News of the Week; December 26, 2018

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. The Consequence of Uncompetitiveness: Canadians Ration Wireless Data As Monthly Usage Ranks Among the Lowest in the OECD (Michael Geist)
2. Study Says Wireless Retail Workers Could Make Up To 7% Less In Wake Of Sprint, T-Mobile Merger
3. Sprint to Cough Up a Whopping $330 Million Following Investigation Over NY Taxes 
4. NY’s Record $176 Million Settlement With Charter For Crap Broadband Highlights Cable’s Growing Monopoly
5. AT&T 5G goes live this week with ridiculously overpowered hotspot
6. AT&T’s 5G ‘Arrives,’ Quickly Shows Why 5G Won’t Be A Panacea For Broadband Competition
7. AT&T Lets Users Avoid Broadband Caps…If They Use AT&T’s Own Streaming Service

DIGITAL

1. Canada Outlaws Settlement Threat Letters Sent Through ISPs 
2. The Relationship Between Huawei and the Chinese Regime’s Factional Politics
3. Washington Redskins reportedly backed out of Huawei Wi-Fi deal because of government concerns
4. Global Scrutiny Of Huawei Increases Amid Privacy And National Security Concerns: The company’s close ties to the Chinese government, accusations of intellectual property theft, and technological vulnerabilities has thrown its future into doubt.
5. ICE Seizes Over 1 Million Websites With No Due Process; Apparently Unaware That Copyright & Trademark Are Different
6. Rep. Louie Gohmert Wants To Strip Section 230 Immunity From Social Media Platforms That Aren’t ‘Neutral’
7. In Response to Lawsuit, NRA Removes Image of “The Bean” Sculpture from Video
8. Appeals Court Hands ReDigi Another Loss; Says Reselling Mp3s Violates Copyright Law
9. Buzzfeed Wins Defamation Lawsuit Filed Against It Over Publication Of The Steele Dossier
10. Dangerous Court Ruling Says Colleges May Be Required To Block Access To Certain Websites
11. Apple v. Pepper: Tearing Down the Illinois Brick Wall? – Who Can and Cannot Sue Online Platforms Under the Federal Antitrust Laws
12. Some iPad Pros ship a little bent, and Apple says that’s normal 
13. Apple may soon enable gifting for in-app purchases: Updated guidelines allow developers to let users buy virtual items and currency for each other
14. iOS App Store Guidelines update hints at giftable in-app purchases
15. No Echo? No problem—Apple Music to work on other Alexa-enabled devices 
16. The Amazon Alexa Eavesdropping Nightmare Came True 
17. Alexa Crapped Out on Christmas
18. Amazon Prime’s Promise of Two-Day Delivery Is Dying
19. Start your (machine learning) engines: Amazon’s DeepRacer is almost here 
20. The 21 (And Counting) Biggest Facebook Scandals Of 2018
21. Facebook is Reportedly Creating Its Own Cryptocurrency
22. Economists calculate the true value of Facebook to its users in new study 
23. Both Things Are True: Press Freakouts Over Facebook’s Practices Have Been Misleading & Facebook Has A Privacy Problem
24. G2A’s payment service is charging users for inactivity 
25. “Change your future” tomorrow with choice-filled Black Mirror film on Netflix
26. Filters Suck Out Loud: Tumblr’s Porn Filters Flag Tumblr’s Examples Of Allowed Content
27. Civil unrest: How a blockchain-based journalism startup bumbled its launch 
28. 18 Viral Photos and Videos From 2018 That Were Totally Fake
29. YouTube Says It Repaired Glitch Resulting In Diminished Viewcounts Yesterday
30. Influencer Sued for Failure to Influence 
31. Slack cites US sanctions as it rolls out mass account deactivations  
32. Magistrate Judge Says Grande Shouldn’t Be Able To Use The DMCA Safe Harbors Because It Didn’t Really Terminate Infringers 
33. We Are Not A Dashboard: Contesting The Tyranny Of Metrics, Measurement, And Managerialism
34. This Was the Year the Robot Takeover of Service Jobs Began
35. AI’s Whip Christmas Leftovers Into Loathsome New Recipes
36. This Algorithm Can Create 3D Animations From A Single Still Image
37. Researchers Taught an AI About Ownership Rules and Social Norms
38. Douglas Adams was right: “Genuine people personalities” are coming to our gadgets 
39. Congress Passes $1.2 Billion Quantum Computing Bill
40. eSignature and ePayment News and Trends
41. Viral Video of Glitter Bomb for Package Thieves Exposed as Partial Fake
42. Copyright Industry Lobbyists Can’t Even Get Their Story Straight On Article 13: Does It Expand Copyright Or Keep It The Same?
43. Is Brexit spurring a .EU domain exit?  
44. FBI removes top offending ‘DDoS for-hire’ sites 
45. Your Periodic Reminder That Keyword Ad Lawsuits Are Stupid–Passport Health v. Avance (Eric Goldman) 

