News of the Week; October 31, 2018

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. Net neutrality delay: Calif. agrees to suspend law until after court case
2. California Agrees To Delay Net Neutrality Law Pending Outcome Of Federal Lawsuit
3. California Delays Implementation of Its Net Neutrality Law Pending Challenge of FCC’s Order 
4. FCC Falsely Declares Community Broadband An ‘Ominous’ Attack On Free Speech
5. Texas, Arkansas, & Nebraska AGs Are Now Aiding The Broadband Industry’s Assault On Net Neutrality
6. Charter Spectrum Jacks Up Rates (Again) Thanks To Merger ‘Synergies’
7. FCC Republican claims municipal broadband is threat to First Amendment
8. Verizon won’t speed up 5G buildout despite FCC preempting local fees

DIGITAL

1. Canadian Government Banning Settlement Demands in Copyright Notice-and-Notice System (Michael Geist)
2. Canadian Government Rejects Access Copyright’s Demand for Statutory Damages (Michael Geist)
3. Canadian ISPs Want To Amend Law To Outlaw Settlement Letters
4. This is fine: IBM acquires Red Hat
5. Who owns this AI-generated painting? (Andres Guadamuz)
6. Painting created by Artificial Intelligence goes under the hammer at Christie’s  
7. This AI Lie Detector Flags Falsified Police Reports
8. AI Dreamed Up These Nightmare Fuel Halloween Masks
9. Glimpse: Truly Useful Augmented Reality is Coming. We’re Not Ready. – Soon we’ll be using augmented reality more seamlessly than ever before. And that means we need ground rules for how to not be creeps.
10. Facebook Sees A Future In Augmented Reality Glasses 
11. Hey, How’d That Facebook ‘War Room’ Fare During Brazil’s Election Season? Oh.
12. Facebook yanks content tied to Iranian effort due to “inauthentic behavior”: Detected last week by investigators, accounts targeted US and UK users to “spread discord.”
13. Facebook Bans Proud Boys, Vice Co-Founder Gavin McInnes
14. U.K., Canada Call on Mark Zuckerberg to Appear Before International Panel
15. Instagram’s IGTV, BuzzFeed Launch Accelerator Program For 15 Vertical Video Creators
16. Liza Koshy To Co-Host ‘Election Afterparty’ On MTV With Charlamagne Tha God
17. Snapchat Lost Users in Quarter, Says Declines Will Continue
18. Snap expands Snapchat Shows with 25 new series out of the UK
19. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel Rescinded Promotion for Ex-WarnerMedia Exec Kristen O’Hara, Who Is Now Leaving (Report)
20. GitHub is now officially a part of Microsoft
21. Snapchat Content Chief Wants To Foster Creator Ecosystem Like On YouTube, Vine — And He’s Unimpressed By IGTV
22. EU ‘Protecting Consumers’ By Forcing Them To Pay More For Android?
23. Google CEO: We need to “take a much harder line on inappropriate behavior”
24. Over a decade, Google handsomely paid 3 men accused of misconduct, per report
25. YouTube Fixes Error Messages Stating Certain Free Videos Required Payment
26. YouTube’s ‘Cobra Kai’ Pilot Passes 50 Million Views, With Perfect Rotten Tomatoes Score
27. YouTube’s New King? India’s T-Series Could Soon Overtake Pewdiepie To Become The World’s Biggest Channel
28. Naomi Campbell, Janelle Monáe, And Lakeith Stanfield Grace #YouTubeBlack Creator Summit
