re On Their Own When It Comes To Personal Devices And State-Sponsored Hackers
- With Google, Bitcoins, and USPS, Feds realize it’s stupid easy to buy fentanyl: Simple search led investigators to sales of $766 million worth of fentanyl.
- Menacing Android botnet still thrives 16 months after coming to light: “DressCode” poses a major risk, because it opens a direct connection to infected phones.
- Cisco drops a mega-vulnerability alert for VPN devices: By using “crafted XML,” attacker could take over routers, security gateways.
- Look Out: Chrome Extension Malware Has Evolved
- IoT garage opener now more open, a year after customer firestorm: Founder says Ars “reaffirmed consumers’ concerns about true ownership of IoT devices.”
- Vulnerable industrial controls directly connected to Internet? Why not?: Even some devices with patches available are connected to the naked Internet.
- A Year in the Life of a Phishing Operation
- More than 2,000 WordPress websites are infected with a keylogger: Malicious script logs passwords and just about anything else admins or visitors type.
- In a first, US hit by “Jackpotting” attacks that empty ATMs in minutes: Malware causes machines to quickly dispense huge amounts of cash.
- Your Sloppy Bitcoin Drug Deals Will Haunt You For Years
- New York Police Union Sues NYPD To Block Public Release Of Body Camera Footage
- My Question To Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein On Encryption Backdoors
- GDPR will change world-wide privacy on May 25, 2018: here are 13 key GDPR terms you better know!
GAMES
- Twitch wins $1.3m lawsuit against view bots: California judge orders bot makers to shut down and pay damages to leading streaming platform
- Twitch viewbot makers ordered to pay nearly $1.4 million in lawsuit loss: Twitch filed a lawsuit against several botmakers in 2016, accusing them of reducing the quality of the service.
- New Twitch Rival Caffeine, With $46 Million In Funding, Focuses On Social Element Of Live Gaming
- Ex-Apple TV Execs Have Raised $46 Million for Live-Broadcasting Startup Caffeine
- Mixer getting in-stream tipping and game purchases
- Valve appeal against $2.4m fine extends four-year legal battle in Australia: Steam firm was fined for lack of refund policy but intends to fight back – despite previous failed appeal
- Games industry generated $108.4bn in revenues in 2017: $82bn generated by free-to-play games, esports on track to be a $1bn business in 2018
- EA makes $186m Q3 loss despite rising digital revenue: Packaged sales fell 18%, but digital revenue now 67% of total earnings
- EA posts a loss on better-than-expected revenues for the holiday season
- Star Wars Battlefront II disappoints with over 7 million sold: Anthem delayed to 2019 to give it more space from next Battlefield game, holiday competition; Respawn Star Wars game to launch by April 2020
- Xbox One X drives increase in Microsoft games revenue
- Blizzard is monitoring YouTube videos to curb toxic Overwatch behavior
- Blizzard Using Social Media To Find Toxic Overwatch Players: Game director Jeff Kaplan noted that abusive chat is down since new features were implemented.
- Overwatch director says toxicity not solved, but improving: Abusive chat is down 17% and player reports are up 20% as Blizzard’s Jeff Kaplan says “we’re restoring faith in the system”
- Washington state senator introduces bill to tackle the big loot box debate
- Washington state senator introduces bill to determine whether loot boxes are gambling: “If [parents] realised how predatory these game are then they wouldn’t want them under their Christmas tree, they wouldn’t want them going to their kids,” says senator
- The legislative fight over loot boxes expands to Washington state: New bill would require the gambling commission to weigh in on randomized items.
- Coffee Stain launches funding initiative to promote gender equality
- Coffee Stain acquires and rebrands Gone North Games
- Coffee Stain launches gender equality fund to improve developer diversity: Goat Simulator publishers will be investing in startups that employ at least as many women as men
- Blog: IGDA Survey shows diversity and job stability concerns
- SuperData: Free-to-play games led 2017, generating $15B in revenue on PC
- GDC State of the Industry: Under 25% of devs will have a publisher on their next game
- Wrong direction? Ubisoft raising prices on Rainbow Six: Siege by $20 – New players forced to pay extra for bundled, cosmetic loot boxes.
- Following feedback, Ubisoft cancels Rainbow Six Siegeprice increase plans
- Ubisoft withdraws Rainbow Six Siege price hike: Frustrated players mean the Standard Edition will remain at $40, but Gold and Complete will still cost more
- Does Razer Know It Posted a Racist Meme?
- Call of Duty Endowment awards $30,000 each to two UK charities: RFEA – The Forces Employment Charity and Walking With The Wounded are awarded the ‘Seal of Distinction’
- Study examines how the top 100 bestselling games portray drug use
- ESRB defends its drug-related guidance after study finds video game depiction unrealistic: 32% of drug use cases acted as power-up, while 28% boosted character’s health
- Video Game Companies Seek DMCA Exemption for Online Video Game Preservation
- 212 games approved for UK games tax relief in 2017: Government initiative to fund more games development continues, with a further 182 titles receiving interim certification
- DotaTV Streaming
- The (still) uncertain state of video game streaming online: “As an industry, we don’t really follow the law and we all do it.”
- YouTube Gaming grew its streamer base by 343% in 2017, Twitch by 197%
- Analyst: YouTube Gaming saw a 343% increase in active streamers in 2017
- Share, Stream, and Show – How today’s teens interact with mobile games: EEDAR head of consumer research Heather Nofziger looks at how developers can appeal to the younger set without alienating older audiences
- Facebook lets you tip game live streamers $3+
- ESPN, Disney XD sign “long-term, multi-event” deal for Madden esports: Electronic Arts’ Club Championships and Ultimate League season will air on Disney-owned networks in coming months
- id Software co-founders confirm that its biggest games’ heroes are all related: Turns out BJ Blazkowicz, Commander Keen, and “Doomguy” could all go to the same family reunion.
- The Rise Of The Sponsored Professional Competitive Gamer
- Gary Bettman: NHL To Announce Esports Competitions
- Facebook To Start Paying Select Gamers As Part Of New Creator Program
- Facebook opens pilot program to nurture more gaming streamers: Social network also exploring new monetisation models for creators, including payments during livestreams
- Nintendo’s revenue rockets as Switch nears 15m sold: Super Mario Odyssey has sold more than 9m, one of eight million-sellers for Switch this fiscal year
- Nintendo Switch has already outsold the entire Wii U run: And Super Mario Odyssey’s attach rate is off the charts.
- The Nintendo Switch has officially outsold the Wii U
- Switch continues to drive sales and profits at Nintendo
- Nintendo confirms Mario Kart Tour for smartphones, Switch Online launch window: Investor call also reaffirmed plans for 3D-animated Super Mario film, other details.
- Nintendo scrapping Miitomo after two years: Platform holder’s first mobile game to shut down in May, digital currency no longer on sale
- Nintendo’s Miitomo shutdown is a wake-up call for its smartphone track record: Miitomo will end after roughly two years, missed the mark in so many ways.
- Microsoft gaming business up 8%: Xbox One X launch drives year-over-year revenue growth for the holiday quarter
- Independent UK Retailer Consider Boycott Of Xbox Products In Wake Of Game Pass Announcement: Retailers pass on Xbox products
- “For the consumer, Xbox Game Pass is fantastic. For retail, it just kills us outright”: Independent games stores debate the impact of Microsoft’s decision to add new first-party releases to its subscription service
- Microsoft might finally have a forward-thinking game with Sea of Thieves: Similarities to PUBG are nothing but good news for this online game’s pre-release test.
- Microsoft Acquires Cloud-Based Gaming Company Playfab
- Microsoft snaps up backend service platform PlayFab
- Sony patents show redesigned motion controller
- Sony patents suggest VR-driven redesign for PlayStation Move: Updated motion controllers will include analog sticks and finger tracking technology
- Sony collaborates with Facebook on God of War text adventure
- Step Inside the Unabomber Investigation in New Interactive VR Experience
- GDC State of the Industry: HTC Vive remains the most popular target for VR devs
- How Anamorphine strives to depict mental health differently
- Has an accessible games industry undermined its long-term stability?: “All stakeholders need to come together… this is a challenge for everyone,” says head of indie publishing at Square Enix West
- Monster Hunter: World ships record 5M units in first three days
- Monster Hunter World shipped 5m units in its launch weekend: Capcom says the new game is the fastest selling in the series’ history, pushing lifetime sales past 45m
- Capcom income surges thanks to stellar games performance: Ultra Street Fighter II on Switch is a “smash hit”, making up for “soft” sales of Marvel vs Capcom
- Capcom sees an overall fall in sales but increase in profits
- Three quarters in, both revenue and profit are up at Konami
- Sales and profits both climb at Konami: Decent mobile performance and 80m downloads for mobile PES lead to increased profits guidance
- After suggesting that Fortnite is a priority, Epic shuts down another F2P game: Bad mid-January news was followed by insider tips about Paragon’s dire fate.
- Epic is closing down Paragon and offering refunds to players
- After nearly a decade, MMO Alganon shuts down servers
- Motiga’s Gigantic to shut down in July
- Tencent invests in film, television, and VR producer Skydance Media
- NetEase and Mattel partner to create Mattel163 dev studio
- NetEase and Mattel launch new game studio: Mattel163 will make digital games based on Mattel’s IP portfolio
- Infamous Atari Player Disqualified From World Record After 35 Years
- GDC Awards to honour Tim Schafer and Rami Ismail
- GDC backtracks on Bushnell award; Bushnell approves: “If my personal actions… offended or caused pain to anyone at our companies, then I apologize without reservation,” says Atari founder
- How to Make Healthy Games
- Paul George’s Nike Sneakers Light Up With PlayStation-Themed Colorway
- The Top 25 Game Anniversaries In 2018: From Space Invaders to Doom, many amazing, design-changing games are hitting major milestones this year.
- Global Game Jam returns for 10th anniversary celebrations
Jon
News of the Week; January 24, 2018
DIGITAL
- Canadian Court Asserts Jurisdiction over Craigslist Based on Cloud-Based Virtual Presence in Canada
- Free Internet-Service Contracts Caught up by Consumer Protection Legislation in Quebec
- Appeals Court Says Accessing Data In A Way The Host Doesn’t Like Doesn’t Violate Computer Crime Laws
- DMCA Counternotification Doesn’t Create Personal Jurisdiction in Copyright Owner’s Home Court–Real v. Matteo (Eric Goldman)
- Tech Policy A Year Into The Trump Administration: Where Are We Now?
- Donald Trump one year on: How the Twitter President changed social media and the country’s top office – Mr Trump has weaponised Twitter, using it not just to reach the masses but to control the news agenda through bluster and distraction
- Senators ask social media execs to investigate “ReleaseTheMemo” hashtag: Meanwhile, WikiLeaks is offering to pay for a leaked copy of the memo in question.
- Twitter begins emailing the 677,775 Americans who took Russian election bait
- Russia-linked Twitter accounts are working overtime to help Devin Nunes and WikiLeaks
- Here’s why the epidemic of malicious ads grew so much worse last year: Forced redirects from Zirconium group push phony malware and fake Flash updates.
- Italian Government Criminalizes ‘Fake News,’ Provides Direct Reporting Line To State Police Force
- Brazilian Government Mobilizes Federal Police To Handle ‘Fake News’ Problem
- Psychiatrist Bitterly Drops Defamation Lawsuit Against Redditors
- Battling Botnets – Evolving U.S. Government Policies and Frameworks to Address Security and Resiliency Challenges
- Apple Successfully Avoids $50 Billion in American Taxes
- iOS 11.3 will be about more than just performance throttling options; AR is the focus: iOS 11.3 will add a performance throttling toggle and updates to Messages.
- EFF to Court: Linking Is Not Copyright Infringement
- EFF Tells Court That Boing Boing Linking To Playboy Images Is Not Infringement
- YouTube Musician Chrissy Chambers Wins Benchmark Revenge Porn Lawsuit
- Southwest’s Nonsense Lawsuit Over A Site That Made $45 Helping People Book Cheaper Flights
- Philippines Trying To Shut Down Popular News Site For Reporting On President Duterte
- The Constant Pressure For YouTube To Police ‘Bad’ Content Means That It’s Becoming A Gatekeeper
- Facebook, Twitter, YouTube Receive Praise From European Commission For Anti-Terrorist Efforts
- What Has Tech Done To Fix Its Harassment Problem?
- YouTube is setting up an ‘Intelligence Desk’ to weed out dicey content before it raises bigger brand safety concerns
- Many Of YouTube’s Top Stars Have Come Out In Favor Of Partner Program Changes
- Logan Paul Returns To YouTube, Pledges To Donate $1 Million To Suicide Prevention Organizations
- Hotel Bans Influencers After YouTuber Proposes Free Stay In Exchange For Publicity
- Hotel That Banned Influencers Has Released #Bloggergate-Inspired Merch
- Millions of ‘Under-Connected’ American Families Experience A Whole Different Internet
- Demonized Smartphones Are Just Our Latest Technological Scapegoat
- Marriott Freezes Its Social Media Globally, And Makes Grovelling Apology To China, All For A Drop-Down Menu And Liking A Tweet
- China’s Solution To The VPN Quandary: Only Authorized, And Presumably Backdoored, Crypto Links Allowed
- Tunisia’s Plans To Bring In Its Own National ‘Aadhaar’ Biometric ID System Halted — For Now
- YouTube To Invest $5 Million In Creators Who Counter Hate And Promote Tolerance
- Insights: Facebook, Apple, Amazon, And Google’s Charm Offensive or: FANGs Make Nice With America
- Google CEO Reaffirms Firing James Damore Was the Way to Go, ‘I Don’t Regret It’
- Enforcement of Foreign Court Order. District court grants preliminary injunction preventing enforcement in the United States of Canadian court order requiring Google to delist certain search results worldwide
- Alphabet launches a cybersecurity company called “Chronicle”: It’s a “cybersecurity intelligence platform” powered by Alphabet’s servers.
- YouTube to Invest $5 Million This Year in Creators Who Promote ‘Empathy and Understanding’
- YouTube Deletes Channel Of Former USA Gymnastics Doctor Larry Nassar
- AARP Is Embracing YouTube, And The 50-Plus Crowd Is Sticking Around To Watch
- YouTube TV Has Amassed 300,000 Subscribers, While Hulu Live TV Counts 450,000 (Report)
- YouTube’s Consolidation Of Music Hubs Will Lessen Prominence Of Vevo-Branded Channels
- YouTube Will Merge Vevo Channel Subscribers Into Unified ‘Official’ Music Artist Accounts
- Competition in the digital age: How to tame the tech titans – The dominance of Google, Facebook and Amazon is bad for consumers and competition
- Amazon names 20 “finalist” cities in its new headquarters beauty pageant: Expansion candidates include most major East Coast cities, plus a few surprises.
- Today’s the day you can go to Amazon Go—a store with no queues and no cash: Until now, only Amazon employees could use the high-tech, hyper-convenient store.
- Amazon Go debuts, and its prying cameras foil our shoplifting attempts
- Netflix Added Record 8.3 Million Subs Last Quarter, Will Test 15-Minute Stand-Up Special Format
- Netflix Lost $39 Million After Canceling Kevin Spacey Projects
- The Internet Is Enabling a New Kind of Poorly Paid Hell: For some Americans, sub-minimum-wage online tasks are the only work available.
- A New Service Would Make Deep Learning More Accessible to Millions of Coders
- Why This Intercontinental Quantum-Encrypted Video Hangout Is A Big Deal
- We Need to Open the AI Black Box Before It’s Too Late
- Software used in judicial decisions meets its equal in random amateurs: Software used to predict if people being sentenced will commit another crime.
- Forget The Robot Singularity Apocalypse. Let’s Talk About The Multiplicity
- People Keep Confusing Their Teslas For Self-Driving Cars
- The End of the Awl and the Vanishing of Freedom and Fun from the Internet
- Spotify Launches Visual-Podcast Strategy in Bid to Expand Beyond Music
- Spotify’s Spotlight Section Will Blend Podcasts, Images, Videos To Create New Media Offering
- Spotify Retools Content Strategy With a Pivot Away From Video
- Users Can Now Share Snapchat Stories Outside Of Snapchat
- Snapchat is no longer a private, disappearing, messaging app
- Snapchat Stories Can Now Live Outside The App
- ESPN Finds Success With Katie Nolan Hosting SportsCenter On Snapchat
- Snap Lays Off Two Dozen Staffers — Predominantly Within Its Content Division
- New Report: Digital Threats to Democratic Elections
- Not Your Grandad’s Facebook? Targeted Social Media Ads Spur Age Discrimination Lawsuit
- Facebook’s Bad Idea: Crowdsourced Ratings Work For Toasters, But Not News – Opinion – User reviews might work when you’re shopping for a phone charger on Amazon, but crowdsourcing “news” was what got us into this mess in the first place.
- Facebook Has Coined a New Unit of Time Called “the Flick”
- I Can’t Believe How Dumb Facebook’s News Feed Update Is
- What the Heck Happened to the Cryptocurrency This Week?!
- Hackers Have Walked Off With About 14% of Big Digital Currencies
- Hacking and theft: the dark side of Blockchain
- Confessions Of A Bitcoin Sceptic (Andres Gudamuz)
- Major payment company: “Fewer and fewer use cases” for bitcoin payments – Stripe: bitcoin is “better-suited to being an asset than a means of exchange.”
- Marathon Patent Group Acquires Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Transmission Patents
- Here’s why you can’t buy a high-end graphics card at Best Buy: “Cryptocurrency can’t crash soon enough,” one gamer fumes.
- Blockchain technology could spell the end of DRM, says Robot Cache founder: Products tracked on the blockchain can’t be copied or altered, allowing users to resell their digital goods
- We Put The Entire Internet On The Blockchain—And You Can Too
- Rise of Blockchain and ICOs Brings Regulatory Scrutiny
- A Rescue Drone Saved Two Teen Swimmers on Its First Day of Deployment
- Intel in meltdown over security breach lawsuit
- Inside Intel’s Plans To Capture The Olympics In Virtual Reality
- The Digital Poorhouse
- Microsoft’s “Ink to Code” turns drawings into user interfaces: Early prototype is being developed as a “Garage” project.
- Sequel To ‘Man From Earth’ To Be Released On Pirate Sites By Its Creators
- Primary care online – A revolution in modern society or a professional minefield?
- Copyright in data file formats from SAS to Technomed
- Cloud Communities: The Dawn of Global Citizenship?
- The Cyberlaw Guide to Protest Art: Roadmap
- Twenty-Five Years Later: What Happened to Progressive Tech Policy?: A glimpse at how the Internet has changed over time
- Bring in the Nerds: Reviving the Office of Technology Assessment
CREATIVITY
- Now Another Judge Smacks Around A Guardaley Shell Company Acting As A Copyright Troll
- Hitting the right notes – Florence Foster Jenkins provides helpful guidance on joint ownership of copyright
- The Strange Copyright of Doctor Who
- Anything Your Heart Designs: Swarovski Hit with Copyright Infringement of Galatea’s “Two In One Heart” Design
- Grumpy Cat wins $710,000 payout in copyright lawsuit
- Protect your design: Recent developments in Canadian copyright law
- IP: Copyright – 3D Printing Complicates Copyright
- K-pop superstars T-ara vow to fight for rights to their name; experts predict bitter legal battle ahead
- Brexit: opportunity or threat for the Art industry?
- UK Begins Absolutely Bonkers ‘Education’ Of Grade Schoolers About Intellectual Property And Piracy
- US Army Files Dumb Trademark Opposition Against The NHL’s Las Vegas Golden Knights
- Censorship By Weaponizing Free Speech: Rethinking How The Marketplace Of Ideas Works
- Engineered for Dystopia: Engineering is full of authoritarians who, predictably, take all the wrong lessons from pop culture
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- Bell Canada, et al. v. Attorney General of Canada (Motion to Stay CRTC Decision Denied, January 24, 2018)
- Vice’s Canadian cable TV channel is going off the air, after low ratings and reported losses for the $100 million joint venture
- Mozilla, Consumer Groups Sue The FCC For Its Attack On Net Neutrality
- Net neutrality comment fraud will be investigated by government: Democrats requested investigation after millions of people were impersonated.
- Net neutrality is bad? 1 million PornHub employees can’t be wrong. Oh, wait: Millions of comments sent to FCC through bulk system used fake email addresses.
- Senate Push To Save Net Neutrality Needs Just One Vote, But You Still Shouldn’t Get Your Hopes Up
- Sorry, FCC: Montana is enforcing net neutrality with new executive order – State enforces net neutrality in government contracts, despite FCC preemption.
- State AGs file protective petition to stop rollback of net neutrality rules; Senate Democrats announce plans to reverse FCC rule
- Montana Governor Takes Preserving Net Neutrality Into His Own Hands
- Montana becomes the first state to implement net neutrality: Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock signs executive order requiring ISPs with state contracts to treat all content equally.
- Montana Says It Won’t Do Business With Net Neutrality Violating ISPs
- AT&T CEO’s net neutrality plan calls for regulation of websites: AT&T also wants to make sure net neutrality law won’t be too strict.
- AT&T’s Bogus ‘Internet Bill Of Rights’ Aims To Undermine Net Neutrality, Foist Regulation Upon Silicon Valley Competitors
- FCC Won’t Redefine ‘Broadband;’ Move Could Have Worsened Digital Divide
- FCC Backtracks on Boneheaded Plan to Redefine Broadband
- FCC admits mobile can’t replace home Internet, won’t lower speed standard: Pai offers no data for claim that Title II repeal boosts broadband construction.
- FCC Backs Off Plan to Weaken Broadband Definition, But Still Can’t Admit Limited Competition Is A Problem
- Apple rejects net neutrality testing app, says it offers “no benefits to users”: Researcher’s iPhone app tests speeds of YouTube, Amazon, Netflix, and more.
- The net neutrality testing app that Apple rejected is available now: App tests video speeds to help researchers gather data for throttling study.
- Apple’s Incoherent App Approval Process Strikes Again, Net Neutrality App Banned For No Real Reason
- A Comcast net neutrality commitment from the NBC merger just expired: Comcast will no longer face FCC oversight on net neutrality.
- A Perfect Storm Of Comcast Unaccountability Is Brewing
- FCC Fines Sinclair Broadcast Group $13.3 Million for Failure to Disclose Paid Content
- Competition watchdog says Fox’s Sky takeover would result in the Murdoch family “having too much influence over public opinion”
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- Teen Hacker Who Social Engineered His Way Into Top-Level US Government Officials’ Accounts Pleads Guilty To Ten Charges
- A Bunch Of Politicians Who Complain About Trump’s Authoritarian Tendencies Just Gave Him 6 Years To Warrantlessly Spy On Americans
- Finding Your Voice: Forget About Siri and Alexa — When It Comes to Voice Identification, the “NSA Reigns Supreme”
- Tinder’s Lack Of Encryption Lets Strangers Spy On Your Swipes
- Want to see all data Windows 10 sends Microsoft? There’s an app for that: The next big update to Windows 10 will be even more transparent about what it collects.
- Artificial Intelligence Is Going To Supercharge Surveillance: What happens when digital eyes get the brains to match?
- Menacing Malware Shows The Dangers Of Industrial System Sabotage
- WTF is GDPR?
- GDPR compliance – the final countdown begins
- The right to data portability in the GDPR: Towards user-centric interoperability of digital services
- OnePlus got pwned, exposed up to 40,000 users to credit card fraud: A malicious script injected into OnePlus’ payment page went undiscovered for two months.
- Malicious Chrome extension is next to impossible to manually remove: Extensions remain the Achilles heel for an otherwise highly secure browser.
- Meltdown And Spectre Patching Has Been A Total Train Wreck
- Android Users: To Avoid Malware, Try The F-Droid App Store
GAMES
- Court rules illegal bot makers must pay $1.3 million to Twitch
- Judge Orders Makers Of Illegal Bots To Pay Twitch $1.3 Million
- It Kind Of Looks Like Crytek Sued Star Citizen Developer By Pretending Its Engine License Says Something It Doesn’t
- Legal Analysis of the ESL Genting Situation & DMCA
- Athletes’ Right of Publicity Claims Directed to Sports Video Games Not Preempted by Copyright Act
- Valve appeals $2.4M fine as Australian legal battle rages on
- Atari Settles Kit Kat Spat With Nestle
- Atari looks to equity crowdfunding for RollerCoaster Tycoon Switch release
- Professors Stick Up for Game Producers Against Lindsay Lohan Swipe
- The heavy cost of toxic work culture: Regardless of the truth of the allegations of harassment and toxicity at Quantic Dream, many in the industry will have found the claims all too familiar
- How crunch is more than a labor issue in the video game industry
- Trion Worlds adds premium server with “no lootboxes” to Rift: Rift Prime server’s “progressively unlocked content” a response to debate in the wider industry
- Report provides ethical ways for devs to monetize games
- PUBG Corp. to donate $2M in lootbox proceeds to charity
- PUBG Corp donating $2m to charity: $1m charity campaign planned for later in the year following various donations in 2017
- PUBG Corp. to kick off 2018 expansion with new Amsterdam office: CEO Chang Han Kim also explains why there is no PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds movie in the works
- Unlocked PS4 consoles can now run copies of PS2 games: Recent exploit also allows for homebrew and PS4 game piracy.
- “We are giving back the true ownership of the assets to players”: French startup B2Expand is using blockchain tech to let players own and sell in-game items for Beyond the Void, and Ubisoft is helping
- ESA: The U.S. game industry saw $36B in revenue in 2017
- US games industry revenue hits record $36bn in 2017: Industry revenue sees 18% growth over 2016 with strong performance from hardware and software sales
- US console, PC market up 11% in 2017 – NPD: Hardware sales drove growth and Switch drove hardware sales as number of retail releases trend upward
- Digital game sales up 17% in December – Superdata: Research firm finds gamers worldwide spent nearly $10 billion on games as Call of Duty – World War II and Grand Theft Auto Online break records
- Mobile gaming sessions down by 16% in 2017 but users spending more money than ever: Meanwhile, larger high-end mobile devices seize 55% of market
- Ubisoft adds a digital assistant to its Ubisoft Club companion app
- Google Play aims to “fundamentally change the trajectory” of Indian game revenues: Director of Apps & Games Purnima Kochikar on the role of India in teaching developers to “build for billions”
- Aristocrat buys Big Fish for $990 million: Australian casino firm follows up $500m Plarium acquisition with another huge deal
- Denuvo Sold To Irdeto, Which Boasts Of Acquiring ‘The World Leader In Gaming Security’
- Game security outfit Denuvo acquired by cybersecurity specialist Irdeto
- Is Patreon a viable alternative to funding the indie dev dream?: Breaking the mould: Sokpop’s antithetical approach to games development
- Teaching players to rig elections
- Xbox is preparing for a post-console future: The latest Game Pass subscription offering is the next step in Microsoft’s hardwareless future
- Xbox Game Pass service getting first-party exclusives at launch
- Xbox Game Pass subscription service to include all first party games: Sea of Thieves, Crackdown 2 and State of Decay 2 will launch day and date on the service
- Minecraft sets new monthly active users record at 74M
- Minecraft reaches 74m MAUs from 144m sales: Monthly active users are up 35 per cent in the space of a year
- EVE Online community raises $119k in memory of departed dev
- Nintendo Labo: the next Wonderbook?: The Switch’s latest bold attempt to win over kids can’t work, can it?
- Nintendo’s share price jumps on Labo reveal: Games giant returning to ten year-high after major project showcase
- Crazy kaiju-robot antics only hint at Nintendo Labo’s true potential: We examine limited footage to figure out the robot suit—and predict Labo’s future.
- Gamasutra Asks: What to make of Nintendo Labo?
- Switch sold 1.5 million in US for December: Nintendo says its latest is the fastest-selling home console in US history; 3DS posts best monthly sales in three years
- Nintendo hardware sold a combined 2.6M units in December alone
- GDC State of the Industry: Dev interest in Nintendo Switch up, VR interest down
- Stardew Valley was the most-downloaded Switch title in 2017
- Stardew Valley was the world’s most downloaded Switch title in 2017 – But Minecraft: Switch Edition dominates in home territory of Japan
- Nintendo doesn’t seem to be “looking into” VR very much anymore: 4K update doesn’t seem to be in the immediate cards for the Switch, either.
- Oculus creates a new, open source unit of time to measure frame rates
- Video: Examining educational games through the lens of ‘fun’
- Facepunch Studios’ Rust to leave Early Access after four years: February release will arrive without any “big reveals”, but will come with more stable development and a $15 price increase
- Years after predicted “death,” game consoles are doing better than ever: Switch leads the way, but the entire console market is thriving.
- An MMO goes full circle, promises to bring subscriptions back this year: Rift went F2P in 2013. Rift Prime will undo that change—and on a separate server, to boot.
- Chinese mobile game market sees consumer spending rise by 250% since 2015
- Overwatch League player benched following homophobic remarks during livestream: Dallas Fuel’s Felix “xQc” Lengyel suspended until February 10
- Athletes’ right of publicity claims directed to sports video games not preempted by Copyright Act
- Is eSports the next big sensation?
- Mail.Ru Group acquires Russian eSports leader ESforce for $100M
- Mail.Ru acquires largest Russian esports company in $100m deal: Esports “forecast by some to overtake the traditional sports market over the next decade,” says Mail.Ru CEO
- Nazara buys majority stake in Indian esports firm: Nodwin Gaming sells 55 per cent stake, will now operate as a subsidiary of Nazara
- Facebook signs eSports streaming agreement for CS: GO Pro League and ESL One
- ESL signs exclusive streaming deal with Facebook for CS:GO, Dota 2 esports: The esports league will also create a new show for Facebook Watch
- Facebook Goes Deeper Into Twitch’s Territory With Exclusive Esports Streaming Deal
- Gfinity: “We’re getting ready for when the esports revenue finally takes off” – Esports firm discusses its Elite series, why it’s partnering with EA and getting ready for the inevitable esports revenue
- Anthem delayed to 2019 – Report: BioWare devs tell Kotaku the studio is feeling the pressure of EA’s expectations and YouTubers’ anger
- Twitch inks deal to broadcast exclusive content from top Disney YouTubers: What do you Maker that.
- Twitch challenges YouTube with new video producer tools, Disney partnership: Four of YouTube’s most popular gamers will produce “exclusive” Twitch content.
- Twitch reaches exclusive Disney deal, swipes at YouTube with prerecorded video tools
- Maker’s Jacksepticeye, Strawburry17 To Create Exclusive Twitch Content As Part Of New Disney Deal
- Echo Fox President Jared Jeffries On Crossover Of NBA And Esports
- ESports Disputes: Choosing your battleground
- MLB Is Making R.B.I. Baseball 18: Priced at $29.99 on PS4, Nintendo Switch and Xbox One.
- Do we even need a Netflix for games?: All forms of entertainment have perfected the on-demand model – except video games. We speak to the firms striving to rectify this
- Investors Poured a Record $2 Billion into VR/AR in 2017, But Early Stage Funding Slowed
- ‘VRChat’ Reaches 2 Million Installs, Doubling in the Last Ten Days
- Virtual Reality Users Watch Helplessly as Another User Has In-Game Seizure: “There was nothing we could do.”
- U.S. Olympic Athletes Are Using Virtual Reality to Train for Events
- U.S. Ski Team Trained In Virtual Reality For Pyeongchang Olympics
- More data, “real feedback” would greatly benefit indies – Clever Endeavour CEO: Ultimate Chicken Horse developer Richard Atlas lays out the biggest challenges he sees facing his studio after its first success
- UK Games Fund opens for fourth round, grants of up to £25,000 available: Pitch development programme announced for developers who don’t meet the UKGF criteria
- Drawn to Death developer lays off ‘vast majority’ of staff
- To build a future, Italy’s games industry must reckon with its past: Cultural prejudice against games remains strong in Italy, but the AESVI and its development community have gained vital ground on the path to acceptance
- The Mysterious Japanese Game That Took 14 Years To Officially Come Out
- Call of Duty WWII and Historical Memory
- Virtual Worlds Designed by Their Inhabitants
Jon
News of the Week; January 18, 2018
DIGITAL
- Québec Court of Appeal confirms application of French language requirements for websites
- Search Engines Aren’t Liable for Indexing ‘Scam’ Locksmith Listings–Baldino’s Lock v. Google (Eric Goldman)
- A Patent For Geotagging IP Packets Raises Important Internet Law Questions
- Hawaii Alert System Accidentally Warns of Imminent ‘BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT’ [Updated]
- The interface to send out a missile alert in Hawaii is slightly less bad: The employee responsible for the alert has been temporarily reassigned.
- “Free TV” box lawyer says video industry is “digging its own grave”: A win for “Dragon Box” would be bad legal precedent for industry, lawyer says.
- Netflix, Amazon, and major studios sue maker of “free TV” box: Streaming services and film studios try to stop free access to shows and movies.
- Tech Companies Are Complicit In Censoring Iran Protests
- How terrorists and provocateurs are using social media against western democracies: On the digital front line are guilt-ridden Russian trolls, young women lured by Isis and Facebook Sherlocks in suburbia.
- Facebook’s Revamp Includes an Effort to Fight Fake News: Will it work?
- Facebook Inks Licensing Deal With Music Mogul Irving Azoff, An Outspoken YouTube Critic
- Facebook Tweaks Newsfeed To Favor Content From Friends, Family
- Media Freaks Out About Facebook Changes; Maybe They Shouldn’t Have Become So Reliant On Facebook
- Investors Join Calls For Facebook, Twitter To Take More Responsibility
- Twitter Tried To Curb Abuse. Now It Has To Handle The Backlash
- Twitter faces trademark infringement lawsuit from podcast network: Internet broadcaster TWiT says Twitter is muscling in on its AV territory.
- Did Twitter engineers just admit to shadow-banning conservatives? Nope: An engineer’s plan to “ban a way of talking” didn’t refer to conservatives.
- Meet Antifa’s Secret Weapon Against Far-Right Extremists
- Why Cloudflare Let An Extremist Stronghold Burn
- Apple’s First Original Comedy Series To Star Kristen Wiig, With Reese Witherspoon As Executive Producer
- Apple to pay $38 billion in US taxes on overseas cash: Republican tax bill will save Apple tens of billions in taxes on overseas cash.
- It’s Time for Apple to Build a Less Addictive iPhone
- Shareholder Groups Say Apple Should Do More To Address Gadget ‘Addiction’ Among Young People: Should It?
- After slowdown controversy, iPhone 6 Plus users must wait for batteries: 6 Plus battery supply is limited, but other models are still mostly on schedule.
- Legal risk of cloud computing
- Eharmony agrees to pay up to $2.2 million to end auto-renewal suit
- Amazon Says Its Thursday Night NFL Audience Outpaced Twitter
- Google will reportedly vet premium YouTube videos more closely
- YouTube Will Use Human, Technological Methods To Vet Premium Ad Tier Google Preferred
- YouTube introduces new, stricter requirements for partners
- YouTube Alters Partner Program Eligibility, Vows All Google Preferred Videos Will Be Human-Verified
- Google Chrome extensions with 500,000 downloads found to be malicious: Google removes four extensions that used infected computers in click fraud scheme.
- Chromecast and Google Homes reportedly overloading home Wi-Fi: A bug is causing Google devices to pound networks with 100,000 packets at once.
- YouTube tightens the rules around creator monetization and partnerships
- YouTube raises subscriber, view threshold for Partner Program monetization: Making it harder for new channels to make money off of ads placed by YPP.
- YouTube fights “bad actors” with new content policies: New measures include manual vetting of Google Preferred videos, and a higher monetisation threshold for small channels
- Google to monitor popular YouTube channels – Report: After dropping another big YouTuber over controversy, company will begin vetting content in Google Preferred advertiser program
- YouTube Content Head: 70% Of Upcoming YouTube Red Episodes Are Directed By Women
- Jackie Aina Receives NAACP’s First-Ever ‘YouTuber Of The Year’ Award
- Google Can Now Tell You Which Works of Art You Look Like
- Unofficial ‘Harry Potter’ Fan Movie Approved By Warner Bros., A Hit On YouTube
- The 30 YouTube Channels That Have Surpassed 10 Billion Lifetime Views
- Ed Sheeran’s “Shape Of You” Becomes 4th YouTube Video To Surpass 3 Billion Views
- YouTube Says 70% Of All Watch Time Is Driven By Its Own Recommendations
- YouTube finally hands down punishment to creator for posting dead body video: After nearly two weeks, YouTube removes Logan Paul from Google Preferred.
- Top Creators Applaud YouTube’s (Delayed) Logan Paul Punishment
- After Logan Paul incident, Google Preferred YouTube videos will face further vetting: Videos with the top ads will be examined by human moderators and AI software.
- Blackpills Axes Logan Paul Series In Wake Of Suicide Vlog
- Logan Paul’s Content Was Questionable Before He Ever Set Foot In The “Suicide Forest”
- Logan Paul Says “Everyone Deserves Second Chances” Following Suicide Video
- Kevin Durant’s Media Company Will Help Athletes Launch Their Own YouTube Channels
- When It Comes To Gorillas, Google Photos Remains Blind
- Crime-Predicting Algorithms May Not Fare Much Better Than Untrained Humans
- Mechanical Turkers may have out-predicted the most popular crime-predicting algorithm
- Taming The Golem: Challenges of Ethical Algorithmic Decision-Making
- A Child Abuse Prediction Model Fails Poor Families
- AI needs debate about potential bias
- Microsoft Says AI Advances Will Require New Laws, Regulations: Increase in gig-economy jobs means tech companies have to step up to protect workers, provide benefits
- Machines Just Beat Humans on a Stanford Reading Comprehension Test
- Don’t Blame Social Media For Celebrity Politicians. Blame Everyone.
- The meteoric rise of the so-called ‘Influencer’
- Massive Data Dump Shows Flat Numbers For Snapchat’s Stories Across The Summer Of 2017
- Snapchat’s Big Redesign, Ahead Of US Launch, Has Received Overwhelmingly Negative Response Abroad
- Netflix could become the second-biggest media company behind Disney in 3 years, Barclays says: Barclays recommends Netflix shares, citing optimism over the company’s subscriber growth. The firm’s analyst predicts the internet streaming giant will generate annual sales growth of 27 percent through 2019 from 2016. “In our opinion, in the next 3-5 years Netflix is likely to become the second biggest media company by revenue (ignoring studios and theme parks), next only to Disney,” the analyst wrote.
- Social Media Giants vs Children – the truth behind social media contracts
- The Hidden Toll Of Fixing Meltdown And Spectre
- The impromptu Slack war room where ‘Net companies unite to fight Spectre-Meltdown: When major security vulns go live without warning, competitors suddenly band together.
- Spectre and Meltdown patches causing trouble as realistic attacks get closer: Driver incompatibilities and microcode problems are both being reported.
- Here’s how, and why, the Spectre and Meltdown patches will hurt performance: Now that microcode and patches are starting to ship, a clearer picture is emerging.
- Meltdown and Spectre: Good news for AMD users, (more) bad news for Intel – Windows patches are fixed, but microcode updates are causing even more trouble.
- Researcher finds another security flaw in Intel management firmware: Active Management Technology defaults allow anyone to take control of many PCs.
- Highly Competent White House Spends 22 Minutes Trying to Mute a Conference Call
- The corpse of Circuit City will rise again on February 15: Follows similar promises of a relaunch from 2016 that never quite came together.
- Researchers find that one person likely drove Bitcoin from $150 to $1,000
- Bitcoin plunges—now down 47 percent from December peak: Every major cryptocurrency has seen double-digit losses in the last 24 hours.
- Kodak’s Supposed Cryptocurrency Entrance Appears To Be Little More Than A Rebranded Paparazzi Copyright Trolling Scheme… With The Blockchain
- New botnet infects cryptocurrency mining computers, replaces wallet address: Attacker has generated about $2,000 in digital coin so far in a scam that remains active.
- ‘Sex Party’ Or ‘Nerds On A Couch’? A Night In Silicon Valley
- Website Accessibility Cases Proceed Despite Absence of Regulations
- Boeing Decision Forges New Balance Between NLRA Rights and Social Media Policies
- The Griefbot That Could Change How We Mourn: Muhammad Ahmed’s grandkids would never meet their grandfather, so he made an AI version of him. How might that change our concept of death?
- Artist transforms herself into a virtual assistant and obeys your commands: Would we rather have a human servant or Alexa? Lauren McCarthy decided to find out.
- The Strange History Of One Of The Internet’s First Viral Videos
- 2017 – The Year in Which Copyright Went Beyond Source Code
- 2017: In Review – The biggest Tech trends and events of the Year
- Aliens, Autonomous Cars, and AI: This Is the World of 2118
- CES 2018: Most Absurd Technologies To Come
CREATIVITY
- Trump’s Personal Lawyer Sues Buzzfeed For Publishing Allegedly False Statements Written By Someone Else
- For The Second Time In A Week, German Hate Speech Laws Results In Deletion Of Innocent Speech
- Appeals Court OKs F-Bombs For Federal Trademark Protection
- Community Backlash Leads Adult Diaper Company To Drop Its Trademark Application for ‘ABDL’
- When the President Uses a Profanity, What Can Broadcast News Do?
- Psychiatrist Drops His Lawsuit Against Critic Who Left Wordless One-Star Review
- Copyright Troll Gets Smacked Around By Court, As Judge Wonders If Some Of Its Experts Even Exist
- Copyright Law: Overcoming Claims of Copyright Protection for Derivative Works
- How Closed Trade Deals Ratchet Up the Copyright Term Worldwide
- New presidency of the Council of the European Union … new position on the EU copyright reform?
- It’s The (Democracy-Poisoning) Golden Age Of Free Speech (Zeynep Tufekci)
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- Rogers employees say managers turn a blind eye so call centre workers can lie and cheat customers: ‘We do not believe the concerns raised represent our values or sales practices,’ Rogers says
- Judge Sweet: Fox News’s Statement that It Took “Decisive Action” After Assault Allegation Does Not Disparage the Unnamed Accused Assailant
- Complaint: Bill O’Reilly Breached Settlement Non-Disparagement Clause by Portraying Accusers as Extortionate Liars
- Trump’s ‘Fake News Awards’ could violate ethics rules: Little is known about what the president intends to do Wednesday, but some experts aren’t taking it lightly.
- Washington Legal Issues for TV Broadcasters – Where Things Stand in the New Year
- After Being AWOL From The Fight For Years, Google & Facebook To Fund Lawsuits Over Net Neutrality
- 21 states sue FCC to restore net neutrality rules: A long legal process starts now.
- 22 State Attorneys General File Suit Against The FCC For Its Net Neutrality Repeal
- Nebraska The First ‘Red’ State To Craft Its Own Net Neutrality Law
- Why Are The People Who Whined About Wheeler’s Net Neutrality Rules Being ‘400 Pages’ Silent About Pai’s Being ‘539 Pages’
- Blackburn Doubles Down On A Decade Of Lies As She Pushes Fake Net Neutrality Law
- City-owned Internet services offer cheaper and more transparent pricing: Data shows why customers want muni broadband—and why telecom industry fears it.
- Study finds municipal broadband is up to 50% cheaper than telcos
- Harvard Study Shows Why Big Telecom Is Terrified of Community-Run Broadband: Community-owned internet service providers are cheaper and better.
- Colorado Cities Keep Voting To Build Their Own Broadband Networks
- Update on FCC’s Internet Freedom Order
- FCC Internet Freedom Order: What Changed in the Final Decision
- Senate Hits 50 Votes in Bid to Save Net Neutrality and/or Make Republicans Look Dumb
- All Democrats and one Republican support net neutrality bill in Senate: Senate Dems seek one more vote for restoration of net neutrality and Title II.
- After false Hawaii missile notice, FCC launches investigation: For 38 minutes, Hawaiians had little information about what kind of threat they were facing.
- Samsung is the latest OEM to unlock FM chips in new phones: A push for better emergency readiness leads to radio on new Samsung devices.
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- Mandatory new Canadian data breach obligations expected to take effect in 2018
- FTC Settles First Children’s Privacy Case Involving Connected Toys
- Hack Brief: Russian Hackers Release Apparent IOC Emails In Wake Of Olympics Ban
- Trump tweet throws today’s House surveillance votes into chaos: Trump tweet appears to attack NSA spying hours after the White House defends it.
- Trump Doesn’t Understand Surveillance Powers; House Votes To Give Him More Of It
- Filibuster threat means Trump needs Senate Democrats to pass spying bill: The House just passed a bill extending NSA spying powers for six years.
- After Basically No Debate, And No Opportunity For Amendments, Senate Votes To Expand NSA Surveillance
- The House Has Voted. They Will Allow Warrantless Surveillance.
- US Telcos Threatened With Loss Of Government Contracts If They Do Business With Huawei
- Shooting The Messenger: Reporter Who Exposed Massive Indian Data Breach Targeted By Law Enforcement
- FBI security expert: Apple are “jerks” about unlocking encrypted phones – “Apple is pretty good at evil genius stuff,” FBI official laments at conference.
- FBI Says Device Encryption Is ‘Evil’ And A Threat To Public Safety
- Major security flaw in virtual reality porn app SinVR exposes the secrets of 20,000 users
- BitTorrent users beware: Flaw lets hackers control your computer – “Low complexity” hack for Transmission client may work against other clients, too.
- Chinese Internet Users Start To Rebel Against Lack Of Online Privacy
- Some international accounts alerted to Apple’s iCloud transfer in China: Update your iCloud country or region settings to prevent your data from moving.
- Found: New Android malware with never-before-seen spying capabilities – Skygofree is among the most powerful spy platforms ever created for Android.
- Border Searches Of Electronic Devices
- Facebook Knows How to Track You Using the Dust on Your Camera Lens
- Skype finally getting end-to-end encryption: It’ll use the Signal protocol, also used in WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and others.
- NFLPA President Eric Winston Likens Wearable Metrics To Health Data
- The “Doublespeak” Of Responsible Encryption
- Keep Calm – The GDPR is coming!
- Using AI To Identify Car Models In 50 Million Google Street Views Reveals A Wide Range Of Demographic Information
- Beyond the Privacy Torts: Reinvigorating a Common Law Approach for Data Breaches (Alicia Solow-Niederman)
GAMES
- Nintendo sues mobile developer Colopl over patent infringement
- Twitch takes legal action following spambot incident: Brandan Lukus Apple faces “mischief in relation to computer data” charge over 150,000 spam messages across 1,000 channels
- Photographer sues IGN over Pokémon GO Photo
- Suspect in deadly Kansas “swatting” hoax charged with manslaughter: An online dispute over Call of Duty escalated to a fatal police shooting.
- Is Downloading Retro Video Game ROMs Ever Legal?
- Bungie promises to rebalance Destiny 2’s loot boxes, raids: Bevy of gameplay tweaks and features planned for coming year.
