News of the Week; August 15, 2018

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. When Did Ajit Pai Know?
2. On Thursday, Ajit Pai Has To Explain Why His FCC Made Up A DDOS Attack And Lied To Congress
3. Ajit Pai grilled by lawmakers on why FCC spread “myth” of DDoS attack
4. Ajit Pai Does Something Right, Will Reform Stupid Utility Pole Rules To Speed Up Fiber Deployment
5. Ajit Pai loses in court—FCC can’t kill broadband subsidy in Tribal areas
6. Court Rejects Ajit Pai’s Bid To Reduce Broadband Subsidies For Tribal Areas
7. Oh Look, Yet More Efforts To Strangle Broadband Competition 
8. The Sinclair/Tribune Merger Is Dead
9. Tribune calls off merger, blasts Sinclair for circumventing FCC rules
10. Tribune Kills Merger, Sues Sinclair For Its ‘Unnecessarily Aggressive’ Merger Sales Pitch
11. FCC says court made error in approval of AT&T/Time Warner merger
12. Third Comcast Website Flaw Exposes User Data In As Many Months 
13. Telus vs. Telus: Who Do You Believe on Wireless Competition in Canada?
14. Speedier broadband standards? Pai’s FCC says 25Mbps is fast enough
15. A Community-Run ISP Is the Highest Rated Broadband Company in America: A Consumer Reports survey of 176,000 Americans finds that small, locally owned ISPs are routinely ranked higher than big telecom companies.

