News of the Week; April 22, 2015

GAMES

1. US government takes on legal fight over console jailbreaking once more: US Copyright Office considers arguments as part of DMCA rulemaking.

2. How The DMCA And Anti-Piracy Measures Conspire To Keep Video Games In Their Cultural Place

3. How It’s Done: Rockstar Releases Video Production Editor For GTA So Fans Can Make Films

4. Is the US gov’t finally over video game violence?

5. University of Missouri researchers find that violent video games do not cause aggression in adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder

6. Sore loser swats Long Island home after losing a round of ‘Call of Duty’

7. Killing Floor 2’s EULA reserves the right to ban you for being a jerk

8. Turkish scholars launch petition against possible Minecraft ban

9. Pastor Dollar says ‘Pokémon’ makes you gay

10. Human rights advocates, military see violent video games as teaching tool

11. Mortal Kombat X: The Most Violent Video Game Ever?

12. MMA Fighter Upset Over Possible Homage In Mortal Kombat

13. Anita Sarkeesian named to Time 100

14. GamerGate and the Balkanization of Videogames

15. Net Neutrality-themed game ‘404Sight’ released

16. Pirate Bay co-founder denied bid to play original Nintendo in prison

17. Woman sues Google claiming she lost “thousands” through Google Play Store hack: Google never reimbursed her after agreeing that the purchases weren’t hers, she says.

18. Valve puts limits on customers who haven’t spent $5 on Steam to fight spamming and phishing schemes

19. Gaming will hit $91.5 billion this year – Newzoo

20. Strong year sees Sony climb above Microsoft in revenue rankings

+ PlayStation pushes Sony’s sales forecast up

21. Why The Next Sports Empire Will Be Built On Esports

22. Codemasters to renew F1 license

23. Guitar Hero is Back And I Really Like What I’ve Seen

24. BBC’s Grand Theft Auto TV show to star Bill Paxton and Daniel Radcliffe: Drama to detail cultural impact of GTA, with Radcliffe as Sam Houser and Paxton as Jack Thompson.

25. Simulection – What happens when you run the 2015 Conservative manifesto through a video game?: We are running the parties’ manifestos through Democracy 3, an election simulation video game. Here’s what happens if the Tories win…

26. A Game About Cancer, One Year Later

27. Video games can power up from merely fun to meaningful experiences

DIGITAL

28. A Robot That Bought Drugs Online Is Now Free From Police Custody

29. Do Killer Robots Violate Human Rights?: When machines are anthropomorphized, we risk applying a human standard that should not apply to mere tools.

30. Concerns of an Artificial Intelligence Pioneer: The computer scientist Stuart Russell wants to ensure that our increasingly intelligent machines remain aligned with human values.

31. Netizen Report: The Spring of Cybercrime Laws

32. Complaints To FTC About Rightscorp Detail Robocalls, Harassment And Baseless Threats To Sever Internet Connections

33. MPAA Pirated Clips From Google Commercials To Make Its Own MPAA Propaganda Videos

34. NHL bans media from using Periscope, Meerkat to subvert rights-holders

35. Bell faces $750M lawsuit over advertising program: Bell Canada is facing a $750 million class action lawsuit over a program that tracked its users’ internet usage to sell advertising

36. Meet the lawyer taking on Uber and the rest of the on-demand economy

37. Internet.org is a failed exercise in misdirection (Doc Searls)

38. Why India’s Net Neutrality Activists Hate Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg’s Internet.org philanthropy finds itself cast as the villain in India’s fight over Internet rules

+ Facebook’s Internet.org sees defections over alleged harm to net neutrality: App to get impoverished online gives free access, but only to select websites.

39. How Blogging is Held Hostage by Ethiopian Politics

40. Details Leak From Inside Putin’s ‘Humourless And Draconian’ Internet Troll Army

41. FBI can’t cut Internet and pose as cable guy to search property, judge says: “This is a monumental ruling protecting Americans’ privacy in the modern age.”

42. Robert Campbell sentenced to 6 years for cyberbullying campaign: Ottawa man pleaded guilty to 63 charges of identity fraud, defamation and criminal harassment

43. Apple refuses to answer questions over ‘homophobic’ Russian Siri: Russian voice-assistant for iPhones and iPad accused of answering questions with homophobic responses, while company dismisses issue as ‘a bug’

44. On The War On General Purpose Computing

45. Hollywood Collectively Loses Its Mind About Latest Set Of Livestreaming Apps

46. It wasn’t easy, but Netflix will soon use HTTPS to secure video streams

47. “It’s not that we control NewsFeed, you control NewsFeed…” Facebook: please stop with this.

48. An oral history of the epic collision between journalism and digital technology, from 1980 to the present

49. Age Of Technology: Generational Video Viewing Preferences Vary By Device And Activity

50. Who Says the Internet is Bad for Morality?

51. Should Reddit’s powerful mods be reined in?

52. Is Netflix Friend or Foe to the TV Industry? It’s More Confusing Than Ever.

53. Nobody’s Perfect: Leaked Contract Reveals Sony Requires Netflix To Geo-Block But Acknowledges Technology Is Imperfect

54. How the Computer Got Its Revenge on the Soviet Union: Condemned as a capitalist tool, the computer would help expose the USSR’s weakness.

CREATIVITY

55. Kate Taylor: We should judge pricey tax credits as job creators, not culture builders

+ Race to the Bottom: Why Government Tax Credits For Film and TV Production Don’t Pay (Michael Geist)

+ Ontario Tax Expenditure Review: Screen Based Sector

56. Op-ed: What if MLK’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” had been on Facebook?: Under current Alabama law, it would have been a crime. Other states feel similar.

57. Copyright claims asserted in viral video of cop shooting fleeing suspect

+ The News Media’s Use of the Walter Scott Video Is – Surprise! – A Newsworthy Use

58. Copyright For Sale: How the Sony Documents Illustrate the Link Between the MPAA and Political Donations (Michael Geist)

+ Sony Once Again Ridiculously Warns The Media Not To Report On Leaked Emails

+ As Sony Continues Threatening Reporters, NY Times Reporter Wins Pulitzer For Reporting On Sony’s Emails

+ Our Response To Sony Sending Us A Threat Letter For Reporting On The Company’s Leaked Emails

59. Student Sues College After Campus Cops Demand He Get A Free Speech ‘Permit’ Before Handing Out Fliers

60. In Big Ruling, Sony Beats ‘Iron Man’ Composer’s Lawsuit

61. ‘Traditional TV viewing for teens and tweens is dead. Not dying. Dead.’

62. Comcast-Time Warner Cable Merger Hits Setback After FCC Staff Recommend Hearing (Report)

63. The great unbundling: cable TV as we know it is dying

64. The Great Canadian Copyright Giveaway: Why Copyright Term Extension for Sound Recordings Could Cost Consumers Millions (Michael Geist)

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