News of the Week; December 6, 2017

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. Massachusetts District Court Finds VoIP Service is Not Cellular Service Per Se Under the TCPA  
2. Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, Pandora Could Face Billions In ‘Fast Lane’ Surcharges
3. How To Make Sense Of Net Neutrality And Telecom Under Trump
4. 50,000 net neutrality complaints were excluded from FCC’s repeal docket: FCC is “going to great lengths to ignore these documents,” advocate says.
5. Democrat asks why FCC is hiding ISPs’ answers to net neutrality complaints: Records request for net neutrality complaints and resolutions still unfulfilled.
6. Use This Tool to See If Your Name Was Used to Support Net Neutrality Repeal 
7. New York AG Provides Tool To Help You Check If Your Name Was Used To Support Killing Net Neutrality
8. Net neutrality activists just took over Reddit with protest posts: “This is my Senator. He sold me out to telecom lobbyists.” 
9. Absent Facts To Support Repealing Net Neutrality, Ajit Pai Wildly Attacking Hollywood Tweeters
10. After Attacking Random Hollywood Supporters Of Net Neutrality, Ajit Pai Attacks Internet Companies
11. Ajit Pai Attacked Hollywood & Silicon Valley Because Even Republicans Are Against His Net Neutrality Plan
12. Ajit Pai Doesn’t Want You Talking About Court Ruling That Undermines His Bogus Claim That The FTC Will Protect Consumers
13. Days Before Doing Verizon’s Bidding, Ajit Pai Gives A Talk At Verizon
14. The FCC Tried To Hide Net Neutrality Complaints Against ISPs 
15. Tom Wheeler slams Ajit Pai’s plan to kill net neutrality rules: FCC is “bend[ing] to the wishes” of big Internet providers, ex-chair says.
16. Commentary: The FCC Has Always Defended Net Neutrality. Why Stop Now?
17. Guardians of the Future: The FCC Commissioner is Working to Delay the Net Neutrality Vote
18. FCC won’t delay vote, says net neutrality supporters are “desperate”: Pai says FTC will protect consumers—but FTC could lose its regulatory authority.
19. AT&T wants you to forget that it blocked FaceTime over cellular in 2012 – AT&T: Your Internet service won’t change after FCC eliminates net neutrality rules.
20. ISPs Are Already Using The FCC’s Planned Net Neutrality Repeal To Harm Consumers 
21. No Parlay for Pirates: FCC Turns Up the Heat on Dozens of Alleged Pirate Radio Operators 
22. Digital Cancon, the Sequel: CRTC Broadcast Consult Sparks Demands for Everything from Internet and iPod Taxes to Website Blocking to Abandoning Net Neutrality (Michael Geist)
23. Tragedy offers lessons for event organisers managing volunteers

