News of the Week; February 28, 2018

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. The Case Against the Bell Coalition’s Website Blocking Plan, Part 8: The Ineffectiveness of Website Blocking (Michael Geist)
2. The Case Against the Bell Coalition’s Website Blocking Plan, Part 9: Why it Violates Canadian Net Neutrality Rules (Michael Geist)
3. The Case Against the Bell Coalition’s Website Blocking Plan, Part 10: Why It May Violate Human Rights Norms (Michael Geist)
4. The Case Against the Bell Coalition’s Website Blocking Plan, Part 11: Higher Internet Access Costs for All (Michael Geist)
5. The Case Against the Bell Coalition’s Website Blocking Plan: Canadians Take a Stand Against Site Blocking (Michael Geist)
6. NRA gives Ajit Pai “courage award” and gun for “saving the Internet”: Killing net neutrality helps Pai win award for “standing up under pressure.”
7. NRA Gives FCC Boss An Award For ‘Courageously’ Killing Net Neutrality, May Have Violated Ethics Rules
8. FCC Republican faces ethics complaint after calling for Trump’s re-election: Pai and O’Rielly both face ethics questions after appearances at CPAC.
9. Vimeo, In Ongoing Battle For Net Neutrality, Refiles Lawsuit Against FCC
10. AT&T loses years-long quest to cripple FTC authority over telecoms: Unlimited data throttling case is back on after FTC wins major ruling.
11. AT&T describes post-net neutrality plans for paid prioritization: “AT&T is not interested in creating fast lanes and slow lanes,” ISP claims. 
12. Democrats submit plan to save net neutrality, still one vote short in Senate: Democrats still trying to convince Republicans to keep net neutrality rules.
13. The Final Countdown to Net Neutrality’s Death Begins Today
14. The Death Of Net Neutrality Will Be Official In April (Cue The Lawsuits)
15. As Protection Ends, Here’s One Way To Test For Net Neutrality
16. Life in the Fast Lane: FCC Releases Final Rule Repealing Net Neutrality 
17. Defying Pai’s FCC, Washington state passes law protecting net neutrality: Washington may be the first state to impose net neutrality rules on all ISPs.
18. The FCC’s ‘New’ Broadband Availability Map Hallucinates Broadband Competition
19. Why states might win the net neutrality war against the FCC: FCC might have doomed its preemption case by renouncing authority over broadband.
20. Verizon and a company it bought just paid $614M in biggest FCC fine ever: Straight Path failed to use spectrum, resulting in $614M fine and sale to Verizon.
21. Charter Spectrum Fails To Wiggle Out From Under State Lawsuit For Crappy Service 
22. The Moon Will Soon Have Its Own Mobile Network
23. A Parliamentary Committee Makes Recommendations Regarding Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation 

DIGITAL

1. How a fight over Star Wars download codes could reshape copyright law: Legal scholar says Redbox’s win over Disney is an “atomic bomb of a finding.”
2. Disney Enterprises, Inc.; Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Inc.; Lucasfilm Ltd., LLC, MVl Film Finance LLC, Plaintiff, v. Redbox Automated Retail, LLC
3. Disney’s Stupid Lawsuit Against Redbox Results In Judge Saying Disney Is Engaged In Copyright Misuse
4. Court Finds That Embedded Twitter Photo on Website May Subject Website Owner to Copyright Liability – Be Careful What You Post  
5. U.S. Federal Court rules embedding a Tweet could be copyright infringement
6. Embedding a Third Party Tweet Constitutes Copyright Infringement
7. District judge in the SDNY: Embedding links to third-party web content is copyright infringement 
8. ‘Repeat infringers’ under Digital Millennium Copyright Act not repeat infringers as adjudged by court
9. Second Circuit Rejects TVEyes’s Fair Use Defense For Online Service Allowing Users To Watch Fox News Content
10. Federal Court of Appeal approves website seizure and Anton Piller order against online copyright piracy platform
11. Loss In 9th Circuit Appeals Court Isn’t Slowing 1-800-LAWFIRM’s Lawsuit Crusade Against Social Media Companies
12. DOJ Tells Congress SESTA/FOSTA Will Make It MORE DIFFICULT To Catch Traffickers; House Votes For It Anyway 
13. House Prepared To Rush Vote On Terrible Frankenstein SESTA, Which Will Harm Trafficking Victims & The Internet
14. Now It’s The Turn Of Mercedes-Benz To Grovel Before China, Over An Instagram Post Quoting The Dalai Lama
15. Apple Agrees To Store Chinese iCloud Data In China, Making It Much Easier For The Chinese Gov’t To Access It
16. Apple to suspend iTunes Store support for “obsolete” first-gen Apple TV: Security changes will also affect Windows XP and Vista machines running iTunes.
