COMMUNICATIONS
- Why “Taking On” Google and Facebook Isn’t the Cure for the Media Sector’s Ills (Michael Geist)
- Shuttered restaurants, bars, hotels speed up TV cord-cutting even more
- No, Congress Can’t Fix The Broken US Broadband Market In A Mad Dash During A Pandemic
- COVID-19 Is Exposing A Virulent Strain Of Broadband Market Failure Denialism
- FCC fines Sinclair $48M, refuses to revoke its broadcast licenses
- FCC Makes it Easier for Broadcasters and Cable Operators to Rehire Laid Off Employees
- US military is furious at FCC over 5G plan that could interfere with GPS
- ISPs Finally Lifted Data Caps. It Only Took A Global Pandemic
- Comcast resists call to open home Wi-Fi hotspots, cites potential congestion
- Verizon’s nationwide 5G will only be a “small” upgrade over 4G at first
- Study Shows US 5G Is An Over-hyped Disappointment
- New AT&T CEO Says You’re A Moron If You Don’t Use AT&T Streaming Services
- Democrats try to ban Internet shutoffs until pandemic is over
DIGITAL
- Facebook will pay $52 million in settlement with moderators who developed PTSD on the job: Current and former moderators will all be paid a minimum of $1,000
- Facebook Agrees To Pay $52 Million To Content Moderators Whose Work Affected Their Mental Health
- Facebook settles moderator suit for $52M as hate speech on site increases
- As Facebook Agrees To Pay $52 Million In PTSD Payments To Moderators, Why Are Some Demanding More Human Moderators?
- Facebook’s Supreme Court Is In Place… And Everyone Hates It, Because Facebook Makes Everyone Hate Everything
- Amazon Sued For Saying You’ve ‘Bought’ Movies That It Can Take Away From You
- Amid Pandemic, Dozens Of Health Professionals Petition For Tech Companies To Curtail Misinformation
- Anti-Trump Ad Demonstrates Both The Streisand Effect & Masnick’s Impossibility Theorem
- How covid-19 conspiracy theorists are exploiting YouTube culture: Covid-19 conspiracy theorists are still getting millions of views on YouTube, even as the platform cracks down on health misinformation.
- YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, Twitter Crack Down On COVID-19 Conspiracy Film ‘Plandemic’
- Twitter failing to curb misinformation “superspreaders,” report warns
- Twitter Making It Easier To Study The Public Discussions Around COVID-19
- ‘Smart’ Home Platform Wink Changes The Deal, Suddenly Imposes Subscription Fees
- Beyond Netflix and Spotify, what subscriptions are worth keeping in quarantine?
- Netflix’s first interactive sitcom: Good for laughs, deserves a better app
- Hamilton is coming to Disney+ a year early—just in time for Fourth of July
- YouTube Accelerates Launch Of Connected TV Ad Products Amid Coronavirus Viewership Boom
- YouTube’s FameBit Shutters Self-Service Influencer Marketing Platform To Prioritize In-House Matchmaking
- YouTube TV Adds BET, MTV, Comedy Central, Nick In Multi-Year Deal With ViacomCBS
- YouTube TV Adds ‘Court TV’ To Expanding Channel Lineup
- Court Dismisses Lawsuit Against Company that Added “Blockchain” To Its Name
- Twitch Developing Weekly Slate Of Unscripted, Interactive Shows (Report)
- ‘Twitch Roulette’ Spins Up Random Streamers With Few Viewers
- Jeffrey Katzenberg On Quibi’s 1.3 Million Active Users: “It’s Not Close To What We Wanted”
- Jeffrey Katzenberg’s Ego Decides That COVID-19 Must Be Why Quibi Totally Sucks And No One Wants It
- Studio71 And YouTube Animator Alex Clark Are Crowdfunding A Card Game
- YouTube Creator Corey La Barrie Has Tragically Passed Away On His 25th Birthday
- Family Of Late YouTuber Corey La Barrie Launches GoFundMe For Memorial Expenses
- Paul Vasquez, YouTube’s Joyful ‘Double Rainbow Guy,’ Has Passed Away Age 57
- YouTubers Kristin And Marcus Johns Both Recovering From Surgery After Devastating Hit-And-Run
- Studio71 UK Is Bringing TLC YouTube Series ‘Countdown To I Do’ To The Small Screen
- Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 5/11/2020
- Top 50 Most Viewed US YouTube Channels • Week Of 5/11/2020
- How Ad Council, Collectively, And Digital Brand Architects Are Evaluating Social Good Campaigns During COVID-19
- To compete with Gmail, Microsoft reveals plans for new Web-based Outlook features
- Bon Appétit’s Beloved ‘Test Kitchen’ Crew To Host Coronavirus Benefit Dinner On Instagram Live
- Charli And Dixie D’Amelio No Longer Affiliated With ‘The Hype House’ As A Business
- NBC Picks Up ‘A Little Late With Lilly Singh’ For Season Two, But Won’t Film Remotely
- BroadbandTV Signs Competitive Eater Matt Stonie, Jesse Wellens, Others
- English Law Challenges in Recovering Cryptocurrency Ransoms
- Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs scraps its ambitious Toronto project
- Thunderspy: What it is, why it’s not scary, and what to do about it
- Coronavirus: Google ends plans for smart city in Toronto
- Google unifies messenger teams, plans “more coherent vision”
- Google Play Music dies this year, YT Music library imports begin today
- TikTok Goes On Hiring Spree In London, Which Will Serve As Center Of European Ops (Report)
- Facebook’s New Features Are Meant To Help Small Businesses See More “Virtual Foot Traffic”
- Zoomism and Discipline for Productive Immobility
- Choose your quarantine meme house: A taxonomy of the pandemic’s greatest meme hits.
- Bitcoin’s “halving” is bad for miners, good for everyone else
- What Do Platforms Do? Understanding the Gig Economy (Steven Vallas & Juliet B. Schor)
A.I.
- Thomson Reuters Accuses Ross Intelligence of Using Bot to Hijack Westlaw Data: Lawsuit against San Francisco-based Ross Intelligence could outline the often adversarial coexistence of copyrights and artificial intelligence.
- ROSS Fires Back At Thomson Reuters Over Data Case
- France is using AI to check whether people are wearing masks on public transport: The technology won’t be used to identify and punish individuals
- Blurring the Lines: When AI Creates Art Is It Copyrightable?
- CAA Signs Its First Virtual Client: Computer-Generated Instagrammer Miquela
- Shuttered restaurants, bars, hotels speed up TV cord-cutting even more
- All’s Clear for Deepfakes: Think Again
- Why Fake Video, Audio May Not Be As Powerful In Spreading Disinformation As Feared
- FTC Consumer Protection Director Provides Guidance on Use of Artificial Intelligence in Automated Decision-Making
- This ‘Beat Saber’ Project Uses AI to Generate Custom Beat Maps for Any Song
- Building the AI of F.E.A.R. with goal oriented action planning
- Response to the European Commission’s White Paper on Artificial Intelligence (Elettra Bietti)
- U.S. AI and IoT Legislative Update – First Quarter 2020
- Regulating Text and Data Mining in the European Union: Issues and Challenges
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
- Wiseau Studio, LLC et al v Harper et al, (2020 ONSC 2504)
- Ontario Court finds room for fair dealing in documentary on The Room
- Intellectual Property litigation in the Federal Court
- Second Circuit Clicks “I Agree” Affirming Website Agreement Protects Web Application from Misappropriation by Users
- Fair Use Protects a Highly Cropped Photo–Harbus v. Manhattan Institute (Eric Goldman)
- “I’m [Not] Yours”
- “I’m Yours” Not Theirs: Jason Mraz Settles Dispute Over Beer Ad’s Allegedly Unauthorized Use of Performance Footage on Instagram
- Court Of Appeals Affirms Lower Court Tossing BS ‘Comedians In Cars’ Copyright Lawsuit
- Sixth Circuit Concurrence Fears Courts May Be Groovin’ to the Wrong Tune in Copyright Cases
- Eleventh Circuit: Guitar Designer Wasn’t Taking a Solo
- Second Circuit Limits Copyright Damages To Those Incurred Within Three Years Prior to Suit
- Does copyright subsist in the Brompton Folding Bicycle?
