MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- F-Word in Live Sports Broadcasts Should be Avoided, Says Canadian Broadcast Standards Council
- Discussion about Sex Shops Was Acceptable Before 9:00 pm, Says Canadian Broadcast Standards Council
- Wait for it: Government to clarify anti-spam law – eventually
- Government Response to CASL Report Released
- Government Response Suggests No Appetite for Canadian Anti-Spam Law Reform (Michael Geist)
- Another Survey Shows Massive Bipartisan Opposition To Net Neutrality Repeal
- Ajit Pai hasn’t finalized net neutrality repeal – here’s a theory on why: Pai’s delayed repeal could let Congress pass weaker law while ISPs behave.
- No, Net Neutrality Isn’t Officially Dead (Yet), And The FCC Is Stalling For A Reason
- AT&T, Verizon face DOJ investigation for allegedly trying to lock eSIMs: Carriers reportedly sought ability to lock eSIMs to networks; Apple complained.
- DOJ Investigating AT&T, Verizon for Making It Harder To Switch Wireless Carriers
- NYC blasts broadband competition shortage as it pursues suit against Verizon: Two-thirds of NYC homes have only one or two broadband options, city report says.
- ISPs should charge for fast lanes – just like TSA Precheck, GOP lawmaker says: GOP’s Marsha Blackburn wants Internet service to be just like airport security.
DIGITAL
- Google Fails to Amend Canadian De-indexing Injunction Despite California Court Order
- B.C. Court Leaves Google Global Takedown Order Intact Pending Full Trial (Michael Geist)
- U.S. Falls To 45th On Press Freedom Index, Trump Labeled ‘Media-Bashing Enthusiast’
- Michael Cohen Drops Ridiculous Lawsuit Against Buzzfeed After Buzzfeed Sought Stormy Daniels’ Details
- It’s Spreading: Lindsey Graham Now Insisting ‘Fairness Doctrine’ Applies To The Internet
- WikiLeaks, Russia, Trump Jr. named in new DNC hacking lawsuit: “It’s more than a shot over the bow, it’s a shot into the hull of the ship.”
- Trump’s cell phone use is security “nightmare” waiting to happen, lawmakers say – New letter: “Does the President use encryption when he makes phone calls…?”
- Verizon says Yahoo users must waive class-action rights – or stop using Yahoo: Yahoo, facing data breach lawsuits, starts enforcing mandatory arbitration.
- Google disables “domain fronting” capability used to evade censors: A “long-planned” change happens to coincide with a new wave of state censorship in Russia.
- Judge Agrees: Perfectly Fine For Google To Deny Ad Placement For ‘Honey Cures Cancer’ Claims
- Russia and China take Big Brother to absurd new levels
- Internet Watch Foundation publishes its Annual Report
- LA councilman asks city attorney to “review possible legal action” against Waze: “They say the crises of congestion they cause is the price for innovation.”
- Are our smart devices starting to outsmart us?
- The next big battle over internet freedom is here: Congress just passed a law to combat sex trafficking. Now the future of the free internet is in danger.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: The Risk of Ceding Online Content Monitoring to Internet Giants (Michael Geist)
- Sweeping the Internet for Netsweeper
- Calling Facebook A Utility Would Only Make Things Worse
- What’s Not Included In Facebook’s ‘Download Your Data’
- How academic at centre of Facebook scandal tried – and failed – to spin personal data into gold: The story of Aleksandr Kogan’s business ventures reveals a world where companies traded in the currency of personal information
- Man behind Cambridge Analytica’s Facebook data mining says he’s sorry: Aleksandr Kogan, if he’d known survey would upset many: “I would’ve never done it.”
- The Security Risks Of Logging In With Facebook
- Delete Your Account: On the Theory of Platform Capitalism
- Minds Is The Anti-Facebook That Pays You For Your Time
- Here’s What Facebook Won’t Let You Post
- For the first time, Facebook clearly tells its users what’s allowed: Social network not saying why it took 14 years to release this document.
- Facebook removes 1.5 billion users from protection of EU privacy law: In anticipation of the EU’s new GDPR rule, Facebook limits its legal umbrella.
