News of the Week; April 1, 2015

GAMES

1. Zynga investors can sue FarmVille creator for alleged IPO fraud, judge says: Lawsuit back on the table for Zynga, where fortunes have plunged since 2011 IPO.

2. This Guy Remade Super Mario 64’s Most Iconic Level In HD And Playable In Your Browser

+ Nintendo Takedown Notice for Super Mario 64 HD

+ Fan-made Super Mario 64 game pulled after Nintendo cries foul

+ Fan-made Mario 64 remake disappears following Nintendo copyright complaint

+ Poll: Should Nintendo have DMCA’d a fan’s free Super Mario HD remake?

+ Why Does Nintendo Want This Superfan’s YouTube Money?

+ Nintendo’s physical DLC: Supply-limited toy needed for new gameplay puzzles

3. Lone modder’s Half-Life 2: Update brings modern graphics to a classic: Source engine overhaul four years in the making sees free Steam release tomorrow.

4. Andrew Eisen Video: ‘My Favorite Thing About Anita Sarkeesian’s Tropes vs Women Videos’

5. Julia Hardy’s Misogyny Monday

6. Community questions Obsidian over ‘Pillars of Eternity’ in-game trans joke

7. Mortal Kombat producer “quits” Twitter over violent threats to family

8. Game store swatted, nearly became complicit in inciting police response: Received phony call encouraging employees to shut blinds, shout about weapons.

9. Oracle settles with Rhode Island in 38 Studios bankruptcy case

+ 38 Studios auction brings in $90K for Rhode Island

10. UK school district will report parents to authorities for letting their children play R18 rated games

11. Secondary schools in NI to receive free copies of Minecraft

12. Brave Frontier publisher Gumi cuts 11% of staff following IPO

13. GameStop annual sales up slightly to $9.3 billion

14. The Unbalanced Design Of Super Smash Brothers

15. Meet America’s First Video Game Varsity Athletes

16. Epic Awards One Of Three Unreal Dev Grants To Makers Of Net Neutrality Game

17. Bioware makes Orbit framework open source

18. Japanese devs will soon be able to pitch games using Bandai Namco IP

19. MOBAs will overtake MMORPGs in F2P revenue this year – EEDAR

20. What does Google Play’s increase in game sessions mean for iOS?

21. Video Gaming Made Me a History Major: Empire of Earth and Medieval 2 Total War made me actually care about school.

DIGITAL

22. In Final Verdict, Jury Rules Against Pao On All Four Claims In Ellen Pao Vs. Kleiner Perkins

+ Two Jurors On Opposite Sides Share Their Pao Vs. Kleiner Perspectives

+ Ellen Pao and the Myth of Meritocracy

+ Ellen Pao’s Statement On Losing The Kleiner Perkins Case: “The Battle Was Worth It”

23. China Uses Unencrypted Websites to Hijack Browsers in GitHub Attack

+ China’s Great Firewall Turned Around: Why China Wants To Censor Global Internet

+ Google Chrome will banish Chinese certificate authority for breach of trust:  Draconian move follows the issuance of certificates masquerading as Google domains.

24. Obama signs executive order imposing sanctions on overseas hackers: President: “From now on, we have the power to freeze their assets.”

25. Feds subpoena reddit in effort to learn about users behind Dark Web chatter: ICE agent demands e-mail, IP logs, “means and source of payment,” and more

26. Judge: Mississippi investigation of Google likely violates 1st Amendment

27. Who Knows What Evils Lurk in the Shadows?: The story of the powerful spy agency most Canadians still don’t know, and the security bill that would expand its resources and reach (Ron Deibert)

+ An amended Bill C-51 is still a problem: insights from the U.S. (Jon Penney)

+ The government has not made its case for C-51 (Kent Roach & Craig Forcese)

+ From Obama Birthers to Anti-Immigration Activists: Who the Government Turned to for Bill C-51 Support During Committee Hearings (Michael Geist)

+ How C-51 undermines privacy (Lisa M. Austin, Benjamin J. Goold, Avner Levin and Andrea Slane)

28. Quebec Takes on the Internet: Government Announces Plans to Require Website Blocking & Studies New Internet Access Tax (Michael Geist)

29. Corporate Sovereignty Provisions Of TPP Agreement Leaked Via Wikileaks: Would Massively Undermine Government Sovereignty

30. Report: Facebook tracks all visitors, even if you’re not a user and opted out: In the EU, where free and informed prior consent is required, there could be an issue.

+ Facebook tracks logged-out users in ‘violation’ of EU law, study says

31. Tech companies are sending your secrets to crowdsourced armies of low-paid workers

32. 5 other insane things a corrupt DEA agent did while allegedly stealing Bitcoin from Silk Road

33. A Precautionary Approach to Big Data Privacy (Arvind Narayanan, Joanna Huey & Edward W. Felten)

34. Court Rejects Bizarre Attempt To Scrub Consumer Review–Goren v. Ripoff Report

35. Meerkat, YouNow, Periscope and the future of live-streaming

+ Meerkat is dying – and it’s taking U.S. tech journalism with it

+ Tech reporters blew the Meerkat story but, no, I can’t name a single one because fear!: My strange exchange last night with the author of that post: ‘Meerkat is dying – and it’s taking U.S. tech journalism with it.’

36. The Most Important Social Media Company You’ve Never Heard Of: Damien Patton has created a way to find out what is happening anywhere in the world–instantly. The inside story behind Banjo–and the gold rush sure to follow.

37. Gen Con issues letter to the community on SB 101, event stuck in Indianapolis until after 2020

38. Really, Rupert?

39. Fox News, Jeanie Pirro Facebook Lawsuit Could Change Copyright Landscape On Social Media

40. CRTC finds something fishy about dating site’s unsubscribe mechanism, operator nets $48,000 fine under anti-spam law 

41. Massive Anti-Net Neutrality E-mail Campaign Shows Signs Of Faking Many Signatures

42. Judge awards damages in false DMCA takedown case

43. Another invalidated clickwrap agreement

44. Those NDAs may not be worth the paper they are written on 

45. It’s Not Easy Being Scientology: Since its founding in the 1950s, L. Ron Hubbard’s organization has put a premium on controlling the flow of information—an increasingly impossible enterprise in the Internet age.

46. Facebook’s Message to Content Makers: We Own the Audience

47. How The US Government Legally Stole Millions From Kim Dotcom

48. The NFL Will Stream a Game on the Web Next Year. Don’t Get Used to It.

49. Two Years Later, Snowden’s Mangled Laptop Is More Than an Empty Symbol

50. One Artist’s Take on the Future of Personal Data

51. ‘Avengers’ 3D Firm Brings Patent Lawsuit Against ‘Divergent’ 3D Firm

CREATIVITY

52. CRTC dramatically shifts Canadian television regulation

+ Canada Forces A La Carte Rules On Cable Industry, Bell Pouts By Refusing To Show Regulator On Television

+ At Bell Media, editorial meddling by execs appears to be a recurring problem

+ Bell censorship: the status quo can’t endure

+ Don’t bundle me, bro: Life under the shadow of Big Telecom

+ Can CTV News and BNN be trusted to report on themselves? Depends on Kevin Crull’s mood

53. Judge Rules ‘Three’s Company’ Parody Play to Be Fair Use

54. In defense of Trevor Noah’s stupid, tasteless tweets

55. Rap lyrics are fiction — but prosecutors are treating them like admissions of guilt

56. Why Traditional TV Is The Real Walking Dead

57. Why curation could be at the core of future reporting

jon