COMMUNICATIONS
- Broadcast Panel Commissioned Report Found Canada Ranks First Among Peer Countries in Spending on TV Production, Domestic TV Production, and Employment Per Capita (Michael Geist)
- The BTLR and USMCA, Part Two: Why the Broadcast Panel Recommendations Could Cost Canadians Millions in Retaliatory Tariffs (Michael Geist)
- CBC Leads Call for New Government Regulations to Support “Trusted” News Sources (Michael Geist)
- Appeals court seems poised to reverse landmark Qualcomm antitrust ruling
- T-Mobile’s Marathon to Acquire Sprint: Five Takeaways from the T-Mobile/Sprint Antitrust Litigation
- T-Mobile claims it didn’t lie about 4G coverage, says FCC measured wrong
- Not All Automatic Dialed Messages are Restricted, Says a US Appeals Court
- Circuit split on automatic telephone dialing systems under the TCPA reinforces importance of obtaining prior express written consent
- Seventh Circuit Joins The Party: Another Circuit Rejects Marks And Holds A Random or Sequential Number Generator Is Required For A System to be An ATDS
- Narrow Definition of ATDS Prevails in the Seventh Circuit
- Breaking: Seventh Circuit rejects marks- holds random or sequential number generation required for ATDS usage
- Uh, I Dunno – Maybe the FCC Just Isn’t Into You?
- UK green-lights Ofcom as the first internet regulator….but the devil is in the detail
- Google Fiber Ditches Cable TV While Broadband Effort Remains Stuck In Neutral
- What’s New in 5G – February 2020
- Wi-Fi 6E isn’t here yet—but Broadcom is clearly banking on it
DIGITAL
- Amazon wins court injunction on controversial JEDI contract: Amazon’s suit argues it lost the deal because Trump personally hates Jeff Bezos.
- Who’s responsible for what you buy on Amazon? A court is about to decide
- Jeff Bezos pledges $10 billion to stop climate change
- The Billion-Dollar Disinformation Campaign to Reelect the President: How new technologies and techniques pioneered by dictators will shape the 2020 election
- Assange lawyer claims congressman offered Trump’s pardon in exchange for absolving Russia in WikiLeaks case
- Trump offered Assange a pardon if he denied Russia gave him emails, lawyer says
- Trump Offered Assange Pardon if He Covered Up Russian Hack, WikiLeaks Founder’s Lawyer Claims
- College Student Gets Thrown On The Ground And A Gun Pointed At His Head For Committing The Crime Of ‘Taking A Selfie While Black’
- Answering Impossible Questions: Content Governance in an Age of Disinformation (John Bowers, Jonathan Zittrain)
- Divided, we fall: How ant behavior mimics political polarization – Division of labor, polarization arise from social influence plus interaction bias.
- Snapchat Temporarily Defeats Another Case Over Its Speed Filter–Lemmon v. Snap (Eric Goldman)
- Ninth Circuit Decision Has Significant Implications for Terms and Conditions in Smartphone Apps
- Google plans to move UK users’ accounts outside EU jurisdiction
- “Why is Facebook drawing the line where it’s drawing the line?”: Discussing Facebook’s Oversight Board
- A picture of a same-sex kiss on Facebook wreaks havoc: Beizaras and Levickas v. Lithuania
- Mark Zuckerberg Suggests Getting Rid Of Section 230; Maybe People Should Stop Pretending It’s A Gift To Facebook
- Ron Wyden: Modifying Section 230 Will Give More Censorship Power To Trump; And Lock In Facebook’s Dominance
- The “EARN IT” Act Is Another Terrible Proposal to “Reform” Section 230 (Eric Goldman)
- Hey Tom Wheeler: Stick To Net Neutrality, Because Your Understanding Of Section 230 Is… Not Right
- What A Shame: Legacy Newspapers Want To Take Away Free Speech On The Internet
- Facebook quietly releases a Pinterest clone: Hobbi is an app from Facebook’s new product experimentation team
- Strategic Framing and Social Media Engagement: Analyzing Memes Posted by the German Identitarian Movement on Facebook
- Facebook backs Indian education startup Unacademy
- UK Government announces proposed legislation aimed at reducing online harm
- Creating a safe space online: Government provides initial response to consultation on its Online Harms White Paper
- UK is set to introduce a new duty of care to protect children online backed by increased fines and personal liability for senior management
- Pay-for-Play Website Pays FTC Over Fake Reviews, Deceptive Rankings
- The FTC Wants To Hold Brands, Platforms Like YouTube Financially Liable For Improper #SponCon Disclosures
- FTC Announces Endorsement Guide Review — Are There New Rules on the Horizon for Influencers?
