MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. Ajit Pai does ISPs’ bidding, pushes for tighter rules on Google and Facebook
2. Ajit Pai Again (Falsely) Claims States Are Powerless To Protect Broadband Consumers
3. Ajit Pai helped Charter kill consumer-protection rules in Minnesota
4. Verizon throttling firefighters may have violated FCC rule, Democrats say
5. Verizon’s Pivot From Stodgy Old Telco To Sexy Millennial Ad Brand Isn’t Going So Well
6. Verizon Says It’s Not Backing Down From Digital Ad Push
7. ISPs Push Employees To Urge Governor Brown Veto New California Net Neutrality Bill 
8. With The Death Of Net Neutrality & NBC Merger Conditions, Comcast Is Free To Misbehave
9. Net neutrality gives “free” Internet to Netflix and Google, ISP claims
10. FCC data exaggerates broadband access on tribal lands
11. Fullscreen Founder George Strompolos Steps Down As CEO Following AT&T’s Acquisition Of Otter Media
12. After Nabbing Billions In Tax Breaks, AT&T’s Promised Job Growth Magically Evaporates
13. Special Report – Everything we know about 5G

DIGITAL

1. An EU copyright bill could force YouTube-style filtering across the Web
2. What’s in the sweeping copyright bill just passed by the European Parliament
3. Creators Supporting Link Taxes And Mandatory Filters Are Handing The Internet Over To The Companies They Hate
4. The dangers hidden in the proposed Copyright Directive (Andres Guadamuz)
5. The Intellectual Dishonesty Of Those Supporting The Existing Text Of The EU Copyright Directive
6. EU Gives Up On The Open Web Experiment, Decides It Will Be The Licensed Web Going Forward
7. DOJ And State Attorneys General Threatening Social Media Companies Over Moderation Practices Is A First Amendment Issue
8. Facebook, Twitter, and the Senate Hearings: It’s The Business Model, Period.
9. Twitter’s latest (and final) punishment for Alex Jones: A permanent ban
10. Alex Jones Permanently Suspended From Twitter
11. Apple’s iPhone event will be live streamed on Twitter for the first time
12. Twitter Announces 50 New Video Content Deals To Complement Local TV Programming
13. Progressive Web Apps moving mainstream as Twitter makes its mobile site the main one
14. Microsoft Wants Confirmation That Helping Politicians Not Get Hacked Isn’t An Illegal Campaign Contribution
15. Reddit Ignored A Year’s Worth Of User Warnings About Iranian Propaganda
16. Hollywood Studios, Big Fans Of Automated DMCAs, Also Very Busy DMCAing IMDB For Some Reason
17. No News Is Good News: Campbell Brown vs. the publishers
18. Amazon Takes Down Nine Books Self-Published on Kindle by Virulent Sexist ‘Roosh’
19. Facebook Is Not The Internet: Philippines Propaganda Highlights Perils Of Company’s ‘Free Basics’ Walled Garden
20. Facebook Responds To Blackberry’s Silly 117 Page Patent Lawsuit With Its Own Silly 118 Page Lawsuit
21. Facebook punishes liberal news site after fact check by right-wing site
22. The cure for Facebook’s fake news infection? It might be these women: At Facebook, where men outnumber women almost two to one, the future of news is female.
23. German Court Tells Facebook It Can’t Delete Comments, Even Though German Law Says It Must Delete Comments
24. Court Denies Politician’s Attempt To Dismiss Lawsuit Over Banning Critics From His Facebook Page
25. Social media makes us angry and unfocused. Is email the answer?: Subtack CEO Chris Best makes the case for electronic mail
26. After many opsec fails, Russia seeks to ban soldier social media spoilers
27. An Avalanche of Speech Can Bury Democracy: For the longest time, we thought that as speech became more democratized, democracy itself would flourish. But in 2018, it is increasingly clear that more speech can in fact threaten democracy.
28. YouTube Removed Russian Ads In Compliance With Election Law, Google Says
29. Google Moderation Team Decides My Piece About The Impossible Nature Of Content Moderation Is ‘Dangerous Or Derogatory’
30. Google kills Google Inbox
31. You Can Now Pause Your YouTube TV Subscription — And Keep All Stored Programming — For Up To 6 Months
32. United Airlines Made Its App Stop Working On My Phone, And What This Says About How Broken The Mobile Tech Space Is
33. New App Popbase Will Let YouTube Creators Make Virtual Avatars To Host Game Shows For Fans
34. Paul McCartney Will Play a Free Concert on YouTube Friday
35. Hank Green Has Been Making YouTube Videos For 12 Years — Here’s Why He’s Never Experienced Burnout
36. ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ Subscriber Count Soars After Lit Musk Interview
37. Late Vlogger Claire Wineland To Be Subject Of Documentary By Oscar-Winning Director
38. Nascent Digital Sports Network ‘Overtime’ Inks Content Deal With Basketball Creator Rachel DeMita
39. Influencer marketing, endorsements, testimonials: food for thought in light of the most recent initiatives by the Italian authorities
40. WorldStarHipHop Launches Snapchat Channel With Studio71
41. Viral Aggregator ‘WorldStarHipHop’ Links Up With Studio71 For Snapchat Channel
42. Meet SelfieCircus and 8 more in Snapchat’s new startup accelerator
43. Former MTV Chief Sean Atkins Named CEO Of StyleHaul, Will Oversee New MCN Group At RTL
44. Ex-MTV President Sean Atkins Named StyleHaul CEO
45. China’s Biggest Streaming Service Eliminates View Counts To Combat Rampant Click Farms
46. This Video Uses the Power of Deepfakes to Re-Capture This Character’s Cameo Appearance in Rogue One
47. Here’s How Brands Can Be Proactive Against Influencer Fraud, Per Fullscreen And CreatorIQ Study
48. Op-Ed: We Gave Corporations Our Data. Now They’re Deciding How AI Will Affect Our Future.
49. If Artificial Intelligence Only Benefits a Select Few, Everyone Loses
50. Artificial intelligence in the Gambling Industry
51. Rise of the Robots: How AI Is Changing the Music World
52. Doctors said the coma patients would never wake. AI said they would – and they did: Artificial intelligence system developed in Beijing ‘will never replace doctors’ but it can trace brain activity invisible to the human eye
53. Left Unchecked, Artificial Intelligence Can Become Prejudiced All On Its Own
54. Countdown to The Singularity
55. Sim ethics: Say you could make a thousand digital replicas of yourself – should you? What happens when you want to get rid of them?
56. Drone Racing: The Next Battleground For AI to Try to Dominate Human
57. Netflix, Hulu and Amazon win numerous creative Emmy awards
58. Analysis: Netflix Trails Hulu, Amazon, and Several Cable Networks in Quality of Original Shows
59. EU Officially OKs Apple’s Shazam Acquisition
60. Big Data? No antitrust problem for Apple/Shazam
61. You Don’t Own What You’ve Bought: Apple Disappears Purchased Movies
62. Your new $1,000+ iPhone won’t come with a headphone dongle in the box
63. Hands-on with the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR
64. Apple Watch Series 4 hands-on: Sparking envy in current Apple Watch owners
65. Hello eSIM: Apple moves the iPhone away from physical SIMs
66. The former Apple engineer who designed the iPhone keyboard reveals what it was like to work under Steve Jobs’ strict requirements for secrecy
67. Crypto-pocalypse Soon-ish? Judge Rules ICOs Are a Security
68. Cryptocurrency taxation: what business leaders need to know

CREATIVITY

1. Saudi Government Outlaws Satire; Violators To Face Five-Year Prison Sentences
2. Judge Roy Moore Sues Sacha Baron Cohen For Ruining His Immaculate Reputation
3. US indicts North Korean agent for WannaCry, Sony attacks [Updated]
4. Bonkers Attorney’s Fees Ruling Results In SDCC Getting $4 Million Out Of SLCC AFter $20k Jury Award
5. More Comic Conventions Change Their Names After Crazy SDCC Attorney’s Fees And Injunction Ruling
6. Success! Roanoke ‘Harry Potter Festival’ Changes Name To ‘Generic Magic Festival’ Due To WB’s Bullying
7. Are Black Movies Being Shut Out by Global Theaters?
8. McQueen Family Crashes Ferrari’s Limited-Edition Car
9. Pop’s Biggest Stars Can Control Their Own Narratives Like Never Before. Is That a Good Thing?
10. Who hates Star Wars for its newfound diversity? Here are the numbers.

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. DOJ Charges North Korean Spy Over Sony Hack and WannaCry Ransomware [Updated]
2. Court Shuts Down Feds’ Attempt To Expand The ‘Border Search’ Exception To Cover Inland GPS Monitoring
3. Florida Appeals Court Tells Law Enforcement It Needs Warrants To Deploy Stingrays 
4. Documents Show IBM Pitched The NYPD Facial Recognition Software With Built-In Racial Profiling Options
5. Vizio, sued for making creepy smart TVs, will notify customers via the TVs
6. Apple takes down Trend Micro Mac apps that collected, stored user data
7. Dozens of iOS apps surreptitiously share user location data with tracking firms
8. The Super-Private Tor Browser Gets a Huge Update, But Should You Switch From Chrome?
9. NSA metadata program “consistent” with Fourth Amendment, Kavanaugh once argued

GAMES

1. EA defies Belgian loot box decision, setting up potential “gambling” lawsuit
2. Report: EA risking prosecution after refusing to comply with Belgian loot box laws
3. EA may go to court over loot boxes in Belgium: FIFA publisher has kept loot boxes in its games despite Belgian Gaming Commission warning
4. Tencent to verify Chinese Honor of Kings players against public security records: New measures required to ensure minors keep within play-time restrictions
5. Chinese hold on new video game licenses may last another 4-6 months: Industry slowdown in the country could continue as China centralizes its approval process for new titles
6. China’s video game licensing freeze could last another six months
7. Blog: Assessing the impact of China’s changing game regulations
8. Honour of Kings to require players use real names to comply with new Chinese policies
9. German org calls on Sony to fix ‘customer-hostile’ terms & conditions
10. German consumer association warns Sony over “customer-hostile” PSN terms and conditions: Sony could face legal action if it fails to heed complaints
11. The first “100% uncensored” adult game has been approved for Steam release
12. Valve’s new Steam content filters have finally arrived
13. Valve approves uncensored adult game for release on Steam
14. Steam adds “Adults Only” filter for games with “explicit sexual content”: New filter among a host of changes to make it easier for users to avoid certain kinds of content
15. Brianna Wu’s Congress bid fails, vows to run again in 2020: “America needs better leadership more than we need another video game. So, I am here for good.”
16. Two Riot employees depart after defending controversial PAX panel
17. Two Riot employees exit following PAX session controversy: One confirmed fired after criticizing those upset by PAX West panel focused on uplifting women and non-binary individuals
18. Riot brings on former Uber culture fixer to fix up culture
19. The 16 surprising new games that made PAX West an absolute blast
20. Is the Olympics relevant for esports?: IOC president Thomas Bach dismissed games as “contradictory to Olympic values” – but his approval is less important than what esports is building elsewhere
21. Overwatch League adds six more teams: Activision Blizzard raises team roster to 20, with new teams in China, Canada, France and the US
22. The Overwatch League Signs Six More Teams: New franchises include Chengdu, Hangzhou, Paris, Toronto, Vancouver, and Washington, D.C.All six teams will join the Overwatch League for the start of the 2019 season
23. New LA Times owner makes big esports investment into Daybreak Games
24. Overwolf and Intel launch $7 million mod fund: Money is available to developers of apps and services for existing games, to be distributed on Overwolf’s app store
25. Blog: Understanding my approach to modding in Reset Hard
26. Xbox: “I can’t think of a holiday that has more AAA games in such a tight time period” – Microsoft on a blockbuster Christmas for console games, and retailer views on Game Pass
27. NPD survey: 34% of players exclusively play mobile games
28. Games expected to account for 76% of global mobile revenue in 2018: Number of smartphone users to reach three billion by end of year as consumer spending exceeds $92 billion
29. Analyst: ‘Whale’ spenders aren’t as crucial to F2P mobile games as they once were
30. DeltaDNA: Increase in casual spenders for F2P games resulting in more balanced revenue sources – Strategy and casino games lead player spending, while action game spending is down overall in spite of Fortnite
31. Blog: How free-to-play design runs out of steam
32. Fortnite beta invite to download conversion rate on Android similar to iOS: In the 21 days since launch, 23m players signed up for beta, 15m installed the game
33. Fortnite on Android reaches 15 million downloads sans Google Play 
34. Fortnite reaches 15 million Android downloads without Google Play
35. PUBG logs 1 million peak concurrent players for 365 days in a row, a Steam first
36. PUBG becomes first Steam game to have one million concurrent players 365 days running: Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 beta breaks record-breaking streak for PUBG
37. Pearl Abyss acquires EVE Online creator CCP Games for $425 million
38. Insights: Resetting The Game Biz—Microsoft, Amazon, Samsung and Fortnite Show Where We’re Going
39. Single-player not going anywhere – Igarashi: Bloodstained producer discusses AAA emphasis on multiplayer, the rising Japanese indie scene, and the future of ArtPlay
40. What makes a “troll game”? Valve tries for a Steam-wide definition
41. Valve Clears Up Nothing With Its Latest Explanation Of What Games It Will Ban As ‘Troll Games’
42. IO Interactive focusing on serving players, not games-as-a-service: Hitman 2 studio hopes departure from episodic format will be a new starting point to build its universe
43. Eve Online studio CCP acquired by Pearl Abyss: South Korean developer behind Black Desert Online spends $425 million on Icelandic games firm
44. THQ Nordic has acquired the rights to Kingdoms of Amalur
45. Devs recount the making of Golden Axe: Beast Rider, a crunch-ridden $15M flop 
46. Unity CEO claims VR hardware hasn’t seen true consumer launch
47. Unity boss says VR hardware still not right for consumers: “They’re not cheap enough, they don’t work well enough… there’s not a lot of content,” says John Riccitiello
48. The Void partners with Marvel and Disney to create VR experiences
49. Niantic touts 35 percent growth in active players forPokemon Go
50. Google partners with Unity for open-source matchmaking tool Open Match
51. Unity and Google Cloud unveil Open Match
52. Hollow Knight tops EU Nintendo Switch eshop charts for August: In addition, No. 2 Dead Cells sees global success, selling four copies on Switch for every one PS4 copy
53. Nintendo’s promised cloud saves on Switch won’t work for every game [Updated]
54. Nintendo: Restrictions on cloud saves for certain Switch games are to curb cheaters
55. Some Nintendo games won’t support cloud saves: Nintendo Switch Online’s cloud save feature skips games like Splatoon 2 as a move to prevent cheating
56. No more free rides: Paid Switch Online service launches on Sept. 18
57. Nintendo Switch Online finally has a concrete launch date
58. Fire Emblem Heroes summer revenue up 34 per cent over 2017: Sensor Tower data shows Nintendo’s hit mobile game earning $63 million in July and August
59. Delayed Nintendo Direct Leads To Some Oddly Delivered Switch Announcements
60. Roblox raises $150 million and sets sights on China
61. GameStop sales slip as retailer continues exploring a sale: Collectibles and console hardware are bright points as company posts $24.9 million loss in a second quarter where revenues dipped 2.4%
62. Jagex profit and revenue spike in another record year: Upcoming mobile RuneScape games expected to deliver more growth
63. Dundee’s games industry boosted by £9m InGAME R&D centre: Game developers and universities both involved in new project designed to encourage growth and innovation
64. “Homeworld” Sideswiped by a Story – Why I Love: Snowcastle Games’ Thomas French reflects on how Relic’s deep space RTS provided a strong narrative through mechanics
65. NCSoft shuts down WildStar dev Carbine Studios
66. Lowering the language barrier for aspiring Arab developers: Fawzi Mesmar never had access to Arabic books on game design, so he wrote one
67. Wedding Proposal Hidden In Spider-Man Unravels, May Be Patched Out
68. UK charts: Spider-Man is fastest-selling game of the year – Most successful week one for a Marvel game
69. In the name of accessibility, Spider-Man offers toggleable puzzles and QTEs
70. Remedy’s Alan Wake is being adapted for TV
71. ‘To stay relevant’, U.S. adds select PC games to national software registry
72. How a CEO fiddled while beloved board game Glory to Romecrashed and burned
73. Developing Spore: An oral (‘Sporal’?) history 10 years on
74. Blog: The importance of games that make us think

