News of the Week; June 22, 2016

GAMES

1. Sony settling PS3 Other OS suit: Six-year court battle over removal of Linux installation option to end with payouts of up to $55 per affected owner
2. Sony agrees to pay millions to gamers to settle PS3 Linux debacle: As many as 10 million PS3 console owners will be eligible for payment.
3. No Man’s Sky Settles With Sky TV So It Can Have ‘Sky’ In Its Name
4. Hello Games settles “secret stupid” legal dispute with Sky: Telecomms company’s problem with the title of No Man’s Sky took three years to resolve
5. Trademark dispute with Sky broadcasting sought name change for No Man’s Sky: Dispute ends after “three years of secret stupid legal nonsense.”
6. Epic sues German modder for selling Paragon hack
7. Mount & Blade 2 dev will release gameplay code to support modders
8. Bethesda implements Steam-linking to protect modders from piracy
9. Professors File Brief Supporting Review of O’Bannon and Fixing Right of Publicity Mess
10. Star Citizen’s refunds process just got more complicated: A provision allowing refund requests after a release date is missed by 18 months has been removed from its terms of service
11. Crowdfunded Game Console Is Made Out of Tape, Cardboard, and Fake Circuits
12. Fable Fortune Kickstarter canceled after private investor steps up
13. Fable Fortunes closes Kickstarter in favour of private funding: Undisclosed sources to bring ex-Lionhead’s card game to life
14. Overwatch losing ‘Avoid this player’ feature after top players can’t find games
15. VR not ready for the mainstream – Fils-Aime: Nintendo of America president says the company will adopt VR once it’s mass market approachable
16. Nintendo Is in Trouble and E3 Didn’t Help
17. Major Gaming Industry Players Jump into VR at E3 2016
18. Oculus and Valve send mixed messages on VR exclusivity
19. Newell weighs in on VR exclusives: Valve head says tying development funds to specific hardware is bad for customers and developers
20. A Third of Valve is Now Working on VR and the Next Generation of Headsets
21. Fantastic Contraption adds built-in mixed reality and Twitch chat functions
22. PlayStation VR demos hit stores starting tomorrow: Sony rolling out hands-on kiosks at hundreds of North American locations this month
23. Sony promises all Playstation Neo games will work on PS4
24. Sony is the real winner of E3 2016, says Facebook data
25. Sky Sports Will Air Dedicated eSports TV Channel
26. Facebook hires former pro player Snoopeh in bid for eSports stars
27. Heads up Twitch, Facebook just hired gamer Snoopeh for its e-sports division
28. Peter Moore and EA’s eSports masterplan
29. Skillz is the biggest e-sports company gamers have never heard of
30. At Least One Type Of Esports Betting Could Be Happening In Atlantic City Casinos Today
31. Virtual Weapons Are Turning Teen Gamers Into Serious Gamblers: The boom in pro video gaming is fueled by $2.3 billion in online bets.
32. E3 highlights surge in female game designers: After a handful of women show the way, some schools see more women entering field than men
33. Square Enix chief champions development of premium mobile games: “It’s important for [the mobile] market to have quality premium games as well. If those kinds of games were a viable option, it would draw more developers to give that market a second look.”
34. Daybreak shuts down servers for Planetside 1, Legends of Norrath
35. Analysts give Tencent-Supercell thumbs up: Newzoo calls $8.6 billion for 84% of Clash of Clans developer “a good deal”; Superdata says acquisition “comes at an opportune time”
36. Tencent acquires Supercell: Online giant picks up SoftBank’s share of Clash of Clans developer in deal valuing studio at $10.2 billion; SoftBank president resigns
37. Vivendi ups Ubisoft share ownership to 20%, but delays takeover
38. E3 Live completely disappoints fans: “I expected more, at least to play some more…I was like c’mon man, I didn’t come here to buy stuff”
39. Scorpio is a beast, but Microsoft needs to explain it better: The company needs to find a coherent party line about Scorpio, One S and Windows 10, and stick to it
40. Jeff Minter: iOS games ended up costing us money: Space Giraffe creator shares App Store angst
41. Defender dev Eugene Jarvis on the bright future of arcade games
42. The role of Space Invaders as the archetypal action videogame, and why its theme of ‘One Versus Many’ is so successful
43. Going Down the Rabbit Hole: Simulation Theory, AI, & the Battle for Reality
44. Warcraft, Angry Birds movies cashing in: Critically dismissed flicks poised to become the highest grossing game adaptations of all time
45. Vice to launch new video game site headed by Giant Bomb’s Austin Walker
46. Catching up with the guy who stole Half-Life 2’s source code, 10 years later: From Death by Video Game: can you love a game so much you must take its sequel?
47. How Brexit could impact the UK games industry: From developers to retailers, this is what leaving the European Union would mean for one of the UK’s most important creative industries