- Tencent working with Chinese police to fight PUBG cheats – report: 30 cases have been exposed as PUBG’s community is cleaned up ahead of official Chinese launch
- Tencent enlists Chinese police in the fight against Battlegrounds cheaters
- Video Game Lobby Group Slams Newest Trump Comments As ‘Repulsive’
- Battlegrounds surpasses 3 million players on Xbox One
- PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds sells three million units on Xbox One: Battle royale game proves successful despite being plagued by bugs and technical issues
- PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds most covered game in December 2017: Star Wars Battlefront II knocked from top spot as PUBG enjoys official console and Xbox launch
- Hostile workplace accusations rock PlayStation developer Quantic Dream
- Quantic Dream on defense amid allegations of toxic work environment
- Quantic Dream denies allegations of homophobia, racism and toxic studio culture: David Cage “shocked” and “outraged” as preliminary investigation by Paris public prosecutor is opened
- Games revenues expected to reach $235bn by 2022: Could reach $170bn this year, predominantly driven by mobile and PC
- Games software/hardware $165B+ in 2018, $230B+ in 5 years, record $2B+ investment last year
- Analyst: Mobile game sessions decreased by 16% in 2017
- Eight of the top ten mobile publishers in 2017 were game-related: Mixi’s Monster Strike top grossing mobile app for third consecutive year
- The cost of games
- Selling used PC games through the blockchain? We’re not buying it: Robot Cache has some interesting ideas and some important hurdles.
- How to keep a charity gaming marathon going for 160 hours straight: Behind the scenes with the tech and people behind Awesome Games Done Quick
- Nintendo announces DIY Nintendo Labo for the Switch
- Nintendo’s Labo playset slaps the Switch into build-your-own cardboard toys: Coming April 20, “crafted for kids and those who are kids at heart.”
- Nintendo Labo brings DIY approach to Switch: New Switch line will let users build peripherals with cardboard kits and use them in included games
- Nintendo Direct has transformed the company’s relationship with its fans: The firm has learnt to embrace its demanding fanbase
- Hackers seem close to publicly unlocking the Nintendo Switch: Coders are rapidly finding exploits to open up Nintendo’s new console.
- Nintendo Switch is the fastest-selling games console in France: French MD reveals Amiibo and software sales figures in new interview
- Nintendo adds Mario Tennis, Donkey Kong, Hyrule Warriors and Dark Souls to 2018 Switch line-up: But fans left to wait on Metroid and Pokemon
- Dark Souls, Donkey Kong Country lead a wave of Nintendo Switch ports: Plus – New Mario Tennis, free online hide-and-seek for Mario Odyssey.
- Now On Nintendo Switch, Furi Embraces The Power Of A Good Boss Fight
- Nintendo doesn’t seem to be “looking into” VR very much anymore: 4K update doesn’t seem to be in the immediate cards for the Switch, either.
- GAME sales up over 5% during Christmas: Nintendo Switch, PS4 and Xbox One X the key sales drivers
- GameStop holiday sales jump 11%: Nintendo Switch and Xbox One X drive hardware sales up 38%; used game sales down 8% as customer spending shifts to new games, collectibles
- Activision closes only North American distribution centre: Publisher claims decision is unrelated to steady rise of digital sales
- Activision’s Transformers games pulled from digital stores
- Unreal hosting livestream to help devs navigate potential legal landmines
- UK Charts: GTA V is back at No.1 226 weeks after it first came out – Price activity sends the 2013 title to the top for a 14th time
- Revealed: The 100 best-selling UK boxed games of 2017 – As always, Call of Duty and FIFA dominate. But there are a few surprises, too
- Activision-Hasbro deal expires, Transformers games pulled from digital stores: War for Cybertron, Transformers Devastation and more no longer available to buy as download
- Lego bringing online games to China with help from Tencent
- Tencent strikes deal with Lego to develop online games: Deal includes potential social network aimed at Chinese children
- MLS Enters Esports, Launches eMLS FIFA 18 League With EA Sports
- Insights: Don’t Overlook Overwatch As E-Sports Has Its Coming Out Party
- Blizzard boasts 10M viewers for Overwatch League opening week
- Overwatch League Day One: Dallas vs Seoul Match Sets The Tone For The League: Viewership peaked at 415k.
- Overwatch League attracts 10m viewers in its first week: Average audience of 408,000 per minute for opening day, concurrent viewers peaks at 437,000
- Swedish firm G:loot receives largest esports investment in Nordic region’s history: Confident investors back esports firm for $12.1 million
- At CES, Everyone Is Still Hunting For VR’s Killer App
- ‘VRChat’ Blasts Past 1 Million Installs Amidst a Skyrocketing Meme Economy
- Horizon Zero Dawn leads with ten nominations for the 21st DICE Awards – The Legend of the Zelda: Breath of the Wild a distant second, appearing in six catagories
- Steam competitor Robot Cache hopes to woo devs by slashing platform fees
- Games with pornographic ads sneak into the Play Store, get 3 million downloads: Google removes 60 apps packing the “AdultSwine” malware.
- Spanish government gives indies funding boost with new $7.9M grant
- Spanish government confirms €6.5m grant for indie devs: More funding available following news that €2m grant had been scrapped, reviving a market that lost 30 studios last year
- Video games crowdfunding raised $25m in 2017: ICO Partners estimates show only three projects raised more than $1m last year
- Devs answer: What were the overlooked gems of 2017?
- Horizon Zero Dawn and PUBG among top 2018 D.I.C.E. Award noms
- Developers share their favorite indie games of 2017
- 6 of the most significant mobile game trends in 2017
- Here are Gamasutra’s predictions about the game industry for 2018
- Madden NFL 18 and Horizon Zero Dawn among Writers Guild Awards nominees
- TIGA publishes guide to forthcoming changes in data protection law: The General Data Protection Regulation to replace the Data Protection Act on May 25
- Ultima Underworld and the freedom to make bad choices: Why I Love: Quantum Soup’s Chris Payne gets lost in the many innovations of The Stygian Abyss
- Games Done Quick raises $2.26M for the Prevent Cancer Foundation
- An appreciation of games that click back and change the gamers who love them: From The Dig to Pillars of Eternity, gaming does something no other pop culture medium can.
- Behavioral Profiling: How to Build Useful Player Models
Jon
News of the Week; January 10, 2018
DIGITAL
- Pro-Kremlin Twitter Trolls Take Aim At Robert Mueller
- Should Twitter’s Ban on Hateful Content Apply to President Trump?
- Twitter Makes Clear it Won’t Block Trump—as Long as He’s President
- Chuck Johnson Sues Twitter, Copying Dennis Prager’s Lawsuit Against YouTube
- Potential Discrimination Through Social Media Ads
- Free speech vs. censorship in Germany: New rules on online hate speech cause problems for internet giants.
- It Took Only Three Days For Germany’s New Hate Speech Law To Cause Collateral Damage
- Intel CEO sold all the stock he could after Intel learned of security bug: Intel claims sale was unrelated, but he planned sale after researchers disclosed bugs.
- Five California Communities Settle Auto-Renewal Claims with Online Dating Company eHarmony for More than $2 Million
- Senator questions Apple over intentional iPhone slowdowns: The government of France is looking for answers, too.
- Apple planning new, “robust” parental controls to help protect children, teens: Investors are worried about youth becoming addicted to their smartphones.
- James Damore’s Lawsuit Is Designed To Embarrass Google
- Google fired James Damore for a controversial gender memo—now he’s suing: Damore argued few women program due to interest in “people rather than things.”
- Engineer says he quit Google after order to stop pro-diversity posts: Diversity advocate says he was told to “avoid posting on controversial topics.”
- Conservatives Are Now Getting Angry About Google’s Fact-Checking Module
- Google Bans Rehab-Related Search Ads in Another Country After Embarrassing Report
- Linus Torvalds Is Not Happy About Intel’s Meltdown and Spectre Mess
- Triple Meltdown: How So Many Researchers Found A 20-Year-Old Chip Flaw At The Same Time
- Meltdown and Spectre: Here’s what Intel, Apple, Microsoft, others are doing about it: Intel, Microsoft, ARM, and others have responded. We dig in.
- Bad docs and blue screens make Microsoft suspend Spectre patch for AMD machines: Blue screen crashes on decade-old AMD chips seem to be widespread.
- Intel faces class action lawsuits regarding Meltdown and Spectre: Class action lawsuits have been filed in California, Indiana, and Oregon.
- EMC, VMware security bugs throw gasoline on cloud security fire: Backups of virtual machines on some hosts could be accessed or altered by an attacker.
- Airbnb Gets Crucial Section 230 Win Over Unauthorized Subleases–La Park La Brea v. Airbnb (Eric Goldman)
- GoPro Loses Two-Year Battle With the Sky
- Man’s YouTube Video of White Noise Hit With Five Copyright Claims
- White Noise On YouTube Gets FIVE Separate Copyright Claims From Other White Noise Providers
- A Video Featuring Nothing But White Noise Has Received Five Content ID Claims Since 2015
- Will Smith Has Launched His Own YouTube Channel
- RTL Group Acquires United Screens for $14.9 Million
- Europe’s RTL Group Increases Online Video Footprint With $14.9 Million Acquisition Of United Screens
- Amazon’s Next Big Thing Could Be Serving You Ads on the Go
- Hulu now has over 17 million subscribers
- Amazon, Hulu, Netflix Achieve Near-Sweep Of Top TV Categories At 2018 Golden Globes
- I Spent A Week Living With Chatbots—Did All That Self-Help Help?
- A Former Facebook VP Says Social Media Is Destroying Society. And He’s Right.
- Mark Zuckerberg Essentially Launched Facebook’s Reelection Campaign
- How to Fix Facebook—Before It Fixes Us: An early investor explains why the social media platform’s business model is such a threat—and what to do about it.
- Facebook’s Virtual Assistant M Is Dead. So Are Chatbots
- NBC News got 4 million subscribers in 5 months to its Snapchat show
- In Series Of Tweets, YouTube Hints At “Further Consequences” For Logan Paul
- YouTube Star Logan Paul Puts His Vlog On Hiatus As He Takes Time “To Reflect”
- YouTube Removes Logan Paul From Google Preferred, Puts His YouTube Red Originals On Hold In Wake Of Controversy
- Content moderation is not a panacea: Logan Paul, YouTube, and what we should expect from platforms
- Iced tea company scraps plans to raise millions for blockchain pivot: Company’s stock tripled last month after it changed its name to Long Blockchain.
- We found a deleted page that reveals the paparazzi roots of Kodak Coin: Kodak’s stock has tripled since announcing the blockchain project on Tuesday.
- GoPro will stop selling drones once remaining Karma inventory is gone: Citing “untenable” aerial market and “hostile regulatory environments.”
- China Is Building a $2.1 Billion Industrial Park for AI Research
- Robots Have Replaced Humans in 25% of China’s Ammunition Factories
- China’s Crackdown on Crypto-Mining Threatens Bitcoin’s Future
- Remember Dogecoin? The joke currency soared to $2 billion this weekend: “There’s no active development anymore,” Dogecoin’s co-founder said last year.
- Hackers find new ways to print digital money for free: As valuations soar, attackers find ever more powerful CPUs to covertly conscript.
- Oracle app server hack let one attacker mine $226,000 worth of cryptocoins: Exploit published in December makes cracking unpatched Oracle servers easy.
- The Algorithms Aren’t Biased, We Are
- The ethics of Artificial Intelligence – the next step?
- The Strange Brands in Your Instagram Feed: A new breed of online retailer doesn’t make or even touch products, but they’ve got a few other tricks for turning nothing into money.
- Brands and ecommerce platforms: a tainted relationship?
- Why Europe Is Willing To Regulate Tech More Than The U.S.
- Intellectual Property Rights post Brexit – a call to arms
- Don’t Be Evil: Fred Turner on Utopias, Frontiers, and Brogrammers
- Does This Black Mirror Fan Theory Mean We’re Finally Ready For The Singularity?
- “Oh My God, This Is So F—-D Up”: Inside Silicon Valley’s Secretive, Orgiastic Dark Side – Some of the most powerful men in Silicon Valley are regulars at exclusive, drug-fueled, sex-laced parties—gatherings they describe not as scandalous, or even secret, but as a bold, unconventional lifestyle choice. Yet, while the guys get laid, the women get screwed. In an adaptation from her new book, Brotopia, Emily Chang exposes the tired and toxic dynamic at play.
- How To Curb Silicon Valley Power—Even With Weak Antitrust Laws
- Commentary: 3D printing
- Consumer 3D Printing: Is the UK Copyright and Design Law Framework Fit for Purpose (Pedro Malaquias)
- Cross-examining the network: The year in digital and social media research – Journalist’s Resource sifts through the academic journals so you don’t have to. Here are what they consider 10 of the most important pieces of new research into digital and social media published in 2017.
CREATIVITY
- Disney’s 1998 copyright term extension expires this year and Big Content’s lobbyists say they’re not going to try for another one
- Why Mickey Mouse’s 1998 copyright extension probably won’t happen again: Copyrights from the 1920s will start expiring next year if Congress doesn’t act.
- Copyright Maximalists Throw In The Towel On Term Extension; Admit That Maybe Copyright Is Too Long
- Donald Trump Hires Charles Harder To Threaten Steve Bannon With A Lawsuit, Block Publication Of New Book
- Trump attorney sends Bannon cease and desist letter over ‘disparaging’ comments
- Publisher Not At All Impressed By Trump’s Defamation Threat Letter; Promises To Defend The First Amendment
- By Complaining About US’s ‘Very Weak’ Libel Laws, Trump Is Actually S——g On Our ‘Very Strong’ First Amendment
- Really Bad Ideas: French President Macron Wants To Ban ‘Fake News’ During The Election
- The Gorilla Channel Satire Demonstrates The Ridiculousness Of Banning Fake News
- Appeals Court Drives Another Stake Into The Heart Of Idaho’s ‘Ag-Gag’ Law
- The Other Side: Phoenix Comicon Proactively Changes Names To Avoid San Diego Comic-Con Bully
- It Begins: Some Comic Conventions Refusing To Fold After San Diego Comic-Con Gets Its Trademark Win
- Bad week gets worse for Fox Judge Jeanine Pirro
- Army Officially Opposes Vegas Golden Knights Trademark
- Theatre roles need to change following Soulpepper harassment allegations, Winnipeg directors say: Myth of ‘all-powerful’ director, vulnerability of actors contribute to culture of abuse, say 2 local directors
- Guardians of the Galaxy Is Leading The Unlikely Cassette Tape Revival
- Music Modernization Act launched in the US
- Shocked, Shocked To Learn The Patent Office Is Structurally Designed To Approve (Lousy) Patents
- Is the First Amendment Obsolete? (Tim Wu)
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- FCC releases final net neutrality repeal order, three weeks after vote: With repeal officially published, FCC will soon face lawsuits.
- Tech Giants To Join Legal Battle Over Net Neutrality
- FCC Chair Ajit Pai cancels his CES appearance days before show: Pai likely would have had to answer questions about net neutrality repeal.
- Maine Governor Tells 16-Year-Old Worried About Net Neutrality Repeal To ‘Pick Up A Book And Read’
- “Vote out” congresspeople who won’t back net neutrality, advocates say: “If they don’t vote for net neutrality, let’s vote them out,” new campaign says.
- Supporters Aim To Use Net Neutrality To Bludgeon Cash-Compromised Lawmakers In The Midterms
- California The Latest State To Propose Its Own Net Neutrality Rules
- Net neutrality gaining steam in state legislatures after FCC repeal: Nebraska and California may challenge FCC’s attempt to preempt state laws
- GOP senator says she’ll vote to restore net neutrality rules: One more Republican vote needed to get net neutrality bill through Senate.
- Uphill Effort To Reverse Net Neutrality Repeal Has The Early Votes
- Restoration of net neutrality rules hits key milestone in Senate: 30 senators support net neutrality bill as Democrats try to force a vote.
- Net Neutrality: From Rules to Enforcement
- The History of Net Neutrality In 13 Years of Tales of the Sausage Factory (with a few additions).
- FCC Prepares To Weaken Broadband’s Definition To Hide Competitive, Coverage Issues
- FCC plan to lower broadband standards is met with “Mobile Only Challenge”: Many say that mobile can’t replace cable or fiber, but FCC may think otherwise.
- AT&T and Comcast finalize court victory over Nashville and Google Fiber: Nashville won’t appeal as Google Fiber-backed utility pole rule is invalidated.
- Comcast fired 500 despite claiming tax cut would create thousands of jobs: As Comcast pushed for tax cut, fired employees had to sign NDAs to get severance.
- Those Annoying Cable Channel Blackouts Are Only Going To Get Worse In 2018
- What is a Cable System – The Copyright Office Wants to Know
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- We(Chat) The People: Technology and Social Control in China
- China Plans To Turn Country’s Most Popular App, WeChat, Into An Official ID System
- Want Anybody’s Personal Details From Aadhaar, India’s Billion-Person Identity Database? Yours For $8
- “Political pressure” reportedly kills Huawei/AT&T smartphone deal: Spying concerns from members of congress means AT&T won’t be selling Huawei phones.
- Prosecutors say Mac spyware stole millions of user images over 13 years: Fruitfly creepware turned on cameras and mics, automatically detected porn searches.
- Internet of Toys Enforcement: VTech Agrees to COPPA Settlement
- FTC and VTech Settle Alleged COPPA Privacy and Security Violations
- FTC lawsuit over 2015 VTech data breach ends in settlement
- WhatsApp Security Flaws Could Allow Snoops To Slide Into Group Chats
- How The Government Hides Secret Surveillance Programs
- Google Puts Its SCA Warrant Appeal on Hold as High Court Prepares to Hear Microsoft Case
- New York State Appellate Court Says Cell Site Location Records Have No Expectation Of Privacy
- The security of pretty much every computer on the planet has just gotten a lot worse
- Collection, storage and transfer of data in Canada
GAMES
- Star Citizen devs file motion to dismiss Crytek lawsuit
- Star Citizen maker says engine suit “never should have been filed”: CIG accuses Crytek of selective and misleading reading of license agreement.
- Cloud Imperium Games responds to Crytek suit: Star Citizen studio calls CryEngine maker’s complaint misleading and scandalous, saying it “sacrifices legal sufficiency for loud publicity”
- Crowdsourced Content in Video Games: How Ownership Issues Almost “Ganked” a Copyright Case
- BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT, INC., AND VALVE CORPORATION, Plaintiffs,
v.
LILITH GAMES (SHANGHAI) CO. LTD., AND UCOOL, INC., Defendants. - Regulators eye game monetisation in 2018: Controversy over monetisation of games isn’t going away, and it’s likely to reach the corridors of government sooner rather than later
- Eagle-eyed YouTuber discovers ongoing EA online-matchmaking shenanigans: 2017 papers confirm tests of existing games with “spending” as future objective.
- Epic planning audit to combat copyright infringement on Unreal Marketplace
- US government developing school shooting survival sim: Army and Department of Homeland Security working on first-person game that lets users play a teacher, cop, or shooter
- Epic clampdown on real-world guns and copyright-infringing game assets: Engine provider conducting thorough audit of Unreal Marketplace for trademark abuse
- NSPCC and Aardman create mobile game to help combat child abuse
- The World Health Organization Identifies Gaming Disorder as a Mental Health Condition
- WHO: “There is increasing and well-documented evidence of gaming disorder”: Recent listing is “only a clinical description” for diagnoses, not prevention or treatment
- Funplus Interactive ad deemed misleading by Advertising Standards Agency: Mobile developer used image from different game to promote King of Avalon: Dragon Warfare
- Civilization VI depiction upsets Poundmaker Cree Nation: Headman Milton Tootoosis says 2K never consulted First Nation for expansion, which “perpetuates this myth that First Nations had similar values” to colonial culture
- Civilization V mod adds realistic superintelligent AI research
- Smosh Games YouTuber departs following sexual assault allegations: Amra ‘Flitz’ Ricketts denies all “false claims” but “cannot risk negative impact” on YouTube group
- Amra ‘Flitz’ Ricketts Departs Smosh Games Amid Sexual Assault Allegations
- IGDA Survey: Game companies must do more to foster diversity
- How the 2018 Tax Reform Will Change Things for Indie Developers
- Glu Mobile sells Moscow dev studio and game rights for $4.5M
- Could movie shorts provide a template for funding indie games?: The Chinese Room’s Andrew Crawshaw ponders the potential for experimental tie-ins around AAA blockbusters
- Epic planning audit to combat copyright infringement on Unreal Marketplace
- App Store generates almost $900 million in seven days: Pokémon GO amongst the big Christmas success stories
- App Store sets new records as holiday spending tops $890M
- Steam breaks 18m concurrent users with largest growth in platform’s history: PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds accounts for 16% of all concurrent users
- 80 years for a sleeveless jacket: PUBG’s loot box rates disclosed – Meanwhile, rarest item in new premium crate could cost $1,562.50 to acquire
- The rarest new PUBG items show up once every 80 years, on average: Artificial scarcity raises aftermarket values for ultra-rare cosmetics.
- How do you do ‘loot boxes’ right? F2P MMO game devs weigh in
- 7,672 games hit Steam in 2017 alone, says Steam Spy
- Steam saw more than 7,600 games debut in 2017 – SteamSpy: Tracking site finds 53% year-over-year jump in release numbers, slowing rate of growth for online storefront
- Confusion surrounds GOG’s rejection of Opus Magnum: Popular puzzle game from Zachtronics rejected by digital store but developer unable to share details
- Star Citizen developers raised $34.9m in 2017: For the second year in a row, Star Citizen crowd-sourced more money than all games on Kickstarter combined
- BroadbandTV Launches New Division To Develop Creator-Driven Mobile Games
- Spanish government cuts €2m fund for indie developers: 20 developers lose up to €150,000 each
- Ukie publishes funding and tax relief guide for UK game devs
- Ukie launches Access to Finance guide with Harbottle and Lewis: “There is money available if you know where to look,” says Ukie CEO
- Access to finance the leading obstacle to success for UK games industry in 2018: TIGA CEO: Looming clouds of Brexit beginning to “cast shadows on our games industry”
- With ~3M units sold last month, PS4 surpasses 73M sales worldwide
- 5.9 million PS4 consoles sold during 2017 Christmas period
- Japanese console game market experiences growth for the first time in 11 years
- Nintendo Switch surpasses Wii U lifetime sales in Japan
- Japanese console market spikes for the first time in 11 years: Nintendo Switch and PS4 drive hardware sales up 73% year on year
- Switch becomes fastest-selling home console of all time in the U.S.
- Nintendo Switch becomes fastest-selling console in US history: Platform holder breaks own record set by the Wii over ten years ago
- Nintendo Switch NBA game jumps through ridiculous hoops to issue a patch: With no answers from Playgrounds’ devs, we sleuth out the weirdest Switch patch yet.
- Amid a rising tide of games, devs reflect on state of the Switch market
- Nintendo Switch NBA game jumps through ridiculous hoops to issue a patch: With no answers from Playgrounds’ devs, we sleuth out the weirdest Switch patch yet.
- Hyperkin plans to release a new (old) Game Boy in 2018: Ultra Game Boy brings slim aluminum case, backlight for under $100.
- Miiverse archive recovers 17TB of social mirth after Nintendo’s shutdown: Archive Team saves hundreds of millions of posts from the vibrant social network.
- Haptic Controllers Bring Real Pain To VR Games
- Sony to Nearly Double the Total Number of PSVR Games by End of 2018
- Sony expects 130 PlayStation VR games this year: 80% increase driven by 2 million install base, company says
- Record over $3B AR/VR investment in 2017 ($1.5B + in Q4)
- VR/AR startups drew record investment in 2017 – Report: Digi-Capital says $3 billion haul led by Magic Leap, Improbable, Unity, Niantic; VR investment cooling as mobile AR ramps up
- Oculus sets sights on Chinese market with Xiaomi partnership
- Pokémon Go dropping support for older iPhones next month: iPhone 5 and 5C will no longer be able to run Niantic’s location-based phenomenon
- Asus sets up Chinese esports company with $16m investment: Well-established esports brand looks to spread into China with new League of Legends team
- Google eyes up Chinese eSports market with Chushou investment
- Video: The importance of storytellers in eSports
- Google Looks To Get Into Chinese E-Sports Market With Investment In Live Streaming Platform Chushou
- NRG CEO Andy Miller On Overwatch League’s Traditional Sports Influence
- Twitch Will Stream Every Match In The Overwatch League, Which Begins Play On January 10
- Twitch gets Overwatch League rights: Streaming platform signs deal for exclusive third-party rights for regular season and playoffs outside of China for next two years
- Part 1 – Let the games begin: German IP law in the world of esports
- Playable Ads: The Most Fun Ad Ever!
- How Playmob is gaming for a better world: CEO and co-founder Jude Ower on the power of playable ads to affect real social change
- Mad Catz returns under new management: Defunct peripherals brand rescued by Chinese holding company
- 49% of European gamers like to revisit classic games: However, almost 40% say retro games are never as good as they remember
- Even Realistic Videogames Like Call Of Duty Won’t Help Us Win Wars
- UK Charts: FIFA ends Call of Duty’s nine-week stay at No.1: It means WWII equals but does not beat Modern Warfare 2’s consecutive No.1 record
- Itch.io saw 100k projects created and 68k completed in 2017
- Our Video Game Predictions For 2018
- The Rise and Fall of EA Sports Big, as Told by the Creator of SSX: After the success of SSX, other likeminded extreme sports games like Cranked failed to come to fruition.
- Discovering the first video game commercial
- “The least-worst idea we had”—The creation of the Age of Empires empire: A brief oral history from the original game’s designers at Ensemble Studios.
- The rise, fall, and rise of MDickie—or, how to be the best worst game developer: “Single-handedly responsible for the WORST games to ever be enjoyed by millions of people.”
Jon
News of the Week; January 3, 2018
DIGITAL
- Revealed: Vietnam’s 10,000-Strong Internet Monitoring Force, Tasked With Stamping Out ‘Wrongful Views’
- German Hate Speech Law Goes Into Effect, Turning Social Media Platforms Into Gov’t Revenue Generators
- YouTube Deactivates Amazon Fire TV App Earlier Than Expected (Report)
- Amazon shipped over 5 billion items with Prime in 2017
- Amazon Can’t Target People Unable To Spell ‘Birkenstock’: Judge – The sandal maker fears Amazon might sell low-quality counterfeits.
- Watchdog bans advert’s claim eHarmony is ‘scientifically proven’: ASA says claim is misleading because dating site cannot prove it provides a greater chance of finding lasting love
- Academic researchers fire latest shots in adblocking arms race: Manipulating javascript can overcome publishers’ software.
- Logan Paul Apologizes For Vlog Showing Suicide Victim Amid Outcry From YouTube Community
- YouTuber Apologizes After Uploading Footage Of Apparent Suicide
- Logan Paul’s Apology Video Has Amassed Roughly 24 Million Views In 24 Hours
- The Logan Paul Video Should Be A Reckoning For YouTube
- YouTube is equally to blame for Logan Paul’s vide
- After The Adpocalypse, JP Morgan Created Its Own YouTube Ad Safety Tool
- Vevo Revenue Up 30 Percent in 2017 As it Eyes Profitability: Report
- Facebook Replaces Twitter As Exclusive Streaming Partner For Golden Globes Pre-Show
- These Are 50 Of The Biggest Fake News Hits On Facebook In 2017: Viral fake news generated more engagement on Facebook in 2017 than last year, according to a BuzzFeed News analysis.
- Vice Suspends President And Chief Digital Officer In Wake Of Sexual Harassment Claims
- Child porn law goes nuts: 14-year-old girl charged for nude selfie: The ACLU of Minnesota calls the charges absurd and unconstitutional.
- Is “Big Data” racist? Why policing by data isn’t necessarily objective: “Concerns with predictive big data technologies appear in most big data policing models.”
- Elon Musk says AI could doom human civilization. Zuckerberg disagrees. Who’s right?
- Soon We Won’t Be Able to Tell the Difference Between AI and a Human Voice
- Health Care Is Hemorrhaging Data. AI Is Here To Help
- I Believe In Intelligent Design … For Robots
- Spotify, Valued Around $19 Billion, Looks Toward Wall Street As It Makes Confidential Filing For Going Public
- Spotify faces $1.6 billion lawsuit from music publisher alleging copyright infringement
- Spotify sued for $1.6 billion by publisher representing Tom Petty, The Doors, others: The company is accused of using music without a license or compensation
- Digital Colonialism And Decentralisation (Andres Guadamuz)
- If We Want Brain-Computer Interfaces, We Must First Decode the Brain
- Dark Future: Here’s When We’ll Have the Black Mirror Tech That Lets Us Read Memories
- 2017 Was A Terrible Year For Internet Freedom
- Microsoft, DOJ set to go head to head at Supreme Court in 2018: Meanwhile, NSA spy suspect, KickassTorrents cases didn’t advance very much in 2017.
- How Hotmail changed Microsoft (and email) forever: Acquired December 1997, Hotmail was the gift that kept on giving—for good or ill.
- What’s behind the Intel design flaw forcing numerous patches?: There’s obviously a big problem, but we don’t know exactly what.
- Apple’s response to battery controversy: Have a new one for $29: In attempt to make amends for iPhone slow down “misunderstanding.”
- Your old iPhone battery can be replaced even if it passes Genius Bar test: iPhone 6 and later devices won’t be turned away by good Genius Bar test results.
- Apple buys app development service Buddybuild
- EU Copyright Law and the Cloud: VCAST and the intersection of private copying and communication to the public
- Pirates receive Christmas gift from Arnold J
- Hooters Investor Whispers ‘Blockchain’ and Its Parent Company’s Stock Soars 50 Percent
- Blockchain announcement sends stock of Hooters franchisee soaring – Press release: “Eating a burger is now a way to mine for cryptocoins.”
- Tiny company which owns some Hooter’s restaurants says it will use blockchain for rewards program, boosting stock by 50%
- Truth and fiction in blockchain’s brave new world: Why has the mere mention of the technology sent stock prices soaring?
- How the “Original Internet Godfather” walked away from his cyber crime past: Brett Johnson was dubbed the “Original Internet Godfather” by the US Secret Service.
- Hacker Lexicon: What Is Sinkholing?
- NewsMedia Council Dismisses Blacklock’s Complaint Against CANADALAND: Editor Tom Korski had alleged a “conflict of interest” in inviting professor Michael Geist to comment on Blacklock’s court battles.
- Do it For the Culture! (Memes)
- Looking Back at 2017: My Top Ten Posts (Michael Geist)
- How FANG Stocks Left the Media Business Snakebitten: A 2017 Retrospective
- License expired: The Ars Technica 2018 Deathwatch: Companies, tech, and trends least likely to succeed in 2018, as chosen by Ars editors.
- Insights: Peerless Prognostications For A Perilously Fuzzy Future In Online Entertainment
CREATIVITY
- Chinese Billionaire Got A US Court To Issue An Unconstitutional Gag Order On A Critic
- Oh, the Places Copyright and Trademark Law Go!
- The Federal Circuit Strikes Ban On Registering “Immoral” Or “Scandalous” Trademarks
- Lynyrd Skynyrd Member Sanctioned For Failure To Preserve Third Party’s Text Messages
- Appeals Court Dismisses Gang Designation Lawsuit Against The FBI Brought By Insane Clown Posse Fans
- Indiana tries to stop NFL kneeling–and would fail
- Knicks Center Enes Kantor To Be Tried In Absentia For Upsetting Turkish President Recep Erdogan’s Fickle Ego
- Hopefully For The Last Time: The US Has Zero New Works Enter The Public Domain On January 1st
- Happy Public Domain day! Here are the works entering the public domain in Canada and the EU, but not the USA, where the public domain is stagnant
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- No, The Death Of Net Neutrality Will Not Be Subtle
- Ajit Pai’s FCC is still editing the net neutrality repeal order: Repeal undergoing final changes as FCC prepares for court battle.
- Now That The FCC Is Doing Away With Title II For Broadband, Will Verizon Give Back The Taxpayer Subsidies It Got Under Title II?
- New York State Eyes Its Own Net Neutrality Law
- Comcast & The Cable Industry Greets The New Year With A Flurry Of Price Increases
- After beating cable lobby, Colorado city moves ahead with muni broadband: Fort Collins plans universal broadband, net neutrality, and gigabit speeds.
- Robocalls – and complaints about robocalls – booming: 4.5 million complaints last year.
- AT&T sued over layoffs – after promising more investment because of tax cut: AT&T explanation of layoffs undercuts claim that net neutrality hurt investment.
- Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation – 2017 Year in Review
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- Hawaiian Supreme Court Says The First Amendment Protects Filming Law Enforcement
- New powers for Canadian spy agency alarming: Bill C-59 could normalize state-sponsored hacking and disinformation campaigns, university organization warns.
- A Critical Intel Flaw Breaks Basic Security For Most Computers
- A Major Security Vulnerability Has Plagued ‘Nearly All’ Intel CPUs For Years
- Report: All Intel Processors Made in the Last Decade Might Have a Massive Security Flaw [Updated]
- “Meltdown” and “Spectre”: Every modern processor has unfixable security flaws: Immediate concern is for Intel chips, but everyone is at risk.
- Ad targeters are pulling data from your browser’s password manager: New research shows an alarming new way to track web users
- After Equifax breach, anger but no action in Congress: The aftermath of the data breach played out like a familiar script: White-hot bipartisan outrage, then hearings and proposals that went nowhere.
- Six Cyber Threats to Really Worry About in 2018
- A practical guide to microchip implants: An estimated 50 to 100k folks have implants; how do the benefits compare to the risks?
- This AI, Developed at Stanford, Can Predict Who You’re Voting For: Researchers at Stanford have trained an AI to predict a person’s political leanings based on his or her neighborhood and choice of vehicle.
GAMES
- Call of Duty argument leads to fatal swatting – Report: Police kill 28-year-old Kansas man in response to bogus 911 call placed over a $1.50 wager match
- Alleged swatting hoax ends in the death of a father of two: The hoax was apparently sparked by a disagreement over a ‘Call of Duty’ game.
- “They call it swatting,” says grieving Wichita mother after son killed by police: The man wasn’t a gamer, but he apparently became the victim of a deadly “prank.
- After “swatting” death in Kansas, 25-year old arrested in Los Angeles: Arrest made after man dies in Kansas “swatting.”
- Mother of “swatting” victim wants cop criminally charged for shooting: Call of Duty gamer allegedly made fake emergency call to Wichita cops.
- Confused Judge Says Video Game Play Has No Copyright, Because The Work Is Not ‘Fixed’
- It’s misleading to advertise with images from a different game, rules UK ad authority
- The International in Vancouver? Valve may move huge ‘Dota 2’ esports event from Seattle to Canada
- World Health Organization adds video game addiction to diagnostic manual
- World Health Organisation recognises ‘gaming disorder’ as disease: First draft of upcoming compendium revision, if approved, warns of “significant impairment” in personal, family and social life
- Is gaming addiction a “disorder” or a “junk diagnosis”?: WHO listing renews debate over where to draw the line for “hazardous gaming.”
- ESA rebukes World Health Organization ‘gaming disorder’ classification
- IGN fires editor-in-chief – Report: Gaming site says it made the move after investigation into alleged misconduct
- Some mobile games now report TV viewing habits back to advertisers
- ERA: UK games sales hit £3.35 billion in 2017 – GfK and IHS data show significant growth of almost 10% in digital and physical sales
- Successful video game projects on Kickstarter flatline while tabletop spikes: In 2017, only one-in-eight successful game projects on the platform were video games
- Nintendo forecasts 37m Switch sales by April 2019: Meanwhile console nears 3.3 units in Japan, breaking region’s first-year sales record
- Report: Nintendo expects to sell 20M Switch consoles in the next fiscal year
- Pokémon Go finally coming to China, courtesy of NetEase: Niantic signs partnership with Chinese publisher, location-based phenomenon to launch in second half of 2018
- Enter the Gungeon sales have ‘surpassed all expectations’ on Switch
- PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds’ CEO plans to make game a “universal media franchise”: PUBG Corporation already receiving calls from Netflix and Hollywood
- Battlegrounds surpasses 3M concurrent players on Steam
- PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds hits 3m concurrent Steam users: Leaving Early Access pushes Bluehole’s mega-hit to a new milestone
- Here are the top grossing Steam games of 2017
- PUBG, Rainbow Six, Rocket League, Warframe and Ark top 2017 global Steam rankings: Valve also reveals most popular VR games
- LawBreakers publisher blames Battlegrounds for poor reception
- Nexon blames PUBG for LawBreakers’ struggles: Boss Key’s underperformance also impacted publisher’s Q3 financials in North America
- UK physical game sales are flat year-on-year – Call of Duty: WWII ends 2018 on a high
- Here are the top grossing Steam games of 2017
- Tabletop games soar on Kickstarter as video games stagnate
- Microsoft has ended production of the Xbox One Kinect adapter
- I Didn’t Think the Microsoft Kinect Could Be Deader, But Here We Are
- RIP Kinect: 2010-2017(ish) – Discontinued USB adapter is the last nail in the coffin for influential tech.
- Pressure Mounts for Xbox’s Missing VR Strategy as PSVR Rakes in $700M in Hardware Alone
- Combatting asocial VR with asymmetrical multiplayer: Developer MunkyFun shares how the new League of War bridges the gap between virtual reality and couch players
- CCP Studio Behind ‘EVE: Valkyrie’ Acquired by Sumo Digital
- Sumo Digital takes over CCP Newcastle studio: Eve Valkyrie team rescued by growing UK developer
- Inside Microsoft HQ’s weird, wonderful swag store: Plus, the company’s Visitor Center shows us where all the Kinects went.
- Lost Destiny symphonic album, complete with Paul McCartney, has totally leaked – Destiny: Music of the Spheres leak confirmed as legit by multiple ex-Bungie staffers.
- Gamasutra’s Best of 2017: Brandon Sheffield’s all-time top 10 games hidden in other games
- Can games retail survive 2018?: Nintendo Switch and Red Dead Redemption 2 will prove crucial in what may be a tough year for shops
Jon
News of the Week; December 27, 2017
DIGITAL
- Court Allows Some Access to Employee’s Social Media Accounts
- 17-Year-Old Mexican Social Media Star Shot And Killed After Insulting Cartel Leader
- Confessions of a Digital Nazi Hunter
- British Military Chief Warns Russia Could Cut NATO’s Internet Connections, As Traffic For World’s Top Sites Is Mysteriously Routed Via…Russia
- Germany Accuses Chinese Intelligence Services Of Using Fake LinkedIn Profiles To Recruit Informants And Extract Sensitive Information
- Chinese hackers go after think tanks in wave of more surgical strikes: When one NGO blocked intrusion, frustrated hackers tried to knock its website offline.
- How Controversial Chinese Billionaire Founder of Faraday Future Got a Gag Order Against Critic
- Geekbench and Reddit think they’ve cracked why iPhones get slower over time: Testing suggests that iOS 10.2.1 added this functionality to prevent shutdowns.
- Apple Had Way Better Options Than Slowing Down Your iPhone
- Of Course Apple Is Getting Sued Over the Old iPhone Throttling Fiasco
- Apple Facing A Bunch Of Lawsuits After Admitting It Slows Down Older Devices, But Insisting It’s For A Good Reason
- Days after iPhone battery fiasco, lawsuits against Apple begin to mount: Customers say they would rather have replaced battery than bought a new phone.
- Shane Dawson Confronted His Hater To Break Down The Relationship Between Creator And Fan
- Vice Founders Offer Apology, Changes As Culture Of Sexual Misconduct Comes To Light
- How do you change the most important law in Internet history? Carefully – Op-ed: Changes to law shielding websites from liability for user posts should be minor.
- Hotel That Charged Guest $350 For A Negative Review Now Facing A Lawsuit From State Attorney General
- YouTube Star Poppy Collaborates With Microsoft’s New Chatbot To Make “High-Quality Internet Content”
- As Artificial Intelligence Advances, Here Are Five Tough Projects For 2018
- Data mining program designed to predict child abuse proves unreliable, DCFS says
- Bitcoin’s price plunges amid broad cryptocurrency sell-off: Every major cryptocurrency suffered double-digit losses in the last 24 hours.
- Bitcoin Crashed and Took the Whole Market Down With It
- The Real Price of Bitcoin? According to Morgan Stanley, It’s Zero
- Ten years in, nobody has come up with a use for blockchain
- Iced Tea Maker’s Stock Price Triples After Adding ‘Blockchain’ to Name
- Iced tea company rebrands as “Long Blockchain” and stock price triples
- Songwriters, streaming companies strike landmark deal on music licensing
- Facebook, Ready To Make Music, Lands Licensing Deal With Universal Music Group
- Facebook Ditches ‘Disputed’ News Tag After It Totally Backfired
- German regulator alleges abuse of dominance by Facebook over data usage policies
- Facebook’s Collection And Use Of Data From Third-Party Sources Is ‘Abusive’, Says Germany’s Competition Authority
- Netflix Delves Into Podcasting To Promote True Crime Docuseries ‘Wormwood’
- Nvidia to cease producing new drivers for 32-bit systems: Bit by bit, the PC world is continuing to drop its legacy support.
- Warren Kinsella settles claim against Twitter
- Loud, influential, and hyped: How we overestimate Twitter
- Library of Congress Gives Up Collecting All Tweets Because Twitter Is Garbage
- Twitter Survives TCPA Text Messaging Class Action
- CNN To Discontinue Its Snapchat News Show At The End Of The Year
- Pinterest Should Die
- Why Teens Aren’t Partying Anymore
- As Amazon Ramps Up Furniture and Appliance Business, Home Depot Is Sweating
- Charter, Disney Execs Pledge To Crack Down On Streaming Password Sharing ‘Piracy’
- UEFA secures UK court order to block illegal soccer streams: Using the same technology as the Premier League to stop feeds at their source.
- Why Workplace Instant Messaging Is Hot Again
- Google fights fragmentation: New Android features to be forced on apps in 2018 – New Play Store rules give developers one year to adopt any new Android changes.
- Adult supervision no longer needed at Google (Alpahbet)…so Eric Schmidt is stepping aside
- Top EU Court Says Uber Is A Transport Service That Can Be Regulated Like Traditional Taxis
- The Most Awesome Codebreaker In World War II Was A Woman
- Virtual Reality Lets You Arrive Without Traveling
- Virtual reality’s best experiences and biggest (teleportation) steps in 2017: Who made VR’s best stuff in 2017 – and why wasn’t it Valve or Oculus? Plus, 2018
- Big Tech: The New Predatory Capitalism – The tech giants are menacing democracy, privacy, and competition. Can they be housebroken?
- How Data Saved The Golden State Warriors
- Your face in froth: London cafe offers Europe’s first ‘selfieccino.’
- The most talked-about stories on Ars Technica in 2017
- The Worst Gadgets of 2017
- 2017 Was A Volatile Year In The World Of Online Video. Here Are Five Reasons Why.
- The Canadian Copyright Review in the Age of Technological Disruption (Michael Geist)
CREATIVITY
- Livent decision and the scope of auditor liability
- Good News: Trump Protestors Accused Of ‘Hiding Behind The First Amendment’ Acquitted
- You can transfer a copyright without saying ‘copyright’
- EU Commission Hid Yet Another Report That Showed Its Assumptions About Copyright Were Wrong
- Europe’s Ongoing Attack On Free Speech, And Why It Should Concern Us All
- Fox News website beefs up and ‘goes a little Breitbart’: As competition surges on the right, Fox’s website increasingly follows the path of its prime-time hosts.
- Dear Barstool Sports: No You Cannot Sue The NFL For Its Non-Infringing Merchandise. Also, Relax.
- A Kat’s 2017 Copyright Awards
- These experts figured out why so many bogus patents get approved: Empirical research reveals three big problems with how patents are vetted.
- Concerns Around The Discourse About “Fake News” And Elections
- Class of 2018
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- Months Later, And People Are Still Discovering Their Dead Loved Ones Were Used To Support Killing Net Neutrality
- The Heroes We Need: An Overview of Who’s Fighting for and Against Net Neutrality
- The End of the Internet? What to Expect after the FCC’s 3-2 Vote to Restore Internet Freedom
- Comcast’s Tax-Cut Investment ‘Increase’ Is A Giant Nothingburger
- Washington state: Comcast was “even more deceptive” than we thought – “Additional consumers… rejected the SPP, but Comcast signed them up anyway.”
- Comcast claims it’ll spend $50B because of net neutrality repeal and tax cut: Comcast says it will increase network investment, but it was already doing that.
- Why Net Neutrality Will Be A Campaign Issue In 2018
- FCC tries to make Miami pirate radio station walk the plank: $144,000 fine for ignoring all requests to stop.
- The UK Just Decided That 10 Mbps Broadband Should be a Legal Right
- CRTC Seeks Comments on Its Reseller Registration Obligation
- Globe editorial: In 2018, the fight for net neutrality must continue
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- Jailed Russian says he hacked DNC on Kremlin’s orders and can prove it
- Canadian Government Looking To Step Up Domestic Surveillance, Scale Back Intelligence Oversight
- Facial recognition at US airports becoming routine, researchers warn – Prof asks: “We’re wondering if this is the best use of a billion dollars?”
- What Amazon Echo And Google Home Do With Your Voice Data
- Facebook Transparency Report: Lots Of Government Surveillance, Bad Copyright Takedown Requests
- OkCupid begins enforcing real-name rules, insists it’s a good idea: Dating site claims it’s “keeping with the times,” but what of users’ privacy desires?
- Snowden’s New App Turns Your Phone Into A Home Security System
- No boundaries for user identities: Web trackers exploit browser login managers
- FOIA Researchers Are Targeting a Shadowy FBI Program Called ‘Gravestone’
- Improve your online safety with advice from experts
GAMES
- FCC issues final extension for video game CVAA accessibility waiver
- Founding member of Lizard Squad pleads guilty to cyber-crimes
- Apple now requires App Store games with loot boxes to list odds: Wednesday update to iOS rules also touches on VPN services, cryptocurrency apps.
- Guideline changes mean App Store devs must now reveal loot crate odds
- Developers must disclose loot box odds following update to App Store guidelines: Change to guidelines comes amidst ongoing debate as to whether loot boxes constitute gambling
- Can AAA Games Survive Without Microtransactions?: After a series of microtransaction controversies this year, we decided to delve into the price of videogames, and whether or not AAA games need things like lootboxes to stay profitable.
