News of the Week; March 6, 2019

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. Democrats’ net neutrality bill would fully restore Obama-era FCC rules
2. AT&T Begins Trying To Screw Up HBO In Earnest
3. HBO CEO Richard Plepler, Who Forever Shifted TV Landscape, Abruptly Steps Down
4. HBO boss quits as owner AT&T seeks more shows and more profit
5. “The AT&T Guys, At The End Of The Day, Are Bean Counters”: With Plepler Out Of HBO, Wall Street Scrutinizes The Logic Of AT&T’s Monster Reorg
6. As HBO and Turner bosses quit, AT&T announces big Time Warner reorganization
7. TV’s brand illusion: It’s no longer about the network. And it probably never was.
8. Trump to staff on AT&T/Time Warner merger: “I want that deal blocked!”
9. T-Mobile has spent $195,000 at Trump hotel while lobbying for Sprint merger
10. US Telcos Teeter Toward Bankruptcy As Comcast’s Broadband Monopoly Grows
11. Comcast set mobile pins to “0000,” helping attackers steal phone numbers
12. Class Damages Models After Comcast: Rigorous Proof or Expert’s Promise?
13. Democrats’ Net Neutrality Bill Would Force Ajit Pai to Actually Do His Job
14. The future of cable may be no TV at all, as one small company from Arizona shows
15. Broadcasting and Brexit: 10 Things You Need to Know Today

DIGITAL

1.  To Fight Pedophiles, YouTube Disables Comments On Videos Featuring Kids
2. YouTube will disable comments on most videos of kids because of pedophiles
3. YouTube Disables Comments On Tens Of Millions Of Videos Featuring Kids In Effort To Prevent Adpocalypse 2.0
4. YouTube Bans Comments on Videos With Minors
5. YouTube is demonetizing all videos about Momo
6. Susan Wojcicki Says YouTube’s Mass Disabling Of Comments On Videos Of Kids Is “A Trade-Off” For Young Creators
7. YouTube CEO Defends Its Efforts To Reduce Violent Content
8. YouTube Is Demonetizing Every Video About The ‘Momo Challenge,’ Which Isn’t Actually A Thing
9. That Creepy Momo Sculpture Has Been Destroyed
10. YouTube TV Crosses 1 Million Subscriber Mark, Hulu With Live TV Nears 2 Million 
11. Michael Jackson Estate Turns To YouTube To Shift Focus From HBO’s ‘Leaving Neverland’
12. Marzia Bisgonin Says She “Feels Good” About Quitting YouTube, After Adjustment Period
13. YouTube May Never Be 100% Safe For Advertisers, Says Company’s U.K. Marketing Director
14. YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki Agrees To “Tea Session” With Shane Dawson Over ‘Trending’ Tab Concerns
15. Comedy Central Launches YouTube Channel To Host Slate Of Original Digital Programming
16. EU Set to Make Sweeping Copyright Changes
17. The politics behind the proposed copyright directive (Andres Guadamuz)
18. Supporters Of Article 13 Briefly Tried To Move Parliament Vote Up Before Scheduled Protests; Now Deny Plan That They Clearly Had
19. Why Does MEP Axel Voss Keep Lying About Article 13?
20. Article 13 Supporters Find Smoking Gun That Isn’t: Majority Of Tweets Criticizing Copyright Directive Are Not Coming From DC
21. Clash Of EU’s Poorly Thought Out Laws: German Data Protection Commissioner Warns That Article 13 Might Violate GDPR
22. EU officials say Facebook, Twitter, Google failing in “fake news” battle
23. The Equustek Effect: How One Case Has Sparked Canada’s Aggressive Approach Over Internet Jurisdiction (Michael Geist)
24. Twitter’s Shift Away From GPS-Tagged Tweets Suggests It Will Be Harder To Fight ‘Deep Fakes’
25. Twitter Unveils ‘Timing Is Everything’ Tool To Help Creators Maximize Video Viewership
26. BlackBerry Continues Its Shameful Descent Into Patent Trolling By Suing Twitter
27. Data Exploiting as an Abuse of Dominance: The German Facebook Decision
28. Facebook faces complaints from more former content moderators in lawsuit: The contract workers say repeated exposure to violent images caused significant psychological harm.
