News of the Week; August 29, 2018

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. FCC Approves Another Radio Station Acquisition by a Company that is 100% Foreign-Owned 
2. FCC can define markets with only one ISP as “competitive,” court rules
3. Standard of Review: The Beginning of the End or the End of the Beginning?
4. Net Neutrality Advocates, State Governments Argue Against Internet Freedom Order in D.C. Circuit Briefs
5. California’s strict net neutrality bill is close to final passage
6. Robocalls tell seniors net neutrality raises phone bills by $30: Robocalls spread misinformation to seniors as California votes on net neutrality.
7. Big Telecom Resorts To Lying To Senior Citizens To Scuttle Net Neutrality In California
8. Just Because The Internet Didn’t Implode The Day After Repeal Doesn’t Mean Killing Net Neutrality Was A Good Idea
9. Comcast/Charter lobby asks FTC to preempt state broadband regulations
10. Charter Spectrum Security Flaw Exposes Private Data Of Millions Of Subscribers
11. FTC Hits Road Block in DIRECTV Advertising Case Seeking $3.95 Billion Remedy
12. Verizon stops throttling more firefighters, plans unlimited data “with no caps”
13. Verizon tries to douse criticism, touts “priority access” for first responders
14. Verizon throttling could trigger FTC investigation of deceptive practices
15. Don’t Hold Your Breath Waiting For The FCC, FTC To Punish Verizon For Screwing Firefighters
16. Another Prison Phone Service Caught Recording Privileged Conversations And Passing Them On To Law Enforcement 
17. T-Mobile Begs Small Wireless Carriers To Support Its Awful Merger. The Problem: They Hate It Too 
18. RTL Group Sees Record Revenue for First Half of 2018: Results Fuelled by Strong Q2 Performance of FremantleMedia 
19. A New Book Details the Damage Done by the Right-Wing Media in 2016 

DIGITAL

1. Blueprints For 3D Printed Guns Will Stay (Sort Of) Offline, Judge Rules
2. Judge allows temporary ban on 3D-printed gun files to continue
3. After court order, 3D-printed gun pioneer now sells pay-what-you-want CAD files
4. Supreme Court rules ISPs entitled to recover costs of blocking websites selling counterfeit goods
5. Important Appeals Court Ruling States Clearly That Merely Having An IP Address Is Insufficient For Infringement Claims
6. Conservatives: Stop Crying Wolf On Tech Bias Or No One Will Ever Take You Seriously
7. President Trump Accuses Google of Rigging Search Results Against Him, Calls It ‘Very Dangerous’
8. Trump says he will “address” Google’s “suppressing” of conservative news [Updated]
9. Google Shuts Down 39 YouTube Accounts Linked To Iranian “Influence Operation”
10. Google Removes YouTube Channels and Web Accounts Tied to Iran
11. Comments on Trump’s Empty Tweetstorm Threatening Social Media Providers (Eric Goldman)
12. California Lawmakers Want a Study of Fake News (If Someone Else Pays for It) (Eric Goldman)
13. How YouTube deals with inappropriate videos
14. Significant Concerns About The New NAFTA Agreement’s Impact On Innovation And The Internet
15. Five Years Later, Google Express Is No Closer to Beating Amazon
16. What Amazon’s Latest Hire Says About Its Sports Broadcasting Ambitions
17. Amazon may make a free, ad-supported streaming service for Fire TVs
18. Amazon Pays Employees To Chirp Happily On Twitter About Wonderful Working Conditions
