MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- CRTC Chair Opens the Door to Weakening Canadian Net Neutrality Rules (Michael Geist)
- Supreme Court rejects industry challenge of 2015 net neutrality rules
- Supreme Court Rejects Telecom Industry Calls To Hear Net Neutrality Case… For Now
- California Net Neutrality Law Put On Hold Pending Federal Litigation
- As The “Net Neutrality” World Turns . . . .
- Lawmaker who wants paid fast lanes on Internet wins US Senate seat
- All The Mergers In The World Apparently Can’t Save AT&T From Cord Cutting
- AT&T Blackout Of HBO On Dish Highlights Perils Of Megamerger Mania
- Cable’s Top Lobbyist Again Calls For Heavier Regulation Of Silicon Valley
- Verizon Just Obliterated Ajit Pai’s Justification For Killing Net Neutrality
- Ajit Pai slams Sprint, Charter, and CenturyLink for poor robocall effort
- FCC Pretends To Hold Carrier Feet To The Fire On Robocalls
- How robocall spam and cheap tech are screwing with political polls
- Digital Businesses Beware: You Could be Liable for the Anti-Spam Violations of Others
- Charter Spectrum’s CEO Continues To Whine About Streaming Password Sharing
- Another Study Shockingly Discovers That Cable TV Needs To Compete On Price
DIGITAL
- As Canadian ISPs Requested, Canada Get Proposed Law To Ban Copyright Settlement Letters
- AT&T steps up copyright enforcement, kicks customers off network
- Small And Medium Publishers Protest EU Link Tax, Which Will Harm Them, While Helping Only Large Publishers
- Section 230 Doesn’t Support Habeus Petition by ‘Revenge’ Pornographer–Bollaert v. Gore (Eric Goldman)
- Gab is back a week after Pittsburgh shooting controversy forced it offline
- As He Staves Off T-Series, PewDiePie Isn’t Finished Crossing YouTube Milestones Yet
- Chrome 71 will block any and all ads on sites with “abusive experiences”
- YouTube Music Chief Lyor Cohen Joins Chorus Of Execs, Creators Denouncing Article 13
- YouTube’s head of music warns that EU’s Article 13 is detrimental to remixes, fan videos: Lyor Cohen is the most recent YouTube executive to speak out
- YouTube’s ‘Edge Of Seventeen’ Marks Latest In A String Of Series From Female-Led Creative Teams
- Anna Kendrick To Star In YouTuber-Filmmaker Joe Penna’s Second Feature Film ‘Stowaway’
- Most Parents Who Let Their Kids Watch YouTube Have Encountered Disturbing Videos (Study)
- YouTube Has Paid Out More Than $3 Billion To Copyright Holders Through Content ID
- YouTube paid $3 billion to copyright owners through Content ID: Google said its anti-piracy efforts are doing very well.
- “Bohemian Rhapsody” Becomes YouTube’s Most-Viewed Music Video From The ‘70s Ahead Of Queen Biopic
- Vancouver School District and City of Vancouver Launch FuturePLAY, a STEAM Program with BroadbandTV
- VSauce2 Launches Create Unknown Podcast About The Business Of Being A YouTuber
- Disney Digital Network Lays Off A Number Of Employees As Part Of Shifting Focus To SVOD
- TanaCon Organizer Files For Bankruptcy, Will Release His Own Documentary About Ill-Fated Event
- Logan Paul Says Being Axed From ‘Google Preferred’ In January Has Cost Him $5 Million
- FaZe Clan Is Hiring A House Manager To Oversee Its Growing Fleet Of Creator Mansions
- Mixer introduces new monetization for streamers
- The Privacy Battle To Save Google From Itself
- Google Patents Eye-Tracking System To Read Expressions For VR
- The Next Level Of Tech Activism: Google Employees Walk Out, Demand Changes From Management
- Thousands of Google employees slam execs’ response to sexual misconduct
- We’re the Organizers of the Google Walkout. Here Are Our Demands
- Vice Media President Andrew Creighton Exits Months After Sexual Harassment Investigation
- Vice Media is cutting its staff by up to 15% amid missed revenue and a traffic slump
- Nancy Dubuc: Vice Will Be Profitable ‘Within a Fiscal Year’
- Pet Influencers Can Command $15,000 Per Instagram Post, Says Top Animal Talent Manager
- Snapchat’s PR Firm Sues Influencer For Breaching Terms Of $60,000 Brand Deal
- Company Sues Influencer for Failing to Influence
- Snapchat to Launch Three More Series From Barcroft Media
- On eve of US elections, Facebook pulls down 115 “inauthentic” accounts
- Facebook Takes Down 115 Accounts Possibly Linked to Russia Hours Before Polls Open
- We Tested Facebook’s Ad Screeners and Some Were Too Strict: The platform mistook a disabled veterans fundraiser for a political ad.