17. Mistakes And Strategic Failures: The Killing Of The Open Internet
18. Russian Hacker False Flags Work—Even After They’re Exposed
19. How Manafort’s inability to convert a PDF file to Word helped prosecutors: Former Trump campaign manager allegedly emailed doctored docs to his assistant. 
20. FTC Refunds Victims of Tech Support Scam 
21. AT&T Fails In Bid To Kill FTC Authority Over Broadband Monopolies
22. COPPA, FTC Act Violations for Talent Agency
23. Connected Toys, COPPA, and What’s Next 
24. Google starts a push for cross-platform app development with Flutter SDK: As Flutter hits beta 1, Google revs up promotion efforts for a new way to make apps.
25. Google Must Be Stopped Before It Becomes An AI Monopoly: We should start thinking now about how to build an antitrust regime that will preserve several companies’ robust AI assistants. 
26. Artificial Intelligence & Inclusion 
27. New Report on Emerging AI Risks Paints a Grim Future
28. The Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence: Forecasting, Prevention, and Mitigation
29. How AI-Driven Insurance Could Reduce Gun Violence: Exploring a market-based, technologically-enabled compromise to preventing gun violence.
30. The Verdict Is In: AI Outperforms Human Lawyers in Reviewing Legal Documents
31. Self-Driving Cars Are Smart, But Car Washes Stump Them
32. Inside The Alexa Prize: Amazon is in a pitched battle with its rivals to bring truly conversational AI into our homes. So the company is staging a contest—a mad dash toward an outlandish goal: Cook up a bot capable of small talk.
33. Amazon Made $5.6 Billion in Profits Last Year and Reportedly Paid Zero American Dollars in Federal Taxes
34. Amazon Pays $1 Billion For Video Doorbell Startup Ring After Shark Tank Passed On It
35. Why Amazon is sending you pictures of your front porch
36. Amazon splurges on Ring, hopes smart doorbells bolster in-home deliveries: The company’s new acquisition brings video doorbells into its smart home family.
37. Insights: Can Twitter, Facebook and Google Evolve Fast Enough to Extract Us from The Mess They’ve Made? 
38. Fake Social Followers Yield Real Legal Concerns
39. Kylie Jenner Said She Doesn’t Use Snapchat Anymore And Its Stock Fell 3% In A Half-Hour
40. ‘We’re watching a company explode’: is Snapchat becoming irrelevant?
41. Sexting is on the rise among teens: ~27% get nudes, other racy messages: But researchers found no gender differences in sending and receiving rates.
42. Vogue, Vice put editorial collaboration on hold
43. BuzzFeed’s AM To DM Brings In One Million Views Per Episode By Incorporating “Twitter’s DNA”
44. YouTube Strikes InfoWars Channel Amid Attempt To Crack Down On Conspiratorial Content
45. YouTube Won’t Ban Neo-Nazi Group Chanting ‘Gas the ******, Race War Now’: Atomwaffen calls for genocide and has been linked to several murders, but the company site says a warning label is sufficient.
