News of the Week; April 20, 2016

GAMES

1. Ark dev settles lawsuit over game’s origins and staff
2. Sega embraces legal console game modding with new Genesis PC emulation hub: Steamworks integration allows for legit distribution of modified console classics.
3. The Mess That Came After Nintendo Fired An Employee
4. This horrifying and newly trendy online-harassment tactic is ruining careers
5. Sexual harassment in online videogames: What we found so far
6. Rust hits 3.5m sales amidst concerns over gender, race assignment: Facepunch has found success in Early Access, but recent changes have ignited a debate within its audience
7. The Great Grand Theft Auto Lawsuit Explained
8. Fable Legends’ closure marks the end of Lionhead Studios: Microsoft is in the process of issuing refunds to those who purchased in-game currency after beta is taken offline
9. Shining light on the unregulated gambling rings ofCounter-Strike: GO
10. Division players could be “punished” for using in-game glitch: Ubisoft struggling with reportedly widespread use of hacking and exploits.
11. The eGames Are Hoping To Be The Olympics Of eSports And They Are Coming To Rio 2016
12. Survey: eSports fans are a small (but overwhelmingly male) demographic
13. eSports involvement actually greater among women than men – PwC: “The eSports consumer is young, racially diverse, tech-savvy and often female”
14. Survey: First-person shooters are the most popular eSport to watch
15. Collegiate League of Legends clash to be televised in the U.S.
16. GameStop unveils publishing label GameTrust
17. Mobile games help China leapfrog Japan on iOS revenue charts
18. Superdata downgrades VR forecast again
19. Oculus “don’t condone” HTC Vive software hacks
20. Inside ‘La Guilde,’ Quebec’s new independent development cooperative
21. F1 and Dirt dev Codemasters posts first profit in five years
22. How League of Legends dev Riot is using science to create safer online spaces
23. The Minecraft Generation: How a clunky Swedish computer game is teaching millions of children to master the digital world.
24. The player dynamics of a World War in EVE Online
25. How video games helped the world cozy up to computers
26. New study examines ‘violent-sexist’ video games’ affect on player empathy towards female victims of violence
27. The Game Outcomes Project, Part 4: Crunch Makes Games Worse
28. New Magic Leap Video Shows Your Home as a User Interface
29. Hyper Vision: The world’s hottest startup isn’t located in Silicon Valley—it’s in suburban Florida. KEVIN KELLY explores what Magic Leap’s mind-bending technology tells us about the future of virtual reality.
30. After nearly 20 years, game modding hub GameFront is shutting down
31. Help save 17 years of PC game modding history: Download your backups before GameFront’s mod-hosting platform shuts down April 30.
32. Achievement locked: Microsoft ceases Xbox 360 production

DIGITAL

1. Supreme Court Says It Won’t Hear Authors Guild Appeal Over Google Books Ruling
2. Be Glad the Supreme Court Ended the Google Books Case
3. Important Fair Use Decision Stands, Helps Keep Authors’ Works Findable (Pamela Samuelson)
4. Authors Guild Petulantly Whines About How Wrong It Is That The Public Will Benefit From Google Books
5. The ghost of Aereo rises: Local TV streaming coming to Sling TV, sources say – With a box called “AirTV,” people could have local TV beamed to the Sling app.
6. Kanye West promises Tidal exclusive, fan sues when new album surfaces elsewhere: Lawsuit says Tidal now has the ill-gotten personal information of millions of users.
7. USTR Finally Recognizes That The Internet Matters… And That Censorship, Site Blocking & Link Taxes Are Barriers
8. Anti-innovation: EU excludes open source from new tech standards
9. EU Regulators Seem To Think They Can Tell YouTube That Its Business Model Should Be More Like Spotify
10. EU Officially Goes After Google’s Android On Antitrust Grounds
11. Antitrust chief: Google’s restrictions on Android device makers breach EU law – Google has three months to respond to charges imposed on it in prelim EU decision.
12. Competition Bureau completes extensive investigation of Google: Bureau continues to monitor competition issues in the digital economy
13. Optometrists Push For State Laws Blocking Online Eye Exams
14. Analyst: Netflix largest US network by 2019
15. Swedish Women’s Soccer League Chooses To Broadcast Via Digital Instead Of Televisio
16. Investigating the algorithms that govern our lives
17. The Secret Rules Of The Internet: The murky history of moderation, and how it’s shaping the future of free speech
18. How Hacking Team got hacked
19. Sevens Marry Sevens: Is Online Dating Making Mixed-Attractiveness Couples More Rare?
20. What happens when robots are assigned ethnicities?