- FTC Aims to Shake Up Endorsements, Seeks Public Comment on Its Endorsement Guides
- With an Eye on Social Media Platforms and Influencer Marketing, the FTC Seeks Public Comment on Endorsement Guides
- FTC Seeks Comments on Revamping its Endorsement Guides
- After Four Decades, FTC Announces Regulatory Review of The Endorsement Guides: What Does This Portend for Digital Advertisers and Social Media Platforms?
- Can Public Infrastructure Fix Social Media? Ethan Zuckerman at Cornell
- Competition Bureau to focus on digital economy: 4-year strategic plan shows intention to increase use of interim measures, say competition lawyers
- Competition Bureau’s Marketing and Advertising Priorities: Dishonest Information about Data Privacy
- Drip pricing: StubHub enters into $1.3M consent agreement with Competition Bureau
- Kickstarter workers make history with unionization vote
- Kickstarter becomes one of the first major US tech companies to unionize: Employees vote in favor of joining the Office and Professional Employees International Union
- William Barr’s Move To Rid The DOJ Of Independence Shows One Of Many Reasons Josh Hawley’s FTC Plan Is Dangerous
- “We Are Going To Be The Best”: How Newly Launched TalentX Plans To Become Every Digital Star’s Dream Management Company
- Mobile quizzing company HQ Trivia has shut down
- HQ Trivia shuts down: 25 full-time employees reportedly let go as troubled mobile start-up loses investors
- After Investors Pull Plug, HQ Trivia Ceases Operations And Moves To Dissolution
- Juul bought ads on CartoonNetwork.com, NickJr.com, other kid sites, suit says
- Court Allows Chooseco’s Lawsuit Against Netflix Over ‘Bandersnatch’ To Move Forward
- Mills v. Netflix, Inc.: District court dismisses plaintiff’s DMCA claim of removal and altering of copyright management information
- PremFlix: the Premier League’s plans to introduce a ‘Netflix-style’ OTT service
- Doctor Suing A Patient Over A Negative Review Has His Case Dismissed Under Tennessee’s New Anti-SLAPP Law
- SLAPP Suits And The Enemies Of Writing And Ideas
- Devin Nunes’ Lawyer Continues To Use Unrelated Case To Try To Unearth Satirical Internet Cow Account
- Feds launch a probe into Big Tech’s smallest acquisitions
- Twitter acquires Stories template maker Chroma Labs
- Susan Wojcicki Reveals YouTube Paid Out $3 Billion To Music Industry Last Year
- YouTube TV To Cancel All Subscriptions Purchased Via Apple App Store In March
- Apple’s new iPad Pro could be delayed due to the coronavirus, report claims
- Spotify mimics Apple’s design with new podcast show page updates
- Anatomy of a Spotify scam (Andres Guadamuz)
- Hughes v. Benjamin: Court dismisses copyright and DMCA claims, finding use of plaintiff’s YouTube video was for criticism and commentary, and therefore transformative fair use
- Bell v. Chicago Cubs Baseball Club, LLC: District court grants motion to dismiss contributory infringement claim against Chicago Cubs based on retweet that allegedly copied key passage from plaintiff’s book.
- Jake Paul Launches ‘The Financial Freedom Movement,’ A $19.99/Month Program For Kids To Become Influencers
- After Mike Bloomberg Meme Sweep, Instagram Introduces Guidelines For Influencers Posting Political Sponcon
- Instagram Prototyping ‘Latest Posts’ Feature, Which Would Let Users See Certain Posts In Reverse Chronology
- House Of Highlights Is NBA’s Slam Dunk For All-Star Video Content
- Bosses tell social media celebrities: TikTok on your own time
- TikTok ‘family safety mode’ gives parents some app control
- Semaphore Launches Licensing Business, Signs 3 Popular YouTube Channels For Toy Deals
- YouTube Phenom Collins Key Inks Global Deal For Toy Collection
- Preschool-Aimed YouTube Goliath ‘Morphle’ Inks Global Toy Licensing Deal
- MrBeast Reveals He Has Already Spent $100,000 On Scrapped Videos This Year
- Condé Nast Forms New Entertainment Studios Around Key Titles Amid Push Into Film, TV, Podcasts
- A new spin on 3D printing can produce an object in seconds
- Electronic signatures are valid: so what’s the catch on finance transactions?