- Ubisoft releases open-source code for World in Conflictservers
- One of the first ever LGBTQ video games has been restored
- ‘Pokémon GO’ Now Uses Apple’s ARKit on iOS 11, Bringing Pokémon Closer to Reality
- A Christmas gift from Game Boy ROM hackers: Super Mario Land 2 in color
- NBA G League’s Streaming Deal With Twitch
- Rocket League surpasses 38 million players: 2017 is “best year yet” but there is still work to be done, says developer
- Cuphead sells two million units in two months: “Even in our wildest dreams, we never thought our crazy little characters would be embraced by this many fans,” says developer
- Call of Duty: WWII tops $1 billion worldwide – Activision says military shooter and Destiny 2 are 2017’s top grossing console games in North America
- Jason Schreier’s Top 10 Games Of 2017
- IGN’s Top 10 Most Improved Games Of 2017
- From Automata To Zelda, These Are The Best Games Of 2017
- 2017: Celebrating the bright spots – It may not have been a superb year overall, but expectations were defied and challenges overcome with creativity and passion in 2017
- Report: Nintendo won’t be rolling out 64GB Switch cartridges until 2019
- “Gamification” Is Improving Mental Health Treatment In So Many Ways
- War Stories: Lord British created an ecology for Ultima Online, but no one saw it
- Game of the Year 2017: The GI team picks their favourites, surprises and disappointments from 2017, and grants its top honour to Nintendo for creating an instant classic
- Gamasutra’s Best of 2017: The top 10 games of the year
- Gamasutra’s Best of 2017: Katherine Cross’ top 10 games
Jon
News of the Week; December 20, 2017
DIGITAL
- Disney to buy part of 21st Century Fox for $52 billion: Disney gets FX Networks, X-Men, Deadpool, and a majority stake in Hulu.
- Disney to Buy 21st Century Fox Assets for $52.4 Billion in Historic Hollywood Merger: Disney CEO Bob Iger extends contract through 2021 to oversee integration
- Disney’s Acquisition Of Fox Could Change Streaming Forever
- What Will Happen To Hulu After Disney’s Fox Acquisition?
- Disney Will Get More Vice After Acquiring 21st Century Fox’s $70 Million Stake
- Disney buys 21st Century Fox in $52.4 billion deal: Acquisition includes popular IP like X-Men, Deadpool, Avatar and The Simpsons
- ESPN Expands Monday Night Football Rights To Smartphones
- Currency-mining Android malware is so aggressive it can physically harm phones: This is your phone on mining software. Any questions?
- Facebook sends Ars takedown notice from Pink Floyd over NASA audio: Pink Floyd’s 2011 “Immersion Box Set” has the same audio from Apollo 11 mission.
- Judge Hits Ctrl+Alt+Delete on Facebook User Tracking MDL
- The Great AI Paradox: Don’t worry about supersmart AI eliminating all the jobs. That’s just a distraction from the problems even relatively dumb computers are causing.
- Artificial intelligence is forcing us to work harder to define human intelligence — and to fight to defend it: Think like nobody’s strapping a band around your head to collect information about your thinking.
- Artificial Intelligence Is Killing The Uncanny Valley And Our Grasp On Reality
- 2017 Was The Year The Robots Really, Truly Arrived
- Montreal seeks to lead responsible artificial-intelligence research
- New York City moves to create accountability for algorithms: City Council passes bill addressing algorithmic discrimination in city government.
- Russia’s Version Of Siri Might Be Russia’s Next President
- For Russian ‘Trolls,’ Instagram’s Pictures Can Spread Wider Than Words
- Russia Threatens To Ban YouTube And Twitter, But Probably Won’t Try
- Twitter begins enforcing new anti-hate speech rules: Twitter won’t allow threats against people based on “group characteristics.”
- The ‘Twitter Purge’ Nazi reckoning has begun. Here are the rules.
- Once Again: Expecting Social Media Companies To Police ‘Bad’ Stuff Is A Bad Idea
- Hotel owner says she gets death threats after guest was charged $350 for posting negative review
- Microsoft Lifts Secrecy Veil In Harassment Cases, Will Others Follow?
- Microsoft ends arbitration in sexual harassment cases: No word as to whether other Silicon Valley giants will follow suit.
- Microsoft promises transparency in sexual harassment cases: Xbox platform holder will eliminate forced arbitration agreements in an effort to stop serial offenders
- For 8 days Windows bundled a password manager with a critical plugin flaw: Plugin for Win 10 version of Keeper had bug allowing sites to steal passwords.
- Google brings a Chrome… installer… to the Microsoft Store: The browser itself isn’t a store app. Just the installer.
- Neither Microsoft nor Google looks good in this Chrome-installer squabble: Microsoft shouldn’t remove the Chrome installer; Google should aim higher.
- Chrome’s ad blocker goes live on February 15: The Web’s #1 advertising company makes a power play with its own ad blocker.
- European News Agencies Again Demand Google, Facebook, Etc. Pay Up For Sending Them Traffic
- Iowa Supreme Court Apparently Unfamiliar With First Amendment And Prior Restraint: Bars Newspaper From Publishing Info
- Alphabet wants to deliver Internet access via laser beams: The company already has a buyer for its “Free space optical communication.”
- The 37-Page Letter That Could Make Uber’s Problems So Much Worse
- New letter: Top Uber officials engaged in illegal wiretapping, shady spycraft – A top Uber lawyer instructed that “double-secret A/C priv” be written on a document.
- Top EU court: Uber is just another transportation service – Uber can now be regulated in EU member states like any company operating taxis.
- World-wide injunctions in the Canadian Supreme Court
- Google Finally Lets You Mute Autoplay Videos In Chrome—Here’s How
- Minnesota Mom Pleads Guilty To Killing Boyfriend In Ill-Conceived YouTube Stunt
- YouTube Music Head: Looped Song Clips No Longer Count Toward Billboard Chart Tallies
- YouTube Strikes New Deals With Universal and Sony Music
- YouTube Inks Licensing Deals With Universal And Sony Music As It Preps Paid Service (Report)
- The World’s Best Film School Is Free On YouTube
- Amazon Has Applied For A Trademark On A Name That Sounds Like A YouTube Competitor
- Amazon Prime Video App Gets Most Week One Downloads In Apple TV Store
- Alexa Wants You To Talk To Your Ads
- CBS Aims to Boost Video-Streaming News Hub CBSN in 2018
- Publishers To Stop Receiving Facebook Money For News Feed Videos
- Refinery29 Lays Off 34 Employees Amid Digital Media Headwinds
- Snap’s H.R. Chief Allegedly Warned Staff About Serial Killers
- ESPN, NBC Nab NFL Mobile-Streaming Games After Verizon Loses Exclusive Rights
- Delaware Supreme Court Reverses Controversial Dell Appraisal Ruling
- ‘Nazi VR’ Documentary Shows How VR is Helping to Convict Nazi War Criminals
- VR Has Officially Ascended to ‘Crappy Last-Minute Gift’ Thanks to This AXE Bodywash Bundle
- Apple’s Third Series Order Is A Space Drama From ‘Battlestar Galactica’ EP
- North Korea suspected in latest bitcoin heist, bankrupting Youbit exchange: Breach bankrupts Seoul-based company after it reformed in wake of a previous heist.
- Feds Rush to Cash in on Seized Bitcoin Cache Before the Bubble Bursts
- Danish Hockey Team Owner Pays Player Son Exclusively In Bitcoin
- The Hard Math Behind Bitcoin’s Global Warming Problem
- Want to really understand how bitcoin works? Here’s a gentle primer: Ars goes deep on the breakthrough online payment network.
- Bank of Canada White Paper on Creating Digital Currency
- Twitter Envisions Future Where Fans Might Pay A Dollar To See A Buzzer Beater
- New Website and Social Media Requirements for Canadian Reporting Issuers
- What Happens When We Let Tech Care For Our Aging Parents
- The 25 Most Popular Passwords of 2017: You Sweet, Misguided Fools
- Insights: The Week That Changed The Internet
- Silicon Valley’s Dumbest ‘Inventions’ of 2017
- Google Inc. v. Equustek Solutions Inc.
- Internet Policy 20 Years Later: Did The U.S. Get It Right?
CREATIVITY
- Dr. Seuss and Star Trek mashup comic isn’t fair use after all, judge says: Case could turn on whether Boldly is a parody or an homage.
- T.J. Miller accused of physical and sexual assault in disturbing Daily Beast exposé
- United States v. Broadcast Music, Inc.
- Understanding joint authorship
- How To Be A Television Futurist In Four Simple Steps
- Choosing the Ideal Venue for IP Disputes: Recent Developments in Federal Case Law
- Framing the Copyright Review: Bains and Joly Reference the Public Domain, Flexibility, Open Access and Limits of the Law (Michael Geist)
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- Fostering a Vibrant Canadian Programming Market: My CRTC Submission Focusing on Net Neutrality and Rejecting New Taxes, Fees or Content Blocking (Michael Geist)
- As the U.S. Retreats, Canada Doubles Down on Net Neutrality: “An Open Internet is Critical to Our Democracy” (Michael Geist)
- Goodbye, net neutrality – Ajit Pai’s FCC votes to allow blocking and throttling: But pro-net neutrality groups will sue FCC to reinstate consumer protections.
- The FCC Just Killed Net Neutrality. Now What?
- Republicans Just Sold Out the Internet. Now What?
- FCC Votes to Kill Net Neutrality, Capping a Year of Endless B.S.
- FCC Votes To Overturn Net Neutrality Rules, Brings Us One Step Closer To A Destroyed Internet
- GOP net neutrality bill would allow paid fast lanes and preempt state laws: FCC would be permanently barred from using Title II authority over broadband.
- Digital Creators Rally Against Repeal Of Net Neutrality
- Online Retailers Support Challenges to Repeal of Net Neutrality Rules
- Fight: The Wired Guide To Net Neutrality
- Donald Trump Jr. and Ted Cruz lambast Mark Hamill’s support of net neutrality: “It was Vader who supported govt power over everything said & done on the Internet.”
- The FCC’s ‘Harlem Shake’ video may violate copyright law: The agency apparently didn’t get permission to use the song.
- Leaked E-mail Shows Even The FCC’s Own CTO Thinks Gutting Net Neutrality Harms The Public
- T-Mobile’s Getting Into Cable TV, Where Its Opposition To Net Neutrality May Come Back To Bite It
- The Looming Net Neutrality Fight Is Looking Damn Good for Democrats
- The FCC’s Ajit Pai now openly mocking net neutrality protesters with his dumb new video
- Diplo and Mad Decent Take Aim at FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Over Illegal Use of “Harlem Shake”
- Baauer is ‘taking action’ against FCC chairman for using Harlem Shake in net neutrality repeal video: The DJ and producer will do ‘whatever I can to stop this loser’
- The Artist Behind The “Harlem Shake” Briefly Got An Ajit Pai Video Taken Down From YouTube
- This Whole Mess With Ajit Pai, The Harlem Shake And Copyright Is Bad And Everyone’s Wrong.
- Why Must The FCC Insult Everyone’s Intelligence By Misrepresenting Broadband Investment?
- Online Education After The End of Net Neutrality
- FCC Repeals Net Neutrality – Don’t Go Down Without A Fight
- The Biggest Whoppers From The FCC’s Net Neutrality Meeting
- After FCC Abandons Net Neutrality, States Take Up The Fight
- State attorneys general line up to sue FCC over net neutrality repeal: Net neutrality supporters will try to reinstate the rules in courts and Congress.
- Two Separate Studies Show That The Vast Majority Of People Who Said They Support Ajit Pai’s Plan… Were Fake
- NY Attorney General Finds 2 Million Fake FCC Net Neutrality Comments
- N.Y. Attorney General on Why He Refuses to Let Net Neutrality Die
- Obama didn’t force FCC to impose net neutrality, investigation found: Ajit Pai still thinks Obama’s call for net neutrality rules amounted to an order.
- FCC Boss Claims Net Neutrality Supporters Were Clearly Wrong Because Twitter Still Works The Day After Repeal
- NAACP Fought Net Neutrality Until Last Week, Now Suddenly Supports The Idea
- “There will be a [Senate] vote” to reinstate net neutrality, Schumer says: Congress could block net neutrality repeal, but Democrats face tough odds.
- Right On Cue, Marsha Blackburn Introduces A Fake Net Neutrality Bill To Make The FCC’s Idiotic Decision Permanent
- Corporate Power and Censorship: A World Without Net Neutrality
- This is why Canada is unlikely to end net neutrality like the US just did
- How the end of net neutrality in the US could affect Canadians
- Committee calls for CASL clarification
- Industry Committee Calls for CASL Clarification, Rejects Demands for Anti-Spam Law Overhaul (Michael Geist)
- New Committee Report On CASL Highlights Need For Clarification And Education
- Koch Brothers Are Cities’ New Obstacle To Building Broadband
- FCC Permits Some Robocall Blocking
- Regulators and criminals crowd cyberspace
- How telecom and media companies can avoid the costly risks of mergers and acquisitions
- Comcast to be “unleashed” on rivals when NBC merger conditions expire: Breakup of Comcast and NBC should be explored, senator says.
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- Avatars, Facial Scans & Virtual Basketball: Second Circuit Tosses Biometric Privacy Case
- Another Court Says Compelled Password Production Doesn’t Violate The Fifth Amendment
- Court Says German Intelligence Agency Can No Longer Hoard Billions Of Metadata Records
- Kaspersky sues DHS over federal blacklist: “It failed to satisfy even the minimum standards of due process.”
- Inside China’s Vast New Experiment In Social Ranking
- China Is Building The Ultimate Surveillance Tool: A DNA Database Of Every Adult Resident In Troubled Xinjiang Region
- Canadian Position on Data Localization Rules in Trade Deals Revealed: Protection for Government Data Only (Michael Geist)
- Congress Backs Down From Terrible Surveillance Bill; Running Out Of Time
- Trump administration formally blames North Korea for WannaCry. Now what?: There’s not a lot of remaining leverage on North Korea to change its cyber-behavior.
- Homeland Security Adviser Pins Wannacry Attack On North Korea In Wall Street Journal Op-Ed
- Hold North Korea Accountable For Wannacry – And The NSA, Too
- Hackers take control of security firm’s domain, steal secret data: Attackers bypass HTTPS encryption protection by registering new TLS certificate.
- In a Dystopian Move, the SPCA Is Using a Robot to Scare off Homeless People
- The SPCA Has Removed Its Controversial Security Robot
- Facebook Can Now Find Your Face, Even When It’s Not Tagged
- Secrecy Is Dead. Here’s What Happens Next.
- Top 10 Privacy Law Developments of 2017
GAMES
- Crytek sues Star Citizen developers: Alleges Cloud Imperium is still using CryEngine, but studio will “defend vigourously” against “meritless lawsuit”
- Crytek sues Star Citizen developers over game engine: Legal action is another distraction for the long-delayed project.
- NBA2K18 Is Removing User Made Content From The Game Over IP Infringement, Refuses Refunds To Anyone Who Bought It
- China blocks Steam Community features: But games marketplace remains open for users to buy and play new titles
- How Minecraft Led To The Mirai Botnet
- Minecraft was the reason the Mirai botnet was created: “These kids are super smart, but they didn’t do anything high level—they just had a good idea. It’s the most successful IoT botnet we’ve ever seen—and a sign that computer crime isn’t just about desktops anymore.”
- Mod hub Nexus Mods plans to soon pay modders for their creations
- Nexus Mods will add a system to reward mod creators: Leading mod community’s lawyers see no obvious legal issue with Bethesda
- Cancelled Rising Thunder gets open-source release: Developer Radiant Entertainment gives game back to the community
- Meet the legislator trying to do something about video game loot boxes: Hawaii’s Chris Lee wants to protect minors from “psychological manipulation”
- How the legal battle around loot boxes will change video games forever: Digging in to one of 2017’s biggest gaming controversies
- Despite major controversy, the new ‘Star Wars’ game is a massive success
- New Zealand Gambling Regulator Deems Loot Boxes Not Gambling: Loot boxes don’t meet New Zealand’s legal definition of gambling.
- Obsidian Entertainment: “No microtransactions, of any kind, in our game”: Developer addresses consumer concerns following recent partnership with Take-Two Interactive’s indie publishing arm, Private Division
- Take-Two launches indie label with Obsidian, The Outsiders and Panache Digital onboard: Private Division will focus on high-end indie studios like those started by Patrice Désilets and Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto
- With Private Division, Take-Two wants to empower a new breed of indie developer: Michael Worosz on the emergence of a high-end indie development, and Take-Two’s “venture capital meets game publishing” strategic response
- Sorry, PlayerUnknown, you probably can’t stop Battlegrounds‘ copycats: US law offers few protections for gameplay design.
- Brendan ‘PlayerUnknown’ Greene calls for better IP protection in games: PUBG creator laments the lack of deterrents for copycats, says clones stifle innovation
- PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Creator Massively Confused And Hypocritical In Rant Begging For More IP For Video Games
- Call of Duty: WWII drives November US game sales to $2.7bn – NPD – ATVI hit generated more launch month spending than any Call of Duty debut since Black Ops II in November 2012
- Super Mario Odyssey hits 1 million physical sales in Japan: The latest Famitsu data shows Switch nearing 3 million units sold
- Nintendo leads games industry figureheads’ 2017 highlights: Also, Red Dead Redemption 2 (and various sporting victories) on execs’ 2018 Most Anticipated list
- One-upping the NES Classic Edition with the Raspberry Pi 3 and RetroPie: NES Classic is no more, but luckily cheap hobbyist boards are great for little projects.
- Twitch announces reality game show for streamers: Stream On to feature creators competing to turn live-streaming into full-time career
- Twitch Begins Streaming Traditional Sports Through NFL, NBA
- Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey Discusses Interest, Role In Esports
- Analyst: On mobile platforms, women outspend men
- Women are most valuable mobile gamers – DeltaDNA: Analytics firm finds lifetime value of average female player is 44% higher than that of average male player
- Brexit’s shadow looms over 2018: A lack of recognition of the games industry’s needs from government have created concerns over hiring and trade that will continue into next year
- 29% of games businesses negatively affected by Brexit, says TIGA: Depreciation of sterling had positive impact on 11% games firms, according to survey
- FCC votes to dismantle net neutrality: ESA “disappointed” as US governing body votes 3-2 to abandon rule preventing service providers from blocking traffic
- ESA hails US tax reform: Trade group applauds permanent reduction in corporate tax rate from as high as 35% down to 21%
- Q&A: Designing Flutter VR, a game unapolegetically made for women
- The Race For AR Glasses Starts Now
- Pre-orders for Ataribox delayed: “Updated launch plan is currently underway,” says Atari
- Codemasters may be preparing to go public – Report: The British racing studio could be valued at more than £100m, according to Sky News
- PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds sells 1 million on Xbox One: Survival shooter hits milestone in first 48 hours on sale in Xbox Game Preview program, now free with Xbox One X purchases through year’s end
- PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Finally Comes Out For Real
- Magic Leap Finally Unveils its First AR Product ‘Magic Leap One’, Shipping Starts in 2018
- Magic Leap AR Headset Hands-on Offers Details on Field of View, Weight & Content
- Magic Leap: Founder of Secretive Start-Up Unveils Mixed-Reality Goggles – Rony Abovitz talks with Glixel about the tech and ambitions behind new MR Goggles
- Magic Leap One: Creator Edition shipping in 2018 – Augmented reality company unveils long-awaited first product, a self-contained wearable platform
- Facebook releases Spaces for HTC Vive: Oculus parent officially supports rival VR hardware with social chat app
- UK charts overhaul: Digital data will finally be counted – A new combined physical/digital chart set for 2019
- PS4 took half of all UK physical game sales in 2017: First year on record where a single console has accounted for more than 50% of the market
- The 3DO: The birth of my cynicism
- Guerrilla Games ending online support for Killzone 2 and Killzone 3
- People of the Year 2017: Strauss Zelnick – Take-Two’s chairman set the company up for a banner year with no major new releases beyond its annualized sports titles
- People of the Year 2017: From huge organisations and leading executives, to charitable causes and exceptional development talent – the best and brightest from the last year
- People of the Year 2017: Christian Whitehead – Sonic the Hedgehog is relevant again, thanks to the indie developer who succeeded where Team Sonic repeatedly failed
- Best PC Game Of 2017
- Gamasutra’s Best of 2017: The top 10 game developers of the year
- GamesIndustry.biz presents… The Year In Numbers 2017: We present everything you need to know about the global market value, the biggest platforms, the hottest games and more
- 5 events that shaped the game industry in 2017
- 5 trends that defined the game industry in 2017
- How will 2018 shape the games business?: Our analyst panel dissects everything to look out for during the next year
- “2018 is going to be the year where gamers take the power back”: At the Slush conference, Paradox CEO Fredrik Wester predicted that next year will be great for gamers, and another disappointing one for VR
- Gamasutra’s Best of 2017: Bryant Francis’ top 10 games
- Gamasutra’s Best of 2017: Alissa McAloon’s top 6 games
- Gamasutra’s Best of 2017: Kris Graft’s top 10 games
- Gamasutra’s Best of 2017: Chris Kerr’s top 6 games
- Gamasutra’s Best of 2017: Phill Cameron’s top 10 games
- Gamasutra’s Best of 2017: The top 10 game developers of the year
- Gamasutra’s Best of 2017: Alex Wawro’s top 7 games
- Obituary: Video game lawyer and VGBA co-founder David Rosenbaum
Jon
News of the Week; December 13, 2017
DIGITAL
- Canadian ISPs And Hollywood Agree On Plan To Make Themselves Judge, Jury and Website Executioner
- “Suspicious” event routes traffic for big-name sites through Russia: Google, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft all affected by “intentional” BGP mishap.
- Russia Says Disconnecting From The Rest Of The Net ‘Out Of The Question’, But Wants Alternative DNS Servers For BRICS Nations
- Prince’s Estate Goes After Another YouTuber, This Time To Protect Copyrights Against Bootleg Concert Footage
- YouTube’s new music streaming service reportedly launching next March: It will combine YouTube Red with Google Play Music
- Very Dumb YouTuber Nearly Died In Very Dumb Head-In-Cement Microwave Stunt
- YouTube Exec Addresses Inappropriate Videos In Open Letter To Family Creators: “We Hear You And We Are Listening”
- Gamer Dan “DanTDM” Middleton Leads Forbes List Of Top-Earning YouTube Stars With Estimated $16.5 Million Income In 2017
- After Investigation, Father Behind Terminated YouTube Channel Toy Freaks Won’t Face Criminal Charges
- YouTube TV’s Latest Territorial Expansion Adds 34 Markets, Includes College Football Hotbeds Ahead Of Postseason
- NFL Inks Multi-Year Deal With Verizon To Expand Live Streaming
- Verizon Pays Reported $2.25 Billion To Stream NFL Games (Including This Season’s Playoffs) On Go90, Yahoo, AOL
- ESPN+ Streaming To Bring ‘Netflix-Like Aggregation’ Of Sports Content
- Twitch To Broadcast The NBA’s Second-Tier League With Its Streamers As Commentators
- Twitch, NBA G League Streaming Deal Elevates Hoops Fan Commentary
- Amazon Adds Twitch Compatibility For All Alexa-Enabled Devices
- Ahead of FCC vote, Twitch CEO speaks on importance of net neutrality
- The Amazon machine
- Apple TV App Now Makes It Easier For Fans To Discover, Follow Sports
- Apple confirms Shazam acquisition; Snap and Spotify also expressed interest
- Apple Acquires Music Identifying Service Shazam: Other potential suitors included Snapchat and Spotify.
- Instagram Removes Stories Ad With Hair Strand To Trick Users Into Swiping Up
- Netflix calls out the 53 people who can’t stop watching A Christmas Prince
- MPAA Wins: Australia To Carve Google And Facebook Out Of Its Expanded Safe Harbor Provisions
- Google Promised a Way to Jailbreak the iPhone and It Delivered
- Google Is Giving Away AI That Can Build Your Genome Sequence
- In Just 4 Hours, Google’s AI Mastered All The Chess Knowledge in History
- DeepMind AI needs mere 4 hours of self-training to become a chess overlord: AlphaGo Zero needed three days to train up in Go; AlphaZero needed just eight hours.
- Artificial Intelligence Seeks An Ethical Conscience
- Former Facebook Exec: ‘You Don’t Realize It But You Are Being Programmed’
- What Happens When the Government Uses Facebook as a Weapon?: It’s social media in the age of “patriotic trolling” in the Philippines, where the government is waging a campaign to destroy a critic—with a little help from Facebook itself.
- Rise of the Chatbots
- The App That Reminds You You’re Going to Die: It helped me find inner peace.
- Insights: High Tech, High Touch, & How To Keep The Human In An Algorithmic World
- I used to be a bitcoin bull—here’s why that changed: With “buy bitcoin with credit card” trending on Google, investors should be wary.
- Patreon to World: ‘We Messed Up’
- Patreon Calls Off Fee Change Following Widespread Creator Consternation
- Why Everyone Is Mad at Patreon Now
- Change To Patreon’s Fee Structure Has Many Creators Up In Arms
- Patreon senior engineer: “We don’t need” misbehaving CEOs: “Bad actors” have had their time. “They’re done. They can go.”
- Uber’s Not The Only One That Should Be Wary Of Disappearing Messaging Apps
- Uber settles second US lawsuit filed by India rape victim: Woman claimed that Uber execs accessed, shared her medical files.
- Twitter Will Finally Display View Counts On Video Tweets
- This Is How Steve Bannon And Breitbart Tried To Sabotage Twitter: For more than a year before he became Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Steve Bannon sought to wage war against Twitter, tasking Milo Yiannopoulos and other Breitbart News employees to look into editorial, financial, and legal ways they could harm the Jack Dorsey–led social network.
- LinkedIn Activity May Violate Non-Solicitation Agreements
- Connected Devices and the Right-To-Repair Movement
- Cracking down on a bad coin offering
- SEC Chair Clayton issues statement on cryptocurrencies and ICOs: are all ICOs securities offerings?
- Bank of America Wins Patent for Crypto Exchange System
- This startup uses body heat to mine crypto – for when robots take our jobs
- How Technology Tests Our Trust
- Silicon Valley’s Worst Apologies of 2017
CREATIVITY
- The Fight for Fair Copyright Returns: Canadian Government Launches Major Copyright Review (Michael Geist)
- Opening Statements In The Trademark Battle Of The Comic Cons, While Other Regional Cons Go Full Judas
- SLCC Rankles Judge With Social Media Posts As A Jury Prepares To Rule
- San Diego Comic-Con Wins Lawsuit Over ‘Comic Con’ Trademark
- Comic Con Verdict: Salt Lake Comic Con Loses The Battle, Now Seeks To Win The War
- Indigenous activist heads back to court in fight against Cleveland Indians logo
- Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P. v. ComicMix LLC
- Egyptian singer Shyma gets two years in jail – for suggestively eating a banana in a music video: She was arrested last month after authorities said her music video for ‘I Have Issues’ incited debauchery
- Saudis Will Be Able To Go To Movie Theaters For The First Time In Decades
- Reporter Says NFL Network Job Interviewer Asked If She “Planned On Getting Knocked Up”
- Look, we all want to watch Avengers and X-Men fight, but this Disney-Fox merger still sucks
- Disney And Fox
- 11 Minor Star Wars Characters Who Got Absurdly Full Lives Beyond the Movies
- Canadian Trade Committee Warns Against Unbalanced U.S. IP Demands in NAFTA (Michael Geist)
- State Board That Fined Man For Criticizing The Government Without A License Admits It Was Wrong
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- On the Eve of the FCC’s Reclassification of Broadband Services, the FCC and FTC Release Memorandum of Understanding for Oversight of Broadband
- No, The FTC Won’t Save You Once Net Neutrality Rules Are Killed
- It’s Super Hard To Find Humans In The Fcc’s Net Neutrality Comments
- FCC Must Investigate Fraud Before Voting On Net Neutrality
- What to Expect from the FCC’s Restoring Internet Freedom Order
- Net Neutrality a Concern? Companies Are Already Denying You Access to Content
- Net Neutrality Protests Move Online, Yet Big Tech Is Quiet
- FCC Plan To Kill Net Neutrality Rules Could Hurt Students
- FCC Commissioner Blasts Her Own Agency for Withholding Evidence of Fraud
- A Republican lawmaker urges FCC to delay net neutrality repeal vote: FCC should wait for Congress to create net neutrality law, Republican says.
- The FCC Says Net Neutrality Cripples Investment. That’s Not True
- Net Neutrality, Kanye, and Hot Dogs: Quantifying the Impact of the Day of Action Using Media Cloud and Google Trends
- Any lawful device: Revisiting Carterfone on the eve of the Net Neutrality vote – From the archives: An old FCC decision provides perspective for what the Commission is doing now.
- Leaked Video Shows FCC Chair Ajit Pai Roasting Himself With ‘Jokes’ About Being a Verizon Shill
- Bomb threat temporarily disrupts FCC vote to kill net neutrality rules: Repeal vote was about to happen when Ajit Pai announced brief recess.
- FCC Boss Claims Net Neutrality Hurts Small ISPs, But The FCC’s Own Data Proves Otherwise
- Ajit Pai offers no data for latest claim that net neutrality hurt small ISPs: ISPs supposedly harmed by the rules expanded to new areas and installed fiber.
- FCC Boss Lies Again, Insists Net Neutrality Harms The Sick And Disabled
- FCC Boss ‘Jokes’ About Being A ‘Verizon Puppet’ At Tone Deaf Industry Gala
- Ajit Pai jokes with Verizon exec about him being a “puppet” FCC chair: “We want to groom a Verizon puppet to install as FCC chair,” Verizon says in skit.
- ISP disclosures about data caps and fees eliminated by net neutrality repeal: ISPs won’t have to reveal the full cost of service when you buy broadband.
- How Reddit and others “broke the Internet” to support net neutrality today: Major websites join last-ditch effort to save net neutrality rules.
- “Face reality! We need net neutrality!” Crowds chant across the country: Protests led by various activist groups manage to turn out crowds large and small.
- T-Mobile promises to end the “complete bulls—t” from TV companies in 2018: John Legere wants to give the cable companies a taste of the “Un-carrier” medicine.
- Why I Changed My Mind On Net Neutrality
- The Free Market Argument For Net Neutrality
- Net Neutrality Briefing: My Appearance Before the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics (Michael Geist)
- Canada’s Lead Negotiator Confirms Government Seeking Net Neutrality Safeguards in NAFTA (Michael Geist)
- India Embraces Full Net Neutrality As The U.S. Turns Its Back On The Concept
- Shocker: Study Finds Cord Cutting Very Real, TV Execs Still Failing To Adapt
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- Supreme Court of Canada Rules Text Messages Can Attract a Reasonable Expectation of Privacy
- SCC Recognizes Expectation of Privacy in Text Message Conversations
- The Supreme Court says your text messages could be considered private even after you send them: The court cautions that much depends on the facts of each case
- Texting and the Expectation of Privacy
- Supreme Court of Canada Rules Text Messages May Attract Reasonable Expectation of Privacy (Michael Geist)
- Canadian Supreme Court Says Privacy Protections Apply To Sent Text Messages Obtained From The Recipient
- Google Publishes Another Batch Of National Security Letters, Updates Its Transparency Report
- Top EU Data Protection Body Asks US To Fix Problems Of ‘Privacy Shield’ Or Expect A Referral To Region’s Highest Court
- UK Court Says Company Is Innocent In Massive Data Breach Caused By Vindictive Employee, But Must Nonetheless Pay Compensation
- Court Holds NYPD In Contempt For Refusing To Hand Over Documents Related To Black Live Matter Surveillance
- Court Says Google Must Unmask Person Who Left Wordless, One-Star Review Of Local Psychiatrist
- How to Track a Cellphone Without GPS—or Consent
- How Email Open Tracking Quietly Took Over The Web
- Kaspersky Closes DC Office, Says It Is ‘No Longer Viable’ to Work With Federal Government
- Exposed: Ethiopia’s nefarious, comically bungled spyware campaign – Publicly traded company helps country spy on critics, no questions asked.
- Iranian Hackers Have Been Infiltrating Critical Infrastructure Companies
- Game-changing attack on critical infrastructure site causes outage: Attack will serve as a blueprint for future attacks on other industrial systems.
- Quantum Computing Is The Next Big Security Risk
- Making Sense Of Apple’s Recent Security Stumbles
GAMES
- Crytek sues Star Citizen devs for breach of contract
- The Force Is Weak With EA’s ‘Star Wars Battlefront II’ Game
- Loot boxes may not return to Star Wars: Battlefront II: Amid pushback, exec floats possibility that microtransactions could be gone for good.
- Opinion: This is the game industry’s last chance for lootbox self-regulation
- New Zealand says lootboxes ‘do not meet the legal definition for gambling’
- Survey: 11% of British children have taken part in game-related gambling
- Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst predicts Battlefront 2 will miss its sales target by 2.5m copies
- NPD Shows Dismal ‘Battlefront 2’ Sales At 20% Of ‘Call of Duty: WWII’ Sales
- NPD Reveals Star Wars Battlefront II’s Physical Sales in the US Were “Disappointing” During November
- You Must be 18 or Older to Enter cut from Steam over pornography concerns
- How A Dorm Room Minecraft Scam Brought Down The Internet
- Time for games to get cultured on culture: Far Cry 4 writer CJ Kershner says developers are getting better about depicting other groups, still have room to improve
- Former employee sues Crytek Istanbul: Head of game operations laid off in October, still waiting on severance pay
- Crytek partners with new startup to launch cryptocurrency for games
- Make games inspired by the public domain
- Apple’s evolving rules make iOS a hard platform for small devs, says Year Walk dev
- PlayStation 4 has sold over 70 million units worldwide: Current generation console approaches lifetime sales of PlayStation 3
- PlayStation 4 surpasses 70M sales as PSVR gains traction
- Sony Has Sold Over 2 Million PSVR Units Worldwide Since Launch
- ‘Ready Player One’ Movie Gets First Full Trailer, Book Sequel in the Works
- Steam now lets devs know what platform users are wishlisting on
- Accounting co-developer Squanchtendo rebrands to avoid Nintendo confusion
- Squanchtendo rebrands to avoid Nintendo clash: Justin Roilland’s VR studio now called Squanch Games, teases first title announcement at this week’s Game Awards
- Zelda: Breath of the Wild takes top honor at The Game Awards
- Nintendo Switch worldwide sales top 10M units
- Putting Nintendo Switch’s 10 million sales in context: How does Nintendo’s hot console compare, historically?
- Is Nintendo Switch really as successful as we think it is? – Review of the Year: We look at a landmark 12 months for Nintendo
- Call of Duty: World War II longest-running UK No.1 since 2015 – Activision Blizzard’s latest shooter rack up sixth consecutive week in the top spot
- The Uncharted franchise has surpassed 41M sales
- Global esports revenue to hit $2.3 billion in 2022 – SuperData: “Advertisers and investors are finally taking notice of esports’ access to key audiences”
- CrossCut Venture to invest in games and esports after raising $125 million fund: Gaming an esports represent “growing area of importance”
- Sacramento Kings Unveil Esports Facility Inside Golden 1 Center
- Investors sink $25M into mobile eSports platform Skillz
- Playkey raises $10.5m through cryptocurrency sale: Russian streaming platform attracts new investors through Initial Coin Offering
- LMFAO Xur Is Selling Prometheus Lens
- People of the Year 2017: SpecialEffect – This year has been the video game charity’s biggest and most important on record
- People of the Year 2017: Brendan “PlayerUnknown” Greene – The driving force behind the biggest game of 2017 was “a photographer, a DJ, a designer” for most of his life – the remarkable rise of Brendan Greene
- ‘PlayerUnknown’ argues for better protection against copycat games: “I want other developers to put their own spin on the genre… not just lift things from our game. I want this genre of games to grow. “
- It’s Not That Videogames Don’t Need Big Award Shows. It’s That They Don’t Need Any
Jon
News of the Week; December 6, 2017
DIGITAL
- Bell Leads on Radical Proposal for CRTC-Backed Mandatory Website Blocking System (Michael Geist)
- Bell’s Latest Privacy Solution: Enhance Internet Privacy By Blocking Access to It (Michael Geist)
- Not Just Bell: Shaw Calls on CRTC To Support Website Blocking (Michael Geist)
- SCC To Weigh In On Fees For Identifying ISP Subscribers: Rogers v. Voltage
- “Relief and happiness”: Supreme Court of Canada to hear VICE press freedoms case
- The Reckoning at Vice Has Begun
- Sixth Circuit Suggests Liability for Copyright Infringement May Justify Reduced First Amendment Protection for Anonymous Speech, But Recommends Consideration of Context and ‘Practical Need’ for Unmasking
- Silicon Valley Investor Takes Leave of Absence After Harassment Reports
- Senator Kamala Harris Serves Up A Not-Completely-Terrible Revenge Porn Bill
- Hyperloop One co-founder takes leave after sexual harassment accusations: Shervin Pishevar claims he is the subject of a “smear campaign.”
- Disney Sues Redbox Over Sale of Movie Download Codes: The DVD kiosk rental company allegedly disassembles a product package and then sells codes separately in what Disney asserts is a violation of copyright law.
- The Uber-Waymo Lawsuit Gets A New Star—And Takes A Wild Turn
- LA City Attorney Jumps Into Uber Fray
- Waymo can’t stop Uber employees from explaining Wickr use while at Waymo – Judge Alsup: “I can’t stand it when Waymo or the other side wants it both ways.”
- Yahoo’s Insanely Bad Deal to Pay Mozilla $375 Million a Year for Nothing Is Headed to Court
- Apple agrees to set aside more than $15 billion to Ireland in back taxes: Despite EU ruling, neither Apple nor Ireland wants the Cupertino company to pay.
- Twitter’s Year in Review Confirms 2017 Sucked
- Tinder Can Now Show Who It Thinks You’ll Swipe Right On
- The Future of Artificial Intelligence and its Impact on Society
- A Swarm Intelligence Correctly Predicted TIME’s Person of the Year
- I Enlisted an Algorithm to Help Me Write the Perfect Piece of Science Fiction. This is our Story.
- Google Yanks YouTube From Amazon’s Echo Show And Fire TV Devices
- Google will pull YouTube support from Amazon Fire TVs in 2018: No more YouTube for yet another Amazon device.
- Google and Amazon are punishing their own customers in a bitter feud: It shouldn’t have come to this
- Google And Amazon Are Harming Consumers And Behaving Like Obnoxious Toddlers
- Amazon Prime Video finally arrives on Apple TV, months after original announcement: The long-awaited app is now available for 3rd-gen Apple TVs and newer devices.
- Google is blocking YouTube on Amazon’s Echo Show and Fire TV: The service won’t work until Amazon is willing to collaborate with Google on a YouTube app for its devices.
- Google bans Android developers from adding lock screen ads: Users will no longer be troubled by shady apps that hijack lock screens.
- Chrome to stop third-party software injections because they make it crash: Users with injected software are 15 percent more likely to experience crashes.
- Essential CEO Andy Rubin goes on leave for “personal reasons”: A report claims Rubin, the father of Android, left Google after an HR investigation.
- Google, Amazon Find Not Everyone Is Ready For AI
- Inside Baidu’s Bid To Lead The Ai Revolution
- San Francisco Just Put The Brakes On Delivery Robots
- Many Startup Founders Doubt Extent Of Sexual Harassment
- Home Security Company Says No One Linking To Its Website Is Allowed To Disparage It
- Snopes Debunks Fake YouTube Video; Video’s Creator Responds With A Bogus DMCA Notice
- Data-Saving YouTube Go App Arrives In Thailand, Malaysia, Ghana, Kenya, More
- YouTube Will Reportedly Make Advertisers Pay More To Ensure Placement On Top-Level Videos
- YouTube Will Have 10,000 Humans Working To Purge Questionable Content In 2018
- Expanding our work against abuse of our platform
- Toy Freaks Dad Reportedly Under Investigation For Disturbing Videos
- Seven-Year-Old Suffers Severe Burns After Attempting YouTube ‘Fire Challenge’
- Amid Kids’ Content Controversy, YouTube To Offer 5 Family-Friendly Red Series For Free
- YouTube CEO To Creators: We’re Going To Be Better About Demonetization
- Vidme Shuts Down Its Video Platform, Will Launch New Product Next Year
- YouNow Inks First Content Deal With Eleven Sports For Crypto App Rize
- BET To Celebrate Influencers, Viral Videos At Inaugural ‘Social Awards’
- It’s 25 years since someone sent the first text message
- Emails Show Pretty Much Everyone on Trump’s Transition Team Knew Mike Flynn Talked to Russians
- Oh my god, he just admitted to obstruction of justice. If Trump knew Flynn lied to the FBI when he asked Comey to let it go, then there is your case.
- Looking for the Linguistic Smoking-Gun in a Trump Tweet: Could the word pled really reveal who wrote Trump’s reaction to the Flynn news?
- The underground story of Cobra, the 1980s’ illicit handmade computer: In their poor, Communist country, Romania’s computer curious built an underground industry.
- ‘Mailsploit’ Lets Hackers Forge Perfect Email Spoofs
- Is Bitcoin a Pyramid Scheme?
- The IRS Has Come Knocking at Bitcoin’s Door
- Bitcoin, Bankers, and Barriers to Legislation
- Bitcoin’s insane energy consumption, explained: One estimate suggests the Bitcoin network consumes as much energy as Denmark.
- Bitcoin Mining Guzzles Energy—And Its Carbon Footprint Just Keeps Growing
- A brief history of Bitcoin hacks and frauds: Bitcoins have been a juicy target for hackers since 2011.
- Feds shut down allegedly fraudulent cryptocurrency offering: Cryptocurrency offerings are no longer a regulation-free zone.
- Will Repealing Net Neutrality Really Spell Doom for Cryptocurrencies?
- The Wikipedia Competitor That’s Harnessing Blockchain For Epistemological Supremacy
- Preparing for liability in the age of the Internet of Things
- Future Historians Probably Won’t Understand Our Internet, and That’s Okay: Archivists are working to document our chaotic, opaque, algorithmically complex world—and in many cases, they simply can’t.
- Canada’s Missing Internet Provision: Why NAFTA Offers the Chance to Establish Long Overdue Online Speech Safeguards (Michael Geist)
CREATIVITY
- Disney Sued Over Alleged “Let It Go” Song Theft, Millions Of YouTube Covers Could Be Affected
- Brown v. Time Warner, Inc.
- Copyright Does Not Protect Ideas, Only Expression
- Comic-Con Busted In Libya For Being “Exploitative”
- Protecting TV Show Formats
- New copyright protection test for designs of useful articles
- Can You Copyright Infringe Anonymously? Revisited.
- What Happens If The DOJ Ends Up With Martin Shkreli’s Sole Copy Of The Wu Tang Clan Album?
- Robin Wright To Lead Final ‘House Of Cards’ Season Without Kevin Spacey
- In the Future, Everyone Will Have Their Personality Misappropriated for 15 Minutes
- Ohio couple gronked again
- Don’t Stop The Presses! When Local News Struggles, Democracy Withers
- Atlanta Anchor Sharon Reed Claps Back at Viewer Who Calls Her N-Word After Mayoral Election
- Appeals Court Affirms Dismissal of Libel Claims in Stolen Valor Case: Shane Ladner sued New World Communications of Atlanta for defamation after Ladner and his wife were among veterans on a float that collided with a train in Texas.
- Ladner v. New World Communications of Atlanta Inc.
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- Massachusetts District Court Finds VoIP Service is Not Cellular Service Per Se Under the TCPA
- Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, Pandora Could Face Billions In ‘Fast Lane’ Surcharges
- How To Make Sense Of Net Neutrality And Telecom Under Trump
- 50,000 net neutrality complaints were excluded from FCC’s repeal docket: FCC is “going to great lengths to ignore these documents,” advocate says.
- Democrat asks why FCC is hiding ISPs’ answers to net neutrality complaints: Records request for net neutrality complaints and resolutions still unfulfilled.
- Use This Tool to See If Your Name Was Used to Support Net Neutrality Repeal
- New York AG Provides Tool To Help You Check If Your Name Was Used To Support Killing Net Neutrality
- Net neutrality activists just took over Reddit with protest posts: “This is my Senator. He sold me out to telecom lobbyists.”
- Absent Facts To Support Repealing Net Neutrality, Ajit Pai Wildly Attacking Hollywood Tweeters
- After Attacking Random Hollywood Supporters Of Net Neutrality, Ajit Pai Attacks Internet Companies
- Ajit Pai Attacked Hollywood & Silicon Valley Because Even Republicans Are Against His Net Neutrality Plan
- Ajit Pai Doesn’t Want You Talking About Court Ruling That Undermines His Bogus Claim That The FTC Will Protect Consumers
- Days Before Doing Verizon’s Bidding, Ajit Pai Gives A Talk At Verizon
- The FCC Tried To Hide Net Neutrality Complaints Against ISPs
- Tom Wheeler slams Ajit Pai’s plan to kill net neutrality rules: FCC is “bend[ing] to the wishes” of big Internet providers, ex-chair says.
- Commentary: The FCC Has Always Defended Net Neutrality. Why Stop Now?
- Guardians of the Future: The FCC Commissioner is Working to Delay the Net Neutrality Vote
- FCC won’t delay vote, says net neutrality supporters are “desperate”: Pai says FTC will protect consumers—but FTC could lose its regulatory authority.
- AT&T wants you to forget that it blocked FaceTime over cellular in 2012 – AT&T: Your Internet service won’t change after FCC eliminates net neutrality rules.
- ISPs Are Already Using The FCC’s Planned Net Neutrality Repeal To Harm Consumers
- No Parlay for Pirates: FCC Turns Up the Heat on Dozens of Alleged Pirate Radio Operators
- Digital Cancon, the Sequel: CRTC Broadcast Consult Sparks Demands for Everything from Internet and iPod Taxes to Website Blocking to Abandoning Net Neutrality (Michael Geist)
- Tragedy offers lessons for event organisers managing volunteers
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- Drawing the Line: Supreme Court Addresses Major Privacy Rights in Cell Phone Dispute
- Judge Rules Amended Eavesdropping Suit Against Golden State Warriors Can Proceed
- Trump Tweet About Surveillance Undercuts FBI’s Glomar Responses In FOIA Lawsuits
- House Internet Censorship Bill Is Just Like The Senate Bill, Except Worse
- House Intelligence Committee Lobs Zero-Reform Section 702 Bill Into The Mix At The Last Possible Minute
- German Government Official Wants Backdoors In Every Device Connected To The Internet
- Navy Officer Working For The NSA Caught Trying To Search Her Boyfriend’s Son’s Phone
- NSA, DOJ Still Aren’t Letting Defendants Know They’re Using Section 702 Evidence Against Them
- Don’t Buy Anyone an Echo
- Electrician Used Greasy Junk Food Bags to Hide His GPS Location and Skip Work
- Evidence That Ethiopia Is Spying On Journalists Shows Commercial Spyware Is Out Of Control
- Champing At The Cyberbit: Ethiopian Dissidents Targeted with New Commercial Spyware
- 100,000-strong botnet built on router 0-day could strike at any time: New strain of Mirai is sophisticated, locked, and loaded.
- “Malware-free” attacks mount in big breaches, CrowdStrike finds: Stolen credentials, exploits of command-line tools used in 66 percent of attacks.
- Mastermind behind sophisticated, massive botnet outs himself: Andromeda kingpin is identified by his ICQ number.
- Are you kidding me? Only 15% of US companies have insurance for their data!