DIGITAL

1. DMCA wins big in record label lawsuit against Vimeo: Case questioned if DMCA gave immunity to providers for their users’ infringement.
2. Appeals Court Gives Big Loss To Record Labels In Their Quixotic Lawsuit Against Vimeo For Lipdubs
3. Global ad expenditures to reach $537BN in 2016: Global advertising expenditure across all platforms will grow 4.1% in 2016, reaching $537 billion, according to a survey by ZenithOptimedia.
4. Twitch takes legal action against bot creators
5. Twitch pledges to stamp out viewbot services: First lawsuit filed against sellers of bots that artificially inflate viewers, followers and chat activity
6. Twitch Tries to Exterminate Bot Infestation With Legal Action
7. Disappointing: Twitch Brings CFAA & Trademark Claim Against Bot Operators
8. It’ll be very hard for terrorism victim’s family to win lawsuit against Twitter – Victim’s father: Twitter, Google, and Facebook profit off of terrorist propaganda.
9. Judge Doesn’t Find Much To Like In ‘Material Support For Terrorism’ Lawsuit Against Twitter
10. Blockchain Company’s Smart Contracts Were Dumb
11. Data May Be Key in Microsoft-LinkedIn Probe, EU’s Vestager Says
12. Apple and Microsoft reportedly vetoed a rifle emoji
13. Feminist hacker barbie is finally a real thing: Barbie introduces a ‘Game Developer’ doll, and she’s even cooler than you thought.
14. Mark Zuckerberg Needs to Dump Peter Thiel From the Facebook Board of Directors. He Won’t.
15. What does Facebook think about board member Peter Thiel secretly funding lawsuits against a publisher? No comment (for now).
16. Why Mark Zuckerberg Should Remove Peter Thiel From Facebook’s Board: The Facebook CEO needs to prove he believes in freedom of expression.
17. Facebook sticks by Gawker attack funder Peter Thiel
18. Facebook Still Deleting Non-Offensive Posts For Being Offensive
19. Eshoo: Protecting people from lawsuits for speaking out
20. ‘A shakedown against Canadians’: Hollywood still telling internet pirates to pay up – Critics say it’s time for federal government to rewrite rules for piracy notices
21. GOP cuts off US House cameras, so Democrats Periscope gun control sit-in: Rep. Scott Peters turns to social media to broadcast protest.
22. As Republicans Turn Off House Live Feed, Reps & C-SPAN Turn To Periscope And Facebook Live Video To Cover Sit In
23. MPAA Happily Gets Into Bed With Russian State Censor Agency… To Protect Copyright!
24. Beijing Regulators Block Sales Of iPhones, Claiming The Design Is Too Close To Chinese Company’s Phone
25. E-books fair game for public libraries, says advisor to top Europe court – AG opinion: Digital lending should be subject to same rules as library loans.
26. This Comment Was Sponsored By …: The Federal Election Commission can’t figure out what to do about paid speech online.
27. Mobile Advertising Network InMobi Settles FTC Charges It Tracked Hundreds of Millions of Consumers’ Locations Without Permission: Company Will Pay $950,000 For Tracking Children Without Parental Consent
28. The Art of Disclosure: Fashion’s Influence Economy and the FTC: As the importance of native advertising continues to grow, are brands and digital influencers coming clean with consumers about the deals that power fashion’s influence economy?
29. Twitter is getting roasted for a new app that caters to celebrities and their problems
30. Steve Ballmer Wants The Clippers To Launch Their Own Streaming Service
31. Netflix overtakes YouTube in US
32. YouTubers band together to form Internet Creator’s Guild: “There are lots of organisations that among the interests they have is supporting creators, but no organisation with that sole interest”
33. Magic Leap’s Next Move? Bringing C-3PO to Your House
34. The First Big Company to Say It’s Serving the Legal Marijuana Trade? Microsoft.
35. Apple wants to kill a bill that could make it easier for you to fix your iPhone
36. The Forrest Gump of the Internet: Ev Williams became a billionaire by helping to create the free and open web. Now, he’s betting against it.
37. New York legislature passes bill legalizing daily fantasy
38. How Fans Tune In to Sports on YouTube
39. Artificial intelligence: ‘We’re like children playing with a bomb’: Sentient machines are a greater threat to humanity than climate change, according to Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom
40. Computers will overtake us when they learn to love, says futurist Ray Kurzweil

