News of the Week; June 29, 2016

By Jon Festinger on July 10, 2016

GAMES

  1. Sony Settlement Gives PS3 Owners $9 After Company Made Console Less Useful Via Firmware Update
  2. Optimistic about VR and games, Sony raises its earnings forecast
  3. Counter-Strike Player Sues Valve Over ‘Illegal’ Weapon Skin Gambling
  4. Lawsuit Against Valve Over Skin Gambling Could Face Significant Hurdles
  5. EA Sports won’t be beaten at its own game – Escaping potential liability through successful § 101 motion to dismiss
  6. EA punts, gives $600k to former football star in Madden NFL rights flap: But EA is fighting a similar suit that could represent thousands of NFL players.
  7. EA pays $600k to settle legal fight with former NFL star Jim Brown
  8. Tinybuild: G2A “facilitates a black market economy” – SpeedRunners dev claims $450,000 of its games were sold through unofficial marketplace, “thousands” of which were fraudulent
  9. Game key reseller G2A offers to pay devs royalties from third-party sales
  10. G2A now allowing developers to apply for royalties: “This initiative invites developers to become accomplices,” says Alex Nichiporchik
  11. G2A, Piracy, and the Four Currencies
  12. Developer claims Valve removed its game from Steam at Activision’s behest
  13. Game devs weigh in on the ‘Brexit’ decision
  14. Ukie issues statement on Brexit: “Ukie is committed to ensuring the UK is the best place in the world to make and sell games”
  15. TIGA calls for government to reassure UK games industry: Post-Brexit Britain will be a harder place to do business, warns body
  16. Brexit: UK game developers share their concerns – “The negative revolves around skilled talent not wanting or being able to stay, or come to UK.”
  17. HQ Vancouver: Why global gaming giants set up shop in Vancouver
  18. PlayStation Plus hits 20.8 million subscribers
  19. Moore: “We want to make stars of all our players” – EA’s Chief Competition Officer lays out company plans for eSports
  20. How the law matters in eSports’ Wild West
  21. Will E-Sports Ever Work on TV?: With eLeague, TBS is going to find out.
  22. Overwatch tops League as the most-played game in South Korean ‘net cafes
  23. Report: China is now the global leader in video game revenues
  24. Xbox Fitness Users Shelled Out Big Bucks For Workout Programs They’ll Soon Be Totally Unable To Use
  25. Xbox Fitness users will soon lose access to workout videos they bought: Microsoft’s “sunset” plan will cut users off from content they paid for.
  26. Nintendo is closing servers for Devil’s Third
  27. Our social network is in another castle: The new face of Nintendo – Response to social-media outrage is latest sign of a very different “gaming” company.
  28. Action Henk devs would rather you torrented their games than buy from resellers
  29. New South Park Game Lets You Play as a Girl, Game Reacts to You Differently
  30. Hands-on with the emulator that adds depth to old 2D NES games: Standalone 3DNES emulator is a promising starting effort with some rough edges.
  31. Firaxis partners with GlassLab for educational version of Civilization V
  32. Truth and Protection: Where is the Line When Teaching Kids about the Video Game Community
  33. Smithsonian to document evolution of game industry with Video Game Pioneers Archive
  34. Xbox Scorpio, PlayStation Neo an “incredibly positive evolution”: Electronic Arts, Ubisoft and Take-Two discuss why Microsoft and Sony launching new consoles more quickly is a big win
  35. Microsoft Discontinues Xbox Fitness Programs To The Dismay Of Users
  36. The Minecraft Movie Has A Release Date!

