News of the Week; July 30, 2014
GAMES
1. Rovio Files Trademark Lawsuit Against Young Star Toys & Gifts
2. Federal Judge Approves Settlements in NCAA Video Game Lawsuit
4. Report: EA Snuck SecuROM DRM in Free ‘The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection’
+ Should virtual theft be treated like real world theft? A UK MP says yes.
+ Should Stealing in Video Games Be Punishable in the Real World?
7. No skin thick enough: The daily harassment of women in the game industry
8. Pink and Blue Pixel$: Gender and Economic Disparity in Two Massive Online Games (Lehdonvirta, Ratan, Kennedy & Williams)
9. The world of bizarre Japanese dating sims is invading America
10. GaymerX founder says NIS America backed out of sponsorship
+ NIS America and GaymerX Kiss and Make Up
+ Nintendo records quarterly loss of nearly 10bn Yen
11. Game developers, watch out! German data protection authorities publish guidelines for mobile apps
12. Surveillance & Society Vol. 12, No. 3 (2014): Special Issue on Surveillance Gaming and Play
Including – 1. “Surveillant Assemblages of Governance in Massively Multiplayer Online Games: A Comparative Analysis”; 2. “Surveillance and Community: Language Policing and Empowerment in a World of Warcraft Guild”; 3. “Getting Played: Gamification and the Rise of Algorithmic Surveillance”; 4. “Games of Drones: The Uneasy Future of the Soldier-Hero in Call of Duty: Black Ops II”; 5. “Creative Misuse as Resistance: Surveillance, Mobile Technologies, and Locative Games”; 6. “The Gift that Keeps on Giving: Google, Ingress, and the Gift of Surveillance”; 7. “’I had no credit to ring you back’: Children’s strategies of negotiation and resistance to parental surveillance via mobile phones”; 8. “Gaming Privacy: a Canadian case study of a children’s co-created privacy literacy game”; 9. “Enclosures at Play: Surveillance in the Code and Culture of Videogames”; 10. “Reporting From the Snooping Trenches: Changes in Attitudes and Perceptions Towards Behavior Tracking in Digital Games”; 11. “Watching Us Play: Postures and Platforms of Live Streaming”; 12. “Diverting and diverted glances at cameras: playful and tactical approaches to surveillance studies”; 13. “Playdates with Big Brother: Playfully Repurposing Surveillance Cameras to Build Communities”; 14. “Surveillance Chess”.
14. No Man’s Sky: A Vast Game Crafted by Algorithms
15. EA improves revenues and profit in Q1, delays Dragon Age
16. Sony: EA Access wouldn’t provide “value” for PlayStation owners
17. PS4 to get 3D Blu-Ray support
18. Gamer discovers his deceased father’s ghost on an old Xbox game, challenges it to a race
19. Learn how to copy, and know when to steal
20. Gaming Tax Credits: A Developer’s Guide to Free Money
DIGITAL
21. Yet Another Court Rules That Digital Data Is Not Property
22. What Is Public?: It’s so simple, right? (by Anil Dash)
23. UK Government Report Recommends Ending Online Anonymity
24. Plagiarism in the Internet age: The issue isn’t copying, it’s attribution
25. Does Internet Addiction Excuse the Death of an Infant?
26. EU regulators to Google: “Right to forget” needs to go worldwide
27. French blogger owes $2,000 in damages for review ‘too prominent’ on Google
28. The Evidence Is In: Patent Trolls Do Hurt Innovation (HBR Blog)
29. USPTO Alice Corp. guidelines provide concrete guidance on abstract ideas
30. Time for digital emancipation (Doc Searls)
31. What’s New in Digital and Social Media Research: What makes commenters less civil, and the rise of digital longform (Nieman Journalism Lab)
32. How Informed Consent Has Failed
33. Data privacy isn’t political — it’s personal
34. We Experiment On Human Beings!
+ OkCupid reveals it’s been lying to some of its users. Just to see what’ll happen.
