News of the Week; June 20, 2018

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. The CRTC’s Vision of the Future
2. Government of Canada Looks to Modernize Telecommunications and Broadcasting Legislation for the Digital Age 
3. CRTC Rebuked: Government Signals Frustration With the Commission Prioritizing Carriers Over Consumers (Michael Geist)
4. How Did George Brown College Come to Support the FairPlay Site Blocking Plan? Docs Show Bell Lobbied the School’s President (Michael Geist) 
5. A CRTC focused on the public interest?
6. Too punitive: Québec Court of Appeal cuts award of punitive damages down to size 
7. Court Rejects DOJ Challenge to AT&T/Time Warner Vertical Merger
8. Federal Judge Approves AT&T-Time Warner Merger; Deal Closes 
9. AT&T Closes $85 Billion Time Warner Deal
10. What to expect now that AT&T officially owns Time Warner
11. Time Warner Is Getting A Rebrand To Avoid Confusion
12. New York threatens to revoke Charter’s purchase of Time Warner Cable
13. Wireless Carriers Hope You Won’t Notice Their Location Data Scandal Makes The Facebook, Cambridge Fracas Look Like Amateur Hour
14. ISPs Lobbying California Lawmakers In Bid To Weaken State’s Looming Net Neutrality Law
15. Ajit Pai Now Trying To Pretend That Everybody Supported Net Neutrality Repeal
16. Charter Spectrum Claims The Death Of Net Neutrality Will Magically Provide Better, Faster Broadband
17. How AT&T and Comcast are trying to kill California’s net neutrality bill
18. Net Neutrality And The Broken Windows Fallacy
19. AT&T, Time Warner, and the Need for Neutrality
20. AT&T is already planning more acquisitions, days after buying Time Warner
21. Following AT&T’s Lead, Comcast Makes A $65 Billion Bid For Fox
22. Comcast Offers $65 Billion for Twenty-First Century Fox
23. Disney Ups Fox Bid to $71.3 Billion, Outflanking Comcast
24. Sorry, Comcast: Fox and Disney sign new merger deal, rejecting Comcast bid
25. Disney’s Plan to Acquire Fox Is Back On, Thanks to a New $70 Billion Deal
26. Net Neutrality And The Broken Windows Fallacy
27. California Net Neutrality Bill Was ‘Hijacked,’ Lawmaker Says
28. FCC Seeks Public Comment On Proposals To Streamline
29. FAA v. FCC On Drone Enforcement 
30. FCC, Big Telcos Take Aim At Line Sharing Rules In Bid To Further Hamstring Broadband Competition
31. Sprint, T-Mobile to FCC: Our Job Killing, Competition Eroding Megamerger Will Create Jobs & Competition
32. Verizon’s New Phone Plan Proves It Has No Idea What ‘Unlimited’ Actually Means
33. Verizon and AT&T will stop selling your phone’s location to data brokers
34. South Carolina’s New State Telemarketing Law