Jon

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. FCC Approves Another Radio Station Acquisition by a Company that is 100% Foreign-Owned 
2. FCC can define markets with only one ISP as “competitive,” court rules
3. Standard of Review: The Beginning of the End or the End of the Beginning?
4. Net Neutrality Advocates, State Governments Argue Against Internet Freedom Order in D.C. Circuit Briefs
5. California’s strict net neutrality bill is close to final passage
6. Robocalls tell seniors net neutrality raises phone bills by $30: Robocalls spread misinformation to seniors as California votes on net neutrality.
7. Big Telecom Resorts To Lying To Senior Citizens To Scuttle Net Neutrality In California
8. Just Because The Internet Didn’t Implode The Day After Repeal Doesn’t Mean Killing Net Neutrality Was A Good Idea
9. Comcast/Charter lobby asks FTC to preempt state broadband regulations
10. Charter Spectrum Security Flaw Exposes Private Data Of Millions Of Subscribers
11. FTC Hits Road Block in DIRECTV Advertising Case Seeking $3.95 Billion Remedy
12. Verizon stops throttling more firefighters, plans unlimited data “with no caps”
13. Verizon tries to douse criticism, touts “priority access” for first responders
14. Verizon throttling could trigger FTC investigation of deceptive practices
15. Don’t Hold Your Breath Waiting For The FCC, FTC To Punish Verizon For Screwing Firefighters
16. Another Prison Phone Service Caught Recording Privileged Conversations And Passing Them On To Law Enforcement 
17. T-Mobile Begs Small Wireless Carriers To Support Its Awful Merger. The Problem: They Hate It Too 
18. RTL Group Sees Record Revenue for First Half of 2018: Results Fuelled by Strong Q2 Performance of FremantleMedia 
19. A New Book Details the Damage Done by the Right-Wing Media in 2016 

DIGITAL

1. Blueprints For 3D Printed Guns Will Stay (Sort Of) Offline, Judge Rules
2. Judge allows temporary ban on 3D-printed gun files to continue
3. After court order, 3D-printed gun pioneer now sells pay-what-you-want CAD files
4. Supreme Court rules ISPs entitled to recover costs of blocking websites selling counterfeit goods
5. Important Appeals Court Ruling States Clearly That Merely Having An IP Address Is Insufficient For Infringement Claims
6. Conservatives: Stop Crying Wolf On Tech Bias Or No One Will Ever Take You Seriously
7. President Trump Accuses Google of Rigging Search Results Against Him, Calls It ‘Very Dangerous’
8. Trump says he will “address” Google’s “suppressing” of conservative news [Updated]
9. Google Shuts Down 39 YouTube Accounts Linked To Iranian “Influence Operation”
10. Google Removes YouTube Channels and Web Accounts Tied to Iran
11. Comments on Trump’s Empty Tweetstorm Threatening Social Media Providers (Eric Goldman)
12. California Lawmakers Want a Study of Fake News (If Someone Else Pays for It) (Eric Goldman)
13. How YouTube deals with inappropriate videos
14. Significant Concerns About The New NAFTA Agreement’s Impact On Innovation And The Internet
15. Five Years Later, Google Express Is No Closer to Beating Amazon
16. What Amazon’s Latest Hire Says About Its Sports Broadcasting Ambitions
17. Amazon may make a free, ad-supported streaming service for Fire TVs
18. Amazon Pays Employees To Chirp Happily On Twitter About Wonderful Working Conditions
19. Snapchat surges in popularity as people turn their backs on Facebook in the UK: Snapchat to overtake Facebook among young adults in UK by end of 2018 amid global trend for 20-somethings shunning Zuckerberg’s social network
20. Facebook, Instagram to charge GST on ads by mid-2019
21. Dubious Studies And Easy Headlines: No, A New Report Does Not Clearly Show Facebook Leads To Hate Crimes
22. Facebook’s War on B.S. Is Not Going Well -We Talked to the Fact Checkers on the Front Lines
23. Continuing charm offensive, Facebook creates tool to boost news publishers’ reach on the platform
24. Facebook Bans Myanmar Leaders, Admits It Was ‘Too Slow’ to Stop Posts Promoting Genocide
25. Facebook violates Apple’s data-gathering rules, pulls VPN from App Store
26. Facebook Watch Rolls Out Internationally
27. Alleged Facebook scammer arrested in Ecuador, will resist extradition
28. Fugitive Fraudster Who Demanded Half Of Facebook Arrested After Three Years On The Run
29. Facebook Watch Now Available Globally, Offering Expanded Creator Tools To More Countries
30. A look inside Facebook’s efforts to expand Wi-Fi in developing countries
31. Potential(ly) Reach(ing): Facebook Sued Over Inflated Audience Numbers
32. Facebook’s ‘Privacy Protecting’ VPN Booted From Apple Store For Snooping Too Much
33. Fake GNUs: Keep politics out of open source software licences (Andres Guadamuz)
34. Danish ISPs Get Win That Could End Copyright Trolling In Denmark
35. Maximum Mudslinging: How Powerful Lobby Groups Are Working to Sideline Civil Society Voices on Digital Policy (Michael Geist)
36. How The EU May Be About To Kill The Public Domain: Copyright Filters Takedown Beethoven
37. Honest Government Ads Takes On EU Parliament’s Plan To Censor The Internet With Article 13
38. A Link Tax Won’t Bring Back Journalists; It Will Do Even More Harm To Them
39. Apple confirms TV series order of Asimov’s Foundation
40. Apple and Amazon Have the Most Annoying Ongoing Feud in Tech
41. Insights: Amazon’s Brand Ambassadors Swear Everything’s A-OK
42. Microsoft will soon automatically transcribe video files in OneDrive for Office 365 subscribers
43. Running Windows 95 in an “app” is a dumb stunt that makes a good point: Software piracy remains an important part of preserving our digital heritage.
44. Microsoft obliquely acknowledges Windows 0-day bug published on Twitter
45. Mobile Devices and Driving in Ontario and Quebec
46. Internet Content Moderation Isn’t Politically Biased, It’s Just Impossible To Do Well At Scale
47. Forget About Social Media Content Moderation; Get Ready For Internet Infrastructure Content Moderation
48. Can social media posts be tortious or criminal?
49. Brand Partners Sever Ties With Laura Lee Following Racist Tweet Scandal
50. The Scandal Enmeshing YouTube’s Beauty Community Has Hit Manny MUA With Loss Of 250,000 Subscribers
51. Popular YouTuber Kills Self, Two Others In Fiery Crash
52. KSI v Logan Paul: YouTube boxing fight ends in a draw
53. KSI vs. Logan Paul “YouTube World Championship” Boxing Match Ends In A Draw As 784K Watch On YouTube (And A Million More Illegally)
54. KSI vs Logan Paul: Who’s Got The Edge Going Into What Will Be One Of The Biggest YouTube Events Of All Time
55. KSI Wants To Push Logan Paul Rematch From February To May, Envisions Setting Outside U.S.
56. YouTube Stars Go Head-to-Head in Pay-Per-View Boxing Match: Two of YouTube’s biggest names opt for ticket sales over ads; Celebrities on platform are seeking new ways to make money
57. Jake Paul Defeats Deji In YouTube Boxing Event, Launches Merch Line RNBO To 800,000+ Live Viewers
58. No one should be surprised that pirates hijacked the Logan Paul/KSI boxing match on Twitch
59. How Much Did Logan Paul And KSI Make From Their ‘YouTube World Boxing Championship’? A Lot.
60. As Popularity Of Avatar YouTubers Grows In Japan, One Prefecture Gets Its Own Official ‘VTuber’
61. YouTube Rolls Out New Dashboard To Tell Users Exactly How Much Time They Spend Watching Content
62. Shots Studios Unveils YouTube Channel Solely Dedicated To Vertical Videos
63. YouTube Rolling Out Non-Skippable Ads To All Creators Within Its Partner Program
64. YouTube Starts Telling You How Much Time You’re Wasting on YouTube
65. BTS Surpasses Taylor Swift To Nab Biggest 24-Hour YouTube Video Debut Of All Time
66. YouTube Beauty Mogul Jeffree Star Breezes Past 10 Million Subscribers In Roughly 3 Years
67. Legal concerns emerging from influencer marketing – #Sponsored
68. Here’s 23,000 Ways That Branded Content Is a S**t Show
69. Family Vloggers Cole And Savannah LaBrant Accused Of Staging Wildfire Evacuation For Views
70. Beer Company BrewDog Debuts Streaming-Video Service in Latest Niche SVOD Move
71. The Young Turks Network Lays Off Staff, Retires Entertainment Shows
72. BuzzFeed News Is Asking Readers For Donations — But Has No Immediate Paywall Plans
73. BuzzFeed Zeroes in on Television With Premiere of Netflix Series and Launch of Twitter-Based TV-Review Show
74. Once powerful, portals fade as video-syndication revenue sources
75. Netflix’s Latest Price Hike May Have Scared Away Low-Income Consumers
76. Netflix Is Testing A New Payment Method That Will Cut Apple Out Of The Process
77. Netflix has a great opportunity in India, says SunTrust
78. Technology Is Transforming TV – 3 Things Your Business Can Learn From Netflix
79. Disney Enterprises, Inc. v. VidAngel, Inc.
80. Get Your MoviePass Refund Now Before the Company’s Out of Money
81. Andy Signore Is Suing Defy Media For Firing Him, Says Company Fostered “Culture Of Profanity And Obscenity”
82. A Harm-Reduction Framework for Algorithmic Fairness (Micah Altman, Alexandra Wood, & Effy Vayena)
83. Today In Useless Surveys: Some People Want Internet Companies To Stop Filtering News And Some Don’t.
84. SEC Denies Nine More Bitcoin ETF Applications
85. 4 Key Takeaways from FinCEN Director’s Speech on Cryptocurrency
86. Venezuela’s Oil-Backed Cryptocurrency Is Giving Blockchain A Bad Name
87. China Is Serious About Cracking Down on Cryptocurrency
88. $224 million sought in lawsuit against AT&T over cryptocurrency theft
89. Copyright and the blockchain
90. Should Evil AI Research Be Published? Five Experts Weigh In.
91. Advanced Artificial Intelligence Could Run The World Better Than Humans Ever Could
92. If We Ever Want Artificial General Intelligence, Governments Need To Invest In It
93. Industry 4.0 and the regulation of artificial intelligence
94. It’s Really Easy for Hackers to Take Control of Robots
95. Self-driving cars will destroy a lot of jobs—they’ll also create a lot
96. Elon Musk Claims a Tesla Semi Prototype Drove “Across the Country Alone”
97. Analysis: Why Elon Musk abandoned his plan to take Tesla private
98. Milan court issues dynamic blocking injunction against Italian ISPs
99. The World’s First Digital Teacher Just Debuted in New Zealand 

