News of the Week; June 15, 2016

GAMES

  1. Riot uses LoL chatlogs to weed out toxic employees
  2. League of Legends admits to using chat-log analysis in employee reviews: Toxicity analysis looks for context, such as “using their [developer] authority.”
  3. Game publishers treading carefully at E3 in wake of Orlando tragedy
  4. The Division dev upgrades to permanent bans for first-time cheaters
  5. No more Mr. Nice Ubisoft: First-time Division cheaters now banned permanently – Stricter punishments come amid claims of improved cheat detection tools.
  6. New Xbox community features will create “virtual safe spaces”: “The anonymity of the internet doesn’t always lead to the best behaviour”
  7. Why PlayStation VR Will Dominate The Virtual Reality Market
  8. Valve releasing free virtual reality world-builder, Destinations
  9. Overwatch player count hits 10 million after three weeks
  10. League of Legends generates $150m a month – SuperData
  11. Report: Tencent’s Supercell takeover valued at $9 billion
  12. Why Lionhead sank beneath the weight of Fable Legends: “The original pitch was for a really cheap game – it certainly wasn’t the $75m we ended up spending…But as time wore on, there were various voices that made it more complicated.”
  13. Spider-Man leads Marvel’s “epic” new console strategy: Comic company moving away from movie tie-ins, says the future of Spider-Man games is with Sony and Insomniac
  14. Sony’s E3 surprises with God of War, Resident Evil VII VR: Kojima Productions’ Death Stranding, Insomniac’s Spider-Man, the return of Crash Bandicoot, and Days Gone can’t even crack the headline
  15. E3: EA focuses on sports, charities and indie devs
  16. Electronic Arts CEO: Competitive Gaming Is Here to Stay
  17. New Sports Related Games, $1 Million Madden Tournament Unveiled At E3
  18. Madden NFL 16 championships will be broadcast live on ESPN2: Another milestone for the rapidly growing eSports industry.
  19. Microsoft gets deeper into eSports with Arena for Xbox
  20. E3: Microsoft announces Xbox One S, Scorpio and Play Anywhere
  21. Why Scorpio and Xbox One S sales don’t actually matter: Phil Spencer explains why you shouldn’t think “that everything we’re doing is about selling you an Xbox console”
  22. Say goodbye to the way the game console market works: Microsoft’s Scorpio, Sony’s Neo make game consoles more like mobile phones or PCs.
  23. Minecraft Realms brings cross-platform play to Windows 10, iOS, Android, Gear VR: Mods and extensions will come later this year.
  24. Ubisoft CEO stresses creative independence as Vivendi takeover threat looms
  25. Bethesda banks on eSports with Quake Champions
  26. Does Overwatch have what it takes to become a popular eSport?
  27. Twitch’s E3 livestreams watched by a staggering 925K concurrent viewers
  28. Valencia CF Becomes First La Liga Club To Sign An eSports Team
  29. Meet the Plaid Parliament of Pwning, one of the world’s elite hacking teams
  30. Twitch’s 100 million viewers watched 800 million hours of esports in the last 10 months
  31. Report: ESL is the top eSports tourney broadcaster on Twitch (that’s not Riot)
  32. Assetto Corsa – Modding Forums Shutdown Update
  33. To run WoW legacy servers, Blizzard must reverse-engineer its own game
  34. How Will Wright and SimCityshaped the course of game dev history: “You can see traces of SimCity in many if not most of the games we play today, from casual social games to hardcore CRPG and strategy titles. Sid Meier, when asked in 2008 to name the three most important innovations in the history of electronic gaming, listed the invention of the PC, the Nintendo Seal of Quality… and, yes, SimCity.”
  35. What Does $1MM Buy in Game Development?
  36. The Warcraft fan’s dilemma: A movie, but it’s based on the 1994 DOS game?! – Orcs made it to the big screen—iconic characters, diverse combat, and epic stories didn’t.
  37. Court rules in favor of cloned tabletop game – No protection under US copyright law

