News of the Week; February 24, 2016

GAMES

  1. Seggie c. Roofdog Games Inc., 2015 QCCS 6462
  2. Nintendo-claimed video a “crystal clear case of fair use” says EFF attorney
  3. Nintendo addresses controversial Fire Emblem Fates scene by tweaking dialog
  4. PES 2016’s officially licensed Euro 2016 DLC only has 15 officially licensed teams: Republic of Ireland! Belgium! Sweden! More not included!
  5. Percentage of women devs “not good enough” – ESA CEO
  6. Vivendi in process of mandatory takeover bid for Gameloft
  7. Activision Blizzard-King acquisition closes: Publisher touts “largest game network in the world” with 500 million users
  8. Valve and HTC’s Vive priced at $800: VR kit will launch in April bundled with Job Simulator and Fantastic Contraption
  9. Will high-priced headsets kill mass-market virtual reality in its crib?: At $799, the HTC Vive isn’t exactly at a consumer-friendly price point… yet.
  10. The CW takes a gamble on primetime esports, with mixed results
  11. Jas Purewal on the business and law of eSports
  12. Rulesets within LCS and Global Leagues
  13. Do You Sell Games Online? Here’s A New Law You Should Probably Know About
  14. Are Video Games Art? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  15. Kojima, del Toro vow to work together again after Silent Hills debacle: Pair of unlikely friends still eager to collaborate after Konami troubles.
  16. DICE bait: How open-world adventures took over gaming’s academy awards – Our definition of “Game of the Year” is getting a tad narrow and predictable.
  17. ARM: Mobiles will be graphically equivalent to PS4/Xbox One by 2017
  18. Smartphones that rival console performance are not a threat
  19. What dating a Japanese sim taught me about love
  20. Government recommends eight years in prison for Leland Yee 

DIGITAL

  1. Court Orders Uber To Control Its Google Search Results (Eric Goldman)
  2. Google’s appeal of worldwide injunction to be heard by Supreme Court of Canada
  3. Courtney Love Defeats Twibel Claims–Holmes v. Love
  4. Actor Can Proceed With Twitter Defamation Lawsuit, Likely to Unmask Anonymous Twitter User 
  5. Does it violate federal export law if a website publishes CAD files of firearms?: And does it matter if those files are already available on BitTorrent?
  6. Dentist said to hit patients will pay $12k for trying to out YouTube critic: “Psycho dentist” video remains up, and the attempt to remove it was costly.
  7. Online piracy: Dallas Buyers Club throws in the towel but the fight continues
  8. Appeals court says Apple’s settlement in e-book price-fixing case can stand
  9. Copyright As Censorship: Popular Twitter Account Keeps Getting Deleted Over Trollish DMCA Claims
  10. Using Copyright To Shut Down ‘The Pirate Bay’ Of Scientific Research Is 100% Against The Purpose Of Copyright
  11. Irony 101: Citing Copyright, Sony Takes Down YouTube Video About … Copyright; You can’t make this stuff up – An online lecture included as part of a course on U.S. copyright law offered by Harvard University in the U.S. and overseas has been taken down by YouTube due to a copyright claim by Sony Music.
  12. Three Strikes System In Australia ‘Too Costly’ For Industry; Seems Piracy Not Such A Massive Problem After All
  13. Posting Vacation Photos To Facebook Costs An Employee His Job
  14. This letter got me fired from my job at Yelp
  15. MindMaze Raises $100 Million with $1B Valuation for “Neural Virtual Reality Platform”
  16. Employers Must Be Careful Using Non-Disparagement Clauses to Discourage Employees’ Negative Online and Social Media Posts 
  17. Mozilla, EFF, and Creative Commons call for more openness in trade negotiations
  18. Robot Art Raises Questions about Human Creativity

CREATIVITY

  1. Fairness Confirmed: Copyright Board Deals Another Blow to Access Copyright (Michael Geist)
  2. Secrecy around $30M Ontario music fund strikes wrong notes: Geist – The Ontario government has exaggerated the impact of the first round of funding with the creation of relatively few new full-time positions and limited international investment in the province.
  3. Secret Spending & Weak Results: Why the Ontario Government’s Music Fund Strikes the Wrong Note (Michael Geist)
  4. Chinese government will ban foreign media from publishing online in China: New regulations will also apply to films, music, and computer games.
  5. Facts Be Damned. China’s President Demands Media Outlets Parrot the Party Line
  6. China’s young reporters give up on journalism: ‘You can’t write what you want’: The ever greater constraints placed on news reporting by Xi Jinping mean many Chinese journalists see no point in pursuing a media career
  7. NYPD Says It Has No Record Of Asking Disney To Use Copyright To Shut Down Times Square Characters, Despite Public Admission
  8. Sneaky Change to the TPP Drastically Extends Criminal Penalties (EFF)
  9. Quiet ‘Legal Scrub’ Of TPP Makes Massive Change To Penalties For Copyright Infringement Without Telling Anyone
  10. NextDoor boots reporter for reporting on police press conference: Chief will hear your questions—if you can prove residency. Does that violate law?
  11. Twentieth Century Fox Television V. Empire Distribution Inc.: District court rules Fox’s hit television show “Empire” did not infringe or dilute trademark of record label Empire Distribution because Fox’s use of “Empire” was protected by First Amendment.
  12. Kesha Loses Bid To Be Freed From Contract With Dr. Luke
  13. Feeling The Burn: Bikram yoga poses are not copyrightable says the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Copyright owners need to act, says Kristen McCallion and John McCormick.
  14. Original 1977 Star Wars 35mm print has been restored and released online: There’s no Jabba, no CGI, and Han most definitely shoots first.
  15. “Hoverboard” company that had competitor raided at CES backs down: The Chinese defendant lawyered up, defended itself—and wants attorneys’ fees.
  16. New study confirms: Hollywood is white as hell
  17. 6 white actors who won Oscars for playing people of color
  18. The Oscar goes to: Men who play criminals and women who play wives

