News of the Week; June 21, 2017

GAMES

1. Court Stops Pokémon GO Litigation 
2. Niantic to punish Pokémon Go cheaters with mark of shame: Gamemaker says ill-gotten Pokémon “may not behave as expected.”
3. Consumer Protection Class Action Lawsuit Over “Free” Candy Crush Plays Will Proceed 
4. After winning $500M in lawsuit against Oculus, ZeniMax pushes for more
5. ZeniMax to judge: Block Oculus sales or give us 20%: After trial victory, company also ups damage demand from $500 million to $1 billion
6. Popular GTA mod OpenIV receives cease and desist from Take-Two: Modder claims legal threat is “illiterate both technically and grammatically”.
7. Take-Two pulls two GTA Online mods amidst OpenIV fallout: Force Hax and Menyoo withdrawn, but OpenIV’s community is fighting back against cease-and-desist order
8. Take-Two shuts down a trio of Grand Theft Auto Online cheat providers
9. Grand Theft Auto modding project folds following Take-Two’s demands: Dev says Take-Two told him that modding games is “an illegal activity.”
10. E3 2017: Rockstar Addresses Take-Two’s Decision To Shut Down GTA Modding Software OpenIV: “Take-Two’s actions were not specifically targeting single player mods.”
11. Rockstar: Single-player Grand Theft Auto mods not under threat – Take-Two’s takedown notice was due to specific problems with OpenIV “enabling malicious mods”
12. Konami accused of blacklisting former employees – report: Publisher instructs other companies not to hire ex-staff, blocked Kojima Productions health insurance application
13. Facebook reports 41m E3 posts, likes and comments
14. According to the ESA, E3 attendance jumped by 18k this year
15. Devolver claims ESA meddling after losing $100k on rented E3 lot: City of Los Angeles denied indie publisher permits to expand its E3 presence, ESA denies claims it was involved
16. Atari re-entering hardware business with mysterious ‘Ataribox’
17. Atari is preparing to launch new hardware: The “Ataribox” is “years in the making” and will be based on PC technology
18. Atari’s New Console Sounds Like a Bad Idea
19. Capcom and Bandai Namco sign cross-licensing deal to improve online play
20. Capcom and Bandai Namco ink cross-licensing deal for fighting games: “Online matching” agreement will reduce dev costs and production times for “game series such as Street Fighter”
21. Rocket League Dev On Cross-Network Play’s Importance To Industry
22. E3 is over and investors are hammering GAME, GameStop: After an E3 filled with great games, you might think retailers could get a little boost, but that’s not the case
23. Are retail investors right to be worried after E3?: GAME and GameStop’s share price takes a tumble following last week’s LA event
24. Video game trade group sees pros and cons in new Trump administration – Good: Tax cuts, visa reform, IP protection. Bad: “Exclusionary” policies.
25. Channel 4: “There’s a massively disproportionate amount of money and effort going into core VR games” – Broadcaster’s games publishing arm says it’s open to opportunities in mobile VR, but first title Soar is currently “a one-off”
26. 15 VR, AR, and video game startups join MIT’s Play Labs summer tech accelerator
27. Minecraft’s cross-platform online play is powered by Xbox Live, even on the Switch
28. Xbox One X selling at a loss: Despite $499 price tag, Microsoft’s new console is still “not the money-making part of the business”
29. Microsoft: Sony’s comments about Minecraft safety “not healthy for anyone” – Xbox boss Phil Spencer responds to Sony’s reasoning for not following Nintendo into cross-platform play
30. Sony’s PlayLink links your phone to your PS4 for multiplayer minigame madness: The second screen concept is back, only this time it might actually be worth it.
31. Twitch and Blizzard Announce Two-Year Worldwide Collaboration
32. Twitch and Blizzard forge two-year streaming deal for eSports events
33. One-upping the NES Classic Edition with the Raspberry Pi 3 and RetroPie: NES Classic is no more, but luckily cheap hobbyist boards are great for little projects.
34. Where Nintendo stands on esports
35. Insights: Should ESPN Now Stand For E-Sports Network? There Are Worse Ideas.
36. Tencent’s five-year plan for a ¥100bn Chinese esports industry: Riot Games parent pushing for unified standards, more leagues and esports-themed industrial parks
37. NBC Sports launches Rocket League tourney: Sports network teams with Psyonix and FACEIT for $100,000 competition, will televise finals in some territories
38. The rise of eSports: are addiction and corruption the price of its success?: Forget football, the world’s fastest-growing sport is live video gaming. But increasingly its impact is proving harmful to those involved
39. Six ways to make the most of Video Games Tax Relief: Altara Games’ Ella Romanos explains why there is no longer a barrier to UK studios who want to benefit from this government incentive
40. Nine Australian indie games receive government funding boost
41. Google Play is fighting an uphill battle against Android adware: Google hasn’t yet removed all of the apps, which have as many as 6 million downloads.
42. After years of GamerGate harassment, Brianna Wu’s still fighting: Internet trolls turned Brianna Wu’s life upside down. But, she’s running for Congress and thinking all isn’t quite lost.
43. Xbox’s revamped, inclusive avatars will let players “really reflect who they are”: New avatar system will launch on Windows 10 this autumn, with Xbox One devices to follow
44. CCP brings color-blind support to EVE Online
45. HDR and video games: Ars leaves E3 with more questions than answers: HDR looks great in applicable games, but newer game consoles blew a big E3 opportunity.
46. A remaster with no old code: Crash Bandicoot was rebuilt nearly from scratch: Just enough source material was salvaged, along with a happenstance speech of old.
47. Games Have Too Many Words: A Case Study.
48. Young Men Are Playing Video Games Instead of Getting Jobs. That’s OK. (For Now.)
49. Player One: The video-game industry is built on the cultish fantasy that all technology and effort can be redeemed as pure pleasure
50. Thy Mighty Contract: What You Need To Know About Publishing Deals, Part 1
51. Video: A lawyer’s guide to practical contract law for indie devs