46. After Some Pushback, YouTube Finally Bans Neo-Nazi Group
47. YouTube’s Monetization Model, Algorithm Provide Unique Haven For Conspiracy Theorists (Study)
48. Digital Networks Differ On Responses To YouTube’s New Partner Program Requirements
49. California Court Holds That YouTube’s Removal Notice Is Not Defamatory 
50. Manchester United, YouTube’s most viewed English club, finally launch official channel 
51. Move Over, TV: Students Now Distract Themselves From Homework With YouTube, Study Finds 
52. Top 3% Of YouTube Creators Received 90% Of Sitewide Views In 2016
53. YouTube To Keep Original Productions Budget Flat Over Next Two Years (Report)
54. YouTube TV Partners With Seattle Sounders To Stream All 2018 Matches 
55. YouTube TV, In Search Of Sports Fans, Gets Rights To Stream Seattle Sounders Soccer Matches
56. Drug Addiction Educator Says He’s Leaving YouTube After Erratic Content Strikes
57. YouTube Restores Ads On Logan Paul’s YouTube Channel After 18-Day Suspension
58. YouTube brings ads back to Logan Paul’s channel, but he’s on a 90-day probation: He’s still not eligible for YouTube’s Google Preferred ad program
59. Logan Paul And KSI Are Probably Going To Box And It’s Going To Be The Biggest Thing Ever On YouTube
60. Jake Paul Breaks Daily Vlogging Streak To “Help Some People That Are In A Lot Of Need” 
61. Alphabet Will Not Share YouTube’s Revenue With The SEC 
62. Poland’s Central Bank Paid Popular YouTubers To Create Anti-Cryptocurrency Videos
63. Coinbase: We will send data on 13,000 users to IRS – Bitcoin startup says if concerned, “seek legal advice from an attorney promptly.”
64. Self-proclaimed Bitcoin creator accused of $5 billion crypto heist: Craig Wright accused of “perpetrating a scheme” to con Dave Kleiman and his estate.
65. The Problem With Cryptojacking 
66. Venezuela says its cryptocurrency raised $735 million – but it’s a farce: Venezuela says its presale raised $735 million in 24 hours. Don’t believe it.
67. Bill Gates says cryptocurrencies have “caused deaths in a fairly direct way”: Gates says cryptocurrencies’ main feature is anonymity.
68. Bill Gates Thinks Cryptocurrency Is Killing People ‘In a Fairly Direct Way’
69. Here’s How Blockchain Could Be Used for Gun Control
70. Managing Copyrights on a Blockchain: How Close Are We and What Does It Mean?
71. New York’s Top Court Rules 7-0: “Private” Facebook Posts Subject to Disclosure
72. Section 230 Isn’t About Facebook, It’s About You
73. Facebook’s Mandatory Malware Scan Is An Intrusive Mess
74. Facebook Live Usage Among Previously-Paid Publishers Declined By More Than 50% In 2017
75. What Facebook Isn’t Saying About Trump And Clinton’s Campaign Ads 
76. Facebook apologizes over “Bullet Train” VR demo at right-wing conference: Facebook exec says demo scuttled “out of respect” for recent shooting victims.
77. Netflix CFO: We’re Going To Have 700 Original Programs On Our Platform In 2018 
78. Instagram image of Lego assault rifle, threat lead to 14-year-old’s arrest: San Diego County teen wrote Tuesday evening – “Don’t come to school tomorrow.”
79. NIST Releases Draft Report on IoT Cybersecurity Standards; Comments Due April 18 
80. Vox Lays Off 50 Staffers, Mostly Across Social Video Teams
81. Wow, Who Could Have Predicted 59 Percent of 2017’s ICOs Are Already Dead or Doomed
82. Peter Thiel Is A Flawed Messenger With A Crucial Message For Tech
83. Tinder Wants To Make Emoji For Interracial Couples
84. Feedless Takes The News Feed Out Of Social Media
85. When a robot writes your news, what happens to democracy? 
86. From fake news to fabricated video, can we preserve our shared reality?: The advent of inexpensive and readily accessible fabricated video production brings new meaning to the phrase ‘seeing is believing.’
87. There’s something strange going on amid the satellite Internet rush: Greg Wyler, the founder of OneWeb, starts a second company to compete with himself. 
88. How Bittorrent Spurred The Streaming Revolution
89. My Dreams of Owning The Matrix Phone Can Finally Be Fulfilled
90. A Short History Of Technology Worship: It’s possible that neither intelligence nor beauty is what makes converts. It’s technology itself. 
91. Silicon Valley pub that helped birth PC industry to close because of high rent: The Oasis Beer Garden will serve its final pizza and pour its last pint on March 7.