- The Internet of Toys: Legal and Privacy Issues with Connected Toys
GAMES
- Epic Sues 14 Year Old It Accuses Of Cheating In Videogames After He Counternotices a DMCA On His YouTube Video
- Epic Games lawsuit over Fortnite cheats ends in settlement
- Creators of Star Control accuse Stardock of publishing games without permission
- Star Control creators accuse Stardock of selling games unlawfully: GOG.com pulling games from sale as publisher says devs have gone years without asserting rights, should have addressed it sooner
- Gambling-addicted teen begs EA to reconsider microtransaction strategy: Meanwhile, Take-Two Interactive boss insists loot boxes aren’t gambling
- EA trips up on the path from Product to Service: Consumer annoyance over micro-transactions doesn’t change the fact that every major publisher is shifting business model wholesale in that direction
- State Rep: Games industry must self-regulate loot boxes before government steps in
- Games industry must self-regulate on loot boxes, says state representative – Sean Quinlan: Legislation would be a “slippery slope”
- 35% or more of EA Sports players spend on Ultimate Team: CFO Blake Jorgensen says publisher focuses on getting people into the funnel, not on making payers spend more
- Warframe dev: Industry must get better at “giving players a choice and a voice” – Microtransactions aren’t inherently bad, and they can work with AAA-type experiences says Meridith Braun, VP, Publishing, Digital Extremes
- PUBG Will Never Add A Loot Box Item ‘That Affects The Gameplay’: New cosmetic items will come after official launch.
- EA says half of Ultimate Teamplayers spend money on the F2P mode: “Of those 75 percent of the people, about half of those people actually spend some money and the other half just play without spending. But in a free-to-play world, that’s a fantastic balance of spenders and non-spenders.”
- What reaching 25 million users says about Rainbow Six Siege and games-as-a-service: Siege is an outlier, and one the publishing giants can learn from
- FTC Finalizes Its First Settlement For Social Media Influencers
- Childline and NSPCC condemn ‘unacceptable’ Detroit: Become Human – Campaigners concerned by the depiction of violence against children
- “We have to remember it’s a game”: Mixing anti-cultism and action in Far Cry 5: Creative director Dan Hay discusses reactions to Ubisoft’s upcoming shooter and how the Far Cry team touches on topical themes
- “It’s the game designer’s job to evoke different sides of humanity”: Thatgamecompany president Jenova Chen believes that positive behavior can be rewarded and monetized
- Bungie opens up about Destiny 2 changes after hidden “scaling” debacle: Big changes coming for experience system and everything else.
- “Smaller studios will define the future of video game storytelling”: A fresh wave of developers aims to change the industry with narrative titles that appeal to wider audiences than anything in the charts
- Sega cuts full-year profit forecast by 54.5 percent
- People of the Year 2017: Ninja Theory – Ninja Theory is to be commended for its handling of mental illness and for showing how indies can still approach AAA development
- People of the Year 2017: Larian Studios – With Divinity: Original Sin II, the Belgian studio combined both commercial performance with creative excellence – and it did so on its own terms
- War Child UK launches world’s first mobile gaming armistice: Charity looking to build on success of 2016’s armistice which raised over £100,000
- Twitch sees “glimmer of hope” in battle against toxic behavior: Co-founder Kevin Lin tells GamesIndustry.biz he believes positivity will perpetuate out from smaller, more controlled channels
- The Odd, Enduring Appeal Of Musou Games May Finally Be Paying Off
- Why The Golden State Warriors Bet Millions On A League of Legends Team
- Former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue On Esports: ‘It’s Not Sports’
- Mark Emmert: NCAA Exploring Whether Or Not It Has Role In Esports
- College Conference Commissioners Question Whether Esports Is A Sport
- The Overwatch Videogame League Aims To Become The New NFL
- The Overwatch League Preseason Begins Today, Here’s What You Need To Know
- BBC launches VR Hub studio: Broadcaster will focus on high-quality, high-impact experiences in effort to push tech to the mainstream
- VR devs need to unlearn unspoken game dev rules, says Oculus exec: “Sometimes people don’t understand how specific an IP is to the hardware it’s been made for.”
- Analyst: The Switch topped online sales charts during Thanksgiving weekend
- The Switch was the best-selling product online over Thanksgiving: Nintendo’s console tops the charts despite not going on sale
- Nintendo brings Wii and GameCube titles to Nvidia Shield in China
- Nintendo targets Chinese gamers with remasters for Nvidia Shield: Platform holder increases presence in lucrative market with China-only re-release of Twilight Princess and New Super Mario Bros. Wii
- Nintendo brings HD Wii games to China’s Nvidia Shield—is Switch next?: Remastered ports could be a test run on similar Tegra hardware.
- A List Of Old Games That I Would Definitely Buy Again On Switch
- Valve announces the return of Portal… via Bridge Constructor: Licensed expansion almost counts as V alve’s first “new” game in years.
- Vivendi a third wheel in the Activision Blizzard union: 10 Years Ago This Month: The media giant orchestrated a massively successful merger but walked away with relatively little to show for it
- Blizzard, EA among Glassdoor’s best places to work: Employees have given both game companies high marks
- Digital revenues up 15% in October – Superdata: Single-player games holding their own while Destiny 2 and PUBG push premium PC up 28%; worldwide digital revenues total $8.5 billion
- Sega’s game division holds strong despite 54.5% cut to company-wide profit forecast: Operating income for games up by $35 million despite net sales decline
- Neill Blomkamp: ‘It’s inevitable that the uncanny valley just goes away’ – District 9 director talks about his experience creating the ADAM short films with Unity
- The games industry has an inferiority complex, and it’s holding us back: Some studios have a “fundamental lack of understanding” of narrative and character development, says writer for Destiny: The Taken King
- Super Mario Run, CATS get Google Play 2017 nods: Nintendo claims most downloaded new title while ZeptoLab’s battle bot fighter awarded Game of the Year
- World of Warcraft, world of inspiration – Why I Love: Lightseekers senior designer Ana Steiner traces her history with the MMO that convinced her to pursue a career in games
- Blackbird Interactive to open new gaming studio in False Creek Flats
- Citing volatile value, Steam drops Bitcoin support
- Steam no longer accepting Bitcoin: Storefront says high fees and volatile price fluctuations make supporting the cryptocurrency “untenable”
- Crytek helping launch Crycash cryptocurrency: Developer says paying players who reach certain milestones in its games will be a cost-effective user acquisition strategy
Jon
News of the Week; November 29, 2017
DIGITAL
- Truthfeed Spreads Pro-Trump Propaganda: The website has connections to the president’s camp—and white supremacists.
- YouTube pulls ads on 2 million inappropriate children’s videos: It’s also investigating autocomplete search after suggestions for child exploitation content
- YouTube Investigating Pedophiliac Phrases In Autocomplete Search Suggestions
- Adidas, Mars Among Brands To Suspend YouTube Campaigns In Response To Inappropriate Kids Videos
- YouTube’s Creepy Kid Problem Was Worse Than We Thought
- Making a federal case out of revenge porn
- Chicago Considers Another Dumb ‘Texting And Walking’ Law To Raise Revenue
- The “Lowdown” on DMCA Regulations and Take-Downs
- YouTube Announces Its Version Of Snapchat’s Stories Among Community Tab Updates
- Apple Projected to Spend $4.2 Billion on Original Content by 2022
- Analyst Projects Apple’s Original Content Budget Will Rise To $4.2 Billion Per Year By 2022
- Apple Launches New YouTube Channel With Handful Of How-To Videos
- BuzzFeed To Lay Off Roughly 100 Staffers Amid Missed Revenue Goals
- BuzzFeed Lays Off About 100 Staffers, Refocuses Content Efforts
- The Potential Of Artificial Intelligence In The Future Of Sports
- Artificial intelligence to impact personal injury law
- The challenges of patenting artificial intelligence
- Designing Artificial Intelligence to Explain Itself: A new working paper maps out critical starting points for thinking about explanation in AI systems.
- A Layered Model for AI Governance
- Manufacturing an Artificial Intelligence Revolution (Yarden Katz)
- Cookie law conundrum: Do you know what your webmaster is busy baking?
- Consumer protection and online advertising
- Websites use your CPU to mine cryptocurrency even when you close your browser: Resource-draining code hides in pop-under windows that can remain open indefinitely.
- Uber’s crisis deepens with record quarterly loss: Uber continues disrupting old-fashioned notions of profit.
- Uber Waymo Trial Delayed After Justice Department Jumps In, Unprompted, To Tell Judge That Uber Was Withholding Evidence
- Judge delays trial after ex-Uber employee describes rogue behavior: Richard Jacobs, an ex-security official at Uber, testified in court Tuesday.
- Chicago: Uber’s claim that hackers fully deleted stolen data is “nonsensical” – Uber’s been sued at least 11 times in just 1 week, faces new scrutiny from Senate.
- Uber hit with 2 lawsuits over gigantic 2016 data breach: “Uber knew or should have known its security systems were inadequate.”
- Cyber Monday topped Prime Day to become Amazon’s biggest shopping day ever
- Facebook (still) lets housing advertisers exclude users by race: ProPublica bought ads that excluded African-Americans, Spanish speakers, Muslims.
- How Bored Panda Survived Facebook’s Clickbait Purge
- The End Of The Social Era Can’t Come Soon Enough: It seems increasingly likely that our society will one day view our infatuation with Twitter, Facebook, and the like as a passing, often destructive fad.
- Elon Musk wins bet, finishing massive battery installation in 100 days: South Australia battery installation has 100MW capacity, a world record.
- Email Is Broken. Can Anyone Fix It?
- Subverting Democracy, Advertising, and the Economy Through Bots
- Platform Market Power (Kenneth Bamberger & Orly Lobel)
CREATIVITY
- UK High Court rules that TV Show Formats can be Copyright Protected
- Journalism Is Imploding Just When We Need It Most
- Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA Opposes Trademark Application For Dog-Walking Company Called Woof-Tang Clan
- Blade Runner 2049 Director Opens Up About the Film’s Treatment of Women
- Wilfrid Laurier graduate student delivers a wake-up call
- Here’s the full recording of Wilfrid Laurier reprimanding Lindsay Shepherd for showing a Jordan Peterson video: Teaching assistant Shepherd was accused of creating a ‘toxic climate’ at the university by screening a televised debate discussing gender-neutral pronouns
- Christie Blatchford: Here’s where Laurier can stick their apology to Lindsay Shepherd: Rambukkana’s ‘open letter’ is all I expected of a man who would invoke the spectre of Hitler to try to shut down an underling — craven, dissembling, revisionist
- Why Wilfrid Laurier University’s president apologized to Lindsay Shepherd: Deborah MacLatchy says she regrets how the meeting was conducted
- Counter-protests at Wilfrid Laurier University over freedom of speech turn — well, one man was shouting
- Teaching assistant who was sanctioned questions sincerity of Wilfrid Laurier University’s apology: ‘I didn’t expect their apology to be sincere. I don’t think that they are sincere,’
- Modern Educayshun: Mao, Orwell and Kafka at Wilfrid Laurier University
- Commentary: Laurier University incident demonstrates defence of certain kinds of speech
- Neither Wilfrid Laurier University’s methods nor teaching assistant’s debate helped trans people: Its actions come across as high-handed thought-policing that plays right into the hands of the intolerant, Shree Paradkar writes.
- A woman approached The Post with dramatic — and false — tale about Roy Moore. She appears to be part of undercover sting operation.
- How media brands are using marketing to turn accusations of fake news into page views
- The battle over Gucci’s trademark stripes: Gucci’s trademark infringement claim against Forever 21 took a major step forward this month after a US district court dismissed the counterclaim by the fast fashion chain seeking cancellation of the disputed marks. Gucci claims that Forever 21 has infringed the trademarks protecting its ‘iconic stripe motifs’ in blue-red-blue and green-red-green.
- The Role of Trademark Law in the History of US Visual Identity Design, c.1860–1960 (Carma Gorman)
- How Patents Have Contributed To The Opioid Crisis
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- Rogers to cut off support for Viceland TV station
- CASL is Constitutional (And Some Guidance on How to Interpret It)
- Ajit Pai’s Big Lie
- Ajit Pai’s Shell Game
- Comcast Spent Millions Repealing Net Neutrality, Now Wants You To Believe It Won’t Take Full, Brutal Advantage
- Comcast deleted net neutrality pledge the same day FCC announced repeal: Three-year-old “no paid prioritization” pledge was suddenly removed.
- Comcast hints at plan for paid fast lanes after net neutrality repeal: Comcast still won’t block or throttle—but paid prioritization may be on the way.
- AT&T and Comcast lawsuit has nullified a city’s broadband competition law – Bad news for Google Fiber: Nashville utility pole ordinance invalidated by judge.
- Judge Backs AT&T, Comcast Nuisance Suit Against Google Fiber In Nashville
- Nazis Want Net Neutrality Repealed To ‘Unleash A Plague Of Frogs On Twitter.’ It Won’t Happen
- FCC explains why public support for net neutrality won’t stop repeal: Americans who support net neutrality find that their voices don’t count for much.
- Ajit Pai blames Cher and Hulk actor for ginning up net neutrality support: Net neutrality support is just “fear-mongering and hysteria,” FCC chair says.
- NY Attorney General Investigating Why Dead People Supported The FCC’s Attack On Net Neutrality
- The FCC’s Attack On Net Neutrality Is Based Entirely On Debunked Lobbyist Garbage Data
- Charter is using net neutrality repeal to fight lawsuit over slow speeds: Charter cites FCC preemption of state net neutrality rules in case filed by NY.
- More than a Million Pro-Repeal Net Neutrality Comments were Likely Faked: I used natural language processing techniques to analyze net neutrality comments submitted to the FCC from April-October 2017, and the results were disturbing.
- What An Internet Analyst Got Wrong About Net Neutrality
- What Actually Happens the Day Net Neutrality Is Repealed
- Mark Cuban Still Has Absolutely No Idea How Net Neutrality Works
- Net Neutrality Divide: Canada and the U.S. Go Separate Ways on an Open Internet (Michael Geist)
- AT&T’s C.E.O. Meets Trump’s Justice
- AT&T says it should be allowed to buy Time Warner because Comcast bought NBC: AT&T will use customer data to boost advertising business, court filing says.
- FCC Adopts Rules Allowing Voice Service Providers to Block Illegal Robocalls
- The VCAST decision: how to turn a private copying case into a case about communication/making available to the public
- TV[R]EV: Is Local TV Worth Saving?
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- SCC To Weigh In On Fees For Identifying ISP Subscribers: Rogers v. Voltage
- Supreme Court to rule on Rogers’ charges for infringer names and addresses
- Yet Another Legal Action By Dogged Privacy Activist Brings Good News And Bad News For Facebook In EU’s Highest Court
- Security firm was front for advanced Chinese hacking operation, Feds say: The accused hacked 3 multinational corporations in pursuit of intellectual property.
- Hacker pleads guilty to huge Yahoo hack, admits helping Russia’s FSB: Three fellow co-defendants remain at large in Russia, unlikely to be extradited.
- Justices hear case that could reshape location privacy in the cellular age – Gorsuch: Unfettered access is “exactly what the framers were concerned about.”
- 10 Reasons Why the Fourth Amendment Third Party Doctrine Should Be Overruled in Carpenter v. US (Daniel Solove)
- Supreme Court Must Understand: Cell Phones Aren’t Optional
- The Fifth Amendment, Decryption and Biometric Passcodes
- Judge Tosses Long-Running Section 215 Surveillance Lawsuit
- Big Brother is Watching You: Feds Now Vetting Foreign Workers Via Social Media
- Want your kid to behave this Christmas? There’s an app for that
- What Amazon Echo And Google Home Do With Your Voice Data
- It’s Not Always AI That Sifts Through Your Sensitive Info
- Australian man uses snack bags as Faraday cage to block tracking by employer: On 140 occasions, electrician logged that he was working while concealing his location.
- Anyone Can Hack Macos High Sierra Just By Typing “Root”
- macOS bug lets you log in as admin with no password required: Here’s how to protect yourself until Apple patches bafflingly bad bug.
- Federal student aid site offers one-stop shopping for ID thieves?: If you have someone’s name, birthdate, and SSN, FAFSA site will give up sensitive data.
- Maine Government Agency Tries To Charge Public Records Requester $750 For Opening A PDF
- How four Microsoft engineers proved that the “darknet” would defeat DRM – From the archives: How this quartet nearly got fired for it.
GAMES
- Study: Pokémon Go led to increase in traffic deaths, accidents – Detailed look at accident reports shows 26.5% relative increase near Pokéstops.
- Parent rebukes Epic for suing teenage Fortnite player accused of cheating
- 14-Year Old Video Game Cheater Sued, Mom Says He’s A Scapegoat [Update]
- Good News for Game Developers: Court Extends Protections for Using Others’ Trademarks in the Advertising of Artistic Works
- Activision Considering An Opposition To Trademark For Dog-Curbing Company ‘Call Of Doodee’
- Destiny 2 misrepresented XP gains to its players until the devs got caught: After confirming a hidden “XP scaling” system, Bungie made XP grinds even slower.
- Bungie Changes Destiny 2 XP System After Players Discover It Was Rigged
- Bungie drops hidden Destiny 2XP scaling following player outcry
- People Are Making Cults And Prisons In Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp
- Fans launch Black Friday boycott to #FixFIFA: Petition calling for changes has over 26,000 signaures
- Belgium denounces loot boxes as gambling; Hawaiian legislator calls them “predatory”: Belgium decides that the combination of random rewards and pay-to-play is gambling.
- Victorian gambling commission: “What occurs with ‘loot boxes’ does constitute gambling” – Commission has limited options for enforcement, looks to work with other agencies to bring about change
- British Gambling Commission worried about ‘potential risk’ of loot boxes
- British Gambling Commission concerned with “increasingly blurred” lines between games and gambling: Meanwhile, French politician calls for “prompt and sincere self-regulation” of the industry
- UK Gambling Commission Determines Loot Boxes Aren’t Gambling Under British Law
- Teen who spent $10k+ on microtransactions warns devs of the risk they pose: “The majority of the reason that I made my post was not really to slam EA or any of the companies that do this, but to share my story and to show that these transactions are not as innocent as they really appear to be. They can lead you down a path.”
- Disney flexes its muscle over Star Wars and Marvel: The IP powerhouse values protecting that IP over any business relationship – as firms working on those properties would do well to remember
- EA: Visceral’s canned Star Wars project too linear for modern tastes
- Popularity of linear games declining – EA: CFO Blake Jorgensen says cancelled Star Wars project was a type of game “people don’t like as much today as they did five years ago or 10 years ago”
- “You probably don’t want Darth Vader in pink”: EA CFO Blake Jorgensen says faithfulness to Star Wars canon prevented a cosmetic microtransaction model for Star Wars Battlefront II
- Star Citizen now offering to sell in-game land: The most successful crowdfunded game ever is asking players to spend more
- Animal Crossing Pocket Camp: Critical Consensus – A faithful yet divisive pocket-sized recreation of the beloved series, plagued by microtransactions
- PC microtransaction revenue has doubled since 2012 – SuperData report: Battlefront II is the poster child of a new and uncomfortable growing pain for the games industry
- Take-Two president weighs in on loot boxes as ‘not gambling’: “The whole gambling regulator thing, we don’t view that thing as gambling. Our view is the same as the ESA statement, for the most part. So that’s going to play its course.”
- Games industry is going 100% digital – Take-Two: President Karl Slatoff says physical game sales are probably going away on a 5-20 year timeline, weighs in on loot boxes
- Games could be hit hard by net neutrality’s death: This is class warfare and gamers and small game companies are in the crosshairs
- Appeals Court Affirms Dismissal on Standing Grounds of Biometric Privacy Suit over Videogame Facial Scan Feature
- Portraying migrants’ struggles via cellphones in Bury Me, My Love
- Four And A Half Years After Raising $121,000, Skyrim Composer’s Kickstarter Is MIA
- Star Citizen offers $50-$100 in-game ‘land claims’ to boost dev funds
- Global gaming revenue on par with sports at $149bn for 2017: Software revenue alone expected to reach $143.5 billion by 2020
- ‘Pokémon Go’ Studio Niantic Completes $200M Funding Round
- Pokémon global lifetime sales surpass 300m: Figure does not include Pokémon Go or downloads, but does include Snap, Stadium and all the other spin-offs
- Nintendo Switch on track to outpace ten-month sales of the Wii by 20%
- Nintendo’s “insane turnaround” driving holiday sales – Analyst: We chat with analysts in the wake of Black Friday and Cyber Monday
- Report: Nintendo to start offering in-game power-ups via cereal boxes: Box for “Super Mario Cereal” reportedly doubles as an Amiibo.
- Animal Crossing: Pocket Campimpressions: Nintendo should be ashamed – Lots of good AC series content, but core experience is too low on free-to-play scale.
- VR headset sales are slowly rising out of the doldrums: Lower prices lead to increased interest as PlayStation Move dominates sales.
- Analyst: 1M VR headsets shipped last quarter, an industry first
- More than one million VR headsets sold last quarter: PlayStation VR accounts 80% of Japanese market
- UK charts: PS4 and PSVR enjoy a strong Black Friday: PlayStation VR sold more than in the previous 18 weeks combined, strongest week of the year for software units and revenue
- VR to star in China’s $1.5bn future tech theme park: Virtual rollercoasters, shooting games and alien tours will feature
- Over 300,000 games consoles sold in the UK last week – GfK: Black Friday was the 13th biggest day ever for UK games retail
- Sony posts record Black Friday hardware sales: Head of PSN Eric Lempel says company sold more PlayStations over the weekend than in the 23-year history of the brand
- PUBG going mobile with Tencent’s help: The wildly popular game is not only coming to China, but it’s about to get the mobile treatment
- Mobile still a moving target: GameChangerSF is finding more value bringing back lapsed players than searching for new ones
- Report: Marvel Heroes dev Gazillion shuts down, lays off entire workforce
- Gazillion Entertainment has officially shut down: Marvel Heroes goes offline a month ahead of schedule as studio closes
- Rovio shares fall by 20 percent thanks to rising UA costs
- Indie devs explore the benefits of working with a publisher: “Indie dev is a minefield now. To have a chance at a good level of success, you basically have to nail everything. That’s a really tall order, so devs are simply looking to stack the odds in their favor.”
- The sunk cost fallacy: Devs describe how it almost destroyed them
- 9 years in, Demon’s Souls is losing its online features
- PC free-to-play revenue has doubled since 2012
- Pokemon game series surpasses 300M lifetime sales
- Pokemon Go developer Niantic nets $200M in funding
- Investors pour $50M into social/casino mobile game dev Huuuge
- Game sells Multiplay server hosting division to Unity for $25.2M
- Unity buys GAME’s Multiplay Digital business for £19m: GAME bought the entire Multiplay division for £20m almost 3 years ago
- Zelda concert producer: “I just want to bring video game music to the masses”: Jason Michael Paul looks back on 14 years of creating video game concerts
- Oral History: How Marvel’s Creative Head Helped Bring Nintendo To America
Jon
News of the Week; November 22, 2017
DIGITAL
- Music Canada Data Confirms Huge Increase in Streaming Revenues and Sharp Decline of Music Listening from Pirated Sources (Michael Geist)
- SOCAN Financial Data Highlights How Internet Music Streaming is Paying Off for Creators (Michael Geist)
- Judge Halts Copyright Troll’s Lawsuit Against A Now-Deceased Elderly Man With Dementia And An IP Address
- EFF Wins Over Patent Troll Trying To Silence EFF Calling Its Patent Stupid
- Microsoft facing lawsuit over alleged HoloLens patent infringement
- Microsoft sued over HoloLens patent infringement: Connecticut-based HoloTouch claims that HoloLens actually infringes two of its patents
- Google plans to ‘de-rank’ Russia Today and Sputnik to combat misinformation: Alphabet chief executive Eric Schmidt says Google and other tech companies must act against state-run Russian news agencies to stop spread of falsehoods
- US court thumbs its nose at Supreme Court of Canada: Google v Equustek (Barry Sookman)
- Monopoly Leveraging & Equal Treatment: the EU Commission’s Google Shopping Decision
- NSW Supreme Court considers jurisdictional issues in an online contract: Gonzalez v Agoda Company Pty Ltd [2017] NSWSC 1133
- Closed by Default: Why is Prime Minister Trudeau Using Restrictive Terms for Flickr Image Use? (Michael Geist)
- Inside Google’s Struggle to Filter Lies from Breaking News: The company is revamping the way it displays breaking news search results
- YouTube Terminates Controversial Kids Channel With Over 8.5 Million Subscribers
- YouTube’s Purge Of Inappropriate Content Aimed At Kids Spans Tens Of Billions Of Views
- What makes YouTube’s surreal kids’ videos so creepy?
- ‘This is not TV’: A growing number of advertisers feel duped by YouTube
- The Professional Friends of YouTube: The platform and its young celebrities have built a self-contained universe of political cluelessness
- YouTube Is Addressing Its Massive Child Exploitation Problem: After BuzzFeed News provided YouTube with dozens of examples of videos — with millions of views — that depict children in disturbing and abusive situations, the company is cracking down.
- Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal: Inside the web of conspiracy theorists, Russian operatives, Trump campaigners and Twitter bots who manufactured the ‘news’ that Hillary Clinton ran a pizza-restaurant child-sex ring
- Surveillance Fans Angry Journalist Used Metadata, Contact Chaining To Out Comey’s Secret Twitter Account
- By year’s end, you’ll know if you liked a Kremlin-created Facebook page: “This tool will be available for use by the end of the year in the Facebook Help Center.”
- One Of The Biggest Alternative Media Networks In Italy Is Spreading Anti-Immigrant News And Misinformation On Facebook: The network sheds light on the overlap between the fringe underbelly of the Catholic world, Italy’s nationalist movements, and for-profit clickbait.
- We’ll Be Paying For Mark Halperin’s Sins For Years To Come: Reports of sexual harassment destroyed his reputation and his career. But I want to talk about the deeper, subtler, more insidious effect Mark Halperin had on our politics.
- The policy that the US porn industry has and Facebook needs
- In her new book, ‘The Uterus Is a Feature, Not a Bug,’ Sarah Lacy says women should fight back, not ‘lean in’: Amusingly, Lacy says Facebook — whose COO Sheryl Sandberg wrote “Lean In” — rejected ads for the book because of the word “uterus.”
- The Education of Mark Zuckerberg: The Facebook founder has discussed “community” more than 150 times in public. A close reading reveals his road map for the platform’s future.
- Facebook Launches Creator-Focused App With Content Production And Analytics Tools
- Facebook Acquires Exclusive Rights to 47 College Basketball Games From Smaller Conferences
- Athens Court of Appeal applies CJEU GS Media linking decision and interprets ‘profit-making intention’ restrictively
- Vice Forms Advisory Committee With Gloria Steinem Following Sexual Harassment Claims
- Jeffrey Katzenberg’s WndrCo Tenders Investment In News Startup Axios
- Chinese students claim they worked illegal overtime making the iPhone X: Teens say a school made them intern at Foxconn, but Apple says it was voluntary.
- The Hidden Cost of Bitcoin? Our Environment.
- A Virtual Reality Film Experience Just Received the First Oscar for VR
- Inside The Race To Hack The Human Brain
- This Man Is Leading an AI Revolution in Silicon Valley—And He’s Just Getting Started: The cofounder and CEO of semiconductor and software maker Nvidia saw the future of computing more than a decade ago, and began developing products that could power the artificial intelligence era. Thanks to that vision, and relentless execution, his chipmaker today is perhaps the hottest company in Silicon Valley. And it may just be getting started.
- China Challenges Nvidia’s Hold On Artificial Intelligence Chips
- For the First Time, a Robot Passed a Medical Licensing Exam: Chinese AI-powered robot Xiaoyi took the country’s medical licensing examinations and passed, according to local reports. Xiaoyi is just one example of how much China is keen on using AI to make a number of industries more efficient.
- Experts: Artificial Intelligence Could Hijack Brain-Computer Interfaces
- Has The Silicon Valley Hype Cycle Run Its Course?: The social media boom, powered by the growth of mobile computing, is over. And while a glittering new technological age of artificial intelligence beckons, the current cycle seems bloated and fatigued. It’s no wonder venture capitalists are looking elsewhere.
- iOS 11 Is Killing Me
- Report: Apple Acquired VR Headset Startup Vrvana for $30 Million
- Amazon Secures Rights To Stream ATP World Tour In U.K., Ireland
- Amazon’s Last Mile: Who delivers Amazon orders? Increasingly, it’s plainclothes contractors with few labor protections, driving their own cars, competing for shifts on the company’s own Uber-like platform. Though it’s deployed in dozens of cities and associated with one of the world’s biggest companies, government agencies and customers alike are nearly oblivious to the program’s existence.
- The Uber CEO Who Arrived In The Us With Nothing
- Colorado fines Uber $8.9M for allowing dozens of unauthorized drivers: Colorado found many drivers with “suspended, revoked, or cancelled driver’s licenses.”
- Hackers hit Uber in 2016: data on 57 million riders, drivers stolen – CEO: “You may be asking why we are just talking about this now, a year later.”
- Uber Hid Security Breach Impacting 57 Million People, Paid Off Hackers
- Jeffrey Tambor To Depart ‘Transparent’ Amid Sexual Harassment Claims: The actor Jeffrey Tambor will depart Transparent — one of Amazon’s most synonymous original shows — following accusations of sexual harassment by two women involved in the Emmy-winning production.
- We’ll Be Paying For Mark Halperin’s Sins For Years To Come: Reports of sexual harassment destroyed his reputation and his career. But I want to talk about the deeper, subtler, more insidious effect Mark Halperin had on our politics.
- The Washington Post Is A Software Company Now: The newspaper created a platform to tackle its own challenges. Then, with Amazon-like spirit, it realized there was a business in helping other publishers do the same.
- This Amazon seller lost $400,000 in sales after being attacked by self-proclaimed ‘virus of Amazon’
- Tencent crosses $500 billion market cap milestone: Gaming giant is the first Chinese tech company to cross that financial mark
- Tencent and Bluehole partner to bring Battlegrounds to China
- Tencent to publish PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds in China: Bluehole’s new partner obliterates any notion on a ban in PUBG’s biggest market
- IGN, PCMag, AskMen Owner Acquires Mashable For $50 Million
- Marvell Technology to buy chipmaker Cavium for about $6 billion: Two more chipmakers come together to try to compete with Intel, Broadcom.
- BuzzFeed IPO Dreams Fizzle as Company Said to Miss 2017 Revenue Target
- Univision Seeking to Sell Minority Stake in Fusion Media Group
- Archivist Leslie Berlin Tackles Silicon Valley’s Past In ‘Troublemakers’
- The media industry has suddenly become a ‘Game of Thrones’-like battle for power
CREATIVITY
- Judge: EFF’s “Stupid Patent of the Month” clearly protected by Constitution – GEMSA, which has sued dozens of US tech firms, never responded to EFF’s lawsuit.
- Good Ruling: Court Affirms Fox’s Victory In Trademark Suit From Empire Distribution Over Its Hit Show ‘Empire’
- The Monkey Selfie Strikes Back (Andres Guadamuz)
- The Sad Legacy Of Copyright: Locking Up Scientific Knowledge And Impeding Progress
- Ninth Circuit: Let’s Talk About Comic-Con
- Twentieth Century Fox Television v. Empire Distribution, Inc.
- Gucci “Wrongfully Claims a Monopoly” on Stripes, per Forever 21 Complaint
- Nobel Prize Winning Economist Says Non-US Countries Have Unique Opportunity To Reform Intellectual Property
- Trial Set To Start For Journalist Facing Decades In Prison For Covering Inauguration Day Protests
- Roy Moore’s Threat Letter To Sue The Press Is An Artform In Bad Lawyering
- Alabama Media Group Isn’t Messing Around With Roy Moore’s Silly Threat
- Israeli court addresses relationship between design protection and copyright
- Zack Snyder Fans Petition For The Release of His Cut of Justice League As Deleted Scenes Leak Online
- Ben Affleck Stole Some Batarangs From the Justice League Set
- Justice League, Rotten Tomatoes, And DC Fans’ Persecution Complex
- Kaye v. Cartoon Network, Inc.
- Harvey Weinstein’s Secret Settlements: The mogul used money from his brother and elaborate legal agreements to hide allegations of predation for decades.
- What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men?
- Broadcaster Leeann Tweeden Accuses Sen. Al Franken of Assault
- Trump Mocks Al Franken On Twitter, Blows It
- Twitter, It’s Time to End Your Anything-Goes Paradise
- The Soft Racism of Apu from “The Simpsons”
- Rashida Jones And Writing Partner Dropped Out Of Toy Story 4 Over “Philosophical Differences” With Pixar: “It is a culture where women and people of color do not have an equal creative voice.”
- The Female Supercomputer Designer Who Inspired Steve Jobs: The designer and artist Tamiko Thiel gets her due in a new show at MoMA.
- The Rope: The Forgotten History of Segregated Rock & Roll Concerts – The Platters, the Flamingos, and other pioneering performers share stories of divided audiences, Jim Crow absurdities and harrowing violence
- How culinary propaganda from a women’s magazine made Thanksgiving a thing
- Life After ESPN: In April, around 100 employees of the Worldwide Leader in Sports were laid off. Since leaving the mothership, some have found new work, new homes, and new careers—while others are still searching for their next chapter.
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- Canada and the U.S. stand divided at the crossroads of net neutrality (Michael Geist)
- Bell insider reveals high-pressure sales tactics required on every single call: Bell says allegations are ‘completely unfounded and untrue’
- Trump administration files suit to block AT&T/Time Warner merger: $108 billion merger would raise TV bills and prices for AT&T rivals, DOJ said.
- The Right Choice For The Wrong Reasons? DOJ Sues To Kill The AT&T Time Warner Merger
- Why Mergers Like the AT&T-Time Warner Deal Should Go Through
- A ‘Supernatural’ Profits Fight, and the AT&T-TW Merger Issue That Few Are Discussing: Warner Bros. has been battling the creator of one of the longest-running television shows in an arbitration that addresses the fairness of media consolidation and the very mechanism to resolve disputes with those who feel shortchanged.
- Why The Government Is Right To Block The AT&T-Time Warner Merger
- The Economic Case Against an A.T. & T.-Time Warner Merger
- FCC Releases Net Neutrality Killing Order, Hopes You’re Too Busy Cooking Turkey To Read It
- FCC Moves To Gut Rules Protecting Broadband Users Telcos No Longer Want
- FCC Head Ajit Pai: Killing Net Neutrality Will Set the Internet Free
- An Open Letter to the FCC:
- FCC Plans To Gut Net Neutrality, Allow Internet ‘Fast Lanes’
- FCC will also order states to scrap plans for their own net neutrality laws – Double win for ISPs: No more net neutrality, and state laws will be preempted.
- I’m on the FCC. Please stop us from killing net neutrality
- Here’s How The End Of Net Neutrality Will Change The Internet
- Welcome to 2018. There’s No Net Neutrality. We Made Dystopia a Reality.
- Will Your TV Watch You? FCC Green Lights Targeted Advertising in Next Gen TV Broadcasting Standard
- Sorry, poor people: The FCC is coming after your broadband plans: 70% of low-income wireless subscribers in Lifeline could have to find new ISPs.
- Here’s the FCC’s Plan to Kill Net Neutrality
- The FCC Is Trying To Destroy The Internet
- Why Are People Celebrating Al Franken’s Incomprehensible Speech About The Internet?
- Republicans Finally Set a Date to Kill Net Neutrality
- The End Of Net Neutrality As We Know It
- FCC stonewalled investigation of net neutrality comment fraud, NY AG says: Net neutrality fraudsters likely impersonated “hundreds of thousands” of people.
- Who is Ajit Pai, the “Trump soldier” remaking America’s internet?
- FCC will also order states to scrap plans for their own net neutrality laws – Double win for ISPs: No more net neutrality, and state laws will be preempted.
- FCC Finds the Case for Broadcast Ownership Deregulation Compelling
- Disgusted With Charter Spectrum Merger, Lexington To Build Entirely New Fiber Network
- Robocalls from spoofed Caller IDs may soon be blocked by phone companies: FCC authorizes aggressive blocking of spoofed and invalid numbers.
- The Robocall Nightmare Is Only Getting Worse—But Help Is Here
- Verizon may sign new deal with NFL to expand game streaming rights: Increasing the number of devices to which Verizon can stream football games.
- Shaw undercuts Big Three on iPhone pricing, Freedom Mobile to sell iPhone X for $0 upfront: Freedom’s steep discount comes with the caveat that its network only covers major centres in B.C., Alberta and Ontario, meaning consumers may face additional roaming charges outside those zones
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- Apple formally asked to release Texas shooter’s iCloud data: Texas judge also signs off on search of shooter’s iPhone SE, LG dumbphone.
- Court Denies Government’s Demasking Demands In Inauguration Protest Case
- New York Court Says NYPD Must Get Warrants To Deploy Stingrays
- Kaspersky: Yes, we obtained NSA secrets. No, we didn’t help steal them – Moscow-based AV provider challenges claims it helped Russian spies.
- Dozens Of Tech Experts Tell DHS & ICE That Its Social Media Surveillance And Extreme Vetting Should Be Stopped
- Intel Chip Flaws Leave Millions Of Devices Exposed
- Defense Department Spied On Social Media, Left All Its Collected Data Exposed To Anyone
- Investigation Finds Google Collected Location Data Even With Location Services Turned Off
- No, you’re not being paranoid. Sites really are watching your every move: Sites log your keystrokes and mouse movements in real time, before you click submit.
- New Study Finds Poorly Secured Smart Toys Lets Attackers Listen In On Your Kids
- Court Says Glassdoor Must Disclose Anonymous Reviewers’ Information in Grand Jury Proceedings
- Most Senate Intelligence Committee Members Are Fine With Domestic Surveillance By The NSA
- Man gets threats—not bug bounty—after finding DJI customer data in public view: A bug bounty hunter shared evidence; DJI called him a hacker and threatened with CFAA.
- Pentagon contractor leaves social media spy archive wide open on Amazon: Trove included more than 1.8 billion posts spanning eight years, many from US people.
- Infosec star accused of sexual assault booted from professional affiliations: Morgan Marquis-Boire resigned from Citizen Lab back in September 2017.
- Iconic hacker booted from conferences after sexual misconduct claims surface: Professor, reporter say meetings with Draper years ago turned inappropriate
- Skype is the latest messaging app to disappear from Chinese app stores: Skype falls victim to China’s strict cybersecurity laws and Internet regulations.
- DOJ names Iranian as hacker who stole unaired episodes from HBO: “Those hiding behind keyboards in countries far away—eventually, winter will come.”
- New “Quad9” DNS service blocks malicious domains for everyone: Set DNS server to 9.9.9.9, and (known) malware and phishes won’t be able to phone home.
- Should I Confess My Internet Stalking To My Date?
- Thirty years later, “Max Headroom” TV pirate remains at large: Whoever was behind 1987 Chicago “broadcast intrusion” is the D.B. Cooper of media
GAMES
- Russian Foreign Ministry Accuses America Of Supporting ISIS With Video Game Footage
- Clicker Heroes developer drops free-to-play model over ethical concerns: “We really don’t like making money off players who are in denial of their addiction,” says Playsaurus
- Citing ethics and better game design, Clicker Heroes 2 dev forgoes free-to-play: “The mere existence of real-money purchases puts an ugly cloud over the player’s experience, with the persistent nagging feeling of ‘My game could be so much better if I just spent a few dollars.’ That alone feels terrible”
- When F2P goes wrong: NCSoft gave latest game five months before pulling plug – Refunds for some MxM players; in-game coins for all (which won’t matter by Jan. 31).
- It’s Only A Game. Or Is It? Advergaming In The Digital Age
- Star Wars Battlefront II Is Less A Game Than A Value Proposition
- Star Wars: Battlefront II review: Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope: Even if EA fulfills promises, this game may still be too far gone to the Dark Side.
- After fan outcry, EA kicks real-money purchases out of Battlefront II: Feature will return, but “only after we’ve made changes to the game.”
- “Nothing should feel unattainable”: DICE responds to Star Wars loot box backlash: Battlefront II developer hosts Reddit AMA, “deeply saddened” by negative response
- Belgian Gambling Commission targets EA and Blizzard over loot boxes: “The crate mechanics of Star Wars Battlefront II are not gambling,” says EA
- Belgian officials say they’d like lootboxes banned, but investigation continues
- Belgium Aims To Ban Loot Boxes In Europe
- Star Wars Battlefront II: This Is What $100 Could Get You Before Microtransactions Were Disabled
- Battlefront II dev temporarily turns off all microtransactions
- EA suspends microtransactions in Star Wars Battlefront II hours before game launch: “Sorry we didn’t get this right,” says DICE general manager
- Star Wars Battlefront II: Will EA’s concession hurt sales?: Analysts debate the impact of EA’s last-minute move to pull microtransactions from the title
- Star Wars Battlefront loot boxes investigation continues, say Belgian authorities: Hawaii also considers legislation against “Star Wars-themed online casino”
- Hawaiian representative wants to clamp down on ‘predatory’ loot boxes
- Wall Street is freaking out as EA caves again to social media outrage over its ‘Star Wars’ game: Investors are now worried the controversy over Electronic Arts’ “Star Wars Battlefront II” in-game monetization model will hurt the video game’s sales. – “The escalation of EA concessions over the past month are a potential negative indicator of pre-order sales trends and overall unit confidence,” Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst Justin Post writes.” – EA’s stock is down 7 percent month to date through Thursday compared with the S&P 500’s 0.4 percent gain.
- EA tells investors turning off Battlefront 2’s microtransactions will not affect earnings
- EA share price dips following loot box debacle: Also, Need for Speed Payback retools loot boxes following “community feedback”
- Star Wars: Battlefront II debacle points the way forward – EA’s approach to microtransactions has been a complete disaster, but it may have stumbled upon a model other publishers should consider emulating
- Did Disney push for EA’s Battlefront microtransaction decision?: Off-the-record “concerns” and official “support.”
- Disney pressured EA to pull Star Wars microtransactions – Report: Online outrage had licensing partner concerned the Battlefront II reception could tarnish the Star Wars brand
- UK boxed charts: Disappointing debut for Star Wars Battlefront II: EA’s blockbuster shooter down 50% compared with Battlefield 1
- After Battlefront 2 Backlash, Need For Speed: Payback Alters Progression System
- EA Devs Dial Down Microtransaction Pressure In Latest Need For Speed
- Devs promise to change Battlefront II until players are happy: “We will be looking at data continually and make adjustments…”
- Loot boxes are not bad game design, say devs: Star Wars aside, loot boxes are here to stay; “It’s just us dinosaurs that remember buying a game once for a fixed price and getting a set experience”
- Applying ‘players first’ logic to loot boxes and other mechanics in Hearthstone
- Economics Of Microtransactions In Video Games
- Video Game Monetization Strategies
- FCC is about to dismantle net neutrality: Gamers who rely on equal access to the internet may no longer have any such guarantee
- When Will Video Game Software Need to Meet FCC Accessibility Requirements?
- Video Game Software Industry Seeks a Final Disabilities Access Waiver Extension
- Marvel Heroes players chasing add-on refunds after short-lived console launch
- The survival of GAME: Why the retailer is feeling defiant in the face of digital dominance
- 11 years after launch, Titan Quest gets a new expansion pack
- “It’s not Hitman without IO”: Why Square Enix set the franchise free – President and CEO Yosuke Matsuda tells GamesIndustry.biz the reasons behind the surprise split with IO Interactive
- Steam overhauls user reviews to counter spam bots: Platform holder seeks to take power away from accounts that rate an “excessive number of reviews”
- Publishers are “the most valuable piece of the puzzle” right now: We Are Fuzzy’s Maxx Burman offers a not-so-fuzzy view of indie development in 2017 as he readies his first project, Sleep Tigh
- NCsoft will shut down Master X Master just months after launch
- Tiny Metal director accused of funding game with money from another Kickstarter
- Marvel Heroes Players Are Demanding Refunds For In-Game Purchases
- Marvel Heroes players chasing add-on refunds after short-lived console launch
- Marvel Heroes to close down as Disney terminates Gazillion partnership: Future remains uncertain for Marvel Heroes staff
- Gazillion faces surge of refund requests after Marvel Heroes closure news: Players frustrated after spending hundreds of dollars on in-game microtransactions
- Chasing the local optimum: Data-led strategies have left many companies trying to squeeze revenue from the same small but lucrative market segment – it’s not an approach with a bright future
- Twitch: “We’re almost ready to go full-blown Hunger Games” – Co-founder Kevin Lin is excited for a new age of games development where streaming audiences can interact with the players
- How Ninja Theory proved independent AAA has a future: “Smaller indie teams that want to make that step up in production values can adopt this kind of model”
- Mario can’t prevent US game sales from falling 11% in October: Nintendo had a great month, but that was offset by an overall decline in software spending
- Super Mario Odyssey tops US charts for October: Nintendo all over the NPD charts as Switch and Super NES Classic take top two spots on hardware side
- Nintendo Switch is dominated by physical sales – GAME: Publishers says physical tie-ratio for Switch is almost identical to Wii
- GAME: In UK and Spain, Switch attach rates are matching the Wii’s
- GameStop’s earnings rise thanks to demand for new games and Nintendo’s Switch
- Nintendo Switch drives GameStop global sales to just shy of $2bn for latest quarter: Hardware and software demand counters slight decline in pre-owned sales
- Nintendo’s Switch and SNES Classic topped U.S. game hardware sales last month
- Square Enix says its games are a good fit for the Switch, get buried on Steam
- Vivendi holding off on Ubisoft takeover plans for six months
- Vivendi: No plans for Ubisoft takeover for six months – French media giant still has aspirations to grow in gaming, but says it will limit stake in Assassin’s Creed publisher for now
- Jon Shafer leaves Paradox over creative differences: Civilisation V designer moves on after just six months with new employer
- Xbox One X launch sales well behind competition in Japan: Brand new super-powered console outsold by six-year-old handheld PlayStation Vita
- The world of Skyrim is thrilling and flawed in VR: A nice place to visit, but I’m not sure about spending 100 hours.
- “Life doesn’t wait for you, and neither does VR”: Baobab discusses the difficulty of directing player attention, and why we need new terms for virtual reality experiences
- Wargaming’s symbiotic relationship with education and marketing: Director of special projects Tracy Spaight explores the applications for AR and VR outside of gaming
- Riot Games Is Trying To Turn League Of Legends Into A Collegiate Esport
- Why NCAA Involvement In Esports May Not Be Such A Bad Thing
- What I learned visiting my first live eSports tournament: Just watching on Twitch isn’t the same as being immersed in the crowd.