DIGITAL

1. Supreme Court Won’t Hear Dancing Baby Case… Despite Gov’t Admitting ‘Serious Legal Error’
2. Supreme Court turns down EFF’s “Dancing Baby” fair use case: The law against bogus DMCA takedowns will remain tough to enforce.
3. Supreme Court Says You Can’t Ban People From The Internet, No Matter What They’ve Done
4. Ban on Sex Offenders Using Social Media Violates First Amendment–Packingham v. North Carolina (Eric Goldman)
5. There’s a constitutional right to use social media, Supreme Court says: North Carolina’s law was “unprecedented in the scope of First Amendment speech.”
6. European Court Rules On Legal Nature Of Torrent Links In Pirate Bay Case
7. US Embassy Threatens to Close Domain Registry Over ‘Pirate Bay’ Domain
8. German Court Bans Google From Linking To Lumen Database Showing Takedown Notices
9. It’s criminal charges and leg shackles for man who shared Deadpool on Facebook: A single Facebook post resulted in 5 million views and a federal investigation.
10. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick resigns after pressure from investors: Five major Uber investors called for his resignation following months of blunders.
11. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has resigned due to investor pressure, and a search for a new leader is on: Benchmark, Fidelity and others demanded his resignation in a letter titled “Moving Uber Forward.”
12. A Short History Of The Many, Many Ways Uber Screwed Up
13. With her blog post about toxic bro-culture at Uber, Susan Fowler proved that one person can make a difference: The former engineer took a big swing at the car-hailing giant, and did us all an even bigger favor.
14. Travis Kalanick And The Last Gasp Of Tech’s Alpha CEO
15. Queen’s Speech: We’re getting rid of Internet safe spaces. Really now.
16. Amazon to Buy Whole Foods for $13.7 Billion
17. Amazon shakes up grocery sector with $13.7-billion Whole Foods deal
18. Amazon Is About To Transform How You Buy Groceries
19. Just in Time, Amazon Patents Method to Prevent In-store Comparison Shopping
20. Ready For A Monopoly Fight? Amazon And Whole Foods Isn’t It
21. Spotify Passes 140 Million Users, Promises to Pay Labels $2 Billion as Losses Widen
22. Spotify ‘Sponsored Songs’ lets labels pay for plays
23. California’s Anti-SLAPP Law Saves Another News Publication From Bogus Lawsuit
24. The Chilling Effects Of A SLAPP Suit: My Story
25. The Texting Suicide Case Is About Crime, Not Tech
26. Colorado Legalizes Another Vice: Texting While Driving
27. Frequency of Courts’ References to Emojis and Emoticons Over Time (Eric Goldman)
28. Vice Media Receives $450 Million Boost From TPG
29. Vice Raises $450 Million To Build “Largest Millennial Video Library In The World”
30. Breitbart News, Donald Trump’s Pravda, Is In Crisis
31. Time Warner just handed Snapchat a $100 million lifeline
32. Netflix is getting into the ‘choose your own adventure’ game business
33. Argentina’s government is wooing entrepreneurs with a new law
34. Facebook’s Instagram Stories crushes Snapchat with 250 million daily active users
35. Facebook sics AI on terrorist posts, but humans still do the dirty work: “We don’t want Facebook to be used for any terrorist activity whatsoever,” says FB.
36. An Artificial Intelligence Developed Its Own Non-Human Language: When Facebook designed chatbots to negotiate with one another, the bots made up their own way of communicating.
37. fAIth: The most avid believers in artificial intelligence are aggressively secular – yet their language is eerily religious. Why?
38. Humans Can’t Expect AI To Just Fight Fake News For Them
39. We need our platforms to put people and democratic society ahead of cheap profits: The BBC is a model for a trusted social networking platform that combats fake news and propaganda while serving the public interest.
40. Tesla Model S warned driver in fatal crash to put hands on steering wheel: Model S driver had hands on steering wheel for 25 seconds during a 37-minute period.
41. Digital Native Advertising, Influencers And Reviews
42. First Reported Consumer Complaint About an Influencer Post
43. The FTC Speaks, Instagram Listens: A New Disclosure Tool for Social Media Influencers
44. FTC aims to block DraftKings, FanDuel merger over monopolization concerns
45. When pop stars have Instagram, they no longer need record labels
46. Katy Perry’s Four-Day YouTube Live Stream Amassed 49 Million Views Worldwide
47. Katy Perry Just Became the First Person to Reach 100 Million Twitter Followers
48. Colorado dad gives sons smartphones, regrets it, now wants to ban preteen use: He started nonprofit, wrote ballot measure to prevent use by kids under 13.
49. NCAA Forces UCF Football Player To Choose Between His Athletic Career And His YouTube Channel
50. Google Announces Four More Steps Its Taking To Fight Extremist Content On YouTube
51. Google now actively works against extremist YouTube videos: New policies make it harder for terroristic content to flourish (and be found) on YouTube.
52. Google Glass is apparently back from the dead, starts getting software updates: Google’s aging face computer gets a firmware and companion app update.
53. How Amazon’s Echo Is Making Major Labels Rethink Their Tunes
54. Bitcoin and Ethereum Just Crashed, Taking Coinbase Down With Them
55. 2017 Surface Pro least repairable ever; Surface Laptop is made of glue: Compact design continues to be at odds with maintenance and repairability.
56. Ready Lawyer One: Legal Issues In The Innovation Of Virtual Reality (Crystal Nwaneri) 