DIGITAL

  1. Why I Quit Twitter — and Left Behind 35,000 Followers (Jonathan Weisman)
  2. Trump Supporters Hurl Anti-Semitic Twitter Attacks at ‘New York Times’ Editor
  3. NYT editor Jonathan Weisman blasts Twitter over anti-Semitic trolling
  4. Twitter won’t explain why it flip-flopped on NYT editor’s complaints of anti-Semitic abuse
  5. My Dinner With Peter Thiel: A window into the secret reality of Silicon Valley.
  6. Judge blasts Oracle’s attempt to overturn pro-Google jury verdict: Oracle’s cross-examination of Schwartz “focused on character assassination.”
  7. Appeals Court Trashes Prenda’s Appeal, Affirms Sanctions
  8. Prenda lawyers lose key appeal, will pay $230k sanction: “Courts started catching on to plaintiffs’ real business of copyright trolling.”
  9. Twitter, Facebook & Google Sued For ‘Material Support For Terrorism’ Over Paris Attacks
  10. Another chapter of the Google Books Copyright dispute – does the US Supreme Court decision affect Australia? 
  11. Weinstein Company Requests Takedown of Katie Couric Interviews Featured in Free Beacon Story: Free Beacon fighting the takedowns
  12. Another Day, Another Horrible Ruling That Undermines The First Amendment And Section 230
  13. Axl Rose DMCA Takedown Notices Illustrate the Difficulty With Safe Harbor Reforms – User-Generated Content and Fair Use Issues
  14. Apple opens its Siri voice assistant up to devs via new API
  15. Six Ways Site Design Can Potentially Render TOS Agreements Unenforceable
  16. Five subtle ways Facebook could influence the US presidential election this fall
  17. Donald Trump’s Response To The Orlando Massacre Will Make You Sick To Your Stomach (Tweets)
  18. Inside Donald Trump’s Twitter-Bot Fan Club
  19. Trump Implicitly Suggests That His DOJ Would Take Down Amazon For Antitrust
  20. How Clinton aims to trump Trump on Twitter: Her newly aggressive social media strategy aims to turn the presumptive GOP nominee’s own words against him.
  21. Scammers have already started trying to exploit Orlando shooting for bitcoins: Fake Twitter account for Pulse nightclub asks for “contributions” through scam site.
  22. The global village of violence
  23. EFF, Public Citizen Enter Legal Battle That Started With Defamation But Is Somehow Now All About Copyright
  24. Review Website Gets Hammered In Court–Consumer Cellular v. ConsumerAffairs (Eric Goldman)
  25. NC Supreme Court strikes down cyberbullying statue
  26. North Carolina State Supreme Court Strikes Down Cyberbullying Statute
  27. Newspaper Association Thinks FTC Should Force Readers To Be Subject To Godawful Ads And Invasive Trackers
  28. Red astroturf: Chinese government makes millions of fake social media posts – “50-cent” posters aim to distract from dissent rather than confront it.
  29. Music Royalties Initiative Unites YouTube, Spotify, Labels: Open Music Initiative, led by Berklee College of Music and MIT, aims to improve how artists and labels collect money from streaming
  30. Europe Is About To Create A Link Tax: Time To Speak Out Against It
  31. What the heck is ancillary copyright and why do we call it the Link Tax?: What the heck is ancillary copyright anyway? And why does it matter? And why do we keep calling it the link tax? All will be revealed within.
  32. Yes, Getting The US Government Out Of ‘Managing’ Internet Domain Governance Is A Good Thing
  33. Twitter forces password reset on millions of accounts, denies hack
  34. “Spam King,” who defied nearly $1B in default judgments, sentenced to 2.5 years: Sanford Wallace hijacked Facebook accounts to send 27M spam messages.
  35. Microsoft is buying LinkedIn for $26.2 billion: CEO Satya Nadella says the acquisition will be “key to our bold ambition to reinvent productivity and business processes.”
  36. Microsoft’s planned acquisition of LinkedIn is one of biggest ever in the tech industry
  37. LinkedIn CEO: Why the Microsoft deal won’t be a disaster
  38. Microsoft buys LinkedIn for $26.2 Billion – Antitrust Issues? 
  39. I’ve slept on it—and I’m still baffled at Microsoft buying LinkedIn for $26.2B – Analysis: Microsoft is buying the cow when all it wants is some milk.
  40. Is YouTube Building A New Music Industry?
  41. How Netflix Became Hollywood’s Frenemy: The streaming service is changing the way TV shows and movies get made—whether studios and networks like it or not.
  42. Whatever happened to MCNs?
  43. YouTube stars more popular than mainstream celebrities among teens
  44. YouTube Stars Form New Guild To Give Creators A Stronger Voice: One of YouTube’s most popular creators, Hank Green, launched the nonprofit to actively promote the interests of online video makers.
  45. Is Reddit Dead? Welcome to the Propaganda Machine.
  46. Twitter Invests $70 Million In Soundcloud: If you can’t buy a company, getting a stake in it is the next best thing.
  47. Snapchat Launches a Colossal Expansion of Its Advertising, Ushering in a New Era for the App: Unveils new API and $1 billion goal
  48. Is Virtual Reality going to transform cinema?: VR is slowly becoming the new norm and in twenty years time a lot of what we do will be accessed through virtual reality – so how it will affect the film world?
  49. Cyber insurance is changing the way we look at risk
  50. Movie written by algorithm turns out to be hilarious and intense
  51. How to Preserve Cultural Memory in the Digital Age