CREATIVITY

1. Insurer Settles $10M Coverage Dispute With Kanye West Touring Company 
2. Coal CEO’s defamation lawsuit against John Oliver is dismissed: Murray Energy says it will appeal the decision.
3. Stanford Professor Drops Stupid SLAPP Suit Against Critics; Still Mad Online
4. Appeals Court Affirms Dismissal Of Frank Sivero’s Publicity Rights Suit Against ‘The Simpsons’ 
5. Court Destroys Future Public Art Installations By Holding Building Owner Liable For Destroying This One
6. Dark Day For Hollywood – Law Prohibiting Online Publication Of Actors’ Ages Is Unconstitutional! 
7. Federal Court Shuts Down IMDb-Targeting ‘Anti-Ageism’ Law Permanently
8. Fair Dealing Fake News: When Seeking a Refund Arising From Copyright Over-Payments Becomes a “Legal Attack on Writers” (Michael Geist)
9. Why Fair Dealing Benefits Creators: The Case of a Room Full of Spoons (Michael Geist)
10. Why Fair Dealing Safeguards Freedom of Expression: The Case of the Vancouver Aquarium (Michael Geist)
11. Judge Saris Opines on Copyright Infringement in 3-D Greeting Card Case 
12. Black Panther Surpasses Wonder Woman, Toy Story 3 At Domestic Box Office: Third highest-grossing MCU movie domestically.
13. Mark Millar Has an Interesting Theory About Why Marvel Movies Work and DC Movies Don’t
14. Disney Donates $1 Million To Open Stem Centers In Honor Of Black Panther Success: The money will go towards building new Centers of Innovation for kids interested in STEM. 

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. US Officials Say Russia Hacked Pyeongchang Olympics, Tried to Pin It on North Korea
2. Russia accused of “false flag” attack on Olympic opening: Routing hacks, bits of code used to throw off attribution trail.
3. America’s Voting Systems Are Highly Vulnerable to Hackers: And we’re doing nothing to protect them.
4. Feds have spent 13 years failing to verify whether passport data is legit: Data is read off e-passports, but CBP lacks software to verify digital signatures.
5. US Border Officials Have Never Verified Chipped Passports, Despite Demanding Their Usage
6. Us Border Patrol Hasn’t Validated E-Passport Data For Years: US Customs and Border Patrol hasn’t been verifying the cryptographic signatures on e-Passports – because they never installed the right software.
7. YouTube Removes Some Demographics Data From Creator Analytics To Protect Viewer Privacy
8. Microsoft’s Supreme Court Case Has Big Implications For Data
9. Microsoft doesn’t want to turn over foreign server data, SCOTUS to weigh in: Silicon Valley fears that if US wins, its data held abroad will be vulnerable.
10. Supreme Court Hears Oral Arguments In Microsoft Email Case
11. SEC Issues Interpretive Guidance on Public Company Cybersecurity Disclosures: Greater Engagement Required of Officers and Directors
12. Car companies are preparing to sell driver data to the highest bidder: Connected cars are going to monetize data, but most drivers don’t know that.
13. Covert ‘Replay Sessions’ Have Been Harvesting Passwords By Mistake
14. How To Turn Off Facebook’s Face Recognition Features
15. Man removes feds’ spy cam, they demand it back, he refuses and sues
16. Cellebrite can unlock any iPhone (for some values of “any”): Forensics contractor’s “Advanced Unlocking Service” still has to brute-force passcodes
17. Developer gets prison after admitting backdoor was made for malice: Full-featured trojan catered to password thieves, Peeping Toms, and ransomware scammers.

GAMES

1. Star Control devs file counterclaim against Stardock over IP ownership
2. Star Control countersuit aims to invalidate Stardock’s trademarks: Stardock claims Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III didn’t even create the classic games.
3. Twitch Interactive, Inc. v. Justin Johnston, Et Al.
4. Trump decries violent games after school shooting: US president raises concerns about the internet, games, and movies during a meeting on school safety
5. Trump Blames School Shootings On Violent Video Games, Movies; Suggests We Need Some Sort Of Rating System For Them
6. President Trump: “We have to do something” about violent video games, movies: Parkland student who plays Call of Duty responds: “That’s just a really pathetic excuse.”
