News of the Week; December 27, 2017

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. Months Later, And People Are Still Discovering Their Dead Loved Ones Were Used To Support Killing Net Neutrality 
2. The Heroes We Need: An Overview of Who’s Fighting for and Against Net Neutrality
3. The End of the Internet? What to Expect after the FCC’s 3-2 Vote to Restore Internet Freedom 
4. Comcast’s Tax-Cut Investment ‘Increase’ Is A Giant Nothingburger
5. Washington state: Comcast was “even more deceptive” than we thought – “Additional consumers… rejected the SPP, but Comcast signed them up anyway.”
6. Comcast claims it’ll spend $50B because of net neutrality repeal and tax cut: Comcast says it will increase network investment, but it was already doing that.
7. Why Net Neutrality Will Be A Campaign Issue In 2018
8. FCC tries to make Miami pirate radio station walk the plank: $144,000 fine for ignoring all requests to stop.
9. The UK Just Decided That 10 Mbps Broadband Should be a Legal Right
10. CRTC Seeks Comments on Its Reseller Registration Obligation
11. Globe editorial: In 2018, the fight for net neutrality must continue 

DIGITAL

1. Court Allows Some Access to Employee’s Social Media Accounts
2. 17-Year-Old Mexican Social Media Star Shot And Killed After Insulting Cartel Leader
3. Confessions of a Digital Nazi Hunter
4. British Military Chief Warns Russia Could Cut NATO’s Internet Connections, As Traffic For World’s Top Sites Is Mysteriously Routed Via…Russia
5. Germany Accuses Chinese Intelligence Services Of Using Fake LinkedIn Profiles To Recruit Informants And Extract Sensitive Information
6. Chinese hackers go after think tanks in wave of more surgical strikes: When one NGO blocked intrusion, frustrated hackers tried to knock its website offline.
7. How Controversial Chinese Billionaire Founder of Faraday Future Got a Gag Order Against Critic
8. Geekbench and Reddit think they’ve cracked why iPhones get slower over time: Testing suggests that iOS 10.2.1 added this functionality to prevent shutdowns.
9. Apple Had Way Better Options Than Slowing Down Your iPhone
10. Of Course Apple Is Getting Sued Over the Old iPhone Throttling Fiasco
11. Apple Facing A Bunch Of Lawsuits After Admitting It Slows Down Older Devices, But Insisting It’s For A Good Reason
12. Days after iPhone battery fiasco, lawsuits against Apple begin to mount: Customers say they would rather have replaced battery than bought a new phone.
13. Shane Dawson Confronted His Hater To Break Down The Relationship Between Creator And Fan
14. Vice Founders Offer Apology, Changes As Culture Of Sexual Misconduct Comes To Light
15. How do you change the most important law in Internet history? Carefully – Op-ed: Changes to law shielding websites from liability for user posts should be minor.
16. Hotel That Charged Guest $350 For A Negative Review Now Facing A Lawsuit From State Attorney General
17. YouTube Star Poppy Collaborates With Microsoft’s New Chatbot To Make “High-Quality Internet Content”
18. As Artificial Intelligence Advances, Here Are Five Tough Projects For 2018
19. Data mining program designed to predict child abuse proves unreliable, DCFS says
20. Bitcoin’s price plunges amid broad cryptocurrency sell-off: Every major cryptocurrency suffered double-digit losses in the last 24 hours.
21. Bitcoin Crashed and Took the Whole Market Down With It
22. The Real Price of Bitcoin? According to Morgan Stanley, It’s Zero
23. Ten years in, nobody has come up with a use for blockchain
24. Iced Tea Maker’s Stock Price Triples After Adding ‘Blockchain’ to Name
25. Iced tea company rebrands as “Long Blockchain” and stock price triples
26. Songwriters, streaming companies strike landmark deal on music licensing
27. Facebook, Ready To Make Music, Lands Licensing Deal With Universal Music Group
28. Facebook Ditches ‘Disputed’ News Tag After It Totally Backfired
29. German regulator alleges abuse of dominance by Facebook over data usage policies 
30. Facebook’s Collection And Use Of Data From Third-Party Sources Is ‘Abusive’, Says Germany’s Competition Authority
31. Netflix Delves Into Podcasting To Promote True Crime Docuseries ‘Wormwood’
32. Nvidia to cease producing new drivers for 32-bit systems: Bit by bit, the PC world is continuing to drop its legacy support.
33. Warren Kinsella settles claim against Twitter
34. Loud, influential, and hyped: How we overestimate Twitter
35. Library of Congress Gives Up Collecting All Tweets Because Twitter Is Garbage
36. Twitter Survives TCPA Text Messaging Class Action
37. CNN To Discontinue Its Snapchat News Show At The End Of The Year
38. Pinterest Should Die
39. Why Teens Aren’t Partying Anymore
40. As Amazon Ramps Up Furniture and Appliance Business, Home Depot Is Sweating
41. Charter, Disney Execs Pledge To Crack Down On Streaming Password Sharing ‘Piracy’
42. UEFA secures UK court order to block illegal soccer streams: Using the same technology as the Premier League to stop feeds at their source.
43. Why Workplace Instant Messaging Is Hot Again
44. Google fights fragmentation: New Android features to be forced on apps in 2018 – New Play Store rules give developers one year to adopt any new Android changes.
45. Adult supervision no longer needed at Google (Alpahbet)…so Eric Schmidt is stepping aside 
46. Top EU Court Says Uber Is A Transport Service That Can Be Regulated Like Traditional Taxis
47. The Most Awesome Codebreaker In World War II Was A Woman
48. Virtual Reality Lets You Arrive Without Traveling
49. Virtual reality’s best experiences and biggest (teleportation) steps in 2017: Who made VR’s best stuff in 2017 – and why wasn’t it Valve or Oculus? Plus, 2018 
50. Big Tech: The New Predatory Capitalism – The tech giants are menacing democracy, privacy, and competition. Can they be housebroken?
51. How Data Saved The Golden State Warriors
52. Your face in froth: London cafe offers Europe’s first ‘selfieccino.’
53. The most talked-about stories on Ars Technica in 2017
54. The Worst Gadgets of 2017
55. 2017 Was A Volatile Year In The World Of Online Video. Here Are Five Reasons Why. 
56. The Canadian Copyright Review in the Age of Technological Disruption (Michael Geist)

