News of the Week; January 24, 2018

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

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

DIGITAL

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

CREATIVITY

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

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

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

GAMES

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

Jon