CREATIVITY

  1. Artist Rights and the Many Shapes of Censorship
  2. Steal This Riff: How To Fix Copyright Law And Set Musicians Free: Could Compulsory Sample Licenses Solve A Problem That Has Vexed Hip-Hop And Dance Musicians For Decades?
  3. Former Copyright Board Chair Vancise Takes Aim at the Board Critics (Michael Geist)
  4. Ruling From EU’s Top Court Confirms Copyright Levies Are A Ridiculous, Unworkable Mess
  5. Watch The President Use Fair Use To Support A Trade Deal That Undermines Fair Use
  6. New York Times Says Fair Use Of 300 Words Will Run You About $1800
  7. The Bezos Effect: How Amazon’s Founder Is ReinventingThe Washington Post – and What Lessons It Might Hold for the Beleaguered Newspaper Business
  8. Trump revokes Washington Post’s campaign press credentials
  9. How to Cover Donald Trump Fairly: A Style Guide
  10. Now Peter Thiel’s Lawyer Wants to Silence Reporting on Drumpf’s Hair
  11. Peter Thiel’s Gawker-Killing Lawyer Now Issuing Bogus Defamation Threats Over Story On Donald Trump’s Hair
  12. Peter Thiel’s Plan To Destroy Gawker Went Way Beyond Hogan’s Case
  13. Gawker filing for bankruptcy – Report: Kotaku owner chooses Chapter 11 over paying lawsuit judgment, could be sold to IGN parent Ziff-Davis
  14. Gawker declares bankruptcy, will auction itself off in wake of Hulk Hogan lawsuit: Chapter 11 filing would help shield the company from Hogan payment (for now).
  15. Did Led Zeppelin rip off “Stairway to Heaven?” Ooh, it makes me wonder: Jury trial starts Tuesday. Infringement is in the ear of the beholder.
  16. Beyoncé faces lawsuit over claims Lemonade trailer ‘copied’ ideas: Film-maker Matthew Fulks says two-thirds of the pop star’s album promo was based on his short film seen by one of her collaborators
  17. Ed Sheeran the latest target of copyright lawsuit
  18. Ed Sheeran Sued for $20M for Allegedly Copying Song Released by ‘X Factor’ Winner
  19. Bieber Fever running high, “is it too late now to say I’m SORRY?” – allegations of copyright infringement against The Biebs (aka Justin Bieber)
  20. Jimi Hendrix Portrait Denied Copyright Protection For Lack of Originality
  21. ‘Rephotographer’ Richard Prince Is Being Sued Again
  22. Celebrity Chef Sues to Cancel Contract Transferring His Right of Publicity
  23. Jesse Ventura’s $1.8M Legal Win Over ‘American Sniper’ Chris Kyle Overturned on Appeal
  24. Citigroup trademarks “THANKYOU” and sues AT&T for thanking clients: Not to be outdone by Citigroup, AT&T has applied to trademark “AT&T THANKS.”
  25. In re Tam: Federal Circuit Holds the Lanham Act’s Antidisparagement Provision Unconstitutional.
  26. Supreme Court Just Made It Easier For Patent Trolls
  27. Supreme Court says win for patent holders won’t embolden patent trolls: Enhanced damages should not be granted in “garden-variety cases,” justices rule.
  28. Muhammad Ali: The original rapper – Legendary emcee Chuck D of Public Enemy talks Ali’s impact on hip-hop
  29. New ESPN Series Shows How O.J. Simpson Changed Advertising—and It Changed Him: Hertz ads, not football, made ‘the Juice’ a superstar
  30. Canaries in the Elsevier Mine: What to watch for at SSRN
  31. Don’t Tell Me What Happens. I’m Recording It. – Chuck Klosterman asks: What is the future of TV?
  32. State of the News Media 2016 (Pew Research Center)
  33. How Le Monde transformed its business model to become a profitable news publisher
  34. Not The Onion: Morocco Bans Sharing Newspapers To Protect Publisher Business Models
  35. The definition of commercial speech

