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News of the Week; December 31, 2014
GAMES 1. Hackers Take Credit For PlayStation Network And Xbox Live Outages On Christmas + Sony PlayStation network down for 3rd straight day: Sony won’t say how many of the networks 56 million users are affected + FBI Investigating Christmas Day Attacks on PSN, Xbox Live 2. Sony in the Killzone: case over resolution continues (Rebecca Tushnet) 3. UK Party […]
Future (Pedagogic) Reflections, Part Deux
“joss” wrote a great and most appreciated post titled “Future Reflections” which can be found here: http://videogame.law.ubc.ca/2014/11/26/future-reflections/ In the post she makes several well taken observations about where the course and it’s pedagogic approach could lead. That post made me think about […]
Here’s a free game and a waiver of liability
To sum up: Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Unity was released with numerous glitches. To “apologize” for the crappy launch they are giving away free bonus content for all owners and also a free game to players who agreed to buy all bonus content upfront. However, people have discovered that to receive your free game you have […]
How Laws Restricting Tech Actually Expose Us to Greater Harm | WIRED
A great take from Cory Doctorow in Wired magazine. The increasingly reality, as dystopian as it is, of modern day HAL 9000’s telling us in various ways “I can’t let you do that, Dave” is haunting. That we have arrived or almost arrived at that point is frightening. Worth a read: How […]
News of the Week; December 24, 2014
GAMES 1. The FBI Is Investigating #GamerGate + The battle of Gamergate and the future of video games 2. Dark Souls Modder Gets Copyright Threat From Game Developer For Some Reason 3. Report: Dennis Rodman Threatens to Sue ‘Glorious Leader’ Makers 4. Nintendo Wins Over UltimatePointer in Patent Case 5. Halo anthology makers apologize, will give distressed fans free ODST + Microsoft Can’t Fix […]
Creative Commons Team Open Profile
It was truly a great honour to very recently be profiled as part of “Team Open” by Creative Commons . There are many reasons why, but most obviously because it has everything to do with the collaborative efforts around modeling the Video Game Law course in an open way. I understand that my […]
10 Big Ethical Issues In Video Games That #GamerGate Won’t Touch — The Internet Made Me Do It — Medium
This is a thoughtful and wonderful piece. Read it in its entirety here: 10 Big Ethical Issues In Video Games That #GamerGate Won’t Touch — The Internet Made Me Do It — Medium. The 10 issues are… 1. When you buy games, you don’t necessarily own them—and may not be […]
News of the Week; December 17, 2014
GAMES 1. Court Ruling: EA’s Anti-Piracy Software Is Patent Infringing 2. Angry Birds And The Bizarre World Of International Basketball Corruption 3. Destiny players banned for use of modded consoles 4. Valve Removes ‘Hatred’ From Steam Greenlight + Update: Valve returns Hatred to Greenlight after removal 5. An Open Letter To Tim Cook About Game Censorship + Papers, Please on iPad has […]
Jessica Silbey on The Eureka Myth: Creators, Innovators and Everyday Intellectual Property
This is a wonderful talk given December 2, 2014 through the Berkman Center for Internet & Society. Though not directly about video-game creators it is an empirically driven look at how creators understand and implement intellectual property law and strategies. It illustrates many of the issues discussed in the course, particularly the misalignments between […]
Can your online character be defamed?
A topic I considered for my paper, but later abandoned, was whether your online character (such as in an MMORPG) could be defamed. In certain games, your reputation is quite important and the goodwill you have accumulated in the community can directly affect your ability to enjoy, succeed, and even profit from the game. For […]