- Does the Cofemel decision mark the end of “artistic value”?
- Copyright protection for fabric designs
- Monkey Business (and Other Animal Non-Rights)
- Copyright Troll Richard Liebowitz Has Two Separate Courts Sanction Him For His Ongoing Copyright Trolling Failures
- Supreme Court: Willfulness Not Required for Profits Awards in Trademark Infringement Actions
- Supreme Court Holds Trademark Infringement Does Not Require a Finding of “Willful” Infringement To Recover an Award of Profits
- Without a Willfulness Requirement, Is the Path Clearer for Brand Owners to Pursue and Recover Trademark Damages?
- Supreme Court clarifies rules for remedies in trademark litigation
- Whether or not there’s a will, there’s still a way to infringers’ profits in Canadian trademark litigation
- Trademark Law Alert – A Book Title Sometimes May Prevent Registration of the Same Term for Other Goods
- 2(b) Prohibition On “Flag Marks” Bars Use of Flag as Part of a Mark
- Coachella may not be cancelled – but its EU trade mark has been
- Say It With Me Now, Australia: Beer And Wine Are Not The Same Thing, Not Even For Trademarks
- Freedom of expression counts in trademark law
- [Insert Yell Here]: Rapper Pitbull Receives Trademark Registration for “EEEEEEEYOOOOOO!” Sound Mark
- NCAA Issues New Name, Image, Likeness Guidance
- The Face(David)Off
- Bongo’s Bingo and Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah cause IP Hoo-Hah
- SkyKick: High Court narrows Sky’s trade mark protection and criticises the use of trade marks as a weapon
- Justices Voice Reservations About a Bright-line Genericness Test in Booking.com
- Can a mathematical mystery be registered as a trade mark?
- Tiger King – Battle of the Big Cat Trade Marks
- National Geographic Defeats Trademark Suit Over ‘Wild America’ and ‘Untamed Americas’ Claim
- Patent Filings Doom Registered Trade Dress in Seventh Circuit
- Combination Litigation: Recent Software Disputes at the Intersection of Trade Secret, Copyright and Patent Law
- Federal Circuit Rules that Moving Software to the Cloud Alone Is Obvious
- Importance of Determining Inventorship Prior to Patent Issuance
- Patentability of Covid-19 smartphone apps at the EPO
- Fed. Cir.: Threat of Suit Over Past Infringement Confers Standing
- The Federal Circuit Dismisses Pfizer’s Appeal for Lack of Standing
- Object detection in an augmented reality image: insufficiently disclosed
- Obvious to the Bone: Teva Wins Opposition against Eli Lilly’s Patent Application Covering Osteoporosis Blockbuster FORTEO®
- Analysis of the innovativeness of “zanubrutinib” from a patent perspective
- Finite Methods as a Ground for Obviousness
- The deadlock on the unified patent convention
- Actions Speak Louder Than Words: Germany’s Highest Court tells SEP implementers that simply saying that you are willing to license is not enough, and hold-out will not be tolerated
- The UKIPO investigates AI-powered prior art searches
- How combining blockchain technology and AI could benefit patent analysis
- The Inventinator: May AI “Inventors” get Patents?
- USPTO: Artificial Intelligence Systems Cannot Legally Invent
- Creative COVID-19 Collaborations – IP Agreements that Work
- White House Identifies Amazon Foreign Domains as “Notorious Markets” for Counterfeit Goods
- Federal Circuit Patent Update
- IP Litigation Quarterly Update
PRIVACY
- India is forcing people to use its covid app, unlike any other democracy: Millions of Indians have no choice but to download the country’s tracking technology if they want to keep their jobs or avoid reprisals.