DIGITAL

1. Unenforceability in the U.S. a Non-Starter When Google Returns to the BC Supreme Court
2. Google’s servers housed by a third-party ISP qualify as a regular and established place of business to establish proper venue in the Eastern District of Texas
3. How 3-D Printing Exposes the Fallacy of Federal Gun Laws
4. Twitter says InfoWars hasn’t ‘violated our rules.’ It looks like that’s not the case
5. Twitter finally deletes some of Alex Jones, Infowars videos and tweets: Glad to have you on board, Twitter – signed, every other tech company.
6. Twitter suspends Alex Jones for urging people to keep “battle rifles” ready [Update]
7. Alex Jones claims he’s being silenced as bans push him to alternative platforms: Removals from Facebook, YouTube, Spotify and Apple haven’t slowed his posting, but the Infowars founder is appealing to the president
8. InfoWars app will stay in the iOS App Store—here’s Apple’s reason why
9. Alex Jones’ ‘Free Speech’ Shouldn’t Be Your Primary Concern
10. Online activists hit hatemongers like Alex Jones where it hurts the most – in the wallet
11. Vimeo Bans Alex Jones After Conspiracy Hawker Ramps Up Output There
12. Platforms, Speech And Truth: Policy, Policing And Impossible Choices
13. Platforms Are Not Publishers: The essential value of the internet is conversation, not content – and journalists need to embrace it.
14. How social media took us from Tahrir Square to Donald Trump: To understand how digital technologies went from instruments for spreading democracy to weapons for attacking it, you have to look beyond the technologies themselves. (Zeynep Tufekci)
15. How Turkey silences journalists online, one removal request at a time
16. Should platforms be regulated? A new survey says yes.
17. How WeChat Filters Images for One Billion Users
18. New law bans US gov’t from buying tech from Chinese giants ZTE and Huawei
19. Sneaky Website User Bound by Online Terms of Use Provision Despite Renewing Subscription in Spouse’s Name 
20. Now returning: NFL games, player protests, and presidential tweets
21. Adidas will livestream high school football games on Twitter: A new series will broadcast eight weekly games from across the country through the season.
22. Is A Twitter Account An Employer’s Trade Secret? Yes, Says Media Company 
23. Twitter Promptly Suspends Tesla Whistleblower Following Tweets About His Former Employer
24. Ruby Rose Quits Twitter Following ‘Batwoman’ Backlash
25. Microsoft Threatens to Stop Hosting Gab, the Worst Social Network, Over Anti-Semitic Threats of Violence
26. Why Facebook is losing the war on hate speech in Myanmar: Reuters found more than 1,000 examples of posts and images attacking the Rohingya on Facebook. A secretive operation by the social media giant is failing to end the problem.
27. The Vigilantes on Facebook Who Stream To Catch a Predator-Style Ambushes of Alleged Pedophiles
28. Facebook will make accounts with a ‘large audience’ verify their location
29. Facebook Bans ‘Promotion’ Of Kodi Boxes, Even If They’re Perfectly Legal
30. The Story Behind The Story That Created A Political Nightmare For Facebook: In 2016, Gizmodo reported that Facebook workers “suppressed” conservative news. An editor has second thoughts.
31. Facebook is hiring the team behind an interactive video company that dragged its feet in complying with data rules
32. Facebook Beats Sony to Spanish Soccer Rights in India
33. Accused Pirate Tries For Attorney’s Fees After Copyright Troll Attempts To Run Away From Discovery
34. Topple Track Attacks EFF and Others With Outrageous DMCA Notices
35. Drake Becomes First Musician To Hit 50 Billion Global Streams Across All Platforms
36. Spotify Is Testing A Free Version Of Its Service Where Users Can Skip Ads
37. Logan Paul Says He Wants To Challenge A UFC Fighter After His Much-Hyped Boxing Match With KSI
38. KSI Releases Documentary ‘Can’t Lose’ Ahead Of Logan Paul Boxing Match-Up
39. YouTube Paying Stars Hundreds Of Thousands Of Dollars To Promote New Features (Report)
40. PBS Taps BroadbandTV to Manage User-Uploaded YouTube Videos
41. BroadbandTV Announces New Partnership with PBS
42. BroadbandTV Pacts With PBS To Help It Monetize User-Generated YouTube Uploads
43. YouTube TV Adds 100th Service Location
44. YouTube Star Jimmy Wong Cast In Disney’s Live-Action ‘Mulan’ Adaptation, Set For 2020
45. YouTube Beauty Stars Alissa Ashley And Cloe Feldman Sign With Abrams Artists Agency
46. YouTube Yanks Horror Film Ad For Violating Its ‘Shocking Content’ Policy
47. It’s Still Shockingly Easy To Buy (And Sell) Fake YouTube Views
48. The Flourishing Business of Fake YouTube Views: Plays can be bought for pennies and delivered in bulk, inflating videos’ popularity and making the social media giant vulnerable to manipulation.
49. Susan Sarandon-Starrer ‘Viper Club’ Is YouTube’s First Film To Get A Theatrical Release
50. SAG-AFTRA National Director Wants To Protect Online Creators, Says Industry Is “Very Unfair And Unbalanced”
51. Posting on Social Media? What #paid influencers need to know
52. Ad Standards: Influencer Marketing Steering Committee Disclosure Guidelines
53. #Infringement – How social media dealt a blow to Nike’s latest marketing campaign
54. Lele Pons Signs With Universal Music Group’s 10:22 pm Label
55. PopSugar Earns the Ire of Two New Fashionistas
56. NBCUniversal To Release Streaming Service ‘Watch Back,’ Which Rewards Viewers For Engaging
57. ‘Star Wars’ Series For Disney’s Upcoming Streaming Platform To Cost A Reported $100 Million
58. The Roku Channel is now available on the Web without a Roku device
59. Ninja Says He Won’t Stream With Other Women In Order To Preserve His Marriage
60. Lele Pons Inks Record Deal With Universal Music Group Imprint ‘10:22 pm’
61. What Am I Worth to Advertisers? My Obsessive Quest to Put a Price on My Attention
62. Honey Badger Don’t Care, but the Lanham Act Might
63. Interacting With This Therapy Bot Can Help Children With Autism Perfect Their Social Skills
64. Watch A Sporty AI Teach Itself To Dribble Better Than You
65. AI Can Make Sure Cancer Patients Get Just Enough (but Not Too Much) Treatment
66. AI Is Shining a Spotlight on Women Scientists That Were Previously Overlooked
67. Helping Global Policymakers Navigate AI’s Challenges and Opportunities
68. Sophia the Robot – her charm and her challenges
69. Alexa and Cortana integration starts rolling out today
70. I Tried Apple’s Screen Time Tool. The Results Were Not Heartening.
71. Maybe MoviePass Shouldn’t Compare Itself To Uber
72. It’s Time to Let MoviePass Die
73. Scientists Knew Blue Light From Screens Contributed to Blindness. Now They Know Why.
74. The Uncertain Future of Screens and Humans
75. The California Consumer Privacy Act Should Be Condemned, Not Celebrated
76. An Update on the Constitutional Court Challenge to FOSTA–Woodhull Freedom v. US
77. Prisons Switch Device Providers; Render $11.3 Million Of Inmate-Purchased Music Worthless
78. General Magic—how tech superfriends assembled, dreamt up smartphones, and failed