29. Facebook Finally Shuts Down Its Snooping, B.S. ‘VPN’ After A Full Year Of Complaints
30. In Wake Of Data Scandals, Mark Zuckerberg Lays Out Plan To Transform Facebook Into A “Privacy-Focused Communications Platform”
31. Mark Zuckerberg On Facebook’s Future And What Scares Him Most
32. Mark Zuckerberg pivots to privacy
33. Facebook’s Pivot To Privacy Is Missing Something Crucial
34. Instagram Fashionista’s Suit Survives Clever Challenges
35. Instagram is Working on a New Ad Unit for Sponsored Posts
36. Model Misbehavior? Gigi Hadid Faces Copyright Suit Over Instagram Post 
37. Willie’s Creative Commons lesson: The essential attribution requirement 
38. Supreme Court Holds Copyright Owners Must Wait to Commence an Infringement Suit Until After the Copyright Office Acts
39. Swiss Supreme Court Refuses To Order ISPs To Block ‘Pirate’ Sites
40. Oracle Shoots for “Full Moon” and Loses: Supreme Court Says Copyright Award of “Full Costs” Limited to Statutorily Enumerated Costs
41. A Big Copyright Mess: Miel Bredouw, Barstool Sports, Slob On My Carol Of The Bells And The DMCA
42. The rise of tech-worker activism
43. Closing the gender gap in the tech industry: Despite efforts from companies and universities, the number of women majoring in computer science is declining. A non-profit is trying to change that by offering coding lessons to girls as early as kindergarten
44. Get ready for a Facebook-sponsored cryptocurrency
45. After buying firm run by HackingTeam vets, Coinbase CEO has some regrets
46. ‘The Washington Post’ Streamed Michael Cohen’s Testimony On Twitch — With Emojis And Memes Aplenty
47. Twitch To Launch ‘Stream Star’ Singing Competition Series With $20,000 Prize
48. Legendary Shutters ‘Alpha’ Streaming Service From Nerdist And Geek & Sundry, Moves Programming To Twitch
49. The TikTok Takeover: How Gen Z’s New Favorite App Is Turning Memes Into Hits
50. TikTok, the Party has Stopped: FTC Levies Record COPPA Fine
51. FTC Issues Largest Fine Ever Under COPPA 
52. FTC Slams TikTok With Record Fine For Spying on Pre-Teens: “This record penalty should be a reminder to all online services and websites that target children.”
53. FTC Issues Record $5.7 Million COPPA Penalty Against Music.ly 
54. Musical.ly’s COPPA Failure Falls Flat at the FTC; Will Pay Note-Worthy Fine 
55. The FTC Probably Doesn’t Need A New ‘Big Tech’ Task Force. It Just Needs To Do Its Job
56. Can a Hashtag Make a False Claim? #Yes
57. The Deep Vault of Millennial Fintech Apps: Savings, investment, and credit card debt services are increasingly marketing to younger users. But they might be useless—or even predatory.
58. The Impossibility Of Content Moderation Extends To The People Tasked With Doing Content Moderation
59. Google pay equity analysis leads to raises for thousands of men
60. What Did Google Actually Find Out About How It Pays Women and Men?
61. Google to ban political ads ahead of federal election, citing new transparency rules
62. Google decision to ban political ads could leave election war rooms struggling to get message to voters
63. The Volvo Polestar 2 is the first Google Android car
64. Amazon to give power to brands to remove fakes from website: Retailer also introduces serial numbers and automatic detection to curb frauds sales
65. Amazon’s latest program to curb emissions? One delivery day per house, per week
66. Amazon to open all-new grocery stores separate from Whole Foods
67. Amazon Becomes Latest Video Platform To Pull Anti-Vaccination Content
68. NZ Study Yet Again Concludes That Piracy Is A Function Of Price And Ease Of Access
69. Insights: Sports Programming Is Digital Media Investors’ Hot New Game
70. Can the media business be saved? A “Spotify for news” is not the answer: Chavern’s organization advocates on behalf of 2,000 print and online media outlets.
