MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- A Netflix Crisis?: Foreign Funding Now By Far the Largest Source of Financing for Canadian Fictional English Language TV Production (Michael Geist)
- Company Ordered to Pay Woman $459K After Spamming Her With More Than 300 Robocalls
- FCC “fined” robocallers $208 million since 2015 but collected only $6,790
- FTC Shuts Down Companies Responsible for Over One Billion Robocalls
- District Court: “Ringless” voicemail is a “call” under the TCPA
- Second District Court in the Nation Holds That a Ringless Voicemail is a “Call” Under the TCPA
- The FTC Says It’s Totally Cool With Anti-Competitive Internet Fast Lanes
- Ajit Pai wants to cap spending on broadband for poor people and rural areas
- FCC Plans to Eliminate Rural “Rate Floor,” Heading Off Potential Price Hikes
- April Fool’s Day is Monday – Don’t Let the Joke Be on You by Forgetting the FCC’s Hoax Rule
- Cohen Payment Kerfuffle Forces AT&T To Be Slightly More Transparent About Lobbying
- Verizon’s Spam-Blocking Call Filter Is Now Free
- Verizon refuses to admit that its “first to 5G” commercials are misleading
- Watch a Verizon 5G phone hit speeds faster than your home Internet
- UK ISPs now automatically refund customers £8 a day for Internet outages
- Telecom Lobby Suddenly Pretends To Care About Accurate Broadband Maps
- FTC gives ISPs green light to block applications as long as they disclose it
- FTC reaches settlements with multiple operations alleged to be responsible for placing billions of robocalls
- FTC Launches Probe Into Telecom Privacy Issues. But Whether They’ll Act Is Another Matter Entirely
- FTC investigates whether ISPs sell your browsing history and location data
- The Electronic Communications Code – First Tribunal Decision on Consideration and Compensation payable by Operators
- Have You Been Sued by Manuel Hiraldo?
- Court Grants Primary Jurisdiction Stay in TCPA Case Pending FCC Clarification of ATDS
- New year, new rights for telecoms providers
- Wall Street Thinks The Cable TV Sector Could Easily ‘Unravel.’ That’s Probably A Good Thing.
DIGITAL
- 540 Million Facebook User Records Exposed Online, Plus Passwords, Comments, and More
- Facebook asked some users for their email passwords, because why not: And two third-party developers left the data from millions of Facebook users exposed in S3 bucket.
- Facebook’s Ad Algorithm Is A Race And Gender Stereotyping Machine, New Study Suggests
- Facebook’s Efforts ‘Not Nearly Sufficient’ in Genocide-Torn Myanmar, UN Investigator Says
- Mark Zuckerberg calls for more regulation of the internet
- Mark Zuckerberg To Congress: Okay, Fine, Please Regulate Me And Lock In My Dominant Market Position
- Mark Zuckerberg: The Internet needs new rules. Let’s start in these four areas.
- Mark Zuckerberg Is Developing The Facebook Watch Of News — With Monetization For Publications
- HUD Charges Facebook With Enabling Housing Discrimination
- Facebook Cracks Down On White Supremacist Hate Content After Christchurch Massacre
- Complete Overreaction: Professor Calls For Shutting Down Facebook Live, Post-Christchurch
- Three Lessons In Content Moderation From New Zealand And Other High-Profile Tragedies
- The Bundeskartellamt’s Facebook Decision and the intersection of competition law and data protection
- EFF Fights For Redditor Targeted By Religious Organization For Forum Posts About Its Data Collection Policies
- Elizabeth Warren Wants to Break Up Big Data – Could She Do It?
- Countries Want to Ban ‘Weaponized’ Social Media. What Would That Look Like?
- What If Google And Facebook Admitted That All This Ad Targeting Really Doesn’t Work That Well?
