News of the Week; September 14, 2016

GAMES

1. Plumb disappointing: 9th Circuit reinstates 2D-to-3D copyright claim: Direct Technologies, LLC v. Electronic Arts, Inc., Nos. 14-56266/14-56745 (9th Cir. Sept. 6, 2016) (Rebecca Tushnet)
2. Sony nixes mod support on PS4: Bethesda says platform holder “will not approve user mods the way they should work” for Skyrim or Fallout 4
3. Bethesda Blames Sony as PS4’s Fallout 4, Skyrim Mods Put on Hold: Bethesda points its finger at Sony.
4. Fallout 4 mods won’t come to PS4, Bethesda blames Sony: Says same limitation will also come to upcoming Skyrim Special Edition release.
5. Sega Takes Potshots At DMCA-Happy Nintendo While Being Cool About Fan Games
6. PS4 Pro: “This could be the final nail in the coffin for Xbox One” – analyst
7. Andrew House: PS4’s main competitor isn’t the Xbox, it’s the PC
8. ‘Hide It Hillary’ mobile app game banned by Apple; titles like ‘Punch Trump’ approved
9. Trump’s Campaign CEO’s Little Known World of Warcraft Career
10. Nintendo DMCAs Fan-Game ‘No Mario’s Sky’, Devs Rename It ‘DMCA Sky’
11. Modders updated Tecmo Super Bowl with current NFL rosters and it’s amazing
12. Seven major NA esports orgs band together to create owner-operated CS:GO league
13. PEA is a new team-owned eSports league with an emphasis on profit-sharing
14. ESL draws Staples Center owner deeper into eSports with a new alliance
15. F2P Economics: Inflation and the Perpetual Revenue Machine
16. IGDA survey underscores industry’s racial, gender disparities: Only 3% of non-white developers hold senior management roles, and only 3% of women earn more than $150,000
17. Pay gap looms large in IGDA diversity report
18. Mobile Games Surge – Mobile Devices Now Most Popular Gaming Platform In Canada
19. Report: Pokemon Go still #1 App Store earner despite 79% drop in paying players
20. Pokémon Go update blocks jailbroken devices; workaround already found
21. There is a formula to Pokemon Go’s Success, but it’s not AR
22. Pokemon Go The Latest Tool For Russian Government To Silence Speakers It Doesn’t Like
23. Battlefield 1 – When a game could change the perception of history
24. Assassin’s Creed series has sold over 100M copies
25. League of Legends pulling in over 100M monthly active users
26. Mario’s team-up with Apple sends Nintendo stock soaring
27. Bandai Namco targets Eastern growth with new Malaysia studio
28. EA forms new division to house Bioware, Maxis, and more
29. Lohan v. Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. and Gravano v. Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.
30. Steam alters review system, irritates indies: Storefront only allows copies it sold to be used in aggregate review score, hiding opinions of scammers, crowdfunding backers, bundle purchasers, and more
31. Valve tackles dodgy devs cheating Steam review scores: Now only players who bought games directly through Steam will affect review scores.
32. Devs caught in the crossfire as Valve clamps down on Steam key abuse
33. Inside Eve: Online’s propaganda machine—from Photoshop to DDoS: As the virtual war intensifies, so too do attacks on players in the real world.
34. Oculus just bagged an Emmy for its animated VR short Henry
35. The Past, Present And Future Of League Of Legends Studio Riot Games: The story of Riot Games is a list of things that shouldn’t have been possible.