- Samsung Galaxy S20 vs. iPhone 11 Pro: A deeper division lurks beneath the spec sheets
- Samsung’s “Ultra Thin Glass” doesn’t seem much stronger than plastic
- Samsung’s 2020 TV lineup forces high-end buyers to go 8K whether they want it or not
- Snap Taps Third Class Of Startups For Its Media And Tech Accelerator ‘Yellow’, Offering $150K In Equity Funding
- A new era: what’s in store for tech regulation in 2020?
- English High Court declines jurisdiction for “Satoshi Nakamoto” libel claim
- Driver Stranded After ‘Smart’ Rental Car Can’t Phone Home
- The future of work looks like staying out of the office
A.I.
- Researchers have already tested YouTube’s algorithms for political bias
- The FTC, AI and Algorithms
- Can computers invent? EPO says no to AI inventors
- EPO rejects AI inventor patent applications
- Can AI Be an Inventor? Not at the European Patent Office.
- California Introduces Bill to Regulate Automated Decision Systems
- Liability for Artificial Intelligence — Why Canadian Businesses Should Pay Attention to Recent Developments in Europe
- What fairness can learn from AI
- Why AI is crucial for patent searching and mining
- A case study comparison of the AI chips patent landscape
- Ars Technicast special edition, part 1: Machine learning assimilates athletics
- Machine Learning Patentability in 2019: 5 Cases Analyzed and Lessons Learned Part 2
- Intelligent (patent) agents: should the patent profession be afraid of AI?
- Enforcing Cybertech Patents is Increasingly Possible, Even for Small Companies
- Numerical Ranges: More Than Just Endpoints in Patent Process
- Data shows Tesla owner experienced repeated glitch days before deadly 2018 crash
- The AI-development Connection – A View from the South
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
- The Copyright Board’s Access Copyright Post Secondary Decision: The Incorrect Correction (Howard Knopf)
- Oops, the Board did it again, and again, and again (Ariel Katz)
- Moschino Counterpunches on Cardi B Paparazzi Pic
- District Court Grants Judgment on the Pleadings, in Part, in Kanye West Copyright Suit
- Let Go of My LEGOs: Copyright Protection for Plastic People
- “Into the Garbage, Fly Boy”: A Review of the Star Wars Legal World; One Court at a Time
- Expansion of UK copyright law for the fashion industry
- Otto v. Hearst Communications Inc: District court denies attorneys’ fees to photographer who prevailed in copyright suit against Hearst Communications based on its unauthorized use of photograph of President Trump
- Artist Sues Cannabis Company and Agencies Over Mural Used in Ads
- No, Disney Probably Didn’t Infringe A Unicorn Van Artist’s Copyright, But It Would Have Sued If The Roles Were Reversed
- Making waves: Copyright in ‘Wave Fabric’ can be protected as a ‘work of artistic craftsmanship’
- I Scream, You Scream: Museum of Ice Cream Vindicated in Copyright Infringement Lawsuit
- Failure to Register Copyrights in the U.S. Can Bar Statutory Damages for Infringements
- A guide to intellectual property in the creative industries – protecting pitches, brands and concepts
- IP Enterprise Court expands copyright protection for designs
- Open access journals get a boost from librarians—much to Elsevier’s dismay
- IPCom GMBH & CO KG v Vodafone Group PLC and others
- Open Source Voice Assistant Promises To ‘Nuke From Orbit’ Patent Troll
- Judge Shuts Down Copyright Troll’s Cut-And-Run Effort; Hits It With $40K In Legal Fees
- Lost in the Amazon: how to combat trademark infringement in the e-commerce marketplace
- Xiaomi Sues Sisvel in Beijing: The First Lawsuit Seeking a Determination of Chinese SEP Royalty
- Presidents’ Day 2020: Presidential Patents Beyond Lincoln
- Patentability 101: A Review of the 2019 Guidance and Update on Subject Matter Eligibility
- Motivation to Combine Prior Art Can Come from Knowledge of those Skilled in the art, the Art Itself, or the Nature of the Problem
- Top five cosmetic trends shaping IP in 2020
- Top Issues in 2020: Trademark
- Happy Valentines Day (Patents) 2020
