News of the Week; July 18, 2018

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

  1. Canada: A $250,000 Reminder that “CASL” is Not Just an Anti-Spam Law
  2. AG’s False Advertising Suit Challenging Broadband Claims Not Preempted
  3. Bill to save net neutrality gets first Republican vote in US House
  4. The Cable TV & Broadband Sector Has A Nasty Billing Fraud Problem
  5. The FCC’s Sneaky Plan To Make It Easier To Ignore ISP Complaints
  6. Ajit Pai Pretends To Care About Identity Fraud That Plagued Net Neutrality Repeal
  7. Ajit Pai’s Cure For The ‘Digital Divide’ Looks Suspiciously Like A Giant Middle Finger
  8. Ajit Pai finalizes vote to limit FCC reviews of customer complaints
  9. Ajit Pai deals major setback to Sinclair/Tribune merger
  10. The FCC Mysteriously Retreats From Sinclair Cronyism, Potentially Dooming Controversial Merger
  11. FCC Seeks “Large Step” Toward Advancing Broadband Infrastructure Goals With Draft One-Touch Make-Ready Order 
  12. Trump administration appeals court loss in AT&T/Time Warner case
  13. After AT&T Jacks Up Prices Post Merger, DOJ Decides To Appeal Court Loss
  14. Charter Spectrum’s New ‘Unlimited’ Wireless Service Bans HD Video Entirely

