GAMES

1. Take-Two sued over portrayal of player tattoos in NBA 2K16
2. Who owns the word “Ghost”? Ubisoft, EA fight it out: Ubisoft worries EA’s Ghost Games will be confused with “Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon”
3. Atari and Haunted House Tycoon square off at upcoming USPTO hearing
4. Sony’s “Let’s Play” Trademark Application Denied For A Second Time
5. Sony is trying – and failing – to trademark “Let’s Play”
6. PlayStation’s move to America won’t change its DNA
7. Sony sold 8.4 million PS4s in Q3: 15.4 million after nine months, already higher than the whole of the last fiscal year
8. Don’t look now, but the PC is the world’s biggest gaming platform: But it’s free-to-play and social gaming that’s driving the most revenue.
9. EA lets slip lifetime Xbox One and PS4 consoles sales: 55 million units combined, minus Sony’s 36 million, leaves 19 million for Microsoft.
10. EA goes solo for E3 Expo
11. EA’s absence from E3 is not a death knell
12. Star Wars Battlefront passes 13m shipped as EA exceeds Q3 guidance: GAAP net revenues were flat, however, and the publisher lost $45 million [UPDATE: physical sales dominated digital for Star Wars]
13. EA: We’re on a “journey to regain trust of the PC gamer”
14. GameStop makes publishing debut with Insomniac’s Song of the Deep
15. Hearthstone’s new formats and the rise of digital scarcity: Old downloadable goods aren’t hard to produce, but they could soon be hard to get.
16. USC to start publishing label focused on “innovative work”: USC Games Publishing aims to become the industry’s equivalent of the MIT Press
17. Blizzard launches Heroes Of The Dorm 2016
18. Icejam raises $3 million to develop “Playable Data” platform
19. MGS V sells 6m, pushes Konami digital profits up by 150%
20. Niantic’s Ingress has over 14m downloads
21. Gameloft will have to return $3 million New Zealand grant: Closure of Auckland studio prompts government agency to “claw back” R&D grant
22. Stump The Trump 2016 lets players squash Donald Trump
23. Survival Island 3: Australia Story 3D game that encourages players to bludgeon Aboriginal Australians to death causes outrage
24. ‘Tomahawk’ class in Bravely Second: End Layer altered for Europe, North America
25. YouTube Personalities Use ‘Minecraft’ to Prey on Underage Fans

DIGITAL

1. YouTube mobile reach ‘outstrips US cable nets’
2. Alphabet’s market cap tops Apple, is now the world’s most valuable company
3. Facebook prohibiting private firearms sales from unlicensed sellers: The company will remove posts reported by its users that violate the policy.
4. Google to divert extremist searches to anti-radicalisation websites: Search engine giant reveals plans for pilot scheme to home affairs committee hearing, with Facebook and Twitter also probed over extremism policies
5. Go, Marvin Minsky, and the Chasm that AI Hasn’t Yet Crossed: An expert in AI separates fact from hype in the wake of DeepMind’s victory over humans in the most challenging game of all
6. Google’s AI beats Go champion, will now take on best player in the world: Google sets a neural network loose on the ancient Chinese game Go.
7. The Internet of Emotions: Putting the person back into personalization
8. Future of VR is social, say Steam VR developers
9. The End of Twitter
10. How India Pierced Facebook’s Free Internet Program
11. Indonesian Carrier Blocks Netflix Streaming Service
12. The esoteric debate that’s tearing the Bitcoin world apart, explained
13. Has a Royalty Change Doomed Small Webcasters?
14. YouTube community ‘reacts’ to questionable trademark filing
15. Fine Bros back down, rescind trademark claim on the word “react”: Claim was for “programs… in the field of observing, interviewing groups of people.”
16. How Two of YouTube’s Biggest Stars Became Its Biggest Villains Overnight
17. The Fine Bros Plan Is Actually Pretty Cool If You Get Past How They Announced It
18. Anti-swatting US Congresswoman targeted in swatting attack: Computer-generated voice called in threat to author of Internet Swatting Hoax Act.
19. What’s stupid this month: Xerox patents sharing documents online
20. DOJ Lies To ‘FOIA Terrorist’ Jason Leopold; Claim They Have No Documents On Aaron Swartz
21. What’s the Legal Definition of a “Social Media Site”? Uh… (People v. Lopez) (Eric Goldman)
22. The Twitter trial you never heard about: Toronto man found guilty of harassing Michelle Rempel
23. Writer Claims Libel, Copyright Infringement When Screencap Of Her Tweet Is Used In An Online Article
24. Newegg sues patent troll that dropped its case: “They started the litigation, and it would be irresponsible to not finish it.”
25. Ecuador Continues To Use US Copyright Law To Censor Critics
26. Ruling creates a ‘bizarre scenario,’ says lawyer: A flawed Small Claims Court decision vindicates critics who said digital lock amendments to the Copyright Act enacted in 2012 were too broad, according to a Toronto intellectual property lawyer. 
27. Lawyer facing discipline for internal e-mails
28. The Trouble with the TPP, Day 19: No Canadian Side Agreements to Advance Tech Sector (Michael Geist)
29. Inside The Most Vicious Conflict On The Internet: When the internet’s pit bull obsessives grab ahold of something, they don’t let go.
30. The Tragic Data Behind Selfie Fatalities
31. Wikimedia’s newest board appointment steps down amid editor hostility: In a non-binding vote, 290 editors had asked for Geshuri to be removed.
32. Closing the Tech Industry Gender Gap
33. Hacking Technology’s Boys’ Club
34. Nest Thermostat Goes From ‘Internet Of Things’ Darling To Cautionary Tale
35. First-person drone racing is much harder than I expected: Apparently, strapping goggles to your face is the best way of piloting a drone.
36. Can Robot Racing Win Human Hearts?
37. Tech Companies Are Leading The Rise Of Crowdsourced A&R
38. Will Machines Eliminate Us?: People who worry that we’re on course to invent dangerously intelligent machines are misunderstanding the state of computer science.
39. Surveying Ten Years Of Top Internet Law Developments (Eric Goldman)
40. Modern Grief: Confronting my husband’s digital ghosts—one email at a time

