News of the Week; October 19, 2016

GAMES

1. Popular YouTubers plead not guilty to FIFA gambling offences
2. eSports taking viewership away from real sports – Newzoo: Research firm finds that 76% of eSports enthusiasts state that their eSports viewing is taking away from hours they used to spend on viewing sports
3. CCP cracking down on EVE Online gambling sites: CCP has updated its EULA to stress its anti-gambling policy and has issued account suspensions
4. CCP clamping down on EVE gambling sites with freemium switch in sight
5. Valve refutes Washington State accusations over CS:GOgambling
6. Valve pushes back against Washington State skin gambling claims: “As we have explained on multiple occasions, Valve is not engaged in gambling or the promotion of gambling, and we do not ‘facilitate gambling'”
7. Starcraft Proleague, Longest Running ESports League, Discontinued
8. Shadow Warrior 2 developers say DRM is a waste of time: “There isn’t a good way to stop [piracy] without hurting our customers.”
9. “Gotta Catch ‘Em All!”™ – Pokémon™ Go Gives Rise to New Class Action Suits
10. Pokémon Go is just the beginning of an absurd copyright struggle in AR
11. DLC and Microtransactions: New Study Shows How Gamers Feel About Them
12. The merits of Star Citizen’s development openness: Chris Roberts and his team take a lot of flak for the delays to their ambitious game, but their openness has earned the forgiveness of core fans
13. See how Girls Make Games supports girls who want to be game makers
14. “Making your games inclusive is complicated and fraught with frustration”: Beamdog creative director David Gaider on the importance, and pitfalls, of promoting diversity
15. “There are not as many questions. We have more freedom now”: Dontnod CEO Oskar Guilbert believes the industry has changed since Remember Me’s problems over its female lead – and changed for the better
16. PlayStation VR selling out at GameStop after ‘tremendous demand’
17. PlayStation VR had “many hundreds of thousands” of pre-orders: Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Jim Ryan has some good news for the emerging VR market
18. PlayStation VR launch demonstrates Sony’s PR expertise – ICO: Analysis by ICO Partners reveals that PSVR dominated media coverage compared to the launches of Rift and Vive
19. PlayStation VR’s Killer App Is … Music
20. How Video Games Are Changing the Way Soccer Is Played: Games like FIFA that were designed to reflect the sport’s reality have helped alter it, influencing professional players and front offices.
21. $850m raised towards Tencent’s Supercell acquisition
22. Tencent raises $850M from Chinese investors to fund Supercell purchase
23. Mobile-Game Maker Kabam Evaluating Multiple Offers for Canada Studio – Vancouver studio makes ‘Marvel: Contest of Champions,’ draws bids of up to $800 million from Asian, U.S. companies
24. Kabam offered $800 million for Vancouver studio – Report: Marvel Contest of Champions studio has attracted multiple bids, according to VentureBeat
25. MTG acquires 35% of InnoGames for €90 million: Swedish entertainment firm expands interest in games beyond eSports, could raise its stake in InnoGames to 51% next year
26. Analyst: Game sales could reach $98 billion by 2020
27. Candy Crush is becoming a TV game show for some reason – Or: How can you tell when a mobile gaming phenomenon is totally played out?
28. How does storytelling differ between video games and literature?