DIGITAL

  1. 3D-printed gun lawsuit ends after 3+ years—in gun publisher’s favor
  2. “Content is fire, Social Media is gasoline” – Court of Appeal considers the challenges for interim injunctions in the digital age 
  3. EU: Google illegally used Android to dominate search, must pay $5B fine
  4. EU Fines Google $5 Billion for Stifling Android’s Competition 
  5. Here’s Why Google Just Got Hit With a Record $5 Billion Fine 
  6. How Google’s Safe Browsing Helped Build A More Secure Web
  7. Some Thoughts On The EU’s Latest $5 Billion Google Antitrust Fine
  8. Businesses Cannot Contractually Ban “Abusive” Consumer Reviews
  9. Trolling the Internet for Photos Creates Copyright Headaches for Ad Agency (and the Advertiser)–Laspata v. Rimowa
  10. Executives From YouTube, Facebook, Twitter To Testify Before Congress Regarding Political Bias
  11. Shadow Politics: Meet The Digital Sleuth Exposing Fake News – Buried in media scholar Jonathan Albright’s research was proof of a massive political misinformation campaign. Now he’s taking on the the world’s biggest platforms before it’s too late.
  12. 12 Russian intel officers indicted for hacking the DNC and Clinton campaign
  13. Russia Indictment 2.0: What to Make of Mueller’s Hacking Indictment
  14. Indicting 12 Russian Hackers Could Be Mueller’s Biggest Move Yet
  15. Bitcoin, malware and ‘spearphishing’ helped Russian agents hack Democratic Party computers in 2016 election
  16. Cryptocurrency’s Criminal Revolution: The Unsavory Cast Of Bitcoin’s Biggest Beneficiaries
  17. Suspect behind bitcoin exchange that “catered to criminals” ordered to France
  18. The SIM Hijackers: Meet the hackers who flip seized Instagram handles and cryptocurrency in a shady, buzzing underground market for stolen accounts and usernames. Their victims’ weakness? Phone numbers.
  19. Apple Updates Crypto Currency Aspects of App Store Review Guidelines 
  20. AI & Blockchain: An Introduction
  21. Coty gets green light for online platform ban
  22. Instagram Model Attacked By Shark While Attempting To Snap The Perfect Shot
  23. Study: Instagram leads as influencer marketing platform 
  24. California Supreme Court Ruling Immunizes Yelp from Defamatory Content Removal
  25. ‘Smart’ TVs Remain The Poster Child For Dismal Privacy, Transparency & Security Standards
  26. States prevail over e-commerce companies in Battle for sales taxes
  27. Magic Leap Finally Demoed Its Headset And It Is… Disappointing
  28. Magic Leap’s Disappointing Demo Could Be A Death Knell For AR 
  29. Much of the excitement and cool factor around Magic Leap is now gone
  30. The best augmented reality I saw this year was live theater funded by a liquor company: Whiskey-sponsored immersive theater. Snickers escape rooms. Immersive branding is just getting started.
  31. ‘Rick & Morty VR’, ‘Coco VR’, ‘Blade Runner 2049 VR’ & More Nominated for Emmys
  32. DOJ Tells Ron Wyden About The Times It Has Collected Journalists’ Communications; Leaves Some Facts Out
  33. Why the Craig behind Craigslist gave big bucks to a journalism program: His philanthropy funds veterans, women, voter protection and trustworthy journalism.
  34. Copyright As Censorship: FIFA’s Overaggressive Copyright Takedowns Target Fans Celebrating And Pussy Riot Protesting
  35. Trump revealed as Facebook’s biggest political advertiser
  36. Media – both on the left and right – are pressing Facebook to define what journalism is
  37. Notification: Facebook – you have a £500,000 fine from the Information Commissioner’s Office
  38. Why is InfoWars allowed on Facebook? Zuckerberg: Because it doesn’t cause “harm”
  39. Here’s What It Takes to Get Kicked off Facebook (Hint: It’s A Lot)
  40. Facebook says it will begin removing misinformation that leads to violence
  41. How We Can ‘Free’ Our Facebook Friends
  42. Inside Facebook, Twitter and Google’s AI battle over your social lives: From stamping out trolls to removing fake bot accounts, here’s how social networks are waging war using AI weapons.
  43. UK: ICO announces intention to fine Facebook £500,000 and publishes data analytics investigation update 
  44. A FOSTA Of One’s Own: UK Parliament Members Looking To Punish Websites, Push Traffickers Underground
  45. Digital Ads Are Starting To Feel Psychic: Targeted advertising has become so uncanny, it feels like we’re being surveilled. Two artists want to hear these stories.
  46. How publishers and advertisers can balance privacy and monetization
  47. DeepMind Created a Test to Measure an AI’s Ability to Reason
  48. New Quantum Computer Milestone Would Make Richard Feynman Very Happy
  49. D-Wave’s quantum computer successfully models a quantum system
  50. The quantified heart: Artificial intelligence promises ever more control over the highs and lows of our emotions. Uneasy? Perhaps you should be
  51. A new hope: AI for news media
  52. Artificial Intelligence Is Automating Hollywood. Now, Art Can Thrive.
  53. Top AI Experts Vow They Won’t Help Create Lethal Autonomous Weapons
  54. Netflix Scores 112 Emmy Nominations, Beating Out HBO’s 108
  55. Netflix to Launch Comedy Radio Channel on SiriusXM
  56. For First Time In Two Years, Netflix Falls Short Of Quarterly Growth Expectations
  57. Investors are worried that Netflix is getting as big as it can get
  58. Netflix Can Either Become the Dominant Media Monopoly of the 21st Century or Go Bust
  59. Netflix Is King No More as Disney Retakes Media-Company Crown 
  60. Netflix CEO Proclaims The Death Of Net Neutrality Is No Big Deal
  61. Will Smith Collects $20,000 In Two Days By Selling Merch On YouTube’s New Teespring Shelf
  62. Shawn Mendes To Kick Off Year-Long Partnership Between YouTube Music, Rolling Stone
  63. Guns N’ Roses’ “November Rain” Becomes Oldest Music Video To Reach One Billion YouTube Views 
  64. Female Science-Focused YouTubers Face Inordinate Amount Of Criticism, Study Finds
  65. YouTube TV Gifts Subscribers Week Of Free Service To Apologize For World Cup Outage
  66. Progress Isn’t Linear: YouTube TV’s World Cup Flub Threatens Public’s Trust For Sports Streaming
  67. Tickets For The First-Ever VidCon London Are On Sale Now
  68. Talent Firm ‘Addition’ Signs Lifestyle Creators Aaryn Williams, Ally Chen, And Jennifer Zhang
  69. Racial Discrimination Complaint Against The Young Turks Leads To A Lawsuit
  70. Insights: Purging – It’s Not Just For Twitter Anymore (Or At Least It Shouldn’t Be)
  71. A Serial Twitter Follow/Unfollower Explains Himself: “I’m just trying to get eyes on me. It’s a big attention game online… the end goal for me is just be on as many screens as I can.”
  72. Unfollowing Everybody (Anil Dash)
  73. The 10 Most Difficult-To-Defend Online Fandoms
  74. Creators Are Making As Much As $50,000 With Music Video App Triller’s New Monetization Feature
  75. Kid-Friendly Network Pocket.watch Raises $15 Million Series B Round Led By Viacom
  76. Original Shows From DeStorm, Lil Tay Lead The Way As New SVOD Service Zeus Launches
  77. Do Subscription Models Work with Apps?: Thoughts on Setapp  –  subscription-based collection for Mac apps
  78. Reddit Reinvents The Chat Room With Community Chat
  79. Don’t Feed The Trolls, And Other Hideous Lies: The mantra about the best way to respond to online abuse has only made it worse
  80. The “Intellectual Dark Web” Is Nothing New
  81. PC market appears to have grown for the first time since 2012
  82. Microsoft finally gives Teams what it needs to take on Slack: A free version
  83. Early Amazon Prime Day Sales Were Up Over 50% Despite Website Crashes and Worker Strikes
  84. Uber faces new probe over alleged gender discrimination in hiring practices
  85. Elon Musk could face lawsuit for calling cave rescuer a “pedo guy”
  86. Antarctic Exploration Vessel Which Should Be Named Boaty McBoatface But Tragically Isn’t Launches