- Patentability in Canada: Federal Court of Appeal questions the fixed dosage amount vs dosage range distinction
- The Best of the Decade – Canadian Patent Law in the 2010s
- 2020 Outlook – Patents
- Top Issues in 2020: Patents
- The New Cybersquatters: The Evolution of Trademark Enforcement in the Domain Name Space (Michael Karanicolas)
PRIVACY
- Competition Bureau Flexes Muscles in The Privacy Sphere
- ISPs sue Maine, claim Web-privacy law violates their free-speech rights
- Comcast, AT&T Sue Maine Over Privacy Law, Claim It Violates Free Speech
- Anatomy of a dumb spear-phish: Hitting librarians up for Zelle, CashApp cash
- CBP, ICE Hoovering Up Cell Location Data From Third Party Vendors To Track Down Immigrants
- Hackers exploit critical vulnerability found in ~100,000 WordPress sites
- US natural gas operator shuts down for 2 days after being infected by ransomware
- Surprise! MIT Study Claims Voatz E-Voting Technology Is A Security Dumpster Fire
- Illinois Residents File Class Action against Biometrics Company for Collecting Information without Consent
- Ring cameras are more secure now, but your neighbors still snoop with them
- Ransomware Attacks Predicted to Occur Every 11 Seconds in 2021 with a Cost of $20 Billion
- Facebook Dating misses European launch for Valentine’s Day over regulatory dispute: Ireland’s data protection regulator stepped in
- NYPD Lied About National Security During An Attempt To Obtain A Journalist’s Records From Twitter
- Nasty Android malware reinfects its targets, and no one knows how
- 500 Chrome extensions secretly uploaded private data from millions of users
- US Takes Baby Steps Toward Providing Actual Public Evidence Of Huawei Spying
- Racketeering and Trade Secret Theft Added to List of Charges Against China’s Huawei
- Judge rules a 2019 law singling out Huawei is constitutional
- US government goes all in to expose new malware used by North Korean hackers
- Pwns for sale: Scythe prepares a marketplace for sharing simulated hacks
- Signal is finally bringing its secure messaging to the masses
- Why fixing security vulnerabilities in medical devices, IoT is so hard
- Federal Agencies Are Still Abusing Their Favorite, Super-Vague FOIA Exemption Thousands Of Times A Year
- The NFL Twitter Hack Shows We Need to Move Past Password Protection
- Manipulate to empower: Hyper-relevance and the contradictions of marketing in the age of surveillance capitalism
CREATIVITY
- Harassment and The Handmaid’s Tale
- Trouble At The Law Firm Filing Patently Ridiculous Lawsuits On Behalf Of Tulsi Gabbard
- PGA Tour Calls Big Miss, Requests Dismissal of Hank Haney Lawsuit
- Texas Appeals Court Rules Private Communications with Customers Not Protected Free Speech
- Antitrust: EU Commission fines NBC universal Euro 14.3 for restricting sales of merchandise products
- ‘Star Wars’ May Never Recover From The Damage Done By ‘Rise Of Skywalker’
GAMES
- UK Court Finds GTA V Cheat Makers Guilty of Copyright Infringement
- Rockstar Joins Other Publishers In Misusing Copyright Law To Go After Cheat Developers For GTA5
- GTA IV to return to Steam after cutting Games for Windows Live support
- GTA IV returns to Steam with Complete Edition next month: But transition from Games For Windows Live means loss of multiplayer mode
- Capital C Infringement of Capitol Records: EMI April Music Inc. v. 4MM Games, LLC, 2014 WL 1383468
- Fortnite boss says game loot boxes ’cause harm’
- After Confusion, IRS Clarifies Tax Treatment Of Fortnite & Gaming Currencies
- Italy Introduces Content Rating System for Videogames and Launches Permanent Observatory
- Game Developer Decides Best Way To Get Back At Pirates Is To Pirate Them Back
- Ex-Starbreeze exec convicted of insider trading
- Former Starbreeze CFO convicted of insider trading
- Can cheaters ever prosper? Videogames, esports and the gamers breaking the rules to get ahead
- How to Make Billions in E-Sports: There’s a gaming gold rush on, with companies cashing in on competitions, sponsorships and merch. But it all comes down to signing the best players.