DIGITAL

1. Bell Leads on Radical Proposal for CRTC-Backed Mandatory Website Blocking System (Michael Geist)
2. Bell’s Latest Privacy Solution: Enhance Internet Privacy By Blocking Access to It (Michael Geist) 
3. Not Just Bell: Shaw Calls on CRTC To Support Website Blocking (Michael Geist)
4. SCC To Weigh In On Fees For Identifying ISP Subscribers: Rogers v. Voltage 
5. “Relief and happiness”: Supreme Court of Canada to hear VICE press freedoms case
6. The Reckoning at Vice Has Begun
7. Sixth Circuit Suggests Liability for Copyright Infringement May Justify Reduced First Amendment Protection for Anonymous Speech, But Recommends Consideration of Context and ‘Practical Need’ for Unmasking 
8. Silicon Valley Investor Takes Leave of Absence After Harassment Reports
9. Senator Kamala Harris Serves Up A Not-Completely-Terrible Revenge Porn Bill
10. Hyperloop One co-founder takes leave after sexual harassment accusations: Shervin Pishevar claims he is the subject of a “smear campaign.”
11. Disney Sues Redbox Over Sale of Movie Download Codes: The DVD kiosk rental company allegedly disassembles a product package and then sells codes separately in what Disney asserts is a violation of copyright law.
12. The Uber-Waymo Lawsuit Gets A New Star—And Takes A Wild Turn
13. LA City Attorney Jumps Into Uber Fray 
14. Waymo can’t stop Uber employees from explaining Wickr use while at Waymo – Judge Alsup: “I can’t stand it when Waymo or the other side wants it both ways.”
15. Yahoo’s Insanely Bad Deal to Pay Mozilla $375 Million a Year for Nothing Is Headed to Court
16. Apple agrees to set aside more than $15 billion to Ireland in back taxes: Despite EU ruling, neither Apple nor Ireland wants the Cupertino company to pay.
17. Twitter’s Year in Review Confirms 2017 Sucked
18. Tinder Can Now Show Who It Thinks You’ll Swipe Right On
19. The Future of Artificial Intelligence and its Impact on Society
20. A Swarm Intelligence Correctly Predicted TIME’s Person of the Year
21. I Enlisted an Algorithm to Help Me Write the Perfect Piece of Science Fiction. This is our Story.
22. Google Yanks YouTube From Amazon’s Echo Show And Fire TV Devices
23. Google will pull YouTube support from Amazon Fire TVs in 2018: No more YouTube for yet another Amazon device.
24. Google and Amazon are punishing their own customers in a bitter feud: It shouldn’t have come to this
25. Google And Amazon Are Harming Consumers And Behaving Like Obnoxious Toddlers 
26. Amazon Prime Video finally arrives on Apple TV, months after original announcement: The long-awaited app is now available for 3rd-gen Apple TVs and newer devices.
27. Google is blocking YouTube on Amazon’s Echo Show and Fire TV: The service won’t work until Amazon is willing to collaborate with Google on a YouTube app for its devices.
28. Google bans Android developers from adding lock screen ads: Users will no longer be troubled by shady apps that hijack lock screens.
29. Chrome to stop third-party software injections because they make it crash: Users with injected software are 15 percent more likely to experience crashes.
30. Essential CEO Andy Rubin goes on leave for “personal reasons”: A report claims Rubin, the father of Android, left Google after an HR investigation.
31. Google, Amazon Find Not Everyone Is Ready For AI
32. Inside Baidu’s Bid To Lead The Ai Revolution
33. San Francisco Just Put The Brakes On Delivery Robots
34. Many Startup Founders Doubt Extent Of Sexual Harassment
35. Home Security Company Says No One Linking To Its Website Is Allowed To Disparage It
36. Snopes Debunks Fake YouTube Video; Video’s Creator Responds With A Bogus DMCA Notice
37. Data-Saving YouTube Go App Arrives In Thailand, Malaysia, Ghana, Kenya, More
38. YouTube Will Reportedly Make Advertisers Pay More To Ensure Placement On Top-Level Videos
39. YouTube Will Have 10,000 Humans Working To Purge Questionable Content In 2018
40. Expanding our work against abuse of our platform
41. Toy Freaks Dad Reportedly Under Investigation For Disturbing Videos
42. Seven-Year-Old Suffers Severe Burns After Attempting YouTube ‘Fire Challenge’
43. Amid Kids’ Content Controversy, YouTube To Offer 5 Family-Friendly Red Series For Free
44. YouTube CEO To Creators: We’re Going To Be Better About Demonetization
45. Vidme Shuts Down Its Video Platform, Will Launch New Product Next Year
46. YouNow Inks First Content Deal With Eleven Sports For Crypto App Rize
47. BET To Celebrate Influencers, Viral Videos At Inaugural ‘Social Awards’
48. It’s 25 years since someone sent the first text message
49. Emails Show Pretty Much Everyone on Trump’s Transition Team Knew Mike Flynn Talked to Russians
50. Oh my god, he just admitted to obstruction of justice. If Trump knew Flynn lied to the FBI when he asked Comey to let it go, then there is your case.
51. Looking for the Linguistic Smoking-Gun in a Trump Tweet: Could the word pled really reveal who wrote Trump’s reaction to the Flynn news?
52. The underground story of Cobra, the 1980s’ illicit handmade computer: In their poor, Communist country, Romania’s computer curious built an underground industry.
53. ‘Mailsploit’ Lets Hackers Forge Perfect Email Spoofs
54. Is Bitcoin a Pyramid Scheme?
55. The IRS Has Come Knocking at Bitcoin’s Door
56. Bitcoin, Bankers, and Barriers to Legislation
57. Bitcoin’s insane energy consumption, explained: One estimate suggests the Bitcoin network consumes as much energy as Denmark.
58. Bitcoin Mining Guzzles Energy—And Its Carbon Footprint Just Keeps Growing
59. A brief history of Bitcoin hacks and frauds: Bitcoins have been a juicy target for hackers since 2011.
60. Feds shut down allegedly fraudulent cryptocurrency offering: Cryptocurrency offerings are no longer a regulation-free zone.
61. Will Repealing Net Neutrality Really Spell Doom for Cryptocurrencies? 
62. The Wikipedia Competitor That’s Harnessing Blockchain For Epistemological Supremacy
63. Preparing for liability in the age of the Internet of Things 
64. Future Historians Probably Won’t Understand Our Internet, and That’s Okay: Archivists are working to document our chaotic, opaque, algorithmically complex world—and in many cases, they simply can’t.
65. Canada’s Missing Internet Provision: Why NAFTA Offers the Chance to Establish Long Overdue Online Speech Safeguards (Michael Geist)