7. Right On Time: Kentucky Governor Lays The Blame For Florida School Shooting At The Feet Of Video Games
8. Rhode Island might tax violent games to fund mental health programs
9. Rhode Island politician proposes violent game tax: 10% sales tax on M-rated games would pay for mental health and counselling resources in schools
10. Game Studio Threatens Employees’ Jobs If They Don’t Write Positive Reviews Of Own Game, Then Steam Pulls Game Entirely
11. ESRB defends “fun” loot boxes as it starts labeling all “in-game purchases”: New label doesn’t specifically call out loot boxes to avoid “overwhelming” parents.
12. ESRB to add ‘In-Game Purchase’ label to games featuring loot boxes
13. ESRB responds to loot box controversy with in-game purchase label: Rating board to add new indicator on physical games when players can spend money from within the game
14. Riot reveals the odds and rules that power League of Legends loot boxes
15. Hooked on loot boxes: The industry’s push for engagement at all costs is ready to backfire as it misunderstands the concern over a controversial mechanic
16. League of Legends dev Riot Games details how it ensures fairer loot box odds: Leading MOBA studio is the latest to share drop rates as scrutiny over monetisation continues
17. Nintendo’s eShop refund policy found to violate European consumer rights: Norwegian Consumer Council asks Nintendo to bring its policy in line with European law
18. Game Studio Found To Install Malware DRM On Customers’ Machines, Defends Itself, Then Apologizes
19. ESA Comes Out Against Allowing Museums To Curate Online Video Games For Posterity
20. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild big winner at DICE Awards
21. Zelda and Nintendo clean up at the DICE Awards
22. Breath of the Wild wins four including GOTY, while Nintendo was involved with a further seven winners
23. In the age of the Switch, the Nintendo 3DS refuses to die: Despite Switch success, older portable is still popular, especially in the US.
24. Nintendo: letting our fans review video games might not be a good idea – Change comes only five days after Nintendo caught up with rivals’ review systems.
25. Nintendo Pulls Switch Game User Reviews
26. Nintendo Adds User Reviews, Immediately Pulls Them
27. Nintendo is letting players review Switch games on its official website
28. Nintendo’s disappointing year on mobile: Smartphone games are proving to be a challenge for Nintendo – and the problems are more basic than a failure to embrace F2P
29. Sega’s Yakuza 6 demo accidentally included the full game: Lucky downloaders got the entire game well ahead of April 17 release.
30. The state of iOS game development, according to the creators of Alto’s Odyssey: From Metal to Android, Ryan Cash, Jason Medeiros, and Eli Cymet talk shop.
31. Star Control creators file counterclaim against Stardock: Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III seek an injunction, but Stardock CEO responds that its ownership position is “incontestable”
32. Rebellion trademark clash compels Ballistic Interactive to change game name: Upcoming RPG Hellhunter will now be released as HellSign, Sherdians lawyer warns indies to check trademarks
33. Double Fine’s indie publishing biz aims to grow and help devs ‘rise above the noise’
34. Blog: Random advice on how to survive as an indie studio
35. “There’s no excuse for unequal pay”: Leading UK games organisations discuss the importance of ensuring employees of any gender are paid fairly as claims against major non-games firms rise
36. Former EA devs reflect on work culture 14 years after EA Spouse 
37. Facebook launches Women in Gaming site to share stories, research, and tools
38. Facebook launches #SheTalksGames initiative to promote women in video games: Women In Gaming Stories is designed to encourage more women into the games business, and into leadership roles
39. Twitch Partners With Non-Profit On ‘BroadcastHER’ Grants To Support Female Gamers
40. 1,000 Dreams in partnership with Twitch to support female streamers: Plans to raise money for BroadcastHER Grant through Women’s History Month streaming event
41. PAX producer ReedPOP acquires Gamer Network
42. Over half of games journalists see a future co-existing with influencers: 15% view influencers as a “significant threat” to games journalism