- Russia Expands Site Blocking To VPNs
- Government’s “porn block” roll out delayed
- Blogger’s Screenshot of a Newspaper Page Qualifies as Fair Use–Clark v. TransAlt (Eric Goldman)
- Data dividend? California governor proposes plan to have companies pay consumers for using their info
- YouTube Won’t Ban Far-Right Activist Tommy Robinson — Here’s What It’s Doing Instead
- YouTube Terminated Yeah1’s MCN Status, But Now It Looks Like They’re Working Out A Deal
- YouTube Once Proposed Overhauling Its Entire Business Model, Paying Creators Based On Video Engagement (Report)
- YouTube TV Is Now Available In Every U.S. Market
- Popular YouTube Stuntsman Was Behind The Mysterious Spacefaring Big Mac Found On A U.K. Soccer Field
- YouTube Facing Criticism After Promoting Zac Efron’s New Channel Instead Of Resident Creators
- PewDiePie concedes to T-Series in battle for YouTube’s biggest channel
- YouTube Video Essayist Lindsay Ellis Has Been Nominated For A Hugo Award
- Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” Sees Massive YouTube Spike Each April Fools’ Day
- AI Ethics: Seven Traps
- As AI Spreads, Tech Needs ‘Chief Bias Officers’
- God in the image of white men: Creation myths, power asymmetries and AI
- The Boundaries of Artificial Emotional Intelligence
- How Algorithms Can Learn to Discredit the Media: Defamation is efficient, and AIs may have already figured it out
- Why Community and Collaboration is the Key for Building Ethical AI
- Can AI be a fair judge in court? Estonia thinks so
- Researchers trick Tesla Autopilot into steering into oncoming traffic
- Google Employees Call on Company to Kick Heritage Foundation Ghoul Off AI Ethics Board
- Inside the Google employee backlash against the Heritage Foundation: ‘They think that some of our colleagues either do not or should not exist’
- Google Employees Step Up to Demand Fair Treatment for Contractors
- Here lies Google Inbox, a radical rethink of how email should work
- Google’s constant product shutdowns are damaging its brand
- Google Duplex arrives on iPhones, most Android devices
- Southern District of Indiana Rules that Property Manager is Subject to Personal Jurisdiction Based on Text Messages Sent to the Forum State
- Insights: Apple Echoes Amazon In A Rebuke Of Everything Google And Facebook Do
- Apple apologizes for failing MacBook keyboards yet again
- iFixit teardown: Apple’s AirPods are “disappointingly disposable”
- The New AirPods Are Fine
- Apple just confirmed once and for all that AirPower will never come out
- Latest iPhone Rumors: Apple Adding the Stuff Samsung Already Has
- EU Approves Controversial New Copyright Rules
- The EU’s Catastrophic Copyright Directive Can Still Be Stopped, If Governments Of Sweden And Germany Do The Right Thing
- Much ado about “Article 13” (or is it 17?)
- After Insisting That EU Copyright Directive Didn’t Require Filters, France Immediately Starts Promoting Filters
- EU Commissioner Gunther Oettinger Admits: Sites Need Filters To Comply With Article 13
- “Very Short” and Incredibly Loud: New EU Copyright Directive a Shot in the FANGs
- Here Comes The Splinternet: How The EU Is Helping Break Apart The Internet
- Free Software Foundation Comes To Its Senses After Calling For EU To Fund Open Source Upload Filters
- EU’s Never Ending Quest To Rip The Internet And Free Expression To Shreds Continues With The Terrorist Content Regulation
- Cole And Savannah LaBrant Under Fire After “Prank” Convincing Daughter They Were Giving Her Dog Away
- DSM Directive Series #1: Do Member States have to transpose the value gap provision and does the YouTube referral matter?
- DSM Directive Series #2: Is the press publishers’ right waivable? (Eleonora Rosati)
- UK cyber security officials report Huawei’s security practices are a mess
- Salesforce Sued For Sex Trafficking… Because Backpage Used Salesforce’s CRM
- 9th Circuit’s Bad AirBnB Decision Threatens Basic Internet Business Models
- The Marriage of Silicon Valley and the Pentagon Is Happening Whether You Like It or Not
- Twitter now lets users appeal violations within its app
- Think before you tweet – the perils of social media for the accountancy profession
- What’s Gimlet’s Problem?
