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
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)
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
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