DIGITAL

1. Samsung doesn’t want you to see video of this GTA V exploding phone mod: YouTube takedown notice is a pretty clear abuse of the DMCA.
2. Consumer deception? That ‘Buy Now’ button on Amazon or iTunes may not mean you own what you paid for
3. Ownership and Deception in the Digital Marketplace: What really happens when you click “buy now.”
4. Backup copies of software can’t be re-sold, rules top EU court: But original media and unlimited user licence is fine to sell on.
5. European Court Revisits Resale Of Software
6. New French Act: Google Images will have to pay royalties
7. New York Fashion Company Sued Over Use of Photograph on Instagram
8. A Weekend Full Of The NFL Violating Its Own Social Media Video Content Rules
9. Trump’s been called almost everything—let’s add IP “pirate” to the list: Photog says use of his image by Trump campaign is “reprehensibly offensive.”
10. Electronic Frontier Foundation brings suit over anti-circumvention provisions in the DMCA
11. George Orwell never dreamed of advertising as invasive as Yahoo’s proposal: Yahoo’s outdoor, public advertising scheme relies on what it calls “grouplization.”
12. We Must Remake Society in the Coming Age of AI: Obama
13. White House Releases Reports on Future of Artificial Intelligence
14. Robot journalists to start writing news and sports stories for Britain and Ireland’s national news agency
15. AI needs a watchdog and UK gov’t must do better on robotics, MPs warn: Ethical, legal, and societal ramifications of AI systems must be probed, says committee
16. Humans need new skills for post-AI world, say MPs: Robotics and AI have “huge potential” to reshape the way people work and live, but the government needs to do more to address the issues raised by such technology, says a report.
17. There is a blind spot in AI research (Kate Crawford & Ryan Calo)
18. YouTube points the way forward for monetising video content
19. Samsung Galaxy Note 7s are exploding and everyone has a theory as to why: Poor design? Fast-charge problems? Theories emerge to explain the Note 7 debacle.
20. What’s In A Design? A Smartphone Battle In The Highest Court
21. Breaking Down Arguments in Samsung v. Apple
22. The Surprising Backbone of the Internet of Things: Cities need to be blanketed with internet — and streetlights fit the bill. (Susan Crawford)
23. We Need to Save the Internet from the Internet of Things (Bruce Schneier)
24. The Soviet InterNyet: Soviet scientists tried for decades to network their nation. What stalemated them is now fracturing the global internet
25. Twitter has failed at controlling horrifying anti-Semitism
26. Anti-Semitic Twitter trolls are disproportionately likely to be Trump supporters
27. Twitter’s ‘Juggernaut of Bigotry’: Five takeaways from the ADL’s report on anti-Semitic targeting of journalists during the 2016 presidential campaign
28. …And Here Come The Device-Restricted Music Subscriptions
29. The Musical Twitter Bot: Who Has the Copyright for AI-Facilitated Works? 
30. Snapchat Glasses – Are Spectacles The Future Of Wearables?
31. College student 3D prints his own braces
32. The remix wars: Copyright and the Socially Awkward Penguin
33. Uber’s Ad-Toting Drones Are Heckling Drivers Stuck in Traffic: Forget billboards—motorists now have ads buzzing a few feet above their windshields.
34. Assault With a Deadly Tweet?
35. Theater Association Boss Reminds Theater Owners, Netflix To Stay In Their Own Lanes
36. France Is Pushing For a Tax on YouTube and Netflix
37. Ongoing PC sales downturn is the longest yet, says analyst
38. New England Patriots Coach Bill Belichick: ‘I’m Done With The (Microsoft) Tablets’
39. After Yahoo data breach, Verizon hints that it could pull out of $4.83B deal: “I think we have a reasonable basis to believe right now that the impact is material.”
40. Verizon Wants $1 Billion Discount After Yahoo Scandals, Still Fancies Itself The New Google
41. A decentralized web would give power back to the people online
42. Inside Intellectual Ventures’ Portfolio: Nearly 500 University Patents

CREATIVITY

1. Who’s On (The) Second (Circuit)… And Why Are They Screwing Up Copyright Law?
2. Rome Court of First Instance rules that copyright exceptions for news reporting and criticism/review do not apply to entertainment TV programmes
3. Bob Dylan Makes the Case Against Today’s Copyright Climate
4. Bob Dylan’s Full MusiCares Speech: How He Wrote the Songs, a Master Class Must Read
5. 10 Copyright Cases Every Fan Fiction Writer Should Know About
6. McDonald’s facing copyright lawsuits from graffiti artists
7. Copyright war: Street artists accuse big corporations of stealing their artworks – The family of the deceased artist Dash Snow have accused McDonald’s of stealing Snow’s graffiti signature to decorate the walls of hundreds of their restaurants – and his case is not the only one
8. Harry Shearer Files $125M ‘Spinal Tap’ Fraud Suit, Copyright Termination
9. North Dakota gives up attempt to charge journalist who filmed pipeline protest
10. Charges against Amy Goodman bring national attention to a little-noticed protest.
11. Cleveland Indians can use name and ‘Chief Wahoo’ logo during ALCS games in Toronto, judge rules
12. Disney’s Lucasfilm Sues Academy That Teaches People How to Use Lightsabers
13. Lucasfilm unleashes legal Death Star on lightsaber schools: School logo looks “confusingly similar” to the Star Wars “Jedi Order” logo.
14. Disney Sued by ‘Doc McStuffins’ Actress Over Merchandise Revenue
15. Usher Sues Sony for Right of Publicity Violation for Use of Voice
16. I Hardly Expected My Letter to Donald Trump to Go Viral
17. Activist seeks injunction against use of ‘Cleveland Indians’ name and logo
18. Sanity: MasterCard Loses Absolutely Idiotic Trademark Challenge Against An Athletic Competition
19. Mediaset vs Gruppo L’Espresso: il Tribunale di Roma giudica inapplicabili le eccezioni e limitazioni ai diritti autorali e condanna il gruppo romano per illecito utilizzo di contenuti audiovisivi
20. Why the Knight Foundation president thinks we’re living through the biggest disruption since Gutenberg and the printing press
21. New York Times lawyer: Donald Trump has no reputation to protect
22. Donald Trump’s Media Threats Are Why a Free Speech Protection Law Is Needed
23. As Donald Trump Ramps Up Threats To Sue Newspapers, A Reminder Of Why We Need Free Speech Protections
24. ‘Apprentice’ Producer Denounces Trump but Won’t Release Possibly Damning Tapes
25. If Trump Outtakes Are Leaked, It Won’t Be A Copyright Violation
26. Horrified by Trump, Silicon Valley Leaders Debate Cutting Ties to Peter Thiel
27. Still A Bad Idea: Gawker Exploring Lawsuit Against Peter Thiel
28. Who’s the pirate? Lawyers join forces to fight allegedly bogus claims of pay-TV theft
29. Does Advertising Ruin Everything?: “We have to get over our addiction to free stuff. Suck it up and pay,” says Tim Wu, the author of a new book on the history of ads.
30. Technological Neutrality: Recalibrating Copyright in the Information Age (Carys Craig)
31. Reconsidering Copyright’s Constitutionality (Graham Reynolds)
32. Should it be copyright’s role to fill houses with books? (Rebecca Giblin)