CREATIVITY

1. Billionaire Steve Wynn, Who Once Tried To Kill Nevada’s Anti-SLAPP Law, Loses Defamation Case Under That Law
2. More On Mass Copyright Litigation in Canada – Part I (Howard Knopf)
3. Advantages Making the Federal Court of Canada an Increasingly Desirable Forum for Intellectual Property Disputes
4. Top Five Reasons Why IT Companies are Coming to Canada
5. Court of Appeals Finds That Digital Remasters of Pre-1972 Sound Recordings Likely Do Not Result in New Copyrighted Work That Would Bring These Songs under Federal Law – Reversing District Court Decision
6. US Trade Rep Appears To Misreport Its Own Trade Agreement To Include Copyright Extension
7. Gray v. Perry
8. Can You Enhance That?: Copyright in Facts and Retouched Images
9. Recognizing It Had No Chance, Cox Settles BMG Copyright Trolling Case
10. Copyright or copyleft?
11. Who should bear the cost of blocking orders for IP infringement?
12. Trump’s Anti-press Rhetoric Is Dangerous, But His Actions Are Worse
13. FBI refutes Trump claim that Clinton’s private email server was hacked by China
14. The Oft-Forgotten Architecture of Pop Culture Franchises 
15. Look Before You Leap  – “Weinstein Reps” in Corporate Transactions
16. Nickelodeon Is Opposing A 12 Year Old New Zealand Girl’s ‘Slime’ Trademark For Some Reason
17. Supreme Court Asked To Correct Appeals Court (Again) And Explain That Patentable Ideas Need To Be New
18. The Story of the American Inventor Denied a Patent Because He Was a Slave
19. Is the U.S. Fair Use Doctrine Compatible with Berne and TRIPS Obligations? (Pamela Samuelson & Kathryn Hashimoto)

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1.  Snoops on a Plane: Looking for Privacy in all the Wrong (Public) Places
2. NSA leaker who mailed doc outlining Russian hacking gets 5 years in prison
3. Reality Winner Will Spend Five Years In Jail For Leaking Info Government Officials Released Publicly
4. Chinese Surveillance State Is Basically The US Surveillance Apparatus Minus The Constitutional Rights
5. Woman: My iPhone was seized at border, then imaged—feds must now delete data
6. American Muslim Challenges Warrantless Border Device Search From An Unexpected Legal Angle
7. Indiana Appeals Court Says Forcing Someone To Unlock Their Phone Violates The 5th Amendment
8. Prosecutor: Suspect must give up his phone’s passcode in fatal hazing case
9. UK cops used facial recognition at show, found someone with outstanding warrant: During May 2018 event, South Wales Police false-positive rate went from 92% to 0.02%.
10. Appeals Court: City-Owned Utility Pulling Electric Use Info Every 15 Minutes Is A Search
11. Privacy shield team issues guidance
12. Corporate Cybersecurity Is Becoming Geopolitical. Are U.S. Tech Companies Ready?
13. Researchers find way to spy on remote screens—through the webcam mic
14. Ron Wyden Wants The DOJ To Provide Answers On Stingray Devices’ Disruption Of Emergency Call Service
15. A Tech Company Wants to Implant GPS Trackers in Dementia Patients
16. Warning Kids About Digital Privacy Doesn’t Work. Here’s What Does.
17. Bridging The Gap Between Computer Science and Legal Approaches To Privacy (Kobbi Nissim, Aaron Bembenek, Alexandra Wood, Mark Bun, Marco Gaboardi, Urs Gasser, David R. O’Brien, Thomas Steinke, & Salil Vadhan)

GAMES

1. Shooter opens fire at Jacksonville Madden tournament
2. Mass Shooting At Madden Tournament In Florida
3. Competitive Gamers Eli Clayton And Taylor Robertson Killed In Jacksonville Shooting
4. Victims of Jacksonville shooting were members of competitive Madden community: Elijah ‘TrueBoy’ Clayton and Taylor ‘SpotMePlzz’ Robertson were killed at a Madden Championship Series tournament last weekend
5. EA cancels remaining Madden qualifiers in wake of shooting
6. EA cancels Madden competitions after shooting: CEO Andrew Wilson honors slain players, cancels three remaining qualifiers for Madden Classic competitions
7. Flordia AG Somehow Pivots To The Danger Of Video Games After The Latest Florida Shooting
8. PAX organizers issue official statement after shooting at Madden Championship Series event: “We have in place extensive proactive measures” to ensure safety at PAX West, future events
9. Riot Games outlines plan for culture change in wake of workplace sexism allegations: Company promises action steps such as third-party evaluations, anonymous hotline, reevaluation of recruiting practices, and new HR hires
10. Battle Chef Brigade dev warns against putting work first
11. Weather Factory launches Coven Club to help connect women in games
12. Nintendo files takedown notice against Pokemon fan game creation tool
13. Nintendo shuts down tool used to build Pokémon fan games
14. Nintendo orders takedown of fan game maker Pokémon Essentials: Decade-old asset kit for RPG Maker pulled, along with wiki on how to develop with it
15. Ever wanted to see “beyond” the NES game screen? With WideNES, you can
16. Artists Heading to Dungeons & Dragons Session Say ICE Detained Them, Would Not Allow Them Entry to U.S.
17. 2K Games alters NBA 2K MyTeam mode to comply with Belgian loot box laws: Publisher also removes premium currency card packs from Dutch version, “disagrees with this position” in both nations
18. Blizzard removes paid loot boxes and loot chests for players in Belgium
19. Blizzard locks sale of real money loot boxes in Belgium: Overwatch and Heroes of the Storm join growing list of games forced to halt sale of loot boxes by Belgian authorities
20. Denuvo Announces Plan To Fail To Combat Online Game Cheaters After Failing To Stop Piracy With Its DRM
21. Denuvo: “There is no uncrackable game. What we do is protect the initial sales” – Anti-tamper tech is far from iron-clad, but pirates are only willing to wait so long for a cracked game
22. Denuvo rolling out anti-cheat software: DRM firm plans to prevent players unbalancing multiplayer games and bypassing microtransactions
23. GameStop shares plummet as buyout deal fails to materialise: With no sign of retailer’s troubles abating, shares fall 9.9 per cent
24. Post Valve’s ‘Hands Off’ Games Curation Announcement, Everything Is A Mess
25. Report: Analyzing player preferences from the US games market
26. Superdata: No Man’s Sky flies once more as Fortnite begins to flag – July digital games market report shows Epic’s battle royale nonetheless continues to drive growth
27. Fortnite dev Epic offers in-game reward for players that turn on 2FA
28. Google spots security vulnerability in Epic-hosted FortniteAndroid installer
29. Google discloses vulnerability in Fortnite launcher that allowed possible malware installation: Epic Games has since fixed the exploit, but CEO Tim Sweeney calls Google disclosure “irresponsible”
30. Fortnite’s Android vulnerability leads to Google/Epic Games spat
31. Daybreak Games closing down Just Survive servers in October
32. Publisher 505 Games takes over support of Roll7’s Laser League
33. NPD: $19.5bn spent on video games in US during first half of 2018 – Hardware spending reaches seven-year high, with Xbox One and SNES Classic cited as highlights
34. NPD: Fortnite, PUBG help push U.S. game spending up 40%
35. UK Charts: F1 2018, Shenmue depose Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy – Activision Blizzard’s nostalgic platformer finally drops to No.3 after eight weeks in the top spot
36. Tomb Raider overshadows EMEAA game charts: Upcoming release bolsters Rise of the Tomb Raider, Tomb Raider into top ten
37. NPD: Octopath Traveler leads continued Switch success in July – Nintendo published half of July’s top 10 best selling software titles
38. Examining why Switch games cost more than their PC counterparts
39. Switch checks off its indie-game wishlist with Into the Breach, Towerfall
40. Nintendo rolls out indie-focused Switch news channel
41. The 10 secrets to indie game success (and why they do not exist)
42. Game Marketing 101: How to make games and stay afloat
43. Microsoft reportedly bundling console, Gold and Game Pass into Xbox All Access service
44. Microsoft is about to announce Xbox All Access subscription
45. Report: New Microsoft subscription service will include an Xbox One, Xbox Live, and Game Pass
46. Report: “Xbox All Access” to offer free hardware with two-year agreement
47. “Xbox All Access” offers free hardware up front with two-year subscription 
48. Xbox All Access bundles a console, Live, and Game Pass for 24 monthly payments
49. Microsoft announces Xbox All Access: 24-month payment program gets users an Xbox One, Xbox Live, and Game Pass sans up-front payment
50. “We don’t see a future where subscriptions are dominant” –  Microsoft: Xbox Game Pass heads say player feedback shows they prefer a service with a smaller number of quality titles to one with thousands of games
51. Why Xbox bought Ninja Theory: Microsoft explains why mid-sized studios are important to its Game Pass subscription service
52. Playstation Vue expands its lineup with 200 more local channels
53. Review: Yakuza Kiwami 2 gets cleaned up for PS4
54. Blog: Where’s my money, dude? What Steam is silent about
55. Dota 2 International 2019 moves to Shanghai: First time the championship has been held outside of North America since the 2011 debut
56. Pro Gamers Fend Off Elon Musk-Backed AI Bots – For Now
57. Twitter Sets Pact With Overwatch League for Highlights, Weekly Show: Deal for esports content runs through end of 2019
58. Riot Games details steps forward after workplace toxicity allegations
59. Riot Games ‘a long way’ from breaking even in esports 
60. Riot Games “a long way from breaking even” on esports investment: Head of global esports events explains company’s decision to cut costs, focus investments over next three years
61. Newzoo: Mobile esports seeing windows of opportunity open – Better hardware, Eastern popularity are driving slow but steady growth of large-scale, competitive play
62. It’s Time for an ‘Overwatch’ Battle Pass
63. Miyamoto: Game devs must avoid becoming reliant on free-to-play
64. iFixit dissects the $2,299 Magic Leap One so you don’t have to: Glue barriers, fragile components drop mixed-reality set’s “repairability score.”
65. Twitch Embraces Nostalgia Again With Pokemon TV And Movie Marathons
66. Creators Going Pro: How Logdotzip Turned A Passion For Gaming At 14 Into A 10-Person Business A Decade Later
67. GoldenEye 007 gets quite the 21st-birthday present: An oral history
68. Riot using League of Legends to drive blood donations in the Netherlands
69. Riot Games partners with blood bank to promote donation in the Netherlands: League of Legends players who donate blood through Sanquin will receive an in-game skin
70. Why From Software chose Activision to publish Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice – “When From Software knocks on your door and says ‘hey, we wanna make a game,’ you have only one answer right?”
71. How World of Warcraft helped Epidemiologists create better disease models
72. Battle for Azeroth is the fastest-selling World of Warcraft expansion: Day-one global sales surpass 3.4 million
73. Battle for Azeroth beats out past World of Warcraftexpansions in day-one sales
74. World of Warcraft devs explore the history of the long-running MMO
75. Reinventing God of War was a battle against doubt
76. Assassin’s Creed’s gap year could start a trend
77. Whoa, There’s Gonna Be A Streets Of Rage 4
78. Taking on Madden as an option instead of a Hail Mary: Solo developer David Winter is building a business with simulation football games catering to audiences unserved by EA’s juggernaut
79. Why Velocity Supernova needs a publisher – but is struggling to find one: FuturLab’s James Marsden delves deeper into the difficulties getting a Velocity 2X sequel signed, despite an audience of millions
80. Oculus Founder Serves up Scathing Review of Magic Leap One, Calling It A “Tragic Heap”
81. Hands-on: Upcoming VR Shooter ‘Telefrag’ Boasts Impossible, Escher-style Arenas
82. Orpheus to bring suite of “self-care entertainment” games to VR: New publishing venture focused on games with positive impact on player well-being
83. Gamescom sets another record for attendance: But with 370,000 visitors, venue management admit to congestion issues
84. Gamescom 18 boasts 15,000 jump in attendees at record 370,000
85. Portal was a classic from out of nowhere – Why I Love: YoYo Games’ Russell Kay remembers how The Orange Box toss-in stole the whole Half-Life show

Jon

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. When Did Ajit Pai Know?
2. On Thursday, Ajit Pai Has To Explain Why His FCC Made Up A DDOS Attack And Lied To Congress
3. Ajit Pai grilled by lawmakers on why FCC spread “myth” of DDoS attack
4. Ajit Pai Does Something Right, Will Reform Stupid Utility Pole Rules To Speed Up Fiber Deployment
5. Ajit Pai loses in court—FCC can’t kill broadband subsidy in Tribal areas
6. Court Rejects Ajit Pai’s Bid To Reduce Broadband Subsidies For Tribal Areas
7. Oh Look, Yet More Efforts To Strangle Broadband Competition 
8. The Sinclair/Tribune Merger Is Dead
9. Tribune calls off merger, blasts Sinclair for circumventing FCC rules
10. Tribune Kills Merger, Sues Sinclair For Its ‘Unnecessarily Aggressive’ Merger Sales Pitch
11. FCC says court made error in approval of AT&T/Time Warner merger
12. Third Comcast Website Flaw Exposes User Data In As Many Months 
13. Telus vs. Telus: Who Do You Believe on Wireless Competition in Canada?
14. Speedier broadband standards? Pai’s FCC says 25Mbps is fast enough
15. A Community-Run ISP Is the Highest Rated Broadband Company in America: A Consumer Reports survey of 176,000 Americans finds that small, locally owned ISPs are routinely ranked higher than big telecom companies.