35. The internet is a politically and culturally loaded tool, particularly when it comes to censorship
36. FISA Court Judges Keep Buying Verizon Stock; Wonder What They Know…
37. An epic battle in streaming music is about to begin, and only a few will survive
38. Uncovering Algorithms: Looking inside the Facebook news feed
39. Google ordered by BC court to block websites: Equustek Solutions Inc. v. Jack (Updated)
40. Instagram’s Forthcoming Photo Messaging App Bolt Could Face Legal Trouble
41. Unlocking Your Cell Phone Is Still Illegal, But Probably Not For Long
42. Microsoft still doesn’t get why the iPhone succeeded
43. Experience James Joyce’s Ulysses in Virtual Reality, Using the Oculus Rift Headset
CONSTRAINTS
45. Artist sues after TV show films Montreal building that he had tagged with graffiti
jon
News of the Week; July 23, 2014
GAMES
2. Philips Win Patent Infringement Suit Against Nintendo
3. Bungie pays Halo composer $95k over dismissal
4. Grand Theft Likeness: The Story of Lindsay Lohan and Lacey Jonas
6. Kickstarter Suspends ‘Areal’ Crowd-Funding Campaign
7. Yogscast to ‘Yogventures’ Backers: We’re Not Obligated To ‘Do Anything’
8. Gamasutra’s Game Developer Salary Survey 2014 Highlights the Gender Gap in Video Games Industry
9. Think the nsa is bad? Games are masters of surveillance.
+ Apple scolded by Europe over in-app purchase protections
+ EU regulation of free to play games: hot topic or hot air?
11. Retro revival: Warner Bros. options movie rights to Space Invaders game
12. Hunger Games film studio Lionsgate partners with Finland’s Next Games
13. Why the Kim Kardashian Game Is Legitimately Good
14. ESPN dips its cleats into the e-sports pool with Dota 2 partnership
+ Valve boss Gabe Newell interviewed by ESPN: ‘The Internet is changing what sports is’
+ Dota 2 team pockets $5 million at The International
15. Civilization 5 mod lets you exploit migrant workers in the ‘first true’ FIFA World Cup sim
16. Modders are developers – it’s time to stop treating them differently
17. Key Sony Gaming Websites Go Down Because They Let Their Domains Expire
18. PlayStation 4 still best-selling console, six months running
19. “Consolidation crush”: 5 drivers of $12.5B games acquisitions
20. Eutechnyx restructuring business
21. Games tax relief gets EU greenlight
22. Microsoft Laying Off 18K Employees, Closing Xbox Entertainment Studios
23. Vivendi Considered Firing Kotick Over Buyout
25. How the team behind The Witcher conquered Poland
DIGITAL
26. Pirate Bay traffic has doubled post-ISP blocks
27. Copyright Skeptic: We Don’t Need More Copyright Laws
28. Google processes millions of useless DMCA notices
29. Copyright Board’s new SOCAN user generated content tariff
+ YouTube, Facebook, Netflix liable to pay for music in Canada rules Copyright Board
30. AEREO – Everything Old is New Again (Mark Cuban Blog)
+ Copyright Office To Aereo: Quack All You Want, We Don’t Think You’re A Cable Service
31. The Details About the CIA’s Deal With Amazon
32. Snowden Calls On Developers To Champion Privacy By Design
+ Edward Snowden: ‘If I end up in chains in Guantánamo I can live with that’ – video interview
+ A Convicted Hacker and an Internet Icon Join Forces to Thwart NSA Spying
35. Over One Million Americans Submit Comments to FCC About Net Neutrality Changes
+ Did Verizon accidentally admit it’s slowing down Netflix traffic? Level 3 thinks so