CREATIVITY

1. New York Times Settles Copyright Case Over Thumbnail War Photos
2. Using generic art that may evoke plaintiff is fair: Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, Inc. v. Rushmore Photo & Gifts, Inc, 2016 WL 3282197 (Rebecca Tushnet)
3. U.S. Supreme Court Rules in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
4. Supreme Court Revisits Copyright’s Attorney Fee Shifts–Kirtsaeng v. Wiley (Eric Goldman)
5. The Supreme Court Instructs District Courts to Put Substantial Weight on the Reasonableness of a Losing Party’s Position in Determining Fees in Copyright Cases
6. A Circuit Split at Last: Ninth Circuit Recognizes De Minimis Exception to Copyright Infringement of Sound Recordings 
7. Access Copyright v. York U – The Final Trial Arguments Are Set to Unfold
8. Screenwriters Accuse Christian Movie Studio Of 9th Commandment Violations Over General Script Ideas
9. Open access: All human knowledge is there—so why can’t everybody access it?: We paid for the research with taxes, and Internet sharing is easy. What’s the hold-up?
10. Scientific publishers are killing research papers: Pressure to publish short articles removes details, leaves readers confused.
11. The shadowy war on the press: How the rich silence journalists
12. Local news isn’t dead. We just need to stop killing it.
13. Trump, Propaganda, And The Loss Of Media Authority: The G.O.P. nominee is spouting Orwellian double-speak, and the media can’t stop him.
14. The challenges in covering Trump’s relentless assault on the truth
15. This Harvard study is a powerful indictment of the media’s role in Donald Trump’s rise
16. 50 Cent, Dr. Dre, Ed Sheeran, Led Zeppelin… Are These Copyright Lawsuits a Good Thing for Music
17. Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page spars with attorney over ‘Stairway’ plagiarism allegations
18. Led Zeppelin ‘Stairway to Heaven’ copyright trial: Robert Plant says he has ‘no memory’ of watching Spirit play: Plant and guitarist Jimmy Page are accused of stealing their iconic riff from Spirit song ‘Taurus’
19. Why “Stairway to Heaven” Doesn’t Infringe “Taurus” Copyright: analysis & demo of “scenes a faire” motif common to both
20. Lawyers who yanked “Happy Birthday” into public domain now sue over “This Land – Attorneys: Song, published in 1945, should have passed into public domain in 1973.
21. Eat Your Art Out: Intellectual Property Protection for Food
22. Are Native American Pottery Designs Copyrightable?
23. How it works: Understanding Copyright Law in the New Creative Economy (Rebecca Tushnet)
24. Paramount Beats Musicians Guild in Lawsuit Over Outsourcing Film Scores: A judge figures out the meaning of “producer” and “employer” in Hollywood.
25. Who Owns Star Trek?
26. Can Plaintiffs Sue a “Celebrity Spokesperson”?
27. White Supremacy and the Intractability of the Fight Over the Redsk*ns
28. Vice Media Settles With Indie Band ViceVersa, Showing That Trademark Bullying Totally Works
29. Broadway economics: Breaking down Broadway
30. Why Are So Many Vogue Cover Stories Written by Men?
31. In 60 days, drone journalism will be legally possible in any U.S. newsroom: “There are still challenges, and we haven’t even talked about state and local laws that have been piling up while the FAA lumbered toward today. But the future of drones in journalism is much brighter today than it has ever been.”
32. ‘Hamilton’ And Copyright: Lin-Manuel Miranda Had His Eyes On Music History

COMMUNICATIONS & BROADCASTING

1. Federal court dismisses Bell appeal in mobile television ruling
2. Federal Court of Appeal Upholds CRTC Ruling That Bell Mobile TV Service Violated Telecom Law (Michael Geist)
3. Ignore the Scare Tactics: The Real Future of Bell Investment in Fibre Networks (Michael Geist)
4. Why the Federal Court Crackdown on Set-Top Boxes Threatens to Chill Canadian Tech Innovation (Michael Geist)
5. Rogers Communications Inc. v. Châteauguay (City) (Supreme Court of Canada, June 16, 2016)
6. The (In)effectiveness of Telecommunications Transparency Reports (Christopher Parsons)
7. CRTC Creates a New Framework for Local Programming and News
8. Consumer Groups Say AT&T, Comcast Violate Privacy Law By Hoovering Up Cable Box Data Without Full User Consent
9. Study Finds That T-Mobile’s Binge On Is Exploitable, Unreliable, And Still Violates Net Neutrality
10. Tim Wu Joins NY AG’s Office In Shaming ‘Abysmal’ Cable Broadband ISPs
11. 23% of US Millennials are OTT-only
12. Viacom Director Has Uphill Battle in Case Against Redstone
13. Sumner Redstone moves to oust CEO Philippe Dauman, others from Viacom board

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Smile, you’re in the FBI face-recognition database; Driver license, passport, visa pics in database—despite no criminal affiliation.
2. Mark Zuckerberg—paranoid or just sensible about the big, bad Web?
3. How Hired Hackers Got “Complete Control” Of Palantir: Palantir hired a cybersecurity firm last year to test its digital defenses. A confidential report shows how the pro hackers were able to dominate the tech company’s network.
4. This Russian technology can identify you with just a picture of your face
5. Global Internet commission: Leave crypto alone, ditch opaque algorithms – Governments should agree on a list of “legitimate targets” for online attacks.
6. Supreme Court Knocks A Little More Off The 4th Amendment; Gives Cops Another Way To Salvage Illegal Searches
7. Eighth Circuit holds that accessing credit card magnetic stripe is not a ‘search’
8. Handing over cell phone to police and giving password is consent to search
9. “Guccifer” leak of DNC Trump research has a Russian’s fingerprints on it: Evidence left behind shows leaker spoke Russian and had affinity for Soviet era.
10. Guest editorial: The DNC hack and dump is what cyberwar looks like – Elections are critical infrastructure that should be hands-off for governments.
11. Apple’s Differential Privacy (Bruce Schneier)

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