DIGITAL

1. Unenforceability in the U.S. a Non-Starter When Google Returns to the BC Supreme Court
2. Google’s servers housed by a third-party ISP qualify as a regular and established place of business to establish proper venue in the Eastern District of Texas
3. How 3-D Printing Exposes the Fallacy of Federal Gun Laws
4. Twitter says InfoWars hasn’t ‘violated our rules.’ It looks like that’s not the case
5. Twitter finally deletes some of Alex Jones, Infowars videos and tweets: Glad to have you on board, Twitter – signed, every other tech company.
6. Twitter suspends Alex Jones for urging people to keep “battle rifles” ready [Update]
7. Alex Jones claims he’s being silenced as bans push him to alternative platforms: Removals from Facebook, YouTube, Spotify and Apple haven’t slowed his posting, but the Infowars founder is appealing to the president
8. InfoWars app will stay in the iOS App Store—here’s Apple’s reason why
9. Alex Jones’ ‘Free Speech’ Shouldn’t Be Your Primary Concern
10. Online activists hit hatemongers like Alex Jones where it hurts the most – in the wallet
11. Vimeo Bans Alex Jones After Conspiracy Hawker Ramps Up Output There
12. Platforms, Speech And Truth: Policy, Policing And Impossible Choices
13. Platforms Are Not Publishers: The essential value of the internet is conversation, not content – and journalists need to embrace it.
14. How social media took us from Tahrir Square to Donald Trump: To understand how digital technologies went from instruments for spreading democracy to weapons for attacking it, you have to look beyond the technologies themselves. (Zeynep Tufekci)
15. How Turkey silences journalists online, one removal request at a time
16. Should platforms be regulated? A new survey says yes.
17. How WeChat Filters Images for One Billion Users
18. New law bans US gov’t from buying tech from Chinese giants ZTE and Huawei
19. Sneaky Website User Bound by Online Terms of Use Provision Despite Renewing Subscription in Spouse’s Name 
20. Now returning: NFL games, player protests, and presidential tweets
21. Adidas will livestream high school football games on Twitter: A new series will broadcast eight weekly games from across the country through the season.
22. Is A Twitter Account An Employer’s Trade Secret? Yes, Says Media Company 
23. Twitter Promptly Suspends Tesla Whistleblower Following Tweets About His Former Employer
24. Ruby Rose Quits Twitter Following ‘Batwoman’ Backlash
25. Microsoft Threatens to Stop Hosting Gab, the Worst Social Network, Over Anti-Semitic Threats of Violence
26. Why Facebook is losing the war on hate speech in Myanmar: Reuters found more than 1,000 examples of posts and images attacking the Rohingya on Facebook. A secretive operation by the social media giant is failing to end the problem.
27. The Vigilantes on Facebook Who Stream To Catch a Predator-Style Ambushes of Alleged Pedophiles
28. Facebook will make accounts with a ‘large audience’ verify their location
29. Facebook Bans ‘Promotion’ Of Kodi Boxes, Even If They’re Perfectly Legal
30. The Story Behind The Story That Created A Political Nightmare For Facebook: In 2016, Gizmodo reported that Facebook workers “suppressed” conservative news. An editor has second thoughts.
31. Facebook is hiring the team behind an interactive video company that dragged its feet in complying with data rules
32. Facebook Beats Sony to Spanish Soccer Rights in India
33. Accused Pirate Tries For Attorney’s Fees After Copyright Troll Attempts To Run Away From Discovery
34. Topple Track Attacks EFF and Others With Outrageous DMCA Notices
35. Drake Becomes First Musician To Hit 50 Billion Global Streams Across All Platforms
36. Spotify Is Testing A Free Version Of Its Service Where Users Can Skip Ads
37. Logan Paul Says He Wants To Challenge A UFC Fighter After His Much-Hyped Boxing Match With KSI
38. KSI Releases Documentary ‘Can’t Lose’ Ahead Of Logan Paul Boxing Match-Up
39. YouTube Paying Stars Hundreds Of Thousands Of Dollars To Promote New Features (Report)
40. PBS Taps BroadbandTV to Manage User-Uploaded YouTube Videos
41. BroadbandTV Announces New Partnership with PBS
42. BroadbandTV Pacts With PBS To Help It Monetize User-Generated YouTube Uploads
43. YouTube TV Adds 100th Service Location
44. YouTube Star Jimmy Wong Cast In Disney’s Live-Action ‘Mulan’ Adaptation, Set For 2020
45. YouTube Beauty Stars Alissa Ashley And Cloe Feldman Sign With Abrams Artists Agency
46. YouTube Yanks Horror Film Ad For Violating Its ‘Shocking Content’ Policy
47. It’s Still Shockingly Easy To Buy (And Sell) Fake YouTube Views
48. The Flourishing Business of Fake YouTube Views: Plays can be bought for pennies and delivered in bulk, inflating videos’ popularity and making the social media giant vulnerable to manipulation.
49. Susan Sarandon-Starrer ‘Viper Club’ Is YouTube’s First Film To Get A Theatrical Release
50. SAG-AFTRA National Director Wants To Protect Online Creators, Says Industry Is “Very Unfair And Unbalanced”
51. Posting on Social Media? What #paid influencers need to know
52. Ad Standards: Influencer Marketing Steering Committee Disclosure Guidelines
53. #Infringement – How social media dealt a blow to Nike’s latest marketing campaign
54. Lele Pons Signs With Universal Music Group’s 10:22 pm Label
55. PopSugar Earns the Ire of Two New Fashionistas
56. NBCUniversal To Release Streaming Service ‘Watch Back,’ Which Rewards Viewers For Engaging
57. ‘Star Wars’ Series For Disney’s Upcoming Streaming Platform To Cost A Reported $100 Million
58. The Roku Channel is now available on the Web without a Roku device
59. Ninja Says He Won’t Stream With Other Women In Order To Preserve His Marriage
60. Lele Pons Inks Record Deal With Universal Music Group Imprint ‘10:22 pm’
61. What Am I Worth to Advertisers? My Obsessive Quest to Put a Price on My Attention
62. Honey Badger Don’t Care, but the Lanham Act Might
63. Interacting With This Therapy Bot Can Help Children With Autism Perfect Their Social Skills
64. Watch A Sporty AI Teach Itself To Dribble Better Than You
65. AI Can Make Sure Cancer Patients Get Just Enough (but Not Too Much) Treatment
66. AI Is Shining a Spotlight on Women Scientists That Were Previously Overlooked
67. Helping Global Policymakers Navigate AI’s Challenges and Opportunities
68. Sophia the Robot – her charm and her challenges
69. Alexa and Cortana integration starts rolling out today
70. I Tried Apple’s Screen Time Tool. The Results Were Not Heartening.
71. Maybe MoviePass Shouldn’t Compare Itself To Uber
72. It’s Time to Let MoviePass Die
73. Scientists Knew Blue Light From Screens Contributed to Blindness. Now They Know Why.
74. The Uncertain Future of Screens and Humans
75. The California Consumer Privacy Act Should Be Condemned, Not Celebrated
76. An Update on the Constitutional Court Challenge to FOSTA–Woodhull Freedom v. US
77. Prisons Switch Device Providers; Render $11.3 Million Of Inmate-Purchased Music Worthless
78. General Magic—how tech superfriends assembled, dreamt up smartphones, and failed

CREATIVITY

1. One-Sided Story: Lobbyist Data Shows Music, Movie and Publisher Groups Account For 80 Per cent of Registered Copyright Meetings in Canada Since 2015 Election
2. Disney Takes Stand Against “Overzealous Copyright Holders”
3. Irony Alert: Disney (Yes, DISNEY!) Whines About ‘Overzealous Copyright Holders’
4. Disney Gets Early Loss In Trademark, Copyright Suit Against Unlicensed Birthday Party Characters
5. Two skyline photo cases, two different results 
6. Ferrari Crashes Head-On Into Infringement Suit
7. Aloha Poke Co. Rewarded For Trademark Bullying With Protests Outside Its Headquarters In Chicago
8. Bruce Lee’s Estate Gets Stiff Roundhouse Kick After Trying To Block Theater Company’s Trademark
9. The free speech panic: how the right concocted a crisis: Snowflake students have become the target of a new rightwing crusade. But exaggerated claims of censorship reveal a deeper anxiety at the core of modern conservatism
10. Blame Rupert Murdoch for Trump Calling Journalists ‘Enemies of the People’: Fox News made the president, and there is no doubt about the man who made Fox News what it is.
11. Dinesh D’Souza and the Decline of Conservatism
12. Ivanka Trump apparently really hated that SNL “Complicit” ad
13. School Board Demands Journalists Be Punished For Reporting On The School Board’s Redaction Failure
14. Broward County School Board Gets Hit With Anti-SLAPP Suit After Trying To Punish Paper For Exposing Its Redaction Failure
15. Copyright in Cream Cheese
16. Hall v. Author Solutions LLC
17. Disney Enterprises, Inc. v. Characters for Hire, LLC

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. We’re Bad At Regulating Privacy, Because We Don’t Understand Privacy
2. Brief To FISA Court Says The Presumption Of Openness Should Apply There, Too
3. Judge Bypasses The First Amendment, Conjures Up A Right To Be Forgotten For The Complainant
4. AP Exclusive: Google tracks your movements, like it or not
5. Google May Still Be Tracking You, Even If You Opted Out
6. In-vehicle wireless devices are endangering emergency first responders
7. Australian gov’t wants to force tech firms to weaken crypto
8. Australian law could force tech firms to hand over customer data: Companies like Facebook, Apple and Google could face a $7.3 million fine if they don’t.
9. Australian Gov’t Floats New Batch Of Compelled Access Legislation With An Eye On Encryption
10. Malware has no trouble hiding and bypassing macOS user warnings 
11. A New Pacemaker Hack Puts Malware Directly On The Device
12. Hack causes pacemakers to deliver life-threatening shocks
13. In-the-wild router exploit sends unwitting users to fake banking site
14. Hackers Find Earth’s Satellite Communication Systems Aren’t All That Secure
15. Hackers Reportedly Breach PGA Servers, Demand Bitcoin Ransom
16. Bitcoin and ether are both down more than two-thirds from their peaks 
17. Hacking A Brand New Mac Remotely, Right Out Of The Box 
18. Pre-Teen Hackers Prove It: The U.S. Election System Simply Isn’t Secure Enough
19. Facial Recognition Tool That Tracks People Across Social Media Now Available to Hackers
20. Windows 10 to get disposable sandboxes for dodgy apps
21. Caesars Palace not-so-Praetorian guards intimidate DEF CON goers with searches [Updated]