DIGITAL

1. University of Manitoba students receive ‘extortion’ letters over illegal downloads: School is fighting back, advising students they have the option to not respond
2. Facebook’s Arbitrary Censors Strike Again; Ban Norwegian Newspaper From Posting Iconic Vietnam War Photo
3. Censorship row: Facebook reinstates iconic “napalm girl” photo: Zuckerberg bends to pressure after Norway PM’s Facebook post is removed.
4. Another Day, Another Problem With Facebook’s Random Decisions To Block Content
5. Google Highlights DMCA Abuse in New Copyright Transparency Report
6. Playboy wins copyright battle over web links to its images
7. Another Day, Another Anomaly: Paramount Issues DMCA Takedown On Ubuntu Linux Torrent
8. EU’s digital market rules land vowing free Wi-Fi, 5G tech, and copyright overhaul: 100Mbps broadband, fully deployed 5G, no more bottlenecks—Juncker hits the sweet notes.
9. New EU rules promise 100Mbps broadband and free Wi-Fi for all: Controversial copyright reform package also unveiled along with new “YouTube rule.”
10. EU Announces Absolutely Ridiculous Copyright Proposal That Will Chill Innovation, Harm Creativity
11. EU copyright plans a big win for old media, but public concerns ignored – Op-ed: Even more copyright for publishers, but no freedom of panorama exception for you.
12. Terrible Ruling: EU Decides That Mere Links Can Be Direct Infringement
13. European Court Declares That Linking Can Infringe Copyright
14. European Copyright Ruling Ushers in New Dark Era for Hyperlinks (EFF)
15. This law made the internet—and now people are fighting to tear it down
16. Avvo Wins First Amendment Fight, As Judge Compares It To Sports Illustrated
17. Should Ballot Selfies Be Legal During Election 2016?
18. Ninth Circuit Criticizes Attempts To Plead Around Section 230–Kimzey v. Yelp (Eric Goldman)
19. Ted Cruz Still Blatantly Misrepresenting Internet Governance Transition
20. Don’t use your Samsung Galaxy Note 7 on flights, US watchdog warns passengers: As Samsung issues an unprecedented recall of 2.5M phones, regulators take action.
21. Construction worker sues Samsung after suffering burns from exploding phone: Man says he heard a “high-pitched whistling” before his Galaxy S7 Edge burned up.
22. How to tell an explosive Galaxy Note 7 from a non-explosive one
23. Won’t turn in your Note 7? Samsung will gimp your battery: Recall-averse Note 7 customers will have their batteries nuked via software update.
24. Analog: The Last Defense Against DRM (EFF)
25. Virtual Currencies: Court Rules that Selling Bitcoin Is Not Money Transmitting and Selling Bitcoin to Criminals Is Not a Crime
26. New age advertorials: Best practices in native advertising
27. Pewdiepie: “Youtube Doesn’t Care About Its Creators” – PewDiePie slams YouTube following the recent monetization controversy.
28. On social anxiety in the age of social media
29. Chess World Championships to Broadcast Live in 360 Video
30. The Next Internet Is Gigabit Internet: While the speedy service has been around for a while, its high cost has placed it almost exclusively in the hands of big business and the wealthy technology elite. That’s about to change.
31. Brain-sensing technology allows typing at 12 words per minute: Technology for reading signals directly from the brain developed by Stanford Bio-X scientists could provide a way for people with movement disorders to communicate.
32. Ex-Apple engineer applies for Genius Bar job, never hears back, blames ageism: JK Scheinberg convinced Steve Jobs to switch to Intel, but Genius Bar didn’t want him.
33. Snapchat Ad Revenue to Reach $1 Billion in 2017
34. Gawker Media’s messy resurrection
35. A Very Long Conversation With Univision’s Isaac Lee About Deleting Posts
36. Deadspin Mocks New Owner Univision By Cleverly Reposting Deleted Mitch Williams Story As New Story About The Lawsuit
37. Gab, the Alt-Right’s Very Own Twitter, Is The Ultimate Filter Bubble
38. New York’s Wi-Fi hubs will shut down tablet web access after complaints of homeless users: ‘The kiosks were never intended for anyone’s extended, personal use’
39. Oculus just bagged an Emmy for its animated VR short Henry
40. Thoughts on the Third Circuit’s decryption and self-incrimination oral argument (Orin Kerr)
41. The Evolution of Authorship: Work Made by Code (Annemarie Bridy)
42. The Danger of Smart Communication Technology (Evan Selinger & Brett Frischmann)
43. Artificial Intelligence and Life In 2030
44. The Internet Should Be a Public Good: The Internet was built by public institutions — so why is it controlled by private corporations?