- Office Depot rigged PC malware scans to sell unneeded $300 tech support
- Office Depot And Partner Ordered To Pay $35 Million For Tricking Consumers Into Thinking They Had Malware
- Legal experts weigh in on controversial European copyright directive: Legislation shifts responsibility onto platform holders, but won’t necessarily affect content creators
- Section 230 Holds On As Grindr Gets To Use It As A Defense
- Important Section 230 Ruling from the Second Circuit–Herrick v. Grindr (Eric Goldman)
- Welcome To The Prude Internet: No More Sex Talk Allowed
- Senator Keeps Attacking a Law Crucial to Internet Speech—Only He Can’t Seem to Read It
- Cardi B, Juice WRLD, More Inducted Into Spotify’s RapCaviar ‘Pantheon’
- Department Of Justice Warns Academy That Banning Netflix From Oscars Could Violate Antitrust Laws
- Netflix Ranked as No. 1 Fastest-Growing U.S. Brand in 2019
- Netflix’s Biggest Price Hike Is Now Rolling Out To Existing Subscribers
- iHeartMedia Files for Potential IPO
- Streaming drove 9.7% rise in global recorded-music revenues in 2018
- Nickelodeon Buys Learning App ‘Sparkler’ To Bolster Its Preschooler Streaming Service
- After 21st Century Fox Purchase, Disney Bows Out Of This Year’s NewFronts
- Hulu Is Exploring New Ad Experiences For Binge Watching: Advertisers could sponsor shows when the audience is clearly in it for the long haul
- Spielberg proposal to ban streaming from Oscars may be illegal, DOJ warns
- Sony Sells Majority Stake In Its Crackle Streaming Service To Chicken Soup For The Soul
- Sony Sells Stake in Crackle, Launches Joint Venture With Chicken Soup for the Soul
- Sony veteran Kaz Hirai has left the company after 35 years
- Kaz Hirai retires as chairman of Sony Corporation: Former CEO departs company after 35 years
- Microsoft kills off the book store you probably didn’t know it had
- Viacom Will Tout New Suite of Advertising Options as TV’s Sales Season Draws Near
- Hiring Influencers: Are You Playing With Fyre?
- Creators for Good: Karlie Kloss Inspires Young Girls in STEM
- Teacher Says She Was Fired for Not Being a ‘Role Model’ After Topless Selfie Leaks
- TikTok To Join Instagram, Snapchat In The Realm Of Geolocation Filters Following GeoGif Acquisition
- Not Quite So Sweet: POPSUGAR’s Removal of Instagram Sidebar Leads to a Loss on All Fronts
- Instagram Considers Ad Products To Compensate Stars On IGTV: Creators and publishers could share in riches from new ad opportunities on fledgling video service
- Mercedes-Benz sued four artists whose murals appeared in its Instagram posts.
- Instagram’s big bet on shopping could be worth $10 billion in 2021
- Rounding Up Three Recent Keyword Advertising Cases–Comphy v. Amazon & More (Eric Goldman)
- Google and Walmart team up to let users buy groceries with voice commands
- The First Smartwatch to Read Your Blood Pressure Is an Ugly Marvel
- The future of conveyancing – A new digital age?
- Russia’s Shotgun-Wielding Drone Is the Flying Nightmare You Didn’t Know You Had
- Bitcoin Surges 15% Overnight Because Nobody Learned Their Lesson After the Last Crash
- As new prepaid rule takes effect, virtual currency wallet providers need to take notice
- How Automation Turns Us Into Trump Voters
- On the Early Web, People With Disabilities Found Community and Autonomy
- Taxing the sharing economy
- The Online Icons That Didn’t Survive the Web’s First 30 Years
- Old, Online, And Fed On Lies: How An Aging Population Will Reshape The Internet
- Copyright Registration, Publication on the Internet, and the Revolving “Back Door to Berne” (Eric Goldman)
- Rounding Up Three Recent Keyword Advertising Cases–Comphy v. Amazon & More (Eric Goldman)
CREATIVITY
- Alabama Court Decides Publicity Rights Trump First Amendment In S-Town Lawsuit
- Getty Images Sued Yet Again For Trying To License Public Domain Images
- Ariana Grande Demands All Photographers At Her Concerts Transfer Copyright To Her, NPPA Revolts
- Can an artist deem his own art worthy of protection?