- Facebook Publishes Internal Content Moderation Guidelines For The First Time
- Imposing Regulations on Online Technology Giants
- Meet the Professor Who’s Warning the World About Facebook and Google
- FOSTA/SESTA Passed Thanks To Facebook’s Vocal Support; New Article Suggests Facebook Is Violating FOSTA/SESTA
- Sex Workers Set Up Their Own Social Network In Response To FOSTA/SESTA; And Now It’s Been Shut Down Due To FOSTA/SESTA
- Authorities May Charge Pennsylvania Juvenile Who Threatened Second YouTube Shooting
- Exclusive: YouTube ran ads from hundreds of brands on extremist channels
- 300 Companies Ran Ads On YouTube Channels Promoting Nazism, Pedophilia, Conspiracies (Report)
- YouTube CEO To Discuss Brand Safety On Conference Call With 30 Top Advertisers (Report)
- YouTuber Convicted Of Hate Crime For Teaching Nazi Salute To Dog Raises £118,366 For Legal Appeal
- YouTube Deleted 8.3 Million Objectionable Videos Last Quarter, Thanks Mostly To Machines
- ‘Deadpool’ Writers To Serve As Executive Producers For Upcoming YouTube Red Series
- New Footage Of Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” Receives One Million Views In First Day On YouTube
- YouTube Gives Creators With At Least One Million Subscribers A Space On The Trending Tab
- YouTube Kids Amplifies Parental Controls, Including Ability To Whitelist All Videos, Channels
- P&G Resumes YouTube Spend After 13-Month Boycott — As New Ad Controversy Looms
- Proposed US Consumer Internet Privacy Legislation Threatens Digital Advertising
- Texas Revenge Porn Laws Loses Battle With First Amendment
- Cheddar Joins Hulu’s Live TV Lineup 1 Day After Being Added To YouTube TV
- The Roku Channel gets live news thanks to ABC, Cheddar, and other partners: But it won’t replace all live news broadcasts.
- Flipboard’s Answer To Fake News: More Human Curation
- We’re underestimating the mind-warping potential of fake video: Doctored photos can easily create false memories. What happens when there’s fake video?
- Fullscreen, Concerned About Inappropriate Content, Cuts About 160 Partners From Its Network
- DJ Khaled Alcohol Endorsements Exposed, Says TINA
- Citing Tepid Crowdfunding Results, Neill Blomkamp Cancels Plans To Adapt Digital Short Into Feature
- Snapchat’s Stock Tumbles As Company Confirms It’s Testing Yet Another Redesign
- Hollywood is Wrong: Netflix is the Future of Film
- Netflix Is Launching A Podcast That Breaks Down Its Original Documentary Shows And Films
- BuzzFeed Pacts With Netflix For Short-Form Docuseries About Its Journalists
- Netflix Again Raising $1.5 Billion In Debt Financing Amid Aggressive Content Push
- Netflix, Amazon, and major studios try to shut down $20-per-month TV service: It’s the third lawsuit against TV box makers filed by Netflix and film studios.
- Jeff Bezos Says Video Has Helped Drive 100 Million Amazon Prime Members
- It’s Thanks To The Pirate Community That Amazon’s Attempt To Degrade Its Streaming Service Is Now Public
- Amazon Key expands to deliver packages inside your car: Another option for those skeptical about in-home deliveries.
- Amazon made an Echo Dot for kids, and it costs $30 more than the original: New parental controls and FreeTime Unlimited subscription coming soon, too.
- Twitter’s Bet on Video Is Starting to Pay Off: The company is doing as good a job as anyone figuring out live streaming, a medium that has been slow to take off in the U.S
- In Earnings Report, Twitter Says Video Ads Now Make Up More Than Half Of Its Ad Revenue
- State Appeals Court Upholds Criminal Conviction For Twitter Harassment Targeting An Autistic Student
- How Twitter Suspended The Account Of One Of Our Commenters… For Offending Himself?
- Vevo Announces Layoffs After The Departure Of Its CTO
- Backlash prompts Eventbrite to drop demand to crash events, record them: “We’ve heard some concerns from our customers,” company says, over perpetual copyright grab.
- Ben Makuch of Vice takes on police in Supreme Court: The refusal of a journalist to hand over communications with a terror suspect has raised fundamental questions about press freedoms and national security.
- Vice Media Launches Local Operations in India
- Spotify Just Gave You a Pretty Good Reason Not to Pay for Spotify
- Spotify Exec Jabs YouTube Amid Launch Of Redesigned App With More Free Feature
- Spotify Bolsters Free Service In Defense Against Apple Music
- Tim Cook on merging macOS and iOS: “I don’t think that’s what users want”: Apple’s CEO appeared to debunk speculation that the company seeks a unified OS.