DIGITAL

  1. NRA Complaint Takes Down 38,000 Websites
  2. Digitising public domain images creates a new copyright, rules German court: Wikimedia Foundation says that it intends to appeal against the decision.
  3. Terrible Ruling In Germany: Digitizing The Public Domain Creates New Copyright
  4. Leave to Appeal to SCC: Rogers v SOCAN (2016 FCA 28) re Ringtones and Ringbacks
  5. Woman Sues Microsoft Over Unwanted Windows 10 Upgrade, Wins $10,000
  6. Researchers Sue the Government Over Computer Hacking Law
  7. First Look Media Works, Inc., Plaintiffs, -v.- Loretta Lynch, in her official capacity as Attorney General of the United States, In The United States District Court For The District Of Columbia
  8. Judge Calls Out Malibu Media For Its Attempt To Cut And Run When Faced With Challenge To Its Infringement Claims
  9. Malibu Media Sues Its Former Lawyer Over Missing Funds, Breach Of Bar Rules
  10. Porn studio that sued thousands for piracy now fighting its own lawyer
  11. Two Judges Punch Holes In Copyright Trolls’ Claims That An IP Address Is The Same Thing As A Person
  12. Web Host Defeats Copyright Liability Despite Mishandled Takedown Notice–Hydrenta v. Luchian (Eric Goldman)
  13. LOL! OMG. HUH? Court Finds That Text Message Can Form Binding Contract 
  14. Could This Silicon Valley Algorithm Pick Which Homeless People Get Housing?: A new approach seeks to find the most desperate people on the streets—with data.
  15. Your Favorite Website Might Be Discriminating Against You
  16. Testing whether the web is discriminating against you shouldn’t be a crime
  17. EU regulations on algorithmic decision-making and a “right to explanation” (Bryce Goodman & Seth Flaxman)
  18. On second thought, Facebook doesn’t care so much about news publishers: Says news feed has “far too much information,” will downgrade content from “pages.”
  19. Twitter Deletes SCOTUSblog Twitter Account Briefly Thinking Its Running Of The Trolls Meant It Was Hacked
  20. How Brexit affects the global technology industry
  21. Many UK voters didn’t understand Brexit, Google searches suggest: “What happens if we leave the EU?” and “What is Brexit?” were top search terms.
  22. Lindsay Lohan gifted us with epic Brexit tweets, and then deleted them mysteriously
  23. The replies to this idiotic Donald Trump Brexit tweet are beautiful
  24. Donald Trump Is Not a Troll: Calling him a troll trivializes his repulsive comments.
  25. Mapping online hate speech: You might think from anecdotal evidence that hate speech on social media by individuals and groups appears quite a lot, but one of first academic studies to examine the empirical data concludes that these extreme forms of speech on Facebook are marginal as compared with total content.
  26. Exclusive: Google, Facebook quietly move toward automatic blocking of extremist videos
  27. This Algorithm Could Wipe Out ISIS Propaganda Online: The creators of a new software technology claim it can expunge extremist content from social media. But will a wary Silicon Valley warm to it
  28. Rather Than Launch A Massive DDoS Attack, This Time China Just Asks GitHub To Take Down Page It Doesn’t Like
  29. County Attorney’s Deletion of Constituent’s Facebook Comment May Violate First Amendment
  30. Google secretly deletes inactive YouTube accounts
  31. Google is Adding a VR Shell to Chrome to Let You Browse the Entire Web in VR
  32. Microsoft Says It’s in Love With Linux. Now It’s Finally Proving It
  33. The Sacramento Kings’ New Stadium Is Wired for Virtual Reality: The wireless Internet at the NBA team’s new arena is designed to let fans watch virtual reality replays from any seat in the house.
  34. Apple Wins Patent For Technology To Disable iPhone Camera And Bar Photography
  35. FTC Is Cracking Down On Failure To Disclose Influencers’ Connections
  36. How Sony, Microsoft, and Other Gadget Makers Violate Federal Warranty Law
  37. Tax Treatment of Bitcoin Has Many Open Questions 
  38. Lessons From The Downfall Of A $150M Crowdfunded Experiment In Decentralized Governance
  39. Do you trust the government to set morals for AI (Artificial Intelligence) to drive cars? 
  40. Artificial Intelligence Has a ‘Sea of Dudes’ Problem: AI software depends on data sets, and data sets have to be created by computer scientists. What happens when most of those researchers are men?
  41. Ad firm: It doesn’t matter that migrant app doesn’t work, it’s the idea that counts – “I Sea” claimed its users could help migrants via “real-time” satellite imagery.
  42. Reverse Engineering The YouTube Algorithm
  43. Oculus Reverses DRM Course After Public Backlash
  44. Exclusivity can be a driving force for VR, says Oculus founder
  45. New VR venture capital supergroup gathers $10B to invest in VR dev
  46. You can now livestream right from the YouTube app: Press capture, pick a thumbnail, and you’ll be live streaming to the world.
  47. Take it from a viral media star: Stop signing away your ideas
  48. Following a period of turmoil, Wikimedia Foundation appoints new director: Tension over a “Knowledge Engine” led to previous director’s resignation.
  49. Op-Ed:  Why notice-and-takedown is a bit of copyright law worth saving (Chris Springman & Mark Lemley)
  50. Computer-Generated Works Outside The Box (James Grimmelmann)
  51. How Google Is Remaking Itself As a “Machine Learning First” Company: If you want to build artificial intelligence into every product, you better retrain your army of coders. Check.
  52. Chatbot lawyer overturns 160,000 parking tickets in London and New York: Free service DoNotPay helps appeal over $4m in parking fines in just 21 months, but is just the tip of the legal AI iceberg for its 19-year-old creator
  53. The New Yorker, BuzzFeed, and the push for digital credibility
  54. Inside ‘The Next Rembrandt’: How JWT Got a Computer to Paint Like the Old Master – The project leaders explain their brilliant, troubling masterpiece 
  55. The Laws of Mixed Reality: A vision of the future, without the rose-colored glasses
  56. The Partnership of the Future: Microsoft’s CEO explores how humans and A.I. can work together to solve society’s greatest challenges.
  57. Instagram and the Fantasy of Mastery: A “look” is a kind of instant style – quickly executed and dispatched, immediately understood and overcharged with incident. It is time for a new view.
  58. The Fintech Bubble (Joi Ito)
  59. AI bests Air Force combat tactics experts in simulated dogfights
  60. Alchemy Can’t Save Moore’s Law
  61. My friend, the bot: How our friendships change over time — and technology
  62. Man Marries His Smartphone
  63. From file-sharing to prison: A Megaupload programmer tells his story