CREATIVITY

1. Asian Rock Band v. the PTO: The Supreme Court, the First Amendment, and What the Justices Decided in Matal v. Tam
2. Matal, Interim Director, USPTO V. Tam (SCOTUS)
3. Supreme Court rules: Offensive trademarks must be allowed – Justice Samuel Alito: “Giving offense is a viewpoint.”
4. Supreme Court Ruling on Offensive Trademarks Could Embolden Future Trademark Applicants 
5. Siding with The Slants: Ban on Disparaging Marks Held Unconstitutional
6. SCOTUS Strikes Down Ban on Disparaging Trademarks 
7. How The Supreme Court’s Recent Free Speech Ruling May Destroy Hollywood’s Plans To Kick People Off The Internet
8. Supreme Court Reminds US Government That Hate Speech Is, In Fact, Free Speech
9. Slightly cooler take on Tam (Rebecca Tushnet)
10. Captain Morgan defends trademark as Admiral Nelson’s is ordered to weigh anchor
11. Gene Simmons attempts to trademark love
12. Gene Simmons Abandons Hand Gesture Trademark Application
13. NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights Making a Name for Themselves the Hard Way
14. The search to prove that trademark dilution exists; new study casts “serious doubt” on validity of current evidence
15. Should the Patent and Trademark Office Be Allowed to Change Its Mind?: The Supreme Court will decide soon.
16. A Decade Later, Judge Says ‘Jersey Boys’ Use Of Unpublished Autobiography Is Fair Use
17. Fair use is the fifth season in Jersey Boys case (Rebecca Tushnet)
18. Comicmix Wins Against Dr. Seuss Estate On Trademark Infringement Claim, Copyright Claim In Serious Jeopardy
19. Mankowitz’s famous portrait of Jimi Hendrix is original and deserves copyright protection, says Paris Court of Appeal.
20. Copyright Troll Rightscorp Ramps Up Its Efforts To Get ISPs To Push Its Payment Demands On Users
21. Multiple German Courts Rule Photos Of Public Domain Works Are Not In The Public Domain
22. Coal CEO Threatens John Oliver With A SLAPP Suit
23. SLAPP Threats And The Grenfell Fire: Why We Must Stop Attacks On Free Speech
24. Peter Pan and the Copyright that Never Grew Up
25. Once more into the copyright breach: A look at what adjustments to copyright policy can be made through regulation, what needs legislative tweaking, and what’s brewing in the courts. (Howard Knopf)
26. Fact Check: Distortions and Fake News in Virginia Shooting
27. The Normalization of Conspiracy Culture: People who share dangerous ideas don’t necessarily believe them.
28. It’s Super Dangerous to Be a Journalist in the Philippines
29. Star Wars Han Solo film directors leave, citing “creative differences”: No replacement named, but film still on track for 2018 release says Lucasfilm.

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. Why the Government Was Right to Swiftly Ditch the Ill-Advised Internet Tax (Michael Geist)
2. CRTC to ban unlocking fees for smartphones as of Dec. 1
3. CRTC bans smartphone unlocking fees, outgoing chairman Blais regrets not taking decision sooner: Bell, Rogers and Telus all charge $50 to unlock a phone. That fee will be eliminated as of Dec. 1.
4. Change is in the Airwaves: CRTC Expands the Wireless Code of Conduct
5. Canadian Government Suspends Implementation of Private Right of Action Under CASL
