News of the Week; March 18, 2015

GAMES

1. Artist claims Kabam copied his IP to create its mobile game ‘Creature Academy’

2. Legendary developer Jeff Minter claims Atari is blocking future releases of ‘TxK’

3. Appeals court revives Microsoft Xbox 360 console defect litigation: Is there a console defect causing the Xbox to damage game discs?

4. NCAA seeks appeal in O’Bannon v. NCAA

5. It’s time for the FBI to prosecute Gamergate trolls (Brianna Wu)

Q&A With The Congresswoman Taking On Gamergate

Here Lies My Hatred

Gamergate Hasn’t Hurt Academic Interest in Gaming, Say Leading Scholars — If Anything, It’s Increased Interest

6. It costs more to play as a female in mobile games

7. Is ageism the only prejudice the industry isn’t discussing?

8. Why is the Grand Theft Auto CEO also chairman of the ESRB?: Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick’s role undermines the perceived independence crucial to the US ratings board’s legitimacy

9. ESRB expanding to mobile, digital platforms

10. Google Play apps and updates are now subject to a review process: Company has also started handing out kid- and parent-friendly age ratings for apps.

11. Steam Curators now required to disclose endorsements

12. Sorry, Europe, you still can’t get refunds on your Steam game purchases: Confusing legal language maintains the status quo for Valve’s digital store.

13. ‘Teslacrypt’ Ransomware Targets Gamers

14. Project Cars release delayed for a third time

15. Does Sony Leave Hacked PSN Account Owners Holding The Bag?

16. More regional restrictions on Steam gifts come to light

17. Tencent profits at $4bn for 2014, up 53% year-on-year

18. Taking the fear out of contracts: Adriaan de Jongh had to understand legalese before he could create a tool to help devs eliminate it; he just didn’t expect to enjoy it so much

19. Stock Ticker: Sony soars, Microsoft slumps and EA reclaims its crown

20. Nintendo Partners With DeNA To Bring Its Games And IP To Smartphones

21. Steam reaches 9m concurrent users despite service issues

22. Ex-pro video gamer explains why e-sports are becoming the number one hobby in the world

23. Someday, Doctors Could Prescribe You Video Games For Your Brain

24. Video Games Are Better Without Characters: The real legacy of SimCity is its attempt—and failure—to make complex systems the protagonists instead of people. (Ian Bogost)

25. Japan’s Strangest Videogames And The Person Who Finds Them

26. Fixing “Videogames”

27. Google’s AI Masters Space Invaders (But It Still Stinks at Pac-Man): Google’s artificial-intelligence researchers say software that learns to play video games could graduate to the real world before long.

DIGITAL

28. Twitter puts trillions of tweets up for sale to data miners: Company plans to make content generated by users available to commerce, academia and even police involved in crowd control

29. Internet carriers may be breaching Canadian privacy laws: In privacy and transparency report, Teksavvy scores highest, Videotron and Shaw score low

30. We can’t accept Internet surveillance as the new normal

31. Why The Anti-Terrorism Bill is Really an Anti-Privacy Bill: Bill C-51′s Evisceration of Privacy Protection (Michael Geist)

32. The Orwellian Re-Branding Of “Mass Surveillance” As Merely “Bulk Collection”

33. Americans’ Privacy Strategies Post-Snowden (Pew Research Center)

34. Privacy Might Be Getting an International Champion

35. What Spymaster Barbie Can Teach Us About Privacy

36. Sexism in cyberspace (Katherine Clark)

37. Divergent star Ashley Judd will press charges over Twitter harassment

38. Now, Twitter will package threat reports for local authorities’ sake: Coincides with actress Ashley Judd complaining about social media threats.