CREATIVITY

1. Livent decision and the scope of auditor liability
2. Good News: Trump Protestors Accused Of ‘Hiding Behind The First Amendment’ Acquitted
3. You can transfer a copyright without saying ‘copyright’ 
4. EU Commission Hid Yet Another Report That Showed Its Assumptions About Copyright Were Wrong
5. Europe’s Ongoing Attack On Free Speech, And Why It Should Concern Us All
6. Fox News website beefs up and ‘goes a little Breitbart’: As competition surges on the right, Fox’s website increasingly follows the path of its prime-time hosts.
7. Dear Barstool Sports: No You Cannot Sue The NFL For Its Non-Infringing Merchandise. Also, Relax.
8. A Kat’s 2017 Copyright Awards
9. These experts figured out why so many bogus patents get approved: Empirical research reveals three big problems with how patents are vetted.
10. Concerns Around The Discourse About “Fake News” And Elections
11. Class of 2018 

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Jailed Russian says he hacked DNC on Kremlin’s orders and can prove it
2. Canadian Government Looking To Step Up Domestic Surveillance, Scale Back Intelligence Oversight
3. Facial recognition at US airports becoming routine, researchers warn – Prof asks: “We’re wondering if this is the best use of a billion dollars?”
4. What Amazon Echo And Google Home Do With Your Voice Data
5. Facebook Transparency Report: Lots Of Government Surveillance, Bad Copyright Takedown Requests
6. OkCupid begins enforcing real-name rules, insists it’s a good idea: Dating site claims it’s “keeping with the times,” but what of users’ privacy desires?
7. Snowden’s New App Turns Your Phone Into A Home Security System
8. No boundaries for user identities: Web trackers exploit browser login managers
9. FOIA Researchers Are Targeting a Shadowy FBI Program Called ‘Gravestone’
10. Improve your online safety with advice from experts

GAMES

1. FCC issues final extension for video game CVAA accessibility waiver
2. Founding member of Lizard Squad pleads guilty to cyber-crimes
3. Apple now requires App Store games with loot boxes to list odds: Wednesday update to iOS rules also touches on VPN services, cryptocurrency apps.
4. Guideline changes mean App Store devs must now reveal loot crate odds
5. Developers must disclose loot box odds following update to App Store guidelines: Change to guidelines comes amidst ongoing debate as to whether loot boxes constitute gambling
6. Can AAA Games Survive Without Microtransactions?: After a series of microtransaction controversies this year, we decided to delve into the price of videogames, and whether or not AAA games need things like lootboxes to stay profitable.
7. Ubisoft releases open-source code for World in Conflictservers
8. One of the first ever LGBTQ video games has been restored
9. ‘Pokémon GO’ Now Uses Apple’s ARKit on iOS 11, Bringing Pokémon Closer to Reality
10. A Christmas gift from Game Boy ROM hackers: Super Mario Land 2 in color
11. NBA G League’s Streaming Deal With Twitch
12. Rocket League surpasses 38 million players: 2017 is “best year yet” but there is still work to be done, says developer
13. Cuphead sells two million units in two months: “Even in our wildest dreams, we never thought our crazy little characters would be embraced by this many fans,” says developer
14. Call of Duty: WWII tops $1 billion worldwide – Activision says military shooter and Destiny 2 are 2017’s top grossing console games in North America
15. Jason Schreier’s Top 10 Games Of 2017
16. IGN’s Top 10 Most Improved Games Of 2017
17. From Automata To Zelda, These Are The Best Games Of 2017
18. 2017: Celebrating the bright spots – It may not have been a superb year overall, but expectations were defied and challenges overcome with creativity and passion in 2017
19. Report: Nintendo won’t be rolling out 64GB Switch cartridges until 2019
20. “Gamification” Is Improving Mental Health Treatment In So Many Ways
21. War Stories: Lord British created an ecology for Ultima Online, but no one saw it
22. Game of the Year 2017: The GI team picks their favourites, surprises and disappointments from 2017, and grants its top honour to Nintendo for creating an instant classic
23. Gamasutra’s Best of 2017: The top 10 games of the year
24. Gamasutra’s Best of 2017: Katherine Cross’ top 10 games

Jon