71. Insights: Here’s Why Netflix’s ‘Roma’ Near Miss Still Means It Won Oscar Season
72. Steven Spielberg is gunning to make sure Netflix never has another Oscars contender like Roma
73. After Roma swept the Oscars, Steven Spielberg seeks to block streaming films
74. Steven Spielberg Wants To Bar Netflix From The Academy Awards
75. Roma wasn’t built in a day; how Netflix conquered the Oscars 
76. Netflix is testing even more expensive subscription prices 
77. Inside the secretly effective–and underrated–way Netflix keeps its shows and movies at the forefront of pop culture 
78. Netflix Heads to Court: How Fox’s Poaching Trial Could Reshape Hollywood
79. With Big Stars and Paid Subscriptions, Luminary Aims to Be the Netflix of Podcasts
80. Until the Disney-Fox Deal Closes, Networks Find Themselves in Limbo: Upfronts are looming, but post-acquisition plans can’t be put into action yet 
81. How Fox Employees Are Bracing for Life Under Disney
82. Disney Is Reportedly In Active Discussions To Purchase AT&T’s 10% Stake In Hulu
83. Why Is Disney Releasing ‘Avengers,’ ‘Star Wars,’ ‘Frozen’ And ‘Maleficent’ Sequels In The Same Year?
84. AT&T Plans to Revamp CNN’s Digital Arm: Telecom giant sees opportunity to reach larger audience; intends to focus on product development and analytics
85. Medium lowers its paywall for Twitter users
86. Once Again, Sharing Streaming Passwords Is Not ‘Piracy’ Or ‘Freeloading’
87. Elon Musk said he doesn’t respect the SEC—he might come to regret it
88. Thunderbolt 3 becomes USB4, as Intel’s interconnect goes royalty-free
89. Chromium-based Edge screenshots might as well be Chrome
90. Microsoft’s latest security service uses human intelligence, not artificial
91. Microsoft is first major cloud provider to open African data centers
92. Behind the Hype of Apple’s Plan to End Mining
93. ‘The risk paid off’: How Apple prevailed in the U.S.-China trade war – But Apple could face future threats if the latest trade talks fail.
94. Yes, Apple. Siri Is Extremely Terrible
95. Apple no longer refuses to fix iPhones with third-party batteries
96. After the Galaxy Fold, Samsung has two more foldable smartphones coming
97. Y Combinator CEO: AI Will Replace Jobs, But Life Will Be Awesome
98. Are robots competing for your job? Probably, but don’t count yourself out.
99. Your March Horoscope Is Here, And Our AI Astrologer Is Getting Smarter
100. Making artificial intelligence socially just: why the current focus on ethics is not enough
101. Robo ART! – Copyright originality
102. Why vinyl records survive in the digital age
103. Theranos: How a broken patent system sustained its decade-long deception
104. Toughest Work in Technology Transactions: Due Diligence Turnaround
105. Emerging Digital Technology and the “Law of the Horse” (Alicia Solow-Niederman)
106. Blockchain-based Digital Assets and the Case for Revisiting Copyright’s First Sale Doctrine (Phillip Shaverdian)
107. Blockchain Technology and the Government: Dealing With the Threat of Data Manipulation and Increasing Records Longevity (Alexander Fung)
108. Injustice Ex Machina: Predictive Algorithms in Criminal Sentencing (Andrew Lee Park)
109. Destination Unknown: The Perilous Future of Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence Technologies Under the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (Chris Ott)
110. Weirdly interconnected qubits give D-Wave a big jump in performance

CREATIVITY

1. Australia Threatening Over 100 Journalists For Accurately Reporting On Cardinal Pell’s Sex Abuse Trial
2. How to protect journalism in the digital age? The Cairncross Review reports 
3. The Making of the Fox News White House: Fox News has always been partisan. But has it become propaganda?
4. How David Pecker Built His Tabloid Empire AMI on Fear
5. Source: Leaked Documents Show the U.S. Government Tracking Journalists and Immigration Advocates Through a Secret Database – The documents detail an intelligence-gathering effort by the United States and Mexican authorities, targeting more than 50 people
6. Meet J2’s Vivek Shah, the CEO quietly presiding over a $4 billion media business: J2 Global owns a portfolio of media and internet service companies that includes PCMag, Mashable, and Speedtest by Ookla.