- We posed as 100 Senators to run ads on Facebook. Facebook approved all of them.
- Don’t Leave It All to Facebook: The U.S. Should Do More To Protect Our Data Privacy
- TikTok Tops App Charts, Beating Out YouTube, Facebook, Instagram In Number Of October Downloads
- Will ‘Deepfakes’ Disrupt The Midterm Election?
- Our lack of interest in data ethics will come back to haunt us
- Copyright Office Extends Anti-Circumvention DMCA Exemptions To All Filmmakers, Not Just Documentarians
- After Being Sued To Block Sci-Hub; Swedish ISP Blocks Court’s And Elsevier’s Website In Protest
- Crypt TV Teams With Netflix On Horror Anthology Series ‘Don’t Watch This’
- Free Flickr accounts slashed to 1,000 pictures; the rest will be deleted
- Flickr Is Going to Delete a Bunch of Photos—Back Up Yours Now
- You can now share IGTV videos to your Instagram Story
- Apple’s heart study is the biggest ever, but with a catch
- Apple Stock Drops After Company Announces No Growth in iPhone Sales
- While iPhone sales remain stagnant, Apple services hit $10 billion in revenue
- Report: Apple Nearly Acquired Leap Motion but the Deal Fell Through
- Satya Nadella: The cloud is going to move underwater
- Red Hat Hysteria: Aren’t We Past The Point Of Being Surprised That ‘Free’ Is A Part Of The Business Model?
- Bell Says Latest Helicopter was Designed 10 Times Faster With VR
- Defendant Can’t Send Virtual Gambling Claims to Arbitration
- AI Meets IP: The patent challenge
- We Need an FDA For Algorithms: UK mathematician Hannah Fry on the promise and danger of an AI world.
- Should a Self-Driving Car Kill the Baby or the Grandma? Depends on Where You’re From: The infamous “trolley problem” was put to millions of people in a global study, revealing how much ethics diverge across cultures
- Winklevoss twins claim famed crypto evangelist stole 5,000 bitcoins from them
- Lawyer: My client didn’t steal 5,000 bitcoins, “Period”
- Our Music Festival- Empowering a Decentralized Fanbase with Blockchain
- Blockchain-based elections would be a disaster for democracy
- The Case For Giving Robots An Identity
- Restaurants have strict standards to protect customers. Tech platforms don’t
- New York Lawmakers Want Social Media History To Be Included In Gun Background Checks
- Racial Discrimination Lawsuit Against Airbnb Has the Potential to Change Online Marketplaces–Harrington v. Airbnb (Eric Goldman)
- Making Sense of the Canadian Digital Tax Debate, Part 5: Income Tax Reform to Support the News Media (Michael Geist)
- Making Sense of the Canadian Digital Tax Debate, Part 6: Ensuring Internet Companies Pay Their Fair Share of Income Tax (Michael Geist)
- A Victory for Software Preservation: DMCA Exemption Granted for SPN
- Big Boost For Open Access As Wellcome And Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Back EU’s ‘Plan S’
CREATIVITY
- Massive Canadian IP Law Reform in a Budget Bill – Throwing Parliamentary Scrutiny Under the Omnibus Bus with Bill C-86
- Bill C-86: Shaking Up Canada’s IP Legislation
- No Need for New Internet Injunctions: Why Canadian Copyright Law Already Provides Rights Holders with the Legal Tools They Need (Michael Geist)
- U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement: Intellectual Property Provisions for the Modern Age
- Russian Government Hits Last Independent News Outlet With A $338,000 Fine
- HBO Would Like Donald Trump to Stop Using Game of Thrones Memes to Stoke Fear Ahead of Elections [Updated]
- HBO twitchs Trump’s Game of Thrones-tinged tweet a “misappropriation” of trademark
- Conservative Magazine Tweets That President Trump Is Going to Hell
- An expert on ‘dangerous speech’ explains how Trump’s rhetoric and the recent spate of violence are and aren’t linked
- Another Lawsuit And Another Loss For Plaintiffs Trying To Make Twitter Pay For Terrorism
- New Report Details Massive Mysterious Influence Campaign On Twitter
- Trump has Twitter. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is winning Instagram