- Fortnite and FIFA honoured at the Game Shaker Awards 2020: Esports Bar Cannes event also gave awards to Riot Games and Astralis Group
- ESL, DreamHack sign revenue-sharing deal with 13 esports teams: Agreement ensures Team Liquid, Evil Geniuses, Fnatic compete in MTG-owned circuits, grants partner teams a portion of ESL Pro Tour proceeds
- Here to stay – Faker becomes part-owner of T1 in 3-year deal
- Creators Going Pro: Meet KOT4Q, The ‘NBA 2K’ Enthusiast Who Hosted House Of Highlights’ All-Star Game Coverage
- Ninja criticized for calling out gamers who aren’t angry after losing
- Google Reportedly Paying Activision Blizzard $160 Million For YouTube’s Exclusive Livestreaming Rights
- Cyberpunk 2077 confirmed for GeForce Now, will have ray tracing via the cloud
- Activision Blizzard Pulls Its Games From Nvidia’s Streaming Service
- Activision Blizzard pulls all games from GeForce Now a week after launch: Nvidia clarifies that initial inclusion of publisher’s titles was due to a “misunderstanding”
- Nvidia’s GeForce Now loses Bethesda Softworks games: Second major publisher to pull its catalog following streaming service’s launch
- Activision Tries To Bury Cover Art For New CoD Game Via Copyright Threat…So Let’s All Look At It Together, Shall We?
- Nifty Games signs licensing deal with NBA for its first game
- What the CEO of Epic Games gets wrong about video games and politics
- Detroit: Become Human dev Quantic Dream will self-publish from here on out
- Lydia developer’s quest to make a ‘feel bad’ game about substance abuse: “If we can make a difference for even one child’s life, what could be better?”
- Report: Nintendo facing global Switch shortage because of coronavirus
- CryEngine finally hits Switch with low-resolution Warface port
- “The Switcher” improves: Witcher 3 reduces blur, now works with Steam, GOG
- NPD: January sales down 26% year-over-year – Dragon Ball Z Kakarot tops charts as hardware spending declines 35% year-over-year
- UK Charts: PS4 exclusives Yakuza and Dreams crack Top Ten – But it’s the classic FIFA and Call of Duty duo that come out top
- Anthem gets a rare second chance | Opinion: Most games that fail at launch are quickly passed over — but Bioware’s Anthem is getting a rare and expensive second chance at success
- The risky business of sexuality in games: Games with sexual themes have always been difficult to distribute and sell — is the games industry ever going to catch up to the rest of entertainment?
- Disney Invites Game Developers to Tell Original Stories With Popular Franchises
- Disney wants developers to “reimagine” its IP for video games: Exec invites DICE Summit attendees to “come and play” with its catalogue
- Sony drops out of PAX East due to novel coronavirus concerns: The Last of Us Part II and other demos will not be available at the show next week
- PlayStation backs out of PAX East due to coronavirus concerns
- Report: Sony can’t build a PS5 for less than $450
- Report: Sony facing PS5 pricing quandary as manufacturing cost rises
- Sony Is Struggling With PlayStation 5 Price Due to Costly Parts
- Expensive components drive PS5 production costs to $450 per unit: Retail price of Xbox Series X will be deciding factor in PlayStation 5 price tag
- Microsoft and Samsung team up for “cloud-based game streaming”
- Panzer Dragoon Remake flies to Stadia as Google reveals new games
- Stadia expands to support some non-Google mobile devices: Subscribers will soon be able to stream games on some models from Samsung, Razer, and ASUS
- Stadia support arrives on 19 non-Google Pixel phone models this week
- “The people in the suits, in the expensive boardrooms, are nerds now”: At the Yorkshire Games Festival, Mike Bithell discussed John Wick Hex as part of a positive shift in the way movie licenses are handled
- Blind Squirrel Games’ decade-long drift from work-for-hire to original IP: CEO Brad Hendricks on what it took for the company to grow beyond its engineering focus and make its own IP
- Remedy holds steady, posting solid growth across the board: Finnish developer moves forward on live-service multiplayer game plans