7. The Tyranny Of Copyright: How A Once-Humble Legal Issue Has Tormented A Generation Of Speech
8. Big Win For Open Access, As University Of California Cancels All Elsevier Subscriptions, Worth $11 Million A Year
9. Access Copyright v. York U – the Federal Court of Appeal Hearing is March 5 and 6, 2019
10. Big Win For Open Access, As University Of California Cancels All Elsevier Subscriptions, Worth $11 Million A Year
11. Milan court partly sides with Banksy in interim proceedings for trade mark and copyright infringement
12. Judge Refuses To Hand The Government Biker Gang’s Trademark
13. Hollywood Accounting Rears Its Ugly Head Again: Fox’s ‘False Testimony’ And ‘Aversion For The Truth’ Leads To $179M Fine
14. Don’t Celebrate Copyright Being Used For Political Censorship Just Because You Don’t Like The President
15. Producer Scott Rudin Going Around Killing Off Licensed Community Theater Shows Of To Kill A Mockingbird
16. U.S. Supreme Court Decides Two Copyright Cases and Impacts Registration Strategy for Copyright Owners
17. Registrations, not Applications: Supreme Court Says Copyright Owners Must Wait to Sue 
18. Supreme Court’s Strict Construction of Copyright Act Pre-Suit Requirements Likely to Up the Ante on “Preregistration”
19. Supreme Court Defines “Full Costs” with Respect to the Copyright Act
20. Copyright Lawsuits: Harder to Bring, Harder to Collect
21. E.D. Pa. Court Dismisses Case, Finding That Fax Was Not An Advertisement 
22. Captain Marvel Review: Carol Danvers’ debut puts a fresh spin on Marvel’s Phase One origin story formula.
23. It’s Been 20 Years Since “Cruel Intentions,” And There’s Never Been Another Movie Quite Like It
24. There’s Only One Surviving Blockbuster Left on Planet Earth

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. China’s “democracy” includes mandatory apps, mass chat surveillance: Researcher discovers servers in China collecting data on 364 million social media profiles daily.
2. The Democratization of Surveillance
3. Report: The NSA’s Domestic Metadata Collection System Is Not Being Used and May Be Discontinued
4. Telephony Metadata: Is the Contact-Chaining Program Unsalvageable?
5. The NSA Appears To Have Shut Down Its Bulk Collection Of Phone Records
6. House aide: NSA has shut down phone call record surveillance
7. Google temporarily shuts down Android TV photo sharing after privacy bug
8. Post-Charlottesville Doxxing and Misidentification Creates Legal Risks–Vangheluwe v. GotNews
9. Seventh Circuit Ignores Two Supreme Court Decisions To Hand Out Bad Precedent On Cell Site Location Info
10. Two Months Later, News Orgs Are Finally ‘Allowed’ To Report On Top Vatican Official’s Child Molestation Conviction
11. Mozilla Says Australia’s Compelled Access Law Could Turn Staff There Into ‘Insider Threats’
12. Do professionals have the “right to be forgotten”? 
13. Deception & Trust: A Deep Look At Deep Fakes
14. Stupid Patent Of The Month: Veripath Patents Following Privacy Laws
15. Why ‘ji32k7au4a83’ Is a Remarkably Common Password
16. The Digital Revolution Takes on New Meaning: Among Calls for Heightened U.S. Data Privacy Measures, California is King