- Why The Whole Freaking World Knows That Rep. Jeff Fortenberry Hates Being Called Fartenberry
- Notorious patent enforcement entity values its entire portfolio at $2, folds
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- New data shows China has “taken the gloves off” in hacking attacks on US
- How did Iran find CIA spies? They Googled it
- The upshot of GDPR: Programmatic ad rates are rising
- Hackers Published Private Messages From 81,000 Facebook Users
- Police decrypt 258,000 messages after breaking pricey IronChat crypto app
- Cyber-attackers could exploit security flaw found in the embedded video function of Microsoft Word
- Wyden Unveils Plan to Protect Private Data, Restore ‘Do Not Track,’ and Jail Reckless CEOs
- Bluetooth bugs bite millions of Wi-Fi APs from Cisco, Meraki, and Aruba
- Proposed data privacy law could send company execs to prison for 20 years
- California Passes Internet of Things Law
- New Senate report on cyber security should “keep you up at night”
- Georgia’s Brian Kemp And The No Good, Very Bad Claim That Democrats Were Hacking Voter Registration System
- Common-Knowledge Attacks on Democracy (Henry Farrell & Bruce Schneier)
GAMES
- Tencent will use police databases to restrict playtime in China
- Tencent to run player ID checks across its entire portfolio in China: “Healthy gaming” system to expand beyond Honor of Kings in 2019, to allay the government’s addiction fears
- Riot Games sued over allegations of sexual harassment, pay disparity
- Current and former employees file class action lawsuit against Riot Games
- Riot Games faces class-action suit for discrimination, harassment: One current, one former employee allege company denied equal pay, stifled careers based on their gender
- He Helped People Cheat at Grand Theft Auto. Then His Home Was Raided: A gamer in Melbourne has had his assets frozen in connection with a popular video game cheat. He’s one of many being sued by game companies worldwide, raising questions about copyright
- Bizarre: TrustedReviews Pulls Website Reporting on ‘Red Dead’ Leak, Pays More Than A Million To Charities Of Rockstar’s Choice
- Take-Two Interactive raises financial outlook due to Red Dead Redemption II
- NBA 2K19 and GTA Online drive Take-Two results: Digital sales continue to accelerate
- British Website Forced To Pay $1.3 Million Over Red Dead Redemption 2 Leak
- TI Media donates $1.3 million as apology for leaking internal Take-Two documents
- Take-Two, TrustedReviews reach legal settlement over Red Dead Redemption 2 leak: ‘Over £1 million’ settlement to be directed to three charities after February article leak of confidential document
- Red Dead Redemption 2 scores 2018’s biggest second week at UK retail: Football Manager 2019 comes in at No.9 in physical form
- Rockstar Ports Its Old, Antiquated, Flawed Censorial Blacklist For Player Chat Into New ‘Red Dead Redemption’ Game
- Twitch users spent 34M hours watching Black Ops 4 on launch week
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 sees 34m hours of Twitch viewership during launch week – Gamoloco – Battle royale mode drove 270% increase over WWII’s launch
- Microsoft’s Twitch Competitor Mixer Rolls Out Hefty Update With More Ways For Creators To Make Money And More Ways For Viewers To Engage
- Rainbow 6 Siege Will Remove Sex And Gambling References Globally
- Visual tweaks hit Rainbow Six Siege ahead of release in Asian countries
- Ubisoft removing references to gambling, skulls for global Rainbow Six Siege release: Expansion to Asia to come with aesthetic game changes for “single, global vision” of the game
- Just Dance 2019 under fire for advertising paid subscription in ‘Kids Mode’
- Ubisoft reworking Just Dance kids mode after parental complaint over subscription ads: Calls for younger users to sign up to Unlimited service prompt apology from publisher
- How to handle entitled gamers when announcing a mobile game: Blizzard isn’t the first games giant to have to manage its fans when moving to smartphones
