News of the Week; March 30, 2016

GAMES

1. Trendy sues Studio Wildcard over origins of Ark: Survival Evolved – Former creative director Jeremy Stieglitz violated non-compete and non-interference clauses, says Dungeon Defenders dev
2. Dev explains why he copyright claimed ‘That Dragon, Cancer’ Let’s Plays
3. That Dragon, Cancer dev says Let’s Play videos took away sales
4. Sim racing enthusiasts ordered to take down unlicensed Formula 1 mods: F1’s commercial rights holder is notoriously protective of its intellectual property.
5. Formula E And Virtually Live Partner To Bring Fans Unique Sports VR Experience
6. The Ars review: Oculus Rift expands PC gaming past the monitor’s edge
7. The biggest non-VR stories at GDC 2016
8. Roundtable: What we learned about VR at GDC – Virtual reality is a current reality, but its future remains a question mark 
9. Legal Issues in VR
10. Valve loses Australian legal battle, found guilty of breaking consumer law
11. Valve misled Australian consumers, says court: Valve found to be in violation of Australian consumer law because Steam didn’t have a refund policy
12. Female gamers and the difference between trash talking and sexual harassment
13. Blizzard pulls “sexualised” victory pose from Overwatch: “This wasn’t pandering or caving, though. This was the right call from our perspective”
14. Muslim fighter given Christian celebration in UFC 2: EA apologizes to Khabib Nurmagomedov, pledges to fix issue in game’s next update
15. Capcom cops to wonky Street Fighter Vlaunch—then delays paid download store: Offers pair of measly fighter costumes as “thanks for… patience and understanding.”
16. Sony plans to bring PlayStation IP to mobile
17. More confirmation, speculation on “PlayStation 4K” rumors
18. The Future of Data Analysis: Better games, better players, and AI interpretation?
19. Your kids want to make Minecraft YouTube videos – but should you let them?
20. Pratchett: AAA becoming braver at tackling serious subjects – Award-winning writer believes we’ll see a “trickle up” of maturity in content from indies and mid-level studios
21. Harvard Team Is Disqualified for Cheating in College Video-Game Competition
22. Nintendo Korea restructuring results in massive layoffs

DIGITAL

1. Microsoft’s teenage AI shows I know nothing about millennials: But like all teenagers, she seems to be angry with her mother.
2. Microsoft terminates its Tay AI chatbot after she turns into a Nazi: Setting her neural net processor to read-write was a terrible mistake.
3. Tay, the neo-Nazi millennial chatbot, gets autopsied: Microsoft apologizes for her behavior and talks about what went wrong.
4. Who turned Microsoft’s chatbot racist? Surprise, it was 4chan and 8chan
5. It’s Your Fault Microsoft’s Teen AI Turned Into Such a Jerk
6. Here’s How We Prevent The Next Racist Chatbot: Tay.AI Is The Consequence Of Poor Training
7. Can a Computer Get a Patent?
8. A Computer Wrote A Novel — And Nearly Won A Literary Prize For It
9. Budget 2016: Is It The End of a Canadian Digital Strategy? (Michael Geist)
10. Trump’s Incomprehensible ‘Cyber’ Policy: ‘Make Cyber Great Again’
11. The state has lost control: tech firms now run western politics (Evgeny Morozov)
12. Why Are People Using Ad Blockers? Ads Can Eat Up To 79% Of Mobile Data Allotments
13. Notice and Takedown in Everyday Practice (Jennifer M. Urban, Brianna L. Schofield & Joe Karaganis)
14. The Hidden Cost of Signing Up for Internet in Spain: Your Sanity
15. The Unseen Threat of Digital Warfare
16. Indian Migrant Worker Arrested in Saudi Arabia For Denouncing Working Conditions on Facebook
17. Rage-quit: Coder unpublished 17 lines of JavaScript and “broke the Internet” – Dispute over module name in npm registry became giant headache for developers.
18. Social media “influencers”: the do’s and don’ts of disclosure 
19. Donald Trump’s Social Media Ties To White Supremacists
20. Landmark Daily Fantasy Sports Settlement between DraftKings, FanDuel and New York
21. The Sharing Economy’s Dirty Laundry: Sharing economy companies like Uber and Airbnb aren’t helping local economies — they’re just helping themselves.
22. In foam-arrow patent fracas, Newegg swoops in to aid LARPer defendant – Newegg lawyer Lee Cheng: “We geeky types like to stick together.”
23. Record companies made $2.4B last year from streaming, but it’s not enough
24. Report: “YouTube Connect” will be a livestreaming Periscope competitor – News of yet another live YouTube service surfaces.
25. Most young viewers feel it’s OK when YouTube stars shill for sponsors, study says
26. Demolition company says a Google Maps error led them to tear down the wrong house
27. It’s Not Just You: Netflix’s Movie Catalogue Keeps Getting Smaller – It seems to be part of the company’s plan.
28. How well online dating works, according to someone who has been studying it for years
29. Clickbait Obsession Devours Journalism
30. 4 Reasons America’s Laws Governing Robots Are Terrifyingly Outdated: Robots are evolving faster than the laws that rule their existence.