- Ed Sheeran’s copyright woes continue
- Texas A&M Wants out of the “12th Man” Copyright Suit
- Copyright’s Memory Hole (Eric Goldman & Jessica Silbey)
- Federal Court Says Teen’s ‘F— Cheer’ Is Protected Speech
- FTC hits predatory scientific publisher with a $50 million fine
- Infringers walk the plank as the Premier League’s anti-piracy campaign scores big success
- Australian Prosecutors Trying To Throw Reporters In Jail For Accurately Reporting On Cardinal George Pell’s Conviction
- Journalist Maria Ressa Arrested Yet Again As Philippines Keeps Finding Bogus Reasons To Arrest Vocal Critic
- The Moment The Matrix Changed Everything
- At Last! Mystery of Garfield Phone Beach Solved After 35 Years
- EU to introduce anti-money laundering legislation for the art industry
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- Court Documents Show Canadian Law Enforcement Operated Stingrays Indiscriminately, Sweeping Up Thousands Of Innocent Phone Owners
- Bezos rep says Saudis stole racy texts, leaked them to the Enquirer
- 7th Circuit Punts On Border Smartphone Searches; Says Riley Decision Doesn’t Affect Anything
- Seventh Circuit Wades into Big Data Case Law
- YouTube Defeats Lawsuit Over Children’s Privacy
- FTC imposes unprecedented fine for violations of children’s online privacy rules
- Ancestry-Testing Company: It’s Our ‘Moral Responsibility’ to Give The FBI Access to Your DNA
- FamilyTreeDNA Deputizes Itself, Starts Pitching DNA Matching Services To Law Enforcement
- Riding the waves of U.S. data privacy legislation
- Utah – The First State to Require a Warrant for Third-Party Data
- Woman from China, with malware in tow, illegally entered Trump’s Mar-a-Lago
- LAPD Watchdog Says Department’s Data-Based Policing Is Producing Nothing But Wasted Time And Rights Violations
- Kaspersky Lab Will Now Alert Users to ‘Stalkerware’ Used In Domestic Abuse
- Facial Recognition Tech Now Capable Of Getting You Kicked Out Of The Mall
- Facial recognition can drive business goals, but where do we draw the line?
- HTTPS Isn’t Always As Secure As It Seems
- FTC Seeks Information from ISPs on Privacy Procedures
- Washington State Pushes Forward With Comprehensive Privacy Legislation
- Will Washington Be the Next California?
- Thoughts on personal data vs non-personal data
- To catch a drug thief, hospital secretly recorded births, women’s surgeries
- Clinic Files Amicus Brief Arguing for Broader Access to Government Databases Through FOIA
- Machines Shouldn’t Have To Spy On Us To Learn (Zeynep Tufekci)
GAMES
- Oxford Researcher Blames ESA Reaction for Prolonged Gaming Addiction Crisis
- Screens, Teens, and Psychological Well-Being: Evidence From Three Time-Use-Diary Studies (Amy Orben & Andrew K. Przybylski)
- MIT Prof: If We Live In A Simulation, Are We Players Or NPCs?