DIGITAL

1. Where does the internet happen? The Supreme Court of Canada tackles the thorny issue of which law applies to defamation claims
2. Libel Tourism and Forum Shopping: The Supreme Court of Canada Applies the Van Breda Test to an Internet Defamation Claim
3. Biohacker Who Implanted Transit Chip in Hand Evades Fine
4. Lessons From Making Internet Companies Liable For User’s Speech: You Get Less Speech, Less Security And Less Innovation
5. Dear EU Parliament: Why Are You About To Allow US Internet Companies To Decide What EU Citizens Can Say Online?
6. EU Parliamentary Committee Votes To Put American Internet Giants In Charge Of What Speech Is Allowed Online
7. Jury awards Apple $533 million in damages
8. Apple snags Oprah Winfrey in original content deal
9. Oprah Winfrey, Apple Ink Multi-Year Development Deal
10. Huge Apple Maps outage prevents all users from searching, getting directions 
11. Apple Pulls Plug On Phone-Cracking Tech Vendors, Will Prevent Data Transfer From Locked Phones 
12. A New Tech Manifesto: Six demands, from a citizen to Big Tech
13. Microsoft Employees Up in Arms Over Cloud Contract With ICE
14. Microsoft staff call on company to end ICE contract
15. Microsoft condemns separation of families at US border
16. Microsoft’s new diverse avatar editor represents more body types, disabilities
17. It Turns out All Kinds of Tech Companies Are Working With ICE
18. FBI recovers WhatsApp, Signal data stored on Michael Cohen’s BlackBerry
19. The Making of an Online Moral Crisis: How the many-chambered heart of the internet turned the Trump administration’s family-separation policy into a different kind of scandal.
20. Trump Stokes Outrage In Silicon Valley—But It’s Selective
21. Senate rejects Trump’s plan to lift ZTE export ban
22. Welcome To Blaine, The Town Amazon Prime Built
23. How Alt-Right Twitter Tricks The Media Into Panicking: @thebradfordfile has been cited as evidence of the rise of the alt-right, but its popularity is faked through power-engagement groups and networks of sockpuppets.
24. From billboards to Twitter, why the aesthetics of protest matters more today
25. When Do the Perils of Programmatic Advertising Undermine Its Value? 
26. Data Nationalization in the Shadow of Social Credit Systems (Frank Pasquale)
27. Inside The Crypto World’s Biggest Scandal: Arthur and Kathleen Breitman thought they held the secret to building a new decentralized utopia. On the way, they plunged into a new kind of hell. A crypto-tragedy in three acts.
28. US ethics body tells government employees to declare crypto holdings
29. What does a Bitcoin taste like?
30. Europe advances copyright law that could filter the Internet
31. Europe on the verge of voting nefarious digital publishing right (Andres Guadamuz) 
32. Norwegian Court Orders Website Of Public Domain Court Decisions Shut Down With No Due Process
33. Critical Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights
34. DOJ Lets Cops Know SESTA/FOSTA Is For Shutting Down Websites, Not Busting Sex Traffickers 
35. Catching Up on FOSTA Since Its Enactment (A Linkwrap) (Eric Goldman)
36. Section 230 Can’t Save Snapchat From Lawsuit Involving Its ‘Speed Filter’
37. The End of All That’s Good and Pure About the Internet
38. Tanzania Forces ‘Unregistered Bloggers’ To Disappear Themselves
39. Andy Serkis Thinks Performance Capture Will Just Be How All Actors Work in 100 Years
40. The enabled landscape is the future of augmented reality
41. Europe’s GDPR Is Killing Email Marketing, to the Disappointment of No One
42. Think The GDPR Only Regulates Big Internet Companies? The EU Says It Regulates You Too.
43. Google Maps removes Uber integration 
44. Google’s New Podcast App Could Turbocharge The Industry 
45. Boston Globe Posts Hilarious Fact-Challenged Interview About Regulating Google, Without Any Acknowledgement Of Errors
46. Users Watch Over 180 Million Hours Of YouTube Content On TV Screens Daily
47. French Political Party Voting For Mandatory Copyright Filters Is Furious That Its YouTube Channel Deleted By Filter
48. YouTube Announces Creative Suite For Brands, Lets Them Live Experiment With Ads
49. Head Of YouTube Music Has “Largest Marketing Plan In YouTube’s History” For The Service
50. ‘Cobra Kai’ Producers Reveal How They Helped YouTube Create Its Very Own ‘House Of Cards’
51. YouTube Announces Creative Suite For Brands, Lets Them Live Experiment With Ads 
52. YouTube Premium And YouTube Music Roll Out To 12 More Countries Including U.K., Canada
53. Struggling Fitbit now has 5 ex-employees who face criminal charges
54. With IGTV, Instagram Takes Aim At YouTube
55. Instagram Launches Long-Form Video Service Called IGTV
56. Instagram Announces IGTV, An Entertainment Hub With Hour-Long Videos And Content From Social Stars
57. Facebook used less for news as youngsters turn to WhatsApp: Reuters Institute
58. The “Facebook Nevers”
59. What Facebook can learn from academia about protecting privacy
60. Facebook Communications Head Elliot Schrage Is Leaving
61. Facebook Expands Monetization With Branded Content Marketplace, More Ad Breaks 
62. Facebook Adds New Ways To Gamify Video, Will Incorporate Non-Episodic Clips Into ‘Watch’ Hub
63. Facebook will air live PGA Tour coverage on its Watch tab
64. Florida frat bros sued over Facebook revenge porn
65. In nearly 500 pages of answers, Facebook stonewalls some senators’ questions
66. Data Propria, run by Cambridge Analytica alumni, working on Trump 2020 campaign
67. Man who allegedly gave Vault 7 cache to WikiLeaks busted by poor opsec
68. As Market Cheers Spotify’s Direct Deals With Artists and Managers, Labels Mull Their Options
69. Streaming Threatens to Dethrone Traditional TV for World Cup
70. Streaming Services Jump Into the Unscripted Series Game
71. Fullscreen Has Quietly Offered 360-Degree Talent Management For 2 Years — And Its Client Roster Is Growing Fast
72. Jon Cozart, Marla Catherine, CJ Perry Sign With Management Firm Expand Entertainment
73. Whistle Sports Signs Deal With NBA Comedian ‘Famous Los’ For Original Content, Events
74. Influencers Must Disclose Who Is Influencing Them
75. More Than 80 Creators, Including Casey Neistat And Miranda Sings, Confirmed For Tana Mongeau’s VidCon Alternative
76. Insights: VidCon Navigates An Industry’s Stormy Season With New Owner, Influx Of Brands And Platforms
77. What would it mean for AI to have a soul? 