- Blizzard announces its first mobile Diablo game
- Blizzard’s Diablo mobile game meets community backlash: NetEase co-developed Diablo Immortal sparks online petition, Blizzard categorises response as fan “passion”
- Activision Blizzard stock tumbles following Diablo Immortal backlash: Share price takes 6.74% hit to close out day at lowest point since January
- Blizzard’s long-awaited World of Warcraft Classic releases next summer
- World of Warcraft: Classic free to WoW subscribers – Recreation of original World of Warcraft due out in summer 2019
- Blizzard’s Overwatch League is making big changes with player wellness in mind: Season 2 will have more teams and fewer games
- Turtle Beach revenue up 107% to $74.4m in latest quarterly financials: Popularity of battle royale games drive strong headset sales
- Fallout 76 beta: Bethesda extends UK time after bug deletes game from PCs – A bug managed to delete the whole of the Fallout 76 beta from people’s PCs and they were not happy
- Sony keeping Warhawk, other PS3 game servers live through January [Updated]
- PUBG’s “console exclusivity” may soon end, as loud hints of a PS4 version mount
- As PUBG for PS4 looms, Xbox unofficially responds: have the game for free
- Feature erosion watch: Xbox One loses broadcast TV streaming on iOS/Android – iOS and Android apps no longer able to receive antenna TV signals through console
- “Companies don’t care about your games. People care about your games”: At Melbourne Games Week, Nick Suttner and Ken Wong advised developers not to see storefronts as monoliths – find the people that work there, and make them your champions
- Back from the dead: The people keeping old MMOs alive: Dozens of dead or abandoned MMOs are kept alive by teams of volunteers, many of whom struggle with the legal and financial implications of the task
- Dude, Where’s My Money? Part One: The Science of Steam
- Dude, Where’s My Money? Part Two: Divvying up the Loot – AurumDust’s Nikolay Bondarenko offers advice on Steam’s tools, key resellers, and how to work with the growing legion of storefronts
- 5 years into Early Access, DayZ hits beta ahead of a planned 1.0 release this year
- A ridiculously in-depth look at the email marketing ofBoyfriend Dungeon
- Starbreeze Studios pre-tax loss triples to $11.3m in Q3 2018: Payday 2 accounts for two-thirds of company’s Q3 revenue as it prepares to launch Overkill’s The Walking Dead
- Pokemon GO earned $73 million in October: Earnings represent 67% year-over-year increase, edges Niantic’s title over Fortnite for mobile revenue
- Junichi Masuda likely stepping away from director role on future Pokemon games: After Let’s Go!, Masuda to allow “younger generation” to steer the series
- Apptopia October report: Asian developers dominate the top new games on iOS and Android – Games from Asian markets account for nine of the top ten new games on App Store in terms of IAP spending
- Newzoo lowers global games forecast for 2018 to $134.9 Billion: China’s licensing freeze, mobile copycat fatigue bring mobile market predictions down by $7 billion
- Bringing feudal Japan to life in Ghost of Tsushima: Sucker Punch creative director Nate Fox discusses ensuring the game’s setting is authentic, despite the appeal of the romantic imagery
- DeNA bringing Tencent’s Arena of Valor to Japan: Mobile specialist will handle operational support, marketing and localisation for the region
- Report: Japan’s mobile game creators are losing out to China, South Korea
- Capcom will focus on PC for the future of Monster Hunter: World
- Capcom considering more cloud games despite Resident Evil 7 shortcomings: Streamed Switch version of horror hit “did not have a significant impact on earnings”, but publisher still sees promise in the technology
- Brexit will cause ‘serious harm’ to the UK games industry: White paper from Games4EU suggests consumers will take financial hit while industry suffers ‘brain drain’ and ‘cultural diminishment’
- Profits down at Sega despite upswing in packaged game sales