GAMES

1. Bethesda defends legal action against man selling pre-owned copy of Evil Within 2: Publisher says sale of sealed and unopened games still constitutes unauthorised reselling if listed as new
2. Bethesda hits Amazon seller with legal threat over reselling pre-owned game as ‘new’
3. Bethesda reluctant to bring Elder Scrolls: Legends to systems that don’t offer cross-play
4. Bethesda pressures Sony with “non-negotiable” cross-platform demand [Updated]
5. Lawsuit threat shuts down ROM downloads on major emulation site
6. Devs corroborate claims of sexist culture as Riot looks for way forward
7. Ex-Naughty Dog dev explores the perks of a studio devoid of ‘dedicated management’
8. Former IGN Reviewer Responds To Plagiarism Allegations: ‘Not At All Intentional’
9. IGN Pulls Ex-Editor’s Posts After Dozens More Plagiarism Accusations Surface
10. IGN pulls all of writer’s work after plagiarism scandal: Further evidence of former employee’s wrong-doing prompts gaming site to scrub him from the archives
11. Germany relaxes regulations on Nazi imagery in video games
12. Germany relaxes stance on Nazi symbols in video games: Like films, games featuring “unconstitutional” symbols can now be submitted for age-rating in Germany
13. “Flooding the market with Nazi symbols is not something we want”: Game MD Felix Falk on the long struggle to allow games tackling Nazism and its imagery to be rated in Germany, and the responsibility of being part of “the social discourse”
14. Germany says games with Nazi symbols can get “artistic” exception to ban
15. Video Games In Germany Can Now Maybe Kinda Sometimes Have Swastikas
16. “Games need to take more responsibility”: Nick Button-Brown talks about making kids games when 11-year-olds are playing Grand Theft Auto, and how the industry needs to embrace its social responsibility
17. Ready at Dawn shuts down Deformers servers
18. Growth of Chinese market slows to a crawl amid halt on government-issued licences: Market growth down to five per cent for first half of 2018, compared to nearly 30 per cent the year prior
19. New initiative aiming to boost diversity among games industry speakers
20. Over a year later, South Korean devs still aren’t allowed to publish games in China
21. Korean devs have been unable to publish in China since March 2017: Meanwhile, Chinese developers continue to push aggressively into Korea
22. China has quietly stopped approving new games for release 
23. Monster Hunter: World pulled from sale in China – WeGame cites “large number of complaints” though FT report suggests “bureaucratic infighting”
24. Tencent has pulled Monster Hunter: World from sale in China
25. Monster Hunter World PC release pulls in record number of concurrent Steam users
26. Monster Hunter: World debuts on PC, becomes Steam’s biggest new launch of 2018
27. Mobile-focused Tencent is reportedly on the outs with Riot
28. Tencent reports decrease in PC and mobile revenue despite rising DAUs
29. Discord turns retailer with beta launch of game storefront
30. Publishing platforms need policies around not-for-profit game devs
31. Games4EU launches, highlights Brexit’s negative impact on UK games industry
32. Anti-Brexit group Games4EU launches campaign: Grassroots movements aims to demonstrate the damage leaving the European Union will do to the UK games industry
33. Culture clash: Why Arena of Valor is struggling in America – Mintegral’s Jeff Sue sees the Western version of Tencent’s Honor of Kings as a game “lost in translation”
34. Tencent’s mobile games revenues drop, but daily users are on the rise
35. Fortnite Didn’t Do Anything New. That’s Why It Will Shape The Future Of Gaming.
36. Fortnite devs working to segregate keyboard/mouse players
37. Proposed Fortnite changes aim to group mouse-and-keyboard players together
38. Google Play warns searchers that Fortnite “is not available”
39. Google Play searches now warn that Fortnite isn’t hosted in the store
40. Fortnite on Android gets off to a bumpy, Samsung-only start, lags behind PUBG
41. Jagex launches publishing arm: “We’ve already seen 100 games”: Jagex Partners will focus on ‘a handful’ of live games to begin with
42. RuneScape dev forms Jagex Partners to take on publishing live games
43. EA’s chief design officer Patrick Soderlund is stepping down
44. Patrick Söderlund leaves Electronic Arts after 12 years: Publisher reshuffling teams as long-serving exec makes surprise departure
45. Madden NFL franchise reaches 130m lifetime sales: EA reports “strong opening weekend” for Madden 19
46. Pete Hines says cross-platform play a necessity for The Elder Scrolls: Legends: Bethesda VP calls feature “essentially non-negotiable” in bringing the game to new platforms
47. ZeniMax-owned Escalation Studios is now Bethesda Game Studios Dallas
48. Fallout 76 avoiding Steam so Bethesda can form ‘direct relationships’ with players
49. Jam City’s Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery clears $50 million in revenue
50. Sensor Tower: Harry Potter Hogwarts Mystery revenue surpasses $55m – First-time downloads continue to rise noticeably through July
51. Phoenix Point crowdfunding breaks $2 million – here’s how it was done: Snapshot Games explains how $250,000 on advertising drove almost $1.2 million in revenue
52. DLC: Can games change people’s minds? – Developers behind Wolfenstein The New Colossus, Night in the Woods, and Katamary Damacy share whether their message-laden games impacted the audience
53. PlayStation consoles surpass 500 million sold worldwide: And Sony is celebrating with a fancy PS4
54. Ubisoft quietly ends development on planned Steep Switch release
55. Steep canceled on Nintendo Switch: Ubisoft to focus on “new live content and challenges” for current platforms
56. Diablo III’s Switch version leaked ahead of official unveil, coming “2018” [Updated]
57. Nintendo narrows down Switch Online launch to the ‘second half of September’
58. Nintendo Switch Online coming in “the second half” of September: The Switch’s delayed online service gets its most specific launch window to date
59. Nintendo Switch ‘Test VR Mode’ Reportedly Uncovered by Modders
60. Nintendo has sold over 700 million total hardware units: Switch sales inch closer to 20 million, 3DS nears 73 million units
61. Nintendo Using Copyright To Erase Video Game History
62. GameMaker Studio 2 now offers Switch support in open beta
63. One month in, Pokemon Quest has brought in over $8 million on mobile
64. Cuphead sells over 3M copies nearly a year after launch
65. Paradox Interactive’s record Q2 revenues marred by declining profits: Royalty payments to third-party devs and two cancelled projects dragged on the Swedish publisher’s bottom line
66. Midnight Hub shuts down: Swedish studio calls it quits after Lake Ridden sees sluggish sales despite “the best launch imaginable”
67. Sekai Project hit by significant layoffs: CEO confirms “many” of its staff have been let go, employee reports suggest entire LA office has been closed
68. Sumo: “Constraining Eve Valkyrie devs to VR would be the wrong thing to do”
69. Magic Leap One Hands-on Suggests a Headset That’s a Lot Like HoloLens
70. Valve seems to be working on tools to get Windows games running on Linux
71. Valve tells Dota 2 teams not to take on gambling sponsors: Professional teams competing in The International 2018 advised to end existing long-term contracts
72. Inaugural Overwatch League final pulls in nearly 11m viewers: OWL final sets precedent as first live esports event to be aired on prime time ESPN
73. Overwatch League reportedly adding Toronto team for $35 million: Splyce to partner with OverActive Media, Pittsburgh Penguins investor
74. The Strong museum’s eGameRevolution exhibit now features a Wargaming collection
75. Twitch Unveils “Several Big Discovery Changes,” Nixes Playlist-Like ‘Communities’ Feature
76. Twitch Is Approaching Top YouTube Stars With Exclusive Livestreaming Deals Potentially Worth Millions (Report)
77. How IGN is using Fortnite and Marvel to grow on Snapchat Discover
78. GOG: Streaming is another layer of DRM – Head of global communication Lukasz Kukawski says streaming won’t take over game distribution, talks about storefront’s approach to discoverability and audience expansion
79. Whole new worlds: Improbable’s tech lets smaller studios think big – With Mavericks and Seed, Automaton and Klang Games are using SpatialOS to redefine what it means to be massively multiplayer
80. This isn’t a game: We try out a professional driver-in-the-loop simulator
81. After 14 years, the biggest obstacle for World of Warcraft is time, not technology: Blizzard technical director Patrick Dawson on overcoming the challenges of continued development on an ageing MMO
82. Rockstar reveals first Red Dead Redemption 2 gameplay details
83. Publisher Tilting Point sets up Barcelona studio to support live mobile games 
84. Tilting Point opens new Barcelona studio: Mobile firm’s new outfit will focus on publishing, art and user acquisition
85. Crystal Dynamics opening Washington studio: Bellevue-based Crystal Northwest formed with Wargaming Seattle veterans, set to work on tech development for upcoming Avengers game
86. Epic Games launches new learning platform providing free video tutorials 
87. Unreal Engine Online Learning becomes new, free hub for learning Unreal: Epic Games launches platform to help train developers of all skill levels in its engine
88. Slow online checkouts drive over a quarter of gamers to abandon their orders: Developers may be willing to sacrifice sales revenue for the reliability of subscription services, says SuperData
89. How Neopets has influenced a generation of game developers

Jon

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. CRTC Truthiness: New Docs Reveal New Story About Bell Meetings with the Commission on Website Blocking 
2. Trump Throws His FCC Under The Bus For Pointing Out Sinclair May Have Lied During Its Merger Sales Pitch
3. Ajit Pai Lies (Again) To Congress With Claim Net Neutrality Killed Broadband Investment
4. FCC Chairman Will Not Recuse Himself From Investigation Into Former Client Securus Technologies
5. Cord Cutting Accelerates Faster Than Expected, As Cable Still Refuses To Compete On Price
6. The Fairfax and Nine merger is the disruption of digital media arriving to Australia in a big way
7. NY threatens to kick Charter out of the state after broadband failures
8. New York State Votes To Kick Charter Out Of The State For Poor Service, Failing To Meet Merger Conditions
9. NY orders Charter out of state, says it must sell Time Warner Cable system
10. Comcast installed Wi-Fi gear without approval—and this city is not happy
11. Comcast, Charter dominate US; telcos “abandoned rural America,” report says 

DIGITAL

1. Facebook Loses $120 Billion in Market Value, as Stock Slides on Fears Growth Is Hitting a Wall
2. YouTube comes down on Alex Jones for hate speech, child endangerment content
3. Alex Jones hit with 30-day Facebook suspension for bullying and hate speech: Only Jones’ personal profile is affected, not his official channels, including InfoWars
4. Facebook, Following YouTube’s Lead, Takes Action Against InfoWars And Alex Jones
5. Alex Jones slammed with 30-day ban from Facebook for hateful videos [Update]
6. Ted Cruz Bravely Defends Alex Jones Against Facebook’s Temporary Internet Jail
7. Twitter Responds to Claims of ‘Shadow Banning’
8. Insights: Twitter, Facebook Investors Find No Upside In Doing The Right Thing
9. Facebook Just Shut Down Dozens of Fake Pages
10. Facebook’s latest meddling disclosure: “We expected the organization to evolve”
11. ‘We Are Not Bots’: Facebook Censors U.S. Activists After Falsely Claiming They ‘Unwittingly’ Planned Protest
12. MPs slam Facebooks serious failings in report identifying the misuse of personal data as threatening our democracy.
13. Facebook Settles with the Washington Attorney General Over Ad Targeting Practices
14. Facebook’s “downvote” system begins rolling out wider in US—here’s how it works
15. Facebook Starts Showing You How Much Time You Waste on Facebook
16. Facebook And Instagram Add Tools To Help Users Not Get Addicted To Facebook And Instagram
17. Cops Lose Qualified Immunity After Arresting Man For A Snarky Facebook Comment
18. A Cautionary Tale of Sarcasm in Social Media–Ross v. City of Jackson
19. Ignorant Hysteria Over 3D Printed Guns Leads To Courts Ignoring The First Amendment
20. Universal Right Back At It Issuing A DMCA For A Reporter’s Video Of Prince Fans Singing ‘Purple Rain’
21. Universal Retracts DMCA On Journalist Video Of Prince Fans Singing Purple Rain
22. Website User Held to Arbitration Provision Despite Renewing Subscription in Wife’s Name 
23. Embedding preview images is not copyright infringement, says German court
24. 3D-printed gun website yanks CAD files after federal judicial order
25. You Can’t Legally 3D Print Guns Quite Yet
26. The Battle Over 3D-Printed Guns Is Getting Serious
27. 8 states take aim at 3D gun company, sue to get files off the Internet
28. Is Code Free Speech?
29. Inside the Unabomber’s angsty, odd and furious online revival: A TV drama has rekindled interest in anti-technology terrorist Ted Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber. Ironically enough, his followers now congregate online
30. How they did it (and will likely try again): GRU hackers vs. US elections: Latest Mueller indictment offers excruciating details to confirm known election pwnage.
31. On Conspiracy Theories and Election Hacking 
32. Why We’re Sharing 3 Million Russian Troll Tweets
33. My short life as (the face of) a Russian disinformation troll
34. Daily Beast: Russian hackers targeted Democrat facing tough 2018 election
35. Russian Government Decides To Stamp Out ‘Fake News’ At Home, Presumably Leaving Export Operations Unaffected
36. DOJ announces arrest of 3 men allegedly behind notorious FIN7 hacking group
37. Report: Julian Assange’s Thin Ice at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London Could Be About to Break
38. The age of cyberwar is here. We can’t keep citizens out of the debate
39. Senator Mark Warner Lays Out Ideas For Regulating Internet Platforms
40. Microsoft invests $500,000 in coding and tech training for students of colour: Firm’s support will open Seattle chapter for Black Girls Code and boost Technology Access Foundation’s STEM program
41. Windows 10 will try not to reboot when you’re just grabbing a cup of coffee
42. Twitter’s One Step Closer to Figuring Out Why It Sucks
43. Twitter is funding college professors to audit its platform for toxicity
44. On Amazon Prime Day warehouse workers around the world took action against the company. We hear about some of the organizing going on in fulfillment centers from Germany to New Jersey.
45. Amazon’s Rekognition messes up, matches 28 lawmakers to mugshots
46. Amazon’s Face Recognition Falsely Matched 28 Members of Congress With Mugshots
47. Amazon Rekognition Falsely Matched 28 Members of Congress to Mugshots
48. Amazon wrongly IDed 28 members of Congress, and they’re not happy about it
49. Congress Members Want Answers After Amazon’s Facial Recognition Software Says 28 Of Them Are Criminals
50. Congress Members Demand Answers From, Investigation Of Federal Facial Rec Tech Users
51. Amazon: Cops should set confidence level on facial recognition to 99%
52. The Value Of Public Shaming
53. The future role of AI in fact checking
54. Data’s day of reckoning: We can build a future we want to live in, or we can build a nightmare. The choice is up to us.
55. Why Westerners Fear Robots And The Japanese Do Not
56. The “Biometric Mirror” Judges You The Way We’ve Taught It To: With Bias
57. Contractual considerations in Robotic Process Automation and Artificial Intelligence outsourcing
58. AI Coaches Are Here To Unleash Your Inner LeBron
59. Canadian Developments in AI and Technology: Ethical Considerations for Innovators
60. Neural network implemented with light instead of electrons
61. Regulation-bot: the rise of AI legislation
62. The Rise of the Last-Mile Exchange: Keeping up with the growing volume of e-commerce will require delivery companies to disrupt their long-standing business model.
63. Report: Google is preparing to cave to Chinese search censorship
64. Google’s Censored Chinese Search Engine Shows It’s No Longer Afraid of U.S. Backlash
65. Google Developing Censored Search Engine For China: Report
66. Disappointing: Google Makes Plan To Return To China With Censored Search Engine
67. Google Glass Is Back, And May Have Finally Found A Place It Belongs
68. YouTube Will Bring Original Programming To Germany, Japan, Mexico, France, And India
69. YouTube In Hot Water Again After Search Results For Tom Hanks Lead To Conspiracy Theories
70. YouTube’s Second Demi Lovato Documentary Is In Production But On Hold After Apparent Overdose
71. YouTube Premium’s Fall Slate To Feature Will Smith, Robert Downey Jr., Kirsten Dunst
72. YouTube Music Is Seriously Bulking Up Its Senior Leadership On A Global Scale
73. Indian PM Narendra Modi Surpasses One Million Subscribers, Will Soon Be Top World Leader On YouTube
74. Jimmy Kimmel Enlists Goddaughter To Teach Him About YouTube Beauty Tutorials
75. Casey Neistat Is “Just Getting Started” After Surpassing 10 Million Subscribers
76. Casey Neistat Challenges Logan Paul In Testy Interview: “All That Really Matters Is What Transpired”
77. Will Smith To Casey Neistat: “Let’s Get To Creatin’”
78. Alisha Marie Returns From Two-Month Hiatus, Looks To Normalize Breaks For YouTube Stars
79. Huda Kattan, Lele Pons Are Instagram’s Top-Paid Digital Influencers At $33,000 Per Post (Report)
80. “Kidtech” Company Superawesome Launches Video Player For Family-Friendly Publishers
81. CBS Announces Plans For 24/7 Streaming Local News Services, Launching First In New York
82. Viacom confirms Awesomeness TV acquisition
83. Viacom To Acquire Digital Media Company AwesomenessTV For Rumored Price “Below $300 Million”
84. Viacom announces it’s buying Awesomeness: Viacom announced it’s buying Awesomeness for a price well under $300 million – Awesomeness was owned by NBCUniversal, Verizon, and Hearst.
85. Jeffrey Katzenberg’s WndrCo Raises Additional $200 Million, For $1 Billion In Total Funding (Report)
86. Spotify Hits 83 Million Premium Subs in Q2 as Net Loss Doubles: CEO Daniel Ek says direct-licensing deals with artists don’t make Spotify a record label
87. Spotify is now streaming Archie motion comics
88. Spotify Debuts ‘Archie’ Motion Comic Amid Pivot To Audio-Visual Content
89. Penske Media Makes Strategic Investment in BuzzAngle Music: Key PMC brands, including Rolling Stone and Variety, will utilize the platform’s data, analysis and consumption charts.
90. Snapchat To Act As Matchmaker For Creators And Advertisers Via ‘Storytellers’ Initiative
91. NFL Renews Snapchat Deal for Two Years, Will Flood the Zone for Sunday Games 
92. Snapchat launches new Lenses that respond to your voice
93. Snapchat’s Latest Lenses Are Speech-Activated With Words Like “Love” And “Wow”
94. MoviePass Is Jacking Up Its Prices as It Tries to Survive
95. MoviePass, AMC, and the Era of Cinema Subscriptions
96. Mission: Impossible’s Box Office ‘Failure’ Shows Why We Need MoviePass
97. The strange story of how MoviePass’ owner was created by an Indian company accused of massive fraud
98. WhatsApp Rightly Refuses Indian Government’s Silly Demand To Break Encryption
99. Loyalty vs. Freedom of Expression: Who Wins the Battle in the Social Media Ring
100. OSC Cryptocurrency Survey Reveals Public’s Uncertainty About Blockchain Issues
101. Cryptomining Malware Is Infecting Corporate Networks Worldwide
102. Hackers find creative way to steal $7.7 million without being detected
103. The Rise Of An “Assassination Marketplace” Shows The Dark Side of Decentralized Networks
104. NFLPA Bets on Blockchain-Backed Social Streaming Platform SportsCastr
105. California Federal Court Denies Preliminary Injunction In “Blockchain” Dispute 
106. Up to Two-Thirds of Bitcoin Transactions Have No Economic Value
107. Inside Ecobee’s plans to outsmart Nest: The smart-thermostat maker wants to remodel our houses for the digital age — if Google’s Nest doesn’t squash it first.
108. How Software Ate the Point of Sale: Or, why paying for stuff is so complicated now
109. Services drove Apple’s best third quarter ever, but iPhone sales aren’t growing
110. Growing Up Jobs: Steve Jobs and Chrisann Brennan were 23 when their daughter was born. Lisa Brennan-Jobs remembers the pride and pain of a childhood spent navigating the vastness between her struggling single mom and Apple’s mercurial founder.
111. Happy Birthday To Us! Wired Turns 25 