- Apple offers free battery replacements for select MacBook Pro models: Only some newer 13-inch MacBook Pros without Touch Bars have been affected.
- Apple Sued An Independent Norwegian Repair Shop In Bid To Monopolize Repair — And Lost
- ABKCO Music, Inc. v. William Sagan
- The ‘Terms and Conditions’ Reckoning Is Coming: Everyone from Uber to PayPal is facing a backlash against their impenetrable legalese.
- Robot Showboat: Now Even Our Celeb Feuds Are Automated
- Your Next Job Interview Could Be with a Racist Bot: Companies are using AI-powered cameras and chatbots to screen applicants. And that could unintentionally make employers even more discriminatory than before.
- Some Startups Use Fake Data To Train AI
- Ready Lawyer One: Virtual Reality Is Coming To Courtrooms
- Augmented Reality Is Transforming Museums
- Coinbase Reportedly Shuts Down Wikileaks Store, Assange Calls for Boycott in Response
- Silicon Valley’s Latest Revolution: Cutting Out Wall Street
- The Selfie As We Know It Is Dead
- Why So Many People Make Their Password ‘Dragon’
- Reinventing the Internet via blockchain
- New hacks siphon private cryptocurrency keys from airgapped wallets: Beware of smartphones and cameras around wallets storing your digital coin.
- Icelandic bitcoin heist suspect arrested in Amsterdam after leaving prison
- “Secondary Sales” of Private Securities (And Tokens) in Crowdfunding
- Suspicious event hijacks Amazon traffic for 2 hours, steals cryptocurrency: Almost 1,300 addresses for Amazon Route 53 rerouted for two hours.
- ‘We’ve Lost 10 Years of Innovation. This Decade Has Been Boring for the Web.’: A conversation with Ethan Zuckerman, media scholar and inventor of the pop-up ad, on the original sin of advertising and the web’s lost decade.
- Want To Blog In Tanzania, Or Read Social Media In Uganda? Pay The Government, Please
CREATIVITY
- 9th Circuit rules that Naruto has no standing under US Copyright Act
- Naruto v. Slater
- Monkey has no standing to assert copyright infringement in selfie case, 9th Circuit rules
- Monkey-selfie lawsuit finally ends: Court affirms adorable macaque can’t sue: PETA claimed to be a friend to Naruto but “failed” at doing so, 9th Circuit finds.
- We Interrupt The News Again With Hopefully The Last Update From The Monkey Selfie Case
- Grumpy Cat Limited v. Grenade Beverage LLC, et al.
- U.S. Court of Appeals Finds That the Lines Remain Blurred
- Music publishers score major victory in closely watched copyright case
- Kimberley v. Penguin Random House
- Silberstein v. Fox Entertainment Group, Inc.
- Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC v. Ren Ventures Ltd
- Fearless Girl to be moved due to … viability concerns
- Astronaut’s Right-of-Publicity Case Won’t Timeout
- LeBron James hit with trademark suit over his barbershop-based web series
- When Your Trademark Is A False Advertisement
- Supreme Court upholds patent review process, dealing trolls a blow: A key part of the 2011 America Invents Act is constitutional, high court rules.
- Brexit and copyright law: will the English courts revert to the ‘old’ test for originality?
- The CASE Act – A Noble but Toothless Gesture Toward Fair Copyright Enforcement
- Of Course The RIAA Would Find A Way To Screw Over The Public In ‘Modernizing’ Copyright
- Publisher Helps To Keep Sci-Hub In The Public Eye By Trying To Bully It Into Submission Using Ineffectual Legal Remedies
- This band is storing their best-selling album in DNA
- Following Questionable Election, Honduran Government Debuts New Censorship Law
- Hate Speech Laws In India
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- Australian Gov’t Scooped Up Tons Of Cell Site Location Data To Track Citizens’ Movements
- High Court establishes ‘right to be forgotten’ in English law
- Company obtains cyber injunction under the protection of anonymity
- SEC issues $35 million fine over Yahoo failing to disclose data breach
- Supreme Court Dismisses Microsoft Appeal as Moot After Passage of the CLOUD Act
- Framed For Murder By His Own DNA
- Florida Police Allegedly Crash Funeral Home to Unlock Phone With Slain Man’s Fingerprints
- Hackers Designed a ‘Master Key’ to Unlock Millions of Hotel Room Doors
- When you go to a security conference, and its mobile app leaks your data: RSA Conference attendee contact data extracted using hard-coded API data.
