News of the Week; July 8, 2015

GAMES

1. Vegas casinos going for video-game gambling

2. Daybreak CEO rages at hacker on Twitter

+ Lizard Squad member ordered to fight against other hackers, gets no jail time for Xbox Live and PSN attacks

3. Square Enix pulls Mac Final Fantasy XIV from sale

+ Square Enix blames OpenGL for Final Fantasy 14 Mac refunds: Publisher Square Enix pulls game from sale and offers refunds.

4. New governance system having a real impact on ‘League of Legends’ community

+ Homophobia, sexism, racism reduced to 2% of League of Legends matches

5. Fallout Shelter shatters the dogma of core gamers hating F2P

6. Funcom reboots LEGO Minifigures Online as pay-to-play

7. European devs are moving from mobile to PC

8. Evolutionary biologist: we play violent games, because sex

9. Inside the world of India’s badass girl gamers

10. Anti-game-violence legislator pleads guilty to racketeering: State Senator Leland Yee faces up to 20 years for bribery, money laundering.

11. Corporate crowdfunding might not be all bad: Sony’s First Flight is a morally uncomfortable development – but could result in better games and products

12. Minecon breaks records with 10,000 attendees

13. Inafune: Kickstarter is “confidence-building” for Japanese devs

14. Reactions to Nintendo’s E3 “not that unfavorable” – Iwata

15. Nintendo’s alleged nationalism and “awful” working conditions killed Wii game

16. We’ve lost the trust of older fans – Sega CEO

17. Anxious Greeks Buy Macs and PlayStations While They Still Can

18. PlayStation Now will give new long tail to industry, says Sony

19. Hear how Steve Ballmer bailed out Xbox after Red Ring of Death

20. 3 video games teach kids on summer vacation about politics

21. PewDiePie responds to “haters” over $7 million YouTube earnings

22. Amazon now lets you create customized 3D printed figures of video game characters

23. Former Valve economist is now a former Greek finance minister too

24. How Video Games Changed Popular Music

DIGITAL

1. Meta-morphosis: tag, you’re it: Federal Court decision gives no copyright or trademark protection to metatags 

2. Appeals judges hear about Prince’s takedown of “Dancing Baby” YouTube vid: Years after Stephanie Lenz uploaded a video to YouTube, precedent will be set.

3. The battle to reform 300-year-old copyright law for the digital age

4. Washington Declaration on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest

5. Hacking Team gets hacked; invoices suggest spyware sold to repressive govts: invoices purport to show Hacking Team doing business in Sudan and other rogue nations.

6. Secret US court allows resumption of bulk phone metadata spying

7. Quebec’s Website Blocking Plan Gambles With the Open Internet (Michael Geist)

8. The Saudi Cables beyond the Saudi Cables: How to Assess the Impact

+ Should some secrets be exposed? (Bruce Schneier)

9. Appeals court says Apple is liable for e-book price-fixing: Apple lost a price-fixing case, fought the charges, but found no help in higher court.

10. Judge tosses jury’s $533M patent verdict against Apple, orders new trial: Jury may have had a “skewed damages horizon,” judge explains.

11. Will the European Parliament criminalize street photography?

12. DOJ shifts position on web access: stating in court filings that public accommodations have a “pre-existing” obligation to make websites accessible

13. Top five mistakes when drafting website privacy policies

14. A most unpatriotic YouTube hijacking: America the Beautiful

15. As Reddit Burns, Some Hard-Earned Lessons on Building an Open Community

16. Screen Addiction Is Taking a Toll on Children

17. The Loud Fight Against Silicon Valley’s Quiet Racism

18. Microsoft renames Xbox Music Groove Music, drops Xbox branding from video store: Xbox Music doesn’t require an Xbox. Obvious, right? The renaming may help, but the service still lacks subscribers.

19. ICANN’s Threat To Privacy Is Not Theoretical

20. FCC Chairman lays out schedule for future broadband actions

21. Salon writers and editorial staff demand representation by the News Guild – union organizing in electronic media continues to grow 

22. Why Bitcoin is good for law enforcement 

23. Not-so-guilty pleasure: Viewing cat videos boosts energy and positive emotions

24. Witness ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’ Through Google’s Deep Dream: Neural network algorithm makes film adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson’s classic even more trippier

CREATIVITY

1. Appeals Court Rules Producer, Not Director, Gets Film Copyright

2. The Southern District of New York finds play to be fair use parody of “Three’s Company”

3. Stravinsky’s “Illegal” Arrangement of “The Star Spangled Banner” (1944)

4. Handbook on laws protecting free expression launched

jon