CREATIVITY

1.  Disney Sued Over Alleged “Let It Go” Song Theft, Millions Of YouTube Covers Could Be Affected
2. Brown v. Time Warner, Inc.
3. Copyright Does Not Protect Ideas, Only Expression 
4. Comic-Con Busted In Libya For Being “Exploitative”
5. Protecting TV Show Formats
6. New copyright protection test for designs of useful articles
7. Can You Copyright Infringe Anonymously? Revisited.
8. What Happens If The DOJ Ends Up With Martin Shkreli’s Sole Copy Of The Wu Tang Clan Album?
9. Robin Wright To Lead Final ‘House Of Cards’ Season Without Kevin Spacey
10. In the Future, Everyone Will Have Their Personality Misappropriated for 15 Minutes 
11. Ohio couple gronked again 
12. Don’t Stop The Presses! When Local News Struggles, Democracy Withers
13. Atlanta Anchor Sharon Reed Claps Back at Viewer Who Calls Her N-Word After Mayoral Election
14. Appeals Court Affirms Dismissal of Libel Claims in Stolen Valor Case: Shane Ladner sued New World Communications of Atlanta for defamation after Ladner and his wife were among veterans on a float that collided with a train in Texas.
15. Ladner v. New World Communications of Atlanta Inc.

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Drawing the Line: Supreme Court Addresses Major Privacy Rights in Cell Phone Dispute
2. Judge Rules Amended Eavesdropping Suit Against Golden State Warriors Can Proceed
3. Trump Tweet About Surveillance Undercuts FBI’s Glomar Responses In FOIA Lawsuits 
4. House Internet Censorship Bill Is Just Like The Senate Bill, Except Worse
5. House Intelligence Committee Lobs Zero-Reform Section 702 Bill Into The Mix At The Last Possible Minute
6. German Government Official Wants Backdoors In Every Device Connected To The Internet
7. Navy Officer Working For The NSA Caught Trying To Search Her Boyfriend’s Son’s Phone
8. NSA, DOJ Still Aren’t Letting Defendants Know They’re Using Section 702 Evidence Against Them
9. Don’t Buy Anyone an Echo
10. Electrician Used Greasy Junk Food Bags to Hide His GPS Location and Skip Work
11. Evidence That Ethiopia Is Spying On Journalists Shows Commercial Spyware Is Out Of Control
12. Champing At The Cyberbit: Ethiopian Dissidents Targeted with New Commercial Spyware
13. 100,000-strong botnet built on router 0-day could strike at any time: New strain of Mirai is sophisticated, locked, and loaded.
14. “Malware-free” attacks mount in big breaches, CrowdStrike finds: Stolen credentials, exploits of command-line tools used in 66 percent of attacks.
15. Mastermind behind sophisticated, massive botnet outs himself: Andromeda kingpin is identified by his ICQ number.
16. Are you kidding me? Only 15% of US companies have insurance for their data! 
17. The Internet of Toys: Legal and Privacy Issues with Connected Toys