6. Saving Private Media: The Good, the Bad, and the Terrible From the Latest Canadian Proposals (Michael Geist)
7. Chris Selley: Federal government should stop trying to help private media and fix the CBC –  If the Trudeau Liberals want to help out media, I suggest they forget about the outlets they don’t own and start worrying about the one they do
8. Andrew Coyne: A bailout won’t save media, but just make it easier to avoid problems – If this proposed Canadian Journalism Fund is about saving news, it’s odd that the publishers should have such a narrow definition of it
9. Alex Jones Scoops Megyn Kelly And Proves The Media Isn’t Ready For The Trolls: “I’m not looking to portray you as a bogeyman,” Kelly said in the published audio.
10. How NBC botched the Megyn Kelly rollout
11. The Psychology Of Why Interviewing Alex Jones Is Such A Bad Idea
12. While You Were Offline: Fox News Is Officially No Longer ‘Fair And Balanced.’ Wait…
13. Democrats urge Trump administration to block AT&T/Time Warner merger – Senate Democrats: “Mega conglomerate” could punish rivals and harm consumers.
14. FCC makes net neutrality commenters’ e-mail addresses public through API: E-mail addresses aren’t required, though names and home addresses are.
15. Netflix joins Amazon and Reddit in Day of Action to save net neutrality: Netflix changes tune, says it “will never outgrow the fight for net neutrality.”
16. Cable Lobbyists Try To Scuttle State Inquiries Into Lousy Broadband Service, Slow Speeds
17. Three UK fined £1.9M over failure to provide non-stop access to 999 services: Ofcom – Tech issues should never hamper customers’ ability to make emergency calls.
18. Cable lobby tries to stop state investigations into slow broadband speeds: Besides gutting net neutrality, industry wants less scrutiny of speed claims.
19. Verizon Is Killing Tumblr’s Fight For Net Neutrality: One of the open internet’s fiercest defenders has a new boss
20. Verizon Bucks AT&T And Comcast, Supports Utility Pole Reform For Faster Fiber Deployment
21. Broadband ISP CenturyLink Accused Of Wells-Fargo-Esque Scam That Bilked Millions From Customers
22. 80% Of Cord Cutters Leave Because Of High Cable TV Prices, But The Industry Still Refuses To Compete On Price
23. It’s Working: Free Press Documents Historic Levels of Investment and Innovation Since FCC’s 2015 Open Internet Order – Using FCC’s own financial disclosures and statements to investors, new report definitively debunks FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s claims about Title II harming investment
24. Cable Industry Lobbyist Proclaims Cable TV Industry ‘Failing’ While Advocating Against Broadband Consumer Rights
25. Wall Street Still Annoyed That Competition Forced Wireless Carriers To Bring Back Unlimited Data Plans
26. Utility that says Comcast didn’t pay bills threatens to pull wires off poles
27. Mobile Roaming Charges Abolished in the EU
28. EU mobile roaming charges end today, but beware of other costs: Rules only apply to roaming, which is subject to fair use policy. So check the small print.
29. California may restore broadband privacy rules killed by Congress and Trump: State law could protect customers’ browsing history, but FCC rule is still dead.