19. Snapchat surges in popularity as people turn their backs on Facebook in the UK: Snapchat to overtake Facebook among young adults in UK by end of 2018 amid global trend for 20-somethings shunning Zuckerberg’s social network
20. Facebook, Instagram to charge GST on ads by mid-2019
21. Dubious Studies And Easy Headlines: No, A New Report Does Not Clearly Show Facebook Leads To Hate Crimes
22. Facebook’s War on B.S. Is Not Going Well -We Talked to the Fact Checkers on the Front Lines
23. Continuing charm offensive, Facebook creates tool to boost news publishers’ reach on the platform
24. Facebook Bans Myanmar Leaders, Admits It Was ‘Too Slow’ to Stop Posts Promoting Genocide
25. Facebook violates Apple’s data-gathering rules, pulls VPN from App Store
26. Facebook Watch Rolls Out Internationally
27. Alleged Facebook scammer arrested in Ecuador, will resist extradition
28. Fugitive Fraudster Who Demanded Half Of Facebook Arrested After Three Years On The Run
29. Facebook Watch Now Available Globally, Offering Expanded Creator Tools To More Countries
30. A look inside Facebook’s efforts to expand Wi-Fi in developing countries
31. Potential(ly) Reach(ing): Facebook Sued Over Inflated Audience Numbers
32. Facebook’s ‘Privacy Protecting’ VPN Booted From Apple Store For Snooping Too Much
33. Fake GNUs: Keep politics out of open source software licences (Andres Guadamuz)
34. Danish ISPs Get Win That Could End Copyright Trolling In Denmark
35. Maximum Mudslinging: How Powerful Lobby Groups Are Working to Sideline Civil Society Voices on Digital Policy (Michael Geist)
36. How The EU May Be About To Kill The Public Domain: Copyright Filters Takedown Beethoven
37. Honest Government Ads Takes On EU Parliament’s Plan To Censor The Internet With Article 13
38. A Link Tax Won’t Bring Back Journalists; It Will Do Even More Harm To Them
39. Apple confirms TV series order of Asimov’s Foundation
40. Apple and Amazon Have the Most Annoying Ongoing Feud in Tech
41. Insights: Amazon’s Brand Ambassadors Swear Everything’s A-OK
42. Microsoft will soon automatically transcribe video files in OneDrive for Office 365 subscribers
43. Running Windows 95 in an “app” is a dumb stunt that makes a good point: Software piracy remains an important part of preserving our digital heritage.
44. Microsoft obliquely acknowledges Windows 0-day bug published on Twitter
45. Mobile Devices and Driving in Ontario and Quebec
46. Internet Content Moderation Isn’t Politically Biased, It’s Just Impossible To Do Well At Scale
47. Forget About Social Media Content Moderation; Get Ready For Internet Infrastructure Content Moderation
48. Can social media posts be tortious or criminal?
49. Brand Partners Sever Ties With Laura Lee Following Racist Tweet Scandal
50. The Scandal Enmeshing YouTube’s Beauty Community Has Hit Manny MUA With Loss Of 250,000 Subscribers
51. Popular YouTuber Kills Self, Two Others In Fiery Crash
52. KSI v Logan Paul: YouTube boxing fight ends in a draw
53. KSI vs. Logan Paul “YouTube World Championship” Boxing Match Ends In A Draw As 784K Watch On YouTube (And A Million More Illegally)
54. KSI vs Logan Paul: Who’s Got The Edge Going Into What Will Be One Of The Biggest YouTube Events Of All Time
55. KSI Wants To Push Logan Paul Rematch From February To May, Envisions Setting Outside U.S.
56. YouTube Stars Go Head-to-Head in Pay-Per-View Boxing Match: Two of YouTube’s biggest names opt for ticket sales over ads; Celebrities on platform are seeking new ways to make money