29. Disney Star Peyton List Joins Cast Of YouTube Premium’s ‘Cobra Kai’ For Season 2
30. Trudeau’s gift to Google
31. Patreon And Reddit Add Integrations To Help Creators Connect With And Gain New Supporters
32. Elle Mills Launches Patreon Account Because She Spends “Way More Money Creating Videos Than I Earn From Them”
33. Brands and Influencers: Navigating Influencer Agreements from Macro to Micro
34. SVOD Service Zeus Inks Tech Pact With Vimeo On Back-End, Unveils 3 New Shows
35. Fox Nation Sets Launch Date
36. FilmStruck Is Latest Casualty Of WarnerMedia Streamlining, Will Shutter In November
37. Warner Bros. and Turner Are Killing One of the Internet’s Last Good Things
38. Cheddar Buys ‘Rate My Professors’ Website From Viacom
39. UK Government Screws Head On Straight, Bans Use Of Term ‘Fake News’ By Gov’t Officials
40. Brookings survey finds 57 percent say they have seen fake news during 2018 elections and 19 percent believe it has influenced their vote
41. Breitbart Snowflakes Threaten To Sue People Who Have Asked Advertisers To Stop Advertising On Breitbart
42. Trump Tweets, ‘I Rarely Use a Cellphone,’ From His iPhone
43. The President’s Phone OPSEC Continues To Be, Well, Crap
44. Campbell Soup Co. Executive Is Out After Tweeting George Soros Conspiracy Theory
45. UK set to impose new “tech tax” on Silicon Valley giants
46. U.K. to Slap New Tax on Technology Giants
47. UK Commits to Introducing Targeted Digital Services Tax
48. The Digital Services Tax: A Conceptual Defense (Wei Cui)
49. FundamentalVR Partners with Mayo Clinic to Develop VR Surgical Simulations, Raises $1.4M Financing
50. The Indiana Supreme Court’s Decision in Daniels v. FanDuel, Inc.: What it Means for Right of Publicity Law and the Future of Online Sports Betting
51. Half of enterprise machines run Windows 10, as Windows 7’s end of life looms
52. Court Rules on Remand that it Lacks Long-Arm Jurisdiction Over Tech Company in Defamation Lawsuit 
53. After 10 Years, Bitcoin Has Changed Everything—And Nothing
54. Court Orders Tracing Remedy For Cryptocurrency – Copytrack Pte Ltd v. Wall
55. Swedish Court Misunderstands Memes
56. Mail bombing suspect repeatedly threatened Democrats on Twitter
57. Detailed And Thorough Debunking Of Bloomberg’s Sketchy Story About Supply Chain Hack
58. Section 230 Protects Twitter’s Decision to Suspend User’s Account–Mezey v. Twitter (Eric Goldman)
59. Video Advertising Contract Descends Into Possible “Cyberattack”–Radian Weapons v. GY6Vids
60. Seventh Different Lawsuit Against Social Media Providers for “Material Support to Terrorists” Fails–Taamneh v. Twitter (Eric Goldman)
61. Making Sense of the Canadian Digital Tax Debate, Part 2: Mandated Canadian Content Contributions aka a “Netflix Tax” (Michael Geist)
62. Making Sense of the Canadian Digital Tax Debate, Part 3: New Taxes or Fees on Internet Access (Michael Geist)
63. Making Sense of the Canadian Digital Tax Debate, Part 4: New Taxes or Fees on Digital Devices (Michael Geist)
64. Helium implicated in weird iPhone malfunctions
65. Why almost everyone was wrong about Tesla’s cash flow situation
66. Eye doctors find that WebMD symptom checker was wrong more than half the time