- Sega’s H1 games results stagnate on lack of new releases: New Football Manager and Total War games promise a stronger H2
- Ingress Prime launches today, first major live events imminent: Niantic also planning Netflix series, web series to develop the game’s plot
- Old School RuneScape mobile debuts with over one million installs: iOS launch more than doubles mobile audience, brings game to #1 in the App Store in eight countries
- Nintendo to remove offensive Native American designs from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
- Nintendo Says It Will Remove Racist Native American Animation From Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
- Nintendo apologizes for Native American caricature: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate callback to 1982 Game & Watch title will see animation changed as company says it “does not represent our company values today”
- Super Mario Party passes 1.5 million sales in under a month
- Super Mario Party sells 1.5m units in release month: Joy-Con sales driven up by game’s strong performance, says Nintendo
- Mario Segale, namesake for Nintendo’s mascot, dies at 84
- Obituary: Mario Segale, the real-life namesake of Super Mario, has passed away
- Top Twitch Streamer Ninja Talks Planning For A Future Without ‘Fortnite’
- Fortnite has been downloaded by half of all Nintendo Switch owners: Epic’s game has been a hit with console’s 22 million-strong audience
- Tech billionaire Tej Kohli launches €50 million European esports investment fund: Esports Insider co-founder and managing director Sam Cooke brought on as adviser to Rewired GG
- Discord acquires Blitz Esports, closes content platform: Eight editorial team members let go in transition, League of Legends app to continue under new owner
- Malaysian government pledges $2.4m for esports in 2019: National budget will boost local esports scene, Razer CEO pledges to match the investment
- Danish prime minister opens Counter-Strike esports tournament – Lars Løkke Rasmussen: “You are truly sportsmen following your dreams”
- Bat, ball and keyboard? The expansion of traditional athletic organisations into esports
- Diablo III leads our list of older games born anew on Nintendo Switch
- Survey: Teens spend an average of $184 on video games a year
- Study: Tetris is a great distraction for easing an anxious mind
- Video: Experimental approaches to improving peer feedback in games
- Zynga enjoys best mobile performance in company history: Mobile revenue reaches $212 million in Q3 2018
- Candy Crush Friends Saga surpasses $10 million: King’s most recent Candy Crush entry’s launch driven by US, Android users
- Sales and profits down at Square Enix as console titles falter
- Square Enix wants new studio Luminous to focus solely on triple-A
- Square Enix reports $33m extraordinary loss as new AAA studio shifts focus: Half-year financial results also show declines across the board despite Tomb Raider and Octopath Traveller launches
- Square Enix picks up 20% stake in Battalion 1944 dev Bulkhead Interactive
- Square Enix buys 20% of Battalion 1944 developer Bulkhead
- Record bookings drive Glu Mobile ever closer to profit in Q3: Design Home, Tap Sports Baseball and Covet Fashion represented 79% of all bookings
- Blog: A case for single-player matchmaking
- Swiss studio wins Universal GameDev Contest: Gbanga awarded $150,000 and one-year consulting contract with Universal for Voltron: Cubes of Olkarion
- How to design for coziness…and kindness: Tanya X. Short, Rebecca Cordingley, and other developers of “cozy” games explain why and how they make their games safe, familiar and intimate
- Kartridge, Kongregate’s game platform with generous rev share, launches in open beta
- Oculus co-founder: “Free is still not cheap enough” for current VR tech
- Blizzard’s Hearthstone reaches 100 million registered players
- How bad crediting hurts the game industry and muddles history
- A look back at the top-selling games of the ’90s
Jon