CREATIVITY

  1. All’s Fair in Whoville: Dr. Seuss Parody is Fair Use
  2. DeLorean Estate Alleges ‘Back to the Future’ Royalties Were Improperly Distributed
  3. Green v. Harbach
  4. The first rule of copyright reform: Don’t mess with free speech and net neutrality (Michael Geist)
  5. Guy In Charge Of Pushing Draconian EU Copyright Directive, Evasive About His Own Use Of Copyright Protected Images
  6. Did The Ninth Circuit’s “Blurred Lines” Ruling Just Quietly Move To Kill Off The So-Called Inverse Ratio Rule?
  7. Court Won’t Rehear Blurred Lines Case, Bad News For Music Creativity
  8. Is the press regulator subject to judicial review? – Coulter v Independent Press Standards Organisation CIC (IPSO)
  9. The MAGA Trolls Have Met Their Match In Sacha Baron Cohen And “Who Is America?” 
  10. Congressman Introduces Legislation To Criminalize Protesting In A Mask
  11. When Black Performers Use Their ‘White Voice’
  12. Court to Kanye Plaintiff: Imma Let You Finish
  13. Kanye’s Tweet Could Be False Advertising, New York Court Rules
  14. Pussy Riot has a wake up call for America’s youth in the Trump era
  15. State Appeals Court Tosses Defamation Suit Against Lawyer Who Wrote About Teen Driver Who Injured His Client
  16. How A US Burger Chain Brought ‘Ruby Tuesday’ Full Circle Through Trademark Bullying
  17. Eighth Grade’s R rating deters actual 8th-graders from seeing it. What a shame.: The MPAA ratings system and its very specific hang-ups are keeping teens away from the movies they need most.
  18. Disruption, Consolidation, Uncertainty: Welcome to Hollywood’s Age of Anxiety
  19. Why Did American Music Festivals Almost Disappear in the 1970s and ’80s?
  20. There Is Now Just One Blockbuster Left in the US
  21. Alaska’s last two Blockbusters are shutting down, leaving one in US
  22. The Simpsons Wouldn’t Exist Without Yellow Submarine: How the Beatles classic changed the future of animation.
  23. Q2 2018 Quick Links, Part 5 (Potpourri) (Eric Goldman)