57. Jake Paul Defeats Deji In YouTube Boxing Event, Launches Merch Line RNBO To 800,000+ Live Viewers
58. No one should be surprised that pirates hijacked the Logan Paul/KSI boxing match on Twitch
59. How Much Did Logan Paul And KSI Make From Their ‘YouTube World Boxing Championship’? A Lot.
60. As Popularity Of Avatar YouTubers Grows In Japan, One Prefecture Gets Its Own Official ‘VTuber’
61. YouTube Rolls Out New Dashboard To Tell Users Exactly How Much Time They Spend Watching Content
62. Shots Studios Unveils YouTube Channel Solely Dedicated To Vertical Videos
63. YouTube Rolling Out Non-Skippable Ads To All Creators Within Its Partner Program
64. YouTube Starts Telling You How Much Time You’re Wasting on YouTube
65. BTS Surpasses Taylor Swift To Nab Biggest 24-Hour YouTube Video Debut Of All Time
66. YouTube Beauty Mogul Jeffree Star Breezes Past 10 Million Subscribers In Roughly 3 Years
67. Legal concerns emerging from influencer marketing – #Sponsored
68. Here’s 23,000 Ways That Branded Content Is a S**t Show
69. Family Vloggers Cole And Savannah LaBrant Accused Of Staging Wildfire Evacuation For Views
70. Beer Company BrewDog Debuts Streaming-Video Service in Latest Niche SVOD Move
71. The Young Turks Network Lays Off Staff, Retires Entertainment Shows
72. BuzzFeed News Is Asking Readers For Donations — But Has No Immediate Paywall Plans
73. BuzzFeed Zeroes in on Television With Premiere of Netflix Series and Launch of Twitter-Based TV-Review Show
74. Once powerful, portals fade as video-syndication revenue sources
75. Netflix’s Latest Price Hike May Have Scared Away Low-Income Consumers
76. Netflix Is Testing A New Payment Method That Will Cut Apple Out Of The Process
77. Netflix has a great opportunity in India, says SunTrust
78. Technology Is Transforming TV – 3 Things Your Business Can Learn From Netflix
79. Disney Enterprises, Inc. v. VidAngel, Inc.
80. Get Your MoviePass Refund Now Before the Company’s Out of Money
81. Andy Signore Is Suing Defy Media For Firing Him, Says Company Fostered “Culture Of Profanity And Obscenity”
82. A Harm-Reduction Framework for Algorithmic Fairness (Micah Altman, Alexandra Wood, & Effy Vayena)
83. Today In Useless Surveys: Some People Want Internet Companies To Stop Filtering News And Some Don’t.
84. SEC Denies Nine More Bitcoin ETF Applications
85. 4 Key Takeaways from FinCEN Director’s Speech on Cryptocurrency
86. Venezuela’s Oil-Backed Cryptocurrency Is Giving Blockchain A Bad Name
87. China Is Serious About Cracking Down on Cryptocurrency
88. $224 million sought in lawsuit against AT&T over cryptocurrency theft
89. Copyright and the blockchain
90. Should Evil AI Research Be Published? Five Experts Weigh In.
91. Advanced Artificial Intelligence Could Run The World Better Than Humans Ever Could
92. If We Ever Want Artificial General Intelligence, Governments Need To Invest In It
93. Industry 4.0 and the regulation of artificial intelligence
94. It’s Really Easy for Hackers to Take Control of Robots
95. Self-driving cars will destroy a lot of jobs—they’ll also create a lot
96. Elon Musk Claims a Tesla Semi Prototype Drove “Across the Country Alone”
97. Analysis: Why Elon Musk abandoned his plan to take Tesla private
98. Milan court issues dynamic blocking injunction against Italian ISPs
99. The World’s First Digital Teacher Just Debuted in New Zealand 

CREATIVITY

1. Billionaire Steve Wynn, Who Once Tried To Kill Nevada’s Anti-SLAPP Law, Loses Defamation Case Under That Law
2. More On Mass Copyright Litigation in Canada – Part I (Howard Knopf)
3. Advantages Making the Federal Court of Canada an Increasingly Desirable Forum for Intellectual Property Disputes
4. Top Five Reasons Why IT Companies are Coming to Canada
5. Court of Appeals Finds That Digital Remasters of Pre-1972 Sound Recordings Likely Do Not Result in New Copyrighted Work That Would Bring These Songs under Federal Law – Reversing District Court Decision
