News of the Week; March 25, 2016

GAMES

1. Seggie v. Roofdog Games Inc.: Who is the Author of Videogame Software for Copyright Purposes?
2. Former Valve employee alleges unfair treatment and unethical practices, seeks $3.1 million in damages
3. Take-Two Says Tattoo Artist Can’t Get Statutory Damages Because He Only Registered Copyright In 2015
4. Paradox removes “White Humans” Stellaris mod: “We expect our modders to help us keep the comment sections free of any racial slurs”
5. Paradox steps in to remove ‘inappropriate’ Stellaris mod from Steam
6. Paradox’s removal of Stellaris’ “Whites Only” mod draws controversy: Developer says “disturbing” description, not mod content, led to the takedown.
7. Nintendo issues copyright claims on Mario-themed Minecraft videos: Move highlights a culture clash between two very different online philosophies.
8. Minecraft videos based on Super Mario DLC hit with copyright claims: 4J Studios’ official Wii U add-on was supposed to be exempt from Nintendo’s insistence on taking a cut of YouTubers’ revenue
9. Oculus puts the kibosh on ‘hack’ that let Vive owners play Rift games
10. Oculus introduces DRM that kills Revive mod
11. Oculus breaks promise, uses DRM to kill app that let you switch VR systems
12. Oculus Is Hurting VR’s Development By Supporting Walled Gardens, Closed Ecosystems
13. Alan Yates Says Rift’s Core Features Are a “Direct Copy” of Valve’s VR Research
14. Studio Wildcard will pay for ARK: Survival Evolved mod content – The creators of two new maps were paid “several months salary” and hired by the company
15. CryEngine source code now available on Github
16. Former exec speaks to the risk-averse nature of Disney’s game biz
17. Apple backtracks, publishes politically sensitive iOS title as a game
18. Former Valve employee alleges she was fired for being transgender: Plaintiff says Valve referred to her as “it” – she’s seeking $3.1 million in damages
19. Professionalism and toxicity threaten eSports’ breakthrough
20. Twitch signs on to stream the eLeague, TBS’ televised eSports venture
21. Investors pour $4.5M more into eSports coaching tool startup
22. EA Sports Is Betting Millions You’ll Watch This Guy Play ‘FIFA’: The video game titan wants to put the “sports” in “e-sports.”
23. Pac-12 athletic conference to host collegiate eSports tournaments
24. Uncharted 4 is a paragon of AAA accessibility: Naughty Dog describes the new features in its latest blockbuster that make it more open to gamers with disabilities
25. Uncharted 4 was inspired by the industry’s struggle against crunch: Naughty Dog embraced “downbeat moments” and reconsidered the importance of fun, to the chagrin of certain fans
26. Uncharted 4 Sold 2.7 Million Units In Its First Week
27. Playing For The Future: How Video Games Are Leading Innovation
28. Sony predicts 20m PS4 sales in FY2016
29. Microsoft has finally found a legal path to publishing Minecraft on Chinese PCs: Long-awaited news serves as reminder of China’s resistance to Western software.
30. Report: ISP now blocking online games in Morocco due to VoIP ban
31. Google’s (Day)dream: ‘Hundreds of Millions of Users in a Couple of Years’ – Company says goal is to foster a “multi-billion dollar” VR ecosystem on Android
32. Google Play is adding an Early Access section
33. Rovio’s Angry Birds film has earned $150 million worldwide: But after a $400 million Sony marketing push, how much further does it have to fly to return a profit?
34. Video: Raph Koster recounts a history of virtual worlds, from MUDS to MMOs
35. Skill-based, first-person gambling game coming to Atlantic City casinos