GAMES

1. Epic Sues 14 Year Old It Accuses Of Cheating In Videogames After He Counternotices a DMCA On His YouTube Video
2. Epic Games lawsuit over Fortnite cheats ends in settlement
3. Creators of Star Control accuse Stardock of publishing games without permission
4. Star Control creators accuse Stardock of selling games unlawfully: GOG.com pulling games from sale as publisher says devs have gone years without asserting rights, should have addressed it sooner
5. Gambling-addicted teen begs EA to reconsider microtransaction strategy: Meanwhile, Take-Two Interactive boss insists loot boxes aren’t gambling
6. EA trips up on the path from Product to Service: Consumer annoyance over micro-transactions doesn’t change the fact that every major publisher is shifting business model wholesale in that direction
7. State Rep: Games industry must self-regulate loot boxes before government steps in
8. Games industry must self-regulate on loot boxes, says state representative – Sean Quinlan: Legislation would be a “slippery slope”
9. 35% or more of EA Sports players spend on Ultimate Team: CFO Blake Jorgensen says publisher focuses on getting people into the funnel, not on making payers spend more
10. Warframe dev: Industry must get better at “giving players a choice and a voice” – Microtransactions aren’t inherently bad, and they can work with AAA-type experiences says Meridith Braun, VP, Publishing, Digital Extremes
11. PUBG Will Never Add A Loot Box Item ‘That Affects The Gameplay’: New cosmetic items will come after official launch.
12. EA says half of Ultimate Teamplayers spend money on the F2P mode: “Of those 75 percent of the people, about half of those people actually spend some money and the other half just play without spending. But in a free-to-play world, that’s a fantastic balance of spenders and non-spenders.”
13. What reaching 25 million users says about Rainbow Six Siege and games-as-a-service: Siege is an outlier, and one the publishing giants can learn from
14. FTC Finalizes Its First Settlement For Social Media Influencers
15. Childline and NSPCC condemn ‘unacceptable’ Detroit: Become Human – Campaigners concerned by the depiction of violence against children
16. “We have to remember it’s a game”: Mixing anti-cultism and action in Far Cry 5: Creative director Dan Hay discusses reactions to Ubisoft’s upcoming shooter and how the Far Cry team touches on topical themes
17. “It’s the game designer’s job to evoke different sides of humanity”: Thatgamecompany president Jenova Chen believes that positive behavior can be rewarded and monetized
18. Bungie opens up about Destiny 2 changes after hidden “scaling” debacle: Big changes coming for experience system and everything else.
19. “Smaller studios will define the future of video game storytelling”: A fresh wave of developers aims to change the industry with narrative titles that appeal to wider audiences than anything in the charts
20. Sega cuts full-year profit forecast by 54.5 percent
21. People of the Year 2017: Ninja Theory – Ninja Theory is to be commended for its handling of mental illness and for showing how indies can still approach AAA development
22. People of the Year 2017: Larian Studios – With Divinity: Original Sin II, the Belgian studio combined both commercial performance with creative excellence – and it did so on its own terms
23. War Child UK launches world’s first mobile gaming armistice: Charity looking to build on success of 2016’s armistice which raised over £100,000
24. Twitch sees “glimmer of hope” in battle against toxic behavior: Co-founder Kevin Lin tells GamesIndustry.biz he believes positivity will perpetuate out from smaller, more controlled channels
25. The Odd, Enduring Appeal Of Musou Games May Finally Be Paying Off
26. Why The Golden State Warriors Bet Millions On A League of Legends Team
27. Former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue On Esports: ‘It’s Not Sports’
28. Mark Emmert: NCAA Exploring Whether Or Not It Has Role In Esports
29. College Conference Commissioners Question Whether Esports Is A Sport
30. The Overwatch Videogame League Aims To Become The New NFL
31. The Overwatch League Preseason Begins Today, Here’s What You Need To Know
32. BBC launches VR Hub studio: Broadcaster will focus on high-quality, high-impact experiences in effort to push tech to the mainstream
33. VR devs need to unlearn unspoken game dev rules, says Oculus exec: “Sometimes people don’t understand how specific an IP is to the hardware it’s been made for.”
34. Analyst: The Switch topped online sales charts during Thanksgiving weekend
35. The Switch was the best-selling product online over Thanksgiving: Nintendo’s console tops the charts despite not going on sale
36. Nintendo brings Wii and GameCube titles to Nvidia Shield in China
37. Nintendo targets Chinese gamers with remasters for Nvidia Shield: Platform holder increases presence in lucrative market with China-only re-release of Twilight Princess and New Super Mario Bros. Wii
38. Nintendo brings HD Wii games to China’s Nvidia Shield—is Switch next?: Remastered ports could be a test run on similar Tegra hardware.
39. A List Of Old Games That I Would Definitely Buy Again On Switch
40. Valve announces the return of Portal… via Bridge Constructor: Licensed expansion almost counts as V alve’s first “new” game in years.
41. Vivendi a third wheel in the Activision Blizzard union: 10 Years Ago This Month: The media giant orchestrated a massively successful merger but walked away with relatively little to show for it
42. Blizzard, EA among Glassdoor’s best places to work: Employees have given both game companies high marks
43. Digital revenues up 15% in October – Superdata: Single-player games holding their own while Destiny 2 and PUBG push premium PC up 28%; worldwide digital revenues total $8.5 billion
44. Sega’s game division holds strong despite 54.5% cut to company-wide profit forecast: Operating income for games up by $35 million despite net sales decline
45. Neill Blomkamp: ‘It’s inevitable that the uncanny valley just goes away’ – District 9 director talks about his experience creating the ADAM short films with Unity
46. The games industry has an inferiority complex, and it’s holding us back: Some studios have a “fundamental lack of understanding” of narrative and character development, says writer for Destiny: The Taken King
47. Super Mario Run, CATS get Google Play 2017 nods: Nintendo claims most downloaded new title while ZeptoLab’s battle bot fighter awarded Game of the Year
48. World of Warcraft, world of inspiration – Why I Love: Lightseekers senior designer Ana Steiner traces her history with the MMO that convinced her to pursue a career in games
49. Blackbird Interactive to open new gaming studio in False Creek Flats
50. Citing volatile value, Steam drops Bitcoin support
51. Steam no longer accepting Bitcoin: Storefront says high fees and volatile price fluctuations make supporting the cryptocurrency “untenable”
52. Crytek helping launch Crycash cryptocurrency: Developer says paying players who reach certain milestones in its games will be a cost-effective user acquisition strategy

Jon