CREATIVITY

  1. Led Zeppelin didn’t steal music for ‘Stairway to Heaven,’ jury finds
  2. ‘Stairway’ Verdict May Rein in Lawsuits Claiming Song Ripoffs
  3. VMG Salsoul, LLC v. Madonna Louise Ciccone, et al.: Why a Bright Line Infringement Rule for Sound Recordings is no Longer in Vogue
  4. This Song Belongs To You And Me: Lawsuit Filed To Declare Woodie Guthrie’s Classic In The Public Domain
  5. Copyright does not monopolize facts – documentary filmmakers’ claim against book author and publisher fails
  6. Historical Facts and Copyright: the Maltz v. Witterick Case
  7. Fictional Claims: Why Kids Are Not Suffering With Canada’s Copyright Fair Dealing Rules (Michael Geist)
  8. Copyright Small Claims Court: Not Just a Dream
  9. Apple’s Patent Could Finally Put a Stop to iPhone Concert Photography
  10. MPAA Boss: Actually Being Good To Consumers Would Be Horrible For Hollywood
  11. The Official Star Trek Fan Film Guidelines Are Here and They Are Onerous
  12. As CBS/Paramount Continue Lawsuit Over Fan Film, It Releases Ridiculous & Impossible ‘Fan Film Guidelines’
  13. Unswayed by Axanar, CBS and Paramount offer 10 rules for fan film makers: New rules forbid unofficial merchandise, alcohol use, long episodes.
  14. Airbnb Faces Suit for Using Julia Child’s Name in a Contest 
  15. Boiler Plate Inked: Copyright Actions Brought by Tattooists Threaten Athlete Endorser Publicity Rights
  16. Kirtsaeng v. Wiley And The Purpose Of Copyright
  17. Censorship In The Guise Of Authorship: Harmonizing Copyright And The First Amendment (Hon. M. Margaret Mckeown)
  18. Trump Promises to Restore Washington Redskins’ Trademark on Day One of Presidency
  19. 5 Questions for Simon Tam, Founder of The Slants: Tam wants the Supreme Court to join his band’s case to the Redskins’ case. Curiously, he still thinks the Redskins’ name is racist.
  20. Brexit and IP: A Primer
  21. On the Charter, Freedom of Expression, and Scientific Research (Stephen Armstrong)
  22. Reading List: The Copyright Wars (Rebecca Tushnet)
  23. Hillary Clinton’s Intellectual Property Platform: Too Vague & Confusing
  24. New York Times reports plagiarism in Trump textbooks
  25. CafePress Takes Down T-Shirt Calling Donald Trump A Cheeto-Faced S—gibbon, Saying It Violates Frito-Lay’s Trademark
  26. Huckabee’s anti-gay-marriage rally leads to copyright suit, $25,000 payment: Huckabee’s still paying for a copyright snafu from his campaign’s early days.
  27. Russian Culture Minister Claims Netflix A U.S. Mind Control Effort
  28. Portrait of an artist dying intestate: How a Toronto gallery owner is negotiating the delicate matter of who owns Vivian Maier’s iconic art
  29. #OscarsLessWhite: the Academy just invited nearly 700 new members to improve diversity — but there’s still a long way to go
  30. How the Gawker Media Bankruptcy Will Work
  31. Good News at the Washington Post: Inside the paper Jeff Bezos bought –&– Donald Trump banned.
  32. No Light Between Diversity and Free Expression (John Palfrey)
  33. Privilege for patent and trademark agents now in force in Canada