6. US Trade Rep Appears To Misreport Its Own Trade Agreement To Include Copyright Extension
7. Gray v. Perry
8. Can You Enhance That?: Copyright in Facts and Retouched Images
9. Recognizing It Had No Chance, Cox Settles BMG Copyright Trolling Case
10. Copyright or copyleft?
11. Who should bear the cost of blocking orders for IP infringement?
12. Trump’s Anti-press Rhetoric Is Dangerous, But His Actions Are Worse
13. FBI refutes Trump claim that Clinton’s private email server was hacked by China
14. The Oft-Forgotten Architecture of Pop Culture Franchises 
15. Look Before You Leap  – “Weinstein Reps” in Corporate Transactions
16. Nickelodeon Is Opposing A 12 Year Old New Zealand Girl’s ‘Slime’ Trademark For Some Reason
17. Supreme Court Asked To Correct Appeals Court (Again) And Explain That Patentable Ideas Need To Be New
18. The Story of the American Inventor Denied a Patent Because He Was a Slave
19. Is the U.S. Fair Use Doctrine Compatible with Berne and TRIPS Obligations? (Pamela Samuelson & Kathryn Hashimoto)

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1.  Snoops on a Plane: Looking for Privacy in all the Wrong (Public) Places
2. NSA leaker who mailed doc outlining Russian hacking gets 5 years in prison
3. Reality Winner Will Spend Five Years In Jail For Leaking Info Government Officials Released Publicly
4. Chinese Surveillance State Is Basically The US Surveillance Apparatus Minus The Constitutional Rights
5. Woman: My iPhone was seized at border, then imaged—feds must now delete data
6. American Muslim Challenges Warrantless Border Device Search From An Unexpected Legal Angle
7. Indiana Appeals Court Says Forcing Someone To Unlock Their Phone Violates The 5th Amendment
8. Prosecutor: Suspect must give up his phone’s passcode in fatal hazing case
9. UK cops used facial recognition at show, found someone with outstanding warrant: During May 2018 event, South Wales Police false-positive rate went from 92% to 0.02%.
10. Appeals Court: City-Owned Utility Pulling Electric Use Info Every 15 Minutes Is A Search
11. Privacy shield team issues guidance
12. Corporate Cybersecurity Is Becoming Geopolitical. Are U.S. Tech Companies Ready?
13. Researchers find way to spy on remote screens—through the webcam mic
14. Ron Wyden Wants The DOJ To Provide Answers On Stingray Devices’ Disruption Of Emergency Call Service
15. A Tech Company Wants to Implant GPS Trackers in Dementia Patients
16. Warning Kids About Digital Privacy Doesn’t Work. Here’s What Does.
17. Bridging The Gap Between Computer Science and Legal Approaches To Privacy (Kobbi Nissim, Aaron Bembenek, Alexandra Wood, Mark Bun, Marco Gaboardi, Urs Gasser, David R. O’Brien, Thomas Steinke, & Salil Vadhan)

GAMES

1. Shooter opens fire at Jacksonville Madden tournament
2. Mass Shooting At Madden Tournament In Florida
3. Competitive Gamers Eli Clayton And Taylor Robertson Killed In Jacksonville Shooting
4. Victims of Jacksonville shooting were members of competitive Madden community: Elijah ‘TrueBoy’ Clayton and Taylor ‘SpotMePlzz’ Robertson were killed at a Madden Championship Series tournament last weekend
5. EA cancels remaining Madden qualifiers in wake of shooting
6. EA cancels Madden competitions after shooting: CEO Andrew Wilson honors slain players, cancels three remaining qualifiers for Madden Classic competitions
7. Flordia AG Somehow Pivots To The Danger Of Video Games After The Latest Florida Shooting
8. PAX organizers issue official statement after shooting at Madden Championship Series event: “We have in place extensive proactive measures” to ensure safety at PAX West, future events
9. Riot Games outlines plan for culture change in wake of workplace sexism allegations: Company promises action steps such as third-party evaluations, anonymous hotline, reevaluation of recruiting practices, and new HR hires
10. Battle Chef Brigade dev warns against putting work first
11. Weather Factory launches Coven Club to help connect women in games
12. Nintendo files takedown notice against Pokemon fan game creation tool
13. Nintendo shuts down tool used to build Pokémon fan games
14. Nintendo orders takedown of fan game maker Pokémon Essentials: Decade-old asset kit for RPG Maker pulled, along with wiki on how to develop with it