CREATIVITY

1. Stop Using My Mark, Said Dr. Seuss. Not So Fast, Said the Court – it is a Fair Use
2. No Penalty: Fantasy Football Does Not Violate Players’ Right of Publicity
3. Black Artists Are Rejecting Offers to Perform for Super Bowl Halftime Show
4. New Hampshire Sued Over Criminal Defamation Law Abused To Arrest Law Enforcement Critic
5. Bryan Adams Warns Canadian Heritage Committee on Copyright Term Extension: Enriches Large Intermediaries, Not Creators (Michael Geist)
6. Copyright and Culture: My Submission to the Canadian Heritage Committee Study on Remuneration Models for Artists and Creative Industries (Michael Geist)
7. Study: modern masters like Jackson Pollock were “intuitive physicists”

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. ACLU to feds: Your “hacking presents a unique threat to individual privacy”
2. US and allies: New hacks mean China broke 2015 economic espionage pact
3. London Metropolitan Police Deploy Facial Recognition Tech Sporting A 100% Failure Rate
4. Blind Says Security Lapse That Exposed User Data Was ‘Our Mistake’
5. How The GDPR Nearly Ruined Christmas

GAMES

1.  Rapper Hits Fortnite With Suit Over Dance Moves
2. How Fortnite Triggered an Unwinnable War Between Parents and Their Boys: The last-man-standing videogame has grabbed onto American boyhood, pushing aside other pastimes and hobbies and transforming family dynamics
3. Fortnite’s paid outfits, dances have made it a target for lucrative account theft 
4. Child advocates call for FTC investigation over inappropriate Google Play games
5. China is once again issuing game licenses after a months-long freeze
6. China ends freeze on game approvals: Government confirms new regulator is reviewing “big stockpile of games”, “will hurry up to issue licenses”
7. Video: How Valve uses biofeedback to make better games
8. Evidence continues to mount about how bad Denuvo is for PC gaming performance
9. Discord raises another $150M after opening its own games store
10. Marvel Avengers Academy shutting down at the end of 2018
11. The Walking Dead Game’s final season is releasing exclusively on the Epic Games Store
12. Telltale’s The Walking Dead to conclude final season on Epic Games Store: Those who purchased full season on other PC platforms will still receive remaining episodes on those platforms 
13. Games Workshop Likes A Guy’s Warhammer Fanfilms So Much It Hires Him To Do An Official One
14. Global spending on mobile expected to pass $76bn in 2018: Average smartphone user spends almost three hours per day using apps, says App Annie
15. 100 support staff take cash offer and voluntarily leave Blizzard
16. Blizzard’s Sudden Shuttering Of Heroes Of The Storm Demonstrates Why eSports Needs Its Next Evolutionary Step
17. Esports’ urgent need for visible gender diversity: 2018 in Review: Esports is booming, but over half of its enthusiasts face massive barriers to success within it
18. Industry movers and shakers share 2018 highlights: God of War, Spider-Man, Red Dead and Epic Store among the year’s biggest events for our expert panel 
19. “To be a good game designer, you have to be a good designer first”: Will Wright talks about learning the craft and the state of developer education as he partners with MasterClass for an online video course 
20. Gameloft acquires SongPop developer FreshPlanet  
21. Smash Bros. Ultimate worldwide sales topped 5M in first week  
22. How to Upgrade Your Nintendo Switch to Be Better at Super Smash Bros.
23. Moments of 2018: Labo makes magic from cardboard
24. Zynga to acquire Empires & Puzzles dev Small Giant for initial $560M  
25. Zynga acquiring Small Giant: CEO Frank Gibeau discusses acquisition approach as publisher picks up Empires & Puzzles studio for $560 million, raises guidance
26. Asus’ ROG Phone Is the Dumb Fun RGB Handset Gamers Deserve
27. Atari H1 financials show continued growth driven by RollerCoaster Tycoon IP: Company buoyed by sales to THQ Nordic, Atari VCS pre-orders 
28. Cloud Imperium raises $46M from private investment
29. Cloud Imperium secures $46m investment for Star Citizen: Funds raised will be spent on marketing both the main game and Squadron 42 single-player campaign
30. Feelreal Wants to Add Smell & Haptics to Your VR Headset, Kickstarter Coming Soon 
31. Niantic launches $1M AR game dev contest
32. Niantic launches $1m AR game contest: Pokémon Go developer encourages developers to “think outside the box”
33. Pokémon Go creators launch AR-game contest that (nearly) resembles American Idol
34. Microsoft is pausing its Xbox One financing program at the end of the year
35. Drawn together: The love affair between comics and games
36. You can now download the long-lost (and unfinished) SimCity NES port
37. War Stories: Lord British created an ecology for Ultima Online but no one saw it
38. People of the Year 2018: Recognising the exceptional work this year from teams and individuals alike
39. Games of the Year 2018: The GamesIndustry.biz team choose their personal faves, most surprising, and most disappointing titles of the year
40. Best of 2018: Translating the humor & tone of Yakuzagames for the West
41. Ars Technica’s best games of 2018
42. Gamasutra’s Best of 2018: Emma Kidwell’s top 5 games
43. Gamasutra’s Best of 2018: Kris Graft’s top 7 games
44. Video Game Deep Cuts: The Best Of The Best Of The Year
45. 11 bit studios has raised over $500k for War Child through charity DLC  
46. 11 bit studios raises over $500,000 for War Child: This War of Mine DLC initiative supports charity helping children affected by conflict globally
47. Looking Back On My Former Life InStar Wars: The Old Republic
48. Blog: What isn’t game design?
49. Video: How some early MUDs compare to today’s games

Jon