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

  1. Supreme Court of Canada affirms privacy protections in tobacco health-data case
  2. B.C. wins SCC appeal on production of health-care databases in Big Tobacco case
  3. PIPEDA at 20: Time for PIPEDA 2.0 (Michael Geist)
  4. US v. Microsoft Litigation Update: Supreme Court Dismisses Case as Moot After Congress Amends Stored Communications Act
  5. Shocker: DOJ’s Computer Crimes And Intellectual Property Section Supports Security Researchers DMCA Exemptions
  6. Judge slams FBI for improper cellphone search, stingray use
  7. Oregon Supreme Court Sets Up New Limits For Digital Device Searches
  8. Florida Man Jailed for Failing to Unlock His Phone
  9. Guy Gets Tossed In Jail For Contempt Charges Because Cops Say They Need To Unlock His Phones To Get Evidence Of Drug Possession 
  10. State Appeals Court Says Exigency Beats A Warrant Requirement If A Phone Has A Passcode
  11. Walmart Patents Tech for Eavesdropping on Workers
  12. Our Data, Ourselves: How to stop tech firms from monopolizing our personal information. 
  13. Microsoft President Calls For Government Rules For Facial Recognition Technology
  14. How Facial Recognition Could Tear Us Apart: Will the new tech create a safer society – or a dystopian panopticon?
  15. Smart TVs are invading privacy and should be investigated, senators say 
  16. ‘Smart’ TVs Remain The Poster Child For Dismal Privacy, Transparency & Security Standards
  17. Should we have any expectation of privacy in public spaces? (Andres Guadamuz)
  18. Obtained Documents Show The DEA Sold Compromised Phones To Suspected Drug Dealers
  19. Health Insurers Are Vacuuming Up Details About You – And It Could Raise Your Rates
  20. The most ambitious browser mitigation yet for Spectre attacks comes to Chrome
  21. California’s Data Privacy Law: What It Is and How to Comply (A Step-By-Step Guide)
  22. Can the Privacy Shield survive? What’s next for exports of personal data to the US?
  23. European Parliament Turns Up The Pressure On US-EU Privacy Shield Data Transfer Deal A Little More