43. NPD: US games business had its best January since 2011- Monster Hunter World was the best-selling game in a month where dollar spend reached $1.1 billion
44. NPD Group: U.S. video game hardware sales topped 1M in January
45. PlayStation Plus will stop offering PS3 and Vita games in 2019 
46. Almost $9bn spent on digital games in January – Superdata: Research firm also reports PUBG and Fortnite generated $200m in revenue last month
47. Australians spent AU$3.23bn on video games in 2017: IGEA data shows AU$1bn on physical hardware and software, console sales up 36% year-on-year
48. Metacritic ranks Bethesda as top-rated big publisher of 2017: Nicalis takes top-spot for best mid-sized publisher while EA comes in at fifth place after it “fell precipitously” last year
49. Are video games immune to cryptocurrency failure?: 46% of 2017 ICOs have already failed, but most games-based projects seem to be ongoing
50. UK Charts: Metal Gear Survive debuts at No.6 – £25 spin-off game fails to have a big impact on the charts
51. Horizon Zero Dawn has sold over 7.6M copies worldwide
52. Metal Gear Survive is The Rebirth And Death Of Metal Gear
53. Warcraft III receives major patch ahead of first ever Invitational
54. Critical Force: “Mobile will become more and more important to esports” – CEO Veli-Pekka Piirainen on how patient community building and emerging markets helped Critical Ops to reach one million daily players
55. Newzoo lays down ten key factors that will determine the growth of esports: “Crunch time for esports as it enters adolescence,” says market intelligence firm
56. Esports Monetization Platform FanAI Has Cleveland Cavaliers’ Backing
57. Discord expands verified server program to eSports teams
58. Vision Esports secures $38M to ramp up investment efforts
59. Vision Esports raises $38 million in funding: Round led by Evolution Media featured contributions from numerous star professional athletes
60. GamersOrigin, LDLC Event et l’Olympique lyonnais: les trois premières sociétés agréées pour l’emploi de joueurs professionnels de jeux vidéo compétitifs
61. Overwatch: Building an esport from the ground up
62. H1Z1 player base declines by 91% months before launch of pro league: Concurrent players down to 9,000 from peak of 150,000
63. Smite esports leagues will be exclusive to Microsoft’s Mixer: Xbox streaming service to showcase both the Pro and Console series for Hi-Rez’s fantasy MOBA
64. Augmented and mixed reality revenue to overtake VR by 2021: AR/MR revenue expected to double to $3.2 billion this year
65. Facebook pulls VR shooting demo from display at CPAC: “We regret that we failed to do so in the first place,” says Facebook VP of VR
66. Augmented and mixed reality revenue to surpass VR by 2021
67. Google opens up ARCore access as SDK exits preview
68. Rovio’s value halves following investor exodus: Angry Birds developer cites spiralling user acquisition cost for profit forecast shortfall
69. Wooga makes layoffs as it pivots towards story-driven games
70. Trion Worlds remastering Defiance without TV show: MMO publisher will bring free-to-play shooter to PC and current gen consoles despite lack of key selling point
71. Pokemon Day 2018 Celebrations Include Snapchat Lenses, New Pikachu In Pokemon Go: Plus a new Pikachu Talk app for Amazon Alexa and Google Home.
72. Blizzard Let Zenyatta Walk And It Was A Mistake
73. Why release a new N64 game in 2018?: How a forgotten PS1 game has become a Kickstarter hit
74. Metal Gear Survive Dev Appears To Call Out Konami In Hidden Message
75. WWE Items Coming To Rocket League
76. Ex-Quantic Dream dev launches video game storytelling course: Interior Night’s Caroline Marchal teams up with author and TV producer John Yorke for seven-week program
77. Weza Interactive’s mission to become Africa’s success story: Kenyan developer George Ahere on how local culture inspired debut title Mzito and his plans to raise the continent’s profile in the global games market
78. Ubisoft’s “Minority Report of programming”: La Forge claims its Commit Assistant AI for detecting bugs as they’re introduced can cut programming time by 20 per cent
79. Obscure 1984 Donkey Kong game released online
80. Europe finally gets a video game chart with digital data
81. Can gaming’s own “academy awards” become a cultural event?: Academy president says attracting the “wider gamer audience” isn’t a priority.
82. Obituary: Former President and CEO of Atari Ray Kassar 

Jon