39. NYPD caught red-handed sanitizing police brutality Wikipedia entries

NYPD won’t punish cops for sanitizing Wikipedia police brutality entries

40. Coquitlam teen pleads guilty in Florida ‘swatting’ case

41. Marketers Tricked SXSW Tinder Users With A Chatbot

42. How ISIS Succeeds on Social Media Where #StopKony Fails: Even with fewer clicks

43. Microsoft will allow pirated copies of Windows 7 in China to upgrade to Windows 10

44. People Who Use Firefox or Chrome Are Better Employees: Yet another reason to shun Internet Explorer

45. FCC Releases 400-Page Net Neutrality Document

46. Internet providers ordered to stop hiding the true size of monthly bills: FCC tells ISPs and wireless providers to disclose all hidden fees.

47. Facebook to stand trial over virtual currency: October court date set by California judge over unauthorised payments made by children

48. Here’s everything that’s wrong with cable and satellite TV bills

49. Court Rejects Argument That The Music Industry Deserves ‘Pirate Tax’ On Every Internet Connection

50. What Will Meerkat Do Without Twitter?

51. Diary Of A Cord Cutter In 2015 (Part 4: Favorite Apps And Resources)

52. The Email Scam with Centuries of History

53. No copyright and trade-mark rights in most metatags

54. Anti-Robot Protest Held At SXSW

Responsible Artificial Intelligence

55. An “Apple Engineer” Explains The 2015 MacBook (Or Not) 

56. Facebook, Oculus And The Future Of Virtual Reality

57. A day in the life of Jessica, the content creator of the future

58. The History of Lorem Ipsum

CREATIVITY

59. ‘Blurred Lines’ Verdict: How It Started, Why It Backfired on Robin Thicke and Why Songwriters Should Be Nervous

Gaye family asks judge to ban all sales, performances of “Blurred Lines”: An injunction is only fair, they say, to give the family time to negotiate royalties.

Five Lessons from the “Blurred Lines” Case

Pharrell Williams’ Lawyer: “We’re Entering the Bottom of the Sixth Inning”

What’s Wrong With the ‘Blurred Lines’ Copyright Ruling?

Years Of Brainwashing The Public Into Thinking Everything Creative Must Be ‘Owned’ Has Led To This New Mess

5 Hit Songwriters Talk “Blurred Lines,” Creativity And Copyright: In the wake of the $7.3 million “Blurred Lines” verdict, songwriters for Beyoncé, Sam Smith, Bruno Mars, and more talk candidly with BuzzFeed News about the trouble with copyright law and the inevitability of influence.

Blurred Laws: In Defense Of Pastiche And Robin Thicke

A Copyright Expert Explains the ‘Blurred Lines’ Ruling

Blurred Lines in the difference between copyright in a song and in a recording

60. When the Walls Come Crumbling Down: The CRTC’s Latest TalkTV Decision (Michael Geist)

Broadcasting Regulatory Policy CRTC 2015-86: Let’s Talk TV; The way forward – Creating compelling and diverse Canadian programming

John Doyle: CRTC’s new plans: Quality over quantity? Good luck with that

61. Gigaom: The Life and Death of a Venture Funded Media Startup

Exit interview: Mathew Ingram

62. In media companies, the editorial staff shouldn’t be kept in the dark about finances

63. When is a Copy not a Copy?: Technological Neutrality at Stake at the Supreme Court of Canada (Michael Geist)

64. Some Observations On Political Gaming by Herbert Goldhamer and Hans Speir of The Rand Corporation, April 30, 1959 (historical document)

65. The decline of journalism and the rise of public relations

66. Journalism in the Age of the Accidental News Junkie: A study of Millennial media habits claims that young people crave hard news. Do they really?

67. You Belong to Me: The fanfiction boom is reshaping the power dynamic between creators and consumers.

68. Enough About Me: In an era of chronic self-exposure, authors are pushing back against naked revelation

69. I Challenge You to Stop Reading White, Straight, Cis Male Authors for One Year

I’m straight, white and male. Now what?

70. What Is Creativity? Cultural Icons on What Ideation Is and How It Works

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