15. Ever wanted to see “beyond” the NES game screen? With WideNES, you can
16. Artists Heading to Dungeons & Dragons Session Say ICE Detained Them, Would Not Allow Them Entry to U.S.
17. 2K Games alters NBA 2K MyTeam mode to comply with Belgian loot box laws: Publisher also removes premium currency card packs from Dutch version, “disagrees with this position” in both nations
18. Blizzard removes paid loot boxes and loot chests for players in Belgium
19. Blizzard locks sale of real money loot boxes in Belgium: Overwatch and Heroes of the Storm join growing list of games forced to halt sale of loot boxes by Belgian authorities
20. Denuvo Announces Plan To Fail To Combat Online Game Cheaters After Failing To Stop Piracy With Its DRM
21. Denuvo: “There is no uncrackable game. What we do is protect the initial sales” – Anti-tamper tech is far from iron-clad, but pirates are only willing to wait so long for a cracked game
22. Denuvo rolling out anti-cheat software: DRM firm plans to prevent players unbalancing multiplayer games and bypassing microtransactions
23. GameStop shares plummet as buyout deal fails to materialise: With no sign of retailer’s troubles abating, shares fall 9.9 per cent
24. Post Valve’s ‘Hands Off’ Games Curation Announcement, Everything Is A Mess
25. Report: Analyzing player preferences from the US games market
26. Superdata: No Man’s Sky flies once more as Fortnite begins to flag – July digital games market report shows Epic’s battle royale nonetheless continues to drive growth
27. Fortnite dev Epic offers in-game reward for players that turn on 2FA
28. Google spots security vulnerability in Epic-hosted FortniteAndroid installer
29. Google discloses vulnerability in Fortnite launcher that allowed possible malware installation: Epic Games has since fixed the exploit, but CEO Tim Sweeney calls Google disclosure “irresponsible”
30. Fortnite’s Android vulnerability leads to Google/Epic Games spat
31. Daybreak Games closing down Just Survive servers in October
32. Publisher 505 Games takes over support of Roll7’s Laser League
33. NPD: $19.5bn spent on video games in US during first half of 2018 – Hardware spending reaches seven-year high, with Xbox One and SNES Classic cited as highlights
34. NPD: Fortnite, PUBG help push U.S. game spending up 40%
35. UK Charts: F1 2018, Shenmue depose Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy – Activision Blizzard’s nostalgic platformer finally drops to No.3 after eight weeks in the top spot
36. Tomb Raider overshadows EMEAA game charts: Upcoming release bolsters Rise of the Tomb Raider, Tomb Raider into top ten
37. NPD: Octopath Traveler leads continued Switch success in July – Nintendo published half of July’s top 10 best selling software titles
38. Examining why Switch games cost more than their PC counterparts
39. Switch checks off its indie-game wishlist with Into the Breach, Towerfall
40. Nintendo rolls out indie-focused Switch news channel
41. The 10 secrets to indie game success (and why they do not exist)
42. Game Marketing 101: How to make games and stay afloat
43. Microsoft reportedly bundling console, Gold and Game Pass into Xbox All Access service
44. Microsoft is about to announce Xbox All Access subscription
45. Report: New Microsoft subscription service will include an Xbox One, Xbox Live, and Game Pass
46. Report: “Xbox All Access” to offer free hardware with two-year agreement
47. “Xbox All Access” offers free hardware up front with two-year subscription 
48. Xbox All Access bundles a console, Live, and Game Pass for 24 monthly payments
49. Microsoft announces Xbox All Access: 24-month payment program gets users an Xbox One, Xbox Live, and Game Pass sans up-front payment