COMMUNICATIONS & BROADCASTING

1. New digital taxes may be the future of Cancon (Michael Geist)
2. Stop the federal government before it taxes everything on the Internet
3. Non-cable Internet providers offer faster speeds to the wealthy: For many, the choice is between slow DSL and high-priced cable.
4. Verizon Punishes Techs That Try To Repair DSL Customers It No Longer Wants
5. FCC: Comcast Routinely Charges Customers For Hardware, Services Never Ordered
6. The FCC Responds to Comcast’s Negative Option
7. Comcast customers sue over fees that push price above advertised rate: Proposed class action takes aim at Broadcast TV Fee and Regional Sports Fee.
8. Comcast Sued For Misleading Fees It Claims Are Just Its Way Of Being ‘Transparent’
9. T-Mobile punished by FCC for hidden limits on unlimited data: Carrier to pay $7.5 million fine, provide small discounts, and improve disclosures.
10. Trump hires Bell, Telus consultant for telecom advice
11. Trump Says SNL Sketches Show Media Is Rigging the Election
12. Trump’s son-in-law held talks to set up Trump TV network: source
13. The FCC and the ‘Pre-Internet’ (John Blevins)
14. FCC Liberalizes Rules for Foreign Investment in U.S. Broadcast Licensees 
15. FCC Chairman Moves to Regulate Broadband Consumer Privacy 
16. FTC says it may be unable to regulate Comcast, Google, and Verizon: FTC seeks to reverse AT&T ruling that may gut consumer protection authority.

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Clinton blasts Russian cyber-attacks as bid to install Trump as a “puppet”: “Will Donald Trump admit and condemn that the Russians are doing this?”
2. Civil liberties groups ask for ‘moratoriums’ on face recognition tech
3. Granted Warrant Allowed Feds To Force Everyone At Searched Residence To Unlock Devices With Their Fingerprints
4. Appeals Court Affirms NSA Surveillance Can Be Used To Investigate Domestic Criminal Suspects
5. Your dynamic IP address is now protected personal data under EU law: CJEU rules that personal IPs can’t be stored, unless to thwart cybernetic attacks or similar.
6. House wants “briefing as soon as possible” to grok how Yahoo spied
7. Akamai Finds Longtime Security Flaw in 2 Million Devices
8. Half of American adults appear in facial recognition databases — and police are using them with almost no oversight
9. US renews fight for the right to seize content from the world’s servers: No access to world’s servers thwarts “criminal and national security investigations.”
10. EFF’s Challenge Of NSL Gag Orders Reaches The Ninth Circuit Court Of Appeals
11. Appeal Court Revives Lawyer’s Lawsuit Against The NSA’s Email Dragnet
12. Documents Show Chicago PD Secretly Using Forfeiture Funds To Buy Surveillance Equipment
13. Bangladesh Brings In Nationwide Digital Identity Cards Linking Biometrics To Mobile Phone Numbers
14. Nokchan v Lyft: Since the Spokeo Decision Privacy Continues to be a Hot Topic as Circuit Courts Fracture 
15. British spooks’ secret citizen data slurp broke ECHR rules, says tribunal: IPT finds spymasters only complied after government’s avowal of covert snooping.
16. On WikiLeaks, Journalism, and Privacy: Reporting on the Podesta Archive Is an Easy Call
17. Prosecutors Changing Charges Against Reporter To ‘Rioting’ Because Her Coverage Was Sympathetic To Protestors
18. Mass Hacks of Private Email Aren’t Whistleblowing, They are at Odds With It. (Jonathan Zittrain)
19. FBI: Czech police arrest suspected Russian hacker
20. The State Department Has Taken Over Three Years On A FOIA Request About How Long It Takes To Process FOIA Requests
21. Court Says Deleting Browser History To ‘Avoid Embarrassment’ Isn’t Destruction Of Evidence
22. Sony Wants Lawsuit Over Alleged Failure to Prevent Movie Piracy Under Arbitration Cloak
23. Who gets your selfies when you die? States seek to fill privacy law gaps

jon