CREATIVITY

1. New Bill C-86 introduces many more changes to IP laws
2. Taking on the Trolls: Canadian Government To Regulate Patent Demand Letters (Michael Geist)
3. Pharrell Is Not At All Happy About Trump Using ‘Happy’ At His Rally… And He Might Actually Have A Case
4. Judge Engelmayer: Copyright Damages from Brief Display of Plaintiff’s Art in Kendrick Lamar Music Video Are Not Inherently Speculative 
5. Copyright in the United States
6. Fair use isn’t arithmetic 
7. EU Copyright Directive Update: Fresh (But Slim) Hope Of Stopping Link Taxes And Upload Filters
8. Indiana Supreme Court Rules Against Student Athletes in Fantasy Sports Rights of Publicity Case
9. Indiana Supreme Court: No Right to Publicity in Fantasy Sports
10. Megyn Kelly ousted from NBC show after blackface backlash
11. The House Of Cards cast bailed on Megyn Kelly, and now NBC News might even cut her loose 
12. Fox News takes a hard pass on Megyn Kelly
13. MoMA museum claims infringement and dilution by MoMaCha tea café name
14. The Urban Legend About Scattering Human Ashes at Disney Is True, and It’s Worse Than We Thought

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Facebook could face legal claims from a million UK users following Information Commissioner’s data breach fine
2. When idle gossip goes too far – data breach involving Facebook
3. The New Mandatory Data Breach Reporting Regimes: Four Key Elements
4. EFF Sues California Law Enforcement Agency For Refusing To Hand Over Stingray Documents
5. Court: Teen’s driving killed someone, but he can’t be forced to give up passcode
6. Feds took woman’s iPhone at border, she sued, now they agree to delete data
7. Florida Appeals Court Says Producing Passwords Is Testimonial And Protected By The Fifth Amendment
8. New Signal privacy feature removes sender ID from metadata
9. How a 19th-Century Teenager Sparked a Battle Over Who Owns Our Faces
10. My Father Says He’s A ‘Targeted Individual.’ Maybe We All Are
11. Feds Also Using ‘Reverse Warrants’ To Gather Location/Identifying Info On Thousands Of Non-Suspects
12. The Price of Privacy: Canada’s Top Court Rules, ISPs must disclose the identity of illegal downloaders at a “reasonable” cost
13. Last Chance To Opt Out Of #MyHealthRecord, Australians!
14. Take a Wild Guess Why Visiting 9,000 Porn Sites on Your Government Computer Is a Dumb Idea
15. EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework Joint Annual Review 2.0 