CREATIVITY

1. Music Canada at the Copyright Review: “Illegal Content is Drifting Away” (Michael Geist)
2. Canadian Music Industry Pitches ‘You Must Be A Pirate’ Tax On Smartphones
3. Danish Anti-Piracy Lawyers Jailed For Real, Actual Stealing From Copyright Holders
4. The Gawker Case Has Become More Interesting
5. Dear Journalists: Stop being loudspeakers for liars
6. Minnesota’s Vague Ban On ‘Political’ Wear At Polling Places Shut Down By The Supreme Court
7. Broadway Producers Denied Motion to Set Aside Damages Verdict against Former Publicist 
8. Judge Cock(y)blocks Author Faleena Hopkins’ Demand Other Authors Stop Using The Word ‘Cocky’ In Their Titles
9. Star Trek, Dr. Seuss Mash-Up, Continues to Make Law
10. Seeing red – Louboutin’s trademark victory at the ECJ
11. Oakley Denies Validity of Graffiti Copyright: Calling artist-duo’s works unoriginal and “generic.”
12. Hold the presses: contempt of court 
13. Terry Gilliam Has Lost the Rights to The Man Who Killed Don Quixote
14. European Citizens: You Stopped ACTA, But The New Copyright Directive Is Much, Much Worse: Speak Up 
15. UN Free Speech Expert: EU’s Copyright Directive Would Be An Attack On Free Speech, Violate Human Rights
16. Following Allegations of Abuse, Chris Hardwick Has Been Pulled from AMC Programming and San Diego Comic-Con
17. World Cup Advertising Fever – but don’t overstep the mark!
18. Propaganda or news: Should media publish government’s child-detention photos?
19. The MoviePass Effect Is Here to Stay – Even if MoviePass Isn’t
20. How Swiss news publisher NZZ built a flexible paywall using machine learning
21. Warner Bros. Turns Harry Potter Fan Events Into Events For The Franchise That Must Not Be Named
22. Is an audio recording on magnetic tape a technological document?
23. How John Mayer Helped Me Become a Better Therapist: Using song lyrics is a form of expressive arts therapy, which can help people tap into their emotions and invoke personal change. 

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Geolocation phone apps to track children come under scrutiny by the FTC
2. China Is Rolling Out A Mandatory Program That Puts Tracking Chips In Every Car
3. China-based hackers burrow inside satellite, defense, and telecoms firms
4. China’s Latest Censorship Crackdown Target: Videos Of Women Rubbing, Kissing And Licking Binaural Microphones
5. NY Senate Passes Bill That Would Make It A Crime To Publish Photos Of The Elderly Without Their Consent
6. Decades-old PGP bug allowed hackers to spoof just about anyone’s signature
7. EU Politicians Tell European Commission To Suspend Privacy Shield Data Transfer Framework
8. Hackers who sabotaged the Olympic games return for more mischief
9. Reminder: macOS still leaks secrets stored on encrypted drives
10. Tesla sues employee alleged to have stolen gigabytes of data