CREATIVITY

1. Copyright Injunction Covers Vancouver Aquarium Video
2. Klingon Language Creator Responds To Ownership Claims: Marc Okrand doesn’t own it, but not sure if Paramount or CBS does either
3. Artist who painted nude Donald Trump portrait says his legal team has threatened lawsuit 
4. Interlocutory injunction orders removal of 15 segments from published movie
5. You Pay to Read Research You Fund. That’s Ludicrous
6. Public Domain Citation Book, Baby Blue, Renamed To Indigo Book, Following Harvard Law Review Threats
7. Can Lawyers ‘Overcome’ The Bogus Copyright On ‘We Shall Overcome’ And Free It To The Public Domain?
8. Academics to PricewaterhouseCoopers: You Got It Wrong on the Benefits of Fair Use
9. Reconceptualizing Copyright’s Merger Doctrine (Pamela Samuelson)
10. I Photoshopped Kanye Kissing Himself And A Famous Artist Reportedly Made $100,000 Off It
11. DreamWorks: Stop Whitewashing Asian Characters!
12. Bernie Sanders’ Campaign Joins Too Many Other Presidential Campaigns In Abusing Trademark Law
13. Yes, Led Zeppelin took from other people’s records – but then they transformed them: Life as a Zeppelin fan would be much easier if they had come up with every idea themselves. But they always turned their borrowings into something greater than the source
14. Foundation for the Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan v. Alcon Entertainment (N.D. Georgia, March 23, 2016) 
15. Canadian Copyright Bill for the Blind in Need of Fine Tuning (Michael Geist) 

COMMUNICATIONS & BROADCASTING

1. Guilty Pleasures and Proper Needs: Who Gets What Kind of Internet, and Who Decides? (Dwayne Winseck)
2. Telus Trifles with Telephone History to Service its Constrained View of Universal, Affordable Broadband Internet Access Today
3. House votes to undermine net neutrality rules, and ISPs cheer: Vote to ban “rate regulation” would limit FCC’s consumer protection powers.
4. White House Threatens To Veto Bill Attempting To Gut Net Neutrality, Defang FCC
5. Obama supports cable box competition and—surprise—cable lobby is angry
6. From Russia with a licence? The Federal Court of Australia on retransmission of international TV broadcasts and proving licences

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Apparently Hacking Syed Farook’s iPhone Accomplished Nothing (Other Than Making Everyone Less Safe)
2. Apple holds steadfast, refuses to help feds access seized iPhone in NY drug case – Apple: Feds have not shown they have “exhausted other potential repositories.”
3. Canadian Law Enforcement Can Intercept, Decrypt Blackberry Messages
4. UK secret police are indiscriminately spying on millions of innocent people: New docs revealed by court order show staggering surveillance by MI5, MI6, GCHQ.
5. Microsoft Sues Government Over Its ECPA-Enabled Gag OrdersUS court agrees with feds: Warrants aren’t needed for cell-site location data – Data placed suspects near a string of Radio Shack and T-Mobile store robberies.
6. EFF Sues DOJ Over Its Refusal To Release FISA Court Documents Pertaining To Compelled Technical Assistance
7. Government Access to Private Data: Microsoft Opens a New Front in the Battle for Consumer Privacy 
8. Want to sue Ashley Madison over data breach? You must use your real name: Judge weighing if data hacked from the cheating site may be used at trial.
9. Rejection is coming: Obama’s Game of Thrones screener is likely FOIA-proof

jon