- Zoom Reaches Agreement with New York Attorney General to Resolve Privacy and Security Issues
- Zoom to Implement New Security Measures in Deal with NY Attorney General
- Utah Pulls Plug On Surveillance Contractor After CEO’s Past As A White Supremacist Surfaces
- Google’s Privacy Policy Can’t Save it From Smartphone Spying Claim: California Privacy Laws Tested in Suit Alleging Big Tech is Letting Subcontractors Listen in on Your Conversations
- Cookie walls invalidate consent, says EDPB
- In Response To Getting Sued, Clearview Is Dumping All Of Its Private Customers
- EU Data Protection: Updated EDPB Guidance on Consent Clarifies the Mechanism for Cookie Consent
- The EU is trying to fix its abysmal cookie consent policy: The pain of cookie consent mechanisms is an international problem
- EUROPE: New privacy rules for connected vehicles in Europe?
- Conflict Between the Right to Privacy and the Right to Public Health: Global Phenomenon and Coronavirus Outbreak
- Your Boss May Soon Track You At Work For Coronavirus Safety
- Privacy litigation in the age of coronavirus
- As More Students Sit Online Exams Under Lockdown Conditions, Remote Proctoring Services Carry Out Intrusive Surveillance
CREATIVITY
- “Happy Cows” False Labeling Theory is Just “Half Baked”: Court Dismisses False Advertising Claims Against Ben & Jerry’s
- Counterclaims on the Cutting-Room Floor: How a Central District Court Cut Down the Writers Guild’s Countersuit Against Hollywood’s Talent Agencies
- HRH The Duchess of Sussex v Associated Newspapers Limited [2020] EWHC 1058 (Ch)
- Bud Light’s win on “corn syrup” ad offers valuable lessons on false advertisement claims
- Whoops! Whooper ad banned by the ASA
- The Impact of COVID-19 on Media and Entertainment Industry Transactions
- Art Law: Introduction
- First-step analysis: art law in USA (New York)
- Top 3 Legal Predictions on Fashion Law for 2020
GAMES
- Nintendo files lawsuit barrage to take down Super Mario 64 PC port
- A year of Riot’s diversity and inclusivity efforts mean it now employs 1% more women: And US operations have 1% more underrepresented minorities
- Riot “can’t solve society” but commits to combatting player abuse in Valorant: “Harassment and bullying in games is not a status quo I’m comfortable accepting,” says executive producer
- Riot wants to curb toxicity in Valorant without putting the burden on targeted players
- Riot Games’ Social Impact Fund has raised $10m so far: So far, the fund has provided $8 million in grands and funding to over 50 nonprofits
- Gaming Emote Litigation: Battle Royale Ensues Over Fortnite Emotes with Plaintiffs Testing Different Causes of Action
- Fortnite surpasses 350 million registered players
- Crytek Delays Launch of Lawsuit Against Star Citizen Devs Before Suddenly Settling
- Finnish Hockey League Championship Decided Via Stand-In Esports Playoff
- Ex-Respawn devs set up new studio Gravity Well as anti-crunch and pro-remote work
- Can video games depict war responsibly?: On the eve of the 75th VE Day, we explore how developers engage players in military conflict
- Animal Crossing boosts Nintendo sales despite COVID-19
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons sold 11.77 million copies in under two weeks
- Animal Crossing New Horizons hits 13.4m sales
- Animal Crossing New Leaf took six years to reach 12.6m sales — New Horizons surpassed it in six weeks
- UK Charts: Animal Crossing: New Horizons sales surge 135%
- Nintendo praises Switch momentum as lifetime sales eclipse 55 million units
- Switch passes 55m lifetime sales in a strong year for Nintendo: Pokémon and Animal Crossing were the standouts among 27 Switch titles that sold more than one million units
- Sales up at Nintendo due to ‘significant growth’ across the entire Switch family
- Animal Crossing is now the best-selling Switch game of all time in Japan: Island getaway game has sold 3.9 million copies, beat Final Fantasy 7 Remake in latest monthly charts