DIGITAL

1. Court Says Google Doesn’t Have A First Amendment Right To Drop A Site From Its Search Results
2. Oracle-Google Dispute Goes to Heart of Open-Source Software
3. Google’s closing argument: Android was built from scratch, the fair way – “Oracle took none of the risk, but wants all the credit, and a lot of the money.”
4. Why the Very Silly Oracle v. Google Trial Actually Matters
5. John McCain, Forgetting His Own Support Of Fair Use On YouTube, Tries To Use Copyright To Take Down His Own Ad
6. Fox ‘Stole’ A Game Clip, Used It In Family Guy & DMCA’d The Original
7. Fox In The Henhouse: Uses Someone Else’s YouTube Clip In Family Guy, Then Takes Down The Original
8. Videos of Nintendo-backed Minecraft Mario DLC trigger copyright crackdown — from Nintendo
9. NYU Sues YouTube For Reposting Video After Video Poster Sent DMCA Counternotice
10. Copyright As Censorship: Questionable Copyright Claim Forces Indie Musician To Destroy All Physical Copies Of New Album
11. H3h3Productions Sued For Copyright Infringement By MattHossZone, Spotlighting Fraught Issue Of Fair Use
12. Web Sheriff Abuses DMCA In Weak Attempt To Hide Info Under UK High Court Injunction, Fails Miserably
13. Why Is Twitter Sending Legal Letters Warning People About Tweeting About The Gagged Topic Of A ‘Celebrity Threesome’
14. Sex lives of Britain’s rich and famous stay private, for now
15. Sony Thinks It Can Charge An ‘Administrative Fee’ For Fair Use
16. Revealed: How copyright law is being misused to remove material from the internet – When Annabelle Narey posted a negative review of a building firm on Mumsnet, the last thing on her mind was copyright infringement
17. A Report on Notice and Takedown in Everyday Practice
18. Linking and secondary liability for copyright infringement. A look into the Spanish approach.
19. Google Goes On The Offensive Against Troll Armed With Old Mp3 Player Patent
20. FTC Rules On Machinima Case: Is This The End Of Influencer Marketing?
21. Three starts network-level ad blocking trial: UK mobile carrier moving ahead after months of talks with the advertising industry.
22. When YouTube Pranks Break the Law
23. Machine Bias: There’s software used across the country to predict future criminals. And it’s biased against blacks.
24. On the Design and Ethics of Virtual Reality and Immersive Experiences
25. New York Times staffer tweets out op-ed critical of Trump, faces anti-Semitic avalanche
26. Digital Assistants Get Women’s Names—Unless They’re ‘Lawyers’
27. Facebook apologized after fat-shaming a model—but the damage was already done
28. UK Queen’s Speech: More, Faster Broadband… But It Will Be Censored And Spied On
29. Self-Proclaimed ‘Badass Lawyer’ Loses Defamation Suit Against Parody Twitter Account
30. ‘Badass Lawyer’ Loses Lawsuit Over Parody Twitter Account–Levitt v. Felton
31. Law Firm Subpoenas Glassdoor For Negative Anonymous Reviews, Supercharges Streisand Effect With Its Response
32. Malaysian Government Pushes For Broad Internet Censorship Bill Following Internet Reporting On Gov’t Corruption
33. China’s scary lesson to the world: Censoring the Internet works
34. Study: One Out Of Every 178 Posts To Chinese Social Media Is Government Propaganda
35. Terrorists no longer welcome on OneDrive or Hotmail: The company is also funding research to detect terrorist content.
36. Chile’s New Copyright Legislation Would Make Creative Commons Licensing Impossible For Audiovisual Works
37. Principles For Reassuring Authors Of Ssrn-Posted Papers Under Elsevier’s Ownership
38. Do You Love Music? Silicon Valley Doesn’t (Jonathan Taplin)
39. You’re Entitled To Your Own Opinions, But Not Your Own Facts About Copyright, NY Times EditionTaplin’s False Choice Between Music And Technology (Annemarie Bridy)
40. Former exec speaks to the risk-averse nature of Disney’s game biz
41. Everything You Know About Artificial Intelligence is Wrong
42. Guest commentary: The real threat of artificial intelligence
43. How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds — from a Magician and Google’s Design Ethicist
44. A Few Late-Night Thoughts About Hostility On Twitter And Other Anti-Social Media (James Grimmelmann)
45. Media executives: stop saying ‘platform.’ It’s a meaningless and dangerous word.
46. ICANN Won’t Even Be Accountable in Becoming Accountable 