CREATIVITY

1. Inequality in 1,100 Popular Films: Examining Portrayals of Gender, Race/Ethnicity, LGBT & Disability from 2007 to 2017 (Dr. Stacy L. Smith, Marc Choueiti, Dr. Katherine Pieper, Ariana Case, & Angel Choi)
2. In the era of #MeToo, is it still OK to laugh at ‘Animal House’?
3. Stephen Colbert swallows hard and addresses boss Les Moonves’ #MeToo mess
4. Assaults in dressing rooms. Groping during lessons. Classical musicians reveal a profession rife with harassment.
5. Down for what?: Every rapper wants a woman who will do anything, except be her own person.
6. The Sex-Trafficking Case Testing the Limits of the First Amendment: How a couple of crusading journalists made a fortune selling adult escort ads and in the process became unlikely and widely reviled First Amendment advocates.
7. Why Are We Still So Worried About Wat­­ching Porn?: Decades of fearmongering almost got porn addiction added to the International Classification of Diseases. Thankfully, the World Health Organization got it right.
8. Staircases in Space: Why Are Places in Science Fiction Not Wheelchair-Accessible?
9. “Known but not discussed”: Low-income people aren’t getting quality news and information. What can the industry do about it?
10. How music has responded to a decade of economic inequality: Popular music has always delivered social critique. But it’s struggled to grapple with the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.
11. The 200 Greatest Songs By 21st Century Women+
12. Sony Finds Itself In Court After Bullying Film Studio Over Supposed ‘Slender Man’ Copyright Infringement
13. Better by design: significant changes coming to Canada’s industrial design legislation
14. Are headline and title writers getting too cocky about their IP rights?
15. Fox Shareholders Have Agreed to the Disney Deal, and the X-Men Are Coming Back to Marvel

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. GDPR Compliance for Canadian Organizations
2. How GDPR is affecting the kidtech biz: The EU’s new data protection and privacy regulations went into effect in May, but experts say the kids industry is not prepared for the potential fines.
3. UK Tribunal Says GCHQ Engaged In Illegal Telco Collection Program For More Than A Decade
4. Inspector General Says NSA Still Hasn’t Implemented Its Post-Snowden Internal Security Measures
5. Court Rejects Evidence From Warrantless Search Of Phone Six Years After The Gov’t Seized It
6. Cops Slowly Wise Up To The SIM Hijacking Trend Carriers Don’t Want To Seriously Address
7. EU And Japan Agree To Free Data Flows, Just As Tottering Privacy Shield Framework Threatens Transatlantic Transfers
8. Sir Cliff Richard v The BBC: Blurring the lines between libel and privacy law
9. Freedom of expression: On a Cliff edge?
10. Hold on to Your Coins! Understanding Sextortion Scam Emails and What You Should Do
11. Click on this iOS phishing scam and you’ll be connected to “Apple Care”
12. Password breach teaches Reddit that, yes, phone-based 2FA is that bad
13. New Spectre attack enables secrets to be leaked over a network
14. Shipping company’s networks in the Americas crippled by ransomware attack
15. Bringing the Fourth Amendment into the Digital Age: Implications of Carpenter v. United States
16. New Report Says The Feds’ Focus On Device Encryption Is Holding Local Law Enforcement Back
17. Burglar wakes up couple to ask to use their Wi-Fi network

GAMES

1. Detroit dev Quantic Dream loses in court case brought by ex-employee
2. Former Quantic Dream employee wins court case against developer: Court rules in favour of employee who quit due to circulation of offensive photoshopped images
3. SimCity 2000 remake removed by EA for using copyrighted assets
4. EA shuts down open source SimCity 2000 over lifted assets: “The current audio visual output of the repository creates content that infringes on Electronic Arts copyright,” says publisher
5. EA financials show quiet Q1 reflective of few releases: Net revenue of $1.137 billion nonetheless above estimates ahead of packed Q2
6. FIFA Mobile’s debut in China brings EA its highest grossing day for a mobile game
7. EA open to cross-platform playability for Battlefield, other key franchises: Publisher also eyeing Fortnite’s success as a model for future free-to-play mobile releases
8. Area 35 ends legal dispute over Kickstarter embezzlement claims in settlement
9. Area 35, ex-employee settle defamation suit: Tariq Lacy retracts embezzlement accusations against studio CEO Hiroaki Yura
10. Abstractism removed from Steam store for ‘cryptojacking’: Game disguised as indie platformer installed programs to mine cryptocurrency using players’ computers
11. Valve removes Steam game after allegations of hidden cryptocurrency miner [Updated]
12. Valve adds safeguards to Steam to address concerns over fake item scams
13. Steam sees surprising, significant usage dip in 2018
14. Prominent Denuvo hacker arrested for breaching anti-piracy tech
15. Denuvo investigation reportedly leads to arrest for games pirate Voksi: However, Bulgarian cracker claims he voluntarily went to police, reached out to DRM firm for “peaceful solution”
16. An overlooked line of code led to slow performance forWarhammer Online
17. Daily Mirror paid interview subject of Fortnite hit piece: “Fortnite made me a suicidal drug addict” author offered £300 for case study
18. Fortnite mobile earned average of $3.47 per install 90 days after launch – SensorTower: Battle royale ranked #6 most-downloaded app in the US for Q2 despite iOS exclusivity
19. Analyst estimates put Fortnite at more than 100M downloads on iOS
20. Fortnite mobile breaks 100m downloads and $160m IAP revenue: PUBG not expected to reach 100 million milestone for another 206 days
21. Fortnite cosmetics possibly taking revenue from top console games
22. Dutch Dota 2 players can now see the contents of their next loot box: Valve’s attempts to comply with loot box regulations continue apace
23. Forza Motorsport 7 will not feature loot boxes
24. Forza Motorsport 7 removes prize crates, avoids paid tokens: Microtransaction system from prior Forza games will not appear in Forza Horizon 4, either
25. Gran Turismo Sport gets microtransactions in July update: Polyphony Digital adds ability to purchase in-game cars for real money
26. Gran Turismo Sport, revisited: More tracks, more cars, more everything
27. Spectrum ISP kicked out of NY for allegedly throttling online games and streams
28. New York shows Spectrum ISP the door, in part for throttling League of Legends: State public service commission revokes approval of Charter, Time Warner merger due to “various instances of misconduct”
29. One Week Later, Blizzard Still Doesn’t Know WhyWorld Of Warcraft’s Leveling System Is Borked
30. Nintendo barely improves conflict minerals sourcing over two years: One-fourth of company’s smelters and refiners aren’t following protocols to prevent human rights abuses
31. NPD: NES Classic was the highest unit-selling platform for June – Retro consoles help lead 52% YOY hardware sales growth
32. Nintendo has sold nearly 20M Switch systems and 87M Switch games
33. Switch sales lead Nintendo’s first quarter while 3DS and mobile income stagnate
34. Increased profits and $1.5bn sales kick off Nintendo’s financial year: Platform holder maintains forecast as Switch lifetime sales reach 19.7 million consoles, 86.93 million games
35. Nintendo stock increase trips up hedge fund’s $400 million bet: Melvin Capital’s months-long short position in Switch maker suffers setback, may still prove profitable
36. Nintendo’s next Labo kit coming in Sept, looks like next-gen Pilotwings
37. The Sinclair ZX Vega+ is finally being shipped to Indiegogo backers
38. Sales up at Sony as PS4 software exceeds expectations
39. Worldwide PlayStation 4 shipments have topped 80 million
40. PlayStation drives $17.9 billion Q1 for Sony: Higher-than-expected software sales and 43% digital ratio among financial highlights
41. The business case for a streaming Xbox
42. Zynga Q2 sees bookings jump 12%: Social publisher beats guidance with $233.9 million in non-GAAP sales, net losses of just over $900,000
43. Glu Mobile narrows losses with record Q2 bookings
44. Zynga’s mobile ‘forever franchises’ contribute to Q2 growth 
45. Sega capitalizing on foreign exchange with Yakuza, Total War: Sega Europe exec John Clark says audiences in Asia and the West are increasingly interested in games from the other region’s developers, but for different reasons
46. Sea of Thieves has attracted over 5 million players
47. Sea of Thieves reaches five million players as Cursed Sails expansion launches: Plus, 40 million hours broadcast on Twitch but it’s still unclear how player count translates to sales due to Game Pass inclusion
48. Live Streams Of A Chinese Robot-Fighting Tournament Are Getting Millions Of Views On Twitch
49. No Man’s Sky Next reaches over 50,000 concurrent players: Hello Games’ space exploration game sees resurgence after a 200k+ concurrent user peak at launch
50. No Man’s Sky hit almost 100,000 concurrent players on Steam this past weekend
51. Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle revenue tops $1B after two years
52. Dragon Ball Z mobile title reaches estimated $1 billion revenue: Sensor Tower data indicates Bandai Namco’s Dokkan Battle has hit major milestone after two years
53. MapleStory M achieves three million downloads in first week: Mobile version of hugely popular Korean MMO tops highest grossing charts in key Asian markets
54. Monster Hunter: World helps Capcom to record-breaking first quarter
55. Monster Hunter: World passes 8m sold in strong Q1 for Capcom – Game revenue increased 79 per cent year-on-year on the strength of Monster Hunter and Street Fighter
56. $2.65m Binding of Isaac card game Kickstarter smashes target by over 5,000%: Almost 40,000 backers successfully funded tabletop spin-off of popular indie roguelike
57. From failed Kickstarter to career-defining success: The story of Pony Island: Daniel Mullins discusses how he bounced back from failure to create “the smartest game of 2016”
58. The art of failing: What 11 bit Studios learnt from Beat Cop – Marketing director Patryk Grzeszczuk – “We were too far away from the times and the culture that were depicted in the game”
59. Mail.ru took a $27m impairment charge on Armored Warfare development in Q2: The charge was related to the game’s recent poor performance, in a quarter that saw revenues rise but profits halve
60. Paradox Interactive chooses development over stagnation with CEO switch
61. Paradox: “We’ve released crappy games in the past… I don’t want to do that anymore”
62. Dead Cells dev hopes to challenge exploitation with equal pay model
63. Dead Cells dev Motion Twin touts equal pay system: All 11 employees at French studio have identical salary, same say in project direction
64. Empires & Puzzles: Disrupting the biggest market with the smallest team – CEO Timo Soininen discusses the importance of mid-development marketing and defying the “so-called industry experts”
65. Steam user count has decreased 17 percent since January 
66. Steam active users on unusual decline throughout 2018: Steep decrease after January surge may reflect popularity of PUBG, then Fortnite
67. Steam game accused of covertly mining for cryptocurrency
68. Lessons learned and questions raised in bringing a game from console to Steam
69. Worldwide digital spending up 15% in June – Superdata: PUBG bolstered by Steam sale with second-best month of all time by unit sales
70. PUBG Mobile’s revenue reaches $30 million: Users globally spending about $650k daily over the last month, nearly triple the amount for the previous month
71. Valve adds pop-ups to Community Market warning of potential scams: Dialogue boxes warn users if they attempt to purchase items for a game they don’t own, or a new release
72. Valve’s first new game in 5 years, Artifact, coming in November, starting at $20
73. How League of Legends Went From Idea to Esport
74. Why Competitive Gaming Is Starting To Look A Lot Like Professional Sports: Can an FPS compete with the NFL?
75. How mobile can unlock esports for a casual audience: nWay CEO Taehoon Kim on the success of Power Rangers Legacy Wars and how it’s helping grow mobile esports
76. Overwatch League franchise spots for next season could be worth up to $60m: London Spitfires crowned Season 1 champions as Activision Blizzard prepares to open up six new spots globally
77. Making the piracy problem worse – 10 Years Ago This Month: Some publishers look at the recording industry’s disastrous reaction to file-sharing and basically copy it
78. Pokémon Go brushes off competition from Jurassic World and The Walking Dead: Apptopia co-founder and COO Jonathan Kay explains why Pokémon Go thrives as its competitors flounder
79. HTC Pushes Back On Reports of Declining Headset Sales
80. HTC defends lack of data when disputing VR “tailspin”: Headset manufacturer claims its leading position shows health of market – despite failing to demonstrate with sales figures
81. HTC, amidst a major revenue decline, brags about its VR revenue
82. PlayStation VR co-creator Richard Marks has swapped Sony for Google
83. Samsung Odyssey Drops to $400 and HP to $200 as Steep Discounts Continue for Windows VR Headsets
84. New XRDC Innovation Report reveals Vive still devs’ top target as AR rises
85. The GamesIndustry.biz Podcast: Artificial intelligence, with Chet Faliszek
86. Elon Musk to video game devs: Help me put “super fun games” on Tesla screens
87. Why did licensed games get better?
88. Defy Media Sells Off Another Property — Its ‘Escapist Magazine’ Gaming News Site
89. The Escapist relaunches with “no politics” pledge
90. FoxNext to join Disney after $71.3 billion Fox deal approved by shareholders: 21st Century Fox games division one of the “key assets” acquired by Disney
91. Disney’s purchase of Fox moves FoxNext into the House of Mouse
92. iOS game collection aims to spotlight pre-mobile handheld games
93. Blog: Meet The mobile puzzlers from a century ago 