COMMUNICATIONS

  1. Yachts and Helicopters?: Why All Stakeholders Should Be Concerned By Blais’ Blast (Michael Geist)
  2. FCC votes to “unlock the cable box” over Republican opposition: Customers should be able to watch TV on any device without CableCard, FCC said.
  3. FCC Votes to Dismantle Cable’s Monopoly Over The Set Top Box
  4. Looking at the Decision of the Copyright Royalty Board on Internet Radio Royalties for Commercial Webcasters – What are the Issues that the Judges Considered? 
  5. Verizon faces probe of falling poles, sagging cables, and infested cabinets 

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

  1. Feds to court: Apple must be forced to help us unlock seized iPhone: Both sides will square off in federal court in Riverside, California next month.
  2. Apple CEO Tim Cook says company won’t build the FBI a backdoor for the iPhone
  3. McAfee will break iPhone crypto for FBI in 3 weeks or eat shoe on live TV: One man & his crew of hackers will save freedom by hacking where no one else dares.
  4. FBI’s Own Actions Likely Made Farook’s iPhone Data Inaccessible
  5. Encryption isn’t at stake, the FBI knowsApple already has the desired key: The FBI knows it can’t bypass the encryption; it just wants to try more than 10 PINs.
  6. Google CEO sides with Apple, opposes court-ordered device backdoors: Pichai says US gov’t forcing Apple to “hack customer data” sets a “troubling precedent.”
  7. Bill Gates sides with government in Apple v. FBI fight
  8. Bill Gates Is Confused About Apple FBI Fight, Makes Everyone More Confused
  9. Pew Asks Stupid Misleading Question About FBI Apple Fight, Gets Stupid Misleading Answers
  10. The Obscure 1789 Statute That Could Force Apple to Unlock a Smartphone
  11. That Apple FBI back door thing
  12. Footnote Reveals That The San Bernardino Health Dept. Reset Syed Farook’s Password, Which Is Why We’re Now In This Mess
  13. Senate intel chief backs off on bill criminalizing refusal to aid decryption: It’s been a whirlwind week surrounding the encryption debate.
  14. Preliminary thoughts on the Apple iPhone order in the San Bernardino case (Part 1) (Orin Kerr)
  15. Preliminary thoughts on the Apple iPhone order in the San Bernardino case: Part 2, the All Writs Act (Orin Kerr)
  16. The iPhone Writ Large (Derek Bambauer)
  17. Apple CEO Tim Cook: Complying with court order is “too dangerous to do”: Internal letter, Q&A lay out Apple’s rationale for fighting court order.
  18. The List Of 12 Other Cases Where The DOJ Has Demanded Apple Help It Hack Into iPhones
  19. FBI’s Scorched Earth Approach To Apple Means That Tech Companies Now Have Even Less Incentive To Help Feds
  20. Court Says EFF Can Move Forward With Discovery In Its Big Case Against NSA Surveillance
  21. ‘Difficult to determine’ scope of privacy breach in Five Eyes data sharing: Lack of information about metadata sharing ‘unconscionable’ and ‘irresponsible,’ privacy advocate says
  22. ‘Trust Us With More Data,’ Say Government Agencies Hacked By A 16-Year-Old
  23. Privacy Advocates and ISPs Spar over Targeted Ads 
  24. Australian Tribunal Says User’s IP Address And URLs Visited Are Not Personal Information
  25. Avvo misappropriated identity for commercial use, says lawyer in class action 
  26. No compelling interest in right of publicity for private figure, 9th Circuit rules (Rebecca Tushnet)
  27. Ninth Circuit Tosses Hurt Locker Case
  28. Introducing Safe Harbour 2.0: the EU-US Privacy Shield
  29. From “Safe Harbor” to “Privacy Shield”: laying the groundwork for a new agreement on transatlantic data transfer with the United States

jon