CREATIVITY

1. Silicon Valley Billionaire Peter Thiel Accused Of Financing Hulk Hogan’s Ridiculous Lawsuits Against Gawker
2. Peter Thiel just gave other billionaires a dangerous blueprint for perverting philanthropy
3. Peter Thiel, Gawker and why all of this could matter during a Trump presidency
4. Gawker Fails to Persuade Judge to Retry Hulk Hogan Case
5. Paramount Apparently Going To Drop Lawsuit Against Axanar Fan Film, Produce ‘Guidelines’ For Fan Films
6. Beating studios to the punch, J.J. Abrams says Axanar suit will be “going away”: Star Trek director says suing “was not an appropriate way to deal with the fans.”
7. NCAA Petitions Supreme Court to Protect Uses of Athletes’ Names & Likenesses
8. How Kesha’s contract became her cage
9. Heirs Go Crazy: Prince’s Estate And Copyright’s Termination Of Transfer – The fight over Prince’s estate will dig deep into copyright law for a very long time
10. Photojournalist Being Sued For Publishing Image Of Aftermath Of Paris Attacks
11. This Silicon Valley Billionaire Has Been Secretly Funding Hulk Hogan’s Lawsuits Against Gawker
12. Cop sued for drawing gun on man filming him: “Hey. You gotta take your hand out of your pocket.”—”No. I haven’t done anything.”
13. Journalists Arrested In Ferguson Promise Not To Promote The Settlement
14. Appeals Court Muddies Trademark Nominative Fair Use Doctrine (Eric Goldman)
15. Music Industry Rep Hired by Copyright OfficeCanada’s Copyright Lobby Revolving Door Raises Fairness Concerns Ahead of 2017 Review (Michael Geist)
16. Awesome Stuff: Art & Copyright
17. Louboutin Loses Battle to Protect Red Soles in Switzerland
18. SKIO Music seeks to ensure the survival of creativity
19. Copying Pictures, Evidencing Evolution: Copying — unoriginal, dull, and derivative by definition — can be creative, contested, and consequential in its effects. Nick Hopwood tracks Haeckel’s embryos, some of the most controversial pictures in the history of science, and explores how copying put them among the most widely seen.
20. Netflix CCO Ted Sarandos on how his ‘disruptive’ methods are insuring the future of film
21. Film Dialogue from 2,000 screenplays, Broken Down by Gender and Age
22. How Piracy Became a Cause Celebre in the World of Academics

COMMUNICATIONS & BROADCASTING

1. Ontario commissioner extends legal battle with CRTC chairman
2. Netflix, Amazon given quotas for EU-produced video, face new tax: 20% quota from European regulators to ensure some content is European in origin.
3. Let’s Talk: Bell won’t about cops snooping on customers
4. George Burger: Who’s afraid of competition for high-speed Internet? You’d be surprised
5. EFF/Copyright professors’ comment on FCC’s proposed set-top box rule (Rebecca Tushnet)
6. Hollywood Writers & Copyright Scholars Point Out That Piracy Fears Over Open Set Top Boxes Are Complete FUD
7. Reddit, Mozilla, Others Urge FCC To Formally Investigate Broadband Usage Caps And Zero Rating
8. Charter explains why it doesn’t compete against other cable companies
9. Once Again With Feeling: Cord Cutting Is Not A ‘Myth’
10. Hollywood Writers: Set-Top Box Piracy Fears Are Overblown
11. A Streaming Live Sports Service Could Be a Cable Killer
12. AT&T’s data caps impose harshest punishments on DSL users
13. Criminal Charges: Prison phones are a predatory monopoly. One family fought back — and won.
14. How the Internet works: Submarine fibre, brains in jars, and coaxial cables – A deep dive into Internet infrastructure, plus a rare visit to a subsea cable landing site.

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Companies Not Saving Your Data
2. Rogers reports marked decline in police requests for data: Telecom refused to release customer data without a warrant in 2015, after landmark Supreme Court ruling.
3. Google strikes back at French global “right to be forgotten” order
4. Google Appeals French Data Protection Authority’s Demand to Modify Search Results Worldwide
5. Google To France: No You Don’t Get To Censor The Global Internet
6. A principle that should not be forgotten
7. Privacy Shield faces another setback after Eurocrats fail to agree on deal: Work on hammering out Safe Harbour replacement is progressing, EC insists to Ars.
8. EU data protection chief: We have serious concerns about Privacy Shield – Watchdog prepares to weigh in on EU-US data sharing, calls on robust improvements.
9. Identifying People from Their Metadata (Bruce Schneier)
10. Focus: Are devices collecting information on you?
11. You are being followed: The business of social media surveillance
12. Anti-Choice Groups Use Smartphone Surveillance to Target ‘Abortion-Minded Women’ During Clinic Visits
13. Right to Privacy: Does the Fourth Amendment Apply to Emails? 
14. Were you a LinkedIn member in 2012?
15. There Is No Such Thing as “Public” Data: And it’s not OK for researchers to scrape information from websites like OkCupid. (Woodrow Hartzog)
16. Hack of Prince Philip’s e-mail in 1985 preserved by UK computing museum: Back then, hackers only came out to play at dusk because daytime dial-up was too pricey.
17. Will the Spokeo v. Robins Supreme Court Ruling Favor Plaintiffs Or Defendants? Uh…
18. Spokeo: Will U.S. Supreme Court’s Decision Impact Privacy Damages in Canada? 
19. How the Pentagon punished NSA whistleblowers: Long before Edward Snowden went public, John Crane was a top Pentagon official fighting to protect NSA whistleblowers. Instead their lives were ruined – and so was his

jon