- Google: We’re “committed to protecting and respecting privacy” with Stadia – Harrison assures streaming service’s users will be able to create an online persona “distinct and different” from their Google one
- Deep Silver deactivates stolen Metro Exodus Steam keys
- Sony is shutting down all Driveclub online servers
- Sony will switch off the DriveClub servers in March 2020
- Man gets 20 years for deadly “swatting” hoax
- Man responsible for fatal swatting call sentenced to 20 years
- Call Of Duty Gamer Behind Nation’s First “Swatting” Fatality Sentenced To 20 Years
- Security researcher pleads guilty to hacking into Nintendo and Microsoft
- Hacker sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for accessing Microsoft, Nintendo servers
- China’s frozen game approval process continues long thaw
- Latest batch of Chinese game approvals includes 30 foreign titles: Nearly 1,000 games have been approved since freeze was lifted in December
- Don’t Miss: A different approach to difficulty
- Event feedback leads Falcon Age devs to make combat optional
- No fooling: Reddit’s r/games goes silent for one day to call out hate, bigotry
- Ten tips for pitching from the head of ID@Xbox: Chris Charla gives developers a crash course on the dos and don’ts of selling potential partners on game ideas
- Inside look at BioWare explains exactly how fake E3 2017’s Anthem demo was
- Devs recall moments of instability, indecision, and crunch on Anthem
- How BioWare’s Anthem Went Wrong
- Blog: A short analysis of monetization in Apex Legends
- Drake invests in esports betting startup Players’ Lounge
- Video games are now a legitimate high school sport
- Players’ Lounge raises $3M for a wager-based, competitive video game platform
- Players’ Lounge raises $3m for buy-in gaming competitions: Drake, Take-Two CEO, Comcast, and former Yahoo CEO all invest in low-stakes tournament platform
- Durham College opens first-of-its-kind Esports Gaming Arena
- Blockchain: the real fuel for eSports
- F1 To Release Official Blockchain Game
- Brendan Greene: “I’m done with battle royale” – PUBG designer discusses his move to the new Special Projects team, and the privilege of now working without a deadline
- This War of Mine has topped 4.5 million sales and raised over $500k for charity
- At Ubisoft you always have a second chance”
- Apple’s Arcade can succeed – if it aims at families | Opinion: New service can avoid joining a decade of “noble failures” trying to create alternatives to F2P by focusing on children and parents
- Borderlands 3 trailer shows some of its “over one billion guns”
- Borderlands 3 Is A Six-Month Epic Store Exclusive On PC
- Borderlands 3 will be a six-month Epic Games Store exclusive on PC
- Borderlands 3 is the next big Epic Games Store exclusive
- Borderlands 3 joins list of Epic Games store PC exclusives: 2K says its goal is “to embrace new distribution platforms that will contribute to our effort to grow the audience” for Gearbox’s shooter
- Epic wants to leave the Epic Games Store exclusivity decision up to devs
- Epic: “It’s never our intent to keep people away from playing a game” – David Stelzer and Sergey Galyonkin discuss Epic Games store exclusivity backlash and attracting devs
- Romero Games partners with Paradox Interactive for upcoming project
- Video: Sean Murray reflects on No Man’s Sky and grit in game dev
- UK video game spending rose to record $7.43 billion in 2018
- What Astroneer’s devs learned while leaving Early Access
- Kenichiro Takaki departs Marvelous for Cygames: Senran Kagura producer resigns to work on new project following frustrations with restrictions on sexual content
- Today, WarCraft 1 & 2 get their first-ever digital launch—and it’s on GOG
- Is it all over for pre-owned video games?: Second-hand game sales remain significant, but the recent decline is by no means temporary
- GameStop posts massive loss as pre-owned game sales plummet
- GameStop posts $673m full-year loss: Specialty retailer acknowledges “the challenges facing our pre-owned video game business” and a need to change its business model
- GameStop: Sony pulling game cards won’t “have a material impact” on sales: Executive chairman Daniel DeMatteo believes PS4 owners will still fund digital purchases by buying currency in-store
- GameStop’s fortunes fall amid declining sales of games and consoles
- Sony updates policy to allow refunds on pre-orders: Refunds also allowed up to 14 days past purchase date if game has not yet been downloaded
- Sony tweaks PlayStation Store refund and cancelation policy in the U.S.
- Bethesda reveals “buddy pass” for Wolfenstein: Youngblood – Deluxe edition allows owner to share game with as many friends as they like for co-op play
- Microsoft scrubs Notch references from Minecraft: Platform holder distances itself from controversial creator
- Minecraft creator Markus “Notch” Persson eradicated from splash text
- Minecraft update removes mentions of creator Notch from splash screens
- Minecraft: Java Edition surpasses 30 million lifetime sales
- Minecraft on PC surpasses 30m sales: In total, all editions of the game combined have sold over 150m
- Xenoblade developer Monolith Soft staffing up for Zeldaproject
- The case for a smaller, more portable Nintendo Switch | Opinion – Portables were said to be dead — so why would Nintendo consider releasing a smaller Switch?