CREATIVITY

1. One-Sided Story: Lobbyist Data Shows Music, Movie and Publisher Groups Account For 80 Per cent of Registered Copyright Meetings in Canada Since 2015 Election
2. Disney Takes Stand Against “Overzealous Copyright Holders”
3. Irony Alert: Disney (Yes, DISNEY!) Whines About ‘Overzealous Copyright Holders’
4. Disney Gets Early Loss In Trademark, Copyright Suit Against Unlicensed Birthday Party Characters
5. Two skyline photo cases, two different results 
6. Ferrari Crashes Head-On Into Infringement Suit
7. Aloha Poke Co. Rewarded For Trademark Bullying With Protests Outside Its Headquarters In Chicago
8. Bruce Lee’s Estate Gets Stiff Roundhouse Kick After Trying To Block Theater Company’s Trademark
9. The free speech panic: how the right concocted a crisis: Snowflake students have become the target of a new rightwing crusade. But exaggerated claims of censorship reveal a deeper anxiety at the core of modern conservatism
10. Blame Rupert Murdoch for Trump Calling Journalists ‘Enemies of the People’: Fox News made the president, and there is no doubt about the man who made Fox News what it is.
11. Dinesh D’Souza and the Decline of Conservatism
12. Ivanka Trump apparently really hated that SNL “Complicit” ad
13. School Board Demands Journalists Be Punished For Reporting On The School Board’s Redaction Failure
14. Broward County School Board Gets Hit With Anti-SLAPP Suit After Trying To Punish Paper For Exposing Its Redaction Failure
15. Copyright in Cream Cheese
16. Hall v. Author Solutions LLC
17. Disney Enterprises, Inc. v. Characters for Hire, LLC

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. We’re Bad At Regulating Privacy, Because We Don’t Understand Privacy
2. Brief To FISA Court Says The Presumption Of Openness Should Apply There, Too
3. Judge Bypasses The First Amendment, Conjures Up A Right To Be Forgotten For The Complainant
4. AP Exclusive: Google tracks your movements, like it or not
5. Google May Still Be Tracking You, Even If You Opted Out
6. In-vehicle wireless devices are endangering emergency first responders
7. Australian gov’t wants to force tech firms to weaken crypto
8. Australian law could force tech firms to hand over customer data: Companies like Facebook, Apple and Google could face a $7.3 million fine if they don’t.
9. Australian Gov’t Floats New Batch Of Compelled Access Legislation With An Eye On Encryption
10. Malware has no trouble hiding and bypassing macOS user warnings 
11. A New Pacemaker Hack Puts Malware Directly On The Device
12. Hack causes pacemakers to deliver life-threatening shocks
13. In-the-wild router exploit sends unwitting users to fake banking site
14. Hackers Find Earth’s Satellite Communication Systems Aren’t All That Secure
15. Hackers Reportedly Breach PGA Servers, Demand Bitcoin Ransom
16. Bitcoin and ether are both down more than two-thirds from their peaks 
17. Hacking A Brand New Mac Remotely, Right Out Of The Box 
18. Pre-Teen Hackers Prove It: The U.S. Election System Simply Isn’t Secure Enough
19. Facial Recognition Tool That Tracks People Across Social Media Now Available to Hackers
20. Windows 10 to get disposable sandboxes for dodgy apps
21. Caesars Palace not-so-Praetorian guards intimidate DEF CON goers with searches [Updated]