CREATIVITY

1. The Mandatory Tariff Issue – The Follow Up and the Future – Implications for the Access Copyright v. York University Case. etc. (Howard Knopf)
2. Despite Massive Streaming Revenue Gains, RIAA Still Lying & Crying
3. Time Warner, Defenders Of Copyright, Forced To Pay Up For Copyright Infringement
4. House Of Cards Sued Over Trademark Regarding Themed Slot Machines
5. Patent that cost Microsoft millions gets invalidated: For over a decade, Uniloc pursued royalties for various anti-piracy schemes.
6. Court To Film Director: You Must First Create An Infringing Work Before We Can Discuss Whether Or Not It’s Actually Infringing
7. Judge Rejects Film Producer’s Bid to Have Buck Rogers Character Declared in Public Domain
8. Brothers in Law: A Photographer’s Artistic Freedom v. an Individual’s Rights to Privacy
9. Video rental past due for 14 years leads to arrest of NC man: Rental store is defunct. Format is obsolete. Movie is bad.

COMMUNICATIONS & BROADCASTING

1. Dissenting Commissioner Thinks Corus Has Too Sweet A Deal
2. Memorandum of Understanding between the United States Federal Trade Commission and the CRTC on mutual assistance in the Enforcement of Laws on commercial email and telemarketing (CRTC)
3. ‘March 1 is the new January 1’ – A ‘new year’ in Canadian television services
4. Netflix throttles video on AT&T and Verizon to keep users under data caps: Netflix limits video to 600kbps and 360p, says “data caps are bad for consumers.”
5. Netflix Reveals It Throttles AT&T, Verizon Customers To Save Them From Usage Caps, Overage Fees
6. Netflix should be investigated for throttling itself, FCC Republican says
7. The Cable Industry Wants Netflix Investigated… For Throttling Itself
8. Zero-rating by major ISPs “threatens open Internet,” advocates tell FCC: FCC urged to stop data cap exemptions at Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile.
9. Google Fiber makes phone service official, starts at $10 a month: A “cloud based” phone number brings Google Voice features to landlines.
10. Prison Telco Claims Prisoners Will Riot If Company Can’t Keep Overcharging Inmate Families

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. FBI Denies It Lied About Ability To Crack iPhone, Also Suggests Cellebrite Rumor Is Wrong
2. Apple Asks Judge Overseeing NY iPhone Case To Wait Until More Is Known About FBI’s New Magic Unlocking Trick
3. Apple likely can’t force FBI to disclose how it got data from seized iPhone: “It is an important test for the government’s disclosure policy.”
4. Influencers: FBI should disclose San Bernardino iPhone security hole to Apple
5. FBI hacks into terrorist’s iPhone without Apple
6. Feds break through seized iPhone, stand down in legal battle with Apple: DOJ won’t say how, but its mysterious new method to bust through iPhone 5C worked.
7. DOJ Says That The Crack Of Syed Farook’s iPhone Only Applies To That Model Of iPhone
8. FBI Breaks into iPhone. We Have Some Questions. (EFF)
9. FBI Is Pushing Back Against Judge’s Order to Reveal Tor Browser Exploit
10. Your iPhone just got less secure. Blame the FBI.: When Johns Hopkins discovered a different security flaw, it notified Apple so the problem could be fixed. The FBI is keeping its newly found breach a secret from everyone.
11. Some Thoughts On What, Exactly, The DOJ’s ‘Inaccurate Assertion’ Might Be Concerning Secret Legal Opinion
12. If FBI Can Get Into A Device Running iOS 9, Why Does It Say It Still Needs Apple’s Help To Get Into One Running iOS 7?
13. Encryption Is a Luxury: The people that most need privacy often can’t afford the smartphones that provide it.
14. Under Surveillance: Examining Facebook’s Spiral of Silence Effects in the Wake of NSA Internet Monitoring (Elizabeth Stoycheff)
15. France Still Thinks It Regulates Entire Internet, Fines Google For Not Making Right To Be Forgotten Global
16. American Big Brother: A Century of Political Surveillance and Repression

jon