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons and its impact on a pandemic-stricken world
- Tales From The Quarantine: People Are Selling ‘Animal Crossing’ Bells For Real Cash After Layoffs
- Nintendo forecasts down year amid COVID-19 uncertainty: Switch maker expects to sell 17% fewer games, 9.6% less hardware for the fiscal year that started last month
- PlatinumGames apologises for blank Switch codes following The Wonderful 101 delay: Kickstarter backers complained of malfunctioning or empty codes, Japanese studio working on replacements
- Grand strategy title Stellaris has sold over 3 million copies in four years
- Twitch viewers watched 334m hours of Valorant in April: It was the most popular game on Twitch, and drove the rise of new streamers to the top ten
- Report: games market to generate $159 billion in 2020 thanks to coronavirus (Newzoo)
- Mobile games to see the least negative impact from COVID-19: Newzoo – All platforms will see growth, but low barrier to entry and simpler development will bolster mobile
- Report: COVID-19 spurns 45% growth in livestreaming viewership (StreamElements)
- COVID-19 and the Games Industry: Opportunities and Challenges
- Q&A: How Jackbox CEO Mike Bilder is grappling with quarantine-driven success
- The Resident Evil series has sold 98m units to date: Monster Hunter has sold 63 million total, Street Fighter is at 44 million
- Digital revenue and packaged game sales driving growth at Sega Sammy
- Surge in packaged games drive Sega’s full-year sales to $3.4bn: Boxed products were biggest revenue driver for games business, but future releases may be delayed by COVID-19
- Zynga posts its best-ever Q1 by way of $404 million in revenue
- Zynga COO: We could work from home forever if needed – Matt Bromberg says the social gaming company hasn’t skipped a beat because of social distancing
- Sledgehammer COO: “We’re ready and prepared to work this way indefinitely” – Andrew Wilson says the studio has overcome most work-from-home tech hurdles, but mental health still a challenge
- Sales down, profits up at Capcom
- Capcom posts record profits on sharply down sales: Despite revenues down 18.4% year-over-year, shift to higher-margin digital sales drives Monster Hunter maker’s bottom line
- Playrix sees best month ever as Gardenscapes lifetime revenue nears $2b – Sensor Tower: Mobile games publisher has surpassed 1.1 billion downloads across its entire portfolio
- Rogue Games nets $2 million to expand publishing business
- Rogue Games raises $2m toward expanding its publishing business: In total, the mobile publisher has raised $3.4 million
- Lack of big releases sees Square Enix sales drop to $2.4bn: But profits and operating income still show increases thanks to Final Fantasy XIV and Dragon Quest X expansions
- Nexon’s Q1 takes a hit from closure of PC gaming cafes in China: But Korean revenue remains strong due to MapleStory, FIFA Online 4
- Avalanche pushes in a new direction with Systemic Reaction: The Swedish firm’s rebranded self-publishing division is aiming for faster development with smaller teams
- Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 will be remastered for a second time in Sept 2020
- The Culling is coming back, this time swapping free-to-play for one-free-play-per-day
- Xbox “set some wrong expectations” for next-gen livestream: Microsoft and Ubisoft mollify fans expecting to see promised Xbox Series X gameplay
- Xbox Series X showcase redefines “gameplay” | Podcast: Latest episode available now, focusing on last week’s special episode of Inside Xbox
- Some Xbox Series X games won’t hit 60fps “performance target”
- Microsoft shows off 13 “launch window” games for Xbox Series X
- New IP dominates first Xbox Series X game reveals: Nine new games will use Xbox’s ‘Smart Delivery’ offering that allows gamers to buy a game once for use across all Xbox consoles
- Every Xbox Series X game announced by Microsoft today: That’s a lot of games!