GAMES

1. Bethesda defends legal action against man selling pre-owned copy of Evil Within 2: Publisher says sale of sealed and unopened games still constitutes unauthorised reselling if listed as new
2. Bethesda hits Amazon seller with legal threat over reselling pre-owned game as ‘new’
3. Bethesda reluctant to bring Elder Scrolls: Legends to systems that don’t offer cross-play
4. Bethesda pressures Sony with “non-negotiable” cross-platform demand [Updated]
5. Lawsuit threat shuts down ROM downloads on major emulation site
6. Devs corroborate claims of sexist culture as Riot looks for way forward
7. Ex-Naughty Dog dev explores the perks of a studio devoid of ‘dedicated management’
8. Former IGN Reviewer Responds To Plagiarism Allegations: ‘Not At All Intentional’
9. IGN Pulls Ex-Editor’s Posts After Dozens More Plagiarism Accusations Surface
10. IGN pulls all of writer’s work after plagiarism scandal: Further evidence of former employee’s wrong-doing prompts gaming site to scrub him from the archives
11. Germany relaxes regulations on Nazi imagery in video games
12. Germany relaxes stance on Nazi symbols in video games: Like films, games featuring “unconstitutional” symbols can now be submitted for age-rating in Germany
13. “Flooding the market with Nazi symbols is not something we want”: Game MD Felix Falk on the long struggle to allow games tackling Nazism and its imagery to be rated in Germany, and the responsibility of being part of “the social discourse”
14. Germany says games with Nazi symbols can get “artistic” exception to ban
15. Video Games In Germany Can Now Maybe Kinda Sometimes Have Swastikas
16. “Games need to take more responsibility”: Nick Button-Brown talks about making kids games when 11-year-olds are playing Grand Theft Auto, and how the industry needs to embrace its social responsibility
17. Ready at Dawn shuts down Deformers servers
18. Growth of Chinese market slows to a crawl amid halt on government-issued licences: Market growth down to five per cent for first half of 2018, compared to nearly 30 per cent the year prior
19. New initiative aiming to boost diversity among games industry speakers
20. Over a year later, South Korean devs still aren’t allowed to publish games in China
21. Korean devs have been unable to publish in China since March 2017: Meanwhile, Chinese developers continue to push aggressively into Korea
22. China has quietly stopped approving new games for release 
23. Monster Hunter: World pulled from sale in China – WeGame cites “large number of complaints” though FT report suggests “bureaucratic infighting”
24. Tencent has pulled Monster Hunter: World from sale in China
25. Monster Hunter World PC release pulls in record number of concurrent Steam users
26. Monster Hunter: World debuts on PC, becomes Steam’s biggest new launch of 2018
27. Mobile-focused Tencent is reportedly on the outs with Riot
28. Tencent reports decrease in PC and mobile revenue despite rising DAUs
29. Discord turns retailer with beta launch of game storefront
30. Publishing platforms need policies around not-for-profit game devs
31. Games4EU launches, highlights Brexit’s negative impact on UK games industry
32. Anti-Brexit group Games4EU launches campaign: Grassroots movements aims to demonstrate the damage leaving the European Union will do to the UK games industry
33. Culture clash: Why Arena of Valor is struggling in America – Mintegral’s Jeff Sue sees the Western version of Tencent’s Honor of Kings as a game “lost in translation”
34. Tencent’s mobile games revenues drop, but daily users are on the rise
35. Fortnite Didn’t Do Anything New. That’s Why It Will Shape The Future Of Gaming.
36. Fortnite devs working to segregate keyboard/mouse players
37. Proposed Fortnite changes aim to group mouse-and-keyboard players together
38. Google Play warns searchers that Fortnite “is not available”
39. Google Play searches now warn that Fortnite isn’t hosted in the store
40. Fortnite on Android gets off to a bumpy, Samsung-only start, lags behind PUBG
41. Jagex launches publishing arm: “We’ve already seen 100 games”: Jagex Partners will focus on ‘a handful’ of live games to begin with
42. RuneScape dev forms Jagex Partners to take on publishing live games
43. EA’s chief design officer Patrick Soderlund is stepping down
44. Patrick Söderlund leaves Electronic Arts after 12 years: Publisher reshuffling teams as long-serving exec makes surprise departure
45. Madden NFL franchise reaches 130m lifetime sales: EA reports “strong opening weekend” for Madden 19
46. Pete Hines says cross-platform play a necessity for The Elder Scrolls: Legends: Bethesda VP calls feature “essentially non-negotiable” in bringing the game to new platforms
47. ZeniMax-owned Escalation Studios is now Bethesda Game Studios Dallas
48. Fallout 76 avoiding Steam so Bethesda can form ‘direct relationships’ with players