+ Read Netflix’s plea to ban paid “fast lanes” on the internet
36. Welcome to the Hotel California: ISPs Who Won’t Take No For An Answer
+ Russia caught editing Wikipedia entry about downed Malaysian airliner
38. New York state proposes sweeping Bitcoin regulations—and they’re strict
39. 3 Years Later, Google+ Drops Its Dumb Real Name Rule And Apologizes
CONSTRAINTS
40. Pete Seeger on Combinatorial Creativity, Originality, Equality, and the Art of Dot-Connecting
jon
News of the Week; July 16, 2014
GAMES
2. In Re Nintendo of Am., Inc.
3. Warner Bros. Censorship of Greenpeace Lego Video Backfires
4. ‘MineORama’ Organizer Cancels Event at Last Minute After Selling $540K in Tickets
5. Minecraft: how a change to the rules is tearing the community apart
6. Soccer Video Game Developed by College Students Proves to Reduce Violence Against Women and Girls
7. Frustration vs. Video Game Violence in Real-Life Aggression
8. Can joy be more ‘adult’ than violence?
9. This free, quick game shares the risks and rewards of coming out
10. Gender Differences in Emotional Responses to Cooperative and Competitive Game Play
11. Blizzard working to improve inclusivity – Morhaime
12. Kim Kardashian Video Game on Track to Earn $200 Million
13. Fan Pirates Game, Accidentally Tells Developer About It
14. Video Games Make a Convenient Scapegoat for Weak Students
15. Google’s Regina Dugan Joins Zynga Board
16. Another Study Suggests Acting Immorally In Video Games Actually Makes Players More Moral
17. ‘Game Journalism Simulator’ is a Real Thing, Apparently
18. Blizzard will launch Diablo III in China
19. Can video games be sports?
20. Where Virtual Meets Real: Ingress, a Mobile Game From Google
21. The Most Expensive Video Games Ever Made
22. After 23 years a new Super Mario World glitch is discovered
23. A Quest for the Secret Origins of Lost Video-Game Levels
24. Where have Japan’s gamers gone?
25. Microsoft CEO commits to Xbox
26. Richard Bartle: “Free-to-play has a half-life”
DIGITAL
27. American Bar Association urges against file sharing lawsuits
28. Canadians That Access U.S. Netflix May Be in a Legal Grey Zone, But They Are Not Stealing
29. Aereo: Hey, we’re a cable company after all!
30. The Lost and Found Legacy of Barbara Ringer
32. Vagina selfie for 3D printers lands Japanese artist in trouble
33. FTC Sues Amazon Over In-App Purchases
34. Senator Asks FTC to Look Into Facebook Mood Experiment
+ Hard Questions About Big Data
35. German Cartel Office Says Google, Other Tech Giants Could Be Regulated Like Utilities
37. Netflix Performance on Verizon Continues to Decline in June
38. The Most Frustrating And Painful Phone Call We’ve Ever Heard (Comcast/consumer)
39. Google, Canon, Dropbox and Others Pool Patents to Ward Off Trolls
CONSTRAINTS
40. A Game as Literary Tutorial: Dungeons & Dragons Has Influenced a Generation of Writers
41. When all you have is a Captain Hammer …
jon
News of the Week; July 9, 2014
GAMES
1. NCAA Video Game Settlement Payments Detailed
2. Lindsay Lohan sues makers of GTA V over look-alike complaints
+ Lindsay Lohan’s ‘GTA 5′ Lawsuit: ‘The Kindest Thing You Could Say Is It’s A Publicity Stunt’
3. Hackers under fire for Mario Kart 8 Wii U modding
4. DRM not the way to fight piracy – Paradox
5. Report: Crytek UK staff not getting paid, leave studio en masse
6. British regulator: EA “misled” by calling Dungeon Keeper free-to-play
+ UK Advertising Regulator Nixes EA’s Dungeon Keeper Advertisement Due To Microtransactions
7. ‘Male Only’ Hearthstone eSports Competition Angers Gaming Community
+ Op-ed: E-sports cannot fight segregation with segregation
8. Video Games Didn’t Make Me Gay, But They Did Make Me Proud
9. EA’s Peter Moore Is Wrong About Video Game And Music Distribution
10. Moral Combat: Do Violent Video Games Make Us Reflect On Morality?
+ Report: Western Australian Amendment Meddles With R18+ Rating13. Free Video Games Say Pay Up or Wait, Testing Players’ Patience
12. TIGA and Google publish extensive report on UK games funding
13. Perfect World and meat supplier acquire Warframe dev
14. Science Still Doesn’t Understand Video Games
15. British tabloid claims games are as addictive as heroin, game journalists respond in kind
16. Freemium games are a chance to teach kids how to manage their money
17. I Won $9 for Wasting Three Hours on a Mobile Game
18. 85 per cent of top grossing apps are games
19. Mobile could push games to $100 billion by 2017 – Digi-Capital
DIGITAL
20. The Truth About Tinder and Women Is Even Worse Than You Think
+ Stop Erasing Women from Tech History
21. The Basic Rules of Dungeons and Dragons Next Have Some Cool Things To Say About Gender Identity
22. Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks (study)
+ ICO to assess compliance of Facebook study with data protection laws
+ Canada’s privacy watchdog to press Facebook on ‘emotional’ study
+ Facebook charged with FTC violations for messing with users’ minds
+ Will Facebook Backlash Kill Scientists’ Data Dream?