- Epic debuts free Online Services to help devs build cross-platform, cross-play games
- Devs using Unreal Engine won’t owe Epic royalties on a game’s first $1 million
- Unreal Engine is now royalty-free until a game makes a whopping $1 million
- Epic’s next-gen bid to knock down the walled garden: Tim Sweeney, Kim Libreri, and Nick Penwarden discuss Unreal Engine 5, next-gen development, and Epic’s efforts to make both open and accessible
- Epic Games announces Unreal Engine 5 with first PS5 footage: Beginning today, Epic will waive royalties on the first $1 million in game revenue for all Unreal Engine games
- Epic reveals next-gen Unreal Engine 5 tech running on PlayStation 5
- PS4 sales down at Sony, but network services revenue gets ‘significant’ boost
- Sony’s games business declines as new generation looms: PS4 sales passed 110m units in a down fiscal year, but PS5 is still set to launch in 2020
- First-party PlayStation games to be collected under new PlayStation Studios brand
- Sony announces new PlayStation Studios branding for its first-party PS5 games
- PlayStation Studios brand will launch alongside PS5: Check out the video that will open upcoming first-party PlayStation games
- Sony has suspended the PlayStation Store in mainland China to upgrade security
- Sony temporarily closes PlayStation Store in China: Platform holder says it is improving store security, no reopening date given
- Niko Partners: COVID-19 may slow consumer adoption of next-gen consoles
- UK: Ads on social media for esports betting come under the microscope
- Activision Blizzard brings in betting monitoring firm to observe its esports leagues: Overwatch League, Call of Duty League enter multi-year partnership with Sportradar
- Esports & the global pandemic
- Electronic Arts shifts playbook for all-digital esports events
- Fantasy sports firm Sleeper turns to esports after $20m round: Series B funding round closes ahead of new League of Legends fantasy esports game
- We talk esports vs. a pro racing simulator with Jaguar’s Mitch Evans
- Hologate Wants Its New VR Arcade Hygiene Standards to Inspire Confidence in a Wary Public
- Researchers Say Head-mounted Haptics Can Combat Smooth Locomotion Discomfort in VR
- VR could seize its moment — if the big players would cooperate | Opinion: VR has an opportunity to break out, but the mess of competing standards is holding back the whole sector
- Maze Theory raises £1.4m for Doctor Who VR trilogy: Studio receives investment from UK Creative Content EIS Fund, plus a second grant from government programme
- Can video games depict war responsibly?: On the eve of the 75th VE Day, we explore how developers engage players in military conflict
- Growing mobile games through user acquisition: Nordeus’ Andrej Kugonič takes a deep dive into UA for the GamesIndustry.biz Academy
- Starbreeze cuts losses by $7.2 million, calls Payday 3 publishing talks ‘positive’
- Starbreeze cuts losses to $9.9m: Payday 3 publishing plans hindered by travel restrictions
- Streaming startup Parsec raises $7m in funding: Series A round will fund push into streamed gameplay and remote development
- Scavengers Studio ends active development on Darwin Project
- How World of Warcraft has evolved with the Internet
- Here’s the surprisingly sweet origin story behind New Horizons’ sea bass gag
- Don’t Miss: Writing Deus Ex: Mankind Divided to ‘hold a mirror up to the world’
- Don’t Miss: Chris Crawford wants game devs to do long-term planning
- Don’t Miss: Ken Rolston’s development secrets of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
- Don’t Miss: A postmortem of Treyarch’s Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater for the Dreamcast
- Don’t Miss: Paradox Development Studio’s postmortem of Stellaris
- Q&A: Re-imagining 1998’s Half-Life for a 2020 audience in Black Mesa
- Video: Behind the beautiful audio of PSVR game Paper Beast
- Video: Balancing visuals and performance while art directing Forza
- Video: Using deep reinforcement learning for NPCs and playtesting
- Video: Understanding different specialties & approaches in game production
- Blog: Understanding open world level design – Part 1
- Blog: A data-filled deep dive into LudoNarraCon
- Blog: The calming effect of low stakes games4
- Blog: Tilemaps – More than a grid
- Insights: With Metaverse Talk Common Amid Pandemic, We’re Ready To Be ‘Player One’ Almost Anywhere Else
- U.S. Patent no. 10,315, 108: Local application quick start with cloud transitioning
Jon