- Cracking The Crypto War: Ray Ozzie thinks he has an approach for accessing encrypted devices that attains the impossible: It satisfies both law enforcement and privacy purists.
- Jaywalking in China Can Get You Hit with a Stream of Water
- Atlanta Spent $2.6m To Recover From A $52,000 Ransomware Scare
- Batten down the hatches: The GDPR wind is about to blow
GAMES
- Loot boxes in leading games violate Dutch gambling legislation: Developers have eight weeks to change their loot box mechanics or face prohibition
- Netherlands pushes for EU-wide loot box legislation: Loot box ruling from Dutch government body could set precedent in Europe against certain iterations of the mechanic
- Loot boxes with real-world value deemed unlawful in The Netherlands
- Four publishers must change in-game loot boxes to avoid Dutch gambling laws: Study determines randomized items that have a “market value” violate the law.
- Belgian Gaming Commission declares loot boxes illegal
- Video game loot boxes are now considered criminal gambling in Belgium: FIFA, Overwatch, Counter-Strike: GO could face fines and prison penalties.
- EA, Activision Blizzard, and Valve found in breach of Belgian gambling laws: Loot boxes in FIFA 18, Overwatch, and CS:GO violate gambling legislation, says Belgian Gaming Commission
- Tattoo artist takes aim at WWE and video game maker
- Tattoo artist sues WWE in Southern Illinois, says her designs were copied in video games
- Terminal Reality is suing Microsoft over shadow and lighting patents
- Microsoft accused of ‘egregious and wilful’ patent infringement: Terminal Reality and Infernal Technologies file lawsuit against tech giant for infringing patent with multiple games
- A fan-made Halo PC patch meets Microsoft’s legal muscle – and apparently survives: Lawyers arrive after Halo Online “ElDewrito” patch explodes – but no C&D yet.
- 343 clarifies Halo modding policy as fan-led Halo Onlinerevival gets the axe
- Blizzard brings paid mods to StarCraft II with ‘Premium Arcade’ initiative
- The Gaming Industry is Susceptible to ADA Website Accessibility Lawsuits
- Ragnarok Online shutting down European servers after 14 years
- GOG is getting more Steam-like with addition of new social features
- Australian High Court orders Valve to pay $2.4M fine over misleading refund policy
- Valve fined $3m over breach in Australian law with misleading Steam refund policy: Steam operator’s appeal denied by High Court of Australia
- Valve acquires Firewatch creator Campo Santo
- Valve acquires Firewatch developer Campo Santo: Yet another sign Valve might be interested in making new games again.
- Detroit developer sues French press over “toxic culture” reports: Developer goes to court to fight what it calls a “smear campaign.”
- Quantic Dream takes legal action against French media for negative press
- Quantic Dream sues press over reports of toxic workplace – Report: Detroit Become Human studio takes legal action against two of the three outlets who unearthed allegations of harassment and discrimination
- Maxis renames The Sims 4’s in-game ‘insane’ trait to ‘erratic’
- EA Maxis renames The Sims’ “insane” character trait: Switch to “erratic” is a reflection of how “language evolves”, EA says
- Studio apologizes for delay by pledging 90+-hour work weeks: NeoCoreGames says it was joking when it promised crunch as atonement for pushing full launch of Early Access game Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor – Martyr back three weeks
- The Red Flag of Passion: How a seemingly harmless word is used to put a happy face on some of the industry’s biggest problems
- Fortnite breaks $25 million in first month on mobile: Revenue could pass $500 million this year, Sensor Tower suggests
- Fortnite streamer peaks at 667,000 concurrent viewers, breaking own record: Las Vegas Esports Arena inaugural event becomes record-breaking Twitch stream
- Thanks to a cosmetic change, Epic accidentally rebalancedFortnite’s shotguns
- Tencent investing $15M to help establish Fortnite in China
- Tencent will invest $15 million in Fortnite’s rollout in China: Seeding an esports community for Epic’s game will be a focus of the investment
- As PUBG-like contenders emerge, Islands of Nyne might already have them beat: Rumors swirl around Battlefield, Call of Duty, but awesome sci-fi twist is already here.