- You Can Now Hire Professional Gamers To Play Call Of Duty For You
- Brooklyn Soccer Leagues To Replicate FIFA Video Game ‘In Real Life’
- Wanted: Loving home for Boeing 737 cockpit and flight simulator
- It’s A Living: Meet One Of New York’s Best Professional D&D Dungeon Masters
- The rise of D&D liveplay is changing how fans approach roleplaying: From Stranger Things’ Dungeons & Dragons obsession to the YouTube and Twitch players becoming online celebrities, role-playing games are becoming public entertainment
- South Australian government launches $2M digital games investment fund
- Opinion: South Australia’s $2 million AUD investment in game devs
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild leads Golden Joystick award winners
- The McLaren Formula 1 team just hired the World’s Fastest Gamer: The F1 team wanted a new simulator driver. Now it has found one—through gaming.
- During The Holiday Season, Home Is Where The Games Are
- Axiom Verge Publisher Donating 75 Percent Of Its Share To Developer’s Son’s Healthcare
Jon
News of the Week; November 15, 2017
DIGITAL
- Court Rejects Gossip Site’s Fair Use Defense–Barcroft v. Coed Media
- Cable Providers “Cut the Cord”: Audio/Video Streaming Patents Fail Both Alice Steps
- Playboy Sues BoingBoing For Linking To Collection Of Centerfold Pictures
- Google LLC v. Equustek Solutions Inc.: On Google’s motion for preliminary injunction, district court enjoins enforcement of Canadian court order requiring Google to delist search results worldwide, finding that Google had established likelihood of success on merits of its argument that order undermined safe harbor protection afforded by Communications Decency Act to Google as interactive service provider, and threatens free speech.
- Why Google should be afraid of a Missouri Republican’s Google probe: Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley is probing Google’s business practices.
- Shady Anti-Spyware Developer Loses Lawsuit Against Competitor Who Flagged Its Software As Malicious
- California Appeals Court Issues A Ruling That Manages To Both Protect And Undermine Online Speech
- Should we still doubt about the legality of Copyleft?
- Julian Assange’s Secret DMs to Donald Trump Jr. Are Somehow Dumber, Sadder Than You’d Think
- Twitter’s Authentication Policy Is A Verified Mess
- Unusual experiment reveals the power of non-mainstream media: Scholars found that small media outlets have a big effect on Twitter discussions.
- Facebook Live Is The New QVC
- The Latest Social Media Trend in Government: It’s hard to get people to follow their local government on Facebook or Twitter. A few cities are using their employees’ personal accounts to connect with more residents.
- Instagram CEO Positions His Company as Safer Alternative to Controversial Rivals
- How A Russian Troll Fooled America: Reconstructing the life of a covert Kremlin influence account
- Very Tired-Sounding John Kelly: Yeah, I Just Ignore Donald Trump’s Tweets
- University could lose millions from “unethical” research backed by Peter Thiel: With nudge from federal regulators, an internal investigation found big problems.
- Canada Revenue Agency Obtains Broad Court Order for Years of PayPal Data (Michael Geist)
- For nearly a year, WikiLeaks was DMing with Donald Trump Jr.: “if your father ‘loses’ we think it is much more interesting if he DOES NOT conceed”
- WikiLeaks Hitting Up Donald Trump Jr. Shouldn’t Surprise You
- UK Gov’t Destroys Key Emails From Julian Assange Case, Shrugs About It
- Trump’s Data Gurus Are Now Turning Their Attention To Your TV: Cambridge Analytica is eyeing targeted TV ads and mobile apps alongside some surprising allies.
- Paradise Papers: Royalties from thousands of song classics tucked away tax-free – Music catalogue based in Jersey collected millions from songs by Duke Ellington, Sheryl Crow, The Trammps
- Logitech Once Again Shows That In The Modern Era, You Don’t Really Own What You Buy
- After online outrage, Logitech will now replace Harmony Link devices for free: You’ll have a new device no matter your warranty status.
- After Backlash, Logitech Will Upgrade All Harmony Link Owners For Free
- YouTube Red Climbs the List of Top Ten OTT Platforms
- Don’t Let YouTube Babysit Your Children
- Algorithmic Videos Are Making YouTube Unsuitable For Young Children, And Google’s ‘Revenue Architecture’ Is To Blame
- Encore+ a new YouTube channel for retro CanCon: TV shows and films include Degrassi High, The Littlest Hobo, Mr. Dressup and Due South
- Google broadens takedown of extremist YouTube videos
- YouTube Will Remove More Extremist Videos With The Aid Of Government Lists
- YouTube Vows To Crack Down On Inappropriate Videos Aimed At Children
- YouTube Pacts With Ticketmaster To Help Musicians Boost Concert Sales
- YouTube partners with Ticketmaster to sell concert tickets on artists’ video pages
- YouTube Says World Series Ad Campaign Drove “Double Digit” Lift In YouTube TV Brand Awareness
- YouTube To Discontinue In-Video Notifications As It Continues To Transition To Card-Based System
- Online Video Star Matthias Declines Invite To Yearly Rewind Video In Protest Against YouTube’s Policies
- Fullscreen Shutting Down Subscription VOD Service, Will Lay Off 25 Employees
- Fullscreen To Shutter SVOD Service In January, Will Lay Off Roughly 25 Staffers
- Disney Streaming Service May Signal End Of Marvel-Netflix Shows
- Netflix Study Finds Stigmas Surrounding Public Binge-Viewing Have Dwindled
- Offering Good Legal Options Works: Interest In Netflix Outpaces Pirate Options In Brazil
- Sports Illustrated TV: Time Inc.’s First Subscription VOD Is $5 Monthly on Amazon Channels
- Amazon Paid A Reported $250 Million For Rights To ‘Lord Of The Rings’ Prequel Series
- Amazon launches Alexa, Echo, and Prime Music in Canada today: Alexa has a new Canadian English accent.
- Amazon Music app for Android quietly gets Chromecast support: Casting gets a little easier for Android users who get their tunes from Amazon.
- WhatsApp: inside the secret world of group chat – When WhatsApp launched it quickly became the main messaging service for groups of friends and family. More recently it’s become a useful platform for activists and politicians, fuelling a ‘whisper network’ of alliances and playing a crucial role in the recent revelation of the sexual abuse scandal
- Facebook Defeats Lawsuit By User Suspended Over ‘Bowling Green Massacre’–Shulman v. Facebook (Eric Goldman)
- Facebook, show us your secret recipe
- Sean Parker unloads on Facebook “exploiting” human psychology
- Facebook can’t cope with the world it’s created
- Facebook Local Might Be The Only Facebook App You Need
- Huge media companies like CBS and ESPN are banding together to fight Google and Facebook — but it may not be enough
- Why Google should be afraid of a Missouri Republican’s Google probe: Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley is probing Google’s business practices.
- Fashion, Maslow and Facebook’s control of social
- ESPN Launches a New Version of ‘SportsCenter’ to Snapchat
- The Facts: Non-Consensual Intimate Image Pilot
- How One Woman’s Digital Life Was Weaponized Against Her
- Online harassment of women journalists and international law: not “just” a gender issue, but a threat to democracy
- And Another Thing: Those Dumb Social Media Guidelines For Journalists Are Going To Paint A Target On Their Backs
- Breitbart’s Coming Exploitation Of The Believe Women Movement
- Section 230(c)(2) Protects Anti-Malware Vendor–Enigma v. Malwarebytes (Eric Goldman)
- 230 bars false advertising claim against antimalware provider (Rebecca Tushnet)
- Celebrate The 20th Anniversary Of A Seminal Section 230 Case Upholding It With This Series Of Essays
- Commemorating the 20th Anniversary of Internet Law’s Most Important Judicial Decision
- Copyright Infringement and the DMCA’s Safe Harbor Provisions
- The UK’s Broad Rejection of the §230 Model
- UK Government promises more visas, more investment for tech sector
- Sex, Scandal and Intermediary Liability: Imagining Life Without ‘Zeran v. AOL’: The Bazee.com legal saga highlights what could happen without a strong third-party liability protection standard for Internet businesses.
- Wikipedia Warns That SESTA Could Destroy Wikipedia
- Monkey Selfie Photographer Says He’s Now Going To Sue Wikipedia
- China’s Bytedance Buying Social-Video App Musical.ly
- U.S. Employs Rarely Used Tool to Probe China IP Practices
- What My Personal Chat Bot Is Teaching Me About AI’s Future
- The Robots Are Coming: For our jobs. Our military. And our current way of life. That is, unless a handful of local AI wizards can stop them
- Ray Kurzweil On Turing Tests, Brain Extenders, And Ai Ethics
- The real danger of Artificial Intelligence it’s not what you think
- A Great Use For Artificial Intelligence: Scamming Scammers By Wasting Their Time
- Welcome To The Era Of The Ai Coworker
- Today, World Leaders Will Meet to Decide the Future of “Killer Robots”
- Boston Dynamics CEO Believes Robotics Will Become “Bigger Than the Internet”
- Could Software Stop School Shootings?: Panic button apps and AI could keep kids safer from shootings, but there are many non-technological problems to solve first.
- Bitcoin compromise collapses, leaving future growth in doubt: Bitcoiners don’t trust elites—even Bitcoin elites.
- Bitcoin rival doubles in price in four days as Bitcoin price slumps: With Bitcoin mired in controversy, a rival called Bitcoin Cash is gaining ground.
- CEO who presided over Mt. Gox’s collapse could end up with massive profits: Creditors to be paid out at April 2014’s ~$440 per Bitcoin, not Nov. 2017’s ~$6,500.
- Bitcoin Gold, the latest Bitcoin fork, explained
- Covert Cryptocurrency Miners Quickly Become A Major Problem
- Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain | How will these impact IP law?
- 17-Qubit Chips Have Officially Arrived, and So Begins the Quantum Revolution
- ESPN Streaming Service Set to Launch in Spring of 2018
- North Korea’s Apple Obsession Brings New Meaning to the Phrase ‘Walled Garden’
- HTC Announces Multi-million Dollar Vive Art Initiative, Bringing VR to Museums Worldwide
- Hashtag History
- CompuServe Forums, RIP: More than two decades of discussion and bad advice about to be deleted.
CREATIVITY
- Maybe the Canadian Copyright Bar and the Copyright Board Should Try Some PMNOC Remedies Instead of Rearranging the Deck Chairs? (Howard Knopf)
- With The US Out, Canada Gets Copyright Out Of TPP And Moves Closer To Agreement
- Creator Of Arguably The World’s Worst Film Loses Injunction Against Unflattering Documentary
- Taylor Swift Using Dubious Trademark Registrations To Shut Down Sales Of Fan-Made Goods
- Playboy Sues BoingBoing For Linking To Collection Of Centerfold Pictures
- Professor Says Threats Of Retaliation By China Stopped Publication Of His Book Revealing Chinese Influence In Australia
- Florida Supreme Court Denies Copyright Protection for Sound Recordings Predating Coverage Under the Federal Copyright Act
- Lawsuit Brought By Cosby Show Production Company Against Documentary Is The Reason We Have Fair Use
- Not All Pirates are in the Caribbean
- When Music You Wrote Becomes A Hate Speech Soundtrack
- The Fans Made Louis C.K. – Now They Might Undo Him
- Gal Gadot Will Not Play Wonder Woman Again Unless Brett Ratner Is Gone
- Ellen Page alleges director Brett Ratner outed her as a teen on ‘X-Men’ set
- Brett Ratner and Russell Simmons were investigated by police in 2001 after alleged sexual battery
- Six women accuse filmmaker Brett Ratner of sexual harassment or misconduct
- Actress Roundtable: Jennifer Lawrence, Emma Stone and Top Stars on Harassment in Hollywood and Ideas for Industry Change
- New York Ballot Selfie Ban Upheld… For Now
- Pricing access to the Trump White House: the strange case of the Times social media policy: “Any semblance of a political opinion must be squashed, with the appearance of neutrality and balance preserved at all costs.”
- Repeated Unwanted Emails to Politician’s Personal Email Address Can be Harassment–Hagedorn v. Cattani
- Coachella, Trademark Lawyers Want “Filmchella” Organizer Held in Contempt
- No One Knows What Omarosa Is Doing in the White House—Even Omarosa: The ‘Apprentice’ star has a top salary and a high-ranking job. But when we spent time with her, it was her wedding she was planning.
- Mapping Media Coverage Of Mass Shootings, Hurricanes And More
- FTC Fills Up With Trump Nominations
- FTC Speaks Out on Children’s Voice Recordings: In a new Enforcement Policy Statement, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) decreased the burden for operators with regard to the collection of certain audio voice recordings of children under the age of 13.
- The Superior Court of Québec analyses the exception allowing the use of a work protected by copyright for the purpose of news reporting
- Presentation on the First 18 Months of the Defend Trade Secrets Act
- Logitech Once Again Shows That In The Modern Era, You Don’t Really Own What You Buy
- Disney is planning a live-action Star Wars TV show for its streaming service: The long-rumored live-action Star Wars series might finally actually happen
- Glamorizing the Nightmare Trade: How a TV show is making a drug criminal way too cool.
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- Canada’s Billion Dollar Wireless Cash Grab: CRTC Data Shows Overage Fees Now Exceed Roaming Revenues (Michael Geist)
- FIFA Trial: Fox Sports Accused of Playing Role in Bribing Officials
- The NBA’s Vision For The Broadcast Of The Future
- Colorado Voters Shoot Down Comcast’s Protectionist State Broadband Law
- Google Fiber now sells $55-per-month gigabit Internet (in one city): $55 gigabit available in San Antonio while people in other cities pay $70.
- Lawmakers demand investigation into FCC Chairman Ajit Pai: Pai accused of evading questions about FCC helping Sinclair expand media empire.
- The FCC is having a terrible month, and consumers will pay the price
- Is Trump’s AT&T Merger Roadblock A Return To Sensible Antitrust, Or Just More Cronyism?
- AT&T says it’s “prepared to litigate” if US tries to block Time Warner deal: Trump’s DOJ reportedly wants AT&T to sell either CNN or DirecTV.
- AT&T Promises Your Broadband Will Suck Less…But Only If It Gets Another Massive Tax Cut
- FCC’s latest gift to telcos could leave Americans with worse Internet access: FCC will let carriers abandon copper lines without offering adequate replacements.
- Net neutrality rules should apply to ISPs and websites, senator says: Franken – Google, Facebook, and others are a “new kind” of Internet gatekeeper.
- Pressure grows on FCC to kill state consumer protection laws: Mobile lobby says FCC should enforce “non-regulation” policy throughout nation.
- Philo, Funded By Five Major Media Companies, Offers $16-Per-Month Skinny Bundle With Limited Channels
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- Canada Revenue Agency Obtains Broad Court Order for Years of PayPal Data (Michael Geist)
- First Ever En Banc FISA Court Review Gives Plaintiffs Standing To Challenge Surveillance Program Secrecy
- Anonymous Speech Online Dealt a Blow in US v. Glassdoor Opinion
- Ninth Circuit Lets Us See Its Glassdoor Ruling, And It’s Terrible
- Hackers Say They’ve Broken Face ID A Week After iPhone X Release
- Hackers say they broke Apple’s Face ID. Here’s why we’re not convinced: Key questions persist about $150 mask hackers used to unlock Face-protected iPhone X.
- Watch A 10-Year-Old’s Face Unlock His Mom’s iPhone X
- Should We Teach Facial Recognition Technology About Race?
- Trump’s Taxes Have Probably Already Been Hacked
- He Perfected A Password-Hacking Tool—Then The Russians Came Calling
- Security Breach and Spilled Secrets Have Shaken the N.S.A. to Its Core: A serial leak of the agency’s cyberweapons has damaged morale, slowed intelligence operations, and resulted in hacking attacks on businesses and civilians worldwide.
- DOJ Still Demanding Identity Of Twitter Users Because Someone They Shouldn’t Have Arrested Tweeted A Smiley Emoji
- Texas National Guard Latest Agency To Be Discovered Operating Flying Cell Tower Spoofers
- The Pentagon Opened Up To Hackers—And Fixed Thousands Of Bugs
- DOJ: Strong encryption that we don’t have access to is “unreasonable” – Rod Rosenstein – We should weigh “law enforcement equities” against security.
- Latest DOJ WTFness: Encryption Is Like A Locked House That Won’t Let Its Owners Back Inside
- How Journalists Fought Back Against Crippling Email Bombs
- How AV can open you to attacks that otherwise wouldn’t be possible: New AVGater flaw provided key ingredient for hacker to hijack computer.
- Recent Intel Chipsets Have A Built-In Hidden Computer, Running Minix With A Networking Stack And A Web Server
- Survey of bug bounty hunters shows who pans for pwns: Bug hunters are educated, young, looking for challenge—and cash to feed security habit.
- No boundaries: Exfiltration of personal data by session-replay scripts
- Hack Brief: OnePlus Phones Have An Unfortunate Backdoor Built In
- Netflix Knows Some Very Strange Things About Public Viewing Habits
GAMES
- Humvee maker sues Activision over trademark infringement in Call of Duty
- Humvee maker suing Activision over trademark infringement in Call of Duty: Automotive firm says series success came “only at the expense of AM General”
- Complaint: Call of Duty Video Game Infringes Trademarks by Pervasively Featuring Humvees
- Staffers stage walkout at IGN over mismanagement of sexual harassment claims
- IGN promises change following allegations of sexual harassment against former editor: Content staff release statement declaring solidarity with victims, some employees stop work in protest against harassment
- Russian military cites game screenshot as “evidence” of US ISIS support: Image from mobile AC-130 Gunship Simulator apparently came from a YouTube trailer.
- Behind the addictive psychology and seductive art of loot boxes: How gambling principles and seductive animation compel players to drop cash on card packs and weapon crates.
- From loot tables to loot boxes, how do we manage an addiction to addiction?
- Compulsion Loops & Dopamine in Games and Gamification
- Battlefront II dev: ‘It’s up to us to make sure that grind is fun and not overwhelming’: “I think crates can be a fun addition as long as you don’t feel forced to engage with them in order to progress. I feel that’s where the issue is with our game right now and that’s where we’ll look to solve as quickly as we can.”
- EA could replace annual sports games with live services: CEO Andrew Wilson says approach to Korean and Chinese markets could be extended globally, publisher is looking at subscription model for mobile games
- EA CEO: It’s only a matter of time before games embrace subscription services – “The notion that [subscription streaming services] wouldn’t impact our industry, I think, is naive. Will it take a little bit longer? Yes, for a whole bunch of reasons [like] file size, level of interactivity, and design.”
- EA: Live services plus subscriptions equals “uncapped” monetization – CFO Blake Jorgensen discusses how publisher is becoming less dependent on new titles, growing a more stable business
- Unlocking a Hero in ‘Star Wars Battlefront II’ Takes Almost Two Days of Gameplay
- Can EA fix what’s broken with Star Wars: Battlefront II’s economy? – Rant: Loot boxes are just the beginning of EA’s worst-ever dive into pay-to-win.
- Fans Worry Star Wars Battlefront 2’s ‘Free’ DLC Heroes Are Going To Take Eons To Grind For
- Star Wars: Battlefront 2 Players Won’t Be Able To Finish Campaign Until Nearly A Month After Launch
- Congratulations to EA for Posting the Most Hated Comment in Reddit History
- EA Defense Of Star Wars Battlefront II Becomes Most Downvoted Reddit Comment Ever
- EA promises “constant adjustments” to Battlefront II monetization: Users estimate it will take 40 hours to unlock iconic characters, prompting more backlash against the multiplayer shooter
- Battlefront II devs cut cost of in-game unlocks 75% in response to fan outcry
- Star Wars Battlefront 2 Developer Confirms That They Will Continue Tweaking The Loot Boxes In Response To Community Feedback: “We’re not somehow trying to bite the hand that feeds us.”
- The Curious Case Of The ‘EA Game Dev’ Who Said He Received Death Threats
- Battlefront II, Overwatch under scrutiny by Belgian gambling regulator
- Need for Speed: Payback can’t avoid its own bankruptcy – Poor driving and awful writing don’t justify a tremendous loot-drop grind.
- EA buys out a game studio after shutting another one down 3 weeks ago: Studio behind Titanfall, unnamed Star Wars game stays with EA to tune of up to $455M.
- EA buys Titanfall dev Respawn Entertainment for as much as $455M
- Electronic Arts to acquire Titanfall maker Respawn for as much as $455 million
- Reviews vs. revenues: Mixed messages for Take-Two – NBA 2K18 players say they hate virtual currency, but sales figures say they’re spending more than ever; Take-Two listens to the latter at its peril
- Ex-BioWare dev traces loot boxes back to Mass Effect 3and FIFA
- The Real Problem With ‘Games As Service’ Isn’t The Microtransactions
- From loot tables to loot boxes, how do we manage an addiction to addiction?
- Publishers argue mandated ESRB ratings puts physical indie releases at risk
- Indies feel the pinch from Sony’s new ESRB mandate: Special edition physical versions of online titles have to be rated, and it’s not going over well with some small studios
- Guillemot: “PlayStation 5 and fourth Xbox to launch 2019 at the earliest” – Ubisoft CEO does not expect new consoles any time soon thanks to launch of PS4 Pro and Xbox One X
- Softly, softly: The Xbox One X Launch
- GameStop aborts the launch of its unlimited game rental program
- GameStop suspends its unlimited used games program: The PowerPass program has been “temporarily paused” – customers who purchased a pass will get refunds
- Wolfenstein 2 Reminds Us What Heroes Look Like
- Bury me, my Love: Using video games to push back far-right rhetoric – Developer Florent Maurin on how we perceive refugees and the role of games in the debate
- Now you see me: Representation as innovation – Broader representation of gender, race and sexuality can lead to new stories, says Kim Belair, and new stories can enlighten and excite
- Victoria state government creates opportunities for women in games with $140,000 pledge: Funding opens up positions in seven Australian studios
- UK government pledges 2,000 visas, £61m investment to Tech sector: Number of visas doubled to bring in more talent, with three £20m schemes planned to grow Britain’s digital industries
- Pulling back the curtain on Overwatch’s development process
- More than 6,000 games released on Steam in 2017 so far: Almost ten years’ worth of new games are already on the marketplace – and there’s still a month to go
- Ark dev: “Retail was not something we had planned to do” – Studio Wildcard’s Jesse Rapczak on the benefits of retail in a digital era, Ark getting enhanced for Xbox One X, and possibly targeting Switch
- Disney severs ties with Marvel Heroes dev Gazillion Entertainment
- Kickstarter Launches a Patreon Competitor Called Drip
- Kickstarter Looks To Compete With Patreon, Launches New Platform Called Drip
- Kickstarter launches Patreon rival Drip: New crowdfunding platform allows creators to offer subscriptions for ongoing content, will integrate with Kickstarter
- ‘Pokémon GO’ Makers Announce Harry Potter AR Game, Releasing 2018
- Where is VR’s Nintendo Switch?: Cloudhead Games CEO Denny Unger says that developers need a device that offers both mobility and a high-powered VR experience
- More third-party publishers ‘aggressively’ ramp up Nintendo Switch support: Square Enix and Ubisoft are the latest to pledge additional products
- Doom definitely works on the Switch, but it looks noticeably worse: Reboot looks pretty good in portable mode, pretty fuzzy on the big screen.
- Report: Nintendo boosting Switch production, could make 30M consoles next year
- Nintendo takes a gamble with record-setting Switch production plans: Reported bump to 25 to 30 million units per year carries its share of risk.
- Nintendo to ship almost 50 million Switch units by April 2019: Platform holder plans to produce up to 30 million consoles in next fiscal year
- Nintendo Switch Has Added Its First Video Streaming App: Hulu
- Open-world games are broken, and Nintendo spent 2017 trying to fix them
- Porting classic games to smartphones isn’t the way to go, says Nintendo
- Report suggests Nintendo close to deal for a new Mario movie: Miyamoto would be a producer on possible Illumination Entertainment film.
- Minions studio close to deal for Mario movie – Report: Universal’s Illumination Entertainment and Nintendo nearly ready to move forward with animated feature film
- IO Interactive has cut a deal to make a Hitman TV series
- Hitman series in the works at streaming platform Hulu: John Wick creator Derek Kolstad on board to write pilot
- Game Developers Conference announces the inaugural GDC Film Festival
- GDC rolling out its own film festival: Event organizers open submissions for documentaries and other game-focused films to screen during annual conference
- National Videogame Arcade launching music festival in 2018: Masaya Matsura, Jessica Curry and Rob Hubbard to headline new event
- CCP dev: “Virtual reality doesn’t need a killer app” – Eve Valkyrie lead game designer Andrew Whillans also shares how to account for low install bases with VR multiplayer games
- Latest Figures Suggest ‘Resident Evil 7’ Could Have Some 475,000 PSVR Players
- Sony ramping up Move production for PSVR push: Platform holder also reports virtual reality attach rate highest on PS4 Pro, five games sold per headset
- ‘Haptic Shape Illusion’ Allows VR Controllers to Simulate Feel of Physically Larger Objects
- Tencent still eyes acquisition of PUBG developer Bluehole – report: Tencent working with firm to deliver PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds in China, says Korean Times
- Tencent to help establish Snapchat as games platform: Chinese behemoth believes mobile games will help social media firm meet growth expectations
- Tencent online gaming revenue exceeds $4bn in latest quarterly financials: Company-wide profit up to $2.7 billion, year-on-year increase of 67%
- Marvel Heroes Shut Down By Disney
- New Counter-Strike Matchmaking System Analyses Your Behavior In Other Steam Games
- Studio founded to develop bespoke esports title: Former US talent agency esports head looks to build competitive game from the ground-up
- Konami partners with eSports outfit to launch a new PES league
- Esports Industry Awards winners announced: Eefje “Sjokz” Depoortere and Megan “RheingoldRiver” Cutrofello first women to be recognised at awards
- The Game Awards adds new honors, including an award for ‘live games’
- Nominees revealed for The Game Awards 2017
- DRM Strikes Again: Sonic Forces Just Plain Broken Thanks To Denuvo
- Warner Bros.’s Machinima Launches 24-Hour Channel on Twitch
- Razer raises $500 million with Hong Kong IPO: Successful floatation drives stock up 40%, sells just over one billion shares
- What do players want from DLC? Obsidian survey attempts to find out
- The Digital Ruins of a Forgotten Future: Second Life was supposed to be the future of the internet, but then Facebook came along. Yet many people still spend hours each day inhabiting this virtual realm. Their stories—and the world they’ve built—illuminate the promise and limitations of online life.
Jon
News of the Week; November 8, 2017
DIGITAL
- Did a U.S. Court Just Disrespect the Supreme Court of Canada’s Global De-Indexing Decision?
- US judge says “global de-indexing order” against Google threatens free speech: Canada’s highest court sought to alter search results, but it won’t apply in US.
- Equustek No-Shows Legal Challenge Of Canadian Court Order Demanding Google Delist Sites Worldwide
- Company that sought to control Google search results is a no-show in US court: Equustek won an unprecedented global order, but it’s unlikely to stick in the US.
- US Court Protects Google From Canadian Court’s Delisting Order–Google v. Equustek (Eric Goldman)
- U.S. Judge Rules Canadian Court Order “Threatens Free Speech on the Global Internet” (Michael Geist)
- Linking in the US: is an embedded tweet an infringement of the public display right?
- Does Sharing A Link To Online Content Amount To Copyright Infringement?: This would destroy the way we communicate today, including interactions on social media platforms — and you can thank Tom Brady for it.
- Piracy site for science research dinged again in court—this time for $4.8M: Latest ruling might require Google to remove Sci-Hub from search.
- Global Music Lobby Groups Hit Ottawa in Blitz Over Copyright Term Extension (Michael Geist)
- Judge Ignores Congress, Pretends SOPA Exists, Orders Site Blocking Of Sci-Hub
- Russian Twitter Support for Trump Began Right After He Started Campaign: In three months after Mr. Trump announced his candidacy, tweets from Russian accounts offered far more praise for the businessman than criticism
- Russia funded Facebook and Twitter investments through Kushner associate: Institutions with close links to Kremlin financed stakes through business associate of Trump’s son-in-law, leaked files reveal
- On last day of work, rogue Twitter employee deactivated Trump’s account: “We are conducting a full internal review.”
- Trump Account Deactivation Exposes Tensions Within Twitter: Disconnect between Twitter’s employees and its highest-profile user is exposed after account deactivation
- The rogue Twitter employee who deleted Trump’s account could face hacking charges
- Don’t Cheer For The Twitter Employee Who Deleted Donald Trump’s Account
- Trump Twitter Use Violates First Amendment, Argue Scholars in Brief by Georgetown Law’s ICAP
- Newly released e-mails show Ivanka Trump kept using personal account: “The unusual formatting makes it appear that she is not using a government account.”
- How Russia ‘Pushed Our Buttons’ With Fake Online Ads
- Jenna Abrams, Russia’s Clown Troll Princess, Duped the World
- Inside story: How Russians hacked the Democrats’ emails
- Mitch McConnell: Tech Companies Should Help Us Weaponize the Internet Against Russia
- Twitter rewrote its user guidelines so it’s easier to tell what will get you banned: Twitter hopes it can make things clearer.
- Dianne Feinstein Wants Twitter To Just Hand Her A Bunch Of Private Communications
- Congress Pats Itself On The Back Via Social Media For Its Opportunity To Slam Social Media
- Twitter officially doubles character count, says most 280 testers didn’t use it: Today, you can spell out “two hundred and eighty” and still have room to say other stuff.
- Twitter gives new 280-character limit to all users following limited testing phase: The tech company said the new limit will begin its global rollout Tuesday, with everyone receiving the bump up from 140 characters soon
- Facebook’s New Mission: Video Will Bring Us Together
- Senator Portman Pushes Forward With SESTA, Despite Being Misinformed
- Dear Senators Portman & Blumenthal: What Should Blogs Do If SESTA Passes?
- Internet Association Sells Out The Internet: Caves In And Will Now Support Revised SESTA
- Will Sheryl Sandberg And Facebook Help Small Websites Threatened By SESTA?
- How The Internet Association’s Support For SESTA Just Hurt Facebook And Its Users
- How SESTA Undermines Section 230’s Good Samaritan Provisions (Eric Goldman)
- Why Does SESTA Allow State Attorneys General To File Civil Claims?
- Another Human Trafficking Expert Raises Concerns About SESTA
- Ron Wyden Puts A Hold On SESTA And Warns About Its Dangers
- Would Shutting Down Backpage Reduce Violence Against Women?
- It’s Getting Harder for Tech Companies To Deny Responsibility for Content: The industry, having lost control of the narrative in Washington, has reversed course and backed a bill against online sex trafficking
- Beware These Texas Shooting Rumors That Spread on CNN and Google
- Now, Silicon Valley Is Totally Cool With a Bill That Could Ruin the Internet
- The Internet is Not a VCR
- EFF destroys the podcasting patent, one last time: Owners of an infamous licensing campaign have now really tried everything.
- Government-Supported Dutch YouTube Channel Turns Heads By Depicting Effects Of Recreational Drugs
- YouTube’s Latest Pitch To Brands Celebrates Users Who Are “More Than Just Viewers”
- After Neglecting Creators, Snapchat To Offer Monetization Opportunities, New Content Tools
- Snapchat To Redesign Its App Following Disappointing Results
- CNN Launches E-Commerce Unit, Plans Digital News Subscriptions in 2018
- Amazon Fresh reportedly shutting down in neighborhoods in up to five states: Customers in affected areas will have to find a new grocery delivery service.
- With deletion of one wallet, $280M in Ethereum wallets gets frozen: Parity multi-signature wallets created since July break, affecting 1M ETH.
- SEC warns that celebrity cryptocurrency endorsements may be illegal: Floyd Mayweather and Paris Hilton could be in hot water for paid endorsements.
- With deletion of one wallet, $280M in Ethereum wallets gets frozen: Parity multi-signature wallets created since July break, affecting 1M ETH.
- How To Keep Your Bitcoin Safe And Secure
- Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs): The Current State of Play
- IBM’s plan to regulate pot with blockchains isn’t as crazy as it sounds: Canada is legalizing marijuana, and IBM wants to help.
- How A Tiny Error Shut Off The Internet For Parts Of The Us
- The Web began dying in 2014, here’s how
- Something is wrong on the internet
- The Tower of Babel: Five Challenges of the Modern Internet
- Stephen Hawking: “I Fear That AI May Replace Humans Altogether”
- Computer says no: why making AIs fair, accountable and transparent is crucial – As powerful AIs proliferate in society, the ability to trace their decisions, challenge them and remove ingrained biases has become a key area of research
- Ray Kurzweil: “AI Will Not Displace Humans, It’s Going to Enhance Us”
- Can copyright survive artificial intelligence?
- China Could Soon Overtake the US in AI Development, Former Google CEO Says
- DeepMind “Never Found the Limit” of AlphaGo Zero’s Intelligence
- Can Artificial Intelligence Revolutionize Medicine?
- Artificial Intelligence Is Putting Ultrasound On Your Phone
- How sheep with cameras got some tiny islands onto Google Street View
- The Google Docs Lockout Fiasco & The Failed Promise Of The Cloud
- Intel Brings Virtual Reality Content To NBA On TNT, Offers Vision Of Future
- Steven Soderbergh’s New App Will Change How You Watch TV
- Apple At Its Best
- I Hate How Much I Love the iPhone X
- iPhone 8 and 8 Plus are hits as Apple sells 46.7 million smartphones in Q4: Apple Watch sales continue to grow while the company bounces back in China.
- When Apple soured on Irish tax laws, it turned to a tiny English Channel island: “Apple is so big that it is effectively able to negotiate its own tax laws.”
- Supreme Court won’t hear Apple v. Samsung round two: Apple has $120M final resolution in one of its two big cases against Samsung.
- Apple’s Video Offering Takes Shape with Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon TV drama
- Broadcom wants to buy Qualcomm in unprecedented $130 billion deal: Broadcom would become the world’s third-largest chipmaker, behind Intel and Samsung.
- Elderly doctor: I lost my license because I don’t know how to use a computer – Doc says her paper records are just fine – state medical board disagrees.
- Doctor with no computer skills vows to battle medical board in court: “I am not going to compromise patients’ lives or health for the system.”
- Watching Hackers in 2017 – what happened to all the anarchy?: The 1995 cult classic depicts a vision of techies as stylish, punk and sexy – over twenty years later that aesthetic and attitude is nowhere to be seen
- The Year in Push Alerts: How the onslaught of breaking news has shaped our lives since Nov. 8, 2016.
- The End Of The Cult Of The Founder
- Vice Opens Up Asia HQ, Plots Regional Expansion
CREATIVITY
- High Court rules on copyright protection of TV formats for game shows
- DC Comics Defeats “Jesus” Trademark
- Moosehead Still At It: Sues Hop ‘N Moose Brewing For Trademark Infringement
- ‘Cosby Show’ Producer Sues BBC for Using Clips in Bill Cosby Doc: In a copyright lawsuit, Carsey-Werner Company alleges the network sought to capitalize on the popularity of ‘The Cosby Show.’
- This lawsuit against a Cosby rape documentary is why fair use exists: “Cosby Show” producers say even 7-second clips amount to copyright infringement.
- Harvey Weinstein: Rape claim by actress credible, police say
- David Boies Accused Of Running Horrifying Spy Operation Against Harvey Weinstein’s Accusers
- Netflix Reportedly Severs Ties With Kevin Spacey, Effective Immediately
- Netflix Is the Reason Behind the Disney, Fox Deal Talks
- Taylor Swift’s Legal Rep Tries To Kill Critical Blog Post With Bogus Defamation, Copyright Claims
- Taylor Swift threatens to sue blogger who connected her to white supremacists: Swift tried to use copyright to keep her threat of a lawsuit secret.
- Taylor Swift Attempts to Silence Critic, ACLU Fires Back: Pop star and attorney send threatening letter to local blogger
- India: In Defence of AIB’s Game of Thrones Memes: When can Satire/Critique Act as a Suitable Defence?
- SLAPP Alert: Professor Sues Another For Defamation Over Competing Academic Papers
- Disney Bans LA Times Writers From Advance Screenings In Response To Negative Articles
- LA Times: You can’t read our Thor review because Disney is mad – LA Times documented lavish election spending to defend Disneyland tax breaks.
- Disney forced to backpedal after banning LA Times from Thor screening: LA Times documented lavish election spending that defended Disneyland tax breaks.
- Thor: Ragnarok’s Valkyrie Shows How Far We’ve Got to Go for LGBTQ Representation on the Big Screen
- Chadwick Boseman Chose His Black Panther Accent to Make a Point About White Supremacy
- Museum fees are killing art history, say academics
- Top Academic Publisher Kowtows To China: Censors Thousands Of Papers, Denies It Is Censorship
- Journalists also have a “duty to warn”: Are we starting to do our jobs?: Media’s obsession with “balance” and addiction to spectacle led to disaster. Can we get back to real reporting now?
- Marvel loses creator of Jessica Jones, Miles Morales to DC: Bendis worked with Marvel since the early 2000s, writing for nearly every big series.
- Canadian Heritage Minister Joly Hints Many Cultural Groups Don’t Comply With Lobbyist Reporting Rules (Michael Geist)
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- Quebec Digital Sales Tax Bill Demonstrates the Complications That Come With Implementing a “Netflix Tax” (Michael Geist)
- US regulators demand CNN sale to approve AT&T-Time Warner deal: Dispute erupts in public as AT&T boss says he will not put news channel up for sale
- Trump’s DOJ wants AT&T/Time Warner to sell CNN or DirecTV before merger: AT&T could fight government in court in order to keep merger intact.
- Giant International Egos May Derail The Sprint T-Mobile Merger
- Competition Dodges A Bullet As T-Mobile, Sprint Merger Dies
- T-Mobile and Sprint finally, officially, say they definitely won’t merge: T-Mobile and Sprint will “fight the duopoly,” but as separate companies.
- Don’t Pay Verizon’s $10 ‘Premium Video’ Upcharge
- FCC Boss Demolishes Media Ownership Rules In Massive Gift To Sinclair Broadcasting
- FCC tries to help cable companies avoid state consumer protection rules: The FCC wants to block Minnesota from regulating Charter’s VoIP phone service.
- Sorry, Comcast: Voters say “yes” to city-run broadband in Colorado – Municipal broadband wins “David vs. Goliath battle” in Fort Collins, Colorado.
- Comcast Tries To Stop Colorado City From Even Talking About Building Its Own Broadband Network
- Comcast has a lot to lose if municipal broadband takes off: Comcast revenue could take a big hit in two cities that might build networks.
- Comcast Urges FCC To Ban States From Protecting Broadband Privacy, Net Neutrality
- Comcast asks the FCC to prohibit states from enforcing net neutrality: Pressure builds on FCC Chair Ajit Pai to preempt state net neutrality laws.
- AT&T Backs Off Nuisance Lawsuit Intended To Hamstring Broadband Competitors Like Google Fiber
- An AT&T drone is now providing cellular service to people in Puerto Rico: Cellular network still devastated; carriers scramble to reconnect residents.
- AT&T struggles to get Trump administration approval for Time Warner merger: DOJ could sue to block merger, but AT&T says everything is on track.
- House Antitrust Subcommittee Explores the Role of Antitrust Law in Net Neutrality
- What blockchain can learn from the net neutrality debate: antitrust and regulatory aspects of “paid prioritization” for a nascent technology
- Australia’s national broadband network under relentless attack—by cockatoos: Birds love steel braided cables for beak maintenance.
- ESPN Joins List Of Companies Enforcing Stringent Social Media Policies, Which Is Both Bad And Stupid
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- Canadian Court Says Law Enforcement Doesn’t Have To Hand Over Info On Stingray Devices
- Kim Dotcom settles case he filed against NZ police over “military-style raid”: Cops could have “knocked at our door at a reasonable hour and advised me of my arrest.”
- FBI can’t break the encryption on Texas shooter’s smartphone: FBI won’t confirm it’s an iPhone: “I don’t want to tell bad guys what phone to buy.”
- Miami City Attorney Tries To Erase Photos Of Fired Firefighters From The Internet
- Should I be worried that Amazon knows so much about me?
- Security vs. convenience? IoT requires another level of thinking about risk – Op-ed: Devices like Amazon Key put too much risk assessment on users; bad decisions follow.
- With Amazon Key’s launch, customers and lawyers have lots of questions – Prof: “Why would anyone want to give Amazon access to their home?”
- How Facebook Figures Out Everyone You’ve Ever Met
- Uploading all your nudes to Facebook isn’t such a bad idea: An industry-wide database of image hashes could stop non-consensual pornography, or revenge porn, at source
- To prevent revenge porn, Facebook will look at user-submitted nude photos: Pilot program goals are laudable, but is the remedy as bad as the ailment it treats?
- Flaw crippling millions of crypto keys is worse than first disclosed: Estonia abruptly suspends digital ID cards as crypto attacks get easier and cheaper.
- Cryptojacking craze that drains your CPU now done by 2,500 sites: Android apps with millions of Google Play downloads also crash the party.
- Stuxnet-style code signing is more widespread than anyone thought: Forgeries undermine the trust millions of people place in digital certificates.
- Critical Tor flaw leaks users’ real IP address—update now
- Russia’s ‘Fancy Bear’ Hackers Exploit A Microsoft Office Flaw—And NYC Terrorism Fear
- The Devious Netflix Phish That Just Won’t Die
- So What the Hell Is Doxxing?: What doxxing really is, plus advice on how to protect yourself from unwanted exposure of personal and private information online.
- What Is Informational Injury? The FTC Wants to Know What Folks Think Is Enough Harm to Take Action
- The Case Of Glassdoor And The Grand Jury Subpoena, And How Courts Are Messing With Online Speech In Secret
- Some Thoughts On Gag Rules And Government Unmasking Demands
GAMES
- Humvee maker sues Activision over ‘Call of Duty’
- AM General sues Activision over ‘Call of Duty’ Humvee use: The “Call of Duty” franchise rakes in billions, and AM General wants a piece of the pie.
- Overwatch devs aim to combat toxicity with a dedicated ‘strike team’
- The Trouble with Trailers: Developers have learned to deal with violence and difficult themes intelligently and respectfully in recent years – it’s time for marketing teams to catch up
- The Price Wolfenstein 2 Had To Pay To Get Around Germany’s Anti-Nazi Laws Was Removing A Mustache
- Board members vote to officially end voice actors’ strike
- Nearly a year later, video game voice actors end their strike: Approved deal ends the longest acting strike in U.S. history.
- In Amazon’s game engine, voice actors can now be replaced with robots: Just after actor strike ends, Lumberyard update adds a full text-to-speech pipeline.
- The End of Ownership: Video gamers have discovered a new and scary loophole in the laws of ownership—and the upshot is that a lot of your digital property might not technically be yours.
- The life, death, and rebirth of EVE Online’s player-created cemetery
- Need For Speed Payback Review: One step forwards and two steps back for the series.
- Call Of Duty: WWII Is A Small Story, Told Poorly
- Launch to launch, Call of Duty: WWII saw double Infinite Warfare’s sales
- Call of Duty: WWII doubles Infinite Warfare sales worldwide – Over $500m in opening weekend is just shy of Black Ops III’s $550m
- Niantic is developing a Harry Potter AR game
- Harry Potter AR game in the works from Niantic
- Pokemon Go creator looking to replicate its mobile success in partnership with Warner Bros
- Report: Apple preparing to release AR headset in 2020
- PUBG ban in China unlikely, says industry analyst: China is already the number one region for the game, with a 40% share of active players
- PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds crosses 20 million copies sold
- PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds hits 20 million sold: Bluehole survival shooter hits newest milestone less than a month after reaching 15 million
- Fortnite’s Battle Royale reaches 20 million downloads: Epic Games’ free-to-play battle royale edges in front of main rival PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, but remains well behind on concurrent players
- Canadian game dev surging – ESA Canada: Trade group says national games industry growing at six times the pace of the country’s economy
- As ESA enthusiastically backs GOP tax reform plan, some devs dismay
- UK console game sales now 30 – 45% digital: Confidential data shown to GamesIndustry.biz reveals massive shift in UK game sales
- UK physical market drops 16% in October as downloads increase: FIFA 18 tops a very different looking Top 20
- UK games tax relief extended to 2023: European Commission renotifies tax incentive scheme, granting another six years of support for British developers
- Super Mario Odyssey sells over 500,000 copies in Japan in a few days: The latest Famitsu numbers, which don’t include download sales, make Mario the second-highest selling Switch software launch
- Odyssey is fastest-selling Super Mario game in US and Europe: Switch sales now at 2.6m in the US, with Odyssey selling 1.1m
- L.A. Noire is too big to download to a standard Switch: Even the physical version requires a massive downloadable patch.
- EA not committing to more Switch games: Publisher wants to wait until system has been on sale a year to decide on development support beyond FIFA 18
- Sold Out: “Nintendo does not exclude you, it just asks you to up your game” – CEO Garry Williams says “the opportunities are there” for boxed games on Switch following digital indie gold rush
- Mobile still a “core pillar” of Nintendo’s strategy, despite Super Mario Run shortfall: “There is still much we have to learn,” says president Tatsumi Kimishima; no plans for platform holder to manufacture smartphones
- Sales up at Capcom thanks to ‘stalwart’ Monster Hunterfranchise
- Monster Hunter Switch drives Capcom’s sales up to $295mz: Nintendo title shows “stalwart performance”, publisher expects downloads to account for one in three sales by April
- Bandai surprised by Switch’s popularity, wants more titles on console
- Bandai Namco ramping up support for the Nintendo Switch: “We didn’t think the Switch [would] be accepted this fast”, says president Mitsuaki Taguchi
- One modder is on a quest to preserve Nintendo’s forgotten Flash games
- Blizzard has its own classic World of Warcraft server in the works
- Blizzard finally relents to years of fan pressure with World of Warcraft Classic: Shock announcement comes at outset of annual Blizzcon event.
- Destiny 2 and digital drive Activision Blizzard growth: More than half of Destiny 2 copies sold on consoles were purchased digitally as Activision side carries the company’s quarter – Over $1bn in-game revenues
- For console games, downloads are approaching a tipping point: Destiny 2’s digital success could spell long-term trouble for discs
- Activision Blizzard beats expectations to post record Q3 revenues
- StarCraft II goes free-to-play seven years after launch: Single-player campaign, ranked multiplayer available free of charge.
- Blizzard is making StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty free-to-play
- Starcraft II goes free-to-play: New WoW expansion announced alongside new business model for Blizzard’s hit RTS
- Take-Two plans to only release games with ‘recurrent consumer spending’ hooks: “It may not always be an online model, it probably won’t always be a virtual currency model, but there will be some ability to engage in an ongoing basis with our titles after release across the board. That’s a sea change in our business.”