GAMES

1. Suspect in fatal swatting faces 46 new charges: Tyler Barriss expected to plead guilty to phoning in bomb threats and using police to harass others for years leading up to last December’s death over a Call of Duty argument
2. The Library of Congress just made game preservation a little bit easier
3. Researchers can now legally restore “abandoned” online game servers
4. Analyst expects Houser brothers to receive huge Red Dead royalties: Take-Two clarifies that last year’s royalties of $383m shared across all studios
5. Rockstar devs detail the studio’s history with ‘mandatory’ crunch
6. Rockstar’s broken work ethics: Former employees detail mandatory long hours, unpaid overtime, and a culture of fear at studios behind Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption
7. Rockstar: “Overtime is not mandatory” – Red Dead Redemption developer responds to increasing number of stories about studio’s intense working conditions
8. Red Dead Redemption 2: Critical Consensus – Rockstar’s latest hailed as a masterpiece, raising the bar for open worlds to come
9. Red Dead Redemption 2 made $725 million over the weekend
10. Red Dead Redemption 2 makes $725 million in three days: It’s the second biggest entertainment launch in history behind GTA V
11. Red Dead Redemption 2 UK sales more than double the first game: Rockstar’s latest epic is the second fastest-selling game of the year
12. Crunch, work-life balance, and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey: A view from the top
13. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey built without ‘massive crunch’: “We think it’s a false economy to burn out our teams. We risk losing them”
14. SAG-AFTRA’s new agreement opens doors for small-budget and indie games
15. Ex-IGDA head Kate Edwards now convinced game devs need unions: Edwards explains what pushed her from being open to the idea of organized labor to believing it needs to happen
16. Twitch teams up with Harmonix to develop a streaming karaoke game
17. Female Gamers Defend Twitch Star Pokimane After Sexist Backlash Following Makeup-Free Stream
18. Introducing the games industry’s latest gender diversity initiative – G Into Gaming
19. Can a video game prevent domestic violence?: We speak to Professor Adele Jones about her ongoing work to tackle abuse and the attitudes that lead to it
20. Renegotiated music licenses bring Alan Wake back to digital stores
21. Alan Wake returns to digital storefronts after music rights snafu [Updated]
22. Edge Case Games ceases support for Fractured Space: Developer intends to keep servers online “for the foreseeable future”
23. The dark, ironic, surreal games of Central and Eastern Europe: The region’s developers have found a place in the market by taking the upheaval of the past, and creating a unique visual and thematic identity
24. Epic Games secures $1.25 billion from multiple investors
25. Epic Games raises $1.25 billion from handful of investors: KKR, ICONIQ Capital, Smash Ventures, and four more join the ranks of Fortnite studio’s minority shareholders
26. ‘Fortnite’s’ Streaming Popularity May Have Peaked (Analyst)
27. Games deals in 2018 worth record $25bn but “could signal top of the market”: IPO market falls 90 per cent but games investment reaches “unprecedented” levels, according to Digi-Capital
28. SuperData: Digital spend on console reaches $1.24bn for September – Destiny 2 Forsaken expansion beats out Fortnite to top digital console rankings
29. Liftoff: Mobile user acquisition costs drop while in-app purchases struggle – Mobile App Engagement Index report notes that costs to get users from install to in-app purchase are rising quickly despite high engagement
30. Candy Crush Saga is the UK’s most popular game of all time on Android
31. Nier: Automata’s 2B Is Coming To Soulcalibur VI
32. Massive apples, cubes draw ire in ranked SoulCalibur VIonline play
33. Zynga reports rising revenues and deals for Harry Potter & Game of Thrones games
34. Zynga investing in Harry Potter, Game of Thrones titles: Both licensed games will be casual, mobile experiences to be developed at company’s US studios
35. Edge Case Games ends development of free-to-playFractured Space
36. The balance of Scavengers, a multiplayer game built by “famously vicious trolls”: Midwinter Entertainment CEO Josh Holmes believes “griefing” is an inevitable part of playing online – and accepting that is key to ensuring fair play
37. Turning a documentary into a video game: The team behind Never Alone discuss its upcoming Blue Planet tie-in with the BBC
38. Team Sonic Racing delayed until May 2019: Return of Sega-themed kart racing series was due on shelves before Christmas
39. Industry-first esports gambling platform gets wagering license approval: “There is finally a legitimate, regulated operator in the space that has a pretty comprehensive offering,” says Unikrn CEO
40. Esports Integrity Coalition issues five-year ban to CS:GO cheater: OpTic disbands in wake of Nikhil ‘forsaken’ Kumawat’s ban for cheating in two competitions
41. NBA superstar Michael Jordan leads $26m investment into aXiomatic Gaming: Jordan invests in parent company of third-most valuable esports organisation, Team Liquid
42. Conde Nast owner Advanced Publications acquires The Esports Observer 
43. Advance acquires The Esports Observer: Media company makes significant investment increase shortly after acquiring gaming analytics firm Newzoo