17. California and European Privacy FAQs: Do all companies have to post their privacy notices online?
18. Congress Holds Hearings on Privacy and Data Protection 
19. Chicago Tried To Justify Not Informing ACLU Of Social Media Monitoring Partner By Saying ACLU Is Really Mean
20. The Importance of Privacy by Design in Mobile Apps (Debunking the Aphorism that any Publicity is Good Publicity) 
21. Company’s Facebook Snooping Didn’t Prevent Critical Trade Secrets Injunction 

GAMES

1.  Epic Games is now being sued over loot boxes in Fortnite: Save the World
2. Epic Games sued over ‘predatory’ Llama loot boxes: Even though randomized llama loot boxes aren’t a thing anymore
3. California man sues Epic Games over “predatory” loot boxes: Complaint alleges Save the World’s loot llamas were “like playing a slot machine”
4. Shakedown: Hawaii coming first to the Epic Games Store
5. Kartridge is the latest PC storefront using exclusive games to entice players
6. Unpacking Recent Loot Box Updates  
7. Anthem: Bioware Addresses Fan Concerns With Loot Update, Here’s What It Changes
8. Anthem is crashing entire PlayStation 4 systems, say players
9. EA soliciting help from Anthem players to figure out PS4 crashing issues
10. Sony begins refunding Anthem purchases in light of “full power down” reports
11. How games whitewash Nazism, and the responsibility developers have to history: Through the Darkest of Times devs explore the industry’s dangerous failure when it comes to depicting fascism
12. One week later, THQ Nordic disavows 8chan AMA
13. THQ Nordic group CEO apologizes for perturbing 8chan AMA
14. THQ Nordic parent company apologizes for 8chan AMA: Co-founder and CEO Lars Wingefors “condemns all unethical content this website stands for”, regrets implicit endorsement
15. Valve bans sexual violence game from Steam, but stops short of condemning it
16. Steam is in the rape fantasy business | Opinion – Upcoming visual novel highlights the problems with Valve’s refusal to apply content standards to its storefront
17. Developers are manipulating Steam’s Popular Upcoming list
18. Academics call for industry co-operation on gaming disorder: “We are scrabbling around in the dark here, lighting little matches and seeing tiny bits of the pictures around us,” says Dr David Zendle.
19. Nintendo to smartphone game makers: You can only gouge our players so much
20. Report: Nintendo is telling mobile development partners to stop players overspending
21. Average Nintendo Japan employee earns $80,000, works less than 8 hours per day: Platform holder’s recruitment page also reveals average worker spends 13.5 years at the company
22. Nintendo’s first VR product in 24 years is coming to Nintendo Switch
23. Newzoo: Games are the third most-popular mobile app category – Half of mobile app users at least check into gaming apps, social media and shopping remain more popular 
24. Fortnite teams with Weezer in attempt to become the next Second Life: Follows record-breaking stream of DJ Marshmello concert inside its battlegrounds.
25. Vivendi has sold off its final Ubisoft shares
26. Vivendi sells remaining Ubisoft shares: Media conglomerate ultimately gained €1.2 billion from failed attempt to acquire publisher
27. There’s confusion around an unofficial adaptation of One Hour One Life, says dev  
28. One Hour One Life dev struggles with unofficial port: Jason Rohrer stands by decision to release game into the public domain despite problems with customer confusion around mobile adaptation
29. Multiplayer Skyrim mod criticized for lifting code from another mod
30. Devil May Cry 5 deluxe edition will let players experience the game like a low-budget movie
31. How Artificial Intelligence Will Revolutionize The Way Video Games Are Developed And Played: The advances of modern AI research could bring unprecedented benefits to game development_­­­
32. Duplication or innovation? How games become genres: Earthbound Games’ Colin Anderson reflects on the rise of the FPS, the sandbox RPG and more 
33. A new triple-A Star Wars game will be announced at Celebration Chicago in April 
34. What Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is and how it could change EA
35. Apex Legends attracts 50 million players in first month 
36. Apex Legends hits 50 million players: Respawn’s free-to-play battle royale game passes milestone in its first month of release
37. Is Red Dead Redemption Online tanking Take-Two’s share price? | Opinion: Despite fantastic sales, Take-Two can’t catch a break – perhaps because investors expected RDR2 to be something it simply isn’t 
38. Activision Blizzard: 800 job cuts could “negatively impact” our business: Call of Duty publisher has set aside $150 million to compensate affected staff
39. Activision recognises $164m revenues from giving up Destiny rights: Publisher reiterates it “no longer has any material rights or obligations” to Bungie’s franchise
40. New ToeJam & Earl game, 8Bitdo controller get Genesis nostalgia right: Sega wasn’t involved with game or controller, but its Sega Ages line gets a shout, too. 