- First major PUBG tournament launches this summer with $2m prize pool on the line: PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Global Invitational set to take place this year in Berlin, Germany
- Twitch starts beta for new monetisation system: Viewers can now spend virtual currency in Extensions, with revenue divided between streamer and developer
- Twitch Has Expanded Monetization To 220,000 Affiliates 1 Year After Program’s Launch
- TheWaveVR secures $6M for its social VR platform
- CCP chief: EVE dev’s move to leave VR due to risk, not loss of faith
- Oculus overhauls privacy policy and terms of service
- UK God of War launch is the biggest in the series history: Same for the new Yakuza, too
- God of War Director’s Review Reaction Is A Reminder That Games Are Made By Humans
- Sony’s studios continue their winning streak: The success of the PS4’s excellent first-party experiences belie the commercial challenges single-player titles still face
- The infamous FMV game Night Trap is headed to the Nintendo Switch after all
- Nintendo Switch hardware exploits cannot be patched out
- The “unpatchable” exploit that makes every current Nintendo Switch hackable: Newly published Tegra bootROM exploit could be a big headache for Nintendo and others.
- Behind the scenes with the hackers who unlocked the Nintendo Switch: “The best way to get a chip security audited is to put it in a game console”
- Nintendo Labo belongs in the classroom
- Review: Nintendo Labo (Variety And Robot Kits – Nintendo’s big gamble on cardboard and imagination pays off.
- How to make your old Game Boy as good as (or better than) new: Why wait for a “Game Boy Classic” when you can fix up your old stuff instead?
- How Squidlit’s devs authentically recreated a Game Boy game in 2018
- Sonic Mania surpasses 1M sold worldwide
- Capcom scrapping Puzzle Fighter to focus on Dead Rising
- Italian games market hits $1.8 billion in 2017: The latest wave of GSD data is released for Europe
- Steam sales, store pages and the art of selling games: At Reboot Develop, Rockfish, Vlambeer and 11 bit take very different views on the value of cutting prices
- Kartridge announces new dev-friendly revenue terms
- Kartridge offers developers 100% of revenue up to $10,000: Exclusive games will also get 90% up to $40k, in new terms aimed at “smaller developers”
- How indie publishers stand out – and why they need your game to help them: Speaking at Reboot Develop, Devolver Digital, Paradox Interactive and Raw Fury reflect on their role in a game’s success and offer advice on pitching to them
- “We just want to keep the IP” – Why Swery is banking on crowd-funding: The Good Life approaches its last stretch on Kickstarter
- How Space Ape eschewed convention to make its most profitable game – Simon Hade and Nicolas Boulay discuss growing Fastlane: Road to Revenge from $5,000 ad revenue a day to $45,000 in four months
- Ubisoft launches second season of start-up incubator program: “Ubisoft is proud of its roots and has not forgotten that its very own adventure began as a start-up,” says program sponsor
- Darwin Project goes free-to-play after six weeks in Early Access: Scavengers Studio cites players’ “difficulty finding matches” as motivation for the change
- Crossfire developer Smilegate closes Berlin studio
- Smilegate to close Berlin office just over a year after it opened: Crossfire developer shuts down European base as part of new business strategy
- “What’s your plan to not destroy yourself as you’re stepping into this career path?”: At Reboot Develop, Devolver and Good Shepherd co-founder Mike Wilson discussed the need for unions, mental burnout, and dealing with online toxicity
- Better than reality: New emulation tech lags less than original consoles: “LAGFIX” fast-forwards through “hidden” frames for near-instant response times.
- The Sentinel stands alone: Why I Love: Quantum Soup’s Chris Payne remembers Geoff Crammond’s purely innovative, rarely imitated classic
- Rovio and Sony confirm a new Angry Birds movie for 2019: The first film earned $352 million since it opened two years ago
- Wolfenstein II has five nominations at the Nordic Game Awards 2018: But Ultra Ultra’s Echo leads the pack with six, Tarsier Studios’ Little Nightmares and Image & Form’s SteamWorld Dig 2 close behind
- Three years out, Final Fantasy VII remake still seems a long way off: Despite 2015 announcement, ambitious overhaul effort appears to be in early stages.
- Death Road to Canada devs delay release out of respect for recent tragedy
- Reboot Develop expands with Canada conference in 2019: Spring conference will remain in Dubrovnik alongside new student event, Canadian debut to be held in autumn next year
- Social media ‘fair game’ in admissions process: But survey finds less than a third of colleges actually look at social media profiles when making admissions decisions
- GDPR: Frequently Asked Questions – In the final part of their GDPR guide, Purewal & Partners’ Jas Purewal and Peter Lewin tackle the industry’s most common concerns
- Blog: How the Rubik’s Cube inspired a laid-back Atari puzzler
- Video: We force kids to confront ’80s technology – Youngsters struggled to understand why the TV must be on channel 3 to play games.
Jon