- Nexon’s Korean business holds full-year revenues steady despite declines in China: Both Maple Story and Maple Story M in Korea achieve highest-ever Q4 and full-year revenues
- GDC gives COVID19 update: Organizers say US travel restrictions on China impact about 2% of exhibitors and attendees
- China is approving more foreign games, but not so many American ones
- THQ Nordic parent Embracer Group acquires World War Z dev Saber Interactive
- Embracer Group acquires Saber Interactive in $525m deal: World War Z developer retains autonomy as Embracer’s fifth subsidiary, takes total headcount to over 2,500
- THQ Nordic parent Embracer Group now has 26 studios, more to be announced: Koch Media acquires Let’s Sing developer Voxler, two new studios have been opened but yet to be unveiled
- Embracer-owned Koch Media acquires Let’s Sing developer Voxler
- THQ Nordic approves Gothic remake and confirms plans to open Barcelona studio
- Ultimatum Games shuts down: Four years after founding studio, Shahid Ahmad confirms closure of Virtue Reality idle clicker game developer
- Half-Life: Alyx finally has a concrete release date
- ‘Half-Life: Alyx’ Release Date Set for March 23rd, New Screenshots Revealed
- Half-Life: Alyx is one step closer to existing with new, firm release date
- Sonic the Hedgehog beats Detective Pikachu in US opening weekend: Blue blur pulls $57 million in North America to become highest-grossing video game adaption
- Review: At the very least, ‘Sonic The Hedgehog’ revitalizes the Jim Carrey experience – This is the rare case where a video game film is decent, and the true MVP here is the seasoned comedy vet, Carrey.
- ‘Crossfire’ Movie Adaptation Lands at Sony
- Smilegate, Sony, and Tencent partner to give Crossfire the movie treatment
- Sony Pictures and Tencent partner on Crossfire movie: Film based on Smilegate’s hugely successful shooter will be handled by producer behind Sonic The Hedgehog and Fast and the Furious
- Sony Patents Valve Index-Like VR Controller With Finger Tracking
- Untitled Goose Game comes out on top at DICE Awards
- Untitled Goose Game wins Game of the Year at DICE Awards 2020: House House received three awards, while Remedy Entertainment won four for Control
- Angry Birds franchise can’t prevent profits slipping at Rovio
- Tekken 7 closed out 2019 with 5 million copies sold
- Operating profits up at Paradox as monthly active players hits record high
- Jordanian mobile publisher Tamatem nets $3.5 million to expand globally
- Facebook Gaming Rings In Ronda Rousey As New Livestreaming Partner
- Insurance is necessary to navigate the uncertain waters of the games industry
- Following Project Nova’s ‘end’, CCP won’t be as public with its early projects
- Eve Online shooter Project Nova is not cancelled, it’s just changing: CCP dedicates London studio to FPS concept, will no longer announce internal project codenames
- Rebuilding a classic in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition
- Don’t Miss: How Neopets has influenced a generation of game developers
- Don’t Miss: Turning love into a cooperative game mechanic in Haven
- Don’t Miss: What went right (and wrong) during the development of Persona 4
- Meet the community still obsessing over Mass Effect 2 10 years later
- A peek at the risks and reworks that gave Rainbow Six Siege a chance to thrive
- Releasing an update archive benefits both devs and players, says Dead Cells dev
- How Supergiant weaves narrative rewards into Hades’ cycle of perpetual death
- Video: The raw numbers behind indie game success, from $0 to $1 million
- The ten commandments of indie survival
- The state of Steam discoverability: February 2020
- The latest Steam Labs experiment will tell you what game to play next
- Razor Edge Games nets $1.3 million to bring debut title to Steam Early Access
- Video: Valve’s Portal postmortem
- Blog: My experience as a game creator in an artist residency
- Blog: How AlphaStar became a StarCraft grandmaster
- Blog: When history gets interactive
- Blog: A firsthand account of coronavirus’ impact on China’s game industry
- Blog: What is reward fatigue?
- U.S. Patent no. 10,279,266: Monitoring game activity to detect a surrogate computer program
Jon