41. One of Pokémon’s New Starters, in the Style ofDetective Pikachu
42. Why arcade Pac-Man players literally grabbed onto the game
43. Don’t Miss: Between a rock and a ‘Harada’ place: The massive Tekken interview
44. Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Links hits 90 million downloads 
45. Cloud gaming will determine the new lord of digital distribution 
46. Tencent set to unveil new cloud gaming service: Tencent Instant Play to bring cloud gaming to PC and Android, overview with Intel planned for GDC 
47. Nexon shortlists five bidders including Kakao and Tencent
48. Tencent among shortlisted bidders for Nexon: Netmarble not invited but forms consortium with MBK partners, main bidding to begin in early April
49. Electronic Arts, Amazon, and Comcast make bids to buy Nexon
50. Horizon Zero Dawn sold over 10 million copies in 2 years
51. PlayStation’s upcoming Chinese conference aims to boost locally-made games
52. Sony PlayLink developer Wish Studios has shut down
53. PlayStation Japan signals imminent end to PS Vita shipments
54. Sony ends PlayStation Vita production in Japan
55. Blog: Move or Die and its four year journey to the PS4
56. Here are the most popular PlayStation games, based on public trophy data
57. Wish Studios closing down: Brighton-based indie developer shutters, leading to 13 redundancies
58. Dev shares real talk about the personal costs of living in fear of layoffs
59. Discless Xbox “Maverick” could arrive as soon as May
60. Disc-less Xbox arriving in May, report suggests: Latest information appears to confirm several rumours from last year
61. Phil Spencer claims Xbox’s multi-device future will benefit everyone  
62. From “schokly” licensed games to a critically acclaimed indie: Oxenfree co-director Sean Krankel on the collapse of shovelware and how it helped shape Night School Studio
63. Dear Villagers: “We’re trying to find the best indie games that could be AA” – Head of publishing Guillaume Jamet talks us through the ambition behind Playdius’ rebrand 
64. Playdius rebrands as Dear Villagers, plans to focus on PC and console titles
65. Dying Light dev TechLand to close Polish publishing department
66. Techland planning to shut down Polish publishing division by the end of the year: 13 employees expected to be laid off by end of 2019, global publishing business to remain intact
67. Merch maker Numskull Designs is getting into game publishing
68. Merchandise firm Numskull forms games publishing division with Rising Star vets
69. Dropbox’s Angela Roseboro is Riot Games’ first chief diversity officer: “I was so taken by the heart and soul of this company and – in spite of setbacks or hurdles – I’m excited to be part of this journey”
70. POC in Play formed to promote racial diversity, equity in UK gaming industry: Founders include multiple industry veterans, with UsTwo Games offering support
71. BrightLocker dissolved as devs claim unpaid debts: Holding company takes over community-building platform as developers say they haven’t been paid money owed
72. Roblox boasts over 1 billion hours of engagement per month
73. In Less Than A Day, ‘Critical Role’ Fans Pledge $3.3+ Million To Bring Animated ‘Vox Machina’ Special To Life
74. Update: Critical Role Animated Special Kickstarter Hits $4 Million
75. eSports – Advergaming and the new frontier of advertising law and image rights 
76. Nintendo announces Tetris 99 Maximus Cup tournament
77. ESL & Oculus Announce Esport’s VR League Season 3, Biggest Prize Pool Yet
78. Warriors Gaming Squad drafts NBA 2K League’s first woman player – Chiquita Evans: “Barriers are made to be broken… I’m just the beginning”
79. VR and cloud gaming frenzy seizes MWC as 5G hype builds
80. Hipfire Games raises additional $205k for VR gameFailspace
81. VR and mobile developer Hipfire Games raises over $200,000: Financial investment to boost debut game Fail Space
82. Crowdfunding platform BrightLocker shuts down  
83. Why HTC targeted Vive Pro at gamers, and why Pro Eye won’t replace it 
84. Magic Leap Announces First Round of Independent Creator Program Grant Recipients 
85. Oculus planning a stricter, ‘quality-first’ approach for Quest app submissions
86. Oculus Quest targets “quality-first” approach with more stringent store curation: Developers must have concept document approved before submitting games to Quest store
87. Blog: Designing a planet-scale real-world AR platform
88. Blog: Remembering Advance Wars
89. Road to the IGF: Seemingly Pointless’ eCheese Zone
90. YouTube Premium’s Woman-Led Video Game Dramedy ‘It’s A Man’s World’ Sets Core Cast
91. The Influencer is dead. Long live the influencer: Latest analysis shows Top 10 influencers account for 84% of yearly view growth – but a spot in that list is not secure year-on-year
92. U.S. Patent No. 4,445,187: Video games with voice dialog 
93. Blog: Historians discuss Far Cry 2

Jon