GAMES
- Seggie c. Roofdog Games Inc., 2015 QCCS 6462
- Nintendo-claimed video a “crystal clear case of fair use” says EFF attorney
- Nintendo addresses controversial Fire Emblem Fates scene by tweaking dialog
- PES 2016’s officially licensed Euro 2016 DLC only has 15 officially licensed teams: Republic of Ireland! Belgium! Sweden! More not included!
- Percentage of women devs “not good enough” – ESA CEO
- Vivendi in process of mandatory takeover bid for Gameloft
- Activision Blizzard-King acquisition closes: Publisher touts “largest game network in the world” with 500 million users
- Valve and HTC’s Vive priced at $800: VR kit will launch in April bundled with Job Simulator and Fantastic Contraption
- 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.
- The CW takes a gamble on primetime esports, with mixed results
- Jas Purewal on the business and law of eSports
- Rulesets within LCS and Global Leagues
- Do You Sell Games Online? Here’s A New Law You Should Probably Know About
- Are Video Games Art? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- Kojima, del Toro vow to work together again after Silent Hills debacle: Pair of unlikely friends still eager to collaborate after Konami troubles.
- 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.
- ARM: Mobiles will be graphically equivalent to PS4/Xbox One by 2017
- Smartphones that rival console performance are not a threat
- What dating a Japanese sim taught me about love
- Government recommends eight years in prison for Leland Yee
DIGITAL
- Court Orders Uber To Control Its Google Search Results (Eric Goldman)
- Google’s appeal of worldwide injunction to be heard by Supreme Court of Canada
- Courtney Love Defeats Twibel Claims–Holmes v. Love
- Actor Can Proceed With Twitter Defamation Lawsuit, Likely to Unmask Anonymous Twitter User
- 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?
- 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.
- Online piracy: Dallas Buyers Club throws in the towel but the fight continues
- Appeals court says Apple’s settlement in e-book price-fixing case can stand
- Copyright As Censorship: Popular Twitter Account Keeps Getting Deleted Over Trollish DMCA Claims
- Using Copyright To Shut Down ‘The Pirate Bay’ Of Scientific Research Is 100% Against The Purpose Of Copyright
- 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.
- Three Strikes System In Australia ‘Too Costly’ For Industry; Seems Piracy Not Such A Massive Problem After All
- Posting Vacation Photos To Facebook Costs An Employee His Job
- This letter got me fired from my job at Yelp
- MindMaze Raises $100 Million with $1B Valuation for “Neural Virtual Reality Platform”
- Employers Must Be Careful Using Non-Disparagement Clauses to Discourage Employees’ Negative Online and Social Media Posts
- Mozilla, EFF, and Creative Commons call for more openness in trade negotiations
- Robot Art Raises Questions about Human Creativity
CREATIVITY
- Fairness Confirmed: Copyright Board Deals Another Blow to Access Copyright (Michael Geist)
- 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.
- Secret Spending & Weak Results: Why the Ontario Government’s Music Fund Strikes the Wrong Note (Michael Geist)
- Chinese government will ban foreign media from publishing online in China: New regulations will also apply to films, music, and computer games.
- Facts Be Damned. China’s President Demands Media Outlets Parrot the Party Line
- 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
- NYPD Says It Has No Record Of Asking Disney To Use Copyright To Shut Down Times Square Characters, Despite Public Admission
- Sneaky Change to the TPP Drastically Extends Criminal Penalties (EFF)
- Quiet ‘Legal Scrub’ Of TPP Makes Massive Change To Penalties For Copyright Infringement Without Telling Anyone
- NextDoor boots reporter for reporting on police press conference: Chief will hear your questions—if you can prove residency. Does that violate law?
- 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.
- Kesha Loses Bid To Be Freed From Contract With Dr. Luke
- 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.
- Original 1977 Star Wars 35mm print has been restored and released online: There’s no Jabba, no CGI, and Han most definitely shoots first.
- “Hoverboard” company that had competitor raided at CES backs down: The Chinese defendant lawyered up, defended itself—and wants attorneys’ fees.
- New study confirms: Hollywood is white as hell
- 6 white actors who won Oscars for playing people of color
- The Oscar goes to: Men who play criminals and women who play wives
COMMUNICATIONS
- Yachts and Helicopters?: Why All Stakeholders Should Be Concerned By Blais’ Blast (Michael Geist)
- FCC votes to “unlock the cable box” over Republican opposition: Customers should be able to watch TV on any device without CableCard, FCC said.
- FCC Votes to Dismantle Cable’s Monopoly Over The Set Top Box
- Looking at the Decision of the Copyright Royalty Board on Internet Radio Royalties for Commercial Webcasters – What are the Issues that the Judges Considered?
- Verizon faces probe of falling poles, sagging cables, and infested cabinets
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- 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.
- Apple CEO Tim Cook says company won’t build the FBI a backdoor for the iPhone
- 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.
- FBI’s Own Actions Likely Made Farook’s iPhone Data Inaccessible
- 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.
- 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.”
- Bill Gates sides with government in Apple v. FBI fight
- Bill Gates Is Confused About Apple FBI Fight, Makes Everyone More Confused
- Pew Asks Stupid Misleading Question About FBI Apple Fight, Gets Stupid Misleading Answers
- The Obscure 1789 Statute That Could Force Apple to Unlock a Smartphone
- That Apple FBI back door thing
- Footnote Reveals That The San Bernardino Health Dept. Reset Syed Farook’s Password, Which Is Why We’re Now In This Mess
- Senate intel chief backs off on bill criminalizing refusal to aid decryption: It’s been a whirlwind week surrounding the encryption debate.
- Preliminary thoughts on the Apple iPhone order in the San Bernardino case (Part 1) (Orin Kerr)
- Preliminary thoughts on the Apple iPhone order in the San Bernardino case: Part 2, the All Writs Act (Orin Kerr)
- The iPhone Writ Large (Derek Bambauer)
- 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.
- The List Of 12 Other Cases Where The DOJ Has Demanded Apple Help It Hack Into iPhones
- FBI’s Scorched Earth Approach To Apple Means That Tech Companies Now Have Even Less Incentive To Help Feds
- Court Says EFF Can Move Forward With Discovery In Its Big Case Against NSA Surveillance
- ‘Difficult to determine’ scope of privacy breach in Five Eyes data sharing: Lack of information about metadata sharing ‘unconscionable’ and ‘irresponsible,’ privacy advocate says
- ‘Trust Us With More Data,’ Say Government Agencies Hacked By A 16-Year-Old
- Privacy Advocates and ISPs Spar over Targeted Ads
- Australian Tribunal Says User’s IP Address And URLs Visited Are Not Personal Information
- Avvo misappropriated identity for commercial use, says lawyer in class action
- No compelling interest in right of publicity for private figure, 9th Circuit rules (Rebecca Tushnet)
- Ninth Circuit Tosses Hurt Locker Case
- Introducing Safe Harbour 2.0: the EU-US Privacy Shield
- From “Safe Harbor” to “Privacy Shield”: laying the groundwork for a new agreement on transatlantic data transfer with the United States
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