It’s billed as a VR game, but Killer Frequency is available on PC and console too, and it’s a fantastic conceit for a first-person puzzler. I totally missed it when it came out in June!
I won’t rehash the law’s problems. But the District of Columbia Appeals Court says it’s constitutional because it can be interpreted narrowly to only target aiding and abetting “prostitution of another person,” disregarding its overall chilling effects on online speech:
Nothing in the First Amendment required Congress to confer Section 230 immunity on speech that violates federal criminal laws in the first place, and nothing in the First Amendment ossifies such immunity once granted against any later clarification.
The decision echoes an earlier district court ruling, and the Woodhull Freedom Foundation — which sued over FOSTA-SESTA along with other organizations in 2018 — says it’s still evaluating its future options.
The California Journalism Preservation Act (CJPA, similar to but not to be confused with the federal JCPA) bill is getting rescheduled to next year, and its sponsors are canceling a hearing scheduled next week. In other words, California hasn’t given up on becoming one of the places that makes social platforms pay news outlets for linking to them, but it’s applying the brakes a little — maybe until Meta and Google’s news war with Canada clears up.
I can almost feel the EFF’s David Greene gritting his teeth as he graciously explains why a recent court ruling on government censorship and social media addresses a real problem in the most transparently bad-faith manner possible. Even if you don’t know or care what “jawboning” is, stick around for this deadpan gem:
In an unfortunate moment that has caused many to question the seriousness of the court’s endeavor, the court characterizes the complaint as describing “arguably the most massive attack against free speech in United States history.”
[Electronic Frontier Foundation]
Remember SB 396 in Arkansas, which banned minors from an oddly specific set of web platforms? NetChoice — which also has active suits against Florida, Texas, and California — has sued to block it. You can read the full complaint here.
Microsoft’s attorney is asking Stuart to look at a revenue chart for Minecraft by platform, comparing different devices. Here’s loosely how it breaks down: Xbox is the smallest platform for Minecraft, PlayStation is roughly twice as big, and Nintendo’s platform is twice as big as PlayStation (or four times as big as Xbox.)
Mobile and PC numbers aren’t broken down, but they’re implied to be very large. Stuart also says this:
“Minecraft is one of the most profitable, if not the most profitable, IP that we have.”
The implication, of course, is that Microsoft would be leaving a lot of money on the table by locking it down — and that it would make just as little sense to take Call of Duty exclusive. The lawyer asks how Microsoft CFO Amy Hood would respond to a request like that. Stuart says:
“She would say probably that doesn’t make sense, we need to keep the existing business model running.”
Carlton has called putting Call of Duty on Game Pass a “prime” motivation of the merger, and he’s said Sony can avoid any ill effects by signing a deal with Microsoft. (Sony, very publicly, has not signed the offer.) He’s also claimed Sony is more motivated by blocking the merger than actually getting a good deal.
The FTC is prodding at all these claims, but unfortunately, much of what it’s asking him to read is under seal — so we aren’t hearing any of the details. What we do know is that the FTC is insinuating Carlton didn’t meaningfully analyze the actual proposed deal, something Carlton denies.
The early questioning of Microsoft’s expert involves jabs about how much Carlton’s getting paid ($2,000 an hour), which “percent of the academic sources you rely upon are written by you” (30 percent), and the number of federal cases (five) where at least some of his testimony as an expert witness has been excluded. This line of questioning isn’t unusual for expert witnesses — we saw it in the Epic v. Apple trial, for instance.