CREATIVITY

1. “Kurt The Cyberguy Loses Publicity Rights Claims Against TV Station–Cyberguy v. KTLA
2. Judge Rakoff, with Nod to Taylor Swift, Dismisses Copyright Claims Against Beyoncé’s “Lemonade”
3. Court Says Too Bad to Bad Online Reviews 
4. ‘No Artistic Merit’: Expert Witness Ends Belarus Photographer’s Copyright Battle
5. The Copyright Office Acts As Hollywood’s Lobbying Arm… Because That’s Basically How It’s Been Designed
6. Getty Images says photographer suing it for $1 billion gave up her right to complain
7. Louis Vuitton — the big IP player that keeps on giving
8. On Hip-Hop’s Intersection Of Colorism And Misogyny
9. IPRexit. Intellectual Property after the EU Referendum (Guido Noto La Diega)

COMMUNICATIONS & BROADCASTING

1. No Netflix Tax & No New Money: Reading Between the Lines of the Digital CanCon Consultation (Michael Geist)
2. Same As It Ever Was: The Gap Between Public and “Stakeholder” Views on Canadian Content (Michael Geist)
3. CRTC tries to get TV providers to play nice over ‘skinny TV’ packages
4. FCC changes cable box rules to please industry, gets blowback anyway: Cable companies must build apps so customers don’t have to rent set-top boxes.
5. FCC Unveils New Apps-Based Approach in Set-Top Box Proceeding
6. Comcast Already Whining About New FCC Cable Box Plan, Despite It Being The Cable Industry’s Idea
7. After Massive Cable Industry Lobbying And Disinformation Effort, The FCC Is Forced To Weaken Its Cable Box Reform Plan
8. MPAA Freaks Out In Response To FCC’s Revised Set Top Box Plan
9. Comcast to FCC: Your set-top box plan is illegal: Comcast also claims requirement to build apps “would stop the apps revolution.”
10. Netflix Urges FCC To Crack Down On Broadband Usage Caps
11. Netflix asks FCC to declare data caps “unreasonable”: FCC should use broadband deployment power to discourage data caps, Netflix says.
12. Verizon exempts its own NFL video app from mobile data caps
13. The Supreme Court of Canada Renders a Long Awaited Ruling regarding the Power to Situate Radiocommunication Antenna Systems
14. AT&T changes mind about denying discounted service to poor people: AT&T pressured into honoring discounted Internet requirement throughout network.
15. Gretchen Carlson’s settlement with Fox News shows the ‘Mad Men’ days are waning
16. Ohio University to remove name of ‘Roger E. Ailes Newsroom’ at WOUB
17. Cuba’s Telecom Monopoly Banning Text Messages Containing Words Like ‘Democracy’

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Worldwide privacy class action against Facebook heads to EU’s highest court: After nuking Safe Harbour, Schrems may send yet more shock waves through online world.
2. The “plain hearing” doctrine now dictates when cops must hang up on wiretaps: US appeals court decides “novel question” of electronic surveillance law.
3. When an app tells companies you’re pregnant but not that you miscarried
4. EU-Canada passenger data deal infringes privacy: EU adviser
5. EU-Canada passenger data sharing deal could be illegal under European law: If CJEU agrees with advocate general’s opinion, impact will be huge for other PNR deals.
6. Google Maps will finally show how much you’re speeding: Users report a speed limit sign is showing up in the bottom corner of Google Maps.
7. Broadcasters warned against using children’s photographs from social media sites: Australian media regulator updates privacy guidelines and tells networks to tread cautiously even if parents have posted the images
8. Conviction Overturned In Case Of Rutgers Student Whose Roommate Committed Suicide After Being Secretly Filmed
9. Government use of surveillance devices must be restricted: privacy experts
10. 6.6 million plaintext passwords exposed as site gets hacked to the bone: Next time a site wants your personal info, remember the ClixSense debacle.
11. US athletes’ doping tests published by Russian hackers, agency says: Leak shows athletes tested positive for controlled drugs, but had exemptions.
12. Cyber criminals recognize security weakness at LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter 
13. Chrome is stepping up its war on the unencrypted web
14. Colin Powell’s Email To Clinton About Personal Devices Shows Routing Around FOIA Is Business As Usual
15. ACLU Launching Campaign To Have President Obama Pardon Snowden
16. Snowden to President Obama: I deserve a pardon: “Things that may seem unlawful on a page… these were vital things.”
17. Carl Malamud has Standards: For 25 years this man has been fighting to make public information public. Now he’s being sued for it.

jon