Jon

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. Canada: A $250,000 Reminder that “CASL” is Not Just an Anti-Spam Law
2. AG’s False Advertising Suit Challenging Broadband Claims Not Preempted
3. Bill to save net neutrality gets first Republican vote in US House
4. The Cable TV & Broadband Sector Has A Nasty Billing Fraud Problem
5. The FCC’s Sneaky Plan To Make It Easier To Ignore ISP Complaints
6. Ajit Pai Pretends To Care About Identity Fraud That Plagued Net Neutrality Repeal
7. Ajit Pai’s Cure For The ‘Digital Divide’ Looks Suspiciously Like A Giant Middle Finger
8. Ajit Pai finalizes vote to limit FCC reviews of customer complaints
9. Ajit Pai deals major setback to Sinclair/Tribune merger
10. The FCC Mysteriously Retreats From Sinclair Cronyism, Potentially Dooming Controversial Merger
11. FCC Seeks “Large Step” Toward Advancing Broadband Infrastructure Goals With Draft One-Touch Make-Ready Order 
12. Trump administration appeals court loss in AT&T/Time Warner case
13. After AT&T Jacks Up Prices Post Merger, DOJ Decides To Appeal Court Loss
14. Charter Spectrum’s New ‘Unlimited’ Wireless Service Bans HD Video Entirely

DIGITAL

1. 3D-printed gun lawsuit ends after 3+ years—in gun publisher’s favor
2. “Content is fire, Social Media is gasoline” – Court of Appeal considers the challenges for interim injunctions in the digital age 
3. EU: Google illegally used Android to dominate search, must pay $5B fine
4. EU Fines Google $5 Billion for Stifling Android’s Competition 
5. Here’s Why Google Just Got Hit With a Record $5 Billion Fine 
6. How Google’s Safe Browsing Helped Build A More Secure Web
7. Some Thoughts On The EU’s Latest $5 Billion Google Antitrust Fine
8. Businesses Cannot Contractually Ban “Abusive” Consumer Reviews
9. Trolling the Internet for Photos Creates Copyright Headaches for Ad Agency (and the Advertiser)–Laspata v. Rimowa
10. Executives From YouTube, Facebook, Twitter To Testify Before Congress Regarding Political Bias
11. Shadow Politics: Meet The Digital Sleuth Exposing Fake News – Buried in media scholar Jonathan Albright’s research was proof of a massive political misinformation campaign. Now he’s taking on the the world’s biggest platforms before it’s too late.
12. 12 Russian intel officers indicted for hacking the DNC and Clinton campaign
13. Russia Indictment 2.0: What to Make of Mueller’s Hacking Indictment
14. Indicting 12 Russian Hackers Could Be Mueller’s Biggest Move Yet
15. Bitcoin, malware and ‘spearphishing’ helped Russian agents hack Democratic Party computers in 2016 election
16. Cryptocurrency’s Criminal Revolution: The Unsavory Cast Of Bitcoin’s Biggest Beneficiaries
17. Suspect behind bitcoin exchange that “catered to criminals” ordered to France
18. The SIM Hijackers: Meet the hackers who flip seized Instagram handles and cryptocurrency in a shady, buzzing underground market for stolen accounts and usernames. Their victims’ weakness? Phone numbers.
19. Apple Updates Crypto Currency Aspects of App Store Review Guidelines 
20. AI & Blockchain: An Introduction
21. Coty gets green light for online platform ban
22. Instagram Model Attacked By Shark While Attempting To Snap The Perfect Shot
23. Study: Instagram leads as influencer marketing platform 
24. California Supreme Court Ruling Immunizes Yelp from Defamatory Content Removal
25. ‘Smart’ TVs Remain The Poster Child For Dismal Privacy, Transparency & Security Standards
26. States prevail over e-commerce companies in Battle for sales taxes
27. Magic Leap Finally Demoed Its Headset And It Is… Disappointing
28. Magic Leap’s Disappointing Demo Could Be A Death Knell For AR 
29. Much of the excitement and cool factor around Magic Leap is now gone
30. The best augmented reality I saw this year was live theater funded by a liquor company: Whiskey-sponsored immersive theater. Snickers escape rooms. Immersive branding is just getting started.
31. ‘Rick & Morty VR’, ‘Coco VR’, ‘Blade Runner 2049 VR’ & More Nominated for Emmys
32. DOJ Tells Ron Wyden About The Times It Has Collected Journalists’ Communications; Leaves Some Facts Out
33. Why the Craig behind Craigslist gave big bucks to a journalism program: His philanthropy funds veterans, women, voter protection and trustworthy journalism.
34. Copyright As Censorship: FIFA’s Overaggressive Copyright Takedowns Target Fans Celebrating And Pussy Riot Protesting
35. Trump revealed as Facebook’s biggest political advertiser
36. Media – both on the left and right – are pressing Facebook to define what journalism is
37. Notification: Facebook – you have a £500,000 fine from the Information Commissioner’s Office
38. Why is InfoWars allowed on Facebook? Zuckerberg: Because it doesn’t cause “harm”
39. Here’s What It Takes to Get Kicked off Facebook (Hint: It’s A Lot)
40. Facebook says it will begin removing misinformation that leads to violence
41. How We Can ‘Free’ Our Facebook Friends
42. Inside Facebook, Twitter and Google’s AI battle over your social lives: From stamping out trolls to removing fake bot accounts, here’s how social networks are waging war using AI weapons.
43. UK: ICO announces intention to fine Facebook £500,000 and publishes data analytics investigation update 
44. A FOSTA Of One’s Own: UK Parliament Members Looking To Punish Websites, Push Traffickers Underground
45. Digital Ads Are Starting To Feel Psychic: Targeted advertising has become so uncanny, it feels like we’re being surveilled. Two artists want to hear these stories.
46. How publishers and advertisers can balance privacy and monetization
47. DeepMind Created a Test to Measure an AI’s Ability to Reason
48. New Quantum Computer Milestone Would Make Richard Feynman Very Happy
49. D-Wave’s quantum computer successfully models a quantum system
50. The quantified heart: Artificial intelligence promises ever more control over the highs and lows of our emotions. Uneasy? Perhaps you should be
51. A new hope: AI for news media
52. Artificial Intelligence Is Automating Hollywood. Now, Art Can Thrive.
53. Top AI Experts Vow They Won’t Help Create Lethal Autonomous Weapons
54. Netflix Scores 112 Emmy Nominations, Beating Out HBO’s 108
55. Netflix to Launch Comedy Radio Channel on SiriusXM
56. For First Time In Two Years, Netflix Falls Short Of Quarterly Growth Expectations
57. Investors are worried that Netflix is getting as big as it can get
58. Netflix Can Either Become the Dominant Media Monopoly of the 21st Century or Go Bust
59. Netflix Is King No More as Disney Retakes Media-Company Crown 
60. Netflix CEO Proclaims The Death Of Net Neutrality Is No Big Deal
61. Will Smith Collects $20,000 In Two Days By Selling Merch On YouTube’s New Teespring Shelf
62. Shawn Mendes To Kick Off Year-Long Partnership Between YouTube Music, Rolling Stone
63. Guns N’ Roses’ “November Rain” Becomes Oldest Music Video To Reach One Billion YouTube Views 
64. Female Science-Focused YouTubers Face Inordinate Amount Of Criticism, Study Finds
65. YouTube TV Gifts Subscribers Week Of Free Service To Apologize For World Cup Outage
66. Progress Isn’t Linear: YouTube TV’s World Cup Flub Threatens Public’s Trust For Sports Streaming
67. Tickets For The First-Ever VidCon London Are On Sale Now
68. Talent Firm ‘Addition’ Signs Lifestyle Creators Aaryn Williams, Ally Chen, And Jennifer Zhang
69. Racial Discrimination Complaint Against The Young Turks Leads To A Lawsuit
70. Insights: Purging – It’s Not Just For Twitter Anymore (Or At Least It Shouldn’t Be)
71. A Serial Twitter Follow/Unfollower Explains Himself: “I’m just trying to get eyes on me. It’s a big attention game online… the end goal for me is just be on as many screens as I can.”
72. Unfollowing Everybody (Anil Dash)
73. The 10 Most Difficult-To-Defend Online Fandoms
74. Creators Are Making As Much As $50,000 With Music Video App Triller’s New Monetization Feature
75. Kid-Friendly Network Pocket.watch Raises $15 Million Series B Round Led By Viacom
76. Original Shows From DeStorm, Lil Tay Lead The Way As New SVOD Service Zeus Launches
77. Do Subscription Models Work with Apps?: Thoughts on Setapp  –  subscription-based collection for Mac apps
78. Reddit Reinvents The Chat Room With Community Chat
79. Don’t Feed The Trolls, And Other Hideous Lies: The mantra about the best way to respond to online abuse has only made it worse
80. The “Intellectual Dark Web” Is Nothing New
81. PC market appears to have grown for the first time since 2012
82. Microsoft finally gives Teams what it needs to take on Slack: A free version
83. Early Amazon Prime Day Sales Were Up Over 50% Despite Website Crashes and Worker Strikes
84. Uber faces new probe over alleged gender discrimination in hiring practices
85. Elon Musk could face lawsuit for calling cave rescuer a “pedo guy”
86. Antarctic Exploration Vessel Which Should Be Named Boaty McBoatface But Tragically Isn’t Launches