- Twitch Prime users are being gifted a free year of Nintendo Switch Online
- Civilization VI update brings cross-platform cloud saves to Steam and Switch
- How Mario Kart Tour could bring Mario Kart up to speed | Opinion
- Sega Will Release The Genesis Mini On September 19
- Sega joins the mini-console revolution with Genesis Mini
- Sega Mega Drive Mini will launch September 19: Sonic, Ecco and ToeJam & Earl will be among 40 games built into the $80 retro console
- The Analogue Mega Sg answers why anyone would pay $190 for a new Sega Genesis
- Tencent opens new cloud streaming platform ‘Start’ for public testing
- Cloud streaming startup Polystream nets $12 million in funding
- CD Projekt plans to create 250 new jobs despite last year’s profit and revenue decline: Company still posts a healthy profit of €25.6 million as research and development spending hits €56.4 million
- Matchington Mansion surpasses $100m as competition sees downloads rise: Homescapes, Gardenscapes experience surge in installs despite no recent updates to either
- gamigo AG: acquisition of the game publisher WildTangent Inc. in the form of an asset deal leads to further profitable growth
- Rovio invests $3m in Play Ventures gaming fund: Fund has reached goal of $30m intended for investment in 20-25 companies
- FoxNext VP on turning Marvel: Strike Force into the Starbucks of mobile games
- Why 11 Bit Studios endeavors to put emotion and meaning first in game dev
- Designing for deck-building in video games
- Xsolla introduces new funding opportunity for indie developers
- Video: How devs can maintain their sanity for crunch and beyond
- Humble Bundle cofounders step down because ‘we’re more startup kinda guys’
- Humble Bundle co-founders stepping down after best year ever: New vice president and general manager Alan Patmore pledges to grow company as “a force for good in this industry”
- Flaregames founder launches Phoenix Games to give smaller devs a leg up
- Gameloft partners with CARE for Dragon Mania Legends charity event
- Digital Minister Margot James: “This government is committed to helping games companies” – Writing for GamesIndustry.biz, the UK Minister details how the government is supporting British games developers and more
- Record year for UK games market as spending nears £6bn: Software alone accounted for £4 billion in revenue for the first time, records broken in hardware and digital spending
- Valve teases its own VR headset, the Valve Index, for May reveal
- Valve’s long-rumored VR headset is finally real: the Valve Index, coming in May
- Valve Index to launch June 15: VR headset to be sold separately from optional base station and motion controllers
- Space Channel 5 VR hands-on: Ulala’s back, and I met her
- Social VR Hits ‘Rec Room’ and ‘VRChat’ Coming to Oculus Quest
- Virtual & Augmented Reality Through the Legal Lens
- Abrams Artists Signs 5 Gaming Creators Including Meg Turney, Matt Cobuzio
- Hyper Light Drifter dev confirms TV series is in the works
- Adi Shankar producing Hyper Light Drifter TV series: Netflix’s Castlevania producer teams up with developer Alex Preston for animated adaptation
- Into the Pixel exhibit calls for submissions of game art
- Don’t Miss: Streamlining how players deal with death in games
- Blog: A different take on Sekiro Shadows Die Twice
- Why HandCircus rebuilt the early iOS game Rolando for modern devices
- The Elder Scrolls Online: Summerset takes home GLAAD award for outstanding video game
- The Elder Scrolls Online honored with inaugural GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Video Game
- Making piracy and pre-owned games problems of the past – 10 Years Ago This Month: Gaming execs kill two birds with one server-based stone, while Konami insists Six Days in Fallujah has no message
- Blog: 20 Years of retention in EverQuest
- Gratitude for the Miracle Man: Why I Love: Pumped BMX developer Adam Hunt pays heartfelt homage to a magazine disc demo of Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX
- This Ebook Company Is Trying to Make Reading More Like Videogames
- Blockchain Games and Collectibles – Patents and Other Legal Issues
- U.S. Patent No. 9,511,292: Video game competition notifications
- Mayor Sadiq Khan opens London Games Festival 2019: Praised industry’s contributions to city’s economy and the diverse talent it is attracting
- These are Gamasutra’s favorite slides from GDC 2019
- Video: Laralyn McWilliams on staying optimistic and creative in game dev
Jon