GAMES

1. A Claim of Epic Proportions: Epic Games Hits Back in Suit Against 14-Year-Old 
2. ‘Gaming Disorder’ officially listed in World Health Organization diagnostic doc
3. WHO makes ‘gaming disorder’ diagnosis official: Final version of World Health Organization’s 11th International Compendium of Diseases includes gaming addiction for the first time
4. Games industry trade bodies concerned by ‘gaming disorder’ classification 
5. Industry trade bodies from around the globe unite to condemn ‘gaming disorder’ decision: WHO classification will create moral panic, says international trade body coalition
6. Ukie: WHO gaming disorder diagnosis is based on “highly contested evidence”
7. Former Telltale CEO and co-founder Kevin Bruner is suing the studio
8. Former Telltale CEO sues developer over alleged breach of contract: Kevin Bruner claims Telltale failed to fulfil its obligations to him after he stepped down in 2017
9. HitRecord “has to draw a line somewhere” on payment for Beyond Good & Evil assets: Only work used in the game will be compensated, says founder Joseph Gordon-Levitt
10. Reverse-engineered Diablo source code released on GitHub
11. Blog: How much protection does Fair Use really offer?
12. Nintendo boss says loot boxes have ‘gotten a bit of a bad rap’
13. Nintendo: Loot boxes “have gotten a bit of a bad rap” – Reggie Fils-Aime says loot boxes “can be interesting” as long as players have other options
14. Citing Dutch law, Valve drops trading CS:GO and Dota 2items in the Netherlands
15. Valve disables CS:GO and DOTA 2 item trading in Netherlands after legal warning – “We still don’t understand or agree with the [Dutch Gaming Authority’s] legal conclusion,” says Valve
16. Valve continues its fight against “fake games” on Steam: Games that haven’t reached Steam’s “confidence metric” will be restricted from user achievements and game counts
17. Valve introduces limits for new games to prevent ‘fake’ ones from gaming Steam
18. Review manipulators aren’t as sneaky as they think they are, warns Valve
19. Following App Store rejection, Valve cuts game purchasing from iOS Steam Link app
20. Valve continues work on rejected iOS Steam Link app: After initial rejection by Apple, TestFlight version of Steam companion app updates to curb ability to purchase new games
21. Following GDPR, Steam now discloses a ton of collected account data to users
22. Studios commit to removing Red Shell due to player complaints: Dead by Daylight, Elder Scrolls Online and other Steam games will remove alleged spyware that tracked advertisement efficacy
23. The GamesIndustry.biz E3 Award Winners
24. Editor roundtable: What did E3 2018 mean for game developers?
25. E3 2018: Starting next-gen hype early is bad for business – Casual references toward next-gen consoles and games risks overshadowing the huge releases coming in 2018
26. Analyst: 66% of console players still prefer physical games over digital
27. E3 2018: Microsoft finally comes out of its “self-imposed damage control position” – Industry analysts on Sony’s muted E3 briefing, and why it’s too soon to know if Microsoft’s studio acquisitions will be proved “smart or dumb”
28. E3 2018: Cyberpunk 2077 astounds, but so do the crowds – Dispatches from the show floor, where E3 continues to struggle with delivering a satisfying show for the public
29. E3 attendance reaches highest point since 2005: 2018 event was “an enormous success” says organiser as nearly 70,000 people descend on LA Convention Centre
30. The top ten games from E3 2018
31. Stick or Twitch? How streaming is hurting single-player games
32. Is single-player dead? Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick ‘doesn’t buy it’
33. Netflix and Telltale partner on Minecraft TV show, Stranger Things game: Minecraft Story Mode will be an interactive five-episode series, but Netflix doesn’t have “any plans to get into gaming”
34. Microsoft is making changes to its Xbox app to better reflect PC users
35. Streaming could be key to Xbox reclaiming the lead from PlayStation
36. PlayStation 4 sale transforms EMEA games charts: Vampyr debuts at No.2 as FIFA 18 holds top spot
37. Sony revives greatest hits program for PS4 games as PlayStation Hits
38. PlayStation briefing a response to “shallow” E3 press conferences: Sony Worldwide Studios’ Michael Denny addresses disappointment over this week’s more focused showcase
39. Sony is locking Fortnite accounts to PS4, and players are mad
40. Sony issues evasive response to Fortnite cross-platform controversy