- NBA 2K18, GTA Online drive Take-Two’s Q2: CEO Strauss Zelnick says despite complaints of aggressive microtransactions, player spending “probably the best barometer of how a title’s being received”
- Take-Two wants “recurrent consumer spending” from all titles, won’t always be virtual currency: Meanwhile CEO Strauss Zelnick remains confident Red Dead 2 won’t cannibalise ongoing GTA Online success
- Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy drive strong earnings for Square Enix
- New Dragon Quest, old Final Fantasy drive Square Enix growth: Japanese debut of DQ XI, HD remaster of FF XII, and Nier: Automata push publisher to 24% sales growth for first half of fiscal year
- For the first time, Ubisoft’s microtransactions out-earned digital game sales
- Microtransactions now account for nearly half of Take-Two’s revenue
- Games revenue slows to a crawl at Microsoft
- Microsoft gaming revenue stalls ahead of Xbox One X launch: Strong Xbox software and services revenue offset by lower hardware revenue
- Pressure Mounts for Xbox’s Missing VR Strategy as PSVR Rakes in Half a Billion in Hardware Alone: VR nowhere in sight for next week’s Xbox One X launch
- Microsoft joins OpenXR VR and AR standardization project
- Xbox plans to ramp up in-house development efforts
- Xbox to make bigger first-party push, could acquire studios: “We need to grow,” Xbox boss Phil Spencer tells Bloomberg
- Microsoft will have game streaming within 3 years as focus shifts to software: After years of decline, Microsoft plans to invest in first-party game development.
- Microsoft could bring first-party titles to rival platforms
- Xbox One X games at launch: The boosts, the bummers, and the bottom line
- Xbox One X review: An exclamation point for hardware, a question mark for software: Is Microsoft’s “true 4K” console worth $100 more than the PS4 Pro?
- Xbox One X pre-orders from Amazon UK delayed: Stock issues to responsible for delay, says distributor
- Assassin’s Creed Origins launch sales double Syndicate’s: Strong return of historical action franchise a bonus as Mario + Rabbids, Rainbow Six Siege help push first half sales up 66% year-over-year
- Zynga sees earnings rise for the second quarter in a row
- Zynga turnaround continues, company buys Peak Games’ card studio for $100m: Zynga has now posted two consecutive profitable quarters for the first time since going public
- Zynga looks to solidify newfound profitability: Developer building a portfolio of card games to keep players engaged for “a very long period of time”
- 2 Years of Gremlins, Inc.: demographics
- VR devs react to CCP exit: “VR is not dead”: Studios still optimistic about VR’s future, saying headlines about its death are simply “scandalous”
- Opioids Haven’t Solved Chronic Pain. Maybe Virtual Reality Can
- Wind Simulation Accessory for VR Headsets Hits $30k Crowdfunding Goal on Day One
- A word of warning on VR: Professor Mark Mon-Williams explains why VR headsets have different minimum age ratings, and what developers can do to avoid potential negative effects
- Intel To Bring Esports To PyeongChang Before Winter Olympic Games
- Dallas Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones Acquires compLexity Gaming
- Dallas Cowboys owner buys majority stake in Complexity Gaming: Complexity to relocate to Cowboys’ headquarters as construction begins on “state-of-the-art operations centre”
- UK games tax relief initiative extended until 2023
- Zynga pays $100M in cash to buy Turkish mobile dev Peak Games
- Zynga sees earnings rise for the second quarter in a row
- Telltale Games lays off 90 employees
Jon
News of the Week; November 1, 2017
DIGITAL
- Association Isn’t Liable for Its Members’ Message Board Postings–Inge v. Central Motorcycle Roadracing Association (Eric Goldman)
- European Court Rules On Internet Jurisdiction (Andres Guadamuz)
- TripAdvisor removed warnings about rapes and injuries at Mexico resorts, tourists say
- Appeals court keeps alive the never-ending Linux case, SCO v. IBM: SCO says IBM released a “sham” version of Monterey OS to prop up AIX for Power.
- Here are the Kremlin-backed Facebook ads designed to foment discord in US: Ads bash Clinton before election and cap on Trump after he won the presidency.
- What Congress Should Ask Tech Executives About Russia
- These Are the Ads Russia Bought on Facebook in 2016
- Congress Asks Tech To Face Hard Truths About Russian Meddling
- Spinoff: Whatever The Reports About Russian Trolls Buying Ads Is Initially, It’s Way, Way Worse
- Facebook, Google and Twitter grilled by Congress over Russian meddling – as it happened
- Facebook, YouTube admit to wider-ranging campaigns by Russian “state actors”: Disclosure of even bigger numbers comes ahead of Tuesday testimony on Capitol Hill.
- Facebook, Google, Twitter tell Congress their platforms spread Russian-backed propaganda – Twitter: “We are committed to working every single day at solving this problem.”
- Eight Revealing Moments From The Second Day Of Russia Hearings
- Top Experts: Can Facebook Legally Disclose Russian Ads–What does the Stored Communications Act say?
- Facebook Steps Up Efforts to Sway Lawmakers: Amid Russia probes and online ad scrutiny, social-media giant boosts lobbying spending and work on messaging
- Lawsuit accuses Facebook of scheming to weasel out of paying overtime: Lawsuit says Facebook has a “systematic, companywide wrongful classification” system.
- Collateral Damage Not Russian Site-Blocking’s Only Failure: Pirate Video Market Has Doubled As Well
- Reddit conducts wide-ranging purge of offensive subreddits
- NY Times Uncritically Says Fake News Debate Supports Chinese Style Censorship
- Trump adviser Roger Stone has been booted off Twitter: Stone fired off a profanity-laced tirade against a CNN reporter.
- Roger Stone, President Trump’s Attack Dog, Banned From Twitter For Harassing Journalists
- Roger Stone suing Twitter over suspension
- The College Kids Doing What Twitter Won’t
- Is Wikileaks Protected by Section 230? The Trump Campaign Thinks So (Eric Goldman)
- Trump Campaign Tries To Defend Itself With Section 230, Manages To Potentially Make Things Worse For Itself
- APNewsBreak: Georgia election server wiped after suit filed
- Craig Brittain’s Senate Race Page Reports Craig Brittain’s Personal Account As An ‘Imposter’
- Days after activists sued, Georgia’s election server was wiped clean: Main server deleted in July, two backups were “degaussed three times” in August.
- Georgia Election Server Mysteriously Wiped Clean After Lawsuit Highlights Major Vulnerabilities
- Georgia insists server deletion was “not undertaken to delete evidence”: “Narrative asserted in the media that the data was nefariously deleted… is without merit.”
- Russian Site-Blocking Operation Embroiled In Corruption Scandal
- Forcing Internet Platforms To Police Content Will Never Work
- Twitter drops hammer and sickle on RT, Sputnik ad buys over election shenanigans: No more sponsored Tweets, but Russia-funded media sites can still post “organic” Tweets.
- Twitter adds 4 million users amid ongoing harassment problem
- Ikea’s Ingenious Pre-Roll Ads Turn The Viewer Into A Voyeur
- YouTube Says New Technology Will Result In 30% Fewer Videos Being Deemed Advertiser-Unfriendly
- Google CEO: Viewers Accrue 100 Million Hours Of Daily YouTube Watch Time From Their Living Rooms
- YouTube TV Arrives On More Smart Devices, Including Xbox One Consoles, Android TVs
- Brands Beware: FTC Continues Campaign on Social Media Influencer Disclosures
- Florida Legislator Thinks First Amendment Should Be Trimmed Back A Bit To Deal With Social Media Threats
- How Google Goggles Won, Then Lost, The Camera-First Future
- Google Limits Access To Airfare Data, Risking Antitrust Concerns
- Dennis Prager Sues YouTube For Filtering His Videos In A Way He Doesn’t Like
- YouTube Responds To Lawsuit From Conservative Outlet, Says Restricted Mode “Is Not Censorship”
- Musician-Run Organization Runs Anti-YouTube Ad Campaign…On YouTube
- Finally, RIAA Front Group Admits That Forcing YouTube To Police Site Doesn’t Work Well
- Marketing Guy: Google Image Search Is A Honeypot Set Up By Aggressive Copyright Litigants
- Google’s AI Wizard Unveils A New Twist On Neural Networks
- Copyright Law Makes Artificial Intelligence Bias Worse: But it could be used to help fix the problem too.
- Artificial intelligence and copyright (Andres Guadamuz)
- We’re building a dystopia just to make people click on ads (Zeynep Tufekci)
- Universal Music Group Announces Strategic Alliance With Virtual Reality Company Within
- Amazon Amassed 7.1 Million Streaming Views In Four NFL Games
- Website copying allegations allow potpourri of claims (Rebecca Tushnet)
- Three female engineers sue Uber for sex and race discrimination: Plaintiffs claim that “stack ranking” was stacked against them.
- In shift to content distribution, Roku may stream to third-party devices: Roku’s mobile app could become a new hub for ad-supported channels.
- GoFundMe Jumps into Original Content, Launches New Studio
- Spotify Cancels Its Current Crop Of Original Video Series As It Looks To Design A New Format
- Apple Taking Family-Friendly Approach To $1 Billion Original Content Push
- Apple’s $1 billion TV lineup will be family-friendly, not Game of Thrones: Hollywood insiders paint a picture of a conservative company testing the waters.
- Is X > 8? Solving Apple’s iPhone sales equation: The iPhone 8 saw slow sales, while iPhone X demand quickly outstripped supply.
- Apple Reportedly Fires Engineer After Daughter’s iPhone X Video Goes Viral
- Apple Let YouTubers Review The iPhone X Ahead Of Traditional Tech Outlets
- Don’t drop that iPhone X—a screen repair will cost you $279
- Apple reportedly building iPhones, iPads without Qualcomm chips: Qualcomm has reportedly withheld software needed for testing its chips in Apple devices
- Microsoft Partners With NFL Stars For ‘Create Change’ Campaign
- AMD, which lost over $2.8B in 5 years, takes a hit after new report – Morgan Stanley: Demand for graphics chips, video game consoles will slow in 2018.
- GrubHub “gig economy” trial ends with judge calling out plaintiff’s lies: Small details of a part-time actor’s delivery job have become a federal case.
- The Little Black Box That Took Over Piracy
- The Rights of Synthetic Lifeforms is the Next Great Civil Rights Controversy
- DARPA’s New Brain Device Increases Learning Speed by 40%
- Prepping Self-Driving Cars For The World’s Most Chaotic Cities
- Future of Invasive Neural Interfaces & Uploading Consciousness with Ramez Naam
- Machine Learning Is Aiding in the Fight Against Mental Illness
- The Robot Tank Designed To Fight Russians
- Do Robots Have More Rights Than Women In Saudi Arabia?
- Sony’s Aibo robot dog is back, gives us OLED puppy dog eyes: You can adopt Sony’s newest robo dog today for $1,700 down and a mandatory monthly fee
- CAA Unveils Digital-Incubator Venture Creative Labs With $12.5 Million in Funding
- CAA Launches Startup Studio To Found New Tech And Media Companies
- Canadian Copyright, OA, and OER: Why the Open Access Road Still Leads Back to Copyright (Michael Geist)
- Information Disorder: Toward an interdisciplinary framework for research and policymaking
- This stupid patent was going to be used to sue hundreds of small businesses: A patent litigation factory was stopped from suing hundreds of small printers.
- Whois? No, Whowas: Incoming Euro privacy rules torpedo domain registration system: Internet policy wonks scramble over GDPR
- ‘I Forgot My Pin’: An Epic Tale Of Losing $30,000 In Bitcoin
- Samsung’s Mining Rig Lets You Collect Cryptocurrency Using 40 Old Galaxy Smartphones
- How Netflix works: the (hugely simplified) complex stuff that happens every time you hit Play
- Netflix Cancels ‘House Of Cards’ In Response To Sexual Misconduct Claims Against Kevin Spacey
- The Government’s Role in E-commerce: My Appearance Before the Standing Committee on International Trade (Michael Geist)
- Prepping Self-Driving Cars For The World’s Most Chaotic Cities
- Best-Ever Algorithm Found For Huge Streams Of Data
- Rethinking Data Ownership in the Age of the IOT
- Inside The Downfall Of Doppler Labs
- The underground story of Cobra, the 1980s’ illicit handmade computer: In their poor, Communist country, Romania’s computer curious built an underground industry.
- Google, others showcase emoji cheeseburger construction faux pas: Emoji fragmentation of a small stakes, culinary variety.
CREATIVITY
- Gag order silencing Comic-Con producers declared unconstitutional: Appeals court says silencing online speech over trademark suit is unconstitutional.
- Florida’s top court stops 1960s band from earning pre-1972 copyright royalties: Do states want copyright to sprawl even further? Two have said “no.”
- Eight Mile Style v New Zealand National Party: National ‘Loses itself’ to Eminem in copyright case
- New Zealand political party infringed Eminem copyright, must pay $412k: “Sound alike” track used by ad firm was too close to Eminem hit “Lose Yourself.”
- CBS sues man for copyright over screenshots of 59-year-old TV show: Asked about the lawsuit, CBS says only that plaintiff will “end up on boot hill.”
- Regulators crack down on gambling ads appealing to children
- Australian Lawmakers Propose Outlawing Parody, Having A Sense Of Humor
- There’s no free speech right to refuse wedding cakes to gay couples
- Standing to Sue for Copyright Infringement: No Bright Line Rule for Stock Photo Agencies
- Not every pattern is protected by copyright, even if creating it involved many choices
- Evidence Continues To Show Benefit Of “Openness” In Copyright Regimes
- The #MeToo moment
- Against Allegedly
- Reporter Arrested, Thrown To The Ground For Cursing
- What future for UK copyright after Brexit? Report on IPKat-BLACA panel discussion
- The Prehistory of Music: A conversation on the deep history of humans and music with Gary Tomlinson, author of A Million Years of Music.
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- New CASL Ruling: CRTC Provides Guidance on B2B Messaging and the Due Diligence Defence
- Ajit Pai submits plan to allow more media consolidation: Rules that preserve media diversity in local markets will be eliminated.
- FCC chair wants to impose a cap on broadband funding for poor families: Pai proposes Lifeline budget cap and new limits on which ISPs can get subsidies.
- Another broadband merger: CenturyLink gets FCC approval to buy Level 3: CenturyLink gets bigger while it faces lawsuits alleging overcharges.
- Dead People Mysteriously Support The FCC’s Attack On Net Neutrality
- Sprint/T-Mobile merger is off, preserving wireless competition (for now): Sprint owner wants to maintain control and invest in its network, report says.
- How Right-Wing Media Is Ignoring The Mueller Indictments: “Much ado about nothing.”
- Charter CEO Tries To Blame Netflix Password ‘Piracy’ For Company’s Failure To Adapt To Cord Cutting
- Portugal Shows The Internet Why Net Neutrality Is Important
- Verizon-Funded Group Claims Killing Net Neutrality Would Really Help Puerto Rico Right Now
- Verizon Will Graciously Now Let You Avoid Video Throttling For An Additional $10 Per Month
- Verizon creates new $10 monthly charge to remove video throttling: $10 add-on charge removes limit that restricts mobile videos to 720p.
- Verizon Lobbies FCC To Block States From Protecting Broadband Privacy, Net Neutrality
- Verizon has a new strategy to undermine online privacy and net neutrality: FCC should declare state broadband laws invalid, Verizon tells commission.
- San Francisco, Seattle Tire of Comcast, Mull Building Citywide Fiber Networks
- AT&T admits defeat in lawsuit it filed to stall Google Fiber: Judge dismissed AT&T’s lawsuit against Louisville, and company won’t appeal.
- Pirate TV services are taking a bite out of cable company revenue: Millions of North Americans are using illegal TV services, research finds.
- Careful what you wish for – Bill O’Reilly version
- Brian Williams Opens Up About His Unexpected Re-Invention: “Second Acts Are Possible, With A Little Spiffing Up”: Most broadcasters would have been cooked if they had undergone the sort of scandal that Williams faced in 2015. But a slow-and-steady revival—a mixture of dutiful penance, clever planning, and a dramatic change in the media—has Williams turning 11 p.m. into the new primetime.
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- What Did Cambridge Analytica Really Do For Trump’s Campaign?
- China Tests The Limits Of Its Us Hacking Truce
- BlackBerry CEO Promises To Try To Break Customers’ Encryption If The US Gov’t Asks Him To
- Rumors That Facebook Is Secretly Recording You Refuse to Die
- A surge of sites and apps are exhausting your CPU to mine cryptocurrency: Coinhive harnesses the resources of 500 million people with no questions asked.
- New Evidence Shows Defense Dep’t Abusing Surveillance Procedures To Spy On Americans
- Video dooms cop who arrested nurse for not letting him take patient’s blood: Nurse told officer to get a warrant. Cop grabs her and arrests her for no reason.
- Judge Doesn’t Care Much For DOJ’s Boilerplate, Refuses To Grant One Year Gag Order
- FBI Says It Can’t Get Into 6,900 Encrypted Phones. So What?
- Declassified Docs Show NSA Trying To Prosecute A Journalist For His Successful FOIA Requests
- A new, virulent ransomware epidemic is fuelled by yet another leaked NSA cyberweapon
- Assessing the threat the Reaper botnet poses to the Internet – what we know now: Whatever the threat posed by the new IoT botnet, a worse one has lurked for months.
- Apple’s Machine Learning Engine Could Surface Your iPhone’s Secrets
- Facing privacy suits about facial recognition
- Back Down The Rabbit Hole About Encryption On Smartphones
- Researcher Still Being Pursued By Russian Bank Over Last Year’s Mistaken Trump Connection Story
- European Parliament Agrees Text For Key ePrivacy Regulation; Online Advertising Industry Hates It
- Kim Dotcom settles case he filed against NZ police over “military-style raid”: Cops could have “knocked at our door at a reasonable hour and advised me of my arrest.”
- Wyden’s Reform Bill Would Also Deter Misuse Of NSA Powers To Compel Tech Company Assistance
- Members of Congress want you to hack the US election voting system: Bug-bounty program would exempt participants from federal hacking laws.
- CIA releases 321 gigabytes of Bin Laden’s digital library, Web cache crap: “There is no absolute guarantee that all malware has been removed.”
- Man finds USB stick with Heathrow security plans, Queen’s travel details: Secrets discovered when USB was plugged into library computer; data unencrypted.
GAMES
- Dev draws flak for making a game about resisting oil pipelines
- Energy Group Labels Creators Of Video Game As ‘Eco-Terrorists’
- Oil lobbyists accuse game of promoting “eco-terrorism”: Thunderbird Strike “an eco-terrorist version of Angry Birds,” says Republican senator
- Opinion: When Big Oil attacks your game
- EA shuts down community-led classic Battlefield revival project
- EA shuts down fan-run servers for older Battlefield games: Modified game clients were being used to get around defunct GameSpy servers.
- Kotaku’s scum-and-villainy story of why EA shuttered a Star Wars game: The ripple effects of LucasArts’ closure apparently set Visceral’s demise into motion.
- EA kicking a studio when it’s downsizing: 10 Years Ago This Month: EA Chicago’s closure makes the announcement of Visceral Games’ demise seem like a lesson in tact
- Visceral devs share the story of the studio’s closure
- EA CEO on Visceral closure: “It wasn’t about single-player vs live service” – But publisher says live services continue to be “the bedrock of our business”
- EA CEO Comments On Closing Visceral And Why Its Star Wars Game Was Refocused: “It does happen from time to time as part of the creative process.”
- EA tweaks Star Wars Battlefront II’s loot box drops following beta feedback
- EA execs address Battlefront II loot box concerns: Publisher insists Star Wars shooter will offer good value to players, won’t be pay-to-win
- Star Wars: Battlefront II changes its loot box plans… but is it enough?: Worst damage is fixed, but is this still too much Dark Side in a Star Wars game?
- How the ESRB is Promoting Children’s Gambling
- EA takes a loss in Q2 as digital sales continue to outshine physical
- EA Sports helps EA grow revenue, narrow losses: Digital growth more than offsets 19% year-over-year decline of packaged goods revenues
- PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds could face ban in China: Game deviates from values of socialism, according to China’s content watchdog
- Football Manager to include gay players for first time in series’ history: “I just think it’s crazy that in 2017 we are in a world where people can’t be themselves,” says game director
- So 52.45% of People Playing my Indie Game Have Pirated it…
- Ubisoft says DRM isn’t the reason Assassin’s Creed: Origins pushes CPUs: VMProtect has “no perceptible effect,” game uses “full extent” of CPU by design.
- With Denuvo Broken, Ubisoft Doubles Up On DRM for Assasin’s Creed Origin, Tanking Everyone’s Computers
- Ubisoft has made its Sharpmake game dev tool open-source
- U.S. gov’t stands by DMCA exemption for museums preserving online games
- Amazon opens dedicated ‘Retro Zone’ for selling ‘retro’ games and gear
- Wolfenstein II: a good argument for games to get political
- Does Wolfenstein II’s brutal opening have design value?
- Wolfenstein 2 Collectible Mocks Progressive Magazine Over Its Coverage Of White Nationalists
- The New Colossus: Building Wolfenstein II atop a million small decisions
- Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus Review – If the only good Nazi is a dead Nazi, I just made a whole pile of good Nazis.
- Ethics 101: Designing Morality in Games
- Dev Q&A: A Mortician’s Tale challenges how games depict death
- The economics of single-player games: As many top studios focus on multiplayer, service-based games, does the business case for narrative-driven single-player titles still add up?
- Reclaiming Assassin’s Creed’s lost identity
- Sales and profits up at Nintendo as the Switch continues to shine
- Nintendo Switch closing in on 8M sales worldwide
- SNES Classic and Super Mario Odyssey hit 2M sales
- Super Mario Odyssey hits 2 million sales: With Switch sales “tracking those of the Wii,” latest Mario game reached almost a third of the console’s audience
- Odyssey breaks 3D Mario week one sales record in Japan
- Super Mario Odyssey Review: Mario’s new romp joyously fuses old with new.
- Switch shipments will near 17 million units by the end of March: Six-month results show big increases in revenue and profit, with 50 million units of software expected to ship this fiscal year
- Nintendo survey reveals who’s purchasing the Switch
- Data shows versatility of the Switch is more than just a gimmick: Nintendo still has a knack for designing unique hardware
- Nintendo promises improved Switch availability for holiday season: Company bumps planned production by 4 million units to meet unexpected demand.
- Nintendo: The least popular way to play Switch games is primarily on a TV
- Super Mario Run is still short of Nintendo’s profit expectations: Despite reaching 200 million downloads, Nintendo tells investors that Mario’s mobile debut has “not yet reached an acceptable profit point”
- Sony’s games division drives strong growth in profits
- PlayStation drives Sony’s Q2 2017 revenues up to $18.25bn: Game and Network Services division saw sales more than double on 2016, PS4 shipments up to 67.5m units
- Sony focus moving from hardware sales to active user base: PS4 maker the latest to underscore the increasing importance of engagement metrics over unit sales
- Resident Evil 7 doubled PlayStation VR session time, says Sony
- Daybreak gives PS3 version of DC Universe Online 3 months to live
- Gartner’s Brian Blau on the State of the VR & AR Industries
- Oculus’ Bernard Yee: “Everything we’ve done to date is the warm-up for VR” – Executive producer posits that VR is about ‘the fantasy of the small space’ during View Conference talk
- Rob Pardo: VR MMOs not happening any time soon – World of Warcraft designer also offers advice to aspiring developers during his View Conference keynote
- “VR’s potential is literally infinite” – Oculus: Jason Rubin on the VR road-map and why analogies to failed tech from analysts and critics “all fall flat for me”
- CCP closes 2 studios as it backs away from VR development
- CCP exits the VR business: EVE Online studio has shuttered its Atlanta studio and is selling its Newcastle studio – the strategy shift impacts about 100 staff
- Google launches VR and AR object library called ‘Poly’
- Free-to-play Fortnite: Battle Royale surpasses 811k concurrent players
- Profits and revenue on the rise for Konami’s video game branch
- Profits up at Konami thanks to strong performance in mobile market: Konami enjoys 24.5% year-on-year profit growth in games industry
- Doubt cast on future of Amazon Game Studios’ first major development: Breakaway on “indefinite hiatus” according to report
- Steam beta tests Curator changes: Valve adds tools to help devs deal with influencers, hopes to roll them out wider in coming weeks
- Valve’s big Steam Curator overhaul aims to streamline key distribution
- Xbox software and services Q1 revenue offsets hardware decline: CEO Satya Nadella positions revenue balance as “leading indicator” of Microsoft’s ambitions in the gaming sector
- How Microsoft Delayed A Wildly Popular Xbox Feature To Clean Up Its Wildly Unpopular Always Online Plans
- Microsoft has stopped making the Kinect, and that makes me sad: Robbing the Xbox of its eyes and ears makes it a lesser platform.
- Microsoft could bring first-party titles to rival platforms
- HoloLens availability expanded as Microsoft continues pushing it to industry: Redmond insists that Mixed Reality isn’t just for gaming.
- Warner Bros. Interactive takes over Rocket League retail distribution
- Firefly Games partners with Dreamworks for franchise-laden RPG
- Riot Games introduces revenue sharing in EU LCS overhaul: Developer rethinks Challenger Series and looks to reward teams that “positively contribute to the success of the LCS”
- A New Cornerstone of Human Culture is Transforming Our Oldest Institutions: The future of eSports is in the hands of the players. Can they take it?
- Esports Execs Discuss Barriers, Advantages To Olympic Inclusion
- Olympic Committee agrees eSports ‘could be considered’ legitimate sport
- International Olympic Committee takes steps to recognise esports: IOC and international sports federation “in a dialogue with the games industry” on esports
- Olympic committee lays out expectations for esports’ inclusion: They will need an international governing organization
- Applying entrepreneurial skills to be a better game dev
- Juggling the chainsaws of work-for-hire vs. original projects
- Video Game Mini-Maps Might Finally Be Going Away
- The untapped potential of games to shape the future: “The popular imagination of games hasn’t quite caught up to the reality,” says Near Future Society co-founder Oliver Lewis
- Razer partners with devs to debut $700 game-focused Android phone
- Razer Debuts Its First Phone, And It’s Built For Games
- Essential Facts (Entertainment Software Association of Canada)
Jon
News of the Week; October 30, 2017
News of the Week; October 25, 2017
DIGITAL
- Demers v. Yahoo Inc: Québec Court Confirms that Québec Consumer Law Applies to Free Online Services
- Google Removed Catalonian Referendum App Following Spanish Court Order
- Another Court Rejects ‘Material Support To Terrorists’ Claims Against Social Media Sites–Gonzalez v. Google (Eric Goldman)
- Controversial “Gripe Site” Protected (Again) by the Communications Decency Act and Defeats Novel Copyright Attack with Website “Browsewrap” License to User Generated Content
- Spanski Enterprises, Inc. v. Telewizja Polska, S.A.: How Far Is Too Far When It Comes to the Extraterritorial Reach of US Copyright Law?
- Nielsen Data says 89% of OTT Viewing Takes Place on TV Sets
- Apple calls report of reduced iPhone X Face ID specs “completely false”: Apple says Face ID will still only have a one-in-a-million chance of failing.
- All The Face-Tracking Tech Behind Apple’s Animoji
- After Supreme Court detour, Apple v. Samsung goes to a fourth jury trial: Apple wields design as a weapon, a strategy that has led to judicial paralysis.
- Apple’s Billion-Dollar Bet on Hollywood Is the Opposite of Edgy: A conservative corporation takes its first steps into a new industry.
- Empathy – the latest gadget Silicon Valley wants to sell you: The tech world wants us to believe that virtual reality will unlock human understanding on a global scale. But it’s also a business strategy
- Vox Media Fires Editorial Director Lockhart Steele For Misconduct, Says Investigation Is “Ongoing”
- Open for business, ransomware authors and perpetrators cashing in on emerging dark web marketplace economy
- Two-week-old Pixel 2 XL displays are already showing burn-in: LG’s terrible OLED panels have yet another issue.
- Gab Drops Its Lawsuit Against Google; Considers Trying Its Hand At Lobbying
- Copyright Office Will Renew Previous DMCA Exemptions Without Much Fuss — But Why Is This Even Necessary?
- Report: Twitter CEO took a Russian impostor’s bait in 2016: The retweets were for innocent, “positive” stories.” And that was the point.
- Proposed law would regulate online ads to hinder Russian election influence: Honest Ads Act requires Google, Twitter, Facebook to open ads to public review.
- When Russian Trolls Attack: Anna Zhavnerovich knew she was taking a risk when she publicized the details of her assault online. But in doing so, she joined a growing movement of survivors fighting back against Russia’s Kremlin-influenced trolling machine.
- Political ads on Twitter will now be labeled with lots of spending data: Follows mounting congressional pressure about social media ads and disclosure.
- In its new timeline, Twitter will end revenge porn next week, hate speech in two: The company has laid out a “safety calendar” with changes through January.
- Lawyers: Trump’s Twitter Account Not Presidential; Also: Trump Is President, Can’t Be Sued
- Trump’s Favorite Law Firm Loses Massive RICO SLAPP Suit Against Greenpeace, But Has Another One Already Going
- This Week’s Best Twitter Is College Kids Pretending to Flunk Midterms for Viral Fame
- Mercedes handles the competition because it knows how to handle data, too: Ahead of (another) Mercedes win, Ars gets a look at the team’s network stack.
- High-tech mirror for cancer patients only works if you smile
- UK Gov’t Considering Redefining Social Media Services As Publishers To Make It Easier To Control Them
- How Social Media Endangers Knowledge
- How Fiction Becomes Fact on Social Media
- The Responsibility of Online Platforms: a Marginal Challenge in Québec
- Russian Cyberspies Are Rushing to Exploit Recent Flash 0-Day Before It Goes Cold
- Computer Parts Site Newegg Is Being Sued for Allegedly Engaging in Massive Fraud [Updated]
- Korean banks sue Newegg, allege online retailer aided massive fraud: Both Newegg, ASI will “vigorously defend” their companies and deny wrongdoing.
- When Government Fails, Social Media Is The New 911
- How blockchain technology can set us free from this Brexit time warp
- Blockchains Explained In Two Minutes
- MasterCard Announces That Payments Can Now be Made on Blockchain
- Your Browser Could Be Mining Cryptocurrency For A Stranger
- An AI god will emerge by 2042 and write its own bible. Will you worship it?
- Elon Musk Eviscerates People Who Discuss “A.I. Gods”
- Artificial Intelligence in Christian Thought and Practice: This series by Christian computer scientists introduces questions for Christians about AI and its role in society
- These Are The Ethical Dilemmas We Face As AI Takes Over Our Lives
- Using Abstract VR Art for Neural Entrainment & Brain Research + Can Creative AI Become Conscious?
- The Surreal Comedy Bot That’s Turning AI Into LOL
- Google Is Honing AI That Can Recognize Human Actions Using YouTube Videos
- Insights: Google Knits Artificial Intelligence Into Everything, But Are We Sure It Won’t Be Evil?
- Welcoming Our New Robot Overlords: Once, robots assisted human workers. Now it’s the other way around.
- The Future of Online Dating Is Unsexy and Brutally Effective
- Facebook is struggling to meet the burden of securing itself, security chief says: Chief Security Officer described security report as a “very painful process.”
- How People Inside Facebook Are Reacting To The Company’s Election Crisis
- Monopoly Power and the Future of Facebook
- Will Facebook Kill All Future Facebooks?
- Court Not Impressed With Sneaky Plan To Sell Patents To Native Americans To Avoid Review… But New Lawsuits Filed
- Several women accuse tech pundit Robert Scoble of sexual harassment
- Tech Writer Robert Scoble Accused of Sexual Harassment, Assault by Multiple Women
- The Slippery Slope of Internet Censorship in Egypt: In response to a recent, dramatic increase of Internet filtering in Egypt, Internet users take to social media and Google Drive to protest filtering and disseminate banned content.
- A Joke Tweet Leads To ‘Child Trafficking’ Investigation, Providing More Evidence Of Why SESTA Would Be Abused
- Beyond ICE In Oakland: How SESTA Threatens To Chill Any Online Discussion About Immigration
- Study On Craigslist Shutting ‘Erotic Services’ Shows SESTA May Hurt Those It Purports To Help
- Is Hollywood ‘Exploiting’ Anti-Trafficking Organization To Support SESTA?
- How A Startup’s Legal Battle With A Software Giant Could Redefine Tech Workers’ Rights
- Uber, Intel, and other tech firms will urge Congress to let “Dreamers” stay – Uber: “We plan to support Dreamers as long as they need help.”
- Regulators of ‘sharing economy’ platforms caught between competing interests
- Cities around US offer billions in tax breaks to be Amazon’s HQ2: Cities and states are trying to one-up each other, showing off their best features.
- Another German decision warns against broad application of GS Media presumption for for-profit link providers
- NAFTA Modernization and IP/E-commerce: My Appearance at the Senate Open Caucus (Michael Geist)
- Netflix Plans To Fund Its Increased 2018 Content Budget With Additional $1.6 Billion Of Debt
- Netflix to Raise $1.6 Billion More Debt Financing to Fuel Content-Buying Binge
- Nielsen Now Vends Ratings Info For Netflix Shows To Top Media Companies
- Using YouTube Takedowns As Extortion
- YouTube’s brilliant ad was one of the biggest stories from Game 1 of the World Series
- As YouTube TV Begins World Series Ad Campaign, Its Play Button Vexes Viewers
- Billboard Will Decrease Weight Of YouTube Views In Hot 100 Charts
- How YouTube Entrepreneurs In Their 20s Are Disrupting Traditional Record Labels
- “Despacito”, YouTube’s Most-Viewed Video, Was Shot In 14 Hours And Edited On Final Cut Pro X
- Amazon Video Direct Funds Programming For The First Time By Investing In Funny Or Die Shorts
- BroadbandTV Signs Yousef ‘FouseyTube’ Erakat, Bart Baker, And h3h3Productions
- Snap Has Hundreds Of Thousands Of Unsold Spectacles Sitting In Warehouses
- The Judge’s Code: Meet the judge who codes — and decides tech’s biggest cases
- Digital Goods Are Valued Less Than Physical Goods
- How has digital journalism changed your work day?
- How Big Tech Became A Bipartisan Whipping Boy
CREATIVITY
- Eminem Wins New Zealand Copyright Lawsuit; Awarded Over 400K In Damages
- Author Who Lost Copyright Case Over The Da Vinci Code In The US In 2007 Looks To Revive It In The UK In 2017
- TV formats potentially eligible for copyright protection as dramatic works under UK law
- Forgetting Functionality (Christopher Buccafusco & Jeanne Fromer)
- Copyright Laws Make Photographs of the Eiffel Tower at Night Illegal
- Does a French copyright smell anything?
- Judge Bars News Station From Showing Pictures In News Story, Admits It’s Prior Restraint, Shrugs
- Hate speech is protected free speech, even on college campuses: My students trust colleges to control offensive speech. They shouldn’t.
- Communism’s Answer to Mickey Mouse Is Thrust Into a Very Capitalist Dispute
- Long Trail Brewing Sues East Coast Apparel Company Over ‘Take A Hike’ T-Shirt
- Harvey Weinstein Case Brings Sexual Harassment Back to the Spotlight
- Photographer Spends Eternity Waiting For Museum Visitors To Match Artworks And The Result Is Worth The Wait
- Serialized Television Has Become a Disease
- How (not) to protect an idea for a TV format
- Arnold Schwarzenegger Thinks Last Action Hero Bombed Because of Bill Clinton
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- Government Rejects Call for an Internet Tax: “Conflicts With Principle of Affordable Access” (Michael Geist)
- Compliance and Enforcement Decision CRTC 2017-367: 3510395 Canada Inc., operating as Compu.Finder – Constitutional challenge to Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation
- Bill O’Reilly says he was one of many employees accused of sexual harassment at Fox
- James Murdoch Says Size of O’Reilly Settlement Was ‘News to Me’
- Local TV and radio stations no longer required to have local studios: Republicans eliminate rule, make it easier for stations to close local studios.
- The Main Studio Rule Is Dead; Long Live the Main Studio
- FCC Approves Repeal of Main Studio Rules and Starts Proceeding to Examine Broadcast Public Notices and Filing of TV Ancillary and Supplementary Revenue Reports
- FCC Likely To Use Thanksgiving Holiday To Hide Its Unpopular Plan To Kill Net Neutrality
- A Public Focused Approach To Net Neutrality
- Michigan Lawmaker Flees Twitter After Reports Highlight She Helped AT&T Push Anti-Competition Broadband Law
- Verizon brings back full-quality video streaming for $10 more: If you want your mobile video to stream in 4K on Verizon, you’ll need to pay extra. And have the right phone.
- Report: Verizon struggling to launch streaming TV service in crowded field – It’s had two delays and now plans to launch in the spring, says Bloomberg.
- Verizon’s Long-Shot Bet To Disrupt Google And Facebook
- Michigan Lawmaker Doesn’t Understand Her Own Bill Hamstringing Broadband Competition
- The Cable Industry’s Ingenious ‘Solution’ To TV Cord Cutting? Raise Broadband Rates
- After Report Suggests It Ripped Off Taxpayers, Frontier Communications Shrugs When Asked For Subsidies Back
- $100 Internet bill became $340 for no reason, Frontier customer says: Overcharges continue for months despite customer service promising a fix.
- Google Fiber is now in Louisville thanks to new fiber deployment strategy: Microtrenching sped up work in Louisville during court battle over utility poles.
- Wireless Carriers Again Busted Collecting, Selling User Data Without Consent Or Opt Out Tools
- Jails pocket up to 60 percent of what inmates pay for phone calls: “Site commissions” raise prices by sending up to 60 percent of revenue to jails.
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- DOJ changes “gag order” policy, Microsoft to drop lawsuit – Brad Smith, Microsoft’s attorney: “It is an unequivocal win for our customers.”
- New DOJ Policy Restricts Use Of Warrant/Subpoena Gag Orders
- Government Drops Its Demand For Data On 6,000 Facebook Users
- Amazon Key Is Bigger Than Package Delivery
- Amazon Key unlocks your door for in-home package deliveries: Will you let Amazon be the gatekeeper to your home?
- Court Has No Problem With All House Residents Being Forced To Hand Over Fingers To Law Enforcement
- Judge: MalwareTech is no longer under curfew, GPS monitoring – Marcus Hutchins, awaiting trial, can now live and work unencumbered in LA.
- New Ransomware Linked To Notpetya Sweeps Russia And Ukraine
- New wave of data-encrypting malware hits Russia and Ukraine: Highly advanced “Bad Rabbit” hits train stations, airport, and media.
- DOJ Subpoenas Twitter About Popehat, Dissent Doe And Others Over A Smiley Emoji Tweet
- The DOJ’s Bizarre Subpoena Over An Emoji Highlights Its Ridiculous Vendetta Against A Security Researcher
- The Reaper IoT Botnet Has Already Infected A Million Networks
- Equifax Deserves The Corporate Death Penalty
- Key e-mail from feds got caught in body-cam maker’s spam filter: Axon hopes “to resolve these matters as expeditiously as possible.”
- Police body cams had no “statistically significant effect” in DC: “There was no indication that the cameras changed behavior at all.”
- NYPD Tells Judge Its $25 Million Forfeiture Database Has No Backup
- NYPD can’t get story straight on evidence system backups: Deputy commissioner says the system is “backed up”; IT staff affidavit says otherwise.
- FBI director: Unbreakable encryption is a “huge, huge problem”: “I get it, there’s a balance that needs to be struck,” Christopher Wray said.
- Law Prof Argues Cell Location Records Shouldn’t Need Warrants Because Cell Phones Have Encryption
- Time For The Feds To Say What They Know About Kaspersky
- Worker who snuck NSA malware home had his PC backdoored, Kaspersky says: Kaspersky presses its case it didn’t knowingly help Russia steal NSA secrets.
- Kaspersky pledges independent code review to cast off spying suspicions: After accusations by DHS of ties to Russian intel, company seeks to reassure customers.
- Crippling crypto weakness opens millions of smartcards to cloning: Gemalto IDPrime.NET almost certainly isn’t the only smartcard vulnerable to ROCA.
- How To Avoid Future Krack-Like Failures: Create Well-Maintained ‘Fat’ Protocols Using Initial Coin Offerings
- “Security concerns” lead to LTE service shutdown on Chinese Apple Watches: The Chinese government doesn’t know what to do with eSIMs yet.
- Amazon Key Puts Deliveries—And Delivery People—In Your Home
- Computer hacking victims to receive up to £6,000 compensation for ‘distress’ caused by cyber crime, under new plans: There are fears the EU regulations will spark industry of bogus hacking claims – Companies with millions of customers could be left crippled if they have to pay – Bill would give right for payout for ‘psychiatric and psychological damage’ – In 2013 157,000 TalkTalk customers were affected when it was hacked – If everyone affected claimed, the company would have to pay £471 million
- On Internet-Connected Toys and Human Flourishing: Hello, Privacy
- Police Camera Study Shows New Tech Having Little Effect On Misconduct And Excessive Force
- Google, Facebook & Comcast Jointly Lied to California Lawmakers To Scuttle Broadband Privacy Bill
- How lobbyists convinced lawmakers to kill a broadband privacy bill: Leaked documents reveal scare tactics that helped ISPs avoid privacy rules.
- A comparative guide to data security penalties in 10+ jurisdictions
GAMES
- Slot machine denies Horizon: Zero Dawn DLC trademark – US patent office suspends The Frozen Wilds DLC trademark for similarities to mobile game Frozen Wild
- ‘Hey dude, do this’: the last resort for female gamers escaping online abuse – In the toxic environment of online gaming, women play incognito, pretend to be male or say nothing to avoid harassment
- The games industry responds to #MeToo: “By acting now, we can save countless individuals from physical, mental, and emotional pain, suffering, and distress”
- Implied sexual assault scene in Call of Duty modified for Australia: The “threat of sexual violence” no longer listed as content warning, but title remains rated R18+
- What’s next for Activision Blizzard’s $300m merchandise business: Consumer Products CEO on Activision Blizzard’s new franchise philosophy
- Hearthstone Player Waves His Hand, Sets Off Controversy
- Game Boss interview: How Zoe Quinn survived Gamergate and lived to fight Internet hate
- NeoGAF goes offline in wake of sexual assault allegations: “The story doesn’t reconcile logically with the facts,” says site founder
- Community Fallout from UploadVR’s Harassment Settlement, and Bearing Witness to Testimony
- Andromeda dev chalks up some of the game’s problems to a lack of diversity
- What do you do when a hate group steals your logo?: How a Star Citizen player group responded to white nationalists adopting their branding, and what publishers could learn from Cloud Imperium’s response
- NPD: Loot box controversy having no impact on game sales – Despite consumer outcry, the analysis firm tells GamesIndustry.biz AAA titles with microtransactions still appear among biggest sellers
- Destiny 2 PC Players Reporting Mass Bans, And No One Has Explained Why
- Bungie denies reports that innocuous apps led to PC Destiny 2 bans: But hundreds of angry players say they’ve been banned “for nothing.”
- Why LeBron James Doesn’t Own the Rights to His Tattoos
- How GTA Online painfully pulled Rockstar into the ‘live games’ biz
- Rockstar wants to return to single-player DLC in future games: GTA V was “very, very complete,” and absence of add-on content wasn’t a “conscious decision”
- EA ‘pushing for more open-world games [because] you can monetise them better,’ says ex-Bioware dev – Manveer Heir: “I’ve seen people literally spend $15,000 on Mass Effect multiplayer cards.”
- Opinion: The game industry must face up to its gambling problem
- Harmonix lays off 14 in bid to ‘reduce overhead’
- Gaming’s Fall Season Ain’t What It Used To Be
- Facebook updates Instant Games platform with video ads and ‘robust’ dev tools
- Facebook Instant Games trialling monetisation options for developers: In-app purchases and ads coming to a select set of games
- Mobile App Sweepstakes and Social Media – A Legal Perspective
- Google Play and App Store downloads and spending hit record levels
- Mobile downloads and consumer spending hit record high: iOS and Google Play enjoyed a 28% year on year growth in revenue for Q3, report says
- Adding multiplayer would “dilute” Wolfenstein’s storytelling: MachineGames’ Tommy Tordsson Björk on the benefits of single-player focus to “pushing the boundaries” in The New Colossus
- Gran Turismo Sport review: A brilliant, but very new, direction for the series: The latest game in this legendary franchise is all about racing online and e-sports.
- Nintendo Switch surpasses 2M sales in the U.S.
- Nintendo Switch passes 2 million US sales: Console was the best-selling games device in America for third consecutive month, according to NPD data
- Skipmore’s Kamiko sells 150,000 on Switch: Two-person Japanese studio sees a big return on Nintendo’s new console
- Switch update brings video capture and pre-purchasing
- Nintendo Switch’s first portable dock offers freedom, but with new shackles: Nyko dock delivers a much-needed option—but it comes with serious dealbreakers.
- Nintendo revisiting freemium model in Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp
- Nintendo fully embraces in-app purchases with Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp: Publisher moves past its “deep-rooted suspicion” of free-to-play for next mobile release
- Nintendo quietly adds GameCube controller support in latest Switch update
- Your old GameCube controllers now work with the Nintendo Switch: Stealth update could pave the way for Virtual Console, new Smash Bros..
- Unreleased Super NES game to come packed with every Analogue Super Nt – Super Turrican: Director’s Cut unearths the uncut 6 Mbit version of the game.
- Denuvo’s DRM now being cracked within hours of release: Best-in-class service can’t even provide a full day of protection these days.
- Multiple Titles Using Denuvo Cracked On Release Day As Other Titles Planning To Use It Bail On It Completely
- Devs tell tales of what happens when you give your game to pirates: “It’s definitely been a good decision. Your game is going to end up on piracy websites regardless, and you might as well have fun with it, and in a way prevent it from being a virus or some malicious software.”
- Eye Tracking Shows Where ELEAGUE Gamers Look On The Screen
- New York Yankees invest in Vision Esports: Most valuable team in baseball ventures into the world of competitive video games
- Why the NCAA doesn’t have a place in esports
- Investors pour $25M into eSports team Cloud9
- Esports firm Cloud9 raises $25m in latest funding round: Investors include WWE, Beverly Hills Sports Council, Washington Wizards owner and more
- Intel: VR is “eye-opening moment” for computing – Kim Pallister, director of the Intel VR Center of Excellence, on the chip maker’s goals for VR and why it sees VR making esports more accessible
- From taverns to tournaments: The rise of Gwent as an esport: CD Projekt Red’s Rafał Jaki explains why the studio’s competitive gaming ambitions are “not some calculated decision based on a spreadsheet”
- Microsoft launches TruePlay, an anti-cheat for UWP games
- Windows now includes gaming cheat detection at the system level: Optional “TruePlay” protects game memory, monitors OS for common cheating patterns.
- Microsoft introduces anti-cheating tool for UWP games developers: TruePlay aims to help studios monitor their games for common attacks, locks opt-out players from selected modes
- Microsoft kills the Kinect as production shuts down
- Microsoft discontinues Kinect: Depth-sensing Xbox camera shelved after seven years and 35 million units sold
- Microsoft Fully Discontinues The Kinect
- Microsoft has stopped making the Kinect, and that makes me sad: Robbing the Xbox of its eyes and ears makes it a lesser platform.