COMMUNICATIONS & BROADCASTING

  1. ‘No Netflix tax’, but the future of Cancon is up for debate, says heritage minister Melanie Joly
  2. CRTC improves support for local news
  3. CRTC partners with global agencies to enforce spam and telemarketing rules
  4. Judge orders interim ban on digital TV boxes over copyright claims from Bell, Rogers, Videotron
  5. Court Upholds Net Neutrality Rules On Equal Internet Access
  6. Appeals Court Fully Upholds FCC’s Net Neutrality Rules
  7. UNITED STATES TELECOM ASSOCIATION, ET AL., PETITIONERS v. FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION AND UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
  8. After net neutrality loss, ISPs get ready to take case to Supreme Court: FCC won in all facets of today’s decision, but ISPs are not out of options.
  9. In shocking twist, senators scrutinize cable companies instead of FCC: Congress takes break from castigating FCC to focus on cable TV’s bad behavior.
  10. Viacom Has Few Options for Fighting National Amusements
  11. From radio waves to packets with software defined radio
  12. Why the Privacy Commissioner Doesn’t Need Legal Reforms To Require Transparency Reports (Michael Geist)
  13. 500 channels and nothing to see: The former head of Apple engineering really likes a new curated, app-based TV interface called Molotov — and sees a future business model in it.
  14. WIN v Nine Network Australia – Putting the ‘broad’ in ‘broadcasting’ 

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

  1. The RCMP Surveilled Thousands of Innocent Canadians for a Decade
  2. Canada’s Surveillance Crisis Now Hiding In Plain Sight (Michael Geist)
  3. FBI says utility pole surveillance cam locations must be kept secret: “Disclosure of even minor details about them may cause jeopardy,” bureau says.
  4. FBI Sues To Block Disclosure Of Surveillance Cameras Locations Because It Would Violate The Privacy Of Those Surveilled
  5. New Report: FBI Can Access Hundreds of Millions of Face Recognition Photos (EFF)
  6. Appeals Court: No Expectation Of Privacy In Credit Card Magnetic Strips
  7. What to Consider When Drafting or Reviewing a Privacy Policy
  8. The emerging ethical standards for studying corporate data: How Facebook’s “emotional contagion” controversy led to the company’s new research review policy
  9. What is Differential Privacy?
  10. Hackers invade Dems’ servers, steal entire Trump opposition file: Intrusion was so thorough it exposed almost a year’s worth of e-mail and chats.

jon