GAMES

  1. Tencent awarded $2.9M in case against dev of allegedLeague of Legends clone
  2. Tencent awarded $2.89 million in lawsuit against Mobile Legends CEO: Riot Games parent company wins non-compete suit in China
  3. Capcom Wins Judgement to Uphold Patent in Lawsuit to Rescind Decision for its Patent #3295771
  4. Star Citizen backer loses court case for $4,500 refund: Arbitration clause in end-user license agreement protects developer RSI from refund claims in court
  5. Court denies Star Citizen backer’s $4,500 refund lawsuit
  6. EPIC Bravely Defeats 14 Year Old’s Mom In Court To Continue Lawsuit Against Her Son For Cheating In Fortnite
  7. Saudi Arabia appears to ban 47 video games after deaths of children
  8. Credit card thieves reportedly using Clash of Clans to launder money
  9. Coming soon? German courts ban vague release dates on pre-orders
  10. Germany bans vague pre-order release dates: Retailers no longer to pre-sell games that are “coming soon”, courts have ruled
  11. NetEase moves to dismiss PUBG Corp lawsuit: Knives Out developer calls complaint a “shameless attempt” to monopolize a genre
  12. As PUBG-like contenders emerge, Islands of Nyne might already have them beat: While we wait for Battlefield, Call of Duty, awesome sci-fi twist is already here.
  13. Nintendo lawsuit against Colopl won’t block developer’s Switch release: Platform holder says ongoing patent dispute and defendant’s games business are “completely separate matters”
  14. Tempest 4000 finally lives after delays, legal threats—but what’s up on PC?
  15. Social features have cut down on toxic behavior inOverwatch
  16. Toxicity in Overwatch down by over a quarter following new measures from Blizzard: Game director promises further improvement along with exploration and implementation of new systems
  17. Ubisoft is now insta-banning toxic Rainbow Six Siegeplayers
  18. Rainbow Six Siege instantly bans players for using slurs: Bans last nearly half an hour for the first offense, with possible permanent bans after the third
  19. Amazon may have allowed sales of pirated games: Retailer says “We strictly prohibit the sale of counterfeit products, and these games have been removed”
  20. Amazon claims to be spiking listings for pirated games
  21. The ArenaNet Catastrophe Has The Whole Game Industry Rethinking Harassment Policies
  22. Opinion: It’s past time to get serious about social media policies
  23. Over half of UK parents let kids play 18+ rated games
  24. How Bossa relied on players to help build its skyfaring MMO Worlds Adrift
  25. Jade Raymond on applying lessons from Assassin’s Creed to her new project at EA: The original game was designed as a “sandbox for creatives” with the intention to “hand off the keys to other professionals”
  26. Madden lead Carlos Guerrero dismissed from EA: Senior producer departs after only two months due to company policy violation
  27. Valve brings trading back to CS:GO in the Netherlands, though loot boxes remain blocked
  28. Valve locks Counter-Strike loot boxes for Dutch and Belgian players: Steam item trading returns, but CS:GO’s containers are now locked
  29. Valve is temporarily withholding adult games from Steam 
  30. Valve temporarily halting new adult game releases on Steam: Company isn’t approving updates or new games until planned filter is in place
  31. Valve updates “Upcoming” tab on Steam to focus on user interests: Suggestions based on past purchases and pre-release interest will replace chronological listing
  32. Blog: The three ages of Steam distribution
  33. Actor Nathan Fillion Just Created A YouTube Fan Film Of Video Game ‘Uncharted’
  34. Uncharted fan film, starring Nathan Fillion, beats Sony to live-action punch
  35. Nathan Fillion Is Finally Playing Nathan Drake in This Uncharted Fan Film
  36. Nathan Fillion Made An Uncharted Fan-Film, And It’s Excellent
  37. Fallout 76 and the thrill of ‘stranger danger’: Bethesda’s Pete Hines discusses how the publisher’s previous RPGs have been cheating players – and how its next title resolves this
  38. Blizzard does away with World of Warcraft Battle Chest pricing
  39. Blizzard makes WoW base game and expansions free to subscribers: New subs now only have to pay an extra fee for the latest expansion, Battle For Azeroth
  40. Colonial Marines modder finds big AI fix by changing one letter of code
  41. A years-old, one-letter typo led to Aliens: Colonial Marines’ weird AI
  42. A One-Letter Typo is (in Part) the Reason Aliens: Colonial Marines Sucked
  43. Nintendo showcases DIY games made with Labo’s Toy-Con Garage
  44. Hands-on with Nintendo’s weirdest, and maybe rarest, classic console yet
  45. The Makers Of Nintendo’s Latest Hidden Gem Worry People Missed It
  46. Nintendo hid a load-your-own NES emulator inside a GameCube classic
  47. What’s behind Nintendo’s falling stock price?: Nintendo has lost almost a quarter of its valuation in recent months – but its strategy and line-up remains sound despite investor jitters
  48. Milan court applies Nintendo v Big Ben in fast fashion lawsuit against ZARA
  49. Modders revamp Super Mario Odyssey on hacked Switch hardware
  50. Japan is taking steps to legalize paid esports tournaments
  51. The Most Important Video Game on the Planet: How Fortnite became the Instagram of gaming.