44. Esports makes up 9-17% of Twitch’s viewership in 2018 so far: Fortnite viewership dips in Q3 of this year, leaving Activision Blizzard to command attention once more
45. Blizzard launches standalone, souped-up Overwatch viewer for esports event
46. Unikrn gets gambling license for crypto-based betting on esports and games
47. Monster Hunter: World continues to drive sales at Capcom
48. Monster Hunter: World drives Capcom to strong six-month results – Hit title has eclipsed 10m shipments, helped Capcom to double profits
49. Microsoft gaming revenue up 44% despite quiet Q1 2019: Platform holder to expand Xbox Game Pass offering on PC
50. Microsoft Reveals ‘Maquette’, a VR Tool for Spatial Ideation and Design
51. Microsoft CEO reveals Xbox Game Pass is heading to PC
52. Microsoft is bringing all-you-can-play Game Pass subscription to PC
53. Minecraft reaches 150 million downloads in China: Free-to-play Chinese version gains 50 million players in five months
54. Sony sold nearly 4 million PS4s in the last three months
55. Sony reports 65% increase in games profit driven by sales of Spider-Man
56. Don’t mean a thing if you ain’t got that swing…in Spider-Man
57. Spider-Man drives 65% increase in games profits for Sony: Software sales were behind a strong fiscal Q2, Sony said, even as PS4 hardware sales continued to fall
58. Blog: A design analysis of Marvel’s Spider-Man
59. Here are all 20 games you’ll get with the PlayStation Classic
60. Full List Of PlayStation Classic Games Is Missing Some Classics
61. PlayStation Classic’s full game list announced, and it might annoy you
62. PlayStation Classic’s full game list announced, and it might annoy you
63. Sony announces PlayStation Classic game line-up: 20 titles on plug-and-play console include Metal Gear Solid, Grand Theft Auto, and Rayman
64. Why Playstation Classic (and other throwback consoles) may never feature the sports games we loved
65. Sony licenses PSVR design to Lenovo following eerily similar VR headsets
66. Sony licenses PSVR design for Lenovo VR headset: Two-year deal aims to expand and improve VR industry
67. Before crucial holiday season, Nintendo struggles as Sony shines
68. Nintendo recommits to “keep the business going” for 3DS
69. Bethesda hasn’t forsaken the Switch, despite Fallout 76skipping the console
70. Nintendo Switch version of Fallout 76 “wasn’t doable”: New game won’t be following Doom and Wolfenstein to Nintendo’s console, but Bethesda remains committed to the Switch as a “viable platform”
71. Switch reaches 22m lifetime sales in a solid six months for Nintendo: Total software unit sales are now at 111 million units for Nintendo’s console
72. Over 1,300 games from 500+ publishers have been released on the Switch’s eShop
73. Switch sales remain steady as Nintendo reports bump in profits
74. Report: Nintendo’s latest mobile game Dragalia Lostearned $28M in first month
75. Fortnite downloaded onto ‘nearly half’ of all Switch consoles
76. The Switch has surpassed 22M units in lifetime sales
77. A peek at Nintendo’s early Wii Remote prototype for the GameCube
78. Japanese auction reveals Nintendo’s first Wii remote—for the GameCube
79. Super Mario Odyssey has sold over 12 million copies
80. Income from player recurring investment rises to $297 million for Ubisoft
81. Ubisoft CEO: Cloud gaming can help AAA games grow beyond PC and console
82. Steam, Proud Adopters Of Hands Off Games Policy, Very Hands On When Banning All Of TorrentFreak
83. Steam now boasts 90 million monthly active users
84. New Valve Data Gives Fresh Insight into Number of VR Headsets Used on Steam
85. Oculus Now Lets You Record Abusive Behavior on Go & Gear VR
86. Has the VR boom hit a wall?: Enormous progress has been made in headset design and software development for VR – but without a major technological leap forward, current devices won’t reach the mass market
87. Don’t Miss: Here They Lie and the ethics of VR horror
88. EA reveals Project Atlas, a new game dev platform ‘in the cloud’
89. EA details new cloud native development platform, Project Atlas: Unified platform aims to “seamlessly converge” artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and Frostbite engine
90. FIFA & Madden drive a strong Q2 for EA ahead ofBattlefield V
91. Battlefield V will have premium currency, but no pay-to-win progression system
92. The rising need for game economy designers in freemium mobile games
93. What drives players to digital murder in The Sims games
94. Unity announces a winner for the Universal game dev contest 
95. Child of Light and Talking Tom to be adapted for TV and film
96. Blog: The universal inaccessibility of board games
97. Blog: A different approach to difficulty
98. Blog: Let’s talk about innovation in mobile games
99. Blog: Playing video games – A rambling essay about hating what you love
100. Blog: Why record $25 billion games deals could signal top of the market
101. Tabletop games are bigger than ever, and its driving growth in the digital sector
102. Raspberry Pi launches game dev magazine Wireframe 
103. Raspberry Pi launches games development magazine Wireframe: Fortnightly publication launches November 8th, 10,000 free welcome issues on offer
104. Australian devs’ advice to students: Specialise, and kill your darlings – At Melbourne Games Week, Blake Mizzi and Chris Wright outlined two key mistakes students make after graduating

Jon