41. PlayStation 4 owners can’t access Fortnite accounts on Switch: Sony issues response, side-steps complaints around lack of cross-play and inability to access saved progress
42. Fortnite racks up two million downloads on Switch in a single day: Despite releasing late last year, Fortnite has been featured prominently throughout E3 2018
43. Fortnite revenue tops $100M on iOS after 90 days
44. Rare official arcade versions of Donkey Kong, Sky Skipper headed to Switch
45. Nintendo and Disney join forces for a Switch-themed game show
46. Is Nintendo Switch in trouble?: After a slight E3 showcase, investors and analysts are concerned over Switch sales. But are they right?
47. After a strong start, Nintendo wants Labo to reach a broader demographic 
48. Inside Nintendo’s “perfect” method for detecting online Switch piracy
49. Following hardware exploit, Nintendo bans Switch consoles with pirated games
50. Xbox and Nintendo speak out against Fortnite PS4 stalemate: Phil Spencer and Reggie Fils-Aime both want their customers to play with and across other consoles
51. Dev taps blockchain tech to make Pokemon playable on Twitch — for a price
52. Fortnite breaks record for concurrent Twitch viewers – Battle Royale smash hit outperforms previous record holder Counter-Strike: GO
53. Fortnite hits $100m revenue in its first 90 days on iOS: Meanwhile, PUBG on iOS has grossed just $5.2 million in 60 days
54. How useful errors and evolving player skills shape Fortnite’s UX
55. PUBG dev says store-bought assets help teams ‘work smart’
56. PUBG Corp. defends the use of asset stores as the only way to “work smart”: PUBG is no “asset flip”, says PUBG Corp., but store-bought assets are necessary when building maps
57. Ubisoft won’t whitewash Ancient Greece with Assassin’s Creed Odyssey: “We really felt like it was a nice opportunity for us to have a deep dive into the culture of Greece,” says audio director Lydia Andre
58. In Defense Of Ubisoft: Crowdsourcing Game Content Creation Is Actually Fun And Non-Exploitive
59. Editor Roundtable: How does Ubisoft’s HitRecord partnership impact devs? 
60. THQ Nordic raises $168 million for future acquisitions 
61. THQ Nordic completes share issue worth $168m: Major acquisition plans afoot with flash sale of 7.7 million shares
62. Keemstar, ItsAlexClark, Bart Baker Among YouTube Stars Featured In New Mobile Game
63. BBTV Interactive Launches Squad Rivals
64. HitRECord founder responds to backlash over crowdsourcing assets for Beyond Good and Evil 2
65. Avalanche EP: livestreaming ‘can’t not’ influence game development now
66. Naughty Dog’s Last Of Us games have sold over 17M copies in 5 years
67. Unity moving entire infrastructure to Google Cloud for ‘connected games’
68. Unity unveils new augmented reality extension MARS
69. Sales from Fallout 76 ‘Country Roads’ cover will be donated to charity
70. Critical Force nets $6.3m investment to scale esports operation: Business Finland backs mobile developer as flagship title hits 40 million downloads
71. Blog: Are battle royale titles the next big esport?
72. FIFA is a Better Esport Than Other Sports Simulation Games
73. Sea of Thieves hit three month target in a single day
74. Naughty Dog marks The Last of Us’ fifth birthday with 17m copies sold: Combined sales of The Last of Us and the Uncharted series are now pushing 60 million units
75. Phones within phones: Simulating real apps to explore real issues: Lost Phone and Bury Me, My Love developers discuss the intimate impact of games that behave like mobile interfaces
76. After Rumors Swirl, Nintendo Says Talks To Bring Video Services To Switch Are “Ongoing”
77. Why Unravel Two is not on Nintendo Switch: Coldwood Interactive tells us how the console’s simpler hardware would have delayed the surprise launch by six months
78. Does cyber insurance make us more (or less) secure?: Underwriting cyber risk remains more art than science, but in the absence of regulation, cyber insurance might still be the best hope for improving cybersecurity practices across the board – at least fo
79. Unity and Google Cloud announce partnership to create multiplayer development suite: Alliance aims to create server hosting, matchmaking tools to ease multiplayer game development in Unity
80. GameStop in buyout talks, reports Reuters
81. Celebrating experience and tackling ageism: 50 Over 50 industry list revealed – List conceived to “counter the trend of glossing over ageism,” says Game Advocacy
82. Educational app TinyTap raises $5M toward accessible learning 
83. How ARKit 2 works, and why Apple is so focused on AR

Jon