50. “We don’t see a future where subscriptions are dominant” –  Microsoft: Xbox Game Pass heads say player feedback shows they prefer a service with a smaller number of quality titles to one with thousands of games
51. Why Xbox bought Ninja Theory: Microsoft explains why mid-sized studios are important to its Game Pass subscription service
52. Playstation Vue expands its lineup with 200 more local channels
53. Review: Yakuza Kiwami 2 gets cleaned up for PS4
54. Blog: Where’s my money, dude? What Steam is silent about
55. Dota 2 International 2019 moves to Shanghai: First time the championship has been held outside of North America since the 2011 debut
56. Pro Gamers Fend Off Elon Musk-Backed AI Bots – For Now
57. Twitter Sets Pact With Overwatch League for Highlights, Weekly Show: Deal for esports content runs through end of 2019
58. Riot Games details steps forward after workplace toxicity allegations
59. Riot Games ‘a long way’ from breaking even in esports 
60. Riot Games “a long way from breaking even” on esports investment: Head of global esports events explains company’s decision to cut costs, focus investments over next three years
61. Newzoo: Mobile esports seeing windows of opportunity open – Better hardware, Eastern popularity are driving slow but steady growth of large-scale, competitive play
62. It’s Time for an ‘Overwatch’ Battle Pass
63. Miyamoto: Game devs must avoid becoming reliant on free-to-play
64. iFixit dissects the $2,299 Magic Leap One so you don’t have to: Glue barriers, fragile components drop mixed-reality set’s “repairability score.”
65. Twitch Embraces Nostalgia Again With Pokemon TV And Movie Marathons
66. Creators Going Pro: How Logdotzip Turned A Passion For Gaming At 14 Into A 10-Person Business A Decade Later
67. GoldenEye 007 gets quite the 21st-birthday present: An oral history
68. Riot using League of Legends to drive blood donations in the Netherlands
69. Riot Games partners with blood bank to promote donation in the Netherlands: League of Legends players who donate blood through Sanquin will receive an in-game skin
70. Why From Software chose Activision to publish Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice – “When From Software knocks on your door and says ‘hey, we wanna make a game,’ you have only one answer right?”
71. How World of Warcraft helped Epidemiologists create better disease models
72. Battle for Azeroth is the fastest-selling World of Warcraft expansion: Day-one global sales surpass 3.4 million
73. Battle for Azeroth beats out past World of Warcraftexpansions in day-one sales
74. World of Warcraft devs explore the history of the long-running MMO
75. Reinventing God of War was a battle against doubt
76. Assassin’s Creed’s gap year could start a trend
77. Whoa, There’s Gonna Be A Streets Of Rage 4
78. Taking on Madden as an option instead of a Hail Mary: Solo developer David Winter is building a business with simulation football games catering to audiences unserved by EA’s juggernaut
79. Why Velocity Supernova needs a publisher – but is struggling to find one: FuturLab’s James Marsden delves deeper into the difficulties getting a Velocity 2X sequel signed, despite an audience of millions
80. Oculus Founder Serves up Scathing Review of Magic Leap One, Calling It A “Tragic Heap”
81. Hands-on: Upcoming VR Shooter ‘Telefrag’ Boasts Impossible, Escher-style Arenas
82. Orpheus to bring suite of “self-care entertainment” games to VR: New publishing venture focused on games with positive impact on player well-being
83. Gamescom sets another record for attendance: But with 370,000 visitors, venue management admit to congestion issues
84. Gamescom 18 boasts 15,000 jump in attendees at record 370,000
85. Portal was a classic from out of nowhere – Why I Love: YoYo Games’ Russell Kay remembers how The Orange Box toss-in stole the whole Half-Life show

Jon