CREATIVITY

1. The Trouble with the TPP, Day 18: Failure to Protect Canadian Cultural Policy (Michael Geist)
2. Hasbro Sued For Font Piracy On My Little Pony Merchandise
3. Monkey See, Monkey Do, But Judge Says Monkey Gets No Copyright
4. Pick A Side: Video Of Creepy Girls Singing To Donald Trump Taken Down Over Copyright On WWI Song
5. Commerce Department Wants To Fix Some Of The Worst Problems Of Copyright Law: Reform Crazy Damages
6. New York Times Sues Publisher Over War Photos, Fair Use At IssueSeventh Circuit: Water Scientist Gagged By Lobbying Group’s Bogus Copyright Injunction
7. USPTO white paper on remix, first sale, and statutory damages
8. Party Raising “First Sale” Defense to Copyright Infringement Bears Initial Burden of Proof
9. The S—–ness Of IP Law Has Taught The Public That Everything Is Stealing And Everyone Is Owed Something
10. For Canadian innovators, will TPP mean protection – or colonialism?
11. State of the Netflix union discussion with chief content officer Ted Sarandos
12. Why ‘Kung Fu Panda 3’ Might Be The Most Important Hollywood Movie Of 2016
13. The Future of the Humanities: Reading – As technology advances, doomsaying remains constant.

COMMUNICATIONS

1. Canadian wireless bills: that’s a lot of coffee!
2. CRTC executes another raid in malware investigation
3. New Report To FCC Details How Binge On Violates Net Neutrality
4. Lest there be doubt (Timothy Denton)
5. The Trouble with the TPP, Day 20: Unenforceable Net Neutrality Rules (Michael Geist)
6. Why Canadian Telecom Companies Must Defend Your Right to Privacy (Michael Geist)
7. Ignoring cable industry protest, FCC says it will “unlock the set-top box”: Cable TV customers could save a lot of money on set-top box rental fees.
8. Tom Wheeler fires back at cable lobby, says cable box fees are too high
9. Cable lobby is really mad about FCC’s set-top box competition plan
10. Inside the FCC’s audacious plan to blow up
11. MLB Settles, Leaving Unanswered Questions: Do Sports Leagues’ Regional Blackout Agreements Violate Antitrust Laws?

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Ontario Superior Court creates new privacy tort in revenge porn case
2. Ontario court explicitly adopts new privacy tort: public disclosure of private facts
3. New Privacy Tort: Public Disclosure of Embarrassing Private Stuff 
4. Canada Temporarily Drops Out Of Five Eyes Spying Coalition, After Realizing It Wasn’t Properly Protecting Information
5. Last-gasp Safe Harbor “political deal” struck between Europe and US: Draft EU-US Privacy Shield framework won’t be drawn up for several weeks, however.
6. EU And US Come To ‘Agreement’ On Safe Harbor, But If It Doesn’t Stop Mass Surveillance, It Won’t Fly
7. Interview: Safe Harbour 2.0 will lose again, argues Max Schrems – “Silicon Valley doesn’t rule world. Respect laws in each country,” says privacy campaigner.
8. U.S. takeover of network carrying sensitive federal data raises security concerns
9. How an Overreaction to Terrorism Can Hurt Cybersecurity: Encryption could have prevented some of the worst cyberattacks. Giving back doors to law enforcement will make matters worse (Bruce Schneier)
10. Felon’s lifetime GPS monitoring upheld by US federal appeals court: Burden on privacy “must in any event be balanced against the gain to society.”
11. Feds don’t need crypto backdoors to spy—your TV and toothbrush will do: Internet of Things opens government access to real-time, recorded communications.
12. Uber has started monitoring smartphones to see when drivers are speeding
13. Security And Privacy Standards Are Critical To The Success Of Connected Cars
14. Databases create access to police misconduct cases and offer a handy tool for defense lawyers
15. Employee GPS Tracking – Is it Legal? 
16. Does property owner have the right to shoot down hobbyist’s hovering drone?
17. “Don’t Panic”: Making Progress on the “Going Dark” Debate (Berkman Center)
18. Protecting Children Vs. Protecting Privacy

jon