49. Jam City’s Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery clears $50 million in revenue
50. Sensor Tower: Harry Potter Hogwarts Mystery revenue surpasses $55m – First-time downloads continue to rise noticeably through July
51. Phoenix Point crowdfunding breaks $2 million – here’s how it was done: Snapshot Games explains how $250,000 on advertising drove almost $1.2 million in revenue
52. DLC: Can games change people’s minds? – Developers behind Wolfenstein The New Colossus, Night in the Woods, and Katamary Damacy share whether their message-laden games impacted the audience
53. PlayStation consoles surpass 500 million sold worldwide: And Sony is celebrating with a fancy PS4
54. Ubisoft quietly ends development on planned Steep Switch release
55. Steep canceled on Nintendo Switch: Ubisoft to focus on “new live content and challenges” for current platforms
56. Diablo III’s Switch version leaked ahead of official unveil, coming “2018” [Updated]
57. Nintendo narrows down Switch Online launch to the ‘second half of September’
58. Nintendo Switch Online coming in “the second half” of September: The Switch’s delayed online service gets its most specific launch window to date
59. Nintendo Switch ‘Test VR Mode’ Reportedly Uncovered by Modders
60. Nintendo has sold over 700 million total hardware units: Switch sales inch closer to 20 million, 3DS nears 73 million units
61. Nintendo Using Copyright To Erase Video Game History
62. GameMaker Studio 2 now offers Switch support in open beta
63. One month in, Pokemon Quest has brought in over $8 million on mobile
64. Cuphead sells over 3M copies nearly a year after launch
65. Paradox Interactive’s record Q2 revenues marred by declining profits: Royalty payments to third-party devs and two cancelled projects dragged on the Swedish publisher’s bottom line
66. Midnight Hub shuts down: Swedish studio calls it quits after Lake Ridden sees sluggish sales despite “the best launch imaginable”
67. Sekai Project hit by significant layoffs: CEO confirms “many” of its staff have been let go, employee reports suggest entire LA office has been closed
68. Sumo: “Constraining Eve Valkyrie devs to VR would be the wrong thing to do”
69. Magic Leap One Hands-on Suggests a Headset That’s a Lot Like HoloLens
70. Valve seems to be working on tools to get Windows games running on Linux
71. Valve tells Dota 2 teams not to take on gambling sponsors: Professional teams competing in The International 2018 advised to end existing long-term contracts
72. Inaugural Overwatch League final pulls in nearly 11m viewers: OWL final sets precedent as first live esports event to be aired on prime time ESPN
73. Overwatch League reportedly adding Toronto team for $35 million: Splyce to partner with OverActive Media, Pittsburgh Penguins investor
74. The Strong museum’s eGameRevolution exhibit now features a Wargaming collection
75. Twitch Unveils “Several Big Discovery Changes,” Nixes Playlist-Like ‘Communities’ Feature
76. Twitch Is Approaching Top YouTube Stars With Exclusive Livestreaming Deals Potentially Worth Millions (Report)
77. How IGN is using Fortnite and Marvel to grow on Snapchat Discover
78. GOG: Streaming is another layer of DRM – Head of global communication Lukasz Kukawski says streaming won’t take over game distribution, talks about storefront’s approach to discoverability and audience expansion
79. Whole new worlds: Improbable’s tech lets smaller studios think big – With Mavericks and Seed, Automaton and Klang Games are using SpatialOS to redefine what it means to be massively multiplayer
80. This isn’t a game: We try out a professional driver-in-the-loop simulator
81. After 14 years, the biggest obstacle for World of Warcraft is time, not technology: Blizzard technical director Patrick Dawson on overcoming the challenges of continued development on an ageing MMO
82. Rockstar reveals first Red Dead Redemption 2 gameplay details
83. Publisher Tilting Point sets up Barcelona studio to support live mobile games 
84. Tilting Point opens new Barcelona studio: Mobile firm’s new outfit will focus on publishing, art and user acquisition
85. Crystal Dynamics opening Washington studio: Bellevue-based Crystal Northwest formed with Wargaming Seattle veterans, set to work on tech development for upcoming Avengers game
86. Epic Games launches new learning platform providing free video tutorials 
87. Unreal Engine Online Learning becomes new, free hub for learning Unreal: Epic Games launches platform to help train developers of all skill levels in its engine
88. Slow online checkouts drive over a quarter of gamers to abandon their orders: Developers may be willing to sacrifice sales revenue for the reliability of subscription services, says SuperData
89. How Neopets has influenced a generation of game developers

Jon