CREATIVITY

1. All’s Fair in Whoville: Dr. Seuss Parody is Fair Use
2. DeLorean Estate Alleges ‘Back to the Future’ Royalties Were Improperly Distributed
3. Green v. Harbach
4. The first rule of copyright reform: Don’t mess with free speech and net neutrality (Michael Geist)
5. Guy In Charge Of Pushing Draconian EU Copyright Directive, Evasive About His Own Use Of Copyright Protected Images
6. Did The Ninth Circuit’s “Blurred Lines” Ruling Just Quietly Move To Kill Off The So-Called Inverse Ratio Rule?
7. Court Won’t Rehear Blurred Lines Case, Bad News For Music Creativity
8. Is the press regulator subject to judicial review? – Coulter v Independent Press Standards Organisation CIC (IPSO)
9. The MAGA Trolls Have Met Their Match In Sacha Baron Cohen And “Who Is America?” 
10. Congressman Introduces Legislation To Criminalize Protesting In A Mask
11. When Black Performers Use Their ‘White Voice’
12. Court to Kanye Plaintiff: Imma Let You Finish
13. Kanye’s Tweet Could Be False Advertising, New York Court Rules
14. Pussy Riot has a wake up call for America’s youth in the Trump era
15. State Appeals Court Tosses Defamation Suit Against Lawyer Who Wrote About Teen Driver Who Injured His Client
16. How A US Burger Chain Brought ‘Ruby Tuesday’ Full Circle Through Trademark Bullying
17. Eighth Grade’s R rating deters actual 8th-graders from seeing it. What a shame.: The MPAA ratings system and its very specific hang-ups are keeping teens away from the movies they need most.
18. Disruption, Consolidation, Uncertainty: Welcome to Hollywood’s Age of Anxiety
19. Why Did American Music Festivals Almost Disappear in the 1970s and ’80s?
20. There Is Now Just One Blockbuster Left in the US
21. Alaska’s last two Blockbusters are shutting down, leaving one in US
22. The Simpsons Wouldn’t Exist Without Yellow Submarine: How the Beatles classic changed the future of animation.
23. Q2 2018 Quick Links, Part 5 (Potpourri) (Eric Goldman)

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Supreme Court of Canada affirms privacy protections in tobacco health-data case
2. B.C. wins SCC appeal on production of health-care databases in Big Tobacco case
3. PIPEDA at 20: Time for PIPEDA 2.0 (Michael Geist)
4. US v. Microsoft Litigation Update: Supreme Court Dismisses Case as Moot After Congress Amends Stored Communications Act
5. Shocker: DOJ’s Computer Crimes And Intellectual Property Section Supports Security Researchers DMCA Exemptions
6. Judge slams FBI for improper cellphone search, stingray use
7. Oregon Supreme Court Sets Up New Limits For Digital Device Searches
8. Florida Man Jailed for Failing to Unlock His Phone
9. Guy Gets Tossed In Jail For Contempt Charges Because Cops Say They Need To Unlock His Phones To Get Evidence Of Drug Possession 
10. State Appeals Court Says Exigency Beats A Warrant Requirement If A Phone Has A Passcode
11. Walmart Patents Tech for Eavesdropping on Workers
12. Our Data, Ourselves: How to stop tech firms from monopolizing our personal information. 
13. Microsoft President Calls For Government Rules For Facial Recognition Technology
14. How Facial Recognition Could Tear Us Apart: Will the new tech create a safer society – or a dystopian panopticon?
15. Smart TVs are invading privacy and should be investigated, senators say 
16. ‘Smart’ TVs Remain The Poster Child For Dismal Privacy, Transparency & Security Standards
17. Should we have any expectation of privacy in public spaces? (Andres Guadamuz)
18. Obtained Documents Show The DEA Sold Compromised Phones To Suspected Drug Dealers
19. Health Insurers Are Vacuuming Up Details About You – And It Could Raise Your Rates
20. The most ambitious browser mitigation yet for Spectre attacks comes to Chrome
21. California’s Data Privacy Law: What It Is and How to Comply (A Step-By-Step Guide)
22. Can the Privacy Shield survive? What’s next for exports of personal data to the US?
23. European Parliament Turns Up The Pressure On US-EU Privacy Shield Data Transfer Deal A Little More

GAMES

1. Tencent awarded $2.9M in case against dev of allegedLeague of Legends clone
2. Tencent awarded $2.89 million in lawsuit against Mobile Legends CEO: Riot Games parent company wins non-compete suit in China
3. Capcom Wins Judgement to Uphold Patent in Lawsuit to Rescind Decision for its Patent #3295771
4. Star Citizen backer loses court case for $4,500 refund: Arbitration clause in end-user license agreement protects developer RSI from refund claims in court
5. Court denies Star Citizen backer’s $4,500 refund lawsuit
6. EPIC Bravely Defeats 14 Year Old’s Mom In Court To Continue Lawsuit Against Her Son For Cheating In Fortnite
7. Saudi Arabia appears to ban 47 video games after deaths of children
8. Credit card thieves reportedly using Clash of Clans to launder money
9. Coming soon? German courts ban vague release dates on pre-orders
10. Germany bans vague pre-order release dates: Retailers no longer to pre-sell games that are “coming soon”, courts have ruled
11. NetEase moves to dismiss PUBG Corp lawsuit: Knives Out developer calls complaint a “shameless attempt” to monopolize a genre
12. As PUBG-like contenders emerge, Islands of Nyne might already have them beat: While we wait for Battlefield, Call of Duty, awesome sci-fi twist is already here.
13. Nintendo lawsuit against Colopl won’t block developer’s Switch release: Platform holder says ongoing patent dispute and defendant’s games business are “completely separate matters”
14. Tempest 4000 finally lives after delays, legal threats—but what’s up on PC?
15. Social features have cut down on toxic behavior inOverwatch
16. Toxicity in Overwatch down by over a quarter following new measures from Blizzard: Game director promises further improvement along with exploration and implementation of new systems
17. Ubisoft is now insta-banning toxic Rainbow Six Siegeplayers
18. Rainbow Six Siege instantly bans players for using slurs: Bans last nearly half an hour for the first offense, with possible permanent bans after the third
19. Amazon may have allowed sales of pirated games: Retailer says “We strictly prohibit the sale of counterfeit products, and these games have been removed”
20. Amazon claims to be spiking listings for pirated games
21. The ArenaNet Catastrophe Has The Whole Game Industry Rethinking Harassment Policies
22. Opinion: It’s past time to get serious about social media policies
23. Over half of UK parents let kids play 18+ rated games
24. How Bossa relied on players to help build its skyfaring MMO Worlds Adrift
25. Jade Raymond on applying lessons from Assassin’s Creed to her new project at EA: The original game was designed as a “sandbox for creatives” with the intention to “hand off the keys to other professionals”
26. Madden lead Carlos Guerrero dismissed from EA: Senior producer departs after only two months due to company policy violation
27. Valve brings trading back to CS:GO in the Netherlands, though loot boxes remain blocked
28. Valve locks Counter-Strike loot boxes for Dutch and Belgian players: Steam item trading returns, but CS:GO’s containers are now locked
29. Valve is temporarily withholding adult games from Steam 
30. Valve temporarily halting new adult game releases on Steam: Company isn’t approving updates or new games until planned filter is in place
31. Valve updates “Upcoming” tab on Steam to focus on user interests: Suggestions based on past purchases and pre-release interest will replace chronological listing
32. Blog: The three ages of Steam distribution
33. Actor Nathan Fillion Just Created A YouTube Fan Film Of Video Game ‘Uncharted’
34. Uncharted fan film, starring Nathan Fillion, beats Sony to live-action punch
35. Nathan Fillion Is Finally Playing Nathan Drake in This Uncharted Fan Film
36. Nathan Fillion Made An Uncharted Fan-Film, And It’s Excellent
37. Fallout 76 and the thrill of ‘stranger danger’: Bethesda’s Pete Hines discusses how the publisher’s previous RPGs have been cheating players – and how its next title resolves this
38. Blizzard does away with World of Warcraft Battle Chest pricing
39. Blizzard makes WoW base game and expansions free to subscribers: New subs now only have to pay an extra fee for the latest expansion, Battle For Azeroth
40. Colonial Marines modder finds big AI fix by changing one letter of code
41. A years-old, one-letter typo led to Aliens: Colonial Marines’ weird AI
42. A One-Letter Typo is (in Part) the Reason Aliens: Colonial Marines Sucked
43. Nintendo showcases DIY games made with Labo’s Toy-Con Garage
44. Hands-on with Nintendo’s weirdest, and maybe rarest, classic console yet
45. The Makers Of Nintendo’s Latest Hidden Gem Worry People Missed It
46. Nintendo hid a load-your-own NES emulator inside a GameCube classic
47. What’s behind Nintendo’s falling stock price?: Nintendo has lost almost a quarter of its valuation in recent months – but its strategy and line-up remains sound despite investor jitters
48. Milan court applies Nintendo v Big Ben in fast fashion lawsuit against ZARA
49. Modders revamp Super Mario Odyssey on hacked Switch hardware
50. Japan is taking steps to legalize paid esports tournaments
51. The Most Important Video Game on the Planet: How Fortnite became the Instagram of gaming.
52. Fortnite has collected $1 billion from in-game purchases
53. Fortnite has earned $1 billion from in-game purchases alone: Revenue has only continued to rise month by month since game’s battle royale debut
54. ‘Fortnite’ Streamer Ninja Helped Florida’s GuardianCon Raise $2.7 Million For St. Jude
55. Dan Bull’s Epic Collaboration Brings Together 100 Creators For ‘Fortnite’ Rap Battle
56. Encouraging collaboration among players in Sea of Thieves
57. Despite Its Best Efforts, NBA 2K League Can’t Beat The Real Thing
58. App Store and Google Play spending hits $34.4B during first half of 2018
59. Mobile game spending up 19 per cent in H1 2018 – Sensor Tower: Tencent’s Honor of Kings led mobile spending on Google Play and the App Store, PUBG Mobile led downloads
60. Marvel Strike Force brings in over $25 million since launch: Turn-based mobile RPG accumulates 10 million installs over four months
61. NetEase’s Identity V downloaded over 100 million times: Asymmetrical multiplayer horror game’s downloads doubled upon global release
62. The Crew 2 activity “in line” with The Crew 1: Ubisoft sees open-world racing sequel following in the tracks of its predecessor, hoping continued support leads to continuous sales over coming years
63. Back catalog games continue to drive growth for Ubisoft as Q1 sales hit $466M
64. Ubisoft net bookings ahead of projections in Q1: Company reports $466 million in sales for the quarter, remains on track for full-year estimates
65. Ubisoft Berlin granted $1.84M in subsidies from city senate for expansion
66. Ubisoft Berlin approved for $1.85m subsidy from city government: Studio plans to use money to expand, creating around 150 new jobs
67. Epic increases revenue split for Unreal Engine Marketplace sellers
68. Epic Games adjusts Unreal Engine Marketplace share in favor of creators: Developer/store split changed to 88/12% from 70%/30%, applied retroactively
69. Epic ups Unreal Marketplace creators’ pay well above industry standard
70. Vampyr sells 450,000 copies in first month
71. Hangar 13: Diversifying your team protects you from blind spots – The Mafia III developer on “walking a tightrope” with the game’s narrative and how the risks it took shaped the new Brighton studio
72. Tropico publisher Kalypso acquires rights to Commandos series
73. Tropico publisher acquires Commandos franchise among others – Kalypso Media: “We see it as our responsibility to want to revive and further develop these beloved games for the fans around the world”
74. Pokemon Go developer Niantic acquires Seismic Games
75. Niantic acquires VR and mobile developer Seismic Games
76. VR rivals come together to develop a single-cable spec for VR headsets
77. Facebook spends $88M on Oculus permits in Seattle to expand VR headquarters
78. Facebook invested $88.3 million to expand its Redmond Oculus HQ this year: Company spent $106 million on construction and permits over the last three years
79. Octi raises $7.5 million in seed funding: AR startup’s app can discern human movement in videos, outline people and add effects
80. AppLovin’ takes $400 million investment: KKR & Co investment is based on a $2 billion valuation of the mobile marketing firm
81. Video game Kickstarters have raised almost $10m so far in 2018: Total money pledged reaches three-year high, but number of campaigns drops to six-year low and success rate remains steady
82. Blog: Crowdfunding and video games in 2018 – A mid-year update
83. Earn while you play start-up Blast secures $12m seed funding: “If you can attach a positive outcome to something that people already do and love, like gaming, you can change lives”
84. Klang Games raises $8.75m for AI-driven space colonization MMO: Spotify-backer firm Northzone leads Series A funding round
85. “There will be more IPOs”: Rebuilding trust in the UK games industry
86. “Real innovation is coming from emerging markets in many spaces – game development is one of them”
87. Ovosonico: Games will be “like the Netflix button on your remote – that easy” – CEO Massimo Guarini on preparing for the horizontal expansion of the industry, and the Italian studio’s pivot into indie AAA
88. Taking stock after five years of ID@Xbox: Chris Charla talks about the program’s biggest successes, pain points, and the conventional wisdom on when to announce and release independent games
89. The Washington Post Is Now Streaming The News On Twitch
90. The Twitch Streamers Who Spend Years Broadcasting To No One
91. Top YouTube Gamer Jacksepticeye, Citing Mental Health, Is On A Break
92. Don’t Miss: Fight or flight – Exploring the neuroscience of survival horror
93. Video: How devs can apply the 5 domains of play to develop empathy
94. Ninja Theory dominates the Develop Awards
95. French game designer Muriel Tramis awarded Legion of Honor
96. Challenging videogame music tropes: “Music doesn’t exist for a passive viewer… it’s the player’s emotional reality,” says composer James Hannigan
97. The 20 JRPGs You Must Play
98. Video Game Deep Cuts: Octopath’s DOS Demake
99. Watch a Guy Build a Brand New, Completely Obsolete Gaming PC With 20-Year-Old Parts

Jon