  52. Fortnite has collected $1 billion from in-game purchases
  53. Fortnite has earned $1 billion from in-game purchases alone: Revenue has only continued to rise month by month since game’s battle royale debut
  54. ‘Fortnite’ Streamer Ninja Helped Florida’s GuardianCon Raise $2.7 Million For St. Jude
  55. Dan Bull’s Epic Collaboration Brings Together 100 Creators For ‘Fortnite’ Rap Battle
  56. Encouraging collaboration among players in Sea of Thieves
  57. Despite Its Best Efforts, NBA 2K League Can’t Beat The Real Thing
  58. App Store and Google Play spending hits $34.4B during first half of 2018
  59. Mobile game spending up 19 per cent in H1 2018 – Sensor Tower: Tencent’s Honor of Kings led mobile spending on Google Play and the App Store, PUBG Mobile led downloads
  60. Marvel Strike Force brings in over $25 million since launch: Turn-based mobile RPG accumulates 10 million installs over four months
  61. NetEase’s Identity V downloaded over 100 million times: Asymmetrical multiplayer horror game’s downloads doubled upon global release
  62. The Crew 2 activity “in line” with The Crew 1: Ubisoft sees open-world racing sequel following in the tracks of its predecessor, hoping continued support leads to continuous sales over coming years
  63. Back catalog games continue to drive growth for Ubisoft as Q1 sales hit $466M
  64. Ubisoft net bookings ahead of projections in Q1: Company reports $466 million in sales for the quarter, remains on track for full-year estimates
  65. Ubisoft Berlin granted $1.84M in subsidies from city senate for expansion
  66. Ubisoft Berlin approved for $1.85m subsidy from city government: Studio plans to use money to expand, creating around 150 new jobs
  67. Epic increases revenue split for Unreal Engine Marketplace sellers
  68. Epic Games adjusts Unreal Engine Marketplace share in favor of creators: Developer/store split changed to 88/12% from 70%/30%, applied retroactively
  69. Epic ups Unreal Marketplace creators’ pay well above industry standard
  70. Vampyr sells 450,000 copies in first month
  71. Hangar 13: Diversifying your team protects you from blind spots – The Mafia III developer on “walking a tightrope” with the game’s narrative and how the risks it took shaped the new Brighton studio
  72. Tropico publisher Kalypso acquires rights to Commandos series
  73. Tropico publisher acquires Commandos franchise among others – Kalypso Media: “We see it as our responsibility to want to revive and further develop these beloved games for the fans around the world”
  74. Pokemon Go developer Niantic acquires Seismic Games
  75. Niantic acquires VR and mobile developer Seismic Games
  76. VR rivals come together to develop a single-cable spec for VR headsets
  77. Facebook spends $88M on Oculus permits in Seattle to expand VR headquarters
  78. Facebook invested $88.3 million to expand its Redmond Oculus HQ this year: Company spent $106 million on construction and permits over the last three years
  79. Octi raises $7.5 million in seed funding: AR startup’s app can discern human movement in videos, outline people and add effects
  80. AppLovin’ takes $400 million investment: KKR & Co investment is based on a $2 billion valuation of the mobile marketing firm
  81. Video game Kickstarters have raised almost $10m so far in 2018: Total money pledged reaches three-year high, but number of campaigns drops to six-year low and success rate remains steady
  82. Blog: Crowdfunding and video games in 2018 – A mid-year update
  83. Earn while you play start-up Blast secures $12m seed funding: “If you can attach a positive outcome to something that people already do and love, like gaming, you can change lives”
  84. Klang Games raises $8.75m for AI-driven space colonization MMO: Spotify-backer firm Northzone leads Series A funding round
  85. “There will be more IPOs”: Rebuilding trust in the UK games industry
  86. “Real innovation is coming from emerging markets in many spaces – game development is one of them”
  87. Ovosonico: Games will be “like the Netflix button on your remote – that easy” – CEO Massimo Guarini on preparing for the horizontal expansion of the industry, and the Italian studio’s pivot into indie AAA
  88. Taking stock after five years of ID@Xbox: Chris Charla talks about the program’s biggest successes, pain points, and the conventional wisdom on when to announce and release independent games
  89. The Washington Post Is Now Streaming The News On Twitch
  90. The Twitch Streamers Who Spend Years Broadcasting To No One
  91. Top YouTube Gamer Jacksepticeye, Citing Mental Health, Is On A Break
  92. Don’t Miss: Fight or flight – Exploring the neuroscience of survival horror
  93. Video: How devs can apply the 5 domains of play to develop empathy
  94. Ninja Theory dominates the Develop Awards
  95. French game designer Muriel Tramis awarded Legion of Honor
  96. Challenging videogame music tropes: “Music doesn’t exist for a passive viewer… it’s the player’s emotional reality,” says composer James Hannigan
  97. The 20 JRPGs You Must Play
  98. Video Game Deep Cuts: Octopath’s DOS Demake
  99. Watch a Guy Build a Brand New, Completely Obsolete Gaming PC With 20-Year-Old Parts

Jon

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