- Now we know why Xbox One backward compatibility took so long: Response to “always on” Internet fiasco put “back compat” on the backburner.
- Steam users can now send gift cards digitally
- Five reasons why Christmas 2017 might not be a disaster for games retail: It hasn’t started well, but there are still reasons to be hopeful
- Researchers expect close holiday competition between Xbox One X and PS4 Pro
- Xbox publishing head: Single-player games aren’t dead, just more complicated
- Sony: Planet of the Apes and PlayLink will help us reach non-gamers – Platform holder expects recognisable IP to play a big role in selling PlayStations to the masses
- Does Visceral’s closure prove AAA single-player games are dying?
- Ex-Visceral dev calls death of single-player fears “totally absurd”: Studio’s former level designer saddened by studio closure, but supports EA’s shift towards service games
- What the F&*K is a Gamerunner, and why do we need them?
- 666M tuned in to video game streams and videos last year, says SuperData
- A game dev’s romp through interesting 2017 game market data
- Over three times as many video game projects fail than succeed on Kickstarter: Video games continue to stagnate on the platform while board games are breaking records
- Interview With Ryan Morrison, Video Game Attorney – High Noon Hot Seat
- Gaming video content has an audience of 665 million: SuperData report forecasts ads and direct consumer spending to push GVC earnings to $4.6 billion in 2017
- Making the industry’s voice heard on Brexit: Exiting the EU is one of the biggest challenges the UK games sector has ever faced; the industry desperately needs its access to skilled staff to be protected
- Games for the Many: how Labour plans to win elections with video games – Designer Rosa Carbó-Mascarell on using video games to make politics accessible
- Gabe Newell’s $5.5bn net worth puts him in US’ top 100 wealthiest: Valve boss reaches No.97 on latest Forbes rich list, believed to own just over half his company
- Keywords agrees to $66.4M deal for game testing giant VMC
- British Games Institute seeking support from UK government
- Cognitive Biases to Watch Out For When Running a Games Business
- The Philosophy of Grinding and how to Reduce it
- Devs push back on Patreon’s ‘clearer stance’ regarding adult content
- A Brief History of Rappers Who Dress Like JRPG Villains
- Engare review: The geometry of Islamic art becomes a treasure of a game
- How games media can work more effectively with PR: LittleBig PR’s Gareth Williams offers a counterpoint to our recent piece on the relationships between journalists and the industry
- Returning to Second Life: Long after its grandest ambitions have faded, the platform still boasts people and profit.
- How Neopets influenced a generation of devs
- UNC Star Joel Berry II Loses Video Game, Punches Door, Breaks Hand
Jon
News of the Week; October 18, 2017
DIGITAL
- It’s 11 p.m., do you know where your ads are?:
- B.C. businesses and schools hurry to distance themselves from controversial media organizations after activists raise alarm over advertising with Breitbart and others
- An open letter to Mr Bezos, Mr Pichai and Mr Zuckerberg to tear down Breitbart News
- New Whistleblowers Highlight How Russia’s Information War On U.S. Was Larger Than Initially Reported
- The mysterious group that wants to kill Breitbart’s ad revenue, one tweet at a time
- Amazon isn’t one of the 2,575 companies to pull ads from Breitbart
- Amazon Suspends Video Head Roy Price Over Sexual Harassment Claims
- Due to legal settlement, Amazon customers now get a few extra bucks: Ars staffers got as little as $0.76 and as much as $12.02. How much did you get?
- Memo To Facebook: How To Tell If You’re A Media Company
- Sheryl Sandberg’s Russia talk was an insult to our intelligence
- Did Facebook delete Russian bought ads because of a bug?
- Facebook apologizes for allowing Russian ads to interfere with 2016 campaign – COO: Company must “prevent everything we can from this happening on our platforms.”
- What Facebook Did to American Democracy: And why it was so hard to see it coming
- Facebook is testing a resume feature to take on LinkedIn
- How Facebook’s Ad System Works
- Man acquitted of felony charge over Facebook police parody page sues: Fake account said police would offer abortions and anybody could become a recruit.
- Court To Guy Who Sued News Stations Over His Facebook Live Video: Pay Their Legal Fees… And Maybe Sue Your Lawyers
- U.S. Supreme Court Rejects CFAA Appeal by Power Ventures against Facebook
- The Problem With #MeToo And Viral Outrage
- Nova Scotia introduces new Cyber-bullying Legislation
- Incentivizing Better Speech, Rather Than Censoring ‘Bad’ Speech
- Cheap Speech and What It Has Done (To American Democracy) (Richard Hasen)
- Ninth Circuit Upholds Enforceability of Arbitration Agreements in Click-Through Agreements
- Age of consent in the GDPR: updated mapping
- Ex-workers: Supervisors at Tesla factory routinely called us the n-word – Tesla slams such abuse but expresses doubts regarding the men’s claims.
- There’s Blood In The Water In Silicon Valley: The bad new politics of big tech.
- African rulers’ weapon against web-based dissent: the off switch
- Saskatchewan Court of Appeal confirms that emails can extend limitation periods under the Limitations Act
- China congress: How authorities censor your thoughts
- DOJ indicts Chinese fentanyl distributors selling to Americans online: “They use multiple identities to disguise their activities and their shipments.”
- Reddit’s unlikely first edit partner: Time magazine
- Supreme Court refuses to hear case questioning Google’s trademark: Lawsuit claimed “google” had become synonymous with “search the Internet.”
- Google Bombs Are Our New Normal
- Google Offers Help To Industries It Helps To Destroy
- Google’s Learning Software Learns To Write Learning Software
- Twitter Says It Will Finally Do Something About Those Hordes of Nazis
- Harvey Weinstein Is Hollywood’s Silicon Valley Moment
- Eight takes on sexual harassment and Harvey Weinstein
- Twitter Says Rose McGowan Account Was Suspended Over Phone Number in Tweet
- Twitter’s suspension of Rose McGowan epitomizes the site’s most infuriating problem: It’s a double standard at its most divisive.
- Women Are Boycotting Twitter Today in Solidarity with Rose McGowan
- Twitter CEO after Rose McGowan account suspension: ‘We need to be a lot more transparent’
- Rose McGowan back on Twitter
- @jeffbezos I told the head of your studio that HW raped me. Over & over I said it. He said it hadn’t been proven. I said I was the proof. (rose mcgowan)
- Rose McGowan says Amazon knew Weinstein had raped her
- Silicon Valley Can’t Handle Its Own Toxic Culture. Is It Really Ready to Tackle Hollywood’s, Too?
- Black members of Congress push for more diversity in Silicon Valley hires – Rep. Barbara Lee: “Coding jobs will become the blue collar jobs of the future.”
- We should stop tech firms from screening extremist videos: Internet giants have a duty to help counter-terrorism efforts
- Another Ridiculous Lawsuit Hopes To Hold Social Media Companies Responsible For Terrorist Attacks
- The ‘Gawker Effect’ Is Chilling Investigative Reporting Across The US
- Inside The Weird World Of Social Media Marathon Cheating
- Dutch privacy regulator says Windows 10 breaks the law: Regulator says Microsoft doesn’t offer enough information to enable informed consent.
- Judge Agrees – YouTube Mockery Protected by Fair Use
- AT&T Researchers Share Map Depicting Top YouTube Channels In Each State
- Blame The Cord-Cutters For AT&T’s Sudden Drop In Share Price
- YouTube Revamps Website For Creators, Rolls Out ‘Master Class’ Video Advice Series
- Here’s Why YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki Started Her Very Own Channel
- Casey Neistat: YouTube Doesn’t Do Enough To Take Care Of Creator Community
- Advertising Practices Land Tinder in Hot Water
- Snapchat Stories Usage Among Top Influencers Has Dipped 33% In 6 Months
- Influencers Sound Off on Why They Do Not Want to Disclose Sponsored Posts
- Vice Media To Launch Sub-Saharan African Operation In 2018
- Major Studios, Streamers Declare Legal War on TickBox: “What TickBox actually sells is nothing less than illegal access to Plaintiffs’ copyrighted content,” a lawyer for the studios and streamers says.
- Netflix, Amazon, movie studios sue over TickBox streaming device: TickBox TV says it’s a “100% legal” directory of everything ever made.
- Netflix Now Says It Will Spend Up To $8 Billion On Original Content Next Year
- Two months after Disney split, Netflix pledges $8B for original content: What’s cooler than spending $6 billion (in 2017) on original content?
- Another German decision questions reasonableness of GS Media presumption if generally applied
- Revealed: How copyright law is being misused to remove material from the internet – When Annabelle Narey posted a negative review of a building firm on Mumsnet, the last thing on her mind was copyright infringement
- Copyright Isn’t a Tool for Removing Negative Reviews
- Sorry, You Can’t Abuse Copyright Law To Make A Negative Review Disappear
- New Copyright Trolling Operation Lowers The Settlement Demands And Calls Them Fines To Improve Conversion Rate
- Native American tribe sues Amazon and Microsoft over patents: Can “patent trolls” advance their cause using Native American legal rights?
- Vladimir Putin: Russia Will Issue its Own Cryptocurrency
- Sweden’s Tax Authority Accepts Bitcoin As Settlement: The Swedish government agency responsible for the collection of taxes has, for the first time, accepted bitcoin from a debtor.
- The Difference between Blockchain and Bitcoin
- Waymo’s staggering settlement demand for Uber: $1 billion: Holding fast on massive cash demand suggests Waymo wants to cripple its competitor.
- Uber And Lyft Haven’t Revolutionized The American City—Yet
- The Crowdsourced Maps Guiding Puerto Rico’s Recovery
- New neural network teaches itself Go, spanks the pros: This time, the Go-playing algorithm didn’t need any human players to help it.
- Artificial Intelligence – With Very Real Biases: According to AI Now co-founder Kate Crawford, digital brains can be just as error-prone and biased as ours
- Intellectual Property and Artificial Intelligence
- Stunning AI Breakthrough Takes Us One Step Closer to the Singularity
- The Seven Deadly Sins of AI Predictions: Mistaken extrapolations, limited imagination, and other common mistakes that distract us from thinking more productively about the future.
- AI Experts Want To End ‘Black Box’ Algorithms In Government
- Can we teach robots ethics?
- You Aren’t Ready For The Weirdness Of Working With Robots
- Love in the Time of Robots: Hiroshi Ishiguro builds androids. Beautiful, realistic, uncannily convincing human replicas. Academically, he is using them to understand the mechanics of person-to-person interaction. But his true quest is to untangle the ineffable nature of connection itself.
- Apple’s Tim Cook On iPhones, Augmented Reality, And How He Plans To Change Your World: In a wide-ranging interview, the CEO of the biggest tech company in the world explains how AR will change our lives, and why he thinks the world is actually getting better
- First iPhone X batch reportedly only contains 46,500 units: Apple’s TrueDepth camera may be holding things up.
- Apple and GE partner to make industrial analytics iOS-accessible: GE thinks the software will result in $12 billion in revenue by 2020.
- Udacity to focus on individual student projects
- Many patent-holders stop looking to East Texas following Supreme Court ruling: Can Delaware handle the incoming caseload?
- The Case for CASL: My Appearance Before the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology (Michael Geist)
- First Circuit Rejects Copyright Workaround to Section 230–Small Justice v. Ripoff Report (Eric Goldman)
- Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?: More comfortable online than out partying, post-Millennials are safer, physically, than adolescents have ever been. But they’re on the brink of a mental-health crisis.
CREATIVITY
- Statute Of Limitations Has Run Out On Trump’s Bogus Promise To Sue The NY Times
- At Core of 5Pointz Trial: Is Graffiti Art Protected by Law?
- Will Recent Court Rulings Endanger the Future of Biopics and Documentaries?: A Lynyrd Skynyrd movie ban and Olivia de Havilland’s recent legal victory are causing Hollywood studios, press organizations and others to speak up, lest they lose that right.
- Disney: The Only Fun Allowed At Children’s Birthday Parties Is Properly Licensed Fun
- Internet Archives Liberates Old Books Using Never Used Before Provision Of Copyright Law
- Freedom of panorama: would it hurt architects? Survey among Italian-based architects says NO
- “Haters Gonna Hate, Hate . . . .” Can Taylor Swift “Shake it Off”?
- CEIPI Opinion on copyright limitations’ reform in the European Digital Single Market
- (The cult of) personality rights in Canada
- Guide to Doing Business in Canada: Intellectual property
- Prioritizing the Public Interest: My Submission on Copyright Board of Canada Reform (Michael Geist)
- NDAs: A Logistical and Legal Nightmare
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- Trump’s threats amount to a First Amendment violation
- Trump May Not Be Serious About His NBC Threats… But He May Have Violated The First Amendment
- FCC Chair Ajit Pai’s Silence On Trump Tweets Speaks Volumes
- Tom Wheeler to Ajit Pai: “Why the silence” about Trump’s media threats? – Meanwhile, Trump continued attacks on NBC, media: “Sadly, they and others are Fake News.”
- FCC chair “refused” to rebuke Trump over threat to take NBC off the air: Lawmakers want Pai to “publicly disavow President Trump’s repeated threats.”
- Six days later, FCC chair says Trump can’t order FCC to revoke TV licenses: Pai response is “better than nothing,” but critics want stronger rebuke of Trump.
- FCC Republican says Trump is “rightfully venting” anger at the press: O’Rielly sympathizes with Trump but says “politics” shouldn’t affect TV licenses.
- Republican fight against municipal broadband heats up in Michigan; Michigan bill says no “federal, state, or local funds” can pay for broadband.
- FCC’s DDoS claims will be investigated by government: GAO will investigate after Democrats asked for evidence that attacks happened.
- ISPs don’t want to tell the FCC exactly where they offer Internet service: Better data collection could tell us which homes have broadband and which don’t
- Big ISPs Lobby To Kill Attempts At More Accurate Broadband Mapping
- Groups Battle Trump FCC’s Claim That One ISP In A Market Means There’s Effective Competition
- Charter accuses its employees of cutting cables 125 times during strike – Lawsuit: Tens of thousands of New Yorkers lost service because of vandalism.
- Comment Dates Set on FCC Proposal to Abolish Requirement for Paper Copies of FCC Rules
- DOJ Staffers: The T-Mobile Sprint Merger Will Reduce Competition And Should Be Blocked
- T-Mobile Dials Back Major ‘Un-carrier’ Perk
- AT&T Spent Hundreds Of Billions On Mergers And All It Got Was A Big Pile Of Cord Cutters
- Comcast found a way to raise other cable companies’ prices, rivals say: Comcast/NBC contract demands allegedly make it hard to sell basic TV package.
- Google Fiber Gives Up On Traditional TV, And Won’t Be The Last Company To Do So
- Weather Forecast Title Not Significantly Inaccurate, Says Canadian Broadcast Standards Council
- Ah Statism, how we love thee! (Timothy Denton)
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- Details Emerge Of World’s Biggest Facial Recognition Surveillance System, Aiming To Identify Any Chinese Citizen In Three Seconds
- Supreme Court to decide if US has right to data on world’s servers: Feds claim legal right to reach into the world’s servers with a valid US warrant.
- Supreme Court Agrees To Hear Case Involving US Demands For Emails Stored Overseas
- Justices to Hear DOJ Appeal on Microsoft Ruling: Is Email Stored Abroad Subject to a U.S. Warrant?
- Microsoft never disclosed 2013 hack of secret vulnerability database: Database contained details required to carry out highly advanced software attacks.
- Attack of the Hack Back: The worst idea in cybersecurity is back again.
- “OK, Google. Send a Letter to the CPSC.”: Privacy Groups Request Recall of Google Home Mini
- Judge shocked to learn NYPD’s evidence database has no backup: City says cash forfeitures not in flagship PETS system; police say PETS backed up.
- DreamHost Wins Challenge Against DOJ’s Overbroad Data Demands
- DOJ Continues Its Push For Encryption Backdoors With Even Worse Arguments
- There’s No Good Decision in the Next Big Data Privacy Case
- Could a child sue their parents for sharenting?
- Viral video of man being dragged from United flight gets officers fired: “Our cell phones are the best deterrent to ensure mistreatment becomes a rarity.”
- It Takes Just $1,000 To Track Someone’s Location With Mobile Ads
- Millions of high-security crypto keys crippled by newly discovered flaw: Factorization weakness lets attackers impersonate key holders and decrypt their data.
- Details around controversial surveillance unknown
- Equifax website borked again, this time to redirect to fake Flash update: Malware researcher encounters bogus download links during multiple visits.
- After second bungle, IRS suspends Equifax’s “taxpayer identity” contract
- Federal watchdog tells Equifax – no $7.25 million IRS contract for you: Equifax-IRS ordeal exposes the strangeness of the government contracting system.
- There’s No Good Decision in the Next Big Data Privacy Case
- Equifax rival TransUnion also sends site visitors to malicious pages: People visiting TransUnion’s Central American site redirected to potpourri of badness.
- Accenture The Latest To Leave Sensitive Customer Data Sitting Unprotected In The Amazon Cloud
- Don’t Panic, But Wi-Fi’s Main Security Protocol Has Been Broken
- How the KRACK attack destroys nearly all Wi-Fi security: Android 6.0 hit especially hard, but all devices are vulnerable.
- Serious flaw in WPA2 protocol lets attackers intercept passwords and much more: KRACK attack is especially bad news for Android and Linux users.
- The Flawed System Behind The Krack Wi-Fi Meltdown
- Why The Krack Wi-Fi Mess Will Take Decades To Clean Up
- Australian defense firm was hacked and F-35 data stolen, DOD confirms
- Australian Police Ran A Dark Web Child Porn Site For Eleven Months
- Australian Government Claims That Facial Recognition Systems Increase Privacy…
- Google’s ‘Advanced Protection’ Locks Down Accounts Like Never Before
- Google now offers special security program for high-risk users: The new opt-in program requires authentication with a physical security key.
- The search for painless Internet privacy gets another boost with InvizBox 2: Successor to Tor “travel router” focuses on protecting traffic from “harvesting” by ISPs.
- In 3-1 vote, LA Police Commission approves drones for LAPD – ACLU: new policy “fails to take into account public mistrust” of police surveillance.
- Would the United States Be Responsible for Private Hacking? (Kristen Eichensehr)
GAMES
- Blizzard takes Chinese dev to court over alleged mobile Overwatch clone
- Overwatch hits 35 million players: The player base continues to grow, but it’s slowing
- Activision patents matchmaking tech that can push players to buy upgrades
- Activision Patents Matchmaking That Encourages Players To Buy Microtransactions
- Patent that pushes microtransactions through multiplayer granted to Activision: The “exploratory” systems have not been implemented into any games as of yet, publisher says
- Activision’s patented method to drive microtransactions with matchmaking: Unused system could push newbies to “emulate the marquee player” in pairings.
- Activision Researched Using Matchmaking Tricks to Sell In-Game Items: In-game purchases are a multi-billion dollar business for Activision.
- Fortnite developer reportedly suing cheating players: Epic is looking to hit Fortnite cheaters hard.
- Epic Games sues alleged Fortnite cheaters over EULA violations
- Report: WB winding down Lego Dimensions ahead of schedule
- Lego Dimensions dropped – Report: Toys-to-life genre loses another player as Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment pulls the plug a year earlier than planned
- PUBG has doubled total banned players in a month: BattlEye has banned 322,000 players, with as many as 13,000 banned every day
- Fortnite’s free-to-play battle royale mode passes 10M players
- Does anyone own the Battle Royale genre?: Current law gives developers little more than “a headstart” over potential imitators, says Harbottle & Lewis’ Kostyantyn Lobov
- Exclusive: Even Pokémon Go used by extensive Russian-linked meddling effort
- iLife wins $10.1 M from Nintendo
- Nintendo Reportedly Encouraging Mature Titles On Switch
- Why aren’t there more “Mature” games for Nintendo Switch?: Nintendo reportedly encouraging more adult fare but still won’t create it.
- Sony Music to publish games on Switch and PC through new Unties label
- Sony to publish Nintendo Switch games with new label Unties: Indie publisher operated by Sony Music Entertainment, first title Tiny Metal releases in November
- Nintendo Switch tiptoes toward letting users back up their data: Latest system update also enables video capture for… four games. Yes, four.
- Super Nt is a $190 FPGA, HDMI SNES (and probably other acronyms): High-end “clone” console could be hacked to support other classic systems.
- Ex-Naughty Dog dev levies sexual harassment allegation: Developer accuses studio of firing him after he spoke up; studio says it has no evidence he ever notified it of inappropriate conduct
- Naughty Dog responds to sexual harassment allegation
- CD Projekt Red responds to scathing Glassdoor reviews: After complaints of mismanagement, senseless crunch, and poor pay, Witcher studio says its approach to development “is not for everyone”
- CD Projekt Red talks company values in wake of employee complaints
- PC Shadow of War players cheat to get around loot box grind: Higher tier “Golden” chests still largely protected behind paywall.
- Thinking outside the loot box: Business model innovation is necessary despite the friction it causes – but the industry needs to recognise when it’s overstepping a line
- PEGI is leaving the verdict on loot boxes up to gambling commissions
- Loot boxes aren’t gambling – ESRB: European ratings board PEGI says it’s gambling commissions responsibilities to define loot box rules
- The Origin of Loot Boxes and why They are a Form of Gambling
- Loot box petitions have forced the UK government to respond
- Loot box petition prompts response from UK government: Department for Culture recognises risk and will keep matter under review
- UK government comments on rising loot box-related gambling concerns
- Loot boxes: Future of AAA or a monetisation misfire? – Developers discuss the reasoning behind the recent rise of microtransactions in full-price games
- EA Addresses Battlefront 2 Loot Crates, Shares Beta Feedback
- EA’s Access service is losing its first game, for undisclosed reasons
- EA is closing Visceral Games, changes direction of studio’s Star Wars game: It sounds like EA is pretty much starting over.
- EA closing Visceral Games and overhauling its Star Wars game
- EA shuts down Visceral, will reboot its Star Wars game due to “marketplace”: Dead Space’s creators are gone; outlook fuzzy on Amy Hennig’s single-player SW game.
- EA closing Visceral Games: Star Wars project delayed and moved to EA Vancouver as studio behind Dead Space, Battlefield Hardline shutters
- Big-budget, single-player gaming isn’t dead (yet): Despite industry pressures, the narrative adventure isn’t going anywhere.
- Battlegrounds becomes first Steam game to hit 2M concurrent users
- More games released on Steam this year than whole of 2016: Steam Direct fails to halt over population as total number of games expected to exceed 6,000
- Microsoft hooks up Minecraft to export buildings as 3D models
- Microsoft finally pledges to update Halo: Master Chief Collection… next year – Better incredibly late than never; will include Xbox One X functionality.
- Xbox chief wants Sony to explain its cross-platform play stance
- Xbox head says cross-platform talks with Sony go nowhere: Sony “should talk about what their view is,” says Spencer
- Xbox chief says Sony won’t allow cross-platform Minecraft, probably never will: Sony still doesn’t want to give up its platform lock-in.
- NIS America chief: Microsoft isn’t very supportive of Japanese devs: “Honestly speaking, Microsoft’s approach to Japanese games hasn’t been very supportive.”
- Gran Turismo Sport is extremely limited in offline mode: If servers or Internet are down, you’re stuck in “Arcade” mode with no saves.
- Gran Turismo Sport’s high-end bonuses: HDR is incredible, but VR is not
- Video: A game designer’s overview of the neuroscience of VR
- PUBG passes two million concurrent players milestone: Battle royale shooter’s record is now 700,000 players beyond Dota 2
- Football Manager 2018’s Medical Centre is the best thing to happen to injured players: Learn more about injuries and, crucially, how to avoid them.
- Broadcasting Dota 2
- NBA: “Esports is a massive industry, and we think we have a place in it” – The basketball league’s esports boss discusses decades-long plans for professional competitions with 2K Games
- How Rick Fox is changing the culture, strategy of eSports — at least at one team
- The New York Yankees are getting into the eSports business
- eSports on the Rise as Collegiate Sport
- Adidas Files Lawsuit Against ELEAGUE for Stealing Its “3 Stripes” Logo
- Adidas Opposes Turner Broadcasting’s ELEAGUE Logo Trademark Because Of Lines
- Real Life Soccer Player Besieged By Requests To Play For Foreign Team Due To Video Game Error
- Full scale of Apple’s patent loss to VirnetX is now clear: $440 million – Judge – Apple’s decision to sell after losing a 2012 trial was “unreasonably risky.”
- Apple asked to remove Philippines drug war games from App Store: Anti-drug organisation ANPUD demands an apology from Apple for handling “insensitive content”
- Apple CEO on AR Headsets: ‘We don’t want to be first, we want to be the best’
- Apple: “Quality” AR headsets aren’t possible with current tech – CEO Tim Cook believes “anything you would see on the market any time soon” won’t provide a good experience
- VR chasm of disappointment becoming more of an abyss?: Analysts weigh in on whether the latest Oculus announcements this week will move the needle for VR adoption
- John Carmack encourages VR devs to ’embrace the grind’
- Oculus Santa Cruz hands-on: The greatest trick the VR devil ever pulled
- New Blade Runner VR game foretells a Sega CD-styled story revolution: Technically impressive Oculus freebie has awful story, but it’s otherwise a must-play.
- Bought an Oculus Rift Just Before Last Week’s Price Cut? 5 Ways to Get a $100 Refund
- Eye Doctors Can Now Prescribe VR Lazy-eye Treatment for Home Use
- Magic Leap lands another $502 million: Startup’s series D funding round ends up roughly half the size previously reported
- Humble Bundle has been acquired by media giant IGN
- IGN buys Humble Bundle: Pay-what-you-want game storefront to retain office, staff, charitable focus as it joins consumer gaming site
- Humble Bundle: IGN deal’s value will be proved through action, not words – Humble co-founder John Graham and IGN’s Mitch Galbraith on balancing editorial integrity and commitment to charity
- Indiegogo opens digital marketplace for successfully crowdfunded projects
- How Bungie localized Destiny for the world
- Bungie Pulls Destiny 2 Emote After Players Discover Wall Glitch
- Hard games as a disempowerment fantasy: Bennett Foddy explains why he made his latest, Getting Over It, to hurt a certain kind of person
- Video Game Tutorials: How Do They Teach?
- 21 years later, original developer works to fix 16-bit Sonic: Downloadable mod aims to patch decades-old issues with Sonic 3D Blast.
- Japanese mobile market outgrows US three years in a row: RPGs account for 65% of mobile revenue in Japan, App Annie report shows
- Saving Japan’s Games
- Understanding the challenge facing Japan’s game preservationists
- Design approach in citizen science games, until EVE Online
- Brexit fears resurface at Westminster games panel: “We’re not getting a response from government that will prevent companies from deploying their contingency plans now”
- Two charities unite to help hospitalized disabled kids play games
- Google Play devs giving away IAP revenue to combat hunger crisis
- Google Play apps with as many as 2.6m downloads added devices to botnet – Your periodic reminder: Google is chronically unable to detect untrustworthy apps.
- IGDA Foundation grants the National Videogame Museum $4k to help pay for student visits
Jon
News of the Week; October 11, 2017
DIGITAL
- Catalan independence websites blocked by Spanish government in bid to stop referendum: ‘Blocking domain name servers is doing what Turkey does and what China does and North Korea does’
- The Disturbing Rise Of Cyberattacks Against Abortion Clinics
- Iran Cracks Down On Movie Pirates In The Most Inception-Esque Manner Possible
- Russia Moves to Block Cryptocurrency Exchanges
- Miami Beach Police Unaware Of The First Amendment, Arrest Guy For Twitter Parody Account
- Miami Beach cops arrest man for Twitter parody of police spokesman – Police chief: Parody “threatened to damage the reputation” of police department.
- Congress members threaten Twitter with regulation if it doesn’t suppress ‘racially divisive communications’ and ‘anti-American sentiments’
- Alt-White: How the Breitbart Machine Laundered Racist Hate – Here’s How Breitbart And Milo Smuggled Nazi and White Nationalist Ideas Into The Mainstream – A cache of documents obtained by BuzzFeed News reveals the truth about Steve Bannon’s alt-right “killing machine.”
- Fantasy gambling is newsworthy, doesn’t violate players’ rights of publicity (Rebecca Tushnet)
- Suing Doe reviewers under the Lanham Act fails (Rebecca Tushnet)
- Hyperlinking to Sources Can Help Defeat Defamation Claims–Adelson v. Harris (Eric Goldman)
- B.C. social-media terror case shows pitfalls for prosecution (Benjamin Perrin)
- Real Talk About Fake News: Towards a Better Theory for Platform Governance (Nabiha Syed)
- How to seek truth in the era of fake news
- Supreme Court Leaves Troubling CFAA Rulings In Place: Sharing Passwords Can Be Criminal Hacking
- Potential Lawsuit Could Reveal How Trump Targeted Voters on Facebook and If There’s Any Connection to Russia
- How Israel Caught Russian Hackers Scouring the World for U.S. Secrets
- Kaspersky reportedly modified its AV to help Russia steal NSA secrets: Hackers used company’s software to secretly scan for top-secret information, WSJ says.
- Kaspersky, Russia, And The Antivirus Paradox
- Silicon Valley’s Russian ads problem, explained: Why Facebook, Google and Twitter find themselves in the middle of an investigation into the 2016 election.
- Report: Facebook removed references to Russia from fake-news report – Facebook decided it didn’t have enough evidence to name Russia in April report.
- Atone? He’d better: Facebook is still the biggest source of right-wing fake news – From Hillary rumors to the nonexistent Puerto Rico truckers’ strike, Facebook continues to spread total garbage
- The Threat of Big Tech Is Real: Why it’s time to panic about what Google and Facebook are doing to our lives.
- “The Industry Is Fundamentally Broken”: Women On Sexism In Silicon Valley
- How Facebook Rewards Polarizing Political Ads
- The science behind why fake news is so hard to wipe out: It’s time for Facebook and Google to pay attention to the psychology of the illusory truth effect.
- How Facebook Outs Sex Workers
- Facebook outsources its fake news problem to Wikipedia—and an army of human moderators
- Accidental Dow Jones News Report Claims Google to Buy Apple for $9 Billion
- Dow Jones posts fake story claiming Google was buying Apple: Story claims Jobs arranged the $9 billion acquisition in his will.
- Why Apple could be slapped with a massive $15 billion Irish tax bill: Tech giants use shell companies to defer corporate income tax bills indefinitely.
- Jony Ive’s creativity pales compared to Apple’s App Store lawsuit defense: Apple sells “software distribution services to developers” who lease App Store space.
- Supreme Court says live streaming would “adversely affect” oral arguments: Court wants transparency “while preserving the integrity of its proceedings.”
- Facebook’s Promise of Community Is a Lie: Under increasing criticism for spreading fake news, the internet giant is using communitarianism as a shield.
- Monopoly Men: After an eventful summer in Silicon Valley, there is blood in the water. At stake is democracy itself.
- Should Facebook And Twitter Be Regulated Under The First Amendment?
- Insights: New Year, New Start for Facebook’s Ad Targeting Troubles
- Dove apologizes for ‘racist’ ad that caused outcry on social media
- Twitter Temporarily Blocks Campaign Ad… Getting It Much More Attention
- “Baby body parts” campaign ad from US House member blocked by Twitter
- Algorithms Have Already Gone Rogue
- Most people saw the Las Vegas shooting as a tragedy. Propagandists saw an opportunity.: Fake rumors designed to spread anti-leftist bias included making up victims, wrongly identifying the shooter, and feeding false narratives to media.
- YouTube Enacts Search Algorithm Changes After Las Vegas Conspiracy Videos Run Rampant
- Return of the algorithm monster: YouTube auto-promoted conspiracy theory videos – Dubious search results have led YouTube to “accelerate the rollout of planned changes.”
- Algorithmic Consumer Protection: To manage the risks & benefits of AI, we need to look beyond the fairness and accuracy of AI decisions.
- Vegan’s life upended after Facebook rant about “carnists” killed in Vegas: “It’s almost like a lynch mob is forming,” she says about the fallout from her post.
- YouTube Restricts Videos Related To Bump Stocks In Wake Of Las Vegas Shooting
- When YouTube Removes Violent Videos, It Impedes Justice
- Creators Cry Foul After YouTube Demonetizes Casey Neistat’s #LoveArmyLasVegas Video
- Jake Paul Sued For Damaging Man’s Hearing During Car Horn Prank
- German YouTube Star Finds Himself Facing Trial One Year After Ill-Advised Prank
- Defy Media Fires ‘Honest Trailers’ Creator Andy Signore After Wave Of Sexual Misconduct Allegations
- Amazon Weighing New Ad Programs To Make It A More Formidable YouTube Competitor (Report)
- GAW Miners founder owes nearly $10 million to SEC over Bitcoin fraud: Homero Josh Garza’s now-defunct companies must also pay $10 million.
- The Creator of Bitcoin Comes Clean, Only to Disappear Again
- How a Silicon Valley Striver Became the Alt-Right’s Tech Hero: Andrew Torba founded Gab.ai as a “free speech” alternative to other social networks
- Google CEO Sundar Pichai: ‘I don’t know whether humans want change that fast’ – From artificial intelligence to cheap smartphones, Google is on the frontline of technological development. But is it growing too big and moving too fast?
- Google’s New AI Can Mimic Human Speech Almost Perfectly
- Google’s Internet-Beaming Balloons Will Soon Be Floating Over Puerto Rico
- Google Fiber is losing interest in old-school TV: Existing TV customers will be kept on, but some will see a price increase.
- Kurzweil Claims That the Singularity Will Happen by 2045
- The Last Invention of Man: How AI might take over the world.
- The Seven Deadly Sins of AI Predictions: Mistaken extrapolations, limited imagination, and other common mistakes that distract us from thinking more productively about the future.
- Put Humans at the Center of AI
- Waiting for the AI claims hurricane
- We Almost Gave Up On Building Artificial Brains
- As IBM Ramps Up Its AI-Powered Advertising, Can Watson Crack the Code of Digital Marketing?: Acquisition of The Weather Company fuels a new division
- Should drunk drivers be charged with DUI in fully autonomous cars?: New laws will have to be written based on the level of automation you have.
- How Smartphones Hijack Our Minds: Research suggests that as the brain grows dependent on phone technology, the intellect weakens
- ‘Our minds can be hijacked’: the tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia: Google, Twitter and Facebook workers who helped make technology so addictive are disconnecting themselves from the internet. Paul Lewis reports on the Silicon Valley refuseniks alarmed by a race for human attention
- While You Were Offline: The People Of Twitter Agree With Rex Tillerson
- Does The Media Cover Trump Too Much? Too Harshly? Too Narrowly?
- Your Data is Being Manipulated (danah boyd)
- Six Features of the Disinformation Age
- Facebook Security Chief Alex Stamos Hits Back at Media Coverage of Its Algorithms
- Facebook security chief rants about misguided “algorithm” backlash
- Facebook Quietly Enters Starcraft War For AI Bots, And Loses
- At UN, robot Sophia joins meeting on artificial intelligence and sustainable development
- The Reports Are In: AI and Robots Will Significantly Threaten Jobs in 5 Years
- District 9 Director’s New Short Movie Offers A Disturbing Look At Our AI Future
- New Theory Cracks Open The Black Box Of Deep Neural Networks
- Why Don’t We Know the 100s of Women Writing About Tech?: When the Los Angeles Review of Books included only one woman writer in its tech issue, the Internet responded with a glorious list of women writers we should all know.
- How To Tell When Someone Else Tweets From @Realdonaldtrump
- What Rick and Morty fans’ meltdown over McDonald’s Szechuan Sauce says about geek culture: The mass revolt illustrated what increasingly toxic fandom culture looks like in real life.
- McDonald’s apologizes after ‘Rick and Morty’ Szechuan sauce deal makes adults mad, kids cry
- Dubai Prince Shows Off His Life Like No Other Royal
- Netflix Is Raising Prices Again
- Netflix raises its US monthly fee again, but only for two plans: The lowest tier stays the same, and the others are still competitive.
- Why Shonda Rhimes left TV for Netflix: ‘I love the creative freedom’
- Publishers seek removal of millions of papers from ResearchGate: Academic social network accused of infringing copyright on a massive scale
- New ‘Coalition For Responsible Sharing’ About To Send Millions Of Take-Down Notices To Stop Researchers Sharing Their Own Papers
- Library trolls copyright zealots by naming collection after Sonny Bono: Little-known copyright provision allows reproduction of full book texts.
- Authors Alliance & Creative Commons Launch New Termination Of Transfer Tool
- Windows Phone is now officially dead: A sad tale of what might have been
- “Technical difficulties” plague Arizona lottery; same winning numbers drawn: Yet again, Arizona Lottery investigates a glitch with a random number generator.
- 7th Annual Streamy Awards Live Stream Scores One Million Unique Viewers On Twitter
- AOL Is Shutting Down AIM in December
- kthxbai: AOL Instant Messenger is being turned off on December 15th – 20 years is a long time on the Internet.
- So Long, Aim. For Years, For Millions, You Were The Internet
- Fact: Asking Whether We Live in a Simulation is Not A Scientific Question
- Tim O’Reilly on why the future probably won’t be all that terrible: Economies as AI, humans as gut bacteria for tech, and how the Luddites got it wrong.
- What is the Value of Re-use? Complementarities in Popular Music (Jeremy Watson)
- Online Platforms and Free Speech: Regulating Fake News (Yale Law Journal)
- DPLA Exchange Offers Library-Centered Ebook Marketplace
- EU Commission issues guidance to online platforms for tackling illegal content online
CREATIVITY
- Ennio Morricone Loses Bid to Reclaim Rights to Film Scores
- Appeals Court Skeptical About Overturning Marvin Gaye Family’s “Blurred Lines” Victory
- Salt Lake Comic Con Fights Back Against Judge’s ‘Unprecedented’ Gag Order
- Courtroom “Feud” Leaves Accurate Speech About Celebrities Unprotected
- Who Can Create Copyrightable Work in Canada? Musings on a Monkey’s Selfie
- Books from 1923 to 1941 Now Liberated!
- Gender stereotyping in UK advertising – staying on the right side of the line
- Entertainment trade associations looking for opportunity to push a false narrative
- From Aggressive Overtures to Sexual Assault: Harvey Weinstein’s Accusers Tell Their Stories – Multiple women share harrowing accounts of sexual assault and harassment by the film executive.
- Men Must Step Up to Change the Hollywood Culture That Enabled Harvey Weinstein
- Caroline Gleich Fights Back Against Cyber Harassment: Caroline Gleich’s Instagram feed is full of epic shots of the pro skier conquering the planet’s hardest lines. But in recent years, it was marred by an ugly shadow: anonymous bullies whose abusive comments left a wake of anxiety and doubt. Then Gleich spoke out about her tormenters—and realized she wasn’t the only adventure athlete being harassed online.
- The share of women in newsrooms has increased barely 1 percentage point since 2001, ASNE data shows: Things are almost as bad when it comes to the hiring of people of color: The share of POC working in American newsrooms is up 2.9 percent since 2001.
- The fight for the First Amendment, on campuses and football fields, from the sixties to today.
- Can the First Amendment save us?: It took a long time for the press to gain freedom and respect in America. Now both are in peril.
- How hip hop became the force behind Gabon’s political activism
- Bassel Khartabil’s Story Proves Online Activism Is Still Powerful
- Is Trump-Whisperer Maggie Haberman Changing The New York Times?: She’s a West Wing-beat colossus and a sui generis creature at the paper of record. “Maggie’s success is very much part of that tabloid, Twitter-fied sensibility bleeding into the Times,” says a colleague.
- Trump and the Watergate effect: Will young journalists still be inspired by today’s watchdog reporting?
- The Liberation of Kesha: Before she could make one of the year’s best albums, Kesha had to save her own life
- Whoops: Drug ads gloss over risks with a mind trick – that’s backed by the FDA – Drug makers are supposed to be forthcoming with health risks – and the more the better.
- France Has ‘Champagne,’ Portugal Has ‘Port.’ Should Australia Have ‘Uggs?’
- Marvel Keeps Making TV—But How Many Networks Is Too Many?
- Canada: The cult of personality (rights)
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- Netflix in campaign to ‘set record straight’ on $500-million pledge for Canadian productions
- Think There Should be a Netflix Tax?: Why There is Nothing Stopping Canadian Subscribers From Paying Today (Michael Geist)
- Donald Trump tweet suggests that FCC should take NBC off the air: That’s “not how it works,” FCC commissioner tells the president.
- Zero Rating & Internet Adoption
- Advertised broadband speeds should actually be realistic, UK tells ISPs: ISPs would have 30 days to improve speeds or risk losing customers.
- Anybody Claiming Net Neutrality Rules Killed Broadband Investment Is Lying To You
- Wall Street Predicts Apathetic Regulators And Limited Competition Will Let Comcast Double Broadband Prices
- Analysts Predict Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Will Be A Massive Job Killer
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- SCC rules residential school survivors’ testimony should be kept private
- US Government Has ‘No Right To Rummage’ Through Anti-Trump Protest Website Logs, Says Judge
- Court significantly reins in what data anti-Trump website must give to feds – Judge: DOJ can’t “rummage through the information contained on DreamHost’s website.”
- Treasury Department Wing Latest To Be Accused Of Domestic Spying
- Supreme Court: Hacking conviction stands for man who didn’t hack computer: High court refuses to hear appeal of hacking conviction, one-year prison sentence.
- Russia reportedly stole NSA secrets with help of Kaspersky—what we know now: Proven or not, the accusations almost certainly mean the end of Kaspersky as we know it.
- How Kaspersky AV reportedly was caught helping Russian hackers steal NSA secrets: Reports say Israeli spies burrowed inside Kaspersky’s network caught Russia red handed.
- Hackers Grab More NSA Exploits, Possibly With Assistance Of Russian Antivirus Developer
- The NSA’s ‘Time Machines’ Make It Incredibly Easy To Violate Section 702 Restrictions
- The Worst-Case Scenario For John Kelly’s Hacked Phone
- House Judiciary Committee Introduces Weak Surveillance Reform Bill
- Deputy AG Pitches New Form Of Backdoor: ‘Responsible Encryption’
- Trump’s DOJ tries to rebrand weakened encryption as “responsible encryption”: DOJ rekindles fight with Apple, wants government access to encrypted devices.
- DOJ Says No One Has Any Right To Question The Adminstration’s Handling Of Records, Not Even The Courts
- How the Chinese cyberthreat has evolved
- UK Home Secretary Calls Tech Leaders ‘Patronizing’ For Refusing To Believe Her ‘Safe Backdoors’ Spiels
- Man who sued over Facebook childbirth livestream slapped with $120k in fees: Plaintiff stayed mum about possible money received in three other cases.
- The Equifax Aftermath – We Need More Hacking
- Man: My wife and I were secretly filmed at our Airbnb rental – “I hope more victims will come forward,” says man who claims he was recorded naked.
- T-Mobile customer data plundered thanks to bad API: T-Mobile missed bug that allowed harvesting of IMSI numbers, security question answers.
- Hackers Score Touchdown: NFL Players Association Hit With Data Breach
- Google is permanently nerfing all Home Minis because mine spied on everything I said 24/7
- Sex Toys Are Just As Poorly-Secured As The Rest Of The Internet of Broken Things
- Locking Your Phone Like This Is Pretty Much Useless
- Mattel withdraws kid-focused “smart hub” from market after complaints: Lawmakers, child advocates expressed concern about caregiving being “outsourced.”
- Beware of sketchy iOS popups that want your Apple ID: Benign iOS prompts are indistinguishable from those generated by malicious apps.
- Schrems Redux: What’s the Future for Transatlantic Data Transfers?
- An Irish Court Clouds the Future of EU Data Transfers: The Luck of the Model Clauses May Be Done
GAMES
- Epic sues alleged Fortnite hackers Brandon Broom and Charles Vraspir
- How anime landed BattleTech and the MechWarrior games in legal trouble
- “It’s disturbing that Wolfenstein can be considered a controversial political statement”: Bethesda marketing boss Pete Hines discusses publisher’s marketing for upcoming anti-Nazi shooter
- Bethesda: Anti-Nazi game wasn’t meant to “incite political discussions” – Exec responds to anonymous vitriol, says Wolfenstein II is “on right side of history.”
- Dirty Chinese Restaurant mobile game canceled after racism criticism: Developer issues apology to Chinese community after call-out from US Congresswoman.
- Telltale’s Batman seemingly shows real image of assassinated ambassador
- Sex and gaming: Selling Japan’s Senran Kagura to the West – Marvelous Entertainment’s Michael Fisher and Harry Holmwood discuss the challenges and surprises this series presents
- Spreading social acceptance through a mobile game: Accidental Queens discusses the impact of exploring social themes in A Normal Lost Phone and Another Lost Phone
- Games as a service has “tripled the industry’s value”: Digital River report finds consumers prefer games with a steady stream of content over a $60 boxed title
- Rising game dev costs put squeeze on mid-tier studios
- Equity crowdfunding’s early success asks tough questions of Kickstarter: Kingdoms and Castles’ success proves the model, Tim Schafer says, and Fig’s Justin Bailey sees a niche future for donation-based crowdfunding
- Video: Game career advice from women who have been there and done that
- Bethesda’s Creation Club mod platform is live in Skyrim
- Creation Club brings paid mods to Skyrim: Bethesda finds acceptable face of paid mods and microtransactions after a long and difficult history
- Popular YouTuber calls for ESRB to step in over loot boxes: As controversy bubbles over, review aggregator OpenCritic takes “a stand against loot boxes”
- Loot boxes in video games will soon get a review flag from OpenCritic: “We’re going to take a stand” following poisonous boxes in new LOTR, Star Wars games.
- Loot boxes don’t count as gambling in the ESRB’s books
- Loot boxes aren’t gambling – ESRB: European ratings board PEGI says it’s gambling commissions responsibilities to define loot box rules
- What can game developers learn from road safety?: Epic Games UX researcher Ben Lewis-Evans details how creators can curb bad behavior through education, enforcement, and engineering
- The Untold Tale Of How Porsche’s Supercar Got Into Microsoft’s New Game
- ‘Yeesh, let’s not try and do that again’: Valve dev reflects on The Orange Box
- Nintendo shares hit-ten year high: Production of the Switch upped to two million units per month amid speculation of Chinese release
- The Nintendo Switch indie gold rush
- How Nintendo may be encouraging Switch hacking by trying to stop it: Fans look to hackers for save backup feature that Nintendo blocked to thwart hackers.
- SNES Classic outsells Switch’s launch during first week in Japan
- SNES Mini sells over 360,000 units in Japan in four days: The console is on track to outsell its predecessor, though stock shortages remain an issue
- Super NES Classic hacks are now oh, so easy to pull off—you can even addfeatures: One year after working on NES Classic, Russian hacker returns with similar exploit.