COMMUNICATIONS & BROADCASTING

  1. CRTC commissioner departs after more than a year of legal battles
  2. Let’s Talk TV: CRTC Revises Policy Framework for Local and Community Television
  3. Six companies pay $1.23 million for making telemarketing calls to Canadians
  4. Bell Canada loses second attempt to limit competitor access to its fibre networks
  5. FCC Chairman Releases Summary of Media Ownership Reform Proposals – Little Change in Existing Ownership Rules, Reinstatement of JSA Ban 
  6. Dear Landlord: Don’t Rip Me Off When it Comes To Internet Access: When building owners get kickbacks from big providers it’s the tenants who lose (Susan Crawford)
  7. Comcast took $1,775 from man, only gave it back after he contacted media: Comcast wrongly debited early termination fee, provided no refund for 18 months.
  8. How Comcast and Charter are trying to fix their awful customer service: Two biggest cable companies pledge improvements at Senate hearing.
  9. Cable company overcharges might be even worse than you realized: Senate report compares billing and service records, finds massive overcharges.
  10. Senate Hearing Shows Cable Companies Routinely Overbill Customers, Do Little To Correct Errors
  11. European supreme court adds to Telefónica’s woes after Brexit slump: Court upholds antitrust decision as O2 owner struggles post UK referendum.
  12. Why ISPs’ fight against net neutrality probably won’t reach Supreme Court: There are no major questions for the Supreme Court to decide, some experts say.
  13. New FCC Online Public Inspection File Goes Live Today – Top 50 Market Radio Stations To Start Transition

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

  1. How a file-sharing lawsuit against Rogers threatens your Internet privacy: Geist – Voltage Pictures asked the court to order Rogers to disclose the identity of one of its subscribers in a reverse class-action lawsuit.
  2. Canadian File Sharing Lawsuit Could Upend Copyright Privacy Protections (Michael Geist)
  3. EU-US Privacy Shield sent to national reps for approval—by next week: European Commission sends updated text to Article 31 and demands answer by Monday
  4. Judge Says FBI Can Hack Computers Without A Warrant Because Computer Users Get Hacked All The Time
  5. Federal Court: The Fourth Amendment Does Not Protect Your Home Computer (EFF)
  6. Crook who left his phone at the scene has “no reasonable expectation of privacy”: Judge says it’s OK that a phone found at a burglary leads to kidnapping evidence.
  7. Post Gag Order, Lavabit Founder Reveals Non-Secret That Feds Were After Ed Snowden’s Emails
  8. Russia’s new spy law calls for metadata and content to be stored, plus crypto backdoors: Snowden calls it “an unworkable, unjustifiable violation of rights.”
  9. Russia’s Problem (According To Russian Politicians): Not Enough Mass Surveillance
  10. EU data flows to China is next fight on privacy warriors hit list: MEPs want answers from Brussels on protecting personal data of EU citizens.
  11. Brexit. Privacy. What You Need to Know.
  12. Private right of action under Canada’s Anti-Spam Law (CASL)
  13. FTC Reaches $950,000 Settlement Over Location Tracking 
  14. FTC Updates Consumer Guidance for Online Tracking 
  15. Facebook Using Physical Location to Suggest Friends (Bruce Schneier)
  16. Facebook says it did ‘a test’ last year using people’s locations to make friend suggestions
  17. Facebook is using your phone’s location to suggest new friends—which could be a privacy disaster
  18. The Freedom of Information Act—and the Hero Who Pioneered It: Celebrating the curious and deeply unpopular political career of John Moss, godfather of the FOIA.
  19. I, Snowbot: For A Man Accused Of Espionage And Effectively Exiled In Russia, Edward Snowden Is Also, Strangely, Free.
  20. This paparazzi-proof scarf is the closest thing to an invisibility cloak

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