23. British Columbia Privacy Act trumps Facebook’s jurisdiction selection clause
24. Online privacy protection for kids lagging in Canada
25. EU calls for radical copyright reform in light of internet’s disruption
26. The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz (film)
27. Can you trademark an internet meme?
28. Apple suffers Siri patent case defeat in China
29. Why More Start-Ups Are Sharing Ideas Without Legal Protection
30. Hollywood Studios Tried To Add File Sharing Sites To New Zealand’s Child Porn Blacklist
31. In NSA-intercepted data, those not targeted far outnumber the foreigners who are
32. Now on Your Cellphone Bill, Services You Never Wanted
33. YouTube Outs Web Traffic Slow Pokes
35. Google Alerts British News Outlets About Deleting Their Links
36. Virtual Currencies: European Banking Authority Publishes Opinion
38. UK tax breaks voted the best in Europe
jon
News of the Week; July 2, 2014
1. Oculus Portrays Accuser as Opportunist, in Lawsuit Over Virtual Reality Technology
+ Oculus: ZeniMax lawsuit is sour grapes over missed investment opportunity
2. The Future Is Now: Cheating In Online Games Leads To Arrests In Japan
3. First Defendant in 38 Studios Lawsuit Settles for $4.4 Million
4. Ubisoft Found ‘Not Guilty’ in DRM Infringement Case
5. Lindsay Lohan Sues Rockstar Over Grand Theft Auto V
6. Microsoft court order has removed Chess 2: The Sequel’s servers
7. King Candy’s Trademark Attempt at Crushing The Banner Saga
8. Chinese Mobile Games Giant Embroiled in Bribery Scandal
9. Gamblit Gaming Software Gets Certified By U.K. Gambling Commission
10. The legal loophole of advergames: How ads disguised as video games are impacting today’s youth
11. Twitch.tv – 1 million channels and rising
12. Here are the countries bringing in the most video game revenue
13. Building a Warship for the Video Game Generation
14. Killer drone report downplays “PlayStation mentality” of pilots
15. BioWare Reveals First Gay Companion Character in ‘Dragon Age: Inquisition’
16. Research: Bad Behavior in Games Can Lead to Pro-Social Behavior In Real Life
17. New Toledo Museum of Art exhibit examines the artistry of video games, and you can play Pac-Man, too
18. 10 Best Video Games Made In Vancouver
19. Aereo “Pauses” Service in Light of Supreme Court Defeat
+ Supreme Court Uses The Bizarre ‘Looks Like A Cable Duck’ Test To Outlaw Aereo
+ We’ll Never Know the Internet We Lost
+ The walls erected by traditional media
+ Analysis: Aereo’s death leaves cloud computing hanging in the balance
+ The Aereo Decision – Canadian Content?
+ Four Unanswered Questions From Aereo’s Supreme Court Loss
+ Why the Aereo Shutdown Will Be a Disaster for Broadcast TV
+ Even the Editor of Facebook’s Mood Study Thought It Was Creepy
+ Facebook Says It’s Sorry. We’ve Heard That Before.
21. F.T.C. Accuses T-Mobile of Fraud in Billing
22. Google begins removing links under “right to be forgotten” ruling
23. The NSA Revelations All in One Chart
24. Cops must have a warrant to search cell phones, rules Supreme Court
25. Facebook threatened with contempt for fighting NY over user privacy
26. Tinder Is Target of Sexual Harassment Lawsuit
+ Amid sexual harassment allegations, dating app Tinder suspends co-founder
27. The end of the Canadian “iPod tax” saga
28. California Legalizes Bitcoin and Other Cash Alternatives
29. Why More Start-Ups Are Sharing Ideas Without Legal Protection
30. The lost promise of the Internet: Meet the man who almost invented cyberspace
jon
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