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Web host agrees to pay $1m after it’s hit by Linux-targeting ransomware: Windfall payment by poorly secured host is likely to inspire new ransomware attacks.
2. Netizen Report: China Has a New Cybersecurity Law
3. How An Entire Nation Became Russia’s Test Lab For Cyberwar
4. Russia Stumbles Forth In Quest To Ban VPNs, Private Messenger Apps
5. North Korea’s Sloppy, Chaotic Cyberattacks Also Make Perfect Sense
6. Five Eyes Wide Open: How Bill C-59 Mixes Oversight with Expansive Cyber-Security Powers (Michael Geist)
7. Why the Government’s ATI Reform Bill is a Promise Broken: Proactive Disclosure ≠ Access to Information (Michael Geist)
8. Unnamed Tech Company Challenged 702 Surveillance Order
9. Man To Spend 180 Days In Jail For Turning Over Non-Working Password
10. Reckless Exploit: Mexican Journalists, Lawyers, and a Child Targeted with NSO Spyware
11. Revealed: Facebook exposed identities of moderators to suspected terrorists: A security lapse that affected more than 1,000 workers forced one moderator into hiding – and he still lives in constant fear for his safety
12. Patents Reveal How Facebook Wants To Capture Your Emotions, Facial Expressions And Mood
13. UK Cops Say Visiting the Dark Web Is a Potential Sign of Terrorism
14. The ethics of police using technology to predict future crimes: Using computer models to determine where crime is most likely to occur could reinforce police biases about neighbourhoods with ethnic or racial minorities
15. 2008 FISA Transcript Shows NSA Already Knew It Might Have An Incidental Collection Problem
16. Oversight Report Shows NSA Failed To Secure Its Systems Following The Snowden Leaks
17. Secret Defense Dept. Report Shows Manning Leaks Did No Serious Damage
18. Leaked recording: Inside Apple’s global war on leakers: Former NSA agents, secrecy members on product teams, and a screening apparatus bigger than the TSA.
19. Deputy Attorney General Asks Congress For $21 Million To Solve The FBI’s ‘Going Dark’ Problem
20. There Is No ‘Going Dark’ Problem
21. Security News This Week: Microsoft’s Patching Old Versions Of Windows Because Things Are That Bad
22. Honda shuts down factory after finding NSA-derived Wcry in its networks: Automaker briefly stops making cars to contain worm that first struck in May.
23. Advanced CIA firmware has been infecting Wi-Fi routers for years: Latest Vault7 release exposes network-spying operation CIA kept secret since 2007.
24. How A Company You’ve Never Heard Of Sends You Letters About Your Medical Condition
25. Nevada Enacts Internet Privacy Regulation
26. How to Browse the Web and Leave No Trace
27. GOP Data Firm Accidentally Leaks Personal Details of Nearly 200 Million American Voters
28. GOP Data Firm Left The Personal Data Of 198 Million American Voters On Openly-Accessible Amazon Server
29. How a Company You’ve Never Heard of Sends You Letters about Your Medical Condition
30. U.S. Repeal of Privacy Rules Causes Concern For U.S. Internet Users – What do the Changes Mean for Canadians?
31. No Sanctions for Unintentional, Automatic Deletion of Web History and Related Information
32. Fake Libel Court Order Used In (Failed) Attempt To Vanish Sexual Battery Conviction
33. A French Artist Says He Received a National ID Card Using a Computer-Generated Headshot

Jon