- Tekken 7 surpasses 2M copies sold on consoles, 3 months after launch
- Tekken 7 has sold over two million units on consoles: It took three months to outsell Street Fighter V which sold 1.7 million console units since February 2016
- PUBG reaches nearly two million concurrent players: The last-man-standing shooter continues to break records in spite of growing competition
- Microsoft backtracks on controversial changes to Forza 7 VIP pass
- Turn 10 studio head apologises to fans over Forza 7 VIP passes: Developer folds to community pressure following controversial changes and communication issues
- What happens to your Steam collection when you die?
- COPPA: A game developer’s primer: “COPPA has many easy-to-miss trip wires,” and Reed Smith’s John P. Feldman and Wendell J. Bartnick are here to help
- Fired Riot employee discusses toxicity and community engagement: Rutledge says that talking to players can be scary, but it’s better than “feeling like total silence out there”
- Nielsen Report: ESports Fan Base Growing, Increasingly Complex
- American esports audiences most receptive to corporate sponsorship, Nielsen report reveals: The Nielsen Esports Playbook finds esports fans are divided on VR and esports as an Olympic event
- Hulu Forays Into Esports, Strikes Exclusive Content Deal With ESL
- Hulu Dives Into eSports With Pact for Four Shows From ESL
- Oculus Rift sees permanent price drop: $399 with Touch controllers
- Zuckerberg announces $199 Oculus Go as “sweet spot” standalone VR headset: Shipping “early next year,” also teases wireless “Santa Cruz” headsets.
- At Oculus’ Developer Summit, VR Progress Is A Game Of Inches
- Microsoft mixed reality guru Alex Kipman believes communication will be VR’s killer app
- Tim Cook says the tech “doesn’t exist” for quality AR glasses yet: Cook compared AR’s rise to that of the App Store in scope and importance.
- Survey: 28% of fans in the West think eSports belong in the Olympics
- Activision Blizzard is ready to deliver on Overwatch League hype: Mike Sepso on easing tensions between publishers and players, and the firm’s long-term plans for esports
- Blizzard looks to ‘evolve’ Battle.net with new social features
- The ESports Playbook Maximizing Your Investment Through Understanding The Fans
- How one bad joke morphed Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 3into the ill-fated BMX XXX
- Immortals appoint former hockey league officer as new president and COO – CrossCut managing director: “I believe we found a great fit and a world-class executive in Ari Segal.”
- Ubisoft to repurchase 4M shares as it continues fight against Vivendi
- Ubisoft to buy back 4m shares as it fends off Vivendi takeover: Anonymous investment services provider called in to help complete program by December 29th, 2017
- Nissan modified this GT-R to be driven with a PS4 controller: Remote-controlled by helicopter, it hit 131mph at Silverstone in the UK.
- AI isn’t just learning to play video games, it’s helping us build them
- The second death of the immersive sim (2007-2017) and a dark prophecy for a third-wave immersive sim
- Star Control II devs unite for a ‘passion project’ sequel
- How Video Games Satisfy Basic Human Needs
Jon
News of the Week; October 4, 2017
DIGITAL
- Bad Info Follows Every Tragedy. Don’t Fall For It
- Google’s Top Stories Promoted Misinformation About the Las Vegas Shooting From 4Chan
- Google admits citing 4chan to spread fake Vegas shooter news: 4chan was, for some reason, counted among Google News’ “authoritative” sources.
- The Death Loop
- This “Ghost Gun” Machine Now Makes Untraceable Metal Handguns
- Myanmar’s Internet Disrupted Society—And Fueled Extremists
- As US launches DDoS attacks, N. Korea gets more bandwidth—from Russia: Fast pipe from Vladivostok gives N. Korea more Internet in face of US cyber operations.
- Sirius XM Uses DMCA To Memory Hole Archive Of Howard Stern’s Interviews With Donald Trump
- Years of Howard Stern’s interviews with Trump now gone after DMCA takedown: “This is the only public version of a massive quarter century trove of interviews.”
- Former Revenge Porn Site Operator Readies For Senate Run By Issuing Bogus Takedown Requests To YouTube
- Copyright Troll Carl Crowell Ups The Ante: Now Demands Accused Pirates Hand Over Their Hard Drives
- Shouldn’t Federal Judges Understand That Congress Did Not Pass SOPA?
- ‘Six Strikes’ May Be Dead, But ISPs Keep Threatening To Disconnect Accused Pirates Anyway
- Supreme Court Won’t Review US Government Getting To Steal All Of Kim Dotcom’s Stuff
- Supreme Court won’t hear Kim Dotcom’s civil forfeiture case – Dotcom’s lawyer: “It is a bad day for due process and international treaties.”
- Supreme Court says live streaming would “adversely affect” oral arguments: Court wants transparency “while preserving the integrity of its proceedings.”
- Federal Court Rejects Absurd Attempt to Sue #BlackLivesMatter, the Hashtag
- Coffee Subscription Lawsuit Involving Negative Option Contracts a Wake-up Call for Online Sellers
- Female ex-Oracle engineers sue for gender discrimination: Oracle, like Google, stands accused of paying women less than male equivalents.
- Why Tech Leadership Has A Bigger Race Than Gender Problem
- Oracle Tells The White House: Stop Hiring Silicon Valley People & Ditch Open Source
- Elsevier’s Latest Brilliant Idea: Adding Geoblocking To Open Access
- As ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Shows, The Streaming Exclusivity Wars Risk Driving Users Back To Piracy
- That Flag-Burning NFL Photo Isn’t Fake News. It’s A Meme
- Amazon’s First NFL Stream Posts Solid Numbers Despite Glitches, Paywall
- With 372,000 Average Viewers, Amazon Tops Twitter In First Stream Of NFL’s ‘Thursday Night Football’
- Amazon’s Attribution Approach To Streaming NFL Games
- Couple Grifts Amazon Out of $1.2 Million in Electronics
- Facebook: Ten million people exposed to Russia-linked ads
- Why Trump Hate and Russian Ads Are Good for Facebook
- Russia’s Facebook Ads Will Remain Secret, For Now
- Russian Facebook ads featured anti-immigrant messages, puppies, women with rifles: See some of the ads used “to sow discord and chaos, and divide us from one another.”
- Facebook loses attention as publishers shift focus to other platforms
- Who Will Take Responsibility For Facebook?
- Google and Facebook Failed Us: The world’s most powerful information gatekeepers neglected their duties in Las Vegas. Again.
- Does Even Mark Zuckerberg Know What Facebook Is?: The same company that gives you birthday reminders also helped ensure the integrity of the German elections.
- The U.S. Election System Remains Deeply Vulnerable, But States Would Rather Celebrate Fake Success
- Silicon Valley isn’t just disrupting democracy—it’s replacing it
- Trustworthy Networking
- How Vice reassures brand-safety conscious advertisers
- Uber Knew Its Self-Driving Guru Had Taken Google’s Trade Secrets, Report Says
- Waymo vs. Uber: unsealed court documents reveal damning evidence – Reports show lies, visits to shredder, and evasive texts
- Google May Not Need A Smoking Gun To Win Its Case Against Uber
- Here’s the “due diligence” report Waymo hopes will win its case against Uber – Otto’s head of HR: “I’m gonna go get your stuff destroyed this afternoon btw.”
- Uber Charges Passenger Clueless About Surge Pricing $925 For Ride
- Uber expands board to 17 members, reduces Kalanick’s power: A month into new job, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is making his mark at Uber.
- Uber investors to former CEO: We’ll sue you if you don’t vote how we want: “Our clients have authorized us to pursue any and all legal recourse… ”
- Section 230’s Applicability to ‘Inconsistent’ State Laws
- How Europe is going after big tech when no one else is
- Never Enough: EU Demands Social Media Companies Do The Impossible Even Faster
- Inmates Need Social Media. Take It From A Former Prisoner
- The Hardest Medium to Troll
- Microsoft Discontinues Groove Music, Partners With Spotify Instead
- Microsoft getting out of the music biz, moving Groove subs to Spotify: The app will stick around for local playback, but streaming is gone.
- Beauty for girls, pranks for boys – it’s the same old gender stereotypes for YouTube stars
- YouTube Adds iMessage Support To Make Sharing Videos Even Easier
- YouTube Restricts Externally-Linking End Cards (Include Those To Patreon) To Members Of Its Partner Program
- YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki Launches New Channel With Influencer-Packed Intro Video
- YouTube TV To Serve As Presenting Sponsor Of The 2017 World Series
- YouTube Grows Up: Inside the Plan to Take on Netflix and Hulu
- Stupid Patent Of The Month: Will Patents Slow Artificial Intelligence?
- EFF: Stupid patents are dragging down AI and machine learning – “The patent reads like the table of contents of an intro to AI textbook.”
- Sex Trafficking Experts Say SESTA Is the Wrong Solution
- Artificial Intelligence Is Our Future. But Will It Save Or Destroy Humanity?
- DeepMind wants to answer the big ethical questions posed by AI
- How To Build A Self-Conscious Machine
- The Myth Of A Superhuman AI
- In AI We Trust? (Urs Gasser)
- Mr. Know-It-All: Is It Ok For Me To Ask Customer Service Reps If They’re Robots?
- Google’s DeepMind Launches Ethics Group to Steer AI
- Google’s AI Still Isn’t Smarter Than a First Grader
- What Happened When I Wore Google And Levi’s “Smart” Jacket For A Night
- Google’s Gadget Vision: Same Stuff, Different Screens
- Google unveils a $249 smart camera that decides what’s worth photographing: You can leave it lying around or wear it.
- Google Pixel Buds are wireless earbuds that translate conversations in real time: Google Translate in your ears for $159.
- Chinese High-Tech Startups: Now More Copied Than Copying
- Showtime Won’t Explain Why Its Website Was Hijacking User Browsers To Covertly Mine Cryptocurrency
- South Korea joins China in banning coin offerings: Money has flooded in an “unproductive and speculative direction,” official says.
- Looking Through an IP Lens at Blockchain and Cryptocurrency
- Cryptocurrencies: securities law implications
- Cryptocurrency: A ‘Snap’ on Developments
- LG is releasing a mosquito-repellent phone, but it probably won’t work: It claims to repel mosquitoes with ultrasonic waves, but scientists are skeptical.
- How VR Saves Lives In The OR
- The 3 Biggest Challenges Facing Augmented Reality Today
- Where Are The Drones That Could Be Saving Puerto Rico?
- Stop The Endless Scroll. Delete Social Media From Your Phone
- The War on General-Purpose Computing Turns on the Streaming Media Box Community
- Spurs Pitched Austin As Tech Hub To Lure Iguodala From Warriors
- App Listening For Audio Beacons May Be Illegal Wiretapping–Rackemann v. Colts (Eric Goldman)
CREATIVITY
- How The Supreme Court’s Continued Misunderstanding Of Copyright Ruined Halloween
- Crown copyright alive and well in new decision from the Ontario Court of Appeal (Teresa Scassa)
- The Eggshell Attorney General: Jeff Sessions wants a First Amendment that celebrates robust criticism of everyone but himself.
- New York voters have no 1st Amendment right to snap ballot-booth selfies: “The State’s interest in the integrity of its elections is paramount,” court says.
- Kmart faces copyright lawsuit for selling the wrong banana costume: Copyright law has gone bananas after a Supreme Court ruling earlier this year.
- King’s College Football Coach Sued For Copyright Infringement For Retweeting A Book Page 2 Years Ago
- The Long Read: Confessions Of An English Music-Pirate
- Politics in the Workplace: Do NFL Players Have Freedom of Speech to Protest at Games?
- Police Chief Takes To Facebook To Complain About A Journalist Committing Journalism
- Judge: Barrett Brown donors can sue government over subpoenaed records – San Francisco activist led campaign to raise money for jailed journalist.
- The Trump Administration is Investigating the “Theft of IP” by China: What You Need to Know About Trademarks in China
- ASA cracking down on gender stereotypes in advertisements
- Unbalancing Act: How Conferences Perpetuate The Music Industry’s Gender Parity Crisis – Conferences have the opportunity to improve on reality’s mistakes. Unfortunately, the data shows otherwise.
- Lynda Carter to James Cameron: ‘Stop Dissing Wonder Woman, You Poor Soul’
- Remembering Tom Petty, Unlikely Video Pioneer
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- Globe editorial: A bad idea for ‘fixing’ Canada’s internet rules
- Joly’s Digital Cancon Plan: Netflix May Be The Star, But No New Regulations, Taxes or Bailouts is the Story (Michael Geist)
- Cancon 2.0 and the Netflix deal: The 10 key takeaways – On Thursday, the Heritage Minister unveiled ‘Creative Canada,’ the first major overhaul of the cultural funding regime in more than 25 years. Here’s what you need to know
- Five reasons to like Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly’s Netflix deal
- Netflix commits to a $400 million investment in Canadian film and TV: It’s the company’s first permanent production outside the US
- Netflix Canada and the Misleading Claims About “Level Playing Fields” (Michael Geist)
- The Launch of ‘Creative Canada’: Some Brief Thoughts Following the Minister’s Speech
- Canada’s Cultural Funding Regime Receives Overhaul
‘Creative Canada’ – More Musings - Fake Data on Fakes: Digging Into Bell’s Dubious Canadian Piracy Claims (Michael Geist)
- Bell MTS hikes most of its rates
- Secretary of State refers Fox/Sky merger to the CMA on public interest grounds
- FCC chair accused of ignoring investment data in push to end net neutrality: Pai ignores cyclical nature of wireless network investment, critics say.
- ISPs want Supreme Court to kill Title II net neutrality rules now and forever: FCC may soon revoke net neutrality rules, but ISPs want immunity from regulation.
- Hoping The Third Time’s The Charm, ISPs Urge Supreme Court To Kill Net Neutrality
- Net neutrality debate ‘controlled by bots’
- Trump’s FCC Boss Blasts Apple For Refusing To ‘Turn On’ FM iPhone Chipsets That Don’t Actually Exist
- FCC chief Ajit Pai wants Apple to stop disabling FM radio chips in iPhones: Pai cites public safety concerns; Apple says new iPhones have no FM chip at all.
- Ajit Pai gets new term on FCC despite protest of anti-net neutrality plan: Democrats objected to Pai’s re-nomination, but Republicans had his back.
- Why some Senate Democrats voted to give Ajit Pai another term on FCC: Pai’s support mostly came from GOP senators, but four Democrats broke ranks
- Broadband Lobbyists Gush Over Re-Appointment Of Trump’s FCC Boss
- AT&T’s wireless home Internet, with 160GB cap, is now in 18 states: AT&T got nearly $3 billion federal subsidy to connect 1.1 million rural customers.
- As Broadband Usage Caps Expand, Nobody Is Checking Whether Usage Meters Are Reliable
- T-Mobile agrees to stop claiming its network is faster than Verizon’s: Verizon wins ruling as T-Mobile’s use of crowdsourced speed tests is criticized.
- What’s Going on With the Rumored, Not Good T-Mobile and Sprint Merger
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- So, Uh, That Billion-Account Yahoo Breach Was Actually 3 Billion
- Every Yahoo account that existed—all 3 billion—was compromised in 2013 hack: It’s official. If you had a Yahoo account in 2013, it was compromised.
- Hacks Are Always Worse Than Reported: All Of Yahoo Email Was Hacked In 2013. All. Of. It.
- NSA warned White House against using personal email: In briefings to incoming Trump aides, security officials highlighted the dangers of unsecured email and phones.
- NSA Warned Trump Staffers Against Personal Email/Device Use; Were Ignored
- The NSA Warned Jared Kushner Not to Do the Dumb Email Thing That He Then Did
- After Kushner’s private e-mail became known, it moved to Trump Org servers: In late September, it changed from outlook.com to mailhost01.trumporg.com.
- Well-Known Email Prankster Ends Up With Sensitive Document From Jared Kushner’s Lawyer
- Congressman demands to know if DHS will collect his social media history, too – Rep. Ted Lieu, naturalized American: “Does your proposed rule apply to me?”
- Use of Search Warrants to Create Trump Enemies List Continues
- Justice Department Demands Names of Thousands Who Liked Anti-Trump Facebook Page
- DOJ’s Facebook Warrants Target Thousands Of Users For Protesting Inauguration
- FOIA’ed Documents Show NSA Abuse Of Pen Register Statutes To Collect Content
- FBI may keep secret the name of vendor that cracked terrorist’s iPhone: Judge agrees with FBI that national security trumps the public’s right to know.
- SEC hack came as internal security team begged for funding: Forensic investigative unit was forced to use equipment tagged for scrap.
- The new surveillance state
- Sounding the privacy alarm
- As Expected, EU Court Of Justice To Review If Internet Company’s Privacy Practices Are Acceptible
- An alarming number of patched Macs remain vulnerable to stealthy firmware hacks: At-risk EFI versions likely put Windows and Linux PCs at risk, too.
- New Equifax CEO offers “sincere and total apology” to consumers: Embattled company vows to give consumers more control over their credit data.
- Equifax, Which Said Executives Did Not Know of Hack Before Trades, Has Launched a ‘Thorough Review’
- Equifax Was Warned About Vulnerability But Failed To Patch It
- Can Equifax’s Offerings Actually Protect Your Identity?
- A series of delays and major errors led to massive Equifax breach: Former CEO’s testimony to Congress reveals a shocking lack of security rigor.
- 6 Fresh Horrors From The Equifax CEO’s Congressional Hearing
- IRS awards Equifax no-bid, $7.25 million contract after hack: “This is considered a critical service that cannot lapse.”
- Into the Breach: How Canada’s Security Breach Disclosure Regulations Fall Short (Michael Geist)
- Auto Location Tracking Company Leaves Customer Data Exposed Online
- “NSFW” doesn’t begin to describe Bluetooth security in sex toys: Poor security lets connected “wearables” be hijacked by attackers.
- Can Pseudonyms Make Better Online Citizens?
GAMES
- Nintendo Creators Program cuts off livestreamers: YouTube Live broadcasts no longer allowed under revenue share initiative
- Nintendo no longer welcoming YouTube livestreams of its games: Live gameplay no longer allowed for channels in Nintendo’s revenue sharing program.
- Nintendo Bars Its YouTube Partners From Monetizing Their Live Streams
- Community registered designs & the CJEU – Nintendo v Big Ben
- Another classic Nintendo console, another insane dump of instruction manuals: One year later, and now you’re playing with super instruction manuals.
- Nintendo closing Wii Shop Channel: Wii and Wii U users will lose access to online storefront in 2019, sale of Wii Points currency to stop in March
- Parents Sue “Subway Surfers” Game for Privacy Violations (or Why Gamedevs Need a COPPA Compliant Privacy Policy)
- Netflix hints at move into publishing with Stranger Things: The Game
- Netflix Gets Into Game Development With A Mobile Tie-In For ‘Stranger Things’
- Unity reacts to Switch development woes: “More than 30% of games on Switch are made with Unity”
- Settling the debate: What makes a “core” Mario game? – And what does the argument say about how we define and value games in general?
- Sonic 3D Blast’s secret level select was actually a certification-passing trick
- ‘Sonic The Hedgehog’s Live-Action Movie Speeds Forward With ‘Deadpool’ Director Tim Miller
- Sonic the Hedgehog movie lands at Paramount: Producer behind Fast and the Furious franchise and Blue Streak teams up with Blur Studio co-founder for live-action/CG movie
- Chinese dev sues Fox over allegedly bungled Planet of the Apes tie-in game
- Dev calls it quits after losing entire game catalog in Valve’s ‘fake games’ purge
- Silicon Echo’s reputation is “destroyed beyond repair” after Steam’s fake game crackdown: Studio “forced to give up game development” after its entire catalogue was removed from leading PC marketplace
- Valve Collaborates with Fans Through New Shapeways 3D Printing Licensing Agreement
- Idea v. Expression: Game Studio Bluehole Gets Its Fur Up Over Epic Games Putting 100 Vs. 100 Player Battle Royale Into Game
- Can Cloned Video Games Survive the Battle Royale?
- Loot boxes have reached a new low with Forza 7’s “pay to earn” option – Rant: The scourge must be stopped.
- New casino game lets you bet real money on Pac-Man: Pac-Man Battle Casino part of a trend towards skill-based casino gambling.
- Overwatch director gets candid about the ‘scary’ side of game dev
- Overwatch director says it’s “scary” to be open with players: Amid threats and attacks, “It often feels like there is no winning.”
- Jeff Kaplan: ”It often feels like there is no winning” against toxic Overwatch users – Game director says forums don’t feel like a safe environment for his team
- Riot dev out after taking shots at oft-banned player: League of Legends studio apologizes to Tyler1 after lead experience designer speculates on his demise
- How to fight online hate in a GamerGate world, according to Zoe Quinn – Molly Sauter: Crash Override succeeds in conveying what it is like to be the target of a sustained, misogynistic harassment campaign
- Inbetween Games’ debut is a tribute to Berlin’s diversity: With All Walls Must Fall, a team of ex-Yager devs have captured the energy and inclusivity of the German capital
- Denuvo Game Cracked In Mere Hours
- FIFA 18 takes No.1, three out of five copies sold on PS4
- Why one Japanese entrepreneur is using an RPG to help fight depression
- PlayStation introduces credit card: The card promises rewards such as games, DLC, electronics and more
- Sony releasing updated PlayStation VR in Japan this month: Western release to follow, introduces stereo headphone cable support and new Processor Unit with HDR pass through
- Steam, Samsung and Halo all coming to Windows Mixed Reality: SteamVR preview now available to developers, Samsung Odyssey headset announced, and Halo Recruit VR experience will launch on October 17
- Microsoft acquires social VR platform AltspaceVR
- AltspaceVR is now part of Microsoft: Social VR company saved from going out of business by acquisition deal
- The inside story of the Xbox One X: Microsoft has created the world’s most powerful console. Could this next-generation machine lead to the rise of games as high art?
- World’s Largest Cinema Chain, AMC, Leads $30M Investment to Bring VR to Movie Theaters: Partnering with Dreamscape Immersive
- 35% of UK adults have heard of eSports, but only 7% are tuning in
- 35% of UK adults aware of esports – but only 7% watch it: YouGov study puts Britain at the bottom of the table when compared to China, the US, Germany and more
- Esports Leagues Set To Level Up With Permanent Franchises
- Immortals split threatens Counter-Strike team: Five-man squad sees one player fired, two more indefinitely suspended after missing tournament matches, making Twitter death threat
- Champions of the Shengha introduces moneyback guarantee: BfB Labs offers full refund after ten days for £40 heart-tracking mobile game
- Alibaba establishes games division to create titles in-house
- Alibaba planning to establish dedicated games business unit: Chinese e-commerce giant acquires online games firm EJoy, aims to “pursue excellence” in the industry
- The Strong’s latest windfall: Artifacts from the first coin-op game maker
- Ubisoft using machine learning to translate hieroglyphics: The Assassin’s Creed developer has put out a call for historians and researchers to aid in the project
- Can developers control streamers?: Reed Smith partner Carolyn Pepper walks through the options available if studios wish to stop influencers covering their games
- Bungie goes indie, BioWare gets bought – 10 Years Ago This Month: Halo studio gets its freedom from Microsoft as Electronic Arts acquires Mass Effect maker and Pandemic
- Microsoft alters Forza Motorsport 7 VIP pass store language following backlash
- Brain in a Jar 1: Two Systems
- How hitting a game cartridge unlocks gaming’s weirdest Easter egg: Sonic 3D Blast trick started as way to hide game-breaking bugs.
- Connecting educators with the unique teaching ability of gamesCan Pseudonyms Make Better Online Citizens?
Jon
News of the Week; September 27, 2017
DIGITAL
- Russian operatives used Facebook ads to exploit divisions over Black Lives Matter and Muslims
- Facebook’s Frankenstein Moment
- Facebook Can Absolutely Control Its Algorithm
- Facebook revamps political-ad rules after discovering Russian ad buys: Shadowy Russian group spent $100,000 on political ads during the 2016 election.
- Mark Zuckerberg Is Still Pissed That We Know About His Army of Handlers
- Shareholders force Zuckerberg to give up plan for non-voting shares: The plan would have further cemented Zuck’s total control over Facebook.
- Facebook will target ads to people based on store visits, offline purchases, calls to businesses: Facebook is using its online-to-offline ad measurement tools for offline-to-online ad targeting.
- Facebook’s Ad Scandal Isn’t a ‘Fail,’ It’s a Feature (Zeynep Tufekci)
- Could public pressure cause Facebook to regulate itself?
- Facebook’s Crackdown Ahead Of German Election Shows It’s Learning
- How Germany’s far right took over Twitter – and tilted the election: A sophisticated and tightly organised troll army has spent the last three months championing a ‘patriotic revolution’. Boosting the AfD’s power is just the start
- Iceland authorities weighing options after neo-Nazi site registers there: The racist site has been at a .is domain for more than a week.
- Reddit’s campaign against hate speech worked: Even when users stuck around, they started watching their words more carefully.
- Jared Kushner conducted White House business with personal e-mail: Kushner lawyer says it was “fewer than a hundred e-mails.”
- Members Of Trump’s Admin Team Using Private Email Accounts Because Of Course They Are
- How One Syrian Fought To The Death For A Free Internet
- Judge spanks Mugshots.com hard for charging for photo removal: Lawsuit claims one arrestee was told it would cost $15k to have profile removed.
- EU Buried Its Own $400,000 Study Showing Unauthorized Downloads Have Almost No Effect On Sales
- EU study finds piracy doesn’t hurt game sales, may actually help: Results suggest a positive effect, but there’s a huge margin of error.
- German Court: Thumbnail Images In Search Engines Not A Copyright Violation
- German Federal Court of Justice rules that GS Media presumption of knowledge does not apply to Google Images
- Twitter testing shift from 140 to 280 characters: Twitter thinks 140 characters might be too constraining for English writers.
- Framing It Another Way: Tweets, Copyright and the De Minimis Doctrine
- Google Pulls YouTube From Amazon Echo: All About Control Or Just More Corporation On Corporation Violence?
- Ninth Circuit Blesses Amazon’s Terms of Service
- British News Channel Touts Amazon Bomb Materials Moral Panic That Ends Up Being About Hobbyists And School Labs
- Eros Beats Investor Suit Over Statements About Streaming Platform: The company touted 30 million users for Eros Now. The judge rules it was never said they were “meaningful” users.
- In my opinion, this is an opinion
- Fordham University Named in Class Action Lawsuit by Blind Individuals, Alleging Fordham.edu Website is Inaccessible
- Contact Lens Seller Agrees To $7 Million Settlement Over Search Ads
- U.S. Floats Nafta Proposal That Could Erode Copyright-Liability Protection: Language in the trade talks could weaken internet companies’ liability protections for pirated content
- NAFTA 2.0 and Intellectual Property Rights: Insights on Developing Canada’s Knowledge Economy
- FTC serves health-app maker massive slice of humble pie—and $1.5M bill: The app was meant to motivate users to go to the gym, eat veggies. It went very wrong.
- FTC clarifies influencer guidelines: Federal Trade Commission warns that platforms’ built-in disclosure methods aren’t sufficient, reviews of products given for free must be marked as ads
- The FTC, Like, Revises Its Social Media Endorsement Guides, Bruh!
- Disney’s New, Influencer-Led Mickey Mouse Club Releases Music Video For First Original Song
- Another Student Athlete Facing Scrutiny From NCAA For Budding YouTube Presence
- Emojis Head to a Courthouse Near You
- Victory for YouTubers as New York District Court rules “reaction video” is fair use
- Fair use is never simple
- Vimeo To Acquire Livestream, Launches ‘Vimeo Live’ Pro Broadcasting Product
- Verizon Reveals The Secrets Of Yahoo Search
- Facebook, NFL Back In Business Again With Programming Partnership
- Canon Virtual Camera System Enables Fans To Watch From Any 3D Angle
- Block The Pirate Bay Within 10 Days, Dutch Court Tells ISPs
- Company CEO Pleads Guilty After Forging Judge’s Signatures On Bogus Court Orders Sent To Google
- More Thoughts On The Senate’s SESTA Hearing
- My Senate Testimony on SESTA + SESTA Hearing Linkwrap (Eric Goldman)
- Google Will Survive SESTA. Your Startup Might Not.
- SESTA Is Being Pushed As The Answer To A Sex Trafficking ‘Epidemic’ That Simply Doesn’t Exist
- New Essay: The Ten Most Important Section 230 Rulings (Eric Goldman)
- Rohingya Ethnic Cleansing (Once Again) Demonstrates Why Demanding Platforms Censor Bad Speech Creates Problems
- London regulator announces Uber ban: Uber has 21 days to appeal the ruling, which could affect 40,000 drivers.
- Uber CEO apologizes for “mistakes” in London: Uber has vowed to appeal a decision banning the company from London.
- Uber really doesn’t want its drivers to be considered employees: O’Connor v. Uber one of 11 cases heard together at 9th Circuit.
- Waymo to judge: We want Uber to pay “only” $1.86 billion: Waymo says big numbers are based on Uber’s own calculations.
- ISIS Launches The Spelling Teacher, A New App For Kids
- Dispute Between Roberto Escobar And Netflix Over ‘Narcos’ Gets Weird: Licensing Talks And A Dead Location Scout
- What Netflix’s Congenial Trademark ‘Threat Letter’ Says About Everyone’s Tolerance For Trademark Bullying
- Why Big Tech Is Clashing With Internet Freedom Advocates
- Mattress Startup Casper Sued a Mattress Review Site, Then Paid for Its Acquisition
- Machine-learning cloud platforms get to work: Analytic platforms as a service (PaaS) could shorten machine-learning learning curve.
- Self-Driving Cars Will Kill People. Who Decides Who Dies?
- When Websites Design Themselves
- Bill Gates Says We Shouldn’t Panic About Artificial Intelligence
- Robots have already taken over our work, but they’re made of flesh and bone: Many jobs in the modern economy have been sapped of their humanity. How should we resist the rise of ‘digital Taylorism’? (Brett Frischmann &Evan Selinger)
- BCSC Grants Bitcoin Investment Fund Manager Registration
- If Bill Gates really thinks ctrl-alt-del was a mistake, he should have fixed it himself: You can’t pin the blame for this one on IBM.
- 4K titles on iTunes can only be streamed, not downloaded: You also can’t stream 4K videos from YouTube either.
- YouTube Revamps Analytics Reports To Help Creators Better Understand Subscription Traffic
- YouTube’s Technology Can Now Spit Out Thousands of Different Video Ads at Once: And target them based on apps that consumers have downloaded
- New French Law Orders Video Services Like YouTube, Netflix To Pay 2% Tax On Local Revenues
- Instagram now has 800 million monthly and 500 million daily active users
- Twitter explains why Trump can use site as venue for violence, hate: Announcement comes as social media is under pressure to remove hate-based accounts.
- Twitter sold enough ads to support all the live video shows it was pitching: Twitter is moving forward with 16 live video shows and features it said it wanted to stream.
- Vice Ramps Up Original French Content With Three New Shows
- Report recommends new legal approaches to online defamation
- Ivanka Trump: Computer science education a new “priority” – “We do have a major diversity problem in the tech industry,” president’s daughter adds.
CREATIVITY
- University Defeats Cyberbullying Lawsuit Related to Yik Yak–Feminist Majority v. UMW (Eric Goldman)
- What the Constitution says Berkeley can do when controversial speakers come knocking: The rules governing the right-wing “Free Speech Week” showdown.
- Italian Supreme Court confirms availability of copyright protection to TV formats
- The Grinch loses and protection of parody wins
- Osaka Court’s Ruling Helps Destroy Tattoos In Japan
- Turkish President Claims Jailed Journalists Are Actually Terrorists: From the wobbles-so-much-you-can’t-even-call-it-‘spin’ dept
- Kim Jong-Un Calling Trump A ‘Dotard’ Gave The Internet A Language Lesson
- Furie-ous creator of Pepe the Frog determined to use copyright to get his green creation back
- Is the alt-right’s use of Pepe the Frog “fair use?”: Is Pepe like Luke Skywalker—or just super-chill frog anyone can use?
- Penguin Random House LLC v. Frederick Colting d/b/a Moppet Books: District court finds that child-focused literary guides infringed copyrights in four famous novels and that literary guides did not qualify as fair use, granting summary judgment in favor of owners and exclusive licensees of copyrights in novels.
- Saudi minister fired after textbook shows Yoda at UN signing ceremony: Begun, the textbook scandal has.
- How The RIAA Helped Pave The Way For Spain To Undermine Democracy
- Appeals Court Limits Ability of Patent Trolls to File Suit in Far-Flung Districts
- Appeals Court Tells Patent Trolls’ Favorite Judge He Can’t Just Ignore The Supreme Court To Keep Patent Cases In Texas
- Instagram rolls out comment-control, puts onus on user to filter trolls
- “Comic-Con” trademark may have to activate superpowers to survive attack – Epic intellectual property battle: San Diego Comic-Con versus Salt Lake Comic Con.
- Challenge on offensive trademarks could bring clarity
- Velcro’s Hilarious Trademark Lesson Video Actually A Good Lesson In Just How Stupid Trademark Law Has Become
- Velcro’s anti-genericide song is big, bold and brash – but critics question whether it will actually be effective
- Scientific Publishers Want Upload Filter To Stop Academics Sharing Their Own Papers Without Permission
- Burger King is Trying to Ban It In Russia For the Most Insane Reason
- The very dirty history of on-demand video technology: In the early 1970s, hotels experimented with new video delivery systems for X-rated movies.
- Netflix Pulls Cartoon Episode After Mom Spots Stealthy NSFW Drawing
- Netflix Sends Cease-and-Desist to “Stranger Things”-Themed Bar
- A Brief History of Hiding Dicks in Cartoons
- Police: Armed Robber Dressed As Coke Bottle – Costumed perp held up eatery manager at Kentucky Rally’s
- Project Jengo Strikes Its First Targets (and Looks for More)
- Copyright’s Framing Problem (Margot Kaminski & Guy Rub)
- Is the First Amendment Obsolete? (Tim Wu)
- Response to Tim Wu’s piece on First Amendment obsolescence (Rebecca Tushnet)
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- FCC Sued For Ignoring FOIA Request Investigating Fraudulent Net Neutrality Comments
- Ajit Pai’s plan to lower broadband standards is “crazy,” FCC Democrat says: “This is crazy. Lowering standards doesn’t solve our broadband problems.”
- Mission Accomplished: Ajit Pai’s FCC Declares Wireless Competition Issues Fixed: from the ignore-a-problem-and-it-goes-away,-right? dept
- Ajit Pai should be fired, petition says before Senate re-confirmation vote: Senate Democrats plan “very loud” debate on vote to give Pai a new term.
- To save net neutrality rules, senator tries to get Ajit Pai off FCC: Pai accused of ignoring “public interest” but will likely get new term on FCC.
- FCC declares that USA’s wireless competition problem has been solved: Ajit Pai’s FCC says mobile market is competitive, in change from Obama years.
- Joly’s Challenge: Digital Cancon Without New Digital Tax Dollars (Michael Geist)
- How to build an effective digital Cancon strategy on the cheap (Michel Geist)
- Not Just Netflix: Government Asks the CRTC To Conduct a Review of Changing Broadcast Models (Michael Geist)
- Bell Calls for CRTC-Backed Website Blocking System and Complete Criminalization of Copyright in NAFTA (Michael Geist)
- ‘Radical and overreaching’: Bell wants Canadians blocked from piracy websites – Company says a federal agency like the CRTC should create a blacklist of sites
- European Commission Backed Study Confirms Canada Among the Most Expensive for Broadband Internet Access (Michael Geist)
- Mysterious Apocalyptic Message Interrupts TV Broadcasts in California: ‘Violent Times Will Come’
- Report: T-Mobile, Sprint finally figuring out this merger thing – T-Mobile owner would take majority stake; US would be left with 3 big carriers.
- Prepare For An Epic BS Sales Pitch For The Competition-Killing Sprint, T-Mobile Merger
- Verizon backtracks—but only slightly—in plan to kick customers off network: Rural users with no other options can switch plans but can’t get unlimited data.
- Cox starts charging data cap overage fees in California: A new group of Cox customers gets a 1TB data cap and $10 overage fees.
- The Soaring Cost Of Sports Programming Is Simply Not Sustainable
- Global BC (CHAN-DT) re Global News Hour at 6 & Global News at 11 – Abbotsford school stabbing
- CTV Vancouver (CIVT-DT) re CTV News at 6 – Abbotsford school stabbing CBSC Decision 16/17-0554 2017 CBSC 9 September 26, 2017
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- Bill C-58’s Order-Making Powers: A Huge Disappointment (Teresa Scassa)
- Justice Department goes nuclear on Google in search warrant fight: Google’s conduct is a “willful and contemptuous disregard of various court orders.”
- Report Details The NSA’s Decade-Long Abuse Of Its Surveillance Powers
- US Homeland Security Will Start Collecting Social Media Info on All Immigrants October 18th
- DHS To Officially Require Immigrants’ Files To Contain Social Media Info
- WhatsApp Reportedly Rejected UK Government Demand For Encryption Backdoor
- UK Man Gets 12-Month Sentence For Refusing To Turn Over Passwords To Police
- Another court tells police: Want to use a stingray? Get a warrant – DC Court of Appeals: Even if you know the police can track you doesn’t mean they should.
- Judge overturns local law that effectively banned drones over small town: Newton, Mass. wanted drone pilots to get permission to fly at or below 400 feet.
- Deloitte Hit By Cyberattack That Compromised Client Information & Decided To Basically Tell Nobody At All
- Deloitte hit by cyber-attack revealing clients’ secret emails: Hackers may have accessed usernames, passwords and personal details of top accountancy firm’s blue-chip clients
- Password-theft 0day imperils users of High Sierra and earlier macOS versions: Rogue apps can exfiltrate all plaintext passwords, no master password required.
- CCleaner Hack May Have Been A State-Sponsored Attack On 18 Major Tech Companies
- CCleaner malware outbreak is much worse than it first appeared: Microsoft, Cisco, and VMWare among those targeted with additional mystery payload.
- CCleaner backdoor infecting millions delivered mystery payload to 40 PCs: Samsung, Asus, Fujitsu, Sony, and Intel among those infected.
- How Malware Keeps Sneaking Past Google Play’s Defenses
- SEC Chairman reveals financial reporting system was hacked: EDGAR system data may have been used for “illicit gain through trading.”
- Man held website hostage for $10,000, failed, redirected it to porn, got busted: After plea deal, DOJ says: “this appears to be a one-time lapse in judgment.”
- All The Ways Equifax Epically Bungled Its Breach Response
- After huge Equifax breach, CEO “retires”: Board is “deeply concerned about and totally focused on the cybersecurity incident.”
- New York Governor Cuomo Directs NYDFS to Make Credit Reporting Agencies Comply with the State’s Cybersecurity Regulation
- NSA-Developed Crypto Technology No Longer Trusted For Use In Global Standards
- More Government Agencies Filing Lawsuits Against Public Records Requesters
- Released Snowden Doc Shows NSA Thwarting Electronic Dead Drops By Using Email Metadata
- Internet Explorer bug leaks whatever you type in the address bar: All your private addresses and search queries are belong to us.
- In a first, Android apps abuse serious “Dirty Cow” bug to backdoor phones: The critical Linux vulnerability is exploited on Android 1 year after coming to light.
- In spectacular fail, Adobe security team posts private PGP key on blog: Since deleted, post gave public and private key for Adobe incident response team.
- Do Tech Companies Really Need All That User Data?
- Cross-Border Data Access Primer
- Don’t Rely On An Unlock Pattern To Secure Your Android Phone
- How Much Do Your Dating Apps Know About You?
- One Tinder user’s data request turned into 800 pages of probing info: Yet another reminder that when a service is free, you are the product.
GAMES
- Bluehole hits out at Epic for ‘replicating’ Battlegrounds in Fortnite
- PUBG devs call out Epic over Fortnite Battle Royale mode: “This was never discussed with us and we don’t feel that it’s right,” says head of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds dev Bluehole
- EU Commission: “No evidence that piracy affects video games sales” – Report suggests illegal consumption actually benefits legal sales, lowering prices will not affect piracy rates
- Yet Another Developer Sees That Free Can Work For Video Games As Both An Anti-Piracy Strategy And As Promotion
- Mod that adds online play to Super Mario 64 draws Nintendo’s ire: ROM hack is still available online despite YouTube and Patreon takedowns.
- Multiplayer madness: How F-Zero inadvertently inspired Super Mario Kart
- Super Mario Kart’s competitive scene is still going strong, 25 years on
- Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle outsells all non-Nintendo Switch games – Ubisoft crossover dominates within just a month of its release, Nintendo publishing in Japan and South Korea
- How do you sell FIFA 18 on Switch?: Possibly the most important third-party title to come to Nintendo’s console has a difficult message to get right
- Unity issues slowing down Switch ports: Yooka-Laylee release date still TBC
- Unity issues leading to delayed Switch launches for some devs
- Everything you need to know about the Super NES Classic Edition: 22 lesser-known facts and observations from a weekend wallowing in nostalgia.
- The SNES Mini is wonderful and just what the market needs: A £70/$80 games console is an ideal family product, irrespective of 1990s nostalgia
- Ataribox aims high with $250-300 price point, Linux core, custom AMD chip: Currently has spring 2018 launch window, will work with “other content platforms.”
- Gatorade pays California $300K, settles anti-water complaint: Just because drought-ravaged California has spent years urging residents to conserve water doesn’t mean it wants people to actually stop drinking the stuff. – When a Gatorade cellphone game suggested doing just that state Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed a complaint accusing the popular thirst-quenching drink’s maker of false advertising.
- Blizzard will start dishing out permanent Overwatch bans next week
- Blizzard knuckles down on community as Valve fiddles: A few graphs won’t fix review bombing and abuse; if Valve wants tips, it could look to the tough decisions and hard work Blizzard is doing on Overwatch
- Concept art shows Valve almost added women to Team Fortress 2
- Valve wiped nearly 200 ‘fake games’ from Steam
- Valve removes 173 ‘asset flipping games’ from Steam: Entire portfolio of Silicon Echo Studios pulled, as well as associated accounts
- Sea’s the advantage: Cruise company Carnival gets into mobile casino games
- Game Designer Says Developers Would Be More Candid If Gamer Culture Wasn’t So Toxic
- Video game voice-actor strike might finally be over: 11 month strike reaches “tentative” end with bonuses, not royalties.
- Voice actors reach tentative deal to end strike: New agreement includes better bonuses, greater transparency, and protection against fines
- Avoiding the avoidable: Why ‘optional’ queer content isn’t solving the diversity problem (and how to fix this)
- EA Says It’s Fixing Formation That Baffles Madden’s AI
- Assassin’s Creed Origins will offer a combat-free, educational mode
- Combat-free mode makes Assassin’s Creed: Origins incredibly easy to explore – Education-focused mode literally turns the difficulty level down to zero.
- Ubisoft management gets big support as Vivendi threat looms: “We are delighted with the massive support of shareholders, which strengthens our determination and ability to defend the interests of all shareholders”
- Vivendi unsure whether to drop Ubisoft stock or attempt a takeover, says exec
- Vivendi undecided on Ubisoft takeover bid: Yves Guillemot continues to prevent hostile takeover with shareholder growth
- A disappointing week for UK game sales. Maybe.: Project Cars 2 makes it to No.2 as it struggles to reach heights of the original… or at least that’s what we guess
- PlayStation once again plays down Vita 2 possibilities: The company sees ‘limited potential’ for handheld game, despite Switch success
- Sony wishes PlayStation VR had stronger competition: Andrew House says he’s not comfortable leading the pack by a wide margin, new category should have multiple platforms succeeding
- Sony ‘not comfortable’ leading the VR charge, wants more competition
- HTC promises more VR innovation following $1.1B Google deal
- HTC to further support Vive following $1.1 billion Google deal: Cash made from selling mobile staff to Google will partly be used to fund growth in VR and AR
- VRChat Raises $4 Million Round Led By HTC
- HTC Leads $4M Series A Investment in Social VR Platform ‘VRChat’
- VR is an effective tool for exposure therapy & phobia treatment
- How presence in VR is beneficial for human research
- How medical care benefits from VR/AR and virtual humans
- How neuroscience can pave the way for VR’s future
- “We’re in danger of talking ourselves out of VR and AR”: A GamesIndustry.biz Investment Summit panel discussed the need for patience among UK investors, and the earning potential of serious VR games for developers
- Oculus introduces refund policy for Rift and Gear VR games: Virtual reality users now able to request their money back within two weeks of purchase
- Apple’s ARKit game development: a whole new world
- Square Enix targets games-as-a-service, esports and higher digital sales: One in five copies of Final Fantasy XV sold in North America were downloads, almost one in three for Nier Automata worldwide
- Hackers hijack Final Fantasy Brave Exivus dev Gumi’s website with ransom demand
- Razer developing gaming smartphone for release by the end of year: Device part of wider strategy to capture Chinese market as firm prepares to go public on Hong Kong Stock Exchange
- Welsh Government provides funding for new Doctor Who game series: Double Eleven also involved as Tiny Rebel Games reveals new PC and mobile project
- One Gamer Fund unites seven charities under one banner: “Seven charities combined into a Voltron of altruism,” including AbleGamers, Child’s Play and Take This
- “Crowdfunding is the single hardest way to raise money”: Altara Games’ Ella Romanos warns that while crowdfunding endures, the bubble has burst – and the potential for cryptocurrency fundraising is still uncertain
- Patreon confirms $60 million funding round: CEO Jack Conte lays out growth plans for the next two to five years
- Atlus wants to cut off a PS3 emulator because it runs Persona 5: Patreon defends the emulator’s non-infringing nature, leaves page up.
- Atlus US file DMCA takedown against Patreon-funded PS3 emulator: Team behind RPCS3 hold their ground with support from Patreon against pressure from Persona 5 developer
- How to avoid a bad investor: Financial experts discuss the warning signs developers should look out for during the GamesIndustry.biz Investment Summit
- Everything you missed at the GamesIndustry.biz Investment Summit: Expert advice from investors on securing the best deal, the dangers of crowdfunding and the earning potential for VR developers
- Video: An indie dev crash course in business and leadership
- PUBG helps drive digital game sales up 11% in August – SuperData: Hearthstone, Overwatch, and Madden NFL 18 also contributed to the rise in digital sales for the month
- Fortnite’s Battle Royale mode goes free, despite PUBG complaints: Mode emerge from paid Early Access with latest update, indicating development has not been stalled by Bluehole
- Shadow of War DLC in honour of deceased developer is now free: Warner Bros. will make donation directly to the family of Michael Forgey who is immortalised as a character in the game
- WB Games clears up confusion surrounding charity ‘Forthog Orc-Slayer’ DLC
- “I want it just like LoL”: How do you monetize in-game skins?
- “Don’t Crunch” – Advice from the Best Places To Work: The winners of last week’s awards reveal their tips for start-ups
- Applying game design principles to be a better leader
- Astronauts Could Use TV, Video Games to Combat Isolation in Space
- Flappy Bird will die with iOS11: Developer of the wildly successful app confirms he will not update the game to run on a 64-bit system
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice
Jon
